Urban Arson

I have never read such a reasoned and concise argument for drug “legalization”. I don’t drink, smoke, or do drugs, I never have and I never will, but who the hell am I to tell another adult what he can and can’t do with his own body? It’s complete nonsense, we’re spending billions every year to keep this “War on Drugs” farce alive. We simply can’t afford it any more.

End the War on Drugs – Dr. Ron Paul

We have recently heard many shocking stories of brutal killings and ruthless violence related to drug cartels warring with Mexican and US officials.  It is approaching the fever pitch of a full blown crisis.  Unfortunately, the administration is not likely to waste this opportunity to further expand government.  Hopefully, we can take a deep breath and look at history for the optimal way to deal with this dangerous situation, which is not unprecedented.

Alcohol prohibition in the 1920’s brought similar violence, gangs, lawlessness, corruption and brutality.  The reason for the violence was not that making and selling alcohol was inherently dangerous.  The violence came about because of the creation of a brutal black market which also drove profits through the roof.  These profits enabled criminals like Al Capone to become incredibly wealthy, and militantly defensive of that wealth.  Al Capone saw the repeal of Prohibition as a great threat, and indeed smuggling operations and gangland violence fell apart after repeal.  Today, picking up a bottle of wine for dinner is a relatively benign transaction, and beer trucks travel openly and peacefully along their distribution routes.

Similarly today, the best way to fight violent drug cartels would be to pull the rug out from under their profits by bringing these transactions out into the sunlight.  People who, unwisely, buy drugs would hardly opt for the back alley criminal dealer as a source, if a coffeehouse-style dispensary was an option.  Moreover, a law-abiding dispensary is likely to check ID’s and refuse sale to minors, as bars and ABC stores tend to do very diligently.  Think of all the time and resources law enforcement could save if they could instead focus on violent crimes, instead of this impossible nanny-state mandate of saving people from themselves!

If these reasons don’t convince the drug warriors, I would urge them to go back to the Constitution and consider where there is any authority to prohibit private personal choices like this.  All of our freedoms – the freedom of religion and assembly, the freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, the right to be free from unnecessary government searches and seizures – stem from the precept that you own yourself and are responsible for your own choices.  Prohibition laws negate self-ownership and are an absolute affront to the principles of freedom.  I disagree vehemently with the recreational use of drugs, but at the same time, if people are only free to make good decisions, they are not truly free.  In any case, states should decide for themselves how to handle these issues and the federal government should respect their choices.

My great concern is that instead of dealing deliberatively with the actual problems, Congress will be pressed again to act quickly without much thought or debate.  I can’t think of a single problem we haven’t made worse that way.  The panic generated by the looming crisis in Mexico should not be redirected into curtailing more rights, especially our second amendment rights, as seems to be in the works.  Certainly, more gun laws in response to this violence will only serve to disarm lawful citizens.  This is something to watch out for and stand up against.  We have escalated the drug war enough to see it only escalates the violence and profits associated with drugs.  It is time to try freedom instead.

Hugo Chavez looks for a clue.

Hugo Chavez won a referendum last night which allows him unlimited term limits as “President” of Venezuela. Why a non-dictator would feel the need to extend his term indefinitely is beyond me. Well it isn’t beyond me so much as I understand it completely and I’m making a loosely veiled attempt at sarcasm. That is to say I whole heartedly believe Hugo Chavez, “President” of Venezuela, to be the tyrannical dictator of a country which is badly in need of a Revolution.

My mother is from Venezuela and immigrated to the United States with her family when she was 13. She graduated high school at 16 and went to Rice University where she met and married my father. My mother and I have been to Venezuela several times together and while she continues to return every few months or so, I haven’t been in years. I’m afraid that I will never again see the cool blue waters which wave in and out of its shores. By the time they realize their mistakes that cool blue will be a murky oily brown with beaches too polluted to sustain life.

I refuse to return to Venezuela until this man is out of power. I cannot in good conscience return to a country full of people who in the face of such tyranny, continue to party and carry on like nothing is happening to their beautiful homeland. Their rights slowly diminishing, Chavez continues to make small yet meticulous strides, every day removing liberties and striking more freedoms from their Constitution. 

Venezuela is going bankrupt and will soon be in the socialist/communist toilet of its cousins, USSR, China and Cuba with bread (arepa) lines forming at the crack of dawn and extending until all the bread i sold 20 minutes after going on sale. A population of 25 million, (75% of which live in shacks as big as a bathroom made from scrap metal, particle board, and cardboard) will drop to 15 million, the entire population living in said shacks.

