Hold On To Your Liberty Folks, This Ride Is About To Get Bumpy!!!

Now, I’m not going to pretend that Harry Potter is high literature. However, I am amused by how the movie “The Order of the Phoenix” parallels what is happening today with the man who flew a plane into a building in Austin, TX. The “Daily Prophet” kept saying that Potter and Dumbledore were making up the return of “He Who Shall Not Be Named”. Yet, it is the authorities and the newspaper who were wrong.

It seems that this guy has appropriated much of the language being used by liberty minded individuals. He has haphazardly strung together many of the ideas presented by groups like, “End the Fed”, the “Tea Parties”, and even quoting the founding fathers. And of course by extension, anyone who supports movements like End the Fed, the Tea Parties or even supports candidates like Deborah Medina – are of course evil people out to kill everyone.

Alleged Suicide Pilot Posted Anti-IRS Screed

I find it interresting that only a few days after Medina is torpedoed by Glen Beck, we have a "crazy man" fly an airplane into a building in the capital of Texas. I'm concerned that he is using boiler plate "language of freedom minded people".... Yet as someone that believes in many of the things that Medina, the End the Fed, and Tea Party movements teach, I am a little concerned about how this is going to be used to harm Deborah. She is a great lady, and does not deserve what may be coming down the line.

How is this like Harry Potter you may ask? Well, if you look at everything that has been happening in the last week or 2, Medina's rise in the polls, Beck's inflamitory statements after Medina answered his question about "9/11 Truthers", the reported robot calls after Beck's show to Texas voters about Medina's answer, and the opening of the early voting in Texas on Wednesday. Now, all of the sudden, 2 months before April 15th, AKA "Tax Day", a man posts an anti-IRS screed on his website, then flies a plane into a building with Federal Employees in Austin.

So many things show that freedom is on the move here in Texas, so now we have this "event" to try to stop the movement. Afterall, if you support End the Fed or the Constitution, then you are just a crazy person waiting to kill everyone. We are all terrorists now. Great.

When We Learn The Wrong Lessons

If we study history, but learn the wrong lessons – is there any value to learning history?

I have been pondering this question for quite some time now. It has many applications, but I want to look closely at one example. Decades ago here in the USA, it was legal and socially acceptable for members of the KKK, or local community, to forcibly remove a minority family or community from their property. If it was done to build a factory, housing district or other “community good,” much of the community either ignored this violation of property rights or felt it was justified by the greater good of the community.

Along came the “Civil Rights Movement” and finally someone effectively pointed out the truly unjust nature of this behavior. The majority was not “justified” in forcing the minority out of their homes. We in today’s America clearly see that a wrong was committed in those situations. Unfortunately, we as a society seem to think the only reason this behavior was “immoral” is because “white people were attacking black people.”

That is the wrong lesson to learn from our history. The truly immoral act was “violating the property rights” of individuals – regardless of color, sex, religion or other category into which people can be stuffed.

Today, the government (local, state, or federal) is forcibly taking the real estate of people. The reasons range from building a new Wal-Mart, Costco, or Walgreens to building a new sports arena for some professional, college or local school district team. For just a moment, take a walk with me into the world of “What IF…” What if the only land being taken was owned by minorities? What if the builder of the new factory or owner of the sports team was a member of the KKK, and the people being displaced were minorities? Would “the people” be angry? Would there be protests about the treatment of the home owners?

Why does it matter, you ask? The government is not targeting minorities to build a Wal-Mart or football stadium, so what difference does it make that the home owners are or are not minorities? Or maybe you are just mad at me for even asking the question….

Here is why it matters:
Property ownership is not dependent on color, sex, sexual preference, religion, height, weight, eye color, or any other category into which people can be stuffed. The right of people to own property – real estate, horses, factories, stores, etc. – has made the history of the United States of America unique. The further we as a society move away from this principle of private ownership of resources, the harder it is to find common ground upon which to build our communities.

Santa Clause and Other Fictional Characters...

This is great. Forbes.com writer John Tamny did a masterful job of pointing to an article that "... reveals the incredibly shoddy thinking on the part of lenders and borrowers. Niether side comported itself well, ..."

In addition to recommeding this op-ed piece, I really recommend Forbes.com if you are not already reading it. Admittedly, there are some Lefty Loons that believe the government really is Mighty Mouse, "Here I Come To Save The Day!!!" It is still about the only major publication that posts articles by people that have not only heard of the major Austrian Economists, but that can discuss their ideas intelligently.

