A team of rock hounds is in chilly pursuit of meteorites, scouring their snowy surroundings as part of the 2010-11 field season of theAntarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) program.

In a recent blog post fromAntarctica’s LaPaz ice sheet, members of the search team reported the hunting is good.

“We’ve been camping on the icehere for two weeks and they have gone by fast,” wrote Melissa Lane of the Planetary Science Institute, which is based in Tucson, Ariz. “In all, we found 170 meteorites here and the most interesting one,petrologically, seems to be the last one found!”

Lane is a planetary geologist on the Reconnaissance Team, which also includes John Schutt, an ANSMET veteran of 30 years serving as the science lead and safety officer, Serena Aunon, astronaut and physician from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, and geologist StephenBallou of Beloit College in Wisconsin.

“We’ve all grown accustomed to the stark beauty here,” Lane wrote. “The flatness, the wind, the snow, and even (sort of) the cold are all special here. The team is going to miss this place, but we are excited for new scenery, too. We are moving our camp to the Patuxent Range that is over 100 miles to our NE. We’ll describe it once we see it.”

Better suited for Houdini

The Recon Team arrived at the LaPaz ice sheet Dec. 16, delivered along with its tents, sleeping gear and cooking stoves aboard a Twin Otter aircraft. Two other aircraft delivered snowmobiles the next day, allowing the eager scientists to begin their first meteorite hunt.

“The beauty of the area and sheer fun of navigating our snow machines over endless frozen oceanwaves? was a thrill for all,” said Ballou. “Spirits are high and we are all thrilled to be here, but every facet of our lives here is work. It is challenging to do normal everyday things like dress, eat — and just leaving the tent is often an act better suited for Houdini.”

The Reconnaissance Team is gearing up for 25 more days of camping in Antarctica, coupled with the change of scenery in the Patuxent Range, ”where we can continue our new passions ofmeteorite hunters and huntresses extraordinaire,” Ballou noted.

NASA’s Aunon described in a recent blog what the team faces.

“Winds, winds…and more winds,” Aunon wrote. “In Antarctica the winds are relentless and forced the Recon Team to spend yesterday and this morning inside the tent.

“We did manage to get out in the afternoon, however, and found an additional four meteorites in the field.”

Aunon said preparing to go out on the ice takes the better part of an hour. Team members put on multiple layers of thermal clothing, apply sunscreen, gather equipment and warm up the snowmobiles.

“The Ski-Doos are our best friend out in the field as they carry a survival kit for four people, meteorite gathering equipment, multiple liters of water, food, medical kits, iridium phones and GPSdevices,” Aunon said. “We take extra care in the mornings examining the Ski-Doo engines to ensure peak performance.”

Collection process

ANSMET field work has been supported since 1976 by grants from the Office of Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation and NASA’s Planetary Science Division.

Meteorites have been found in Antarctica since the continent was first explored. The first one was found in 1912, by a member of an expedition from Australia.

So what happens when a team member spots a meteorite?

The collection process starts by using the meteorite hunter’s toolkit, a relatively simple collection of gear: sterile bags to contain the rocks, numbered tags to label them, tape to close and seal the bags, a notebook to take down any distinguishing features of the sample, and scissors to cut the tape or the bags open.

Great care is taken not to touch the meteorite or even breathe on it. Above all, a dripping nose hovering over a specimen is a no-no!

The meteorite is placed in a sterile bag as quickly as possible, usually by putting the bag over it. The meteorite is measured and sometimes photographed, and its size and color and possible classification are noted.

A small aluminum tag with an ID number is also inserted into the bag, and the whole thing is then sealed up tight.

At the end of a good day, a hunter’s backpack can be full of these meteorite samples.

Collected meteorites are shipped still frozen to the Antarctic Meteorite Curation labs at Johnson Space Center. There the samples are carefully dried and cracked open, and small pieces are broken off for study as thin sections.

A day of rest

With the team ready to be transported to its new location, it was informed by briefers at South Pole Station Dec. 29 that weather over the Patuxent Range was not good and that the Twin Otters would be unable to fly out.

