As important as liberty is, freedom from the power of sin is more important.

As we remember the birth of Christ and celebrate the coming of the New Year, I pray that we may all experience, appreciate and demonstrate the liberty we have in Christ Jesus from the slavery of sin, and the New Life He purchased for us.

Joe Sobran's Wisdom

There can be no greater triumph for the parasite than for the host to think of it and itself as a single unit. It’s as if a man were to refer to himself and a blood-bloated leech under his skin as “we.” -- Joe Sobran

Your Friend, The State

After the twentieth century, in which the world’s governments killed hundreds of millions of their own subjects, everyone ought to talk about the state the way Jews talk about Hitler.

Jesus' Government

Relax, the local crime spree may just be the Feds trying to corrupt your neighborhood teens and mentally challenged with sex and drugs...

And an interesting article on the police.

Some sizable portion of the cops don't start out as sociopaths, in my opinion. The incentive structure, the nature of the laws being enforced, the groupthink/feeling of authority (think of the Stanford Prison Experiment) etc. turns them that way. Some small percentage maintain (or regain) their humanity.

If you really want "law and order" you'd best not look to something shaped like a state to provide it.

Friends?

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom — go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.
Samuel Adams. 

This one is something that reminds me of a friend who once told me about a test he does for people he meets, and based on their answer, he decides whether or not he will even give them the time of day, much less befriend them. He calls it the "Raw milk test." He asks if you think the State has the right to jail people who disobey the law and buy/sell raw cows' milk. Based on the answer given, he decides whether his time would be worth spending with you. Yes, if you say the state does have this right, he sees no worth in your friendship.
This brings up a broader point, one where we decide our time preferences. How much time do you want to spend with a Statist, really, someone who for whatever reason wouldn't blink an eye if the State threw you in a cage. Someone who says, "He must have done something wrong, after all, it's the law." I think we have to remove ourselves as much as possible from the Statists who just WON'T get it, no matter how much time you have wasted on them. Freedom and Liberty aren't for everyone;, some actually like being slaves, all the while, of course, telling you that they are somehow free (thanks, no less, to the State).
I think it's time to take Samuel Adams' words to heart, and to tell these Statists--and you know who they are in your life--to move on.
What really do we need from them anyway? They aren't edifying our lives, so why even associate with them?
Let them live in their chains.
We should have a little more self respect than that. If you have no qualms over the State caging me or my family or anyone over an arbitrary law some mortal man made up from his little mind, I want nothing to do with you.
You sound more like an enemy than a friend.
May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.
Don't expect me to smile and be your friend while you chain me.

Saturday, 12/7, David McElroy

David McElroy, creator of the video "We're the Government, and You're Not" will join us on Patriot's Lament radio Saturday at 9AM.

David has been a political operative working in the system before coming to the conclusion that there is no "there" there. Hear him talk about this and his efforts since to advance liberty.

You can visit his blog at David McElroy.

I particularly recommend these two to your attention:
You can't fight the state by becoming the state
To become a runaway slave first you have to free your own thoughts

What do we DO???

This really is the perennial question.

Consider this piece by Wendy McElroy.

I'm going to cherry pick a few points out of her very good article to expand upon, leaving out her supporting arguments. You can (and should) read her article if you don't see what I quote here as immediately obvious.

The great political lie is that individuals need the state. It is a lie on at least two levels.

The first layer of the great lie: It states the opposite of what is true; the state needs individuals. And the state is desperate for you to believe it is indispensable to your life.

The second layer of the great lie is its foundation. Namely, there is no "state" as opposed to individuals. Both the state and society consist of nothing more than their individual members and the sum total of their interactions.

Individuals who form the state through their membership attach a specific meaning to gathering and coordinating with each other. The meaning or purpose is to exercise the perceived privilege to rule over individuals who are non-members. To do so, it is necessary to convince non-members of the state's legitimacy.

Mystification sanctifies the actions taken by individuals in the name of the state. That is, a double standard of morality is introduced – one for individuals who are members of the state and another for non-members. The double standard contradicts a longstanding principle of liberty; namely, that a violation of violates [I think she meant to write "rights"] committed by an individual remains a violation of rights when performed by a group of individuals.

Rape is no less rape because a gang is involved or because they shout "do for England!"

In her concluding paragraph Wendy writes:

The state exists as an engine of privilege only because the vast majority of people believe that the individuals who comprise it can properly operate on a double standard. If state agents, from the president to post office workers, were viewed as individuals who are bound to the same rules of decency as the rest of us, then the state as we know it would crumble as the illusion it is. 

After you read this you say, "So what does this have to do with determining what we do?"

The key thing underpinning the evil things the state does is the moral double standard which is necessary for it to exist. Anything which leaves that double standard in place is counter productive.

Let me say that again: Anything which leaves that double standard in place is COUNTER PRODUCTIVE.

Limited government people, Constitutional Conservatives, etc. all leave the moral double standard in place. Yes, they want to reduce the predations of the state to a less onerous level. Yes, they want to increase the sphere of private action somewhat, but the core error is still there. The germ from which we went from 1789 to today is still there. As Dr. Robert Higgs wrote recently the only difference between a limited government and a tyranny is time. Limited government people and constitutional conservatives are on the right path if they started out as neo-cons or neo-liberals, but if they stop there and get bogged down in "making a difference in government" then they're part of the problem, not part of the solution because they justify and rationalize the central mistake of the state, the moral double standard in the two main things -- stealing and killing. It can only steal and kill for a couple reasons, reasons that they like, but it still gets the exemption. Having that exemption it then becomes a battle of numbers and emotions as to when it gets to exercise that exemption.

So, what is to be done? The state exists in the minds of people. This is what must be attacked. It's key error and evil is the moral double standard. This is the root. Playing at the branches with a pocket knife may be fun, but often times by doing so you're fertilizing the tree.

If you think about the root instead of the branches you'll see that there are many avenues of action open to you. If you get involved in politics, are you doing so to "fix" the state or to undermine its legitimacy? If the first, then I think that you're part of the problem. If the second, I think you're part of the solution. But, it is a very dangerous path as the number of people able to resist the lure of political power is very small indeed.