Brad Miller

Archive for the ‘True nature of the State’ Category

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Operation Ajax and a Nuclear Iran

In True nature of the State on March 15, 2013 at 12:41 am

Nuclear Explosion

War Drums…

The headline appears on the Drudge Report tonight. The United States Federal Government is pushing closer to waging war against the Nation of Iran. President Obama spoke yesterday in Israel concerning Iran’s nuclear program.

The President explained:

“Iran is about a year away from developing a nuclear weapon and the United States remains committed to doing everything in its power to prevent that from happening.”

Now the question should be asked why is the United States so interested in a nation of 75 million people 6000 miles away its shores? I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that Iran is sitting on the 2nd largest natural gas reserves and fourth largest petroleum reserves in the world?

The United States has been interested in Iran for a long time and it has always been about the oil reserves. During WWII the U.S., Brittain and Russia were very much involved in keeping Iran out of the Nazi fold because of their oil reserves.

The British in particular were deeply involved in oil production in Iran during and after WWII. This was very profitable for the British exporting the oil out of Iran but left the Iranian’s mostly impoverished. The Iranians were not happy with the British contracts and were seeking in the early 1950′s to Nationalize the Petroleum Industry in Iran. This would have left the British Oil companies in a bad spot. What did the British do? Did they negotiate with the Iranians or cut their loses and move on? No. They called the White House.

Eisenhower approved helping the British overthrow the government of Iran and “Operation Ajax” was born. Winston Churchill had reminded the U.S. that the British were helping the U.S. “combat communism” around the world and for their continued cooperation all the U.S. had to do was to stage a little coup in Iran. The U.S. CIA and British MI6 did just that. They launched Operation Ajax to overthrow the rightfully elected Prime Minister, Mossaddeq.

In Mosaddeq’s place the U.S. backed “Shah” was installed and reigned for 25 years. His unpopular rule ended in 1979 when the people of Iran performed their own “coup” and created the “Islamic Republic”. The seeds planted in 1953 by the CIA and MI6′s murder, deception and subterfuge in overthrow of Iran’s government led directly to the 1979 revolution.

Ever since the 1979 revolution, the United States has had economic sanctions against Iran. In fact over the last decade they have become more and more severe. It must be remembered that sanctions are never against governments. They are always against individuals. They always lower the standard of living for individuals living in both countries involved. If the sanctions were lifted on Iran today gas prices would fall about 10% in the U.S. and much-needed cancer medicine would be readily available in Iran. The question we must ask is: Who benefits from these higher gas prices? I know it is not you and me or the people of Iran.

Today the sanctions against Iran are meant to encourage a regime change from within by causing massive pain to its citizens. The sanctions coupled with a contentious election in 2009 almost accomplished this. There were massive protests but the brutal regime suppressed them. More individuals didn’t join the protests because they blame the U.S. for the sanctions they continue to suffer under and look to their government to provide relief from them. If the U.S. stopped the sanctions the regime in power wouldn’t have any excuse for the lack of freedom and prosperity in the country. There have been some protests in 2011 and 2012 but not on the scale of those that took place in 2009. The sanctions remain in place, the Iranian Regime remains in power, and the gas prices in the U.S. are still 10% higher than they should be and people in Iran are dying because of lack of medicine.

This is the legacy of government intervention around the world. The majority of individuals in both countries involved suffer for generations.

I’m not a fan of the Iranian government. The guys in charge are horrible people who have done horrible things. If they weren’t in power that would be a good thing. But it isn’t the business of the United States government to decide what type of government another country has or who is involved in it or if they should have nuclear weapons or not.

If Iran used a nuclear weapon against the United States what would really happen? All 75 million people in Iran would die in a retaliatory strike, that’s what would happen.That’s why mutually assured destruction worked during the Cold War (even though at the time we thought the Soviet leaders were insane), it worked. Those in power in Iran know this as well.

The Iranian people after WWII were on the path to prosperity with a secular democratic government. This ended when the joint CIA/MI6 “Operation Ajax” overthrew the elected government in 1953. Just think what life would be like if Iran was a peaceful trading partner with the U.S. The individuals who live in both of the countries would be more prosperous today. Government intervention always leads to more problems and more government intervention. It is an endless cycle of misery, murder and war. Operation Ajax is the perfect historical example of the dangers of government intervention abroad and should inform the decisions of those advocating regime change in Iran and other countries around the world.

Brad Miller
AdvocateofLiberty and Peace

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Ronda Rousey, Freedom and the UFC

In True nature of the State on February 24, 2013 at 10:59 pm

On Saturday Feb 23rd Ronda Rousey defeated Liz Cormouche to retain the UFC women’s bantam weight title. It was an awesome fight. Ronda and Liz went at it. Rousey was in trouble in the middle of the first round when Liz almost submitted her with a standing rear naked face crank.

But Rousey toughed it out, slid Liz off her back and gained top position on the ground. From there Rousey battled Liz on the ground and submitted her with a vicious arm bar, with only twenty seconds left in the first round. A great performance by both fighters who happen to be women. This was the first women’s mma fight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

What I love about MMA and in particular the UFC is that it is a total meritocracy which celebrates excellence. If you love freedom than you should love the UFC and in particular Ronda Rousey. She is the reason why women are now fighting in the UFC. Dana White, the president of Ultimate Fighting Championship, said in the past that he was dead set against women in his organization. But that all changed when he saw Rousey.

She has submitted all her opponents by arm bar in the first round. She is legit and that is why she made it to the UFC. No government intervention was needed for women to make it to the top promotion in MMA. What was needed was a woman of excellence, an individual who was a great fighter. No title nine intervention, no quotas or any other rules imposed on the UFC were needed for Dana White to make the call for Rousey and Liz to fight.

All that was needed for Dana to change his mind was Rousey’s ability to draw pay-per-view buys. And in order to do that she had to be first and foremost a talented fighter. It also doesn’t hurt that she is beautiful. The free Market and the profit motive brought women to the UFC. Excellence coupled with the profit motive are the best defense against discrimination.

Rousey is going to be a huge star. She is very marketable and she did what very few people do in this world and that is deliver. But she wouldn’t have had the opportunity to showcase her talent in front of millions of people if it weren’t for the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The UFC has propelled Mixed Martial Arts into the main stream. It is a success story of the free market. The Ferttia brothers who own many different businesses, including a gaming company, bought the struggling UFC promotion at the prompting of their friend Dana White in 2000. Over the years Dana White the president and face of the organization along with, Bruce Buffer the ring announcer, Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg the long time ring side commentators, and Joe Silva the fight maker have grown the UFC into the top MMA promotion in the world. It attracts the top MMA fighters and because of that the organization is estimated to be worth well over a billion dollars.

