Pro-Liberty News and Opinion | Libertarian Voluntaryist

The Liberty dollar is a private currency that has been in circulation in the United States since 1998. It was created by NORFED in an attempt to provide a competing currency to the U.S. Dollar. The silver and gold pieces are made of either .9999 pure silver or gold respectively. The paper certificates can be traded in for silver or gold that is currently being stored in a warehouse in Idaho. The popularity of the Liberty Dollar has been growing in many states across the nation. This increase in interest seems to represent a desire to change back to a currency that is actually backed by something. The metal-based system is meant to be a hedge against inflation so your money does not loose its value unlike our current fiat system.

The U.S. Mint has recently declared that Liberty Dollars are illegal. In a public statement they said “The United States Mint is the only entity that can produce coins”, and that it “is a crime” to spend the Liberty Dollar. The first statement is not entirely false. The U.S. Mint is the lone coin creator of the United States, but the Liberty Dollar never claimed to be a coin. In fact, they consistently try to distance themselves from the Federal Reserve Notes. The Liberty Dollar is actually backed by something tangible. The Federal Reserve note is barely worth the paper it is printed on. The government continues to have more and more money printed and the notes continue to loose value. With every dollar they print, the amount of money you make at your job becomes less. The more they print, the higher the cost of goods becomes. This is why there is inflation. With the Liberty Dollar, this would not happen, because there has to be gold or silver in a vault somewhere to exchange the dollars with.

This recent claim from the government is complete bullshit. The Liberty Dollar never claimed to be ‘legal tender’ and never will. This is just another attempt by the government to kill the free-market and end competition with one of their many monopolies. In 1998 when the Liberty Dollar was founded, the government said there was nothing illegal about it. Now that it is gaining popularity, they start to cry foul. I can see the fear in their eyes. Please, if you own a business, this is your chance to stick it to the government. Start accepting Liberty Dollars. If you are a consumer, start spending them where they are accepted. For more information check out libertydollar.org. On their site you can see where you can exchange U.S. Dollars for Liberty Dollars, or you can buy straight from them. Also, you can see a list of places that accept them in your state. Support freedom. Support the Liberty Dollar.

The minimum wage is a hot button issue in todays political climate, especially with the November elections just around the corner. Some candidates want to raise it to a ‘living wage’ and some think it is fine where it is. This issue hits close to home, in fact, because a law was recently passed in Pennsylvania to raise the minimum wage. The point of this article, however, is to pose an alternative and more logical solution. Abolish the minimum wage.

What happens when you need to pay people more to make a product or provide service? The price of that product or service increases. An easy way to see this is to imagine what would happen if the minimum wage were raised to $100 per hour. At first this might seem like a good idea, but take a closer look. If I own a record store and I have to pay an employee $100 an hour to work there my CDs will raise in price to an amount probably close to $300. In this case you still have to work three hours to buy a CD. Things just become more expensive.

The minimum wage is also a direct violation of our rights as employees and employers. If I, at my record store, want to pay someone $2 an hour to sweep my parking lot I should be allowed to, as long as the other person agrees to it. If you are doing a job that is worth $5.15 an hour then you will get paid that much. If you think that you are being under paid then find somewhere to work where they pay you better. That is your right.

The only entity that is helped by a minimum wage is the government. The propaganda behind it is almost ingenious. They tell the poor and middle class that the minimum wage will be beneficial. They tell us we will make more money and that we will become more wealthy, which is only a half truth. We do start to make more money, but we absolutely do not become more wealthy. We now have to pay more for goods and pay more money to the government in taxes.

The minimum wage is a free-market nightmare and needs to be stopped. If we abolished the minimum wage and returned to the gold standard this countries economy would be in a lot better shape. These ideas, however, would be detrimental to the government so I doubt we will see them implemented anytime soon.

Although this blog is primarily for politically based articles, I feel the need to share this experience.

This passed weekend the Nintendo Fusion Tour stopped by the University of Pittsburgh. Via word of mouth I discovered that they had a few Wii’s available for people to play. The first thought that crossed my mind was, “How can I get away with stealing one of these things.” That thought quickly passed however, after I realized they had large bouncer esque bald men sitting at the entrance to the booth. Nintendo was prepared for me.

