I just chanced upon "Consumerist's 4 Most Frequently Given Ways To Kick Ass":


Follow through the "Get Started" links to learn how to use each technique. Of the four, I've used Executive Customer Service and Chargeback in the past...and they can make a difference.

The latest addition to this site's archive is the essay "Anarchist Socialism" by John William Lloyd -- a frequent contributor to Benjamin Tucker's individual anarchist periodical Liberty (1881-1908) through most of its lifespan.

“Anarchist Socialism” is undated but it seems to be have been written in the 1920s or '30s. The piece is unedited (by me) except for the deletion of passages with material that would confuse the reader: for example, the mention of Lloyd's obscure acquaintances. The punctuation and grammar is sometimes antiquated and remains so due to my reluctance to edit the work of someone deceased.

Despite the word “Socialism” in its title, the essay should be of interest to libertarians. First, it includes a retrospective of Lloyd’s own experiences with the 19th century Anarchist movement, including memories of Tucker and commentary on luminaries such as Josiah Warren. Second, Lloyd was the author of several works, mostly of poetry, that were heavily promoted by Liberty; they included The Anarchists’ March, The Dwellers in Vale Sunrise, and The Red Heart in a White World. To the extent there is a poet laureate of individualist anarchism, it is surely John William Lloyd.

Third, the term “socialism” as used by 19th century individualist radicals differed in meaning from the word today as dramatically as the word “liberal” today differs from its 18th century usage. As used by Lloyd and his contemporaries, socialism per se – as opposed to State Socialism -- did not negate private property or the primacy of the individual but referred more to voluntary, co-operative ventures through which a just society could be achieved. Thus, many of the voluntary communities of early libertarianism could be viewed through either a socialist or individualist lens. To the extent that individualist anarchists who sometimes used the label “socialist” had a point of overlap with collectivist-socialists, it is that they agreed with the labor theory of value. Since individualist anarchists also insisted on the primacy of contract, however, their position devolved to the statement: interest and rent are invalid practices, nevertheless everyone has the right to make a foolish contract, and no third party has the right to interfere.

To access "Anarchist Socialism" click here or click on [Read the Rest} below.

[ Read the rest ... ]

This blog's ongoing discussion of the radical personal-freedom guide Bye Bye Big Brother has a salutary side effect: it spotlights the fact that there is no one or pure path to personal freedom. We are discussing strategy, not morality. What constitutes useful advice to X (as opposed to Y) will depend on highly variable factors such as personality, life goals, finances and other circumstances.

A good example, of this variability sprang from the post in which I explored the idea of Disposable Attorneys. I wrote, Use a disposable attorney to ask sensitive questions that should not be asked of your permanent legal advisor. What questions are those? Anything so private that you wish to take it to the grave. An attorney -- who is both a friend and reader -- blasted me in an affable manner for the very idea of withholding what might be necessary information from a permanent adviser aka attorney. He offered a real world experience of a court hearing in which he was blind-sided by damaging information that his client had not disclosed. My friend had a point and Grandpa (the author of Bye Bye Big Brother) had warned that lawyer would hate his advice. To some significant degree, however, the reader and I were not discussing the same scenario. I actually agree that a competent defense in court usually requires the rendering of all necessary information -- which, BTW, doesn't preclude going to a pre-attorney to evaluate for yourself and privately what is "necessary". The scenario for which a disposable attorney seems most valuable is one in which you are structuring your "affairs" -- e.g. preparing to move your person and assets outside of the States -- and you are testing where the limits of law and enforcement may lie. When speaking to an attorney, you must always remember that he or she is an officer of the court and -- even if confidentiality is maintained -- you may be placing your permanent lawyer in an awkward situation, a situation that could backlash against him or her if you are ever charged with a crime. Grandpa gives the example of an attorney who provided assistance on getting a second passport; the passport seeker was busted; the attorney escaped only because the arrested man did not rat her out. Readers of this blog would not violate the law in such a manner -- and I would discourage them from doing so -- but we all need to consider the possible consequences of making untraditional arrangments in our personal lives and finances.

