Author: Bionic Mosquito

Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After failing to tempt Jesus with a couple of low-ball offers, the devil went whole-hog: dominion over all kingdoms of the world: 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” 10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve … Continue reading →

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Taken from an essay by Dr. Michael Vlahos, Professor at Johns Hopkins University, entitled “America: Imagined Community, Imagined Kinship.” The focus of his essay is to develop the concept of “kinship as a key dimension in modern state relations….”  More interesting to me is the underlying idea of imagined kinship as opposed to actual kinship. (In all cases, emphasis added.) Kinship drives culture, and cultural rules shape society. This is quite easy for most to understand and accept, I hope. The nation most dependent on invented kinship as the basis of its politics is the United States… Who does the … Continue reading →

The post The Life of the State appeared first on LewRockwell.

From an academic paper published by Hamilton College (located, interestingly enough, in Clinton, New York): Immediately after coming to power, the Clinton administration declared the consolidation of market and democratic institutions in Russia to be a vital American interest. The administration’s central tactic for promoting this outcome was to help Boris Yeltsin remain in power…. …Strobe Talbott, his chief adviser on the former Soviet Union, observes in his memoirs, the president himself quickly became “the U.S. government’s principal Russia hand, and so he remained for the duration of his presidency.” Pot, meet kettle (translation: Hillary, meet Bill): Why are the … Continue reading →

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My own view is that this planet is used as a penal colony, lunatic asylum and dumping ground by a superior civilisation, to get rid of the undesirable and unfit. I can’t prove it, but you can’t disprove it either. –        Christopher Hitchens* I will suggest this is certainly true for much of official Washington.  I can prove it. John McCain gave a speech at the Munich Security Conference (I can rest my case now, I think).  What is the Munich Security Conference? The Munich Security Conference is an annual conference on international security policy and has been taking place … Continue reading →

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I have given further thought to this topic, first explored here.  I will first offer a few points from the earlier post: Codevilla: We have stepped over the threshold of a revolution. It is difficult to imagine how we might step back, and futile to speculate where it will end. Zman: If what it takes to break the stranglehold this cult has on society is a dictator willing to toss a few judges from a helicopter, then sign me up for dictatorship. Bionic: It would be nice to have a Gorbachev. My reference to Gorbachev is in reference to a … Continue reading →

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On Power: The Natural History of its Growth, Bertrand de Jouvenel The Fallacy of Limited Government De Jouvenel concludes his examination on Power with a look at the liberal case for limited government.  He holds an imaginary conversation with his liberal counterpart, Émile Faguet: The state, you tell us, has a normal sphere of competence.  Agreed.  But how do you define it? To assure internal order and external security. What has determined it? Instant Access to Current Spot Prices & Interactive Charts The nature of society which is formed for the defense of all against aggression from without and of … Continue reading →

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…I was asked by a friend, in reference to this piece at the Zman blog. Before I offer my reply, a couple of lines from the Zman blog post; the basic idea is that the only way to clean house is for Trump to play the strongman: For the last three decades, probably longer, the guys allegedly on the side of the rest of us, have been obsessed with playing by the rules. The thing I don’t fear is that Trump will “go too far” or fail to respect the rules of the game. I don’t care about those rules … Continue reading →

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Introduction From my post on the positive aspects of Trump for those who favor libertarianism and decentralization – certainly when compared with the alternatives – I offer one of the several positive items: He questions trade deals.  I understand the dilemma that this presents for libertarians and free market types, but we can’t have it both ways: we know that the so-called “free trade” foisted on us isn’t free trade, it is government management crony trade. The Challenge Matt Welch at Reason has since come out with a post precisely on this dilemma: Libertarians have long been sensitive to the … Continue reading →

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What else can you call it? One more time, on the “bromance” between Trump and Putin…. Moral Equivalence? “You got a lot of killers,” Mr. Trump told Bill O’Reilly of the slavishly pro-Trump Fox News. “What, you think our country’s so innocent?” The editors at the Times take exception to this: …rather than endorsing American exceptionalism, Mr. Trump seemed to appreciate Mr. Putin’s brutality… I find nothing in Trump’s comments to suggest he “appreciates” Putin’s brutality.  Trump merely stated, in the form of a question, an undeniable fact. The editors of the Times are very good at listing in some … Continue reading →

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Corruption, lust and greed Define the new nobility Changing the course of history –        The Astonishing, Dream Theater* . From his book, On Power: The Natural History of its Growth, Bertrand de Jouvenel describes the aristocratic roots of liberty; such roots were ultimately subsumed by a new nobility – one designed to steal liberty away. Myths, Misunderstandings and Outright lies about owning Gold. Are you at risk? The Old Nobility I see liberty in our future And it’s one worth fighting for . Liberty is found among the most ancient groupings of the Indo-European peoples known to us.  It is … Continue reading →

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…and the state’s enemy is a well-grounded and life-sustaining common culture. Notes Towards the Definition of Capitalist Culture, By Terry Hulsey I was asked by a long-time online friend to comment on this post by Hulsey.  A worthwhile read – every time I went through it I found another gem.  I hope I do it a bit of justice with this review. For those who want a very brief comment: I agree.  For the rest, you will only have to suffer through a few hundred words. Physical Gold & Silver in your IRA. Get the Facts. Let’s get right to … Continue reading →

The post The Enemy Is Always the State appeared first on LewRockwell.

Last April, violence erupted in a place known as Nagorno-Karabakh.  If this doesn’t sound familiar, how about Armenia and Azerbaijan?  No?  Perhaps the furthest southwest corner of the former Soviet Union, just east of Eastern Turkey?  OK, try this: the other side of the world? When hearing of this outbreak of violence and reading something of the history, it struck me that the situation offered a real-time opportunity to consider secession, decentralization and property rights; further, the issue of culture binding people together for purposes of defense and security.  But I am getting ahead of myself – first some background … Continue reading →

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From a most wonderful comment to the post-Borders, Culture, and Decentralization: Nomad Soul April 11, 2016 at 1:40 PM I really like this line of inquiry you have been pursuing lately. The evolution of the argument beyond theory is a very important and long-neglected aspect of realizing the NAP. Attempting to apply libertarian theory in today’s world (which is, at a minimum, complicated on the issue of open borders and immigration) without recognizing that the world is populated by humans is rather pointless.  But this isn’t the most wonderful part of the comment; I just wanted to take the pat … Continue reading →

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I have been thinking about this post for some time; given some of the dialogue in my recent posts, it seems about time to get it out. Most Ordinary Americans in 2016 Are Richer Than Was John D. Rockefeller in 1916 From the article, I summarize: days to travel across country; no air-conditioning in your private rail car; weeks to travel overseas; no overnight mail; no entertainment on demand; no air-conditioning in many of the places you visit every day – maybe not even in your own home; poor heating; no radio; your limo constantly breaking down; no falafel; Wi-Fi?  … Continue reading →

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One Small Step for Dictatorship, by Onkar Ghate; posted at the Ayn Rand Institute site. There are many points on which I agree with the author.  Instead of writing these again, I will offer that my agreement can be found in this post, beginning with the section entitled “The Next Four Years” and continuing through the end of the post.  To summarize: I don’t really know what Trump will do on many topics; I do know he will do many things that both libertarians and objectivists will agree are harmful to liberty; I agree that the danger is in what … Continue reading →

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