Ron Paul participated in what turned out to be an incredible interview tonight on the Bloomberg channel. This is well worth the watch.
I've been impressed with some of the points made by Kevin Carson (no relation) and other "free-market anticapitalists". Certainly it can hardly be stressed enough that the free market is a very different thing than the corporatist system of "government/business cooperation" that characterizes many aspects of our current system, (witness the desperate gov't maneuvers to save Wall Street from itself).
But BK Marcus very correctly draws a line when it comes to the term "capitalism" itself in this great post:
The free-market anticapitalists define capitalism as any system of political privilege for current capitalists, especially as it suppresses bottom-up competition, entry-level entrepreneurship, and the rights of labor. But we already have plenty of other terms to cover that idea — mercantilism, corporatism, even fascism — but what alternative is there to indicate the universal benefits of capital accumulation, capital structure, and capital calculation — all of which result from the private ownership of the means of production?
In fact, private ownership of the means of production (that is, of capital) was the technical definition of capitalism, even among the anticapitalists who coined the term! The idea of political privilege for capital owners was just an assumed consequence, a conflation of definition and theory.
Fenway Park, that is, seen in an astounding time-lapse video by Tom Guillmette.
Not to speak of the Party of Lincoln, Hoover, and Bush, the Repugnantcans? Too much enthusiasm for freedom, too many new delegates, too many young people, the wrong guy (Ron Paul) winning fair and square, so Benito Beers shuts down the Nevada convention to save McCain's total support for the total state. After all, there is no dissent allowed in any fascist or communist country.
On Saturday, May 17, 2008, for the Mises Circle's Doolittle Luncheon Seminar on "Capitalism the Creator." Walter Block, Tom Woods, and I will speak, and you are invited.
Next time you are in NYC and you have a camera, be careful around the cops.
This video shows several arrests and aggressive behavior towards people in bicycles and photographers. Notice how, thanks to clever editing by the makers of the video, the official version does not quite match what happened. Pay attention to the government's claim that the people in question were interfering with police business or blocking official procedures. This is, for lack of a better word, hysterical, as the opposite appears to be the case --people are minding their own business and the police are the troublemakers.
The entire video is about 12 minutes long, an eternity for today's Twitter generation, but give it a try. I recommend the first 3 minutes. For one of the most ridiculous claims against bystanders, jump to 9:05.
The availability of cameras and internet access is making this kind of exposé more common. When you have dozens --perhaps hundreds-- of people recording events, it becomes more burdensome for the government to attempt to hide the truth or shift the blame.
Writes Michael J. Green: "Just to give you a better indication of the book's sales in NYC: I arrived at 1:30 to see that, as others have noted, Borders was sold out. I rushed to the Barnes & Noble at Union Square - sold out. A staff member was certain they had several copies yesterday, and I heard one other person ask about it. I then ran to the B&N at 8th St and 6 Ave and got the last copy they had.
"I didn't get to see the good doctor or get my book signed, but seeing the book's success firsthand was pleasing enough. And of course, as always, several supporters stayed outside Borders (in the rain) handing out literature, without anyone telling them to do so."
Writes Barbara Hoffman: "It was pouring rain in NY, so I got on the subway for the trip to Wall Street. Saw a man wearing a Ron Paul hat; he came in from Westchester for the signing. We went to Borders together and saw just two small signs advertising the signing. We walked in and it was chaos; there were so many people showing up that the clerks were overwhelmed. People bought 2, 3, 4 books. We were directed upstairs to the end of the line which was, at about 12:30 pm, very long already. There were all different kinds of people; some came from other states like Pennsylvania. One older man made a 3-hour trip from Reading, PA.
"The line was getting longer and longer and I learned later that Borders sold out all 500 copies (and wished they had more). Some who couldn't get the book bought others to get the autograph. The store people were shocked; one man on line said that he had bought his book there on Friday and they said they expected about 30 people to show up for the signing!
"At 1 pm we heard cheers and claps and we knew (but couldn't see) that he had arrived. A few minutes later, we saw him get off the elevator (we were luckily standing near it) and went wild cheering and clapping. I'm a baby boomer and I felt like a like a groupie! He waved and smiled; what a gentleman.
"We made it to the table at about 2 pm. Just seeing him, so gracious and smiling, shaking hands and speaking briefly with people, it was thrilling. When it was my turn I thanked the Borders exec standing near him and just said hello Dr. Paul, thank you for coming and that I was happy to meet him. He shook my hand and smiled. I know there were lots more after me but I knew he'd accommodate everyone."
But then Alan was hired by J.P. Morgan & Co., and he became a willing executioner for the Fed, and then then head counterfeiter himself. This depression, the result of his easy money for Wall Street regime, is Alan's. Early on, Ayn Rand nicknamed him "The Undertaker." Who knew the corpse wouild be the American economy's? Ron Paul, of course, has never sold out.
A man orders a lemonade at a ballpark for his seven-year-old son. Not realizing it's "hard" lemonade (i.e., alcoholic), he lets the boy drink it. A security guard spots the bottle in the kid's hand and without even giving the father a chance to look at the label on the drink has the son whisked off into the state's custody. Despite the fact that the hospital finds no trace of alcohol in the kid's blood, it's two days before the mother can take her son home and a week before the father is allowed to return to his own house.
And people still insist we need the state because the alternative is worse!
I've blogged earlier about how it seems that every time a government cop meets his end in Baltimore (and elsewhere) there is a JFK-style funeral procession with hundreds of police cars, five-mile-long funeral processions, and such a big religious ceremony that everyone's wondering, "where's the Pope?" "Why didn't he show up?"
Here's the latest: An off-duty cop who belongs to a motorcycle gang got drunk at a strip joint and got involved in a parking lot brawl with another biker gang. Someone called the police, who showed up in full uniform with sirens blaring. The off-duty cop-biker, who was wearing brass knuckles, pulled his gun on a uniformed police officer who, in self defense, shot him dead.Naturally, the biker-cop has been on the front page for days, and Baltimore's Voice of Neocon America, radio host Tom Marr, has been sobbing and weeping on the air for this "saint" all week.
Meanwhile, if say, a Johns Hopkins Hospital cancer researcher, or a businessman who employs thousands in the city dies, or any other ordinary citizen for that matter, there is of course barely any mention.
