[Note: significant discussion of e-gold issues below.] Dear John,
> Thank you for the thoughtful (as always) and complete reply > to my rather short observation. "One is glad to be of service." *A Few Thoughts on Politics* > an appearance that our elections are fair and open. It is possible that elections within the LPUS are fair and open. It is in contrast to a huge and growing body of evidence to suppose that national and state elections within the USA are fair and open. I mention these points in an effort to draw attention to your use of the third person plural possessive pronoun. "Our" is meaningful in the sense of LP elections or nominations processes, and is not a good pronoun for you to use in referring to elections in Tennessee or in the USA. My purpose in illuminating this distinction is to encourage more people to think about the property aspects of liberty: neither you nor I own the elections, the processes by which they are controlled, or the systems by which they have been corrupted, so it is no wonder we get really poor results from them. I share your enthusiasm for the LP being denied ballot access as punishment for its success. That should serve to nicely polarize rather a large number of liberty enthusiasts. *Bang for the Marketing Buck* Your idea to publicize the fact that the LP is being denied ballot access owing to its success is a good one. I would urge you to concentrate any funds in that regard toward the effective use of publicity. Not just press releases, but guest editorials and letters to the editor sent to the smaller city and county newspapers, especially the weeklies which form the backbone of small-town information, works very well. It is important to learn the contact information for the editors and publishers of all these papers, and send such guest editorials and letters directed to their attention; you'll find that data in press association publications in the local library there. You'll also find that editors and publishers of small town newspapers are eager for content and extremely sympathetic toward liberty issues, by and large. You won't find it easy to buy media space or time for commercials in the major cities, and it won't be cost effective, either. Direct mail is far better, but not as effective at conveying *ideas* as small town newspapers. As for Vermont carry, the question isn't why Tennesseans cannot have it. They can, should, and do. The question is why does Tennessee make it a practice to deny any "right benefit or privilege" guaranteed by the USA constitution (e.g., the Second Amendment as discussed in the 1939 Miller Supreme Court of the US (SCOTUS) decision or the 2001 Emerson ruling by the Fifth Circuit) or sell that "right" for a fee, which practice violates the so-called "fourteenth" amendment to the USA constitution which guarantees equal protection of those rights to all citizens of the several states and to all citizens of the United States. I should think a better strategy than calling into question these facts would be a well-funded and well-publicized lawsuit of the Tennessee Attorney General, the Governor, any legislator who voted for such either a carry permit law or a carry abolition law, and any agents of any agencies that enforce such laws. Here we enter into a fertile ground for further discussion which well exceeds the parameters of this group, but, briefly, the point of such a lawsuit is not to win in court. I don't think the court system is any less corrupt than the elections process, and have much evidence to support this view. However, a well-publicized lawsuit would have the effect of polarizing public opinion on the issue. Such a suit is bound to be dismissed early on, and appeal to higher courts is likely to go nowhere until it reaches at least the Circuit level, and, being likely denied at the state supreme court level, such an appeal would have to go directly to SCOTUS, I think. It would also serve notice to those agents of government who involve themselves in foreswearing their oaths to uphold the constitution that they are targets of legal proceedings and may not forever be able to rely on the courts to reject such petitions. With any luck, some of them will over-react and call for the summary execution of the plaintiffs, or some other such nonsense. Again, care in the venues for publicity is vital, since much of the story won't be carried by the banking cartel owned mainstream media in the major cities. *The Dementia of Voting* I have mixed feelings on the issue of referenda. On the one hand, I feel that individuals should have a say in how they are governed and especially in how money pilfered from them (taxes) should be spent. On the other hand, the overwhelming body of evidence for election fraud combined with the considerable evidence from opinion polls that bond issues and other spending choices by referenda suffer from a mental disconnect by the voters from the issue of where this money comes from (most voters seem to be eager for any perceived "benefit" of government while feeling that any cost is likely borne by others and not