John Windsor, a devout Christian and reader of LRC, writes me, “…so many professing Christians today are unthinking warmongers. (I can just see a first-century Christian with a ‘Proud to Be a Roman’ bumper sticker on the back of his ox cart.)”

Indeed, John. I’ve sometimes tried, but failed, to picture Christians in the catacombs praying God’s blessings on the legionaries as they crucify Peter, exile John to Patmos, and martyr Paul. Recall that Rome's soldiers even held a certain Carpenter against the stipes as others drove home the spikes.

Yet modern “Christians” pray the Lord’s protection not on the State’s victims but on the wretched descendants of Rome’s wretches. May God have mercy on us.

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That's America's choice if "Willard" Romney is the Republican nominee. My old friend Yuri Maltsev, who was an economic advisor to Gorbachev and defected from the Soviet Union in the 1980s, calls Obama "the proud Marxist in the White House." Yuri knows a proud Marxist when he sees one.

As for Willard, he has said that he wants to explode the growth of the warfare state even more than it has already been exploding under the past several regimes. On the subject of the welfare state, he has said that it is just fine and dandy except for the need for some "improvement." In D.C. speak, this means "more money looted from taxpayers and given away to bums and parasites." And he had the chutzpah, several days ago, to bloviate on about out-of-control spending by the Obammunists.

If Willard is the nominee then my money is on the Proud Marxist. A Washington insider recently said that Willard is such a bad politician that he even has "the handshake of an undertaker."

Apoorva Anubhuti has a paper on the "Americanisation of International Law." Her thesis is that "International law has become the principal language in which domination is being expressed in the era of globalisation." She examines three different ways in which this is accomplished by the American empire: militarily (think Iraq and Afghanistan); bargaining/blackmail (think World Bank, EU, IMF, WTO, and bilateral investment treaties using the Hull doctrine); and consensually/hegemonically (think adopting American legal conventions as in Article 51 in the Law of Sea Convention).

Janet Levit has a paper on three examples of international law that grew up privately and/or in the free market way and not top-down, in the state way (like World Bank, IMF, WTO, EU, NAFTA). I can't vouch for their total purity, however. But they are examples of the spontaneous order that flowers in this world when given the opportunity. You've never heard of them because the press is directly linked to states and constantly publishes anything that state actors do, but doesn't cover in the same way the myriad free market developments. She discusses the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCP), the International Union of Credit and Investment Insurers (Berne Union), and the Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits.

Yesterday I posted on separation of banks (and their reform) from non-banking, leaving unsaid whether this would be done by the state or free markets, and I made a point of saying that the ideas were one of many possibilities and not the most far-reaching. Today I have an example of a bank that shows what is possible to evolve in a more free market and also in a panarchic direction (competing non-territorial governments and states). It is the Free Lakota Bank. For the record, I'm not recommending investment in anything. I don't make investment recommendations. I haven't examined the pros and cons of this institution in detail. That would be essential before committing funds to this or any institution or cause. Do the research yourself. Certain basic questions of legal form, legal recourse, ownership, and the liability of those who run institutions and those who finance them come up too when considering institutional reforms, and I haven't addressed them anywhere.

This web site explaining the bank has many interesting features to me. The link is to the accounts section. It has the separation I called for, but via two accounts within one institution, rather than two separate institutions. There is a liquid silver account, 100% reserved. There is a term account, illiquid.

Also of interest are the bank's statements justifying its existence.

Once again, silly little things like freedom and self-ownership get in the way of important master plans such as universal flu vaccinations. I've linked to these NIH publications before, but I hadn't seen this one until reader Rob P. sent it to me.

There is growing interest in simplifying recommendations to vaccinate Americans against influenza. The article discusses interviews with 35 stakeholders from the medical, public health, educational, insurance, and vaccine industry sectors to assess the potential for policy change, and discusses questions posed to the interviewees on current and future influenza vaccination policy and barriers to policy change.

Note that 35 people who have an interest in forcing vaccinations upon the populace can drive an entire public policy that relies upon surrender to force (for the other 300+ million). Reader Rob P. writes this:

They are unelected. They are totally unaccountable to the public who is effected by their policies. There is no recourse or way to appeal. They are immune to lawsuits. The state always becomes more powerful. The industries gain monopolies or are guided by the government in what they should produce based on what is covered by the state welfare money. The quality of product or even whether it is needed is irrelevant. The hand picked 'professionals', such as the doctors who require special state licensing to qualify, are to be the 'oversight' and guide policy based on statistical data that is skewed by data collected by begging the question. The herd is herded. Franz Kafka couldn't imagine it.

