Nobody said it would be easy, in fact, we know it is hard

http://mises.org/library/isaiahs-job

The purpose is to reassure the remnant, and to persuade those who are potential remnant. The masses are content to mutually loot.

100 years ago the Christian west paused in its self-imolation to remember the birth of Christ

Mary Theroux writes movingly about it at the Independent Institute.

http://blog.independent.org/2014/12/24/the-100th-anniversary-of-the-christmas-truce/

An excerpt:

Such warm fuzzies for “the enemy”, of course, undermined the cause of their rulers, and eventually all along the front officers retook charge of the situation, in some cases ordering their soldiers to take up arms or be shot themselves; in one case, a British officer shot a German soldier walking unarmed in no-man’s land, bringing the truce to a bloody end.
And thus the secret to maintaining war: we must never come to know our declared enemies, must never think of them as humans just as we are, loving their families, hoping for home and a better life. Faceless caricatures are so much better for keeping passions pitched.
And thus the secret every good ruler knows: divide and conquer. Portray “them” as different, sub-human, unworthy of the consideration we hold as our due, and certainly ones to whom Christ never intended the Golden Rule to apply.
“Them-ism” is equally effectively applied to our co-nationalists of a different color, socio-economic status, or religion. Keeping us suspicious of one another well serves our political masters, accruing ever-greater power.

Do you love Christ more than you hate those your rulers tell you are the cause of your problems and should therefore hate? They can, for the time being, fleece us and boss us around, but do we really have to let them stir up hatreds within our hearts for others, for whom Christ also died?

Why the torture?

Justin Raimondo makes an important point about the torture.

WHY was the Bush administration so eager to torture. Was it really afraid of 24 style ticking time bombs?

Um. No. They wanted to start a war with Iraq. And they needed justification for it.

The administration had already decided, early on, to attack Iraq: all that was needed was "proof" of Saddam Hussein’s connection to the 9/11 attacks – and they didn’t care how they got it. In a 2009 interview with the McClatchy news agency, a former highly-placed former US intelligence officer said:
"[F]or most of 2002 and into 2003, Cheney and Rumsfeld were also demanding proof of the links between al-Qaeda and Iraq. … There was constant pressure on the intelligence agencies and the interrogators to do whatever it took to get that information out of the detainees, and when people kept coming up empty, they were told by Cheney’s and Rumsfeld’s people to push harder."
As Patrick Cockburn points out in the Independent, detainees were subjected to the worst torture "in the run-up to the war in 2003, suggesting that rather than preventing further action by al-Qaeda, the US administration was intent on justifying the invasion of Iraq. One prisoner, Abu Zubaydah, who was wrongly thought to be an al-Qaeda leader by his interrogators, was waterboarded 83 times in August 2002, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 times in March 2003. The first questions asked of the latter after he was captured in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, were all about Iraq and not about forthcoming al-Qaeda attacks, according to The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan." The book also relates how Cheney’s office wanted to waterboard a top Iraqi official to get him to "verify" the alleged Iraqi connection to al-Qaeda.

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2014/12/18/why-did-they-torture/

So the even larger crime than the torture and imprisoning for over a decade of many people who'd just been turned in by locals to collect a bounty or to settle a private score is that the false "intelligence" gained from the torture was used to (re)start a war and kill in the neighborhood of a million people.

So while they resort to Jack Bauer torture porn situations to justify it, the torture that occurred was to extract a specific, pre-determined, response.

The joy of being the hyper-power is never having to say you're sorry, I guess. Destroying infrastructure so that people die from lack of sanitation, imposing sanctions which killed a half-million people (mostly children and the aged), all to "encourage" the people to rise up and throw off someone who previously was a US stooge... What guilt do the folks in D.C. bear from enabling and encouraging the 8 year war of aggression by Iraq on Iran? About 300,000 civilians killed. Many more soldiers. About $1 trillion in destruction.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. Whose sons are the warmongers?

Christians for torture, atheists for sanity?

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/week-god-122014

This really challenges my faith, not in Christ, but in Christians.

Hahaha .... And more believable

From Bob Murphy

 

 

 

 

Torture?

Remembering back to the early 2000's when many of us were scared because D.C. wouldn't admit to why "they hate us for our freedoms", these articles about torture ring true to me.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/torturing-god-out-of-jihadis/

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/torture-and-seriousness/

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/millman/why-did-we-torture/

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/no-accountability-for-torture/

The last article is probably the most depressing one. There will be no accountability in this life for those who authorized, carried out and justify and defended it. The state, as the monopolist of violence, will only limit itself so much as is necessary to prevent outright rebellion/loss of legitimacy in the eyes of the subject population.

