Letter of Liberty News Edition (8-27-2013)

Here is my Tuesday news edition.

"Local Boy" Michael Alford on why we need a new pediatrician

Michael Scheuer's observation on King Obama's Syrian madness

Ted Snider on Iran, Egypt and America

The "click-and-print" revolution is here to stay, says Ray Blanco.

Gary North on Milton Friedman as "Professor Voucher"

Kelly Vlahos on sending broken men into Afghanistan

Bill Sardi on how much of our "reality" is actually a "grand illusion" created by the State

This week's Mondays with Murray deals with Murray Rothbard's views on libertarian populism, in light of a recent article by David D'Amato on the issue.

Kurt Nimmo on why a cruise missile attack is not going to take out Bashar al-Assad

Anthony Gucciardi gives us a flashback to when Yahoo! News revealed that the US was planning to launch a chemical weapons attack and blame it on Assad.

Foreign Policy reports that America helped Saddam Hussein as he gassed Iran. So much for "spreading demoracy and freedom."

Walter Williams on reeducation and discrimination at George Mason University (GMU).

William L. Anderson asks whether Milton Friedman was right on Rothbard's views on collapsing banks.

Jerome Corsi on the evidence that the Syria gas attack was really a work of US allies rather than Assad.

It seems that inspectors in Syria were forbidden into investigating who used the chemical weapons in Syria.

It seems that Americans will still oppose war with Syria even if it is confirmed that Assad did indeed use chemical weapons.

John Kerry is preparing WMD pre-text in preparation for war with Syria, reports Kurt Nimmo.

Some reports are now showing that America-backed rebels entered Syria before the attack, maybe suggesting that the whole chemical weapons attack could be a false flag.

J. Dana Stuster on the strangest detail of the CIA's 1953 Iranian coup

John Glaser on why the use of chemical weapons in Syria is ultimately irrelevant

Tom Mullen on how Egypt is a metaphor for American foreign policy

Radley Balko on the greatest and most ignoramus of moments in drug-war propaganda

Tom Mullen reviews the new blockbuster movie Elysium from a libertarian perspective. His rating is one freedom thumb up, two thumbs down.

Documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras on how the detention of David Miranda and the destruction of the hard drives containing important files constitutes an attack on press freedom

James Bovard on the bogus "anti-terrorist" crackdown on financial freedom

Mac Slavo on how the US government is preparing for a cruise missile attack on Syria

Mac Slavo on an ex-soldier's survival plan "to hit preppers"

Jay Rosen on how the surveillance state is trying to make journalism harder, slower, and less safe

Laurence Vance writes on the stupidity of Christians who think that the State is a gift of God as he reviews Ronald Sider's new book Just Politics.

Ron Paul on how middle-of-the-road healthcare leads to socialism.

Jonathan Turley on the real cover-up at Area 51

Scott Lazarowitz on how health fascism results from a society in need of healing

An American civil war is coming soon, as is shown by an interview on Russia Today with Kevin Barrett, Anthony Gucciardi, and Gerry Celente.

Brian McWilliams on how government is selling personal data to mail marketers

Eric Blair on government's lust for blood and why Americans don't want a war with Syria

Michael Snyder on the 72 types of Americans that are considered "potential terrorists" by the government

It seems that the new Google glass app will read people's emotions, says Jon Rappaport.

Snipers just fired on UN inspectors. Is that a rebel crime?

Jon Rappaport asks, "Why do they try so hard to end freedom?"

Jon Rappaport on how the NSA is a new member of the UN

Jon Rappaport on the heartless, cold super-soldier being created

Anthony Gucciardi reports that the Pentagon is preparing for a large-scale economic breakdown. It seems that the Pentagon will start a military dictatorship to crack down on those who oppose the State's doings.

