The Humble Libertarian original

Ryan McMaken writes at LewRockwell : But what a magnificent American festival it is. The smell of candles burning inside pumpkins, the sound of crunching leaves beneath our feet, and the chance to dress up and beg for free candy are all a recipe for childhood memories that easily rival the fun of even Christmas. It's the trick-or-treating that the Brits seem to hate the most, but in America, the act of going door to door to beg for treats is as American as candied apples and pumpkin pie. Indeed, going door to door for treats was once considered the thing to do on numerous holidays. Thanksgiving especially was once considered a day for treat-hunting throughout the neighborhood, and for impromptu and raucous parades of strangely dressed citizens looking for a fun time. Over time, these door-to-door parades were quashed by the guardians of the respectable middle classes who thought such activities too working-class and too un-bourgeois to be tolerated. Thus, they invented the T

Nicely put , Jack Hunter! 9-9-9 is just a trick, but Ron Paul's plan to Restore America by eliminating $1 trillion from the federal budget in the first year of his presidency and balancing the budget by year three... that would put America back on the path to freedom and prosperity. What a treat! Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Okay this is a pretty awesome video of someone carving a pumpkin into an excellent rendering of Ron Paul's face for Halloween. Hat tip: Lew Rockwell . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

"Damn it feels good to be a banksta!"t-shirts, bumper stickers, and other merchandise, because these days, bankstas have it pretty good: make poor business decisions, get rewarded with a heap of taxpayer bailouts and loans. Get your "Banksta" merch here ! Tweet Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Bernie Madoff 's family speaks out for first time in new book and 60 Minutes and Today Show interviews: The Atlantic Wire reports that in these interviews, Ruth Madoff, wife to Bernie Madoff, says she didn't know what a Ponzi scheme was when Bernie Madoff admitted what he had been doing: Ruth Madoff: He called from the office and said, "I'm coming home with the boys, I have something to talk about." Came in, we went into a room, four of us, and he said, "I have a confession to make. I've been running a Ponzi scheme." He said, "$50 billion dollars." Andrew Madoff: He said-- "Everything I've been doing is all a big lie." He said-- he said, "The business is-- is a Ponzi scheme, and it-- the firm is completely insolvent. And I'm broke." And then he just started sobbing. And I was-- I-- I was shocked. I-- it was-- I felt like my head exploded. I mean, I-- I don't think if he had told me he was an alien I c

These are exciting times to be alive for sure! Today, humanity has reached an unprecedented milestone at the later stage of a steeply upward-sloping population curve, the birth of the world's seven billionth baby (hat tip: memeorandum ) , or to be more precise, the first baby to put the total human population at seven billion. The Daily Caller reports : 'The United Nations estimates that the 7 billionth baby in the world will be born on Monday. The international agency has chosen Manila-born Danica May Camacho as the symbolic milestone baby, as first reported by the UK Guardian. National Geographic will devote a year long series to mark the occasion, complete with questions like “Are there too many people on the planet?” and “Can we feed seven billion of us?” Amid panic-laced prompts, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has called the milestone a victory for mankind, as people are living longer and children are surviving childhood — with the caveat being that the world nee

In my role as a columnist at the California Independent Voter Network , I was lucky enough (or I should say, had a cool enough editor score this interview) to conduct a half hour interview by phone this weekend with Dr. Jill Stein, a Green Party candidate for president in 2012 who has been building a lot of momentum toward her party’s nomination in recent weeks, leading to her official announcement last week ( video ). The full interview will be published Tuesday morning at CAIVN (and I’ll be sure to link to it here for those of you who are interested), but I couldn’t resist sharing a little sneak peek at what Dr. Stein had to say about monetary policy and the Federal Reserve with you fine readers at the Silver Underground . Get the sneak peek at the Silver Underground . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Mr. President, I thought you were supposed to be the solution to Bush, not an unhinged third term for him ! Are you listening, Obama?? Are you paying attention, America?? Democrats??? Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Oh you didn't know? Libya isn't the only African nation where Washington has committed billions of tax dollars to support dubious groups in foreign civil wars against enemies who pose no conceivable threat to the security of our country. Read all about Washington's escalating military presence in Africa at AntiWar.com . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