No government intervention was needed for this to occur. The UFC is watched voluntarily by millions of fans every month on pay-per-view and last year they inked a deal with FOX Sports to expand its audience even more. It is a non-union and a non-collective bargaining organization unlike MLB and the NFL. The UFC doesn’t use taxpayer money to help build stadiums. They have had fights all over the world including events in England, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Brazil, China and Japan. It is an organization without borders just like a True Free Market is meant to be.

Freedom brings the best out of people. It allows individuals to be the best they are capable of being through competion against others. Through competition everyone gets better. I don’t understand the collectivists and statists disdain for competion. It is only through competion that growth occurs.

Even though the UFC is the top dog in MMA there are tons of smaller promotions across the country. If they UFC didn’t sign Ronda Rousey, one of the other promotions would have. That competion played a big role in Dana White’s decision to sign Rousey.

Ronda Rousey’s rise to super stardom occurred because of her freedom to pursue the life she desires. For someone to say she shouldn’t be fighting is ridiculous. (I used to be one of them but now see the error of my ways.) Freedom is necessary for this type of individuation to occur. With Freedom everyone can pursue their definition of happiness. And I’m glad that Rousey’s idea of happiness is getting into the Octagon and putting on one hell of a show.

Brad Miller
AdvocateofLiberty

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Useful Idiots, Drones and Empire

In True nature of the State on February 18, 2013 at 6:34 pm

Are the Useful Idiots in America waking up? Has the expansion of the Drone Killings by the Obama administration finally revealed to his acolytes the true nature of what ruling an Empire entails?

It appears so with the outrage by folks like John Stewart ripping the Obama administration for the lying and deception concerned about the Kill list and drone program.

There have been over 350 drone strikes since Obama took office. Thousands of people have been killed throughout the world, including U.S. citizens has the left finally realized that War is the Health of the State?

I think his faithful followers will drop their faux outrage and continue return to signing his praises soon. In fact just the other day an NPR commentator praised Obama for pursuing the “light footprint” approach to war. So the short-lived outrage maybe already waning.

I believe there are Useful Idiots on both sides of the aisle. That is because there is really only one party in Washington and that is the Government Pearty. So there are those in the Media and the entertainment world who support the State without a second thought. Those who love war on the Right are in fact doing this today by actually praising Obama for the secret kill list and the expanded drone war.

A piece in the Weekly Standard by Gary Schmidt tilted “Drone On” demonstrates this. He is a neo-con who is praising the current Democratic Administration escalation of the Drone War. He loves the fact that more and more people are being killed across the world with the unmanned aerial vehicles, and believes that American Citizens are no different from any other suspected terrorist.

“Today, we apparently need pages on pages of Justice Department legalese (“Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a U.S. Citizen Who is a Senior Operational Leader of Al-Qa’ida or an Associated Force”) to justify killing Americans who have become senior jihad terrorists and who are trying to kill as many innocent Americans as possible”

And he applauds the fact that the Justice Department has now redefined the word “imminent”.

(Justice Department)…it so broadens the concept that it concludes that the government need not have “clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. person and interests will take place in the immediate future”—only a pattern of plotting such attacks. Given the spotty past record of the intelligence community in actually knowing when a specific terrorist plot is underway, this redefining of “imminent” is reasonable enough..”

So in one sentence he tells us that the Government now has carte blanche to kill anyone in the world because of secret intel gathered by those same inept spy agencies who have a history of falling to protect Americans from specific terrorist plots. In other words we can’t know specifically what they are up to specifically, so it’s just safer if we kill them all.

He then goes on to criticize libertarians for being outraged and uniformed about what this all really means. Drones he argues is just a tool of war against people overseas but he tries to strengthen his argument by equating that drone strikes overseas are no different from a police officer killing an armed subject on U.S. streets.

“As for the Fifth Amendment, due process has never been understood as an absolute right without commonsense exceptions or, for that matter, always and everywhere requiring judicial involvement. To take an obvious example, police officers are not thought to have violated anyone’s rights when they shoot and kill a suspect who is armed and posing a danger either to them or to other citizens”

The author of the article makes it sound like the Machinery of the State that is used overseas will never be used at home. But he fails to mention quotes by politicians back in 2011 concerning NDAA.

“In support of this harmful bill, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) explained that the bill will “basically say in law for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield” and people can be imprisoned without charge or trial “American citizen or not.” Another supporter, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) also declared that the bill is needed because “America is part of the battlefield”

When will the first U.S. Citizen be killed by a drone on U.S. soil?

It’s interesting that the Weekly Standard article started off with talking about how some German Americans fought on the Nazis side during WWII and how it was a no-brainer for U.S. GI’s to kill these traitors. And that the killing of U.S. citizens around the world who are suspected terrorists was no different. Then he closes his article with telling us that the political system we live under produced this Drone Killing policy and that it is perfectly legal because of that.

We must never forget that everything Hitler did was within the “legal” framework of the German political system at the time. If the Nazis had won and the historians were pouring over the documents of the atrocities committed during WWII could they use the defense “it was all done with the approval of the people and of the other branches of the same government”.

He also cites that most Americans are on board with the drone killing initiative. Most Americans were for the Income Tax back in 1913, that was sold to them as something only the rick would pay. Now in 2013 I don’t know if you’ve done your taxes or not, but I’m paying more in income tax then I ever have before. And I am in no way part of the 1%. The income tax affects us all. And so will the use of Drones in the coming years.

The machinery of war can be used against the citizens who paid for it just as easily against so-called foreign enemies. It is a capital investment by the State to secure its power. When it kills enough of its enemies around the world it will deal with the one’s at home.

The drone war is not occurring in a vacuum. Think about the talk of gun control now and imagine a not too distant future where every citizen has to register his firearm What if someone refuses to do so? And what if that someone has said derogatory comments about the Federal Government? What if this individual refuses to register or give up his firearms? Isn’t it much safer to fire a missile into his house with a drone instead of risking a police officer’s life to arrest him?

Remember drones were built to save airman and soldiers lives, in other words to protect the lives of the agents of the state. What is the difference between a policemen and a soldier? The way the drug war is prosecuted, the way DUI check points are staged and the way they are armed I would say they are one in the same. So if Drones are used to kill dangerous people to protect innocent lives and to save the lives of government employees why will the state not use drones to kill suspected dangerous U.S. citizens on American soil?

Look at how the LAPD went after Christopher Donner. They shot up two trucks that looked like his. Now if they had drones don’t you think they would have blown those suspected trucks up like they do the terrorists overseas? If they had the lady shot in one of those trucks, who amazingly survived, would have been vaporized by a drone strike.

