3 Reasons to Repeal 1913

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

cross-posted at

GreeneWave.com

This Saturday at a stump speech in Rochester, Minnesota Ron Paul may have outdone even himself.  Famous for advocating the repeal of many laws, the elimination of numerous agencies and substantially reducing the size and scope of the federal government Ron Paul recently told the Wall Street Journal “I’d really like to repeal 1913.”  Why a whole year?  Three reasons:

·      On February 3, 1913 the 16^th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified.  The amendment allows Congress to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the states per the Constitution Article I, Sections 2,8, and 9.

·      On May 31^st, 1913 the 17^th Amendment was declared part of the Constitution by Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan.  It established the direct election of U.S. Senators by popular vote stripping the right away from the state legislators.

·      On December 23, 1913 the Federal Reserve Act was passed.  This act grants a consortium of private banks legal authority to issue Federal Reserve Notes.

These three events are barely discussed in today’s retail politics, but they are at the genesis of nearly every controversy the country suffers from today.  After 1913, the United States, once a grand laboratory of democratic experiments became irrevocably chained to the one-size-fits-all decisions of experts and special interests in Washington D.C.

The 16^th Amendment or the federal income tax created the IRS as we know it today and allows the federal government to pool national wealth and keep it without returning it to the states.  This allows Washington to create massive entitlement programs, go to war, prop up foreign governments, fund extensive bureaucracies and bribe state governments with their own money to accept federal regulation.

The 17^th Amendment, while affirming the redemptive qualities of popular sovereignty by instituting direct elections of U.S. Senators, removed the state governments from the federal process.  The bicameral legislature was originally set up to represent both the people (House of Representatives) and the states (Senate) as an indispensible component of federalism and an essential check on government overreach.

Prior to 1913 Senators gave the 10^th Amendment teeth by acting as jealous guardians of individual state rights.  Held to account by local legislatures U.S. Senators were charged with preventing unlawful federal encroachment upon those rights.  Any legislation that would emphasize the federal government over of the state governments or their citizens would be voted down.

The Federal Reserve Act also known as the Aldrich Plan effectively privatized what was otherwise a public utility, the nations money supply.  Handing monetary policy over to a fundamental conflict of interest is all that is important here.  The Constitution as originally conceived charged Congress with the public regulation of monetary policy, not private banks.  The Federal Reserve inherently desires our government to spend more and thereby borrow more at interest, whether it be for peace or war.

Few Americans appreciate the fact that while the last century is known as the “American Century” we began it already on top.   By 1906 the United States was the dominant economy in the world, enjoying the highest living standards and literally recreating the world in our image.  It stands to reason therefore that it is what we did (or better yet, did not do) as a country in the 19^th century, which led to our prominence in the 20^th.

With this in mind it strikes me as odd when someone praises what we “accomplished” during the last century when it in fact these accomplishments testify to where we are now – divided, decadent, laden with debt and in decline.   Nonetheless it has become a buzzword for some to claim the Tea Party movement, conservative leaders and libertarians want to “repeal the 20^th century” evidenced here, here, here and in this video:

This byword hides the fact that nearly all of the 20^th century’s legislative accomplishments and wars are predicated on the fundamental changes that literally ripped the heart and soul out of the Constitution.  Its a matter of perspective, does one measure accomplishments on what we are able to do through government namely by winning wars or passing laws?  Or does one measure accomplishments on our aggregate ability to progress and add value to each others lives, something government can never do?

These three pieces of legislation over the last 105 years acting in concert have effectively ended capitalism and replaced it with corporatism.  The year of 1913 was crucial in reducing a vibrant republic to one glacial organism monolithic in its agenda, pallid in its imagination, unresponsive to the needs of its people and growing in capacity to harm not only Americans, but others as well.  We must now ask ourselves: shall we like so many other nations succumb and be pulled back into the fog of history or are we to reclaim our culture of freedom and emphasis on the individual and resist the fate of so many nations?

Ron Paul's Liberal Honey

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

cross posted at

GreeneWave.com

   Now that everyone’s feet have hit the ground and Romney has reasserted his “front runner status” (as the mainstream media enjoys to browbeat) some like Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard are musing about another Santorum surge; praying, hoping for Bush 2.0.  There is only one problem.  Although the GOP is potentially dethroning one of the most radical presidencies since FDR or LBJ, as Kristol laments, their Florida primary turnout was actually down 12% from 2008. 

