WendyMcElroy.com

[Note: I am currently comparing the similar EO issued by Pres. Clinton to Obama's. ]

From Canada Free Press: Obama Executive Order: Peacetime Martial Law!

Excerpt: This Executive Order was posted on the WhiteHouse.gov web site on Friday, March 16, 2012, under the name National Defense Resources Preparedness. In a nutshell, it’s the blueprint for Peacetime Martial Law and it gives the president the power to take just about anything deemed necessary for “National Defense”, whatever they decide that is. It’s peacetime, because as the title of the order says, it’s for “Preparedness”. A copy of the entire order follows the end of this story.

Under this order the heads of these cabinet level positions; Agriculture, Energy, Health and Human Services, Transportation, Defense and Commerce can take food, livestock, fertilizer, farm equipment, all forms of energy, water resources, all forms of civil transporation (meaning any vehicles, boats, planes), and any other materials, including construction materials from wherever they are available. This is probably why the government has been visiting farms with GPS devices, so they know exactly where to go when they turn this one on. Specifically, the government is allowed to allocate materials, services, and facilities as deemed necessary or appropriate. They decide what necessary or appropriate means.

(Meanwhile, this is what CNN found newsworthy to report: Obama raises a pint on St. Patty's Day.)

I don't know what to make of the timing on this. (Well, in one sense I do. The Executive Order was released quietly on a Friday afternoon before a holiday on which many people get drunk. In short, the release's timing was meant to bury it, to avoid attention, especially from the media.] But is the government is preparing for something?

Consider merely two sections of the Executive Order....

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Note: Over the next few months, I hope to write a great many reviews of the products offered in the Laissez-Faire Books catalog, which I urge you to visit and browse. Here is a review of Murray Rothbard's Man, Economy, and State, written in the more personal manner I will be adopting. Enjoy!

Click here for review on LFB Today.

Man, Economy, and State: A Treatise on Economic Principles (2 vols., 1962) by Murray Rothbard is a light bulb of a book that keeps the reader clicking with insights. I am jealous of anyone who reads this book for the first time because it is a remarkable adventure that cannot quite be duplicated afterward. I picked up Man, Economy, and State after reading an article by Murray entitled “Do You Hate the State?” that haunted me. When I opened Man, Economy, and State, I was still an advocate of limited government; when I closed it, I was an individualist anarchist.

The book had a similar affect on a generation of libertarians. My experience was a microcosm that repeated itself within thousands and thousands of others, each reacting in his or her own unique fashion. Collectively, the resulting 'Rothbardians' became a powerful force in creating the golden age of Austrian economics that emerged in the 1970s, and continues through to this day.

The impact and importance of the Austrian icon Ludwig von Mises (1881 – 1973) should never be marginalized. His magnum opus, Human Action, was a remarkable accomplishment. Mises located the dynamics of the free market within human nature itself. He coined the term “praxeology” to describe the logic of human conduct, which is based on the “action axiom; that is, everyone acts to improve their own satisfaction. Economics, as a discipline, is a subcategory of praxeology. People co-operate with each other, specialize and exchange goods, formed societies from pure self-interest. Thus, the free market is the vehicle of human endeavor and the foundation of civilization itself.

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Time once again for Self-Cleaning-Oven Day, known to some odd people as Earth Hour -- this year, on March 31st. I expect to celebrate the marvel of electric power by time-shifting as many electrical tasks as I can to the 8:30 to 9:30 pm time slot, in the hope that I can equal last year's accomplishment of consuming 10 kilowatts for one full hour. Think of it as a hundred incandescent bulbs...better yet, three to four hundred CFLs.

This year, thanks to The Daily Bayonet, I learn of another celebrant: Carbon Belch Day, where you can pledge to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide on March 31st. Alas, their carbon calculator doesn't have an option for "10 kilowatt-hours", so I had to choose the available options which best describe my planned usage:

2. Leave a minimum of four light bulbs on for the entire day.
5. Do a partial load of laundry.
6. Do a partial load in the dryer.
7. Do a partial load of dishes.
8. Eat meat at one meal.
16. Leave your computer on all day.

