A few nights ago I was listening to a postcast only special section on Free Talk Live where it was suggested that the host, Ian, should spark a fatty live on the site’s webcam. As cool as some people might think that is, it’s already been done.

Those of you who have read this blog before know that I don’t smoke marijuana, nor do I intend to if it ever becomes legal. However, I am strongly opposed to the war on drugs and the horrific consequences it has had for American society so I’m pleased to see Mr. Chong doing things for his fans’ amusement which also empower those same fans.

Related posts:

DEA Intrusion

Why Prohibition Doesn’t Work

More Drug Insanity

The War on Drugs May be Winding Down

It’s been a somewhat often discussed idea that RFID chips aren’t as secure as we’ve been led to believe and that things like your credit card can be easily hacked with that technology embedded in it. Adam Savage of Mythbusters seems to feel that any technology warranting a conference call with the head legal council of every major credit card company in the US is a little scary. (For some reason I’m having issues embedding this video, so if it isn’t working for you, you can view it here.)

Although I think that credit card fraud is scary, I know of an even more frightening RFID hack that’s coming to a wallet near you. The US government is forcing states to comply with it’s Real ID Act which will require the implantation of an RFID chip in all drivers licenses in the US. Several states, including Montana and New Hampshire, have flat out refused to go along with this law and in response the US federal government has issued “extensions” for those states to comply (I pray every day that the feds are holding their breath on that one). RFID chips are already being implanted in US passports, and although I’m told that they’re fairly easy to disable with simple tools such as a hammer, I haven’t had the pleasure of testing it myself because my passport is older and doesn’t have the chip. I believe that I know someone with a newer chipped up passport who can probably be convinced to try it out. If so, I’ll let you know how it goes.

I’d like to put forth a question to the US federal government, although I doubt if they’ll respond. If Visa, Mastercard, Dicover and Amex are all so afraid that this piss poor RFID technology will be exposed as a criminal’s wet dream that they would threaten to destroy one of the most popular TV shows on all of cable, why are you mandating that states put this same technology in their drivers licenses? Why are you already putting it in your passports?  The “official” answer probably has something to do with terrorists or pollution or wearing white shoes after Labor day or something equally media friendly and blatantly false. The real answer is that this is the biggest technological advancement in the history of covertly tracking innocent people’s movements and behaviors that mankind has ever seen.

The feds have spoken. They’ve told the American people to screw off. Screw your safety. Screw your security. Screw your privacy. They’re going to force us to use those RFID chips whether it’s in our best interest or not and I, for one, am making friends with my hammer in preparation.

I just finished watching a documentary on the “Bolivarian” revolution in Venezuela, which was actually a socialist revolution. The documentary itself was clearly supportive of the Venezuelan brand of Marxism. The film is entitled Venezuela Bolivarina: People and Struggle of the Fourth World War. The idea of the film is that the people of Venezuela and the rest of the world are engaged in a struggle against globalization, by which they mean capitalism and commerce. The United State’s government is blamed for imperialism by all of the activists appearing in the film. I certainly believe that the United States have backed some very nasty dictatorships in South America and otherwise meddled in affairs which were not its own, but the United States cannot legitimately be blamed for the fact that Venezuela is poor.

The United States became a wealthy country because it had a free enterprise system and strong property rights for much of its history. In a true free market society, a significant middle class emerges. Not to mention that the United States have been relatively politically and socially stable in comparison with its Central and South American neighbors. Sadly, the CIA has been using Latin America as a playground for years in the name of anti-communism. This meddling has resulted in blow back in the sense that South American socialists can point to legitimate complaints about what the United States has done, and use that as the foundation of an argument that the commies were the good guys all along.

There are great inequities of wealth in many parts of Central & South America, and my opposition to socialism is not support for the status quo as the Reds would have you believe. Many South American nations have some kind of informal class system by which the privileged elite really do run the show, but this kind of oligarchy is not what what free market capitalism really is. Better words to describe this situation are Plutocratism or Fascism, because in a free market people succeed or fail based on merit. Not only do the less wealthy have a chance to move up, but the very wealthy have a chance to fail if they manage money poorly.