Christians' citizenship is not in this world. We have no reason to justify the evil these folks do. We shouldn't be identifying with them.

A must watch speech

http://mises.org/library/natural-law-restraint-against-tyranny

In addition

I wanted to follow Jim's post with this from Lew Rockwell's blog:

In his City of God, St. Augustine tells the story of a pirate captured by Alexander the Great. Alexander demands of him, “How dare you molest the seas?” The pirate replied, “How dare you molest the whole world? Because I do it with a small boat, I am called a thief. You, with a great fleet, molest the whole world and are called an emperor.” St. Augustine called this answer “elegant and excellent.”

I have been stressing on our radio show that Americans do NOT have a government, not one that can be defined as one, but most are under the allusion of such.
I was sent this today by one of my brother's:

What the America is supposed to be -
A Constitutional Republic
where the rights of the individual are protected

What we pretend it is -  
A Democracy
where the individual is forced to comply with the will of the majority

What it actually is -
A CORPORATION OWNED BY AN INTERNATIONAL BANKING CABAL, WHERE THE INDIVIDUAL HAS NO RIGHTS AND WHOSE LABOR IS USED AS COLLATERAL IN AN UNLAWFUL PYRAMID SCHEME.

  So the question of how would we take care of "X" without the State, is really missing the point, as Jim pointed out. Who cares? The real question is, how do rid ourselves of it?

 

"How will we deal with X without a state???"

The unique and defining feature of the state is social permission to AGGRESS against others.

The little people like the idea of the state because it permits them an avenue to AGGRESS against others ANONYMOUSLY.

All of the overreaches of the state happen because the people carrying out the deeds do so anonymously (just following orders, just enforcing the law) and the rest of society accepts this rather than holding them accountable for their individual actions which they choose to do.

The orders are issued and the laws made because the lawmakers are "just carrying out the wishes of the people", they're not personally responsible for the evil that they are calling for/enabling.

The people make the political demands because they personally won't be held accountable nor will they have to get their hands dirty with the actual violence or threats of violence which they're requesting.

And people think that a social arrangement like this can be limited. Even in the "glory days of the republic" the state was an engine of violence and aggression against those who weren't "inside" it -- Indians, Mexicans, etc to benefit the people who were inside it.

What will we do about the X?
X may be "child pornographers" or "poor" or "socially awkward" or "toe fungus".

What will we do about the X without a state? We'll do what we decide is right and we'll take responsibility for doing it, personally. We won't hide in a mob. We won't hide behind a bureaucrat "just carrying out policy" or a cop "just enforcing the law."

Terrorism, Trillions, and Fear-Mongering

William Binney is a "former Technical Director for Intelligence at the U.S. National Security Agency" with 36 years of experience there. He resigned in 2001 because he profoundly disagreed with the bureaucracy's omnivorous and unconstitutional spying. Here in one succinct paragraph, he tells us how and why the spooks do what they do:

"[The national security bureaucrats] try to get everybody afraid so they will do whatever they want, that’s the kind of leverage that they are trying to use not just against the public, but also against Congress. It’s just all based on fear-mongering. The whole point is to get more money and build a bigger empire which they have done. Over here, we’ve spend for all the 16 agencies close to a trillion dollars since 9/11. That’s really been a money-making proposition for them, this fear-mongering. Now they are doing it with cyber security. It’s how you control your population, how you manipulate them and how you let them pay for things you want done."

Indeed. Recall, too, that though the NSA frequently claims its espionage against us protects the country from bad guys -- at least those not in elected or appointed office--, more rational sources insist it "has had no discernible impact on preventing acts of terrorism." 

From H.L. Mencken

"[Politicians] are seldom if ever moved by anything rationally describable as public spirit; there is actually no more public spirit among them than among so many burglars or street-walkers. Their purpose, first, last and all the time, is to promote their private advantage, and to that end, and that end alone, they exercise all the vast powers that are in their hands . . . . Putting a new [politician or bureaucrat] to work decreases the wages of every wage-earner in the land. Giving a [politician or bureaucrat] more power takes something away from the liberty of all of us."

(Thanks to Tom Dilorenzo)

Vote!

If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal.
Emma Goldman

“The typical citizen drops down to a lower level of mental performance as soon as he enters the political field. He argues and analyzes in a way which he would readily recognize as infantile within the sphere of his real interests. He becomes primitive again.”
Joseph Schumpeter

“Politics is the art of making your selfish desires seem like the national interest.”
Thomas Sowell

“Politics: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.”
Ambrose Bierce

“In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.”
Charles de Gaulle

“No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems — of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two. Whatever is number three is far behind.”
Thomas Sowell

Who should rule us? By Mike Anderson

A question that has long plagued the masses throughout history is "what form of State system will allow me to be free while also protecting me". To date none have emerged which can provide a reasonable answer. From the emergence of the first State systems to the present day, all States have had to survive off of the labor of their victims and the consent of their followers. 

