". . . a republic, if you can keep it."
Think about this headline. Think what it means.
Think of all the cries of bloody murder, all the riots, all the hand wringing. They’re like a stubborn child that finally realized that threatening to hold your breath until you die won’t be taken seriously.
I created this blog in 2007 after having been recalled from civilian life for a third combat tour, this one to Afghanistan’s Kunar Project. I created it because with a few notable exceptions, the counter-narrative to our government’s propaganda was largely unknown. I felt alone in my skepticism, and wanted to cry out, if only into the void.
This blog was my outlet. I’ve been posting 2-3 stories a day for over six years. Since I started tracking in 2009, I’ve had over 80,000. Lately, it’s been about 40-50 per day.
I knew what I was against before I knew what I was for — before I discovered the Austrian School of Economics, a definition of liberty. Curiously, my intellectual journey started and ended with security. (Perhaps culminated is a better word than ended, because I’m still traveling.)
In any case, it started with a skepticism about our wars, passed through the Constitution, to Austrian Economics, and culminated with Hoppe’s obliteration of the idea of the state as a monopolistic provider of security.
I will leave this blog in place, a monument to the passing of the pro-government, pro-war conception of world I had been indoctrinated with long, long ago, and a celebration of my libertarian awakening.
It’s mostly bad news here. Mostly the stuff I found shocking, disturbing, the stuff I couldn’t square with what my teachers told me in school. But once the illusions are broken, then behind this bad news there is great hope and happiness. The bad news is the vanquishing of false gods.
So it’s a monument, and an archive of my intellectual journey from 2007 until 2013. Perhaps I’ll still add a post occasionally.
I have two reasons for leaving this project: 1) I am absolutely thrilled to have discovered the vast numbers of people who still believe in liberty, strive for a deep understanding, and live their lives by their beliefs. I am overjoyed. The excellence of their proselytizing makes this blog much less important that it seemed in 2007. 2) I need time to write and pursue other projects. I’ll maintain a big presence on the internet with my own writing, reviewing books and more. You can connect to me here: screamingatthemountains.com.
Thanks for reading.
From Open Europe News summary:
A new OECD study has found that on average, German male pensioners receive a lower pension relative to their earnings (58%) compared to Greeks (110%), Spaniards (84%) and Italians (76%). 
A Muslim preacher has been secretly recorded explaining to followers how to receive government assistance they can use to fund a Muslim holy war.
Calling it a “Jihadi Allowance,” cleric Anjem Choundary, 45, has four kids, brings in £25,000, or just under $39,000 U.S. in benefits himself, and says that this is the way it is supposed to work according to Islamic law.
Recorded by both the U.K. Sun and Telegraph, Choundary says:
– “We are on Jihad Seekers Allowance, we take the Jizya (protection money paid to Muslims by non-Muslims) which is ours anyway.
– “The normal situation is to take money from the [non-Muslims] isn’t it? So this is the normal situation.”
– “They give us the money. You work, give us the money. Allah Akbar, we take the money. Hopefully there is no one from the DSS (Department of Social Security) listening.”
– “Ah, but you see people will say you are not working. But the normal situation is for you to take money from the Kuffar (non-Muslim) So we take Jihad Seeker’s Allowance.
Immigration reform could be bonanza for Democrats
The immigration proposal pending in Congress would transform the nation’s political landscape for a generation or more — pumping as many as 11 million new Hispanic voters into the electorate a decade from now in ways that, if current trends hold, would produce an electoral bonanza for Democrats and cripple Republican prospects in many states they now win easily.
Beneath the philosophical debates about amnesty and border security, there are brass-tacks partisan calculations driving the thinking of lawmakers in both parties over comprehensive immigration reform, which in its current form offers a pathway to citizenship — and full voting rights — for a group of undocumented residents that roughly equals the population of Ohio, the nation’s seventh-largest state. (Read more)
Is your coutry’s GDP too low? No problem! Just lie. I can almost *feel* the economy getting healthier. Whelp, I’m off to sell my gold and buy government bods.
Holy shit!
Some of his lines are verbatim from this video:
Commentary:
I’m embarrassed by how little I remember from my “Intro to Crypto” class at Stanford. This video really helped: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXB-V_Keiu8.
It talks a little about the history of encryption — until the 1970’s symmetric key encryption was used. Public key encryption was quite the breakthrough. And get this — when it was first discovered (invented?) the THE GOVERNMENT INSTANTLY CLASSIFIED THE RESEARCH!!! It was later re-discovered.
Anyway, for laypeople, I’d suggest watching this video to the point of understanding that it’s really, really hard to factor the product of two big prime numbers.
Trying to understand the Modular function which stands on top of this fact is difficult.
Final note: Though it isn’t in the video, my understanding is that Bitcoins don’t actually encrypt anything, but they use these crypto algorithms to verify that transactions match account numbers. Digital signatures, in other words.
So, if you post your bitcoin account number on a website to accept donations, everyone who uses bitcoins can see what transfers were made to that account. Of course, the beauty of bitcoins is that you can make as many accounts as you want and transfer bitcoins between them.
I sense fear among the fiat establishment, and I love it.
I smell something fishy — that market-manipulating, terrified-central-banker smell.
The likelihood of the decline: www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-16/presenting-golds-7-sigma-move
Martial Law in Boston Did Not Catch the Suspect
Look at these chilling photos of a major American city under total martial law. The local police force and investigative units have switched over to military assault vehicles on the streets, robo-cop science-fiction soldiers plugged in to all manner of spooky devices looking like the Borg and screaming orders like “if you want to live, turn off your cell phones.”
We read the shocking full story in the Washington Post today. Perhaps some of us are too naive, but this still seems unreal in the United States:
“By order of the state, a public transit system that serves more than 1.3 million riders a day was padlocked. Amtrak trains were suspended between Boston and New York. Businesses, offices and some of the world’s greatest universities were shut. Taxis were ordered off the streets for part of the day. Residents were instructed to stay inside.”
As does this:
“An indication of the complex investigation ahead came Friday night, when an Obama administration official told NBC News that Tsarnaev would not be given a Miranda warning when he is physically able to be interrogated after receiving medical treatment.
“Instead, the official said, the government will invoke a legal rule known as the ‘public safety exception,’ which will enable investigators to question Tsarnaev without first advising him of his right to remain silent and to be afforded legal counsel.”
But this is what strikes one the most, pondering all of the above: the police state did not catch the suspect. The borg did not catch the suspect. Martial law did not catch the suspect. People forced to stay in their homes did not catch the suspect. Warrantless searches did not catch the suspect. (Read more)
