Tuesday evening President Obama addressed the nation for his State of the Union speech.  As usual, this was a horse and pony show with little in the way of substance and less in the way of honesty.  As usual, the president intends to correct the nations problems with more of the same – more government.  The nation is crumbling beneath weight of a Leviathan government, and the president’s solution is to feed Leviathan more. The president threw out a lot of cherry-picked statistics and funny figures.  One of them was a claim that unemployment is the lowest it’s been in 5 years.  While this is technically true based upon the politically convenient method used to measure it, the figure forgets the millions of individuals who are no longer looking for work.  The people who have given up on the job market aren’t counted toward the official unemployment numbers.  He goes on to talk about how “if you work hard and take responsibility you can get ahead in America”.  This is a very interesting remark considering the source.  This president has made it his mission not only to discourage hard work, but also to demonize those who are the most successful. […]

I received an Amazon Kindle Paperwhite for my birthday.  It’s a wonderful update for my old Kindle Keyboard.  While I was busy loading it up with free books from Mises.org I stumbled across an option to subscribe to Mises Daily articles on my Kindle.  The cost is $.99 per month, but each day the new articles are delivered wirelessly and are ready for me whenever I choose to read them.  I’ve found this to be immensely convenient and as a result I’ve read the Mises Daily articles much more regularly since this discovery. As it turns out, anyone can submit a blog to Kindle.  So I submitted Consider Liberty.  If you happen to be interested in reading my articles on your Kindle, go ahead and subscribe! For the sake of full disclosure, I do earn a percentage (30% I believe) from the $.99 subscription fee.  I’d rather offer this for free, but I can’t as Amazon dictates the $.99 fee. Unless otherwise expressly stated, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.Based on a work at http://www.considerliberty.com.Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

I’m really not sure what took so long for me to get around to addressing this… When I started this site I had lazily thrown “© Consider Liberty – All Rights Reserved” in the footer of the site and never gave it another thought.  Well, that’s not so much in keeping with the freedom and ideas I want to be promoting here. As of today, that’s been fixed.  All content, past and future is now licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (unless specifically stated otherwise).  As stated on the Creative Commons website, this means: You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms. Under the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that […]

Welcome back for Part 2!  I know, it’s been a long time coming.  If you haven’t already, check out part 1 of this series before continuing. All of the disclaimers given at the start of part 1 remain in full force.  Without further ado… Internet Security Use Firefox for web browsing – Mozilla has no direct connection to any company taking part of PRISM (unlike Internet Explorer and Chrome). Use Firefox Extensions to add security – NoScript is a great little add-on that blocks scripts from running, thus helping to prevent script based attacks. HTTPS Finder and similar add-ons detect when a webpage has HTTPS (encrypted HTTP) and uses it when available.  This encrypts the connection between the site and your computer. Note that many sites have HTTPS but that the HTTPS version of the site may not be intended for public use so formatting issues, loading problems and errors are common. Use “private mode” in your web browser, particularly if using a public computer – it will leave no trace of your activity and will block any tracking cookies. Consider an alternate “private” search engine such as DuckDuckGo which claims not to keep any search records. Now, the above tips help to secure and […]

If you didn’t, I wouldn’t be surprised.  Here is the rundown: On Friday, December 13th there was a shooting in Colorado at Arapahoe High School in Denver.  A single student entered the school openly carrying a firearm and wearing tactical gear.  He proceeded to shoot a fellow student (who is alive, though in a coma) before taking his own life.  The whole incident was over in 80 seconds. So, why hasn’t this been blown up by the media and run with a new headline hourly since it happened?  Why wasn’t this been reported on as heavily as Sandy Hook, or the Dark Knight shooting in Aurora, CO? The answer is simple, and sickening.  There is no political gain to be made from this horrible tragedy.  There are several reasons for that.  The first of which is the weapon itself.  The shooter was carrying a single firearm.  It was not an AR-15, or an AK-47 or any type of so-called “assault weapon”.  It wasn’t scary looking, and it didn’t have a “hi-capacity” magazine.  It was a shotgun.  The very same weapon Vice President Joe Biden recommended that people purchase. The second reason for the media silence is the shooter.  He was described […]

Today it is being reported that a judge in Washington has issued a preliminary ruling that the NSA’s far-reaching collection of telephone call metadata is “likely” in conflict with the Forth Amendment.  The ruling is open to appeal and is not a final ruling that has any immediate impact on the NSA.  While it’s refreshing to see a judge employ some common sense, I think it’s unlikely that anything significant will come of this for a few reasons.  First, this is a judge making a ruling in court.  He’s a member of the judicial branch of the government.  The NSA is also part of the government.  Expecting the government to police itself is on the same level of naivety as expecting a serial murder’s left hand to control the evil impulses of his right.  My second reservation is the simple fact that the government flagrantly disregards its own laws whenever they are inconvenient.  So the judges can judge all they like, and the legislators can legislate until pigs fly; Leviathan will continue matching onward to its own drummer trampling our freedoms with each step. Here is the Guardian’s report on the recent ruling: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/16/nsa-phone-surveillance-likely-unconstitutional-judge Unless otherwise expressly stated, this work is licensed under […]

Today is the 72nd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  As FDR called it, a “date which will live in infamy”.  For our grandparents this was a defining moment in their lives. This was one of those events which is frozen in time, allowing you to recall where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news.  It is what 9/11 has been for my generation.  But it shares another similarity as well. Pearl Harbor could have been avoided.  Just like 9/11, it was the result of foreign intervention on the part of the United States in the affairs of other nations.  The president at the time was Franklin D. Roosevelt.  FDR was relishing the idea of getting the US entangled in World War II but wanted an excuse to do so.  His first attempt was the coordinated attack with Britain on German U-boats in the North Atlantic.  Hitler did not take the bait.  After this first failure, FDR changed his focus to Japan (an ally of Germany).  Japan at the time was in the midst of an industrial revolution and relied heavily on the importation of raw materials and oil for its economic success.  Japan […]

Tuesday marked Election Day 2013 around the country.  The majority of positions up for election were local, but there were also two gubernatorial seats up for contest.  In addition there were a number of interesting ballot initiatives.  Let us take a look at some of the week’s events. Election Tuesday Chris Christie won reelection in the New Jersey gubernatorial race by a massive margin of around 20 percentage points.  This was not really a surprise given how he’s been riding the wake of Hurricane Sandy ever since the storm hit the Jersey Shore.  The fact that a Republican has won in such a traditionally “Blue” state has set quite a few tongues wagging about Christie’s bipartisan appeal and his seemingly imminent run for the White House in 2016.  He also brought in a large percentage of the Hispanic and black vote, which are two demographics Republicans always lose to the Democrats.  Christie points out that his success is based on being pragmatic and willing to compromise.  The problem is that Christie misses the mark with many conservatives, because he appears to most as just another moderate Republican.  Sure, he has a sharp rhetorical style, but it often makes him sound […]

Yes, I’ve been a slacker.  I haven’t written or posted in a while and for that I am sorry.  My approach to this blog has been to focus on writing quality content on a “when its ready” publishing schedule.  In my view, that means at least 1,500 words, well thought out, and cited when possible.  I’ll call this the “Research paper” approach.  While it is my choice mode of writing, it’s not feasible as the norm given my numerous other responsibilities, as the sporadic posting history shows. In an effort to keep posts flowing I’m going to try a slightly different approach.  First of all, the “research paper” articles aren’t going anywhere.  I’ll still write them as time permits.  In the meantime, I’ll be trying to post shorter posts on a more frequent basis.  I hope they will act as discussion starters and present ideas in the same manner that the longer posts do, though perhaps without expounding as much.  I may also start expanding the scope of topics.  I will also be posting (reposting) videos and such from others that I think are relevant and worth checking out.  We’ll see how it goes.  Feedback is always welcome! Part 2 […]

Today we’re kicking off a two part series on securing your digital life.  In this first part we’ll touch on passwords, PC security, and smartphone security.  Consider this the warm up for part two in which we’ll hit the nitty-gritty of securing your information online and in the cloud – where it is most vulnerable to NSA snooping. First off, this guide is not comprehensive.  In it, I will assume that you have some knowledge of the Internet, computers and smartphones.  Also, I will not be held liable for how you use this information. Following these tips does not guarantee that your online presence will be untraceable or completely secure.  As with many things, your results may vary. Second, security is a trade-off.  Generally, the more security layers you enable (and you do want layers) the less user friendly and convenient your environment will become.  That’s just the way it is.  You will have to find the balance between the two on your own.  If you are the only person using your network and you don’t mind the extra time and effort, by all means, build yourself a virtual vault inside a virtual bunker surrounded by a virtual wall and […]