Daily Archives: 25 October 2010
Government bureucrats love their titles
“When the Tea Party breaks publicly with points 2, 5, and 10 of the Communist Manifesto, I will be impressed. Until then, I remain an amused bystander.”
Three of the ten planks of the Communist Manifesto (1848) are still universally accepted.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc.
The ten planks were supposed to be the means of ushering in the classless society of Communism. The next sentence after plank #10 revealed the utopianism of Marxism.
When, in the course of development, class distinctions have disappeared, and all production has been concentrated in the hands of a vast association of the whole nation, the public power will lose its political character.
Classes did not go away in the Communist paradises. There were the haves and the have-nots. The basis of access into the minority class of the haves was through membership in the Communist Party.
The state never went away. It got stronger and more demanding. It became more pervasive.
. . . .
So, Marx and Engels got 30% of their program accepted by the bourgeoisie world.
Then there was this plank:
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
Because of a peculiarity of the tax code, the inheritance tax has been suspended in the United States for 2010. But next year, the old system returns: up to 55%. So, to impose taxes on the rich, the voters have adopted another of the planks, at least in principle.
So, where are we today? Maybe at 32% of the Communist program. Let’s round it up to one-third. That’s close enough for government work. 
(Read more from lewrockwell.com)
Does Money Taint Everything?
Fantastic little (10 minutes) lecture by Jeffrey Tucker:
(from Mises Media)
NY Times readers rail against hit piece on Wikileaks
Wow, nakedly transparent attempt by mainstream media to discredit Mr. Assange for exercising actual journalism. Wonder how long it will take for him to become “suicidal” or for his small plane to crash.
Kudos to thebigprune commenter above.
This article is biased. I have not started reading the article when I already warned of the ‘dodgy’ Assange in the title itself. In the first paragraph the warning continue. We are told your journalist met his in the “run down Paddington district”. This is nonsense. Paddington is in the centre of town, flanked by Hayde Park, Notting Hill, Bayswater and very close to Oxford Street. Nobody in London calls the Paddington district ‘run down’.
Second paragraphL “dwindling number of loyalists” and “uses cash borrowed from friends”. Does he turn into a Wereworlf at night too?
Thirs paragraph, we steady him up a bit but hold on, “he sports a wispy stubble” that is really dodgy.
Fourth paragraph: “notoriety” again.
I wonder one thing. Did Mr Assange killed £200,000 people? Does he torture them?
No. It so happens that Mr Assange is taking on the most gigantic, un supervised power in the world. This is not Darth Vader and his cohoots. This is… the Pentagon! How come? The lovely Pentagon? That place full of generals and stars and cuddly Teddy bears?