Government as Mass Psychosis; Lines and Questions; Working class hero; The Punisher; these articles have their titles and text in this color and are featured this week in -
Political Liberty, Life in Amerika, Ordered Liberty without the State;
Spreading Decentralism, The New World Hegemon, Politics by Other Means;
Spontaneous Order, Nonspontaneous Disorder, War Is The Health Of The State;
Bits of History, War and Peace, Great Individuals In History;
If you encounter any difficulty using this document please let me know as soon as you notice. Contact information is at the bottom of this page.
Happy Independence Day!!! Last weekend Endervidualism also
published
a compendium
of articles from 2003 (and prior) that I did not include in Ender's Review,
either through an oversight or some other "mistake." This
"special edition" also has an early look at
what I am planning as a new format for the web edition.
I would appreciate any comments or suggestions you might have on that new
format. The "Left Out" special edition is here -
http://endervidualism.com/erev/03/leftout.htm
I am happy to receive addresses of potential readers of Ender's Review who might like to receive a few trial issues and an invitation to subscribe. Or, if you prefer, please, forward this to those you think might be interested, with the contact and subscription information at the bottom intact.
"It's time for total disentrenchment, a general policy of never voting for any politician presently in office anywhere. They got us into this bloody mess and they pretty clearly refuse to get us out. Therefore we have to get them out and bar them from holding office again. "
http://www.ncc-1776.com/tle2005/tle325-20050626-02.html
"Tim and the family now go to a local shooting range for occasional practice. The .22s are the usual weapons of choice, as they have little recoil, and the ammo is incredibly cheap. These range sessions are a great time for the family, providing recreation, togetherness and training at a low cost."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/doyle6.html
"In a 500-channel world, why do the taxpayers need to subsidize one more channel? Defenders of National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System tell us it's because we need 'independent journalism.' But can we really expect to get truly independent journalism from a government-funded network? It's time to establish the separation of news and state. Journalists should not work for the government. Taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize news and public-affairs programming."
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3968
"We may refer to the king as the President, or Governor, mayor or whatever, but some warlord now has title to your property, and will let you keep it only so long as no one else makes him a better offer. It may not have a major impact for several years, but rest assured (or don't rest comfortably at all) that it will. No craftsman can resist using a newly acquired tool, and government leaders are not known for their moral restraint."
http://www.ncc-1776.com/tle2005/tle325-20050626-06.html
"As happened in the DeMar case, legislative action could make these challenges moot. The D.C. Personal Protection Act, which would allow handgun ownership, eliminate registration, and repeal storage laws in the nation's capital, passed the House of Representatives in late September and is awaiting action in the Senate. It is likely to be a close vote."
http://www.reason.com/0506/fe.rv.self.shtml
"Despres of the chain saw was a naturalized US citizen. Me, I might be choosier in who I naturalized. But then, I guess I don't understand security. In fact, I'm sure I don't. It may be that when you have spent years watching people come across a border, you learn to distinguish between dangerous bearers of bloody weaponry, and harmless ones. "
http://fredoneverything.net/Visa.shtml
"Everything about the government is an illusion. Constitutions, flags, laws, uniforms, borders -- these constructs are artificial. They may have strong cultural manifestations and incite people to behave in distinct ways toward each other, but in the end it is people, and not nations, that act. In the end, the ways they decide to act cannot be qualitatively categorized as good or bad, just or unjust, simply by virtue of being called 'government'."
http://www.strike-the-root.com/51/gregory/gregory10.html
"Despite my coffee-drinking acquaintance's belief to the contrary, the State never prevents exploitation. Nor does it ever maintain fairness. Rather, the State is a tool used by political class freeloaders to treat unfairly those of us who obtain wealth through production and voluntary exchange."
http://wconger.blogspot.com/2005/06/working-class-hero-is-somethin-to-be.html
"A close family member says it's all the Republicans' fault. A close friend curses the Democrats for the ruling. None of the Yahoo posters will admit their side is complicit in this abomination of a ruling. So, while most of us will agree that this ruling is plain wrong, we see the solution as putting 'our side' in power. This is the sickness of the belief in democracy."