 

All subjects of State rule are taught from birth that theirs is the best form of government and that all other types should be feared. Whether it was the "Fascism" of Mussolini and Hitler or the Communism of Stalin and Mao or the Republicanism of America, all are taught that theirs is the best and their form should not be questioned. If one questions the form, one is a heretic and a threat to society. Differences in the form lie largely in the centerpiece of the religion (oops, I mean political system). In monarchist rule, it was heresy to question the king. In any form of open dictatorship,such as Stalinist Russia or Hitler's Germany, questioning the leader is blasphemous, as is questioning his system of support, as he is the centerpiece of the political form. Questioning Hitler prior to his false flag, the Riechstag fire, was not so dangerous as it was to question after it, and after his and the public's consolidation of power to Hitler himself. In religious rule, a theocracy, the greatest sin is criticizing the associated god. If one wishes to know the centerpiece of a political system, look at what will really get you chastised or killed among the indoctrinated masses. 

 

Today we don't hear the term republicanism anymore; we hear the word "Democracy" and questioning the validity of democracy can get you labeled as a terrorist. Whether a system is Republicanism or a Democracy, the centerpiece is voting. Questioning voting as a viable and civil way to operate a society is unheard of outside of the anarchist circles. One must be a caveman or an islamic terrorist to think that being ruled and robbed by a certain majority of one's neighboring state milk cows is wrong. Those people know what's best for you, after all; And voting is a sacred right, right? There are those, such as Britain's Home Secretary, Theresa May, who believe that people who criticize democracy should be silenced, even with prison terms, because they could incite "violence" .At the same time we are told that democracies are free. 

 

As a side note, all forms of the state which are currently friendly with the US and Britain are "Democracies", including the one's that didn't get elected, but were put there by covert CIA and MI6 coups, as in Ukraine. As long as we're told they were elected, whether it's true or not, we must support them at any cost, even if it means throwing our children at some oddly defined "enemy" of the State, in it's effort to expand it's empire. 

 

All States, no matter who they rule, who their leader is or what their centerpiece is, are religions, all harking back to one central method. That is 'get them to believe a lie'. What's up is down and what's down is up; Use deception to get what you want. This method was presented, in the Bible, for example, as originating from Satan. 

 

Through centuries of conquest, revolutions, counter revolutions, etc, States have risen and fallen, replacing each other and repeating the same old habits of corralling masses of people like ranch cattle, to be milked and consumed by the State in existence at the time. But at no time and with no exception has any one of these efforts freed people from State rule. This includes America's Revolution, which simply consolidated power into the hands of a closer tyrant who was harder to resist had an easier time taxing and formed an empire that spans the globe today, murdering anyone whom it sees as an impediment to further expansion. 

 

The Civil War is largely regarded by the livestock class to be the freeing of the slaves. The great leader of the time, Honest Abe, is often regarded as the greatest president. Nothing could be further from the truth. Lincoln was a former Whig, turned republican, in the party's infancy and was by no means an honest man. The new party had a platform of high tariffs and a strong central government. Lincoln's stated goal in his inaugural address was to take control of the ports of entry of the South and force the North's high tariffs on the South to prevent them from having a trade advantage with Europe. It was all about stealing money. The only reason slavery came into the equation was that the North also wanted to have a majority vote against the South, who used the "federal ratio" on blacks to have an equal vote against the North. If the South had a majority vote, they could nullify the high tariffs. Lincoln and the Republicans wanted to send all the blacks back to Africa so the North would have the majority vote. The North had little use for slaves, after all, since they were Industrial, while the South was agricultural. Lincoln tried his best to get the war started by trying to maneuver the South into firing the first shot. In the end, Lincolnbegan issuing executive orders to send supplies to Northern soldiers stationed at fort Sumter, South Carolina, after the South warned him not to. Unbeknown to the South, Lincoln had boatloads of troops sitting behind the supply ships and when the South fired, Lincoln had his excuse.

