The Humble Libertarian original

Jack Hunter says giving the federal government unprecedented and unconstitutional power is the antithesis of American conservatism. He's right: Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Quote of the week: "We'd be in a lot less wars, and have a lot more liberty if we taught our kids (and soldiers) to recite the Declaration of Independence [instead of the Pledge of Allegiance]. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it." By: Anna Yeisley . Source . Agreed, Anna! Really that's more like the "Pledge of Rebellion," and those who say and believe it assert their right to rebel against tyranny and their pledge that they will when government "becomes destructive to these ends." We need a lot less allegiance and a lot...

Here's your "Hope" and "Change." We've got a Democratic president in office who campaigned on a platform of cleaning up the mess Bush made, and instead he auto-signs the (un)Patriot(ic) Act into law. Here's your America: Welcome to the USSA. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

From my most recent CAIVN column: 'Many members of the rapidly growing and increasingly discontented Independent voter bloc might be libertarians, voters who describe themselves as "fiscally conservative" and "socially liberal" (or tolerant). These voters would prefer lower taxes and a more "hands off" approach from government on the one hand, and an equally "hands off" approach from government regarding social issues and personal choices on the other hand.' Read the entire article at CAIVN . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

The Guardian reports: 'Armed westerners have been filmed on the front line with rebels near Misrata in the first apparent confirmation that foreign special forces are playing an active role in the Libyan conflict. A group of six westerners are clearly visible in a report by al-Jazeera from Dafniya, described as the westernmost point of the rebel lines west of the town of Misrata. Five of them were armed and wearing sand-coloured clothes, peaked caps, and cotton Arab scarves. The sixth, apparently the most senior of the group, was carrying no visible weapon and wore a pink, short-sleeve shirt. He may be an intelligence officer. The group is seen talking to rebels and then quickly leaving on being spotted by the television crew... There have been numerous reports in the British press that SAS soldiers are acting as spotters in Libya to help Nato warplanes target pro-Gaddafi forces. In March, six special forces soldiers and two MI6 officers were detained by rebel fighters when...

If you're psyched about the Ron Paul Moneybomb on June 5th, here's what you should do... If you're planning on spacing out your donations over the course of Ron Paul's campaign. Don't. Sit down right now and calculate how much you plan to give in total by the end of the campaign next year. Instead of holding back for future moneybombs, donate that FULL AMOUNT this June 5th at RonPaul2012.com . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

"Flag Decal" by John Prine: "And your flag decal won't get you into heaven anymore-- they're already overcrowded from your dirty little war. Now Jesus don't like killin' no matter what the reason's for, and your flag decal won't get you in the heaven anymore!" Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

While remembering our fallen soldiers this Memorial Day, I thought it would be appropriate to share this song which has long been a favorite of mine, by the progressive rock band, Enchant . It's entitled "Under Fire" and it's about a veteran who's haunted by his guilt when he remembers a fallen soldier on the other side-- who he killed. Lyrics follow: I'm under fire blood red sky Underneath the war machine Fight for what's right don't ask why Just make the sacrifice Desensitized but my eyes Still recognize the pain Truth stark and real fight or die Retreat has no place in this game In the dark and under fire Believing our cause was justified Caught in the crosshairs condition dire Trying a case of do or die In the blink of an eye I took someone's life It's no wonder why I'm hunted by it still Bright Flickering light snubbed by my numbing hands Don't understand One finger slip and it's over for him All's...

A brief preface from LewRockwell.com : 'Twain wrote The War Prayer during the US war on the Philippines. It was submitted for publication, but on March 22, 1905, Harper's Bazaar rejected it as "not quite suited to a woman's magazine." Eight days later, Twain wrote to his friend Dan Beard, to whom he had read the story, "I don't think the prayer will be published in my time. None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth." Because he had an exclusive contract with Harper & Brothers, Mark Twain could not publish "The War Prayer" elsewhere and it remained unpublished until 1923.' The War Prayer by Mark Twain: It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and sputtering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spreads of ...

The actual headline of the Associated Press piece featured on The Drudge Report today is: "Memorial Day comes as troops fight in Afghanistan." In it, Jon Gambrell reports from Kabul: 'U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan paused Monday to remember the fallen in Memorial Day services, as a war nearly a decade old trudges on. Some prayed and held flag-raising ceremonies at dawn to recognize the more than 1,400 killed in combat here since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that triggered the war. "We reflect on those who have gone before us. We reflect on their service and their sacrifice on behalf of our great nation," said Brig. Gen. Lewis A. Craparotta, who commands a Marine division in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province. "We should also remember those serving today who embody that same commitment of service and sacrifice. They are committed to something greater than themselves and they muster the physical and moral courage to accomplish extraordinar...

