Citizen-Based Taxation: Thank War for ItOnly two nations in the world have citizenship-based taxation: the United States and Eritrea in northeastern Africa.
Citizenship-based taxation means that the payment of taxes is determined by citizenship rather than residency or the source of income. In other words, the foreign income earned by an American abroad is taxed by the Internal Revenue Service even though it is also assessed by the nation in which he lives. An American businessman living in Hong Kong is legally required... (more)
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On the Utter Senselessness of Aaron Swartz's DeathIn a recent column (“Aaaron Swartz and Intellectual Property’s Bitter Enders“), C4SS Media Director Thomas Knapp recalls John Kerry’s question about the Vietnam War: “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?” Like America’s war to prop up the regime of Japanese collaborationist generals and Mekong delta landlords in Saigon, the war for artific... (more)
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Doug Casey On Where to Go After You Flee the USEUROPE
From at least the 1600s, Europe could claim to be the center of world civilization on all fronts. The colonies of the Portuguese, Spanish, English, French, and Russian empires (with the Dutch, Germans, Italians, and Americans as bit players) covered almost the entire planet. In its early days, an empire is both fun and profitable. You get to loot and pillage at will, and an empire provides lots of room to relocate the disenchanted, the overly a... (more)
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Soldiers in Fantasyland Disney World in central Florida recently opened a large expansion and renovation of its Fantasyland area. Kids can ride Dumbo the Flying Elephant, the Mad Tea Party, the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and Peter Pan’s Flight. Although adults can ride too, the difference is that they know these things are all fantasy – or at least they are supposed to.
Some American adults have not only ridden the rides at Fantasyland, they live in Fantasyland. Their conception of... (more)
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AIG Is Right: Sue the BastardsAIG, the mega-insurer that was bailed out by the government in 2008, wants to sue the government. People’s automatic reaction: How terribly ungrateful! The government saved this company’s bacon and now they want to sue?
Most people might have the reaction of Col. Nathan R. Jessup (played by Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men”): “I would rather you just said thank you and went on your way.”
But life isn’t as simple as people would like. AIG’s old boss Hank Greenberg i... (more)
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Rand Paul's Misgivings on Government DebtIn its never-ending struggle with responsibility and logic, the U.S. government will soon breach its statutory debt limit. Departing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has warned President Obama that by the end of February, Congress will have to take action or risk a sharp halt in Empire Washington's hegemony. The so-called conservative side of America's res publica is demanding large swaths of government spending to be cut in return for a hike in the debt ceiling. Such spending cuts won't, of ... (more)
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Aaron Swartz and Intellectual Property's Bitter-EndersIt’s never really possible to understand all of a person’s problems or how those problems might play into the decision to take his or her own life, but it’s a good bet that the 35-year prison sentence and $1 million fine hanging over Aaron Swartz’s head played a significant role in his choice.
“How,” John Kerry asked a committee of the US Senate (to which he himself would later be elected) in 1971, “do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?”
That que... (more)
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Newtown and the Bipartisan Police StateIn immediate response to the Newtown massacre, every pundit began pointing fingers and giving their answers. The problem was gun culture. No, the problem was feminism. Violent video games. Insufficient funding for programs for the mentally ill. Hollywood. Rightwing paranoia. And so on.
Now, I have my own views about the cultural conditions in America that coincide with our high levels of violence. I think both liberal and conservative commentators probably make some good points al... (more)
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The State and RoadsLast December, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposed a new standard that would force automobile manufactures to install "event data recorders" (typically known as black boxes) in all vehicles starting in September of 2014. Because Congress failed to pass legislation cont... (more)
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The Tale of Two StatesThere once was a man named John who lived in a place called A. The country of A was a rather dreary place. Some 200 years ago, a majority of the people of A decided that they should be able to impose their will upon a minority of citizens for the good of all. So the majority got together, pooled their resources, and then set about arming groups of young men to go out and collect money from all the business owners in order to fund “protection and welfare” services for the country.
... (more)
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There Is No End In Sight For The Self-Perpetuating 'War On Terror'No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country. ~Alexis de Tocqueville War generally used to refer to a finite state, but as with the endless "War on Drugs," the War on Terror has scattered the US military around the globe to battle terrorists with no endgame. Hillary Clinton speculated back in 2009 that we would be in Afghanistan (in one form or another) for another "50 or 60 years." Greg Miller's article for the Washington Post q... (more)
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A 5 Step Plan To Significantly Reduce Gun Violence in the US 1. Abolish the DEA and end the war on drugs. A large part of gun violence comes as a result of the drug market being forced underground. Drug dealers have to shoot to stay alive, just like Al Capone had to during Prohibition.
