Three New Articles from Christianity Today

Here are three new articles from Christianity Today that are absolutely worth reading.

"Why We Call God Father" by Simon Chan: Simon Chan shows us the real meaning of why God is referred to as "Father."

"Our Experiment in Criticism" by Alissa Wilkinson: This article explores the true purpose of film criticism, and the purpose of Christianity Today in reviewing movies.

"The Misguided Theology of Kindness" by Jen Pollock Michel: Jen Michel shows us that kindness should not be the be-all, end-all of virtue and of the Christian life.

Letter of Liberty News Edition (8-13-2013)

Alas, readers of Letter of Liberty, I have started my news edition again. I will add more news and articles throughout the day.

For today, here are the top articles around the web.

Ron Paul gives a tour of his new studio for the Ron Paul Channel.

Why is the US at war with Yemen? Ron Paul wants to know why.

This week's edition of Mondays with Murray at Lions of Liberty explores what Rothbard thought of war revisionism in light of the 68th anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb: "Little Boy." It seems as though Rothbard hated World War II and wouldn't buy any of the classic cost-benefit arguments that were used to defend it. In "Revisionism for Our Time," Rothbard glorifies revisionism as a rehabilitation process for the brainwashed and war-torn, the weary and heavy-laden. And it seems, according to Rothbard, that democracies are worse than monarchies in waging war. He says, "There is only one real difference between the capacity of a democracy and a dictatorship to wage war: democracies invariably engage much more widely in deceptive war propaganda, to whip up and persuade the public. Democracies that wage war need to produce much more propaganda to whip up their citizens, and at the same time to camouflage their policies much more intensely in hypocritical moral cant to fool the voters. The lack of need for this on the part of dictatorships often makes their policies seem superficially to be more warlike, and this is one of the reasons why they have had a "bad press" in this century."

It seems that Eric Holder and Barack Obama took a slightly small step in the direction of liberty when they decided to ease incarceration time for nonviolent drug offenders. While it doesn't go far enough in ending the drug war, it is indeed a small step.

It seems that Paul Krugman, in his attempt to refute Austrian economic theory on the business cycle, forgot to mention Murray Rothbard. He forgot to mention that the great Rothbard smashed Milton Friedman long ago.

It seems that Paul Krugman forgot to mention several Austrians when he discussed economic policy uncertainty.

John Cochran at The Circle Bastiat revisits Austrians and John Maynard Keynes.

Gary North gives tips on how to rein in the NSA and the surveillance state.

John Whitehead explores the police-state mindset that permeates "public" schools. Gary North gives his comments on his blog.

Scott Lazarowitz explores life in modern-day Soviet Amerika.

Glenn Greenwald's new and poignant article on Michael Hayden and national-security worship that permeates the mainstream media, both left and right.

C. Jay Engel at The Reformed Libertarian explores how the Christian should relate to the State, This is a sequel to a previous article he wrote, where he advocated the abolition of evil in the form of statism, and the turning of the other cheek. After all, God is glorified even in the evils of statism.

Should Christians have all things in common? Norman Horn at LibertarianChristians.com says no.

Norman Horn explores the significance of the laissez-faire liberal economist and philosopher Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian school of economics in the first part of his series Essentials of Austrian Economics.

Scott Lazarowitz on how aging media lowlives such as Bob Schieffer are defending the surveillance state.

Butler Shaffer on the death of the stegosaurus (and the nation-state).

The leftist website AlterNet explores the America love affair with coup d'états.

AlterNet exposes seven right-wing Christians who can't keep their own rules when it comes to sexual morality. While I don't exactly agree with the overall anti-Christian tone this article takes (and the anti-Christian tone that AlterNet generally takes throughout its articles), it does advise against them determining public policy, which I agree with (though at the same time I don't want leftists determining public policy as well). I would also like to note that one "pro-life" politician pressured his mistress to get an abortion, in clear violation of both pro-life and libertarian principles (though libertarians are, of course, divided on the issue; I take the pro-life side of the issue).