Now if a police officer who is only fifty feet away from a suspected vehicle can’t identify a target properly how can someone 5000 or 10,000 miles away looking through a camera lens 10,000 ft in the air? How many trucks that looked like a terrorist’s truck have been blow up overseas which we never hear about?

All that needs for U.S. citizens to be killed by drones on U.S. soil is for a secret Justice Department memo to appear. Once it does the Useful Idiots will get what they want and the hellfire missiles will start raining down into the suburbs of America.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/drone_700511.html?page=2

http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/senators-demand-military-lock-american-citizens-battlefield-they-define-being

Brad Miller
AdvocateofLiberty and not being droned

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Big Boi, Rap and Freedom

In Advocates of Liberty, True nature of the State on February 3, 2013 at 2:51 pm

When you think of Freedom you don’t necessarily think of Rap. But I think in the coming years the two will become more and more associated. Big Boi, formerly one half of the hugely successful Rap Duo “OUTKAST”, shocked a lot of people when he revealed he didn’t vote for Barack Obama.

The revelation came out when Big Boi was on a black radio station and the host was asking him if he had encountered any real world racism recently. He replied in fact he had while going through an airport. He related that a white woman came up to him and expressed how great it was for his people that Obama was re-elected president. Big Boi responded to her “Bitch, I voted for Gary Johnson.”

Can the message of freedom reach those who are inundated from birth that they should defer and submit to the state? The answer is a definitive yes. The Freedom Philosophy is the most inclusive philosophy on the planet. It is as Leonard Read wrote simply “anything peaceful.” Every one, even those who listen to rap music, can embrace this ideology. And in fact can become interested in the ideas of Liberty because they listen to Rap music.

I am a big fan of quality music. Whether its rap, blues, rock, country or classical. Rap music is a very American form. It is in the same tradition as the blues and classic country. Like any other musical form there are the quality groups and there are the sub par ones. Most folks who aren’t familiar with quality rap music, think that it’s all thundering bass, abrasive lyrics, and cursing. What they unfortunately miss is the rich tradition of Rap expressing the ideas of Liberty, in particular the struggle of the individual against the state.

The future of the Freedom movement could very well rest upon a singular individual in the Rap community creating a Freedom Anthem that an entire generation could rally behind.

NWA, a gangster rap group who burst onto the scene in the 1980′s is one of the best examples of rappers who protested the encroachment of the state against the individual in the past. The focus of their songs was the brutality of the police against them, their family and friends.

And what was the reason why the police hassled these inner city young black men? It was mainly because of the drug war. Most people do not realize that the drug war as well as gun control were began to systematically oppress minorities in this country. Today these laws are still performing their intended task and also adversley affecting the majority as well.

Gun control in this country began in earnest in the South after Reconstruction to restrict black men from owning firearms. Because of this prohibition unfortunately thousands of black men in the South were lynched with the police at the very least turning a blind eye. The KKK the most notorious of the groups involved with lynching began as a gun control organization. They understood back then, like the Federal Government understands today, that it’s a lot harder to control and kill people if they can defend themselves.

The drug war, especially against marijuana, began because the drug was associated with black Jazz musicians. The fear of the establishment was that white youths would be drawn into this counter culture. So the war on black marijuana smokers began in earnest in the 1930′s. It was done to maintain the status quo.

Fast forward to the 1980′s when Crack Cocaine swept through America. Back then I heard rumors that the Government was selling crack in places like Compton. I dismissed those reports as ludicrous. At the time I still believed the U.S. Federal Government was a force for good. NWA and other rappers were adamant that the CIA was indeed flooding the inner ciites of America, especially in the L.A. area with crack cocaine. Leaked documents and firt hand accounts have now difinitively linked the Federal Govenment to traficking drugs in America.

Rappers were on the forefront of getting the word out about this horrible hypocrisy. The Federal Government was selling the drugs to fund wars waged by the CIA in South America and at the same time waging a “Drug War” in the inner cities and across the U.S., to stamp out the selling of these very same drugs. This dual growth of Government through the selling and combating the sales of drugs has led to an explosion in the growth of government. Like many government activities meant to oppress the minority, the machinery once built and swithed one is quickly turned against the majority.

That is why it is so important never to dismiss any Government oppression against individuals who may be different than you. This is because the state is truly color blind and it is always looking to increase its power at the expense of the individual. Like Ayn Rand wrote “the smallest minority in the world is the individual.”

I hope Big Boi expressing his support for liberty will spark others who have traditionally viewed the liberty movement as a tool of the establishment, to take another look at those looking to live more free. Today there are millions in the Freedom Movement working to expose the corruption of the State and limit its power so everyone, not just certain people in society can live free. There is not anyone alive who hasn’t run afoul of the state and those in the Rap community are no different.

More Individual Liberty is always better for everyone. Big Boi understands that. His announcement that he voted for Gary Johnson is a huge deal. I hope others in the Rap community and entertainment will come to discover that increased Individual Liberty for all is the best way to live.

Brad Miller
AdvocateofLiberty and huge fan of Outkast

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Top Ten Reasons To Legalize Weed

In True nature of the State on January 25, 2013 at 12:28 am

The drug war against growers, sellers and of users of Marijuana is a war against society itself.

Marijuana is a plant. It has been smoked inhaled and ingested by human beings for thousands of years. It is safe, has many medical benefits and it makes you feel good.

Here are the top ten reasons to end the Prohibition on Pot.

1. THE INSANE COST: Over a trillion dollars has been spent on the drug war in the last 40 years. Most of that has been spent on stopping the growers, sellers and buyers of Marijuana.

2. THE GROWTH OF POLICE STATE: The drug war empowers police to violate the privacy of any person on the planet. It has fueled the militarization of the police from the DEA down to the local police SWAT team.

3. REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH: Not only has a Trillion dollars been stolen from tax payers to fuel the Drug Warriors directly, police departments across the country split over 1.6 billion in seized property related to drug crimes each year. This is a massive redistribution of wealth from society to the state.

4. ALLEVIATION OF NEEDLESS SUFFERING: Tens of thousands of sick people already have gained enormous benefit from smoking pot and millions more would benefit if it were legal. Marijuana is a proven anti-nausea and anti-vomiting treatment which has been shown effective in thousands of cancer and AIDS patients across the country. The idea that Marijuana is a medicine is nothing new, over a hundred papers were written about thebenefits of Marijuana between 1840 and 1900 enumerating the many maladies the miracle medicine relieved.The active ingredients in Marijuana relieves pain and does so without the liver destroying side effects and addictive properties of percocet, vicodin or Oxycontin. Marijuana also lessens the symptoms of everything from migraines to menstrual cramps. It could also be a very effective reliever of the symptoms of the FLU virus as well. Marijuana reduces the effects of auto-immune disorders such as Chron’s Disease and Psoriasis. And it is one of the most effective treatments for Glaucoma.