How can Barak Hussein Obama, the Premier of Polarization, not light a fire under the GOP?  They better figure it out.  In Florida, Mitt Romney may have been able to outspend Newt Gingrich by a 4 to 1 margin; that will not be the case against Barack’s billion-dollar war chest.  Romney will need a lot more than millions in milquetoast rhetoric to revitalize this evidently anemic party. 

To be fair, this may have merely been the Florida GOP, Iowa’s turnout after all was record breaking, but was that because of Romney or something else?  Maybe it was the ugliness of the campaign that kept Floridians at home, but that most assuredly will not change as the Democrats plan to make this election more about character than content.  Perhaps it was the nature of the caucus. 

While the Florida Slugfest was grabbing national attention Ron Paul as usual was quiet, but diligent.  He was the first to release ads in Minnesota and Nevada and able to stay clear of the mud he was left alone to continue his long-term caucus strategy, which is proving fruitful regardless of the what the Media Masters tell you.

Ron Paul claims he is 3^rd in delegate count and supported: here and here even though the MSM has him in 4^th: here, here and here.  Why the discrepancy?  Free information sites like Wikipedia and The Green Papers offer a little more insight into the fog that often surrounds the U.S. electoral system. 

There are, for example, differences in “soft” versus “hard” delegates and “pledged” or “bound” delegates versus “unpledged” or “not bound” delegates. It essentially boils down to reporting projected versus formally pledged delegates.  The MSM prefers the latter.  In the end it’s more than just the ballot box, as Politico’s James Hohmann points out:

The primary and caucus “…states don’t award delegates on the day they hold votes, instead apportioning delegates at local party meetings, where Paul’s camp believes its superior organization can help it capture a majority that their candidate may not have won outright on election day.”

Spontaneous organization and zeal as I have mentioned is the bread and butter of Ron Paul’s Guerilla Grassroots.

            As the Christian Science Monitor points out Ron Paul with this odd strategy may in fact win more delegates this coming month than Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich combined!  The reason?  It is what Romney, Gingrich and Santorum all lack and what Ron Paul is in large supply – liberal honey.    

As evidenced in Iowa, Ron Paul pulls from the top of the political spectrum.  This may seem odd to hear, however, many now understand there is a false dichotomy afoot when someone tries to paint another as either left or right.  It is why we see Americans leaving the GOP and Democratic parties in droves.  Fundamentally the real dichotomy is authority versus liberty, everything else is retail politics.

Ron Paul is above the fray in this respect pulling and converting ostensibly progressive and conservative independents into his libertarian coalition of sustainable governance.  The most attractive characteristic of Paul’s liberal honey is it’s cheap enough for a conservative, but sweet enough for a liberal. 

Take ending the War on Drugs for instance.  It promotes personal responsibility with respect to treatment and education while simultaneously emancipating billions of taxpayer dollars dedicated to massive incarceration, property seizures and interdiction from the grip of big government.  Legalizing and regulating drugs like alcohol and tobacco as they once were would serve the single biggest blow to drug cartels and inner city gangs sustained by the black market’s inflated prices.  Moreover, the Drug War disproportionally affects minorities whom notoriously side with Democrats.  Ron Paul’s plan fundamentally undermines this entitlement.

            Liberal honey most importantly allows a left leaning voter to swallow some of Ron Paul’s economic medicine some view as austere.  His stance on the Federal Reserve for example is as bipartisan as it gets, over 75% of voters want a full audit of the Fed.  The idea there is a coalition of private banks dictating how much money to print for themselves, leading to trickle down inflation, is appalling to most Americans.  Ron Paul retains nearly exclusive rights to this idea – End The Fed.

            Local governance looms large in our political future too.   The famous liberal idiom “think globally, act locally” is about to be fulfilled and added to the libertarian lexicon – “think globally, govern locally.”  For far too long central planning has concentrated the power of government in Washington D.C. at the expense of our states, counties and townships.  Ron Paul’s efforts to allow the states to decide on abortion, gay marriage and education allowing everyone to more easily vote with their feet by rekindling our 50 democratic laboratories.