http://www.strike-the-root.com/51/langr/langr3.html
"My view is that a freedom activist's best strategy isn't to bring a fight to the state's agents -- that generally plays out on the state's field, with their ball and bat, etc., and we all know how well such rigged games go. If they come to you in some way (e.g., attempted eminent domain theft, trying to steal your unpapered firearms, etc.), then of course meeting them head-on (in whatever way you think best) is entirely appropriate."
http://www.sunnimaravillosa.com/archives/00000381.html
"Why do Americans want them? Because, methinks, whites (and Asians) are seriously fed up with the special privilege, the affirmative action, the blisterish sensitivity and racial hucksterism of…Who? I hesitate to say 'of blacks' because I don't know how many blacks support it. But the blacks one hears of do. Anytime anyone says or does anything that displeases -- again, do I mean 'blacks' or 'Jesse'? -- it becomes a national or international incident, whites cringe and cower and apologize desperately in hopes of keeping their jobs or offices. And so they delight when someone actually stands up, however briefly, to the hucksters."
http://fredoneverything.net/Memin-Penguin.shtml
"I can't remember a time when I didn't want to get out of the city and into the woods. I always had the longing. But like millions of other people, my livelihood depended on the city. And my habits were with the city. It's always so much easier to stay where you are than to change, even when you're pretty sure the change would be for the better."
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/wolfe94.html
"In some empires it might not be important for the top man to be much more than a figurehead, but in the United States, for all the accretions of permanent bureaucracy, the president is still quite important. Yet it is clear that we have in that office the possessor of a third-rate mind who doesn't aspire to intellectual improvement, who views stubbornness in the face of countervailing facts as a virtue rather than a defect, who thinks bravado and empty threats are the equivalent of courage."
http://www.antiwar.com/bock/?articleid=6508
"Gentle reader, are you proud that American troops are torturing Iraqis? Are you proud that tens of thousands of Iraqi women and children have been killed and maimed with their deaths and terrible wounds dismissed as 'collateral damage'? Are you proud that you elected and reelected a president who lied you into an illegal war that has killed 1,755 American troops, maimed thousands more, and destroyed your country's reputation?"
http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts109.html
"Toward the very end, MacNeil's true role becomes increasingly exposed as he desperately tries to suppress debate and substantive argument, with volley after volley of 'We're nearly out of time,' 'Congressman, in ten seconds could you' and the final, relieved, 'That's all for tonight'."
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn06302005.html
"Pride may goeth before the fall, but with politicians like George W. Bush, far too much time separates the pride part from the fall part. The damage that he has wrought in this country and the world goes beyond accurate enumeration -- most of it made possible because he has been able to use 9-11 to pose as God's sword to smite his political enemies at home and abroad."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/bush-melting.html
"Who or what decides when our presence is no longer required: what, in short, does 'victory' look like? The president gave us no answer to that question, but instead demanded that we give him a blank check to pursue his policy to the last National Guardsman. Trust me, he's telling us: I know what's best for the nation."
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=6506
"Even though the Iraqi people and their ruler, Saddam Hussein, had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks, President Bush was correct in once again linking 9/11 to his invasion and occupation of Iraq in his speech to the nation last night. Why? Because the motivation behind the 9/11 attacks was the same as the motivation behind the insurgency in Iraq: U.S. foreign policy."
http://www.fff.org/comment/com0506h.asp
"[A]s Austrians are increasingly inclined to emphasize, advocacy for a gold standard is the combination of (1) advocacy for free-market money, and (2) a prediction about what commodity money the free market will choose. I know at least one prominent Misesian who thinks the market would choose silver."
http://www.bkmarcus.com/blog/2005/07/on-goldbugs-and-free-market-money.html
"'[T]ake their future into your hands, now.' That's Joel Turtel's blunt message for parents of school-age children in Public Schools, Public Menace. Turtel contends government-run schools have become so dangerous and so completely unable to teach that parents should give up on those schools and look elsewhere--he recommends homeschooling--to educate their kids."