5. LOWER HEALTH CARE COSTS: Not only is Marijuana effective against a whole host of diseases, it is also very cheap to grow and harvest. If it weren’t for the Prohibition induced premium on Pot, it is estimated that each “dose” would cost less than two dollars. Instead of paying the drug companies for their side-effect inducing factory made medicine you could grow your own at home. It would also eliminate millions of trips to the doctor and emergency room because people could treat themselves for many ailments.

6. LOWER PRISON POPULATION: Over 20,000,000 individuals were incarcerated due to Marijuana busts in the last 40 years. That is a boom for the private prison industry but a disaster for taxpayers and the people who were busted. Think about the lawyer and court costs of those 20,000,000 people who were incarcerated. This financial burden along with lost time on a job means many families of the incarcerated suffer horrbile finacial burdens. This leads to more and more dependence on the state and taxpayers ultimatley pick up the tab. While in prison many non-violent drug offenders are put in with hardened criminals and when released begin a life of real crime, against property and persons. Having the largest prison population on the planet makes us less safe and all of us less prosperous.

7. LESS VIOLENCE IN SOCIETY: If politicians really want to save lives they should be falling all over each other to legalize pot. A government study done on soldiers in the 1930′s showed definitively that smoking Marijuana decreases violent tendencies in men. The recommendation then was to allow individuals in the United States to legally purchase pot.Of course the opposite happened and in the 1930′s Marijuana Prohibition started in earnest and the destructive War on Drugs began. The Drug War fuels the violence between Cops and dealers and between the dealers themselves in this country and around the world. If pot were legal than maybe the 40,000 individuals who have been killed in the Cartel Wars along the US/Mexican border might still be alive today. Prohibition leads to violence. Smoking Pot doesn’t.

8. IT’S THE SAFEST INTOXICANT ON PLANET EARTH: Marijuana is exponentially safer than Tobacco and Alcohol. These two over the counter legal substances have led to the deaths of over 440,000 Americans just in the last year. Do you know how many cases of emphysema or other lung related deaths have been caused by Marijuana? The answer is ZERO. Do you know how many people had overdosed on Marijuana in the last 5000 years? The answer is zero. It is medically impossible to OD on the stuff. (I am not for banning either alcohol or tobacco.)

9. MARIJUANA STRENGTHENS SOCIETY: Marijuana is a herb that encourages socialization. Humans are social animals. We all need to have regular positive contact with other human beings. In this ever isolated society, Marijuana brings people together in a positive way.

10. MARIJUANA HELPS WITH CREATIVITY: Marijuana has been shown to help thousands of people to increase their creative output. The typical image of a person who uses pot is the “Stoner” and that image is mostly incorrect. Sure there are those who smoke pot because they just enjoy it and want to relax and there is nothing wrong with that. But there are a lot of people out there who smoke pot not because they want to do less in life, but because they want to do more. For me the perfect example is Joe Rogan. He is a stand up comedian, UFC commentator, black belt in Brazilian jujitsu, host of one of the most successful podcasts on the planet and creator of his own clothing line. This guy is a doer and he smokes a lot of pot.

And the Main Reason to Legalize Pot is because…

YOU OWN YOUR BODY: You have the God-given right to stick whatever you want down your pie-hole. Marijuana makes you feel better, whether it’s because you had a rough day at work or because you have cancer. There are no reasons why adult individuals in the “So Called Land of the Free” shouldn’t be able to go down to the liquor store and choose between a twelve pack of budlight or an ounce of bud.

Freedom is not divisible. If you believe in limited government, lower taxes, and more individual freedom than you must support the legalization of Marijuana.

Brad Miller
Advocate of Liberty and Less Pain and More Pleasure.
(Full disclosure: I don’t smoke the stuff but I think everyone should have the right to if they choose)

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Victory in the Drug War 2003: Tommy Chong goes to Jail

In True nature of the State on January 15, 2013 at 12:55 am

One of the most wanted men in the world was brought to justice in 2003. His name: Thomas B. Kin Chong, more commonly known as Tommy Chong.

In an operation that cost over 12 million dollars and took the efforts of over 2000 law enforcement officers, the notorious and dangerous Tommy Chong along with 55 other sellers of drug paraphenalia were arrested and brought to justice. Thank God for the DEA.

I am being sarcastic of course. Tommy Chong was targeted by an ambitious US prosecutor who wanted to make her name by putting the famous comedian behind bars. His crime that got him on the National Radar was being part owner of a family business that sold glass pipes, better known as bongs. When Tommy was brought to justice none other than John Ashcroft congratulated the prosecutor and the agents for the fine job they did bringing down the “dangerous” Tommy Chong.

Ten years ago, I like most people was focused on the war on Terror and the invasion of Iraq. This trivial matter of a Hollywood type going to prison didn’t really concern me. Maybe I thought it was a total waste of resources but I didn’t give it a second thought. But now in light of what has occurred in the last ten years, Tommy Chong’s being sentenced to 9 months is prison over selling glass pipes holds new meaning for me today.

I came across the story of Tommy Chong’s persecution by a wonderful documentary called “a/k/a Tommy Chong.” It’s on Netflix right now and I highly (no pun intended) recommend it. The documentary highlights the absurdity of Marijuana prohibition and the ruthless ambition of politicians who prosecute it.

The way the Tommy Chong bust went down and how the plea deal came about should make any American sick to their stomachs and ashamed of the Federal Government. The DEA set up a sting to bust drug paraphernalia businesses and targeted specifically the Chong’s family business, called “Nice Dreams”. Long story short the DEA posing as a head shop in Pennsylvania (which at the time it was illegal to ship bongs to) tricked the staff of Nice Dreams into sending them boxes of Bongs. (Some claim including Tommy Chong it was a DEA agent plant in the Nice Dreams organization who processed the order.) This led to a 6am morning raid on Tommy Chong’s personal residence in an upscale California Neighborhood and a total closure of the Nice Dreams Factory.

Tommy Chong was committed to taking his case to court but instead was forced to take a plea deal, like over 90% of defendants in America today. He took the deal because the prosecutors were threatening to go after his wife and son if he didn’t. After he emerged from meeting with prosecutors he uttered a phrase that struck a little too close to the truth when he said “I guess my glass bongs were the only weapons of mass destruction the Bush administration has found.”

This statement along with his “glamorization of pot smoking in his movies garnered him a 9 month prison term. This was by far the harshest sentence of any of the 55 defendants arrested in the DEA operation. When Tommy Chong was released from prions he began doing interviews. The one thing that everyone asked him was “what was prison like?” To that he would always respond “you will find out”. He explained that the way the laws are written they (The State) can put anyone the want to into prison.

