I have great admiration for the Koch brothers who seem to be arch villains to the academic and news media elite who spend their time relentlessly spewing out disingenuous and ultimately destructive propaganda supporting the idea that organizing principle of our society should be the use of force and coercion, the methodology of government and the condition of slavery, rather than cooperation for mutual benefit, the methodology of the free market and the condition of free men.
The liberal animosity towards the brothers exists not because the Kochs believe that government’s purpose is to impose the conservative’s vision of just and prosperous country on us but rather because they believe people should to make their own life decisions which will always have the best chance of being in the person’s own best interests. The scholarships they gave me to attend the Institute for Humane Studies summer seminars twice provided with me with far more valuable education than the years I spent pilling up student loan debt listening to the argument that more government is always the answer for everything. You see liberals and conservatives advocate this same solution but the Koch brothers advocate a different one and that is why the liberal elite is so disturbed by the prospect that that some of their control of the media (http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2013/04/30/will-the-koch-brothers-save-los-angeles/?singlepage=true) may slip from their hands.
That question has received a very thoughtful and l think positive reply (http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2013/03/02/is-marijuana-a-medicine/?singlepage=true on the conservative website PJ Media and I see this as a very good sign.. Historically the notion of drug prohibition including medicines such as opium has been in the program of the Progressives while Libertarians and even some Conservatives have opposed it.. Perhaps the most eloquent and effective person on the subject was William F. Buckley
Various sources of information such as the United States Congress, the British public, and the Mayor of New York are indicating this week that we are finally understanding that when he had employee Winifred Black write in her 1932 book Dope the Story of the Living Dead, “The man who smokes hashish runs through the streets hacking and killing everyone he meets”, William Randolph Hearst was not trying to help or protect people, he was just trying to sell newspapers.
Since the Republican Party establishment will accept and secretly welcome Barack Obama's proposals for increasing the size and scope of government this speech by Rand Paul is the only legitimate answer to our President’s State of the Union attempt to grab even more power.
Were the Jewish people living in Germany in 1933 being paranoid and delusional, the way many people who are concerned about Second Amendment rights are being described now, when they feared they would be killed by their own government? In this video where Walter Williams talks about the true purpose of the Second Amendment he asks the question are we in any less of a threat of tranny from our government in Washington than we were in 1787? History is absolutely clear on this point the, answer is yes. Many people have observed time and time again that when government says it is doing something for your own good it is not telling us the truth. The 20th century state has shown itself to be the greatest killer of all time. To those, who were like those living Nazi Germany, saying it could never happen here they need to be aware that our Justice Department has issued a memo asserting that the chief executive has the right to execute any American he or she chooses to. This document says the government is not required “to have clear evidence” that an attack against the United States will occur in the immediate future to determine that an imminent threat is posed by a U.S. citizen. We must remember that when government kills an individal it does so in the name of the general benefit, a concept whose definition is always changing and always expanding.
For more than two centuries the subject of opium has been one of great controversy. Both its use and the legal restrictions against its use have been the cause of much human suffering. The Drug War Chronicle has posted a review of the recent works on the topic. They look at Opium: Reality's Dark Dream, by Thomas Dormandy, Opium Fiend: A 21st Century Slave to a 19th Century Addiction, by Steven Martin, and Social Poison: The Culture and Politics of Opiate Control in Britain and France, 1821-1926, by Howard Padwa. These book are in the tradition of Arnold Trebach’s The Heroin Solution one of the first works to point out that by demonizing the opium plant we were doing much harm to our society by sacrificing in many cases a most useful and effective remedy for the world’s pain and in fact adding much to it. Dormandy argues “Criminalization is justified if it deters potential delinquents and protects the innocent," but he writes. "Little if any evidence suggests that current legislation does either.”
The drug policies pursued and bragged about by both Democrats and Republicans are extremely costly. This is terms of wasted tax money for very little return. Also the price includes an ever growing disrespect for the nation's laws and leadership. Not to mention the generating of a great of unnecessary human misery. But lastly there is the tally of many of our fellow citizens killed for no good reason.
It is very important for the American people to understand by knowing history and to proclaim as loudly as possible that Barack Obama is every bit the callous war monger that Richard Nixon and George Bush ever were. Oliver Stone and my old professor American University’s Peter Kuznick are doing their part with their currently running Showtime historical series Untold History of the U. S. and this interview explaining their purpose. They do an outstanding job of illustrating the fact that the policies and mindset which got 50,000 Americans needlessly killed in Vietnam are still in place.
It is time we started thinking about the real cause of the mass murder of children.
Barack Obama can accomplish significant good for this country by ending drug prohibition. He has won a new term and no longer has to appease the drug warriors. This film Breaking the Taboo does a very good job of explaining why that is the right thing to do.
