Top 10 disasters of the 2009 Obama administration:

1. Cash for Clunkers
2. War escalation in Afghanistan
3. Giant government health care expansion bill
4. Post office loses money hand over fist
5. Stimulus package
6. Expansion of "state secrets" doctrine
7. Big increase in unemployment
8. "Bailout" Geithner as Treasury Secretary
9. Skyrocketing federal spending
10. Huge federal deficits

Now wait a second, doesn’t this sound familiar? Hmm…

Top 10 disasters of the 2001-2008 Bush administration:

1. Cash for Car Companies
2. War in Iraq
3. Giant Medicare expansion bill
4. Post office loses money hand over fist
5. Stimulus "rebate" checks
6. PATRIOT Act
7. Big increase in unemployment
8. "Bailout" Paulson as Treasury Secretary
9. Skyrocketing federal spending
10. Huge federal deficits

Wes Benedict, Libertarian Party Executive Director, commented:

"Republicans and Democrats keep expanding government and creating more and more problems. We’re encouraging as many Libertarians as possible to run for Congress in 2010. In Texas, the state with the earliest filing deadline, Libertarians have already filed for 31 of 32 Congressional seats."

Another article you might want to check out is by Mary Ruwart, one of my favorite libertarians — How Liberty Makes Health Care Virtually Universal.

Post from: LibertarianChristians.com

Top 10 Disasters of the Obama Administration in 2009

Please support LCC by sharing this post on your favorite social network.

Tags: bush, economics, Obama, politics, universal health care, war

Related Content:

• GW’s Presidential Review (0)
• 5 Predictions for 2009 (0)
• The Dismal Year (1)
• Simple Arguments Against the Iraq War (4)
• Obama’s First 100 Days: Madmen, Blunders, Death Defined (1)

Right click here to download the entire audio file. [~10 minutes, mp3]

For those with podcast software, there is a special Podcast RSS Feed set up just for you.

If you are using iTunes, click on the following button to subscribe directly:

Post from: LibertarianChristians.com

Podcast: The Hypocrisy of Christian Warmongers

Please support LCC by sharing this post on your favorite social network.

Tags: audiobook, hypocrisy, theology, war, war on terror

Related Content:

• Podcast: The President’s Prayer (0)
• Podcast: The Christian Axis of Evil (0)
• Podcast: Christianity and War Part 1 (4)
• Speedlinking Friday (1)
• Special Announcement: Audiobook of Vance’s "Christianity and War" Releases Today! (4)

Here’s clip #1:

Here’s clip #2:

The book Dr. Paul cites sounds really interesting, check out Barbara Tuchman’s The March of Folly at Amazon.

Post from: LibertarianChristians.com

Ron Paul: Get out of Afghanistan NOW!

Please support LCC by sharing this post on your favorite social network.

Tags: Afghanistan, history, iraq, Ron Paul, war, war on terror

Related Content:

• Podcast: The President’s Prayer (0)
• A Peace Prize for a War Hawk (2)
• The Deadly Cost of Interventionism (2)
• Simple Arguments Against the Iraq War (4)
• Podcast: The Wicked Bible and the Wicked War (1)

—–

The Olympic Games have historically represented a time of peace for the world. The sacred city of Olympia, the site of the games of ancient Greece, forbade the possession of weapons within its borders. A special “Olympic Peace” was proclaimed throughout the land to allow spectators and athletes travel safely to and from the games.

French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin created the International Olympic Committee in 1894 with the explicit goal of influencing the world for peace. Coubertin once said, “Wars break out because nations misunderstand each other. We shall not have peace until the prejudices which now separate the different races shall have been outlived. To attain this end, what better means than to bring the youth of all countries periodically together for amicable trials of muscular strength and agility?” The first Olympic games took place in 1896, but the IOC did not formalize the ideal of the Olympic truce until a century later, in 1992. Since 1993, the UN General Assembly adopts a resolution every two years that invites the member states to observe the truce during the games.

This tradition raises an interesting question: If we can call a truce for sixteen days so that the countries of the world can participate in the Olympic games, why hold the games only once every two years? Why not every year, and for a longer period of time? Why not thirty days? Surely that wouldn’t be very difficult. But then, why not three months? For that matter, why not hold the Olympics year-round? Then we could have peace (and sports) all the time!

