The Ron Paul Revolution By Mail

More on Machiavelli

[Update1 - Lawrence Ludlow also reminded me of his informative piece on Machiavelli at the FFF site.]

While I was only pointing out a wine that I thought was both charming and marginally related to the topics discussed on this blog, a reader has taken things up a notch: Thanks to reader KT for pointing out this interesting article on Machiavelli. Garrett Mattingly makes the case that The Prince is really a subtle satire on the rulers of the day. Thus, Machiavelli is really a sympathetic partisan of liberty rather than an opportunistic cynic.

This could very well be. I must admit I've never been quite comfortable with the fact that The Prince is so totally opposed to Machiavelli's principles as put forward by the Discourses. According to Mattingly, The Prince is also pretty much the antithesis of everything else Machiavelli had written.

So then, it may be that Machiavelli gets a bad rap and that he's actually a master of irony. I'm not a Machiavelli expert, so I've just always uncritically accepted the predominant orthodox view (number 1 below), but Mattingly makes a compelling case.

The problem is to explain why The Prince is so unlike the Discourses (and apprently everything else M. wrote). The only explanations possible that come to mind at the moment are:

Obama is a nutcase!

He just said:

*If India and China's "carbon footprint gets as big as ours, we're gone."

*He derisively referred to "eating as much as we want" as if he will put a stop to this liberty! Scary man!

*Then he referred to our consumption of the 25% of the "world's energy" like a good socialist would.

I think we're beginning to hear what a loon he is now that the media has told him he owns the nomination.

Obama is the not so great unknown the media is foisting upon us by their total lack of scrutiny of the man and his wacky platform.

Did you know he tried to funnel one million in tax money to his wife’s employer?

Billboards and Highway Safety

Lew: The double-standard exhibited by the highway-beautification censors was evident from the start. No information promoting private businesses was allowed - information that would have been useful to both the driving public and business firms - but plenty of information promoting the state was (e.g., "this highway constructed during the administration of Governor Blotto" or "buckle up: it's the law"). But what has generally been overlooked in all of this is the role that billboards have played in fostering highway safety. Billboards are designed to attract the attention of motorists, a quality that encourages alertness. In my youth, there were few driving experiences as entertaining as awaiting the next batch of Burma-Shave signs (for those who have not seen them, these have long been regarded as the most imaginative form of advertising). By having their minds focused on one sign after another, drivers' minds remained attentive. Contrast this with the mile after mile of seemingly endless monotony on the Interstate. The drive from Atlanta to Auburn is unbearably boring, with nothing but a continuous pattern of uniform trees to break the tedium. A highway with no unique forms of visual stimulation is enough to put any motorist to sleep!

Take That, Lady Bird

Every "First Lady" has to have a statist cause. In the case of the wife of the murdering, thieving LBJ, it was a campaign to "beautify" American by demolishing billboards. Forgive me, but business ads are far more interesting and useful to the driver than endless trees. Tragically, she largely succeeded. So I am doubly honored by this:

Writes Chip Gracey: "I thought you might like to see this billboard on Highway 99 just south of Los Molinos, California.

"I thought for a long time about a message that could help our country. I came to the conclusion that what is really needed is education, and almost nothing educates as well as your site does. So, I made an ad for it. The billboard is located in a very conservative, albeit modest, area. Thanks for running a great site. It is my favorite place on the internet." Chris, thank you!

Let's Get Ready To Rumble

The Ron Paulians head to Minneapolis.

'We've Been Neoconned'

This classic speech by Ron Paul explains the most fanatical and dangerous ideological groupling in the US foreign policy "community." Interested in the bloodthirsty bunch that agitated for war in Irag, and now wants war in Iran, Syria, and many other poor, third-world nations? Watch it. (Thanks to Anthony Ajamian.)

Dub-Yuh Grovels Before Arab Dictator

The Decider-in-Chief was in Saudi Arabia yesterday grovelling and begging the country's dictator to produce more oil. The word on the street is that Dub-Yuh will never work up the courage to pay a similar visit to the Washington, D.C. lobbying offices of the Sierra Club to ask it to stop its opposition to oil drilling in the outercontinental shelf and Alaska. That would be expecting way too much testosterone, even for a swashbuckling "Texan".

"Bring 'em on," he said to the terrists. "Please don't criticize me; waaaaaaaaah," he says to the environmentalists.

