Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Tweets Prove Internet Kill Switch Attack On Free Speech

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As I write this, a major (8.9) quake has hit Japan, killing many there and causing tsunami warnings all over the Pacific. My deepest condolences for this horrible tragedy, and I hope that those trapped are found swiftly, possibly even with the help of Twitter.

As soon as the quake hit, the first wave of information regarding the quake hit the rest of the world via Twitter. That’s right folks: it wasn’t CNN, MSNBC or Fox News: word of this earthquake and tsunami spread first through individuals on the ground in Japan, experiencing the quake personally.

It was basically crowdsourced news. The first tweets hit twitter just as it happened, and within a half hour, it was a top trending term. There was an emergency somewhere in the world, and the first route to information is the internet.

Now imagine Barack Obama sitting in the Oval Office with a big internet kill switch on his desk. Pressing this button would basically shut down the internet: no one would be able to reach any website or service, Facebook, Google, Twitter would all be dead. Now why would Obama ever have a need to kill all internet communications in the event of an emergency?

I mean, during a crisis, we depend more than ever on the internet and services like Twitter, which also use SMS, to get the news regarding the crisis, and how it might affect us. Trapped victims can also use Twitter to report on thier location - loved ones can use Twitter to tell their friends and families that they are OK.

Unless, of course, the emergency were one of suppressing our inviolable right to speak, as encoded in the Constitution. It makes no sense to “kill” the internet, unless its spreading a message the government does not want you to hear.

Why Would We Want To Be “Run”?

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Why would anyone want to live in a country with strong central government controlling your life? Because that’s not only where we are going, some could even argue that’s where we are.

Sure, sometimes its difficult to make decisions about your life – sometimes you think, wouldn’t it be great if I could hand off all of the big and small decisions to someone else? That someone else wiser than me could basically run my life for me? Kind of like when you were a kid?

Well, we are all adults now. And as grownups, we may not like it, but we are all fully responsible for ourselves, and for those of us with families, we are responsible for those as well. Though it may feel a burden at times, running ourselves keeps us fully human, fully adult.

Regulating Smell

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I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts the other day, Free Talk Live (I still listen even though they denied me entry into their network – guess I’m too practical for them). Anyways they were discussing Portland’s foray into regulating how people smell, discussing how they are planning to enact some new laws to stop people from smelling excessively: I guess that includes body odor, strong perfumes, etc etc. So people complain, say (as they do in Canada and other socialist states a lot) “The government should step in here and DO SOMETHING about it.” So they are planning to enact a “Smell Code” – assumingly punished by a fine, leading to jail time if you don’t pay etc.

Whatever happened to just saying to someone “Dude, you reek! Take a shower” or “ Sorry, but that’s way too much perfume". Somewhere along the way, we just started to assume that the government should fight ALL of our battles for us. And that’s wrong.

A Sample Chapter From The BunkerBook: Government IS Control

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Here is a sample chapter from The BunkerBook: Nuggets Of Liberty From The Freedom Bunker, available now for Kindle readers and software.

It’s called Garbage = Power, my little treatise on why people go into government:

I am firmly convinced that the only reason people go into government is to control others. Let me tell you a little story.

I used to live in an area where our trash pickup was on Wednesdays. When I moved into that area, we got a letter from the trash company saying to put out the trash the night before, since the trash pickup could come anytime between 6am and 3pm, depending on how busy the “sanitation engineers” were that day. So I did so.

Eventually, I noted that every Wednesday, without fail, for more than a year, the truck would come by after 10am, in fact sometimes as late as 5pm, but always, always after 10am. Every Wednesday, like clockwork, after 10am.

So eventually, I, and everyone else on the street, got used to taking out the trash on Wednesday morning, trusting that by the evidence piled up over the last year, that the truck would not be by until after most of us had left for work.

So that’s what we all did. Every Wednesday morning, we’d greet each other on our way to take out the trash bins and get in our cars and go. This went on for over a year.

Then one day, I’m lying in bed. It’s 6am Wednesday morning. I just woke up. And what do I hear?

Yes, folks. It’s the garbage truck, banging, slamming and grinding and grunting.

So I jump up – hurriedly put on some clothes and tear out the door, half asleep, pulling my bins to the curb in the ungodly early early very cold morning. As were almost all of my neighbors, in various stages of dress. Some of us just didn’t make it in time. We grumbled and went back to bed.

So maybe after I thought, OK, maybe they changed their shift. So we all started dutifully putting our bins out the night before. Guess what?

They started coming after 10am again. And as far as I know, they are still coming after 10am.