In this video, superb 3D animation and motion graphics come together in a 60 second grassroots political ad for Presidential candidate Ron Paul. Ron Paul 2012: "The High Tide" Visit: RonPaul2012.com Also - a Letter from Ron Paul: Dear Patriot, Ten Million Dollars. That's how much establishment candidate Mitt Romney raised in one day a couple of weeks ago from well-heeled party bigwigs for his 2012 White House bid. So today, I'm writing to personally ask if you are up for a challenge. My campaign's grassroots supporters are holding another Money Bomb next Sunday, June 5th, and I believe it offers us an excellent chance to make some headlines of our own. You see, the Romney campaign thinks no one else can touch their accomplishment. But honestly, I don't need 10 million dollars to match Mitt Romney. After all, I don't have to defend a liberal record as governor of Massachusetts. I don't have to defend against passing a bill just...

A very good friend of mine whose opinion I value very much called me up today to tell me he wasn't very impressed with today's article detailing Eric Dondero's prolific support for big-government liberals in the Republican Party, and noting the irony that Dondero accuses antiwar libertarians of being "leftists" who don't really care about liberty. My friend had a big problem with my tone. He told me that I shouldn't sink to Dondero's level by name-calling and personally smearing him. I definitely took issue with his appraisal of my post as sinking to Dondero's level. What Dondero does, certainly is name calling. Without much substantive argument over the relationship between liberty and geopolitics, Dondero  simply writes us off as "left libertarians," "leftists," and "anti-American." But I don't think I simply turned around and did the same back to him. As one libertarian Facebook friend of mine pointed out.....

ERIC DONDERO: "I gotta say smething off-topic. This website has gotten so much worse in the last few months, and few weeks. It has digressed into a cheerleader site for Leftists, and Anti-Americanism. The Editor ought to consider changing its name to the Humble Leftist-Lover. There's very little left here that could be considered libertarian." ( link ) Blogger Eric Dondero loves to label me a "leftist" because I have misgivings about open-ended commitments to nation building in other countries, you know: just like award-winning conservative columnist George Will, Pat Buchanan, Robert Novak, Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, even George W. Bush during his presidential candidacy in 2000 before he lost his freaking mind, former RNC Chairman Michael Steele, Tea Party favorite Rand Paul, President Ronald Reagan-- who put U.S. troops in harm's way extremely sparingly , America's fine men and women in uniform who donated more to the most ...

Absolutely no commentary necessary. The following video, by comedy group, The Whitest Kids You Know , says it all too well: Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

The following video shows a kindergarten teacher in Mexico this Friday keeping a classroom full of school children calm as gunfire blasts can be heard outside. When will Congress end the War on Drugs which protects the drug cartel's profits and gives them the money to pay for these weapons? And if one of those children got hurt in this fire fight, to what extent would the Obama Administration, bear responsibility for it ? Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

A group of libertarian activists-- including Adam vs. The Man host, Adam Kokesh-- were arrested today for dancing at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington D.C. to protest a recent court decision which actually upheld a ban on dancing at the memorial to one of America's most outspoken advocates for liberty and free expression. They caught some incredible video footage of their confrontation with police, which is embedded below. When an officer comes up to the group and asks them who their leader is, they laugh and point to the statue of Thomas Jefferson in the center of the memorial. Then after telling the libertarians that they can't dance, the officer turns to see a couple embracing and slowly swaying back and forth. At the officer's signal, two police immediately descend on the embracing couple and pull them apart, placing handcuffs on their wrists to arrest them: By and large, the libertarian movement's filmed confrontations with police are quite frank...

Remember last Spring when Rand Paul made his civil rights "gaffe" questioning parts of the Civil Rights Act that affected private business practices before quickly retreating from this position? Many of you may argue my extraordinarily late analysis on this. But, at the time, I assumed he was told this simply wasn't a battle worth fighting right now, and to publicly move to the more populist view - strictly for political reasons. So, here's my question. Could there be other closet libertarians in the GOP? Recalling this circumstance from my now favorite Senator made me curious if any of the other GOP nomination "front runners" might be intellectually empathetic believers in the libertarian cause, and simply don't see it as a winnable platform to run on. Perhaps I shouldn't care. Perhaps I should let their awful records and incredibly inconsistent talking points speak for themselves. But as someone who is desperate for the Republican Party to ...

