Great post exculpating the supposed evil of capitalism

Capitalism is the social system based on the rights and freedom of the individual, including the right of private property for everyone as a matter of principle. Such a system of freedom necessarily requires that property by privately owned. Without private property rights there are no rights possible. Jenn and Travis are counting on that.

America was the first country to be based systematically on individual rights, which led to unprecedented improvement in the standard of living. Jenn and Travis are also counting on that for all the technology they are using and can return to it when they choose to abandon the impractical and inefficient uses they are experimenting with now. Without it they would be locked into the true poverty that used to be the norm for everyone.

The Constitution did not have to "mention capitalism". The term was not in common use then. The Constitution was devised to protect the rights of the individual by limiting the power of government, in contrast to the left's progressively accumulating government power at the expense of our rights. Individual freedom under the Constitution made our prosperity possible.

The government did not "give" land away 100 years ago; it allowed for the claiming of unowned land in an orderly manner. That was stopped at the beginning of the Progressive era when the unowned land in a large portion of the country, primarily the west, was put under permanent, socialist control of the government.

A system based on private property rights is in contrast to feudalism and the various forms of tribalism and collectivism, including viro eco-socialism. If the viros succeed in replacing private property rights with their park and wilderness Greenline land use prohibitions, what Jenn and Travis are doing will not be possible. Their experiment counts on their right to buy and own the land they wanted.

And this brings up the hypocrisy of the left in drooling over "homesteading" for politically correct minimalist living on previously undeveloped woods while denouncing the rest of us for "sprawl".

ewv Yesterday 12:52 PM in reply to Treehugger9

=======
Above in response to the post below concerning Have container, will settle: Couple homesteading in the woods of Ellsworth with a unique spin on housing »

Treehugger9 Yesterday 11:41 AM in reply to Hayek_99

People have been owning land and living on it long before capitalism was ever "invented" as an economic system. Private property is a legal concept written in the laws in this country based on the US constitution and state laws which makes no mention of capitalism anywhere in the text. The idea of private property goes back to English law, the Magna Carta, etc etc.

Some people inherit land, some barter for it, some give it away to others, other were given free land by the US government a 100 years ago.

You don't understand what captalism is.

More Police Abuse

"There is no crime more infamous than the violation of truth. It is apparent that men can be social beings no longer than they believe each other. When speech is employed only as the vehicle of falsehood, every man must disunite himself from others, inhabit his own cave and seek prey only for himself."
-- Dr. Samuel Johnson
========
Via Our Eternal Struggle

Thanks For The Memories

I remember this show vividly. As I walked there, Westmoreland drove by and we exchanged salutes. I went to a dinner in his honor in the early 1980's? in Orange County, CA.

I posted the picture above in 2007, but found the video below fairly recently. Man, to be able to do it all over again, but the memories are gold.


========
Bob Hope Show, Long Binh 1967

McCullough On Higher Learning - "It's Shocking"

America's historian, David McCullough, recently revealed his thoughts on the current state of America's "esteemed institutions of higher learning" in an interview with the Wall Street Journal:

'We're raising young people who are, by and large, historically illiterate," David McCullough tells me on a recent afternoon in a quiet meeting room at the Boston Public Library. Having lectured at more than 100 colleges and universities over the past 25 years, he says, "I know how much these young people—even at the most esteemed institutions of higher learning—don't know." Slowly, he shakes his head in dismay. "It's shocking."

Grassley Disputes Firearms Figures from the ATF

Senator Chuck Grassley today said that firearms data released last week by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was a selective release of certain statistical data that inaccurately reflects the scope and source of the problem of firearms in Mexico and the drug trafficking organization violence.

Grassley’s letter to ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson cited additional statistical breakdowns and a Department of State cable that dispels myths about the source of weapons trafficked to Mexico. The unclassified cable includes sections such as: “Myth: An Iron Highway of Weapons Flows from the U.S.” and “Myth: The DTOs (Drug Trafficking Organizations) are Mostly Responsible.”