“Whoa there, hold on!” you say. “Thirty days might be possible, but all the time? Surely you jest, oh silly Olympics fanatic! How could we afford year-round games? How could we solve international problems? How will disputes be arbitrated? How could we manage our imperialist ways?”

True, holding the Olympics year-round would be incredibly expensive. Running the 2008 Beijing games cost the Chinese over 1.8 billion dollars (1.22 billion Euros) minus revenues – and that’s just for sixteen days! Let’s make a liberal estimate on extended costs. For one month, it would cost roughly 3.5 billion dollars. Multiply that by 12, and you’re talking 42 billion dollars per year. That’s a lot of money… but it’s only a fraction of what the United States spends on Iraq. The war in Iraq has already cost United States taxpayers over $800 billion, and in this year alone the budget for the war is $196 billion. The Congressional Budget Office is even calling it the Trillion-Dollar War. I’m pretty sure it would be more affordable to just fund year-round Olympics than have year-round war.

True, countries could no longer point guns and set up blockades to coerce others into doing their bidding, but there would be a mechanism for resolving disputes – the games themselves! Suppose the United States and Russia get mad at each other (or rather, their governments get mad at each other) and they can’t reach a diplomatic solution. Instead of taking up arms and blowing cities to kingdom come, each country picks an event of their choice, and they agree on a third event. Best two out of three wins! They have to accept the result or other countries will ostracize them for being bad sports. And considering they just avoided massive financial losses the wanton destruction of war, both are now better off!

Yes, it could get complicated, but we surely have to admit that perpetual sports is better than perpetual war. At least in the Olympics, no civilians die from stray shot-puts or loose javelins!

Think of the further advantages of this kind of system. First, the rules are well-defined, unlike in war, and there are no Geneva Conventions you can conveniently ignore when you need to “enhance” your interrogation techniques. Steroids might be a problem, but that could be dealt with if necessary. If an employer can take a urine sample correctly, I’m positive that the governments of the world can figure this out.

Second, the Olympic games are, quite simply, more fun for everyone. War is hell, as they say, and even though the Olympics aren’t heaven they surely are a step up from hell. Who doesn’t like sports? Certainly mothers and fathers would be much more comfortable sending their kids off to learn the backstroke than to learn how to kill en masse. International politics could become a family outing, rather than the untouchable subject at the dinner table. In fact, Olympic games politics might provide just the right incentive to get young people more civically involved – that’s what all the government schools want, right?

Third, the Olympic games could foster a sense of national unity better than a war ever could. Imagine the United States getting behind Michael Phelps swimming his way to resolving territory disputes, or the USA Basketball Team showing Britain that we do NOT want the Kyoto Protocol.

Better yet, why not have the world leaders – the ones who think it’s their right to impose their will upon others – participate in the events? Bush versus Kim Jong-il – who gets to keep his nukes? In the team sports, let the administrations duke it out. Bush Co. [or now, Obama Co.] versus Ahmadinejad-and-other-long-named-guys – be there and watch the Secretary of State leap over Mahmoud to victory! Now that’s drama. Who could ask for more?

Alright, enough of all this strange and silly talk. We all know that perpetual Olympic games could never bring about world peace. Unfortunately, even participating countries have repeatedly broken resolutions they signed regarding the Olympic truce. Did Operation Iraqi “Freedom” stop for one moment during 2002, 2004, or 2006? Are current operations on hiatus? Absolutely not.

So what’s the point?

Politics from the very beginning has marred the renewed Olympic tradition. The paradox of rectifying international peace and nationalism continues to cast an eerie shadow over an experience that challenges people to look beyond borders. Most importantly, few of the participating countries have any desire to honor the Olympic truce, including the United States. Should this be any surprise? Not really. The nature of the state is antithetical to peace, as its very existence depends upon continual coercion against its citizens. As Randolph Bourne says, “War is the health of the state.” The state sets up a completely artificial us-them mentality based upon imaginary lines on a map. Those within the state are the good guys, and everybody else outside it is potentially a bloodthirsty fiend. In some sense, the Olympics could never break through these barriers since it continues to encourage nation-worship. Nevertheless, I think we can appreciate Coubertin’s vision for peace.