            While the anti-war movement was eviscerated after the election of our Peace President Barack Obama, Ron Paul’s plans to close our foreign bases and return our troops home resonates with independents, paleo-conservatives and progressives alike.  Its police state ancillary, the technological and industrial blowback from our militant adventurism, is on Ron Paul’s chopping block too.  Ending the TSA, the Department of Homeland Security, fusion centers, and curtailing Top Secret America appeals to social libertarians and liberals alike.

          When it comes to a head to head between Barack Obama and Ron Paul it would be a gas to see a 74 year old man run a hard right on economics all the while luring Obama’s base away from under him with all natural liberal honey.

The Sun Has Set on Chicken Little

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

GreeneWave.com

From Disney's adaptation of Chicken Little.

            A fable is fictional story featuring any number of personified animals, plants or inanimate objects illustrating a moral lesson.  The old folktale of Chicken Little is a wonderful example.

Henny Penny, also known as, Chicken Little is a fable about a young chicken who believes the world is coming to an end after an acorn falls on its head.  On its quest to alert the King Chicken Little convinces others of the impending doom and they join in on the journey. 

At this point there are many endings, however, the most prominent features a fox who capitalizes on the brew of hysteria and invites the entourage to its lair and there eats them all.  It is here that the common English idiom “The sky is falling” indicating irrational fear or fear mongering is born.

We have over the last 50 years suffered from a similar panic when an acorn dropped on the head of one C.D. Keeling, the scientist whom first alerted the world to man made global warming while popularizing the now famous Keeling Curve, a 45 degree angle depicting the unrelenting rise of CO₂ in the atmosphere.

It is in the last decade that this pervasive fear of cooking the planet has reached an alarming crescendo.  The high water mark is no doubt the 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth, featuring Al Gore awkwardly rising to the ceiling on his very own Keeling Curve elevator.

Ironically, the Daily Mail recently reported that the fear should have abated in 1997, when global warming stopped.  That’s right, the planet hasn’t warmed in 15 years according to University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit.  Climate scientists are not astrophysicists, we know that, but the fact they forgot that the burning ball of gas positioned at the center of our solar system may in fact have something to do with the temperature of our planet is a bit strange.

If you find this hard to believe that “changers” would discount the sun’s impact on our environment, think again.  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in their infinite wisdom ruled in 2007 that man’s “greenhouse gas emissions has outweighed that of solar variability [emphasis added] by a factor of 13 to one.” 

While their aim was to discredit climate change skeptics the IPCC did not question that the Sun by its very existence dictates entirely the temperature of Earth, they questions only the variability between greenhouse gases and solar radiation.  New revelations about solar cycles reported by the Daily Mail, however, significantly undermines this view. 

Climate scientists at the IPCC, the UN, think tanks, EPA, major universities, and at the countless summits convened over the years evidently haven’t utilized one of the most important steps in scientific analysis – the control.  This only gives credence to the charges anthropogenic global warming is a “pseudo-theory” and that those who proselytize its tenets are engaged in pseudoscience. 

The control here is other planets without humans, i.e. the rest of the solar system.  Evidence that the Sun is the main driver of climate change is reflected in the fact other planets including the Red One have been warming too.

These findings comport with the realization that the Planet Killer carbon dioxide may in fact be lower on the climate change totem poll than originally thought.  It turns out dihydrogen monoxide found in the Earth’s variable ocean cycles may account for most of the last century’s global warming.  Alas, as I have said before Climate Science is a Volatile as The Weather.

It is here that the fox in the story reveals itself.  When Chicken Little and the Fowl Gang were slogging through their pool of anxiety the fox was only so happy to offer the solace of his stomach.  Much in the same mold politicians, big business, entertainers and vested scientists have provided similar overtures enriching themselves alone.

The neo Malthusians promote population control, politicians like Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton laud geo-engineering and economic enders like the Kyoto Protocol.  Al Gore and Goldmann Sachs conjure up cloud speculation a.k.a. Cap and Trade to redirect the wealth of the planet into their own coffers.  Technocrats play king within suffocating bureaucracies like the EPA and global governance is never far behind as is evidenced by the UN’s infamous Agenda 21.  Don’t know what these are?  Look them up.