On a more serious note, I waited in line to play Excite Truck for about a half hour. The game was amazing and the ‘Wiimote‘ was implemented very well. For those of you who are not video game nerds the ‘Wiimote’ is the controller for Nintendo’s new video game console Wii. It is a motion-sensor controller and is held similar to a television remote control. It is also a lot smaller and more comfortable than I expected it to be. For the game Excite Truck, you hold the controller sideways (horizontally), in both hands and you turn it like a steering wheel to control the vehicle. The ‘2′ button on the controller is the acceleration and the up direction on the D-pad provides your truck with a boost. These simple controls provide for an extremely fun game at least from what I could tell with the one race I was allowed play. The controls were so intuitive that I was able to secure second place by the end of the game.

Here are a couple of pics of me playing with the Wii:

From what I could tell from the game I played, the Wii is going to be a HUGE success. If the ‘Wiimote’ is implemented this well in other games for the system, Nintendo may just have a winner on their hands. Let the console wars begin Nov. 19th.

According to a recent article on Reuters, there has been a push for FDA safety reforms:

Editors at a major medical journal and members of a drug-safety advisory panel joined calls on Monday for major changes to improve the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s oversight of medicines on the market.

If you read the article it is obvious that these ‘professionals’ want more laws giving the FDA more power and more money to regulate the food and drug industries. If these so-called professionals were really worried about the health and safety of the American people they would allow the free-market regulate these industries. If a privately owned organization provided ratings for foods, for instance, they would be held responsible for making bad decisions. The government, on the other hand, is never held responsible for mistakes they make.

As far as drugs go, they should all be sold over the counter and the drug war should be ended immediately. As a consumer, you should be responsible for what you put into your own body. If you believe you know what drug you need then you should be able to purchase it on your own, without the need of a prescription from a doctor. The current FDA regulations require that the drug companies shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their drugs tested and approved. Without these regulations, drugs would become significantly cheaper and new companies could be started in order to compete with the current monopolies. Presently, it is almost impossible for new companies to raise enough money to get their drugs approved.

All laws restricting the possesion and use of any drug should be legalized. Once again (and I can not stress this enough), it is each persons individual right to do whatever they please to their own body. Any law restricting this is a direct violation our natural rights. I know that a lot of people think ‘I am not a drug user so this doesn’t affect me’, but you could not be farther from the truth. Drug related crimes are a direct effect of the war on drugs. If drugs were legalized there would be no black market and no drug related crime. If you look back at the prohibition of alcohol there were gangsters that sold alcohol to the people who wanted it. When there is a product that is in demand, the market will provide for it whether it is illegal or not. When the product is illegal however, the black market creates a culture of violence around that product. This is why there should be no laws that restrict the freedoms of the American people. No. Scratch that. There should be no laws in this country that restrict the freedoms of any human being.

I was looking around Michael Badnarik’s campaign website today and I found this video:

It is amazing to me how we knew what freedom was in the 1950’s but we seem to forget today. Maybe thats because we have Socialism implemented in this country today. Maybe it is because cops abuse their power daily and no one seems to stand up for their rights. Whatever the reason, we need to take a lesson from this video.

At one time, our government knew what freedom and liberty were. At one time, there were actually Public Service Announcements to show us our liberties and freedoms and how to protect them, but not anymore.

Today, all we have is government commercials showing us how our rights are trampled on by various government agencies. Pro drug war commercials are a wonderful example. The government uses our money to shove this propaganda down our throats. They tell us that drugs are bad and that drugs cause crime, but what they don’t tell you is that you have the right to do whatever you want with your body. They will never tell you that the reason drugs cause crime is because they are illegal, but that is an argument (and an article) for another day.

Watch that video and watch it again then remember, freedom isn’t free, we need to fight and raise hell to bring freedom back to this country. Stand up for your rights or you will never be free.

According to the following quote from a transcript of a recent press conference with House Speaker Dennis Hastert, a tip line has been set up to confidently call and report molestation by Congress:

We’ve asked the Ethics Committee to look into this matter and we asked for criminal investigations to be opened by the Justice Department, the FBI and the State of Florida. We have a toll-free number where people can confidently call and we’ve reached out to experts around the country to put a system in place to make sure this never happens again.

The Tip number is: 1-866-384-0481.

The number in the above quote is wrong. The actual number is 1-866-348-0481.

Thats right people, now is the time to call in and tell Congress how they have been fucking us all with the laws they have been making. Call in and tell them how eminent domain rapes our property rights. Call in and tell them how the patriot act rapes our right to privacy. Call in and tell them how gun restrictions rape our right to bear arms. Congress has been raping us for years and now is the time to tell them about it. They asked for it.