When most people think about socialism in Latin America they think about Cuba or Venezuela, but the philosophy of socialism is spreading across South America like cancer. Evo Morales was elected President of Bolivia as a socialist, Christina Fernandez de Kirchner was elected President of Argentina, and Michelle Bachelet was elected President of Chile as a self described socialist. Many Americans don’t pay attention to what goes on outside the borders of the United States, and most people outside of South & Central America probably don’t follow politics there too closely, so it seems that this shift towards socialism has been overlooked by much of the rest of the world.

The United States should stop meddling in other nation’s affairs because it violates the very principles that the US is supposed to represent, and it would take vital ammunition away from leftists in South America. When Chavez can no longer point to US military interventions or CIA sponsored coups and equate that imperialism with free enterprise, then he will be in a much weaker position. The best way for the government of the United States to fight communism in South America is to stop fighting communism, and let the people of South America realize that it’s inferior to freedom on their own.

The philosophy of freedom and liberty has enough difficulty being heard in the English speaking world, where most of these ideas originated or became popular, and unfortunately the language barrier has kept Libertarianism from spreading in places where another language is spoken. Sadly, I’m not fluent enough at any other language to effectively convey the message of liberty, but I’m sure someone reading this is. If you’re a Spanish speaker who cares about liberty, then try to spread the message to people who haven’t heard it before. Every movement has to start with an idea.

I remember meeting Ron Paul before he announced his intention to seek the Republican nomination for President. Dr. Paul was speaking at a house party being held by his supporters several miles outside of Concord, New Hampshire. He was in in the area for the Free State Project’s 2007 Liberty Forum. I now feel very fortunate to have heard Ron Paul deliver his idea of liberty and limited government before his campaign began spreading them across the country. It feels very good to be able to say that I was part of the campaign from its beginning.

I can remember that at the time, that Dr. Paul seemed genuinely surprised by the amount enthusiasm people were displaying at the mere prospect of his candidacy. Throughout the campaign he has admitted that prior to running, he had doubts about how much support he would receive for his run. I must admit that when the campaign began I never expected that it would go as well as it did.

The campaign was a roller coaster ride for Paul supporters. There were times where I actually believed that Ron Paul had a chance of winning the New Hampshire primary, and I thought that a second place finish seemed very likely. I was a member of the Ron Paul contingent outside of the debates at St. Anselm College, and I’ll never forget the level of energy among our camp, not to mention the amount of noise. In terms of excitement and numbers, Ron Paul’s supporters were at the top. The media ignored the candidate and the message, and debate moderators did their best to make Paul look like a loony before he ever had a chance to answer a question. There were successes, like Paul supporters putting their candidate in the number one slot in Fox News’ text message polls. Online fund raising records were shattered and YouTube was awash in pro-Paul videos.

Alas, in the end Ron Paul’s campaign for President didn’t succeed, but it did reawaken a movement for liberty and constitutional government. On September 2nd Ron Paul will be holding his own convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul to celebrate what the r3volutionaries achieved, and to kick off his new campaign for liberty. This convention is the end of the first chapter in the story of the new Liberty Movement, but it is just the beginning of the story.

A coalition of 100 college presidents have a plan to address alcohol related problems on their campuses. That plan is to push for a renewed debate on the drinking age, which can only happen if the federal government repeals a law that would deny states 10% of their federal highway money if they set a drinking age below 21. In my opinion, this decision should be left to the states based solely on respect for states’ rights, but there are some other good reasons to consider changing the legal drinking age.

The first is simply that America is supposed to be a free country, but every other western industrialized nation allows people to choose whether or not to consume alcohol before the age of 21. Take a look at world drinking ages, and it quickly becomes clear that the United States have a policy that is more in line with Muslim nations than the free and secular countries of the world. In fact, an 18 year old can purchase beer in Egypt or Morocco, but not in any of the 50 states. It appears that our own federal government has beaten the ‘Islamic extremists’ to the punch when it comes ‘taking away our freedoms’.

