How Private Policing Trumps Government Law Enforcement
posted 05/22/2013, 5:02 AM (Gary Gibson)
[Category: Commentary]
To see how the private sector outperforms public policing in the real world, just take a look at Detroit.
Yes, Detroit of all places. So ruined by government planning, Detroit is becoming a hotbed of spontaneous order...of the market stepping in to do what the government has never managed to do properly. Frustrated with the poor service from their tax-funded overseers, Detroit residents have turned to the private sector for security and protection, like the customer-satisfying efficiency of private protection as provided by Dale Brown and his organization, Threat Management Center.
[Note: Look at the above video only if you have a strong stomach. It contains just some of the evidence of the kind of brutal police state into which the US is rapidly devolving. If you have the means to get out before the US becomes indistinguishable from the former East Germany – including the use of deadly force against those who try to escape – then start planning your permanent escape by clicking here.]
Instead, consumers want people who will bravely protect them without policing them. They do not want enforcers to treat them as subjects and regulate their behavior according to some state-imposed policy. They want valiant guardians of their bodies and other property who respect their other rights of self-ownership. They want people who are also willing to put their customers' safety above and beyond their own and who are willing to find the most peaceful and least violent solution possible to disputes and danger. What the market would have is protection, not policy... (more) |
Martial Law vs. Market Law: Reflections on Boston
posted 05/22/2013, 5:02 AM (David Greenwald)
[Category: Commentary]
 There are two kinds of people in the world: those who respect coercive authority and consider it legitimate, and those who do not. The former group is likewise split into two factions: a relatively small group that, for whatever reason, essentially worships power, and a much larger one whose members merely tolerate authoritarianism, either as a matter of expedience or habit. In the wake of the recent bombing at the Boston Marathon and subsequent military-style manhunt, it seems clear that the gr... (more) |
Willl Latin America Lead Us Out of the Drug War Morass?
posted 05/22/2013, 4:59 AM (Jacob G. Hornberger)
[Category: Commentary]
Interestingly enough, it is Latin America that just might end up leading the world, including the United States, out of the drug-war morass in which most countries have plunged during the past 40 years. After four decades of death, economic destruction, political corruption, ruination of lives, torture, gang wars, drug cartels, drug lords, bribery, asset forfeiture, mandatory-minimum sentences, militarization of the border, attacks on privacy, police-state tactics, no-knock raids, warrantless se... (more) |
Ron Paul: The IRS's Job Is To Violate Our Liberties
posted 05/21/2013, 4:16 AM (Ron Paul)
[Category: Commentary]
“What do you expect when you target the President?” This is what an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agent allegedly said to the head of a conservative organization that was being audited after calling for the impeachment of then-President Clinton. Recent revelations that IRS agents gave “special scrutiny” to organizations opposed to the current administration’s policies suggest that many in the IRS still believe harassing the President’s opponents is part of their job.
... (more) |
Government Is the Problem
posted 05/20/2013, 1:04 AM (Sheldon Richman)
[Category: Commentary]
 Barack Obama recently told the graduating class of the Ohio State University,
"Unfortunately, you've grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that's at the root of all our problems... They'll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Becau ... (more) |
The Re-Education of Lauryn Hill
posted 05/16/2013, 1:53 AM (Jeff Berwick)
[Category: Commentary]
 Ready or not, Lauryn Hill of Fugees fame has found herself sentenced to three months in a cage for extortion evasion. The extortionists call it "tax evasion", but calling it by another name doesn't change what it really is.
This sort of harassment and kidnapping is fairly par for the course in the USSA, of course. Just ask Wesley Snipes or Willy Nelson. But there is a new twist this time around. The tax-funded judge has ordered that Hill undergo psychiatric care in what amounts... (more) |
Think Progress? Ha!
posted 05/16/2013, 1:53 AM (Mises Canada)
[Category: Commentary]
Think Progress, the hilariously named "progressive" front group for the Democratic Party, recently penned one of the most hysterical pieces I've seen. That's really saying something in our age.
The basic theory of the piece is that the Federal Reserve's out of control printing is massive, nearly unprecedented, (both correct) and working to help the economy (wildly, childishly incorrec... (more) |
It's Time for Private Defense
posted 05/14/2013, 9:18 PM (Douglas French)
[Category: Commentary]
The Cleveland Police Department took plenty of criticism when three girls that had been missing for a decade escaped captivity mere miles from their homes. Ariel Castro secretly held the girls hostage for years doing unspeakable things to them. In November 2001, a neighbor called the police when he heard screaming at the Castro home, but officers left when no one opened the front door.
