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Stasi Snitch Training Incorporates Into U.S. Public School Curriculum
Original article "The “Report It, Don’t Ignore It” application released by Henderson County Public Schools is encouraging students to spy on each other and report suspicious activity within the app, Blue Ridge Now reported. Henderson County students in the upcoming school year will be able to report their peers to administrators using their smartphones. The app is available on both Android, IOS and has a web version which allows users to upload up to three pictures or screenshots of physical or social media...
Murderous Pesticide Racketeering 101: Monsanto Edition
Original article "A lawyer on Monday argued that Roundup creator Monsanto hid the cancer-causing effects of their weedkiller and bullied scientists into making claims it was safe. In a landmark lawsuit against the global chemical corporation, the lawyer didn’t hold back in his accusations against Monsanto. “Monsanto has specifically gone out of its way to bully … and to fight independent researchers,” said the attorney Brent Wisner, who presented internal Monsanto emails that he said showed how the agrochemical...
Russian Companies Troll UK Propaganda With Novichok Merchandise
Original article "Russian companies are selling sick joke 'Novichok' products despite outrage at the death of a British mother exposed to the nerve agent. The latest item is a £22 T-shirt made by Moscow company Spare Skin, which promises buyers they can expect 'the love of beautiful women', 'brutality in the eye' and an 'exclusive and cool T-shirt'. The company said: 'When we posted the design of the Novichok on Behance (social network for designers), we got a huge number of negative reactions. But at what...
People Are Snapping The World Over, Better Get Prepared
Original article "A lot of people like to think that the SHTF is some distant thing that probably won’t ever happen. But, in reality, it happens every single day, someplace in the world. Riots have occurred all over the world recently, stranding travelers, destroying property, and causing serious injuries and death. Here are 3 different places where all hell has broken loose in just the past few days."
Another White Helmets & ISIS Charade Fails The Smell Test
Original article "The report confirmed the absence of any traces of nerve agents, such as sarin, at the site. The conclusion…another false flag has been exposed. And to think that the White Helmets, the jihadist “first responder” group that staged this entire “chemical weapons attack” in Douma, almost successfully pushed a war between Russia and the United States."
How Social Justice Warriors Take The Fun Out Of Sci-Fi
Original article "I won't bore you with many details but the context here is an ongoing war between so-called Social Justice Warriors and many rabid Star Wars fans. The SJWs like the recent Star Wars movies, which clearly have adopted a certain lefty tone and flair since Disney bought Lucasfilm. Because of their political leanings, these leftists tend to defend these movies no matter what, even though the new movies are rather boring and forgettable. Meanwhile, many other fans of the franchise hate the politics...
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Original article
The Magnificent 27
0
Uri Avnery 2003-09-28 16:00
A year and a half ago, a small group of Israelis decided to break a deeply entrenched taboo and bring up the subject of war crimes. Until then, it was self-evident that the IDF was 'the most moral and humane army in the world,' as the official mantra goes, and was therefore quite incapable of such things.
Chains of Slavery
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Joe Blow 2003-09-28 16:00
Political parties ' comprised of incumbents, candidates, voters, agendas, special interests, and platforms ' are the tools that the State uses to forge the chains of slavery for its citizens. The popular fiction of differences between political parties also perpetuates the enduring myth that citizens have only one means of governing themselves ' by voting for a proxy. Not only is this notion...
Castration as Entertainment
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Bernard Chapin 2003-09-28 16:00
In today's society there is no longer any reason to leave the house to rejoice in someone else's misery or suffering. Citizens used to have to make their way to Coliseums or to the town square to see beheadings and executions. Now, in these zero effort days, all one has to do is turn on the television to witness 49% of our population emasculated for free.
Tyranny, Press Whores and the Slaughter of Millions
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Harry Goslin 2003-09-28 16:00
Censorship is a necessary component of every 'successful' war. As General William Westmoreland observed during the Vietnam War, 'without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind.' So long as government controls the flow of information and images to the folks back home, it can maintain the slaughter and oppression of thousands half a world away indefinitely. Essential to...
Life as Me
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Patrick B. Yancey 2003-09-28 16:00
"I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else I knew as well." -Thoreau, Walden
No Idea Left Behind: An Interview with Dr. Diane Ravitch
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Bernard Chapin 2003-09-25 16:00
The spring 2003 release of The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn, brought its author, Dr. Diane Ravitch, considerable acclaim and notoriety. The book is a thorough and concise review of American educational materials (primarily textbooks and standardized testing instruments) in the context of our politically correct landscape. The state of affairs turns out to...
