Ron Paul Politico’d by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr…. “As an establishment site, the warmongering Politico has always hated and feared Ron Paul. Here is their latest attack, within the context of a broader article.”

As an establishment site, the warmongering Politico has always hated and feared Ron Paul. Here is their latest attack, within the context of a broader article. First, they associate Ron with traditional libertarianism, which they describe as “pro-pot, pro-porn, pro-pacifist.” Needless to say, Ron has never used pot nor porn, but he does believe in the individual’s right to decide what goes into his mind and into his body. The state seeks control over both, of course.

Congressman Ron Paul at an event hosted in his honor at CPAC 2011 in Washington, D.C. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Nor is Ron a pacifist – an ancient charge against those who oppose constant war. He believes in the right to self-defense, but he does not believe in the initiation of violence, whether by private criminals or the state. The state has recently taken more than a million lives in its imperialist anti-Muslim wars. Ron Paul has opposed them with all his heart and soul. He is a man of peace and the golden rule, in his private life and his policy.

Next, Politico tells us that “Ron Paul epitomized to a swath of voters the caricature of a goofy grandpa who invests in gold, stockpiles guns, sees black helicopters whirling overhead and quotes Friedrich Hayek.”

Of course, Ron Paul is the most ungoofy guy you could know. He is thoughtful, careful, serious, well read, eloquent, an important public intellectual. It’s true he’s patiently invested in gold over many years, and made a good deal of money. Hurrah for him!

Ron does not “stockpile guns,” unlike the government, though he supports gun rights for private citizens. And if they want to collect guns, that’s their business. He doesn’t see black helicopters, though he does deplore the drones that spy on us for the police state, and which can kill us, too, on presidential whim. And yes, he quotes the great Austrian economist Hayek, and Mises, Rothbard, Sennholz, and the others, too. He has also read the works of these men.

gophum (Photo credit: GunnyG1345)

However, I do like this quote: Ron “recounted Richard Nixon’s infamous declaration as president that ‘we’re all Keynesians now’” – “’We’re all Austrians now,’ Paul pronounced with a sense of looming triumph, a reference to the school of economics that most values the free market.”

 

My Ron Paul Story by Nathan Shore

It’s hard to put into words what Ron Paul means to me. In fact, it seems a little strange that someone who I do not know on a personal level has had such a big impact on my life. I guess the best place to start is from the beginning.

 

Congressman Ron Paul at an event hosted in his honor at CPAC 2011 in Washington, D.C. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Back in college I was your typical neoconservative. I was a pro-war Republican who also gave passing, lackadaisical support to limited government and reducing spending. But limited government didn’t have much true meaning to me back then. It meant simply this: support reducing spending only to the extent that it can be used to criticize the Democrats and promote the Republican Party and its agenda. That’s a pretty shallow understanding, but it’s an understanding that had a firm grip on my mind back in those days. I was even the chairman of the College Republicans at my university! I’d bought into the whole canard hook, line, and sinker.

 

Vote for Liberty by Not Voting by Daniel J. Sanchez… (“For one thing, your vote helps provide a mandate for all of the elected officer’s policies, whether you support those policies or not. As one author has said, voting “just encourages the bastards.”)

“He may not be perfect, but at least he is better than Obama.” Even some former Ron Paul supporters have given this line as an excuse for supporting Mitt Romney for the United StatesPresidency.

GyGRet (Photo credit: GunnyG1345)

The line betrays a deep misunderstanding of what liberty means.

As many libertarians have already pointed out, Romney is not nearly as different from Obama as is commonly supposed. But more importantly, in some vital ways he is actually worse.

(NEW!!!!!) ~ Reform Party of Kansas Offered Ron Paul Their Presidential Ballot Line by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

 

Reform Party of Kansas Offered Ron Paul Their Presidential Ballot Line

Congressman Ron Paul at an event hosted in his honor at CPAC 2011 in Washington, D.C. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

In such a hyper-Republican state, it might not make a difference. In any event, Ron neither encourages nor opposes such efforts, meaning he would sign no election forms.

