Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.'s Blog, page 2435

Charlottesville Donnybrook

Charlottesville, Virginia, a city named after Britain’s first black queen, was the scene of a bloody riot Saturday, Aug. 12. The fray resulted in the death of one woman, who was mowed down by a car; plus, there were many other people injured. Have politicians and the news media told the correct and complete story about what happened, or have Americans been deliberately misled? Let’s look at it.

One does not have to accept the racist and nationalist vision of the Unite the Right organization t...

A Return to Cabot Cove?

For 12 seasons and 264 episodes, the small coastal town of Cabot Cove, Maine, was the scene of a murder. And wherever there was a body, Jessica Fletcher wasn’t far behind. The fictional mystery author and amateur sleuth at the heart of the CBS drama Murder, She Wrote was given life by actress Angela Lansbury, who made a name for herself in the theater world and in movies like 1944’s Gaslight and 1962’s The Manchurian Candidate. Though the show was supposed to skew toward an older audience, th...

Ozymandian Dreams…

“And on the pedestal these words appear:

‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away .”

(last part of Ozymandias, excerpted…by Percy Bysshe Shelley)

The central banks of the world are the Ozymandias of today. What they say, do, whisper, insinuate, etc., those are the crumbs that many observers watch, turn over, interpret, and base i...

Are Natural Disasters Really Natural?

What really causes natural disasters? At first glance that may sound like a silly question. We all know that natural disasters are acts of God/random occurrences that we have no control over. They don’t really have a unifying cause. They just happen.

That’s one way to look at it. But after hearing about the flooding that New Orleans experienced earlier this month, I realized that there’s another way to look at what causes natural disasters. Read the following account of what happened to New O...

The Silk Roads to the Great War

The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, by Peter Frankopan.

In this part of the story, Frankopan will intersect with Halford Mackinder without ever mentioning his name.  Mackinder gave a presentation in 1904.  To summarize: the coming (from his vantage point) struggle is for the Eurasian landmass – the world island.  My most extensive review of his work can be found here.

I have long felt that his views best capture the geo-political struggle for empire; his views best explain the reasons...

The First Libertarians

The first-ever libertarians were the Levellers, an English political movement active in the seventeenth century. The Levellers contributed to the elaboration of the methodological and political paradigm of individualism, and they are at the origin of the radical strand of classical liberalism. While the Levellers are often characterized as a quasi-socialist movement, closer examination shows that the Levellers had much more in common with advocates for free markets than with socialists.

This...

My Car Hurts My Back

A very nice lady has a real problem.  She bought a new car 10 days ago and has learned that the seats hurt her back.  Sadly, she is avoiding driving the car because of this.  She called the dealership she bought from, they advised it would cost her $5000 or so to trade it back in.  While that is probably a little steep, they have to sell the car as used, and it won’t qualify for any incentives like a new car.

This all could have been avoided with a proper test drive.  A recent study stated th...

Revolutions Within the Form

Revolution within the form is a subversive tactic that seeks surreptitiously to replace the form of old things or words with new and/or progressive meanings in order to bring about a contrary state of things that normally would not be accepted by society. Basically, the names of the old things are preserved, but their meanings have been altered. This can be applied to laws, forms of governments, traditional philosophy, art, and language. Just like camoflage on clothing obscures the wearer and...

Start Blocking the Blue Light

As our reliance on electronics increases, we have to ask ourselves: How is this affecting our health? When it comes to smartphones and computers, both can have a pretty big impact on both our physical and our mental health.

It’s totally unrealistic to simply advise people to use their smartphones and computers less often. Sure, you can take a social media break or avoid using them outside work hours, but because so many of us rely on our devices for work and communication, sometimes putting t...

Everyone Is Wrong About North Korea

Imagine a world where one country – country X – is bombing at least seven countries at any one time and is seeking to bomb an eighth, all the while threatening an adversarial ninth state – country Y – that they will bomb that country into oblivion, as well. Imagine that in this world, country X already bombed country Y back into the Stone Age several decades ago, which directly led to the current adversarial nature of the relationship between the two countries.

Now imagine that country Y, whi...