 

In this example, we see that the war itself was started through deception. But it's reasons were taxation (milking the cows) and the centerpiece of the religion-voting. But the excuse was a show of aggression by the South, displayed out of frustration. It was common knowledge that Lincoln lied and deceived his way into war. Even Northern newspapers expressed disgust with Lincoln for what he did. In large, because they believed that such a war would decimate and divide the Union. But that is not what happened! The war grew the power of the state and in the end, the slaves were not freed after the war; The war just multiplied the power of the federal government and made all people slaves under it with little recourse. It is evident that this war, like all others, only boosted State power and provided a new fairy tale and chapters of new hocus pocus war-hero stories to indoctrinate the masses with and to inspire children to become bullet catchers for the State.

 

Every war is one more of the same example, so there's no reason to drag on with each one of them. The important lesson is that the State survives off of theft, death, deception and destruction. No war has ever freed any person from State rule (unless they get killed) because war encapsulates all the qualities of the State, often giving birth to new States. No armed revolution can free us from State rule. It will only strengthen the existing State or result in a new one. To free ourselves from State rule we must look in another direction. We must reject the qualities of the State (property rights violations) while also rejecting its religious centerpieces. In our case that centerpiece is voting. 

 

Democracy led to the ruination of ancient Greece and should have been tossed into the trash heap of history. All rights are fundamentally individual and the idea that my rights are preserved and I am free when someone I don't even know can vote on the qualities of my life, is ludicrous. How did Democracy become such a highly regarded system of tyranny? The answer is simple. The state will steal as much as it can short of causing push back. Democracy has been sold to the masses by allowing them to play a game of stakes called voting, in which they vote on who their rulers will be, how much they can steal and what rights they can take from their neighbors. In return, the voting slave is handed a piece of silver from the stolen treasure chest, to keep him in the condition of a perpetual suckling servant. By including the masses in the growth of the empire and its tyranny through "home team" propaganda, democracies have become far more oppressive than the monarchies of the past. Kings could barely get away with more than ten percent tax rates, a mere pittance of todays 39 percent top income tax, on top of countless other taxes in the supposedly free America of today.

 

By their very nature, democracies are not free. Nor is any other form of the State. But democracies are far more insidious, By fooling people into taking part in their own enslavement while thinking they are freeing themselves. Voting does not display the freedom of a nation nor is it a right, as is falsely preached by the State priests. Voting is a game of stakes. It is an act of war against one's neighbor. The voting process involves numerous ads, mostly misleading if notoutright lies and all are deception. It involves the destruction of capital through those ads and campaigning. It pits neighbor against neighbor on issues that otherwise they would not have to worry about. The process creates enemies out of those who would otherwise not have a quarrel. In the end the only winner is the State apparatus and at center stage is the religious sacrament of the State- the vote. Noone can be free if their neighbor can vote them a ruler or a freebie from their property. 

 

What of those who refuse to participate in the vote? Since they have not played the game, shouldn't they be excluded from its consequences? In any game, that would be a logical supposition. But since those who vote are also those who point the State's guns, that is not the case. What happens to a church where the members stop attending and stop taking their sacraments? Sooner or latter, the priests realize they are not wanted or needed and they, too, stay home. The Church dies. The state is the true church of Satan. Whether the creature exists or not is irrelevant. The term is descriptive of the nature of this beast. Like any other church, it will also die if and when people stop attending, stop taking the sacrament of the vote, stop participating in the sacrament of war and stop identifying with that religious organization which deceives, steals and kills.

“Christians” Approve of Gate-Rape Just as They Did of Genocide

“Some church archivists made special efforts to help track down members of alien races,” says Guenter Lewy in The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies [Oxford University Press 2000], “…Archivist Karl Themel  of the Evangelical Church in Berlin mobilized 150 helpers” – alas, the author does not list the names of these National Socialist “Christians” so that they may live in infamy – “and created an alphabetized index for  all baptisms in Berlin between 1800 and 1874. Every member of the national community …, Themel wrote, now ‘has the duty to become aware of his blood-link to the German people and to prove this link.’ Part of the cost of this large undertaking was paid by the Evangelical Church synod of Berlin. Within this larger index, Themel constructed a special section, a “baptism index for those of alien blood,’ which listed ‘Jews, Gypsies, and Negroes.’ Copies of all entries in this special index, Themel insisted, had to be sent to the Reich Office for Genealogical Research, the agency authorized to certify that someone belonged to the Aryan race. … As late as 1942, when the Gypsies’ situation had worsened considerably, … a Catholic priest supplied the [German police] with information from parish files.”

What blasphemy, you’re thinking. How could any true Christian betray the name of Christ so egregiously, let alone whole churches and synods' assisting the State in such evil?

Let him who is without sin cast the first stone. Here is the Amerikan 2014 update of that tragic apostasy: Anderson University, a “Christian” school in Indiana, has actively and enthusiastically recruited John “The Pervert” Pistole, Large Bowel at the TSA, to become its president – and this when both The Pervert and Anderson admit he has zilch academic credentials. I guess all the other serial rapists Anderson considered were too busy serving time to respond to the offer.

You’ll recall that The Perv ramped up the TSA’s sexual assault from something reserved for buxom women its gate-rapists lusted to grope to Standard Operating Procedure: at Pistole’s insistence, his minions sexually molested every passenger, even little kids. Yes, that’s a crime we call “pedophilia” and punish with major jail-time when deviants who aren’t wearing the TSA’s brownshirts-sorry, blue shirts do it.

Pistole also greased the skids for the TSA’s porno-scanners, not only forcing passengers to pose for the TSA’s peep-show but wasting millions of our tax-dollars on gizmos that now sit in a warehouse. Meanwhile, the guy lied, lied, and lied some more, claiming that the porno-scanners produced only a “chalk outline” of victims rather than a graphic picture of their naked bodies.

No regime anywhere, no matter how brutal or totalitarian, has ever instituted wholesale sexual assault against its “free,” i.e., non-incarcerated, citizens; not even the Nazis sank that low. Yet Pervert Pistole made that the USSA’s official policy. Now he reaps a reward for such evil—and from a “Christian” university, no less.

Germany’s “Christians” have nothing on Amerika’s.

Wear it proudly!

A friend of mine designed these, we are going to have stickers made and wear them proud on Election Day.

The truth

I love this.

Patriot's Lament with Daniel McAdams

Daniel McAdams, executive director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity joins us for the first hour of Patriot's Lament. Daniel talks about Ron Paul's days in the Congress, and what it was like working for him. Daniel also talks to us about U.S. foreign policy, and the importance of having trade with others countries instead of war, and how important Peace is to Liberty.

Patriot's Lament with Scott Horton

Scott Horton joins us for two hours to talk about U.S. foreign policy. If you know Scott, he can roll all day on this subject. Check out the Scott Horton show here and support him.

People seriously believe this...

I don't know if I need to explain all the things wrong with this. I actually took a picture of this in the workplace of a "conservative Christian". Obviously it is saying the constitution is the ordained word of God. So it should be revered like the Bible?
Makes me sick. Funny it places Lincoln so close to Christ, a mass murderer who trampled the constitution under his feet. Lincoln that is.
Share this one with your friends, and explain to them that this is wrong! You may even go to a church who would put this up on a wall of the church if they had a copy.
Idolatry anyone?

I don't like Uncle Sam...

Daniel McAdams to join us today!

Daniel, who is now the Executive Director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, will be joining us in the first hour of the Patriot's Lament radio show, 9-11am Alaska time, or 1-3pm eastern.
Join us!

We're All Conspiracy Theorists Now

Nice to see the mainstream media catching up to Patriot's Lament, which has been inveighing against militarized police for years.

Meanwhile, if you'd like to know what equipment your local infantry-sorry, cops have acquired from the Department of Defense for use against you and your neighbors, here's the catalog. Yeah, the endless list exhausted and confused me, too. David Fisher has very kindly "visualized" the data for us. His graphic dramatically proves that the only difference between cops and the US Army is a name.

Even A Stopped Clock Is Right Twice A Day

Finally, the TSA gets something right! When a journalist who lives in the District of Criminals tried to board a flight home in Orlando, Florida, the TSA's thug refused to accept his driver's license. His victim tweeted: "‪TSA Agent in Orlando never heard of "District of Columbia." Demanded passport because he didn't believe my drivers license was from US!"

Who among us does believe that Washington's cesspool and sewage is from the US?

By the way, this isn't the first time that a license from DC has baffled the TSA's ignorant goons--proof positive that government "service" attracts only the best and the brightest.

The Antidote for “Christian” Divorce

Yet another Christian couple tells me they’re dissolving their marriage – despite the young children the Lord has entrusted to them.  I asked the question I usually do when friends deliver such horrific news: “Have you been reading the Bible together each day?”

But I already knew the answer. Indeed, I have yet to hear from any prospective divorcees that they study God’s Word with their spouses daily.

Our Lord commands us to read His Law and to expound it within our families. If you’re neglecting this vital duty, you will one day answer to God Himself as to why. Understand, too, that His judgment may fall on you – and your innocent offspring -- here and now rather than waiting for eternity, as you endure the bitterness, regret, and heartbreak of a disintegrating home.

Finally, each divorce, especially among those of us who are supposed to be salt and light to the world, is a triumph for Leviathan. The beast despises intact, loving families precisely because they are the strongest bastions against it. Ergo, arm yourself and your spouse for battle against Satan’s citadel, the State: read the Bible every day, individually, together as a couple, and corporately with all members of your household. It's the best insurance any family can have.