The way that this country and many others creates and forces such policies on the public is highly elitist in a fascistic kind of way. It is true 'corporatism' -- representatives from labor, professional NGOs, state bureaucrats, and industry all get together and choose for the other 330+ million of us.

I just received this letter from my life insurance company, whom I recently started to pay using online banking from a joint checking account:

We received a payment... from a payor other than the listed policy owner... the check received has been identified as a third party check. In accordance with Company Anti-Money Laundering Procedures and the USA PATRIOT Act, all payments received must be drawn on the policy owner's account.

In order to accept future payments from the below listed payor [my husband] the following supporting/additional documentation is required...

The additional documentation is a form that asks for all of my husband's identifying information and his relationship to me. My husband has policies with this insurance company and we've been paying premiums using EFT's and checks from this same exact account for years, so they already have all of this information. But apparently not on a form that will protect them from the feds now that only his name appeared as the payor using the online banking "feature." Will the insurance company now automatically be required to share this information to stay compliant with our snooping betters in DC? Have I already been flagged at the FBI/CIA as a potential money-laundering terrorist?

Perhaps someone, somewhere gave some good reason to a group of congressmen and senators for the necessity of such a provision in the PATRIOT Act, assuming that any of them are even aware of this provision. But, did they ever think about what a wide net this provision is casting? If everyone is a suspected money-launderer for terrorists, then how can an actual threat in the haystack of strawmen be found? Oh. Right. This is not about catching the bad guys; it's about controlling the (innocent) masses.

Groping war criminals like Henry Kissinger. Go, TSA!

A friend informs me that John Boehner has appointed Elliott Abrams to something called “the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.” This tells us nothing — that is, that nothing has changed. That the Republican Establishment is still in the pocket of the Big Pentagon Money, and the serial liars, and the plunderers, and the self-dealers — and that the GOP Hot Tub Crowd is absolutely shameless.

Why? Listen to Boehner himself: “Elliott Abrams is an honorable public servant…”

Stop right there.

Sorry, Mr. Speaker, Abrams was convicted of lying to the Senate, in the scandal that profoundly disgraced President Reagan (Abrams was joined by Iran-Contra malefactor Ollie North). That made him permanently unconfirmable by the Senate, as well as permanently disreputable. Unlike John Profumo, who had the dignity and self-respect to leave public life after a relatively insignificant dalliance, Abrams and North have not devoted their lives to serving the poor and elderly by cleaning toilets in old-folks homes out of the public eye; they have both insisted on seeking rehabilitation by embracing the yardstick of Washington’s pigsty: If you’re not in jail, you’re ethical.

To continue with Boehner: “[Abrams] has served the American people with integrity and distinction [sorry, Dear Reader; vide supra.]. I am pleased to announce his appointment to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, where I am confident he will be a strong advocate for people throughout the world who are facing oppression and coercion for their faith.”

Oh really? How confident are you, Mr. Boehner, well-known to be an orthodox Catholic? Under Abrams’s guidance from the National Security Council (the highest position that the NeoCons could secure for him that did not require Senate confirmation), Bush’s unconstitutional, unjust war installed in Iraq a “democracy” that has killed tens of thousands of Christians, driven every living Jew from Iraq, along with a majority of Christians and Catholics who had been at home there for two thousand years (the rest are soon to follow). The Good Christian Bush has never apologized. Poor soul, he has never even publicly acknowledged this human rights disaster (which is also a heinous capital crime against “Religious Freedom,” by the way) that he wrought on Iraq.

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This imbecilic article, written by some unknown, crazed Vaccination Nation aggressor, was posted on my Facebook page, and it's only worth my comment because it is ... so utterly impotent. I don't even care about the homeopathic nut who is the subject of the rant, or the unnamed author who can't take on hard science, but instead, picks out the outlier dolts as a focus of his deranged attacks.

Note that the writer is named "Orac." Really? Orac? And this moron is so unconvinced of his own trash writing that he can't even put his name to the crap he writes, and this is supposed to be taken seriously? Apparently, some people who parrot this tripe just like to see their own opinions in print, no matter what the source. My real name, my biography, where I live, and my job/career are clearly conveyed along with every single thing I publish.

