I’m not sure what is going on here, but that wasn’t the brightest thing for him to say.

Does he honestly believe a socialist like Romney is the best person to turn around our government?

Is he shooting for a V.P. slot?

This whole thing seems pretty outrageous to me.

http://100thmonkeyfilms.com/endoftheroad/

Looks good.

Peter Schiff and G. Edward Griffin provide commentary on the coming collapse of the dollar, along with several other economists that I don’t immediately recognize.

A new law goes into effect July 1st, which mandates that: ”If a business claims that a price is linked to the carbon price, that claim must be truthful and have a reasonable basis,” according to ACCC deputy chairman Dr Michael Schaper.  Businesses could face a $1.1 million fine if waiters or sales staff “wrongly” blame the carbon tax for price rises or exaggerate the impact.  Of course, the definition of “wrongly” is decided by the very people who are imposing the tax upon the public.

The new Orwellian law against carbon tax hate speech will be enforced by roving bands of brigands called “carbon cops” who will conduct spot inspections on businesses to ensure no one is thinking or saying anything they have deemed to be “wrong.”  American’s might have a hard time wrapping their heads around this law, but our own nation has a long and illustrious history of enacting such Orwellian measures.

The most recent law curbing speech in America was enacted by President Obama, which criminalizes protesting anywhere the Secret Service is guarding someone.  Previous laws include the Alien and Sedition Acts, which made it a crime to publish “false, scandalous, and malicious writing” against the government or certain officials.  As well as the Sedition Act of 1918, which forbade the use of “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the United States government, its flag, or its armed forces or that caused others to view the American government or its institutions with contempt.

The U.S. Congress also decided to outlaw any political group from adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change, under the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007.  While that may sound reasonable, consider that the U.S. government funds itself through the use of coercion.  Therefore, if this law was applied to its fullest literal meaning, any political party in the U.S. is engaged in illegal speech.

But let’s take a step back and look at the claim the Australian law is making, which effectively states that carbon taxes will not cause price increases.

Taxes, at their core, result in the redistribution of resources away from those who are engaged in economically productive activities into activities that provide little to no value for society.  We can demonstrate this empirically through simple observation.  If any given activity is economically productive, it will not require state subsidies.  It will not require state subsidies because people will be willing to fund it voluntarily.  Restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations, and every other private business is able to fund itself by offering a service or product that the public values.  If the public did not value the service or product being offered, they wouldn’t buy it.  This market profit/loss test ensures that all resources in the private sector are put to productive uses.

The state on the other hand is a gross destroyer of resources.  We know this to be true because everything the state does is funded through the use of coercion.  The state does not face a profit/loss test with any of its undertakings, which means there is no way for it to know if it is engaging in economically productive behavior or not.  Obviously this leads to the large amounts of resources being wasted.

When resources are wasted, the cost of all goods are increased.  If the state bids up the price of steel because it seeks to build a warship, the cost of steel will increase for every private industry that utilizes steel as an input.  In this fashion we can plainly see that taking money from the private sector through taxation will always result in increased prices for consumers if the state then spends that money on unproductive activities.

I eagerly await my arrest by the Australian carbon police for my blasphemy.

This article appeared on PolicyMic.com

My list of crimes against humanity include the following:

• I helped arrest peaceful merchantmen who were shipping dates (fruit) out of Iraq in violation of U.N. sanctions.
• I helped arrest peaceful merchantmen who were shipping oil out of Iraq in violation of U.N. sanctions.
• I helped arrest peaceful merchantmen who were shipping drugs in violation of U.S. law.
• I participated in the gross waste of tax payer dollars for domestic propaganda purposes.
• I helped starve Iraqi women, children, and the infirm by participating in a naval blockade against that nation.  To date, roughly 100,00o civilians have been killed in the conflict created by U.S. involvement in the region.
• I participated in naval exercises with hostile foreign nations, and I participated in mandatory propaganda tours with hostile foreign nations (Russia), under orders from naval command.
• I directly aided violent drug cartels by helping to enforce the prohibition on drugs.