Gary North on Patriot's Lament

Gary North joined us the other day and we talked about education and the Ron Paul curriculum that he has developed.

Becky Akers "Blimp over Bluffdale"

Becky Akers post to the LRC blog the other day this piece about not playing patty cake with the Devil's minions.
"Shaming, isolating, and shunning government’s leeches worked for the American colonists; they dealt so severely with friends and family assisting the British Empire’s tyranny that few Americans dared do so. The Crown had to import from England those “swarms of officers” that the Declaration denounced. The same tactics still work. Are you friends with a bureaucrat or cop? Why? Are your children or siblings contemplating positions with Leviathan? Let them know you take such attacks on freedom personally and that as enemies of all mankind, they can no longer expect a welcome in your home. Don’t be shy about telling the rest of the family your reasons for excluding the miscreant, either."

I think this is such an important tactic that we don't use to it's fullness. It is in the same vein as I wrote in Friends? a while back.
Why do you want to even associate with a person who is willing to see you thrown in a cage? Who is willing to support the State and all it's works? 
Are you friends with a bureaucrat or cop? Why?
Exactly. Why? Do you think just because you are their friend somehow they will all of a sudden not do as their god Leviathan commands? Even if it is against you.
Good luck.
There is even a biblical lesson to this(1st Corinthians 5:5). It is not to reject them just to hate them, but to show your disdain for their choice to serve the State. With the hope of bringing them out of their willful, ignorant Statism.
If we take our Liberty and the Liberty of our fellow man seriously, we will not be complicit with the enemies of freedom. We will not fellowship with thieves and murderers, no matter what they call it; protection, government, taxation, national interest, public good.
Have nothing to do with them. Let righteous social pressure push them out of our communities, as it should be.

Anarchist Highway

Who will build the roads? I have been asked this question enough times to make my head hurt, as most free market Libertarians have. Libertarian scholars much wiser than I have  answered this question,  but the inevitable follow up is, "Is there an example you can point to where this would work?"

I think there is.

The Dalton Highway, otherwise known to Alaskans as the Haul Road, is what I think is the closest example to an Anarchist road in America.

Financed in 1974 by the State and different oil companies and built by Alyeska Pipeline Services, the Haul Road was built to service the North Slope oil fields of Alaska. Alyeska maintained the road until the State of Alaska took over this service. This "service" is such that, just this year, a 150-mile stretch of the road was so bad that 15 mph was too fast to travel. A truck driver hopped into a State road grader and did a little road maintenance himself for about 30 miles; it turned out to be the best stretch of the road. The State was quite miffed because one person did that much during a time the DOT was complaining about lack of funding (but no one will rat out the driver who did it). The trip to Deadhorse is nearly 500 miles from Fairbanks, the industry hub for the oil fields.

There is one private "truck stop" on the route at the halfway point, Coldfoot, population of about 10. In the 12 years that I have driven the route, I have seen maybe a dozen Alaska State troopers on the road. For the most part, you can travel to Deadhorse back and forth for an entire winter and not see a cop. You would think that this would mean the road is in total, constant chaos, with road rage in abundance and crime around every corner.

Not so. The truck drivers that operate on the road have an unwritten code of ethics that provides for a safe trip on an otherwise dangerous road. Every driver governs himself. While the State does have a speed limit, it is rarely followed when the road is in good condition. But when two trucks meet on the narrow roadway, they slow down to a safe speed of around 35 mph or less, so they won't "rock" each other from loose gravel on the mostly gravel road. There is no State law requiring this, but it is a soon-to-be-sorry trucker who is new to the road, who won't listen to friendly advice and who decides he wants to drive in an uncourteous manner, not slowing down when meeting oncoming traffic. If you are known to rock other trucks, the word spreads quickly, and when you meet a few trucks together, they will put the hammer down and make sure to rock your truck. Everyone on the road knows who "that guy" is; the law says he can drive 50 mph and by golly, he is going to.

After a few windshields and the paint being literally rocked off his truck, he gets the point, and becomes a courteous fellow. Social pressure at its finest.

The weather on the road can drop below -50 in the winter, and although the law doesn't require anyone to stop and help a stranded truck driver, again the word will get out that you don't want to be a nice guy. Since it is not a matter of if, but when, you yourself will break down, you put yourself in harm's way; no one will stop to help you. There is no cell phone service for about 450 miles of the trip, and AAA is out of the question. Your life literally depends on how you treat your neighbor. Company rivalries, feuds and squabbles that may happen in town, all go by the wayside. There are several accidents that happen on the road every year, and everyone stops to help. Troopers rarely, if ever, are called out, and somehow the incidents seem to take care of themselves. Within a day or so, the accident is completely cleaned up, no citations are issued, and the road continues to operate. Private insurance picks up the tab.