The Church of Anthropogenic Global Warming’s ultimate goal is not to convince us that carbon is bad, but that humans are destroying the ecosystem.  It is in this altruistic vein that they are in many ways correct and therefore justified in their zealotry.  Moreover, this is where those of us whom are awake might win them over.

The rise of real environmentalism begins with shifting the debate from boogey men to legitimate concerns.  Burning hydrocarbons is not doubt a dirty business however as the catalytic converter and clean coal plants have attested, mankind has the ability to progress beyond initial crude technologies including internal combustion, we should allow it to continue.  

Because of the massive time and effort spent on the mirage of global warming we have stunted the growth of other environmental debates like mercury accumulation, genetically modified foods, geo-engineering, nuclear fallout, BPA awareness, soil depletion, and sodium fluoride.  This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it seems like we may at least be closer to checking off one more.

Newt is Right, Time to Shoot The Moon!

 

            Newt Gingrich’s bold new idea, recently revealed at a stump speech in Florida, of seeding the Moon with American astro-colonists is actually not all that crazy.  What is crazy is asking taxpayers to continue to spearhead space exploration for another 53 years; on this point he is as usual – wrong.

In last night’s Jacksonville debate, former Governor Mitt Romney seemed to agree, I know Ron Paul does.  Romney, however, merely saw a golden opportunity to mock Newt for his outlandish idea and to weigh in on it as a former businessman:

“If I had a business executive come to me and say I want to spend a few hundred billion dollars to put a colony on the moon, I’d say: ‘You’re fired!’” Romney boasted.

Only one problem, there are a lot of businessmen whom disagree with the former Bain Capital CEO.  Evidently Romney doesn’t know mitt about interstellar business.

Sir Walter Branson founder of Virgin galactic has kind of a knack for creating value and he sees a lot of it in space.  For example, Branson just completed the world’s first international spaceport in New Mexico and will soon shuttle wealthy space enthusiasts into low earth orbit. 

Virgin Galactic isn’t the only celestial startup, Bigelow Aerospace of North Las Vegas, Nevada aims to create orbiting luxury hotels and SpaceX has developed one of the first operational private space capsules called the Dragon.  For a surprising list of private space companies and their ideas for the future look, here.

            Newt’s reason for bringing up a moon base makes a lot of sense.  Evidently Florida’s Space Coast, a community heavily reliant on high tech spending, is hurting more than the rest of the country, treading water at 12% unemployment.  While I’m not necessarily a fan of some of Planet Newt’s ideas namely his love affair with geoengineering, what he refers to as “cheap” market-based approaches to anthropogenic climate change, he might be getting warm on this one.

            It is time to emancipate the U.S. from the U.N. “Space Treaty” we signed in 1967 in the midst of the Cold War and explore the final frontier!  Why can’t start colonizing the moon under a “northwest ordinance” and reignite the idea of manifest destiny?  Why can’t the moon be our 51^st state?  Are we to extend the same concept to the entire cosmos?  Do we have to become One World before we step off this rock?  If we wait there is a lot to lose.

            Gingrich wrote a pretty straightforward book a few years back: Drill Here, Drill Now.  In that vein Newt is for once consistent, a Moon base would be a colossal job creator.  NASA, however, probably shouldn’t build it even though they’re in talks with Russia for a joint venture to do so.  If Florida’s Space Coast want’s jobs they’ll find it in companies like Shackelton Energy Co. which seeks to extricate fuels like plutonium-238 and helium-3 by transforming the moon into a interstellar gas station.  Gingrich should write another book after he loses the election: Drill There, Drill Soon.

            Barack Obama deserves some kudos too.  Although Obama receives his due ration of ridicule I would like to thank him for ending the space shuttle program as it was because he highlighted for Americans the fact we don’t need government to be inventive, curious, or passionate when it comes to space travel.  When everyone was afraid we’d be hitch hiking on Russian and Chinese ships I said Goodbye NASA, Hello Space Age.  Finally the monkey is off our back.  Private companies might not be in it “For the Benefit of All” as goes the NASA motto, but their work will benefit all.

