Here are my top five reasons why libertarians should support Bob Barr:

1. He voted for the PATRIOT Act.
2. He spent much of his life putting people in jail for possessing products that the state arbitrarily decided to outlaw.
3. He thinks guns should be forced on business owners.
4. He keeps an open (albeit misguided) mind when it comes to supporting war.
5. He endorsed a man for VP who doesn’t want to bring the troops home.

Well, okay, so maybe these aren’t the best reasons to support someone in his run for presidency. But never mind that the LP has gutted its platform, purged the radicals, and nominated two conservative Republicans. So they gave up on education and principles. What’s more important is that we rally behind the LP’s candidate in order to accomplish its new goal: hurting McCain.

You can bet McCain is shaking in his boots over that fraction of a percentage he’ll be losing to Barr.

I can’t wait to vote.

For more on Bob Barr, see this article.

Bob Dylan is surely one of the greatest songwriters who ever lived. This may be my new favorite song.

(Thanks to Leslie Webb for the email and link.)

So I’m on this uber-high-volume hardcore-libertarian mailing list and the subject to spam came up… Someone pointed out a story about a spammer being jailed, and a debate broke out about whether or not the state should be jailing people for sending unsolicited email.

But there’s something they seemed to be missing… with the occasional exception of replica watch spam or penis enlargement spam, almost all spam is an advertisement for controlled substances… without the state making it illegal to conduct such transactions out in the open, it wouldn’t be necessary to broadcast this crap to as many people as possible in order to make money. It would be more economical to setup shop just like any other business. Thus, without the state, such spam would not exist.

…just a random thought…

I don’t really feel like explaining right now, but you must watch this show. It is well worth your time. If you’re a libertarian, or a freedom-minded individual, you will fall in love with it instantly. If you’re not, it will challenge the way you think about everything.

Check out some random episodes I was able to find around the web:

War on Drugs

Recycling

PETA
BULLSHIT!!! (PETA Episode)

By the time you’re reading this, some of those episodes may have been taken offline. However, you can still click here to download seasons one through four via BitTorrent. The whole thing is rather large, but most sane clients will allow you to download one file at a time. Trust me, it’s worth your time.

So back in June, Apple came out with their iPhone.  I’ve always liked how it looks, but given that there are so many features missing from it, I decided to keep my unlocked Sony Ericsson W810i.  However, as of late, I’ve been given the opportunity to acquire a free iPhone.  So, for the purpose of deciding which one to use, I’m going to outline the advantages and disadvantages of the $400 iPhone as compared to my two-year-old W810i.

Disadvantages:

• It’s much bigger
• No MMS (picture messaging)
• No third-party app support and no Java - you’re stuck with the software that came with it
• No voice recording
• No video recording
• No cut-and-paste
• Can’t assign personal music tones
• No AIM/iChat
• No voice tags for voice dialing
• Semi-difficult to unlock
• No memory card slot

Advantages:

• It looks pretty
• Better browser
• Wi-Fi (but since there’s no support for third-party applications, there’s no way to run Skype or VoIP)

As far as the iPhone’s other claims to fame — MP3/video player, Google Maps, a working web browser, and YouTube — that stuff existed in other phones long before the iPhone came out.  Frankly, I think the reason it sold so well is that it looks really cool and Americans were largely unaware of what cell phones could already do.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not criticizing Apple for coming out with it, I just wish they incorporated some basic cell phone features.

I’ll give the iPhone a shot, but it’s hard to imagine going without some of these standard features.

Although I’m not a very eloquent writer, I’ve tried to stress the importance of voting machines running on Open Source software, instead of Closed Source software.

Please understand: There is no point in having elections when the voting machine source code is a secret (aka. Closed-Source).  No point whatsoever.

How much faith would you have in a system where everyone passed their ballots under the door of a dark closet where one man is trusted to announce the results at the end?

Would that make sense to you?  Would you trust that man to be honest?  Would you still bother voting?

Of course not.

However, this is exactly what closed-source voting machines are.  There are a handful of guys who write the code and then keep it a secret.  That code is then used to tabulate the results, and then we just trust whatever it says.

Doesn’t anyone realize how bat-shit-insane that is?!?

Think I’m nuts?  Watch this video:

Want to watch someone actually rig a random voting machine? Watch the last half of Hacking Democracy:

Here’s a short clip about a different Diebold model, although it’s not documented as well as the video above:

I really enjoyed reading this article, although I think TheOnion.com would be much better suited publisher.

Here are some excerpts:

Banking experts say there is one thing that will save your money if your bank goes under. That’s FDIC insurance. “It’s the gold standard,” says banking consultant Bert Ely. “The FDIC has ample resources. It’s never been an issue,” he says.

As loan delinquencies rise, and bank failures increase, the FDIC is shoring up its reserves.

That’s fascinating, because last I checked (about five minutes ago), the FDIC had in its assets about 1.2% of the deposits it claims to “insure”.

If your bank bites the dust, there’s nothing to fear according to the FDIC. A healthier banking institution normally buys the failed bank according to Barr. “There is little or no interruption to the consumer,” he says. “If you go to bed one night as a customer of a bank, and you wake up as a customer of a new bank, there is nothing you have to do.” Your checks will still clear, you can still use your ATM card.

See? Bank failure isn’t even a bad thing!

I’ve been asked what Ron Paul fans mean when they say, “Legalize real money!” To answer this, see for yourself what the constitution says and compare it to current federal law:

Article I, Section 10, Clause 4 of the United States Constitution:
“No State shall … coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts;”

(Note that on every unit of paper money the U.S. government asserts without apology: “This note is legal tender for all debts public and private.”)

Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 25, Section 486 of United States Code:
“Whoever, except as authorized by law, makes or utters or passes, or attempts to utter or pass, any coins of gold or silver or other metal, or alloys of metals, intended for use as current money, whether in the resemblance of coins of the United States or of foreign countries, or of original design, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.”

So there you have it… The Constitution says gold and silver are the only valid forms of legal tender. The Congress now says, use gold or silver as money and go to jail. How could it get any more black-and-white than this?

The founding fathers understood that giving the government power to print money out of thin air was a bad idea. They knew it would lead to incredible inflation at the expense of almost every American, which it has. They knew the government wouldn’t be able to fabricate gold and silver out of thin air, so they made it law that legal tender must be in the form of gold and silver.

Okay, I couldn’t help myself.  At the risk of pissing off the Cult of Scientology, I just had to post this video for its comedic value.

I am truly fascinated by the Cult of Scientology.  However, rather than waste your time by writing what I think, I’ll encourage you to check out the wealth of information around the Web that already exists. Here’s one documentary I discovered today:

While watching Tom Cruise may be fun, you may want to check out the sobering truth about Scientology before you run around joking about it.

I’ve done my best to stay out of this, but I’d like to make a few things clear to others who are new to the libertarian movement:
What you are observing is a war between parties within the libertarian movement that has nothing to do with honest journalism or getting news to the public.  This is all about getting back at various parties because of things that happened decades ago.

The author of the New Republic article that started all of this knew well that Dr. Paul is not a racist, but was seen laughing when someone brought this point up to him around New Years.  Then CATO jumped on the bandwagon, claiming that this is why they hadn’t endorsed Dr. Paul.  Now Reason is pointing fingers at Lew Rockwell without citing any real evidence or even without quoting any reputable people.  These most recent articles, mind you, were released on the day that Lew was scheduled for eye surgery, presumably so he wouldn’t be around to defend himself for the next few days.

This was all done at the expense of the movement that CATO and Reason claim to be promoting.  They’re throwing away our only chance at having a president who truly believes in limited government for the sole purpose of slinging mud at others within the movement.  They had an unprecedented opportunity to further the libertarian cause but chose to cannibalize it instead.  It’s sickening to watch.

And to other young libertarians:
Take note of this ridiculous war and what it’s costing us, as libertarians.  Remember that someday we will be the leaders of this movement and that it will be up to us to ally and accomplish things without letting past disputes get in the way.  Don’t fall into the trap of collective thinking by hating various libertarians because of the organizations they work for or because of who they were taught by.  Analyze each person based on his or her individual views, find common ground, and work to promote freedom.  Let ours be the generation of libertarians, and not of ancient rifts that prevent us from doing something great.

See this post to learn of the anatomy of the Orange Line smear campaign and this post to learn by beltway “libertarians” engage in anti-libertarian activism.