A couple years ago there was one nasty person who happens to be employed as a revenue officer by the North Slope Borough, known in other terms as a cop. This armed bureaucrat took his job of being a protector to great lengths, and was known to be very uncourteous, to rock oncoming traffic, to write numerous citations of protection, and was quite arrogant to others on the CB radio. He had a badge and he let you know it. He was a jerk. One fine day when the temperature was hanging around -50, his car broke down, a couple of hours from his home base of Deadhorse. No one would help him. No one even cared that he was broke down. He had to sit in his car and wait for a Borough tow truck to come rescue him. I hope he got a little chilly. He now rarely roams the road looking for people to protect. He gets it now.

When you arrive to the oilfields of the North Slope, you are required to stop at a security gate before you can gain access to the 200,000 + acre field, operated and maintained by various oil company operators. This is not a State check point, it is the entrance to a free market society. All of the roads around the oil field to the different drilling sites are built and maintained by the different oil companies.

The guards are usually very friendly and accommodating, they are private persons making a living like you. They have no weapons, (although some do carry guns for protection against bears). When you are on the field you agree to follow the posted speeds, and various traffic and safety rules that the oil companies have made. There are various security folks driving around, and they will pull you over if you are flagrantly breaking a rule. 

But no State cops.

My brother was pulled over for speeding recently, the security guy was nice, explained to him why he pulled him over and said, " I am going to write you up unless there was an emergency reason for your speeding, but there is no monetary fine or penalty involved. But I have to warn you if you get 3 of these you won't be permitted back onto the field, but you can appeal this". 

It was very cold out so my brother said, "let's go sit in your vehicle I want to talk to you about a few things". My brother got into his pickup and explained how they were engaging in a voluntary law society right then (while this guy is writing him up), and how since there was no force involved or implied, neither party felt threatened. My brother told how it was in his best interest to follow the rules so he could make a living on the oil field, and yet he wasn't forced to be there and no one was going to shoot him in the head for breaking a simple rule. A monetary loss if you decide to be stupid since you won't be allowed to work there anymore, but no force is involved, and it's all voluntary. The security guy really got the idea, and said he thought it could work in every day society as well, you have a private road, obey the rules or they don't allow you to use their property.  

My brother has commented to me that at no time has he ever felt threatened when working there, or interacting with security, and I can say I have never felt threatened either, which is a far cry from when I see flashing blue and red lights from a car of a person who wishes to give me a little State protection.

I have not heard of anyone being murdered there, in fact I have heard of little to no crime, and there are about 30,000 plus people working up there at any given time. It is its own sprawled out city.

Imagine that, a lesson in Anarchy, a free society example, being put into practice by those giant, evil, oil corporations.

The next time you see a car broken down by the side of the road, with cars speeding by consider that the Officers of Justice [sic] threaten to fine individuals not licensed by the state who try to show real compassion to their fellow men. In Alaska, you can be given a citation from the State for stopping to help someone pull their car out of a ditch. Or a fender- bender with a cop eagerly writing a citation, not so the person at fault can pay restitution to the person he hit, but so the State can get its fair share, you can thank the roadfare/welfare State, who in its infinite wisdom of owning all roads has destroyed the meaning of self-ownership of the people driving on them, and made them forget the value of their neighbor.

And when people ask you "Who will build the roads?" and insist that it just won't work, you can point to the Haul Road of Alaska, the Anarchist road of America.     

ISIS/Iraq a charade?

