Ludwig von Mises Institute

Once, as a kid, he was open with reporters (always a mistake, like talking to the police). Then, inevitably, Tiger Woods was burned by the media. Now he won’t put himself in that position again, and boy, do they resent it. But what, really, does Tiger owe the public, let alone the piranha press? Only the best game of golf he can possibly play. That’s it. That’s all.

The once-antiwar Arianna Huffington kicked my articles off her site. Still, I must say this speech, against Rupert Murdoch and all the other copyright-addled barons of the old media, is excellent. Here is just one paragraph of hilarious Ruperisms against not only the giants, but LRC too:

So now sites that aggregate the news have become, in the words of Rupert Murdoch and his team, “parasites,” “content kleptomaniacs,” “vampires,” “tech tapeworms in the intestines of the Internets,” and, of course, thieves who “steal all our copyright.”

I am told that a very expensive web analysis lists HuffPo as #1 among political sites, and LRC as #10. And read the talk. I don’t agree with all of it, but it does demolish what’s left of the dying MSM.

UPDATE: Here is the Rupester’s talk at the same event, convened by the chairman of the FTC, Jon Leibowitz, with an obvious agenda of more state control.

So Obama plans to drop his legions, and their bombs and bullets, on the suffering people of Afghanistan by December 25, the birthday of the Prince of Peace. Is he also looking for Three Kings? They went home by another way. (Thanks to Dave Lindorff)

Writes John Marino:

This recent dust-up with the gate crashers at the White House reminds me of a story from my youth. In 1964 I was a student the the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee. I was in the student union one day when I ran into a member of the Young Republicans. He was giving out signs for a protest demonstration at an LBJ rally to be held that day at a park in the then Democratic enclave on Milwaukee’s south side. This event was taking place the Friday before the election. Although not a member, I took two signs—one for me and one for a friend. The sign I took for myself was about one foot by three foot. It said ‘Barry is Better.’ I got my friend at his small business and we headed for the park. We parked some distance away and started walking to the park. We were in an old Polish neighborhood when a lot of people started running around and yelling. I looked around to see what was happening. Lo to my surprise sitting on the front porch of the house right in front of me was LBJ. He was sitting on the porch talking to an old Polish grandmother—or boosha as they are called. He had stopped his limo, jumped his security, and gone to this women he had seen. It was a mad house. I said, “What the hell.” I’ll take this sign ‘Barry Is Better’ and go hold it over his head. I walked up to the stoop where they were sitting and did just that. I stood with the sign over his head right next to him for at least 30 seconds, maybe more. Finally, sanity returned and I went down to the sidewalk. I started marching with the sign back and forth. Someone finally came running up to me and said get that sign out of here. I told him to go to hell—it was a public sidewalk. He then stripped the sign from my hand and dragged me to the ground. Nothing happened other than that. I could have stuck a knife in his throat or shot him. My friend did tell me, however, that I was being covered by sub-machine guns. This was just months after JFK’s assassination. What do you think would happen to me now?

We went up to the park, met the Young Republicans, and and gave LBJ the worst heckling he had ever been exposed to in his political career. There were only about 200 of us. We were surrounded by about 20,000 mad Democrats. The old boy didn’t know how to handle it. He even told the Democrat Governor sitting with him open mike “Nice people you have here.” This heckling was a big story in itself. Well, I lost my chance for worldwide fame because no one took a picture of me holding my sign. I think I was pretty lucky to get off like I did.

Writes Russ Lytton:

If it is not too late to enumerate the things we can be thankful for at this time of year, I’ll add my grateful appreciation for LRC’s searchable archives, Lew.  I have to admit I’m struggling a little (more) today after the official Af-Pak troop escalation announcement, but I found this little jewel today, somewhat serendipitously. And the oasis presents itself once more!

Writes Betty Gettler:

You’re absolutely right about Amazon’s amazing inventory. For instance, no matter how obscure the topic about the railroads (my favorite hobby of all time) that I enter into their book search, they always have something about it. Indeed, they offer books in much greater variety than I would have dreamed of on that topic! My newest is a fascinating book found through a search for something else. I’d never heard of this book, written in the late eighteen hundreds in great detail, on the production and transportation of anthracite coal, but it’s riveting to read all of this by a man who was there when business was entering into what I consider to be American’s most productive times — from about 1890 to about 1910.

Best of all is that one needn’t waste time or gas going from store to store, and one certainly wouldn’t come across the immense variety to be found at Amazon. Your articles are great!

“Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”

Back in 1967 a “fictional” book was printed entitled, Report from Iron Mountain. It allegedly revealed the plans for a One World Government. Here’s an excerpt (page 51 of the report, not the pdf) from this “fictional” report written back in 1967:

Nevertheless, an effective political substitute for war would require “alternate enemies,” some of which might seem equally far fetched in the context of the current war system. It may be, for instance, that gross pollution of the environment can eventually replace the possibility of mass destruction by nuclear weapons as the principal apparent threat to the survival of the species. Poisoning of the air, and of the principal sources of food and water supply, is already well advanced, and at first glance would seem promising in this respect; it constitutes a threat that can be dealt with only through social organization and political power. But from present indications it will be a generation to a generation and a half before environmental pollution, however severe, will be sufficiently menacing, on a global scale, to offer a possible basis for a solution.

Conspiracy “theory” has finally become conspiracy fact.

(Thanks to Minnesota Chris)

Tonight, Obama pulls a Wilson-FDR-Johnson. Having been elected as the relative peace candidate, he is escalating his war on Afghanistan. He is also urging young Afghan men to enlist in the government army of an oil lobbyist and die for the US and its pipeline. Actually, this is Nixon’s Vietnamization all over again. Just as the poor and ill-armed guerrillas could not be defeated by the quadrillion dollar army of Nixon, so the Afghan guerrillas will not be defeated by the bloodillion dollar Pentagon of today. See Bill Lind. Of course, the actual purpose of this imperial war of conquest—to enrich the merchants of death, get vast bribes for officials, and empower and glorify the  junta—will be accomplished.

UPDATE from Travis Holte: “A troop surge can only magnify the crime against Afghanistan.”

UPDATE: Or an updated version of a 1960s chant I often joined in: “Hey, hey, BHO, killing kids for big-oil dough.”

Last night on CNN, a sports reporter was tut-tutting Tiger Woods’s “stonewalling the authorities,” How, she asked,  can he stiff-arm the cops when four were killed in a coffee shop in Seattle. In fact, of course, like everyone, Tiger should never talk to “the authorities,” since they are his enemies. He should watch this youtube instead. Talking to the police never does the citizen any good, and it can do vast harm.

UPDATE from Skip Oliva:

The other aspect of this “story” is how the media is now asserting its “ownership” of Woods and his family. A common thread of the many columns criticizing Woods asserts that since the press built up Woods’s image, he now “owes” them a public airing of his private business.

1. NEVER Seek ‘Help’ from the State’s Armed Enforcers, by Will Grigg;

2. Americans’ View of the World, by David Kramer;

3. Fort Hood Mystery, by Michael Gaddy;

4. Ron Paul: The Fed Will Self-Destruct When It Destroys the Dollar;

5. Government Will Default on Its Debts, by Gary North;

6. Gerald Celente: A New Third Party Coming;

7. When the Dollar Rallies, the Market Will Crash, by Mike Whitney;

8. Jim Rogers: How I Made My First Million;

9. Why Did Lou Dobbs Quit?,  by Mark Thornton;

10. How to Buy a Used Handgun, by Chuck Hawks.

DENMARK APPROVES NEW POLICE POWERS AHEAD OF COPENHAGEN
(Controversial legislation gives police sweeping powers of ‘pre-emptive’ arrest and extends custodial sentences for acts of civil disobedience)

The Danish parliament today passed legislation which will give police sweeping powers of “pre-emptive” arrest and extend custodial sentences for acts of civil disobedience. The “deeply worrying” law comes ahead of the UN climate talks which start on 7 December and are expected to attract thousands of activists from next week.

Under the new powers, Danish police will be able to detain people for up to 12 hours whom they suspect might break the law in the near future. Protesters could also be jailed for 40 days under the hurriedly drafted legislation dubbed by activists as the “turmoil and riot” law. The law was first announced on 18 October. The Danish ministry of justice said that the new powers of “pre-emptive” detention would increase from 6 to 12 hours and apply to international activists

‘Marcellus’ was right. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

[Thanks to Mark Fee]

Nah, since then he wouldn’t have called 911. But for any other non-parasites in a similar position, here is what you need to remember:

Never Talk to the Police.
The Police Are Trained to Lie.
Never Dial 911.
Never Seek Help from the State’s Armed Enforcers.

UPDATE from Ryan Welch:

Tiger’s neighbor called the cops, NOT Tiger. So there still is a chance he does read LRC!

Thanks to everyone who made the four-day holiday period last week the best-read Thanksgiving time ever, with traffic up 50% over 2008.