And today, I am still guilty of aiding and abetting all of these crimes by continuing to pay my taxes out of fear for my own personal safety.  I don’t have the guts it takes to stop paying my taxes.  It doesn’t take any guts to raid a merchant ship when a billion dollar guided missile cruiser has got your back, but it does take some serious guts to stand up to the U.S. state.

The real heroes we should be honoring today are those people who have the guts to stand up the state.  People like Irwin Schiff who are in prison for tax evasion because they feel the state has created unconstitutional laws to enforce the collection of taxes.  People like Julian Heicklen, who spent time in prison for distributing pamphlets to jurors informing them about their rights.  People like Adam Kokesh, who were arrested for silently dancing at the Jefferson Memorial in protest of First Amendment violations by the state.  People like Meg McLain, who were arrested for selling lemonade without a license in protest of free enterprise violations by the state.  People who participate in Food Not Bombs community outreach, who were arrested for feeding the homeless without a permit.  And all the peaceful drug dealers and peaceful black market merchants who provide services that the public want at great personal risk to themselves, while refraining from the violence that the cartels and the state engage in.

These are the people we should be honoring this Memorial Day.  These are people who know that freedom means freedom from coercion.  These are people who stand up for freedom in the face of the largest, most violent, most powerful coercive institution the world has ever known.  The battlefield they fight on is right here on our shores.  They have more guts than I’ll ever have.  God bless them all.

As Irwin set about growing his business and reinvesting his profits, the mafia began to take note of Irwin’s business dealings.  Irwin happened to be living in an area where the mafia had established a “protection” racket.  The “protection” racket operated something like this:  a business owner would pay the mafia a percentage of his profits, and in return for this, the mafia would “protect” that business from other thieves and mafia families.  Of course, if a business owner refused to pay for protection, he would end up being kidnapped and thrown into a dungeon surrounded by violent men.  Once the businessman had been kidnapped, the mafia would then take all of his possessions for themselves as “restitution” for being inconvenienced.

Most businessmen who lived under the control of the mafia readily agreed to this.  In fact, many even appreciated the mafia’s protection since they knew that no other thieves would dare mess with them.  To keep up appearances, the mafia dons made a point of helping out the communities they controlled.  After all, the more businesses earned, the more the mafia was able to skim from them.  So the mafia dons would do nice things, like buy food for some of the poorer families in their neighborhoods, provide low-interest loans to businessmen, and even fix a few pot holes in the streets outside of the businesses they “protected.”

The mafia knew they couldn’t take too much from the businessmen or they would put them out of business, but the mafia had other ways of making money for themselves besides robbing businessmen and profiting from the black market.  One of the main sources of revenue for the mafia was counterfeit money.  The mafia managed to acquire some very expensive Simultan printing presses, which they used to create the counterfeit money.  The mafia would then loan out the printed money through their foreign operations to keep the flow of money hidden from the public eye.

Irwin didn’t like this one bit.  Irwin knew that the mafia was eventually going to destroy his savings from the inflation that resulted from their money printing.  Irwin also knew that the “good” the mafia was doing was simply to keep up public appearances.  Since the public greatly outnumbered the mafia, the mafia only did just enough “good” to keep the public from revolting against them, while keeping the balance of money for themselves.  Irwin figured that if the public was allowed to keep their own money, they could do more good than the mafia ever could.

Being the crotchety old man that he was, Irwin decided he wasn’t going to pay the protection money the mafia was demanding from him.  Irwin sent the mafia letters telling them that what they were doing was wrong and he wasn’t going to take it any more.

The mafia didn’t like this one bit.  They grew very angry with Irwin over his refusal to pay his share of “protection” money.  Eventually they kidnapped him and took everything he owned.  The other business owners rejoiced because they felt Irwin had an unfair advantage since he was keeping all his money for himself.  The public also praised the mafia because they wanted the mafia to provide more handouts and fix more pot holes with the money they were stealing.

Very few people cared about what happened to Irwin.  Many people knew he was stuck in a dungeon somewhere, but that didn’t bother them in the slightest.  You see, the mafia took Irwin’s money for themselves and then used the counterfeit money from their printing presses to pay for some of the old folks medical care and retirements.  No one wanted that to end.

Today, Irwin Schiff is sitting in a Federal Prison for tax evasion.