Grassley said when looking at a breakdown of the numbers, it’s clearly inaccurate to assert that 70 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico can be traced to a United States based gun dealer.

Grassley cited additional statistics in his letter to Melson. In the letter, Grassley said that by looking at more specific data provided to his office, it was clear that of the 26,813 weapons traced in 2009, only 5,800 actually traced back to Federal Firearms Licensees.

“The implication made by the ATF and various press reports is that the firearms come directly from U.S. manufacturers or U.S. Federal Firearms Licensees selling guns to drug trafficking organizations. Not only does this paint a grossly inaccurate picture of the situation, but it appears that the State Department disagrees with this portrayal,” Grassley said.

In his letter, Grassley provides a further break down of data of firearms tracing information, including a catchall category called “No Final Sale Dealer” in the ATF’s own eTrace system, which means the firearms did not trace back to a Federal Firearms Licensee. Astonishingly, nearly 78 percent of firearms traced in 2009 and 66 percent of firearms traced in 2010 were not traced to a United States licensed gun dealer. Grassley points out that these guns instead are likely sold to foreign countries or militaries requiring approval of the State Department and Homeland Security.

To make matters worse, this category includes firearms in the ATF’s Suspect Gun Database – a category which would include the nearly 2,000 firearms that are known to be part of the ATF’s ill-advised Fast and Furious strategy where the ATF knowingly authorized firearm sales to straw purchasers before the weapons were trafficked to Mexican drug trafficking organizations.

“The ATF needed a distraction before last week’s hearing. Unfortunately, nobody looked closely at the numbers to determine that this was a very selective release of information intended to distract people from the disastrous policy to let guns fall into the hands of straw purchasers, only to be often found on the other side of the border,” Grassley said.

Grassley has led the oversight efforts into the ATF’s reckless strategy to allow guns to fall into the hands of straw purchasers. He began his investigation in January and has yet to receive any substantive information from the Justice Department and the ATF. Grassley has been joined by Congressman Darrell Issa, the Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, to investigate Operation Fast and Furious.

The letter (minus chart):

100 Heads

OLEG VOLK

VERBATIM POST

I was thinking about the hundred heads promised for Mike Vanderbough. Though most of the eighty victims of Waco Massacre had surviving friends and family, and the event received wide publicity, I don’t know of a single case of revenge killing over it. Lon Horiuchi may be hiding too efficiently to be acquired, but plenty of other ATF and FBI personnel of all ranks have been implicated in the murders…yet they all, to the best of my knowledge, remain live and well except attrition by unrelated causes.

Should we conclude from this evidence that officials who order murder of civilians can enjoy safety from retribution?

Michelle Obama Snubbed By South African President Jacob Zuma

Mr Zuma was out of the country for the first day of Mrs Obama's second solo trip abroad on Tuesday and although he returned on Monday night, aides said he was "not available" to meet her.

Instead, he arranged for Corrective Services Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to greet her on her arrival in Pretoria on Monday night, and one of his three wives, Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma, to meet her briefly on Tuesday.

Mrs Obama, her daughters Sasha and Malia and her mother Marian Robinson, were also granted a rare audience with 92-year-old former president Nelson Mandela at his Johannesburg home.

It was Mrs Obama's first encounter with the global icon, although her husband Barack Obama met him when still a senator on a 2006 Africa tour. Mrs Obama's aides revealed that a mobile phone photograph taken of that meeting now hangs in Mr Mandela's office.

When Mrs Obama made her first solo trip, to Mexico, she was guest of honour at a state dinner hosted by President Calderón and his wife.

Via avordvet, L&P

Smaller and Lighter: Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF3 Digital Camera

It's about the same size/weight as my LX5, but without the lens, so too big for a pocket camera and will stick with my LX5.

====================

Wouldn’t it be great if you could have a digital camera with interchangeable lenses that takes pictures as good as those captured by a DSLR, but also something no bigger than a point and shoot? The simple answer is that it would be great—and the fact is that you can purchase such a camera.

Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-GF3 does it all in a package that’s no bigger than many point and shoots.

Panasonic says that the DMC-GF3 is its smallest, lightest digital camera ever, with interchangeable lenses and a built-in flash. It has to be. The GF3 is a new Micro Four Thirds camera body that weighs less than 8 ounces—about half the weight of a compact DSLR—and measures only 4.24 inches high by 2.64 inches wide by 1.28 inches thick. It contains a 12.1 megapixel image sensor and three inch, touch-screen display. In fact, Panasonic says that the GF3 is roughly 17% smaller and 16% lighter than its predecessor, the Lumix GF2.

America's New Racists by Walter E. Williams

Via The Bonnie Blue Blog

The late South African economist William Hutt, in his 1964 book, The Economics of the Colour Bar, said that one of the supreme tragedies of the human condition is that those who have been the victims of injustices and oppression "can often be observed to be inflicting not dissimilar injustices upon other races."

Born in 1936, I've lived through some of our openly racist history, which has included racist insults, beatings and lynchings. Tuskegee Institute records show that between the years 1880 and 1951, 3,437 blacks and 1,293 whites were lynched. I recall my cousin's and my being chased out of Fishtown and Grays Ferry, two predominantly Irish Philadelphia neighborhoods, in the 1940s, not stopping until we reached a predominantly black North or South Philly neighborhood.

Today all that has changed. Most racist assaults are committed by blacks. What's worse is there're blacks, still alive, who lived through the times of lynching, Jim Crow laws and open racism who remain silent in the face of it.

"TRUSTED TRAVELER PROGRAM" ? -What? - Boxers response to my email re TSA complaint

Via PUMABydesign001

Fast Order Guns

Via Sipsey Street Irregulars

National Police Misconduct NewsFeed Daily Recap 06-20-11

VERBATIM POST

from Injustice Everywhere by David

Unfortunately today was an exceptionally busy day at work and equally hectic afterward with our sons getting cabin fever from being stuck in a hotel for almost two months now. While I did the best I could I just wasn’t able to get the news feed caught up by the time I was able to sit down and scan the news reports.

Still, here are the 12 reports I was able to track in our National Police Misconduct News Feed for this Monday, June 20, 2011:

• Winnebago Co IL deputy suspended 6mo for 2006 100mph crash w/o lights or siren that killed 2 & cost county $17mil [0] http://bit.ly/jeCdvg

• Long Beach CA police face lawsuit by couple claiming cops fired 30 shots into home w/o cause, hitting unarmed man 2x[0] http://bit.ly/ioSoJk

• Cleveland OH police union subject of suit alleging union enforces code of silence on officers in brutality cases [3] http://bit.ly/kbWsQs

• Philadelphia PA settles suit w/ACLU by promising to change policies about stop & frisk detentions [1] http://bit.ly/kHhqDK

• Mesquite TX narc cop sentenced to 15mo for stealing $2k in drug bust sting by judge tired of cops getting probation [0] dallasne.ws/mqOjfE

• Detroit MI police sgt suspended on allegations she stole $10k-$14k from fund meant to buy flowers for fallen cops [0] http://bit.ly/ifFtkF

• Superior WI cop gets suspended sentence, ordered to treatment, in plea deal for punching girlfriend in the face [0] bit.ly/m8T9Tr

• Metra IL police officer charged w/battery for allegedly attacking man at bar while drunk [0] http://bit.ly/kgwwxH

• Hudson Co NJ deputy charged w/forging a doctor’s prescription in order to obtain pain killers [0] http://bit.ly/k7Bcfm

• Tigard OR cop ticketed for drunk driving after off duty motorcycle crash that resulted in serious injuries [0] http://bit.ly/mOtjTs

• Franklin Co IL deputy cited for DUI & reckless driving after Dept of Natural Resources cop saw him crash into ditch [0] http://bit.ly/lg8KwM

• Jackson TN cop arrested for open container & possession of gun while drunk after found passed out halfway in car [0] http://bit.ly/j7Zm67

That’s it for today, stay safe out there!

