A Repost on Abraham Lincoln's Birthday

Today is the birthday of the famous president Abraham Lincoln. While he is regarded by many as the greatest president ever, I do not hold that view, and most libertarians hold that to the contrary, Lincoln was a dictator and a statist who laid the foundations for the modern statism that is rampant in American society. Thomas DiLorenzo, a historian, has written much work disputing the idolatry of Lincoln that occurs among many circles, even among some libertarian and Christian circles.

But since I am not going to write anything today, I decided to repost a post from last year which listed some libertarian resources on Lincoln, and I would include Tom Woods's recent interview with Tom DiLorenzo himself, as well as Tom DiLorenzo's new article at LewRockwell.com.

So here is the repost.

Mike Rozeff and Tom DiLorenzo Take Down Rich Lowry and Some Libertarian Resources on Secession, Nullification, and the Confederacy

The libertarians Tom DiLorenzo and Mike Rozeff have taken down neoconservative Rich Lowry for his NRO article "Lincoln Defended".

Here is a quote from Tom DiLorenzo's post:

The way to become politically relevant and win over America's youth, says Rich Lowry (who apparently will always look like he just started shaving last week) is to continue to libel and smear Ron Paul and "the fever swamp of LewRockwell.com" while composing boring, poorly-written, long-winded apologies for the abolition of civil liberties, crackdowns on free speech, the imprisoning of dissenters, pervasive spying by the state, the deportation of political opponents, massive taxation and debt to pay for it all, centralized, monopolistic government, crony capitalism,  and above all, never-ending aggressive wars all around the world in the name of "making all men free."

Here is a quote from Mike Rozeff's post:

Lowry writes of  "a species of libertarians — 'people-owning libertarians,' as one of my colleagues archly calls them — who apparently hate federal power more than they abhor slavery." Totally asinine and totally wrong. I have to inform the analytically-challenged Lowry that federal power and slavery are not necessarily opposites. One can be against both federal power and slavery, when both violate rights and self-ownership. Slavery is not something either that necessarily has to be eliminated by the exercise of federal power or a national power or by a terrible civil war or by gross violations of rights or by destroying a Constitution. Other nations ended slavery without these necessarily happening.

Here are the links to Tom DiLorenzo's post, Mike Rozeff's post, and the Lowry article. Read these three and send me your opinions.

I will close with thoughts on Lincoln from the great Murray Rothbard himself from his great speech, "Two Just Wars: 1776 and 1861":  "Abraham Lincoln’s conciliatory words on slavery cannot be taken at face value. Lincoln was a master politician, which means that he was a consummate conniver, manipulator, and liar. The federal forts were the key to his successful prosecution of the war. Lying to South Carolina, Abraham Lincoln managed to do what Franklin D. Roosevelt and Henry Stimson did at Pearl Harbor 80 years later – maneuvered the Southerners into firing the first shot. In this way, by manipulating the South into firing first against a federal fort, Lincoln made the South appear to be "aggressors" in the eyes of the numerous waverers and moderates in the North." Abe Lincoln was, in the words of Isabel Paterson, "a humanitarian with a guillotine."

Note: I would like to make a comment on the Lowry article. On the second page, Lowry tries to rebut DiLorenzo's claim that America was birthed in secession by claiming it was a revolution. I will comment that both Lowry and DiLorenzo were right. The revolution was a secession in that it withdrew from the British Empire and declared their independence, and it was a revolution in that it blended libertarian and republican thought, as well as the traditional rights of Englishmen, and broke with the past by applying it in such a revolutionary way as has never been seen. 

For more information on Lincoln, secession, nullification, and the Confederacy from a libertarian perspective, see these resources:

"Lincoln's Greatest Failure (Or, How a Real Statesman Would Have Ended Slavery)" by Tom DiLorenzo,LewRockwell.com, November 15, 2012

"Judge Napolitano on Lincoln" by Tom DiLorenzo, LewRockwell.com, January 8, 2008

"Is Secession a Right?" by David Gordon, LewRockwell.com, December 7, 2012

"Be Patriotic: Become A Secessionist" by Tom DiLorenzo, LewRockwell.com, December 6, 2012