Other neighbors say they called upon seeing women in the property’s attic window, but police say... (more) |
U.S. Government vs. DEFCAD: You Can't Fix Stupid
posted 05/14/2013, 9:17 PM (Kevin Carson)
[Category: Commentary]
There’s nothing quite so funny as the sight of the authoritarian functionaries of a dying order trying to suppress a revolution they don’t understand — and failing miserably.
The State Department’s attempt to censor 3-D printable gun files from DEFCAD is the latest — and one of the most gut-bustingly hilarious — attempts by the Lords of Scarcity to wrap their minds around the revolution of Abundance that threatens their power. Less ... (more) |
The Government's Us? Not Last Time I Checked
posted 05/13/2013, 7:40 PM (Kevin Carson)
[Category: Commentary]
In a speech last month about proposed gun control legislation, President Obama decried opponents’ attempts to encourage “suspicion about government." "The government's us," he responded. "These officials are elected by you. They are constrained as I am constrained, by a system that our founders put in place."
But if government were “us,” why would we have ever needed a Bill of Rights or defense attorneys?
In order for the government to be “us,” and for its elected o... (more) |
The Draft Is And Always Will Be Slavery
posted 05/13/2013, 7:39 PM (Anthony Gregory)
[Category: Commentary]
Obama says some Americans are paranoid, fretting about an imagined tyranny lurking behind the corner. Progressives cheer as he mocks his lowly subjects. Yet some among them embrace one of the most despotic state powers imaginable: the draft.
The draft is military slavery. It cannot be justified on any basis. Ever. It is wrong in and of itself, just like aggressive war. It is true that the Vietnam war did... (more) |
Stop Granting Special Privileges to the Police
posted 05/07/2013, 4:30 PM (Steven Greenhut)
[Category: Commentary]
The horrific Boston bombings already have led to irrational calls for more security cameras and more police officers, with some Democrats absurdly using this tragedy as a reason to stop the slight sequester-mandated cuts in federal spending growth.
Never mind that police spending primarily is a local matter. The bigger questions that Americans have rarely asked, especially following the 9/11 attacks: Do we really want the government to hire new armies of police offic... (more) |
Guantanamo: America's Great Shame
posted 05/07/2013, 4:28 PM (Anthony Gregory)
[Category: Commentary]
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration crafted a legal theory and detention policy to handle accused terrorists. Nowhere was the policy more conspicuously problematic than at Guantánamo, where a total of 779 detainees were held and where today 166 remain after over ten years. The Bush administration referred to these people as the most dangerous terrorists, as “the worst of the worst,” but that was simply a lie. Of the total captured, only a little over half were even det... (more) |
Gay Sex, Raw Milk, and a Free Society
posted 05/07/2013, 4:28 PM (Laurence M. Vance)
[Category: Commentary]
Although gay sex and raw milk have nothing to do with each other, they have everything to do with individual liberty, private property, and a free society.
The governor or Montana recently signed into law a bill to strike unconstitutional language from a law on the books that criminalized sexual acts between two people of the same sex. However, he won't have a chance to sign into law a bill to allow the sale of raw milk in Montana because it failed to pass the legislature before i... (more) |
Printed Protection and the Future of Defense
posted 05/07/2013, 4:28 PM (Jeffrey Tucker)
[Category: Commentary]
 We crossed another milestone in industrial history last week. Over the weekend of May 4-5, 2013, the world’s first handgun was printed on a 3-D printer. It was fired and it worked. The implications are dazzling for people all over the world. The printers will become cheaper over time. The files for printing can be distributed all over the world through the Internet.
And no government in the world is in a position to stop it.
That’s not to say that governments won’t ... (more) |
Is Pot too Potent to Legalize?
posted 04/29/2013, 11:19 PM (Mark Thornton)
[Category: Commentary]
Slate reports in an article titled "Not That High: Today's marijuana is too strong, and that's bad for new business," that the potency of marijuana is now "too high." Writer Emma Marris's brother is a professional chemist who tests the composition and potency for growers and medical marijuana dispensaries. Based on the information she obtained from her... (more) |
Voting With Our Feet
posted 04/29/2013, 11:18 PM (Strike The Root)
[Category: Commentary]
We need to ask the question: Does every person in this country want to be free?
Evidently not. Or, some want to be free in some respects, but not in others. Why try to free people who don’t want it? Does that make sense at all?