If the believers of this Orac person would have dared to check further, they might have discovered an entire archive written under a pseudonym attacking every and any choice outside of the mainstream medical establishment, from acupuncture, to chiropractic, no any non-chemotherapy cancer treatment, to ... yes, supplements.

Now, back to the article. I love how the tediously conventional, pro-state vaccination nation mongers in the mainstream media deem individual thinkers and dissenters of the non-scientific, vaccine-pushing, Big Pharma state to be "anti-vaccine" and ... "alternative medicine quackery." Can they get any more idiotic than this? Oh, and those folks of choice who own their bodies and make decisions regarding their bodies are deemed to be "anti-vaccine loons" because they they don't want their healthy body, or the healthy bodies of their loved ones, to be stuffed with the government-patented, high-profit, untested, unproven, toxin-loaded drugs of the Big Government-Big Pharma, corporate-state regime? How dare they!

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Good for the Greeks. They're taking their savings out of the crooked, fractional-reserve banks. They also know that Greece, Spain, Italy, etc. are being strangled to bail out the big banks in Europe and the US.

JP Morgan Chase is the too big bank that just had a $2 billion trading loss. This caused criticism of its Chairman  and CEO (Jamie Dimon). Yesterday gave me a laugh when Obama defended Dimon and JP Morgan Chase. Today another big laugh when CALPERS (the too big California retirement fund) is calling for a splitting of the two jobs of Chairman and CEO, as if that's going to accomplish anything. What needs to be done for all the big banks and big bank holding companies is much more fundamental. One way to go (of many) is to split up these companies altogether. The banks should be separated from the other trading and investment banking operations. Then the banks should be reformed. Too-big-to-fail should be declared a failure and ended by making the banks smaller and requiring them to have capital at least half of their assets. Their assets should be strictly limited in maturity and risk. Maturities should be something like 2 years or less. Risk should be in the top few grades. Derivatives trading should be forbidden for banks. The OTHER parts of these companies can then be free to issue stock and liabilities and trade to their heart's content, issuing mortgages if they like. However, their liabilities will no longer be insured or be money. This is just one possible way to go that I outline merely to highlight how far away the current crop of recommendations is from what it may take to reform banks. It's not a radical way. It doesn't end the FED. It doesn't change the fiat money. It moves halfway to 100% reserve banks. But even this proposal will appear radical by contrast with the laughable step of splitting the Chairman and CEO office, and it shows how far we are away from meaningful bank reform.

Actually, every bank in the land — of any size — that has deposits regarded as money shouldn't be making long-term loans, either business or personal mortgage. That's a recipe for periodic insolvency whenever the asset values decline, for whatever reason. Banks that have money as liabilities should be separated from lending institutions that do not have money as liabilities. In this way, the payments system would be insulated from ups and downs in the economy and from variations due to the speculations of banks and their investments in long-maturity assets. There would be no need for deposit insurance, so that moral hazard would diminish drastically. Non-bank financial companies could still thrive by issuing non-money liabilities and intermediating them into mortgages and other loans, but these companies would be like any other company: subject to failure and bankruptcy. The end result is that banks would be banks with deposits being money, and they would not need any insurance because of their large capital and safe assets. They'd be separated strictly from uninsured non-bank financial intermediaries.

In light of the recent nearly unanimous vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to "enhance" our already incestuously-close relationship with the government of Israel, I would like to make a modest proposal: Move the entire U.S. military establishment, Pentagon and all, along with the U.S. Congress, to Israel and let the Israelis pay for it. Since I've been told by my government my entire life that the politicians in Israel are "my closest ally," I'm perfectly certain that they would surely act as our Big Brother and protect us militarily if we ever needed protecting.

But then again, try as I might, I can't think of a single thing this "ally" has ever done for me, or any other American citizen, in my 57 years. Isn't an alliance a two-way street? Isn't it supposed to be mutually beneficial? Wadda I know. I know they've made a lot of Muslims hate us, and that a lot of "neoconservative" Republicans consider that to be a good thing, and I know a lot of defense contractors have made billions from their connections with my greatest ally, but beyond that I just can't think of anything my greatest ally has done for me. 

Gotta go; I'm busy this morning looking for the section of the U.S. Constitution that empowers Congress to spend tax dollars to "defend" foreign countries.