"Parting Company" by Walter Williams, LewRockwell.com, November 27, 2012

"3 Myths About Secession" by Ryan McMaken, LewRockwell.com, November 15, 2012

"Nullification: Answering the Objections" by Thomas E. Woods, Liberty Classroom

"Secession and Liberty" by Tom DiLorenzo, LewRockwell.com, November 28, 2000

"Abraham Lincoln" by Walter Williams, LewRockwell.com, February 28, 2013

"Lincoln the Racist" by Tom DiLorenzo, LewRockwell.com, November 10, 2012

"The Real Lincoln In His Own Words" by Tom DiLorenzo, LewRockwell.com, June 5, 2013

"An Abolitionist Defends the South" by Tom DiLorenzo, LewRockwell.com, October 20, 2004

"Virginia's Black Confederates" by Walter Williams, LewRockwell.com, November 2, 2010

"Libertarians and the Confederate Battle Flag" by Tom DiLorenzo, LewRockwell.com, April 19, 2001

"A Libertarian Theory of Secession and Slavery" by Walter Block, LewRockwell.com, June 10, 2012

"Nations by Consent: Decomposing the Nation-State" by Murray Rothbard, Journal of Libertarian Studies 11:1, Fall 1994

"A Jeffersonian View of the Civil War" by Donald W. Miller, Jr., LewRockwell.com, September 7, 2001

"Genesis of the Civil War" by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., LewRockwell.com, May 11, 2000

"The Great Struggle: Republic or Empire?" by Steven Yates, LewRockwell.com, February 3, 2001

"Lincoln and His Legacy" by Joseph Sobran, Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation, February 19, 2008

"The Right to Secede" by Joseph Sobran, LewRockwell.com, September 30, 1999

For more information about Lincoln, see the King Lincoln Archive at LewRockwell.com and Tom DiLorenzo's archive of articles.

Letter of Liberty News Edition (2-11-2014)

Here is the Tuesday Letter of Liberty News Edition

Will Grigg on Henry Magee, John Quinn, and the right to resist unjust arrests

Phil Girardi muses on the art of American scaremongering.

Tom Woods talks with Anthony Gregory about libertarianism and the Left-Right paradigm

James E. Miller reflcets on the president and the nuclear bomb.

David Howden writes more on the Sochi Olympics.

Justin Raimondo exposes the Sochi coverage for what it is: more propaganda.

Kelly Vlahos writes on John Kiriakou's imprisonment.

Chase Madar argues against arming Israel.

Logan Albright makes the case against socialized law.

David Howden gives his requiem for Bernanke.

Laurence Vance shows the way to dismantling the American empire.

Pat Buchanan looks at the prospects for the welfare state.

Scott Lazarowitz asks what is going on with rulers these days.

Robert Wood looks at the phenomenon of Americans renouncing their citizenship.

Paul Huebl looks at the ID of the police state.

Benjamin Wiegold makes the case that endangered animals can be dealt with in a free, private-property society.

Laurence Vance explains why not to "walk in the shoes of a soldier."

Walter Williams explains there is no real poverty, only dependence.

D. W. Mackenzie explains the tragedy of the commons in light of the recent healthcare fiasco.

Richard Fulmer gives his thoughts on several economic issues.

Jeffrey Overstreet reviews The LEGO Movie.

Steven Greydanus also reviews The LEGO Movie

Letter of Liberty News Edition (2-07-2014)

Here is the Friday News Edition of Letter of Liberty:

Christopher Westley gives his perspective on the danger of labor and energy regulations.

Gary North writes on Sophia Loren.

A German TV network interviews Edward Snowden (an interview which was "blacked out").

Robin Koerner explains the false dichotomy between freedom and security.

Eric Peters shows the tax-by-mile for what it is: another scheme to take money from taxpayers.

Michael Rozeff shows what "nation" really is.

Pratap Chaterjee explains the surveillance state's alliance with private corporations.

William Grigg exposes the real reason why SWAT teams exist.

Sheldon Richman explains why Ed Snowden is not a lawbreaker (with respect to the natural law).

Jesse Ventura goes "off the grid" to hide from the drones.

Elizabeth Renter gives 14 good foods and drinks that are optimal for health.

Pat Buchanan makes the case for non-interventionist conservatism.

Justin Raimondo warns of the coming Dark Age.

Max Borders writes on the rise of libertarianism and the left wing backlash.

