Terrorists "Hate Our Freedom"

[thanks to Lewrockwell.com and The Washington Post]

In addition to the 17,000 troops sent to Afghanistan this year, President Obama just commissioned an additional 4,000. Has Afghanistan become Obama's Iraq?

St. Louis Aldermen Don't Pay Red-Light Tickets

Local government officials are finding out that it's not so fun being on the wrong end of the looting equation, and they have used their government position to correct this.

The same little men that pushed to get the red-light cameras installed have reneged on their obligation to pay the fines associated with their Orwellian creations.

[Alderman Stephen] Gregali said he received a ticket a few months ago and thought it should be thrown out because the light turned while he was in the intersection. Most drivers who want to contest a red-light camera ticket must plea their case in traffic court. Instead, Gregali forwarded his ticket to the police chief's office.

One wonders if a common man's success would match that of Gregali's if the old "the light changed while I was in the intersection" defense was offered up by an unconnected serf.

What Does One Trillion Dollars Look Like?

People have become desensitized with all the dollar signs followed by numerous commas and zeroes. Here is a great illustration of how much one trillion dollars actually is.

[thanks to Goose]

Officer Tickets Driver While Rushing to See Dying Relative

Another one of society's parasites has struck again (with dashcam video).

The Dallas Police Department confirmed Thursday that an officer drew a gun on NFL running back Ryan Moats and his wife after he stopped them [in the hospital parking lot] to give them a ticket even as they begged to hurry to the bedside of their dying mother.

Seconds later, Ryan Moats and his wife explained that her mother was dying inside the hospital. "You really want to go through this right now?" Moats pleaded. "My mother-in-law is dying. Right now!"

"I can screw you over," the officer told Moats. "I'd rather not do that."

"Understand what I can do," Powell concluded. "I can tow your truck. I can charge you with fleeing. I can make your night very difficult." Difficult night? He's at the hospital because his mother-in-law is dying.

As Moats signed the ticket, Powell continued his lecture. "Attitude's everything," he said. "All you had to do is stop, tell me what was going on. More than likely, I would have let you go."

Officer Powell had been informed by Moats, Moats' wife, hospital security guards, and a nurse about "what was going on". Powell chose to exercise the power that the state has granted him to prey on the people without any regard for the situation or the use of discretion. This little man is a menace, a pest, society's unproductive growth.

Ryan Moats was the bigger and better man, and used more tact and courtesy than any man in his circumstances. Many of us reading this article would have let the rage get the best of us and Officer Powell would have turned from a despicable jerk into a murdering, despicable jerk.

UPDATE: The police parasite who stopped Ryan Moats last week has resigned. Given his limited skill set and level of intelligence, his next place of employment should logically be with the FBI or DEA.

Gordon Brown Gets Owned

Or as the kids on the internets would say, "Gordon Brown gets pwned."

Daniel Hannan, a member of the British Parliament, delivers one of the greatest diatribes I've ever seen on a sitting state leader. And without a teleprompter.

"You cannot carry on forever squeezing the productive bit of the economy in order to fund an unprecedented engorgement of the unproductive bit. You cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow your way out of debt.

...You are the devalued Prime Minister of a devalued Government."

Can you imagine if someone spoke to the Chosen One this way?

Police Give More Tickets During Hard Times

Taken from the Obvious section of the news reel, cities have turned to the police department as a means to generate more revenue through increased ticketing.

The president of a state police union isn't pretending it doesn't happen. James Tignanelli, president of the Police Officers Association of Michigan union, says, "When elected officials say, 'We need more money,' they can't look to the department of public works to raise revenues, so where do they find it? Police departments.

"A lot of police chiefs will tell you the goal is to have nobody speeding through their community, but heaven forbid if it should actually happen — they'd be out of money," Tignanelli says.

It is time for people to realize that today's police force is no longer your grandfather's police force and Mayberry is a fictional location. Today's police force is riddled with bullies and terrorizing thugs searching for justification and financing for their existence.

See also a similar article from the St. Louis Post.

Mississippi Bans Red-Light Cameras

The state of Mississippi passed a law on Friday banning the use of red-light cameras, which gives me much needed hope that perhaps there actually are leaders out there who support a free society. Of course, the cynical side of me wonders why the governor of a state would sign a bill that prevents more revenue for his power-thirsty machine. Could a decent man in politics actually exist?

Previous postings on red-light cameras here and here.

