How bitcoin can put an end to war.

Today, the federal government controls the printing of dollars.  They print as many as they need to pay for their wars.  If another type of money like bitcoin can become popular enough so that people aren't using dollars anymore, the government won't have enough money to pay for it's wars.

Playground Rules

If you continue follow the rules you learned on the playground when you are an adult, you will live a peaceful and prosperous life.

Nothing is private from the government

Edward Snowden is the American hero who exposed to the world that the US government is spying on everyone, including collecting text messages, phone calls, emails, bank account info, spying through webcams, installing spyware on computers, listening to the phone calls of world leaders, tacking people with their phones, and pretty much invading the privacy of Americans in any way you can think of.

League City is getting a military vehicle

The League City Police Department is getting a tank-like vehicle from the military called an MRAP. MRAP stands for Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected. The vehicle doesn't have weapons, but it can have a gun mounted on its top. Letting police department have military vehicles is a bad idea. I wrote a letter to the city council and mayor listing some of the reasons it's a bad idea. Here is the letter:

"It is my understanding that the city is accepting a military MRAP vehicle for use by the League City Police Department. I want to express my feelings that this is a bad idea and explain why. It is my hope that the City will work to get rid of the vehicle in the same way as the Davis, CA has recently done.

1. America has a history of resistance to becoming a police state. In that effort, the government passed the Posse Comitatus Act, which in its spirit is to keep the military from policing American citizens. Ever more frequently though, the federal goverment is finding ways around this Act. One of which is to arm, train, and equip existing local police departments with military weapons, clothing, training, and vehicles. The federal government's 1033 program that gives surplus military equimpent to police agencies has been making police forces look more and more like military units for years. It is unfortunate that a conservative community like League City has fallen victim to the lure of "free toys" and joined the rush to have it's police force become more militarized.

2. The police claim they need such vehicles as the MRAP for their safety. But the truth is that the job of police officer doesn't even make the list of top 10 most dangerous jobs in America. Roofers and garbage collectors rank higher on the list of dangerous jobs than police officers. In fact, it is more safe now to work as a police officer than it has been in decades.

3. Vehicles like this, instead of actually being used for police work where officers respond to emergencies, are often used as crowd control at peaceful demonstrations. Having a military vehicle show up at a peaceful rally or demonstration can have quite a chilling effect on free speech, something the government should be protecting, not discouraging.

4. Giving the police military vehicles, clothing, weapons, training, etc can only lead to police officers forgetting that they work to serve the people. Police officers are often recruited after military service, where they learn to follow orders without question and see the people around them as enemies and a potential threat. I don't want police officers to act on orders without thinking. If they are given an order to confiscate guns house to house, or to fire upon peaceful protestors, I want police who can think for themselves and realize which orders are good and which are bad. I don't want my local police department seeing my family as a potential threat, but to see them as citizens to be protected. Giving our police military toys only reinforces the military training they may have received, and the military attitude they probably experienced in the boot-camp-like police training they received. Give them something like an MRAP, and eventually they are going to find an excuse to use it.

Like anyone else, I want the police to go home safely to their families when their shift is over. But I don't believe their having an MRAP is necessary to make that happen, and in fact carries too much negative baggage. I hope that League City will return the MRAP and look at other ways to scale back the militirization of its police force before we see police activities like were recently seen in Ferguson, MO."

Education or Indoctrination?

Is reciting the Pledge of Allegiance daily at the beginning of the school day part of a good education or part of a good indoctrination?


Shout out to this article for inspiring this liberty lesson.

The Government's Most Important Lie

A man named Friedrich Nietzsche said, “Everything the State says is a lie, and everything it has it has stolen.” While it is a truth that everything the government has it has stolen, it is a bit of an exaggeration to say that "everything" it says is a lie.  But it does lie an awful lot, and one lie stands above all the rest.  When the government tell the lie that "we the people are the government," it convinces people that they need the government and that the government has our best interest at heart.

Is a cop stepping in front of speeding cars more dangerous than drivers that speed?

While out running today, I witnessed police employee Gonzales step in front of two lanes of cars that were moving about 50 mph.  He was working at a speed trap, and was signaling for one of the cars to stop so he could give them a ticket.

Driving faster than the speed limit may or may not be dangerous.  In a case like this, with most cars going at the same speed, dry roads, and sunny skies, I don't think it was dangerous at all for a driver to choose to go 5-15 mph faster than the speed limit.  But what is definitely dangerous is someone stepping in front of these moving cars to signal them to pull over to the shoulder.