The country was very poor when I used to visit and it’s worse now. Chavez is mishandling their economy and making enemies, not friends with the world. Venezuela will continue to go down the tubes until some brave souls rise up to fight their oppressors. Please remove the chains of bondage which this man has cast upon you over these 10 years and return your country to its proper owners; a united Venezuela for and by its people.

Dr. Paul demolishes 4 Keysian economist morons on Morning Joe using nothing but logic and truth. Ambushed and surrounded on all sides, he still manages to make them look foolish. I know I’m posting a lot of Ron Paul today, but it’s my birthday and I’ll post Paul if I want to…

Dr. Ron Paul knows his stuff. Osama bin Laden’s main goal was the bankrupt the United States, and we’ve played directly into his hands. This Union is broke! The private sector is always going to spend money to make money thus stimulating the economy, capitalism created this country DON’T BE FOOLED. Conversely the federal government doesn’t know how to do anything but waste money on more social programs which create a populous of people dependent on said socialism. Why the hell should we trust them to do anything for us? Can you name one government program that has ever worked?

Here’s more information on Osama bin Laden’s goal.

Bin Laden: Goal is to bankrupt U.S.

Here is an article written by one of my new heroes, Dr. Anne Wortham. Dr. Wortham’s an Associate Professor of Sociology at Illinois State University and continuing Visiting Scholar at Stanford University ’s Hoover Institution. She’s black, voted for Ron Paul, reads Ayn Rand, and holds liberty and objectivism as ideals of the highest order. My friends Todd and Liz simultaneously sent me emails containing this article, which perfectly illustrates my feelings as a human who happens to be of black heritage. This woman is a champion of liberty.

No He Can’t

By Anne Wortham

Fellow Americans,

 Please know: I am black; I grew up in the segregated South. I did not vote for Barack Obama; I wrote in Ron Paul’s name as my choice for president. Most importantly, I am not race conscious. I do not require a black president to know that I am a person of worth, and that life is worth living. I do not require a black president to love the ideal of America .

 I cannot join you in your celebration. I feel no elation. There is no smile on my face. I am not jumping with joy. There are no tears of triumph in my eyes. For such emotions and behavior to come from me, I would have to deny all that I know about the requirements of human flourishing and survival, – all that I know about the history of the United States of America, all that I know about American race relations, and all that I know about Barack Obama as a politician. I would have to deny the nature of the “change” that Obama asserts has come to America . Most importantly, I would have to abnegate my certain understanding that you have chosen to sprint down the road to serfdom that we have been on for over a century. I would have to pretend that individual liberty has no value for the success of a human life. I would have to evade your rejection of the slender reed of capitalism on which your success and mine depend. I would have to think it somehow rational that 94 percent of the 12 million blacks in this country voted for a man because he looks like them (that blacks are permitted to play the race card), and that they were joined by self-declared “progressive” whites who voted for him because he doesn’t look like them. I would have to wipe my mind clean of all that I know about the kind of people who have advised and taught Barack Obama and will fill posts in his administration, – political intellectuals like my former colleagues at the Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

 I would have to believe that “fairness” is the equivalent of justice. I would have to believe that man who asks me to “go forward in a new spirit of service, in a new service of sacrifice” is speaking in my interest. I would have to accept the premise of a man that economic prosperity comes from the “bottom up,” and who arrogantly believes that he can will it into existence by the use of government force. I would have to admire a man who thinks the standard of living of the masses can be improved by destroying the most productive and the generators of wealth.

 Finally, Americans, I would have to erase from my consciousness the scene of 125,000 screaming, crying, cheering people in Grant Park, Chicago irrationally chanting “Yes We Can!” Finally, I would have to wipe all memory of all the times I have heard politicians, pundits, journalists, editorialists, bloggers and intellectuals declare that capitalism is dead – and no one, including especially Alan Greenspan, objected to their assumption that the particular version of the anti-capitalistic mentality that they want to replace with their own version of anti-capitalism is anything remotely equivalent to capitalism.