A Weekend with Isabel - Walking Through a House Darkly
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Bob Jackson 2003-09-25 16:00
Isabel's sashay through my home state of Maryland during her romp across the Mid-Atlantic States provided an instructive demo of how quickly a human management apparatus can disappear. With the power outage (affecting over a million clients), streetlights, cameras, government schools, police services, and most of the rest of the control structure simply went missing-in-action.
Getting Over the Wall
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Bob Murphy 2003-09-25 16:00
When I was in high school, our class went on a retreat to a camp in the woods. The idea was for all of us to get to know each other, build up our relationships outside the academic environment, blah blah blah. We did the standard group activities, including the 'trust fall.' This is the ice-breaker in which everybody locks hands with a partner, and then each couple stands shoulder-to-shoulder...
The Rainbow of Knowledge
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Craig Russell 2003-09-25 16:00
To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. ~Lao Tzu, Tao te Ching I have spent most of my life institutionalized. For more than ' of my life ' 39 of my 50 years ' I have either studied or taught in a school or a college in upstate New York .
Anarchy
0
Patrick B. Yancey 2003-09-25 16:00
"[G] overnment never furthered any enterprise, save by the alacrity with which it got out of its way." -Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience"
Taoism and Anarchy
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Mark Gillespie 2003-10-21 16:00
I have studied many religions in my search for truth. In my searches, I embraced a few. I was a nominal Christian for many years and converted to Islam about six years ago. Of course, I have left all of those religions behind, in my never-ending quest for truth. However, there is one "religion" that I studied that seemed to contain more truth than any other. That way is Taoism.
An Open Letter to the Peace Movement
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Roderick Long 2003-03-10 17:00
Dear Peace Activists:All honour to you. In your opposition to the United States' impending war on Iraq, you represent a welcome voice for sanity and civilisation, lifted up against the incessant baying of the dogs of war.But I want to urge you to follow the logic of your position just a bit further.Much has been said, and eloquently so, about the need, in dealings between nation and nation,...
How I Said No to the Automatic Social Security Number
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Scarmig 2003-12-11 17:00
This is the story of how I successfully refused to accept a Social Security Number for my child. I simply said 'no.' Really. That's how easy it was. I just said no, again, and again. On the Texas Application for Birth Certificate, which I was unable to get a copy of for this article, there is a check box down at the bottom of the page. It says, and I'm paraphrasing, 'Check here to have your...
Supreme Court Lets Dogs Go Fishing...for Drugs
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Rex Curry 2005-01-25 17:00
A new Supreme Court case states that cops can take dogs fishing. Dogs can go fishing for drugs in Illinois vs. Caballes. As an attorney, I am often consulted by people victimized in searches by dogs trained to smell drugs. A drug dog's skills are often overestimated because people anthropomorphize dogs. A humanlike quality that dogs have is that they are natural libertarians with no interest in...
Radical Solidarity and Moderate Anarchism
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Anthony Gregory 2005-01-27 17:00
Libertarians, and especially anarchistic libertarians, are known for their principles and strong ideology. This has often been, but does not have to be, a double-edged sword in the fight for freedom. To be a libertarian, one must embrace the Non-aggression Principle, or at least come to the same policy conclusions as one would based on the principle. Some libertarians say they don't like the...
The Suppression of Dissent
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Jim Davies 2005-10-25 16:00
Exclusive to STR The jury is still out, as I write these words. Its verdict may be in by the time you read them, and there's a blog with the latest news--but that's okay because the point of this article is not to comment on the trial's outcome but to show what government had to do, in order try to silence an influential advocate of freedom. Its conclusion will be that government is wholly unfit...
The Power of One
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Jim Davies 2005-11-21 17:00
Exclusive to STR Nobody is better qualified than my friend Per Bylund to propose, as he did in a recent STR article, that we who yearn for liberty "save the world through saving [our]selves." Per is not only a brilliant thinker and prolific author (in two languages!) he founded an anarchist website before many of us got our brains in gear and has engaged in debate there all comers from...
Be Free
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Mark Davis 2005-07-10 16:00
The state has grown too big and powerful and conversely the individual appears small and powerless. Libertarians of all stripes can debate endlessly on why this has come about and where we should ideally be instead. When the question of what to do about it comes up, there is typically a moment of silence and perhaps a chuckle or two coupled with some frustrated cynicism. After this moment of...
Utopia vs. Liberty
10
Richard Rieben 2005-07-18 16:00
In his insightful analysis of the Dark Side, STR writer Jonathan David Morris notes that, "The Dark Side of the Force is not evil for evil's sake. It's evil because it believes the ends always justify the means . . . .