Lavabit's closure means the death of security of cloud computing.

Left-liberal Andrew O'Heir on the police state tango.

Laura Poitras's role in Edward Snowden's whistleblowing is explored by Peter Maass in The New York Times Magazine.

Sheldon Richman on the subjectivist economics of public choice/constitutional economist James Buchanan.

Steve Horwitz on why James Buchanan matters to libertarians.

"If Eric Holder won't prosecute reporters, why did the FBI target me?" This is the question that James Ball asks in his insightful column today.

Obama has already broken his pledge on surveillance reform, says Conor Friedersesdorf. If that isn't bad enough, Techdirt reports that Obama hires confessed liar James Clapper to head an "independent" review over the NSA surveillance.

John Grisham, author of such classic thrillers as A Time to Kill. The Pelican Brief, The Testament, The Rainmaker, Runaway Jury and The Firm, deals with the pressing issue of how the US government was dead wrong about Guantanamo Bay as well as no one wanting to admit that.

Walter E. Williams on energy manipulation.

Mark Thornton, author of The Economics of Prohibition, on Sanjay Gupta's mea culpa regarding marijuana and legalization.

Tom Woods attacks the minimum wage in another post of his. He also dealt with the fast-food protests two weeks ago, which should be read along with the new post.

The Liberty Crier reports that Obama's reputation is down by 44%. A sink in reputation that is clearly deserved for the surveillance state that was being created. According to a poll by Real Clear Politics, 43.9 percent support Obama while 50.9 percent oppose him. Still, we libertarians should not have high hopes, as 43.9-44% is still pretty high.

Obama's 55 worst assaults on civil liberties.

The Ron Paul Channel has launched its first episode. However, subscribers will be required to pay $9.99 (or $10) to view the channel. I preferred that they make the show free. However, maybe the channel needs the money as of now to be able to post for free in the future.

Can you believe it? Obama just declared that we are an Orwellian tyranny at the National Defense University!

Jacob Hornberger says: abolish the post office! Doug Bandow also encourages the same solution.

The Washington Post on lawyer and conservative Bruce Fein.

Alex Salter at The Freeman looks into the issue of the origin of specie. In the first part, he make the case against public money, and in the second part, he makes the case for a privatized, free-market monetary system and for free banking.

Jeff Tucker on how medical innovation redefines our world.

Jeff Tucker on the new world eating the old world.

Global Research explodes the myths of Hiroshima, the nuclear bomb, and the war crimes that occurred. It seems that the desire for vengeance for Pearl Harbor permeated any sense of just-war principles, allowing Truman and the state to firebomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Also, the lies of Hiroshima are the lies of today.

The Fukushima nightmare (where 300 tons of Fukushima nuclear waste are being dumped into the ocean every day) is going to get worse and worse. The radioactive contamination might as well be worse than the horrific crimes at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Should you stockpile ammunition?

Joseph Mercola on the harmful and wicked substances in five popular condiments. These include but are not limited to GMO soybean oil, monosodium glutamate, and more. These conditions do not apply to organic and (truly) natural condiments; however, they do apply to most mainstream condiments, like Heinz's Ketchup and the infamous A1 steak sauce, which should be ditched for organic steak sauce (or maybe no steak sauce at all if the steak is really good by itself). The solution is either to go organic or to make your own food.

Anthony Gucciardi at StoryLeak explores how WiFi trashcans can be used to spy on you by tracking your smartphone data.

I Will Be Starting My News Edition Again

Dear readers of Letter of Liberty:

I apologize if you were looking for any further news editions from me.

I have stopped them for a while, as I have shut down the blog.

I later restarted it, but then it was a slow recovery, and I hadn't done any news editions since.

But now I will start again, and I will do it every Tuesday and Friday.

Thank you for reading.