This is also from Mr. Tamny's piece today:
Indeed, the true damage to capitalism occurred first when the U.S. Treasury readily accepted the dollar's decline, and second when borrowers and lenders bought into the notion that Santa Claus does in fact exist; both assumed that ever-rising home prices would whitewash stupendously bad decisions.

Check it out if you have time, maybe if the number of hits from these kinds of writers go up, we can see more writing along these lines at Forbes and other sites or magazines.

Home RUN!!!!

Walter Williams hits this one out of the park.

How laws have replaced civility

It's going back, back... it's outta HERE!!! Touch 'em all....

The MSM Is "Not" A Tool?

This is just classic. ABC does an interview that shows the American people that "torture provides results very quickly." Only now, it seems that there may have been some errors in the report. Uh oh.... Jack Bauer may need to get this memo.

How ’07 ABC Interview Tilted a Torture Debate by Brian Stelter.

I encourage y'all to read the whole thing. There are some gems in this one, but here are some of my personal favs:

Mr. Zubaydah started to cooperate after being waterboarded for “probably 30, 35 seconds,” Mr. Kiriakou told the ABC reporter Brian Ross. “From that day on he answered every question.”

His claims — unverified at the time, but repeated by dozens of broadcasts, blogs and newspapers — have been sharply contradicted by a newly declassified Justice Department memo that said waterboarding had been used on Mr. Zubaydah “at least 83 times.”

How's this for indepth research & reporting:

“It didn’t even occur to me that they’d keep doing” the waterboarding, Mr. Ross said last week. “It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

...

“Kiriakou stepped up and helped shine some light on what has happening,” Mr. Ross said. “It wasn’t the huge spotlight that was needed, but it was some light.”

Jonah Goldberg was referenced a couple of times in the article:

He added: “Debating whether it was worth it still seems open to debate, depending on the facts.”

Of course, since we can't get the facts straight, the debate will be an exercise in futility. It remains unclear how many times Mr. Zubaydah was waterboarded. The declassified Justice Dept. report says "at least 83 times."

The NYT article about the Justice Department Report tells us that:

Mr. Hayden said he had opposed the release of the memos, even though President Obama has said the techniques will never be used again, because they would tell Al Qaeda “the outer limits that any American would ever go in terms of interrogating an Al Qaeda terrorist.”

He also disputed an article in The New York Times on Saturday that said Abu Zubaydah had revealed nothing new after being waterboarded, saying that he believed that after unspecified “techniques” were used, Abu Zubaydah revealed information that led to the capture of another terrorist suspect, Ramzi Binalshibh.

The Times article, based on information from former intelligence officers who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Abu Zubaydah had revealed a great deal of information before harsh methods were used and after his captors stripped him of clothes, kept him in a cold cell and kept him awake at night. The article said interrogators at the secret prison in Thailand believed he had given up all the information he had, but officials at headquarters ordered them to use waterboarding.

He revealed no new information after being waterboarded, the article said, a conclusion that appears to be supported by a footnote to a 2005 Justice Department memo saying the use of the harshest methods appeared to have been “unnecessary” in his case.

Well, it seems that Hollywood has it backwards. The Jack Bauer's in the "field" are getting the info, and the suits in the office are telling them to use torture to find out about the "dirty nuke" planted in some major city. (insert fearful scream here)

Whoever said, "I see the enemy, and he is us." was right. We seem to have become the very thing our ancestors fought to get away from. Or at least some of us have become the enemy.

Now I Know.

Government Extortion

I had asked what threat was brought to bear on the CEO's of Bank of America & Wells Fargo to get them to accept the TARP money. I linked to the NYT article that discussed the use of a threat, but the article did not discuss what the threat consisted of; Now I know.

In this clip, we learn what threat was used and why the CEO's took the money. Once again we have "our government" taking an action that if you or I took would land us in jail.

Keep your powder dry & learn how to purify water.

At Least He Is Keeping Some Campain Promises.

Hope! Change! Brings us McCain-Kennedy Immigration Part II. It looks like we need to have a good supply of popcorn ready in May, as the fireworks should prove entertaining. I only wonder if McCain will try to get ahead of this by coming out against it. I suspect it's more likely that he'll support it.

From the New York Times article Obama to Push Immigration Bill Despite Risks

But with the economy seriously ailing, advocates on different sides of the debate said that immigration could become a polarizing issue for Mr. Obama in a year when he has many other major battles to fight.

Opponents, mainly Republicans, say they will seek to mobilize popular outrage against any effort to legalize unauthorized immigrant workers while so many Americans are out of jobs.

Vox said the Obama administration would be good for some entertainment. So far, so good.