End the drug war and drugs would be sold at drugstores by little old lady cashiers – -and at a fraction of the price – thus reducing all kinds of drug related crime.
2. Abolish the FDA and government invol... (more)
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Where Guns Are Outlawed, School Attackers Use Cars and KnivesIn the days since the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, many in the media and government have asserted that the only way to prevent such attacks in the future is to prohibit persons from being able to purchase guns. So what are we to make of the fact that on Christmas Eve a man at... (more)
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Guns, Like Washing Machines, Don't Act -- People DoIn the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the usual cadre of politicians, pundits and commentators are hitting the airwaves and condemning believers of the “guns don’t kill” rationale. This exercise in demonization is being followed with pleas to strip Americans of their guns and place a ban on vaguely-defined “assault” weapons.
What’s been lacking in the flurry of proposals that inevitably followed a catastrophe like Sandy Hook has been a deeper look at the kind o... (more)
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The Criminal Syndicate Called "Bank of America"Joe Sirochman is owner of American Spirit Arms, which – like most firearms companies – has seen business dramatically increase as a result of the Obama administration’s ramped-up campaign for civilian disarmament.
Over the past two months, the company has seen web-based orders jump by 500 percent, which led to a higher volume of electron... (more)
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I Used to be a Socialist. True Story.I pride myself on being an honest person. I don't have too many close friends and have lost many acquaintances on Facebook over changes to my political beliefs. Thankfully, I have made a lot of liberty loving friends since I became a Libertarian and am very grateful for their support. Many of my new allies have also lost people in their lives too, due to their beliefs which I find sad, but also, inevitable.
The story of how I became a Socialist begins at age 17 and during 2000 Can... (more)
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Lights, Camera -- Entrapment! Homeland Security Theater in PortlandOsman Barre, a Somali-born software engineer living in Portland, Oregon, was concerned that his teenage son Mohamed Osman Mohamud was being radicalized by exposure to jihadist literature. Barre expressed his concerns to the FBI, which quite helpfully arranged for two of its “terrorism facilitators” to take charge of the 18-year-old’s indoctrination. As a result, Mohamud, now 21 years old, i... (more)
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The Fascinating Case of Lynne StewartLynne Stewart is a New York attorney who is serving a 10-year sentence in the federal penitentiary for being a supporter of terrorism. Her crime? Two years after the 9/11 attacks, she read the following message from her client, convicted terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman, at a press conference in New York City: "I [Omar Abdel-Rahmn] am not withdrawing my support of the cease-fire, I am merely questioning it and I am urging you, who are on the ground there to discuss it and to include everyone in your ... (more)
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America Is Being Systematically Transformed Into A Totalitarian SocietyIf someone were to ask you for an example of a “totalitarian society”, how would you respond? Most Americans would probably think of horribly repressive regimes such as the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Communist China, East Germany or North Korea, but the truth is that there is one society that has far more rules and regulations than any of those societies ever dreamed of having. In the United States today, our lives are governed by literally millions of laws, rules and regulations that govern ... (more)
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Sexism, Oppression, and LibertarianismIn France, minister for women's rights Najat Vallaud-Belkacem is demanding the social media network Twitter reform its operations to remove all hate speech that may emanate from the country. Statements deemed overly malevolent are already "prohibited by law" according to Vallaud-Belkacem. In the name of "human dignity," Twitter must go further to remove any messages ... (more)
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Academia and ImbecilityIn a recent LRC article, economist William Anderson dissects the leftist progressive mindset within the modern-day academic community. University professors, along with their colleagues of sophisticated thinking in the press, display an affinity for state power in their reasoning. In their eyes, the state can do little wrong even as its enforcers plunder society, spy on dissidents, imprison non-criminals, and conduct military campaig... (more)
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The Salmon Trap: An Analogy for People's Entrapment by the StateA salmon trap (also known as a pound net) is a setup for catching salmon as they return to their spawning places in the gravel beds of shallow inland streams. Such traps were used in Washington and Oregon until they were outlawed—by Oregon in 1926 and by Washington in 1934—and in Alaska until they were banned in 1959. They were highly efficient arrangements for harvesting salmon, outlawed only because the operators of comp... (more)
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