It’s the second weekly Metal Monday on Revolution and Sarcasm. I was thinking of this awesome thrash band called Kreator, and found a video of one of my favorite songs, Servant in Heaven, King in Hell.
According to their website, Kreator will release a new album in January and tour the US and Europe in 2009. I’m looking forward to it.
As noted in Homeland Stupidity:
Nationally syndicated radio talk show host Ian Freeman will spend 100 days in jail because he questioned the legitimacy of a system which would penalize him for having a couch in his yard and conduct his trial in secret.
Administrators of even the lowest levels of government think they are superior beings to the citizens they rule. Props to Ian for not caving to their bullshit. And major props to New Hampshire liberty activists for supporting him and building a true libertarian community.
For those who aren’t aware, Ian hosts Free Talk Live, a radio talk show that is actually good.
[UPDATE 11-17: MORE INFO CAN BE FOUND AT JAILED ACTIVIST INFO]
Roderick T. Long has been published in Cato Unbound. Yeah, it’s that Cato. This doesn’t mean that Long has gone mainstream and isn’t cool anymore to those of us in the libertarian leet. Kevin Carson is cited favorably, and William Gillis of RNC WC fame seizes a footnote.
Long lays it down:
In a free market, firms would be smaller and less hierarchical, more local and more numerous (and many would probably be employee-owned); prices would be lower and wages higher; and corporate power would be in shambles. Small wonder that big business, despite often paying lip service to free market ideals, tends to systematically oppose them in practice.
So where does this idea come from that advocates of free-market libertarianism must be carrying water for big business interests?
The article addresses these issues brilliantly.
The only thing I would have to add (cuz I’m a picky bastard) is to Long’s discussion of deregulation. There is regulation by government, and there is regulation by the market. The former operates through coercion and political favoritism. The latter operates through competition, true consequences, free unions, and independent product testing. The former can only be increased at the expense of the latter. Thus when government regulations are increased, free market regulation necessarily suffers, and it is in this way only that “deregulation” can be blamed for economic troubles. When libertarians say that we are in favor of deregulation, we run the risk of appearing to want businesses to get away with anything, when we are actually presenting the best possible restraint on business: the power of the market.
But seriously, read the article.
It’s definitely optimistic to say the forty-fourth president will be the last. But “forty-four and no more” has a great sound and expresses a great sentiment. I give the US government as we know it 2-5 more decades of existence. That doesn’t necessarily mean anarchy across the continent. Maybe some kind of Balkanization that right wingers cry about so much will first occur, though I doubt that immigration will have much to do with it. An endless number of contingency plans could be made about such a scenario by those interested in such things.
Having a black president is an indication of social progress, as it proves that racism is losing its hold on the country, and Obama’s rise to power had the benefit of dragging underlying racism out into the open. However, true progress would be no president, nobody to decide whose lives the tanks and bulldozers of public policy will roll over, no establishment savior we are told to sacrifice our desires for, nobody to put a friendly face on crime and speak grandly of its glory. Black or white or any color, we don’t need a fucking ruler!
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I’ve decided that today is Maiden Monday on this blog. Here are two songs from their recent albums.
The first is Journeyman, their only song with the guitar parts entirely acoustic. The video is from the Death on the Road DVD.
The second is Out of the Shadows, being performed on the A Matter of Life and Death Tour. This video includes one of Bruce Dickinson’s excellent short speeches. It also captures the lighting a little but does not do justice to how amazing the light effects were on this tour.
Yesterday the United States chose a new administrator for its programs of control. Perhaps Obama and Biden will be less horrible for the world than their chief rivals, but the important thing for radicals is to figure out how to best attack the system when it is headed by Democrats.
Rad Geek recently opened a discussion on this topic. Sheldon Richman thinks that an Obama presidency will be popularly associated with the free market less than the Republicans would be, so government failures that will take place under his regime are less likely to be blamed on free market ideas. I tend to agree with him, and I also think that when Obama shows his true colors as a member of the warfare state establishment, left libertarians will have greater opportunities to reach out to disaffected leftists. Of course, Obama’s nature should already be clear to anyone who has been paying attention and not enthralled by his grandeur, so opportunities already exist. People who voted for him simply because they found him slightly less evil than McCain are unlikely to be enthusiastic about his presidency, and we ought to extend their dissatisfaction to the office of the presidency in general.
Another good thing about this election is its potentially crippling effect on the Republican Party. McCain’s poor showing is further evidence of general resentment toward the way Republicans have damaged the country over the past eight years. Many have seen how far the establishment went to suppress Ron Paul, and hopefully will not be fooled by the Sarah Palin fake working class image. I’m not expecting a total downfall, but maybe there will be enough of a shake-up to convince libertarian-friendly folks that the GOP is not the way to be. If this ends up pushing the Libertarian Party in a more conservative direction, other organizations, like the Alliance of the Libertarian Left, will need to be busy saving the face of libertarianism.
The Libertarian Party can be proud that their total abandonment of principle got them a full one percent of the vote, and a little closer to complete irrelevance. Anyone serious about gaining liberty ought to give up on the proven failure called the LP.
If there has to be a president, it’s nice that one identified as black can be elected. But there doesn’t have to be a president any more than there has to be a war in Iraq. It is the result of the choices of millions of Americans that we are stuck with the disastrous burden of empire. To free the people of this country, we must convince them to choose liberty. A consistent pro-free market, anti-establishment activist organization like the Alliance of the Libertarian Left is in a unique position to do this. It has the ability to undermine the system theoretically and physically by presenting logical reasons for opposing the state, and true alternatives to coercion. Now is the time to build counter-institutions and networks to starve and displace the state.
If you purchase Bring a Gun to School Day from arisepress.com between now and January 2, 2009, you will get free shipping to anywhere in the United States. Contact publisher (at)arisepress (dot)com for international shipping rates.
Seventeen-year-old Erik Shylding wouldn’t harm an innocent person.
But on the day after the worst high school shooting in American history, that won’t matter as much as the way he looks and the things he likes.
Erik wants to change things. He puts up posters in school that announce his invented Bring a Gun to School Day. Agents of a new federal program hear about the posters and see an opportunity to advance their careers. Nobody is prepared for the crisis their actions cause.
Here are some things worth looking at:
Those of you interested in petitions should take a look at the petition to drop charges against the RNC 8. A large number of signatures will hopefully demonstrate public support for the accused and pressure the state to drop the obviously politically-motivated charges.
Rad Geek posted a detailed tutorial on encrypting your email.
Though Justin Raimondo is a little hard to take seriously, his article on Barack “Change Incarnate” Obama provides worthwhile political information.
A week ago I received a tip about a Kentucky teen arrested for writing what he said was a zombie story involving a high school. I immediately notified the county court about my book Bring a Gun to School Day. Because Bring a Gun to School Day addresses school violence and oppression from perspectives rarely heard in mainstream discussion, it is worthwhile reading for anyone interested in improving the lives of teens.
So far I have not received a response from the Clark County authorities. It would seem they’re not interested in literature after all. Perhaps I was right to present power-seeking as a motive of the school safety enforcers in Bring a Gun to School Day.
How to be blackmetal:
1. Get instruments
2. Corpse paint
3. Be grim
4. Forest or icy rocks
5. AAAAAAAAAH
How to be blackmetal amazing:
1. Play evil riff on electric guitar while standing in water…grim water
