I'm Zach Foster and I'm blessed to be a man of many hats. This is the one room where you can look into all the different windows of my mind. Read on if you're ready to think outside the box! "Call it a character flaw -- when under attack, I counter attack. Always." --Richard Marcinko, Rogue Warrior
HOW can we provide for a strong national defense and community defense in ways that uphold libertarian values?
Not the easiest question to answer! While non-intervention is excellent for preventing future blowback, it does NOTHING about the blowback that already exists and is still boiling up. Discussed are:
The Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria
Paramilitary drug cartels in Mexico and on the U.S. border
Crime in our cities and towns
Imperial wars versus libertarian just wars
So... we need libertarian ideas on military and national/community defense!
This conversation is from the August 20, 2014 episode of "Breaking the Oathbreakers" from the NWO Truth Radio network.
Need some relaxation? You should get into ASMR, which is a growing trend of videos made with special sounds to trigger a sleepy, relaxed state. Below are two new Libertarian ASMR videos yo help you relax, and also teach libertarian ideas in a calm, friendly manner. Enjoy!
A little over a year ago I stumbled onto
a genre of videos for “ASMR.”The
acronym stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, which is the sensation
you get of zoning out, or getting chills, or tingles on the back of your neck,
or you just plain melt in relaxation after staring at a pattern or
hearing certain soft tones and sounds.ASMR is an excellent medium for stress relief by taking on a state of
mind similar to meditation.
A scientific explanation describes ASMR
as
a neologism for a perceptual phenomenon
characterized as a distinct, pleasurable tingling sensation in the head, scalp,
back, or peripheral regions of the body in response to visual, auditory,
olfactory, and/or cognitive stimuli. The nature and classification of the ASMR
phenomenon is controversial. Tom Stafford, a professor at the University of
Sheffield, says, "It might well be a real thing, but it's inherently
difficult to research.
ASMR is wildly popular and there are
hundreds, perhaps thousands by now, ASMRtists making videos on YouTube.More than a few dozen of these quasi-meditation
artists have enjoyed millions of views and tens of thousands of
subscriptions.ASMR is obviously a
growing subculture.
For those in the ASMR community not
familiar with libertarian philosophies, libertarian economist and philosopher
Murray Rothbard describes the concept as such:
The fundamental axiom of libertarian
theory is that no one may threaten or commit violence ("aggress")
against another man's person or property. Violence may be employed only against
the man who commits such violence; that is, only defensively against the aggressive
violence of another.In short, no
violence may be employed against a non-aggressor. Here is the fundamental rule
from which can be deduced the entire corpus of libertarian theory.
I’ve argued for a while now that
libertarians need to inject libertarian ideas into popular culture.In light of this, I thought it would be a
valuable venture to bring libertarianism to the growing world of ASMR.I’ve made the first of what will be a series
of videos where the viewer can listen, relax, and take in libertarian ideas.This is a way for not-yet-libertarians to
explore ideas perhaps outside their comfort zones but in a warm and positive
manner, free of heated debates and nasty arguing.
Please like the video and subscribe if
this is a project you believe in.Furthermore, our foothold into this popular sub-culture will be stronger
if other libertarians join me.Libertarian and paleo-conservative women are needed as well; female
ASMRtists are much more popular [and successful] at this than males, and they’ll
be more successful with swaying people in favor of free markets, sound money,
and voluntary association.We’ll need to
adopt successful strategies for winning as many new minds for liberty as
possible.
Frankly, I’m incredibly excited to be
able to branch out into new artistic directions and make my small contribution
to expanding and strengthening libertarian culture.
* * *
Quote about ASMR courtesy of Wikipedia. ASMR infographic courtesy of Expression College blog "That ASMR Feeling." http://students.expression.edu/thatasmrfeeling/. YouTube video property of this blog owner.
Before being interviewed on David Welch's Blog Talk Radio show "Books and Politics," Mr. Welch sat me down for a written interview (reprinted here with permission).
