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Wednesday, May 22

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Eric Field is the guest editor today.
 

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Adam Kokesh Arrested in Philadelphia while Engaging in Free Speech
Original article
Bullhorning Philly Fed Detention Center
Original article Video footage of protest. 
On Target Pressure Points: Government Paranoia
Original article
Verizon Wireless Secretly Passed AP Reporters' Phone Records to Feds
Original article Thanks, Verizon.  Way to go with your customer service. 
IRS Denied Nonprofit Status to Free State Project
Original article
The Collapse of Journalism, and the Journalism of Collapse
Original article
Dan Carlin: Probing the President
Original article
Pentagon Spec Ops Chief Sees ’10 to 20′ More Years of War Against al-Qaida
Original article
Robert Anton Wilson and Karl Hess: Subversion for Fun and Profit
Original article Video of a 1986 conversation between R. A. Wilson and Karl Hess. 
Scott Horton Interview with Jed Morey
Original article Jed Morey, a journalist with Long Island Press, discusses the Pentagon’s “power grab” of unilaterally granting itself authority over civil disturbances; giving local military commanders the same authority as the president during some ill-defined emergency; preparing domestic military operations with the NDAA and Northern Command; and the pushback coming from Congress and the National Governors Association. Podcast by Scott Horton. 
Washington Gets Explicit: Its 'War on Terror' Is Permanent
Original article
Theres a Question Mark Hanging Over the Apostrophes Future
Original article An everyday example of conflict between the state and society. 
Little Boy Has New Hand 3D Printed
Original article
A Freedom Lover's Faustian Bargain
9.66667
Paul Bonneau 2009-12-02 17:00
Exclusive to STR I have read many pro-freedom articles on Strike The Root, but one of the strangest was Jim Davies' piece "Handouts." Somehow, I had a hard time reconciling what I was reading there, with Thoreau's quote at the top of the page. Who'd-a thunk it? That we could hack at the root of evil by profiting from it? I mean, how cool is that? Still, I thought I would try to apply a...
Bugs to the Rescue
0
Bob Wallace 2009-12-02 17:00
Exclusive to STR The best definition of "reason" I've encountered is "the ability to make connections." I consider it part science, part art. This might be a better definition: "the art and science of making connections." Let's use Bugs Bunny for an example. Bugs belongs to the archetype known as the Trickster. This archetype exists in nearly every culture and is...
The Evolution of the Welfare-Warfare State
0
Duane Colyar 2009-11-22 17:00
Exclusive to STR The author presents a model in the form of a flow chart that briefly attempts to depict the evolution of the welfare-warfare state with an emphasis on the American experience. There is a wealth of literature available to support the elements of this model. The author has cited a few of the sources that informed him and offer the reader a fuller treatment of the subject. 1....
What Is Totalitarianism? - Part II
0
Michael Kleen 2009-11-18 17:00
Exclusive to STR In the first part of this essay, we defined totalitarianism as the state-orchestrated dissolution of the private sphere, initiated by an ideologically-driven political organization with the goal of exercising total control over the population of a country. In the words of the father of Italian fascism, Giovanni Gentile, the totalitarian state seeks 'total representation of the...
Handouts
6
Jim Davies 2009-11-15 17:00
Exclusive to STR  One of the debates among liberty seekers is about the extent to which it's morally right to accept or reject government handouts. In my opinion, it's one of a rather small number of issues still open to valid debate, and for sure there are good, sincere people on both sides of it and I respect all of them. Although these remarks come down clearly on one side, that respect...
What Is Totalitarianism? - Part I
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Michael Kleen 2009-11-11 17:00
Exclusive to STR If the United States came under the control of a totalitarian regime, would we recognize it? This question is of utmost importance today, when many of us harbor fears that some time in the near future ideas such as freedom, liberty, and privacy will be alien to our society. But as we witness the regular passage of legislation designed to restrict and regulate, and the tendency of...
Bearing False Witness
0
Bill Butler 2009-11-09 17:00
Exclusive to STR Ever wonder how politicians like Harry Reid can say, with a straight face, that the United States income tax is a 'voluntary' tax? Here is a video of Mr. Reid explaining how the US tax system is voluntary. Mr. Reid is no dummy. He knows what he is talking about. He is speaking the truth. He is just not telling the whole truth. The whole truth, which Mr. Reid will not share...
The Control Imperative
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Jakub Bozydar W... 2009-11-09 04:00
  Exclusive to STR The most intriguing riddle of statism, and at the same time the most important intellectual challenge that faces every friend of liberty, can perhaps be summarized in the following question: Why has statism indisputably taken over the world, given that it is a position both immoral, based on unjustifiable violence, and economically...
The Heart of America, Part II
0
B.R. Merrick 2009-11-05 17:00
Exclusive to STR We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never...
The Irrelevance of Government
0
Paul Hein 2009-11-05 17:00
Exclusive to STR It is amusing to listen to our rulers arguing for, or against, the administration's 'health care' scheme. (I put health care in quotation marks because the plan has nothing to do with health care, which existed LONG before politicians became involved with it. It has to do with taxation and regulation, i.e., government!) We are solemnly warned, by the proponents of the plan, that...
North Korea Is Not a Problem – The U.S. Is