Four 100-watt bulbs for 24 hours is pretty close to 10 kWh, but they're computing for the entire day, and given our wintertime base load of about 2 kW I expect we'll use 56 kWh total. So I've kept the laundry, dryer, dishes, and computer in the list.

And my computed pledge is....108 pounds of CO₂. What? That's all? Running every electrical appliance I can for an hour, and I've just broken 1/20th of a ton? How disappointing.

To double-check, this web page says "the coefficient is about 2.3 lb CO₂ per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity." So 23 lousy pounds for Earth Hour; 129 pounds for the day. It sounds more impressive when measured in light bulbs.

You just knew that someone named McElroy had to have a St. Patty's Day story...
From the Irish Times: Nike sorry over 'Black and Tan' shoe. [Note: Apparently, in their ignorance, they introduced this as a St. Patrick's Day show. What a gaffe!]

From Yahoo Daily News: North Korea's plan for rocket launch stirs regional concern. [Excerpt: North Korea said on Friday it will launch a long-range rocket carrying a "working" satellite to mark the centenary of founder Kim Il-sung's birth next month, sparking condemnation from the United States and others that it was in breach of a U.N. resolution.]

From Spiked: Free speech on Facebook? Think again. The prosecution of a teenager for sounding off about British soldiers on Facebook should be of concern to us all

From Reuters: Afghanistan's Karzai slams United States over massacre. [Excerpt: Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday lashed out at the United States for failing to fully cooperate with an investigation into the massacre of 16 Afghan villagers by a U.S. staff sergeant and questioned whether only one soldier could have been involved.]

R.J. Matson's Stuck in Traffic; Adam Zyglis' Ones on the List; Gary McCoy's I Call It Sandra; Chris Britt's Gone is the Win; Tim Campbell's Anyone But Obama; Jonathan Shaprio's He Knew Nothing (I don't know who Cele is but the cartoon could be about any number of American officials, including Holder); Andy Singer's Agnostic Symbols (I like the last panel); and, Chuck Asay's Debt Bomb.

This is my favorite parody of Rand, surpassing even Murray Rothbard's Mozart Was A Red. It was written anonymously by a fellow who is a great fan and admirer.

[RUSSIAN ACCENT] This is Ayn Rand speaking. Like all of the great thinkers of world history, I am dead.

I have, however, returned here to criticize this conference. I do not approve of "no smoking" sections. The whole place should be designated "mandatory smoking".

But I digress.

A passage from Procrustes Stretched.... I wrote this passage in 1955 and I am as proud of it today as I was then. It was for reasons of space deleted from the final draft of my novel Procrustes Stretched. It has never before appeared in print. I am offering it now as an example of Romantic writing at its best.

Romanticism, which has always been my philosophy of art, sees the goal of art to be the portrayal of man as a heroic being. The Romantic artist selects certain facets of reality and reassembles them "in order to create in concrete form the abstraction which is his sense of life." (The Virtue of Rudeness, page 178) Note this: he selects, just as a physicist selects the numbers which go into his mathematical equations. The antithesis of Romanticism is Naturalism, which holds that every bit of reality, no matter how trivial, is worthy of inclusion in a work of art. For example, a Naturalistic pianist would try to press all the keys of his piano at once. The logical results of such a philosophy are insanity and ugliness just as those of Romanticism are order and beauty.

I shall let the reader judge for himself whether a Naturalist could have written this passage. Its context is as follows: Ellis Island has gone into hiding and has taken with him his secret of his process of getting blood from a turnip. Canada has declared itself to be a fool's paradise. Dallas Stank is heading West [on a train], searching for a scientist who can reconstruct the mouse trap that she and Nick Rearden found in an abandoned factory. [END OF RUSSIAN ACCENT]

"Who is John Goat?"

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From the Washington Post: Taliban Breaks Off Peace Talks With US As Hamid Karzai tells NATO to clear out of all rural villages, bases

From FOX News: Elementary school changes name of St. Patricks Day. Calls it O'Green day instead to keep from causing offense.