This is what I think happened: Some government functionary in the always interesting waste removal division was incredibly bored one day, or had a fight with his wife, or was constipated, or was pissed off because he didn’t get a promotion, whatever. This guy decided, simply because he can, to screw with our heads. He probably called the waste removal company and changed the schedule on purpose just to screw us all over. I’m sure that he got a great laugh about it.

So this is my theory. Why does anyone get into government? Why would anyone aspire to be a “public servant” (chuckle), unless it was to run other people’s lives? Cause if you ask me, anyone who doesn’t want to run other people’s lives should just get into the business world. That’s where you can’t survive simply telling people what to do.

The Practical Libertarian

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The more I think about it, this is more of what I am. While most libertarians are more into education or think tank mode, I truly want to see liberty in my lifetime, or at least in my children's lifetime. I believe that educating people about liberty, freedom, the ideals of the founders, libertarianism is great, and the think tanks and institutes all do a great job of just that, as does Ron Paul’s Campaign For Liberty. Like the Cato Institute and even the guys from another libertarian radio show, Free Talk Live, I applaud their thinking.

However, I think most libertarians tend to envision some idyllic future state where they can live, like Galt’s Gulch, with others who share their same beliefs. Believe me, I’d love to live in a place like that as well, and a number of us have done just that, by creating things like the Free State Project in New Hampshire, or the Seasteading Institute.

For me: I want liberty and freedom right here, right now, in the place I live, and for everyone around me. I will work to bring it about where I am, and where you are. I won’t compromise, but I also won’t say no to moving towards liberty as quickly as possible, and not leaping to it directly, as these others have.

If you ask me: that’s the essence of the Tea Party movement: it’s ideals are libertarian, but pragmatic. And I’m proud to say not only that I’m one of them, but that our ranks grow every day.

Internet Vs. Tyranny

This is a sample chapter from my book, The BunkerBook: Nuggets Of Liberty From The Freedom Bunker:



The Internet will let people beat tyranny, not any the state. Basically, the state IS tyranny. They can’t work without it.

Do you want to know why the Bush administration, Obama and the current Democratic administration want to put curbs on Internet speech? Do you know why China already has curbs on Internet speech? It’s simple really.

The state does not want people talking to each other. And the internet is the ultimate peer-to-peer, or person-to-person communications mechanism. Its whole foundation is communications from any “node” to any other “node”

For the first time in human history, the Internet and the web provide a medium upon which every human being on the planet can talk to any other human being on the planet, be it via voice, text, and image whatever.

Think about it for a second: imagine a world where everyone on the planet has an iPhone, or iPhone like device, which gives them totally free, unfettered access to READ about anything and everything which is happening everywhere else. Can you imagine what someone would feel like, in one of these more impoverished countries, reading about what life could be like, in some other country, under a less oppressive regime? Now imagine that not only can that person READ anything from elsewhere, they can also WRITE their personal experiences to the Internet and the web, so that anyone, anywhere else can see what is going on in their lives.

We are seeing a small taste of these things today: look at all the tweets and YouTube videos which emanated from the violence surrounding the elections in Iran, and subsequent protests and riots. Without the Internet, and the ability for humans to WRITE to the web, as well and READ from it, we would have no idea what is going on over there. Think of when every human on the planet has a full read/write device.

This is deathly frightening to the state, as it subsists and survives (and this is important) on the restriction of the flow of information from one person to another. If there truly were a free flow of information from anyone to anyone, why would we need a state?

Why are states even necessary? As far as I’m concerned, the state simply exists to retard the forward progress of humanity, not accelerate it. And once we get full two-way connectivity to most of the humans on the planet, then states will no longer be necessary.

Let humanity talk to each other, without restriction, and the world will change.

How Do We Stop Fueling Our Own Repression?

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It's happening in Egypt, it's happening here. One of the big problems with protesting against a huge, overarching government, is that its resources are limitless. It has the guns, it has the money (stolen from the people in taxation) and it has the minions (military, police, etc) to suppress us for the long haul.

Depressingly, the state uses our own money to buy the guns and troops and police to keep us in check. As it's been shown in Egypt, as the protests have worn on, and as the current government continues to spend the people's stolen treasure on suppressing them, then the protesters, who I'm sure aren't getting paid to protest, and probably need to get back to their homes and lives and jobs will eventually have to give up.

So, the question is, how do you starve the state of the resources it needs to keep us repressed?

Why The Liberal Media Is Dying

Ah, wither Arianna Huffington. The once Californian gubernatorial candidate, who probably would have done an even worse job than Arnold, went on to create the Huffington Post, as far as I'm concerned, the top liberal "screech media" Obama mouthpiece out there.

So if its so popular, how come she and her founders just sold the whole thing off to AOL, and she became the head of media for AOL? Did she sense a new, anti-liberal-screech-media wave coming through?

Does this sound the death knell for all liberal “screech media”, like that site and the Daily Kos? Lets hope so. By all reports, the founders wanted to unload the site, so they are probably sensing that the end of liberalism is near in America.

Lets hope that this wave washes out all of the mainstream media as well.

907 - HuffPo Goes Down - Liberal Media To Follow - Government Root

On Today's Show:

• Does the sale of the Huffington Post to AOL sound the death knell for all liberal "screech media", like that site and the Daily Kos? Lets hope so. By all reports, the founders wanted to unload the site, so they are probably sensing that the end of liberalism is near in America


• Lets hope that this wave washes out all of the mainstream media as well.


• Additionally, I discuss free speech: how Obama wants to control the internet,approving domain names, adding a kill switch, and using the guise of net neutrality to suppress dissent.


• How the government and unions actively crush entrepreneurship and innovation just as Obama calls for more. They work hand in hand to suppress any new economic activity which doesn't pay them directly. All new business is a threat to them.

906 - Obama Dont Change - Superbowl Feast - Reagans Words

On Today's Show:

• Obama has not changed - don't be fooled into thinking that this guy has changed at all. We cannot have Obama for a second term - it will just be the end of America


• j.lo - come on back to the White House lets enjoy the game together - he can invite anyone to his taxpayer financed pad - we bust our asses day in day out to survive - how can we enjoy our lives when this guy steals from us every day


• Reagan's 100th birthday - great guy - great -communicator - but he was all words - even though he talked a lot about reducing the size and scope of government - he never actually did anything about it - the size of government grew under Reagan.


• In the same way Avatar was a beautiful film which lacked substance, Reagan was a great communicator who had great ideas, but he never implemented any of them


• Listen Now:

Twitter Wars: Egypt

I think we are all pretty aware of how social media, specifically Twitter and Facebook, have been used by the Egyptian people in order to help organize this revolution – can we call it a civil war yet – not only to trade information and organize within Egypt, but to help get information out of Egypt on the situations within Egypt.

I read today that pro-Mubarak forces are now using the Vodafone networks in order to send text messages to the Egyptian people, promoting the continuation of the Mubarak regime. The war over the hearts and minds of the Egyptian people is begin fought on every level, from the actual physical protests to propaganda about the current regime on their social networks. The government uses peoples social network streams in order to finger dissidents as well, and put them under house arrest, removing their access to the internet.

They say that the revolution will be televised, this may be the first ever revolution also fought over Twitter.

Obama Prays For Peace, Instead Of Promoting Democracy

Obama prays for peace in Egypt at a prayer breakfast in DC. If you ask me, he should be doing much more for Egypt, and every other people being oppressed by its government. We need the President of the United States to do more than pray. We need that president to point out the way to freedom for these people, and that the way to freedom is to emulate the path of the United States of America.

Not only is America and inspiration for a place to actually live, the ideals of America should be an aspiration for other countries to emulate, a blueprint if you will, for other countries to embrace and use in order to develop a free society. Any other president, who believed in America, would do that, would stand and encourage the Egyptian people to create their own free, democratic state, using our own, even with its current flaws, to build their own.

Pro-Mubarak Forces Attacking Media

The latest word from Egypt is that there are now pro-government gangs, and other pro-government forces swarming the streets, attempts to fight back the revolutionaries who want regime change. These pro-government gangs have taken to attacking foreign journalists and news organizations, while the rebel forces have always treated the journalists more respectfully.

I’m not really surprised. It is usually the state and not the people who are afraid of free speech and a free press. It is the state who has the most to lose when a free press reveals the details of their doings to the people.

Even though our press has always shown its support for a leftist agenda in this country, to the rest of the world, it does represent a freedom which much of the rest of the world does not have. And that is probably why it is such a threat.

People Vs The State

People everywhere are rising against their respective states: here with the Tea Party, in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen. Around the world, people are using the power of the internet, as much as they have, in order to help them to overthrow their own personal tyrannical regimes. Whether its by oppressive taxation and regulation, or kidnapping, torture and suppression of speech, its all repression if you ask me.

There really is not that much difference between an American, and Egytian and a Tunisian citizen. They all want the same things: to live their lives without fear of violence, support their families, maybe even enjoy their lives. Basically, to be able to speak and trade freely with others. And governments in all cases get in the way of supporting these goals. When it gets too powerful, we tell them to back down, ant they never like to hear that.