I’m not going to delve too much into the statistical arguments over public safety because, quite frankly, it’s boring. There are some studies that point to a reduction in traffic related deaths since the US went to a minimum age of 21.  There are also a similar number of peer reviewed studies that show no correlation between the higher drinking age, and lower rates of alcohol related crashes among young people. It is important to point out that drunk driving accidents involving young people, ages 18-21, have declined at almost exactly the same rate in Canada during the same period of time. Canada has allowed provinces to set their own drinking ages, so the drinking age in Canada is either 18 or 19 depending on where you live.

I am the most aggravated by the inconsistency of telling people who are otherwise considered adults that they are too irresponsible to consume alcohol. Here is a breif list of things that people in my own state of New Hampshire can do at the age of 18. An 18 year old can, purchase a rifle or shotgun, operate a motor vehicle, hold a private pilot’s license, do business as a real estate agent, work on a fire department or ambulance service, enlist in the military, enter into legal contracts, represent themselves as adults in court, work as police officers, and operate a business. I personally have done these things, or know people who have, and the crazy thing is I’m only 20 years old.

The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 uses language which says that states must enforce a minimum age of 21 for the purchase and public possession of alcohol, or lose highway funding. Many states still don’t legally prohibit minors from consuming or possessing alcohol in private settings. In my opinion the federal meddling needs to stop, but in the mean time the states could have the decency to allow adults to drink on private property without facing arrest.

Western leaders have condemned Russia’s recent military operations in response to Georgia’s military offensive which aimed to recapture the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It is important to recognize that most South Ossetians want to be independent from Georgia. Seventy percent of South Ossetians already held Russian passports. It is true that Russian military maneuvers had taken place which antagonized Tblisi prior to the start of open hostilities. The Russians were looking for an excuse to resort to force on the question of these breakaway regions. In the end, however, it was the Georgians who fired the opening shots by shelling the South Ossetian capital of Tskinvali. This action is believed to have killed thousands of civilians and some Russian troops. The Russian response was unacceptable in the respect that the Russian military clearly targeted civilians, but the nature of Russia’s response receives all the attention in the west and the fundamental question of why the conflict started is overlooked.

American leaders have emphasized the importance of Georgia’s “territorial integrity”. The phrase seems to imply that South Ossetians consider themselves Georgians in the first place, which they don’t. Most South Ossetians want to be part of Russia. They even held a referendum on the subject, which was not likely free and fair given that the results were 99% in favor of independence, but it is clear that a majority of South Ossetians want to be reunited with Russia. Georgia is exercising imperialism in regards to South Ossetia in the sense that it claims a right to govern a group of people who overwhelmingly reject its authority.

The support for Kosovo’s independence by some western nations angered Russia because the Kremlin felt that the “territorial integrity” and “sovereignty” of its ally Serbia needed to be respected despite the will of the people of Kosovo. The west rejected the Russian argument because western nations claim to support self determination at least when it’s convenient for them. When the west says that Georgia’s sovereignty over South Ossetia must be respected by Russia despite the will of the South Ossetian people, it is taking the exact same position that the Kremlin took on Kosovo. The West talks a good talk about freedom and democracy, but western governments clearly only care about what is politically expedient for them.

Imagine if residents of the State of Alaska favor independence by an overwhelming margin. How might the United States government respond if Alaska unilaterally asserted its independence? One only need to read the Declaration of Independence to see that they idea of self determination does not require the seceding region to ask permission. What would have been the result if the Continental Congress had instead penned the Humble Request for Negotiation of American Political Status? The result would have been even less impressive than the name.  Some people have claimed that South Ossetia must beg the United Nations for recognition, but in principle this is no different than say that a group of people do not have the right to determine their own form of government. After all Georgia declared its own independence from the Soviet Union.

CBS4 in Denver is reporting that 4 men were arrested for what appeared to be a plot to kill Barrack Obama.

The story began emerging Sunday morning when Aurora police arrested Tharin Gartrell, 28. He was driving a rented pickup truck in an erratic manner, according to sources.