UPDATE: Chris B. writes: "While debating the Republican party platform at my county convention the ubiquitous "Support Israel" issue came up (at least twice) . . . . The resolution called for continued 'military and economic support' for our 'only ally in the region' and the 'only democracy in the Middle East' . . . . I motioned to amend the resolution to include the phrase 'subject to the authorities and limitations of the Constitution.' It failed. Massively. Not even close. Oddly enough about half of the convention left at that point, having passed the Israel resolution. The Ron Paul delegation went on to trounce the remaining GOP establishment on each and every resolution."

I've been somewhat surprised by the absolutely hysterical reaction among some RP activists to Ron Paul's announcement that he's shifting resources toward winning more delegates instead of blowing it on straw polls in new primaries. In some of the forums, alleged "supporters" are hurling insults at both Ron and his staffers.

I remember how after 2008, some people I talked to pledged to "never give money ever again" to Ron Paul because he "wasn't serious" about winning. These people think elections are all that matter, but that's not how political and intellectual movements work. The election of numerous libertarian candidates will be a lagging indicator, not a leading indicator, of the success of a libertarian movement. The population still isn't there. Although it will be.

It's absolutely unbelievable that some people who claim to be champions of freedom are now viciously badmouthing a man who can claim much credit in making libertarianism a household word — as it now is — and has been instrumental in building the most important challenge to central banking and the warfare state in a century. All of this is in addition to taking control of the GOP machinery in numerous states and cong. districts.

I might also note that I turned on the tele the other day and there was Ron Paul talking about central banking. Note to newcomer activists: I know it's hard to believe, but before RP's 2008 run, there was once a time when libertarians weren't on TV regularly talking about Austrian free-market economics and the evils of war. I swear it's true. Cross my heart and hope to die.
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Officer Larry Bates: Highway robber, impenitent perjurer

In the State of Tennessee, highway robbery in the name of "asset forfeiture" is commonplace — and Monterey PD Officer Larry Bates, who stole $22,000 from New Jersey businessman George Raby, is the embodiment of this unfathomably corrupt practice.

Reby, an insurance adjuster, was stopped for speeding by Bates on Interstate 40. Like too many honest and innocent people, Reby made the mistake of answering questions posed by the armed stranger who materialized at the driver's side door.

Bates asked if Reby was carrying any large amounts of cash.

"I said, `Around $20,000," Reby recalled in a television interview with the Nashville CBS affiliate. "Then, at that point, he said, `Do you mind if I search your vehicle?' I said, `No, I don't mind.' I certainly didn't feel I was doing anything wrong. It was my money."

In fact, the ingenuous businessman actually handed the money to the officer.

What Reby didn't understand is that through the practice of "civil asset forfeiture," every traffic stop is a potential highway robbery — and police everywhere are encouraged to view cash and other valuables as subject to confiscation on the pretext that they are "proceeds" of narcotics trafficking. All that is necessary is for the officer to cobble together what he considers a plausible statement justifying his suspicion — however emancipated from the facts of the case — that the money or valuables is connected to actual or potential narcotics commerce.

Bates didn't arrest Reby. He did, however, steal his money, later insisting that this was proper because the businessman "couldn't prove it was legitimate." In the work of fiction he filed later as an official affidavit, Bates invoked his "training" to justify the seizure, insisting that "common people do not carry this much currency."

"On the street, a thousand-dollar bundle could approximately buy two ounces of cocaine," Bates told a news reporter for Channel 5, as if this crashing non sequitur ended the discussion.

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From another lying veteran:

When I was in the army (2004 - 2009) the napalm cadence was not tolerated "officially." "Unofficially" it was perfectly acceptable. There was also this honorable and morally-above-reproach piece: "Rape and pillage burn the village! Yes we can!" Like the other repentant ex-army, I'm ashamed to admit I sang this one.

I get this all the time from defenders of the military. Most recently because I posted some sick military training chants. A woman writes in disagreement: "I absolutely do not believe this! I have had a father, two brothers, a niece and a nephew in the military (niece still is) and they never chanted anything like this. No way Jose."

Well, I absolutely do not believe this. I think your father and brothers probably uttered chants that were just as sick. They just didn't tell you about it.