themselves), suggest that referenda are not liberty-supporting. I agree with the many arguments that have been put forward that voting is a poor way to make choices and may create moral difficulties for the voter. See the vulgar URL http://www.fuckthevote.org/ and the excellent site http://www.anti-state.com/ for details. It is enough for me to call it dementia that people keep doing the same behavior (voting) in expectation of different results. That's crazy. It is like going to see a John Wayne film in which the hero dies at the end of the film, hoping each time that he'll live, instead. No matter how many times you watch the film, it'll come out the same. No matter how many elections you vote in, you'll not get more liberty from their results. >Instead of giving the appearance of legitimacy to the election >we will if I have enough influence be questioning that legitimacy. I encourage you to do what you think is right. However, the LP has a tendency to betray the individuals who create its value, especially when they dare to call into question the process of electoral politics. It is very likely, though, that you can do a great deal of good by encouraging the LP groups at city and county levels to place precinct judges and poll watchers in as many of the election places as possible. A great deal of publicity was gained when some LP poll watchers in Florida observed very great violations of the election laws there in 2000. *Commerce Is Good* > Yes I do make a dollar off each item sold hope this is OK > list wise. Of course it is, John. I encourage everyone on these lists to make money, as much as they can by legitimate means. I shamelessly plug my web sites, and encourage the same behavior in others. Your words are your property; your posts to any list are your property until they arrive at the list (at which point they enter a quasi-public domain status, owing in part to some of the confused ideas in the Yahoo Groups policies and terms of service) and you have every reason to include messages with commercial content. Having said that, I am also happy to delete spam junk e-mails and moderate or ban the accounts of those who post them here. It is one thing to include commercial content in a .sig file or within the body of a message which is otherwise relevant to the topics of Awdal's economy and individual liberty; it is quite another to spam the list with off-topic advertising. The first approach represents a benefit to the users of this list, who may wish to buy such stuff as your T-shirts and teddies bear, and also motivates more thoughtful posts on topic; the second is a nuisance. I enjoy crushing vermin. *Indoctrination and Freedom* >It has been and is a monumental task to untangle oneself >from the government in this country, (or perhaps I am just >weak?) I'm in complete agreement that it is a monumental task. Consider, for example, the close relationship between your bank account information and various databases, such as the National Security Agency's and UKUSA treaty organization's ECHELON. If you are using your Social Security Number in any banking transaction, which is required if you are the signatory on any checking, savings, or loan account by a USA licensed bank, you are in trouble. I've said it before, and will enjoy saying it again: the US Banking Privacy Law might better be called "the US bank invasion of privacy law" if truth-in-labeling could be applied to acts of Congress. A wise man, Henry David Thoreau http://www.houstonspacesociety.org/civil.html made the worthy point in 1848 that trade and commerce, if they were not made of a substance as elastic as India rubber, could not bounce over and around all the obstacles that legislators are constantly putting in their way, and that if these legislators were to be judged solely on the results of their work rather than also partly on their stated intentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished with the mischief makers who put obstacles on railroad tracks. For my own part, I think most legislators deserve to be classed as traitors and punished (after an appropriate drum head trial) rather more severely. *Better Money, Greater Privacy* It is possible to make great strides toward personal privacy. The quality of your money is a key ingredient in your pursuit of privacy. GoldMoney.com, for example, runs a private online digital gold-backed currency from web servers based in Jersey, the Channel Islands. That puts your transactions beyond the reach of most USA subpoenas including both civil and criminal requests for information. A Jersey court simply won't respect most such requests. Your financial privacy is important, whether or not you engage in any criminal activity at all, since the litigation-mad American legal system provides incentive for anyone who knows you (spouses, children, vendors, customers, regulators, etc.) to file a lawsuit against you or (in the case of a civil asset forfeiture proceeding) against your monetary assets. USA regulated banks are an idiotically bad place to store wealth: the IRS and other agencies can levy