The Preamble Reconsidered
10
Jim Davies 2006-05-17 16:00
Exclusive to STR The Preamble to the United States Constitution is surely one of the most sublime paragraphs ever written. Before this dissection begins, let's prop it up and admire it in all its glory: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure...
Do We Need a Vaccine for Hubris? MUST READ
10
D. Saul Weiner 2015-02-13 09:13
Column by D. Saul Weiner. Exclusive to STR There are a lot of heated exchanges going on right now in social media related to vaccination. Many people have become convinced that parents who do not vaccinate are jeopardizing the health of others and that vaccines for children should be mandated. Politicians who are expected to run for president in 2016 are starting to weigh in on the topic and some...
'Obamacare Nightmare Edition' of Ringo's Law and the Healthcare System of Doom MUST READ
10
Glen Allport 2013-10-30 08:02
Column by Glen Allport. Exclusive to STR Introduction for this 2013 Edition As I write this – October 28, 2013, more than four years after the column below was posted (here with minor edits; see the original at this link if you wish) – NBC News is reporting that the Obama administration “knew millions could not keep their health insurance" under Obamacare, and has known...
An Armed March on Washington? MUST READ
10
Alex R. Knight III 2013-05-07 06:52
Column by Alex R. Knight III. Exclusive to STR Perhaps never before have I encountered a proposal within Liberty Movement circles that has generated more controversy faster and further than Adam Kokesh’s planned July 4th march on Washington, District of Criminals, in which he states that himself and the other participants “will march with rifles loaded & slung across our backs to...
The Orwellian Paradigm--Killing You, For Your Own Safety MUST READ
9.625
fmoghul 2013-04-10 08:12
Column by Faisal Moghul. Exclusive to STR Almost 30 years ago, cultural critic Neil Postman argued in Amusing Ourselves to Death that television’s gradual replacement of the printing press has created a dumbed-down culture driven by mindless entertainment. In this context, Postman claimed that Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World correctly foresaw our dystopian future, as opposed to George...
Frameworks, Virtual Reality and Civil Society: A Manifesto for the Doctrine of Love and Freedom MUST READ
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Glen Allport 2012-12-06 08:44
Column by Glen Allport. Exclusive to STR Perhaps I should say this paradigm shift is resuming. The healthier incoming paradigm is a modern, more accurate, better-supported, and better-understood version of one that began the shift towards a free, healthy, and prosperous world more than three centuries ago and which informed the creation of the United States itself: Classical Liberalism. - 1...
Timeline of a World-Killing Paradigm Shift MUST READ
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Glen Allport 2012-05-14 00:00
Column by Glen Allport. Exclusive to STR   Part 3 of "Could the Non-Aggression Principle Stop the Sixth Great Extinction?"   Part One of this series discussed the Non-Aggression principle, calling it "the libertarian half of the Golden Rule" (compassion being the other half) and describing the function of aggression in creating not only tyranny and war but also...
Terrorist Alert: Government Extremists Threaten Americans MUST READ
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Glen Allport 2012-03-26 00:00
Column by Glen Allport. Exclusive to STR   Question: are you more terrified by Muslim extremists, by "domestic terrorists" – or by your own government? Which group is more likely to assault you? To kill you? To unjustly imprison and even torture you?   The U.S. federal government has ALREADY:   Built and is staffing a huge gulag of concentration camps [...
The State Is a Firing Squad MUST READ
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JGVibes 2012-02-17 01:00
Column by JGVibes.   Exclusive to STR   Although the common perception of human nature is very negative, the truth is that most people who aren’t mentally ill have a very difficult time committing acts of violence. Usually it takes a sizeable payment and a fair amount of manipulation to convince someone to act violently, and even then a tremendous amount of guilt typically...
How the 1% Took America's Wealth--and How to Get It Back MUST READ
9.25
Glen Allport 2011-12-01 01:00
Column by Glen Allport. Exclusive to STR  - 1 - Plundering Wealth vs Producing Wealth   In recent decades, the rich have gathered an increasing share of the total wealth in the United States. As this wealth disparity grows and especially as large numbers of the formerly middle class fall into poverty and even into homelessness, this flow of wealth from main street (from anyone not...
'Anarchy or Minarchy' Is Only Half the Question, Part 2 MUST READ
9.5
Glen Allport 2011-04-13 03:00
Column by Glen Allport. Exclusive to STR  This is Part 2 of a response to a column by Wesley Messamore. Last week's Part One of this column discussed the following:   ·      Minarchy: Lighting a Match to the Fuse of Tyranny ·      Anarchy: By Itself, Yang without Yin ·      The Missing Key...