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Per Bylund 2010-11-23 04:00
Column by Per Bylund. Exclusive to STR News agencies report on another potential nuclear threat from North Korea, which has developed an advanced program for enriching uranium. Granted, nuclear weapons are extremely dangerous – and they are especially dangerous in the hands of nutcases such as Kim Jong-il. However, the media misses the point as they urgently run in the direction pointed out...
Sorry, Wendy and Lew
3.8
John deLaubenfels 2010-01-19 04:00
Exclusive to STR Because I send occasional feedback to libertarian-leaning websites, I tend to get added to their lists and solicited for donations.  Two such sites are WendyMcElroy.com and LewRockwell.com.  To each, when I'm asked to part with hard-earned cash, I write back saying that I cannot in good conscience donate to them because of their opposition to all forms of...
Power Corrupts
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Per Bylund 2004-03-03 17:00
The history of man is a history of rule or ambition to rule. It is not, as Marx claimed, a history of constant class struggle between bourgeoisie and proletariat, even though class struggle may be derived from the fundamental division of society into 'rulers' and 'ruled.' An important part of this history is the continuous 'race to the top' among self-centered power seekers, trying to gather as...
Long Live Intellectual Property Rights!
1
John deLaubenfels 2003-10-20 16:00
In a recent STR column, Roderick Long argues that, "Either intellectual property means slavery, or it means nothing at all." I would beg to differ. Let us view the question from the standpoint of the right of individuals to voluntarily engage in private contracts with others. This right is taken as being one of the core inalienable freedoms by virtually all people of a libertarian...
Dissecting Boldrin and Levine: An Alternate View of Intellectual Property
1
John deLaubenfels 2009-01-25 17:00
January 26, 2009 Every few months, some new tract or book is announced, with great fanfare, that purports to demolish any remaining argument for legal protection of Intellectual Property (IP). Then, when the new offering fails to convince the intransigent masses, who cling to the antiquated notion that creators deserve protection, something new is issued a few months later. Inevitably, however...
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
10
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
0
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
9
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
10
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...
Oh, Stanley MUST READ
10
tzo 2011-03-30 03:00
Column by tzo. Exclusive to STR   Stanley Milgram was an American social psychologist best known for his Milgram Experiment, a study conducted in the 1960s.   Dr. Milgram wanted to research the relationship between obedience and authority, and he was at least partly motivated to do so by the events of the Nazi Holocaust. It greatly troubled him that so many supposedly good people could...
The Pathocracy Unmasked MUST READ
10
Glen Allport 2011-02-11 04:00
Column by Glen Allport. Exclusive to STR - 1 - Exposed as Criminals and Psychopaths, the Coercive Elite are Desperate to Stop the Flow of Honest Information     "When Bush cancelled his trip to avoid prosecution, the human rights groups who prepared the complaints made it public and announced that the Bush Torture Indictment would be waiting wherever he travels next." CCR...
The Licensing Effect Recommended
0
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
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Angelo Mike 2013-01-04 01:00
Column by Angelo Mike. 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...
The Duty to End the State Recommended
10
Jim Davies 2012-11-30 08:53
Column by Jim Davies. Exclusive to STR Many reading this already understand the Self-ownership Axiom; that we each own our own lives by right, and hence that all government is an unnatural and ruinous appendage. Among those who do, though, surprisingly there is disagreement over what to do about it. Some hold that resistance by such voluntaryists in the present government-saturated environment...
Why I'm Leaving America Recommended
10
SailboatDiaries 2012-11-07 01:00
Column by new Root Striker Michael Fielding. Goodbye, America. For as long as I’ve lived you’ve been my only home. I’ve had a wonderful life here. Your inhabitants are almost universally kind, and I’ve become lifelong friends with many of your citizens. All of my family lives here, everyone I have ever known or loved, and I will miss them all a lot. But after 22 years, I...
Voting Is Not Rational Recommended
9.66667
Stephen Nichols 2012-11-01 00:00
Column by Stephen Nichols. Exclusive to STR While reading Paul Bonneau’s recent column on STR entitled “Voting Is Not Irrational,” I was taken aback by the obvious flaws in his analysis and the conclusions resulting from that analysis. It’s been a few days since his article was published and I’ve been formulating my response to it for some time. Let me now share with...
St. Abe Recommended
0
Jim Davies 2012-10-23 00:00
Column by Jim Davies. Exclusive to STR When the Church of Rome has in mind to elevate one of its heroes or heroines to the status of sainthood, it follows a certain procedure – one element of which is to hear the opinion of an advocatus diaboli – a devil's advocate. His job is to reason against the proposed canonization, so reducing the probability of error. That task fell in...
A Reason Not to Vote Recommended
10
Stephen Nichols 2012-10-18 00:00
Column by Stephen Nichols. Exclusive to STR I don't know about you, but I take a look at my financial situation pretty regularly. I like to keep tabs on my family's spending and keep things under control. I also like to reduce or eliminate any unnecessary expenses. Take a moment to review this chart of some recent family spending: Notice anything big that sticks out there? Yeah, me...

 

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