Libertarian Media - Video/Audio/Memes/Articles

Socialized Medicine and Death By Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. May 27, 2024 Rick Rozoff recently sent me a message that helps us understand a basic feature of socialized medicine. It is closely associated with death. Socialists complain that the free market makes medical care “too expensive” for the poor and middle class. Because of this, they propose to provide “free” medical care for everybody. Of course, it isn’t free. It’s either paid for by taxes or inflation, which is itself a cruel tax. But once the “free” care is offered, there is a problem. At a zero, or very low, price, there will be much more medical services that people demand than can be provided. Suppose, for example, that you are having back pains. Should you get an MRI taken of your back? If you had to pay for the test yourself, you would hesitate. But if it is available “free,” why not take it? Many more people will want MRIs than the available machines make possible. As everybody knows, this means long wait times. There’s another way the socialists can solve the problem of shortages. This by killing people. If there are fewer people around, demand will go down. Do you think that this is too bizarre to put into practice, even for socialists? If you think so, you are giving the socialists too much credit. That’s exactly what they are doing in Canada. The Canadian government makes euthanasia available to people for free. If you’ve got a problem, why not “solve” it by ending tour own life? A crazy Canadian “doctor” enjoys killing people. She recently snuck into an Orthodox Jewish nursing home and killed an 83 year old resident, even though Jewish law prohibits euthanasia. She was not prosecuted for this gross violation of property rights or subject to any sanctions. She remains free to go on her with her murderous ways. The great economist Ludwig von Mises identified the basic problem with socialized medicine in his book Socialism, first published in 1922. Mises pointed out the problem of excess demand that “free” treatment will suffer from He said: “The destructionist aspect of accident and health insurance lies above all in the fact that such institutions promote accidents and illness, hinder recovery, and very often create, or at any rate intensify and lengthen, the functional disorders which follow illness or accident. . . lnsurance against diseases breeds disease.” (Socialism, pp.476-477) https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/05/lew-rockwell/socialized-medicine-and-death/

Homeschoolers Don’t Need Government Regulation Since 2020, the number of families participating in homeschooling has increased significantly, and with it, discussions about regulations. Currently, regulations of homeschoolers are a state-by-state phenomenon, with Pennsylvania and New York among the states with the most regulations and Missouri, Texas, and Oklahoma with the least. Examples of regulations include requiring parents to submit a letter of intent to homeschool prior to removing their children from the classroom, having teaching qualifications, teaching specific subjects, having evidence of vaccinations, schooling each child for a certain number of hours, and more. One of the many reasons for the push for regulations has to do with the desire to protect children from isolation, educational neglect, and other more-violent forms of abuse. A less-dramatic reason exists in the belief that differences in requirements from state to state lead to uneven educational experiences within the homeschool community. Lack of oversight is often blamed for these discrepancies, and the solution almost always involves using the state apparatus to bring about accountability. I think regulation of homeschooling by the state is a mistake and will serve to derail what has made homeschooling such a success in the first place: the amazing freedom, diversity, and individual-centered education that reflects each family’s personal beliefs as well as each child’s gifts. https://mises.org/mises-wire/homeschoolers-dont-need-government-regulation

Who is Ross Ulbricht, the prison inmate who could be key to Trump’s libertarian support Former President Donald Trump received a frosty reception at this weekend's Libertarian Party’s national convention, but one of his few applause lines was for promising to commute a sentence for a man named Ross Ulbricht. But who is Ulbricht? Ulbricht, 40, from Austin, Texas, is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole in Tucson, Arizona, after he was convicted in 2015 for creating, owning, and operating the darknet market website Silk Road from 2011 to 2013. Inspired by libertarianeconomic theory, Ulbricht set up Silk Road under the pseudonym "Dread Pirate Roberts," writing on his LinkedIn profile that the website would be "an economic simulation to give people a first-hand experience of what it would be like to live in a world without the systemic use of force." But U.S. law enforcement has described Silk Road as "a sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace" and "sprawling black-market bazaar" online for more than 100,000 anonymous users to buy unlawful goods and illegal services, including drugs, computer hacking, and forgery, earning Ulbricht more than $13 million. The FBI arrested Ulbricht at a San Francisco Public Library in 2013 after a yearslong federal investigation into Silk Road, such as undercover operations by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, charged Ulbricht in 2014 with seven offenses for which he was sentenced after a four-week jury trial in 2015 in Manhattan, New York. They included distributing narcotics, distributing narcotics by means of the internet, conspiring to distribute narcotics, engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiring to commit computer hacking, conspiring to traffic in false identity documents, and conspiring to commit money laundering. In addition to life imprisonment, U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest ordered Ulbricht to pay $184 million in restitution. “Make no mistake: Ulbricht was a drug dealer and criminal profiteer who exploited people’s addictions and contributed to the deaths of at least six young people,” Bharara said at the time. “Ulbricht went from hiding his cybercrime identity to becoming the face of cybercrime and as today’s sentence proves, no one is above the law.” Ulbricht appealed Forrest's decision before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2017 and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018, both of which failed. https://denvergazette.com/news/nation-world/who-is-ross-ulbricht-the-prison-inmate-who-could-be-key-to-trump-s-libertarian/article_ac19beb9-77b7-5c13-8db1-e4e65dbbc0c8.html

Chase Oliver Mike ter Maat 2024

Operation Mockingbird: The CIA and the Media This is a Pacifica Radio 'Open Journal' episode concerning reports of the CIA employing newsmen for information gathering and dissemination, including CIA director William Colby's testimony before the House on Intelligence Commission on utilizing foreign news agencies for planting false stories. Episode begins with Robert Krulwich's report, which includes a speech by journalist Stuart Loory on the three dozen reporters discovered on the CIA's payroll. Broadcast on KPFK in 1975. The preservation of these tapes was funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and by listeners of Pacifica Radio in 2010. Preservation services provided by George Blood Audio and Video. SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6Hm0Sla65E

Don't Talk to the Police Regent Law Professor James Duane gives viewers startling reasons why they should always exercise their 5th Amendment rights when questioned by government officials. Download his article on the topic at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1998119 Duane also has a best-selling book on the same subject, You Have the Right to Remain Innocent.