During the discussion following one of my recent lectures, it occurred to me that the questions fell into a pattern, and that this pattern was the same — whether in Manila, or Boise, or wherever. Each question was based on something the inquirer had heard or read; no questions appeared to stem from a genuine impasse in the person’s own effort to solve a problem. These people were merely repeating questions someone else had raised for them; they weren’t seeking directions by reason of having lost their way for, in fact, they had done no exploration on their own! Read More

There have been many complaints recently about the way Washington works — or rather its recent failures to efficiently implement Obama’s policy priorities.

Paul Krugman compares the present state of American politics to the gridlock that afflicted 17th-century Poland. Use of the Liberum Veto froze the Polish parliament (the Sejm). Now senators are holding up new legislation in America. Many others have added complaints about special-interest groups and an alleged need for public financing of elections. Read More

I was recently involved in a car accident in which I managed to smash the front end of my Chrysler — one consolation is the fact that it was a Chrysler and so was not much of a loss. I sat around for a minute or two, trying to figure out what had just happened. Finally, I got out of my car to talk to the driver of the truck I had hit. While filling out the claims report and talking to my insurance company, I could not help but examine my experience through the lens of Austrian economics and the free market. Read More

By: Russ Belville of NORML

I work this issue every day and am well aware of the racist nature of the War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco-Free) Drugs. But even I wasn’t aware of the outrageous statistics comparing the Drug War to Jim Crow era. Michelle Alexander lays it all out in her new book, The New Jim Crow: How the War on Drugs Gave Birth to a Permanent American Undercaste:

• There are more African Americans under correctional control today — in prison or jail, on probation or parole — than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began.
• As of 2004, more African American men were disenfranchised (due to felon disenfranchisement laws) than in 1870, the year the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified, prohibiting laws that explicitly deny the right to vote on the basis of race.
• A black child born today is less likely to be raised by both parents than a black child born during slavery. The recent disintegration of the African American family is due in large part to the mass imprisonment of black fathers.
• If you take into account prisoners, a large majority of African American men in some urban areas have been labeled felons for life. (In the Chicago area, the figure is nearly 80%.) These men are part of a growing undercaste — not class, caste — permanently relegated, by law, to a second-class status. They can be denied the right to vote, automatically excluded from juries, and legally discriminated against in employment, housing, access to education, and public benefits, much as their grandparents and great-grandparents were during the Jim Crow era.

The uncomfortable truth, however, is that crime rates do not explain the sudden and dramatic mass incarceration of African Americans during the past 30 years. Crime rates have fluctuated over the last few decades — they are currently are at historical lows — but imprisonment rates have consistently soared. Quintupled, in fact. And the vast majority of that increase is due to the War on Drugs. Drug offenses alone account for about two-thirds of the increase in the federal inmate population, and more than half of the increase in the state prison population. (more…)

I wanted to get a video of this song done by Clay Walker but was unable to find one. However this one will suffice, as the message here is what really counts.

For thousands of years under the Old World concept of a static economy operating under bureaucratic control, human beings lived in hunger, filth, and disease. They worked ceaselessly at backbreaking drudgery to keep life in wretched bodies. They died young. For thousands of years, when not fighting wars, they managed to build pigsty shelters, to sow grain, cook meat, yoke oxen, and chain slaves to mills and oars. Read More

When the American Revolution had its beginning, living conditions had scarcely changed since the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. The colonial woman gathered her own firewood and cooked over an open fire, just as women had cooked since the dawn of history, and just as more than two-thirds of the women on earth are cooking today. She spun thread and wove coarse cloth, with a spindle and loom handed down from the early Egyptians. Every housewife made her own soap and candles and carried water from a spring or well. A crude millstone, dating back to ancient Babylon, ground the grain that the American farmer cut and threshed with knives and flails that were older than history. Read More

By Butler Shaffer, LewRockwell.com

It is not surprising that, when culture is in collapse, so too is the level of thinking upon which it is based. This is doubtless the social equivalent of the proposition that water can never rise higher than its source. For a civilization to be creative and to thrive, it must have a substructure capable of producing the values that can sustain it. Our present civilization is dying because it no longer has such a base of support.

Western society has become so thoroughly politicized that it is difficult to imagine any area of human activity that can be said to be beyond the reach of the state. People’s diets, weight levels, child-raising practices, treatment of pets, how he can express anger, whether one can make alterations to his/her home – including replacing a lawn with rocks or plants: these are but a handful of private decisions intruded upon by the state. Other than complaints voiced by those directly affected by the state’s intervention, there are few who consistently defend the liberty of individuals to live as they choose. (more…)

By Ron Paul

Last week Congress voted to encourage participation in the 2010 census. I voted “No” on this resolution for the simple, obvious reason that the census – like so many government programs – has grown far beyond what the framers of our Constitution intended. The invasive nature of the current census raises serious questions about how and why government will use the collected information. It also demonstrates how the federal bureaucracy consistently encourages citizens to think of themselves in terms of groups, rather than as individual Americans. The not so subtle implication is that each group, whether ethnic, religious, social, or geographic, should speak up and demand its “fair share” of federal largesse. (more…)

Does morality depend upon religion? Most people believe it does, which is a major reason behind the appeal of the religious right. People believe that without faith in a supernatural authority, we can have no moral values–no moral absolutes, no black-and-white distinctions, no firm demarcation between good and evil–in life or in politics. This is the assumption underlying Justice Antonin Scalia’s assertion that “government derives its authority from God,” since only religious faith can supposedly provide moral constraints on human action. Read More

After railing against the Patriot Act as a senator and campaigning against it while running for President, it seems that the president and most Democrats have had a change of heart. On a Saturday no less, when most underhanded deals seem to be made while hardly anyone is paying attention, he quietly signed a one year extension on the Patriot Act, as is without any sort of reform to the legislation to protect civil liberties.

