Author: Bionic Mosquito

Regular readers are aware that I have written a good amount on the topic of open borders and culture recently.  I began down this road because I was challenged to tackle Hoppe in the same way I have gone at several left-libertarian positions.  These posts have been among the most commented-on in the history of this blog, for example: Hoppe’s Realistic Libertarianism, 41 comments (as of this moment) Hoppe and Immigration, 28 comments Dances With Elephants, 64 comments Open Borders: Case Study, 77 comments Why Culture Matters, 43 comments Two-hundred-fifty (more or less) comments and counting.  This does not include … Continue reading →

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*After Paris A couple of thoughts on the aftermath of the attacks in Paris on Friday, November 13. What’s With This “We”? Patrick Smith at Salon has written much on this topic since then.  In one column, he rightly takes to task those who come to the issue of terrorist extremism without context; in the case of current events, without the context of Western (not the least of which, French) meddling in the Middle East and North Africa.  I will not cite anything directly on this subject, but he offered an interesting point – one that some have passed through … Continue reading →

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A trillion here, a trillion there…. Countless (and unknowable) trillions of dollars are spent annually by NATO / western countries on (so-called) defense spending and (so-called) intelligence spending and (so-called) homeland security spending. There are satellites covering virtually every square inch of inhabited earth; every phone call, email, web site, and internet chat page is monitored.  Before boarding an airplane, passengers are strip-searched.  Armed military patrol every major airport and train station. Every financial transaction monitored, money transfers scrutinized, detailed regulation of every commercial transaction. What do I get for all this effort? The State Department on Monday issued a … Continue reading →

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Is it any surprise that people on the fringe look for rational explanations for what appears to be irrational behavior (i.e. “conspiracy theories”) on the part of government and military officials? Intensifying pressure on the Islamic State, United States warplanes for the first time attacked hundreds of trucks on Monday that the extremist group has been using to smuggle the crude oil it has been producing in Syria, American officials said. For the first time?!?!?! American officials have long been frustrated by ability of ISIS to generate tens of million[s] of dollars a month by producing and exporting oil. For … Continue reading →

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The 5,000-year-old Kültepe tablets: The kiln tablets, considered the earliest written documentation of life in Anatolia, were unearthed during archaeological excavations on the Kültepe-Kaniş-Karum mound in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri. Was this the documentation of kings and conquerors, the glories of an ancient warlord? “The Kültepe tablets are completely owned by the private sector, private individuals. The content of the tablets is 99 percent commercial. They are not official state documents; they are the archive of free traders. In this term, they are the earliest private sector documents. Therefore, the tablets feature the feelings of traders at that … Continue reading →

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Open borders to Europe.  Some comments from a representative story from Germany: Some 500,000 refugees have entered the country since the beginning of September, and there is no end in sight. “Prepare for the eventuality that in the coming weeks, 10,000 to 12,000 refugees will arrive at the border each day,” a member of the Coordinating Committee inside of Germany’s Interior Ministry said last Wednesday, quoting from a communiqué from the Austrian Interior Ministry. Sounds like The Camp of the Saints.  Hopefully not with a similar ending. The government, in short, has lost control. That would describe the ultimate open … Continue reading →

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Tom Woods interviewed Matt Zwolinski on Matt’s Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) proposal, and Matt’s belief that it is a libertarian proposal.  It is worth listening to the discussion if you have an interest on this topic.  To make a long story short: if you think the idea is cuckoo, you will only think this all-the-more after listening to several of Matt’s responses.  If you think the idea is…libertarian, a critical listen should shake your belief. I have written a few posts on Matt’s views: certainly regarding his BIG proposal; regarding his concerns about BIG as a libertarian proposal (don’t get … Continue reading →

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Dogs of war and men of hate With no cause, we don’t discriminate Discovery is to be disowned Our currency is flesh and bone Hell opened up and put on sale Gather ’round and haggle For hard cash, we will lie and deceive Even our masters don’t know the web we weave . -Pink Floyd .. One dog has stuck his nose out from behind the curtain…barely. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair says he’s sorry for “mistakes” made in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, but he doesn’t regret bringing down dictator Saddam Hussein. What blabbering is this?  … Continue reading →

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Well, maybe yes, maybe no, maybe both. It seems the Obama administration is deciding that maybe standardized testing in K – 12 education has gone too far: Faced with mounting and bipartisan opposition to increased and often high-stakes testing in the nation’s public schools, the Obama administration declared Saturday that the push had gone too far, acknowledged its own role in the proliferation of tests, and urged schools to step back and make exams less onerous and more purposeful. While a similar statement (followed by concrete action) on foreign military adventurism might offer an unequivocal cheer from lovers of less … Continue reading →

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In the United States there is only one political party – the welfare-warfare party.  Sure, they all pretend otherwise, and on peripheral, meaningless issues there may be differences.  But on the whole, the US government is about as divided as the Communist Party was under Stalin. This could never be admitted, never stated publicly.  But now that is changing – the issue is the difficulty republicans are having in electing a speaker of the house: The problem for Republicans is that they need a speaker candidate who can attract at least 218 votes — the majority needed when the full … Continue reading →

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, or so they say. Following are quotes from an interview.  I don’t know how concerned I should be that I hold many of these same views.  I will save the identity of the interviewee for last: …what is absolutely certain is that Western officials are in a state of confusion and their vision lacks clarity. At the same time, they are overwhelmed by a sense of failure concerning the plans they drew and didn’t achieve their objectives. At the same time, the lies they propagated…have started to unravel. You cannot continue to … Continue reading →

Russia has certainly changed the storyline in the Middle East.  Not differentiating rebel forces (rebels being all forces counter to Assad); Russia fights them all – including those “moderate” forces backed by the empire. Russian cruise missiles launched from the Caspian.  The empire’s response? Four Russian cruise missiles fired at Syria from the Caspian Sea landed in Iran, unnamed US officials say. Words. Both Russia and Iran deny this.  It matters little the truth behind this minor distraction; the story on the ground has changed.  For example: The Obama administration has ended the Pentagon’s $500 million program to train and … Continue reading →

I have several topics to touch on, none substantial enough for a post on its own, although there is a thread through all of these. Perhaps the most difficult part about writing this post was to come up with a title that tied it all together.  I found the title from a line in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, “Hocus Pocus.” “…we took the 10 machines we agreed were the most beguiling, and we put them on permanent exhibit in the foyer of this library underneath a sign whose words can surely be applied to this whole ruined planet nowadays: THE COMPLICATED … Continue reading →

…on the Pope’s visit to Philadelphia. The pope was… Introduced by Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,”… I almost skipped over this, but it piqued my interest: Fanfare for the Common Man is a musical work by American composer Aaron Copland. The piece was written in 1942 for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under conductor Eugene Goossens. It was inspired in part by a famous speech made earlier in the same year where vice president Henry A. Wallace proclaimed the dawning of the “Century of the Common Man”. What about the symphony-inspiring speech? Vice President Henry Wallace gave this speech … Continue reading →

The Pope gave a speech to a joint session of the US congress.  It is worth examining the lies of commission and the lies of omission.  I will not comment on his statements that are contrary to the NAP – or even violations to the US Constitution; this post will already be long enough without having to comment on virtually every line of the speech.  For clarification, the Pope’s words will be in italics. I am most grateful for your invitation to address this Joint Session of Congress in “the land of the free and the home of the brave”. … Continue reading →