22 Ways The MIC is an Entitlement Program

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

BEFORE YOU READ: Realize how big this building is.

The Military Industrial Complex in the News

Last Friday the Associated Press released this video about East Orange, New Jersey.  Previously crime-ridden, suffering from gang violence and urban blight, East Orange recently became proving grounds for high tech pre-crime technology, courtesy of the federal government. 

From nearly a mile away and controlled remotely from the comfort of either a surveillance station or a squad car a bright red beam of light fixed above a video camera can instantly bathe anyone suspected of possible criminal activity.  Aaron Dykes of InfoWars.com breaks it down.  While this is an astonishing development it is unfortunately a typical domestic attendant of our national security posture. 

Last September while covering a debate between libertarians and neo-conservatives I highlighted one of the most glaring inconsistencies within conservative dogma.  While on one hand, with regard to social welfare, conservatives spit incendiary rhetoric at nearly every encroachment by the federal government; on the other, in foreign policy they applaud almost identical invasions (pun intended). 

Why is there is no cry from so called conservatives for restraint when our National Security Budget for fiscal year 2012 is estimated at $1.2 trillion, $185 billion of which is in interest payments alone?  It is because Eisenhower’s infamous Military Industrial Complex (MIC) is not dissimilar to its sprawling domestic cousins – a burdensome and ineffectual entitlement program with teeth.  The MIC provides an entitlement in four ways, from September’s article:

“…First to those presidents [and politicians] whom wield its power for political gain either through victory or diversion, second to those military and intelligence commanders [and bureaucrats] whom direct massive swaths of tax payer dollars to influence world affairs, third to a high tech industry addicted to generous government injections and [fourth] to foreign entities whom ‘invite’ our intervention and therefore defense subsidization in order to accomplish what they cannot [or will not] on their own.”

By no means is this list exhaustive.  As John Stossel recently points out on his Fox News program the noble foreign policy goals, which our Dear Leaders burden themselves with know no bounds.

            The American public wants a lot from their military and considering they pay $1.2 trillion per annum, a lot is to be expected.  But as we have seen in the case of East Orange, local law enforcement has become militarized and it isn’t the first time pre-crime technology has been in the news.  Pre-crime software has been used in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. to route future criminals for months!

Militarization of Law Enforcement

Much of these developments fall under what I term industrial blowback, the unintended allocation and consequences of our military’s equipment and or expertise.  For example, a local New York CBS News affiliate just days ago reported the NYPD experimenting with drones over the city.  It might seem reasonable at first; New York City after all is one of the world’s largest metropolitan areas.  The problem is, drones are being used in rural areas as well and not just to protect the border. 

Last December a North Dakota family was arrested with the help of a Predator drone for ‘stealing six cows’, which evidently kept wandering onto their land; pretty expensive toy for such a remote area.  These aren’t isolated incidences, there are scores of other examples of our military’s tools being used at home namely a field-tested surveillance blimp previously designed to help troops in Iraq conduct door-to-door raids.  If you’re a resident Ogden, Utah you might have already seen this little beauty flying over your Sunday BBQ.

The fifth entitlement recipient is obviously local law enforcement and like any welfare queen it is quickly becoming addicted to government largesse.  Faced with addiction the best thing to do now is: Step One, Admit There’s a Problem.  Unfortunately, as is most often the case, intervention is all that is left.  In many ways this explains the rise in the protest movement and protest candidates like Ron Paul.  However, while the protester may have been Time Magazine’s Person of the Year and Ron Paul is more popular than ever our national security infrastructure is still metastasizing, as there has been no real anti-war (or its anti-police state ancillary) movement since the election of Barack Obama exposed it as largely anti-Bush.

Where have they gone and why?  Obama has yet to come through on closing Guantanamo Bay, we are still mired in Afghanistan after 10 years, still involved in regime change and the Transportation Security Administration is still busy reaching in our pants and they have left the airports too.  Toting their backscatter x-rays among other things onto American highways, beta testing their V.I.P.E.R. teams, testing their F.A.S.T. technology at large public events and still flouting the Constitution, just ask Senator Rand Paul (R-KY).  On Monday TSA agents detained him on his way to the Senate in brazen violation of not only the 4^th Amendment, but also his privilege as a Senator from arrest before a vote in Congress.

