Isilion

I have heard people with a conservative Christian outlook say that this country was founded on “Biblical Principles.”

I do accept Biblical principles in that those of the (Protestant) Ten Commandments which apply to relations between people…

6. Thou shalt not kill
8. Thou shalt not steal
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour

…are proscriptions against violence, theft and fraud. They are crimes against life, liberty and property and should either be punished or recompensed. These things are crimes, not because the Bible tells me so, but because they violate individual sovereignty. Had the Bible never been written they would still be crimes.

The others which are not specifically Godward…

5. Honour thy father and thy mother
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery
8. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

…encourage filial piety and marital fidelity and discourage envy. This is simply a good way to live and conducive to a harmonious life. These virtues would be applauded both in ancient Greece and the Han Empire. Violating them brings their own punishment in the form of misery and discord. Again, had the Bible never been written this would still be true. In that respect they are spiritual failings, but not crimes–though it could be argued adultery has to do with fraud if it involves deception or the violation of a mutual voluntary agreement.

The remainder…

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain
4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy

…are matters of faithfulness, idolatry, blasphemy and ritual observance. These are matters of one’s understanding of–and relation to–deity. Consequently they concern the individual and deity and are nobody else’s business, especially not the business of someone who has a different opinion of what they comprise.

In my mind the Ten Commandments are very libertarian. This does not surprise me since their literary context is the reorganization of a society that had escaped tyranny and sought to avoid its reimposition.

I do not discount the Bible, I just do not regard it in accordance with the Five Fundamentals.

As Thomas Paine points out, English government (the ancestor of ours) goes back to the Norman Conquest. William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy told the English people, “submit to my rule and pay my taxes or I will hurt you.” This is classic protection racketeering.

The people pointed out that while William and his Norman Knights were good, if all the people fought they could beat him. William answered this point with four distinct answers:

A. Not everyone would fight back, you may not be able to raise enough troops to beat me. Even if you
do you will wear yourself out and then the Norse, Scots, and Irish will have their way with you. I’m bad, without me you will be stuck with a worse mess.

B. I’ll protect you from the Norse, Scots, and Irish, and local bandits. So submitting will not only keep me from hurting you, it really is buying protection.

C. OK, I’ll also provide you with roads,courts of justice, and reasonably just laws. As time passes my successors will find other ways to reinvest the extortion (I mean tax money) you are paying to increase your productivity (I mean make your lives more prosperous and pleasant).

D. In conclusion pay up and I won’t hurt you and it’s cheaper to pay than fight anyhow. I will also protect you from your enemies and toss you some goodies.

The people of England agreed and William changed his sobriquet and title to the Conqueror, King of England.

About 940 years later in America…

I’ve felt an "I give up" post coming on for some time, and this isn’t really it, but I am totally at a loss as to where I should be going and what I should be doing. I’ve given time, money and sweat over the past year doing everything I know to help the national campaign and the local one only to see it more or less come to nothing as far as real change.

When Ron Paul’s nomination effort began to unravel I put my hopes on working locally to get Ron Paul Republicans on the ballot for congress. I think we did as well as could be expected in Maryland, but the fact of the matter is Peter James, Collins Bailey, et al, are going to get their asses handed to them in November. One only has to look at the number of votes their Democratic rivals got in the Maryland Primary to recognize that.

Before I got involved in Ron Paul’s campaign I had come to accept that voting in national elections was a complete waste. The choice boils down to the color of your chains. The thing is Ron Paul has very much succeeded in educating me. He took my vague, unfocused, intuitive disgust with the state and gave me the analytical tools and reasoned principles to see exactly how imperial delusions, monetary flimflammery, collectivist pandering and media enabling work to prevent any real, substantive debate or political action that might threaten the status quo.

So now I see things much more clearly than ever, including my impotence. I am very angry and very frightened.