“Could it be true? A day off? As much as we would like to continue the search for meteorites, a day of rest was welcome,” Aunon said. “We were able to catch up on phone calls with family and friends, write postcards, wash our hair (very refreshing but time consuming), write in our journals and enjoy a matinee showing of ‘Nacho Libre‘ with the team.”

Now well rested, the Recon Team is primed to continue its meteorite adventure at the PatuxentRange.

“In all, this will require four flights to transfer tents, food, Ski-Doos, fuel, and people. If we?re luckywe?ll have two Twin Otters at our disposal and get everything transferred in one day. We?ll keep you updated,” Aunon said, signing off.

If you’d like to keep tabs on the intrepid explorers and their Antarctic field work, check their blogs by going to: http://humanedgetech.com/expedition/ansmet1011/

Source: Space.

*Written by Rob Rimes.

1. Introduction:

Not too long ago, I had no idea who the hell Governor Jerry Brown was, other than being a lyrical flourish in the Dead Kennedys’ epic song “California Über Alles”. And shit, that song was released in 1979 which just goes to show just how long this tyrannical cockpuppet has been on the political scene. The song claimed back then that he was going to be president, well that hasn’t happened yet. Truth is, he is a career politician for sure and he even had presidential runs in ’76, ’80 and ’92. He is more than just the current Governor of Cali, in fact, he was their governor once before for two terms that stretched from 1975-1983. I guess the Golden Staters love this shitpickle maroonish tyrant because they elected him as governor once again, 27 years after he left that position. Well, there is that old adage that states, “You’ve made your bed, now lie in it.”

Governor Jerry Brown is a tyrant, plain and fucking simple. A part of me fears that this bastard will one day run for president again, maybe in 2016 or 2020. God I fucking hope not because his current tenure as Cali Governor has been full of several attacks on liberty and this fucksack hasn’t even been in office a whole year yet! If anything, this article is being written to lay out the tyrannies he’s committed already, in less than a quarter of a single term. By exposing all this, you will hopefully be deterred from ever giving this guy your vote, whether it is for an unprecedented fourth term as governor or a potential presidential run.

2. Eliminating Parental Rights:

One of the biggest things this tyrant has done, is he has made it so that California preteens can choose whether or not they want the Gardasil vaccine, without their parents’ knowledge. The vaccine supposedly helps prevent certain types of HPV. However, this is the same vaccine that has gotten presidential candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry into a lot of trouble with a big portion of the voter base. Reason being, the vaccination has received a lot of scrutiny due to the fact that it has been proven to cause harm and in some cases death to individuals who have taken it. Some research even states that the vaccine is ineffective and some studies have concluded that HPV doesn’t cause cancer but Gardasil itself does. You can do your own research on it and decide if the pros outweigh the cons but really, should the decision of partaking in such a controversial medical procedure fall on the shoulders of a 12-year-old child?

The point is, Jerry Brown has eliminated parental rights. I’m sorry but that is just fucking scary. I’m not saying all parents are even good, most parents these days seem pretty shitty. However, an adult is more capable of making these sorts of decisions, especially for their own children. It kind of falls under the same category as abortions in certain states where the child doesn’t have to get parental permission. While I understand that teenagers don’t want their parents knowing that they are sexually active, I still think that until a person is 18-years-old (or emancipated from their parents) that they still have to live under the rule of their parents or legal guardians. That might not seem very libertarian of me but a 12-year-old girl shouldn’t even be in a position to have to make this decision and live with the consequences of her possibly naive choice.

So by giving children the responsibility of adults, is the nanny state now assuming that they can also buy beer, cigarettes and drive cars? Hell, maybe they can work in strip clubs or even prostitute themselves out in areas where hooking is legal. I know these are extreme examples but aren’t the actions of Jerry Brown here extreme? I mean, you basically consider 12-year-old girls to be adults in this case but in other cases they are still children? You can’t have your cake and eat it too. This is just another case of forcing us all to comply with the statist quo.

Fact is, the nanny state has been trying to pry children away from their parents for years. This case is no different. The state is letting you know that they are the parents and that you just have to offer your child, now their child, free room and board until they are old enough to go out and live off of the system, as they are being indoctrinated to do already. Don’t trust mommy and daddy, trust the state kiddos. Oh, and while your at it, be sure to snitch to the state about any suspicious activity your parents may be a part of.