Irwin’s son, Peter Schiff, comments on his father’s incarceration at the hands of the mafia state.

In Italy, the mafia parades through the streets with public support. The mafia even has the support of local clergymen, who have allowed the mafia to take over religous cerimonies (most likely in exchange for favors).  Of course, clergymen from outside the town who protest the mafia’s actions have their houses shot up.

As a final sidenote, Al Capone was ultimately sent to prison for tax evasion.  The mafia state doesn’t like it when other criminal organizations muscle in on its territory.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Buy the video online here.

Skip to 22:50 for Richard Gage’s presentation.

Video streaming by Ustream

There is only one institution in our society that is capable of creating a mass increase in depression.  A systemic increase in anti-depressant drug use across the entire population is indicative of state policy being at the root of the issues that many people are being overwhelmed by.  On an individual level, people suffering from depression may not recognize the state as being the root cause of their depression, but when taken in aggregate, it becomes clear that there is no other possible cause for a widespread uptick in anti-depressant usage other than the state.  Depression isn’t an airborne disease that can spread with the wind.  A systemic increase in anti-depressant usage can only be triggered by systemic increases in the problems people are having to cope with.  Only one institution is capable of creating a systemic increase in the problems people are having to cope with, the state.

As an anarcho-capitalist student of Austrian School economics, I feel the burden of knowledge weigh heavily on my shoulders.  I can see all that could be if people simply followed the golden rule.  I can see all that we stand to lose because society continues to reject the golden rule.   I can see what kind of world the children who are being born today will grow up in if things continue on the way they have been.  This foreknowledge can, at times, be extremely overwhelming to me.  I know what the end result of our violent ways will be, and it is not something that I want to live through, yet I have no choice in the matter.  I am here, and I must learn to cope with with the violently imposed destruction of civilized society right along with everyone else.

Seen in a perverse light, this has been a blessing to me because it has caused me to become a much more spiritual person.  I want to share some of the spiritual insights that I have acquired over the years with you all in the hope that they may help you better deal with any particular problem you may be feeling overwhelmed by.

First, I want to make it clear that if you feel like you have chronic depression, you should seek professional counseling.  Whether or not you chose to use any anti-depressant medication that may be prescribed to you is obviously your choice, but you should inform yourself as to the effects (there are no such thing as side-effects as far as I am concerned) of the drugs you may be prescribed.  For example, some of the effects of Prozac are

• Anxiety – up to 15 percent
• Nervousness — up to 14 percent
• Shakiness (tremor) — up to 13 percent
• Decreased sex drive — up to 11 percent (see Prozac Sexual Side Effects)
• Suicidal thoughts or behavior (see Prozac and Suicide)
• Hostility or aggressiveness
• Confusion or other mental changes
• Hallucinations
• and Coma

That said, let us take a closer look at the root causes of anxiety and depression.  All feelings of depression and anxiety stem from a lack of acceptance, as does all conflict.  Consider that it is impossible to have an argument with someone if you accept whatever their position is.  When I say “acceptance”, I’m not implying agreement with or advocacy for, but merely acceptance of.  For example, many people accept illicit drug use and feel it should be legalized, but they do not condone or advocate the use of illegal drugs.  Acceptance is an art unto itself.  To accept things as they are is extraordinarily difficult for most people.  Yet, if one wishes to achieve any real and lasting peace in one’s life, the only way this can be accomplished is to accept the world as it is.

We find this lesson of acceptance reiterated to us in the golden rule.  Consider that strict adherence to the golden rule results in a pacifist philosophy.  If I love my neighbor as myself, I would not want to harm him no matter what he may do to me.  Even if my neighbor were to beat me, murder me, kill my family, lock me in a cage for smoking dried flowers or take 50% of my income through taxation, loving my neighbor as myself means accepting their actions and responding only with kindness.

Of course, if you hate yourself, this kind of philosophy isn’t going to make much sense to you at all.  Thus, self-hate is an issue that must be identified and corrected if one is achieve a state of peacefulness.  A peaceful response to hostility is necessary if your goal is to maintain a peaceful state of mind.  If you become hostile in response to a hostile action, obviously you are not going to be feeling very peaceful or content at that moment.  Feeling peace and contentment vs. feeling anger or want is a choice that we have the power to make at any time in any given circumstance.