Despite No Charges, Police Still Keep Cash

A man in Indiana felt the long oppressive arm of the state first-hand when police stole $26,000 from him during a traffic stop, despite having not broken any criminal law or charged with a crime.

Police seized the money because the driver could not give an adequate reason for having that much money.

"If it's way, way over and above what a normal person will carry, and if things don't add up (on how it was acquired), we take the money," said Lt. Art Barile, head of the sheriff department's vice and narcotics unit and the Allen County Drug Task Force.

When quizzed by the government thug for a reason for carrying so much cash, one wonders if an "adequate" response from the driver would be "Because I don't trust your banks."

Peter Schiff Was Right

This is a video featuring clips of Peter Schiff predicting the economic crash which has been circulating the internet for a while and has over 1.2 million views on Youtube. Read Peter's latest piece on the continuing irresponsibility of the Federal Reserve.

NCAA Office Pool Betting is Illegal

Having solved all the rest of Washington's problems, state gambling officials have decreed that office betting pools are illegal.

[Gambling Commission spokeswoman Amy] "Hunter said the only legal sports-betting pools are 100-square grids, commonly used in football pools, with entrants paying $1 or less."

So there is an actual committee that must rifle through all possible gambling scenarios and has determined that the 100-square grid is OK. What a wonderful use of tax dollars.

Decriminalize Marijuana

One of the increasingly ubiquitous topics saturating the news headlines and postings on this site has been the topic of marijuana legalization. There are seemingly endless reasons to end the war on drugs, specifically the war on marijuana. However, this particular posting will focus on speaking to those who agree that the federal laws on marijuana are repressive and antiquated yet are not ready to take a principled and uncompromising stand against the state which has persecuted users of a plant that was legal until a massive propaganda machine convinced congress to criminalize it in the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act.

Let me first start by saying I have never liked the term legalization applied to the drug topic because it suggests the natural state would be illegal were it not for the permission and access granted by the benevolent government. I prefer the term decriminalization because it correctly asserts it has been artificially forbidden and is now returned to its native state of legality.

A friend recently pointed out there actually is a definitive difference between the two terms. The prime difference is that decriminalization removes criminal charges but leaves intact associated laws and regulations, whereas legalization is the process of removing a legal prohibition against something which is not currently legal.

What good does it do to remove criminal charges and still punish a user with a ticket and a fine? The state gets the best of both evil worlds because it can continue to murder and pillage by means of the expensive and expansive drug war, all the while appeasing the compromising masses who are satisfied with the superficial removal of criminal charges; meanwhile, the state continues to line its coffers with the fine-generated revenue plundered from the "non-criminals". If a "non-criminal" refuses to fork over the booty, will the state not then declare him a criminal?

Notwithstanding the dictionary distinction between the two, I will continue to use my definition of decriminalization and emphasize that my definition includes the removal of any and all prohibition.

I have been pleasantly surprised when reading online news articles to see the number of reader comments supporting the decriminalization of marijuana. However, I find it troubling that there are those who believe marijuana should not be illegal but at the same time maintain the thought process "the law is the law and we should obey it. If you don't agree with the law, it must be changed first before you break it."

This idiom is ridiculous and senseless because it turns everyone into sheep and suggests we must go with the flow and wait for our compassionate leaders to change an oppressive law. Civil disobedience has played a role throughout history and proves that often there must be a pioneer who was not comfortable with the status quo and used the court system to challenge the law, rather than waiting for the legislators.

These trail blazers must be supported and embraced as the heroes and patriots they are, not hypocritically chastised by those who shallowly agreed with their principle but not their practical implementation.

Note: I realize there is a dangerously slippery slope with respect to judicial review, but the ultimate compass in which a law's legitimacy is rooted should be its focus on the preservation of individual liberty (some say the barometer should be its constitutionality, but we see how that document has been bastardized and disregarded).

We must further expunge the proposition that marijuana be legalized and then regulated and taxed. All you have to do is look at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to realize the state is history's worst body of drug regulators. Confidence in the ability of the FDA to effectively regulate the "legal" drug market hit an all-time low by even the state's standards when the Supreme Court ruled drug companies can still be sued despite having received the FDA's blessing. Even the state doesn't trust the state!

And those who truly support the relinquishing of the state's stranglehold of the serfs cannot be taken seriously when they advocate the taxation of marijuana. All this accomplishes is the substitution of one form of tyranny for another. The state will then possess amplified financial means to perpetrate even more oppression against the people, thus perpetuating the vicious despotic cycle fueled by complacency.