Of course such people might well learn to value freedom once it is gone, but that does not mean we ought to interfere with their learning the only way they are capable of learning. As Will Rogers put it, "There are three kinds of men. The one... (more) One thing which seems evident to me is the advantage of renting instead of buying property. While 50 years ago buying a home would have perhaps been a great thing to do in America, these days the ability to cut and run to flee from fascism seems to be more important than anything. - Chris |
Meet the Targets or Die the Death
posted 04/28/2013, 10:27 PM (The Freeman)
[Category: Commentary]
Sometimes a national story, reported in big venues in big ways for 48 hours, just goes away for no good reason. No lessons are learned. No insights are gained. No fundamental reforms are inspired.
That is the case with Atlanta public school scandal in which investigators identified 178 teachers and principals in 44 of the system’s 100 schools involved in cheating on student tests. The investigation has finally been completed and some people are going to the pen. ... (more) |
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Wednesday April 24th, 2013
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What's Bad About a House-to-House Search?
posted 04/24/2013, 3:46 PM (Michael S. Rozeff)
[Category: Commentary]
 Unless the search passes certain legal criteria, it is illegal.
The search in Boston set a precedent, which means that such searches can be generalized to other places in America and to other situations, unless whoever authorized the Boston search is reprimanded and sanctioned for having ordered it. That seems to be Governor Deval Patrick, at a minimum.
Unless th... (more) |
'Boston Strong': Marching in Lockstep with the Police State
posted 04/23/2013, 7:29 AM (John W. Whitehead)
[Category: Commentary]
“Of all the tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.”—C.S. Lewis
Caught up in the televised drama of a military-style manhunt for the suspects in the Boston Marathon explosion, most Americans fail to realize that the world around them has been suddenly and jarringly shifted off its axis, that axis being the U.S. Constitution.
For those like myself who have studied emerging police states, the sight of a city pl... (more) |
The Day the Music Died for Good
posted 04/23/2013, 7:29 AM (William L. Anderson)
[Category: Commentary]
As an ambulance took the seriously wounded Dzhokar Tsarnaev to a hospital, people in Watertown, Massachusetts, realized that the police hunt was over and they cheered. And cheered. Some in the crowd began to chant, "USA! USA! USA!" as though an American team had won an Olympic competition.
To the relieved residents who finally could go back to something normal after effectively living a day under martial law, Gov. Deval Patrick issuing a "shelter-in-place" order, the... (more) |
Government Should Stop Its Own Violence First
posted 04/22/2013, 7:47 AM (Sheldon Richman)
[Category: Commentary]
The horrific bombings at the Boston Marathon have left us all stunned. We still don't know the perpetrators' motive, but there are some things we do know.
The bombers chose the most closely monitored location in all of Boston. They could have chosen a different site, knowing that all eyes were on the marathon route. But no. They chose the finish line of the oldest marathon in America.
Let that sink in. Since 9/11, law-abiding Americans have been subjected to intrusi... (more) |
The Rodney Dangerfields of the Ideological Universe
posted 04/22/2013, 7:45 AM (Robert Higgs)
[Category: Commentary]
Libertarian anarchists are the Rodney Dangerfields of the ideological universe. Born and reared in a world pervaded by the state and statism, we must fight our way through a dense jungle of clinging, collectivist vines, obscured by murky, mendacious propaganda, and populated by brainwashed lizards, political opportunists, and a multitude of wormy moochers. If we are hardy and continue to hack our way toward the light of truth, we ultimately grasp an understanding of the state in all its violent,... (more) |
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Thursday April 18th, 2013
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The Company That Owns Your Genes
posted 04/18/2013, 10:19 AM (Jeffrey Tucker)
[Category: Commentary]
The Supreme Court — a politically appointed gang of black-robed lawyers — is soon going to decide on one of the most contentious issues in medical science: Can human genes be patented, and to what technologies can those patents be extended to cover?
The particular issue concerns one company, Myriad Genetics, and its claim to own the source code of two genes called BRCA1 and BRCA2, which, when mutated, are related to breast and ovarian cancer. If anyone else tries to test for this ... (more) |
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Wednesday April 17th, 2013
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I Am A Terrorist
posted 04/17/2013, 9:20 AM (The Dollar Vigilante)
[Category: Commentary]
 I have never thought of myself as a terrorist.
Until now.
But, according to the USSA, based on my stated beliefs, I might just be dangerous, or at least someone to keep an eye on.
Why?
Because I consider myself a sovereign citizen, which means nothing more than I have never consented to being ruled by others, whether it be other individuals ... (more) |
Living the Lockdown Life
posted 04/17/2013, 9:19 AM (Thomas L. Knapp)
[Category: Commentary]
While watching coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing and its aftermath, I couldn’t help but notice multiple uses and variations of the word “lockdown” (e.g. “Boston is locked down”). Nor could I help thinking that I’ve been hearing that word used more and more frequently over the last few years, and finding its connotations are troubling.