904 - People Vs The State Everywhere - Snow = Warming

904 - People Vs The State: America, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Everywhere - Snow = Warming

On Today's Show:

• People all over the world are rebelling against the overarching state: all of these movements have the same source: deep unhappiness with their governments. Whether is oppressive taxation and regulation, supressing freedom of speech, religion and the press, getting in the way of trade and free markets, all the all up to kidnapping, torture and murder, regimes from America to Yemen are under fire. We The People want to be to free. Unleash us.


• A huge snowstorm blankets the US. Of course, global warming is blamed. I've said it before, I'll say it again, short of a global thermonuclear war, we are simply a pimple on Mother Natures Ass. No matter what we do, we do not matter to the Earth. It will always control us, not the other way around.

903 - Egypt Seeks Freedom - ObamaCare Shutdown

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On Today's Show:

• On the conservative side, theres been this strange split along con/neocon lines, I guess its pretty easy to see now where the neocons are when it comes to Egypt: the ones who want to keep Mubarak in power are the neocons, sticking to the current regime. The rest of us want to see freedom for the Egyptian people. A freedom which they themselves gained, which we should support, not stand on the sidelines and watch.


• Whatever we can do to help them build a democratic society, lets jump in with both feet, but only if they ask us. They need to find their own path, and since most human desires lead to a freer society, lets help them go that way


• And ObamaCare is struck down by a judge in Florida. Struck down so hard in fact that the government should, by all rights, cease enforcing the law, period. I don't doubt that millions of dollars of taxpayer money will now go to defend this law we don't want or need.

Listen Now:

Why Does Obama Need An Internet Kill Switch?

Right now, as we speak, a bill giving the President of the United States the ability to unilaterally shut down the internet, is making its way through Congress. I wonder why they feel that, no matter what the emergency is, that we would ever need to shut down the internet. In fact, the internet is an extremely valuable resource in every emergency that I've ever seen: floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, people have been saved by the internet, Twitter and mobile phones.

So what kind of emergency would require shutting down the internet? Only one. Dissent. In every other country which has the ability to shut down the internet, that is the reason that they shut it down. To quell dissent. And I'll bet that's the exact same reason why they want to shut it down here as well. 

Kind of makes you wonder: what are they expecting to happen?

Egypt Fights For Freedom Part 4 - America & Egypt

Did you know that there is a bill wending its way through Congress which gives our President, currently Barack Hussein Obama, the ability to shut down or "kill" the internet in America, supposedly under dire circumstances. Now I don't know about you, but I can't see any possible reason why the President of the United States, ostensibly the only country on earth where free speech, freedom of religion and freedom of the press is encoded in its highest law, would EVER want to shut down the internet.

The EXACT same thing that Egypt did in order to attempt to quell the revolution. The EXACT same thing China does in order to shut down dissent.

I guess our government isn't that different from those tyrannical regimes after all. I mean, you can define tyranny in a lot of different ways, all the way from killing and torture down to excessive taxation and regulation, can't you.

Egypt Fights For Freedom - Part 3

America has been supporting Egypt's regime for 30 years. It appears to be in our best interest to keep this tyrant in power instead of some other tyrant, when of course the best answer is not to keep any tyrants in power at all. The US has a history, a recent history actually, so maybe it came along with all of the overreaching government power, to support dictators around the world, even if they have terrible human rights records, in order to foster trade with these nations.

Look at China, Egypt, Syria, Somalia: there are a ton of countries where we either actively keep the tyrants in office directly, or support them indirectly by buying their goods and keeping their regimes running. Whatever happened to the Bush "fight against tyranny everywhere", a fight which he talked about but never took to anyone but Saddam Hussein.

So what do we do? We support the people of course. But in the vacuum created by the deposement of this leader, will the possibly even more oppressive Muslim Brotherhood step in? Many pundits are saying thats a bad thing - I think thats a gut reaction. We don't really know what will happen. But if Egypt does not get a freer society and more democracy, it will be all for nothing.

Coming up: how Egypt and America are not that different.

Egypt Fights For Freedom - Part 2

While in Tunisia, there was no organized opposition which was ready to step in, in Egypt there is a serious opposition group, which most times is more of a figurehead. For the least 30 years, Mubarak has "ruled" Egypt. The whole concept of opposition to the regime was window dressing, not a real true force to be reckoned with. Like most minor political parties, like the Green Party here in the US, it had no real chance of victory, since real democratic elections where anyone but Mubarak could not be the victor, could ever occur. However, it is ready to step in, IF there would be a coup. Unfortunately, a regime run by the Muslim Brotherhood, the official opposition, my be even more tyrannical than the current regime. America played it part as well. I'll go into that in Part 3