Memorial Day

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L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

Yesterday, I received in my Inbox, a message from a well-meaning individual whose mailings I generally enjoy. He sends me many jokes, funny pictures, and the occasional right wing rant appropriate to one who clings to his guns and his religion. To me—as one who clings to his guns and Atlas Shrugged—this makes him a goodguy, a fellow traveler.

He also occasionally sends me messages—and he is far from the only one—like the one reproduced in part below. Usually, I let them pass—he probably doesn’t care what I think about intellectual property rights, or other controversies within the libertarian movement. But on this occasion, he sent me some ideas I need to talk about.

Before I start, I should mention that my grandfather died in an Army camp near Waco, Texas, in 1918, a volunteer for Woodrow Wilson’s “war to end war … and make the world safe for democracy” who never got a chance to fight, thanks to what was then called the “Spanish Influenza”.

In 1944, my father, who never got a chance to meet his father, was a bombardier, a young Army Air Corps lieutenant in the nose of a B-17 who flew something like 29 missions over Europe before being shot down over Germany. He was taken as a prisoner to Stalag Luft Drei for about a year, had many horrible adventures both before and after he was captured, and was rescued, with his fellow inmates, after the D-Day landing.

After the war, Dad tried civilian life, discovering that some corporations—United Airlines, for one—are worse than government. He re-enlisted in the brand new shiny Air Force as a staff sergeant, and, owing to the Korean War, was then recalled to his commissioned rank and ultimately assigned to Strategic Air Command. The war in Asia ended before his training did, so he never had to go “over there”, but he went on to achieve the rank of Major and retired as a 30-year veteran.

I grew up on and around Air Force bases all over North America from the time I was five years old until I graduated from high school. As a kid, I agreed with my father that he was helping to keep America safe and free from communist aggression, by flying a B-52 with a belly full of fusion bombs up over the North Pole two or three times a week, and hanging around at the edge of Soviet airspace, just to let the badguys know what they were up against. Who the hell knows? Maybe it worked.

For the most part, I liked life as a military dependent, I liked growing up within the military community, and I actually pitied the civilian people I met who weren’t a part of that warm world. But as time went on, Dad began to question a culture that somehow, by mere coincidence, managed to provide a war—or two—for each and every generation. And by the time he had retired, in 1965, and had two sons of military age in the middle of the murderously futile exercise in Vietnam, he was certain. He never read Smedley Darlington Butler’s War Is A Racket, but he managed to figure out what the score really was.

I still like and get along with military people, of all branches of service. They tend to like me, and what I do. I was told once that my first novel, The Probability Broach was, in popularity aboard our nuclear submarine fleet, second only toGarfield comics, and I felt highly complimented. If there had been a Navy R.O.T.C. program when I was at Colorado State University, my life would have turned out very differently. Air Force brat or not, I desperately wanted to be a sub-driver.

But thanks to the Vietnam War, which I successfully avoided, I never had any illusions. I was not about to sacrifice a minute of my life to enhance the power of that giant ball of mucus, Lyndon Baines Johnson, who represented a vastly greater threat to my life, liberty, and property than Ho Chi Minh or anybody like him ever did. He was the fat, lying, murderous bastard who accused Barry Goldwater of wanting to fight a land war in Asia, and stuck us with the 1968 Gun Control Act.

So with all that in mind, let’s consider the Memorial Day claims my friend sent to me, and I can only hope he’ll be my friend after this.

“It is the veteran, not the preacher, who has given us freedom of religion.”

The truth is that neither the veteran nor the preacher ever gave us such a right, it is ours, under natural law, the very moment we are born. It can certainly be suppressed, and has been other places in the world, and here, as well—ask any Mormon—but this government hasn’t fought a war to defend any American’s rights since the Revolution.

“It is the veteran, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.”

Once again, not so. When the War of 1812 “broke out”—the U.S. was attempting to bestow the blessings of American life upon Canada whether Canada wanted them or not—and people objected (New England nearly seceded over it) people were accused of “sedition”, a charge that should be impossible under the First Amendment, and thrown in jail.

