Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.'s Blog, page 2507

The Most Libertarian President of My Lifetime

Who?  Which one?  Is bionic 225 years old?

Let’s dispatch with the last question.  Average male life expectancy is something around 80 years; feel free to assume I am average.  So, let’s consider all presidents since Franklin Roosevelt as eligible candidates.

Ivan Eland has written a book, Recarving Rushmore.  He examines all presidents up to and including George W. Bush and ranks them according to peace, prosperity and liberty – good things to consider.  Eland places John Tyler and Grover Cl...

Trump’s Foreign Tour

It’s revealing that Saudi Arabia is the first country the American president has visited since his inauguration. That was a first in US history. The choice of Saudi Arabia is all the more interesting because throughout the last year Washington’s relations with Riyadh have been strained. For example, Barack Obama got a decidedly cool reception when he visited Saudi Arabia in April 2016. And now we see this unexpected reversal.

Three key issues were discussed at the meetings in Riyadh.

The firs...

Warning: We’re Overdue

If there’s one thing Democrats and Republicans can agree upon, it’s war. Both of them never saw a war they didn’t like unless the other party started it, it’s going badly, and it’s an election year. Have a look at this.

Yes, one of the sponsors is THAT Senator Tim Kaine, you know, the VP candidate on the Hillary 2016 ticket. The Republicans must all be slapping their foreheads now, saying, “It’d have been easier to get into a war with Hillary at the helm! Who knew?!” Senator Jeff Flake, yeah,...

Deep Statist

Former FBI director James Comey has a long and telling career; telling much about his rise to FBI director.  Although Comey speaks stoically about following the “rule of law”, and “following in the spirit of our founding fathers”, he has shown time and again that his actions speak louder than his words.  In recent times, he came under criticism for his handling of the investigation of Hillary Clinton.  Certainly his announcement in October 2016 that there were new Clinton emails which warrant...

Foreign Country Interferes in US Politics

In this age of rancorous hyper-partisanship, getting members of Congress to agree on anything beyond the naming of a post office is a challenge. Yet in late April, all 100 members of the U.S. Senate signed a tough letter to the U.N. Secretary-General, demanding that the organization end its “unwarranted attacks” on Israel’s human rights record.

Three months earlier, members of the House voted overwhelmingly to condemn a U.N. Security Council resolution critical of Israel’s relentless expansio...

Diseases of Civilization

It is well known that life expectancies increased significantly during the 20th century in the U.S. While this was certainly a positive development, highly aggregated statistics such as life expectancy can mask problems that become apparent when you look beneath the surface. In particular, the marked decline in mortality from infectious diseases greatly boosted life expectancies, and more than offset the impact of the gradual but large increase in the incidence of various deadly conditions (c...

Bursting of the Sports Bubble

When the cable TV sports giant ESPN announced 100 layoffs recently, including letting go a number of high-profile broadcasters, a lot of people took notice, and well they should: things no longer are business as usual in sports broadcasting, and we are not even at the beginning of the end, and maybe not even the end of the beginning.

Like the slow crashing of the retail sector as online purchase firms like Amazon begin their domination, we are seeing a sea change in sports broadcasting and th...

Gov’t Cover Stories

Years ago James Jesus Angleton left me with the impression that when an intelligence agency, such as the CIA, pulls off an assassination, bombing, or any event with which the agency does not wish to be associated, the agency uses the media to control the explanation by quickly putting into place a cover story that, along with several others, has been prepared in advance. I suggested that the new story that “the Saudis did 9/11” was put into play to take the place of the worn and battered firs...

Manchester Proves War on Terror a Flop

Given that the Manchester terrorist was a product of the interventions in Libya and Syria, it’s time to have an adult discussion about what it will take to stop terrorism.

10 Ways to Reduce Terrorism

There are 10 basic principles that serious, mature people need to discuss if we want to stop terrorism …

I. Stop Overthrowing the Moderates and Arming Crazies

If we want to stop terrorism we should – (wait for it) – stop supporting terrorists.

Time to buy old US gold coins

Specifically, we’re arm...

7 Improvised Defense Weapons

This piece is designed to provide you with a few ideas to stimulate your creative thought processes.  We’re all Constitution-loving, survival-oriented preppers who are always preparing for every emergency.  The problem is that emergencies are not able to be “compressed” into a format: they arise.  You plan the best you can, but there’s an age-old military adage that summarizes the whole situation, in a nutshell, “No battle plan ever survives the first five minutes of combat completely intact...