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Latest Articles: Historical
The American Revolution and Classical Liberalism
Post Date: 2023-07-04 00:40:48 by Charles_Byrd
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The libertarian creed emerged from the "classical liberal" movements of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the Western world, specifically, from the English Revolution of the seventeenth century. This radical libertarian movement, even though only partially successful in its birthplace, Great Britain, was still able to usher in the Industrial Revolution there by freeing industry and production from the strangling restrictions of State control and urban government-supported guilds. For the classical liberal movement was, throughout the Western world, a mighty libertarian "revolution" against what we might call the Old Order—the ancien régime which had ...
Modern Historians Confront the American Revolution
Post Date: 2023-07-04 00:39:41 by Charles_Byrd
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The historian must be more than a chronicler, a mere lister of events. For his real task is discovering and setting forth the causal connections between events in human history, the complex chain of human purposes, choices, and consequences over time that have shaped the fate of mankind. Investigating the causes of such a portentous event as the American Revolution is more, then, than a mere listing of preceding occurrences; for the historian must weigh the causal significance of these factors, and select those of overriding importance. Constitutional Conflict Historians Click for Full Text!
Last Surviving D-Day Member of Elite French Unit Dies
Post Date: 2023-07-04 00:20:14 by Charles_Byrd
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The last surviving member of the French 1er Bataillon de Fusiliers Marins Commandos, who fought during the 1944 Allied invasion of Normandy, passed away at age 100. Ouistreham Mayor Romain Bail announced Monday the death of Léon Gautier, who lived in the small French coastal community where Allies landed on June 6, 1944, during his last years. Click for Full Text!
More Truth About World War II
Post Date: 2023-07-04 00:07:08 by Charles_Byrd
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Last week I noted some facts that puncture the myth of the neocons who control the government that World War II was the “good war,” a battle of good against evil, that shows the need for perpetual war. We must fight Russia and China, they say: we don’t want another “Munich,” do we? The facts tell a different story. The war in Europe began after Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. These countries had issued a guarantee to Poland of its border with Germany, and Germany’s invasion on September 1 triggered the guarantee. As Murray Rothbard points out, the guarantee was a colossal mistake. There was no possibility Britain and France ...
Ellsberg and ‘The Process of My Awakening’
Post Date: 2023-06-28 18:14:39 by Charles_Byrd
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Of all the fine things written and said about Daniel Ellsberg since his death June 16, there is a thread running through them we ought not miss, a story Ellsberg himself told better than anyone else. It is a story from which we can all learn. As we consider this story, we can embrace Ellsberg as an exemplar as much as he was a courageous man of conscience. As he put it in an interview some years ago, “courage is contagious.” Ellsberg did not give the story I have in mind a name, a title, a headline, or any such designation, but he may as well have, and I take the liberty of drawing from his words to name it now, the process of Dan Ellsberg’s awakening. Click for Full Text!
Daniel Ellsberg was one of history’s most consequential figures
Post Date: 2023-06-20 16:06:44 by Charles_Byrd
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In All the President’s Men, the classic film on the downfall of President Richard Nixon, the name “Daniel Ellsberg” is not uttered once. And what a shame that is. Because for all the journalistic heroics of Woodward and Bernstein, it’s possible that there was no one more responsible for the only resignation of a president in American history than Daniel Ellsberg. Ellsberg, the legendary Pentagon Papers whistleblower, passionate anti- nuclear activist and staunch press freedom advocate, passed away at the age of 92 on Friday. History should remember him as one of the 20th century’s most consequential figures. But we should also be reminded that his own story is also ...
On This Day in 1775: The Continental Army Is Created
Post Date: 2023-06-15 23:52:20 by Charles_Byrd
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On June 14, 1775 — 248 years ago today — the Continental Congress, gathered in Philadelphia, took a significant step toward achieving lasting American independence by authorizing the mustering of the Continental Army. This pivotal event marked a turning point in the American War for Independence, as it formalized the establishment of a unified military force capable of challenging the might of the British Empire. The birth of the Continental Army not only symbolized a collective commitment to defend the rights and liberties of the American people, but also marked the birth of a union of states committed to a common cause: the cause of self-determination. The events leading up to ...
The Unabomber, the CIA and LSD
Post Date: 2023-06-13 17:13:33 by Charles_Byrd
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It turns out that Theodore Kaczynski, a.k.a. the Unabomber, was a volunteer in mind-control experiments sponsored by the CIA at Harvard in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Michael Mello, author of the recently published book, “The United States of America vs. Theodore John Kaczynski,” notes that at some point in his Harvard years–1958 to 1962–Kaczynski agreed to be the subject of “a psychological experiment.” Mello identifies the chief researcher for these only as a lieutenant colonel in World War II, working for the CIA’s predecessor organization, the Office of Strategic Services. In fact, the man experimenting on the young Kaczynski was Dr. Henry Murray, ...