FlyoverPress.com: HOT: Ron Paul Left Tampa Yesterday by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

 

Liberty Knows No Compromise Donate today to help defray the costs of this important free newsletter Click to Subscribe to Our Daily News Service or Contact Us Is this a great country or what? — jtl, 419 HOT: Ron Paul Left Tampa Yesterday by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. Ron, Carol, and one of their granddaughters left the GOP snake pit yesterday afternoon, but the State was not yet through with them. At the little airport in Clearwater, 8 TSA agents descended on them and ordered them not to board their private plane. First, the pilots, the airplane, and the passengers would have to be screened in great detail, because Romney might be nearby. After a long examination of the pilots and their credentials, the agents said they had to check the plane for explosives. One of the pilots noted that the plane, full of gas, was already a bomb. Then Carol Paul, who has a heart pacemaker, refused to be screened, and an aide started taking video of the whole rotten proceeding. At that point, the TSA backed down and let them through.

Devvy Kidd — Paul Ryan: Read the Warning Label

 

The Internet has been burning up about the “Comeback Team” after Willard Romney announced his VP choice as Paul Ryan.

 

Paul Ryan – Caricature (Photo credit: DonkeyHotey)

 

Star of conservatives because of his “leadership” in heralding “smaller government” and Ryan’s much touted efforts to solve America’s financial crisis. Sounds good – until you read the label.

 

(“Forget Presidents and other Criminals…”) Legacy Builders, Part 3 by Gary North

In my previous report, I provided a mix of legacy builders. Some were scholars. Some were businessmen. One was a Sunday school teacher. All had influence on many people.

In this group of legacy builders, scholarship was preeminent. There are three economists and one sociologist. The sociologist is not out of place, although it is not common for sociologists to have any appreciation of economic theory.

(“Ron and Rand Paul are set today to shift the central focus of their family’s long libertarian crusade to a new cause: Internet Freedom.”) Prison Planet.com » The Pauls’ New Crusade: “Internet Freedom”

Ron and Rand Paul are set today to shift the central focus of their family’s long libertarian crusade to a new cause: Internet Freedom.

English: United States Senate candidate , at a town hall meeting in Louisville, . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Congressman Ron Paul at an event hosted in his honor at CPAC 2011 in Washington, D.C. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Kentucky senator Rand and his father Ron Paul, who has not yet formally conceded the Republican presidential nomination, will throw their weight behind a new online manifesto set to be released today by the Paul-founded Campaign for Liberty. The new push, Paul aides say, will in some ways displace what has been their movement’s long-running top priority, shutting down the Federal Reserve Bank. The move is an attempt to stake a libertarian claim to a central public issue of the next decade, and to move from the esoteric terrain of high finance to the everyday world of cable modems and Facebook.

Are Medical Entrepreneurs Parasites? The Government Believes They Are by William L. Anderson

I’ve not posted since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the insurance mandate of Obamacare, and am leaving much of the back-and-forth to other writers. Peter Schiff writes that if the government really does have the authority to levy a “tax” upon any citizen who does not purchase what the government demands they buy, then there really are no more checks on the power of government.

The Watermelon Summit (“The Totalitarian Socialists Who Want To Impoverish You Kill you, too. Tom DiLorenzo on the Algoreans.”)

An “environmentalist” is a totalitarian socialist whose real objective is to revive socialism and economic central planning under the subterfuge of “saving the planet” from capitalism. He is “green” on the outside, but red on the inside, and is hence appropriately labeled a “watermelon.”

English: Photograph of Thomas DiLorenzo. This is a stock image taken from: http://www.mises.org/fellows.asp?control=16 I am a librarian with the Mises Institute, and am authorized to provide the Wikipedia community with this image. Please direct any inquiries about this image to clark@mises.org. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A conservationist, by contrast, is someone who is actually interested in solving environmental and ecological problems and protecting wildlife and its habitat. He does not propose having government force a separation of man and nature by nationalizing land and other resources, confiscating private property, prohibiting the raising of certain types of animals, regulating human food intake, etc. He is not a socialist ideologue who is hell bent on destroying capitalism. He does not publicly wish that a “new virus” will come along and kill millions, as the founder of “Earth First” once did. More often than not, he seeks ways to use the institutions of capitalism to solve environmental problems. There is even a new name for such a person: enviropreneur. Or he may call himself a “free-market environmentalist” who understands how property rights, common law, and markets can solve many environmental problems, as indeed they have.

Breitbart Is Here: Late Conservative Hero Admired Ted Cruz’s Fighting Spirit

The late Andrew Breitbart saw in Ted Cruz the future of the conservative movement. On paper, Cruz seems like someone out of central casting, perfectly put together to represent conservatism’s future.

