who's your nanny?

Why Aren't There More Black Libertarians?

Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams come to mind as examples of black libertarians. I am pretty sure that the chairman of the NY Libertarian Party is black. But to be clear, I do not think embracing another vehicle of state power – another political party – is really the answer. After a rather long time with my head in the sand – or stuck in other places equally dark – I have come to an even more controversial conclusion. For black folk there is only one viable option – abolish the state. Embrace unvarnished, unfiltered, straight-up, full-contact laissez-faire libertarianism – not the party – the thought process.-Wilt Alston

Digging through the LewRockwell.com archives, I found articles by Wilt Alston and Robert Wicks discussing the dearth of black libertarians. These articles inspired me to speculate on this topic as well. Given the history of Africans and black Americans in this country, one would think that many of the anti-government militia movements would comprise angry blacks. Our black ancestors experienced chattel slavery, Jim Crow, the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, and even forced sterlization. These are just the few examples I can think of off the top of my head. I'm sure if I were to research this topic, I could find a surfeit of examples. These examples alone should have been enough to persuade a sizeable group of blacks to take up arms in Montana, daring the U.S. government to infringe upon their rights as free men.

But this is not the case. In fact, I can count the number of black libertarians I know on one hand. Why aren't more of us libertarians? Here is my attempt to answer this question. I think that there are several reasons which I present in no particular order.

Americans Do Not Worship Their Leaders

There's been much commentary over the reaction of North Koreans to Kim Jong Il's death. Some think that the outbursts were staged by the North Korean government for the international media, which is possible. Others think that the grief is genuine, which is also possible. North Koreans are indoctrinated to believe that their leader is god-like. Thus, the leader's death is literally like the death of a their deity. I suspect that the truth lies somewhere in between.

But we all know that Americans don't worship their leaders. For instance, when former president Ronald Reagan died, he received the same amount of mourning as someone like Fred Astaire or Bing Crosby. Glenn Greenwald recollects the banality of the Reagan's funeral as follows:

For the next six days, his body was transported to, and his casket displayed in, multiple venues around the nation — first to a funeral home in Santa Monica; then to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, where it remained for two full days as over 100,000 people paid their respects; then onto the U.S. Capitol, where his casket was taken by horse-drawn caisson along Constitution Avenue, and then lay in state under the dome for the next day-and-a-half; then to a state funeral at Washington’s National Cathedral presided over by President Bush and attended by dozens of past and present world leaders; and then back to the Presidential Library in California, where another service was held and his body finally interred. Few U.S. Presidents in history, if any, have received anything comparable upon their death; as CNN anchor Judy Woodruff observed the day Reagan’s body arrived in the capital: “Washington has not seen the likes of this for more than 30 years.”

Each one of those mournful events was nationally televised and drenched in somber, intense pageantry. At the center of it all was the prominently displayed grief of his second wife, Nancy, to whom he was married for 52 years. The iconic moment of the week-long national funeral occurred on the last day, at the internment, when she broke down for the first time and famously hugged and kissed her husband’s casket, while holding a folded American flag, seemingly unwilling to let him go immediately before his body was lowered into the ground.

But the most notable aspect of that intense public ritual was the full-scale canonization of this deeply controversial, divisive and consequential political figure. Americans — including millions too young to remember his presidency — were bombarded with a full week of media discussions which completely whitewashed Reagan’s actions in office: that which made him an important enough historical figure to render his death worthy of such worldwide attention in the first place. There was a virtual media prohibition on expressing a single critical utterance about what he did as President and any harm that he caused. That’s not because the elegies to Reagan were apolitical — they were aggressively political — but because nothing undercutting his deification was permitted.

Clearly there was nothing unusual about the treatment of Reagan's death by the media or the American public. I live in DC and I remember people lining up to view Reagan's body in the Capitol. Some people even traveled across the country to do so, including people who did not like Reagan. But there is nothing unusual about that. In fact, people always wait in line for hours and travel across the country to view the body of someone who has died. It's quite common in the U.S.

We also know that the public does not treat the Democratic presidents much better than Republican ones. Just listen to this Newsweek editor's unflattering comments about Obama. Or look at this boring Newsweek cover. Or this picture of a slightly enthusiastic sign outside one of Obama's campaign headquarters in Florida. At best this is like members of a Bon Jovi fan club showing their support. 

I do feel that the North Korean people have been so heavily indoctrinated by the North Korean State, they believe that their leader is a deity. I'm sure that many do honestly believe that their leader, their god, has died, and they are searching for purpose, wondering who will provide for them. But we do not have this problem in the U.S. That is because Americans do not worship their leaders.