How religious tolerance rose and fell in America
Post Date: 2023-05-30 22:00:21 by Charles_Byrd
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Thanks to a misreading of the Constitution, America is becoming more and more of a secular wasteland. All sorts of ideas and ideologies are allowed in the public square. But not Christian ones. That exclusion does not comport with what the founders of America intended. Click for Full Text!
The Much-Coveted World War II
Post Date: 2023-05-29 19:32:27 by Charles_Byrd
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From the first grade in their government-approved schools, Americans are taught never to question the consequences of America’s participation in World War II. “We defeated Hitler. Freedom prevailed over tyranny,” we are taught “and there is nothing further to consider or discuss.” The political indoctrination is so complete that the minds of many Americans will forever remain closed to more complex issues and outcomes associated with that war. But on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, more and more Americans are raising questions — not only about the events leading up to Pearl Harbor, but also about the far-reaching ...
The Causes and Consequences of World War II, Part 1
Post Date: 2023-05-29 19:28:06 by Charles_Byrd
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When World War II ended in 1945, most of Europe lay in ruins. German cities like Dresden and Hamburg had practically been cremated from day- and-night Allied fire-bombings. Warsaw had been almost leveled to the ground by the Germans. The scorched-earth policies of both the Nazis and the Soviets had left much of European Russia, the Ukraine and the Baltic States almost totally destroyed. The Nazi death camps had consumed not only the lives of six million Jews, but an equivalent number of Poles, Gypsies and other undesirables. Two Japanese cities — Hiroshima and Nagasaki — lay incinerated from atomic blasts. Eight years of war and Japanese occupation in China had uprooted millions ...
The Consequences of World War II
Post Date: 2023-05-29 19:23:21 by Charles_Byrd
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World War II is often viewed as the last good war. In contrast to the wars that followed it — Korea and Vietnam, primarily World War II is said to have had a clear purpose: the smashing of Nazism and fascism and all the horrible things for which they stood. The description “last good war” also implies that the outcome, unlike those of later wars, was an unambiguous victory for America and its Allies — a victory for freedom and democracy. Korea remains divided. Vietnam was unified under Ho Chi Minh. But in World War II, good triumphed over evil. Nazi Germany, fascist Italy, and imperial Japan were completely defeated and then transformed into unthreatening democracies ...
World War II and the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex
Post Date: 2023-05-29 19:17:17 by Charles_Byrd
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On January 18, 1961, just before leaving office, President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave a farewell address to the nation in which he called attention to the “conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry.” He warned that “in the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” As Eisenhower spoke, the military-industrial complex was celebrating its twentieth birthday. The vast economic and administrative apparatus for the creation and deployment of weapons took ...
The Road to the Permanent Warfare State, Part 1
Post Date: 2023-05-29 19:10:20 by Charles_Byrd
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The U.S. government today is a contradiction. It presides over a nation supposedly at peace. Yet it is always preparing for war. It is a perpetual warfare state — a government under which liberty and property are less and less secure. It is one in which the average citizen must pay higher and higher taxes for the skyrocketing costs of a leviathan state that spends $671 billion a year on “defense” so that it can police the world. The citizen, in the supposed interest of safety, must yield more and more liberties. He must endure more intrusions owing to “national security.” That’s because the U.S. government’s imperial foreign policy of the past 65 years ...
Hidden Christians’ Illicit Sacred Vase Brought to Light in Japan
Post Date: 2023-05-28 02:52:14 by Charles_Byrd
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A centuries-old relic associated with ancient Christian practice in Japan is causing a stir in the Japanese media. The item is believed to be an artifact preserved by Japan’s “kakure kirishitan” or hidden Christians, practitioners of Catholicism who were forced to keep their activities a secret after Christianity was prohibited on the island by culturally repressive leaders in the early 17th century. Click for Full Text!
On This Day in 1787: Constitutional Convention Gets Down to Business
Post Date: 2023-05-25 23:29:00 by Charles_Byrd
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On this day in 1787, nearly two weeks after its planned opening, the Constitutional Convention of 1787 began. With the arrival of the delegations representing South Carolina and New Jersey, the number of states necessary for a quorum had been met. One of the first official proposals taken up by the delegates was Robert Morris’ nomination of George Washington to be president of the convention. Morris’ motion was seconded by John Rutledge of South Carolina, “expressing his confidence that the choice would be unanimous, and observing that the presence of General Washington forbade any observation on the occasion which might otherwise be proper.” Click for Full Text!
