1972 vs. 2013: How to Serve A Warrant

Over at PoliceStateUSA.com, Lt. Harry Thomas contrasts the serving of warrants in 1972 and today.

Says Thomas:

"This past week I was over on Officer.com trying to convince some hot-headed, patriot-hating young cops that the Constitution is actually the law of the land. I failed. One of them refers to open carriers as “attention whores.” I was denounced as a traitor to law enforcement for insisting that gun owners actually have rights that LEO’s are legally and morally bound to respect.

"It got me thinking about the great gulf that separates the law enforcement profession that I knew as compared to the one that exists today. I never thought I’d be one of those geezers that says, “I just don’t understand this younger generation today!” But the fact is, I am, and I don’t.

Take the time to read this insightful piece and enjoy it.

Why Does A Loving God Send People To Hell?

Today, I would like to recommend a good article from Christian blogger Nolan McNamee entitled "Why Would A Loving God Send A Good Person Like Me to Hell?"

While this is not the be-all, end-all of answers to this probing question, this does a pretty good job.

I especially like Nolan's statement that we, "as human beings, are imperfect. We are not a people of perfect justice, love, grace, and truth. We are sinners. Since God does not sin (because he is perfect) and since he is perfectly just, sin is not found in heaven (Revelation 21:27)." That means that since heaven is perfect, there would be no "good but imperfect" persons (except, of course, for those people who have been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ).

Please send it to those who have this probing question, to both Christians and non-Christians.

Why Bank Secrecy Is Awesome

At today's Mises Daily, Cezary Blasczyck explains why FATCA is a threat to bank secrecy, and ultimately to freedom.

Says Blasczyck:

Among the many recent revelations about American surveillance operations was the fact that, according to Der Spiegel, the U.S. intelligence apparatus “not only conducted online surveillance of European citizens, but also appears to have specifically targeted buildings housing European Union institutions,” Few, if any, of those commenting of late on such affairs mentioned that numerous nations across the globe actually acknowledged the U.S. government’s anti-privacy offensive months before by accepting its Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

The FATCA legislation attempts to combat bank privacy on many levels and for many reasons including the American state’s desire for more effective tax collecting. According to U.S. tax law, every American taxpayer is obligated to fill out tax forms and pay taxes for their income attained not only on U.S. soil but overseas as well. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) does not distinguish where the taxpayer lives, since U.S. taxation is based on either residency or citizenship.

The author goes on to show that bank secrecy was what helped combat the 20th century dictatorships and that high tax rates—not Swiss bank accounts—is what accounts for tax evasion.

Read the rest here. Enjoy.

Letter of Liberty News Edition (8-16-2013)

Dear readers of Letter of Liberty:

As I promised, here is my Friday news edition.

The Washington Post reports that NSA broke privacy rules, according to one audit.

Sheldon Richman on the phony trade-off between privacy and security.

Jacob Hornberger reveals that the US government loves Egypt's military dictatorship.

Scott Lazarowitz on the insanity of Amerika's "terrorism drills."

Hans-Hermann Hoppe on how to fight the modern state.

Justin Raimondo on Egypt's Tiananmen.

Robert Wenzel wants to know if there is a stock market crash coming ahead.

Bill Bonner gives a sarcastic "thank you" to the national-security state.

One media ship is going down, reports Jon Rappoport.

InfoWars.com's Paul Joseph Watson reports to the FBI's admission of having documents on Michael Hastings.

Ilana Mercer's first part of an interview with Benn Steil entitled "John Maynard Keynes: Who's the Genius?"

Alexa O'Brien at the Guardian examines the moral consistency of Bradley Manning's recent apology.

Anthony Gucciardi reports on how the state is God to many people.

Gary North on Richard Nixon's worst decision among many bad decisions: closing the gold window.

William Norman Grigg on how criminal prosecutors attacked constitutionalist quilt artist Rita Hutchens.

Conservative Christian minister Chuck Baldwin on the enmity of the brethren in Christ.

Chuck Baldwin reminds us that the NSA domestic spying apparatus is built on lies.

Paul Rosenberg on the blow that killed America 100 years ago.

Michael Rubin, resident caller at the American Enterprise Institute, is calling for more Egyptian blood.

The Guardian reports that the NSA is under fire after it violated its own privacy rules.

Lavabit's death is the death of security in cloud computing, according to Alex Hern.

Edward Snowden speaks with Peter Maass on why he went to documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald.

The Guardian's interview with Edward Snowden. (Part 1 and Part 2) It was recorded two months ago, but it is still relevant today in regard to the surveillance state.

Amy Goodman on hip-hop artist Questlove's encounter with stop-and-frisk.

Sheldon Richman on the stop-and-frisk program.

The Guardian releases the full 2008 XKeyscore presentation.

C. Jay Engel gives a short rant on Obamacare and the GOP.

The Liberty Crier reports that Obama wants to use an executive order to impose a cell phone tax. The original link is at The Daily Caller.

Salon reports that a huge majority of Americans want James Clapper convicted for perjury.

