Just like the Mafia, but worse in every way.

I'm not sure I've written on this topic yet, but I've got it in my head, so I might as well get it out on paper before it's gone.

Have you ever known anybody who hasn't "paid their fair share" of taxes (according to the letter of the IRS code, at least)?  Or maybe even somebody who ingested something deemed "dangerous" by the FDA, like raw milk?  Or who entered into a voluntary transaction with another human adult in which nobody was harmed or coerced into doing anything?

That last one can literally apply to any kind of transaction you want to imagine.

Have you noticed what happens to these people when the government learns of their mortal sins? Families stolen.  Entire life's work, taken (and spent on margarita machines for the local precinct - "Money from Heaven," they call it).  Lives lost to a cage.  For participating in actions that harmed no person involuntarily.

People are still crucified in this day and age.  And it is on an unimaginably pervasive scale.  If any one of us "normal" people were to try a tenth of the crap the government pulls, we could be sentenced to multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole.  This has happened again recently, when Ross Albrecht was convicted (corruptedly, unconvincingly) of operating a website. In the interest of full disclosure, I'm not 100% sure about the parole part.

If you or I tried to collect taxes from our neighbors for the privilege of living in their own homes or working at their own jobs,  we would be (rightly) seen as robbers and extortionists.  If we tried to pull someone over and demand money from them because we noticed they weren't wearing their seat belt, that person would think we were a lunatic.  If we tried to put someone in a cage for collecting rain water on their own property, we might be committed to an asylum.  Yet somehow, it seems completely normal to most people when someone wearing a costume claims the right (a "right" which was given to them by who, again?) to do these things.

I keep coming across people who simply can't imagine life without an overriding parental figure to watch over them and guide their life.  Keep them safe from bullies.  They can't see past the obvious questions because they don't want to.  And I can't blame them for that.

Have you ever stopped and wondered what the difference is between the government and the mafia?  Both steal peoples' money.  Both give people rules to live by, and punish them if those rules are broken.  Both will ultimately use violence against you - up to and including murdering you - in order to maintain their power.  I honestly can't see any difference at all between the two.  The only thing that makes them different is someone's perception.  Most likely because of the 14,000 hours of their most formative years spent in public classrooms, a lot of people perceive the thuggish actions of their government to be legitimate and just.  It doesn't matter how demonstrably horrible the people in government are, in the eyes of the indoctrinated, they can never be on the wrong side of history.

We have to move past this point in our history. Nothing lasts forever, and our current way of life is no exception. Too many people choose not to think critically about some of the "essential" services provided by the public sector. And so, they can't imagine life without a central authority using violent, coercive force to steal money from peaceful people and provide these services. There is always a better way than holding a gun to Peter's head and demanding money to pay Paul. There's always a voluntary way to get things done.

Why don't we tackle just the most obvious one? "Who will build the roads?" When I think about it, I think: The exact same individuals who build them now. I don't believe it is a monolithic leviathan that magically wills roads into existence. I think it's the work of people - people who want to get paid. If I want a service, I'd much rather kick a few bucks towards the people doing the job than sending money to some intermediary who's going to keep most of it just to keep its fat face full and its bombs dropping.

Are you comfortable with being complicit in something like the United States foreign policy? Or even (and especially) its domestic policy? I would never voluntarily agree to pay for most of the crap these sociopaths want. As is, I don't have a choice in the matter. If I refuse to go along with this system - a system which is morally repugnant to nearly all the values I hold most dear - men with guns will eventually show up at my house to demand their tribute. And we all know what happens when you refuse to cooperate with a psycho holding you at gunpoint.

Until the world changes, remember to pay the blood money.  One way or another, they'll get their pound of flesh.

"America is at that awkward stage where it's too late to work within the system, but too soon to just shoot the bastards." - Claire Wolfe

"So we keep on waiting....waiting on the world to change." - John Mayer

The Absurdity of the System

The level of corruption in governments around the world (both State and Federal) is reaching a boiling point.  This isn't the first time, and it certainly won't be the last.  Unless, that is, we decide we've had enough.  And I don't mean enough of the current team in power, I mean the government-by-force paradigm in its entirety.