The hypocrisy of this is that the state has laws in place to protect children from sexual predators because the state obviously feels that children can’t make well-informed decisions when it comes to sexual activity due to their undeveloped worldview. Yet they are informed enough to decide on whether or not they can get vaccinated before they commence in sexual activity? It’s fucking horseshit! As real as it can be stated, Jerry Brown condones the exploitation of the children in his own state, which he is sworn to protect. Is he getting kickbacks from Merck like Rick Perry did?

And while young girls are now able to make this crazy decision, Jerry Brown has banned minors from going to tanning salons. Truth is, there is no logic behind any of this hypocritical behavior unless you understand the real agenda here. That agenda is that the state is grooming these children to be zombies reliant on the state itself. Unfortunately the people of California haven’t woken up enough to lambast this bastard. Chances are, he’ll get voted in for a fourth term.

Ultimately, as with everything, this is a state issue as this country has been founded on states’ rights. However, California is apparently full of subservient dumbasses that are seemingly fine with this. Well, I’m not cool with it and if I ever do have a child, they won’t be raised in Killa Cali.

Before I move on, here is something Jerry Brown said recently after vetoing a bill that would have forced minors to wear ski helmets:

I believe parents have the ability and responsibility to make good choices for their children.

What a dickbag.

3. Warrantless Searches & Seizures:

Governor Jerry Brown is one of the biggest pro-police state politicians I have seen in recent memory. Recently, he used his executive power to veto a bill, which has resulted in allowing law enforcement in California to be able to do warrantless on-the-spot cell phone searches. This is a direct attack to the Constitution, more specifically the 4th Amendment, which states:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Well, Jerry Brown doesn’t give a fuck about all that noise. You see, now residents of the Golden State who are either suspects to a crime or just simply pulled over on a traffic stop can be forced to hand their mobile device over to the police, who have the power to search it inside and out. In the digital age this means that cops have access to all your private e-mails, pictures, text messages, contacts, call records, cloud-storage services, location-based services, banking activity and everything else you could imagine. I don’t know about you but I have a lot of idiot friends that text me idiot things that could pretty much incriminate me if the cop wanted to be a humorless dick. Many cops are humorless dicks.

This gives police way too much power. Not only that but it strips 37 million people of their constitutional rights. The 4th Amendment exists to stop the abuse of power from the state and to protect the individual and property rights of the American citizen. What Jerry Brown has done here is unacceptable. This isn’t even an issue of states’ rights, it’s an issue of some vile fucksack coming along and taking a huge shit on our nation’s most sacred document. It is a slap in the face of our Founding Fathers and the millions of Golden Staters that are forced to live under this dark cloud of tyranny. Then again, I guess you get what you vote for.

As is always the way with government, what is to stop them from going a mile when you give them an inch? What is going to stop the corruption of crooked cops from finding just enough suspicion to stop you and thumb through your smartphone on a whim? What’s to stop them from finding just enough incriminating evidence to make your life a living hell? You better not back talk them! Hell, you might as well give them the keys to your entire kingdom because they can just peer inside whenever they want anyway.

If Brown is willing to bring forth this sort of tyranny, what is to stop him from eventually expanding this policy to allow for cops to search your home or your car without a warrant? We’re on a slippery slope of statist bullshit and if you can’t see the correlation between warrantless searches and seizures of your phone and warrantless searches and seizures of your other property, then you deserve to live under the iron fist.

4. Illegal Immigration Education:

Governor Jerry Brown made another Rick Perry-esque faux pas, in the eyes of many, when he signed the DREAM Act, thus giving a free college education, paid for by the state a.k.a. your tax dollars, to illegal immigrants in California. Hasn’t this punkass bitch learned from all the heat Rick Perry has caught in the Republican debates as of late? Oh wait, I forgot, Perry is basically a liberal in a conservative suit and Brown is a Democrat, so they are pretty much policy butt buddies and chips off of that old leftist block. I mean, Perry actually was a Democrat once but whatever, this isn’t an article about that jackturd (I already wrote one about him here). Point being, why would Jerry Brown worry about what criticism Rick Perry’s not-so-conservative policies generate in conservatives when his own policies come from a contrasting ideology? Besides, is the DREAM Act as bad as conservatives make it out to be?