In the past I have gotten in so many words:

My father never tortured anyone, so it doesn't happen.
My brother never killed a civilian, so it doesn't happen.
My uncle never urinated on dead enemy soldiers, so it doesn't happen.
My grandfather never cut off a dead enemy soldier's body parts, so it doesn't happen.

I apparently am. And so is Tom Woods and many other libertarian friends of mine, Christian and nonbelievers. In response to my article today, "Should Libertarians Be Conservatives?," I was told by a libertarian: "pro choice or pro life? you're not a libertarian if you deny a woman free choice, just another fascist SOB." No wonder Christians have such an aversion to libertarianism.

From an Army veteran:

When I was in the army (1989–1991) we used a cadence while marching that was to the tune of 'Jesus Loves the Little Children' that went thus: 'Napalm sticks to little children, all the children of the world.' The only thing sicker than that cadence is that, as a young neo-conned 18 year-old, I found it inspiring and humorous rather than degenerate and depraved.

The military training chants that I posted (Army & Marine Corps) are so incompatible with Christian values that I am amazed so many Christians continue to defend or join the military. Certainly this has been public knowledge for decades. Even Christians fighting a just defensive war (should the U.S. actually be invaded) would not sing such crap.

On Saturday Governor Mary Fallin was roundly booed by hundreds of delegates during her address to the Oklahoma GOP State Convention when she called on the assembled delegates to unite behind Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. In a haughty and stentorian tone, Fallin said Romney was the party’s decided choice (as if votes in remaining contested state primaries and caucuses throughout the nation were already negated) and Ron Paul’s substantial grass-roots candidacy and wide support among the Sooner State party faithful did not exist. At this disdainful treatment the crowd erupted in volcanic shouts of “Ron Paul, Ron Paul,” and the governor quickly exited the stage. As for the rest of the convention's duplicitous proceedings, they would have made Mayor Boss Daley and his Chicago ward heelers proud.

Butler, the GOP has always been the party of Grand Old Plunderers.

The various reports of 2012 state GOP conventions — with the institutional establishment doing whatever it takes to prevent the Ron Paul delegates from having any significant voice in the direction of the party — is not new. The same corrupt games were played in 2008, with convention rules being changed on the spot, efforts to adjourn before the agenda had been completed, and other violations of the most basic procedures long applicable in formal meetings. I wrote of this in June, 2008, following my observing the Minnesota state convention. The same song-and-dance occurred: "John McCain is the Republican nominee; let's get behind him and stop all this debating."  The GOP is self-destructing, no longer pretending to be a voice for anything but the right-wing of the corporate-state party's bird of prey.

The report is here. Also see here for the web site of the shadow court.

In the rest of this blog, I'm feeling my way (preliminary or rough thoughts) to defining shadow organizations. Intuitively, I believe in the value and influence of "shadow" organizations as critical alternatives. Anyone who writes an article that evaluates the actions of others is essentially "shadowing" their behavior. This has value in many ways, such as spreading ethical values, upholding them, overcoming disinformation, critiquing and holding public figures accountable, developing new information, providing alternative views, and providing monitoring of public policies. Shadow opinions enter the stream of human communications that influence social behavior in unexplained and complex ways.

The first time I heard about a shadow organization was when Karl Brunner and Allen Meltzer started the shadow Federal Open Market Committee, in order to provide an alternative view of what the FED's policies should be. They shadowed the FED's press releases after their meetings with releases of their own. They had a shadow group that met and produced statements. They got publicity. They didn't call for the end of the FED, and Meltzer still doesn't, but they stood for monetary restraint. Karl, after all, was Swiss. Karl, whom I knew personally, was always independent and critical. Meltzer was perhaps less so, although feisty. Meltzer was on the Council of Economic Advisors of two presidents, and his statements tend to be more ambiguous.

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Recall that the CIA ginned up the “terrorism” that figured in last week’s breathless reporting on Al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula, just as it and the FBI have done with so many domestic "plots" here in the US.

And yet, Our Rulers continue to play us for fools, pretending the scheme was real and that we’re in imminent danger—which obviously hands them more power, as “Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence” babbled this weekend. “Feinstein was asked if current screening technology would necessarily identify this kind of bomb on an airline passenger. ‘For this particular material,’ she said, ‘candidly, no.’”

Isn’t the “candidly” a nice touch? As if this sociopath—sorry, senator—would know “candid” if it walked up and knocked her on her ugly butt.