I also have no idea what I can do about any of it. I see Ron Paulers and other liberty seekers working on various projects, trying to pull together a core of interconnected activists, and I respect their efforts, but other than contributing money I don’t know what I can do. I don’t have any marketing skills, video talents or leadership ability to contribute. I’m just an aging geek with moderate IT skills and unless someone needs a help desk guy I’m not going to be a mover and shaker no matter how many pep-talks I give myself. They fact of the matter is I’ve already given more than I can afford and the cynic in me fears all our efforts are simply going to become a way of fleecing a new type of sheep: liberty junkies who work their asses off in dead end jobs throwing away their not very disposable income looking for another fix of freedom.

However, I can’t unlearn what I know, the liberty bell cannot be unrung. There is something burning inside of me. I have to do something or I’m just going to become a bitter old man who shakes his fist at everything and accomplishes nothing.

I’d like to see the way forward, but I can’t. Where do I go from here?

Even though I took some introductory courses in economics in college, it was always boring to me, also, other than the very basic stuff like supply & demand and the law of diminishing returns, I didn’t really understand it. I was originally drawn to Ron Paul’s campaign because of his opposition to the war and his unwavering defense of civil liberties. His economic stuff was just more blah, blah, blah, until he started getting through to me with the idea that economics and monetary policy are fundamental to understanding both domestic and foreign policy and the political structures and processes at play in this country and around the world. Talking about those things without talking about economics is like trying to talk about music while ignoring the concept of rhythm; like trying to understand Magick without knowledge of Qabalah.

I’ve actually been aware of him for several years, and it has been an amazing education for me. Regardless of the outcome of this election–and between you, me and the Internet, I am less confident about that than I was six months ago–there are now thousands, if not millions, of people like me who are waking up to the principle of spontaneous order and the emergent properties of a free society. He has let the genie out of the bottle and it is not going back in.

Article I, Section 8 - Powers of Congress

(1) The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

(2) To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

(3) To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

(4) To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

(5) To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

(6) To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

(7) To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;

(8) To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

(9) To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

(10) To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;

(11) To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

(12) To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

(13) To provide and maintain a Navy;

(14) To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

(15) To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

(16) To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

(17) To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And

(18) To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Amendment 9 - Construction of Constitution.

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment 10 - Powers of the States and People.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Even hard-core anarcho-capitalist would have to admit government under the US Constitution would be a vast improvement over the existing system.

We are not allowed the right to speak freely by the words in the 1st Amendment nor does the 6th guarantee a right to trial by jury. The courts do not work for our justice nor do our legislatures work to maintain our freedom. It is only through our diligent defense of those rights that we enforce their validity.

Our rights are undefined and unalienable while those of the government are limited and few as enumerated in the Constitution, Article 1, Section 8. To abandon that concept is to discard the principles for which our Founding Fathers risked their lives and fortunes.

‘Restore the Republic’

These are just bits…

The truth is, the U.S. Constitution no longer exists. It is long gone, and nobody is particularly concerned. That optimistic framework of self-governance and independence was rendered irrelevant by the Civil War which lasted from 1861 to 1865. The legitimate issue of slavery aside, when half the country invades, pillages, ransacks and subjugates the other half, that event can in no way be indicative of the rule of law, and was certainly not authorized by the Constitution. The Civil War marked the end of the American Republic of 1789. We live in the aftermath, a postscript; we are making it up as we go along.

America was sidetracked in 1898, and soon thereafter hijacked by its own unscrupulous, vainglorious politicians, just like England before it. At present, the capitol city of the new empire is carrying out a policy of disruption, war and manipulation in the Middle East to advance the same hidden agenda, just as London did after the Great War. This is the central reality of our time, a reality which is increasingly difficult to deny or ignore, because it has become so apparent and brazen. One fact should also be clear: this project did not start the day before yesterday with Dick Cheney, G.W. Bush and with their accomplices, those agents provocateurs known as “the neocons”. These latter have only perfected a pre-existing scheme and taken it to a new level…

“We have mentioned many times that there is a world of difference between a New England town meeting and the U.S. federal government. The size of the New England town meeting is one that the human brain is prepared to deal with. At the town meeting, a man can know which of the people he is dealing with is a moron and which is a self-interested hustler.

“But when it comes to national politics, the same man is totally ill-equipped…like a mechanic who shows up with a pair of pruning shears…or a veterinarian with a wrench in his hand.”

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