Is Ron Paul a Blue Meanie?

Andrew Malcolm of the LA Times political blog thinks Ron has a "mean, vicious, cruel, and uncaring" side for being the only congressman to vote no on a resolution telling Myranmar what to do, but yes on resolutions congratulating US football teams. Now, as an anarchist, I think all this is silly or evil or both, but constitutionally, the internal affairs of Myranmar are none of the congress's business, while American goings-on are. BTW, notice how almost everyone seems to think the US state -- that humanitarian with WMD -- is some sort of charitable enterprise, rather than an imperial regime scheming for global and domestic power. All hail Ron Paul for being the one member of congress to understand this, and to have the courage to do the right thing on these seemingly harmless -- to the LA Times, anyway -- resolutions of potential armed meddling.

One good thing about Machiavelli...

Is the wine named after him.

Otherwise, Niccoló was pretty much a hypocrite, an opportunist, and a scumbag who has inspired petty tyrants for generations.

This wine however, is obviously a must drink for any political scientist. Like many Americans, I know nothing about wine, so I buy it based on the novelty or charm of the label. This was no exception, although I was pleased with the result.

I'm not a foodie or a wine enthusiast, but I was able to figure out that this is basically a cabernet that certainly was better than the swill wine I usually drink.

I bought this in Machiavelli's sometime home town of Florence where they apparenly have a higher opinion of him than I do.

More Lies From the Texas Parasites

The tax-eating child kidnappers are exposed for more lies.

Republican Visions of Collectivism

While all political systems are collectivist in nature, there was at least a time when Republicans could be counted upon - even as they expanded the powers of the state - to speak in individualistic, anti-collectivist words. Apart from a few like Ron Paul, that is no longer the case. John McCain - over whom most Republicans drool, albeit more like the reflexive excretions of drunks than the emotionally committed - gave an unfocused prognostication of what life would be like after his hypothetical first term as president. The core of his vision was straight out of the collectivist mindset of Bill Buckley, built around his ideal of "national service." "True happiness," McCain intoned, "can only be found by serving causes greater than self-interest," and "Americans . . . are sick of the politics of selfishness."

I wonder if this babbling embodiment of balloon-juice can be taken at his word, and be persuaded to put aside his personal "politics of selfishness" that he visualizes will put him atop the collapsing throne of autocratic power in the District of Collectivism? To paraphrase Lysander Spooner, perhaps Mr. McCain might see the "national service" he could perform by ending his campaign, and returning to Arizona, there to content himself with the exercise of only so much power as nature has given to him in common with the rest of mankind.

Bush's Pandering

I hate the whole "politics stops at the water's edge" nonsense, which is code for "no dissent from the establishment allowed." Did Bush, when he played the Hitler card in Israel, undermine this nonsense, as well as preview the Republican dirty tricks this fall? By the way, why is it "appeasement" to talk to Iran or Palestine, but not to the USSR or Mao's China or North Korea or Myranmar?

re: Obama/Hillary

I really don't think it's going to be that close. For one, the polling data does not reflect the severely-depressed GOP turnout that we'll see in the fall, the anti-GOP sentiment, the energized democratic base, or the massive black voter turnout we'll see if Obama is the nominee. The Obama camp has said that their strategy is to capitalize on the resurgence of the party in the Mountain West to capture the presidency. If the '04 map stays the same, Obama wins if he turns CO, NM, and NV -- all close in '04 and all of them are far more blue in 2008. If Obama "goes west", he will focus his message to woo mountain state libertarians, probably more numerous in the belt that runs from Montana to the Mexican border than anywhere else in the country. He will probably pledge to protect gun ownership rights, offer a payroll tax cut with part of the money saved from ending the war, promise wind and solar energy tax credits (solar for AZ, CO, and NM, wind for CO, WY, and MT), and reluctantly support oil shale production as long as the energy companies (1) find their own water source and (2) are fully liable for any environmental damage; McCain's immigration policies will also severely depress the turnout of usually-reliable GOP voters in the region as well. Outside of the Mountain West, there's no way the GOP will win another squeaker in Iowa, nor will they edge out the Dems in Missouri, which has been blue-ing as well. Throw in a possible win in Virginia or even a Deep South state (especially in Georgia if Barr is running), and you have a democratic landslide. On top of that, the temporary lull in violence that the surge facilitated is collapsing rapidly, and McCain is wedded to that policy more than any other American politician, including Bush.

