The Death of a Blog

I'm moving on to greener pastures.

Visit me at http://doublebirds.blogspot.com/


My views have changed a lot since I began this blog.  I started out as kind of a socialist.  I am now an anarcho-capitalist.

My views—on war, the environment, and our responsibility for the poor, local food—have changed little.  I am proud of many of the posts on this blog.  But it's time to separate from the past and begin anew.

I hope those of you who've enjoyed this blog will move forward with me.

Thanks,
C-L-W

Reaping what you sow

This post was so well written, that I wanted to share it in full:

The Bloody Cruelty of Empires

Posted by Lew Rockwell on April 13, 2011 06:58 PM

When the Romans, in a series of wars, destroyed the great commercial civilization of Phoenician Carthage (Libya), they burned it to the ground and forced their new slaves to sow salt in the fields, to poison them, or so we are told.

Today, the Americans (or, rather, their Nato running dogs) are doing something far worse: they are using depleted uranium ammunition, as they did in Iraq and so many other places, to poison the land and the people and the unborn. The number of malformed babies and miscarriages will be horrific. Here’s what they did to the people of Falujah for daring to resist the invading and foreign contractors. Say, isn’t it the pro-life Christianists who do this and cheer it on? (Thanks to Luis Almeida)

Security

Your tax dollars at work, paying for a TSA agent to molest little girls (click for video).

Don't you feel safer?

Dismissing Ron Paul

I am no longer a Democrat because I am anti-war. I am not a Republican, because I am anti-mercantilist.

There is only one free-market, anti-war candidate that I know: Ron Paul.

There are a bunch of losers aiming for the GOP ticket for president. Many magazines, newspapers, and shows seem to conveniently omit Ron Paul, even though he won the 2011 CPAC poll.

Author Tom Woods here defends the misrepresented Paul:

War is bad for the economy

Government propagandists have successfully convinced many that war is good.

Obama has made neocons of us all

Ed Schultz claims to be a liberal, but he sounds like a neocon to me.

Obama has been criticized for trying to compromise between parties, but it looks like he's unified them under one party, the War Party.

Mormons doing good

There are a lot of Mormons out there who make me sad. But there's wheat among the tares.

Jonna, a convert from Finland, is coming out with a new album that looks great.

See her website.

I also watched an interview with Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of the broadway musical "The Book of Mormon." At first this made me nervous, I thought it was more negative propaganda against the church. But they say it's more of a celebration of Mormonism. And I'm happy that they approach my religion with the same skepticism and mockery as they would any other. That's fair.

My endorsement

Though I’m Mormon, I support Ron Paul over Mitt Romney.

Mitt Romney, I’m sure, is a great man—but he knows it. Take a look at his hair. He wears that piece like crown of assumed authority.

Ron Paul looks like an amicable grandpa who sometimes tells stories that no one understands (but in his case, it is caused by our ignorance, not his senility).

We need wisdom more than charisma, experience more than courage.

Charisma and courage have led us into countless, endless, wars in the last century. We need wisdom that will steer us toward peace. We need the experience of men who have seen the innocent die, who know firsthand the cost of sacrifice, who will never sacrifice our children to an unjust war.

We need a revolution. We need Ron Paul.

Your tax dollars at work

Obama promised to cut the budget by an astounding $100 million:

Some of that money will be used to prevent you from enjoying yourself:

Some will be used to pay men to abuse, rape, and murder people.

A lot will be used to support dictators, assassinate democratically-elected leaders, and wage unjust wars (see D&C 98 starting with verse 32).

Happy tax season.

Egypt's revolution

This video made me cry:

This made me laugh:

This made me hope:

Political attack ads from the 1800s

Clever. Ads start at 0:24.

Anti-Mormons, dum-de-dum-dum-dum

The creators of South Park play a vital function in our society, of questioning established institutions, and challenging the status quo. Thankfully they have decided to dedicate much of their time on the Mormons.

Mormons have continuously been strengthened in their faith by critics, who, thinking they have found a hole in our doctrine, have stuck their finger in, only to unleash a geyser of new information that supports and substantiates the story of Joseph Smith.

The South Park episode "All About the Mormons" (Season 7 Episode 12) oversimplifies Joseph Smith, which can be forgiven, because it is a cartoon. Nevertheless, the idea that Joseph was well-received by an easily-duped public distorts history, for people in the 1800s were just as skeptical of Joseph then as they are now (if for different reasons), and rather than a receiving a sunny welcome, Joseph was persecuted, imprisoned, beaten, and murdered.

The fatal weak point in South Park's criticism, shared by many anti-mormons, is a failure to explain the Book of Mormon itself. Joseph may have been a lazy half-wit from the backwoods of New York, who made up stories of angels to dupe people into loving him and giving him money, but he did produce a 588 page manuscript of history, war-tactics, hebraisms, and sermons—quite the feat for a lazy half-wit.

The Book of Mormon could not have been written by a dumbass, and a genius would not have had access to the resources (mental and documental) necessary to mock-up the kind of historical document the Book of Mormon claims to be (see Nibley's Book of Mormon challenge).

Until a serious criticism is made of the Book of Mormon, any discrediting criticism of Joseph Smith's own explanation of its origin only makes the existence of such a book that much more miraculous.