Internet etymological sources inform me that the word “lockdown” emerged in the 1940s to describe mechanical processes such as shutting down ... (more) |
Their Bombings Vs Barack Obomber's
posted 04/16/2013, 3:10 AM (InformationLiberation)
[Category: Commentary]
The video above shows the Boston Marathon bombing and it's immediate aftermath. One thing running through my mind watching the aftermath is the fact the US in it's routine so-called 'double-tap' drone strikes would have staged a second bombing on the rescue teams and survivors pouring into the scene to help the victims. Something to keep in mind while watching Obomber grandstand. |
100 Years Old And Still Killing Us: America Was Much Better Off Before The Income Tax
posted 04/15/2013, 5:46 AM (The Economic Collapse)
[Category: Commentary]
Did you know that the greatest period of economic growth in American history was during a time when there was absolutely no federal income tax? Between the end of the Civil War and 1913, there was an explosion of economic activity in the United States unlike anything ever seen before or since. Unfortunately, a federal income tax was instituted in 1913, and this year it turned 100 years old. But there was no fanfare, was there? There was no celebration because the federal income tax is univer... (more) |
The Copyright Monopoly Was Always Intended To Prevent Freedom Of Expression
posted 04/15/2013, 5:45 AM (TorrentFreak)
[Category: Commentary]
As I was explaining the need for copyright monopoly reform in Dublin this week, an elderly gentleman red-faced with rage exclaimed in the Q&A session that the copyright monopoly was absolutely crucial for freedom of expression. It surprises me that some monopolists still have things this backwards: the monopoly was always a gag on freedoms of speech and expression.
When Queen Mary I created the copyright monopoly on May 4, 1557, it was a purebred censorship mechanism: in exch... (more) |
Taxed for Life
posted 04/12/2013, 6:48 PM (Jeffrey Tucker)
[Category: Commentary]
 The least of the problems with the income tax is that it takes your money. The really big problem is that the income tax takes your life. It gives the government direct access to the things you own and sets up the political/bureaucratic sector to be the final arbiter of what you can and cannot consider to be yours.
Illustrating the point is the bitter news that the IRS has considered it completely legal to demand access to your email archive whenever it wants. This news came about... (more) |
Libertarian Wishful Thinking
posted 04/12/2013, 7:17 AM (Robert Higgs)
[Category: Commentary]
As a rule, libertarians incline toward wishful thinking. They constantly pluck little events, statements, and movies from the flow of life and cry out, "Eureka! Libertarianism is on the march!" With some of my friends, this tendency is so marked that I have become amused by its recurrent expression—well, there he goes again!
Some of this tendency springs, I believe, from their immersion in abstract thought and writing. Many of them have read hundreds of books and articles on liber... (more) |
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Thursday April 11th, 2013
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A Caveman's Account of "Civilized Society"
posted 04/11/2013, 2:38 AM (Joel Bowman)
[Category: Commentary]
Emblazoned across the lucre-basted exterior of the Internal Revenue Service Building in Washington, D.C., is one of the most intellectually polluted quotes any free mind is ever likely to encounter:
“Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society.”
Its effortlessly officious author, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., could scarcely have been more wrong in his (albeit paraphrased) assertion. Unless, that is, the mustachioed... (more) |
Legalize Recreational Drugs
posted 04/11/2013, 2:37 AM (Independent Institute)
[Category: Commentary]
I suspect that most readers of The Beacon tend to favor personal freedoms to a sufficient degree that they will immediately agree with the title of this post. If we want to live in a free country, freedom has to mean that we are free to make choices that others, including others in positions of authority, believe are bad choices. We are not free if we are only allowed to choose options government believes are good for us.
The tremendous harm that the war on drugs has around the wo... (more) |
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Wednesday April 10th, 2013
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Decriminalization, Legalization, or Freedom?
posted 04/10/2013, 3:14 AM (Laurence M. Vance)
[Category: Commentary]
In between drug prohibition and drug freedom are two concepts that are often confused.
Drug prohibition is the criminalization of the production, distribution, and possession of drugs as currently exists in the United States on the federal level and in most of the 50 states. Drug freedom is the complete absence of federal and state laws and regulations concerning drugs because what a man wants to grow, sell, or smoke is his natural right.
Drug decriminalization is t... (more) |
The National-Security State, Not North Korea, Is the Root of Our Woes
posted 04/09/2013, 2:13 AM (Jacob G. Hornberger)
[Category: Commentary]
 In the current crisis with North Korea, what you see coming out of the mainstream media is the same mindset that characterizes the Pentagon and the CIA. The communists are engaging in provocation and threats of aggression and the U.S. national-security state, just minding its own business, now has to take the time and trouble to respond.