Responding with hostility to the hostile actions of others is a natural result of being consumed by the ego and the world of form.  Because the ego identifies itself with the physical form, and because the physical form has physical needs and endures physical pain, the ego naturally responds with hostility to violations of our physical body and to violations of the material goods we need to maintain our physical form.  The ego always seeks to protect the physical form that it embodies.  Death of the physical form means death for the ego.

To move beyond the ego, which is to fully embrace the essence of the golden rule and achieve a total state of peace, requires an acknowledgement of the spiritual self.  The spiritual self is separate from the ego.  The ego is that little voice inside your head that is mentally verbalizing the words you are reading at this very moment.  The spiritual self is the awareness that makes that mental verbalization possible.  The spiritual self is the eternal soul that most religions identify with.  The spiritual self is the awareness of your consciousness.  Repeat after me, “I am not aware because random chemicals are reacting in my brain.”

To believe that biochemical reactions are the cause of your awareness is to believe that you have no free will, since we know empirically that all biochemical reactions are deterministic in nature.  If your consciousness is the result of deterministic biochemical processes, then you didn’t chose to read this article.  You were simply predestined to read this article – and you were predestined to either accept or reject what I’m saying to you now.  If you are a believer in determinism, then you can stop wasting your time reading the rest of this article (not that you have a choice in doing so).  However, if you accept that your consciousness is not the product of deterministic  biochemical reactions, then there is only one alternative left, which is that your consciousness is a fundamental component of the universe that exists separate from our physical selves.

 The mental voice that you talk to yourself with, the mental voice that you read with, the mental voice that verbalizes all the problems in your life over and over and over again in your head is insane.  It lives in the temporary world of form.  It derives its entire existence from the temporary world of form.  It seeks to protect the physical body, and thus its existence, by any and all means at its disposal.   It is unaware of the spiritual self.  It is the embodiment of the ego.  Recognizing that the voice in your head is insane will help you to stop listening and reacting to it.

At this moment you might be thinking to yourself, “I’m not insane.  I don’t feel insane.  I make rational choices every day.  I live a peaceful life.  I’m a rational human being.”  Insanity need not be a condition of total irrational thought at all times, but rather it may be mostly rational thought interspersed with delusional thought.   The delusional thoughts being that you are your physical form; and all the things that stem from that line of thinking.  The reality is that you are not your physical form.  You are much greater than that.  Believing that you are your physical form is a delusion that can ultimately lead to violence!

When people engage in hostile actions against you, they do so from a state of insanity.  There is a reason why insanity is recognized by society as a legal defense; because if a person knows not what they are doing, they can hardly be held culpable for their actions.  Recognizing the insanity in yourself and others will allow you to be compassionate, rather than hostile, toward those who advocate violence against your physical form and property.  People who use violence or coercion to take resources for themselves or others do so because they are consumed with the world of form and the ego.  People who are filled with jealousy, greed, fear or envy do not know what they really are.  How can you be mad at a person who doesn’t know any better?  They are reacting to what they know, which is the scarcity of the physical world.  This is also true of those who respond to violence with violence.

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots. - Luke 23:34

Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule. - (Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C.)

Christ’s saying here could also be interpreted as, “forgive them; for they know not what they are.”  Christ looked at the violent men surrounding him as ignorant children, for that is what they were.  He did not hate them for their ignorance, he accepted it and loved them anyways.  It takes a true spiritual master to maintain a state of peace and love in the face of a painful death by crucifixion.  When you fully accept that you are not your physical form, such acts of love become possible.

Anxiety also has its foundations in the physical form.  The eternal self cannot be anxious because it faces no scarcity.  The eternal self is not lacking in anything.  The eternal self does not fear for life or property because the eternal self is life and needs no property.  The eternal self cannot be greedy or envious because the eternal self does not need, it simply is.