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=17380
"Financial markets work by anticipation. Even if the crowding-out effect in the trade balance as the result of a rising share of interest payment is not yet severe, private financiers will become more reluctant to lend. The Asian central banks as creditors to the United States may wait somewhat longer than private investors, but when trade exchange begins to weaken, they, too, will reduce and finally stop lending."
http://www.mises.org/story/1845
"Although appearing to be a free-market solution, the voucher system could actually destroy any real alternative to the public schools. While vouchers might improve education slightly in the short term, over the longer run they would threaten to destroy any possibility of real school choice and undermine existing educational pluralism among private schools in America."
http://www.fee.org/vnews.php?nid=7008
"Although a significant number of domestic violence victims are male, VAWA defines victims as female. As one result, tax-funded domestic violence shelters and services assist women and routinely turn away men, often including older male children."
http://www.ifeminists.net/introduction/editorials/2005/0629.html
"If the situation is beginning to look at little ridiculous, it should. In the 1950s some people irrationally feared swarms of Chinese invading the United States and imposing communism. Today some people irrationally fear floods of Chinese shirts invading the United States and imposing ... what? Consumerism?"
http://www.fff.org/comment/com0506g.asp
"Through years of conditioning, they have learned to identify themselves with 'their' government, and are thus unprepared to see that the state's principal function has always been the conduct of wars. On the other hand, they regard themselves as too decent to sanction a war that was carefully put together by an administration of pathological liars."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer110.html
"The U.S. national security bureaucracies, dependent on public fears of oil shortages or high prices to maintain the flow of tens of billions of dollars into their agency coffers, have long had a vested interest in ignoring the fact that the worldwide oil market would function well without their meddling."
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1532
"While Bush's lefty critics incessantly castigate him as a liar, it is not clear whether 'explanations' such as 'Cuz we were attacked technically rise to the level of a lie. To qualify as a good lie, a statement should be at least remotely believable, not patently ridiculous."
http://www.thornwalker.com/ditch/fields_wez_attakt.htm
"These are facts. They are facts that constitute a central part of antebellum American history. Yet to say that the standard American history text does not trace the influence of the Principles of '98 over the course of the ensuing years, as I have done all too briefly here, would be the understatement of the century."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/woods/woods44.html
"Once we understand the present Supreme Court -- where each justice is entitled to four law clerks and the Court is annually deciding no more than about 80 full-fledged cases -- we have to acknowledge frankly that being a justice is a very pleasant and cushy part-time job."
http://www.reason.com/0507/fe.jw.supreme.shtml
"Kicking people out of their homes like a villain in a bad silent movie is something no decent person should tolerate being done in their name and there should be loud cries of righteous indignation over this ruling. "
http://www.ncc-1776.com/tle2005/tle325-20050626-05.html
"After three years of fighting, Rumsfeld still doesn't understand that the Iraqi people are the insurgency. Is Rumsfeld still clinging to the myth that the insurgency is an outside element injected into Iraq? When will the moronic Bush administration realize that it is creating the environment in which the insurgency is prevailing?"
http://www.antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=6468
"Although the potential for civil war exists after a U.S. withdrawal, it might be avoided if the administration is open to radical new ideas, such as a decentralized government. Because the Sunnis fear Shi’ite domination, they may have an incentive to quit fighting if this fear is eliminated. The only way that can be done is by making the Iraqi central government weak or nonexistent. ... In any decentralizing settlement, those security forces would need to be dismantled and security provided by local militias or police forces."
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1527
"If Bush and the media succeed in convincing Americans that this mission is about democracy, not WMD, as originally stated, then I presume we will soon be invading a host of undemocratic nations, friends and foes alike. Let's not leave out Uzbekistan or Pakistan . Iran recently had elections, but it is doubtful they will be left out of this worthy crusade."
http://www.strike-the-root.com/51/gronquist/gronquist2.html
"Leibniz is known among philosophers for his wide range of thought about fundamental philosophical ideas and principles, including truth, necessary and contingent truths, possible worlds, the principle of sufficient reason…."
http://mally.stanford.edu/leibniz.html
"He was a producer for Chess and Checker Records in Chicago and is considered one of the key figures in the creation of Chicago blues. … He wrote many famous blues songs, usually producing and playing bass when they were first recorded."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Dixon
"She stayed on SNL for 5 years, from 1975 to 1980.... On this show she created characters like Emily Litella, loudmouthed Roseanne Roseannadanna, nerd Lisa Loopner, and Baba Wawa, a talk show host with a speech impediment."
