index -- The Price of Liberty

December 25, 2006

More of the Same In 2007
by Congressman Ron Paul - R - TX

Today we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. In Iraq, however, war rages on with no end in sight.

The midterm congressional elections are over, and the Iraq Study Group report is complete. Many Americans are unhappy about the war and want a change in policy. But what we are going to get from both parties in Washington is more of the same-- much more-- when it comes to Iraq.

President Bush not only wants to stay the course, he wants to increase the number of troops in Iraq. The “new approach” is simply escalation, with no timetable and still no definition of victory.

In fact, the president promised last week that, “They can’t run us out of the Middle East,” and that we will not retreat from Iraq. Worse, he asserted that America will, “Stay in the fight for a long period of time.” According to the President, we must increase the size of our Army and Marine Corps to provide the bodies to make this possible. (Read the rest here)

Don't feel sorry for me, but it is Christmas time and I am depressed. Oh sure, I would like to have visited family. However, I was unable to take Christmas vacation as I just took a new job.

This is not why I am having issues. Every year since I have been a Christian -- 20 to be precise -- I become depressed by what Christmas has become. Was it ever any different? Perhaps. There is no biblical basis for celebrating Christmas on December 25. A grotesque oversimplification of why we celebrate Jesus' birth at this time of year can be traced to the ancient pagan celebration of the Winter Solstice. Christians jumped into the game with their own celebration in late December. The tradition is cultural, not biblical. (Read the rest here)

The holidays are suddenly upon us, and one of the things I hear a lot in my work with the elderly is the question from family and friends: What would make a good gift?

There is only one real answer, and most people actually know what it is already. The best gift of all, any time of the year, and preferably all through the year, is TIME. The elderly, especially those in "nursing homes" and other diabolical human warehouses, do not need more "things". They need the presence and love of their families more than anything else on earth... and it is usually what they get the very least of.

American society has been in deep trouble for at least the last 50 years, but the roots of that trouble go much farther back and are all part of the plan of the socialists to destroy our society and America. As much as some people would like to think otherwise, the destruction of the basic unit of all civilization, the family, is the goal... and they have almost succeeded. (Read the rest here)

I don't know about you, but right about this time of year, people ask me what I'd like for Christmas. I confess that I ask some of those same people what they'd like as well. It's a tradition that may have gotten a little out of hand in recent years — the average person spends more than he can afford, and the average kid wants more than is seemly — but it is regardless a tradition.

The tradition is a broad one. Gift giving seems to be one aspect of Christmas we celebrate whether we're Christian or not. Come on, we get presents, and who doesn't love presents?

Since time immemorial, mothers — my own included — have tried to instill their kids with some version of, "It's better to give than to receive." Learning and truly believing in those words should mean that all of us are a little less selfish and a little more selfless. The sentiment doesn't always hold true, of course; advertisers work tirelessly to make sure it doesn't. But whether we have our mothers to thank or not, most of us are more givers than takers most of the time. (Read the rest here)

It appears the Bush administration has a real problem on its hands – the war effort is not going well at all and the military is on the verge of "breaking." I do believe I have a plan, which if implemented right away could provide the needed relief Bush is desperately searching for. Desperate times call for desperate measures. If this country is indeed in danger of having to fight the enemy on our soil, it is time to pull out all stops. If the Bush administration is serious about "protecting our freedom" and this is not a war started on lies to increase the bottom line of companies from the Military Industrial Complex, it is time to deploy the Warmonger’s Brigade. (Read the rest here)

On November 7 American voters took the GOP to the woodshed and gave them a licking they won't forget for a good long time.

Congressman Mike Pence concluded solemnly, "I believe we did not just lose our Majority, we lost our way. I believe this happened to us because somewhere along the way we lost our willingness to fight for limited government, fiscal discipline, traditional values and reform."

With Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Palestine already in or sliding toward civil war, one can correctly label the Bush administration’s foreign policy the most incompetent in recent memory. But the problem lies deeper than that. The hyperactive, and often counterproductive, U.S. foreign policy is a bipartisan problem, best illustrated by the sordid U.S. history in Somalia.

Ever since the Korean War, through Democratic and Republican administrations, the United States has pursued an interventionist policy abroad that is disconnected from the historical roots of its traditional foreign policy of military restraint overseas. This traditional restraint, with lapses here and there, dominated U.S. foreign policy from the nation’s founding until the Korean War. In fact, by defending the then economically backward South Korea, which continues to have only limited strategic significance for the United States, Democrat Harry Truman became the first of a long line of consecutive activist presidents. More recently, Bill Clinton was the modern day champion for the greatest number of overseas interventions—meddling in Somalia, Haiti, North Korea, Bosnia, Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Sudan. While Clinton avoided blundering into a large quagmire on the ground, as the current Bush administration has done, his energetic foreign policy shows that the activist U.S. foreign policy transcends party lines. (Read the rest here)

Every year, more prisons are built, more money is funneled to police departments, more criminal law is written and yet domestic crime remains a major problem.

Explanations abound as to why this is. The Left blames the economic system for fostering inequality, which supposedly causes crime. The Right says the police have their hands tied by political correctness. Libertarians typically argue that the government wastes precious time and resources on victimless crime and has insufficient tools remaining to deal with the genuine predators.

There is a more fundamental explanation, however, which makes logic out of the entire mess but is almost never voiced: Socialism. Law enforcement agencies, courts, prisons, legislative bodies — all of the key institutions that are supposed to produce justice are owned and maintained by the state.

Outside of some small academic and activist circles, most Americans reject the radical ideology of socialism as it pertains to the economy as a whole. Hardly anyone believes that the state should maintain the means of production and that private enterprise should be abolished. Most people understand the folly of divorcing all industry from private property ownership and running an economic sector completely through central management.

It is interesting, then, that most people still believe in total socialism when in comes to providing services of security and justice. (Read the rest here)

Afghan Front:
Air war costs NATO Afghan supporters
Christian Science Monitor
"At a large gathering with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in this southern city last Tuesday, Abdul Ghafar sat among hundreds in the audience, clutching a piece of paper. On it were the names of 20 members of his family killed two months ago in a NATO airstrike. 'This was my uncle's family. Eleven children, six women, and three innocent men were killed. He lost everyone but one small girl,' he said. Mr. Ghafar was hoping to receive compensation from the Afghan government. 'We got nothing,' he said. Ghafar's extended family in the southern Panjwai district are among the nearly 4,000 people killed since the beginning of 2006 in a Taliban resurgence that is using civilians as human shields against escalating NATO air attacks. The US-based Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 1,000 of those killed were civilians. A recent spate of suicide bombings here has stoked public anger even further." (12/18/06)

This is what comes of using Second Generation tactics to fight a Fourth-Generation enemy – they win, first with the hearts and minds of the people, and then overall. (Read the rest here. Two full pages.)

Features From The Last Issue

Libertarian Commentary on The News (12/18/06)
By Nathan A. Barton © 2006

It's All About Attitude
By Lady Liberty

Censorship in the Empire
By Michael Gaddy

Your Debt - Taxpayers Only
By Ed Henry

A Tale of Two Dictators
By Emiliano Antunez

Yikes! 695 Days to the Election, and Brickbats Are Flying!
By Carey Roberts

Anti-Life Ethics in Iraq
by Jacob G. Hornberger

Lessons from Pinochet
By Alvaro Vargas Llosa

Individual Liberty - 101
From The Ludwig von Mises Institute
Socialized Medicine in a Wealthy Country
By Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

External Articles
The Anti-Imperialist League and the Battle Against Empire
By Thomas E. Woods

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