Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.'s Blog, page 2228

Are Boycotts Ethical?

[This article is taken from chapter 18 of The Ethics of Liberty.]

A boycott is an attempt to persuade other people to have nothing to do with some particular person or firm — either socially or in agreeing not to purchase the firm’s product. Morally a boycott may be used for absurd, reprehensible, laudatory, or neutral goals. It may be used, for example, to attempt to persuade people not to buy non-union grapes or not to buy union grapes. From our point of view, the important thing about the...

Google’s Disturbing Vision of Total Data Collection

Google already knows far more about you than you may realise.

Now, an internal Google video has leaked that provides an unnerving glimpse into how the firm could use that wealth on information to control your behaviour.

The video sets the scene for a Black Mirror-style future in which machines know your needs even before you do, and are able to manipulate you to follow their own agendas.

Google admits the video is ‘disturbing’, but stresses that it’s simply a thought experiment.

However, with...

Little Green Marvels

Ever thought of adding peas to your smoothie?

They might surprise you according to nutritional therapist Jackie Lynch, author of Va Va Voom: the 10-Day Energy Diet.

Here, she tells Get the Gloss why she’s going big on those little greens right now:

If you’ve avoided peas as a rather ordinary starchy vegetable, think again, because they’re amazingly nutritious, full of vitamins, iron, fibre, antioxidants and protein.

They’re also a gorgeous spring vegetable at their peak right now, so it’s tim...

The Impact of Taxes

A review of For Good and Evil: The Impact of Taxes on the Course of Civilization by Charles Adams (Madison Books, 2001).

Why can’t American Presidents learn that if you raise taxes on the American people they will vote you out? George Bush crashed because he raised taxes, and Bill Clinton will go down as soon as the people get a shot at him. Maybe the people are awful to react to taxes in such a negative way, but the fact remains that the political consequences of raising taxes today is death...

Don’t Tell Anyone

The drop in temperatures at least merits a “Hey, what’s going on here?” story.

Inconvenient Science: NASA data show that global temperatures dropped sharply over the past two years. Not that you’d know it, since that wasn’t deemed news. Does that make NASA a global warming denier?

Writing in Real Clear Markets, Aaron Brown looked at the official NASA global temperature data and noticed something surprising. From February 2016 to February 2018, “global average temperatures dropped by 0.56 de...

The Most Ingenious Invention in the History of Finance

We are now in the final stages of a journey which by future historians will be seen as unreal as Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland”. Just like Alice called the “Mad Tea Party”, “the stupidest tea party she had ever been to”, the last 100 years could be called the Craziest Extravaganza in history. At the end of the story the Queen of Hearts shouts “Off with her head”. But Alice is not afraid and calls them all “A pack of cards” before she wakes up.

Although the story was written 150 years a...

60 Years Ago

“So brush the insiders dust out of your eyes, my friends, and the communist soap suds out of your Brain, and ask yourselves in all honesty, what on Earth is wrong with the United States simply minding its own business, or with having its foreign policy function primarily for  the safety and benefit of the American people. Which is exactly what we had done for the first 140 years of our existence as a nation, to the incredible advantage of ourselves and everybody else, everybody that is, excep...

The Gloom and Doom Generation

WEST ORANGE, N.J.—When I was a young man, and the editor, or the producer, or the executive, would tell me that he was about to censor me, the reason was always, “Your material offends the older people.”

Now that I’m one of the older people, when the editor, or the producer, or the executive, tells me he’s about to censor me, the reason is always, “Your material offends the younger people.”

Was I born into a time warp? Are we baby boomers the only people in the history of the world with an ac...

Commander-in-Chief of the US?

The Constitution explicitly assigned the president the power to sign or  veto legislation , command the  armed forces , ask for the written opinion of the  Cabinet , convene or adjourn  Congress , grant reprieves and  pardons , and receive ambassadors. The president may make  treaties  which need to be ratified by two-thirds of the  Senate . The president may also appoint  Article III judges  and some officers with the  advice and consent  of the U.S. Senate.” Wiki on the US Presidency

US media figures are in...

Trump’s Pyrrhic Victory

I am in Iran speaking at a conference on the future of the Middle East. The timing for the meeting is particularly appropriate due to the recent American withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which limited the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for suspension of sanctions. Initial discussions with Iranians revealed that they are less pessimistic about the development than are the Americans and Europeans present, believing as they do that the situation can somehow be...