What you reap is what you sow, and 7 years of Red State Fascism will come back to bite them in November; It could get ugly...

The Latest Nonsense from the Lincoln Cult

Compare the words of Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence:

"Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed."

To this, from one Austin Bramwell in the Takimag blog:

"Nothing short of a new national mythology could have justified
the Civil War's carnage. Lincoln preserved legitimate government
in North America . . . . For this reason conservatives . . . might
revere Lincoln."

So despite the Lincoln Cult's worshipping of the Declaration (well, actually, only the "all men are created equal" part), we are informed that governments don't derive their just powers from the consent of the governed after all. One man, in this case Dishonest Abe, is able to invent a new and ahistorical theory about America (his "nationalist mythology"), and prove himself "right" by orchestrating the mass murder of some 350,000 dissenters to the new theory. This is what preserves "legitimate government."

This of course is not new. It's the tired, old lie that Lincoln himself invented and is kept alive by such propagandists for the American empire as Harry Jaffa and his merry band of Claremontistas.

Stalin must have loved this theory -- that "legitimate government" is derived from the mass murder of those who do not consent to being governed by Stalin. I suppose that's why communist sympathizers such as Lincoln Cultist Eric Foner of columbia University opposed the break-up of the Soviet Union. In a Feb. 11, 1991 article in The Nation entitled "Lincoln's Lesson" Foner opposed the secession movements in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Georgia and urged Gorbachev to deal with them in the same brutal and barbaric manner that Lincoln dealt wiith his own citizens who didn't buy into his new theory of "nationalist man." Secession, said Foner, would destroy the "laudable goal" of "overreaching loyalty to the Soviet Union."

There are apparently no limits at all to the nonsense that Lincoln Cultists will come up with as they desperately try to invent more and more excuses for Lincoln's mass murdering of 350,000 of his own citizens.

Medicine When It Was Private

And doctors smoked Camels!

¡Viva!

Writes Robert Higgs: "Private-property anarchism is more popular than you would think in Latin America! El Diario de Hoy is El Salvador's top daily newspaper. And in Mexico City, we have this."

Obama/Hillary in a nutshell

Note to liberals: She has more experience; he's slightly to the left, but not much difference on policy really. A tossup.

She has a better chance against McCain though many are in denial on this including right-wing Hillary haters and left-wing Obama lovers.

The race is a statistical dead heat and anyone who thinks otherwise hasn't studied the numbers carefully.

Terrified Taxachusetts

See this hilariously biased article from the Boston Globe, an establishment mouthpiece, on the referendum, organized by Carla Howell and her libertarian posse, to repeal the rotten Massachusetts state income tax. (Thanks to Steve Vance.)

Obama's Latest Sin

He called a female reporter "sweetie." Oh dear.

Whenever a female waitress calls me "sweetie," the first thought I always have is to complain to the manager, sue for harassment, and try to make a national issue of it.

Sometimes I think Justin is right about the Bizarro World America has become. 9/11 -- or something -- has indeed ripped a hole in the space-time continuum, and so now petulant preachers, flag pins and endearing, old-fashioned language are the main campaign issue. Not mass murder and crimes against the Constitution.

State Radio on the Ron Paul Revolution

Thanks to Kit Maira on what really is the talk of the nation.

Ron Paul on NPR

Here's Ron Paul being interviewed on the People's Radio.

Bush League Golf

Anthony: Bush isn't much good as a golfer, either. He's managed to get himself into one nasty sand-trap.

W. Should Return to the Greens

President Bush says he stopped playing golf in 2003, to show solidarity with the dead in Iraq.

Since then, about 4,000 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died. I sure wish he'd go back to playing golf, and stop being president, instead. Thanks to Antiwar.com for the link.

Christian Science Monitor on Ron Paul

A respectful, even positive, review of The Revolution: A Manifesto.

Historians, Mathematicians, and Astrophysicists to Bush: It's Not 1939

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON--After months of rigorous debate and calculated scientific inquiry, a panel of ten of the nation's leading scientists approved, in a 9-1 vote, the following conclusion: given the Earth's current position in relation to the Sun and the fabric of spacetime, it is empirically incorrect and philosophically untenable to label this year '1939'. The findings, soon to be released as a coloring book, will be sent to President Bush in response to his recent remarks to the Israeli Knesset. In his speech, Bush implied that the year was 1939 and a numerically insignificant band of terrists was the mighty Wehrmacht.