From the Daily Mirror: CCTV at petrol stations will automatically stop uninsured cars being filled with fuel. Downing Street officials hope the hi-tech system will crack down on the 1.4million motorists who drive without insurance. [Note: as Strike the Root comments, "It's only a matter of time before we see that sort of thing on this side of the pond."]

From the New York Times: Private Businesses Fight Federal Prisons for Contracts [Note: Federal slaves are being used to undercut the wages of free men and women.]

From WorldNetDaily: Scheme opens door to tax the tax-exempt. Court case being watched by churches, nonprofits

From InfoWars: Major US Airport To Evict TSA Screeners.

From Reuters:



Freely translated: People are screaming about high gas prices. Obama has to do something to lower them before November. Britain is playing along.

HARD AND PRIVATE...THAT'S HOW I LIKE MY MONEY
by Wendy McElroy

It is heartening to hear more and more people call for a return to the gold standard and a halt to printing money at will – a policy that has gutted the value of currencies around the world. The voices usually stop short, however. They get the hard part right but forget about the private. In other words, they want government-issued money to return to a gold standard without questioning whether government should be in the currency business in the first place, let alone enjoy a monopoly.

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From Ethics, Policy and the Environment: Human Engineering and Climate Change [Note: When social engineering doesn't prevent 'global warming'. The article recommends, Another more striking example of human engineering is the possibility of making humans smaller. Human ecological footprints are partly correlated with our size....As well as needing to eat more, larger people also consume more energy in less obvious ways. For example, a car uses more fuel per mile to carry a heavier person than a lighter person; more fabric is needed to clothe larger than smaller people; heavier people wear out shoes, carpets, and furniture more quickly than lighter people, and so on.]

From Los Angeles Times: Drug users' union in San Francisco part of growing movement. [Note: Drug users unionize? Well, at least they are against the War on Drugs.]

From the NewsOK: CBO: Obamacare to cost $1.76 trillion over 10 yrs. [Note: that's almost double Obama's announced cost of $900 billion that he announced when the measure passed.]

From the Washington Post: Fraud investigation targets recruiting program for Army National Guard, Reserve

From WorldNetDaily: James O'Keefe proves voter fraud this simple.

The First Amendment Needs a Rape Kit
by Wendy McElroy, March 13, 2012

This article was first published at the highly recommended Future of Freedom site. Please visit and browse.



— Gene Howington

The Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011 (PDF) may sound like a landscaping measure, but it is also being called the Trespass Bill, the Anti-Occupy Bill, and the First Amendment Rights Eradication Act. Under this bill, it is a felony to protest at or in the vicinity of a venue or event that is attended by anyone who has Secret Service protection. H.R. 347 passed the House on February 27th by a vote of 388–3. The Senate version (S. 1794) passed unanimously. With President Obama's signature, the Act became law on March 8.

The bill has caused a furor among advocates of civil liberties. Justin Amash, one of the three “no” votes in the House, dubbed the bill the “First Amendment Rights Eradication Act.” Calling it “this administration's latest assault on our civil liberties,” he explains on his Facebook page that “criminalizing legitimate First Amendment activity — even if that activity is annoying to those government officials — violates our rights.”

The left-leaning Daily Kos states, “Protesting will be a felony — where is the outrage?”

Meanwhile, the bill is being ignored by the mainstream media as uncontroversial. Supporters of the act dismiss its critics as hysterical or ill-informed. Michael Mahassey, the communications director for Rep. Thomas J. Rooney, who sponsored H.R. 347, called the backlash, "a whole lot of kerfuffle over nothing. This doesn’t affect anyone’s right to protest anywhere at any time. Ever.”

Who is correct? And why is there such a deep schism on H.R. 347?

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From the Columbus Dispatch: Outrage after cop uses taser on 9-year-old truant -- twice!

From WorldNetDaily: State wants iris scan to get medicine.[Excerpt: A plan being proposed by three lawmakers in Colorado, Reps. Ken Summers and Tom Massey and Sen. Betty Boyd, would require consumers to submit to a biometric scan of their retina or provide a fingerprint in order to get medication.]