While their intentions may (or may not) have been noble, the Framers of the Constitution created the potential that has led to the absurdity we see today.  The only thing worse than being made into a criminal for owning a previously legal high capacity magazine is being made into a criminal for refusing to purchase health insurance.  As if to add insult to injury, President Obama is showing his true colors by celebrating his great "victory" of forcing millions of people at the barrel of a gun to buy health insurance.  This kind of celebratory behavior is what you might expect from a dictator looking down on those he has subjugated.  Then again, if you consider how Obama crassly jokes about murdering people with predator drones, this type of celebration seems right in line with his personality.

Only in a system as absurd as this do hundreds of millions of dollars per year get funneled into combating a drug which has never killed anyone in all of Human history while the pharmaceutical industry produces one pill after another that regularly kill over 38,000 people per year in the US alone.  In fact, roughly 50% of people in our overloaded prison system (which is largely private and for-profit) are there for non-violent drug related offenses.  Related: The legal alcohol and tobacco industry kill a cumulative 518,000 people per year in the US.

Only in a system as nonsensically absurd as this does the government spend untold billions on fighting a faceless "War on Terror" while leaving the Southern border of the country wide open to potential terrorists and illegal immigrants.  Mind you, I don't have any problem at all with people freely traveling this planet, so long as they do so in peace.  What is absurd is that the United States government would have you terrified of some shadowy threat they can't really define so that they can keep taking your money and limiting your growth.  In short, so that you never have time to stop and question the validity of their claims, or the validity of the fact that they exist at all in the capacity in which you think they do.

Only in a system as patently absurd as ours does Congress abdicate its responsibility to create money to a private bank, then borrow from that bank at interest.  The debt our government owes to the Federal Reserve has grown so far out of control that virtually every penny of your Federal income taxes go directly to paying the interest alone.  That's right: Your income taxes do not pay for the services you expect.  Instead, they pay for the interest on a debt our government only owes because it gave up its duty to create its own money.

Only in a system as absurdly corrupt as this do the same people creating genetically modified foods also get to set the safety regulations for those foods.  These same people are also authoring legislation that prevents any sort of cease-and-desist order being filed against them even if it is found that their "foods" are causing harm to humans or the environment.

Only in a system as ridiculously absurd as America's can you be sent to prison for not paying taxes - where you can't earn more to pay off your "obligations" even while costing taxpayer money for your stay - without absolving you of your tax debt.  If tax collection were about revenue generation, the last thing the government would do is lock you in a cage at the expense of tax dollars.  But taxation isn't about revenue.  It's about control at the barrel of a gun.  The situation is literally no different than when a common street thug holds a gun to your head and demands "Your money or your life."  The number of thugs and caliber of the gun being held is of no relevance to this scenario - they are identical.

While we are on this topic, it is worth revisiting a heavily self-evident fact: The initiation of aggression is inherently illegitimate.  Even if you believe your friend should behave a certain way, you know it is unacceptable for you to threaten violence against them to illicit the behavior you want.  You also know that if you choose to initiate violence anyway, your friend is fully justified in using violence against you in their own self-defense.  You live by this Non-Aggression Principle every day you interact with others without harming them.  If this is the standard applied to individual people, should it not also be applied to governing bodies?  Anything that must be done at the barrel of a gun - taxation, drug law enforcement, Obamacare - should be seen by all as inherently illegitimate because it removes the element of voluntary interaction.

It's time for everyone to see government for what it is - a concentration of force which uses threats of violence and ultimately the promise of death to obtain compliance.  Having "slightly less stealing and threats of violence" isn't good enough.  If Liberty is truly to thrive, we must remove the ability of any single person to legalize whatever brand of aggression they see fit.

Reading words like these might make you feel uncomfortable.  They seem to be calling you out to you directly to change some subtle thing in your life, something you know would work towards making our existence what it could be.  And I wonder - will you answer this call?  Or will you continue to live your life as if there is nothing wrong?  Because as Grant says in The Iron Web, "Some of us are done trying to help you.  If you crave servitude and can't live without it, by all means, keep it.  But leave us the hell alone."

"When the government's boot is on your throat, whether it is a left boot or a right boot is of no consequence."

It's Not a Democracy, Stupid!

In recent discussions about liberty, self-ownership, and non-aggression, a common misconception has been rearing its head: "We live in a democracy, so you're ruled by your fellow voters."  Democracy, as pointed out by the photo on the left, is like two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.

