The Jedi sacrifice truth and justice are sacrificed to ambition. If good and evil utilize identical methods and the justifications of expediency, they become mere factions instead of opposites, allied together in a common war against liberty. May this serve as a warning to all who see in emergency circumstances a reason to betray principles and adopt the methods of the Dark Side. In the name of doing good, one only becomes part of the problem, no matter how many excuses seem to be at hand. [Full Article]

From The Rude Awakening Newsletter (Wednesday, October 20, 2004):

The IMF was conceived in July 1944 at an international conference held at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.

John Maynard Keynes and Harry White, according to the exhibition in the IMF’s main foyer, envisioned the IMF “helping each county set a fixed but changeable exchange rate for it currency BASED ON GOLD.”

After WWII, the U.S. already held most of the world’s money in the form of dollars and gold reserves. But by 1947, the U.S. had accumulated 70% of the world’s gold reserves.

Today, the U.S. Gold Reserve is just over 8,000 tons – which is less than a quarter of the world’s official reserves. It is worth about $100 billion, or 1.5% of the U.S. national debt.

The President today is the focus of political and increasingly social life, dominating, with the connivance of the media and popular entertainment, regardless of which of the two political cartels he may nominally belong to, mainstream debate on social and financial issues and is presented to the public as an all-purpose master of every issue and situation, a veritable demigod in his reputation for near omniscience and infallibility. For this, we can thank war. [Full article]

Along the lines of today’s Paul Craig Roberts LRC column (The Wars We Can’t Afford to Lose), is this ridiculous story:

Swedish MPs Want “Man Tax”
05/10/2004 09:40 AM Reuters

A group of Swedish parliamentarians have proposed levying a “man tax” to cover the social cost of violence against women.

“It must be obvious to all of us that society has a huge problem with male violence against women and that has a cost,” Left Party deputy Gudrun Schyman told Swedish radio.

“We must have a discussion where men understand they as a group have a responsibility,” said Schyman, one of the party members to sign the motion for debate on the new tax.

Schyman said in a headline-hitting 2002 speech that discrimination in Sweden followed “the same pattern” as in Afghanistan under the Taliban.

“The freedoms won by Americans in 1776 were lost in the revolution of 1913,” wrote Frank Chodorov. Indeed, a man’s home used to be his castle. The income tax, however, gave the government the keys to every door and the sole right to change the locks. Today the American people are no longer the master and the government has ceased to be the servant. How could this be? The Revolution fought in the name of the inherent natural rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness promised to enthrone the gains of individualism. Instead, federal taxation bribes the States and individuals to serve the interests of ever-greater submission to the centralized will. How did tax slavery come to the land of the free? [Full Article]

As so much in legends, the historical truth isn’t what matters. Instead it is the legendary deeds of Robin Hood that excite us. The man who challenged the state, who dared to take what the rotten government claimed to own, the man who not only did these deeds himself, but also recruited others to help him and in doing so, gained the trust and affection of his people. It’s a legend that will never lose its appeal. [Entire Story]

The legend of William Tell, the Swiss legendary hero who symbolizes the struggle for individual and political freedom, has its origins in medieval Switzerland, in the tax rebellions that launched the Everlasting League and the defeat of an empire. [MORE]

On February 4th, President Bush eulogized the life of Winston Churchill. The president described Winston Churchill as a “great man” and quickly zeroed in on the mistress that both Bush and Churchill share: war. “He was a prisoner in the Boer War, a controversial strategist in the Great War. He was the rallying voice of the Second World War, and a prophet of the Cold War.” Indeed, there doesn’t seem to have been a war—or an opportunity for war—that Churchill wasn’t associated with during his long career.

Bush also recited Churchill’s famous retort that “History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it” adding that “history has been kind to Winston Churchill, as it usually is to those who help save the world,” surely hoping that history will be kind to George W. Bush.

Except this history is a myth. [MORE]