Drug Prohibition isn’t a drug user vs. non-drug user issue. It’s a freedom issue and Tommy Chong gets that.
What I took away from the movie along wtih the absurdity of drug Prohibition is that ommy Chong and his wife are solid people. They seem happy and loving. So what they smoke pot. Maybe the world would be a better place if everyone did. I don’t know that for sure but I do know for certain is that what I put into my body is my choice and no governmental agency has authority to interfere in my decision.

The drug war has cost over a trillion dollars since 1970, arrested over 20,000,000 individuals just for marijuana, and killed tens of thousands of individuals. The time to end the insanity is now and at the very least Legalize Marijuana. Freedom is not divisible.

http://www.akatommychong.com/

http://norml.org/

Brad Miller
AdvocateofLiberty

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The Case Against Santa Claus

In Liberty, True nature of the State on December 17, 2012 at 12:59 pm

Who in their right mind could possibly find fault with the myth of Santa Claus?

I believe Santa Claus is Evil. In fact I blame Santa Claus for the mess we are in today. The idea of a jolly fat man delivering gifts to the good children of the world lays the neural foundation  in which the totalitarian government/banking elite use to control the masses today.  The idea of Santa Claus retards a child’s ability to grasp a rational world, separates the child from parent through lies, and makes the child’s mind ready-made to accept other myth’s concerning religion and government. It is the pattern by which all those in authority use to control the lives of individuals.

“Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices” Voltaire

Lets breakdown the whole Santa Claus Deal.

1. Children pray to a strange fat man who lives in the North Pole for presents to appear on Christmas Eve.

2. This omnipotent being watches every child on Earth throughout the year.

3. Then Santa Claus passes arbitrary judgement of the child’s behavior, which lands the child on the naughty or nice list, which in turn determines if presents will magically arrive under the tree.

4. Then in one night Santa Travels around the world in a sleigh being pulled by flying reindeer full of toys manufactured by elves around the world. He then does hundreds of millions of b & e’s and leaves presents. While in each house he eats the offering of milk and cookies.

This is insane. Kid’s believe anything you tell them. Why fill their head with this destructive lie?

I was in Wal-Mart in the toy section the other day when I heard a two-year old exclaim “Mommy I want that”. The mother’s reply was that the child should ask Santa for it.  The parent then explains that she must be “good” so that she can receive the toy she desires. Not only is the parent advocating for the child to pray to a god for gifts, she is also teaching the child the pattern of submission to authority that prepares her to submit to the Banking/Government/Big Business cartel in adulthood.

It also conditions children in later years to give up any thought of privacy. Children go from Santa spying on them to God watching everything they do, to Government doing the same thing.  Today we see the result of this. Red Light Cameras, Spy satellites and drones threaten to  constantly monitor every inch of the surface of the Earth, and not many people seem to care. Every email you send  is being logged and stored by the NSA, again no one cares. A new 2 billion dollar data center is being built-in Utah to house this data. That’s not a conspiracy theory. That is a fact. The only reason they collect this is so they can determine who needs to be on the naughty or nice list.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/

And you don’t want to be on the Government’s Naughty list. That’s called the President’s kill list. And you will die if you are on it.

No only does  the Santa Claus myth condition children to be submissive to authority, foster the belief that they are entitled to the production of others, and accept 24/7 surveillance by an omnipotent power, it also destroys or retards a child’s ability to see the world in a rational manner. I believe that is the greatest crime against humanity and every parent perpetrates it.  If you can’t accurately see how life works how can you possibly be successful in life?

“Man has to discover how to tell what is true or false and how to correct his own errors; he has to discover how to validate his concepts, his conclusions, his knowledge, he has to discover the rules of thought, the laws of logic, to direct his thinking. Nature gives him no automatic guarantee of the efficacy of his mental effort.”  Ayn Rand.

Why do we want to keep kid’s from understanding how the world works?

The answer is simple. It’s all about control. The parents gain submission from the children, the retailers gain submission with the parents, and the bankers benefit from every dollar borrowed to sustain this massive myth. And politician’s gain power by acting as Santa Claus to adults.

Let me ask you this: Why do all the malls have men dressed up as Santa? Is it to benefit you kid? Or is it to keep the mass of men and women producing the new cogs for the machine of the Political/Banker machine? Is it to maintain their innocence or to groom children to become adults who embrace ignorance? Is it to demonstrate the goodwill of a god or produce individuals who are comfortable with being spied on 24/7? Is it to get children to “behave” or is it to create adults who willingly submit to their omnipotent god which as they become older becomes government?

The whole holiday deal is set up to control the population. It is meant to syphon your dollars out of your pocket, it’s meant to instill submissive traits that last throughout your lifetime,  it’s a conditioning event that create neural pathways which the ruling elite use to steer your thoughts. That is why Santa Claus is EVIL and should be stopped.

Let’s celebrate ourselves, our loved ones this  year. Let’s celebrate our  ability to mix our labor with the factors of nature to create anything our imagination’s  can conjure. Let’s celebrate your individual and family accomplishments. Let’s celebrate the knowledge that we’ve gained, the loved we gave and received this year. Let’s celebrate the fact that the sun still rises. That’s what the Romans did with the Holiday Saturnalia,. That’s the holiday the early church leaders replaced with Jesus’ birthday. It  had some crazy elements but also some with real value. The reason we have lights on Christmas trees dates from this Roman Holiday. Candles were lit to symbolize the quest for truth and knowledge. I hope that more and more parents will teach their children to do that this holiday season.

The lies from authority don’t stop at childhood. They perpetuate on. We are told that Government can protect us. That’s a lie. We are told the Federal Reserve is here to keep unemployment low and prices stable. That is a lie. The Federal Reserve system is a money creating machine meant to syphon the wealth of the world from the masses into the hands of a very few. We are told the military is around the world protecting us. That is a lie. The men and women dying and  killing around the world in your name are doing so to protect the banking interests and the other beneficiaries of the Central Banking System around the world.

All these lies are predicated on a public not being able to see the world rationally. And that all begins with the so-called innocent lie of Santa Claus. If we want to be Free we must bring into the light all the lies. I want to know. That’s it. I want to know the truth. Children are desperate to know how the world works when they are small. They are little need machines that are totally dependent on the their parents. The whole goal of childhood is to become independent of them. Not teaching children at an early age how much labor and life goes into the purchase of Christmas Gifts marked “From Santa” keeps them from understanding how the world truly works.

The Santa Claus Lie is a pattern that other people in power use to keep the majority of people in chains. Like Thomas Jefferson wrote “The knowledgable will always rule the ignorant” As individuals our job is to not be subjected by our own ignorance. Ending the Santa Claus Lie will go a long way in raising a new generation who will critically look at the Lies from the Banking-Government-Big Business Cabal.

