The Price of Liberty

By Nathan Barton

Here are a few stories I meant to comment on last week, still of concern. Things continue to go (depending on your view point, of course) very bad OR very good in the land of Mesopotamia, formerly known as Iraq.

Because of their larger subscriber base, Godfather Politics has to be politically correct, at least somewhat so, unlike Mama Liberty and Brad and me, or at least I assume that is why they are asking this question, “Will ISIS form the world’s first terror state?”.  We already HAVE and have HAD a good many “terror states” in the world, including the FedGov.  And I am using the root definition of “terror” which is (Merriam-Webster definition, NOT mine): “violence that is committed by a person, group, or government in order to frighten people and achieve a political goal” (although I would add “or threat of violence”).  The great historic examples are of course, the Third Reich, Soviet Union, Red China, the Japanese Empire, and the Spanish Empire (and Lincoln’s Union), but ALL the Middle Eastern countries of 2014 meet this definition.  Government IS terrorism: the “monopoly” (real or effective) use of force to directly or indirectly make people do what the Congress or Executive or Queen or Premier want them to. Continue reading →