Even If Ron Paul Were Racist...

this black man would still vote for him over anyone else running for president. Here's a video of Ron Paul defending charges that he is racist. Even the NAACP's president is defending Paul against the charge of racism. It's depressing that such defenses have to be made. Paul is the only candidate whose policies would help minorities. He would end the racist drug war that has destroyed the black community. He is against foreign wars that murder brown and black people in foreign countries. He would end Federal minimum wages which are racist in origin and keep unskilled blacks unemployed. He would end federal involvement in an education system that continues to miseducate black children (as well as children of all races). He would end Federal gun control laws that also originated in racism.

How many other candidates would support such policies? Would Next Gingrich end the war on drugs and free everyone in jail on drug charges? Would Michelle Bachman end foreign wars? Would Mitt Romney abolish the Department of Education? Hell, our black president not only would not end any of these policies, he has started wars in Africa and his administration has increased its prosecution of the drug war. Oh, but Ron Paul, he's the racist. He's the one who hates minorities. It's his policies that would hurt minorities in this country. This is nonsense on stilts.

I understand that this is politics and Ron Paul's candidacy angers the establishment. His campaign is the antithesis of everything they believe in. But these smears anger me because it is so clear to me that everything Ron Paul advocates would benefit minorities. Moreover, it also very clear to me that the status quo is destroying minorities in this country. Poor blacks and Latinos are especially vulnerable to the policies the establishment supports. But do liberals who claim to defend poor minorities advocate that the drug war end? Do they advocate an end to foreign wars? Do they have the economic and historical understanding of minimum wage laws to realize how harmful they are to poor minorities? The answer is obvious.

Ron Paul is not a racist. But if he were Grand Wizard of the KKK who advocated an end to the drug war and foreign wars and a racist justice system, I'd still vote for him. Because unlike our black president, the policies that a "racist" Ron Paul advocates would actually help black people rather than continue to destroy them.

Louis C. K. and Copyright

Comedian Louis C. K. has done the unthinkable. He sold one of his performances online with no copy-protection restrictions and made a profit (emphasis added):

In the four days after putting "Louis C.K. Live at the Beacon Theater" for sale at $5, the stand-up comedian has made a profit of about $200,000 so far, he said in a statement yesterday. As a result, he said, he hopes all his future work will be distributed the same way.

Today's online entertainment world is a largely bipolar. On the one hand is legally sanctioned content that's locked through encryption. On the other is material that's been decrypted from DVDs or otherwise shared in violation of copyright law.

Szekely has--at least in this one case--found a middle way.

His production company keeps most of the revenue rather than sharing it with services from Apple, Google, Netflix, or other corporate powers. Pirates have as easy a time as they would with a music CD, because there's no encryption to crack. But paying $5--the cost of renting a recent release on iTunes or a pretty ordinary game for your smartphone--is low enough that plenty of people can afford it.

Here's how Szekely describes the bottom line:

I have a profit around $200,000 (after taxes $75.58). This is less than I would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the show and let them sell it to you, but they would have charged you about $20 for the video. They would have given you an encrypted and regionally restricted video of limited value, and they would have owned your private information for their own use. They would have withheld international availability indefinitely. This way, you only paid $5, you can use the video any way you want, and you can watch it in Dublin, whatever the city is in Belgium, or Dubai. I got paid nice, and I still own the video (as do you).

Szekely gets more than just the money out of the deal, too. He gets plenty of publicity, too, and exposure to a lot of potential new fans. There are clear business benefits from a viral video such as Louis C.K.'s rant on Conan O'Brien's talk show ("Now we're living in an amazing, amazing world, and it's wasted on the crappiest generation of spoiled idiots!")

The new video's success bodes well for Louis C.K. fans who want more of the same:

I'm really glad I put this out here this way and I'll certainly do it again. If the trend continues with sales on this video, my goal is that i can reach the point where when I sell anything, be it videos, CDs or tickets to my tours, I'll do it here and I'll continue to follow the model of keeping my price as far down as possible, not overmarketing to you, keeping as few people between you and me as possible in the transaction.

"I got paid nice and I still own the video (as do you)." It sounds like Louis C. K. has been reading Stephan Kinsella or Jeffery Tucker.

My Prayers Have Been Answered!

The NTSB wants a national ban on talking on cell phones while driving. According to the scientists in this article, even Bluetooth technology is too distracting. This is my favorite quote from the article (emphasis added):

Obviously, we can do two things at the same time," [Dr. Marcel Just] said. "But the critical point is we can't do them as well at the same time."
Processing a conversation with another person consumes 37 percent of the energy that's normally allocated to driving, Just's research indicates. That's "a very, very large percentage that has serious consequences for safety," he said.
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While carrying on a conversation in person with a passenger is distracting, "typically there isn't quite as much a social onus on continuing the conversation," he said.