Now let us consider the purpose of life in the physical form.  You can learn about fishing by reading a book on fishing.  You can learn how to cast a line, how to tie knots, how to fillet a fish, and all the other intricacies of fishing from books or videos – but you cannot know what the experience of fishing is like unless you actually fish!  You cannot experience being compassionate unless you are in a physical form.  You cannot experience compassion unless someone else is suffering!  You cannot experience loss unless you have something to lose!  You cannot experience fear unless there is a reason to be fearful!  You can learn what all of these things are but you cannot experience them without having form in a physical world of scarcity.  And that my friends is why you are here.  To experience all the things you already know about – to see if you can walk the walk when it really matters.  As they say, everything else is just talk.  Life is a school, where we test our mettle to see if we can be what we know we should be.

What should we be?  Violent?  Hostile?  Fearful?  Resentful?  - I think not.

We should relish the pain as well as the pleasure.  We should view the ignorance of others with compassion, rather than hostility.  We should meet hate with kindness.  We should look at physical pain as a reminder of why we are alive.  We should view scarcity as a blessing that allows us to test our mettle.  We should recognize fear, jealousy and envy for what they are, the crazed insanity of the ego – in ourselves as well as others.  And then my friends, you will know the peace that has eluded you for so long.

All this is easier said than done – I am faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar from perfect.  But that doesn’t matter.  What matters is that we recognize where we are and what we need to be, and simply keep moving forward toward that goal.  One foot after another.  One thought after the next.  As with all things in life, it takes work to become more than we are now.

If you found this line of thinking to be inspiring or helpful, please check out the works of the following authors:

• The Gospel of Christ
• A Buddhist Bible - Dwight Goddard (1st ed.) [1932]
• Eckhart Tolle
• Neale Donald Walsch
• Dr.  Jeffrey Long
• Dr. Pim van Lommel
• P.M.H. Atwater
• Dr. Kenneth Ring
• Dr. Raymond Moody

Epic.

The US government has deemed the high gas mileage car a threat to its tax revenues, so it has banned the sale of extremely high gas mileage cars in the US. I assure you, I am not joking.

Volkswagon U.S. Specs HERE
Volkswagon U.K. Specs HERE

Note: The Imperial gallon is larger than the U.S. gallon  (source)

4.55 liters  = UK Imperial Gallon

3.79 liters = US gallon

Listen to a man describe his vacation experience, and his resulting shock after discovering that the US government will not allow him to buy a 70 mpg car.

I’m sure readers of this blog are not shocked at all.  The state is a criminal mafia organization that robs its own citizens at gunpoint, engages in mass murder for profit, throws millions of its own citizens into cages for consuming or growing various forms of vegetable matter, and has a long history of imposing slavery, mass imprisonment based on race, along with the mass killing of people who protest its actions.

If you believe the state has your best interests at heart, you have what psychologists call Stockholm Syndrome.  You should seek professional help immediately.

Update:  After reviewing the PSEN article on this issue, it appears more likely that VW has made a voluntary decision not to sell the cars in the US due to poor market performance rather than due to regulations that prohibit its sale.  Not that this changes much, given that gas mileage performance is largely a function of vehicle weight, and vehicle weight is largely a function of the onerous safety regulations that force manufacturers to use heavy frames to meet safety requirements.  This is why a 500 cc motorcycle can achieve 85 US mpg fuel efficiency.  By mandating that all cars use heavy frames for safety purposes, the US government eliminates choice from the consumer market.  You can’t buy a large, high mpg car because you can’t buy a large, light weight, “less safe” vehicle – you simply don’t have that choice because the state took it away from you.

The Daily Mail reports:

A gang of 20 hooded youths stormed a pub after the Champions League final before dragging away a 25-year old man and stabbing him to death in scenes ‘like a horror film’, friends said today.

‘True gent’ Luke Fitzpatrick was killed and his father Bernard, who threw himself on top of his son in a desperate attempt to shield him, remains in a critical condition in hospital after being stabbed four times.

The pair were attacked when a gang armed with bats and knives stormed the north London pub after father and son had watched Chelsea win the cup together at on Saturday.

Insane.

Could you imagine just sitting around having a drink with your dad at a bar,when suddenly an armed mob shows up, drags you outside, and then stabs you to death?  I can’t even wrap my head around this.  This didn’t even make the front page.

This planet is a fucking insane asylum.