Month: May 2012

Most People Don’t Agree with His Beliefs

A common criticism I hear regarding libertarianism and Ron Paul specifically is that they both fill a niche by a vast majority of people don’t agree with them. I find this criticism dubious at best. How can I say that? Isn’t the fact there hasn’t been a libertarian president proof that the claim is true? No.

Simply put, most people don’t have beliefs regarding political issues. They believe what the most influential people in their lives tell them to believe. They don’t put time into thinking about their beliefs, they just know that one side is right and the other side is wrong. It’s how the game is played. You cheer for the team that’s geographically closer to where you live and shout against every other team because, “They’re not from around here.” Evangelicals will generally oppose legalizing abortion because their ministers have told them it’s against the will of God while progressives will generally support legalizing abortion because the hot feminist they’re trying to shack up with tells them a woman has a right to choose. Neither party every stops to actually consider what they believe.

Foreign policy is another great issue to demonstrate this fact. Many people believe Paul’s foreign policy is “kooky” or “unworkable” and cite talking points to backup their claim. Likewise supporters of Paul’s foreign policy merely believe themselves to be anti-war and therefore must agree. Neither group stops to consider the reason they believe what they believe.

This is why I say criticizing libertarianism based on the apparent lack of popular support is pointless. The majority of people oppose libertarian ideas because the talking head on the teevee tells them to. Most of these people don’t even know about libertarian philosophy. They know the talking head on teevee told them that the libertarians want to eliminate Medicare and that will cause their grandparents to die a slow and horrible death. What those talking heads never mention is that libertarian philosophy is based upon the non-aggression principle and taxation, a form of theft, is incompatible with the non-aggression principle. Because Medicare is funded by initiated force libertarians oppose it but support alternatives such as mutual aid.

You simply can’t claim a majority of people don’t support beliefs when a majority of people don’t have beliefs.

War at Station 4

In case anybody is curious I just wanted to state that last night’s Sabaton concert was nothing short of awesome. The two opening bands A Sound of Thunder and Dawn of Valor were good acts (I greatly enjoyed Dawn of Valor, hopefully we’ll be seeing much more from this band in the future), which was a pleasant surprise because I’m used to the first and sometimes second opening bands to be total shit. Sabaton was amazing, easily worth the $15 entry fee.

At the peak of the concert I would estimate 150 to 200 people were attending. That sounds extremely small but it’s actually not too bad consider this is Sabaton’s first headline tour and the concert took place in St. Paul on a very nice spring day. Minnesota isn’t know for its metal scene but for the handful of us that are huge into metal we’re loud and try to ensure the bands playing are encourage by our screaming, jumping, and moshing.

Sabaton has to be one of the few bands where world flags are brought in by the audience. I saw an American flag, a Soviet Union flag (usually when I see these I shake my head and realize the holder has no grasp on history but at a Sabaton concert it actually makes sense as several of their songs are about the Soviets pushing back the Nazis), and what I believe was a Polish flag. I also met a couple of awesome metal heads there who informed me that the last time Sabaton was in St. Paul they were opening for another band but half of the people cleared out after Sabaton left the stage. That amused me to say the least.

It was a great night and I can’t wait for Sabaton to come back to St. Paul. Seeing the new members in action also left me feeling good, my previous concern about the band not being as capable as they previously were was entirely alleviated.

On an entirely unrelated side note my beater Armitron automatic watch with its cheap Chinese movement actually held up to the shock of jumping around for two hours. I’m quite impressed.

Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves

At the beginning of this week the Ron Paul campaign announced a strategy change that was misconstrued as a campaign suspension. I couldn’t figure out why the campaign made such an announcement since it was pretty obvious how the media would take such news but I think somebody in the Paul campaign has decided the best way to move forward is to decimate the morale of Paul’s supporters. I present to you an e-mail I received from the Paul campaign yesterday:

Every day, I see firsthand how humbled and encouraged Dr. Paul is to have the enthusiastic support of so many who are committed to revitalizing our country.

Let me be very clear. Dr. Paul is NOT dropping out or suspending his campaign.

As Dr. Paul has previously stated, he is in this race all the way to the Republican National Convention in Tampa this August.

And he is deeply grateful for every resource he has been entrusted with to run an historic campaign that continues to defy all expectations.

Looking ahead, our campaign must honor that trust by maximizing our resources to ensure the greatest possible impact at the National Convention.

So while our campaign is no longer investing in the remaining primary states, we will continue to run strong programs at District and State Conventions to win more delegates and alternate delegates to the National Convention.

To this end, our campaign has several positive and realistic goals:

1) Having recently WON Maine, we believe we can win several more states.
2) We will win party leadership positions at both the state and national levels.
3) We will continue to grow our already substantial total of delegates.