English: Ted Cruz at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

speaking at CPAC in Washington D.C. on February 12, 2011. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

His father fled oppression in Cuba for freedom in America. He grew up immersing himself in the works of Frederick Bastiat, F.A. Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, and Milton Friedman, earning scholarships by giving speeches about their ideas.

Memory Hole: Socialist Failures by Gary North

What is the longest-running socialist experiment? What has its success been?

If someone asked you to defend the idea that socialism has failed, what would you offer as your example?

Where did modern socialism begin?

In America.

That’s right: in the land of the free and the home of the braves. On Indian reservations.

They were invented to control adult warriors. They had as a goal to keep the native population in poverty and impotent.

Did the system work? You bet it did.

Has the experiment been a failure? On the contrary, it has been a success.

When was the last time you heard of a successful Indian uprising?

Are the people poor? The poorest in America.

Are they on the dole? Of course.

Worship of the Mob – Ben O’Neill – Mises Daily

Several months ago, I was visiting some friends in Sydney and was invited to the house of a friend-of-a-friend for some late night drinks and a chat. My host and his friends were left-wing bohemian types and had been informed by my friend that I am a “free-market anarchist,” or something like that. They found this notion intriguing, and so they quizzed me on what that means, and this naturally led into a discussion of the merits of a free market versus a democracy.

Is Ignorance Bliss? by Robert Wenzel

Joe Fetz emails:

The more that I learn about economics and political philosophy the more I feel powerless to change what is going on. In fact, it is almost depressing to know the truth of the world around you while also knowing that everybody else around you is completely clueless. I am certainly not a smart man, but I do my best to attempt to educate people with my own knowledge, but it is like beating myself in the head with an old boot. Sometimes I almost wish that I was still ignorant and just going through life just like everybody else.

My question is: Do you ever feel like this? Like maybe you might be happier if you didn’t know what is really going on?

The Predator Drones Are Targeting LRC by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

The advocates of the State – these days, one variety of fascist or another – freak out at LRC. They pull out the long knives. But donations from our readers are the best armor. With our gifts last year, we were able to move our site to a freer country, with another foreign backup, and to redo the content management system to make the site more robust. We want to step up security, too, of course. But income minus expenses for 2011 leaves us more than $45,000 in the hole.

Who’s Afraid of Friedrich Hayek? The Nobel-winning economist has got modern critics running scared.

Who’s Afraid of Friedrich Hayek? The Nobel-winning economist has got modern critics running scared.

Cover via Amazon

Reason ^ | December 9, 2011 | Sheldon Richman

Posted on Monday, December 12, 2011 8:53:53 PM by neverdem

I’m sensing some panic in the air. Certain people seem mighty concerned that other people are…discovering Hayek. As a W. S. Gilbert character might say, Oh horror!

Economics and business reporter David Warsh is getting much attention for suggesting that F. A. Hayek, far from being one of the two most prominent economists of the 1930s—the other being Keynes—is rather more like the woman who was thought to have won the Boston marathon in 1980 when in fact she had joined the race, mostly unnoticed, a half-mile from the finish line.

One Consistent Voice of Opposition – Doug French – Mises Daily

Remember the promises of economic recovery? Two presidents have now made them and spent (and printed) many trillions to see them come true. There was QE1, QE2, Operation Twist, and thousands of other tricks.

And yet the economy is sinking ever more. Incomes are falling more now than two years ago. Job prospects for young people are in the pits. This entire fiasco represents one of the great failures of the state and the economic theories the state has tried. They promised a dream and delivered disaster.

The Mises Institute has been the one consistent voice of opposition from the very beginning of this crisis. We stood nearly alone against Bush’s bailout schemes and continued that opposition through the Obama years. Not only that: our editorials and publications had warned of the crisis before it happened.

We’ve prepared for this opportunity for 30 years with conferences, books, fellowships, and programs of every sort. We had every technology in place and many thousands of intellectuals around the world who have learned from what the Mises Institute does.

The Tipping Paul by David Klein ~ “A pivotal moment in his life came when Richard M. Nixon closed the gold window in August 15th, 1971. Effectively severing the last link the dollar had to gold and claiming “we are all Keynesians now”, officially turning money into a political tool as opposed to something with intrinsic value.”

“The tipping point is the biography of an idea, and the idea is very simple. It is that the best way to understand the emergence of fashion trends, the ebb and flow of crime waves, or for that matter, the transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth, or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life is to think of them as epidemics.