Presidential candidate Ron Paul preemptively responded to Bush's comments in his bestselling book, "...after being called an isolationist, I was solemnly informed that the course I recommended in Iraq amounted to the same kind of thinking that had led to Hitler! Now, all of us are used to hearing political propaganda, especially in presidential debates, but this really took the cake: were the American people expected to believe that unless they supposed the invasion and occupation of a completely paralyzed Third World country, they were the sort of people who would have given aid and comfort to Hitler?"

This report is largely seen as a vindication of the fringe Paulist position which contends the year is 2008.

The sole dissenting vote came from Fields Medal-winner Ed Witten who declared, "In a world of extreme relativity where up is down and black is white, President Bush is absolutely correct in his assessment. As we cannot discount the existence of such a world, I cannot categorically deny anything."

[Unfortunately, I have to disclaim; this is a parody.]

Sabrin to McCain and Lieberman: Stop the War

Here's Ron Paul-endorsed candidate Murray Sabrin getting some press coverage this weekend as he challenged the maniacal McCain and his neoconservative coterie including Joe Lieberman.

Given Lieberman's comments this weekend, it is imperative to stand up to the bipartisan warmongers who look for any excuse to start wars. Lieberman is the archetypal interventionist--arrogant enough to think that he has the answers to the problems of the world, i.e. killing Muslims abroad and increasing the size and scope of the federal government at home. If McCain is elected, we can expect to see more of the same; though he will shroud his positions in the rhetoric of the free market by promising to limit earmark spending, don't be fooled. The earmark issue should be at the very bottom of everyone's list; a few million here and there is not a campaign issue...it is fretting over the leaky faucet as the house is burning down.

Poverty Is Evil (And Statist)

Over the last week I've watched with sadness and anger the disaster that is unfolding in Myanmar. People are dying by the thousands and the state there is making things worse (but what else is new?). Instead of getting out of the way it has resorted to blocking aid from entering the country; it has banned foreign journalists from reporting; and has set up --in traditional police state manner-- roadblocks and checkpoints around the most severely affected areas.

Yet the problem is not just the intervention that is happening now; the problem is with the state itself. Indeed, Myanmar is not exactly ruled by teddy bears. On the contrary, the Junta doesn't place nice with anyone or anything. Thus, whenever I hear about places that are "cut off from the rest of the world" or that are "out of contact" I can't help but think that this has to be the result of government intervention at a massive scale. For how else can we explain the widespread lack of infrastructure?

In countries where the market is relatively free we see greater prosperity. Along with prosperity comes more and better infrastructure --hospitals, communications, transportation, insurance and savings, and of course charity. However, in Myanmar, where people are kept poor at gunpoint, none of the expected growth and development that we see elsewhere has taken place.

Poverty is not a voluntarily-occurring long-lasting phenomenon so long as there is a free market to improve conditions. Poverty is evil and is sustained by the deliberate actions of that criminal gang known as the state. The monsters who rule Myanmar have no place in a civilized society.

How Ron Paul Also Changed Me

Writes Anthony Ajamian: "Much like Charles and Matthew said, Ron Paul changed me. Not so much my political views as I've been a libertarian since I could register to vote, but how I saw things as a whole. When the Ron Paul revolution started, I was a 21 year old metal head who attended a college that had some pretty socialistic leanings. Being in the kind of environment when you're a firm believer in free markets and liberty can bring out the pessimist in you, so I lost quite a bit of interest in other people, what they believed, what their political leanings were, etc. I just didn't think there were other people out there who cared about liberty anymore.

"It took me a bit to throw myself into the Ron Paul meetups, as I had no idea what to expect. Each time I went to the meetup, I found folks of all types, subcultures, ethnicities, religions... No two people believed in the same thing; everyone was there to work hard for freedom. Young people, the elderly, some marijuana activists, folks with quite strong religious tones, and even a Chinese immigrant who came here looking to be part of the 'land of the free', and was sorely dissapointed.

"Ron Paul is right: liberty unites us."