Sincerely,

Anand Venigalla

Why People Fear Art

John Rappaport at his blog writes:

In the last 20 years, more and more people have become obsessed with Pattern. Finding it in events, information, energy, everything.

Obvious Pattern, hidden Pattern, secret Pattern, symbolic Pattern.

On top of that, governments search for patterns in their trillions of pieces of surveilled data.

 The discovery, for example, that a flower and snail and a galaxy reveal identical mathematics is taken to indicate something sacred. Only a decline in IQ can explain such a conclusion.

One may as well fall into a worshipful trance because windows, tables, and moving vans reveal rectangles.

Art, however, isn’t based on pattern. And that becomes a problem. It stops the puerile mind in its tracks.

Read the rest here.

Ron Paul Channel Coming Soon

Dear friends and readers of Letter of Liberty:

The Ron Paul Channel will be coming soon. Ron Paul will be hosting it, and he will spread the message of liberty through the television medium.

Lew Rockwell at LewRockwell.com reports:

August 7, 2013 (Clute, Texas) – Today, former-Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul announced the Ron Paul Channel (www.RonPaulChannel.com) would launch the week of August 12, 2013, and new details about the Channel. Known for refusing to play by the establishment’s rules, Dr. Paul will air all original programming several times a week.

Since announcing the Ron Paul Channel’s creation solely on Facebook and Twitter, more than 200,000 people have gone to www.RonPaulChannel.com to express interest in learning more about the channel and Dr. Paul’s programming.

The Ron Paul Channel will begin by providing fresh, engaging original programming each week, available to subscribers live or on-demand. Subscriptions will cost $9.95 per month and provide subscribers with direct access to Dr. Paul and a diverse array of guests.

“Americans are tired of the games and the lies of today’s media. They want the truth. I have been astonished by the flood of interest in the channel from tens of thousands of people in just a matter of hours,” said Paul. “Imagine this: no censors, no barricades, no statists. We will be able to engage viewers directly on subjects that matter most to them from finances to civil liberties to foreign policy.”

The Ron Paul Channel expands upon Paul’s vast grassroots and online support, capitalizing on the increasing demand for accessible, interesting and original programming. The Ron Paul Channel will stream online, allowing subscribers to watch it when they want, where they want and on the device they want: internet-connected televisions, computers, tablets, and smart phones.

The Ron Paul Channel will allow me to engage directly with viewers,” said Paul. “With the help of social media we can cut through the noise and get straight to the truth about subjects that matter most to you.”

Go to www.RonPaulChannel.com for more information and sign-up for updates and announcements.

Exposing the Truth About Benghazi ... At CNN!

Dear readers of Letter of Liberty:

Jake Tapper at CNN has exposed the CIA in the 9/11/2012 Benghazi attack on the US embassy and the murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other men.

The first report explored that dozens of CIA operatives were on the ground during the 9/11 Benghazi attack and that the CIA is trying to keep what they did in secret, going so far as to polygraph other CIA agents every three to four years to figure out whether the secrets were leaked.

The second report details how this is underreported in the media. The role of the CIA deserves much, much more scrutiny.

And yet another report by Tapper shows that the White House emails stand in contradiction to the Benghazi leaks.

Please take the time to read these three eye-opening reports; and if you have the time, please take the time to watch the one-hour special that CNN is airing on the issue of Benghazi next Tuesday at 10 PM. I will be looking forward to see it myself.

Sincerely,

Anand Venigalla

Setting Up Shop At the Reformed Libertarian

Dear readers of Letter of Liberty:

I am setting up shop at The Reformed Libertarian, where C. Jay Engel, the host, invited me to write for his blog. Here is my profile at that website. My first article on that website is the first part to my series on the meaning of liberalism. See here.

Also, I will continue blogging on this blog, as well as on the Reformed Libertarian. I will be posting once a week, every Friday, on that website, while I do my regular blogging at this site as well.

Sincerely,

Anand Venigalla, Host of Letter of Liberty