Although the symbolic truces of the Olympic games have some value, the nations of earth must realize that lasting peace is preserved not through millions of guns, but rather through the millions of goods and services they can trade with others. When we cooperate non-violently with one another as free people through free enterprise, we build relationships with a foundation of respect and mutual admiration. On the other hand, as we cease to interact peaceably we lay a foundation of enmity. Frederic Bastiat once said, “When goods don’t cross borders, soldiers eventually will.” May we take heed of Bastiat’s wisdom and encourage peace through cooperation, Olympian and otherwise.

Post from: LibertarianChristians.com

How to Eliminate War (with the Olympics)

Please support LCC by sharing this post on your favorite social network.

Tags: peace, sports, war

Related Content:

• What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine? (1)
• Top 10 Disasters of the Obama Administration in 2009 (1)
• The War Prayer (2)
• The Deadly Cost of Interventionism (2)
• The Christmas Truce (0)

I think I may scream. Hold on a second…

…

Ok, I’m done now.

Fine, so Obama talked a little about peace and changing stuff during his campaign. He has upon occasion criticized the war in Iraq. Yet, since he took office, peace has grown ever more distant. There is no other verdict to draw from his actions other than we are under Bush Number 3. As I have noted in various ways here, here, and here, Obama has not come close to acting like a President interested in peace. I even predicted some of the things that he has done (or not done). In fact, his egregious actions against peace are so numerous at this point it hasn’t even been worth cataloguing in blog posts. Just watch the news for a while or read Antiwar.com. Seriously.

But really, REALLY, would you ever expect someone interested in peace to…

• Not even supporting the rescinding of the Patriot Act (much less actually getting rid of it)
• Not stopping illegal wire-tapping
• Say you’re going to close Guantanamo Bay, but then move the prisoners to other secret prison locations?
• Say you’re against torture, yet not stop the practice of it
• Appoint ultimate war hawk Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State
• Send 20,000 more troops to Afghanistan (with room for more), escalating a conflict that cannot end
• Supports intervention in Darfur
• Supporting bills that allow for the President to shut down the internet at his discretion for a “cyber-security emergency,” while at the same time criticizing Iran for censoring Twitter.
• Escalating Federal spending on defense

The only thing Obama has done right for peace – and only thus far has he done it right – is to keep the United States out of Iran. And who knows, even that might come to a close sooner or later.

Perhaps this should not come as a surprise, however. The Nobel committee did give the Peace Prize last year to someone who likes to scare people into thinking they’re all going to die from the sun. At least the hawkish conservatives who believe that “war is peace” can be pleased that finally someone is getting recognized right – support war, get a Peace Prize.

We live in a bizarro world, folks, when you can get an Economics Prize for supporting the destruction of an economy (Paul Krugman), a Peace Prize for frightening people (Al Gore), and now a Peace Prize for supporting war (Obama). Of course, Hans Hermann Hoppe once said that to win a Nobel Peace Prize, one should be a mass murderer — or at least that helps. You’re well on your way, Barry…

Post from: LibertarianChristians.com

A Peace Prize for a War Hawk

Please support LCC by sharing this post on your favorite social network.

Tags: Afghanistan, iran, iraq, Obama, war, war on terror

Related Content:

• Podcast: The President’s Prayer (0)
• Simple Arguments Against the Iraq War (4)
• Ron Paul: Get out of Afghanistan NOW! (0)
• Podcast: The Christian Axis of Evil (0)
• Change Never Seemed So Similar (4)

Perhaps the most valid justification of government is its defense of citizens against foreign aggressors. But when governments wage war, a thin line separates defense and offense. And even in a defensive war, governments typically deprive their own citizens of many liberties. Historically, war has done more than anything else to enhance the power of governments and to diminish the liberties of the people. Classical liberals have always recognized the dangers of war and supported policies, such as free international trade, that reduce the likelihood of war.

The Foundation for Economic Education has stood squarely in this classical liberal tradition, and over the years its monthly publication, The Freeman, has presented many articles alerting readers to the domestic dangers of war and espousing policies that promote peaceful international relations. Leviathan at War, edited by Edmund A. Opitz, reproduces many of those articles as well as several other commentaries. The longest essay in the collection, Wesley Allen Riddle’s “War and Individual Liberty in American History,” is a previously unpublished contribution.