Ron Paul on why gold will explode higher.

Americans are renouncing their citizenship to escape the IRS, reports Reason.com.

Tom Woods on his difficulty in finding the worst article of 2013, his finding it, and his seeming to make progress, only to have to reply to this inane comment on how not raising the minimum wage keeps a mother and her child homeless. He also includes an excerpt from Jeff Herbener's discussion with AEI on the Phillips Curve.

Laurence Vance gives this question: how conservative is your senator?

Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, seems to be a big fan of the Pauls (Ron and Rand).

Robert Wenzel gives a partial list of the ages of the singers of the Declaration of Independence.

Tyler Cowen reveals that the Vietnam War was worse than many people think.

F. A. Hayek has made some statements showing how the Framers' system has failed in limiting the government.

Radley Balko on how to roll back America's police militarization.

Radley Balko reports on Texas police raiding an organic farm in a big SWAT raid.

TGIF: The Phony Trade-off Between Privacy and Security

Sheldon Richman of The Future of Freedom Foundation (FFF) has written a brilliant essay today in his The Goal is Freedom (TGIF) series. That article is "The Phony Trade-off Between Privacy and Security" I urge you all to read it and to send it to your friends and relatives.

I will close this post with a relevant quote from Richman:

"...you can’t trade off privacy against security becausethey’re exactly the same thing. Anyone who reads dystopian novels knows that government access to personal information about people serves to inhibit and control them. That’s insecurity."

Revisiting the Classics: First Edition

Today, dear readers, I will decide to revisit the classics on libertarianism by some of our best voices in the liberty movement, from past to present.

I will be doing this every Thursday, and I will be collecting them from old reprints, old magazines, and other sources. This edition will even include excerpts from books on libertarianism.

And not only that, this edition will contain some instant modern-day classics, including from our very own year: 2013.

Today's edition to revisiting classic articles on libertarianism is here:

"Myth and Truth About Libertarianism" by Murray N. Rothbard: Originally a 1979 paper presented at the national meeting of the Philadelphia Society in Chicago, and then a 1980 article in Modern Age, this classic article is vitally important for those who want to understand the whole idea of libertarianism, the myths surrounding it, and the defenses given by libertarians.

"Why Be Libertarian?" by Murray N. Rothbard: Originally published in the Autumn 1966 issue of Left and Right, this classic article explains the true purpose of libertarianism in today's world: a commitment to the abolition of injustice through radical means.

"The Miraculous Market" by Leonard E. Read: A classic defense of free-market capitalism from one of the twentieth century's greatest minds, Leonard E. Read. It was originally published in The Free Market and Its Enemies. It is an excellent companion article to the masterpiece that is "I, Pencil." The Mises Institute has compiled many of Leonard Read's books for free download.

"Freedom of the Press" by Ludwig von Mises: An excerpt from his book The Anti-Capitalist Mentality (which is available for free PDF download at Mises.org), Mises defends the freedom of the press as a fundamental freedom and as a fundamental program of classical liberalism.

"Is Libertarianism Compatible with Religion?" by Laurence M. Vance: Based on a lecture Laurence Vance gave at the 2011 Austrian Scholars Conference (ASC) at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, this is a riveting defense of libertarianism from a religious perspective, particularly from the Christian worldview.

"How to Advance Liberty" by Leonard E. Read: Based on a lecture from the 1960s, Read gives us the proper strategy to advance the libertarian cause. That strategy is education.

"Locking Out the Immigrant" by Jacob G. Hornberger: The classic 1991 article makes the case for free immigration from a libertarian perspective, showing how immigration not only fits into libertarianism but also into the traditional classical-liberal system that dominated America in the nineteenth century (for the most part).

"Neo-Conned" by Ron Paul: The classic speech by Ron Paul on the nefarious group known as the neoconservatives.

"A Wise Consistency" by Ron Paul: A classic 2004 speech on liberty and how the principle of consistency is abused by statists.

"Just War" by Murray N. Rothbard: An article based on a 1994 lecture for the seminar The Costs of War. Rothbard argues that there were two, and only two, just wars in America's history: the American Revolution and the War for Southern Independence. Rothbard not only focuses on these two wars, but shows them as a framework for what a truly just war is.

"Killers-in-Chief" by John V. Denson: an excerpt from chapter 5 of Denson's book A Century of War.

"Hiroshima and Nagasaki" by Ralph Raico: Ralph Raico, in a modern classic, exposes the war criminal Harry Truman and opposes the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

"The Obligatory Post on Romans 13" by C. Jay Engel: This post deals with the issue of Romans 13 that is brought up by non-libertarian Christians seeking to smear libertarianism.

Capitalism vs. Imperialism

Professor Stephen Davies at the Institute for Humane Studies gives us a lesson on how to distinguish between capitalism and imperialism. The former is based on voluntary exchange while the latter is based on exploitation. The conflict is seen as capitalism vs. imperialism, liberty vs. power, productive classes vs. exploitative classes. This was the conflict that animated the classical-liberal theory of class conflict.

Here is the video. Enjoy