    Sen. Paul may be awake and speaking out against the growth in our police state, but it has been evident watching the endless GOP debates that mainline conservatives weren’t influenced by the Washington Post’s two-year investigation exposing Top Secret America.  This amazing series details how politicized and privatized our national security infrastructure has become. 

Since 9/11, 854, 000 people now hold top-secret security clearances, 33 building complexes have been built for top-secret work, the equivalent of almost 3 Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings – nearly 17 million square feet!  The most shocking statistic testifies to an inherent conflict of interest.  Apparently over 265,000 private contractors retain top-secret clearances; our government has effectively incentivized creating enemies!  But do they actually create real life straw men?  There is evidence.  Judge Andrew Napolitano on Fox News exposed the FBI for as much in this video, a must see.           

            Still not convinced ex administrators like Homeland Security’s Michael Chertoff are raking in millions after building up their own entitlement nest egg and slipping into the private sector to reap the rewards?  Below, I expand on John Stossel’s list and show how foreign policy hawks turn into central planners right before your eyes.  According to Stossel: “People Want The Military To…”

·      6) Keep Oil Cheep – As I have argued before oil may in fact be abiotic, in other words it is not a fossil fuel and in fact renewable.  This would clearly undermine the Peak Oil theory, but that’s an argument for another day.  However, as OilPrice.com recently covered, America has the largest oil and gas reserves on the planet!  Instead of fighting in the Middle East “conservatives”, libertarians and independents should fight job-killing pseudo-environmentalists here at home.  While cheap oil is what Americans want invading armies merely create more instability and therefore higher prices.  The entitlement – not only the high gas prices and record profits for oil companies, but establishing a false scarcity providing the environment for green energy subsidies to flourish whether they are justified or not.  Peak Oil theory sure makes for strange bedfellows…

·      7) Contain China – The Defense Department really hasn’t done a good job of this at all.  Take Afghanistan for example.  Evidently it not only harbors terrorists, but nearly $1 trillion in precious metals too.  Unfortunately we lost the opportunity to develop Afghanistan’s biggest copper deposit to, you guessed it, China.  I guess our troops are meant to scurry around the country trying to win hearts, not mines.  Next door, the Pakistani government asked China to build the Gwadar deep-sea port, potentially giving China broader access to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.  If that wasn’t all, Africa is opening up to the China too.  The Seychelles is the newest country to court China for a military base and this time it’s right in the backyard of a not-so-secret U.S. drone headquarters.  Want more examples?  I’m sure you can find them on your own, HINT: Brazilian oil.  The entitlement is obvious – foreign defense subsidies.  Evidently it’s a buyers market with two super powers quietly competing.

·      8) Chase Terrorists – We’ve done that for over 10 years, but evidently we’re now in the business of helping them – wait what?  CLUE: Who were Libya’s rebels?  We also kill U.S. citizens whom are accused of aiding terrorists, as was the case in Yemen when Anwar Al-Awlaki and his teenage son were eliminated by a CIA drone.  If that was a touchy subject the NDAA bill made it ok to arrest U.S. citizens without trial.  Appalled?  Don’t worry the new Expatriation Act will revoke U.S. citizenship if you’re deemed a menace.  What!?  I thought I read somewhere all men were created equal and with certain unalienable rights?  Maybe terrorists aren’t human then, that must be it.  The entitlement – perpetuating fear, a war that by definition can never end and expanding Executive power.

·      9) Train Foreign Militaries to Chase Terrorists – Danger Room, Wired.com’s national security blog, just reported we have new clandestine commando team operating near Iran, known as Joint Special Operations Task Force-Gulf Cooperation Council, JSOTF-GCC for short.  They are responsible for training all of our allies in the Middle East and even Blackwater’s newest guise is still winning big contracts. To understand a little more about our peace president’s Secret Wars here is the Daily Beast.  The entitlement – more foreign defense subsidy, reliance on the private/public intelligence apparatus, private contractors, and equipment manufacturers.