Those that support the decriminalization of marijuana must employ a systematic approach that is unequivocal and absolute, and must not yield to those who hold a position open to negotiation. The battle for liberty cannot be half-heartedly fought, for I can assure that that the enemy of liberty, the state, is focused and dedicated in their unrelenting march toward power and totalitarianism.

Another Victim of the Ponzi Schemers: The IRS

Who said nothing good came out of the investment banking Ponzi schemes? It's not often that the world's largest thief finds itself on the wrong end of the looting relationship. Of course this minor "silver lining" is only superficial since the damages will be passed along to the taxpayers and those holding American dollars.

It is ironic that the federal government is prosecuting crooks like Bernie Madoff for his alleged Ponzi scheme when it is the government who operates the most expensive Ponzi scheme the world has ever seen: social security.

Writes Bill Anderson:
While Madoff has managed to mangle at least $50 billion, there is another Ponzi Scheme with trillions in unfunded liability: the U.S. Social Security System. No matter how many times Paul Krugman declares that SS is safe and sound, it is not.

Most people don't realize that SS actually is a "legal" Ponzi scheme, made legal because the government has declared it so. Nonetheless, the principle of SS is that of the chain letter in which people pay in, other receive the benefits, and it works only as long as others are there to pay in more money.

At the beginning, the ratio was about 20 payees to one person receiving benefits, but the numbers have changed to where it now is about 3 and 1. This is an ominous trend, and I suspect that in the end, the government will simply print the money, as it has done in other situations.

So, my recommendation is for Obama to appoint Madoff to head the SS Administration, as he already is experienced in putting together Ponzi payments.

Ben Bernanke: Arsonist Turned Firefighter

Ben Bernanke just got finished giving a very "candid" interview on CBS' 60 Minutes where he pledged that the Fed would do everything it can (i.e. print more money) to help stave off the economic meltdown. Whew, now I feel better. And how could the viewers not tear up when the head looter gave a heartfelt account of his humble upbringing?

The unprecedented interview with the Fed chief makes one wonder why he decided to provide the exposure to the media today when it had never been done before. The answer is because Bernanke is not stupid (diabolically intelligent, actually) and has sensed that the tides are changing with regard to the public opinion of who the Fed really is and what they do. The Fed has come under more pressure from many different angles, with the recent trend attributable to Ron Paul during his 2008 presidential campaign.

Bernanke is trying to head the public dissent off at the pass in an effort to appeal to the people that he is just a "regular guy tasked with the unenviable job of cleaning up the mess that the free market caused", not the more accurate perception that he is in fact the spawn of Satan himself.

Bernanke has taken a page out of FDR's playbook and is doing everything he can to prolong this Great Depression II by implementing the same tactics of attempting to print our way to prosperity. If printing money could create wealth, then the Wiemar Republic and Zimbabwe would be the two richest nations on the globe.

It is absolutely laughable to hear Bernanke claim that the Fed is printing trillions of new dollars while still trying to keep inflation in check. By definition, the Fed is the only entity that CAN create money and thus inflation -- how could we possibly be expected to believe that it is the fighter of inflation?

It is time that the people wake up and realize what the Federal Reserve really is: a private collection of bankers with the absolute ability to steal from the people because of its government granted monopoly. The Fed started this fire and now we have blindly tasked them to put it out.

One can't help but think of the quote by Albert Einstein: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

Fingerprint Now Required to Sell Home

Beginning June 1, 2009, anyone selling a property in Cook County, IL (Chicago) must provide a thumbprint from their right hand.

Proponents of the law claim its purpose is to prevent fraud, but it has rightfully been met with resistance from many who believe there are privacy risks.

I have been openly very critical of government on this site and have received questions from some people wondering what I would define as the proper role of government in society. The state does have a role in enforcing contracts, which includes the prosecution of fraud.

But to apply a blanket "fraud prevention" clause to the entire population by requiring the involuntary surrending of personal and private information is a gross misapplication of the state's role and one of the many violations of privacy that Leviathan has perpetrated against its minions.

The New F***ing Citibank

The New F***ing Citibank - watch more funny videos

Language is NSFW

Caffeine Tax

Utah Representative Craig Frank has stated his intent to begin taxing beverages containing caffeine.

Are the lawmakers reading George Orwell and then proposing legislation based on what they've just learned?

Said Frank, another one of those "limited government" Republicans, "Some feel [the cigarette tax is] a tax on those who are addicted to a substance that frankly they enjoy [but] we say that's a harmful thing to do. At the same time, the government is addicted to the fee revenues, so in light of that, if we're really going to find a revenue stream on something addictive, why not cold caffeine?"

