Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.'s Blog, page 358

Dermatology’s Horrendous War Against the Sun

I always found it odd that everyone insisted I avoid sunlight and wear sunscreen during outdoor activities, as I noticed that sunlight felt great and caused my veins to dilate, indicating the body deeply craved sunlight. Later, I learned that blocking natural light with glass (e.g., with windows or eyeglasses) significantly affected health, and that many had benefitted from utilizing specialized glass that allowed the full light spectrum through. This ties into one of my favorite therapeutic mod...

The Art of Being Eternally Shocked

No one would think of the Beltway as being a place of the naive innocents of our society. Washington is the only ecosystem composed entirely of apex predators. Yet, this week everyone seems to be eternally shocked by what has been obvious for years.

The press and pundits are coming off an embarrassing couple of weeks where the Hunter Biden laptop was authenticated in federal court as real. This occurred in the trial of the president’s son almost on the anniversary of a debunked letter of intelli...

Who Turned Off the Gaslight?

Things were bad, and they knew things were bad, and they knew others must also know things were bad, and yet they would need to pretend, outwardly, that things were fine. The president was fine. The election would be fine. —Olivia Nuzzi, NY Magazine

There’s a reason that the fable of The Emperor’s New Clothes is so potent: it describes a mentally ill society that retreats into abject unreality, to avoid contending with truth. Alas, this archetypal human quandary shoves such a society towards nem...

Viktor Orban Defies EU’s Absurd ‘Unconditional Surrender’ Doctrine

For most of European history, wars were fought with the understanding that if they became too destructive and costly, they could be concluded with a negotiated settlement. Once it became clear that one side was gaining the upper hand, the other side could sue for peace instead of dragging it out and getting a lot more people killed and property destroyed.

Even during the great 16th century wars between the Ottoman Empire and the Christian nations of Europe, the opposing commanders were occasiona...

Why the Federal Reserve is Running Out of Monetary Oxygen

What passes for central banking today is really a perverse form of Wall Street-pleasing monetary manipulation. It employs the vocabulary of central banking, but in practice it fundamentally undermines main street prosperity, even as it showers the 1% (the top wealthiest people) with unspeakable financial windfalls.

Stated differently, virtually everything the Fed does for the alleged benefit of the American economy is both unnecessary and a ruse. The Fed has actually become a captive of the Wall...

The Real Meaning of July 4th and the Heresy of Lincolnian Interpretation

A headline in a news story caught my attention the other day. It reads: “Louisiana now requires the 10 Commandments to be displayed in classrooms. It’s not the only terrifying state law.”  The column appears in The Independent, July 1, 2024, and is by one Gustaf Kilander.

Notice that the author uses the word “terrifying” to characterize the public display of one of, arguably, the bedrock documents that shaped the formation of the American nation and the thinking of its Framers. Indeed, to read t...

The Spirit of 1776

Ah, 1776 — a time when the ruling aristocracy taxed Americans without their say, destroyed printing presses of those publishers demanding liberty, and jailed outspoken critics for treason.  How things have changed — not!  If there were one indispensable truth to be learned from America’s glorious Independence, it is this: governments do not give freedom; they take freedom away.

Any smooth-talking politician who pretends that government should be praised for the “gifts” it bestows upon the people...

Former Israeli PM Admits Israel’s War Crimes Can’t Happen Without US Support

Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has been launching a forceful attack on Benjamin Netanyahu in both US and Israeli media for sabotaging peace in Gaza and pushing Israel to the brink with Hezbollah in Lebanon, during which he inadvertently made an interesting acknowledgement which flies in the face of the Biden administration’s feigned powerlessness to rein in Israel’s insanity.

“I accuse the prime minister of Israel of a deliberate attempt to destroy the political-security-military alli...

Tribute to an Angel

I met two out of the three women I’ve most admired, and who lived during my lifetime, the one I never encountered having recently passed away. Margaret Thatcher (and her husband, Sir Dennis) stayed with me in Gstaad, the alpine Swiss village that used to be a paradise before Russian and Arab nouveaux riches discovered it. Lady T, as we and her staff called her, was as kind and friendly to everyone who approached her as she was iron-willed while in power to those who opposed her. The lady saved B...

Russia Finally Acknowledges That She Is at War With Washington

Today is July 4 when we get our annual dose of patriotic propaganda that serves to wrap us in self-righteousness which enables Washington to conduct its wars. Washington has got away with it for a long time, but now has created and brought us into conflict with a powerful adversary.

According to reports, Russia responded to Washington’s cluster bomb attack on civilians in Crimea by informing Washington that the two countries are now at war. What it means, if anything, remains to be seen. It does...