Chronicling the depravities of the State.
Apparently not every celebrity is enamored with Obama’s policy of bombing people overseas:
Rapper Lupe Fiasco was thrown offstage and escorted off the premises of a Washington, D.C. concert hall during a pre-inauguration concert Sunday night, after going on an anti-war, anti-Obama rant, according to concertgoers.
At least the United States hasn’t become as bad as Thailand… yet.
EDIT: 2012-01-22: 10:20: I accidentally a word. Thanks goes to Bob S. for pointing it out.
Instead of preparing blog posts I’ve been spending a lot of my free time learning how to setup Tor hidden services. So far I’ve managed to setup a server with functioning Secure Shell (SSH), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) servers. The HTTP and IRC servers have functioning Secure Socket Layer (SSL) security using self-signed certifications (since getting a certificate signed by an established authority defeats the purpose of a hidden anonymous server). So far I can’t guarantee that my server is properly hidden since I’ve focused primarily on getting services running, not security.
The more the states of the world clamp down on the Internet the more anonymity protocol such as Tor will be necessary, especailly for those advocating radial ideas such as agorism. I think it would be wise for everybody to familiarize themselves with Tor because you never know how far the state’s censorship practices will extend.
As I mentioned last week there was a gun rights rally planned for Saturday at the Capitol in St. Paul. I attended, although I arrived approximately 15 minutes later, and there was a good turnout, especially when you consider it was 34 degrees (Fahrenheit) and the wind was really blowing. The Minnesota Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance Facebook page has some photographs of the event. I didn’t see any gun control advocates protesting the event, which was unfortunate because it would have been great to see all four of them standing there being entirely ignored.
Overall it was a typical political rally. Speeches were given, signs were held, flags were waved, and everybody returned home when the festivities concluded.
This week I’m posting a song by the German speed metal band Stormwarrior. There isn’t a whole lot to say other than the song is awesome:
Throughout much of the recent gun control debate I’ve noticed that the state’s old strategy of divide and conquer has been working exceptionally well. Once again many people involved in the fight for gun rights have allowed themselves to be sucked into the black hole of partisan politics. These people have found their target for blame and that target is the Democratic Party. If I had a dime for every time I’ve heard a gun owner recently lay the blame for our current predicament on Democrats I’d have enough money to move to a nice tropical island. It’s sad to see so many gun owners resort to the gun control advocates’ strategy of collective punishment. Gun control advocates have been moving to collectively punish all gun owners for the actions of a very small minority and now many individuals involved in the gun rights debate are collectively punishing all Democrats in a similar way. Seeing this irritates me because I’m friends with many self-proclaimed Democrats who are also advocates of gun rights. Unfortunately they don’t involved themselves in gun rights advocacy because they are continuously ridiculed by, what appears to be, a majority of gun rights activists.
To put it bluntly this shit needs to stop. If those of us advocating for guns rights are going to win this fight we need everybody. That means we need self-proclaimed Democrats, socialists, communists, anarchists, gays, transgendered individuals, punks, hackers, and everybody else willing to stand against the state’s attempt to disarm the general populace. Perhaps I see this entire issue differently now that I’ve moved away from political advocacy in exchange for civil disobedience but it does no good to cut our ranks by insulting people simply because they hold a certain political belief. Remember that public opinion is the important thing in this fight because any political action will merely be a manifestation of it.
The state has been so effective at grabbing power, in part, because of its ability to sucker most individuals into take either the Republican or Democrat side. Most issues that come up seem to be divided between the two parties. People seem to believe that one party is pro-gun and the other party is anti-gun, that one party is pro-war and the other party is anti-war, that one party hates the poor and the other party wants to help the poor, etc. When it comes to politics people seem to forget that those two parties are made up of individuals and individuals can have differing beliefs. Some Democrats are pro-gun and some Republicans are anti-war.
Focus on the individuals who are implementing gun control. Name the advocates of it, senators who vote for it, the governors who sign it, and the law enforcement officers who enforce it. It doesn’t matter what party somebody chooses to affiliate if they’re willing to stand next to you. What matters is whether the person willing to stand next to you is working to maintain your power or transfer power to the state.
As an agorist I’m always interesting in learning how other cultures do business. I came across a very interesting article that discusses how Somali immigrants in Minneapolis have overcome many of the issues that traditional American entrepreneurs suffer. It’s pretty insightful and I think agorists and those looking to start “legitimate” businesses could learn a thing or two:
One marked difference between Somali immigrants and other Minnesota business owners is their devout adherence to the beliefs and practices of Islam. A recent survey, conducted out of the University of Minnesota, titled Achieving Success in Business: A Comparison of Somali and American-Born Entrepreneurs in Minneapolis, found that 98.9% of Somalis described their religious beliefs as ‘extremely important’ whereas only 48.9% of non-migrants surveyed expressed this level of commitment to their faith and 15.6% reported their religious beliefs to be ‘not important at all’.
Many Muslims, Somalis included, believe that Islam strongly discourages or even strictly prohibits the use of credit or accepting loans that include the payment of interest. Obviously, this belief has a significant impact on how Somalis must go about funding their businesses.