It took nearly six months but I’ve
finally booked a first ‘political commentator’ on my blog radio show. On the
August 5th Books and Politics show I will interview Zach Foster who
writes the popular and informative “Zach Foster Rants” blog and who is a highly
respected political operative and commentator. The live interview is nearly a
month away and I just couldn’t wait to find out what Zach has to say on some
important issues so I persuaded him to do a ‘written interview’ in advance of
his more comprehensive live interview on August 5th.
After reviewing his answers to my
questions I’m glad I did and I’m quite sure everyone who reads the following
will be thrilled to have a bit of advance notice of what to expect on the Books
and Politics Show the first week of August. I hope you will all listen in the
evening of August 5th at 7 p.m. California time for what will be a
really great interview. And I hope you will be ready to call in with questions
for a bright and uniquely experienced young man. The address for the Books and
Politics Show is http://www.blogtalkradio.com/angelsandwarriors/2013/08/06/books-and-politics
. Don’t miss it! Meanwhile please enjoy the following interview:
1.Zach,
you are the first ‘political commentator’ I’ve had an opportunity to interview
so could you tell the listeners a little about yourself, your background, and
what you’ve done to qualify as a political commentator?
My political experience started when I
was very young. I was a “guerrilla activist” supporting my local Congressman,
David Dreier, and through volunteering for him later I got my first taste of
campaigning. I’ve worked on numerous campaigns—from city council-level to the
federal level—and am involved with several political organizations. My greatest
privilege was working in the Ron Paul 2012 campaign. I’ve also majored in
Political Science at Cal Poly Pomona and Social Sciences at Citrus College.
Between my education and field work, I have a pretty good idea of what I’m
talking about.
2.
I’ve read a number of your blogs and find them quite interesting. In fact I’m
going to ask specific questions about a few but could you tell listeners where
they can find your blogs, or if you prefer, rants?
3.
Zach, you have a pretty strong opinion as to why we should not go to war with
Iran. Could you explain why you feel this way?
Absolutely. While the Iranian Islamic
Republic’s leadership delivers martial anti-Western rhetoric on a daily basis,
by no means is this new to America. Our country dealt with this coming from the
Soviet Union for seventy years. We’re better off letting Iranian people reach a
boiling point and overthrow their leadership just like they overthrew the Shah
in 1979.
4.
Why not help them overthrow the Ayatollah like we overthrew Saddam Hussein in
Iraq?
The Iranian leadership is already highly
unpopular with its own people—we saw the massive protests in 2009—but if we
attack them, it will make true the government’s propaganda painting us as the
aggressors. Furthermore, we saw in the Iran-Iraq War how teenagers were
routinely conscripted into the national militia to serve as bullet catchers on
the front lines. This will certainly be the case in another war, and it will be
a long, devastating war that was—and is—preventable.
Furthermore, I consider myself a
Bible-believing Christian.Jesus tells
us to go around the world and teach the gospels.We have missionaries working in secret in
Iran but if there’s a war, they’ll have to leave, or they’ll be more persecuted
than they already are.Even worse, there’s
no saving someone’s soul if they died in the war before they got to hear the
Gospel.
5.
While we are in the Middle East, so to speak, what did we do wrong in Iraq?
Several things, actually. While our
troops certainly served with courage, distinction, and honor, I believe the
Bush and Obama administrations have a lot of blood on their hands. I don’t
think that war should have happened in the first place. We’ve learned that
Saddam’s regime was actually keeping the radical Islamists in check, and the
toppling of the Ba’ath party-state gave groups like the Mahdi Army and Al Qaeda
in Iraq the opportunity to flourish and wreak havoc. Even worse, Paul Bremer
was an idiot to disband the Iraqi army and police, essentially stripping the
country of any law and order while feeding disgruntled, unemployed, armed young
men into a growing insurgency. The list goes on.
6.