Yet another public shooting rampage has occurred, this time at an Oregon mall. The police and the news media offer no explanation for this particular incident of violence. The shooter, Jacob Tyler Roberts -- who killed two and seriously wounded one other person -- has no criminal record, merely two speeding tickets earlier this year. The weapon he used, a fully legal AR-15, was a stolen from someone he knew, so no background check on him would ever have been performed. The perpetrator, wearing a Jason-style hockey mask, walked briskly through the stores in the mall and began firing randomly. Roberts and a woman were evicted from their apartment in Happy Valley, Ore., last summer; police have searched the his home in Portland, but declined to indicate what they found. The unexplained attack ended when Roberts followed the example of many of our soldiers and took his own life.
The question I have here -- but the question that our news media may not want answered, because of the millions of dollars they make from pharmaceutical advertising -- did the use of legal psychiatrist prescribed anti-depressants, as it has in so many other cases cause this violence?
Ron Paul's chief of staff shares his view of our economy and the recent election with economists at the San Francisco hard assets conference.
This video shot in a Wal Mart parking lot is disturbing not because of anything Wal Mart does but because it shows the American people demonstrating a degree of ignorance and callousness that is uncomfortable. Can you answer the two key questions here by naming four countries that Obama has bombed and telling how many veterans commit suicide each day. People are not trying to buy happiness at Wal Mart, they are trying to buy the things they need at a low price so that they can continue pay their taxes and the government can keep on buying the bombs as well as sending our sons and daughters to die or be wounded overseas. That is what makes government happy.
Of the three candidates on most of our ballots there is only one who says categorically that he would not bomb Iran -- of course, the mainstream media tells us that we should not even consider voting for him, Gary Johnson. No matter which one wins a pro-war person will be in charge. But take comfort in the fact that war is good for the press and means higher television ratings so do what they tell you and do not vote for peace.
We have two main party candidates running for president and they are both completely ignorant about economics but you will not see this kind of analysis of their debates on televison because the mainstream media does not want voters to know that fact
Tell your students the Republicans want more debt that they will have to pay for all of their lives. more war that will kill and wound some of their friends, and more people in prison for non-violent offenses. That is why they have been trying to keep Gary Johnson off the ballot.The news media also wants more debt, more war, and more people in prison that is why they are telling us to forget Gary Johnson is in rhe race. Unfortunatly the Democrata want the same things.
I support the troops therefore I am going to vote for Gary Johnson those who vote for war monger Barack Obama or war monger Mitt Romney do not support or care about them.
If I read one more article or hear one more pundit telling me how important the upcoming presidential election is I believe I will vomit. No matter whether we elect Barack Obama or Mitt Romney the American people will still have trillions of dollars of ever increasing national debt and they will still have to come up with billions eventually trillions of dollars out of their own pockets to pay interest on it for which they will receive no education for their children, no health care for themselves, no increased ability to defend from real rather than media created threats, no infrastructure to help them earn a livelihood, no advances in science, no cleaner an environment but the government will get the privilege of borrowing even more money with which to buy our votes and the big banks will get funds from the federal reserve created sham money at 0 percent interest which they can loan to people and businesses at 20 percent interest. This system is good for politicians like Obama and Romney, the military industrial complex, the prison guards union, the thousands of government bureaucrats who feel entitled to control the minutest aspects of our lives however it is not so good for ordinary people. If the voters had to pay directly for the government’s racist cruel drug war, the deaths and maiming of our sons and daughters in endless conflict that makes America no safer, the opportunity destroying senseless regulations and the ever present corporate welfare which forces us to pay for things we do not want and keeps us from having things that we do desire and f[nd necessary rather than through the gradual and not so gradual erosion of the value our money and our ability to get the things that we do want and need it would be much more difficult for the government controlled mainstream media to convince them that the government was doing all of this to them for their own good.
The reason we are told this election is so important is not because of who wins or loses, this time, Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, but because the mainstream media wants us to demonstrate our acceptance of the principle that government exists to benefit us. The fact is that government really only has concern for the politicians, lobbyists, bureaucrats who have control of it and the wealthy who can pay to decide who gets that control. We must remember that those in the mainstream media are not truth tellers but in fact are story tellers and the essence of any good story is conflict. Pitting Blacks against Whites, rich against poor, women against men, the users marijuana against the users of alcohol or legal pharmaceuticals no matter how harmful, environmentalists against energy producers, Muslims against Christians, those who want to live in peace against the lives of our sons and daughters is good for the media it helps them sell newspapers and boosts their viewership. This is how the government maintains control over our lives.
The mainstream media will not allow anyone to this challenge this corrupt and abhorrent system and only those, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, completely devoted to it will be allowed to speak in favor of their slightly different versions of it. Despite the fact that voters in at least 47 different states are going to go into the booth in November and have the option of choosing to vote for Gary Johnson most will not know this because the mainstream media is intent on hiding this truth. Therefore during tonight’s non-debate there will be no discussion of the ineffectiveness, brutality and cost of our misguided war on drugs and that it will continue is a given, the suggestion that our perpetual warfare against so many of the rest of the world’s people makes us less safe while bankrupting our government will not find a voice, and the reality that our government cannot continue finance its out of control spending with money created out of thin air without causing the money that the people do have from becoming worthless will be given lip service but neither Obama nor Romney have shown any willingness to act upon this problem whatsoever.