Image via Wikipedia

Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do.” ~ Malcolm Gladwell

Ronald Ernest Paul started his career off in the late 1960s as an OB-GYN in Texas where he ran a successful private practice and delivered 4,000 babies. He was strongly influenced by the writings of Friedrich Hayek in his book, The Road to Serfdom, which later lead to Paul’s discovery of the Austrian School of Economics through the works published by economists Ludwig Von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.

The Dawn of Late Fascism by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Is American Fascism Doomed?
No Heil Mitt or Barack, says Lew Rockwell.

***

…..These are themselves marks of decline. The mask of the State is off. And it has been off for such a long time that we can hardly remember what it looked like when it was on.

So let’s take a quick tour. If you live in a big metropolitan city, drive to the downtown post office (if it is still standing). There you will find a remarkable piece of architecture, tall and majestic and filled with grandeur. There is a liberal use of Roman-style columns. The ceilings indoors are extremely high and thrilling. It might even be the biggest and most impressive building around.

This is a building of an institution that believed in itself. After all, this was the institution that carried the mail, which was the only way that people had to communicate with each other when most of these places were first erected. The state took great pride in offering this service, which it held up as being superior to anything the market could ever provide (even if market provisions like the Pony Express had to be outlawed). Postmen were legendary (or so we were told) for their willingness to brave the elements to bring us the essential thing we needed in life apart from food, clothing, and shelter.

And today? Look at the thing that we call the post office. It is a complete wreck, a national joke, a hanger-on from a day long gone. They deliver physical spam to our mail boxes, and a few worthwhile things every once in a while, but the only time they are in the news is when we hear another report of their bankruptcy and need for a bailout…..

EXCERPT

via The Dawn of Late Fascism by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr..

The Police State Abolishes the Trial by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Several years ago, the police entered the office of a young professor at a reputable university and arrested him for an online crime. They took the professor away, booked him, and then offered him a deal: admit guilt and get off easy. The professor said to the few people to whom he was permitted to speak that this was crazy because he was innocent. His lawyer warned him: fight this and you could get life; admit guilt and you will get a suspended sentence. He took the deal. It was a trick. Now he languishes in jail, his life wrecked as far into the future as he can see.

This doesn’t happen in America, does it? Yes, it does. Not only that, it is increasingly the norm. Those raised on a steady diet of courtroom television shows believe that they are true to the way justice is meted out. This is completely naive. Trials in federal criminal cases are rare. Nine in ten cases are settled in pleas like the above case. Only 3 percent of the cases go to trial. Among those that go to trial, the defendant wins once in every 212 times.,,,,,MORE,,,,,

via The Police State Abolishes the Trial by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr..

The Attack on Accidental Americans | Ludwig von Mises Daily Email

The Attack on Accidental Americans | Ludwig von Mises Daily Email

The Attack on Accidental Americans | Ludwig von Mises Daily Email:

When Julie Veilleux discovered she was American, she went to the nearest US embassy to renounce her citizenship. Having lived in Canada since she was a young child, the 48-year-old had no idea she carried the burden of dual citizenship. But the renunciation will not clear away the past ten years of penalties with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).[1]

Born to American parents living in Canada, Kerry Knoll’s two teenaged daughters had no clue they became dual citizens at birth. (An American parent confers such status on Canadian-born children.[2] ) Now the IRS wants to grab at money they earned in Canada from summer jobs; the girls had hoped to use their RESPs (registered education savings plans) for college.[3]

The IRS is making a worldwide push to squeeze money from Americans living abroad and…………………

MORE…..

via BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984+ NOW!: The Attack on Accidental Americans | Ludwig von Mises Daily Email.

Obama Blinks by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Obama Blinks by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Obama Blinks by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.:

…But now, with Obama’s announcement, we see the proverbial turn on the dime. He and his administration are admitting that their program is a drain, a burden, an unwelcome presence, a hobbler of prosperity.

That is the implication, and that is really the only conclusion that one can draw from this announcement. It pretty much upends a major claim of the interventionists.

And why is he doing this? Well, look at the polls. It’s a disaster right now for Obama’s presidency.

And look at the economy. It is not growing; it’s shrinking. It’s almost like this combination of political and economic disaster has finally awakened the administration to reality.

This whole thing reminds me of an event in Austria following World War I…………………………

MORE…..

via BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984(+): Obama Blinks by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr..