Joseph Mercola on the unseen benefits of (some) viruses

William Jasper on how the government and environmentalism is causing catastrophic fires in the West

Jack Kerwick on why conservatives and libertarians shouldn't vote GOP, Oprah Winfrey and five racial double standards, and conservative voters vs. the GOP

James Altucher's ultimate "cheat sheet" for running business

Chris Rossini on why Keynesians will be caught off guard again

Paul Craig Roberts on how Syria is another Western war crime in the making.

Paul Krugman and Brad DeLong smack down on Austrian economist Robert P. Murphy. Robert Wenzel offers us his very own answer to why Murphy shouldn't act like a non-Austrian to advance Austrian economics.

Robert Murphy on what it feels like to be square

Paul Rosenberg on freedom and servitude

What Patriotic Sunday Looks Like

Dear friends and readers of Letter of Liberty:

Do you want to know what "Patriotic Sunday" looks like? Let me just say it is an overly congratulatory idolatry of the military and soldiers. It is allegedly defending our soldiers for "defending our freedoms" when really they are not.

Laurence Vance, a great Christian libertarian columnist and one of my favorite writers, says that this "is why I write, and write, and write. This is why I will never stop writing about Christianity and war and Christianity and the military. This is why I recently published War, Christianity, and the State: Essays on the Follies of Christian Militarism. This is why I sometimes sound like a broken record."

Just watch this idiotic congratulation of soldiers who fought in unjust wars such as the Iraq War, which can easily be refuted by some simple arguments. Apparently the folks who posted this video didn't want to hear any hard arguments against the anti-war view, as is shown by the disabling of comments.

To cure this militaristic sickness in the church, i would recommend that many Christians read LewRockwell.com, Mises.org, Antiwar.com, FFF.org, and many others that I have listed in my links and resources page.

And for the case for libertarianism and noninterventionism from a Christian perspective, I would recommend the writings of Laurence M. Vance, particularly his books. And see his archive at LRC and the Future of Freedom Foundation (FFF), where he serves as a policy adviser.

Eric Peters on Dealing with Cops

Eric Peters gives us some helpful advice on how to deal with cops in our modern times.

"In a word – don’t.

"Not if you can help it.

"Officer Friendly is a fiction – a vicious fable sold to schoolkids – who soon learn in one way or another that any interaction with a cop is a likely to be a bad interaction. You are dealing with perhaps the worst possible tag-team combination: Someone with legal power over you who is held to a different – and far more lenient – standard than you are. And therefore, you are dealing with a person who is much more likely to do things – not nice things – than you or I or any other person sans special costume and badge might be inclined to do. After all – why not? Especially if one is a bully – or an outright sadist – and the cop profession attracts exactly that type precisely because of the nature of the work. In its own way, giving a bully a badge is like giving a fat kid free reign at the candy store. Expecting him not to eat is almost silly."

John Whitehead on ELYSIUM and the Police State

John Whitehead, chairman and founder of The Rutherford Institute, has written a highly insightful article comparing the events in the recent blockbuster movie Elysium and the technocracy that is the American police state.

Says Whitehead:

From George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World to the Wachowskis’ The Matrix, Stephen Spielberg’s Minority Report and most recently Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium, writers and filmmakers have used science fiction to both forecast the future while also holding up a mirror to the present. The best among these transcend what is largely escapist entertainment and engage their audiences in a critical dialogue about what happens when power, technology and militaristic governance converge.

With its dystopian vision of a post-apocalyptic Earth in which the majority of humanity is relegated to an overpopulated, diseased, warring planet while the elite live a life of luxury and perfect health on an orbiting space station, Elysium fits in perfectly alongside the futuristic books and films featured in my new book, A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, which warn of a totalitarian future at our doorsteps.

However, while much has been said about Blomkamp’s use of Elysium to raise concerns about immigration, access to healthcare, worker’s rights, and socioeconomic stratification, what I found most striking and unnerving was its depiction of how the government will employ technologies such as drones, tasers and biometric scanners to track, target and control the populace, especially dissidents. Mind you, while these technologies are already in use today and being hailed for their potentially life-saving, cost-saving, time-saving benefits, it won’t be long before the drawbacks to having a government equipped with technology that makes it all-seeing, all-knowing, and all-powerful far outdistance the benefits.

DHS Official Calls For White Genocide

Now, don't get me wrong folks. This post isn't going to be a defense of white supremacy, racism, or any of that nonsense. It is going to be my honest view of this DHS official by the name of Ayo Kimathi, who has recently said, "Warfare is eminent, and in order for black people to survive the 21st century, we are going to have to kill a lot of whites.” This is after the infamous death of Trayvon Martin, an act of self-defense on the part of George Zimmerman that is taken by many (even some libertarians) to be unjustified (from my perspective, George Zimmerman's killing of Trayvon Martin was justified; for more reasons, see here)

Anthony Gucciardi at StoryLeak reports that even the totalitarian Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) (which mixes the wheat and the chaff in their categorization of "haters") condemned Kimathi for his anti-white racism. "And this is the man who, on record according to the reports, as the man who works primarily on the purchase of guns and ammunition for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Ammunition and weapons that he believes will be used for the coming race war."

So what? Who will be their first victim? Was this the government's intention, to kill white people? Or maybe this is all just opportunism and not really so much racism as it is an attempt to grow the power of the state?

What has happened to the leftists? Once they rightly condemned Bush for the Iraq War (for reasons to oppose it, see this piece by Norman Horn) and the Patriot Act. Now they are shilling for the state's crimes and murders, all in the name of social justice.

I couldn't find much from Sojourners (a leftist Christian source for news) condemning this nonsense.

Anyways, my final conclusion is that in Ezekiel 18, God reveals that the teaching of fathers eating sour grapes and children's teeth "being set on the edge" (as the NKJV puts it) is wrong and unfounded. The soul that sins will die, either through the victim practicing his natural, God-given right to self-defense, through natural causes, through some abrupt disease or some other cause.

We do not need a race war to correct injustice; rather, we must turn our eyes off the state and look to God, for as Scripture says: "My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth." God will come and deal with this in His own good time; it is not for me, or for any one, to start a race war over the death of Trayvon Martin, Chris Lane, or any one, for that matter.

Mark DeWeaver on the Chinese Situation

The Mises Institute has recently just interviewed Mark DeWeaver on the Chinese situation with regards to the economy, booms and busts, malinvestment and his new book Animal Spirits with Chinese Characteristics.

Here is an excerpt from the interview:

Mises Institute: There is a great deal of confusion concerning the Chinese economy and its trade and monetary policy and mystery concerning its ability to generate double-digit rates of economic growth. Let us start by giving us a description of the Chinese economy and whether it is socialism or capitalism at work.

DeWeaver: China has well-developed product markets but can hardly be called capitalist, given that most of the means of production are at least partially state owned.At the same time, the Chinese economy has also never really been centrally planned. Most economic decision making takes place at the local-government level, much as was the case during the Maoist period. The system might be best described by the seeming double oxymoron, capitalism with limited private ownership, socialism with limited planning.

Mises Institute: What is the connection of its monetary and foreign exchange rate policy to its trade policy? Is this just a modern form of mercantilism or is there something unique about the China situation that we should be aware of?

DeWeaver: Yes, Chinese monetary and trade policies are clearly a modern form of mercantilism. The central bank’s interventions in the foreign exchange market result in an undervalued exchange rate, which in turn helps to generate China’s balance-of-payments surplus with the rest of the world. In China, this policy appears to be primarily motivated by the desire to strengthen state control over the economy by reducing the country’s exposure to the vagaries of international capital flows.

Letter of Liberty News Edition (8-23-2013)

Here is the Friday news edition of Letter of Liberty. I will add more resources throughout the day.

Alaska just nullified an unconstitutional gun law.

Vermont completely nullifies federal hemp laws.

Tom Woods on how nullification is for cool kids.

Justin Raimondo on how black is the new "transparency."

It seems that the spying scandal is engulfing other US agencies.

Washington's worries are growing over Saudi Arabian ties

The White House is joking about Christians being murdered in Egypt.

Obama just lied again about spying on Americans.

Ron Paul on how private property is the essence of liberty. This is an excerpt from a speech in 1999 Ron Paul made before the House of Representatives.

Pat Buchanan on the dead souls of the cultural revolution (which LewRockwell.com terms as the culture of the state) and how it relates to the murder of Chris Lane.

Was Princess Diana murdered by the government? The Scotland Yard wants to know.

Alan Chwick and Joanne Eisen on jury nullification and ammo.

Jonathan Goodwin on the nineteenth century, the era of classical liberalism and the time of "arbitration and peace."

Michael Rozeff on why the global war on terror (GWOT) was a failure from the very beginning. A fuller explanation by Rozeff is this article.

Glenn Greenwald reports that the UK government is now leaking documents about itself. Good, right? Well, wrong. It's all just a scheme to make Greenwald and Snowden look like terrorists. Glenn Greenwald says: "The US government itself has constantly used this tactic: aggressively targeting those who disclose embarrassing or incriminating information about the government in the name of protecting the sanctity of classified information, while simultaneously leaking classified information prolifically when doing so advances their political interests." Just like the US government did when it leaked top-secret info on the raid on Osama bin Laden to Hollywood just so they can make some movies about it.

Using 10-gauge for self-dense? Not a good idea.

Russia Today reports that some ship unexpectedly came upon beachgoers in Russia.

America is just addicted to war, says Stephen Lendman.

Ben O'Neill on Internet fascism and the surveillance state, as headed by the National Socialist Apparachiks (NSA).

Airsoft guns are not just for kids; they're also for adults who want to learn the art of guns.

A 13-ft sea monster was just found in a beach in Spain, reports the Daily Mail.

Bob Taylor at Liberty Crier covers the post-congressional life of Ron Paul, his new think tank and his new channel.

Salon reports that Michael Hastings feared that his car could have been tampered with before he died.

CIA finally admits to masterminding the 1953 Iranian coup, reports Russia Today (RT).

The treacherous road Egypt is taking is reason enough for Washington to back off.

Julian Sanchez on why the NSA surveillance matters, even if you've got "nothing to hide."

Bob Murphy on an interesting narrative of the heliocentric theory vs. the church.

Sheldon Richman on the heroic Bradley Manning (who sadly wants to be known as "Chelsea Manning").

Politico releases a disheartening poll that half of Americans approve of NSA spying. If that weren't bad enough, read these reports from HuffPost and WaPo.

America's gunpoint nation-building is assessed by Gian Gentile, an Army colonel. 

Russia Today reports that Internet companies were paid millions by the NSA to spy on Americans and to cover all the costs. The Guardian is also covering this.

Ron Paul says in an interview with Larry King that Snowden and Manning should be treated as heroes and not traitors. RT's report is here.

Scott McPherson on the real injustice.

Steve Mariotti on Ludwig von Mises as an outcast in today's economic culture.

The Washington Times' editorial on camouflage cops and how militarization increases overkill.

The real reason why David Miranda was detained by the British authorities, as revealed by Bruce Schneier.

John Cochran on QE and the periphery.

General Al-Sisi is following Pinochet's steps, says Dr. Cesar Chelala

Thom Rainer on the real reason why millennials are leaving the church.

Dan Delzell on what millennials need from their parents and from church.

Max Lucado's war against despair

Sarah Skwire on Jane Austen as Austrian economist.

Albertos Benegas-Lynch, Jr. on selling classical liberalism.

Jeffrey Tucker on how the themes in popular culture point to a conscious awakening.

B. K. Marcus shows us that the actual story of Lady Liberty is far more intriguing and far more libertarian than what we are told. A companion article was published at the Libertarian Standard.

Pastor Chuck Baldwin's companion article to Paul Craig Roberts's "Humanity is Drowning in Washington's Criminality."