Mr. Gonzales didn't just take a step into the road, but walked through a full lane of traffic, about 10 feet into the road.  Two vehicles had to quickly slow down to about 10 mph to avoid running him over.  This could be a danger to other drivers behind these first two cars who wouldn't be expecting anyone to slow down that much and who would not be able to see Mr. Gonzales standing in the road. I would also be a danger to the two drivers in front, who may have briefly glanced away from the road due to a some reason like adjusting their radio volume or responding to a young child in the back seat.  Looking back to the road to see Mr. Gonzales standing in front of them might cause them to use dangerous evasive maneuvers and drive into the oncoming lane of traffic or to swerve into each other.

Mr. Gonzales saw me filming him from across the street and yelled to me that he would do an interview with me after he finished with the driver he had just pulled over.  I checked with him to be sure it was okay for me to cross the road to him and hoped that he wasn't tricking me into giving me a  jaywalking ticket.

I'm getting better at my one-on-one interviews with police like this, but I still made several mistakes throughout this video.  Several times I raised my voice to talk over him instead of just allowing him to speak, then taking my turn.  I was too excited about making my point to him, and I wish I would have been a better listener.  Also, I was shaking pretty bad, but I always do in these situations, and I don't expect that to get any better with more experience.  My adrenaline always gets going, even though I didn't feel any fear while talking to him.  Can you see any other mistakes I made or any ways I could have been better?  It's important, in all the things we do, that we are always evaluating ourselves and looking for ways to improve.

At the end of the video Mr. Gonzales remembers me warning drivers of a speed trap.  As a reminder, here is the blog about that incident. Cop Blocking and Police Intimidation

The Government Has Its Own Money Tree

We've heard that money doesn't grow on trees, but someone forgot to tell that to the government. They've given themselves the power to create money, and they are printing as many dollars as they want.

Teenage Kid Knows Texas Law Better Than Cop

Good on this boy's parents for teaching him his rights, and good on both these boys for having the courage to resist the bullying tactics of this policeman and record their interaction with this police employee.  I like how there is a silent stand off at about the 2 minute mark when the police officer doesn't know how to respond, and this young hero is just waiting for the cop to make his next move.  The cop's best comeback is, "Why are you nervous?"  Cops like to act that just because someone gets nervous that it must be because they have committed a crime.  But it's only natural for most people to get a pump of adrenaline when they are confronted by a person with a gun who acts like they have authority over them and regularly uses violence against peaceful people.  I actually think the young man was remarkable composed, thoughtful, and well spoken.

The boy is correct that he doesn't have to provide any identification.  The cop just made up a reason to pull him over that wasn't even legitimate.  He said the cars registration was expired.  The registration has to be renewed yearly on cars in Texas, and when you register you get a sticker on your windshield that shows the date.  Since it is night time and the sticker is small, I'm sure the officer is lying about seeing it was expired and just made that up as a reason to stop someone he was looking to harass.

The State doesn't write laws in a way that is always easy to understand or fun to read, but this is what Texas law says about being required to provide ID to cops:

The Texas Failure to Identify law is fairly simple. Why don’t police get it? It states: 

(a) A person commits an offense if he intentionally refuses to give his name, residence address, or date of birth to a peace officer who has lawfully arrested the person and requested the information.
(b) A person commits an offense if he intentionally gives a false or fictitious name, residence address, or date of birth to a peace officer who has:
(1) lawfully arrested the person;
(2) lawfully detained the person; or
(3) requested the information from a person that the peace officer has good cause to believe is a witness to a criminal offense.

The teen was not legally detained, nor arrested, therefore, according to state law he did not have to produce ID.

League City police being naughty

While I was out running last week, I was able to catch a few naughty police employees on camera.

This photo is from a nearby park.  Police often sit like this in their cars so they can chat with each other without getting out in the heat.  These men are employed to protect our lives and property, and could use their time patrolling neighborhoods to find criminals, or to scare criminals away before they can commit crimes like theft from homes and vehicles.  Instead, they are using their time to sit in this parking lot where nothing good is accomplished.  If the police were accountable to their employer like a normal employee is, this behavior would not be tolerated.  But police work for the government, and government employees are rarely held accountable for their mistakes or doing their job poorly, especially the police.  Police are often treated as heroes for doing their job, and every excuse is made to forgive their bad behavior.

Next, I came upon two young men who were being threatened by another police employee.  I heard the policeman raising his voice and threatening one of the young men, so I stopped to take video.