The Myth of the Voluntary Military by Jeffrey A. Tucker (via ~ BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984+ ~ (BLOG & EMAIL))

Ludwig von Mises summed up the essence of government in words that are particularly vivid in wartime: Government interference always means either violent action or the threat of such action…. Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen. The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning. Those who are asking fo … Read More

via ~ BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984+ ~ (BLOG & EMAIL)

What’s the Argument for Democracy? by David Gordon

Perhaps the most substantial argument in support of democracy is that of the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises. A democratic regime, since it by hypothesis enjoys majority support, will best insure that political change avoids violence. A government that people dislike but cannot alter democratically will, in contrast, be susceptible to revolution, with its attendant destruction.

via What’s the Argument for Democracy? by David Gordon.

The Myth of the Voluntary Military by Jeffrey A. Tucker

Ludwig von Mises summed up the essence of government in words that are particularly vivid in wartime:

Government interference always means either violent action or the threat of such action…. Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen. The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning. Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.

What about those who are called upon to enforce state edicts, whether just or unjust? Every society includes people who are willing to act as the coercive arm of the state, those who are willing to use violence and freely risk their lives as they administer the law. The state has no great trouble recruiting policemen and prison guards. Are there enough such people to amass a huge army of hundreds of thousands of people who are willing to risk their lives carrying out destructive foreign wars of dubious merit?

When you see the pictures of American troops fighting their way through sand storms, in a strange land with strange people, seeking to overturn a government and transform a society that posed no credible threat to the United States, being shot at by average Iraqis who are clearly motivated only by the desire to expel the invader, it is not hard to imagine that US troops are wondering how it all came to this.

via The Myth of the Voluntary Military by Jeffrey A. Tucker.

Inflating War by Thomas DiLorenzo

Inflating War by Thomas DiLorenzo

Inflating War by Thomas DiLorenzo:

““One can say without exaggeration that inflation is an indispensable means of militarism,” Ludwig von Mises wrote. “Without it, the repercussions of war on welfare become obvious much more quickly and penetratingly; war weariness would set in much earlier.”

This explains why American politicians have always resorted to the legalized counterfeiting of central banking to finance wars, the most expensive of all government programs. If citizens had a clearer picture of the true costs, they would be more inclined to oppose non-defensive intervention and to force all wars to hastier conclusions.

Government can finance war (and everything else) by only three methods: taxes, debt, and the printing of money. Taxes are the most visible and painful, followed by debt finance, which crowds out private borrowing, drives up interest rates, and imposes the double burden of principal and interest. Money creation, on the other hand, makes war seem costless to the average citizen. But of course there is no such thing as a free lunch.

As a general rule, the longer a war lasts,

via BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984(+): Inflating War by Thomas DiLorenzo.

How I Learned the Truth about the State – Stefano R. Mugnaini – Mises Daily

How I Learned the Truth about the State – Stefano R. Mugnaini – Mises Daily

How I Learned the Truth about the State – Stefano R. Mugnaini – Mises Daily:

“I’ll never forget my last visit to lovely Hinesville, Georgia. For it was there that I learned a valuable lesson, one I shall never forget: in a police state, we’re all criminals.

Think about it — how many laws have you broken today? This week? This month? Have you changed lanes without a turn signal? Exceeded the posted speed limit? Hired a neighborhood kid to cut your grass and then paid him under the table? Engaged in commerce with someone who is in the country illegally? Bought lemonade from an unlicensed ‘dealer’ in the form of an innocent child?”

Posted by Gunny G at Thursday, June 16, 2011

via BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984(+): How I Learned the Truth about the State – Stefano R. Mugnaini – Mises Daily.

Prepare To Be Betrayed by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Prepare To Be Betrayed by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Prepare To Be Betrayed by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.:

“You might as well know right now, however, that the Tea Party, no matter how successful it is at the polls in November, will certainly betray the party of liberty. There are several reasons for this, but the fundamental one is intellectual.

The Tea Party does not have a coherent view of liberty. Its activists tend to be good on specific economic issues like taxes, spending, stimulus, and health care. They worry about government intervention in these areas and can talk a good game.

But just as with old-time conservatives, there are many issues on which the Tea Party tends toward inconsistency. The military and the issue of war is a major one.

Many have bought into the line that the greatest threat this country faces domestically is the influx of adherents of Islam; in international politics, they tend to favor belligerence toward any regime that is not a captive of U.S. political control.”

Posted by Gunny G at Thursday, June 09, 2011

via BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984(+): Prepare To Be Betrayed by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr..