The Weekend Vigilante February 2, 2013

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Happy Ayn Rand day,

Today would have been Ayn's 108th birthday.  I wonder if she ever thought that the fictional community in her book Atlas Shrugged would actually come to exist in real life as it has at Galt's Gulch Chile?

Atlas Shrugged is one of the most influential books ever written.  It was situated between the Bible and M. Scott Peck's The Road Less Traveled as the book that made the most difference in the lives of 5,000 Book-of-the-Month club members surveyed and on my anarcho-capitalist podcast, Anarchast, it has been mentioned in almost every interview with over 50 anarchists as being a book that led them down the path to anarchism.

In the book, most of the world's most productive people went on strike against a system that punishes them for being productive.  They absconded to Colorado, which at the time of writing, in 1957, probably seemed like a good "out of the way" place.

I wonder if she ever imagined a world like today where people are defecting from the West to the place she ran from in 1925, Russia.  Today the thought of "going Galt" inside the USSA is a ridiculous idea... Don't tell Glenn Beck that, though, as he has recently announced development of his own Galt's Gulch in Texas.

The lessons of the last century of statism and central planning seem to be lost on the USSA today.  And the amount of cognitive dissonance there is massive in scale.  Take, as an example, that governments today institute things like alcohol and cigarette taxes with the expressed reason to dissuade people from smoking and drinking.  What do you think an income tax does then?

THE CENTRAL PLANNERS

If you think communism -- central planning in its most complete political form -- was a bad idea, it is important to realize that government and central banking are just additional forms of central planning.

It is funny to watch though as various central planners all come up with cockamamie ideas to improve things.

One of the funniest was this week when Komrade Vladimir Putin went into deep thought on how to increase the birth rate in Russia.  He came out of his castle and announced to the world that he had come up with a solution that is sure to work.  The solution?  1990s R&B group, Boyz II Men.

Putin apparently hopes to harness the all-American boyband's raw romantic charm through a gig in Moscow to encourage their legions of Russian fans to reproduce ahead of Valentine's Day to songs such as "I'll Make Love To You" and "On Bended Knee".

Problem solved!  Russia's dramatically declining population mostly caused by cigarette smoking, vodka drinking and the world's 3rd most heroine deaths, should be healed by a little rhythm and blues.  Yes, that's the problem!  Not enough 90's music with a sexy bass line!

Meanwhile, in beautiful North Korea, "Lil' Kim" Kim Jong Un, announced to his starving (many have begun eating their own children and other corpses) adoring subjects that he was awarded Time magazines, "Person of the Year".  He hadn't... that prize went to Emperor O'Bomber, of course.  But hacker group 4chan hacked TIME's web site and rigged the results to give the supreme leader 5.6 million votes for TIME's person of the year.  Close enough!

Meanwhile, "Lil'" Kim went on a hospital inspection to check over his kingdom, cigarette in hand, while admonishing his subjects that the hospitals must be thoroughly sterilized and dust-free.

In the days before the internet, dictators and politicians could get away with stuff like this and not look ridiculous.  Not so much anymore.  The internet has awoken humanity and made it hard for these ridiculous public criminals to hide their idiocy and lies (which explains why Barack and Company are so desperate to control the internet...for "security reasons" of course) and now people are starting to realize that people like Putin, Lil' Kim and O'Bomber aren't leaders... they're misleaders. Violent, lying thugs through and through. 

O'BOMBER PHOTOSHOP CONTEST

Speaking of the dictator of the USSA, he permitted his propaganda office to release a photo of him skeet shooting recently.  But the photo was released with the following warning:

"This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House."

Here is the original photo:

And now here are a few good photoshops of the image, as requested by his majesty.  We were a bit confused about the wording.  This photo "may not" or "shall not"?  In any case...

And...

And....

And, finally,

We've also heard that they are requesting that no one photoshop the Bill of Rights.  After all, it's too soon.  US subjects need time to grieve.

BAHAMA MAMA

Well, that's about it for this weekend.  In the next few days I'll be off, flying through the USSA, unfortunately, to the Bahamas for the Global Financial Summit, operated by FreedomFest founder, Mark Skousen.  From Acapulco to Nassau... it's a tough life, but someone has to do it.  Why aren't you?

If you're not already a TDV subscriber, subscribe today... for $15/month we find ways to free slaves.  It's pretty much the best deal on Earth.

Until next week, from another tropical location, to your freedom!

Anarcho-Capitalist.  Libertarian.  Freedom fighter against mankind’s two biggest enemies, the State and the Central Banks.  Jeff Berwick is the founder of The Dollar Vigilante, CEO of TDV Media & Services and host of the popular video podcast, Anarchast.  Jeff is a prominent speaker at many of the world’s freedom, investment and gold conferences as well as regularly in the media including CNBC, CNN and Fox Business.