Mr. Madison’s War

I’m doing a history class this week on the War of 1812. This war has confused me and I’ve never been sure what to think of it. There are some very interesting things I’ve discovered so far. – Madison knew he wouldn’t have a chance for reelection unless he found some way to unite the country and better his public image. – The First Bank of the United States had just been disbanded, but the new owner of it (Stephen Girard) was very good friends with Madison’s Secretary of Treasury, Alexander Dallas. Girard funded about 95% of the War of…

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Wednesday Report

Sadly, there isn’t much to report…last night while playing piano I thought of some really good topic to discuss here, but of course I didn’t write it down, so I can’t remember now. Here are some odds and ends. Yesterday the girls and I had a history class. It is usually on Wednesdays, but they were begging me to do it a day early. We were talking about the writing of the Constitution. I’m eager to buy Hans Hoppe’s book, “Democracy: The God That Failed.” I don’t think the girls quite understand the fundamental shift that occurred when the Articles…

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What the Tea Party Needs to Hear, Part 2

And now we are left with three topics that, were it not for Lincoln, we might not have to discuss, taxation, the military, and the federal reserve. If prostitution is the oldest profession known to the world, taxation is without a doubt the second oldest. Taxation is the extortion of money through the threat, or actual use of violence. when it is done by a gang, or by a common criminal, it is known as theft, or extortion, but when it is done by the most powerful gang in the land, and the strongest criminals it is called taxation. Go….

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What the Tea Party Needs to Hear, Part 1*

It seems rather strange to have someone else posting on www.savannahliston.com, but there are two reasons, 1) Savannah Liston doesn’t always have the time to write posts and 2) sometimes (well, a lot of times) other people can say things better than Savannah Liston does, so why not let them have a go at it? The author of this post is Andrew Hayes. I’m stealing his bio from his FB profile…Andrew Hayes is married and presumably happily married to someone who will remain unnamed until the aforesaid chooses otherwise. He appears to live in Oklahoma, but I can’t be sure…

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Lincoln: The Capitalist?

Note: Austrian economists distinguish between two types of capitalists, those who make money because they provide products that consumers want, and those who make money because they have connections in government and enjoy subsidies while their competitors are crippled. Also, there is a great controversy raging right now as to whether free market people should use the term capitalism or capitalist. I chose to use Capitalist for purely literary reasons. It would be awkward to say, “Lincoln: The Free Marketeer” or something like that. So there’s no great significance about my choice of words. So, I hope you are not…

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