statism

‘Missing’ French tourists found safe at home after prompting a manhunt

"The discovery of an empty canoe floating in the Lac de Sainte-Croix in the heart of Provence triggered fears for a couple and two children believed to have rented it on Thursday. About 40 rescuers, backed up by a helicopter, divers and sniffer dogs, had been scouring the picturesque emerald lake and its surrounds ever since, in a rescue operation closely followed by local media. Gendarme Captain Frederic Del Aguila said the tourists explained that their boat had been overturned by a small wave after the sluices were opened on a hydroelectric dam. However they would be fined 35 euros for entering a part of the lake forbidden to tourists." Continue reading →

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The Drug War Murders a Toddler

"Joshua Hill didn’t know that his July 25 visit with his daughter Alexandria would be the last he would enjoy. Four days later the two-year-old child was killed by the state-licensed foster mother who had been given custody after Joshua’s daughter was seized by the Texas Child Protective Service. Why was this child taken away from loving and capable parents? Last November, the state confiscated the infant from her home because the parents admitted to using marijuana on occasion. This was described as 'neglectful supervision,' a charge that permitted the child-snatchers to deliver the infant into the hands of an aggressively abusive individual." Continue reading →

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French revolutionary rule keeps Paris bakers baking

"The presence of bread – which holds an almost mythical importance for the French – has been guaranteed in the capital since the chaotic and starving days of the French Revolution. And to avoid the possibility of another revolution, the state has since ensured that modern Parisians have no need to rise up for lack of a fresh baguette. City bakers now have strictly regulated summer holidays and are expressly forbidden to abandon the capital en masse and leave behind a potentially dangerous bread vacuum. The rules go back to the Revolution, when in October 1798 baker Denis François was lynched by an angry mob for not opening his shop." Continue reading →

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British warships arrive in Gibraltar amid tension with Spain

"British warships arrived in Gibraltar on Monday for scheduled exercises amid tensions with Spain over fishing around the British Mediterranean enclave. Although British, Spanish and Gibraltarian authorities have said the navy’s arrival at the British overseas territory is long-scheduled, some in Spain see it as provocative. Spain claims the territory, population just 30,000, which it ceded to Britain by treaty 300 years ago. In Monday’s German Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo accused the Spanish government of creating conflict to distract attention from corruption allegations against the ruling People’s Party." Continue reading →

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The Real State Secret: Spies Aren’t Very Good At Their Jobs

"It doesn't matter whether you hate the spies and believe they are corroding democracy, or if you think they are the noble guardians of the state. In both cases the assumption is that the secret agents know more than we do. But the strange fact is that often when you look into the history of spies what you discover is something very different. I want to tell some stories about MI5 - and the very strange people who worked there. They are often funny, sometimes rather sad - but always very odd. The stories also show how elites in Britain have used the aura of secret knowledge as a way of maintaining their power." Continue reading →

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Illinois governor Pat Quinn signs new ‘background checks’ law

"Private gun sales in Illinois must now be approved by state police under a law signed by Gov. Pat Quinn (D) on Sunday. WGN-TV reported that as of January 1, 2014, the law will require gun sellers to contact a police hotline to confirm that the buyer holds a valid state firearm owners’ identification card (FOID), Authorities vowed to expand their services to meet the demand for the new background checks. Another provision in the law requiring gun owners to report lost or stolen firearms to authorities within 72 hours takes effect immediately, making Illinois the eighth state to adopt such a provision." Continue reading →

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Who Can Best Advise You?

"It is safe to suggest that your reading of this publication has a great deal to do with the possibility that the country in which you live is approaching that critical stage. Therefore, it may be in your interest to seek the counsel of those who, for whatever reason, have made a long-term study of historical patterns. It would also be beneficial to keep a close eye on those countries in the world that (as stated above) are on the same path of self-destruction as our own but happen to be further along in the pattern. For this reason, the woman pictured above, Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, may be quite useful to you as an advisor." Continue reading →

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The Hookah Lounge War Is On

"There are hundreds of hookah lounges in the U-S, mostly in college towns and urban areas. The lounges have enjoyed an exemption to clean indoor air laws because they have defined themselves as 'tobacco shops.' No more. The front line is here in Boston. After allowing a few lounges to open, the city has clamped down and passed a law that forces all of the city’s hookah lounges to shut down by 2019. 'There’s a risk that people who are non-smokers will [..] find themselves addicted to nicotine and needing to buy packs of Marlboros,' says Mark Gottlieb, executive director at the Public Health Advocacy Institute." Continue reading →

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Free Staters Tell Concord Police: Tanks, But No Tanks

"To his credit, Concord police chief John Duval apologized for calling these groups domestic terrorists, but the point was and is clear. The biggest concern and fear of any political system are those that seek to undermine state authority and its institutionalized plunder masked in law, badges, and costumes. If terrorism is defined as the threat or use of violence against the innocent to achieve political ends, then who really are the domestic terrorists? The groups of people with the radical notion that other people are not their property, or the institution that claims the right, duty and moral imperative to initiate aggressive violence?" Continue reading →

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Government works to make federal agencies appear as protagonists on TV

"Many agencies, including U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), actually staff an 'entertainment and multimedia liaison' in order to coordinate the agencies starring roles. Brandon A. Montgomery is such a liaison for ICE. In a news release from his agency, he is described as 'actively working to generate an agency presence in film and TV.' 'It’s important to get (ICE) on TV because it ensures we are on the top of the mind to the American public and our stakeholders,' Montgomery said, noting that it was 10 times as effective as putting an agency in a news blurb. Montgomery touts his influence at acquiring ICE features in TV shows." Continue reading →

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