Starvin Larry

“The way things are supposed to work is that we’re supposed to know virtually everything about what [government officials] do: that’s why they’re called public servants. They’re supposed to know virtually nothing about what we do: that’s why we’re called private individuals. This dynamic – the hallmark of a healthy and free society – has been radically reversed. Now, they know everything about what we do, and are constantly building systems to know more. Meanwhile, we know less and less about what they do, as they build walls of secrecy behind which they function. That’s the imbalance that needs to come to an end. No democracy can be healthy and functional if the most consequential acts of those who wield political power are completely unknown to those to whom they are supposed to be accountable.” ― Glenn Greenwald

Government eyes are watching you.

They see your every move: what…

James Grant is what every blogger, including SLL, aspires to. His analyses are so apt and his writing so stylish, easy to read, and often downright fun that he’s able to charge more than $1000 a year for a subscription to his biweekly Grant’s Interest Rate Observer. He reportedly has over 10,000 subscribers. You can do the math. SLL recommends his books, which come a lot cheaper. It’s rare that his writings enter the public domain, but this article appeared on davidstockmanscontracorner.com:

$13,903,107,629,266. Can the nation afford this much debt?

This much I have learned about debt after 40 years of writing and study: It is better not to incur it. Once it is incurred, it is better to pay it off. America, we have a problem.

We owe more than we can easily repay. We spend too much and borrow too much. Worse, we promise too much. We conjure dollar…

The American Empire will be America’s downfall. From Patrick Buchanan at buchanan.org:

This week, SU-24 fighter-bombers buzzed a U.S. destroyer in the Baltic Sea. The Russian planes carried no missiles or bombs.

Message: What are you Americans doing here?

In the South China Sea, U.S. planes overfly, and U.S. warships sail inside, the territorial limits of islets claimed by Beijing.

In South Korea, U.S. forces conduct annual military exercises as warnings to a North Korea that is testing nuclear warheads and long-range missiles that can reach the United States.

U.S. warships based in Bahrain confront Iranian subs and missile boats in the Gulf. In January, a U.S. Navy skiff ran aground on an Iranian island. Iran let the 10 U.S. sailors go within 24 hours.

But bellicose demands for U.S. retaliation had already begun.

Yet, in each of these regions, it is not U.S. vital interests that are threatened, but…

A flow chart somewhat distilling the ever growing list of factions on the circular spectrum.

WaPo: AQ affiliates losing local support

You can only abuse the locals for so long. This is an important principle to point out, because, as we all know, even ideologically aligned groups won’t get along as the struggle for resources and the clash of egos always works to divide. It’s a fact of life. Office politics, if you will.

Thus, a few important sociological points must be recognized:

1. If you’re gonna rule with an Iron Fist, have the ability to maintain that order.
2. Understand that you will not be able to maintain that order forever, so it’s a better approach to be benign with your greatest resource.
3. It’s better to build unity through recognized Collective Efficacy.

Once the CE equation has been figured out, providing basic qualities of life as a replacement for the provider…

I stumbled across this meme on Face Book and found myself wondering: “How many people realize that there is one violation of Natural Law represented here, and both sides are equally guilty?”

To me, the implication is that the we are suppose to have less sympathy for the people at the top of the meme than for those at the bottom.  This may be the politically correct way of looking at this issue, but it goes against the principles of Natural Law.

Under Natural Law, all persons are supposed to be treated equally under the law.  Therefore, when the law is perverted for the personal gain of another, it represents a violation of the Social Contract.  It does not matter what form the perversion may take: perversion is still perversion.  Therefore, whether it is a businessman corrupting the law for his gain, or a group voting to have…