Sources told CBS4 police found two high-powered, scoped rifles in the car along with camouflage clothing, walkie-talkies, wigs, a bulletproof vest, a spotting scope, licenses in the names of other people and 44 grams of methamphetamine. One of the rifles is listed as stolen from Kansas.

Aurora police alerted federal officials because of heightened security surrounding the Democratic convention, Aurora police Det. Marcus Dudley said.

“Clearly we feel that there are federal implications — otherwise we would not have notified those agencies,” Dudley said Monday night. “The weapons clearly would cause great concern.”

Subsequently authorities went to the Cherry Creek Hotel in Glendale to contact an associate of Gartrell’s. But that man, identified as Shawn Robert Adolph, 33, who was wanted on numerous warrants, jumped out of a sixth floor hotel window. Law enforcement sources say Adolph broke an ankle in the fall and was captured moments later. Sources say he had a handcuff ring and was wearing a swastika, and is thought to have ties to white supremacist organizations.

I was highly skeptical of the first reports I saw regarding this story as they quoted “CBS34” in Denver as their source, but a quick visit to the real Denver CBS station’s website, CBS4, confirmed that the station has been reporting on the story. For those of you unfamiliar with the geography of the Denver Metro area, it’s comprised of Denver proper in addition to dozens of smaller cities which run together with no discernible edges. Aurora, where the men were arrested, is Denver’s largest suburb and within easy driving distance to the downtown area where the DNC is happening.

It’s important to note that CBS4 is playing up the part of the story regarding the man named Adolph who was found wearing a swastika. Please keep in mind that even though the image of a swastika now carries very negative connotations, especially in conjunction with a person named Adolph, it’s meaning prior to the 20th century was positive and it isn’t a crime to wear that symbol. In fact, it’s protected under the First Amendment. Although many people, myself included, find the modern meaning behind the image of the swastika distasteful, it’s important to protect the rights of people to express those distasteful ideas to ensure that we don’t also lose our right to express more moderate views.

While I have no doubt that there are a great many racists in the United States who would rather murder someone than see this country elect a black president, there is a small part of me which wonders how much of this is true and how much is government fakery or media hype intended to make the impending police state more palatable to the masses of drones inhabiting this once great land.

I certainly hope that people will take heed and realize that assassination attempts will not be tolerated. I also hope that people will take heed that everyone’s freedoms are in danger because of such plots.

Evidently the powers that be in Denver weren’t content with simply not shooting motherf*cking protesters this weekend and as the DNC moved into full gear today, so did the civil rights violations. The Westword is doing a great job of keeping me up to date on the latest insane police state tactics being implemented by the various police and military forces in the city to maintain “order” and “peace” during the Convention.

For example, the National Guard has set up a major base at Johnson and Wales College in what the Westword correctly identified as some crazy damn irony.

Is it a little weird that a college campus—generally accepted to be hotbeds of liberalism, anti-establishment protest and dudes in hippie sandals playing hacky-sack—should be the chosen site for a rather sizable army of Colorado National Guadsmen to be camped out? Yeah, it is. But then, J&W — which bills itself as a “career college” and offers degree programs in things like fashion merchandising, marketing, pastry arts and hotel management — is not your average university, and I guess the faculty, president or whoever signed the final order figured that a bunch of future Marriott desk clerks and Fashion Bug window dressers weren’t going to put up much of a stink or march on the front lines or anything like that.

Good thing, too, because the Guardsmen are armed, have every entrance to the campus blocked off by camouflaged humvees or hurricane fence, and didn’t even like it that I got close enough to snap a couple pictures.

The Westword has also provided some great images, such as this one, which simply magnify the irony of the party of “activism”, “free speech” and “civil rights” allowing a police state atmosphere to occur at its Convention.

Evidently, people have been arrested away from protests as well in what may be a police state effort to harass and intimidate regular people who have done nothing wrong, although the source is somewhat dubious. By dubious, I just mean that it appears to be a website run by people who know the people who were arrested which gives no real credible sources. In addition, Alex Jones’ website is predicting that authorities may stage riots, although I’m not even going to dignify Alex Jones and his insane listeners’ existence on our beautiful planet by linking to the article.

