Thursday, July 29, 2010

Market Relationships and Wealth Creation

Market relationships are not just about economics, they are how people relate. There is always an exchange of value when two people interact, whether emotional, spiritual, intellectual, or, yes, economic. Most people expect to derive more value than the give else they'd not have the interaction in the first place unless force or coercion is involved. In that happy situation where two people exchange value voluntarily each walks away with more than they gave and wealth has been created.

Things I've Found July 29, 2010

Just Think- Sam Harris part 1 of 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHHOiF-dFEg




Just Think- Sam Harris part 2 of 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG72wpp_mLM




Without Firing A Single Shot: Voluntaryist Resistance and Societal Defense
by Carl Watner

[I]n August 1915, Bertrand Russell published an article in THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. He wrote: "Let us imagine that England were to disband its army, after a generation of instruction in the principles of passive resistance as a better defense than war. Let us suppose that England at the same time publicly announced that no armed opposition would be offered to any invader, that all might come freely, but that no obedience would be yielded to any commands that a foreign authority might issue. What would happen in this case?" First of all he noted that if England disbanded its army and navy, any would-be invader, such as Germany, would be hard-pressed to find a pretext for invasion. Suppose, however, that a German army invaded an England where no one offered violent resistance? After evicting the King from Buckingham Palace and taking over the Parliament building, what would the Germans do if all the existing British officials refused to cooperate?

Some of the more prominent would be imprisoned, perhaps even shot, in order to encourage the others. But if the others held firm, if they refused to recognize or transmit any order given by the Germans, if they continued to carry out decrees previously made by the English Parliament and the English government, the Germans would have to dismiss them all, even to the humblest postman, and call in German talent to fill the breach.

The dismissed officials could not all be imprisoned or shot; since no fighting would have occurred, such wholesale brutality would be out of the question. And it would be very difficult for the Germans suddenly, and out of nothing, to create an administrative machine. Whatever edicts they might issue would be quietly ignored by the population. If they ordered that German should be the language taught in schools, the schoolmasters would go on as if no such order had been issued; if the schoolmasters were dismissed, the parents would no longer send the children to school. If they ordered that English young men should undergo military service, the young men would simply refuse; ... . If they tried to take over the railways, there would be a strike of the railway servants. Whatever they touched would instantly become paralyzed, and it would soon be evident, even to them, that nothing was to be made out of England unless the population could be conciliated. ...

In a civilized, highly organized, highly political state, government is impossible without the consent of the governed. Any object for which a considerable body of men are prepared to starve and die can be achieved by ... [nonviolent] means, without the need of resort to force. And if this is true of objects desired by a minority only, it is a thousand times truer of objects desired unanimously by the whole nation.

http://www.voluntaryist.com/forthcoming/withoutfiringashot.php


How To Vote For Liberty
by Joe Sobran

http://voluntaryist.com/nonvoting/vote_for_liberty.php



This song always makes cry.

Samhain at Four Quarters Farm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK76IQD8sF0

Monday, July 19, 2010

Bradley Manning

A 22-year-old US Army intelligence analyst, PFC (formerly SPC) Bradley Manning was arrested by the United States Army Criminal Investigation Command in May 2010. Manning was detained without charge for over a month in a military jail at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. In early July, he was faced with two charges of misconduct: "transferring classified data onto his personal computer and adding unauthorised software to a classified computer system" and "communicating, transmitting and delivering national defence information to an unauthorised source". The maximum jail sentence is 52 years.

http://www.bradleymanning.org/