In other words, a passenger who's in the car with you knows enough to shut up if you encounter a hazard on the road. But "with a person on the other end of a cellphone, they don't know to stop talking if something happens," he said.

Oh, dear God! You mean I'm not the only one who panics when my friends' cellphones drop calls while they are driving? My prayers have been answered! That's too much stress for me to endure and I am glad that I am not alone. Every time I talk to someone who is driving and the call drops, my mind races. Did she lose her signal? Did she get in an accident? Was she kidnapped by drug cartels after a harrowing highspeed chase and is being raped right now?

Since one can never be too safe, I always assume that she was forced off the road by drug cartels, was kidnapped, and is being raped. I call back immediately and I keep calling for five minutes straight. And if I still don't get an answer, I call the police, FBI, CIA, DEA, ATF, NSA, the Secret Service, John Walsh, and the Psychic Hotline. "Oh please help me! I was talking to my friend. She was on her cell phone when the call was disconnected and I cannot reach her. I know that she has been kidnapped and is being raped right now! Please, please help me!" Then when she calls me back saying that her battery died or she lost the signal or she had to pay attention because she was driving, I curse the earth for the pain and suffering that was inflicted on my fragile psyche. I get down on my knees and pray mightily to the Lord that He might spare me such anguish. My heart is torn to pieces every time my friends' cellphones drop their calls with me. Oh, dear God! WHY HAVE YOU FORAKEN ME? WHY????!!!???!!!

This must be the answer to my prayers! I cannot endure the stress of my friends' dropped calls while they are driving. The pain of not knowing what happened for one, two, even, (Oh God, I cannot even write this. Lord give me strength.), five minutes rends my soul. But graciously the NTSB is intervening on my behalf to spare me such stress. And I know that my government will protect me for it is my shield and my sword, my alpha and omega, my beginning and ending. Shout hosanna to the highest State! We will all be safer if we just let go and let Gov.

Why Men and Women Can't Be Friends

Don't Mess with Santa!

Over the past few weeks, I've learned of some public school nightmares. A 5-year-old boy in a California public school was charged with battery for kicking a police officer. A 7-year-old boy in a Boston is being investigated for sexual harrassment after kicking another boy in the groin. The boy said he was defending himself from a bully. A 13-year-old boy in Alberquerque was arrested for burping in gym class.

But a teacher in a school in New York City has finally crossed the line. She has provoked a furious outrage amongst the parents and she might be disciplined. This teacher had the audacity, the temerity, the effrontery to tell her second grade class that there is no Santa Claus. Clearly she is a threat to these children and must be fired!

"We Are Not an Empire."

Via David Kramer at the LRC Blog, here's video of Bill Maher and Michael Moore discussing Tony Bennett's 9/11 comments with two conservatives. Both of these conservatives at one point in the video say that the U.S. is not an empire. These conservatives are either lying or blind to reality. The U.S. Federal Government has a military presence in over 100 countries. If that is not an empire, then the word "empire" has no meaning.

 

Yay, Democracy!

So The Big Daddy Cain is dropping out of suspending his presidential campaign due to allegations of sexual harrassment and a 13-year affair, while Newt Gingrich whose marital infidelities are well-known (including an affair while his first wife was in the hospital with cancer) is the current front-runner for the Republican nomination. I so love democracy! #WeAreScrewed #ThisIsWhyIDrink

There Are No Good Police

And that's exactly how the State wants it to be. Via Radley Balko, I found this story about a police officer being fired because he suggested that if marijuana were legalized, drug-related violence in Mexico would end. Here are a few truths about the drug war and the State that those who have not taken the red-pill will find painful:

• Our government knows that ending the war on (some) drugs would end the violence.
• Our government does not care that thousands of people each year are killed as a result of this violence, including some its own agents.
• This is because our government benefits from the war on (some) drugs.
• Given that our government benefits from the war on (some) drugs, it is in the interest of our government to ensure that its agents do not question the war on (some) drugs.
• This means that our government will screen out agents such as Mr. Gonzalez who might not obey its commands.
• Moreover, this is how the most violent, thuggish, and obedient people ascend to the top of the government agencies such as the FBI, CIA, DEA, ATF, and police. This is a necessary tendency of government.

This is why every interaction with police is so fraught with danger for the mundane. There might be a few decent police officers in the country, but the probability of you encountering one of them are slim. And that is exactly how our government wants it.

 

Looks Like This Tree Listens to NWA

Here's dash cam footage of a tree branch falling on a cop car. Even Mother Nature hates cops.