Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.'s Blog, page 2442

Say Goodbye to Your Safe Deposit Box

In 2013, the banks of Cyprus confiscated the deposits of many of their clients. There was no warning, and there was little in the way of explanation, except to say that it was “necessary,” as the banks had been mismanaged to the point that, unless the deposits were confiscated, the banks would fail.

Governments and banks the world over nodded in agreement. This was clearly the right thing to do.

But, hang on a moment. The depositors had entrusted the banks with the safeguarding of their wealt...

Conspiracy or Chaos?

“The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory is that conspiracy theorists believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is actually chaotic. The truth is that it is not The Iluminati, or The Jewish Banking Conspiracy, or the Gray Alien Theory. The truth is far more frightening – Nobody is in control. The world is rudderless.” –  Alan Moore

Alan Moore, the renowned graphic novel writer, and author of the dystopian classic V for Vendetta, p...

If War Comes, Don’t Blame the Military-Industrial Complex

As the drumbeat intensifies for what might turn out to be anything but a «splendid little war» against North Korea, it is appropriate to take stock of the ongoing, seemingly successful effort to strip President Donald Trump of his authority to make any foreign and national security policies that fly against the wishes of the so-called Military-Industrial Complex, or MIC. A Google search for «Military-Industrial Complex» (in quotation marks) with «Trump» yields almost 450,000 hits from all sou...

The Pain Principle

I hesitate, in this vale of tears, to bring before the public, however small it might be, my own personal travails, but at least I can claim to be an expert on them, insofar as I experience them myself. Many writers are expert on nothing else but their experience of their own irritations with existence; there are newspaper columnists (or, as the Nigerians would put it, whole newspaper columnists) who write about nothing else. The only justification for this tiny focus is what the British hist...

Hiding Valuables in Your Home

There’s more to hiding your valuables than making them hard to find. Whether you’re hiding a money stash from burglars or secret documents from an enemy spy, here are a few tips anyone can use to keep something under wraps.

First, let’s knock out the obvious: if you have some valuables you want to hide long-term, you should invest in a good safe. It may draw more attention to itself, but it’s still more secure than obscurity—a thief will tear your entire house apart if they have enough time o...

Conceived, Funded, and Directed by the CIA?

In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, western governments are moving fast to legitimize expanded powers of mass surveillance and controls on the internet, all in the name of fighting terrorism.

US and European politicians have called to protect NSA-style snooping, and to advance the capacity to intrude on internet privacy by outlawing encryption. One idea is to establish a telecoms partnership that would unilaterally delete content deemed to “fuel hatred and violence” in situatio...

In the End, Only Liberty or Slavery Can Win

From Jordan Peterson’s Biblical Series VI: The Psychology of the Flood, at about 35 minutes; he is addressing the common complaints aimed at patriarchy (cited as accurately as I could after a few passes):

The patriarchal aspect of existence can become tyrannical, it does that quite regularly.

Every solution carries within it certain problems; no solution is perfect.  ….That’s why I am so irritated with the post-modernists, yammering about the patriarchy, and it’s very, very annoying.  It’s se...

George Orwell and Mohammed Atta Were Here

In 1937, Orwell was shot in the neck during the Spanish Civil War. Known mostly as a political allegorist, Orwell was also a master at describing all that is seen, heard and felt, so in Homage to Catalonia, you can read about his near death experience, “Roughly speaking it was the sensation of being at the center of an explosion. There seemed to be a loud bang and a blinding flash of light all around me, and I felt a tremendous shock—no pain, only a violent shock, such as you get from an elec...

Why Is There No Free Online Catholic Education?

I created the Ron Paul Curriculum. It is up and running, K-12. It has enrolled a lot of families. What I am saying is not hypothetical.

Somewhere in the United States, there is a Roman Catholic bishop who is a conservative. He probably doesn’t say it publicly, but he would prefer that the Latin mass were still in use. That world is gone.

He sees around him parishioners who share his beliefs. There may not be a lot of them, but in a church with 77 million members in the United States, there ar...

Can Someone Show Me a Climate Prediction

It’s another day, and we get a new story about how dire the climate threat is and that it is unambiguous that humans are a significant cause.

What is rarely noted in these articles is actual facts that support the theory.  I would love to see actual temperature data for each decade for the last 150 years, including where the measuring stations are located.  It would be especially interesting to see rural data where cement and asphalt don’t inflate the temperature.  It should also always be no...