·      10) Protect Sea Lanes – Evidently we do more than that.  Our Coast Guard has been responsible for not only our shores, but Iranian shores as well.  They recently rescued 6 Iranians 50 miles southeast of the Iraqi port city of Umm Qaser.  I thought they were called the U.S. Coast Guard not the U.N. Coast Guard.  The entitlement – Iranians can spend a little more on domestic concerns rather than their own coast guarding capabilities with the U.S. on the ready.

·      11) Stop Genocide – This is the most compelling argument for intervention, I know it tugs at my heart, but as was the case in East Timor and Darfur unless you have resources crucial to American interests you’re most likely SOL.  The entitlement – public relations i.e. “The Global Force for Good.”

·      12) Protect European, East Asian, and Middle East States from Aggression – Don’t they have their own militaries?  Also when it comes to rich countries like Australia, Japan, Germany and South Korea why can’t they begin to take care of themselves?  The entitlement – a generous tax break for their economies at the expense of the U.S.

·      13) Humanitarian Missions – As I mention above the latest “humanitarian mission” in Libya put into place a dubious regime.  The entitlement – you don’t have to have legitimate broad appeal to start a revolution just the right connections.

·      14) Respond to Natural Disasters – We responded to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and to the 2010 Haitian earthquake, which killed thousands and while these efforts are praiseworthy where is the mandate?  It isn’t found in the Constitution and the American people are rarely asked to vote on it.  Our charity is undeniable in this country; there are many ways of aiding needy foreign nations without involving our military.  In the end its our money and our governments should be planning and saving for a rainy day of our own.  The entitlement – disaster relief, in other words, national disaster insurance package courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer.

·      15) Secure the Internet – The ultra secret National Security Agency is completing construction of 1.5 million square foot NSA West officially known as the Cybersecurity Data Center in Utah.  Regarded by Sen. Orin Hatch as the largest defense construction effort in recent memory.  The entitlement – brand new battlefields and weapons a la stuxnet!

·      16) Police the Mexican Border – American’s may want the military to do this, but this is one of the legitimate activities the military is not engaged in.

·      17) Transform Failed States into Democracies – Democratizing states are notorious for being violent.  In the end effective democracy is more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what’s for dinner.  We’ve been in Iraq and Afghanistan for years and we haven’t come close to achieving the results American’s would consider acceptable.  The aforementioned nations are not healthy, peaceful or friendly.  The entitlement – public relations, “making the world safe for democracy.”

A few Stossel didn’t mention in closing:

·      18) Opening Markets – We opened the biggest market on Earth not with a missile, but with a ping-pong ball.  Richard Nixon’s open door policy was one of his forgotten triumphs.  When we have used military force things generally get a little dicey: 1854 Mathew C. Perry forces Japan to trade with the U.S.  Touched by power politics by 1904 Japan turns imperialistic and expands its holdings into Russia, China, culminating in the attack on Pearl Harbor.  The 1953 CIA backed Iranian coup d’ etat results in the Iranian Islamic Revolution.  The 2003 Iraq invasion results in an Iranian Super-state.  The entitlement – more problems to fix.

·      19) Policy Leverage – A recent article on Essential Intelligence covered the “crisis” brewing in the Strait of Hormuz, where most of the world’s oil now passes.  The dot connectors suspect that this may be in part a ploy to highlight the vulnerability of the strait and therefore muster support for an Arabian Oil Pipeline.  The entitlement – further subsidization of international corporations’ adventurism abroad ignoring the emancipating prospect of energy independence at home.

·      20) Support NGO Activity – The rise of non-governmental organizations has been met with both hope and skepticism.  Alleviating the burden of nation building, relief, intelligence gathering, etc. from governments saves money, but when these NGOs become guises for politians and their special interests they become a menace.  John McCain’s International Republican Institute had its hands all over Libya.  The entitlement – first dibs on contracts, information and influence in nation building.   

·      21) Direct Foreign Aid – Is the easiest and most obvious form of foreign welfare, most Americans are against it unless a small socialist ethnocracy is the recipient.

·      22) Drug War – Since the Vietnam era nearly every theatre of war has seen an increase in drug activity.  It unfortunately is a way of providing funding for covert operations, it provides future leverage against “fri-enemies” and is very often a backdoor through which to pass and garner information.  The entitlements are endless – off the books funding, information gathering, immunity, but most importantly it sustains deep state politics a world beyond the purview of our representatives in Congress.