Another example of variability came from feedback from a woman whose writing I've enjoyed for years. I advocate a mild form of practical sustainability. That is, I will not give up my ethernet or Satellite TV but I put in some tomato plants and I make my own bread rather than trudging to the grocery store for the pre-packed tasteless stuff. By contrast, the woman adamantly rejects any strategy that requires her to grow a plant. Fair enough. She is not me... This is a friendly disagreement in which there is no right or wrong, only solutions that are highly variable.

Perhaps the problems of personal strategies should be discussed as much as their value. In that spirit, let me address the main problem I have with maintaining strong privacy.

[ Read the rest ... ]

The best take I have yet seen on McCain/Palin comes from Sinfest:
Imperil the World 2 and
Imperil the World 3. I also got a laugh from John Sherffius' "Oh, Never Mind", and Lisa Benson's "He's taking it quite well".

Last year I was fascinated when a presenter at our Linux Users Group showed how to connect to a Motorola cell phone with a USB cable, and access all the data stored in the phone. Well, what was once a task for a techie has now been simplified for cops and random crooks:


This means that you don't want to loan your cell phone to someone you don't know, because in seconds they can grab all your address book, instant messages, emails, and whatever else you keep there....without your knowledge. Of course, if you're crossing a border or flying on a plane, you don't have a choice about surrendering your phone for examination. So please purge all data from your phones that is the least bit sensitive! (Hat tip to Bruce Schneier.)

And the smart just keeps coming...

The San Francisco Chronicle reports, The boyfriend of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's unwed, pregnant daughter will join the family of the Republican vice presidential candidate at the GOP convention in St. Paul, Minn. Levi Johnston's mother said her 18-year-old son left Alaska on Tuesday morning to join the Palin family at the convention where Sen. John McCain will officially receive the Republican nomination for president. The boy's mother, Sherry Johnston, said there had been no pressure put on her son to marry 17-year-old Bristol Palin and the two teens had made plans to wed before it was known she was pregnant. "This is just a bonus," Johnston said.

This is exactly what Palin needs to do -- embrace the young man as family and publicly glow about the expected grandchild as wonderful news. Make the liberals (and not the conservatives) be the ones to cry out "OMG, a teenager had sex! The horror! The horror!" Make them look petty and ridiculous, anti-family and anti-forgiveness. Let them take the rap for politically exploiting the sex life of a 17-year-old; let them be the ones to smirk with glee or foam with faux outrage over a child that is wanted and welcomed. Meanwhile, as long as Palin's daughter carries the fetus to term and marries the father, conservatives will show compassion and applaud the manner in which a commonplace -- albeit unfortunate -- family situation is being handled. This kid's pregnancy is a plus for the GOP.

I wouldn't be surprised if Palin literally embraces Johnston on the GOP convention stage. What a photo op that would be! Not that Palin needs to draw media attention by dangling enticements. The woman has accomplished a near-impossible feat. She's made Obama 2nd-page news.

Like everyone else, I was stunned by John McCain's choice of VP: Sarah Palin. I fall on the "stroke of brilliance" side of the debate on whether his choice was wisdom or folly. Why? With one announcement, McCain changed the election dialogue -- something he needed to do because the conversation wasn't going at all well for Republicans. He established a wow factor for his campaign; the spotlight shifted from Barack; the evangelical GOP base consolidated and opened its wallet; women voters are likely to be more receptive; the Dems are scrabbling on exactly how to lambast Palin. Even the mud being flung at Palin is not likely to stick. Her 17-year-old daughter's pregnancy is not alienating the conservatives who are applauding the daughter's decision to carry the child to term and to marry the father. Meanwhile, the liberal criticism re: the pregnancy revealing Palin's hypocrisy about teens abstaining from sex is strange; as one blogger commented, "[it is] as misguided as asking a non-violent person why her spouse is violent toward her." And, even if the scandal about her arranging to have her brother-in-law fired from his government post is true, the apparent circumstances are such that Palin may become a heroine in the eyes of other women. Those circumstances apparently include the man's tendency to brutally beat Palin's sister. As for her inexperience...frankly, I think that is a selling point. She is not an insider, she is a fresh voice and a new force. What's Barack been running on and for?: CHANGE.