U.S. military leaders in World War II had consensus on the atomic bomb
Post Date: 2023-05-24 21:48:07 by Charles_Byrd
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Historians might debate whether the atomic bombing of Japan was necessary to secure its surrender, but U.S. military leaders in World War II did not. Their consensus was no, if Emperor Hirohito was permitted a titular role in a post-surrender Japanese government. President Harry S. Truman accepted that idea, but only after atomic bombs had been dropped. Adm. William D. Leahy elaborated: “The use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender. … My own feeling was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the ...
Are the Best Years of My Country Behind Me?
Post Date: 2023-05-10 20:08:43 by Charles_Byrd
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I turn 60 this year. My health is generally good, though I have aches and pains from a form of arthritis. I’m not optimistic enough to believe that the best years of my life are ahead of me, nor so pessimistic as to assume that the best years are behind me. But I do know this, however sad it may be to say: the best years of my country are behind me. Indeed, there are all too many signs of America’s decline, ranging from mass shootings to mass incarceration to mass hysteria about voter fraud and “stolen” elections to massive Pentagon and police budgets. But let me focus on just one sign of all-American madness that speaks to me in a particularly explosive fashion: this ...
Florida revives an 1850s strategy to exclude Chinese immigrants
Post Date: 2023-05-08 19:34:26 by Charles_Byrd
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While our country celebrates Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida legislature are busy resurrecting a long- dead form of anti-Asian discrimination. Under the guise of national security, Florida lawmakers seem poised to crush Chinese immigrants’ dreams of homeownership. In April, the Florida Senate unanimously passed SB 264, and on Wednesday the Florida House rushed to pass its twin, HB 1355, purportedly to prohibit the Chinese government from buying real estate in Florida. This seems a reasonable enough goal. But by targeting “any member of the People’s Republic of China,” the bill could also wreak havoc on the lives of ordinary ...
David Hume's Warning on Forever Wars
Post Date: 2023-05-03 20:35:38 by Charles_Byrd
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Propaganda is checked by open challenge and spirited disputation. But it is hard to discuss one’s own government at war, because you might be treated as an apologist of the enemy, or even an outright enemy yourself. Propaganda is perhaps never worse than at times of war. That is when government is most likely to destroy precious domestic freedoms. As for the US government nowadays and its conduct of military and foreign interventions, I daresay I rather doubt its wisdom and virtue. On the war in Ukraine and related issues, I find myself persuaded by such voices as John Mearsheimer, the gentlemen of The Duran, and the sages at Andrew Napolitano’s YouTube channel. Click for Full ...
Some Questions on the Intriguing Twentieth Century
Post Date: 2023-04-27 00:53:53 by Charles_Byrd
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In a 1930 essay titled “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren,” John Maynard Keynes predicted that in 100 years, “assuming no wars and no important increase in population,” the standard of living in “progressive countries” would be “between four and eight times as high” as it was then. His most optimistic scenario is being realized. In 2022, real GDP per capita (equivalent to income per capita) in the US has already been multiplied by 7.3, with eight years to go (see Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Income and Product Accounts, Table 7.1, revised March 30, 2023). Even if the rate of growth is only 1% per year between now and 2030, real GDP ...
What is the Report from Iron Mountain?
Post Date: 2023-04-23 00:49:54 by Charles_Byrd
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In 1967, Dial Press published a book called Report from Iron Mountain: On the Possibility and Desirability of Peace. It remains one of the most controversial works of all time. Who wrote the Report from Iron Mountain? What does it say? And most importantly…is it real? Click for Full Text!
Ancient necropolis from 2,000 years ago unearthed next to Paris train station
Post Date: 2023-04-21 01:05:46 by Charles_Byrd
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Just metres from a busy train station in the heart of Paris, scientists have uncovered 50 graves in an ancient necropolis which offer a rare glimpse of life in the French capital's precursor Lutetia nearly 2,000 years ago. Click for Full Text!
‘Fiddler on the Roof’ star was Mossad spy – media
Post Date: 2023-04-18 02:14:48 by Charles_Byrd
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Chaim Topol, the late, award-winning actor who starred in such films as ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ and ‘For Your Eyes Only’, lived a double life as an agent for the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, his family has claimed in an interview with Israel’s Haaretz newspaper. Topol, who died in Tel Aviv last month at the age of 87, was one of Israel’s most respected cultural figures – but this was, according to several members of his family, balanced with a life of conducting clandestine operations on behalf of his country’s intelligence services in London. Click for Full Text!
Happy Birthday Thomas Jefferson
Post Date: 2023-04-15 01:28:04 by Charles_Byrd
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On this day (April 13) in 1743, Thomas Jefferson was born on Shadwell Plantation in the British Colony of Virginia. He enjoyed a long and fascinating life and died at 83 on July 4, 1825—the same day on which his longtime political rival and friend, John Adams, died. Jefferson wrote his epitaph, which reads: HERE WAS BURIED THOMAS JEFFERSON, AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, OF THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, AND FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA Click for Full Text!
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