From the Daily: Police nationwide take on soaring Tide detergent theft

From Al Jazeera: Afghan officials attacked over US killings. Gunmen open fire on team investigating the mass-murder of 16 civilians by a US sergeant in Kandahar province. [Note: Such anger is widespread. In Jalalabad today, 2,000 students took to the streets shouting, "Death to America! Death to Obama!" The Taliban, meanwhile, issued a statement warning the US that it would "behead your sadistic murderous soldiers" to avenge the rampage, Reuters reports.]

From the New York Times: After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses. A big reason: Its latest 32-volume set, printed in 2010, costs $1,395. From now on, the Chicago-based company will focus instead on its website.

From the BBC: Toilet paper crisis in Trenton, New Jersey. [Note: hat tip to Charles C. who comments, "Reminds me of a protest sign seen during the uprisings in Eastern Europe: "Only socialism could make toilet paper a political issue."]

From the National Post: Dick Cheney cancels Toronto trip, says Canada is too dangerous. [Note: Yeah, that's right, we're badass up here!]

Given that I have advised people to leave the United States while they still can, I should also warn of doing so. One danger is that the United States government has started to pursue people beyond its own borders, especially people from whom it believes the extraction of money is possible. Of course, such a pursuit requires -- or, at least, is greatly facilitated by -- the co-operation of foreign governments. Some foreign governments are offering it; some are not. With the former, the preferred enforcement point seems to be airports where/when systematic checks of ID are conducted and where 'wanted' individuals can be inconspicuously taken into custody.

The following open letter was forwarded to me by Michael B. who comments, "Nice to see how they can hold someone for so long without charges. Guess they must be trying to squeeze something out of him about his clients?" The forwarded open letter ensues....

IRS Inc.
March 12, 2012
Panama City, Panama

Dear Offshore Living Letter Reader,
The writing has been on the wall for me since the TSA agent grabbed the Converse sneakers out of my then 2-year-old son's hands to put them through the X-ray machine as I tried to explain to my sobbing child that the big rude man wasn't stealing his favorite shoes.
Most of us have TSA horror stories. And we've all heard the far more horrible stories of extraordinary rendition by the CIA in the name of the War on Terror...the stories of torture by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq...the stories this weekend about the 16 Afghan villagers killed by an Army Ranger...
Those stories are sad and upsetting, but they're far away. Over the past six weeks or so, I've been watching as a story that's not nearly as horrific as 16 innocent people dying but that is much closer to home for me has been playing out.
If you've been reading my wife's and my dispatches for any time, you've heard of Chris Rusch. He's a U.S. tax attorney and a friend who, until early February, was living in Panama City. Chris traveled to Colombia with us in January to participate in our Live and Invest in Medellin Conference. He never made it back to Panama, because the IRS had him picked up on the jetway at Tocumen International Airport in Panama City. Chris was rerouted to the States where he remains today, still in custody. He has been held now for more than six weeks without being arraigned and without being formally charged of a crime.

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From CBS News: Tel Aviv Ruin After Iran Attacked. [Note: fascinating interview with ex-chief of Mossad Meir Dagan, who is known as a hardliner but who warns against a pre-emptive strike on Iran by Israel.]

From AFP: Sarkozy threatens to pull France from Europe visa-free zone.

From Natural News: 65-year-old California 'milk man' subjected to extreme torture, hypothermia, raw sewage in LA County jail. [Note: Only crime was to distribute raw milk.]

From Huffington Post Canada: U.S. Soldiers Open Fire On Civilians In Afghanistan. [Note: this version differs markedly from the one rendered by U.S. officials and mainstream media. They report the incident as involving one soldier, one lone crazy.]

From Daily Kos: Gitmo detainee found hanged with hands tied behind back [Note: more on the refusal of American media to cover real news. The Kos contributor writes, "I have found that my ground-breaking investigation into the deaths of two Guantanamo detainees...has been largely ignored by the mainstream media and blogosphere....[T]here has been a decided reluctance to report what I have found. So I must go public all on my own, and the powers that be know that I will not be silent."]

From Spiked: Bomb Syria so that I can sleep at night. The most shocking thing about the intervene-in-Syria lobby is not its historical amnesia over Iraq and Afghanistan, but its naked narcissism. By Brendan O'Neill