BTW, I am not exactly what you'd call "a fan" of Sarah Palin. Nor of McCain or the GOP. But McCain is making some wise moves. Another example...his decision to hold a minimalist GOP convention and to tour the expected devastation of Hurricane Gustav instead of being "man of the hour" in Minneapolis. This move accomplished several important goals:

1) Bush and Cheney had an acceptable excuse to NOT attend the Convention and, so, kept a salutary distance away from McCain,
2) the Republicans gave the appearance of putting the American people before party politics;
3) the much, much smaller GOP Convention could not be unfavorably compared by the media to the massive Dem-fest; the almost empty convention center looked like an expression of compassion rather than of unpopularity;
4) on his tour, McCain both acted and looked Presidential; he was "on site" to take credit for the vast improvement over Katrina in terms of co-ordination, police presence in New Orleans etc.;
5) objectionable aspects of the GOP Convention almost entirely escaped media attention -- e.g. the platform's resolution to ban abortion with no exceptions for a woman's health or rape.

As unbelievable as it seems after 8 years of Bush, McCain could win. The world could get Frick instead of Frack and still be f*cked in the process.

Freedom makes my muscles ache.

As an aspect of the frugality that allows us to declare a large degree of independence, we've been stacking the 4 bush cords of wood that will keep us warm throughout the winter without having to use the much costlier and less efficient electric heat. When the airtight stove is blazing, the heat goes into the walls, which radiate warmth so that being in a room feels like being wrapped in a gentle heating blanket. I like tending the fire, shifting the wood, watching the flames. But the stacking bit is a pain...literally.

Winter is going to come early this year and last long. The consensus here is that winter will also be a hard one -- perhaps as hard as ten years ago when the frost line went down five feet. Our barn shifted that year and the cement floor in the garage cracked. We were told the barn couldn't be fixed without extensive work on the structure...that is, until we hired two retired farmers who managed to straighten it out in an afternoon with next to no equipment; farmers are wizard at unconventional repairs. But the garage floor is a reminder of the bitterest winter we've had on the farm.

Perversely, perhaps, I am looking forward to it.

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It'll doubtless be a few days before I can be "fair and balanced" with comparable McCain jokes, but those who watched the Democratic convention may enjoy Jim Morin's This is All About You and Drew Sheneman's The Deposit is Non-Refundable.

Ye gods. Says Greenwald:


Did I miss some laws being passed? Since when is "protesting" a crime? To say nothing of "planning a protest." Is that all the pretext they need to raid your home, and seize your computer and journals? (Speaking of which, how many of those raided were journalists? Just a thought.)

Can there be any doubt left that the U.S. has reached the status of a police state?

(Hat tip to Unqualified Offerings.)

It looks like the choice in November in the U.S. is going to be between (a) a young, callow reformer* with an aging hawkish establishment insider, or (b) an aging hawkish establishment insider with a young, callow reformer. Heckuva choice, Yankees.**


* When comparing "experience," let's not forget that while Palin has been governor for only 21 months, Obama has been a U.S. Senator for only 44 months.

** I lack a better term for residents of the United States, which, after all, does not comprise all of the Americas.

This doesn't apply to me, but I thought I'd share it: Microsoft's live.com service collects a lot of data about you for marketing purposes. You can opt out of this collection, but it's not easy, as Chris Crum reports:

Quote of the day:




Dmitry Orlov has a fascinating presentation entitled "Closing the 'Collapse Gap': the USSR was better prepared for collapse than the US", which is being hosted by the site Energy Bulletin. He opens, My talk tonight is about the lack of collapse-preparedness here in the United States. I will compare it with the situation in the Soviet Union, prior to its collapse.I watched the Soviet Union collapse, and I have tried to put my observations into a concise message. I will leave it up to you to decide just how urgent a message it is. For me, the most interesting aspect of the presentation is its focus on the pre-collapse personal habits developed by the Soviet people and the differences in social patterns -- e.g. the comparative dearth of private home ownership in Soviet Russia and the impact of this pattern re: the collapse.