We will head to Tampa with a solid group of delegates. Several hundred will be bound to Dr. Paul, and several hundred more, although bound to Governor Romney or other candidates, will be Ron Paul supporters.

Unfortunately, barring something very unforeseen, our delegate total will not be strong enough to win the nomination. Governor Romney is now within 200 delegates of securing the party’s nod. However, our delegates can still make a major impact at the National Convention and beyond.

All delegates will be able to vote on party rules and allow us to shape the process for future liberty candidates.

We are in an excellent position to make sure the Republican Party adds solid liberty issues to the GOP Platform, which our delegates will be directly positioned to approve. Our campaign is presently working to get several items up for consideration, including monetary policy reform, prohibitions on indefinite detention, and Internet freedom.

Finally, by sending a large, respectful, and professional delegation to Tampa, we will show the party and the country that not only is our movement growing and here to stay, but that the future belongs to us.

Dr. Paul will begin this new phase of the campaign this Friday by speaking and holding several events at the Minnesota State Convention. He has also recently accepted an invitation to speak at the Texas Convention, and we are busy scheduling appearances around other State Conventions later this month and into June.

As Dr. Paul stated in his message yesterday, this fight is NOT over. We will continue fighting and expanding, and “we will not stop until we have restored what once made America the greatest country in human history.”

But for Dr. Paul’s efforts in the remaining State Conventions to be successful, and to ensure we get as many Ron Paul delegates to Tampa as we can, he needs you to continue standing with him.

Along those lines, as you probably already know, the grassroots are holding a Money Bomb on Thursday, May 17. Any money raised from that Money Bomb will go toward winning delegates and finalizing our plans for Tampa.

As those plans for the National Convention come together, we will make sure all of our delegates, whether bound or unbound, get the information and aid they need.

Your support on May 17 will also help us reach more Americans with the solutions we know can restore our nation. Each person we add to our cause strengthens our movement for the critical work that awaits us beyond Tampa.

Dr. Paul, John Tate, myself, and the entire campaign staff know what incredible sacrifices have been made by each of our supporters.

Thank you for all of your hard work and your dedication to liberty. Together, we will champion Ron Paul and his message in Tampa, and we will lay the groundwork for future victories.

Emphasis mine. That’s a very long e-mail to simply say, “Hey guys, we don’t have enough delegates to stop Romney but we can still influence the Republican Party platform!” In other words the Paul campaign has basically said it’s giving up trying for a first place victory and, instead, hoping for the bronze medal.

The part I emphasized, the consolation prize if you will, is absolutely lackluster. We can influence the Republican Party platform? The same platform that already has many liberty issues listed by goes entirely ignored by Republican politicians? Sign me right the fuck up for that! What a treat, we can influence something that gets completely ignored! If I wanted to waste my time on pointless activities I could just stay at home and masturbate. Actually the latter is a better deal because it doesn’t involve sitting in a room full of screaming blood-thirsty neocons trying to get the state to enforce their ideas of morality.

I’ll be totally honest, this news really doesn’t bother me all that much. I was never that vested in Paul winning because, as I’ve noted on this blog numerous times, I know the entire nomination process is rigged and people like you and me have no say in who the Republican nominee is. With that said the real value of the Ron Paul campaign as been the people and the liberty movement that has sprung from those people. The campaign is doing a disservice to those people by killing morale.

Why did the campaign choose to say this? Why didn’t they talk about the actual meaningful actions that the liberty movement could take? While I don’t believe this country can ever have a viable third-party working towards that goal is certainly more worthwhile than trying to change the Republican Party platform. Paul gave up running for Congress so there is no reason he needs to continue placating the Republican Party, they’ve already demonstrated their hatred for him so he should return the favor. How about putting major resources into bring the Federal Reserve front and center? Saying, “End the Fed!” is a great slogan but it doesn’t address the actual issue. Look at all the organizations that spend time trying to advocate for and against gay marriage. Those organizations put together flyers and hold rallies in the hopes of getting their message out. The Paul campaign certainly has the people and resources to do something similar regarding the Federal Reserve. What about jury nullification? A powerful advocacy group made up of liberty minded folks could do wonders for raising awareness of the power jury members hold.

My point is alternatives exist and the Paul campaign could do a great deal of work in drumming up advocates for these alternatives. Instead they’re sending out e-mails that appear to be crafted in such a way as to deflate the liberty movement and discourage individuals from continuing the good fight. Ron Paul has been a rally point for the liberty movement in my opinion. I never expected him to get to the White House, his value has been in bringing advocates of liberty together. Such power can still be wielded for good but offering a worthless consolation prize isn’t the way to do it.