Later, Abraham Lincoln used the Army to smash the printing presses of his political opposition and intimidate voters during the 1864 election.

“It is the veteran, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.”

Freedom of speech and of the press are natural rights, as well, which governments in general, and the American government in particular, have always regarded as a threat. If any single individual can be thanked for it, that honor belongs to John Peter Zenger (look him up). At some point, the establishment press became so corrupt, concealing or excusing government atrocities, that they became a part of government, and a new press—the Internet—had to evolve in its place.

“It is the veteran, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to assemble.”

Having once been a “campus organizer” myself, I am well aware how little we had to do with defending the right to assemble, and how very badly it was done. But please, don’t be ridiculous. Two words: Kent State.

“It is the veteran, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.”

Actually, to the extent that any human institution is responsible for the right to a fair trial, it’s a thousand years of English Common Law.

“It is the veteran, not the politician, Who has given us the right to vote.”

A dubious gift, at best, but it didn’t come from any politicians or veterans. Thank the Greeks, and don’t forget the Basques, whose methods of self-government were consciously imitated by the Founding Fathers.

I like and admire veterans, My dad was a vet and his dad before him. But name any war the United States ever fought to defend American rights.

As I said, the War of 1812 was a failed attempt to conquer Canada. What legitimate American interests were threatened by the British in 1812?

The Mexican War was declared on us by a crazy military dictator who couldn’t believe he had been humiliated by an Army of farmers and ranchers. What legitimate American interests were threatened by the Mexicans?

The War Between the States was fought to consolidate an empire forged out of the shattered remnants of a confederation of free republics. Many northern soldiers thought they were fighting slavery, but the slaves who labored though the war on the Capitol dome might disagree. The South was tired of paying 80% of the taxes being collected. What legitimate American interests were threatened by the South?

The Spanish-American War was an attempt by idiots like William McKinley and William Randolph Hearst to extend Lincoln’s Empire overseas. What legitimate American interests were threatened by the Spaniards?

World War I had nothing to do with America, but Americans were sent “Over There” by the evil Wilson to establish us as a global power. What legitimate American interests were threatened by the Kaiser?

Even World War II had nothing to do with us, although it’s easy to understand—and difficult to resist—the impulse to destroy a monster like Hitler. It’s important to remember that Hitler was created by the incredible stupidity of the victorious allies in the First World War. The sad thing about it all is that it was not a conflict between good and evil, but between differing brands of fascism.

Fascism won.

Korea was an exercise in absolute insanity. I’m glad that the south remains prosperous and free, but the price for us was far too high. There was no reason whatever for Americans to be involved on the peninsula. What legitimate American interests were threatened by North Korea?

To this day, nobody is absolutely sure what Vietnam was all about. There’s even a movie, Twilight’s Last Gleaming, in which an Army officer hijacks a missile silo to force the President to tell the world the terrible truth of the thing. We killed 60,000 of our own— possibly including someone who, later in life, might have found a cure for cancer or Alzheimer’s disease—and two million Vietnamese who are among the finest, bravest, most admirable human beings on this planet. What legitimate American interests were threatened by the Vietnmese?

And now Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and whatever else is to follow. What legitimate American interests are threatened by any of those nations?

Nothing about individual rights, property, or American life except their further destruction by the only government close enough to do us harm. Both major U.S. parties are controlled by warmongers who want to keep the government money flowing at any cost—to you and me, that is. Every legitimate American interest is threatened by the current government.

There are ways to stop it, if you’re interested.