The cop was giving the young man a ticket for driving 35 mph in a school zone with a 20 mph speed limit.  The police would say this is for this is for the safety of the children, but there were no children walking home from school at that time.  But the police never pass up an opportunity to issue such an expensive ticket to drivers.  The young man was calmly trying to talk to the cop about the speeding ticket, which angered the policeman.  The police don't like people to challenge the authority they believe they have over us, and expect people to cower before their presence.  Any time someone does something that challenges the authority of the police, no matter how insignificantly, the police can become abusive and dangerous.  I hope that my presence there filming the interaction was enough to calm the policeman down.  It was at about that time that you can see him waving at me in the video, so I know that he was aware of me shortly after becoming hostile. 

In the end, the policeman wrote the young man a ticket for speeding, and declined to write him far less expensive tickets for not having a license to drive a motorcycle and not having a helmet.  Sometimes police do this to try and appear like they are nice guys, but it may also have been because he was being filmed and was embarrassed at having yelled at the young man.  But the officer would not let the young men ride the moped home.  He expected them to walk about 5 miles in the heat to get to their home.

Luckily, I was finishing my run and only about 1/2 mile from home, so I was able to run and get my truck and take them and their moped to their house.  It is important for us to help each other when the police are harrassing our friends, neighbors, family, and even strangers, first by filming the interactions, but in any other way we can also.

If You Were King

What would you do if you were made king and given the power to do whatever you wanted? Would you use your power to help others, to feed the homeless, to cure the sick?

What's up with Presidential Hero Worship?

American's love their presidents, especially Abe Lincoln and George Washington, but are these men really worthy of honor and respect?

"I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races - that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything."

-Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois, September 18, 1858

"No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give Congress the power to abolish or interfere within any state with the domestic institutions thereof, including that a person's held to labor or service by laws of said State."

-Abraham Lincoln-March of 1861

Is it right for a large group of people to use government to rule a smaller group of people?

This is a pretty simple diagram that shows us a pretty important idea. I'd just like to re-state what each of the boxes says to be sure you understand the idea of the diagram.

The first box has an idea that will seem naturally logical to us, that if John told you that you had to obey him or he would violate you, that would be wrong. By violate, the author means to steal from, kidnap, cage, or murder you. So to put it in other words, it would be wrong for John to make you pay a fine, lock you in handcuffs, put you in jail, or kill you if you didn't obey him. None of your friends, family, or neighbors have the right to do any of this to you.

The second box has another idea that will naturally seem logical to us. Nothing changes about what was said in the first box, even if John can get 2 or 3 or even 10 friends to join him in trying to make you obey him. As a group, they still don't have the right to violate your rights to force you to obey them.

These first two boxes make sense to most people. But the ideas in the third box seem un-natural to most people. Government schools teach you that when people get together and have a vote, that somehow(they never explain how) the winners of the vote get to use the power of the government to force the losers of the vote to obey the winners. The winners of the vote are given control of the police, jails, and courts to force anyone who doesn't agree to follow their rules to pay fines, go to court, be locked in a cage in jail, or even be shot and killed by the police.

What I hope you have been learning from my podcasts and blogging and our discussions is that John cannot give any power to the government that he doesn't have himself. So if there is any action it would be wrong for John to do, the same action is wrong for the government to do. Let me finish with an example: It would be wrong for John to force you to pay him for a piece of paper that allows you to get married. Since that action is wrong for John, it is also wrong for the government to require us to buy a license from them before getting married.

How Government is Like the Mafia

The Mafia uses a scheme called a "protection racket" to force people to pay them money. Government uses a scheme called "taxation" to force people to pay them money. Learn how "taxation" is a type of protection racket, and how the government is similar in many ways to the Mafia.

Government Denies 11 year old Chloe Stirling her Dream

Chloe Stirling is an 11 year old cupcake baker who had her business shut down by the government. Hear about her story and why it happened.

Original story from the local paper
Follow-up story after her business was shut down

I Do Not Consent

The Declaration of Independence states that the only good government is one people agree to be ruled by. The American tradition is that the government is one run by and agreed to by the people. But is it realistic to believe that all 300 million Americans agree to be ruled by their government or agree with the things the government does in their names and with their money?

Good ideas don't require force

Americans like to call their country the "Land of the Free."

In a free society, the only actions that would be crimes and prohibited would be actions that hurt others, harm their property, violate their freedoms, or force them to do things they don't want to do.

So things like murder, theft, vandalism, and breaking contracts would still be crimes. But things like smoking in a private restaurant, not wearing a seat belt in a car, or carrying a weapon for self-defense would not be a crime.

But American democracy is a system where someone is always trying to get control of the government so they can make rules to stop people from doing things they don't like, and force them to do things they do like.

There are usually just two sides to vote for, the democrats and the republicans. Both sides want to force their ideas on other people who don't agree with them. So they want to make laws to keep people from doing things they think are bad like I mentioned earlier. And they want to force people to do things against their will, like fight wars all over the world, help countries like Israel buy nuclear missiles, and spy on their friends, family, and neighbors.