Well, the DREAM Act essentially promotes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants but it does so at the expense of the tax payer, whether they want to contribute to the program or not. That is tyrannical in my eyes but that just brings up the whole debate about taxation being theft and I don’t want to go there in this article.

You see, the DREAM Act gives illegal immigrants financial assistance for college. While the economy in California is an shambles, this program will cost the state $14.5 million. Now I am all for promoting a path to citizenship and so are many conservatives, or so they claim when under fire, but is this a wise way to do it? Considering that the DREAM Act isn’t just freely given away and that students have to show that they’ve got a solid GPA and intend to use this opportunity to enrich themselves and thus make our country as a whole more prosperous, I can’t really knock it too hard.

Then again, when really looking at it, why does the government need to dangle this carrot in front of illegal immigrants that actually want to become legal immigrants? Why not just make the path easier, regardless of this bullshit stipulation? Is it because the government perceives a college education as a key element to allowing someone the same rights that those of us born here have? With that logic, should I be stripped of my citizenship because I quit college? It doesn’t really make a lot of sense and it just seems like a type of social engineering.

If someone wants to take the path to citizenship on their own and they make a conscious effort, why do we want to deny them that? Why make it hard on the person that wants to earn a buck and live legally within the system? Sure, we don’t want to have a bunch of new citizens milking the welfare system and getting caught in that web of bullshit but truth is, illegal immigrants already receive several forms of welfare in this country and since they aren’t documented, the chances of them taking advantage of the system is even greater.

Now this sort of contradicts what I wrote about in “Conservatives & Aliens” but since writing that, I’ve read a lot more on the subject and have come to understand how the illegal immigrant can milk the system more than the legal one. The real problem is the welfare state. Abolish it, make the path to citizenship easier and let the chips fall where they may. By giving immigrants these freebies, we are keeping them weak and dependent. Then again, that’s probably just part of a bigger agenda.

5. Open Carry Gun Rights:

Recently, Governor Jerry Brown took a shit on the 2nd Amendment when he banned open carry of guns in the state of California. To many gun hating lefties, this is a pretty solid victory for their ilk but to the rest of us, it is just another display of utter tyranny and an attack against the Constitution.

The problem with banning open carry in California is quite unique, as its strange gun laws make it so that getting even a concealed-carry weapons permit is much more difficult. You see, in Cali, unlike other states, a CCW must be approved or denied by the sole discretion of that county’s sheriff. So if the sheriff doesn’t like you, guess what? No CCW. In other states, anyone can get a CCW as long as they pass a background check and a skills test. It is a pretty simple process and helps prevent any police state or nanny state shenanigans. California is just a fucked up ass backwards place however and many of their laws are just borderline silly, especially this one.

This is a classic example of government control by overreaching their authority and thus taking it to the people. It is the 2nd Amendment that gives people the power to defend all their other constitutional rights. This is probably one of the reasons why progressive liberals are always trying to ban guns. Then again, they also just prescribe to the media-hyped fear about gun violence without looking at the real facts. The fact is, to steal an old adage, an armed society is a polite society. You never hear about gun violence at a gun show, do you? With their logic, a gun show should be a fucking war zone. I’ve covered all this in “Gun Control (is) for Dummies“.

6. The Amazon Tax:

Business is good! Well, not in California for Amazon. You see, they had their business stifled by Jerry Brown’s special Internet sales tax law. The shitty law caused Amazon to basically say “fuck it” and leave the Golden State. In another case of the know-it-all statists trying to milk every penny from every source possible, the unintended consequences of these good intention became very apparent, very quickly when Amazon refused to play the bullshit game.

This law didn’t just attack Amazon, it made it so that all out-of-state online retailers that did business in California had to collect sales tax from Cali customers. This was done to “create jobs” and help “mom & pop” compete with the Internet retail monsters. Yep, government intervention always works. Nope, nothing’s going to go south here!