I have been reading about and watching the goings on in Iraq this last couple of weeks, with the “terrorist” group ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) turning on Iraq and seizing several Iraqi cities, and I have come up with my own theory of what may really be happening there.
For over a year different war mongers and NEO-CONS in Washington (McCain, Graham for instance) have been wanting to arm the rebel factions fighting the Assad regime in Syria with better more sophisticated weapons to help topple the Assad government. This has turned out to be very difficult as it has been found out that several of these groups happen to be known terrorist groups and supposed enemies of America, such as ISIS. It’s not so politically correct these days to want to arm Al-Qaeda, especially if you are an American politician.
I suspect that ISIS turned their attention to Iraq under the direction of the U.S. State, with the complicity of the Iraqi government. Why would the General of the Iraqi army leave Mosul just as it was about to be attacked? Why has the Iraqi army, trained by Americans and armed with much more sophisticated arms than ISIS, dropped their weapons and run, in a battle where they had 10-1 superiority in manpower alone, not to mention AH-64′s and Blackhawk helicopters?
ISIS has now seized these arms and have in their possession the firepower that they need and which politicians in Washington wanted them to have to assist them in the overthrow of Syria. Not to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars they stole from the Iraq banks where they invaded.
I have no proof that the U.S. State is behind this, but it seems odd to me that the U.S. has not even launched one airstrike, whoever heard of the U.S. not bombing every chance they get?
The goal of ISIS seems to be in line with the goal of the U.S. State, to rid the world of the Syrian and Iraqi State, to split them into three separate provinces consisting of Sunni, Shia, and Kurdish, each with their own province.
The NEO-CONS get their wish, to arm the ISIS militants with sophisticated American made arms, to defeat the Assad regime, all the while acting like they are so surprised with the situation. The American people, dolts that they are for the most part, have already fallen for this scheme, watching all the talking heads of the MSM who propagate the Empires lies.
I am not saying there is no human suffering involved in this wicked scandal, obviously many hundreds if not thousands more innocent Iraqi people are being killed. Again.
But I find it almost impossible to believe the U.S. is not behind the whole thing.

Bill Kaufman joins us in the first half hour of the show

Bill Kauffman, author of the excellent movie Copperhead will be with us in the first 30 minutes of the show on June 7. You can read his writings at The American Conservative or on his website. He's been interviewed a couple times on the Tom Woods Show as well, both of which were very enjoyable.

Geo-politics and Ukranian secession

Geo-Politics. This is what Richard Maybury is going to be talking with us about today on the Patriot's Lament radio show. I know we are going to be talking about the Russia/Ukraine/USA conflict.
I am mind boggled myself over this whole situation. The US government gets caught talking about spending $5 billion to support a coup and put in their own puppet government, the US government spin was that the Ukrainians have the right to their own self determination,(on this point I agree 100%, all people, every individual should be the owner of their own self and decide what they will or will not subject themselves to).
So there is a coup, and obviously the US sets up the government they want in place of the one that was in power. Then eastern Ukraine, Crimea in particular, votes to secede from Ukraine, and the US government all of a sudden does a 180 and says the Ukrainian people don't have a right to self determination. Of course Russia is blamed, but from what little I know, the eastern Ukrainians are basically ethnic Russians, and because of earlier State edicts, they were given to Ukraine. Like trading around cattle.
I'm not a cheerleader for the Russian State, I am against EVERY State, but I have to ask, why can't ALL the Ukrainian folks have self determination? If the eastern Ukrainians want to secede, and be apart of Russia, why not let them? Whether they want an autonomous state, or to live in an Anarchist state, what business is it of ANYONE'S except theirs?
Hans Hoppe argues for individual secession, and I like that idea. Why can't folks just live the lives they want, and be loyal, or disloyal, to whomever they want?
And more important, what business is it of anyone else?
I can see by looking at the "stats" on my blog, that we have folks from Russia and Ukraine that visit the blog. No, it doesn't tell me who anyone is, just that we had visits from these places.
So, if you are from Russia, or Ukraine, please, I don't know what is really going on, so tell us in your own words. Leave a comment.
For the rest of us, we should ask, why should any entity be able to tell any individual who or what they must obey or follow?
America was founded on secession, shouldn't Americans support secession movements anywhere in the world? I certainly do. If humans have the right to self ownership, we have the right to secede. If we don't have the right to secede, then we are merely slaves to the State that claims to own us.
Independence from the State should be our goal.

Richard Maybury

Richard Maybury is joining us again this Saturday on the Patriot's Lament radio show! He told me he will be able to stay with us for both hours. We will be talking about geo-political goings on in the world and how they effect us.

Don't miss it.

Patriot's Lament with Mark Thornton

Mark joins us and we talk about the State of the economy, Liberty, and his skyscraper theory.
Join us, it was great!

Ron Paul Curriculum with its designer and implementor

Patriot's Lament is proud to host the designer and implementor of the Ron Paul Curriculum on Saturday, May 17, in the first hour (9am AK time).

Dr. Gary North was Ron Paul's original staff economist and has written extensively on history, economics and theology. You can read his writings at Lew Rockwell, Tea Party Economist and Specific Answers.

The topic of discussion will likely center around the 26 reasons to adopt the Ron Paul Curriculum today, and 4 reasons not to.
http://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com/public/3346.cfm

Other resources:
http://tomwoods.com/blog/why-the-ron-paul-homeschool-curriculum-heres-why/
http://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com