your account without warning; your assets in such accounts may be frozen or seized without notice, etc. http://www.GoldMoney.com/ Another example of better money is 3PGold, provided by the good folks at 3PSecure.com. These guys operate from the Commonwealth of Dominica and use servers based, I think, on Sealand. http://www.3PPay.com/ I think. I think it wise to point out that the terms of service agreements of these two companies should be reviewed by you in detail. I don't think it wise to engage in illegal practices or quasi-legal but vindictively prosecuted behaviors like money laundering, and I am fairly confident that a rationally conducted investigation into actual wrongdoing on the part of a GoldMoney or 3PGold customer might result in voluntary compliance with a subpoena, but, at the very least, the standard of what constitutes wrongdoing in Jersey and in Dominica is different, and in many ways better, than it is in the USA. If you are doing what you may to avoid taxes, keep your wealth, do business with others of like mind, and seek to protect your privacy, I am very confident that you'll find an agreeable set of vendors in the folks at GoldMoney and 3PSecure *and* you may be impressed with the attitude of officials in the Channel Islands, in Dominica, and in Sealand toward those pursuits. Next point, the implications of the technology available at http://www.Cambist.net/ to automagically spend your GoldMoney goldgrams as if they were e-gold allows you to safeguard your privacy and property using the clever choice of jurisdictions made by GoldMoney proprietors for your benefit, while enjoying the many fine services provided by e-gold merchants and market makers worldwide. So, yes, e-gold made an unfortunate choice, I think, in basing its services on web servers hosted in the USA, and, yes, it has by far the dominant market share of the gold economy, but, no, that need not interfere with your ability to serve your own interests very well indeed. I should like to point out that Cambist is working as fast as it can to integrate 3PGold, eBullion, and other digital currencies into its automated system as soon as possible, so that you may enjoy as many choices as possible. *Free Yourself* The key to your individual freedom is private property. The key to your property is money. The bankers know it. That's why the collaborate with government to make it easier for them to get between you and your property, so that you may become a debt slave, a wage slave, or foolishly encumber your property to secure otherwise unsecured debts. Caveat emptor is only the beginning. "Let the buyer beware" does much good, but the seller must beware, also. For the seller who accepts credit card payments or, worse, PayPal, is doing himself a disservice. Charge backs happen. And your agreement with a credit card vendor provides for that vendor to suck money right out of your bank account for any charge backs. Be very careful with such services. >some of us were essentially born into government service. Indeed. And others are falling into debt peonage through student loans, federally "guaranteed" mortages, and other "benefits" which entice and beguile and entrap. Again, caveat omni. Let everyone beware. >Raised with the full expectation that government was our mother, > our father, protector and punisher. Yup. One might use terms like "indoctrinated" as well, to correctly assess the damage done by the public school system. I am in full agreement with Thomas Jefferson that an elitist attitude toward education is intolerable, and that open admissions is an important feature of many schools. However, even he noted that any attempt to fund public schools with taxes would turn them into propaganda camps. I think his innnovative land grant concept was a useful effort to deter that progression toward evil. It failed. >Growing up with NASA and Army Missile Command in Huntsville, AL, >with depression error parents to whom denying government was >and still is denying god maybe worse, with each break that >rationality demands I find that there is a deep and not so >subtle conditioning that must be overcome. Yes! Your parents share something in common with mine: they came to maturity during the Great Depression (well, I consider anyone who has reached the stern age of 13 to be potentially mature), and saw little prospect for advancement. A great many people fell into the error of thinking that their government was helping them out of the economic difficulties of the Depression, in no small part because some of the programs did provide jobs, money, and relief in a time of great turmoil. It is probably just to blame the prior generations for many of the difficulties we've inherited, but it is largely pointless to assess blame. Finding fault has little to do with finding solutions. *Pull the Plugs* You have been conditioned. That's why the film "The Matrix" is such a delightfully clever allegory, as author L. Neil Smith has been wont to point out. People all over the world are being used as batteries to power the monsters of local, county, state, national, and