It is a truth widely recognized that tyranny stems from the consent of the governed as much as democracy does.
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In short, self-rule is workable only when a people are self-sufficient enough to reject the hierarchic system as it stands.
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As Molina found, the irony of collective ownership is that it spurs more selfishness than does private ownership.
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Communal ownership means that all benefit for a short time; private ownership means that few people benefit over the course of an extended period of time.
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It is not a leap to suggest that all of the distinctive advances made between 1500 and today, for better or worse, were directly or indirectly brought about by the dissolution of feudal bonds and the rise of individual autonomy.
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Compare with two years ago: http://juggernautcometh.com/blog/?p=494

(The Objective Standard) On June 4, Becky Gerritson, a founder of the Wetumpka Tea Party in Alabama, testified before congress about the IRS’s abusive practices toward Tea Party groups. Her poignant words deserve repeating.

Gerritson began by explaining what motivated her to become involved in the Tea Party movement:

In order to paint a clear picture, I need to explain how the Wetumpka Tea Party came into being. My husband and I had never been involved in politics before 2008. We’d always been patriotic and deeply proud of our country. We’ve always felt that the United States is the greatest country in the world. In September 2008, when we had our first $700 billion “bailout,” we along with millions of Americans were very concerned. That bailout was confirmation that our government was out of control. . . . We were worried, and we knew we had to do something to sound the alarm. . . . The government was mortgaging America’s future. And we knew that Washington wasn’t going to stop by itself.

Then Gerritson lambasted the government for discriminating against Tea Party groups:

In Wetumpka, we are patriotic Americans. We peacefully assemble. We petition our government. We exercise the right to free speech. And we don’t understand why the government tried to stop us. I am not here as a serf or vassal. I am not begging my lords for mercy. I’m a born free American woman, wife, mother and citizen. And I’m telling my government that you’ve forgotten your place. It’s not your responsibility to look out for my well-being, and to monitor my speech. It’s not your right to assert an agenda. Your post, the post that you occupy, exists to preserve American liberty. You’ve sworn to perform that duty. And you have faltered.

I would likely disagree with Gerritson on various issues. But, hearing these courageous words in defense of liberty, I can only thank Gerritson for speaking them to Congress—and urge Congress to listen.

(Ad-In) We heard recently that the Department of Justice will be investigating the unconstitutional actions of the IRS as they targeted and intimidated groups based on their political affiliation, business that is eerily similar to the political intimidation used by tyrants.

That’s great and all, but wasn’t Obama’s Justice Department in charge of letting guns walk to Mexican drug cartels and ended up getting US Border Patrol agents killed? And wasn’t the DOJ guilty of illegally stealing thousands of phone records from the Associated Press?

That’s great the IRS corruption will be investigated, but I think the American people would feel a lot better if they were being investigated by a legitimate justice system instead of one that resembles more like a third-world dictatorship.

Perhaps an alternative is called for. Is there a third party that can litigate against the government that so obviously cannot litigate itself?

Juggernaut cometh.

A speech by Murray N. Rothbard. Presented at the Mises Institute’s 1984 “Seminar on Money and Government,” in Houston, Texas.

Sample the production and buy now:

http://www.audible.com/

(Forbes) The modern homeschool movement comes largely by Christians aghast over an academic establishment overrun by progressives. Schools long ago became laboratories for instilling statism and distilling politically correct groupthink. Values clarification anyone? With public education increasingly geared toward multicultural agitation against America’s godly heritage, many parents resolved to safeguard the hearts, souls and minds of their young.

At least 1.5 million students receive home-based academic instruction. The ranks of homeschoolers are rising rapidly across every social strata, faith and ethnicity. While many families lack sufficient means for someone to stay home, it’s not generally those affluent enough to afford exclusive parochial education. The highest homeschool participation appears in households with incomes ranging from$25,000 to $75,000. The homeschool community reflects a cross-section of Americans; the children of truck drivers and lawyers, whites and blacks, rich and poor, Christians and unbelievers.

What is civilization save passing to posterity the accumulated prosperity, cultural achievements, customs and mores of our forbearers? In the American context this includes self-reliance. Parents are the primary medium for rearing children. Should liberty endure, America must restore her multi-generational perspective, lately befuddled by Leviathan permeating life.

