Libertarian Commentary on the News: #14-51D: Money, money, money

Posted on 2014-12-18 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good morning!

In my commentary on Texas, I discuss a plan whereby cops would be allowed to have stopped motorists pay their fines by credit card directly to the cop, to avoid going to court (or even jail).  Sadly, in many states, cops skip the credit card and go straight for the cash, the contents of the car, and even the car itself.  This “civil forfeiture” is a practice that was theoretically outlawed by the US Constitution, but has grown to be an even greater menace than ever before in English-speaking countries (unlike French- or Spanish- or German-speaking countries).

It is about the money, of course.  The US DOJ has agreements with local police agencies to let the agencies get wealthy off forfeiture for the property “committing” federal crimes. Continue reading →

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Now Hear This

Posted on 2014-12-18 by MamaLiberty

By MamaLiberty

I’m seriously hearing impaired. Though I hear a lot of actual sound, inner ear damage from early childhood restricts how much of it I actually understand because I don’t distinguish one sound from another very well. That is most troubling when listening to human speech, because the different sounds are usually quite subtle. I’ve had to read lips and watch body language all my life.

Now I am starting to experience other hearing loss from simple aging as well. So you can believe that I am very, VERY careful to maintain good hearing protection when I shoot. I’ve made the big mistake of firing a gun, or being nearby when one is fired without protection, and it has not happened often if I could do anything about it. Continue reading →

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Texas: Recent News Reveals Why Texas Is the Poster Child for Failed Democracy

Posted on 2014-12-18 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

I have a bit of a long-term relationship with Texas.  I had ancestors who lived in Texas two and a half centuries before it was named, others who came when it was still a Mexican state, others who came when it was a republic, and some who came after it was admitted to the American Union.  They all came to Texas (and stayed) because it was a land of great opportunity and freedom.  And like other Texians and Texicans and Texans, they fought for that freedom when it was threatened, whether the threat came from Madrid or Ciudad Mexico or the District of Columbia, or Austin.  Sometimes they lost, but usually they won, at least for a time. Continue reading →

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Libertarian Commentary on the News: #14-51C: Economy slipping?

Posted on 2014-12-17 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good afternoon! Let us look at the economy briefly, with a couple of stories.

Convenience Store Decisions, a professional webzine I receive, notes that demand for gasoline in the US nosedived after Thanksgiving, despite the continued drop in gasoline and diesel prices in much of the country. This is extremely rare: usually demand picks up when prices drop.  But what it DOES indicate is that there are still millions and millions of us who don’t have the money to travel and are having to adjust our lives – even our daily live – to that fact: the economy is rotted and rotten, and the Crash of 2009 is STILL with us, despite all the lies spread by government agencies and politicians and bankers. Continue reading →

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Libertarian Commentary on the News: #14-51B: Terrorism 2001-2014 at home and abroad

Posted on 2014-12-17 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good morning, I think… We’ve got a lot going on, and not much of it is good.  But we could be in Australia… or Pakistan… Sidney was the subject of one of the two commentaries I’ve written and why this one is both short and later than usual.

On top of the Senate Terrorism Report and the Sidney Siege and the latest round of protests and of course, the never-ended beat of killings in the Ummah (the Muslim world) (including the one at Peshwar I discuss below), we have these words of wisdom from Dick Cheney: Terrorist Threat Today ‘As Bad As It Was on 9-11’ (spoken before the Sidney and Peshwar attacks, by the way). Continue reading →

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Lessons Learned from Sydney

Posted on 2014-12-16 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton and Mama Liberty

To start off with, Australia has disarmed itself. Not a single one of the dozen or so hostages in the cafe were armed with so much as a pocket knife.

The Sydney hostage situation has ended with the death of the alleged hostage taker, a man “well known” to Sidney police, whose “motives are not known” but who had hostages raise the black flag of the Caliphate and other Islamist movements, and who was involved with the suspicious death of his wife some time ago, as well as various threats to families of dead Aussie soldiers.  But the siege ALSO ended with the death of two hostages, during or before an assault with fully automatic weapons – no word on who killed the hostages.

Keep in mind, NO ONE except this man is responsible for his actions.  He could have been a Vietnamese immigrant, or a Scots or Irish immigrant.  But he was an Iranian “refugee” and he had made it clear by his other actions that he was an Islamist. He and no one else made him act upon his beliefs. Continue reading →

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A Baker’s Dozen Reasons Why Torture is Wrong

Posted on 2014-12-16 by TPOL Nathan

by Nathan Barton

WHY TORTURE IS WRONG, WHOEVER DOES IT

  1. Torture is immoral: it not only violates the Zero Aggression Principle in every way, and the Golden Rule, but it treats humans worse than animals.
  2. Torture is counterproductive: when torture is used, it inevitably becomes a situation in which the person being tortured dies, becomes catatonic, or makes up whatever information or responses the torturer wants to hear.  There is no way to tell whether they are speaking the truth or not.
  3. Torture does NOT make a nation using it safer, because the fact that torture is being used generally results in more anger and more vicious responses: not just torture by the other side, but reprisals on combatants and noncombatants alike. It is sometimes called “blowback,” and it is very common. Continue reading →
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Libertarian Commentary on the News: #14-51A: Schools – places of fear, trauma and death

Posted on 2014-12-15 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good morning.  Government-run, tax-funded “public” schools continue to be more and more of an embarrassment to the Fifty States and our communities, as they seek to denigrate any ideas or beliefs not accepted by the educational elite, further destroy parental authority and responsibility, and promote the ideals of transnational progressivism in every way.  But it is more than just their educational philosophy and practices that makes these such evil places.  There is the brain-dead stupidity of too many of them, the dogmatic certainty and predilection to slavish obedience to laws and regulations and whims, and the fact that they are target rich environments for perverts, sadists, and abusers of all kinds. Continue reading →

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Disappearances: American Style?

Posted on 2014-12-14 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Warning: This column contains disturbing information and speculation which may anger and upset many people.  It is intended to challenge us to think outside the box and our comfort zone, and examine if things are much, MUCH worse than we might imagine.

Mexico’s civil war continues, as the sides are seen more clearly.  The cops (now being merged into a single national “federale” police force, apparently) are one side: an enemy to the people as a whole as well as to the drug lords and the other government officials.  According to the WaPo, Mexicans’ search for students’ bodies reveals a history of hidden deaths. Forty-three students went missing in September, but they were hardly the first. Their abduction by police has let loose a flood of new accusations. Continue reading →

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The Bill of [Rights] Restraints

Posted on 2014-12-14 by MamaLiberty

By Robert Greenslade
© Nitwit Press

With the 223rd anniversary of the adoption of the Amendments commonly known as the Bill of Rights only days away (December 15th), a majority of the American people still do not understand the true intent of the Amendments. They believe the Amendments are the source of their individual rights and the federal government was granted the general power to secure those rights. In reality, the Amendments did not create any individual rights or grant the federal government any general power. Continue reading →

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