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0705717/bio
"[The Punisher] doesn't have much for sex but makes up for that in the amount of violence on screen. It is the story of former soldier and retired FBI cop Frank Castle and is summed up in some of the commentary on the DVD this way: Frank, skulls and guns. If that doesn't sound intriguing to you, then this movie is probably not for you. If it does have a certain allure, then this movie may well be a real find."
http://endervidualism.com/agora/punisher_2004.htm
"It is the realization that the fictionalized accounts are only thinly veiled descriptions of actual government crimes that makes the reader's blood run cold and crystallizes the understanding that voting our [conscience] will not restore our liberties, but just the opposite. Succinctly stated, the book is a highly readable 'call to arms' written in a Harlequin meets Ayn Rand style." That is a well turned descriptive phrase.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/forbush1.html
"Pataki ought to have answered the News by telling its editors to take a vacation, go get themselves laid somewhere, and come back ready to engage in something other than third-rate witch-hunting horseshit masquerading as advocacy journalism in a newspaper that would probably pay a hundred grand for an exclusive interview with Paris Hilton's chihuahua."
http://www.nypress.com/18/26/news&columns/taibbi.cfm
"I was pleased to receive your gracious request for my presence at the small get-together to be held in your exalted halls on Thursday the 28th of July. Be assured that I was grateful for the warm tidings offered by you, the Wapello County Sheriff's Department, and please know I am fully aware of your overflowing social calendar. Therefore, it is with no small sense of remorse, particularly in light of the many previous engagements of ours that I have had cause to break, that I must regretfully decline your invitation."
http://www.theonion.com/opinion/index.php?issue=4126&o=2
Flash animated cartoon
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0527,fiore,65532,9.html
"To me, as a teenager in the 60’s, Julie Christie seemed like a goddess, worthy of some sort of worship, however earthy that worship might be. On the other hand, my favorite scenes of her are from late in Fahrenheit 451 in the land of the book people at the end of the film. She doesn’t seem so remote and unattainable then." A light piece: my tribute to a great actress, from one fun place I blog.
http://tonova.typepad.com/thesuddencurve/2005/06/space_babe_juli.html
"July 4th thus should not only remind us of our political independence from Britain. It should also call to mind the joys of being morally, intellectually and economically independent, and what [it] is to be true Americans."
http://www.objectivistcenter.org/mediacenter/articles/ehudgins_rff-July4.asp
"I don't mind hard work. But between sessions of work, I aspire to lie around on a hammock, sipping a gin and tonic, and catching some rays, untroubled by a single significant thought or obligation. Or I aspire to meditate in serene, centered silence. To Be Present in the world, fully alive in the moment. Instead, here I am making mental to-do lists while the sun is shining and the birds are singing."
http://www.backwoodshome.com/columns/wolfe050701.html
"Where the state is, there also is the growth of the state. Why does a state's scope enlarge? One theory is that interest groups seek to use the state's taxing power for their own benefit."
http://www.mises.org/story/1853
"In the face of a family court system which usually grants mothers a monopoly of power over children, these fathers must buy or rent their children back. When mothers allow their children to live with their fathers-or send them there because they've become unruly or inconvenient-fathers often won't challenge custodial and financial arrangements because they fear doing so will mean they'll be pushed out of their children's lives."
http://www.newswithviews.com/Sacks/glenn22.htm
"Compare the 300 million people around the globe WHO claims are 'obese' and consider just the world's children. In developing countries, one in three children (more than 500 million) has no access to sanitation facilities; 1 in 5 (400 million) has no access to safe water; more than 640 million are without shelter; and 270 million have no access to healthcare services."
http://www.techcentralstation.com/063005F.html
"Ideally, the citizen's weapons would always be equal or superior to the government's. That's the sole purpose of the Second Amendment: to make sure the people are as well-armed as the potential jackboots. That way, the wanna-be Gestapo will always think twice before trying to make inroads into people's rights."
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