When the general population tightens their belts during this depression, why doesn't the government have to do the same?

Frank continues, "We're going after people who have problems with addiction for a revenue stream, only caffeine would be one that is more broad-based."

Representative Frank is correct about one thing: the American people do have an addiction, and that addiction is government.

Moreover, the politicians' lust for power is an addiction that is enabled only by the people's addiction to government. As is the case with all addictions, an intervention is needed; the last intervention took place in 1776. After more than two centuries of dependency of this drug, it is time for another intervention.

UPDATE: The FDIC Is Broke

There could be a different and unseen reason as to why the FDIC is charging an additional assessment in order to stave off insolvency.

Smaller banks are outraged over the one-time fee, which could wipe out 50 percent to 100 percent of a bank’s 2009 earnings, Camden Fine, president of the Independent Community Bankers of America, said [March 3rd] in a telephone interview.

According to Bill Butler, What is really going [on] is that the Bailout Banks are using the government and its insurance monopoly to help them gain market share by drastically increasing the operating costs of their smaller, better-run and scrappy competitors...Don't be fooled. The real purpose of this do-gooder cover is to bury small banks and allow Bailout Banks to seize market share.

Bush Got One Right

Savor that headline, Republicans, because that's where the accolades end.

President Obama on Monday signed an executive order removing restrictions on federal funding for stem-cell research that were previously put in place by President Bush. Another way to write that would be: President Obama on Monday continued his unwavering quest to commission billions of taxpayer dollars -- which we don't have -- to pay for [insert unconstitutional spending project here].

Bush accidentally got one right because he found a way to NOT spend federal funds, even though his reasoning had nothing to do with fiscal or constitutional responsibility.

Naturally, the religious right is up in arms because of the blurred morality line they claim this has crossed, but offer no criticism on the grounds of increased federal spending despite their feigned desire for limited government.

"The president has rolled back important protections for innocent life, further dividing our nation at a time when we need greater unity to tackle the challenges before us," charged Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner.

Where were the Republicans rallying in support of innocent life when George Bush ordered the execution of innocent lives in Iraq? Or should that just be chalked up to collateral damage?

Notwithstanding the issue of federal financing, couldn't supporters of stem cell research draw the same parallel that expended embryonic life is simply "collateral damage" and necessary in attaining the "greater good"?

Republicans Want to Stop Giving Funds to GM

Republican lawmakers said Congress should stop providing General Motors Corp. with federal aid and let the company file for bankruptcy if necessary.

“The best thing that could probably happen to General Motors, in my view, is they go into Chapter 11,” Senator John McCain said on the “Fox News Sunday” program today.

How can anybody take the Republicans seriously? Is it any wonder that they have lost the White House and both houses of congress? Donors to this joke of a party should be suing for fraud because that's exactly what this collection of misfits is.

To be sure, the Republicans do have it right (finally): the government should NOT be bailing out GM just like it should not bail out Chrysler or AIG or Bear Stearns or IndyMac or Fannie/Freddie or WaMu or Citibank or Bank of Amerika or ... or ...

With the presidential election over, McCain realized that he no longer needed to pander to the critical Michigan constituency, and has cast his vote toward whichever direction the political winds are blowing.

The FDIC Is Broke

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chairman Sheila Bair wrote in a March 2 letter to the industry that "the deposit insurance fund could become insolvent this year" if new assessments aren't levied against the banking institutions which are ostensibly "insured" by the incapable government program. This is in stark contrast to the rosy picture she painted last July when she was quoted as saying "People should not worry. Their deposits are safe".

As Kathryn Muratore points out, imagine what an actual above-board insurance company would do in an emergency - say a hurricane hitting a populated area. In the days before and after the hurricane, can you imagine State Farm sending a bill to all of its customers in the Southeast for an emergency premium hike to cover the payouts that it knows are imminent?

In years past the Congress would have simply appropriated more tax payer dollars or used the monopolistic ability of the Fed to create new money in order to stave off the FDIC collapse. But with the recent looting of current and future tax payers to pay for the "stimulus plan" and the massive creation of new money by the Fed to bail out the financial industry (including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac), the FDIC has been forced to resort to fleecing the "insured" banks.