In a chapter on “The Roots of War,” Ayn Rand succinctly states a major theme of the book: “If men want to oppose war, it is statism that they must oppose. So long as they hold the tribal notion that the individual is sacrificial fodder for the collective, that some men have the right to rule others by force, and that some (any) alleged `good’ can justify it—there can be no peace within a nation and no peace among nations.”

In an excerpt from Human Action, Ludwig von Mises expresses similar ideas. “Aggressive nationalism is the necessary derivation of the policies of interventionism and national planning. While laissez faire eliminates the causes of international conflict, government interference with business and socialism create conflicts for which no peaceful solution can be found.” Mises describes how the engagement of governments in “total” war led them inexorably to extend their controls over economic life.

Perhaps the starkest wartime deprivation of liberty is the conscription of men to serve as soldiers. The United States first conscripted men during the Civil War. In World War I nearly 3 million were drafted, in World War II some 10 million, and the draft persisted until 1973. In “The Conscription Idea,” written in 1953, Dean Russell lamented that “the principle of conscription is now fearfully close to becoming a permanent American institution.” Russell, who had served in the Air Corps for five years during World War II, rejected the standard defense of the draft, which maintains that the end justifies the means. Said Russell, “Those who advocate the `temporary loss’ of our freedom in order to preserve it permanently are advocating only one thing: the abolition of liberty.” He believed that if the United States were genuinely menaced from abroad, volunteers would come forward in sufficient numbers to defend the country.

The book reprints Daniel Webster’s stirring speech opposing conscription when it was proposed in 1814. “An attempt to maintain this doctrine upon the provisions of the Constitution,” declared Webster, “is an exercise of perverse ingenuity to extract slavery from the substance of a free Constitution.” Anyone would be struck by reading Webster’s speech alongside the unanimous decision of the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the constitutionality of the draft in 1918. Then, Chief Justice Edward White found himself “unable to conceive” how anyone could regard conscription as involuntary servitude—obviously, America’s effective constitution had changed enormously since 1814. In an excerpt from a 1944 book, the British military historian B. H. Liddell Hart criticizes conscription, calling it “a decisive step towards totalitarianism.”

In “How to Finance a War,” Willard M. Fox exposes the fallacy that the costs of war can be shifted to future generations by debt financing. He observes that “the real cost of waging war is borne by the living who are deprived of things that in the absence of war could be produced and consumed in ordinary peacetime life. No amount of fiscal hocus pocus can change that reality.” He also shows how the U.S. government has resorted to inflation to help finance its wars, and he explodes the myth of wartime prosperity. He concludes that “by a combination of persuasion, appeals to patriotism, veiled threats of coercion, and bidding a high enough price, government can get what it wants in the market” for most wartime purposes.

Nothing displaces sound morality quicker than warfare. Soldiers are lionized for indiscriminately killing people and destroying property—actions that would ordinarily bring moral censure. Government propaganda encourages citizens to dehumanize enemy populations, so that mass murder can go forward without moral restraint. Leonard E. Read’s contribution, “Conscience on the Battlefield,” challenges the herd mentality underlying the savagery that attends the waging of war. Mark Twain’s classic “War Prayer” hits the same target.

James Madison spoke wisely when he warned that “of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded.” It is inconceivable that, absent the wars of the past century, the government of the United States—and probably many others as well—could have grown nearly so powerful. From its participation in wars, the U.S. government gained, for example, high income-tax rates and income-tax withholding, the system used to finance the voracious modern welfare/warfare state. Even more importantly, victory in the world wars convinced Americans that the federal government has the ability to achieve great social objectives in the public interest and can be trusted to do so. A clear progression leads from wartime economic planning to the massive contemporary government meddling in economic affairs.

Edmund Opitz deserves much credit for compiling an excellent collection of commentaries on a subject of the greatest importance. No matter how much Americans may wish to throw off the shackles of the welfare state, recover their lost liberties and live in peace, they stand little chance so long as the government can divert them by engaging in war. As Opitz wisely observes, “while many people say they want peace, few know or want the things that make for peace. . . . When men rely on political privilege to acquire economic goods, they have already embraced the near end of a principle whose far end is war.”

December 1995

Robert Higgs is Research Director for the Independent Institute.