I Love Electric Cars

But psst: they are only "zero-emissions" if you don't count the generation of electricity. Here, Jay Leno reviews the spectacular Tesla roadster:

Ron Paul on His Book and the Election

Ron is interviewed on KTSA in San Antonio about The Revolution: A Manifesto, McCain, and the Fascist Convocation in Minneapolis.

Going to the Ron Paul Book Signing in Louisville This Saturday?

Be sure to get a ticket.

Congratulations, Chris!

Writes Chris Holbrook: "With the help of Dr. Woods, my wife had this cake made for my graduation (MA Political Science). The internet resources provided by Mises.org and LewRockwell.com have been invaluable to my studies and personal intellectual development. I now move on to the University of Missouri for my doctoral studies."

Ron Paul's Second Wind

Of course, the great libertarian athlete has not given up, but is winning the laurels in new ways. Writes conservative James Antle in Politico: "As an author, Ron Paul has accomplished something he failed to do as a Republican presidential candidate: finish first. His new book, 'The Revolution: A Manifesto,' has topped The New York Times best-seller list and the Amazon sales chart. It has also helped rally his grass-roots following long after John McCain clinched the GOP presidential nomination." Read the rest.

Ron Paul Changed Me Too

Writes Charles Krblich II: "Last year (coming from the most fascist of the right), I never would have agreed with Matthew Dailey -- the man who wrote you. Now however, I find that a common ground exists between us. Not only has Ron Paul changed his world view, but he has also changed mine, and LRC.com is where I get to deluge myself with this perfectly sane and rational world view. As Ron Paul says himself in his book THE REVOLUTION, 'And despite their philosophical differences in some areas, these folks typically found, to their surprise, that they rather liked each other.'"

Has Karl Rove Always Been So Wrong?

My Texas friends tell me yes. I've seen him in action with conservative groups, with a masterful grasp of arcane facts -- but a Game Boy has more memory, and is less inane.

Today he tells the WSJ that McCain must convince America of the importance of the Iraq War. Once we swallow that whopper, Rove serves up an even better one: "Republicans also face challenges with the young (whose opposition to the war and attraction to Mr. Obama have made them Democrats)" -- conveniently and intentionally (remember his mind is a junior Game Boy) ignoring Ron Paul's inspiration of millions of young people, who are fed up with the cynical manipulations of people like -- Karl Rove!

All this he puts under the title of, "The GOP must stand for something"! As in, let's embrace the same policies that have destroyed the GOP, the conservative movement, the pro-family coalitions -- Claes Ryn is right,the Jacobins have triumphed. The revolution requires annihilation of reality to make way for the new abstract universalism in which the neocons can rule the world.

McStrangelove's "I Have A Dream" Speech

When I heard Faux News announce this morning that John McStrangelove was to share his "vision for America" in a speech this morning, I decided to see what the GOP's visionary had to say. The speech was about what the world is like in January 2013, after his first term:

We are still mired down in the Iraq quagmire, although "most" troops have returned. "We maintain a military presence" there, however, as we continue (forever?) "trying to finish the job."

We will finally catch bin Laden. Ha!

The military/industrial/congressional complex will have ballooned in size: "The size of the Army and Marines has significantly increased."

There are only two income tax rates, althouth McStrangelove didn't say what the rates would be.

Two-time loser endorses Obama

John Edwards (his wife's for Hillary).

A real man of principle, that principle being opportunism.

My ancient take on Mr. No There There.

Correction: a three-time loser (nomination twice, VP once).

Rather be lucky than good

Obama attacked by the most unpopular person in the country, George Bush.

Maybe Bush can make a living after retirement by selling his criticism to the highest bidder.

Maverick label a fit for Sabrin

Maverick label a fit for Sabrin

By RICHARD PEARSALL • Courier-Post Staff • May 13, 2008

CHERRY HILL — The most conservative of the Republican candidates for U.S. Senate outlined a radical plan to cut the federal government in an interview Monday.
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Contending that Washington is "bankrupt" of both money and ideas, Dr. Murray Sabrin said the country is in a "perfect economic storm" that demands a return to free enterprise and confines the federal government to the role outlined in the U.S. Constitution.

Slipping Detainees a Mikhail

Writes Clay Rossi: "Our government is using an old KGB favorite psychotropic drug on detainees. Need I say more?"

Government Child Abuse

Thanks to Bill Anderson for this article on Texas cop-bureaucrat brutality against children and parents from the YFZ Ranch.