Sending the Wrong Message

The state is often schizophrenic when it comes to the messages it sends. One hand of the state will tell you to do ‘X’ while the other hand demands that you do ‘Y’ and the joke is that ‘X’ and ‘Y’ are mutually exclusive:

Hidden in weeds in Detroit’s Brightmoor area, Chevilott and his Wayne County crew discovered a loaded, snubnosed revolver as they were mowing the lawn mid-morning on May 3.

“It was damaged, so it could’ve went off. Surprisingly, it didn’t kill the guy on the mower,” Chevilott explained. “It got picked up, so we put [it] in the van, waited [for] police to drive by.”

However, Detroit police never did drive by, so Chevilott finished his work day, drove the gun home and later that same evening turned it into his local police department in Garden City.

He says the cops ran the gun and discovered the weapon had been stolen from St. Clair Shores in 2005.

“They said I did the right thing getting it off the street.”

Obviously Chevilott did a good thing. He found a discarded weapon and turned it over to the police so they could determine if it was stolen and/or used in a crime. Good on Chevilott for performing such a public service. Leaving loaded unsecured weapons lying around is certainly dangerous and we should encourage people to secure them, right? Not according to the Wayne Country Department of Public Services:

However, Chevilott’s superiors at the Department of Public Services had a much different opinion. His foreman, who had knowledge of the situation, was suspended for 30 days, and after 23 years on the job, Chevilott was fired for violating department policies.

According to a Wayne County spokeswoman and the rules, employees aren’t allowed to possess a weapon on work property.

While one hand of the state, the police, encourage people to secure discarded weapons so they will not be a danger the other hand, the Department of Public Services, says doing so will cost you your job. What’s a person to do? We’re often told that we should do the “right thing” but end up being punished for it. Chevilott will probably think twice about securing a discarded weapon since doing so this time cost him his job.

It’s sad that we now live in a society where common sense and decency are discarded for absolute adherence to rules and regulations. You can’t even help a dying man without fear of violating some law and thus facing a lawsuit down the road.

Absolute Property Rights

I often talk about the idea of absolute, or inviolable, property rights. Theft is wrong, whether it is a pickpocket on the street taking your wallet or the state taking your home under the guise of eminent domain. Funny enough many people will criticize the idea of absolute property rights because they lead to cases like this:

A property owner has ended living in the middle of a new main road after she refused to move out when developers started construction.

Hong Chunqin, 75, and her husband Kung, who live in the two dilapidated buildings with their two sons, had initially agreed to sell the property in Taizhou, in east China’s Zhejiang province and accepted £8,000 in compensation.

But then she changed her mind and refunded the money once work on the road had started.

She and her family are insisting they be allowed to choose where they are relocated to and have installed CCTV cameras to stop the developers from trying to demolish the building illegally.

In the People’s Republic of China, during most of the Communist era, private ownership of property was abolished, making it easy for residents to be moved on – but now the laws have been tightened up and it is illegal to demolish property by force without an agreement.

Property owners in China that refuse to move to make way for development are known as ‘Nail Householders’ referring to a stubborn nail that is not easy to remove from a piece of old wood and cannot be pulled out with a hammer.

What critics of absolute property rights see as wrong I see as a beautiful thing. Is it ironic that such a thing is now occurring in a communist country while property is often scarfed up by the state in the United States under eminent domain? Regardless, not only is this happening but it’s happening frequently enough that there’s a term for it. Some may think of these “nail householders” as annoying individuals who stand in the way of “progress” but I see them as heros who are refusing to bow down to the will of large development firms.

If you want my property you can have it, for a price. That price is my choosing and if you don’t believe it is worth the price then you can go without. Likewise, minus any contractual agreement, if I change my mind before we trade the goods I am well within my rights. It’s great to see some kind of acknowledgement of such rights in the world and it’s funny that those rights aren’t being recognized in a “free” name such as the United States but in a “communist” nation like China.

What About the Roads

In libertarian circles the phrase, “What about the roads?” has become a favorite when mocking statists. Statists believe that the government brought roads to humanity in the same way the Greek believed Prometheus brought fire. It is their belief that without the state there would be no roads so this story my be heresy:

Their livelihood was being threatened, and they were tired of waiting for government help, so business owners and residents on Hawaii’s Kauai island pulled together and completed a $4 million repair job to a state park — for free.

[…]

And if the repairs weren’t made, some business owners faced the possibility of having to shut down.

Ivan Slack, co-owner of Napali Kayak, said his company relies solely on revenue from kayak tours and needs the state park to be open to operate. The company jumped in and donated resources because it knew that without the repairs, Napali Kayak would be in financial trouble.