Order Leviathan at War from Amazon.com or the Foundation for Economic Education.

Read more from the Edmund Opitz Archive.

Post from: LibertarianChristians.com

Book Review: Leviathan at War edited by Edmund A. Opitz

Please support LCC by sharing this post on your favorite social network.

Tags: economics, Edmund Opitz, history, recommended books, war

Related Content:

• Virtually unknown pub "Faith & Freedom" now available on Mises.org (2)
• Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce (3)
• Defending Freedom and the Free Society (0)
• A Tribute to Edmund A. Opitz (0)
• What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine? (1)

Nevertheless, today’s podcast is a doozy, for it rips a new one against those famous “Christians” who use their public prominence to shill for a warmongering State. The “Christian Axis of Evil” is the title of today’s essay, and it is also the name Vance gives to that group of warmongering Christians. May their influence be ever-diminishing!

Right click here to download the entire audio file. [~14 minutes, mp3]

For those with podcast software, there is a special Podcast RSS Feed set up just for you.

If you are using iTunes, click on the following button to subscribe directly:

Post from: LibertarianChristians.com

Podcast: The Christian Axis of Evil

Please support LCC by sharing this post on your favorite social network.

Tags: audiobook, bush, corruption, iran, iraq, theology, war, war on terror

Related Content:

• Podcast: The President’s Prayer (0)
• Podcast: The Wicked Bible and the Wicked War (1)
• Simple Arguments Against the Iraq War (4)
• Podcast: The Hypocrisy of Christian Warmongers (1)
• Podcast: Christianity and War Part 1 (4)

“Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion–when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing–when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors–when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that is does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot.”– Ayn Rand

I think Rand is spot on. This is why we need to End the Fed and stop the spending spree.

I highly recommend reading Francisco d’Anconia’s Money Speech from Atlas Shrugged in entirety. Great stuff…

Post from: LibertarianChristians.com

A Quote from Rand to Consider

Please support LCC by sharing this post on your favorite social network.

Tags: corruption, economics, Rand, society, taxes, war

Related Content:

• Top 10 Disasters of the Obama Administration in 2009 (1)
• Speedlinking Friday (1)
• Podcast: The Christian Axis of Evil (0)
• Perspectives on Religion and Capitalism (2)
• Obama’s First 100 Days: Madmen, Blunders, Death Defined (1)

“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” — Matthew 7:3-5, KJV

Enjoy the podcast!

Right click here to download the entire audio file. [~14 minutes, mp3]

For those with podcast software, there is a special Podcast RSS Feed set up just for you.

If you are using iTunes, click on the following button to subscribe directly:

Post from: LibertarianChristians.com

Podcast: Beam Christians

Please support LCC by sharing this post on your favorite social network.

Tags: audiobook, Bible, theology, war

Related Content:

• Special Announcement: Audiobook of Vance’s "Christianity and War" Releases Today! (4)
• Podcast: The Warmonger’s Beatitudes and Humpty Dumpty Religion (1)
• Podcast: The President’s Prayer (0)
• Podcast: The Hypocrisy of Christian Warmongers (1)
• Podcast: The Christian Axis of Evil (0)

1. Christianity and War Part 1
2. Falwell’s Folly
3. Gott Mit Uns
4. Charles Spurgeon on Christian War Fever
5. Are You a Christian Warmonger?
6. Vicesimus Knox, Minister of Peace
7. The Early Christian Attitude to War
8. The Warmonger’s Beatitudes and Humpty Dumpty Religion
9. The Wicked Bible and the Wicked War
10. The President’s Prayer

And just in case you need the Podcast RSS Feed information again… For those with podcast software, there is a special Podcast RSS Feed set up just for you.

If you are using iTunes, click on the following button to subscribe directly:

Post from: LibertarianChristians.com

Christianity and War Audiobook Roundup #1

Please support LCC by sharing this post on your favorite social network.

Tags: audiobook, theology, war

Related Content:

• Special Announcement: Audiobook of Vance’s "Christianity and War" Releases Today! (4)
• Podcast: The President’s Prayer (0)
• Podcast: The Hypocrisy of Christian Warmongers (1)
• Podcast: The Christian Axis of Evil (0)
• Podcast: Christianity and War Part 1 (4)