Prepper, The New "er" - Deriding Survivalism

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

Image Source: CreativeUncut.com - "Survivalist"

You have all heard it before, the disparaging “birther”, “truther”, “bagger”, and now added to this impressive mass media lexicon is “prepper.”  While it may not seem immediately pejorative and I doubt many who are in fact preparing for the worst lose any sleep over being called a readier than most i.e. smart, this MSM nomenclature is typical of a system which harbors some incredible disdain for individual planning.  In the end the fact that being a prepper is self-proclaimed is just icing on the cake for them.

            Reuters today gives their take on it.  Evidently they believe this “subculture” never used to be our culture, there was no mention that this is in fact a movement of rediscovery not something wildly new.  Jim Forsyth of Reuters never reminded his readers that not so long ago we were mostly agrarian and self reliant, that this was prudent and normal behavior. 

The most interesting angle Forsyth took was the beneighted comparison of individualist movements and Christian fundamentalism as he harkened back to the gullible Millerites of the 19^th Century whom followed Joseph Miller and his belief in the immenent 2^nd coming of Christ. 

Forsyth’s article was peppered with ecclesiastical language meant to tie preppers with Christian occultism.  Using language like: “guiding light of the prepper movement”, J.W. Rawles book was described as the “prepper’s Bible”, “Glenn Beck seems to preach prepper’s message”, he interviewed Cathy Gutierrez an expert on “end-times beliefs”, and eventually in a seemingly back handed defense claimed preppers are at least not setting a date for the collapse like Harold Camping the crazed radio preacher of recent comic infamy. 

There was an interesting omission in this piece as well, the topic of guns even after a series of record setting months in nationwide gun sales.  Moreover, Forsyth claims it is not necessarily that preppers are afraid of terrorism, societal collapse, or an environmental cataclysm, but that they are “worried about no government.”  Really? 

Most preppers that I have run into would probably put government as concern #1 just above the Golden Horde in a serious meltdown, hence their rural domiciles.  There is nothing that gives me the willies more than some do-gooder FEMA agent corralling me into a camp “for my own good”, but hey that might just be me.

            In the end those whom are self-reliant, prepared and sleeping well at night knowing their future is a little more secure no matter what may happen are hardly bothered by this type of drive by journalism, just ask GreeneWave.com’s Prepper Don, but the effect is to downplay the danger of collapse.  Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.  Forsyth gave no examples of times when humanity should have been prepared, but weren’t - so here you go:

Irish Famine (1740 – 1741) – Central planning for potatoes led to 1 million deaths

Taiping Rebellion, China (1852 – 1870) – 100 million deaths

Weimar Germany (1918 – 1919) – Hyperinflation gave rise to Nazi Germany

Soviet Famine (1932 – 1933) – 6 million deaths

          Granted these are associated with big government or monetary mismanagement so here are some Mother Nature signature disasters, nice list can be found here:

Chinese Floods (1931) – Estimates of nearly 2.5 million deaths

Tangshan Earthquake, China (1976) – Estimates as high as 800,000

Indian Ocean Tsunami (2004) – Estimates as high as 310,000 deaths

Haitian Earthquake (2010) – Estimates as high as 316,000 deaths

          While much of these deaths were do to the immediate disaster many occurred through starvation and disease without access to needed supplies.  No list is complete without man-made disasters, which can poison populations and cripple local economies:

Deepwater Horizon oil spill, USA (2010) - $60 - $100 billion

Chernobyl, Ukrain (1986) –  €235 billion over 30 years

Three Mile Island, USA - $1 billion

Fukushima, Japan (2011) – Full magnitude of radiation and cost TBD

           In nearly all the aforementioned cases government was shown to be clearly inept and often to blame for policy decisions, timeliness of response, the lack of oversight, management of fallout and holding those responsible accountable.  Why try and malign people who are attempting to make sure they don't weigh too heavily on a government trying to help its citizens in a time of panic and disaster?  It would seem to me that we need to praise these individuals for taking a large burden off the state.  When the SHTF the best policy is the one you develop on your own.