“If the park is not open, it would be extreme for us, to say the least,” he said. “Bankruptcy would be imminent. How many years can you be expected to continue operating, owning 15-passenger vans, $2 million in insurance and a staff? For us, it was crucial, and our survival was dependent on it. That park is the key to the sheer survival of the business.”

So Slack, other business owners and residents made the decision not to sit on their hands and wait for state money that many expected would never come. Instead, they pulled together machinery and manpower and hit the ground running March 23. Watch the volunteers repairing the road »

And after only eight days, all of the repairs were done, Pleas said. It was a shockingly quick fix to a problem that may have taken much longer if they waited for state money to funnel in.

Once again those evil capitalists stepped in and helped people. While the state claimed repairing the road would require $4 million, a massive sum they didn’t have available, business owners facing bankruptcy decided to move in and fix the roads necessary to get customers to the business. This also demonstrates one of many possible ways transportation can be provided without the state.

What good is a business if customers can’t get to it? None. Businesses need to have a means for customers to get from their homes to the places of business. Even Internet based businesses like Amazon require infrastructure to get their goods from warehouses to customers’ homes. The bottom line is transportation is needed for commerce so it’s in the best interests of businesses to ensure proper infrastructure exists.

Most people get caught up in a vicious cycle where they believe things are done the way they are done because that is the only way they can be done. Entrepreneurs are different, they see the way things are currently done as inefficient or ineffective and work to provide them better. This is why the free market works, innovators see a need and try to fulfill that need. Sometimes they are wrong and end up going broke but other times they are successful and are rewarded for their efforts by customers.

Roads are no different than any other good or service, they can be provided by any individual or group of individuals. The key difference is that, unlike the state, the reward individuals receive is based on how well they provide a good or service. If the good or service they provide is done so inefficiently then another entrepreneur will move in and provide it more efficiently. If the good or service they provide is unwanted by consumers then they go broke. When the state provides an inefficient servie the people are forced to pay for it regardless and no hope of competition exists in most cases. We get caught in a vicious cycle of being provided shitty goods and services while also being force fed the idea that the good and service can only be provided by the state, that the market is incapable of such a feat.

The Most Important Election of Our Lifetime

Many people, especially gun rights advocates, are starting to parrot the familiar phrase that this election is the most important election of our lifetime. I think this blog nailed it:

Take a breath. This is not the most important election of your lifetime. Every election is the same, and it is an airtight bet that each new president is going to be worse than his precedessor. Bamboozled voters sprint to the polls every four years, and appropriately utter the same line beggars use: “Gimme some change, gimme some change!” And like those unfortunate beggars (who also don’t see their fortunes change), each time they are left holding an empty cup.

I’m 29 and this will be the third election cycle I’ve had to experience. All three elections have been labeled as the most important election of my lifetime and nothing has changed after any of them. Although I missed being of voting age by one year when Bush was running against Gore I remember all the talk about how that election was the most important election gun owners had ever experienced. Then when Bush was running against Kerry it was the most important election of my lifetime because Kerry would take my guns. When it was McCain against Obama is was yet again the most important election of my lifetime because Obama was a gun grabbing socialist. Now I’m being told that this is the most important election of my lifetime because Obama will be free of having to worry about reelection and be in a position to potentially nominate two Supreme Court justices.

If every election I’ve experienced has been the most important one of my lifetime then unimportant elections must be extremely nonevents. Let’s face facts, nothing has changed in the last three elections (or any elections before that, but I wasn’t paying any attention to the political arena at those times so I’ll refrain from further comment). Bush didn’t change anything for the two terms he was in office and Obama hasn’t changed anything for the one term he’s been in office. Neither Obama or Romney is likely to change anything either. The bottom line is the state’s violence continues to be wielded against the people of the world. While the police state expands here at home foreign countries are being invaded and occupied.

This isn’t the most important election of your lifetime, no election has every actually been important. Honestly, I would say this is the least important election of your lifetime because with each election the state’s power grows and as it grows elections become even more meaningless (if that’s even possible).

How a Mechanical Watch Works

I’m one of those ever more rare individuals who always wears a wristwatch. While I could just reach for my cell phone every time I wanted to know the time that isn’t my idea of practical nor desirable. Even as a young kid I was always fascinated with wristwatches, especially mechanical ones (quartz ones may be more accurate and the watch I wear most often, my Tissot T-Touch, may be quartz but my heart has always been with mechanicals). It’s a feat of human ingenuity to get all those little gears, springs, and jewel bearings running together in such in a way that allows us to accurately tell the passage of time. If you’ve ever taken a mechanical movement apart you can’t help but appreciate the engineering that went into its design and construction.

