Posts in "the state"

By Seth Mann at 11:06PM

Jan 5, 2010

Independent War Correspondent Michael Yon Arrested at Seattle Airport

Independent war correspondent Michael Yon arrested at Seattle airport: Would not disclose income. (H/t: Hotair.com)

Michael Yon

Here are Michael Yon's Facebook status updates describing the issue:

Got arrested at the Seattle airport for refusing to say how much money I make. (The uniformed ones say I was not "arrested", but they definitely handcuffed me.) Their videos and audios should show that I was polite, but simply refused questions that had nothing to do with national security. Port authority police eve...ntually came -- they were professionals -- and rescued me from the border bullies.
When they handcuffed me, I said that no country has ever treated me so badly. Not China. Not Vietnam. Not Afghanistan. Definitely not Singapore or India or Nepal or Germany, not Brunei, not Indonesia, or Malaysia, or Kuwait or Qatar or United Arab Emirates. No county has treated me with the disrespect can that can be expected from our border bullies.
Actually...the Gold Medal for border harassment goes to Israel. The U.S. gets the Silver on border bullying. Among the most professional that I've encountered is UAE (United Arab Emirates) and also Singapore. Very professional. UAE confiscated my body armor during one trip, but took good care of the armor and gave it back at the airport when I left.

At least the CIA has the right priorities...

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By Seth Mann at 6:39AM

Jan 5, 2010

The End of American Entrepreneurship

Remember that abolishing private property is a central tenet of communism. By propping up failed businesses, the state clogs the veins of the free market and slowly chokes liberty from the hands of the people.

Keeping all this in mind, it's hard to read this article and not deduce that the death of entrepreneurship is exactly what the oligarchs of the State desire.

This article by Robert Samuelson comes to YAL from RealClearPolitics.com via Hotair.com:

A Stand-Pat Society?
One insistent question at the start of a new decade involves the lingering effects of the old: What scars will the Great Recession leave? We are already seeing some. Americans are moving less than at any time since World War II, reports demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution. People are tied to existing homes, can't get loans for new ones and won't move to places without job commitments, says Frey. Only 1.6 percent of Americans are now moving across state lines, half the rate of a decade ago.

Our Enemy, the State

I'm currently reading Albert Jay Nock's Our Enemy, the State for a Ron Paul book club I've joined, so I was happy to see a post about it on the Mises Institute blog. As is explained there,

There are two political institutions, Nock held: government and the state. Government is an agency of society limited to negative interventions aimed at protecting individuals against force and fraud; governments are established to secure persons in their rights and to punish any trespass on them.

The state, on the other hand, intervenes positively in society; it dragoons people into the chase after various national goals, wars on poverty, provides welfare, pays out subsidies, offers cradle-to-grave security, and so on.

Nock opposed the state, but not government. He argues that appropriate and severely limited government (but not the state) can effectively preserve liberty. Meanwhile, unfortunately, "the general public, however disillusioned with politicians, still has faith in politics as the means of curing all the ills of society and improving the quality of life. Hopefully, people will someday realize that what counts is the overextension of state power, not who holds public office."

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By Bonnie Kristian at 1:23PM

Nov 12, 2009

How to withdraw consent from the state (Or, how to stick it to the man)

From Wendy McElroy, an individualist feminist and anarchist:

1. Improve yourself.
2. Stop subsidizing your enemy.
3. Stop doing business with your enemy.
4. Stop doing business with people who support your enemy.
5. Support private alternatives to government services.
6. Create parallel mechanisms to replace government functions.
7. Expose the enemy among us.
8. Master the issues.
9. Have the moral courage to confront others.
10. Get involved in campaigns designed to enlighten and enrage the public.
11. Engage in civil disobedience.
12. Find ways to avoid taxes.
13. Pamphleteer.
14. Write free-market novels and produce free-market movies.
15. Consider becoming an expatriate.

Read the details on each of these ideas for withdrawing your consent from the state here.

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By Matt Cockerill at 6:21AM

Oct 13, 2009

The evils of the state and its "schools"

Bonnie, the government schools are full of the sort of evil you reported on, as well as various other contradictions.

First, while "peacenik" teachers consider it depraved for a boy to bring a camping utensil (much less a pocket knife) to school, they usually laud as a noble option high schoolers joining up to kill poor brown people in Obama's legions.

Second, while government school "feminists" demand contractual permission for every 5 year old boy trying to hold hands with a girl they "like," a high school culture of "hook-ups" and objectification is somehow not considered to be abusive and sexist.

I could go on and on and on. Not only the government schools, but the entire state apparatus is full of ridiculous hypocrisies obvious to anyone who removes the blinders from their eyes. The key is to make people do just that...

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