Will some of the lies from this criminal gang now be coming to an end, thanks to Ron Paul? See this fascinating article by Professor Robert Auerbach, author of Deception and Abuse at the Fed: Henry B. Gonzalez Battles Alan Greenspan’s Bank. I must say I always liked Henry Gonzales, not only for his constant attacks on the central bank, but for his introduction of an impeachment resolution against CIA agent-president George H.W. Bush, for his immoral and illegal war against Iraq, and many other high crimes. (Thanks to Jesse Benton)

Amazon remains the greatest cyber-mall.  It’s amazing what you can find without venturing out on a time-consuming search, and benefit LRC too, at no cost to you.  Here are a few interesting products LRC readers bought last week:

Peace Sign License Plate;
Alcohol Breathalyzer Tester;
Remington Shooting Glasses.

LRCers love books, of course.  Here’s a sample of what was hot last week:

Blue Book of Gun Values, by S.J. Fjestad;
Government Schools Are Bad for Your Kids, by Jim Ostrowski;
You and the Police!, by Boston T. Party.

CIA PULLS SWIFT ONE TO GET PEAK [sic] AT YOUR BANK RECORDS

European Union governments have given in to the pressure and appear set to make a last-minute agreement with the United States to allow its intelligence agencies to monitor bank accounts and transactions across the bloc. Actually, the EU has been clandestinely allowing US intelligence agencies to have access to these financial records since 2001, allegedly to fight terrorism. However, EU citizens were outraged when this invasion of privacy was revealed in 2006.

Now, however, interior ministers and security officials of the 27-member bloc are going to meet on November 30 to make a decision on legally allowing the United States to have access to bank data across the EU. According to Spiegel Online, the EU interior ministers gradually succumbed to the “massive” pressure exerted by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton* and US ambassadors in Europe, who pressed governments like door-to-door salespeople.

_______________________________________
*I guess Hitlery [sic] & Co. have to make sure that they are able to grab as much potential tax money as possible to pay for the “free” health care “reform” her economically-ignorant colleagues are ramming down the throats of the by-and-large economically-ignorant American sheeple.

GPS ‘SHOULD OFFER CLIMATE CHANGE ADVICE TO PATIENTS’
(Doctors should give patients advice on climate change, a leading body of medical experts has claimed.)

The Climate and Health Council, a collaboration of worldwide health organisations including the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal Society of Medicine, believes there is a direct link between climate change and better health.

Their controversial plan would see GPs and nurses give out advice to their patients on how to lower their carbon footprint. The Council believes that climate change “threatens to radically undermine the health of all peoples”. It believes health professionals are ideally placed to promote change because “we have ethical responsibility…..as well as the capacity to influence people and our political representatives to take the necessary action”.

Wanna puke now?

CRIES FOR HELP TO DCF HOT LINE GO UNHEEDED BY DESIGN
(Thousands of abuse reports to a DCF hot line go unheeded every month because of a new screening process intended to keep the strained system functioning.)

A Broward sheriff’s deputy calls the Florida child-abuse hot line to report that a 4-year-old had been molested by a babysitter as the sitter’s boyfriend videotaped the assault. A hot-line counselor declines to forward the report to an investigator.

Oct. 6, 10:15 a.m.: A school guidance counselor reports a mother who had repeatedly missed doctor’s appointments for her daughter, whose sickle-cell disease is so severe she is losing her hearing and needs a new liver. The report is rejected.

Nov. 16, time unknown: A father is attempting to break into his estranged wife’s home. He says he will kill his children. That call, too, is not accepted for investigation.

These decisions, and thousands more, are the result of a little-known — but potentially dangerous — practice by the Department of Children & Families: Beginning last year, DCF dramatically increased the number of abuse calls considered unworthy of investigation. In an effort to reduce workload — and the system-wide stress that high case loads generate — intake workers at the Tallahassee-based hot line have been screening out tens of thousands of calls.

Among the screened-out allegations: reports of kidnapping, rape, aggravated child abuse, medical neglect, malnutrition, kids roaming the streets unsupervised and domestic violence that threatens to harm the children.

[Thanks to Mark Fee]

HOME-SCHOOLING PARENTS MAY FACE CRIMINAL RECORD CHECKS

Parents who teach their own children at home must undergo criminal records checks, say Government education inspectors. The estimated 40,000 parents who choose not to send their children to school should be vetted, says Ofsted. It said that parents whose records throw up suspicions should be barred from teaching their own children.