 So you have made history, Americans. You and your children have elected a black man to the office of the president of the United States, the wounded giant of the world. The battle between John Wayne and Jane Fonda is over – and that Fonda won. Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern must be very happy men. Jimmie Carter, too. And the Kennedys have at last gotten their Kennedy look-a-like. The self-righteous welfare statists in the suburbs can feel warm moments of satisfaction for having elected a black person. So, toast yourselves: 60s countercultural radicals, 80s yuppies and 90s bourgeois bohemians. Toast yourselves, Black America . Shout your glee Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Duke, Stanford, and Berkeley. You have elected not an individual who is qualified to be president, but a black man who, like the pragmatist Franklin Roosevelt, promises to – Do Something! You now have someone who has picked up the baton of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. But you have also foolishly traded your freedom and mine, – what little there is left, – for the chance to feel good. There is nothing in me that can share your happy obliviousness.

Ron Paul, the Congressman from Texas, is one of the only patriots we have left in the federal government. His unflappable voting record has been directly in line with the Constitution for over 30 years. He is one of my heroes, I’ll write more about him soon.

This is propaganda plain and simple. It’s reminiscent of that jolly old German slogan “Arbeit macht Frei ” or “Freedom through Work” which graced the rust ridden iron gates of the Nazi concentration camp known as Auschwitz.

After watching this video, I can’t help wishing horrible things would befall all of these people. I’m not a fan of Barack Obama, one look at my site will tell you that. I wasn’t a fan of his predecessor nor his predecessor’s predecessors. I’m not a fan of the federal govenment period. Hearing well intentioned, yet willfully misguided Hollywood fools tell me that I need to become a servant of the President and my fellow man pisses me off to no end. Do any of you know how this country started or what its prosperity depends on!? It’s the key to your wealth and fame!

This Union isn’t a monarchy, oligarchy nor a dictatorship. It’s a Constitutional Republic where the President is an elected official and therefore a SERVANT by and for the people; not the other way around! I for one do not want his servitude, I expect him to simply clean up the mess made by his Constitution violating mildly retarded forerunner then lessen his executive power to the Constitutionally appropriate levels which he swore to preserve (protect, and defend) not once but twice on Tuesday. I know there is no way this is going to happen, but let a brotha dream.

The way I see it, the only person that you can depend on and control 100% of the time is yourself. So instead of getting other people to give you hand outs, live by this simple motto:

“I swear, by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”

If we all depend on ourselves then we will never have anyone else to blame for our problems. Live by your own code. Don’t expect me to come down on my white horse to save you from yourself and I won’t expect the same in return. 

Gerald Warner of the Telegraph Newspaper in London wrote an incredible article about Barack Obama’s celebrity status and its future. It’s a dry, British, no bullshit, perspective on the hype our “Emperor” is receiving. The British have a way of simplifying any subject down to its lowest common denominators. Why are they so damn witty?

Barack Obama inauguration: this Emperor has no clothes, it will all end in tears 

By Gerald Warner

This will end in tears. The Obama hysteria is not merely embarrassing to witness, it is itself contributory to the scale of the disaster that is coming. What we are experiencing, in the deepening days of a global depression, is the desperate suspension of disbelief by people of intelligence - la trahison des clercs - in a pathetic effort to hypnotise themselves into the delusion that it will be all right on the night. It will not be all right.

We have been here before. In the spring of 1997, to be precise, when a charismatic, young prime minister entered Downing Street, cheered by children bussed in for the occasion waving plastic Union Jacks. A very few of us at that time incurred searing reproaches for denouncing the Great Charlatan (as I have always denominated Tony Blair) and dissenting from the public hysteria. Three times a deluded Britain elected that transparent fraud. Yesterday, when national bankruptcy became a formal reality, we reaped the bitter harvest of the Blair/Brown imposture.

The burnt child, contrary to conventional wisdom, does not fear the fire. After the Blair experience there is no excuse for anybody in Britain falling for Obama. Yet today, in this country, even some of those who remained sane during the emotional spasm of the Diana aberration are pumping the air for Princess Barack. At a time of gross economic and geopolitical instability throughout the Western world, this is beyond irresponsibility.

To anyone who kept his head, the string of Christmas cracker mottoes booming through the public address system on Washington’s National Mall can only excite scepticism. It is crucial to recall the reality that lies behind the rhetoric. Denouncing “those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents” comes ill from a man whose flagship legislation, the Freedom of Choice Act, will impose abortion, including partial-birth abortion, on every state in the Union. It seems the era of Hope is to be inaugurated with a slaughter of the innocents.

Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan is like one of those toxic packages traded by bankers: it camouflages many unaffordable gifts to his client state. With a federal deficit already at $1.2 trillion, Obama wants to squander $825 billion (which will undoubtedly mushroom to more than $1 trillion) on creating 600,000 more government jobs and a further 459,000 in “green energy” (useless wind turbines and other Heath-Robinson contraptions favoured by Beltway environmentalists).

It is frightening to think there is a real possibility that the entire world economy could go into complete meltdown and famine kill millions. Yet Western – and British – commentators are cocooned in a warm comfort zone of infatuation with America’s answer to Neil Kinnock. We should be long past applauding politicians of any hue: they got us into this mess. The best deserve a probationary opportunity to prove themselves, the worst should be in jail.

It is questionable whether the present political system can survive the coming crisis. Whatever the solution, teenage swooning sentimentality over a celebrity cult has no part in it. The most powerful nation on earth is confronting its worst economic crisis under the leadership of its most extremely liberal politician, who has virtually no experience of federal politics. That is not an opportunity but a catastrophe.

These are frank, even ungracious, words: they have the one merit that, unlike almost everything else written today about Obama, they will not require to be eaten in the future.

Read all about it.

Ayn Rand’s magnum opus Atlas Shrugged is the greatest book I could ever hope to read. Published in 1957 Atlas Shrugged highlights the lives of several very successful men and women of industry who attempt to justify logical ideas to the illogical maniacs who have overrun the world. These maniacs are also in high positions of power and enforce socialist laws and regulations which allow mediocrity to hold sway and eventually lead to the destruction of Western Civilization. 

This book is over a thousand pages long with extremely small print. It’s pretty overwhelming when you start but after the first chapter you’ll get sucked in and the pages will quickly melt away until you meet the back cover longing for more. 

I could make the argument that this is the most important book ever written. It preaches the ideal of Objectivism an ideology whose simple creed states:

“I swear, by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”

This is the most beautiful ideal that a person could hope to hold. If you constantly strive to better your own life instead of waiting for a handout from others how can you be stopped? Ideals such as this are what push humanity forward, forcing exploration into uncharted areas of our universe, allowing for new discoveries which will make life better for mankind as a whole. The constant nagging restrictions which governments impose on the people who are under their control stagnate creativity. They have tied the hands of millions of dreamers whose hope was to push the human race forward faster than any man who had come before him. But instead they were exiled, jailed, and murdered for their ideas.

In whose hands would you entrust your life? Men such as Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs whose minds have made them wealthy beyond their wildest dreams and advanced the world 1000 fold with the invention of the personal computer. Or a tenured college professor of Philosophy who preaches to his knowledge hungry students that there are no answers and that nothing matters because his evil, cannibalistic mind lacks the capacity to do anything but tear down all things good in the world. If his ability to find fault in everything and inability to provide an answer for anything is being taught to millions of college students a year; how much longer can we last?

Self-made men have built and shaped this world in their own image, competing with one another to be the wealthiest and most influential. Their “selfish” competition is a boon for humanity because of its tendency to create new technologies which make life better. Had I never read this book I would have never understood what made them tick, and now that I have I can never go back. I must strive to be one of them, giving my all and expecting it in return.

After reading this review, pick up the book and read a little every night, or better yet get the audiobook version (which is 60 hours long). Watching these honorable men struggle to break the evil chains of ignorance, mediocrity, and lethargy will enrage you to the point of change. You will want to be better for your own sake first and for the sake of advancement second.

READ THIS BOOK!

Who is John Galt?

5/5 Stars

“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races – that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything.”

Abraham Lincoln during his Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois, September 18, 1858 (The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume III, pp. 145-146.)

This ridiculous news tells me one of two things. Either Barack Obama, like so many, is completely uninformed about the racist, Constitution violating, traitorous scum that was our 16th President. Or he is using the image which the vast majority of people associate with justice and purity of political thought as a device to manipulate them into thinking he is one in the same. I hope his rationale for using the Bible is the former, but I’m afraid it’s the latter. Pure manipulation.

Here’s the irony of it.

“The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma.”

- Abraham Lincoln

Now I found this quote without reference, source or citation. But even without it, given his actions how God-fearing could he really have been? Someone who thrusts America into a senseless Civil War which claims 600,000 lives and injures hundreds of thousands more. All the while jailing his dissenters and making racist remarks about the very people he is “known” for having liberated. What a good guy, we should all hope to achieve his “greatness”.

President-elect Obama, like so many other politicians, is simply preying on the sympathies of the American people. Nothing more to see here folks.