Category Archives: Blast From The Past

A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto (March 9th, 1993)

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“People have been defending their own privacy for centuries with whispers, darkness, envelopes, closed doors, secret handshakes, and couriers. The technologies of the past did not allow for strong privacy, but electronic technologies do. We the Cypherpunks are dedicated to building anonymous systems. We are defending our privacy with cryptography, with anonymous mail forwarding systems, with digital signatures, and with electronic money. Cypherpunks write code. We know that someone has to write software to defend privacy, and since we can’t get privacy unless we all do, we’re going to write it.”

http://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/manifesto.html

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There was a time when kids were taught to respect firearms, not fear them

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“Kids today are reprimanded for carving out a gun-shaped pastry or wearing a tee-shirt from the National Rifle Association. But America hasn’t always been so gun-phobic. Check out these pictures of firearm safety, taught in Indiana schools in 1956.  By banning gun-shaped Pop-Tarts, are we teaching children to respect a gun’s power or are we only feeding their natural curiosity — curiosity that, without proper education, could be deadly?”

http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2013/07/26/there-was-a-time-when-kids-were-taught-to-respect-firearms-not-fear-them-photos/

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Vietnamese boat people return as entrepreneurs [2003]

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“Once the world knew them as boat people, some 2 million Vietnamese who fled the communist regime in their country, most of them in rickety vessels, paying for their perilous passages with hoarded family gold. Their traumatic odysseys at sea, where they were targeted by pirates and other bandits, made dramatic news for years. Most boat people found a home in the West; 1 million settled in the United States. Now, thousands of those who fled after the Vietnam War ended in 1975 have been drifting back to Vietnam as Viet-kieu (overseas Vietnamese), bringing entrepreneurial know-how, foreign passports and ambition.”

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2003-11-28/news/0311280291_1_viet-kieu-chi-minh-city-boat-people

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Herbert Spencer: Patriotism (from Facts and Comments, 1902)

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“Were anyone to call me dishonest or untruthful he would touch me to the quick. Were he to say that I am unpatriotic, he would leave me unmoved. ‘What, then, have you no love of country?’ That is a question not to be answered in a breath.  […]  To me the cry – ‘Our country, right or wrong!’ seems detestable. By association with love of country the sentiment it expresses gains a certain justification. Do but pull off the cloak, however, and the contained sentiment is seen to be of the lowest. Let us observe the alternative cases.”

http://c4ss.org/content/20182

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Obama: No warrantless wiretaps if you elect me [2008]

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“For one thing, under an Obama presidency, Americans will be able to leave behind the era of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and ‘wiretaps without warrants,’ he said. (He was referring to the lingering legal fallout over reports that the National Security Agency scooped up Americans’ phone and Internet activities without court orders, ostensibly to monitor terrorist plots, in the years after the September 11 attacks.) In our own Technology Voters’ Guide, when asked whether he supports shielding telecommunications and Internet companies from lawsuits accusing them of illegal spying, Obama gave us a one-word response: ‘No.'”

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9845595-7.html

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Boots on the ground in Egypt: trading one dictator for another [2011]

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“Sure, Hosni Mubarak is now standing trial after 3-decades of looting and pillaging his country’s wealth. For most Egyptians, this is viewed as a major victory; there is a feeling of intense optimism here on the streets of Cairo, and even though nothing is fundamentally different, expectations are high. Mubarak was a symbol of tyranny, and a great deal of blood was shed to topple his regime. Unfortunately, Egyptians have essentially replaced one form of dictatorship with another. There is now one person in charge of Egypt– military Supreme Commander Mohamed Hussein Tantawi.”

http://www.sovereignman.com/expat/boots-on-the-ground-in-egypt-trading-one-dictator-for-another-4904/

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Peter Schiff: The Golden Cycle

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“This analysis provides a good representation of the current conventional wisdom. The only twist here is that the article from which this summary is derived appeared in the August 29, 1976 edition of The New York Times.  When the gold price approached $100 per ounce, a nearly 50% decline, the obituaries came fast and furious. Everyone assumed that the gold mania would never return. Although the writer of The Times piece did not yet know it, the bottom for gold had been established four days before his article was published. Few realized at the time that the real economic pain of the 1970’s had (to paraphrase The Carpenters 1970’s hit) ‘Only Just Begun’.”

http://www.europac.net/commentaries/golden_cycle

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On This Day in 1933

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“You were considered a hoarder and a slacker if you still resisted turning over your gold to the government. Roosevelt had only been in office for 101 days and while there was broad bipartisan support for inflationary policies in Congress, it’s safe to say that most of those who voted for FDR never expected him to confiscate private holdings of gold coins, bullion, and certificates. Roosevelt called the measure a temporary one (it wasn’t), and he followed it up by invalidating gold clauses in private contracts that obligated payment in gold dollars, which had the effect of devaluing the assets of bond and contract holders.”

http://bastiat.mises.org/2013/06/on-this-day-in-1933/

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Ron Paul talking about computer surveillance in 1984

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Ron Paul talking about computer surveillance in 1984

“Ron Paul talking about computer surveillance in 1984.”

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General Hayden CIA and NSA Head Confronted About Domestic Spying [2011]

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General Hayden CIA and NSA Head Confronted About Domestic Spying [2011]

“General Michael Hayden runs away after legit questioning about the privacy of Americans citizens, that he himself violated.”

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