Ah, but there’s a message for us in Di’s prattle: “Consequently the flying public is going to have to tolerate more invasive searches, she said.” More invasive? Really, Di? Just how much more invasive can they be? “‘The American public has not been terribly sympathetic’ to this, she said,” — yeah, all those wusses and whiners out there objecting to a little gate-rape — “but ‘it's very important that TSA (the Transportation Security Administration) keeps up its efforts.’”

That’s code for “cavity checks comin’ up, serfs. Bend over and spread ‘em.”

...and I didn't speak out, because I don't text while I drive.” Ft. Lee, New Jersey has become the first town in the United States of Amerika to ban texting while walking. When reading about Orwellian laws such as this, I am always reminded of the words of James Madison:

“I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”

Writes Drew Herbst:

How to be ecologically responsible while killing people...combining two contorted worldviews into one ugly vehicle.

At Camp Pendleton: "One, two, three, four. Every night we pray for war. Five, six, seven, eight. Rape. Kill. Mutilate." (LA Times, Jan. 3, 1989).

I went down to the market where all the women shop;
I pulled out my machete and I begin to chop;
I went down to the park where all the children play;
I pulled out my machine gun and I begin to spray.

According to Josh Stieber, who was granted conscientious objector status upon his return from Iraq.

Update: A repentant ex-Army writes that he is ashamed he sang this additional verse:

We sometimes hear conservatives label a Republican they don't agree with with the name RINO (Republican in name only). It's too bad more of them aren't just Republicans in name only. As Lew Rockwell recently said: "The Republican party is one of the great criminal organizations in American history."

. . . of the latest attempt by the Obammunists to destroy Mitt Romney once and for all politically by accusing him of The Ultimate Sin in Contemporary American Society? I speak of course of the recent accusation that, some fifty years ago when Mitt was a teenager, he played a practical joke on a  supposedly homosexual classmate. Off with his head! Now! We can all assume that this story is 100% true, by the way, since everyone knows that all teenagers know with perfect certainty what their sexual preferences are, and that all gay teenagers were totally "out of the closet" fifty years ago, with high school year books routinely putting a "G" next to the yearbook pictures of all the gay students.

The likely answer to the question posed on this blog is that Jefferson would think Americans had become a society of morons.

Chaos at the convention, police called to assist;

Red Dirt Report: After complaints about "illegal" activity, Ron Paul faction takes GOP convention to parking lot;

GOP Establishment makes a mockery of the democratic process in Oklahoma;

Ron Paul Supporters Chased by Mitt Romney at Oklahoma Republican State Convention

A heroic legend in libertarian circles, especially among crusaders seeking revolutionary change in the nation’s laws concerning recreational drugs and sexual freedom, has died. Long-time California activist John Robertson collapsed from a heart attack last night while in conversation with Oklahoma activist Robert T. Murphy and Susan Murphy in Point Arena, CA. Robertson, who served as national ballot drive field coordinator for the 1984 Libertarian Party presidential campaign of David Bergland, was one of the most enduring and engaging personalities I have ever encountered. His personal warmth and affection, openness and honesty, were treasured by his friends and intimates fortunate to have known him. In his quiet wisdom and generosity, his great love of nature and freedom, he most resembled Henry David Thoreau, who counseled “simplify, simplify.” John took this profound admonition to heart perhaps more than any other human being since the great individualist.

The bubble in government spending has a large defense spending bubble as one component. Government has been able to finance this spending by access to central banking induced falling-yield and now low-yield sovereign debt. This has enabled malinvestment in the military sector. With military spending having grown from the $50 billion to the $800 billion level in 40 years, the bubble is evident. When higher interest rates catch up with the U.S. government, this bubble will be vulnerable. If it breaks, a large adjustment in uses of labor and resources will be evident too. To maintain this level of bubble spending and pay higher interest rates, the government will have another option: to raise taxes. That brings the higher spending out into the open, however, and causes large social friction between taxpayers and tax-feeders.

Writes Hal Cranmer:

Here is a letter I just wrote to the editor of my hometown newspaper. I am really tired of all the letters worshiping our military 'heroes.'  Thanks for inspiring me.

To the Editor,

Please don’t call me ‘America Hater.’ It’s tough for me to understand all this military worship. I retired from the military. I flew Special Operations aircraft and logged combat time. I flew supersonic jets in pilot training. It was a blast.