So I swore off caffeine ten days ago. How long have I been off the wagon? Since five days ago. Yup. That lasted exactly five days. My productivity just suffered waay too much. It was a good run though. The last straw (after headaches galore) was early this Monday when a friend of mine told me that it was good that I could recognize my desperate addiction to caffeine and try to give it up, but that I have a tendency to go to extremes (which is true), and that maybe instead of absolutely no caffeine-- which was killing my head and this blog-- that I should just tone it down from multiple energy drinks a day to one or two caffeinated soft drinks. After that one can of Coca Cola Monday, I sat down and wrote 10 Reasons Why Ron Paul Can Win in 2012 , one of my longest pieces in recent days, which now has over 1000 Facebook likes. Think about that. Think about 1000 people. Just visualize that many people standing in front of you. That's a lot of people. That many people had this arti...

Ladies and gentlemen, this is what's wrong with our country. How do we tolerate this day in and day out from our government? Read all the details here in my most recent CAIVN column. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

"He's more machine now than man. His mind is twisted and evil." -Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi The Birthers have had it wrong all along. We don't need to see Obama's birth certificate-- we need to see his manufacturer's certificate of origin. It would appear that our nation's president is more than just a man... he's a cybernetic organism: part human, part machine . We suspected as much from the very beginning. Instead of just letting the human part give speeches alone-- even at elementary school events-- the president relied on the machine part of itself, the Teleprompter to give those speeches. It couldn't let the imperfect, error-prone human part do the work. The machine half had to take over and flawlessly deliver those carefully crafted li(n)es. After the recent passage of the Patriot Act, we learned just how given over to his machine half President Obama really is. Even with his human side overseas in France,...

The Huffington Post reports : "An ongoing exploration of the documents related to the Pentagon's 'message force multipliers' program has unearthed a clip of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggesting that America, having voted the Democrats back into Congressional power, could benefit from suffering another terrorist attack, and doing so in the presence of the very same military analysts who went on to provide commentary and analysis of the Iraq War." Here are Rumsfeld's words w/ HuffPo's emphasis added: RUMSFELD: That's what I was just going to say. This President's pretty much a victim of success. We haven't had an attack in five years. The perception of the threat is so low in this society that it's not surprising that the behavior pattern reflects a low threat assessment. The same thing's in Europe, there's a low threat perception. The correction for that, I suppose, is an attack. And when that happens, then every...

Over at Young Americans for Liberty , Andrew Sharp has put together a time line, stretching back to the Patriot Act's temporary extension back in February, of Rand Paul's stand against it, and Harry Reid's cowardly, promise-breaking antics to get it renewed. Check it out here . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Though there are a few things about Freshman Congressman Allen West (R-FL) that worry me, I have to give the man credit where credit is due. He courageously voted "No" on the so-called "Patriot" Act extension yesterday: 'When Rep. Allen West said in his weekly newsletter that he was going to make a "careful assessment" on the Patriot Act extensions, it sounded like we could already pencil him in for a "yes" vote -- especially since he just recently voted for the 90-day extension. It appears he was actually being serious about considering a vote against it. West joined only 30 other House Republicans in voting "no" on extending three provisions in the Patriot Act...' Allen West said this about his Patriot Act vote: "I have spent the past two months investigating these provisions to the PATRIOT Act, their effect on American citizens and their impact on apprehending terrorists to better keep our country safe. After...

In 2004, when the first mainstream Republican pundits began to openly question President George W. Bush’s war in Iraq, New York Times writer Franklin Foer penned an article entitled, “Once again, America First,” noting the dread specter of isolationism resurfacing on the Right. Foer was premature in seeing a resurgence of restraint but his article came to mind during the past week while watching the bipartisan consensus on Israel, particularly among the GOP. The fiery reaction the president has received over last week’s speech at the State Department is centered around a single point, late in the speech, that the Israeli-Palestinian peace depends on the 1967 borders as a starting point. Judging from the reaction, one could hardly be blamed if they thought that by saying “1967,” Obama had actually uttered, “To the gas chambers, go!” On the one hand, it would seem the height of arrogance to tell another sovereign country that they need to trim their borders. One might think that o...