I am not a Chicken Little when it comes to the predicted implosion of the United States -- for various reasons, I think Orlov paints too black a canvas -- but I agree that the economic and political situation has gone too far for anything but a hard landing for both your prosperity and your freedom. The "recession" is far from over; no one knows the frantic backroom tactics by which the dollar etc. is being propped up by a Republican administration desperate to maintain an economic status quo until the election is over. Rest assured: the cynical movers-and-shakers don't care about the destruction wrought, the impossible promises, the white-hot inflationary printing presses... They will do whatever improves their short-term political prospects and we won't see the pricetag until after November.

I do not mean to slam the Republicans more than the Democrats. Neither McCain nor Obama offer any proximate hope for the economy or liberty. Indeed, although Orlov/the Soviet Union had only one political 'alternative' (the Communists) I often think the United States has de facto only one party -- there is so little substantive difference between Republican or Democrat on anything but side issues like gay marriage. Moreover, I find myself cringing at the Democrats' cult-like response to Obama -- complete with his DNC speech in front of background of faux Greek temple; I find myself myself muttering into my coffee, "I hope this tinpot-God doesn't win." Then I realize the alternative. Either one of these men is a car crash, and the way to step out-of-the-way is to realize that the largest part of your future and safety depends upon yourself, not upon a politician.

Depending on who you are and how you prepare, the impact of the next few years can be minimized considerably. Nothing I can say now is remarkably different from what I've harped on for the last two years in this blog -- and you minght want to go to the lower left-hand side of this page to do a site search on terms like privacy or voluntary simplicity or frugality. (Note: the Orlov presentation is dated Dec. 2006...that's how long the current situation has been predictable.) Remember: social and economic inertia is your friend; the economy is more likely to grind down slowly than to collapse -- and there will always be pockets of prosperity. This gives you both time and opportunity to get out of debt, get out of US dollars, become as independent/diverse as possible, lower your expenses, network with likeminded others, erect privacy protection...

I swear, every time I think electronic voting machines have reached the limit of absurdity, someone pushes the limit farther out. Now I learn that election workers have been taking the machines home with them.


If I ever needed more evidence that these election officials are completely clueless about security, this is it. First is the foolishness of storing these in the garage -- I wonder, do these people store their life savings in the garage? No? Not secure enough, perhaps? But then suppose that a few election officials are slightly, um, less than fully trustworthy, with a personal bias or perhaps a desire to "deliver [Ohio's] electoral votes" to a certain candidate. Somehow I think letting them take the machines home to play with for the night is a bad idea.

I've offered many arguments against the use of voting machines. Here's one more: paper ballots are the only technology these officials comprehend. I wonder if any of them would allow election workers to take full ballot boxes home for a few days, unsupervised, along with an ample supply of blank ballots.

(Hat tip to Bruce Schneier.)

Another of those rare bits of good news:


Background: "fair use" of a small portion of copyrighted material, for education, journalism, criticism, or satire, has always been permitted under copyright law. The truly vile Digital Millenium Copyright Act, thanks to heavy lobbying, tilted the playing field far in the direction of copyright owners, by allowing them to demand that material be removed from the Internet on a mere allegation of infringement. As a vain measure to prevent this power from being misused, the DMCA allowed legal recourse if the "takedown" notice involved misrepresentation of the infringement. Up to now, DMCA "misrepresentation" has been prosecuted about as often as false allegations of child abuse during divorce proceedings (i.e., approximately never). Now Judge Fogel has taken some of that advantage away from Big Media, by ruling that falsely claiming a fair use is "infringement" is, in fact, misrepresentation.

A salute to the Electronic Frontier Foundation for winning this ruling!