Did Governor Jerry Brown think about the jobs he would effect by pushing these giant companies away? When I buy used books, DVDs, video games or CDs from Amazon, about half of the items come from “mom & pop” stores in California. Cali has a lot of small stores that benefit from the opportunity Amazon gives them to have storefronts on their supersite. Jerry must have a very small worldview and is unable to see how the last true frontier, the Internet, hugely benefits all of us. Damn you prosperity!

The San Francisco Times, which supports this stupid tax, actually printed this laughable sentence:

Finally, because it will be collecting California sales tax one year from now, the door is now open for Amazon to open a distribution center or warehouse in the country’s most populous state.

Do these fucking idiots really believe that? Funny, because Amazon quit doing business with Cali completely! Did Gov. Brown think this would incentivize Amazon and other large megacompanies to move to his state? Dude must have a fat sack of some O.G. kush cause he’s high as fuck!

So is Amazon still on the outs with Killa Cali? Nope, a deal was made. Well, at least for now.

After Amazon announced that they were leaving Cali, the state panicked like little bitches. California gave Amazon a one-year reprieve from having to comply with this stupid sales tax collection law. Amazon, in return, cannot seek a ballot measure campaign to undo the tax during this reprieve. This pissed off the Democrats of the state who were desperate to raise revenue by any means necessary; their feeble minds always turn to this sort of policy which fails time and time again. Either way, this situation is still a mess and it is anyone’s guess how it will pan out a year or so from now.

7. Conclusion:

Governor Jerry Brown is a statist shitcock that has no concern about liberty and freedom but after reading this, you should now be well aware of that. The problem is, people really really like this guy. He’s charismatic, he’s been around forever and he just knows how to work those Cali peeps like no one else. After eight years of that Terminator guy, who pretty much ran the state into the ground, Californians probably just wanted to see a friendly face. Frankly, I don’t blame them.

The problem is, Jerry Brown is not the answer that California needs. He is a career politician and an establishment heavyweight that has a statist agenda that is going to dig Cali’s financial pit deeper while pushing his state further and further towards an authoritarian model. The only two political parties in California will be the Police State Party and the Nanny State Party. At the end of the day, I hope this guy is perfectly content with where he is at in life now because another run at the White House would be scary. Just stay in Cali dude because it’s pretty far away from me.

*Written by Cody Bennett.

What we now know as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) began as an act by President Lincoln and Congress in 1862. It created the position of the commissioner of Internal Revenue and enacted an income tax to pay for the expenses of the Civil War (Revenue Act of 1862). Initial rates were around 3% for incomes exceeding $800, which allowed for the majority of the working populace to be exempt. However, by 1864, rates had risen to 5% for low-income families, and up to 10% for anyone making $10,000 or more. By the end of the war, more than 10% of Union families were paying some sort of federal income tax.

In 1872, Congress allowed the temporary wartime tax to expire and federal income taxes didn’t become an issue again until 1894. The case of Pollock v. Farmer’s Loan & Trust Co. was a five-to-four landmark decision by the Supreme Court that the Income Tax Act of 1894 was unconstitutional on the grounds that it was a direct tax. Under the Constitution at that time, direct taxes must be apportioned among the states based on population. Since the act allowed for Congress to distribute the funds without apportionment, it was deemed unconstitutional.

Early in the 20th century, there was a populist movement for tax reform that climaxed on February 3, 1913 with the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution:

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

This is one of the worst blemishes on the United States Constitution. It holds no regard for individual liberty and exists only to further the existence of the State, by whatever means necessary. It fundamentally changed the entire nation, nullifying a very important part of the Constitution. Forty-two states ratified the amendment. I can happily say that Florida didn’t even consider the issue.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue was founded once again. In the first year of its new existence, the BIR doubled its workforce, creating a whole new system of collection and organization. The newly revitalized institution was slowly becoming a standing army of tax collectors.

The first Form 1040 appeared that same year after Congress levied a 1% tax on net incomes above $6,000, and a 6%-10% progressive tax on incomes exceeding $500,000. However, five years later, the top bracket was being taxed up to 77% in order to finance our efforts in WWI. Percentages dropped sharply during the 1920’s, and remained low until the Great Depression.