This isn't to say that some of the ideas aren't good. But if they are good ideas that people want to support, they shouldn't need to use threats of force, violence, and theft to accomplish them. People can voluntarily support ideas they agree with and try to persuade others to join them by presenting the benefits of the ideas.

Using government to force your ideas on others is immoral, unjust, and just plain wrong.

"Tank Man," August Landmesser, and Saying "No!" to the Government

There are two famous photos of people standing up against their government at great risk to their own safety.  Both of these images can inspire people who want to resist abuses, theft, and violations of rights that governments force upon their populations.

The first photo is of a young Chinese man whose real name is unknown but is referred to as "Tank Man."  The Chinese are ruled by a communist government.  A communist government is one that restricts what property people can own, and severely restricts the rights of its population, even more than the government does in the United States.  They control all education, how much money people can earn and how much goods cost, who can own property, where people can travel, what people can say publicly, what newspapers can publish, what is shown on television, and don't allow citizens to own guns.  In 1989 college students were protesting in the capital city of Beijing against the Chinese government.  Protesters gathered in an area of Beijing known as Tiananmen Square, where at one point a million people joined together to protest.  The Chinese government sent 300,000 of its soldiers to Beijing to use violence and sometimes kill the peaceful and unarmed Chinese people.  Not much is known about Tank Man.  But from photos and videos that foreign journalists were able to sneak out of the country, we know that at some point he walked in front of a line of advancing military tanks.  He can be seen in the photos carrying a couple of bags.  I imagine he might just have been an ordinary person who was walking home from grocery shopping, saw the tanks advancing on where the protesters were, decided he had seen enough government violence against the people, and chose to do something about it.  When he walked in front of the tanks, the lead tank tried to go around him.  Tank Man moved and blocked the tank's path again. This happened several times, until finally the tank driver seemed to give up and shut down his engine.  Tank Man climbed on the tank and began yelling into the tank through different peep holes.  We don't know what he said, but I imagine that he might have told the driver to go home.  Maybe he told him it was wrong to commit acts of violence against peaceful people.  Maybe he asked the soldier to stop blindly following immoral orders from the government.  Finally he got back down from the tank, and continued to block the path of the line of tanks until some concerned citizens came out and took him away before the soldiers hurt him.

"Tank Man" blocking the path of the line of tanks.

Another shot that shows what "Tank Man" was courageous enough to stand up against.

The second photo is of a German man named August Landmesser.  In this photo, Mr Landmesser is in a large group of German workers who were gathered to celebrate the launching of a new Navy vessel at a shipyard in Hamburg, Germany.  All of the other workers are performing the Nazi salute, which is performed by extending the right arm out straight with the hand pointed forward.  August is surrounded by the sea of people, all signaling their obedience to Adolf Hilter and the German state, while he stands like a boss with his arms crossed.  Mr. Landmesser did not agree with the Nazi hatred of Jewish people, and had in fact married a Jewish woman.  Two years after this photo was taken, August was actually put in prison for two and a half years for marrying the Jewish woman.

A close up shot of August Landmesser standing with his arms crossed and squinting at the person leading the salute.

August Landmesser surrounded by the crowd performing the Nazi salute.

I like these two photos because they show two very different situations in which people refused to be controlled by the State, took a stand, and said, "No!" to wrong actions by their government.  In the example of Tank Man, we see a solitary man who is brave enough to go alone to stand up against the State.  Even though no one goes out to join him, he still shows his refusal to silently allow the State to  use violence against and violate the rights of his friends and neighbors.  I can hardly imagine the amount of courage it must take to stand before a moving tank, knowing that the soldier driving could roll over you or shoot you.

In the case of August Landmesser, we see a man who is brave enough to go against what all of peers, friends, and coworkers are doing and stand alone while refusing to show blind obedience to the State.  It can be difficult not to follow along with the crowd when they are all pledging allegiance to the flag, standing and singing the national anthem, or clapping for soldiers as they march by in a parade.  It takes a special courage to do the opposite of what all the mindless worshippers of the state are doing.

Once you decide that you're not going to go with the flow anymore, that you're going to march to the beat of a different drummer, you're going to find yourself in situations where you are uncomfortable.  If you have decided not to stand and recite the State's pledge at the beginning of the school day, it will be an awkward moment.  You will feel awkward if you stand and go along with the crowd, because you are doing something against your principles.  But it will also feel awkward to remain seated while the other 20 students and teacher all participate in the act of worshiping the State.  In a situation like that, I wouldn't blame you if you caved in to peer pressure and followed along just to avoid confrontation.  But maybe you'll be lucky and find some of the courage that Tank Man and August Landmesser showed us in these iconic photos.

