CLibertyC

Travel Before Passports

"A century ago, there were no passports. We forget this. Our world would have seemed inconceivable to any free man in the Western world a century ago. People would not have imagined it possible that a person would be unable to cross a border because his nation had revoked his passport. There were no passports to revoke. The Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, both considered illiberal tyrannies, had passport systems. World War I did more to undermine liberty in the West than any other event of the last century. European states killed about 20 million citizens, and began taking away liberties from those citizens who survived. War is the health of the state." Continue reading →

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Creating a Culture of Denunciation

"The Gestapo created a culture of denunciation, which destroyed the goodwill that comes from people living in peace and privacy together. It replaced goodwill and tolerance with suspicion, resentment, paranoia, and the breakdown of civil society; Nazi Germany was a psychological version of Hobbes’s 'war of all against all.' Because denunciation was thus institutionalized in Germany as a norm, the Stasi was able to walk directly into the void left by the Gestapo. How is a culture of denunciation established? The first step is to create an institutional framework that facilitates it." Continue reading →

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John Whitehead: Orwell Revisited

"In conjunction with the upcoming release of his new book, A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, John W. Whitehead sits down to discuss several 'pressure points' that are threatening the Bill of Rights and undermining our essential freedoms. In part seven of this special series, Whitehead explains the ways in which George Orwell's dystopian nightmare is slowly but surely becoming our reality." Continue reading →

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The Economics Behind the U.S. Government’s Unwinnable War on Drugs

"The U.S. government's policy of drug prohibition, like alcohol prohibition before it, is a failure. The economic analysis of fighting a supply-side drug war predicts that the war will enhance drug suppliers' revenues, enabling them to continuously ratchet up their efforts to supply drugs in response to greater enforcement. The result is a drug war that escalates in cost and violence. The drug war causes drugs to be more potent and their quality less predictable than if drugs were legal, leaving the remaining users at greater risk and, in the face of higher prices, more likely to commit crimes to support their habit." Continue reading →

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Hemp flag to fly over the Capitol on the 4th of July

"A flag made from hemp will be flown over the U.S. Capitol Building on America’s birthday, according to the Washington Post. Colorado hemp advocate Michael Bowman and Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) are the two responsible for the deed. Bowman said flying the hemp-flag on the 4th of July was a 'powerful symbol.' Hemp, a non-psychoactive variant of marijuana, was reportedly grown my several of America’s founding fathers. The federal government currently does not distinguish between psychoactive and non-psychoactive variants of the marijuana plant, which makes hemp production a serious crime." Continue reading →

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Treasury Delays Obamacare Implementation For Businesses Until 2015

"The Obama administration left it to a relatively low level Treasury official to announce the blockbuster news that the Obama administration will not begin enforcing employer mandates in the Obamacare law until 2015 - one year later than originally planned. Mark Mazur, the Assistant Treasury Secretary for Tax Policy, announced on the agency's blog that the administration 'will provide an additional year before the ... mandatory employer and insurer reporting requirements begin.' At this point the individual mandate remains, meaning individuals must obtain health insurance or face penalties." Continue reading →

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Military air tankers join fight against deadly Arizona wildfire

"The US military ordered four air tankers to join fire-dousing efforts in Arizona, where firefighters were battling a still out-of-control inferno which killed 19 of their comrades. The Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System (MAFFS) planes will be redeployed from other states to help tackle blazes including the Yarnell Hill fire, which remained zero percent contained despite a doubling of ground crews fighting it. The extra firefighting aircraft, which are specially-equipped military C-130 planes, can drop 3,000 gallons of water or fire retardant in less than five seconds, and can be refilled in less than 12 minutes." Continue reading →

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Customs And Border Patrol Considered Weaponizing Drones

"A Customs & Border Protection (CPB) report, released in response to EFF’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the agency, shows CBP has considered adding weapons to its domestic Predator drones. The report, titled 'Concept of Operations for CBP’s Predator B Unmanned Aircraft System' and submitted to Congress on June 29, 2010 shows that, not only is the agency planning to sharply increase the number of Predator drones it flies and the amount of surveillance it conducts by 2016, but it has considered equipping its Predators with 'non-lethal weapons designed to immobilize' targets of interest." Continue reading →

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What Real Independence Looks Like

"With confiscatory taxation at all levels, the gutting of the Bill of Rights through the so-called Patriot Act, the NDAA, secret courts, executive orders, indefinite detention, the need to be in compliance with an ever growing stack of regulations, edicts, and laws, the militarization of the police, the use of the IRS as a political weapon, assassination of US citizens without due process, indirect capital controls through FATCA, NSA warrantless spying, worldwide perpetual warfare with an undefined enemy... If history is any guide, it is not going to be pretty and I strongly recommend seeking an insurance policy before it's too late. Internationalization is that insurance policy." Continue reading →

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Egypt’s Tamarod protest movement

"Tamarod is a new grassroots protest movement in Egypt. The group, whose name means 'rebel' in Arabic, claims it has collected more than 22 million signatures for a petition demanding President Mohammed Morsi step down and allow fresh presidential elections to be held. Following Sunday's massive demonstrations, in which millions of people took to the streets in Cairo and other cities, Tamarod gave the president an ultimatum to resign or face a campaign of 'complete civil disobedience'. It urged 'state institutions including the army, the police and the judiciary, to clearly side with the popular will as represented by the crowds'." Continue reading →

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