Brad Miller

AdvocateofLiberty and stopping Santa Claus

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No Reservations vs. Cocaine Wars: Dominican Republic

In True nature of the State on November 1, 2012 at 12:57 am

Do you want more Freedom or more Tyranny in your Life?

That is the question which smacked me in the face when I was switching between two channels on Monday Night. I was enjoying Tony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” on the Travel Channel and in between commercials, I was switching between that and Nat Geo, which was showing “Cocaine Wars”. Both shows were filmed in the Dominican Republic, which the locals refer to as the D.R.

The more I watched the two shows the more I began to think about how when Individuals freely exchange with each other, both parties win, but when Government is involved in a transaction only the Government wins. Tony Bourdain is the greatest Ambassador the United States has ever had. The DEA is not. They use force to steal, arrest and kill people all over the world. That is the concept behind “Cocaine Wars”. Now If you haven’t watched ”No Reservations” before it is a simple concept as well, except without the killing and the stealing. Tony, a former chef goes around the world, meets interesting people and samples the food their countries have to offer.  It is a celebration of life, where individuals are producing in order for others to consume, all voluntarily I might add.  They are not doing this because of altruism for others but because of their own rational self-interest.  There is a huge difference between what happens when the DEA shows up at your establishment vs. what occurs when the “No Reservation” crew shows up at your place.

The Dominican Republic looks like a great place to relax and enjoy the sun and local delicacies.  Tony sampled pork skin fried in lard, fried salami (a D.R. breakfast staple),  and the D.R.’s national dish “sancocho” which all look tasty. He met great people who were glad to show him the best places to drink, the best beaches and share a drink with him. His show is a celebration of life and freedom.  What Nat Geo was showing in contrast was the total opposite.

On Monday Night at 10:00pm the Nat Geo Channel was showing the program “Cocaine Wars”.  On this particular episode several DEA agents were followed arresting individuals and confiscating property on the streets and beaches of  the Dominican Republic. I knew the DEA were in a lot of countries but it struck me as unbelievable to see an American DEA agent leading a bust on a suspected money-launderer who ran a clothing shop that in a foreign country. But there it was on Prime Time t.v.. The DEA unfortunately  has a presence in over 50 countries and so this is happening all over the world.

In this episode of Cocaine Wars, a money-launderer was busted who owned a clothing store. The actual crime of money laundering is no crime at all. If it weren’t for the confiscatory tax code and the war on plants and processed plant extracts , this crime would not exist.  That being said, the DEA searched the clothing store and the adjacent factory and found a cash hoard. Next the DEA and the D.R. counterparts confiscated the cell phones of all the store employees,  took the cash and the owner back to the DEA Dominican Republic HQ. There they began counting their haul. It was a disgusting dichotomy, the DEA agents counting the stack of cash on the table like little kids counting their Halloween candy, while the store owner sat next to them in a metal folding chair, dejected, handcuffed, and contemplating how she was going to endure the next ten years in a Dominican prison. The total take of the DEA was over $500,000 in cash. They could barely contain themselves.

Then came news that the supplier who was laundering money with the clothing store owner was going  to send a boat to drop a load of cocaine at a nearby beach. Other DEA agents geared up and  with local cops and soldiers went to make a bust on the beach. They caught two fat Venezuelans from the drug delivery boat and a ton of cocaine. The DEA agents rallied around the bails of cocaine. They were like a pack of hyenas surrounding a fresh zebra kill. Yipping and high fives all around. Meanwhile the two guys from the boat had lost their shoes and tried unsuccessfully to escape by walking on the ragged coral. So they sat their handcuffed, tired and thirsty with bleeding feet while the “looters” celebrated and boasted about how they always get the “bad guys”.

The DEA and Tony Bourdain had two totally different impacts in the Dominican Republic. One spread oppression and looted. While the other voluntarily exchanged with others to the betterment of everyone involved. The DEA used helicopters to track the boat to the beach bust.  Tony Bourdain took a helicopter to a remote beach and ate grilled lobster.  The DEA shut down a local clothing store where they actually manufactured the clothing on site and put who knows how many people out of work.  Tony ate delicious food and gave millions of t.v. viewers a virtual trip to the D.R.  Everyone benefits with the “No Reservations Show”, Tony benefits, I as a viewer benefit, the purveyors in the show benefit, Travel Channel benefits and those who buy ads during his show benefit.  This is the Free Market. Now the question must be asked “Who benefits from all the money and drugs confiscated by the DEA and who benefits from their Billion dollar budget? I’ll give you a hint it’s not you and me.

Freedom of exchange is the most successful and peaceful way to live. Governments have expended billions trying to destroy this right and the people (at least a majority of them )clamor for them to do it . Why do so many people want to give Government more power, when it always uses this power to oppress the very people who grant it that power? It’s because as Albert Jay Nock wrote in his 1935 book “Our Enemy the State”…

Americans are now… ”conditioned to the new increments of State power, and they tend to take the process of continuous accumulation as quite in order. All the State’s institutional voices unite in confirming this tendency, they unite in exhibiting the progressive conversion of social power into State power as something not only quite in order, but even as wholesome and necessary for the public good.”

Conservatives as well as Liberals love the Drug War. Nixon Signed into law the Controlled Substance Act in 1970, Reagan and Bush Sr. expanded the Drug War. And if you think Obama has gone easy on drugs because he smoked marijuana and did a little blow in college,. think again.  If you don’t believe me look at the DEA’s website to see that business for the Drug Enforcement Agency is booming and that is always bad news for us. http://www.justice.gov/dea/index.shtml

After you get done with that and you have a horrible taste in your mouth, go to Travel Channel’s site and check out Tony’s visit to the Dominican Republic for a true taste of Freedom. .http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/anthony-bourdain/episodes/dominican-republic

I believe that we need more “No  Reservation” shows and less “Cocaine Wars”. Just think if the drug war was over and there would be no shows like this to aggrandize the agents of the State. Billions of tax payer money could return back to the productive sector and who knows what awesome travel/food shows would emerge. I advocate for More Freedom and Less Tyranny. And the best way to ensure that plant procurement prosecutions ends in this country is to vote into office people like Gary Johnson and other Freedom minded individuals who pledge to return Plant and Plant Products Freedom back to you.

You own your life and your production. You own your body. What you put in your body is your business.