One last Middle East question. What, if anything should we do about Syria? And
before you answer let me tell you I think John McCain is an idiot suggesting we
arm the rebels.
Nothing. There is no way our government
can get involved in the Syrian civil war without being accomplice to murder.
Assad’s regime has slaughtered tens of thousands of civilians, while the
non-centralized rebel armies are saturated with jihadists who commit their own
brand of atrocities. Helping the regime means helping a murderous dictator.
Helping the rebels means helping Al Qaeda sympathizers. We see civil war
continuing in Libya because the rebels were never centralized and the country
is rampant with independent radical militias. This will also happen in Syria,
where the war has been longer, deadlier, and nastier.
7.
OK, enough Middle East for one interview. My next question concerns your
February 2013 blog or rant, where you used the term 21st Century
Libertarian. As you know I refer to myself as a 21st Century Libertarian and
thought I coined the phrase only to discover you have also used it. What do you
mean by the term?
It refers specifically to a
libertarian—new or seasoned—who sees a unique situation and opportunity in our
country. We see the problems of the twentieth century—war, economic
depressions, social problems—being magnified, and we see the best solutions in
libertarian ideas which can be practically applied through public policy. In
some cases the government should take a libertarian approach; in other cases,
it should take no approach at all.
8.
In my book, Stop the Insanity Target 2014, which I believe you have read, I
present an idea that could cut the cost of a four year college degree by up to
40%. Could you comment on that idea from a Libertarian standpoint and let me
know what you personally think of it?
I like most of what you pitched there.
EDX and Coursera are great learning tools. So is Liberty Classroom for civics
and political science, Mises Academy for economics and banking, and the
International Webmasters Association for web design and software engineering. I
certainly like the idea of trading the certification for accreditation. What I
don’t like is the idea of the federal government getting involved. The feds
will not only have to create more bureaucracy to run this program, but are also
likely to impose a one-size-fits all curriculum nationwide. I think such a
program is better left to the individual states to manage, offering diversity
tailored to the needs of a particular state’s population.
Note:
I have a good answer for this concern but will save it for the radio interview.
Be sure and listen!
9.
Another subject discussed in my book is Social Security. Like it or not this
has become a staple of American life and would be almost impossible to
eliminate. Can Libertarians come to grips with the existence of this massive
government program?
We’ve already come to grips with it
because we see it for what it really is: a Ponzi scheme. The current retirees
are being paid by the current generation of workers. The money those retirees
paid into Social Security has long been spent on other programs. We younger
libertarians would love to just opt out—keep our money and be completely
responsible for our own retirements—because with government spending ever on
the rise, we know we’ll never see a single Social Security check by the time
we’re retired.
10.
Ok, my last question. We both know Ron Paul is a dedicated Libertarian yet he
chose to run for Congress, and most recently for President, as a Republican. My
question is if you, Zach Foster, were to run for Congress would you run as a
Libertarian, a Republican, or as I would prefer, as an Independent? And WHY?
I’d run as a Republican with a
libertarian platform. We need to remember the difference between small-l and
capital-L libertarians. One represents a worldview, the other represents a
political party. I respect the Libertarian Party, but they rarely accomplish
major goals because their party is rife with infighting. Besides, the system
isn’t built to accommodate third parties. If there’s going to be major change,
it needs to be brought from a major party.
Oops,
I guess I told a little lie. I do have another question. I understand you have
a book coming out in the not too distant future. Would you care to tell us
about it?
I have two coming out, actually. One is
a book all about the whole “Republitarian” movement, and I’m still working out a
publishing deal. The other is a collection of my best articles and
rants—working title Don’t Piss Me Off
(with “don’t piss me off” graffitied over “don’t tread on me”)—which I’m
self-publishing and making available for the lowest price possible.
