I Retaliate Your Retaliation

Remember Mohamed Osman Mohamud, the 19-year old alleged terrorist who was set up and arrested by the FBI trying to detonate six 55-gallon drums of mock explosives in a van in downtown Portland?

You don't have to be a conspiracy theory sympathizer to wonder exactly how much of the story you're getting when it's a completely one-sided narrative courtesy of the FBI. But the FBI does have tapes where Mohamed claims that the act is in retaliation for America's killing of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. And it's quite plausible he would say that. After all, if the FBI were truly fabricating the entire story, they might have tried convincing us he said he did it, "Because I hate their freedom!"

So, merely as an experiment in critical thought, let's take the FBI at their word and Mohamed at his. In order to "retaliate" for our military actions in the Middle East, he'll blow up a city. And what do you think our "retaliation" to that would have been if he was successful?

I'm having trouble seeing the Disney/Spielbergian ending here that some generals and politicians are still telling me I'm a quitter for not believing in.

Eric Olsen,
Regular Columnist, THL
Articles | Author's Page | Website

Thomas Sowell Returns

By: Thomas Winslow Hazlett Reason

How To Cripple The Real Estate Market In Five Easy Steps

If the government and the banks had just allowed real estate prices drop to market equilibrium, we'd be out of this mess and housing would truly be affordable. But the government is determined to artificially prop up housing prices, whatever the cost to the economy. If you were head of Central Planning (howdy, Ben!) and were tasked with crippling the real estate market, here's what you would recommend. Choke the market and banking sector with zombie banks... Have the central bank (the Federal Reserve) buy up $1 trillion in toxic, impaired mortgages... Lower the rate that banks can borrow from the Fed to zero, and then pay the banks interest on all funds deposited at the Fed... Try to prop up the housing market by giving poor credit risk buyers loans with only 3% down... Load young people up with the equivalent of a mortgage in student loans... OK,let's see how our Organs of Central Planning are doing: check, check, check, check, check: a perfect score! they're...

Tax Bill Is Beginning of Formal Debt Criminalization

The noose is tightening on liberty. The United States Congress is steadily headed to a place where those who owe money to the US government shall be treated criminally. This phenomenon is advancing domestically and now, increasingly, internationally. The first shot in this latest campaign took place in 2010 when US President Barack Obama signed into law The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. It demanded, basically, that foreign banks withhold up to 30 percent of the income that an American abroad might earn. This bill isn't working so well because overseas banks are not cooperating (a state of affairs that was certainly expected). Thus, there is a need for something else: Senate Bill 1813, recently introduced by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA). This bill, in part, states that taxpayers with unpaid taxes over US$50,000 may find their passports confiscated. This isn't criminal per se, but the IRS has recently made noises about "sharing" information with police a...

The Humble Libertarian original

Search This Blog