Brad Miller

AdvocateofLiberty and Voluntary Exchange

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Brand Differentiation – Red Bull vs. NASA

In Free Market Miracles, Liberty, True nature of the State on October 18, 2012 at 6:14 pm

On Sunday Oct 14th, “Fearless” Felix Baumgartner set world records for skydiving when he leaped from an altitude of 128,000 ft. What makes this even more amazing than him becoming the world’s fastest unassisted human being, traveling at over 884 mph at one point in his free fall, is that the endeavor was a completely private enterprise. It was a Red Bull energy drink publicity stunt to the edge of space. The entire purpose of the event was to further differentiate the brand of Red Bull from the other energy drinks on the market.

Red Bull has a history of these kind of “stunts” but this one by far is the most impressive. It got me to thinking about how NASA and the entire “Space Race”, which was really one big PR stunt The two competing brands for world Market Share were NASA and the Soviet Space Program who were selling their country’s brand of Statism around the world.

NASA and the equivalent Soviet Space program were trying to “Sell” their government’s ideology through “publicity stunts” in Space. When we look at the Space program in this manner it clarifies the difference between what Red Bull accomplished this week and what NASA has done in the past. One of them is a champion of Privately owned capital and profit seeking while the other is an inevitable example of what happens when Government steals from the productive and collectivizes that property.

Red Bull has made its founders Billionaires. NASA has had its budget cut repeatedly and is being relegated to the history books. Red Bull’s founder’s created an entire market for energy drinks that will soon be worth 52 billion dollars. NASA is relying on the Russians to ferry astronauts to the ISS. The founders of Red Bull were told by a research firm that the product would fail, they now sell 4 billion cans a year.  Because of privately held capital and Mateschitz’s vision Red Bull now owns an F1 team, two soccer teams, a NASCAR team and a hangar full of restored vintage planes. While NASA has retired its costly and deadly Space Shuttle and which are now  collecting dust in museums.

That is appropriate if you think about it. That is where Government programs should go, to the dust bin of history. They are inefficient and waste valuable resources. Socialism, as Mises wrote will always fails because it lacks the pricing mechanism, stated differently Socialist systems lack the ability to calculate economically. That is the difference between the success of Red Bull and the failure of NASA and all other government programs.

Today we hear so much about how the Free Market and Profit seeking is destroying the “Economy”. But those love Liberty know that is false. As the United States Federal Government Collectivizes more and more individual wealth in this country it is destroying the Free Market. There are some bright spots still and that is why I love the story of Red Bull and the other private companies that are charting a new Era of Freedom in Space.

A perfect example of this is the LunarX prize. That is a prize offered to the first private non-governmental entity that can successfully launch, land, and operate a robot on the Lunar Surface. When the prize was first conceived NASA was going to be the sponsor. But due to budget cut backs they backed out. Google became the main sponsor and upped the prize money from 20 million to 30 million. It also opened the competion to all individuals regardless of what country they lived in and created bonus challenges. The most intersting bonus challengs awards an extra million dollars to the compnay that whose robot takes pictures of the Apollo 11 site and beams them back to earth. Private Enterprise always trumps State Enterprise.

The private space industry is growing everyday while the Space programs of the world are faltering or completely failed. There will be in the next five years an explosion of private space travel, while Government space programs will have to buy time like anyone else on the privately owned rockets and space stations.  Armadillo Aerospace, Bigelow Aerospace and Virgin Atlantic all see Space as a huge opportunity that government planners could never fathom. In other words some of the richest men in the world are investing billions of dollars into Privately owned Space travel and Space Stations. Why? Because just like Red Bull they are doing so for profit. Now their business models are very different from Red Bull but upshot is the same, going to Space makes economic sense to them. They see Profit in the Stars.

I hope that the amazing feat of Fearless Felix  and Red Bull will spark people to  ponder the difference between Privately owned vs. Collectively owned Capital. We can have more Red Bull,’s amazing Marketing trips to the Edge of Space,  Virgin Galactics Space Tours, Bigeolow Private Space Stations or we can have more mothballed Space Shuttles. The choice is ours. Diffusion of Knowledge within a society as Hayek wrote, can only be efficiently utilized if people are free to trade their knowledge and products and services which it creates, freely with each other.

When the State steps in and its central planners tell you that they know how best to spend your money, think of Red Bull and Fearless Felix. And think about the harmony that the Spontaneous Order of the Free Market facilitates versus the limitations and failures of Government Space Programs.

The Red Bull Stratos jump is a victory for not only Felix Baumgartner and Red Bull but also for the Free Market. It is an amazing story that an energy drink company from Austria can mount a manned mission to the edge of space and land him safely home. That is incredible. In twenty years from now instead of the NASA Logo or any other Government logo on the side of rockets there will be logos of Companies and even individuals. It will be Private Companies like Chevy, Ford, and Toyota do now in NASCAR, with all their associated sponsorships competing to take people and cargo into Space.  And I have a feeling Red Bull will continue to be a key player in getting people to the stars. And it will not be for the reason of  ”National Pride” or “Collective Security” but for “Brand Differentiation and Profit”

Capital in the hands of Private individuals is the superior way to live as human beings. Being able to trade and keep the profits from the products and services created by Private Capital Leads to amazing inventions and betters everyone’s life. This is demonstrated by the successful track records of the entrepreneurs who are leading the privatization of space travel. Men like Dietrech Mateschitz co- founder of Red Bull and the Stratos jump , Robert Bigelow a hotel chain owner now designer and manufacturer of Private Space stations with his Bigelow AeroSpace company who currently has two prototypes orbiting earth, Richard Branson Aviation and telecom mogul with his Virgin Galactic and private space tours,  Peter Thiel founder of Pay Pal and investor in Space X which recently delivered cargo to the ISS, Paul Allen co-founder of Microsoft and StratoLaunch which won the Ansari X Prize in 2004, and John Carmack Founder of id Games and Armadillo Aerospace who is building lower cost reusable rockets; all prove that privately Owned Space flight is another example of how Individual Liberty is always superior to Collective Coercion.

Ayn Rand would have been very proud of Felix Baumgartner and Dietrich Mateschitz of Red Bull. This is her summation of her philosophy circa 1936:

” To make my life a reason unto itself. I know what I want up to the age of two hundred. Know what you want in life and go after it. I worship individuals for their highest possibilities as individuals and I loathe humanity, for its failure to live up these possibilities…”

Brad Miller

AdvocateofLiberty and Privately Owned Capital

If you want to learn more about the men and women who are living up the the highest possibilities in private space travel check out these sites.

http://www.redbullstratos.com/

http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/

http://armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home

http://www.virgingalactic.com/

http://bigelowaerospace.com/

http://bigelowaerospace.com/genesis-2-tracking.php Track in real-time the position of the Genesis II prototype Private Space Station launched by Bigelow Areospace in 2010.

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Government Made Disasters – Red Cross in Spain Taking Donations for Spainards

In True nature of the State on October 11, 2012 at 2:19 am

Has a hurricane, tsunami, or flood hit Spain that I’m not aware of? If not then why is the Spanish Red Cross collecting money to help their fellow country man?