Ok, not only a great interview but an
advance notice of not one but two new books that will be available soon. Glad
they are not out yet so my claim that Zach is my first non-politician,
non-author, genuine political commentator is still true. On the radio interview
I will find out more about when they will be available and how
readers/listeners can get a copy! Zach, I really appreciate you taking the time
to help with this written interview in advance of our live radio interview on
August 5th. I’m sure a lot of people who read this will be sure to
tune in. Meanwhile I’m really looking forward to the radio show.
Overzealous
conspiratarian and Ideal Ritalin Test Subject #1 Alex Jones was on muskets-in-the-2nd-Amendment Piers Morgan’s show a few days
ago.This would be funny if it weren’t
all so painfully real.I have lost my
faith in God…
Okay, I
haven’t really lost my faith in God.Hell, if there was any one event that would have made me renounce my
faith in the Almighty who both blessed and cursed me with life on this cartoon
cavalcade of a circus planet, it probably would have been my soul-crushing
break up with the most stunningly beautiful (no joke) Ron Paul supporter in the
state of Indiana.Creepertarians, you
can stop your heavy breathing now!
Upon viewing
the televised verbal clash I was tempted to simply drink myself into a stupor
requiring medical attention and voluntary commitment to a sanitarium, with the
hopes I’d sober up and check myself out just in time to caucus for Rand Paul in Iowa in December
2015.However, I figured if Job lost his
whole family to Satanic-induced death, his health to boils, and his home to
stronger wind than Kansas in The Wizard of Oz, then I probably
had very little room to complain.Damn,
I hate it when other people’s real problems expose my first-world problems as
pathetic…
But I digress.
Alex Jones was
on Piers Morgan’s show on national cable television.This at first made me burst into hysterical
laughter.This is better than a
prime-time mash-up of The Kardashians and Jersey
Shore!Then I suddenly realized
the ramifications of Alex Jones TALKING on Piers Morgan’s national cable show:
Oh. Crap.
I watched the
interview and Jones jumped straight to the Totalitarians Argument.I will give credit where credit is due: Jones
did his homework and came to the set with FBI crime statistics showing an
average 20% drop in violent crime in areas with more guns in the hands of
law-abiding citizens.He also was
absolutely correct that the Second Amendment was written to protect citizens
from tyrannical government.Anyone who
doesn’t believe me can read Federalist # 46 (written by the author of the
Constitution).
Then the rest
of the interview was Jones shouting like a man doomed to stroke out while
Morgan was the stereotypical snippety English elitist.What horrified me most was that the clip of
Jones warning of 1776 happening again made it onto the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.This means Alex Jones is considered by mainstreamers to be a voice of
libertarianism.People are now uttering
the name of a ranting conspiratarian in the sentence as [the name of] a
well-loved retired Republican Congressman from Lake Jackson, Texas.WHY, GOD, WHY?!
What many conspiratarians (and fanatical Libertarian Party members) often fail
to understand is this: while the Totalitarians argument (Hitler, Stalin, Mao
took the guns…) is absolutely correct, we can’t just blitzkrieg ideological
opponents with it.We need to stick with Ron Paul/Rand
Paul/Mike Lee/Justin Amash approach and be the libertarian snakes in the
neoconservative grass.We have to
gradually convince the public of the validity of libertarian ideas through a
clear line of reasoning.Otherwise, we
look like crazy ideologues who go on YouTube and talk about all the undercover
cops that have been following them since their interview on the Piers Morgan
show.
As for Piers
Morgan, his arguments were fallacious.The fact still stands that Sandy Hook Elementary School, the movie
theater in Aurora, and Columbine High School were all designated Gun Free
Zones.Piers is a man in a precarious
position right now; few people have over
104,000 signatures demanding their deportation on WhiteHouse.gov.Ouch!And I thought I had problems!There was only one person who
wanted me out of Indiana.Suck to be
you, Piers!
* * *
YouTube video not my property but used via Standard YouTube License. Image is the property of Alex Jones, used via CC BY-SA 3.0 license, and was obtained from Wikimedia commons.