Luckily for Somalis, Minnesota has the highest number of immigrants as a result of second-migration than any other state and is home to several organizations and nonprofits that work to provide loans and ways of financing that are sensitive to those of varying cultural backgrounds. Thus, Somalis have the opportunity to start businesses without having to worry about large loan and interest payments haunting them years into the future.
One of the biggest hurdles prospective business owners face is acquiring the capital needed to get a business idea off of the ground. Traditional banks generally charge a great deal of interest but such practices are not allowed under the teachings of Islam so many of the Somali immigrants in this country have found an alternative, which is very reminiscent of mutual banking systems often advocated by mutualists. A mutual bank works differently from traditional banks in the United States. The idea is to lend money to prospective business owners and charge just enough interest to cover overhead. In effect it grants potential business owners a method of acquiring capital without suffering years of crushing debt.
Somalis aren’t the only ones who can benefit from mutual banking, prospective agorists could stand to benefit greatly from agorist mutual banks. Most agorists that I’ve talked to have plans to start small businesses but even small businesses require investment capital. Investment capital, especially for those looking to establish businesses seen as illegitimate by much of society, is difficult to come by this day and age of high unemployment Agorists also, unlike “legitimate” prospective entrepreneurs, don’t have the option of seeking a small business loan from traditional banks. This is where agorists could practice a form of mutual aid by pooling their available resources for the purpose of assisting fellow agorists wanting to start new businesses. Consider how well such a system has worked for Somali immigrants who often come to this country with no money or credit.
Living your entire life in one country and under one culture has negative side-effects, the biggest of which may be a lack of creativity. People who grow up living a certain way often get trapped into thinking that that way is the only way that works. When you look at other cultures you learn that isn’t the fact though. Every culture has managed to get by using various different methods. Because of this it’s valuable to look at how other cultures do things and consider adopting ideas that work well.
Talke about an unintended consequence:
Assemblyman Al Graf (R,C,I-Holbrook) recently expressed his opposition to the poor government process that yielded a hurried vote on incomplete legislation. Graf indicated that the legislation contained numerous flaws, including one that hits extremely close to home.
“My daughter is a New York City police officer, and under this legislation, we’ll be taking bullets out of her gun while the bad guys have no such limitations,” said Graf. “This is what happens when you circumvent the legal, responsible legislative process: you end up with a well-intentioned bill that completely misses its mark and ends up putting the safety of our children and families at risk.”
Heh, since it applies to everybody I guess it isn’t that bad.
It appears that a politicians from New York has discovered the fact magazines can be printed and is moving to make the manufacture of standard capacity magazines on a 3D printer illegal:
On Wednesday New York Representative Steve Israel issued a statement on his website promising to include a ban on 3D-printed high-capacity magazines–ammunition-feedings devices that attach to firearms and carry more than ten rounds–in his proposed renewal of the Undetectable Firearms Act. Israel’s statement comes just days after Texas-based Defense Distributed posted a YouTube video showing its demonstration of a 30-round magazine it 3D-printed and tested over the weekend, using it to fire 86 rounds through a semi-automatic rifle.
“Background checks and gun regulations will do little good if criminals can print high-capacity magazines at home,” Israel said in his statement. “3-D printing is a new technology that shows great promise, but also requires new guidelines. Law enforcement officials should have the power to stop high-capacity magazines from proliferating with a Google search.”
Did I say he wanted to make 3D printed magazines illegal? I mean to say illegaler since standard capacity magazines are already illegal in New York. How much more pointless can grandstanding be?
The New York Times surprised me today by asking a relevant question, “Who Says You Can Kill Americans, Mr. President?” The article opens by explaining:
PRESIDENT OBAMA has refused to tell Congress or the American people why he believes the Constitution gives, or fails to deny, him the authority to secretly target and kill American citizens who he suspects are involved in terrorist activities overseas. So far he has killed three that we know of.
Presidents had never before, to our knowledge, targeted specific Americans for military strikes. There are no court decisions that tell us if he is acting lawfully. Mr. Obama tells us not to worry, though, because his lawyers say it is fine, because experts guide the decisions and because his advisers have set up a careful process to help him decide whom he should kill.
He must think we should be relieved.
The three Americans known to have been killed, in two drone strikes in Yemen in the fall of 2011, are Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric who was born in New Mexico; Samir Khan, a naturalized American citizen who had lived in New York and North Carolina, and was killed alongside Mr. Awlaki; and, in a strike two weeks later, Mr. Awlaki’s 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, who was born in Colorado.
Mr. Obama, regardless of the fairy tales he told everybody about opposing war, has been one of the most dangerous warmongers of our time. He continued the war in Iraq (which is still ongoing), ramped up the war in Pakistan, got American involved in a war in Libya (even though Gaddafi was previously awarded for advancing human rights in the region), has failed to wrap up the war in Afghanistan (he claims we’re leaving earlier than expected, but he’ll probably pull another Iraq and replace our forces with mercenaries), has ordered several bombings in Yemen, and involved this country in other scattered conflicts around the world. On top of engaging this country in numerous wars Mr. Obama has also ordered the assassination of American citizens, making him the first president to publicly do so.
What gives him such powers? We haven’t a clue because he refuses to even provide his justification. At the very least it would be nice to know why he thinks he can do these things. In all likelihood his justification would be something along the lines of “I’m the king so I get to kill whoever I want. Now get out of my sight before I have you executed, serf.”