Category Archives: libertarianism

UPDATE II: Navy SEAL’s Bad Karma Continues (LIBERTARIAN LAW of Libel)

Ethics, Free Speech, Justice, libertarianism, Military

Deceased Navy SEAL Chris Kyle lived by the sword and died by the sword (BAB 02.03.13). “Or, in hippie speak: Kyle had bad karma”; he was “shot point-blank” by “another soldier who was recovering from post traumatic stress syndrome.”

In a book detailing his life as Uncle Sam’s assassin, Kyle libeled another Navy man, former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura. It proved the wrong move. “Kyle’s estate,” reports The Daily Caller, “which is run by his widow Taya,” will be liable for “$500,000 for defamation and $1.3 million for unjust enrichment.”

UPDATE I (7/30): Soldiers Against Due Process. Fox News, predictably, reports “Outrage After Jesse Ventura Wins Lawsuit Against Chris Kyle”:

Ben Smith, Kyle’s roommate during SEAL training, still disputes that his friend lied about the confrontation, which occurred at a memorial service for a SEAL who had been killed when he jumped on a grenade.
Smith said he’s having trouble “grasping” how the American judicial system could come up with a verdict like this, recalling that Kyle had told him about the confrontation with Ventura.
“He was running his mouth and saying some really vile stuff, saying we should lose more men, more heroes, more guys out there who were fighting the fight. Is that not almost treasonous? Like you’re anti-American, saying we should lose? [Chris] said ‘you say that again, I’m going to pop you in the — I’m going to get ya.’ And he did and he came over and did it,” said Smith. … Later on the show, the hosts expressed their own thoughts on the shocking ruling, questioning how Ventura could go after the widow of an American hero.

MORE.

UPDATE II: LIBERTARIAN LAW of Libel. There is the controversy over libel in libertarian circles. Most of us think that speech ought to be unfettered and that a person has no right in his reputation. I suppose I ought to have mentioned the libertarian law of libel, which I like a lot and support. Instead, I got carried away with my feelings about this much-worshiped killer.

An Open Border Is Open Season On Private Property, Persons Included

IMMIGRATION, Israel, libertarianism, Private Property, Terrorism

This is “scary stuff,” writes BAB contributor Myron Pauli. “I wonder what the Open-Borders crowd thinks about this ‘right’ to travel into Israel to kill and kidnap people.”

Myron was referring to the WaPo’s “How Hamas uses its tunnels to kill and capture Israeli soldiers”:

It was a Monday in October 2013 when residents of a kibbutz called Ein Hashlosha just east of the Gaza border heard strange sounds.

It may have been difficult to pinpoint the source. The sounds weren’t coming from above ground — but beneath it. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soon discovered that the sounds signaled an “extremely advanced and well prepared” tunnel.

Not only was the burrow remarkable in depth and length — 1.5 miles long and 66 feet underground — it was equipped with electricity and contained enough cookies, yogurt and other provisions to last its occupants several months. Israeli forces estimated that Hamas had dumped $10 million and 800 tons of concrete into the two-year project.

Such “terror tunnels,” the Israeli military said in a statement Friday, are “complex and advanced.” And their use, Israel said, is “to carry out attacks such as abductions of Israeli civilians and soldiers alike; infiltrations into Israeli communities, mass murders and hostage-taking scenarios.”

An open border is open season on private property, persons included, Myron. Libertarians, it would appear, are too flaccid to deal with this reality, other than to say, “Under anarchy the issue would be sorted out.” That’s a synonym for intellectual cop-out.

Israel’s To Blame? Really?

Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, libertarianism

I’m having a hard time following the logic of the article, “Who Started ‘the Cycle of Violence’ in Palestine?”, in which Israel is blamed for the renewed hostilities between it and the Palestinians of the Gaza strip.

As circuitous as it is curious, the case woven in “Who Started ‘the Cycle of Violence’ in Palestine?” seems to hang on the claim that “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet lied to the Israeli and international public by pretending not to know that the [3 kidnapped Israeli] boys were almost certainly [already] dead,” and that “although the Israeli government knew the three boys were almost certainly dead, they initiated what they dubbed ‘Operation Brother’s Keeper.’ Thousands of IDF soldiers combed the West Bank, ostensibly searching for the kidnapped boys.”

OK. Let’s assume that indeed, as author Justin Raimondo asserts, “the Israeli political class exhibits a malevolence unique among nations.” Isn’t that perspective beside the point here? Didn’t the latest conflagration in fact begin with the kidnapping and killing of the three Israeli teenagers? What am I missing?

UPDATED: Feeling The Full Force Of The Fascist Fédérales

Fascism, Federalism, IMMIGRATION, libertarianism, Private Property

The term fascism, with all its ramifications, is used sparingly in this space. Still, readers who entertain delusions of freedom have told me otherwise. If we distill the push-back by Murrieta residents in California, against dependent aliens, we must conclude that the latter have been “invited” into Murrieta’s midst by a third party: “Rome on the Potomac.”

Imagine inviting someone to squat in a neighborhood not your own, and freely avail themselves of communal spaces and services paid for by local property owners. Yes, this is, once again, a powerful argument for privatizing all land. But I remind those who live not in the real world, but in an ethereal one, that just solutions to third-world migration must respect reality and the closest proxies of private property.

Should these patriots for private property dare to protest the occupation and forced integration underway—then the full force of the fascist fédérales will be galvanized against them.

Via Daily Caller:

Federal agents will be arriving in Murrieta, Calif., the site of ongoing protests against the recent flood of illegal immigrants into the town, on Monday to quell protesters, Breitbart has learned.
Federal agents will be arriving in Murrieta, Calif., the site of ongoing protests against the recent flood of illegal immigrants into the town, on Monday to quell protesters, Breitbart has learned. …
…
Protesters have not left yet, and federal agents are supposedly fed up with American citizens being concerned about their hometown. …
Local police officers have also reportedly warned protesters, hinting at potential danger. Jeremy Oliver, a resident of the neighboring town of Temecula, was told by an officer that “it’s going to get ugly.” MORE …

A government by The People and for The People? Which people?

So which freedoms do localities still enjoy in an allegedly decentralized, federated America? To protest their government’s violative actions, perhaps? To determine how they live their lives and with whom, on land for which they pay? It’s not as though the uninvited dependents have purchased a tract of land in Murrieta, legitimately. The arrivals intend to draw on the resources of taxpaying residents without their consent.

UPDATED: “Americans Say NO to Illegal Aliens Being Housed in Their Communities.”