The big news item today is that after suggesting that he might not attend some of the upcoming GOP debates, Rick Perry's campaign has confirmed that he will attend "at least five more" debates. My first thought was: "They're having at least five more debates?" Whew! They're going through debates faster than Newt Gingrich goes through wives. If they keep this up, Mitt Romney's going to run out of positions to switch to. He'll have to start reusing some of his old ones. Here, I'll save you the trouble and give you a quick summary of what all five (or more) of the debates is going to look like, courtesy of Saturday Night Live : Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

CNN reports : Des Moines, Iowa (CNN) - Ron Paul has won two separate tallies for the National Federation of Republican Assemblies Presidential Straw Poll. Paul won both the Iowa-voters-only count at the Saturday convention in Des Moines as well as a tally of non-Iowans who participated. In the Iowa voters result, Paul took 82%. Following him were Herman Cain with 14.7%, Rick Santorum with 1%, Newt Gingrich with 0.9%, Michele Bachmann with 0.5%, Rick Perry with 0.5%, Gary Johnson with 0.2%, with Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman 0%. I'm telling you: Ron Paul has got some seriously powerful supporters and immense grassroots support on the ground in the Iowa political machine, not to mention a top-notch, well-funded campaign operation that is working like crazy to make this happen. Keep watching Iowa. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

It's a soldier's private funeral. Standing outside are members of an obnoxious little hate cult from Topeka, Kansas with signs that say "Thank God for Dead Soldiers." The police are out in force, but not to tell the tasteless protesters they should move along. They're out to protect the sign wavers. No one can lay a finger on them. Now despite disagreeing vehemently with everything the Westboro Baptist Church stands for as well as their method of sharing it with the rest of us, I do believe they have the right to exercise their ugly, hateful speech freely in public places, and I would hate to live in a country where they could be violently intimidated. I'm glad that we can disagree with them, but tolerate them and even use our police to protect them from violence. But just what can we say about a country whose same police are sent out not to protect Occupy protesters in Oakland, California, but to attack them ? What can we say about a country that tolerate

Read this short cartoon explaining the results of an experiment a group of scientists conducted on monkeys, and you'll see exactly why it's so hard to actually change things that need changing. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

This article originally appeared at The Silver Underground . --- Before we dive in to the latest news and commentary regarding the machinations of the Federal Reserve, let’s take a moment to examine the graph above. While an alarmist mainstream media has popularized Mann’s Hockey Stick in the minds of the chattering classes as a harbinger of global climate catastrophe, one hockey stick that no one seems to be aware of ( save for the manic Glenn Beck ), yet which spells out the mathematically inevitable collapse of our monetary and economic system, is that of the Adjusted Monetary Base for the U.S. Dollar. Pictured above, the Adjusted Monetary Base is measured and published by the research arm of the Federal Reserve system, which is based at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . The simple definition of this measure, according to the St. Louis Fed is “the sum of currency (including coin) in circulation.” So the graph you see above shows the amount of money there is

The Financial Times reports : "China is very likely to contribute to the eurozone’s bail-out fund but the scope of its involvement will depend on European leaders satisfying some key conditions, two senior advisers to the Chinese government have told the Financial Times. Any Chinese support would depend on contributions from other countries and Beijing must be given strong guarantees on the safety of its investment, according to Li Daokui, an academic member of China’s central bank monetary policy committee, and Yu Yongding, a former member of that committee." Kinda reminds me of the controversial "Chinese Professor" political ad that went viral last year: Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Libertarian commentator Peter Schiff speaks for the 1% at Occupy Wall Street. When he hits his loudest heckler with this question at the end of the video below, you should see her reaction! Hat tip: Daily Paul Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