With that said I also enjoy those old videos that explain how things work. Needless to say I came across this gem, an old video that has to be from the ’50’s or ’60’s explaining how mechanical watches work. It’s actually does a very good job of explaining the concept (it seems older videos were much more straight forward and expressed their point clearer than modern videos usually do so they’re often better in my opinion):

For those of you wondering why I’m posting content about watches on my blog realize this is my blog and I will post what I want. It’s always fun to drive off of the beaten path and post things that have nothing to do with my usual content of guns and libertarianism.

Those Evil Capitalists

That evil capitalist company Apple has really gone and done it this time:

Apple Inc and its key supplier Foxconn Technology Group will share the initial costs of improving labor conditions at the Chinese factories that assemble iPhones and iPads, Foxconn’s top executive said on Thursday.

Foxconn chief Terry Gou did not give a figure for the costs, but the group has been spending heavily to fight a perception its vast plants in China are sweatshops with poor conditions for its million-strong labor force. It regards the criticism as unfair.

“We’ve discovered that this (improving factory conditions) is not a cost. It is a competitive strength,” Gou told reporters on Thursday after the ground-breaking ceremony for a new China headquarters in Shanghai.

“I believe Apple sees this as a competitive strength along with us, and so we will split the initial costs.”

Apple is going to foot a portion of the costs required to improve the working conditions at Foxconn. While I point to this as a demonstration of capitalism others are quick to point out that Apple is only doing this out of self-interest. These people claim the only reason Apple is working to improve the conditions at Foxconn is to improve their image in the eyes of the world. And you know what? Those people are right.

One of the primary differences between capitalism and socialism is that capitalism relies on individuals’ self-interest while socialism relies on individuals’ altruism. In general humans are like any other animal, we’re interested in what’s best for us. What advocates of socialism miss is the fact that self-interest, in a society, usually means mutual benefit. Apple is the perfect case. Their customers have been noting their unhappiness with the conditions at Foxconn so Apple has moved to improve its image by improving the working conditions at Foxconn. Unhappy customers often aren’t repeat customers and when you’re a business you want as many repeat customers as you can get.

Ludwig von Mises defined the action axiom as, “purposeful behavior. Or we may say: Action is will put into operation and transformed into an agency, is aiming at ends and goals, is the ego’s meaningful response to stimuli and to the conditions of its environment, is a person’s conscious adjustment to the state of the universe that determines his life. Such paraphrases may clarify the definition given and prevent possible misinterpretations. But the definition itself is adequate and does not need complement of commentary.” Humans act to alleviate discomfort. When you’re hungry you eat, when you’re thirsty you drink, when you need to tell the time you buy a wristwatch, when your neighbor’s plight causes you unease you help them, etc. In the case of a business man action often comes from making his customers happier. His customers’ needs is the motivating factor in providing goods and services because it is through the providing of those goods and services that the business man is able to enrich himself.

Don’t think of an act performed out of self-interested as bad because all acts are ultimately performed out of self-interest. Self-interest can be a bad thing when one chooses force to attain their goals but when one chooses the easier way, the way of trade, self-interest becomes a beautiful thing that improves the lives of all involved.

If You Haven’t Already Fled California You Should Soon

If I have any readers in California let me extend my sympathies. Not only do you have to suffer from draconian gun control laws but your state is also a sinking ship economically. Apparently the politicians of that state aren’t content with the people they’ve already driven off by their ever increasing tax rates since they’re looking to jack up the taxes again:

California also hopes for $1.5bn in revenue over the next year after this week’s Facebook stock flotation.

In outlining the proposal, the Democratic governor said on Monday the state could not overcome its deficit by cuts alone.

“It’s taken more than a decade to get into this mess. We’re not going to get out of it in a year,” he told reporters. “But we’re making real progress.”

California residents will vote in November on an increase in the sales tax as well as an income tax rise on those making more than $250,000 yearly. Both measures would be temporary and would also increase education spending.

First of all let me just remind people that temporary tax increases have a habit of becoming permanent. With that said those of you making $250,000 or more and live in California you can rest assured that your potential new tax rate of 10.3% is likely be temporary… because your government officials will try to increase it again and again. California is the poster child for stupid economic policies. It demonstrates what happens when the collectivists get their way. As the state moves to bleed every wealth producer dry those wealth producers leave the state and take their jobs with them. While the collectivists scream “Tax the rich!” they forget that “the rich” are the ones who have enough resources to pack up and go elsewhere.

If you live in that state you should get the heck out of there now before they start preventing people from leaving.