TDV Week in Review May 5th, 2013

May 5, 2013 / Redmond W /

Laughter at Climate Skeptics and the Assumption of Political Affiliations

You may recall that your weary editor finally gave in and just started getting jiggy with the lefty statist women who tend to throw themselves at him and his African face. I figure that as long as we can agree on raising any offspring without violence and without religion, then that's good enough for the purpose of mating and I don't need to wait for one of the five available anarcho-capitalist women on the planet to come my way. Even if a woman supports state theft and violence against me personally for acting on my beliefs (i.e. not paying taxes), I have to give her a shot unless I want to be celibate. But therein lies another danger…

My latest intimate statist copout invited me to meet her at an after party with some of her friends. I'm allergic to crowds, particularly the sort that you find downtown on a Friday night, but I agreed to come out. The two friends she especially wanted me to meet were an engaged lesbian couple. The party was in a private back room and our foursome –one lesbian couple, one interracial– huddled around a table and looking for all the world like someone was trying to make a politically correct point about diversity.

Because this is Minnesota, the topic turned to the weather. It snowed heavily in late April and then lightly in May. "How can anyone look at this crazy weather and deny global warming?" one of the women asked. "Got to remember to call it 'climate change' so you don't confuse the stupid Republicans," another added. These sorts of comments went on for another minute or so while I bit my tongue and tried hard to hide my exasperation. What struck me, however, was how they just assumed I wouldn't be bothered by their bashing of climate changer skepticism (which they undoubtedly took as unscientific as denying biological evolution). They were as sure of not offending me with that as they were probably sure that I'd support civil rights legislation or that I'd voted for Obama.

Of course, they'd be wrong. Long suffering readers know that I am nowhere near Republican. But an anarchist's curse is the superficial overlap on half the issues with both the right and the left. This latest instance was no surprise to me. It was just a reminder of what a hopelessly minority opinion true human liberty currently is. My present company wanted humans to have the freedom to contract in loving relationships beyond the state's current bigotry-based allowances of gender or the state's former ones of race. But in their ridicule of politically-biased climate model skepticism you could hear the longing for "carbon taxes" and state regulation of so many other activities.

Never mind that those politically-biased climate models are proving to be wrong…or that climate clearly changes naturally with or without mankind…or that every perfectly natural variation in the weather on a given date from the previous year is fanned into catalysmic alarmism…or that those damned pictures of polar bears "trapped" on "melting" ice caps are actually just pictures of polar bears who swam out to small ice floes…

Never mind any of that. The takeaway message for me was to stop trying to find anything resembling philosophical and political commonality with the Westerners trapped in the left-right paradigm. Luckily, even though my latest creamy little statist is a textbook leftist, she has also enjoyed several years living in a Third World island nation full of darkies and is more than eager to flee the US permanently again. In fact, she'd love to have an excuse to do so, especially with a brother like your race-betraying editor who has citizenship and a passport with a tiny Caribbean country. This may come in very handy.

Having a second citizenship and passport could come in very handy for you readers, too. The US is already an unbearable place for liberty-minded types and it will get worse. If you don't trust the government or its funny money, you are going to become a target for persecution. It's just ridicule now, but it is very likely to turn into something much worse. Start laying your escape plans now, just in case.

Regards,

Gary Gibson
Editor, The Dollar Vigilante

A lot going on this week in this drone striking, NBA player outing, tax paying world we live in, but most important was Jeff Berwick’s withdrawal from the BitcoinATM project. Read all about it here.

Here’s what else we wrote about this week…

MONDAY, April 29

Rising House Prices are a Central Bank Scam

Gary Gibson on the fallacy of rising property costs.

“It's odd, but Americans get happier when the roofs over their heads get harder to afford. Over the past hundred years or so, Americans have come to see houses not just as another commodity which should be getting cheaper over time thanks to market forces, but as a government-aided "investment" that makes them better off by getting more expensive!

But the unadulterated truth is that housing is just another basic appliance, like a washing machine or a car, but more essential. Society grows richer when the market's efficiencies makes appliances more affordable, not when government intervention makes them harder to afford.”

TUESDAY, April 30

Connecticut Begins Gold Dealer Shutdown

Jeff Berwick on the executive order to shutdown gold dealers.

"If you don't own gold yet, you might really want to hurry up and get some. We keep saying it, but this time it's not just becausephysical precious metals are getting incredibly scarce. Purchasing gold may become outright illegal if what's going on in Connecticut is any indication. Even if Connecticut's plan to track all gold sales isn't a harbinger for a modern day Roosevelt-like ban on gold ownership, it will at the very least drive gold bullion dealers out of business with the cost of complying with the new regulation. That will create artificial scarcity in Connecticut and could set a precident for other US States.”

WEDNESDAY, May 1

How Canada's Tax Day Became My Independence Day

Jeff Berwick doesn’t celebrate his independence on July 1st or 4th, but rather April 30th… Here’s why.

“Having had the bad luck to be born in North America's version of Siberia, Canada, and believing solely in individuals and not a collectivist idea life I always feel a bit left out whenever the local slaves celebrate "Independence Day". Whether it be in Canada, on July 1st or in the US on July 4th or in Mexico on September 16th. I especially like to ask those in the US on July 4th if they "agree with secession?" Most say no and I then usually ask, "So why are you celebrating July 4th?"

But, as April 30th is "tax" day in Canada I have decided to make this is my own personal independence day. Having left Canada in 2003, for all the reasons which I now expound on daily at The Dollar Vigilante, this is now my 10th anniversary of Jeff Berwick's Independence Day."

THURSDAY, May 2

My Official Withdrawal from the BitcoinATM Project

Jeff Berwick explains his departure from the BitcoinATM project.

"Sometimes things don't always go to plan.

As background, a few months ago I was approached by two young entrepreneurs. They had purchased a semi-workable Bitcoin ATM off of another entrepreneur and were excited about the prospects and approached me to help with marketing to the public and prospective franchisees as well as garnering investment interest.

It was a verbal handshake I had done via Skype from the jungles of Guyana while looking at a gold mining enterprise. I then set off on a month-long media sojourn which had me in all the mainstream media promoting BitcoinATM and had been approached by numerous investors interested in the project.”

FRIDAY, May 3

Feedback Friday – May 3rd, 2013

In this week’s Feedback Friday: University of Truth, BitcoinATM, Canadian passports, and more…