"In a new document, the Vatican decries 'the idolatry of the market,' and calls for a new 'global public authority' and 'central world bank' to govern the world’s finances." Read my entire coverage at The Silver Underground . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Hypocrisy with a lot of zeroes on the end of it: "They are . . . not interested in asking millionaires and billionaires to pay a half a penny on the dollar for the sake of the future of our children and communities." That was the reaction of Sen. Bob Menendez (D., N.J.) upon the defeat Thursday evening of the bill he sponsored that paired an element of President Obama’s jobs plan — funding for the hiring of some first responders and hundreds of thousands of unionized teachers — with a surtax on those earning more than $1 million. Yet that same evening, Menendez and his fellow Democrats — as well as self-proclaimed socialist senator Bernie Sanders — voted unanimously to protect subsidies for millionaires’ mortgages. In fact it was another measure Menendez himself sponsored: an amendment to an appropriations bill that will allow Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Administration to back home loans as large as $729,750. With help from a handful of Republicans,

"Occupy Oakland protesters in a tent city at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza woke up with a start early Tuesday morning as hundreds of Oakland police surrounded the encampment, dressed in riot gear, and used tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash grenades to forcibly evict the hundreds of protesters there. Protesters report that there were at least 500 police and that many of them came from departments of neighboring areas. The police used loudspeakers to warn the protesters that chemical agents would be used to disperse them if they did not leave the area immediately. Following the warnings, police moved in on the camp in full riot gear to disperse the protesters by force." Read the rest of my article at CAIVN . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

"When he first ran for the Republican Party's presidential nomination in 2008, Texas Congressman Ron Paul didn't expect his campaign to go very far. He was hoping to use the national platform of a presidential bid to share some of his libertarian ideas about the best way to reform government, but he was shocked to discover just how popular those ideas were." Read the rest of my article at AZIVN . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Leaning back against the cushions amid the billowing smoke of a dimly lit shisha lounge in the lavish 16th Arrondissement of Paris, I listened attentively to my new friend, a Moroccan in his late twenties, who like so many other North Africans, had come to France to make a better life for himself. Though young, he was a small business owner who worked long hours to fund his passion for world travel when off the clock. It was early 2011 and the “Arab Spring” was sweeping through the Middle East and North Africa. During my six week stay in Paris, my most urgent interest was in spending as much time with North African immigrants as possible, to learn about their culture, their politics, and their thoughts on the upheaval happening in the lands they called home. As the conversation turned to NATO’s aggressive air war against Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in Libya, my Muslim friend pulled an iPhone out of his jean pocket and browsed Google for an image of French President Nicolas S

Here's a screen shot of the total money raised today for the Black This Out moneybomb from [][][][][][][]2012.com at a little after 9:30pm Eastern. Somebody's having a good day! Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Romney won that debate. Perry's implosion is complete. Cain's rising star might just fall after the first 10mins of every other candidate making his 9-9-9 plan look as stupid as it really is. I was disturbed by Bachmann's super intense "mom gaze" part. Gingrich just likes the attention. Santorum wasted Gary Johnson's spot. And [][][] [][][][] was the only one up there who deserves your vote. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

These are two MAJOR developments in the fight to end marijuana prohibition: "Even as it dismissed marijuana as having questionable medical value, the California Medical Association adopted a position urging the legalization of marijuana at its recent annual meeting. Representing over 35,000 physicians throughout California, this is the first statewide medical association to endorse the legalization of marijuana, a major milestone for opponents of marijuana prohibition." And... "While the federal government steps up its aggressive prosecution of the medicinal marijuana industry in California, the CMA's new position also comes at a time when more Americans than ever believe that marijuana should be legalized. According to Gallup's most recent poll, published Monday, 50% of respondents say that marijuana should be legalized, the largest ever percentage since Gallup started asking the question in 1969:" Read my entire article at CAIVN . Wes Messamore ,

Over at the Left Coast Rebel blog, guest blogger Right Klik has compiled a truly revealing and thorough list of links to excellent information about the absolutely horrendous results of Mitt Romney's signature legislation as governor of Massachusetts-- "RomneyCare," a bill that socialized the state's medical industry and formed the model for Barack Obama's overhaul of the entire country's health care. Among the facts that RightKlik provides: RomneyCare killed more than 18,000 jobs in MA in 2010. Romney's health care law reduced personal income by hundreds of dollars for individual workers and families. Under RomneyCare, private health insurance costs have risen by $4.311 billion in Massachusetts. Access to primary care physicians is becoming more restricted, as wait times continue to increase . Most primary care practices are closed to new patients. And there's so much more ! Someone please explain to me how this guy is a top contend