Vetting to root out any record of violence against children would be by the Criminal Records Bureau. Parents who fail the checks could also find themselves receiving attention from child protection social workers. If accepted by ministers, the Ofsted rules would be the first state attempt to investigate and vet ordinary parents over the way they bring up their own children.

Are the Brits taking their cue from the Germans?

[Thanks to Travis Holte]

Missouri GOP Calls for Revolution notes that “Missouri’s Lafayette County Republican Central Committee has put up a billboard proudly advising citizens to prepare for the violent overthrow of the US government.” The billboard (see right) reads:

A citizens guide to REVOLUTION of a corrupt government.
1. Starve the Beast, keep your money.
2. Vote out incumbents.
3. If steps 1 & 2 fail?
PREPARE FOR WAR – LIVE FREE OR DIE

Now, I’m not an admirer of electoral politics, political parties, or Republicans, but this ain’t bad. But of course, this doesn’t sit well with some regime libertarians–or should I say, regime “libertarians.” In response to the billboard, one of them made his disapproval clear, in one of most disgusting “libertarian” posts I’ve ever read. Excerpts below, with some bolding added:

The embarrassing opposition to Obama

As someone strongly opposed to the Obama Administration’s policies, I am finding myself embarrassed time and time again by its opponents–Republicans, libertarians, and other. There are some very good and on-target spokesmen for principles of limited government and individual freedom, but they seem to get little attention; instead we seem to be deluged with superficial, ignorant spokesmen who don’t even mouth clever soundbites, or hysterical loonies weeping and drawing absurd conspiracy theories on blackboards. All of that is sad enough, and then we get this. This not so subtle piece of work is brought to us by a county Republican party. Not an isolated bunch of kooks, but a bunch of kooks with the official Republican Party name, suggesting violent overthrow of the duly constituted, democratically elected, government of the United States.

This will not do. I believe strongly in the right of revolution and I believe strongly that much of what the federal government does today is unconstitutional and immoral. But Barack Obama is my president, and this government is my government, whatever its very serious flaws. This remains a great, free, strong nation that can, as she has in the past, restore herself to her principles by free democratic and constitutional action. She is a free and great and noble country [note the equation of country and government here — SK] and my loyalty to her Constitution does not rise and fall based simply on who wins elections. …

There are all sorts of reasons to criticize Obama. But the opposition must be based on serious ideas, responsibly advanced–not this demagoguery and childishness

As my friend Rob Wicks said, “I wonder if he thinks that black South Carolinians in 1840 should have said, ‘John C. Calhoun is my senator.’” It is not “my” or “his” government. It is a criminal organization. When will statist-libertarians get it? Do they have to believe everything they learned from Saturday Morning public service commercials?

Update: A selection of comments sent in to me:

I agree, irredeemably awful.

Anyway, doesn’t he like the American Revolution? Why was it okay for them to fight a war over far less? Because “the Union” is sacred, I guess.

***

This is bad. And what principles is he talking about returning to, anyway? I get sick of this bullsh*t American mythologizing about returning to anything. No, at best, he may be talking about living up to the rhetoric more fully. But as far as I am concerned, American domestic freedom probably peaked in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Look at even the 50 states. This is a domestic empire. Almost all of it is conquered land, be it from Native Americans, Hawaiians, or Southerners. All this bleating about the empire being at odds with American tradition is mythological bullsh*t. The difference now is that the government no longer looks to exterminate or subjugate the natives and put Americans in charge of the local governments. They’d rather have proxies. I fail to see why empire by proxy represents some fundamental shift from the old fashioned kind

Why is this libertarian? with or without scare quotes. “Barack Obama is my president, and this government is my government, whatever its very serious flaws… restore herself to her principles by free democratic and constitutional action. She is a free and great and noble country and my loyalty to her Constitution…” LOL! How can you stand to read this stuff? I’m not kidding around. This is bad for your mind, man.

***

MY PRESIDENT?!?!?!? so he loves democracy, accepts the social contract and acquiesces in it all.

***

The only authority we are allowed to question is that of the past, and especially those who were on the losing side of struggles for freedom. Therefore, the American Revolution was good, but the Southern Secession bad, Vietnam war protesters are good, but the WWII objectors were bad, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks were good, but modern day civil disobediencers and tax evaders are bad, etc.

***

I’ll take King George over Obama any day. Does this clown really think people were less free in 1776?

***

What’s odd is that he takes particular offense at the fact that this message came from a county GOP. That would be like saying, “Not only does this piece of literature attack government spending — it’s coming from the Nazi party of all places, and they should be held to a higher standard.”