What we are really supposed live in is a Constitutional Republic with a democratic election process.  The idea is supposed to be the protection of individual rights - the slight majority cannot vote itself the rights and property of the vast minority.

• Because of my First Amendment, a home-owner's association cannot legally forbid me from flying an American flag in my front yard, nor can an entity like the IRS restrict my ability to share my message with the rest of the country.  Similarly, the government cannot force me to forsake my religious beliefs in the name of health care.
• Because of my Second Amendment, my right to protect myself and my family with firearms is not up for discussion, no matter how much fear and propaganda people want to believe.
• Because of my Fourth Amendment, my property cannot legally be permanently removed from my possession on mere suspicion of wrongdoing, nor can my vehicle be stopped and searched at a police checkpoint without probable cause.
• Because of my Fifth Amendment, I cannot legally be required to provide information that could incriminate myself.
• Because of my Sixth Amendment, I cannot legally be thrown in a cage without ever being given a trial by a jury of my peers.

These (and many other) examples hold true no matter what vote the majority makes.  Inevitably, people argue that "this is the way things are."  After all, HOAs frequently violate free speech.  To this day, the IRS is restricting certain groups with dissenting political ideologies from participating in the debate.  Gun rights have been under relentless assault on both the state and Federal level, particularly with the overused cry of "For the children!"  The NSA is spying on every single American's phone calls, emails, and social media posts.  The IRS requires you to submit a document each year that could land you in prison if you make even one mistake.  And people are indefinitely detained without a trial by our own government all the time, often merely on the suspicion of "terrorist" involvement.

It's true.  This is the way things are today.  And that is exactly the problem.

We still have some semblance of the freedoms our forefathers paid for in blood, but they're diminishing every day.  When you shrug your shoulders and dismiss the person trying to get you to question this reality, you are doing exactly what we have all been bred to do.  From the moment you hit the public school system, you've been taught to sit down, shut up, and blindly obey authority figures.  Blind obedience is rewarded while any questioning that challenges the status quo is punished.  You have no right to free speech and no right to privacy.  It is in this environment of intense indoctrination that we spend our most impressionable years.  And it is because of this indoctrination that so many Americans choose to sit idly on the sidelines while their freedoms are systematically removed.  It was Adolph Hitler who said "The best way to take control over a people and control them utterly is to take a little of their freedom at a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible reductions.  In this way, the people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed."

So if you choose to sit on the sidelines, that unfortunate choice is yours to make.  This fight truly needs you in it.  I only ask you do the rest of us a favor: When you see people like me fighting to reclaim the freedoms we are losing, continue to sit on the sidelines.  Don't hand us over to your masters with hope of praise or table scraps.

The Collapse of The American Dream Explained in Animation

This is absolutely critical educational material for any American citizen to be appropriately informed.

A Legacy of Lawlessness

Why is it that officials in government can declare some laws "the immutable law of the land" while arbitrarily choosing not to enforce others?  I can't count the number of times I've heard people (not just government officials) trumpet "Obamacare is the law of the land!" with a smirk on their face.

Well, so are our immigration laws, which aren't being enforced.  Marijuana is still (erroneously) illegal, yet Attorney General Eric Holder is choosing not to pursue legal action against banks who take deposits from admitted marijuana businesspeople.

The last time I checked, it was illegal for you or I to sell firearms to known criminals, and we'd be charged as an accomplice to murder if those guns were used to kill people.  But the government doesn't even bat an eyelash at the botched Fast and Furious operation which ended up doing just that.

On a larger scale, it is illegal for me to forcibly take your money from you, yet the IRS has been directly (and illegally) taxing us into oblivion since 1913.  I would be charged with violating your God-given and Constitutionally recognized right to privacy if I were collecting all of your phone calls, social media posts, and emails, but the NSA does these things to us all.  I would be charged with false imprisonment and violating your Sixth Amendment rights if I were to lock you in a room indefinitely without giving you a jury trial, but the government claims this very "right" of indefinite detention.  What's more, the government is now claiming and has executed the "right" to assassinate any person (even American citizens), anywhere in the world, for the crime of being "suspected of terrorism."  This alone should send chills down every Freedom-loving person's spine: Either we all have the right to a trial by jury, or none of us do.  Furthermore, It is illegal for me to poison you, yet the federal government protects biotech giants like Monsanto who are doing just that.  You would be charged with counterfeiting if you printed your own money, but the Federal Reserve (private) bank has been granted this authority.