Nebojsa Malic explains the "Lords of Chaos."

Ben Swann explains why Rand Paul's "economic freedom zones" are not a good idea.

Bryce McBride looks at what's in store for central banking.

Ash Navabi defends Austrian economics against neoclassical economics.

Sheldon Richman exposes the cruelty of voting idolatry.

Wendy McElroy exposes the immorality of state education.

Marjorie Cohn warns of yet another super-Orwellian statist evil.

Jeff Morley writes on RFK's opposition to the American embargo on Cuba.

Russell Brand exposes how the deceased actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman was a victim of the drug war.

Benjamin Weingarten takes a look at a 1940s speech that could serve as a rebuttal to Obama's SOTU.

Craig Drake cuts at the heart of the evil minimum wage.

Michael Kosares takes a look at the relation between gold and hyperinflation.

Josh Begley gives a map of US empire.

Robert Scheer looks at the three-decade failure of the Afghanistan War.

Sibel Edmonds looks at the "civilized" barbarism of the American nation.

Letter of Liberty News Edition (2-04-2014)

John Cochran shows the true legacy of Ben Bernanke.

Justin Raimondo responds to Cass Sunstein's paranoid attack on libertarianism.

Walter Williams addresses the problem of public schoolteacher cheating.

James Miller shows who is really idiotic (it's not libertarians).

Pat Buchanan addresses the problem of mobocracy which might infect Ukraine (not to say that a total state would be great).

Brian Terrell looks at yet another police state evil.

Jim Lobe exposes the evil of AIPAC.

Mitchell Plitnick shows yet another lack of support for the two-state solution among Americans.

Phil Girardi exposes yet another croynist scheme of the exploitative class.

Ron Paul exposes how the USG caused and provoked the new al-Qaeda problem.

Karen Kwiatkowski shows how statism is truly paranoid.

Eric Peters gives his perspective on journalism in Amerika.

Russ Baker looks at the negative results that the execution of Dzohkar Tsarnaev might bring about.

John Whitehead asks if we need yet another cultural and political revolution 50 years after the Beatles.

A former TSA agent exposes the issues with TSA scanning.

Top Guardian photographers say "Happy 100th Birthday" to the German Leica, one of the greatest cameras in the world.

Chris Ferreira asks whether doctors can fix poverty or not.

Paul Rosenberg addresses the issue of German gold and the Amerikan government.

The housing market is just distorted.

Scott Lazarowitz exposes the relation between the blood cult of statism and the sexual revolution.

Jack Hunter on Gay Marriage and Conservatism: My Thoughts

For those who don't know, Jack Hunter is a conservative libertarian commentator, editor of The Southern Avenger (which is offline as of now), and a supporter of Ron Paul and Rand Paul (to whom he was an aide). He has written much on neoconservatism, conservatism, Ron Paul and libertarianism, as well as other stuff. While I may share my disagreements with him (like his support for Rand Paul's endorsing of Mitt Romney), he is still an interesting commenter that I find worthwile. You can see his more recent columns at the archive I link here.

Now, let's get to the real meat of the issue.

Jack Hunter has just written an article entitled "How obsessing over gay marriage has grown government."  He argues that the conservative view toward government should include a support for government separation from the marriage issue, citing many conservatives who support the right of same-sex marriage (some by supporting government getting out of marriage and others advocating that gays share in the government benefits given to married couples).

I think that his article is overall worth reading and is excellent.

However, I would like to share some comments on his article which I think will make things clearer.

First things first, let's start.

First, he notes to many different conservatives that are now deviating from the standard right-wing opposition to same-sex marriage. And as to whether it is encouraging or discouraging, I am mixed on this; while I am in support of the freedom of two individuals to get together and "marry" (even if that includes gays and whoever), I am also not in favor of giving them tax benefits (though some libertarians make pretty strong arguments for allowing gays to recognized the same way the state recognizes heterosexual marriages until the State is abolished and the libertarian society is ushered). For example, I take the view that the State should not take any position on this, and that it should stay out of it.

Second, he notes that the Right's focus on the same-sex marriage issue is a hindrance to the alleged conservative goal of "small government." Then he shows how Bush and Karl Rove manipulated conservatives who would have stayed home otherwise into voting for Bush with the promise of a federal ban on gay marriage.