***

How about Hitler as “My chancellor?” His appointment was all legal, as far as I know. (Godwin’s law strikes again!)

***

Wow… let’s forget for a moment that “limited government” is impossible. For this idiot to say “I believe strongly in the right of Revolution…..”, and then write this drivel, calling himself a Libertarian…..is the epitome of ignorance.

Good job. We need to expose more of these morons for what they are: shills for the regime.

***

I damn near puked when I read that cr*p about Obama being “my President” and our government “flawed though it may be” is “my government”. Second, I was really baffled to learn that the sign came from state Republicans. What is going on??? GOP sounding like libertarians and libertarians sounding like GOP??? I would like to think the sign represents some deep, principled devotion to personal liberty by this particular faction of the GOP and not simply an opportunistic play for the minds of genuine libertarian thinking types now that there is so much dissatisfaction with the current administration. The sign would be just as apropos with respect to the last administration and for many of those before even that. Somehow, I find it hard to believe the state GOP would have erected such a sign were Dubya still in office. I would like to think so, but I doubt it.

***

“But Barack Obama is my president,…”

Actually he isn’t; he’s the president of the states, that’s why there is no requirement that he be popularly elected. John C. Calhoun was the representative of South Carolina, not the people of SC since the state legislature elected senators before the system was wrecked. Blind loyalty to an office is foolishness in any event.

Update 2: Our regime “libertarian” pens a risible retort to this post:

Stephan Kinsella adds a new one to the Lew Rockwell Vituperation Watch! Evidently, condemning fanatics who irresponsibly encourage violence and civil war and throw around ridiculous charges of fascism and whatnot qualifies as “one of most disgusting ‘libertarian’ things I’ve ever read.”

It wasn’t the condemning of “fanatics,” it was the fawning, brainwashed Schoolhouse Rock adulation of the State. And if it’s “irresponsible” to encourage violent defense of one’s life (and not civil war, by the way, but REVOLUTION–those who hate the state’s oppression of liberty just want to be free), then I suppose our centralist Lincoln idolator would have to condemn the American Revolution. How irresponsible they were!

You can always count on Kinsella (who has never in his life done a single thing to make a single person freer) for thoughtfulness.

I think in this post our RL is referring to the fact that he helps defend individuals from the state’s victimization as an activist attorney. I of course admire and respect such activism, even if it can tempt the advocates into believing the pro-state, centralist norms they have to accept in order to make arguments to the state’s “judges.” In fact in a recent brief, he along with others advocates an extreme centralist interpretation of the Constitution that would give even more power and jurisdiction to the criminal gang known as the federal judiciary, to dominate the states, further eroding one of the few somewhat meaningful limits on central, federal power–federalism. (Criticism of libertarian centralism may be found in Rand, Objectivism, and One-World Government, Libertarian Centralists, and other posts.) I think our RL is trying to snipe at me for not being a lawyer who works for IJ or something. What is the relevance of this silly charge? To activists, there is no value to libertarian theory. Who did Murray Rothbard ever help to make any given person free? What a loser he was!

Politico.com, which long ago surpassed WaPo, TimesCo, and WallJo as the best source of mainstream political news and analysis, features a very interesting front-page article about Ron Paul today. The site recognizes that he is attracting support from across the political spectrum—liberal and progressive to conservative and libertarian—for auditing the Fed, clipping its evil wings in other ways, and opposing the war on Afghanistan. This, by the way, is an indication of how real political reform will come about. First, we have Ron Paul’s 38 years of leadership against the Fed and the empire. Then there is the vast movement of young Americans especially he has called forth. Their pressure has brought other politicians around. That is, change will come not from the top down, but from the bottom up. Once again, the right ideas—combined with the Rothbardian-Paulian populist strategy—proves correct. (Thanks to Brad Funkhouser)

I’ll be discussing my new book, Government Schools Are Bad for Your Kids, on Karen Kwiatkowski’s radio show tonight at 7pm EST. Listen live.

If you are in the Western New York area, stop by my book signing party on December 8th.

Here’s the introduction to the book.

Update: As I discussed tonight, it seems that the knee-jerk pro-government school response to the book is for parents to point out that their children attended government schools yet went on to academic glory or this or that college. The truth is, it takes me till chapter 7 out of 10 to discuss academic performance. Though I argue that private schools are academically superior, it is not the major point of the book. Rather, government schools are a bad place to put your children due to crime, promiscuity, drug use, and political indoctrination.