I am not going to watch tonight’s event because I am tired of being lied to all of the time but I am going to vote. Those who argue that voting is wrong because you are giving tacit approval to the system have a point but in this instance there is a clear way to vote against the system. When I vote for Gary Johnson I will be saying no I do not approve of this kind of rule that allows politicians to decide what is in my best interest when it usually is not but rather in their best interest. A vote for Gary Johnson si not just a vote against Obama and Romney or a vote for either one of them it is a vote against their system of debt, warfare, and control over your personal life.
Gary Johnson announcing his bid for the presidency as the candidate of the Libertarian Party, December 28, 2011. Credit: Flickr
“And the man under the influence of hasseesh catches up his knife and runs through the streets hacking and killing everyone he meets.”
DOPE: The Story of the Living Dead by Winfred Black, William Randolph Hearst employee, 1932.
We are told we must pick between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney and accept all of the debt, dead sons and daughters in the military, people locked up in prison, control over the smallest aspects of your life that they both promise to bring to the presidency. But that is a lie -- we do not have to put either one in office. What good is it going to do you if either one of them, your guy, wins but the American people lose? When Barack Obama’s campaign tells me that Mitt Romney is a greedy evil manipulator whose election will be bad for the country and Mitt Romney’s campaign tells me that Barack Obama is a power hungry control freak whose election will harm us, I believe them both. They are both so adept at the big government lie, “We are doing this to you or preventing you from doing that for your own good.” However, it will not benefit you -- it is done only to help them obtain what they crave the most: the power to make all important and even trivial decisions for you. They believe the way to maintain their position is selling their monopoly on the use of force and coercion for votes. All of this pro-government propaganda that is now coming from the mouths of our news media and our academics is designed for one purpose only: to create a society and culture whose main operating principle is the use of force and coercion. This leads to their second big lie: “government violence is not really violence.” I am going to vote for Gary Johnson because both Obama and Mitt reject the fundamental truth that vices are not crimes. Their selfish ignoring of this principle is a way for them to obtain power and it has caused untold misery and unhappiness for the American people. I am not going to vote for either Obama or Romney because they both believe the kind of wicked nonsense put out before by William Randolph Hearst and his modern equivalents. How else do you explain their policies towards drug use? If they really believe this, then they are both too stupid to be elected, and if not they are both too dishonest to be our president.
The functional equivalent of Pravda during the Communist era, our mainstream media -- both its news and cultural components -- do not want you to know that you do not have to accept either one of their horrendous two choices. They will continue to ignore Gary Johnson, who you will see on the ballot in November. They are not even attacking him, because if they do people will know he exists and also if they do their lies will be even more transparent than the ones they told before about Ron Paul being a racist and an anti-Semite. As much as the people at both much FOX and MSNBC would like to believe that they control what you know and what you think they are also wrong you can find out for yourself that you are not trapped by their choices. If the sight of either Ed Schultz or Bill O’ Reilly fills you with such disgust and loathing that you want to smash your TV screen, then the worst thing you can do to both of them is click on the link I just provided and find out that there is a third and much better choice and vote accordingly.
Around 1830 the argument about American slavery profoundly changed. It went from one where those supporting it defended the institution by saying it was a necessary evil to one where those advocating it claimed it was a positive good. Events such as writings of William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass, petitions to Congress calling for its end, the Virginia legislature’s very narrow decision to retain it, and Nat Turner’s rebellion made it impossible to continue sustaining the latter viewpoint. The necessary part was always unconvincing because the food and textiles produced by slaves were always going to be made but the real question was who would get the benefit from them. Articles in periodicals such as The Southern Planter, The Southern Agriculturist, and The Tennessee Farmer, compiled in a book by historian James O. Breeden Advice Among Masters: The Ideal in Slave Management In the Old South, clearly answer the inquiry, no matter what the topic communal eating, type of clothing, work off the plantation, recreation allowed, medical care, or any other one you could think of there were often disagreements on strategy but the advice was always the same, do whatever is best for the master and his or her bottom line. The notion that the system was good for the slaves because kept them in line and prevented them from harming themselves was rubbish and this is the very same idea that is being made of support of government today. This video clip of John Stossel posted on the Daily Paul does the very same service that Breeden’s book did. When you watch it carefully you quickly realize that all of the people here, and pretty much everywhere else. defending government are doing so out of their own self-interest. It is not being done to protect us or provide us with opportunity it is being done for them. When we think about government we need to remember that behind every rule, regulation, executive order, law, or tax lays the implied threat of violence. They need so much violence, just like the slave master needed force, because most of time they are either coercing an individual to do something he or she does not want to do because it is against their self-interest benefiting someone else or they are stopping a person from doing what he or she wants therefore committing the immoral act of denying them knowledge. We must also think about the fact that government turns every decision whether it is about economics, diet, health care, education, personal finance, safety, war, or any other matter into a political a political question and political answers are inherently flawed not about what is but rather about what is most popular. Ron Paul is the only candidate who understands these basic truths