As a side note, and on the largest scale: If it is wrong for me to do "it," it is wrong for me to ask an agent of the state to do "it" for me.  This is true whether it be forced taxation (aka: theft/slavery) or holding you at gunpoint to stop you from an activity that harms no one outside yourself (such as using cannabis or growing a garden in your front yard).

Bigger picture aside, the current administration's arbitrary and unilateral decision to selectively enforce laws has set the stage for lawlessness.  And make no mistake: It may not be necessary to have a government to steal our money and start wars on our behalf, but it is important to live by rules that prohibit people from harming one another.

Related - The Non-Aggression Principle: Being the initiator of force in any situation is inherently illegitimate.

"Anarchy: Not without rules, but without rulers."

Starve the System Through Gardening

If you've been paying attention, you probably know that things in our country aren't going so great.  Mega corporations who place profit over human and environmental health are running rampant, destroying the financial, physical, and ecological health of our nation.  Monsanto, by far the largest offender, does everything they can to pump their genetically modified "foods" into our homes while blocking any attempts to so much as label their product as modified.  But what can we do about it?

The single most potent answer: Start gardening.

If you grow your own food, you do something about both greedy mega corporations and genetically damaging foods in one fell swoop.  Growing your own food is like printing your own money, and the money you grow holds actual value by its very nature, rather than because someone in power says it does and forces you to accept it as payment.  Growing your own food purchases the kind of security money cannot afford.

Growing a garden for just yourself and your family can be pretty intimidating, especially if you're short on land, but there are ways around this.  In Switzerland, communities work together so that individual families can specialize in one type of food.  Each member of the community grows one or two specific foods on all the space they have, and community members trade with one another so that everyone can get every type of food needed.  In addition to starving mega corporations and keeping GMOs out of your pantry, gardening with your neighborhood in this manner builds incredibly strong communities.

Another idea that is starting to catch in is the idea of a community garden.  Local city governments can designate otherwise unused plots of land that are repurposed to plant massive gardens.  These gardens can be voluntarily tended to by members of the community, and the food can be freely distributed to those who need it.  Any excess food can be used to barter with neighboring communities.  This fosters the same sense of community and security as coordinated neighborhood gardening, and can also help keep kids out of drug and gang activity by giving them something productive to do.  If you want this idea to catch on in your community, attend the next City Council meeting and bring it up.

Sustainable gardening is enormously beneficial.  Not only is it good for the ecosystem, it also allows people to reconnect with a basic part of the Human experience that has been largely lost to the supermarket.  Most people today have no idea where their food comes from before it is nicely packaged and put on grocery store shelves.  The loss of this connection is terrible; regaining it is fulfilling and inspirational.

Gardening is one of the most revolutionary acts in which you can engage.  A return to gardening is one of the most effective ways we can have a true Return to Liberty.

The Many Lies of the Commander-In-Chief

I have a confession to make: In 2008, I voted for Barack Obama.  At the time, it wasn't a hard choice to make.  He was promising to deliver the "Hope and Change" America truly needed.  He was promising to bring an end to unconstitutional behavior and laws within government.  He was promising to zealously protect our rights.  He was promising an end to the death spiral our economy was in.  He told us exactly what we needed to hear after we were utterly molested by the Bush Jr. Administration.  And if we're being honest, I didn't think McCain's heart could handle the stress of a victory.  And yes - the fact that Obama is half African American also played into it: America needed a drastic change, and he was the very embodiment of this change.  So of course I believed in Obama - he promised to be everything a President was supposed to be and drastically change the direction of our country's path to destruction.