We have two principle tutors, lessons learned via individual experience and the wisdom amassed by our ancestors. Progressives have purposely uprooted America’s multi-generational perspective for many decades. Woodrow Wilson, who prior to the White House presided over Princeton, wrote, “The use of a university is to make young gentlemen as unlike their fathers as possible.”

Not to besmirch the many fine teachers, but an education establishment intent on discrediting tradition as a compass has rendered much of America’s youth adrift with only the pittance of personal experience to navigate their course. Students are prodded to disdain the independent spirit and biblical morality which birthed America’s exceptionalism. But casting aside the wisdom of our fathers comes at great peril.

Edmund Burke admonished “The individual is foolish, but the species is wise.”

J. Gresham Machen, the foremost defender of fundamentalism in the modernist controversy of the past century, also led the battle against compulsory public education. A fierce libertarian, Machen cautioned, “If you give the bureaucrats the children, you might as well give them everything else as well.”

We have. See election 2012.

Barack Obama – who spent his past assailing the American system – would not be president without overwhelming support from twenty-somethings imbued with a reverence for the state. No longer the family tree, “government is the only thing we all belong to” claims the ruling party.

Ron Paul senses the urgency, “Expect the rapidly expanding homeschool movement to play a significant role in the revolutionary reforms needed to rebuild a free society with constitutional protections.” Dr. Paul warns, “We cannot expect a federal government controlled school system to provide the intellectual ammunition to combat the dangerous growth of government that threatens our liberties.” Proving his point, homeschool parents were instrumental behind several UN treaties stalling in the Senate.

Like the local self-government formed indigenously by settler communities on America’s frontier, homeschoolers spontaneously built a support apparatus from the ground up. The free market at work, parents can readily access almost any curricula, subject matter or activity.

The Department of Education’s Dr. Patricia Lines countered the notion of homeschoolers withdrawing from America’s social fabric, “Like the Antifederalists these homeschoolers are asserting their historic individual rights so that they may form more meaningful bonds with family and community. In doing so, they are not abdicating from the American agreement. To the contrary, they are affirming it.”

A misperception persists that homeschooled children lack social skills. Dr. Brian Ray, of the National Home Education Research Institute, surveyed seven thousand adult graduates of homeschools. His research reveals they are significantly more likely to participate in community service initiatives, join civic, religious or business organizations and be politically involved. A limited study by J. Gary Knowles found no homeschool graduates who were unemployed or residing on welfare.

Unless socialization means sassing their parents, as confirmed by Dr. Larry Shyers, homeschooled children exhibit significantly less behavioral problems than other students. Public schools nurture self-esteem. Homeschooling cultivates character allowing children to flourish into responsible citizens. Moreover, Dr. Ray concludes adults taught at home retained their parent’s worldviews far more frequently than peers. Students learning at home absorb much less liberal cant.

Homeschooled kids don’t lack socialization . . . but socialism.

(Blue Origin) Blue Origin, LLC is developing technologies to enable human access to space at dramatically lower cost and increased reliability. This is a long-term effort, which we’re pursuing incrementally, step by step. We’re currently focused on developing reusable launch vehicles utilizing rocket-powered Vertical Take-off and Vertical Landing (VTVL) technology.

Suborbital

Our New Shepard system will take astronauts to space on suborbital journeys. The New Shepard vehicle includes a Crew Capsule carrying three or more astronauts atop a separate rocket-powered Propulsion Module, launched from our West Texas Launch Site.

Following liftoff, the combined vehicles accelerate for approximately two and a half minutes. The Propulsion Module then shuts off its rocket engines and separates from the Crew Capsule. The Propulsion Module will finish its flight, descend to Earth, and autonomously perform a rocket-powered vertical landing.

The Crew Capsule will go on to coast to the edge of space, providing astronauts with a view to the curvature of the Earth and the beauty of our planet. After descent and reentry into Earth’s atmosphere, the Crew Capsule will land under parachutes near the launch site.

In addition, the New Shepard vehicle will provide opportunities for researchers to fly experiments into space and a microgravity environment.
Orbital

In the future, our orbital program will use some of the same reusable launch vehicle technologies we pioneer in our suborbital program.