36 COMMENTS

  1. “Don’t argue with idiots because they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.” —Greg King

    • Ed, I think Boothe has a good point when he, accurately, in my opinion, speaks of euthanasia and ethnic cleansing. That’s been in the pipeline although Bush didn’t ever want to be accused of it and BO has just given it a name. I said years ago I wouldn’t be surprised to the govt. start the big SHTF event and gobbles up the ranks of the old where so much resentment lies. I’m speaking of people in the 50′ and on up that remember a very much different freedom. Kill us off, take our money and it’s more easy pickins’ to keep the rest under control. I know anything can happen to anybody at any time but once you’ve been on the planet six decades your number is rising more rapidly to the top and you are very expendable. They want to see how accurate the statistics for diabetes, heart disease and all the rest really are. Six months of down time, no water, electricity, medical care, horrible stress and myriad other things to diminish human life. At what rate will seniors die, according to geography, etc. etc. The next time will be for real against everybody so everybody had damned well figure out where their loyalties are because it’s not going to be getting any easier. I notice decades ago things were becoming more difficult just to stay above water line. I’m probably not the only person to notice that.

      • Yes, that’s very easy to see, now that you lay it out that way. Getting old ain’t for sissies, is it? I wonder how I ever got this old without growing up any more than I have. Oh, well. The only way to keep from getting old is to die young. I missed my shot at that a long time ago. 😉

      • “Euthanasia and ethnic cleansing sounds better when referred to as Obamacare.”

        Very well put and add to the fact that they despise vitamins and natural food as cures for alot of the diseases caused by the toxins put into foods, water, and delivered as cures from the professional medical society. I can all but guarantee that Obamacare will be used as a context to take away people’s right to self medicate with food and nutrients. They’ll eventually use the well if you don’t seek real statist medical attention in time then you are driving up the costs of insuring you, so you’ll not only have to get your scheduled rectum test but also vitamins as a cure will now be exhausted.

        We used to practically live off of chicken as my protein choice along with eggs thinking that it was the safest bet away from flourine compounds, dioxins, irradiated and broken cholesterals and proteins, mercury, aluminum, mad cow, BGH, soy GMOs and roundup, etc. Only to find out that the chicken industry purposely uses Arsenic as a way to plump up the chickens and also as an antibiotics. Arsenic is an inorganic and in organic chelated form even more absorbable and might as well be orgainic mercury in that it accumulates as a heavy metal in the body. Arsenic FDA for chickens approved by big brother surprise! I’m telling you there can’t be a greater hate for the American people than whoever is in charge of these agencies. And yes you can buy organic shit at double the price but I seriously doubt they give you anything different as alot of cheaters want to make the profit without the extra work, and even at that sometimes you can’t find these edibles in small towns.

        You cannot win with these f’ers they got everything as if by design with its own poison in it. Thought I’d buy a reasonably affordable distiller off Amazon from Westinghouse. Fire it up and after 40 times of usage still smells like aldehydes and phenols. Some people actually pour this through carbon filters and still drink it, not me. I just threw the Big Co. distiller in the trash and will now make my own stiller all out of glassware. They got stainless steel designs which can be quite expensive but I mean really there is no guarantee even on these units there isn’t a plastic piece in the fitting leaching aldehydes and phenols and superheated temperatures somewhere. But who knows I got this idea in my head for something so simple and it will work too and it will use low power and distill. Hell I might sell it and this is just what i love is the big boys just make it so easy to kick their asses, then the government steps in to protect them always. There can be no greater evil in this world than our own government. It along with all other governments by nature are evil and evil they attract because of the massive power available to them.

        As far as the idea that eight is stating of killing off the 5-6 decades living who know freedom. I’m guessing they figure the majority of you already pose no threat after decades of poisoning. I’m in the 4 decade figure and still remember quite a bit of freedom, though school was already deliberately hell bent on revolutionizing its current incarnation when I was younger. You see if you still feel the urge to buck then you haven’t been poisoned enough yet. Sadly alot of the younger broncos and rebels have been doped with ritalin and prozac to the point of debilitation at a very young age. That was by design as well. I’m speculating by its lazy hateful nature the idea was always to kill off the smartest and rebellious in society and for the most part it wouldv’e worked but I still bet many of these connivers are eating their own twinkies poison themselves as well. I’ve seen those fat pigs at the NWO videos and they were eating their wheaties and twinkies and were all bloated and sickly looking so I think they are poisoning themselves as well. Look at Buffet as a classical example. Didn’t Father Kennedy have his daughter Rose lobotomized? My point is that they have actually bought their own lies, so like I said the other day ago all we have to do is our best to avoid drinking the Kool-Aid set out by Jimmie Jones fan club. Alert the remaining 4% to do the same and bid our time. Its a slow acting poisons at least most of them.