Bonus: Actual video footage of "Tank Man's" heroics:

Government Bait and Switch

This weekend I caught the City of Houston luring people to park illegally so they could write parking tickets. Hear about it on this podcast.

Does it seem fair to expect people that it is illegal to park in an area that is clearly marked as a parking spot?

This is the small sign that is supposed to warn drivers that they will receive a ticket for parking in these parking spots.  Since so many people are still parking here, it is clearly not enough of a warning.

MLK - the antiwar soldier

Martin Luther King Jr. is mostly remembered for his leading of the civil rights movement, but he was also and anti-war advocate.

11 Year Old vs Police Sargent

This is a brave 11 year old who knows how to exercise his rights! He handles his interaction with this police officer as well as any adult could. If you choose to participate in filming police, just remember that it can be a dangerous activity. Police probably won't like what you are doing. They don't like when the public holds them accountable while doing their job. They can make up charges like "obstructing justice" or "interfering with a police officer" or "disorderly conduct" to arrest you. Don't assume that because you are a young person that they won't abuse and arrest you. The officer in this video has no problem threatening this brave boy. Police are not like the rest of us. They are all at least slightly sick in the head and don't have the same sense of compassion the rest of us have. Their job requires them to use violence on peaceful people every day, so you can't expect them to act rationally just because you are a child.
For more information about your rights dealing with police, check out these short podcasts:

Cop blocking and police intimidation
You have the right to film the police
How to deal with police

American Democracy is Not a Fair System

What your teachers don't want you to know about democracy.

Cop blocking for some young fishermen.

Driving home from work yesterday I noticed some young boys walking on the sidewalk near our home with some fishing poles and a tackle box.  Then I saw a police officer pulling up behind them as they turned a corner.  I followed him around the corner because it looked like he was going to pull over and interview the boys.  As I rounded the corner, I saw that the cop was already out of his car and talking to the boys.  I pulled up and parked my truck in a safe spot where the cop couldn't hassle me for impeding traffic or parking illegally.  I got out of my truck and began recording with my iPhone as I walked over to where the cop was interrogating the children.  I was concerned about why he was stopping them, and concerned that he would try to violate their rights.  Police assume that kids don't know what there rights are, and can easily intimidate most kids into following illegal and unconstitutional commands.  Before I could get as close as I wanted, the officer let the boys go.  The interaction was short, so I'd like to think that he saw me filming and was embarrassed to be caught hassling these boys, and let them go rather than find himself on youtube doing something he knew was wrong.

The police officer with his dangerous "perps" all lined up. 

I asked the boys why he stopped them, and they told me that the cop was telling them that they couldn't fish where they had been fishing because it was too dangerous.  The place where they were fishing is a popular place for children in our neighborhood.  It is just a drainage ditch that collects water from several neighborhoods before it drains to Clear Creek.  There is usually a few feet of water trapped in the ditch, and local boys catch perch and catfish there.

The footing around the ditch can be dangerous.  It's a pretty steep climb down to the ledge, and fairly long fall if someone falls in.  But whether it's too dangerous to fish is up to the boys and their parents, not a police officer.

While I agree that it can be a dangerous place to fish, the police officer was lying when he told them they couldn't fish there.  Remember that not only is it legal for police to lie to you, but they are also trained to lie.  The ditch is public property, and there is no city ordinance that prohibits fishing there.  The police officer's intentions may have been good.  He may have actually been concerned about the boys safety.  But there is no need to lie to anyone about it.  Isn't it strange that instead of the cop just expressing his concern for their safety and maybe telling the boys that he didn't think it was a good idea for them to fish at the ditch, that he instead chose to lie?  It's a good reminder to us that police are not our friends, are not upright people, and are not to be trusted.

The good news is that I was able to talk to the boys about how to handle interactions with police, and share with them some of their rights.  One boy in particular was very surprised to find out that he didn't have to answer any questions the police ask.

As a refresher for you, remember that you shouldn't give permission for the police to search you or look at anything you are carrying.  Simply tell them, "Sir, I don't consent (or give permission) for any searches.  You don't have to answer any questions.  And pull out your cell phone, flip it sideways, and record everything that happens.

Check out these short podcasts for more advice on how to handle interactions with the police.
Cop blocking and police intimidation
You have the right to film police
How to deal with police

Examples of 4th Amendment Violations

Now that we have learned about what the 4th Amendment says, we'll look as some examples of how the government violates the rights listed in the 4th Amendment.