world governments. In a great many cases, more than half of their wealth is being sucked from them before they even realize it. Withholding and other banes are incredibly destructive to individual productivity, wealth, and liberty. That's why there has been such a huge proliferation of tax havens and jurisdictions, and why the use of online technologies affords so much hope to us all. We can yank those metaphorical tubes from our spines and awaken into a different reality, just as the characters in "The Matrix" have done. Doing so creates opportunities for us to manipulate the system for our own benefit, but it also involves us in some other difficulties. The system into which you've been indoctrinated, and in which you find yourself immersed, has agents and agencies which seek to limit your freedom. They depend on keeping a huge number of people tied into their system. Your comment on Nixon is well-taken, although I would not agree with canonizing him. His tapes of private conversations, his egregious excesses, and his behavior in the White House were not any different from his predecessors. Johnson and Kennedy's excesses were as large or larger, and the offal smell of corruption can be traced into the 1820s. Nixon did us all a service by being such a feckless crook, getting caught repeatedly. *Final Acts of Desperation* What's being done in Afghanistan, and what is proposed for Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, and the Philippines, among other places, is very strong evidence of the desperation in government circles. I've heard insiders in that milieu speak of 2010 and 2019 as their internal forecasts for the date beyond which they cannot conceive of holding control, based on various models they use for such guesses. Physicist Gerard K. O'Neill, who is a legend in the space migration movement, said, shortly before his death, that the rigid responses of government are a good sign. He noted the comparison to mechanical systems, in which a system becomes most rigid just prior to failure; often it flies apart moments after reaching its ultimate rigidity. For my own part, I think the acceleration of the out-of-control nature of these things is going to proceed much faster than those in government realize, in no small part because there are so many millions of people who can and do effective computer coding, and so much potential for these basic ideas to be copied and implemented in all sorts of places, even off planet. (I know of half a dozen serious efforts to place web servers on the Moon, for example.) *Out of Control Is Good* At the Awdal Roads and Houston Space Society conference in May (proceedings and videos available online at http://www.awdal.com/shop ) Joseph Dale Robertson predicted the demise of the Federal Reserve System. Quoting extensively from a book _Out of Control_ by an author whose name I forget, Dale pointed out that the Federal Reserve is fighting a distributed network of intelligent agents, which includes a lot of the people reading this missive. He demonstrated effectively that they cannot hope to maintain control for much longer. It may well be that the current 11-in-a-row set of interest rate cuts shows a substantial weakness in that system. Certainly, the central bank in Japan has cut interest rates to zero, and has not been able to move them up significantly for many months. Technology and economics are on our side. Politics and politicians won't ever be very favorable toward individual liberty, but that's okay. In many ways, they have made such nuisances of themselves that they are now superfluous. Sure, they can continue to harry individuals, and will do so, but their era of control is ending. And they know it. Which is why government officials have been talking about doing nothing more in Somalia than dropping daisy cutters on suspected "terrorist" (or, perhaps, from the perspective of those defending their homes, "freedom fighter") enclaves. As they showed on 12 July 1993, the butchers in government are capable of wiping out individuals on both a retail and on a wholesale level, but doing so, as the events of 3 October 1993 prove, does not wipe out resistance. Projecting force has become terribly expensive. Defense technologies are cheap and plentiful. Economics benefits a distributed system of exchange, and limits the ability of those who seek control. Ultimately, these factors are going to overwhelm politics. Best wishes to you in this holiday season, and my polite Regards, Jim http://www.GoldBarter.com/ --> a free market http://www.ezez.com/free/freejim.html --> a speaker on these ideas, and more, such a deal! Permission is given to publication of this essay, or excerpts from it, provided the author and his GoldBarter.com link are included. Otherwise, this essay is property of Jim Davidson and copyright 2001 by him, except for the quoted material of others. --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: archive@jab.org To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.e-gold.com/stats.html lets you observe the e-gold system's activity now!