        As far as holding your head above water. That was the goal was to keep people in maximal bondage of debt, inflation, and tides of bubbles and evaporation. Always keep you working in the hive and not starting your own brood.

          • Tor, laughed out load, good one. In your article you mention flying fusion bombs to Russia and back. The very reason I’m convinced JFK was killed is because he experienced first hand the unreasoning fear during the Cuban missile crisis when he secretly contacted Krushchev and negotiated a peace. After that he was committed to reigning in the “atomic menace” and put some security back into the whole world, esp. the US and USSR. Le May hated him, among others he hated, and constantly pushed for all out war with the USSR, thinking somehow(who knows, he was crazy)the US would win, whatever that victory would have looked like. Too bad this was the thinking for almost all the military and too much of the private sector at the same time. I don’t know if the Rand Corp. had that many who believed it though, fairly smart people there if only a bit bent.

            • JFK pissed off a lot of gatos gordos, between Cuba (Bay of Pigs and missile crisis), Viet Nam (he wanted out) and the Fed (remember Silver Certificates?) It’s hard to know for sure which one of those got him offed, or even if it was just LBJ wanting him out of the way. Not sure though that LBJ would have gotten away with it on his own, but he sure collaborated w/whoever did it when he appointed the Warren Commission.

  2. Some people say that if the unitedstate didn’t fight Germany we’d all be speaking German… and the S.S. would be knocking on doors in the night to confiscate American’s guns, or something?:

    “…Currently teams of nine agents are visiting suspects at night.” …

    http://www.mygovcost.org/2013/05/28/govgungrab-con/comment-page-1/

    “…Any incidental contact between a Mundane and the sanctified personage of a police officer – including the act of breathing on an officer – can be prosecuted as “battery.” This would apply to cases in which a woman is desperately trying to prevent an officer from violating her sexually: A victim who puts up resistance in such circumstances can expect to be violently subdued, arrested, and charged with “assaulting an officer.” “…

    http://www.freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-protected-predator-class.html

    “Two police officers in Fort Worth are claiming the reason they gunned down a 72-year-old man in his own drive-way is because they “felt threatened.””…

    http://www.infowars.com/fort-worth-pd-guns-down-senior-citizen-in-his-own-driveway/

    …It all seems like German to me. Or more precisely, modern day tyrannical Fascism.
    Dont’chya love it? Such ‘freedom’?

    • The U.S. weren’t the ones who stopped the Nazis as they mostly concentrated on fighting Japan – it was, wait for it, the Soviets. And there was no way the Nazi Army were ever capable of defeating the Russians.Clover

      • So what Gil? Even if you are right and that’s debatable, what possible difference does it make now? The CIA (probably your employer) brought “Nazi” officials and scientists to the USSA after the war under the aegis of “Project Paperclip.” After all, they couldn’t let all that good research and know-how go to waste, now could they? Now we have the progeny of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party running the USSA bureaucracy and a police / surveillance state that Hitler could only dream about. This is what happens when you coddle criminals and set them up with new lives and cover stories.

        The Allies didn’t win Gil, the international bankers and big business men won. The soldiers on all sides lost…they lost legs, arms, lives, wives and often their sanity. The folks that have been lending money to both sides in wars, for hundreds of years now, are who actually won. And remember, it was Papa Joe Stalin that coined the term “Nazi” because it didn’t look good for the Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics to share that “Socialist” thingy with their former friends turned blood enemy. And furthermore, the USSR and the USSA were allies. Remember that? Papa Joe and FDR were two crooked socialist peas in the same pod. Once again Gil, what’s your profession? Do you even have one?