I supported Obama for a while.  After all, he'd inherited what I could only describe as a "train wreck" from Bush, and he deserved the chance to set it right.  Like most Americans, I stopped paying attention to what he was doing and went about the endless cycle of bills and trying to keep my head above water, confident that he would deliver on his promises.  At the next election, I came up for air and examined what he had actually done during his first term.  To put it simply, the Liar-in-Chief has lost every bit of support he once had from me, and my vote went to Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.  Let us count the promises Obama made and the ways in which he has broken them:

• Guantanamo Bay will be closed, unconstitutional activities like warrantless wiretapping and indefinite detention without a trial will be put to an end
• Obama has decided it is "probably impossible" to close Gitmo due to political barriers, and instead of closing it, its use has been expanded.  In signing the NDAA, Obama has expanded the practice of indefinite detention without trial of anyone (including U.S. citizens) he deems a threat.  Under Obama, use of the drone program has exploded, and drones have been used to murder American citizens without a trial, along with at least 360 innocent children overseas.  Warrantless telephone monitoring has exploded to encompass the entire country under new NSA programs, and under PRISM, all electronic communications are now monitored as well.  Tying into this: Obama has knowingly supported terrorists by sending arms and financial assistance to Syrian "rebels," who have been publicly noted as pleading allegiance to Al-Qaeda.  By Constitutional definition, this is Treason.
• The Bush era tax cuts on the wealthy will be allowed to expire
• While Obama at least appears to have put up a fight for this one, the tax cuts for the wealthy were extended under his watch.  What's worse: Due to the 2% increase in the payroll tax, the "bottom 98%" have seen a tax hike under Obama to the tune of about $1,000 per year, and that's for lower income families.
• There will be a foreclosure prevention fund established to aid people who cannot get a bank loan
• While the fund has been created (using money from the Wall Street TARP bailout fund), it has not delivered as promised.  The program was supposed to help 3 to 4 million families keep their homes, but to date, only about 500,000 mortgages have been adjusted.  Even among those "helped," this program has been a failure.
• Our immigration process will be reformed and the illegal immigrant problem will be addressed
• This one has received only token efforts.  Obama has instead opted to push all his political clout towards jamming healthcare nobody wants down everybody's throat.  The efforts that have been seen have been ridiculous at best, with the sacred "Path to Citizenship" placed far above the actual problem of people crossing our borders illegally.  In short: Obama is pushing amnesty for people who have broken our laws.
• Lobbyists will be restricted from serving in government positions
• There are currently 18 different people from Monsanto alone (let alone any other lobbying group or corporation) serving in government positions.  This helps to explain why Obama has passed legislation that prevents legal action against the GMO-Giant, even if they are proven to be committing crimes against humanity.
• The Iraq War (which was based on lies) will be ended within 16 months
• Troops were not fully withdrawn until December 2011, 35 months after Obama was sworn in. 
• I will not take your guns
• Obama has danced in the blood of the innocent Sandy Hook victims more joyously than even Dianne Feinstein.  He has led an outright assault on the Second Amendment, pushing for as much gun control as he can without crossing the dangerous line (wide-scale confiscation) that would wake the sleeping masses.  His most recent push is the signing of the U.N. Small Arms Treaty, which would grant the "legal" precident to disarm the American populace.
• Everybody will have affordable healthcare; your premiums will go down, and you can keep your current provider/doctor if you like them
• Under Obamacare, it is estimated that 30 million Americans (a full 10% of the nation) will still not be covered.  Families are seeing their premiums jump up to 72%.  We are only seeing reductions in premiums in a select few cities such as New York and Los Angeles due to their preexisting health plans.  Across the country, large insurance providers of small businesses and individuals are pulling out of the market because they cannot comply with new mandates, causing millions to lose their existing coverage.  As if this wasn't bad enough, it was decided in early August of 2013 that Congress and members of the White House will have their Obamacare premiums covered by the government, which means We the Taxpayers get to pay for the increased costs to our "leaders" as well as to ourselves.  I still cannot understand how it is legal for our government to fine us an increasing amount of money each year (starting with at least 1% of your income) for not buying something they think we should have.  I can only hope that multitudes of people do not comply with this totalitarian mandate.

Most of these tie into the biggest broken promise of all: Obama's Oath of Office.  He did not vow to eradicate terrorism.  He did not vow to keep us safe.  He did not vow to provide healthcare for all.  He vowed to protect, defend, and preserve one thing: The Constitution of the United States of America.  This is Obama's charge, and he has failed.

I don't know about you, but I'm done blaming Bush for Obama's shortcomings.  It's time to accept that Obama is not the man he promised us he would be.  No amount of elaborate speeches are going to change that fact.  It's time to hold the right President's feet to the fire.  It's time for We the People to create the Hope and Change our dying nation so desperately needs.