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The Statist History of Man
Ron Paul Riding a Raptor
Obama — now available in White
High Stakes: Democrats Might have to Oppose the War Again!
Lew Rockwell interviews Ron Paul on latest Presidential Debate
The Restoration and the Navigation Acts 1660-1663
ish imports and exports from England were limited to English ships alone. As part of the Restoration compromise, Charles II continued to gratify the London merchants and passed a series of Navigation Acts in 1660–63. Part of the commissioners’ instructions, indeed, was to see to the enforcement of these acts.
The new Navigation Acts drastically restricted and monopolized American colonial trade, to the detriment of the colonies.
The Navigation Act of 1660–61
1. restricted all colonial trade to “English” ships (English and American), that is, ships built, owned, and manned by Englishmen;
2. excluded all foreign merchants from American trade; and
3. required that certain enumerated colonial articles be exported only to England and English colonies.
We have already seen the havoc caused in the Southern colonies by tobacco being made one of the enumerated goods. Among the others were sugar, cotton wool, and various dyes. The second important Navigation Act was the Staple Act of 1663, which provided that all goods exported from Europe to America must first land in England. Only a few colonial imports were exempt from this prohibition: salt, servants, various provisions from Scotland, and wine from Madeira and the Azores.
The Staple Act meant that English ships and merchants would monopolize exports to America, while English manufacturers selling to America would be privileged by extra taxes being levied at English ports on foreign exports to the colonies. The enumerated-articles provision ensured that these staples would be exported only by English merchants and in English ships.
(Read more)
Former Head of the FDIC on the criminalization of Wall Street
He is speaking from the perspective that laws are meant for everyone, and people should follow them. The world becomes much clearer once you accept that the laws are written by THEM exclusively for US.
police persecution of gays in Iraq
A BBC World Service investigation has revealed that law enforcement agencies in Iraq are involved in the ongoing systematic persecution of homosexuals.
Activists say hundreds of gay men, and some women, have died in targeted killings in Iraq in recent years.
These numbers are difficult to verify, but the United Nations confirmed it was extremely concerned about what it called a deadly anti-gay campaign. (Read more)
Iran’s currency plunges 40 percent, riot police called out
From earlier this month:
Many bazaar merchants had closed their shops the day before and authorities reported arrests amid efforts to clampdown on black market money exchangers, who effectively set the rates around the country. Trash bins were set ablaze during sporadic confrontations with security forces.
The Prosecutor’s Office in Tehran said 16 people have been detained for “disrupting” the currency — an apparent reference to speculators trying to take advantage of the rial’s declining value.
Iran’s rial has lost nearly 40 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar in the past week. The rate Thursday — about 32,000 rials for the dollar — was a bit higher than the record low earlier this week. (Read more)
12-Year-Old Girl Shoots Intruder During Home Invasion In Bryan County
12-year-old girl took matters into her own hands during a home invasion in southeast Oklahoma.
It happened on Wednesday when the girl was home alone. She told police a stranger rang the doorbell, then went around to the back door and kicked it in. She called her mom, Debra St. Clair, who told her to get the family gun, hide in a closet and call 911.
That was when St. Clair dropped what she was doing and raced home.
“I drove home at a really fast pace to try to get to her, and when I got here the police were already here. And they had the suspect,” she said.
During that time, the intruder made his way through the house. St. Clair’s daughter told deputies the man came into the room where she was hiding and began to open up the closet door. That was when the 12 year old had to make a life-saving decision.
“And what we understand right now, he was turning the doorknob when she fired through the door,” said the Bryan County Undersheriff Ken Golden. (Read more)
Home Schools and the Tea Party
I have just read the best article in National Review that I can remember in the last 40 years. Of course, this is not saying a great deal, because I stopped reading National Review about 40 years ago. I used to write for it occasionally. My introduction to the magazine was in the fall of 1959, when I was a freshman at Pomona College. I read it faithfully for about five years, and intermittently until the early 1970s. After that, my interests shifted.
The article I refer to has a great title: “The Last Radicals.” It was written by Kevin D. Williamson. It begins with this paragraph.
There is exactly one authentically radical social movement of any real significance in the United States, and it is not Occupy, the Tea Party, or the Ron Paul faction. It is homeschoolers, who, by the simple act of instructing their children at home, pose an intellectual, moral, and political challenge to the government-monopoly schools, which are one of our most fundamental institutions and one of our most dysfunctional. Like all radical movements, homeschoolers drive the establishment bats.
I think this assessment is correct. Homeschooling now qualifies as a movement. It is certainly radical, in that it has taken a public stand, with money on the line, against the public schools.
It stands against the only American institution that can legitimately claim for itself this unique position: it is the only established church in the nation. It has a self-accredited, self-screened priesthood, as every church must. It has a theology. Its theology is messianic: salvation through knowledge. But this knowledge must be screened and shaped in order to bring forth its socially healing power.
Massachusetts was the last state to abolish tax funding of churches. That was in 1832. In 1837, the state created the nation’s first state board of education. It was run by one of the crucial figures in American history, the Unitarian lawyer Horace Mann. He believed that the public schools should perform much the same function that the established Congregational churches had performed for two centuries in Massachusetts. The schools would produce what the churches had failed to produce, a new humanity. They would transform sin-bound man by means of education. (Read more)
Free Online Education Is Now Illegal in Minnesota (the ban has since been lifted)
UPDATE, Oct. 19, 7:07 p.m.: Common sense has indeed prevailed! Minnesota has decided to stop enforcing an outdated law that had led to Coursera telling the state’s residents they weren’t allowed to take its free online classes. For more, see my follow-up post here.
Original post: Honorable mentions go to New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission for driving out Uber’s online taxi-hailing service and to automobile dealers’ groups in four states for trying to have Tesla dealerships declared illegal. But the grand prize in this week’s unexpectedly heated competition for most creative use of government to stifle innovation has to go to Minnesota.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the state has decided to crack down on free education, notifying California-based startup Coursera that it is not allowed to offer its online courses to the state’s residents. Coursera, founded by Stanford computer science professors Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, partners with top-tier universities around the world to offer certain classes online for free to anyone who wants to take them. You know, unless they happen to be from Minnesota. (Read more)
Disturbing Video Shows U.S. Defense Contractors Allegedly Drunk and on Drugs in Afghanistan
The two employees, Melson and Kenny Smith, worked as armed security officers in Kabul as part of a $47 million government contract with the Arlington, Virginia-based defense company, which led efforts to train the Afghan National Police in counter-insurgency tactics, according to ABC. They have now filed a lawsuit against Jorge Scientific, alleging widespread misconduct and fraud under the False Claims Act.
Read more: newsfeed.time.com/2012/10/18/disturbing-video-shows-u-s-defense-contractors-drunk-and-on-drugs-in-afghanistan/#ixzz2A3ZOPaxc
(Read more)
Albert Jay Nock on voting
. . . a decent person could find no place in politics, not even the place of an ordinary voter, for the forces of ignorance, brutality and indecency would outnumber him ten to one.