        • Allies? So? They had the same enemy at the time. Yet strangely enough the U.S. did the right thing: they weren’t ever much of a force in the European theater of WW2. The U.S. stayed out of WW2 until they were attacked at Pearl Harbor by Japan and concentrated their forces in Asia to stop Japanese army. But I’m sure you don’t care because a statist is a statist is a statist.Clover

          • “The U.S. stayed out of WW2 until they were attacked at Pearl Harbor”
            You mean until they manipulated Japan into attacking the US Navy fleet at Pearl Harbor. What were they doing there anyway, 1/2 way across the Pacific from the land they were supposed to protect?

      • As usual, Clover/troll, your point is… nonexistent.

        In any case:

        The material aid the US provided the Brits (and Soviets) was determinative. Take that away, Britain falls.

        Given that the Germans came to within 18 miles of Moscow, while actively fighting Britain in the West (and Africa) and having delayed Barbarossa by five critical weeks, it is pretty silly to take the position that “no way the Nazi Army were ever capable of defeating the Russians.” The fact is they repeatedly defeated the Soviets, despite incredible odds and obstacles. The fact is Stalin sent out peace feelers as the Wermacht was routing the Soviets in the East and bearing down on Moscow. Had the full, concentrated might of the Wermacht (assuming peace in the West) been bearing down on Moscow (and Leningrad, which was surrounded and cut off) with five more weeks of good weather… it is extremely likely that Moscow would have fallen, the Soviet government fled (and fallen, as a result of this) or some sort of capitulation taken place.

        As it was (as it happened) the only thing that saved the Soviet Union – that is, the Soviet government – was that Japan did not attack or present a credible threat of attacking the Soviets in the far east. The Soviet spy, Richard Sorge, conveyed information to Stalin that the Japanese would not attack, which gave Stalin the strategic freedom to send fresh Siberian troops (under Zhukov) from the east to the defense of Moscow. Had they remained pinned down or engaged in the east, the swastika flag would very likely have flown over the Kremlin.

        This is not a defense of Nazi Germany. It is merely a recapitulation of relevant facts.

        • The Soviets way outnumbered the Germans. The Soviets lost some 20 million soldiers and was still going. It sounds as though as you go for the “Hitler was a brilliant strategist and the Nazis had one of the best armies in the world” notion when Hitler got a few lucky breaks while making many blunders while his military were merely belligerent.Clover

          • A whole lotta people are totally ignorant of the fact that the Power Elite played the Germans against the Soviets against the unitedstates.

            It’s one big game to the Power Elite, …and The People are clueless.

            The same thing happens today.

            It’s like a giant game of ‘Keep Away’
            The clovers of the world are really bad at “Keep Away’. They are so bad at it that it becomes a game of, ‘Ostrich head in the sand, kick me in the ass’ game.

          • No, Clover – that’s your confection.

            I merely pointed out that your previous statement (that the Germans had no real chance of beating the Soviets) was silly on its face.

            Because they almost did – despite numerous handicaps.

            You’re apparently the sort of person who takes any factual statement made about the Nazis as somehow imputing approval of the Nazis.

          • Gil – I would add to Eric’s observations, that the German people managed accomplish all of this and more, in spite of their National Socialist (i.e. centrally managed) government and the lunatic Hitler at the helm. National Socialism sucked for the Germans and still does for us. We should know, considering that’s the de facto monster now residing in Washington, D.C. (District of Criminals) and in practically ever other modern first world seat of power.

            People like you just refuse to acknowledge what’s going on, because instead of singling people out for persecution based on their ethnicity and religion, it’s now done under the official auspices of “the war on drugs”, “the war on poverty” or the “the war on terrorism.” Never mind that these so called “wars” disproportionately affect social and ethnic groups the power elite see as human weeds and despise. Rather than attempting to honestly educate and elevate, the moneyed interests feed them simple carbohydrates, chemical toxins and addictive drugs. The soup kitchens and bread lines have been replaced with EBT cards and WIC checks. Euthanasia and ethnic cleansing sounds better when referred to as Obamacare. You can’t see what’s going on, because just like many of the Germans in the 1930’s, you don’t want to see or hear.