Judge Rules Reposting Entire Article Is Fair Use

A federal judge ruled Monday that publishing an entire article without the rights holder’s authorization was a fair use of the work, in yet another blow to newspaper copyright troll Righthaven.

It’s not often that republishing an entire work without permission is deemed fair use. Fair use is an infringement defense when the defendant reproduced a copyrighted work for purposes such as criticism, commentary, teaching and research. The defense is analyzed on a case-by-case basis.

Monday’s ruling dismissed a lawsuit brought by Righthaven, a Las Vegas-based copyright litigation factory jointly owned with newspaper publisher Stephens Media. The venture’s litigation tactics and ethics are being questioned by several judges and attorneys, a factor that also weighed in on U.S. District Judge Philip Pro’s decision Monday.

Via avordvet, L&P

The Mosin-Nagant Rifle - Why Don’t You Have One Yet?

If I asked you to tell me what was the most important rifle ever used in Russia, what would it be? Many people might answer: “the AK-47.”

However, it was the Mosin-Nagant rifle that drove Nazis from the Motherland. The same rifle guarded the Czars, and later deposed them.

The AK may be the Cold War face of the Evil Empire, but the Mosin-Nagant was the backbone of a country when their very survival was in doubt.

In a great twist of historical irony, the former Communist county is selling the rifles that guarded the revolution to the very citizens once considered her enemies.

History

=======================================

For Don: Mosin Nagant M44 Brake

Mine

Tom's

Resist and Question Boldly

"Rifles are inanimate objects that have no will of their own. As such, they may be used by evil men for evil purposes. While an evil man may not be persuaded by propaganda, he may certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."
-- Col. Jeff Cooper
===================

View From Bippus

VERBATIM POST

Greetings, dear Reader,

Got myself into an interesting conversation in a restaurant at breakfast this morning. This fellow was telling me all about the additives in unleaded gasoline, the substitutes for lead, that boost the octane level, that after being burned are emitted as benzene and are destroying the environment. And (somehow) the conversation came around to the subject of eminent domain, where he *suggested* that Abraham Lincoln used the power of the presidency to prevent the cutting of redwood trees and *saved* the redwoods, and created the National Park System in the process.

Now this statement bothered me on several levels. But I asked- – - “where did the president get the authority to prevent the cutting of trees on private property”? to which he replied that *they* have the power; yeah, *they* have the power to blah, blah, blah and so on. And he proceeded to tell me about how the local grub’mint used the power of eminent domain to *take* land away from people to build a hotel. So, because this *taking* had occurred, in his mind the grub’mint (local and state and federal) has the authority to steal land.

So I say that you have described an example of an eminent domain taking, but WHERE did Lincoln (if it WAS Lincoln) get the authority to use eminent domain and he says I will show you and he pulls out a well worn copy of the United States Constitution and starts thumbing through it. All red lined and highlighted and I suggest that he ain’t a going to find it in there, and I am late getting to work but I will look in my well worn copy of the constitution and look once more, and will see him tomorrow at breakfast and continue our conversation.

So all this conversation got me to thinking that the *Ruling Class* does not have this authority, but they exert it anyway, all the time, and the reason is that people like my buddy here just accept that since *they* did it once, that it must be right.

I call BULLSHIT! Resist. Question boldly. Article I Section 8 describes ALL the authority congress has to maneuver with. Article II describes what authority the president has. I have yet to re-read it again, but (check this out yourself) I will bet you right now that there is no authority granted for the president to *protect* redwood trees, or spotted owls or billions of other things that presidents have done since the time of Lincoln. So, tomorrow we will revisit this non-authority, and grow awareness that the Ruling Class has been, and IS ripping us off.

We must grow the resistance. At every opportunity, we must learn what is allowed, and question what is being done. And raise public awareness so that the line of acceptability gets redrawn. Resist, at every opportunity. Resist, and question boldly. Resist.