Chaos Gets a Bad Rap: Importance of Chaology to Liberty Recommended
9.75
Lawrence Samuels 2015-02-18 08:43
Column by L.K. Samuels. Exclusive to STR Chaos gets a bad rap—from the academic and scientific world, even from some uninformed libertarians. Few people realize that without the dynamics of chaos, order would not exist. In fact, nothing would exist. Without chaos there would be no creation, no structure and no existence. After all, order is merely the repetition of patterns; chaos is the...
An Apostate From the Government Religion Recommended
9.66667
Paul Bonneau 2013-10-23 08:00
Column by Paul Bonneau. Exclusive to STR I was reading an article about Roger Williams. The more I learn about him, the more impressed I become. "Roger Williams was not a man out of time. He belonged to the 17th Century and to Puritans in that century. Yet he was also one of the most remarkable men of his or any century. With absolute faith in the literal truth of the Bible and in his...
Murray's Missing Plan Recommended
9.66667
Jim Davies 2013-10-07 08:37
Column by Jim Davies. Exclusive to STR I've been continuing to read the fascinating story of the modern libertarian movement's early years, as told in the Libertarian Forum, edited and often written by Murray Rothbard. It's vast, but very worthwhile – warmly recommended. I've supplemented it recently with a re-read of parts of Justin Raimondo's excellent biography of him...
Left-Libertarians and the Ring of Power Recommended
9.5
Glen Allport 2013-10-01 08:32
Column by Glen Allport. Exclusive to STR Whoever cannot hit the nail on the head should please, not hit it at all. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche Image of The Ring of Power from Wikimedia Commons – 1 – If I had the Ring of Power, I would only use it for GOOD!   Recently, I was reminded that to at least some extent, left-leaning libertarians and anarchists do not understand that...
Government Denial Recommended
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Alex R. Knight III 2013-07-31 08:31
Column by Alex R. Knight III. Exclusive to STR During my years as a practicing alcoholic, I employed any number of tactics to avoid the ultimately invariable conclusion that in order to solve my numerous problems, I needed to stop drinking altogether. Even long after I had made the inner admission that I was, in all likelihood, suffering from the disease – and I knew or understood very...
The Licensing Effect Recommended
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Lawrence Samuels 2013-05-10 08:28
The article below contains excerpts from L.K. Samuels’ new book, In Defense of Chaos: The Chaology of Politics, Economics and Human Action. Column by L.K. Samuels. Exclusive to STR Good intentions rarely make good laws. Those who do evil almost always think they are doing good for goodness’ sake. Nobody sees himself as evil. As Will Smith, the American actor, once quipped, “...
The Pugsley Plan Recommended
8.5
Jim Davies 2013-01-14 08:46
Column by Jim Davies. Exclusive to STR Prior to Harry Browne's first run for US President in 1996, his friend John Pugsley wrote him a passionate “open letter” urging him not to. As far as I know, Harry didn't reply, but he did continue his campaign – and repeated it four years later. He got few votes more than the LP normally receives, but his platform and campaign were...
Ed Schultz and His Alleged Middle Class Heroes Recommended
8.5
Greg Haley 2013-01-04 01:00
Column by Greg Haley. Exclusive to STR Ed Schultz has set quite the task out for himself. On his New Year’s Eve broadcast on MSNBC, he announced who his “Middle Class Heroes of 2012” are. Schultz is a self-styled liberal, so his recipients of the title “Middle Class Hero” are predictable and worthy of a certain amount of eye rolling. The general reverence for...
The Trials Recommended
8.33333
tzo 2012-12-11 08:49
Column by tzo. Exclusive to STR To anyone who has seen or read The Reader (a synopsis of the relevant part of the story is here), one of the main questions raised in the story is, "What should be done with Hanna?" Was she responsible for her actions even if she was so thoroughly indoctrinated so as to be completely confused by the charges against her? She asked more than once, while...
464 Lost Years Recommended
8.25
Jim Davies 2012-12-10 08:48
Column by Jim Davies. Exclusive to STR Recently I re-read part of that seminal essay, Discourse on Voluntary Servitude by Etienne de la Boëtie, written in 1548, or 464 years ago. He said that if you want to topple a tyrant, all you need to do is to withdraw support. No violence, no sweat, just stop helping him. Yet 24 years later there was a massacre of Huguenot Protestants, indicating that...

 

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