            Yes Gil, I am 100% opposed to statists and their ultra-wealthy elitist owners. These people are evil. You appear to side with them. Guess what that makes you?

  3. “…giant ball of mucus, Lyndon Baines Johnson”

    Murdering Ape is more apt.
    I wish that thing got it’s head blown off.

    • LBJ was scum of the Earth. A true psychopathic personality. Like Lincoln, he reviled blacks – he called them by another name – but is given credit for his “civil rights” legislation, which he pushed for purely cynical reasons (i.e., he knew it would enhance the political power of his party over time). But this is small potatoes compared with the Gulf of Tonkin “incident” and then the Liberty “incident” – the nahhhnlevvens of the ’60s.

  4. Gil, you wouldn’t know the truth if you tripped over it, would you? As a veteran, I can assure you that the official story and what really goes on in any conflict, police action or rescue mission are two different things. The only just war is one fought against an actual aggressor that attacks you first. Loading a passenger ship with munitions and then crying foul when the intended victim torpedoes, it does not constitute a legitimate reason to wage ware (it is estimated that the RMS Lusitania had 4 million rounds of .303 in her hold when the Pirate Hun torpedoed her: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1098904/Secret-Lusitania-Arms-challenges-Allied-claims-solely-passenger-ship.html). Lincoln even thanked Gustavus Fox (the captain of the Baltic) in a letter for advancing the “cause of the country” a clear allusion to inciting the people of South Carolina to fire on Fort Sumter and making it appear the South started the war. I could go on, but I tire of correcting your buffoonery. Gil, you really shouldn’t come here attempting a battle of the wits. You are, after all, unarmed. However, should I ever produce another male offspring I intend to name him after you, provided that he is born out of wedlock. You have yet to tell us what you do for a living. Why is that? What do you do for a living Gil? Government troll? Welfare recipient? What? We’re waiting.

    • One main myth that is used here that “the U.S. fought in two world wars it shouldn’t have.” The U.S. didn’t intervene in WW1 until the sinking of the Lusitania nor get into WW2 until the bombing of Pearl Harbor and even then mostly fought in the Asia-Pacific front.

      • There was no need to get involved with WW1. The american people had no reason to be involved. Getting involved is the reason we have the problems we have today. The middle east is the way it is because of Sykes-Picot and Sykes-Picot doesn’t happen without intervention into WW1. The excuse for the intervention is always contrived in some sort of way to sell the american people on war.

        one intervention begets another.

        Also the attack on Pearl was the result of actions taken by fedgov. Actions the fedgov knew would serve to provoke Japan and did so to provoke them.

    • Good point about the Lusitania, Boothe. The history books never seem to mention the Allies naval starvation blockade that killed 763,000 Germans from 1915-1919 either.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_of_Germany

      Also strange how the Austrian and Ottoman Empires disappeared down the memory hole. All because those evil empires announced their intention to bring the Middle East oil newly discovered in 1908 to Europe cheaply by way of a new railroad.

      http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/05/dayintech_0526

    • It’s true Downshift. The government gives every student an A, and says every bureaucrat and hired thug is a hero. It has no credibility. Its words have no meaning.

  5. I’m interested.
    It’s time to get some hands-on experience. Hope I don’t blow myself up, it would ruin the party for me… 😉

  6. Yep. I’m tired of hearing how the armed forces “fights for our freedom”. Every time they do, we end up with less of it. Either they’ve been fighting the wrong enemy, or they’ve been losing, every time. Which one is it?

    • Good question as always Ed. From what I see, they fight to give away the citizen’s hard earned surplus production as fast as they can. Give it away to anyone in the world, even those who say leave us alone, we don’t want anything from America.

    • Ed, I go for door #3, seems like there’s always a new scandal/surprise…..sometimes even ones you don’t necessarily see coming.

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