The Red Cross is out soliciting donations around Spain because people are beginning to starve in Spain. How can that happen in a First World Nation? Has there been a Famine caused by drought, locust or some other Biblical Plague? No. There hasn’t been a faminine in Europe since Laissez-Faire Capitalism hit the shores of Europe.

Has there been a war that has disrupted the economy? No, Spain’s last real war was the Spanish Civil War back in the 1930′s.

Has there been a massive outbreak of disease forcing millions to be unable to not work? Well sort of. Its not a physical disease but rather a mental “disorder” that is causing massive physical effects for the people of Spain today.

The reason why so many people in Spain are needing ”assistance” is because of the ideology the majority of the Spanish have embraced over the decades. Spain and the other “PIIGS” Portugal, Ireland, and Italy are suffering the effects of what happens when Individuals embrace the ideas of Collectivism and elect politicians who put those ideas into action.

I’m not saying that the Bankers, Politicians and Pundit apologists didn’t orchestrate this collapse. They were front and center. But when individuals forget they have a God-given right only to their own life, liberty and property they suffer the effects of the violation of the Natural Laws.

Right now the Red Cross in Spain is going around the country soliciting donations for those according to Bloomberg Business “are hurt by the economy and government austerity measures”. But the article did not dig into why the economy is in shambles in the first place.

Spain is the case study for how Collectivism fails even when its shrouded in t”Deomcracy”. It was on the forefront of the Green Economy movement and gover the last decade has seen massive government intervention into every aspect of the economy. Just four years ago American politicians were pointing to Spain as the model for how to turn an economy around. Those politicians may want to rethink that now.

Spokesman Jose Javier Sanchez Espinosa for the Spanish Red Cross laid out the current ”Utopian State” of Spain today:

“25 percent of children are living under the poverty level and old people now have their children and their grandchildren depending on their pensions,” he said.

“Spain is in its second recession in three years, and has near 25 percent unemployment”

Spain is in bad shape. The reason why is simple. The people of Spain like the people here have traded liberty for security and now they have less and less of both.

It reminds me of the story of the Farmer who wanted to catch some Wild Hogs on his property and domesticate them. The Wild Hogs were wary and proud creatures who regarded the farmer with great suspicion because of the stories they heard of the animals being caged and slaughtered on the farm. They valued their independence living in the forest only by their brain and their brawn. Sure the forest was dangerous and nothing was guaranteed but he Wild Hogs were crafty, strong, and self-reliant; that was until they discovered how tasty free Farmer corn could be.

The Farmer was cunning and patient. He knew he could never get all the Wild Hogs into a pen by force. So instead of the stick he used the carrot or more accurately, free corn. .

He began putting corn out in a small clearing next to the forest. At first The Wild Hogs were leery but soon one by one they began to eat the corn. After a few days of laying out the corn the Farmer put up some fence.  Not too close to the corn but close enough that the Wild Hogs noticed it when they ate. They rationalized it away. They told themselves “Hey, I’m still free I can come and go as I please and this corn is mighty tasty”.

Now as days passed the Wild Hogs continued to eat the free corn and the Farmer began putting up more and more of the fence.  The Wild Hogs didn’t mind at all and became more and more accustomed to it. As the second side of the corral was completed the Wild Hogs told themselves  “I’m not worried I can still come and go as I please and this corn is so tasty”. They even didn’t mind seeing the farmer because they knew that he was the one brining them the corn. After a few weeks of this The Wild Hogs now didn’t even notice the fence at all, it was just part of the landscape. That was until the Farmer put in the last of the fencing, installed a gate and locked it shut. That was the day the Wild Hogs became very aware of the fence and that they could no longer come and go as they pleased.

But the Farmer assured them that the fence was there for their protection. They were safe in the pen from the wolves that lurked in the forest and they no longer had to go out searching for food in the forest. So the Hogs calmed down and settled into a routine of sitting around each day waiting for the farmer to bring the free corn.

Over time the farmer began cutting the rations back  and the pigs  after a while noticed and began to protest. But what could the pigs do? The Farmer simply ignored their pleas. They were trapped. They could no longer escape. They now were no longer the Wild Hogs who lived free in the forest by their brains and their brawn. Their muscles had atrophied and their power to reason was gone. No longer were they strong enough to push the fence over or smart enough to work the gate.  The once Proud Wild Hogs were now nothing more than trapped domesticated pigs.

The people of Spain,Italy, Ireland and Greece are all beginning to feel the “restricted rations of corn” from their Government Farmers. The crazy thing is that those who are calling for austerity are the one’s who  have fattened themselves the most by using the Central Banking System and the ability of Government to tax through force. The PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain) don’t have a chance. The Farmers today, the central bankers, politicians and pundits, are all trying to pen up as many people as possible so  that they ensure that their supply of corn is never shut off.

The people were not forced into these pens by the pointing of guns. They were  domesticated little by little over the years by the desire for a steady diet of free corn. The majority of people around the world clamor to be taken care of. People naturally want to do other things besides work. Work is strenuous, hard and requires people to use their God-give ability to reason. None of that is easy.  Mises like to called this natural human tendency the “disutility of labor.” Everyone he wrote would rather do something else besides work. Fortunately (I’m being sarcastic) there are philosophers and politicians who take advantage of this human tendency with concocted theories of “collectivism” which gladly relieve the masses of their need to reason and place the responsibility of their lives in the hands of the Government Farmers.

The observable results of the Collectivist philosophy in action are always the same.  It is not something new. In the last century Collectivist Governments have killed over 170 million of their own citizens. A lot of these were “non-comliant” pigs who were agitating the other pigs in the pen and others were “undesirable pigs” who were starved to death either by design or simply through bureaucratic neglect. When your life is in the hands of the Central Planners, a.ka., the Government Farmers, they decide who lives and who dies.

It is sad. This is not some abstract debate about the theory and practice of governing. This is about millions of people beginning to starve to death in a First World Nation. That is startling. I think more people should be outraged at this because the same ideology that penned up the people in the PIIGS is running rampant through the hearts and minds of Americans today.

A lot of people in America are beginning to notice the government fencing in their lives. Unfortunately  Mitt Romney and Obama are not talking about taking down these fences, they are in fact talking about making them higher and stronger. Make no mistake about it, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Obama Care, 401ks, IRAs, tax deductions are all Fences designed to keep you in the Centrally Planned Pen. Instead of demanding to hear about how these fences should be taken down, the only thing most Americans want to hear is who among the Government Farmers will be giving them the biggest ration of corn.

Brad Miller

AdvocateofLiberty and Living Free of Government Fences

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