My perspective is that when a government leader gets unpopular with a certain voting bloc, then that leader will use a hot-button issue to manipulate the voting bloc into supporting the leader, and that issue may either be terrorism, drugs, same-sex marriage, low wages, foreign issues or almost any other matter. In this case, George W. Bush, who doubled the Department of Education and increased the size of government and the national debt, managed to get conservatives into supporting him because of the promise of government's fighting of same-sex marriage. But alas, Bush was still the same big-government person that was elected into office before; despite some tax "cuts" here and there, the spending and budget increased even more.

Then we go on with an analysis of the arch-conservative Senator Rick Santorum, who was famous for a while in conservative Christian and Catholic circles. He was known for his belief in the use of government to promote morality, especially with regard to abortion and sexual morality. But many libertarians and libertarian Christians called him out for his defense of the use of violence (that is what government action ultimately is) to stop vice, and Judge Andrew Napolitano and Tom Mullen, two famous libertarian writers and commentators, were among the forefront of libertarians who looked at Rick Santorum from the proper perspective (in my opinion).

For what Rick Santorum and conservatives seem to fail to recognize is that when a moral action cannot be chosen freely but rather compelled through the preventative intervention between an immoral but voluntary exchange, then a moral action cannot be truly free.

And we finally get to the issue of how same-sex marriage is used to distract from the real issues with our government. While it is true that sin is an issue and should be dealt with, I will note that sin should not be accepted and celebrated; but that does not mean that the force of government should be used to crack down on sin, for mere sins like illegitimate "marriages", sexual immorality, drug usage, alcoholism and other things should not be banned in the same way that murder, theft or fraud is banned; for they are not in the same league as aggression against the rights of others.

So then, how do we deal with such sins when the use of government force is forbidden from cracking down on them? We can do these things: spread the Gospel (Matthew 28:19), apply it to all walks of life (2 Timothy 3:16), use the power of persuasion instead of government to lead many to Christ, and reject the use of force to prevent such sins from occuring.

And we ought not to let the issue of same-sex marriage distract us from opposing the big-government welfare-warfare state that has been wrought upon us.

Letter of Liberty News Edition (1-31-2013)

Here is the Friday News Edition.

Dave Albin makes the case for a free market in food labeling.

Thomas DiLorenzo takes a look at the link between Lincoln's army and Hitler.

Scott Lazarowitz asks whether the people will wake up.

Robert Murphy gives his thoughts on Peter Schiff's talks on the minimum wage.

Joseph Salerno sets Krugman straight about Mises and the Great Depression.

Prof. Michael Chossudovsky exposes how America's government has warred on the world for so long.

Robert Higgs gives his thoughts on his connection with the late Governor Issac Stevens.

John Whitehead points to the greatest threats to the freedom of America.

Joe Alton takes a look at expiration dates and survival prepping

Egon von Greyerz talks about gold and the "lost century."

Dr. Helen Smith takes a look at the college hostility to manhood.

Anthony DeBlasi takes a look at the nameless hurt of military action.

Michael Rozeff takes a look at why the US has lost manufacturing jobs.

Chuck Baldwin shows how the virus of police statism has infected the world.

Justin Raimondo looks at the reluctant "realism" of Obama.

Ilana Mercer makes the case for secession instead of another convention.

John Odermatt takes a look at state protectionism and sports gambling interests.

Jacob Hornberger contrasts the two systems America has had.

Tori Richard exposes the link between IRS horrors and Obamacare.

James Miller warns of Ben Bernanke puff pieces.

Laurence Vance gives his solution to the problem of unemployment benefits.

Justin Raimondo exposes yet another neocon trick: using WWII to justify our modern wars.

Jason Harrington gives his confessions about his work at the TSA.

Louise Cooper talks on F. A. Hayek.

Jeremy Scahill exposes Obama's drone wars and his whitewashing of surveillance statism.

Javier Garay exposes the fallacies of the war against inequality.

Jeff Miron asks if the drug war is over.

Radley Balko looks at another evil of the drug war.

Peter Jenkins exposes yet another manufactured foreign crisis.

Jonathan Goodwin explains what is paranoia and what is not.

Peter Schiff: How to Protect Yourself Against the Monetary Central Planners

Peter Schiff: How to Protect Yourself Against the Monetary Central Planners