How did I ‘defend freedom’? Our government today limits our freedom by regulating EVERY aspect of our lives. But those same politicians order the military to go ‘defend our freedom.’

Compare that to  the private sector. Businesses ask for nothing except a chance to make your life better and they work their butt off to do it, or go out of business. In the military the taxpayers were forced to pay for my flying. American private businesses have shown the world why freedom is so wonderful by giving us the greatest wealth in history. Business has done this despite being hamstrung by ridiculous regulations from our ‘freedom-defending’ government. What has the military, through the government, given us? From 1981–2001, there were 42 suicide missions against the US. From 9/11 to 2011, there were 1,833, according to The University of Chicago’s Project on Security and Terrorism.

Don’t military members die for our freedom? In 2010, there were 462 combat-related deaths. The military had more deaths from suicide than combat in 2010. Were all those deaths ‘worth it’? I have never felt threatened by an Afghani or Iraqi. 9/11 was run by Saudis that trained in Minnesota.

In 2010 6,210 private sector workers died to IMPROVE your freedom according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. More truckers and farmers were killed doing their jobs than military were killed doing theirs. If you look at deaths per 100,000 workers, military doesn’t even break the top 10.

Yet I am always thanked for my military service and told by the media that my corporation is greedy and evil. Next time you feel like thanking someone, don’t thank me. Thank an entrepreneur or private sector employee.

Writes Patrick Hatten

My wife, daughters, and I made a trip from North Florida to New York to visit family. I noticed while driving up [I don't fly thanks to the porno-scanners and groping from the TSA] that as we got further north, all of the government-"provided" "services" got worse. States like New York, New Jersey, and Maryland have heavy taxes and roads are in worse condition than those in the South. Gas prices rise substantially and these crummy roads have added toll taxes on top of everything else. To the naked eye, it should be easy to see that the more control the state has in a service, the worse that product will be. As people drive over their government roads, which almost cause the engines to drop out of their cars or cause two hour delays on simple 20–30 minute drives, they should realize that they have a different option; privatized roads [and not "privatized" in the conservative way; see Walter Block]. Don't get me started on the boondoggle that is the Washington, DC, roadways...Like the politics and libertarian think tanks there, everything gets crappier once it enters DC's orbit (not counting Ron Paul, of course).

Writes John Keller:

I normally skim comments on various political and economic articles to see what arguments for or against a particular position "normal" people are taking. While the Forbes article you linked to may be subject to LRC selection bias, look at the amazingly sound arguments against taxation, military service, and the government. For every nostrum posted there are 5 well-reasoned, articulate responses. Viva the Ron Paul (and LRC!) Revolution!

I conjecture that Americans were no less safe from foreign threats in 1965 and 1970 than they are now. How much did national security cost back then? In 2005 dollars that adjust for changed price levels, "national defense consumption expenditures and gross investment" ran at about a $60 billion annual rate in 1965. In 1970, it was running about $88 billion per year. This includes all military spending on paying military and support personnel, equipment, airplanes, bombs, wars, bases, etc. Suppose I am wrong. Suppose that Americans were not spending enough to feel safe. How much "under" might they be? Suppose that defense spending had to have been twice as large to make them feel safe. (Being off by a factor of 2 is intuitively generous, is it not?) Then, if you are a defense hawk who believes that military spending was too low to make Americans happy, I grant you figures of $120 to $176 billion.

Now, come ahead to 2012, also in 2005 dollars. This series is running at a rate of $808 billion (down from a high of $844 billion in mid-2011). I am saying that if Americans are no less safe now than then, military spending can be cut from $808 billion to $60–$88 billion without loss of security. That's a cut of about 90 percent or more. If you are a defense hawk, then the cut is to $120—$176 billion, which is a cut of 78 to 85 percent. This doesn't take into account population growth, which has risen by 50% since 1970. But counteracting that is the fact that the Soviet Union is gone, and I've allowed a factor of 100 percent for defense hawks. I conclude that defense spending could be cut by a minimum of 80 percent without compromising American safety. And if this were done, terrorist threats would actually decline because American provocations in foreign lands would be curtailed.

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Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerers of death's construction
In the fields the bodies burning
As the war machine keeps turning
Death and hatred to mankind
Poisoning their brainwashed minds
Oh lord yeah!

Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor

Time will tell on their power minds
Making war just for fun
Treating people just like pawns in chess
Wait 'til their judgment day comes
Yeah!

Now in darkness world stops turning
Ashes where the bodies burning
No more war pigs have the power
Hand of God has struck the hour
Day of judgment, God is calling
On their knees the war pig's crawling
Begging mercy for their sins
Satan laughing spreads his wings
Oh lord yeah!

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On Saturday Governor Mary Fallin was roundly booed by hundreds of delegates during her address to the Oklahoma GOP State Convention when she called on the assembled delegates to unite behind Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. In a haughty and stentorian tone, Fallin said Romney was the party’s decided choice (as if votes in remaining contested state primaries and caucuses throughout the nation were already negated) and Ron Paul’s substantial grass-roots candidacy and wide support among the Sooner State party faithful did not exist. At this disdainful treatment the crowd erupted in volcanic shouts of “Ron Paul, Ron Paul,” and the governor quickly exited the stage. As for the rest of the convention's duplicitous proceedings, they would have made Mayor Boss Daley and his Chicago ward heelers proud.

"No more gangs in government," says Jesse Ventura in his new book.

. . . Beachboys.

The US government has decided to resume weapons sales to the Bahrain regime despite an ongoing violent crackdown on a Shiite majority uprising against the ruling Sunni minority.

According to RT, the US will begin sending the regime:

"...six harbor security patrol vessels, air defense communications equipment systems for Bahrain's ground-based radars, AMRAAM air-to-air missile systems, Seahawk helicopters, Avenger air-defense systems, refurbishment items for Cobra helicopters, night-vision equipment and upgraded F-16 fighter jet engines."

This is in addition to 44 Humvees shipped last October which were used against the regime opponents.

The hypocrisy is hard to ignore contrasting US policy toward the Bahranian regime with that toward Syria, where the US is supplying equipment — including hi-tech communication devices used in targeting government forces (wonder if last week's spectacular bombings in Damascus were the result of improved communication and coordination abilities provided by US equipment?) — to the rebels while demanding regime change.

The difference? The Bahrainian regime is on board, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, with US regime change plans for Syria and ultimately Iran, so regime abuses of its population can be awkwardly but essentially ignored.

Why is the TSA squandering hundreds of millions of dollars buying gizmos it warehouses at more millions every year — 5,700 contraptions in Texas, for example — then trying to hide such malfeasance from its enablers in Congress?

Because, “a TSA spokeswoman said Thursday the agency…needs some equipment in storage to respond to such situations as natural disasters and increased terror threats.”

You betcha.

Military life will also destroy your families (plural) if you are a bigamist solider with another women on the side.

A reader comments on Stewart's remarks on torture: "It occurs to me that if torture was such a great method of gathering intelligence, why then didn’t the navy seals capture Osama bin Laden instead of killing him and torture him for all the information he had?"

To target civilians and wage "total war" on Islam.

Thanks to police officer Enoch Clark, Beaumont, California resident Monique Hernandez will never see her ten-year-old daughter again.

On February 21, Clark conducted a traffic stop involving Hernandez, who was suspected of drunk driving. When Clark attempted to handcuff her, Hernandez resisted. The officer responded by using a JPX device — a weapon that uses a gunpowder charge to fire a stream of pepper spray at roughly 400 miles an hour.

The JPX weapon is designed for use at a distance of 6 to 15 feet, and training presentations depict it being deployed against aggressive, armed assailants. Promotional literature for the JPX weapon — which isn’t categorized as a firearm, because it doesn’t fire a projectile — boasts of “devastating stopping power.” The payload of weaponized OC spray is propelled over the prescribed distance at less than three one-hundredths of a second, making it “too fast to avoid…. The effect is immediate; there is no chance to resist.”

Clark’s attorney insists that the officer’s attack was justified in order “to gain compliance and in defense of his person.” The JPX is designed to incapacitate an aggressor at a distance. Clark — who was armed and wearing body armor — fired it into Hernandez’s temple from a distance of roughly ten inches, blowing apart her right eye and leaving the left with severe, irreparable damage.

Anyone who had undergone rudimentary training with the JPX would understand that the weapon should not be fired directly into the head or face of a non-violent suspect. Clark’s actions suggest that his intention was not to gain “compliance,” but rather to inflict summary street punishment for “contempt of cop.”

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