After the Senate passed the extension Wednesday, the House voted 315 to 97 Thursday to extend the act. The Patriot Act extension wasn’t the main body of legislation though, rather it was an amendment that was added to a Medicare reform bill without any sort of debate or accountability, voted on by voice vote to approve the amendment so that no politician would have to have their name attached to such an outrageous amendment. The vote is known as Roll Call 67, “On Motion to Concur in Senate Amendments” for H.R. 3961, the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act.

After such a grotesque abuse of power, it is assumed that the media would be all over this. However, from taking a look around, most media outlets are either downplaying the extension, or not reporting on it at all. Even the left leaning news agencies are quiet on this one, after years of denouncing former president Bush for the act. The media has failed us, and surely not for the first or last time. They’re just another extension of the political machine that threatens our country. Be wary of what you hear, or don’t hear for this matter, in the mainstream media. They’re here to keep the status quo in power.

It seems the Democrats are no different from the Republicans when they come to power and are just as willing to continue the suppression of our civil liberties. It amazes me how such a man would gain the Nobel peace prize by escalating a war and supporting the encroachment of privacy at home. The Republicans are hypocrites as well, clearly going against their stance against Medicare extensions so that they can have their precious privacy infringing act renewed.

What really amazes me though is how people can continue to support such politicians, basically forgetting that the lesser of two evils is still pretty evil. Its time to break with tradition folks, as its obvious that’s only digging us deeper into the hole. Its time to try something different by giving those independent and third party candidates a chance to step up and lead. Otherwise this is all we’re going to get, more taxes, more war, and more economical problems.

So who in the House voted in favor to infringe on our rights; 162 Democrats and 153 Republicans, with 20 representatives not voting. Lets have a look: (more…)

In her 88 years, Florence Siegel has learned how to relax: A glass of red wine. A crisp copy of The New York Times, if she can wrest it from her husband. Some classical music, preferably Bach. And every night like clockwork, she lifts a pipe to her lips and smokes marijuana.

Long a fixture among young people, use of the country’s most popular illicit drug is now growing among the AARP set, as the massive generation of baby boomers who came of age in the 1960s and ’70s grows older.

The number of people aged 50 and older reporting marijuana use in the prior year went up from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent from 2002 to 2008, according to surveys from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The rise was most dramatic among 55- to 59-year-olds, whose reported marijuana use more than tripled from 1.6 percent in 2002 to 5.1 percent.

Observers expect further increases as 78 million boomers born between 1945 and 1964 age. For many boomers, the drug never held the stigma it did for previous generations, and they tried it decades ago.

Some have used it ever since, while others are revisiting the habit in retirement, either for recreation or as a way to cope with the aches and pains of aging. Read More

By Kaj Grussner of Mises.org

Austrians have long called for a reform of the monetary system. The current, Fed-driven, fiat-money system is on the verge of collapse. But however bad the current system is, a new system won’t necessarily be better.

Many libertarians would favor a return to the gold standard, while others would be content with simply repealing legal-tender laws and allowing competition in currencies. However, even in a great collapse like the one looming now, these reforms may still seem too extreme to the general public. This is especially true if they have an alternative that seems reasonable and gives total control over the monetary system to the state. One such alternative is the 100-percent-reserve solution advocated by Stephen Zarlenga, director of the American Monetary Institute, and author of the book “The Lost Science of Money.” (more…)

Freedom means you are able to live your life as you choose so long as you bring no force against others. Anything less is a form of slavery. Are you free?

What is a Progressive Libertarian?

Progressive Libertarian – A capitalist market supporter that understands the need for programs that provide a small degree of regulation in order to ensure that the market is run in a transparent and honest manner to foster an environment in which businesses have equal entry to the market, and provides consumers with adequate information concerning products and business practices; advocates for individual liberties and privacy, low taxes, consumer awareness, and a smaller, less imposing government with more decisions being made on a local level. (more…)

Does It Make Sense to Resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act?

Mises Daily: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 by Frank Shostak

At the end of January, President Barack Obama announced that he is planning to introduce new regulations for the banking industry, to prevent excessive speculation. According to the president, no bank or financial institution that contains a bank will own, invest in, or sponsor a hedge fund or private equity fund, or have proprietary trading operations unrelated to serving customers for its own profit.

The driving force behind this plan is the former Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul Volcker who, it seems, wants to resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. Instead of the separation of commercial and investment banking, we will now have a separation of banking business from proprietary trading, hedge funds, and private equity. In his testimony to the Senate on February 2, 2010, Volcker said,

The specific points at issue are ownership or sponsorship of hedge funds and private equity funds, and proprietary trading — that is, placing bank capital at risk in the search of speculative profit rather than in response to customer needs.

Some provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act, such as Regulation Q, which allowed the Federal Reserve to regulate interest rates on savings accounts, were repealed in 1980. The provisions that prohibited a bank-holding company from owning other financial companies were repealed on November 12, 1999. The repeal enabled commercial banks to underwrite and trade instruments like mortgage-backed securities, and establish structured investment vehicles (SIVs) that bought those securities. (more…)