Mark Thornton to join Patriots lament

Tomorrow, January 31st, join us at 660 Kfar. On the web, 660 Kfar click the "listen live" button to tune in.
This is going to be great.

Jack Hunter opines about people criticism of American Sniper in the American Conservative.

Jack makes some good points. And this comes back to a point I made on the radio a few weeks ago. What sort of person DOES these things to other people? And the answer is NORMAL people do. Normal people who think that "just following orders" absolves one of moral responsibility for what one does. Normal people who think (as I once did) that THEY would never be THAT evil as to start a useless war or a war under false pretenses (not realizing that is how all of the prior ones were started). Normal people who are involved in their own lives and don't really think about what D.C. is doing to "little people" abroad and so, as Scott Horton says, history begins with the two planes running into the World Trade Center. People who see the things that they love under attack subtly and unable to come to terms with the problems then see a big, obvious battle as a straightforward way of doing, if not the right thing, something. Blaming our problems on people we don't much like anyway is easier, especially when "our" side has overwhelming military superiority.

Patriot's Lament with Dr. Walter Block

Dr. Block joins us for an hour of fantastic discussion.

Thank you Dr. Block.

Chris Kyle, benefactor of head drillers

Dan Sanchez writes about a popular movie at his blog.

The closing paragraph is weighty:

As radio host Scott Horton never tires reminding his listeners, the chief role of the American troops in Iraq was to fight a bloody civil war on behalf of the Shiite side and to install Iran-backed Shiite militias in power. These militias used death squads to ethnically cleanse Baghdad and other cities of Sunnis, and, as Will Grigg never tires reminding his readers, imposed a Sharia-compliant constitution over a once-secular country. This Shiite jihad was, in effect, Chris Kyle’s true mission, for which millions of American Christians now lionize him.

The reason our neighbors and family members go to the other side of the planet at the behest of our betters has nothing to do with keeping us safe. It has to do with flattering the egos of our betters, who tax and regulate our every move, and keeping their patrons in a competitively privileged position.

As Smedley Butler said, "War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives."

Government or Free Market certification?

http://www.zdnet.com/article/the-strange-story-of-how-a-completely-fake-gas-powered-clock-radio-got-its-energy-star-certification/

Did the scandal cut into the EPA's bottom line?

Were high level people sacked?

Would Underwriters Labs be so cavalier?

Hero or Traitor?

He’s infamous for something he tried but failed to do while the amazing feats he actually accomplished are forgotten.

He’s reviled as an irredeemable traitor when in reality he was one of liberty’s staunchest champions.

Critics of Edward Snowden sneeringly compare him to this long-dead hero—and they’re right but for the wrong reasons.

His name was Benedict Arnold, major general in the Continental Army of the American Revolution. Without him, Americans probably would have lost their battle for liberty—and yet they despise him. Most neither know about nor appreciate the lopsided victories he won against the most powerful empire of his day. And they certainly can’t understand why he suddenly reversed course to side with that empire. They damn him for trying to deliver one of the Continental Army’s most strategic forts to the British instead of thanking him for his triumphs at Valcour Island and Saratoga—triumphs that birthed an independent republic devoted, however briefly, to liberty.

Benedict Arnold was born 274 years ago this week. What better way to celebrate than to learn the real story behind this cardboard villain via my novel, Abducting Arnold? Ergo, I’m offering readers of Patriot’s Lament a special deal: 50% off the e-reader versions of Abducting Arnold and 50% off my first novel, Halestorm (in which Arnold makes a brief but unflattering debut). In other words, get both e-books for the price of one. And join me in toasting Benedict Arnold, Hero!

What are you fighting for?

It certainly isn't for democracy. The people who determine the majority of D.C.'s policies aren't elected, aren't even vaguely answerable to those people who ARE elected.

National Security and the Double Government

The abstract presents the solution as the electorate getting involved. Ha. That's a good one. The solution is the population not consenting, not approving of their children being used as cannon fodder (morally, if not as much physically), being sand in the gears of Leviathan, having the minds of free men and not identifying with the folks generating chaos abroad and at home.

Thanks to LRC Blog and Charles Burris for this.

The War Psychology and its Fruit

In order to bring a nation to support the burdens of maintaining great military establishments, it is necessary to create an emotional state akin to war psychology. There must be the portrayal of external menace. -- John Foster Dulles (HT2 LRC)

WW2 followed immediately by the Cold War addicted the American population to the adrenaline (and spending patterns) of the war psychology. Large parts of the population feel no sense of purpose (and may not have a job) if they don't have an existential external threat. This then becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy, as the actions of a proud, boastful and fearful people directing half of the world's military spending will be antagonistic and scary to much of the rest of the planet.

The treatment by the US of Putin, who was dangerously (to himself) pro-US early on, demonstrates how this plays out over time.

Here is a very interesting interview by Scott Horton with Boyd Cathey (scholar and assistant to the eminent conservative author Russell Kirk).

Chris Rossini about North Korea

Chriss Rosinni talks about what the North Korean defector should do...

First, it's never the person (i.e., the tyrant, the dictator, the President, etc.) Rather it's the ideas and beliefs that are held by the victims. In this case, the main issue is not Kim Jong-un. He's just the flavor of the day. After him, there's surely a long and endless line of tyrants that would fill his void.
If the dominant idea held by the North Korean people is that they must be ruled, yearn to be ruled, and despise any other alternative, then the crumbling of Kim Jong-un idolization will mean nothing. They'll just idolize someone else.
People in the United States suffer from a similar dilemma. Americans are ruled by rotating tyrants. The idea was accepted that if the tyrants serve a term of 4-8 years, that this is somehow superior to it just being one person. Every new American tyrant is idolized at first, with tears and incense, while the tyrant whose term is coming to an end is cursed as a bum. Americans are like a dog that returns to his own vomit.

If all you want to do is unseat the current tyrant, then you're not accomplishing much. The new tyrant will have to consolidate power, perks, and pelf for his cronies the same as the last one did. He won't have the option of not doing that because the last one's cronies will be fighting to retain their sway and the new tyrant will need allies of sufficient heft to hold them back.

Each transition of power ratchets up the predation on the private/free economy and the liberties of the people, EXCEPT when there is an overriding mood on the part of the population that the last guy went WAY too far. A little too far isn't enough. The changing of the faces will overwhelm that.

When the people want to be free and are content to let their neighbor also be free, when they want to have leaders only of their own personal choice and don't want to impose that choice on their neighbors, THEN there will be progress.