Conventional first stage booster rockets are expendable. This conventional approach has two major drawbacks. The lack of flight testing prior to first use makes reliability a challenge. The fact that each mammoth vehicle is thrown away after a single use contributes to the staggering cost of spaceflight.

Blue Origin is developing a reusable first-stage booster. It will take off vertically like a conventional booster rocket and lift the upper stages to a conventional suborbital staging point, where the upper stage will separate and continue to propel the astronauts to orbit. Once separated, the first stage booster will descend to perform a powered vertical landing similar to the New Shepard Propulsion Module. Then the orbital booster can be refueled and launched again, allowing improved reliability and lowering the cost of human access to space.

The booster rocket will loft a biconic Space Vehicle to orbit, carrying astronauts and supplies for adventure, science research, and exploration. After orbiting the Earth, the Space Vehicle will reenter Earth’s atmosphere to land on land under parachutes, and then be reused on future missions to Earth orbit.

The technical challenges of escaping Earth’s gravity well and reaching orbit have never been trivial, and are compounded when higher reliability and lower cost are required. We are working patiently, step by step, to reach these long-term goals.

(Freakonomics) U.S. stock markets* are flirting with all-time highs (it may happen today) but I am hearing and reading very little about it. Why is that?

I can think of a few possible reasons, and am eager to hear yours.

1. After the spectacular meltdown of 2007-2009, a lot of people are generally gun-shy and/or inattentive.

2. Since so many people sold into the teeth of the meltdown, and stayed on the sidelines since, a new high is to them relatively bad news.

3. Because the economy itself is not quite roaring, a roaring stock market doesn’t seem legit (unless, of course, you consider it a leading indicator, which it usually is).

4. Just “getting back” to an all-time high from more than five years ago is, at best, a muted victory.

All that said, I remain surprised by the lack of chatter.

I can think of another reason:

5. The money supply is beyond record levels with all the artificial liquidity that has been pumped into the economy over the last five years. To see the stock market at this level is not really that impressive considering.

(Reason) Jack Andraka is not your typical cancer researcher. His first research project resulted in a non-invasive, simple, sensitive, and effective test for detecting pancreatic cancer. His test is

168 times faster than any currently available test;
26,000 times less expensive (that is not a typo);
potentially 100 percent accurate;
and capable of producing a diagnosis before the cancer becomes invasive.
It will come as no surprise that Andraka’s project won the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) Grand Prize ($75,000). It may come as a big surprise that Andraka is 16 years old. He won the Intel ISEF when he was 15.

According to a recent article at Smithsonian.com, and a TEDXTalk by Andraka, pancreatic cancer is non-symptomatic, meaning that it cannot be detected until very late in the course of the disease. And with late detection comes a very high mortality rate. Only 5 percent of diagnosed patients will live for five years, with the average lifespan after detection only three months. Forty thousand people die of pancreatic cancer each year. And yet, with early detection, survival could be close to 100 percent.

Andraka’s test uses a strip of filter paper treated with a mixture of carbon nanotubes and antibodies that are sensitive to mesothelin, a protein produced by the pancreatic cancer. A single drop of blood and subsequent measurement of the electrical resistance of the paper strip is all that is required for a definitive result. The cost is 3 cents. The time needed is five minutes. And the test can readily become a standard part of a routine physical exam.

Compare Andraka’s test with the current gold standard of protein detection: a sixty year old technique that misses 30 percent of cancer victims, costs $800 per test, and is not covered by insurance.

Although much work remains to be done, Andraka has discovered a technique that can be applied to many forms of cancer, waterborne and airborne viruses, and blood pathogens such as AIDS and STDs. His current test has already proven effective on both ovarian and lung cancer.

Thanks to Andraka’s brilliant use of scientific methods, his hard work, and his dedication to an idea, we may soon enjoy a world in which far fewer people suffer and die from disease. Not only will we and our loved ones be able to live longer, happier lives; we will also benefit from future Steve Jobses, Patrick Swayzes, Henry Mancinis, Sally Rides, and Wernher Von Brauns, who, rather than succumbing to wretched diseases will continue living and filling our world with wonderful, life-serving values.