Of course, when the U.S. national-security state, through the UN, imposes one more in a long series of sanctions against North Korea, it's consid... (more) |
The Psycho-Therapeutic School System: Pathologizing Childhood
posted 04/09/2013, 2:12 AM (John W. Whitehead)
[Category: Commentary]
“There’s a tremendous push where if the kid’s behavior is thought to be quote-unquote abnormal – if they’re not sitting quietly at their desk – that’s pathological, instead of just childhood.” - Dr. Jerome Groopman, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School
According to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control, a staggering 6.4 million American children between the ages of 4 and 17 have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity d... (more) |
Margaret Thatcher and misapplied death etiquette
posted 04/09/2013, 2:10 AM (Glenn Greenwald)
[Category: Commentary]
"There's something distinctively creepy - in a Roman sort of way - about this mandated ritual that our political leaders must be heralded and consecrated as saints upon death. This is accomplished by this baseless moral precept that it is gauche or worse to balance the gushing praise for them upon death with valid criticisms. There is absolutely nothing wrong with loathing Margaret Thatcher or any other person with political influence and power based upon perceived bad acts, and that doesn't cha... (more) |
MSNBC Host: Your Kids Belong to the Collective
posted 04/08/2013, 12:49 AM (Infowars)
[Category: Commentary]
In the video below, college professor and MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry says your children are not yours -- they are owned by the community. She says public education has failed because we have not allowed the state to confiscate more of our money.
"We have to break through our private idea that kids belong to their parents or kids belong to their families," says the professor of political science at Tulane University, where she is founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Proj... (more) |
All Taxation Is Theft
posted 04/04/2013, 3:27 AM (Laurence M. Vance)
[Category: Commentary]
 When it comes to governments the world over, bad economic policies usually beget more bad economic policies. That is especially true when it comes to taxes.
The eyes not just of Europe but of the world were on Cyprus recently when, as part of a proposed bailout package... (more) |
Destroying the Switzerland of Central America
posted 04/04/2013, 3:27 AM (Jacob G. Hornberger)
[Category: Commentary]
 Leave it to the U.S. national-security state to destroy another country, this one being Costa Rica, known as the "Switzerland of Central America" and whose national slogan is "pura vida"--"pure life."
How is the U.S. government now destroying Costa Rica? No, not with bombs or missiles--at least not yet--but with its much-vaunted drug war, which the Pentagon and the CIA are expanding in Latin America since that their adventures in Afghanistan and the Middle East might be winding do... (more) |
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Wednesday April 3rd, 2013
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Yes, Gun Control is Racist
posted 04/03/2013, 1:11 AM (Will Grigg)
[Category: Commentary]
Despite the fact that the practice was known to be illegal, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly ordered officers to continue the notorious “stop-and-frisk” program in order to instill fear of the police in young black and Hispanic men.
In testimony offered as part of a class-action federal lawsuit, state senator Eric Adams, a former NYPD officer, testified that durin... (more) |
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The Century of the Self: The Untold History of Controlling the Masses Through the Manipulation of Unconscious Desires
Operation Gladio: The Hidden History of U.S. Sponsored False Flag Terrorism in Europe
The New American Century: The Untold History of The Project for the New American Century
Forced lockdown of a city. Militarized police riding tanks in the streets. Door-to-door 
We must remove the children from the crude influence of their families. We must take them over and, to speak frankly, nationalize them.
"Comrades! Turn in your weapons!" 
Cop Who Karate Chopped NY Judge In Throat Gets Off Scot-Free
Florida Cop Smashes Compliant Woman's Face Into Car -- "Maybe Now You Can Understand Simple Instructions"
VIDEO: Lapel Cam Reveals A Day In The Life Of A U.S. Police Officer (Tasing, Beating, Breaking & Entering, Stomping On Heads... and Laughing About It)
Caught On Tape: Officer Sucker Punches Inmate In Face, Files Report Claiming 'Self Defense'
Insult Person On Twitter, Go To Jail
SWAT Team Brings TV Crew To Film Raid Against Threatening Internet Critic -- Raids Innocent Grandma Instead
Cop Karate Chops NY Judge In The Throat
When the Right to Resist Becomes the "Duty to Submit"
The Missing Lesson From Norway: Never Trust a Man in Uniform
"They're Only Out To Make Cold Hard American Cash"; Park Police Crack Down on Bicycle Cabs in DC