Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.'s Blog, page 2230

Who Needs History

“It was my first introduction to damn Yankees,” my oldest sister remarked of her first semester at James Madison University in the fall of 1982. It was here, at this university nestled in the mountains of Virginia and named after one of the state’s most famous sons, that her Northern dormitory suite-mates were horrified by such flagrant abuse of their delicate and enlightened sensibilities.

My sister’s crime? Being unapologetically Southern. See, she had not only hung on the wall an ornamenta...

Bill Bradley, Call Your Bookie

In 1992, Congress passed a statute authored by then-Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey, who was a former Princeton University and New York Knicks basketball superstar, prohibiting the states from authorizing sports betting. At that time, gambling in Atlantic City was flourishing, and notwithstanding one of its own senators’ efforts to keep gambling away from competitive sports, the state of New Jersey wanted to duplicate Las Vegas’ success with sports betting.

When Bradley’s legislation grandfat...

Easy on That Trigger!

U.S.A. – Watch a group of shooters for a time, and you will likely see a range of problems with trigger mechanics. Some shooters “slap” the trigger, with the finger coming off and then slapping into the face of the trigger. Others might squeeze too tightly. In all cases, accuracy suffers–usually because the rifle is being jerked or twisted as the cartridge is going off.

According to Curt Vaughn, Head of Product for Ballistic and a long-range shooting competitor, the first thing a shooter must...

Saudis and Qataris Clash

Talk about high life, this is not. I smelled a rat long ago. Then the scent got weaker and weaker. But now it’s back, stronger than ever. It has, of course, to do with the Saudis, the Qataris, and the son-in-law who has also risen, Jared Kushner. About a year ago, the Saudis issued an ultimatum to Qatar, threatening a blockade by Saudi-allied countries in the Gulf. All sorts of accusations were made and 24 hours were given to comply. The 300,000 Qatari citizens froze en masse. The couple mill...

The Destruction of the Lusitania and the Murder of 1201

On May 1, 1915, with WWI entering its tenth month, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were surprisingly at ease, even though Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone. For months, German U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic. But the Lusitania was one of the era’s great transatlantic “Greyhounds”—the fastest liner then...

The Hidden Gas Tax Cometh

Raising the gas tax – overtly – is politcal TNT.

Chiefly because it’s a tax everyone feels, every day – and it’s an extremely disproportionate tax already. About 50 cents per gallon – which amounts to a roughly 20 percent tax added to the cost of every gallon of fuel. The government makes (takes) more money off each gallon than the Evil Oil Companies earn from the sale of each gallon. Yes, really.

The gas tax is also extremely regressive, in the language of the politically correct. It hits th...

Are We Reaching Another ‘Margin Call’ Moment?

Over this past weekend the movie “Margin Call” (2011, Lionsgate) made its way back into the rotation on my cablebox.

For those who have never seen this movie, regardless if you are involved in stock trading, it is a must watch on so many levels, be it general business, corporate leadership, department interactions, skullduggery, familial, as well as personal backstabbing, the list goes on. It is absolutely loaded with a plethora of take-aways of the real-life-lesson variety. I say this becaus...

Putin’s Strategy

I have explained Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Christian practice of turning the other cheek to Western provocations as a strategy to convey to Europe that Russia is reasonable but Washington is not and that Russia is not a threat to European interests and sovereignty but Washington is. By accommodating Israel and withdrawing from the multi-nation Iran nuclear-nonproliferation agreement, US President Donald Trump might have brought success to Putin’s strategy.

Washington’s three main Eur...

John McCain, War Hero

Did you know that John McCain, Arizona senator and former presidential candidate, is a war hero?

It’s understandable if you didn’t know this, for no one, least of all Senator McCain himself, ever mentions this fact.

In this respect, McCain is not unlike your average combat veteran, particularly those combat veterans from the World War II era, like my late paternal grandfather who died when I was but nine years of age.  Years later, after I reached adulthood, I would ask my father if his dad e...

The Ruinously Expensive American Military

America’s Republican politicians complain that “entitlements,” by which they mean pensions and medical care, are leading the country to bankruptcy even as they fatten the spending on the Pentagon, which now takes 12 percent of the overall budget. And it should be noted that while workers contribute to the social programs during all their years of employment, the money that goes to the military comes straight out of the pockets of taxpayers before being wasted in ways that scarcely benefit the...