The long and short of it is that a very quick internet search will turn up an abundance of civil rights violations and actions which are clearly counter to the Constitution occurring in Denver. The city has become a police state ready to be put under Martial Law at a moment’s notice. Although the atmosphere there is decidedly unfriendly to the concept of liberty, I’m hoping that this will serve to open people’s eyes to the real dangers that American society is facing. Let’s be honest–in a nation where people are granted unprecedented freedoms, there is no excuse for locking law abiding citizens up in a free speech cage as if they were in China or the Soviet Union.

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Yesterday I was at the laundromat and was left with the unfortunate choice between perusing a TIME Magazine or sticking my thumb up my butt for an hour. I somewhat unwisely chose the magazine and spent the hour attempting to avoid an infarction as each successive page spewed more outrageous liberal crap. I left the laundromat wondering how such a biased and fascist (yes, you heard me, I said fascist) magazine enjoys the wide circulation that it does. I couldn’t help but wonder how a magazine which promotes the ideals of national slavery as a “solution” to the social woes faced by America has a reputation as a top mainstream publication. Then I remembered that someone, somewhere, actually watches Bill O’Reilly (the equivalent of a lobotomy) and it suddenly made a lot more sense. The majority of people who fall far to the left and far to the right are just idiots.

Anyways, for all the bad that TIME does to the social fabric of the United States, I have to admit that from time to time, the magazine does good as well. Namely, because TIME is so extremely liberal, they frequently investigate and report on stories that Bill O’Reilly and his neocon bushbuddies would rather keep under wraps. For instance, the US have secret prisons. Oh wait, we already knew that. Because the secret prisons aren’t very secret. But at least TIME has the balls to report it despite what I would assume is pressure from the Bush administration to keep it out of their magazine and off the internets.

Diego Garcia is a tiny island, but its use by the U.S. as a detention or interrogation site has global significance. While the governments of Poland and Romania have faced few domestic consequences for their rumored cooperation with U.S. counterterrorism measures, many in Britain have been voluble in their opposition to what they see as the U.S.’s abrogation of human rights as well as violations of law and British sovereignty. Says the chief spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office: “Our intelligence and counterterrorism relationship with the U.S. is vital to the national security of the United Kingdom. We accept U.S. assurances on rendition in good faith. But if others have definitive evidence of rendition through the U.K. or our overseas territories, including Diego Garcia, then we will raise it with the U.S. authorities.”

Well, I guess, good for you TIME. This time, anyways.

With the DNC starting today in Denver, I almost wish I were still there. I have no desire to see the likes of Obama (or any other Democrats, for that matter), but I would like to be around to feel the atmosphere, to lock myself into a “free speech” cage and to gaze longingly at the Pepsi Center as I realize that with hockey season about to start, I won’t be there to see the Avs play.

I don’t know if I’m just more in tune with the news from Denver or if the city of Denver is far more fascist than Minneapolis, but I haven’t heard about many civil rights violations coming out of Minneapolis with the Republican and Ron Paul conventions in town. What I do know is that the city of Denver has cracked down on civil rights, abolished freedom and basically given its already questionable police-state force unlimited authority to stomp dissenters.

In fact, according to the Westword, which is the Denver Metro area’s biggest independent newspaper, the cops were overheard at an anarchist protest proclaiming, “I just want to shoot these motherf*ckers so bad!” It was a nice show of restraint on the part of the police to allow the pesky anarchists to continue living through the end of the rally. Unfortunately for the anarchists, the Denver police-state doesn’t take kindly to people who don’t believe in the police state.

The march ended roughly four and a half hours after it began, when police were able to box in the anarchists on Stout Street between 15th and 16th, forcing nearly half of the group to escape into a parking garage. The people that ran into the garage were pursued by officers on motorcycle and, later, several white police vans were seen driving into the building.

If you’d like to keep up to date on the latest civil liberties abuses occurring in Denver during the DNC, keep an eye on the Westword.