UPDATE

Jobs vs Productivity

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said that the goal of the stimulus plan is to create jobs. This is wrong for two reasons:

First, it is not the government's role to create jobs or stimulate the economy. The free market is perfectly capable of creating jobs and promoting economic growth without the government. The problem that must first be identified is that what we have is not a free market. There are myriad acronymic federal agencies that pepper the economic spectrum that remove any real functionality from a true free market. A true free market would be one without the interference of the largest destructor of wealth the world has ever known -- the Federal Reserve. A true free market rewards for success and punishes for failure.

Second, the goal should not be job creation but productivity. Twentieth century British economist John Maynard Keynes was such a proponent of government's role as the creator of jobs that he recommended that government pay people to dig holes and fill them up. Unfortunately this philosphy has spread like a disease throughout the media, politics, and academia. Productivity is the key to economic viability, and the easy credit conditions created by the Fed and the misdirected focus on job creation without long-term sustainability is what has turned this nation into the largest debtor and consumer in the history of mankind.

Read Tom Woods' article.

In-Vitro Fertilization Legislation

This is the CNN.com poll from this morning due to legislation proposed (by a Republican state senator) in response to the walking California tax revenue siphon who just gave birth to octuplets. Nearly 3 out of every 4 who voted believe the government should regulate the number of embryos that a woman can be implanted with during in-vitro fertilization. Now I know this isn't a scientific poll but the numbers are staggering regardless. Where are the pro-choicers shouting "keep your laws off my body!"?

The problem isn't a lack of regulation in the embryo fertilization industry. This is the predictable product of a healthcare and welfare system in which irresponsibility is encouraged and rewarded by the transfer of financial liability to the tax payers. The answer is not more legislation but the complete abolishment of the welfare state.

DEAR REPUBLICANS:
STOP MASQUERADING AS THE PARTY OF LIMITED GOVERNMENT. YOU HAVE ABOUT AS MUCH CREDIBILITY AS DEMOCRATS PRETENDING TO BE THE ANTI-WAR PARTY.

"Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day; but a series of oppressions begun at a distinguished period and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing [a people] to slavery." --Thomas Jefferson

1 out of every 31 Americans in Prison in 2007

Imagine the boost on the economy if the state were to repudiate its status as governor of morality, end the ridiculous "war on drugs", and allow these "criminals" to return to society as productive members, not participants in one of the largest societal drains.

"The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws." --Ayn Rand

America's Greatest President

William Henry Harrison

"Do-nothing" politicians, especially presidents, are never remembered or highly regarded by the masses. The common belief is that a politician must "do something" in order to have effectively served the public. That "something" is always more government, more regulation, more transfer of power from the people to the state.

Harrison, America's shortest serving president, should also be regarded as its greatest as he had only 32 days to loot the American tax payer. We salute you, Bill.

Obamanomics: Print More Money!

Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital and predictor of the US economic collapse, explains why we cannot print our way to prosperity. Note: this failed idea is not held exclusively by Obama; "free-marketer" Bush and McCain hold this same view.

US Military Occupying 150+ Countries

The US military now occupies more than 150 countries worldwide. Dick Cheney, Julius Caesar, and Dr. Evil are unimpressed.

For millenia man has striven for power and global domination from the Romans, British, Spanish, and Chinese, to name a few. All these world powers have embraced the position of their empire - why is America the only nation that denies its status as an empire?

The questions now become:

• How will President Obama's foreign policy affect this number?
• Will Obama follow in Bush's footsteps?
• Will those who pushed for peace under the Bush Administration continue to push for peace under the Obama Administration or was it just more partisan positioning?

First & Second Amendments Apparently Repealed in Connecticut

A professor at Central Connecticut State University called the police after a student gave an oral presentation stating "if students were permitted to conceal carry guns on campus, the violence could have been stopped earlier in many of these [campus gun violence] cases". The Gestapo was apparently too busy harassing other citizens to take her call.

UPDATE: Lesson Learned: Never Help Old Ladies Across The Street

UPDATE: the Colorado State Patrol has withdrawn the ticket undoubtedly because of the media hoopla surrounding the case, which once again proves that a healthy, independent, uncensored system of journalism is one of the best defenses against the overbearing arm of the state.

More Police Brutality

I have previously posted cases here and here and here which detail the trend of police corruption. This video shows another situation where those who we have entrusted to enforce the law have overstepped their boundaries yet again. Two 200-pound men vs 15-year-old girl.

One wonders where badged menaces to society like this could find employment if they weren't harassing the populace under the creed "to protect and serve". Is there a puppy kicking career that I'm unaware of?

One more thing: do you think the Feds will investigate these officers for steroid use?