In less than a century, what was basically a tax revolution seems commonplace to most Americans. Filing an annual income tax return has become an accepted must do. And you should file for a return, not because the IRS will get you, but because that money belongs to you anyway. The problem is that it shouldn’t have been taken from you in the first place.

I have a buddy who lives in Brooklyn, New York. He paid $2700 total in NY State and NYC income taxes for the fiscal year 2010. He only got $135 on his return. If he were investing $2700 into private stocks and received the same sort of return, I can bet he would fire his broker, withdraw his assets, and invest elsewhere.

The problem, though, is that you can’t fire the federal government, and you can’t opt out of paying taxes, either. The money Congress appropriates each year for its budget is your money. For too long they’ve been making mal-investments resulting in bad returns. The Chicago Climate Exchange is a good example of this. It was supposed to be a $10 trillion a year industry. Now it’s bankrupt.

In the 1950’s the BIR changed its name to the “Internal Revenue Service” to emphasize the “service aspect of their work”, even though its essential function remained the same. This is propaganda at its finest.

One of my heroes, Karl Hess, practically had his life ruined by the Internal Revenue Service in the 1960’s. He was the principle speechwriter for Barry Goldwater in the ’64 presidential election. Goldwater lost to Lyndon B. Johnson by a landslide. Shortly thereafter, Johnson had the IRS audit Hess. They charged him with tax resistance, confiscated nearly all of his property, and placed a 100% lien on all of his future earnings. You call that “service”?

When Hess questioned an IRS collector about a certain deduction that didn’t seem right, the agent told him, “it doesn’t matter if it’s right, what matters is the law.”

Feeling that the IRS would have a good sense of what is right and what is law, Hess sent them a copy of the Declaration of Independence with a letter attached telling them he would never pay taxes again. The IRS responded by revoking his ability to use American money. When he told them that he wouldn’t be able to feed himself if he couldn’t use money, they replied, “That’s not our problem.”

Hess became a heavy-duty welder, using only cash and bartering for food and supplies. He went on to become a prominent practitioner of “appropriate technology” and has been a major influence on libertarian thought over the last fifty years. He died in 1994…an anarchist.

If 10 million Americans had joined Hess in his anti-tax crusade, it would have transformed, perhaps even abolished the way we handle taxes in this country. I suggest we do exactly that.

Abolish the Internal Revenue Service.

The IRS is the single-most authoritarian institution in the country. In 1998, under Clinton’s watch, the Taxpayer Bill of Rights III was passed. It’s hardly a step toward more liberty, though. This law shifts the “burden of proof” from the taxpayer to the IRS. This means the IRS can legally seize assets and enforce liens without obtaining judgment in court. It allows for those in power to silence their political enemies by physical coercion. THIS IS TYRANNY.

Economist Murray Rothbard defines a State as two things: a) an entity that acquires its revenue from the general population by physical coercion, and b) an entity who has a monopoly on the provisions for defense and protection.
The IRS is the physical arm of the state—the hand in your pocket—that takes what does not belong to it, and turns it over to congress for appropriation without apportionment among the many states. And if you don’t allow their hands in your pockets, they’ll be around your neck.

We are at a critical point in history. Our children and grandchildren will ask us, decades from now, where we were and what we did. Will we be the silent observers? Or will we lead a charge for independence? Will we be able to tell them stories of how we actually dismantled the system, and that we did it without throwing bricks or turning over police vehicles, that we killed the beast from within, using its weaknesses against it, that the revolution was not a lie?

Capitalism: it is a word that for some means freedom, prosperity and the answer to all of our economic woes. To others, probably most in the media and in the Capital Beltway, it is a dirty word. See, capitalism is one of the most misunderstood words in the English language. We can blame sloppy cuntpickles like Michael Moore and Karl Marx for pimping their bullshit view of it to the feeble masses. Granted, it is also those feeble masses that grasp onto that skewed misrepresentation of capitalism without fact checking and looking into it for themselves. People, especially liberals and college aged hipster-hippie hybrids, view capitalism as the supreme force of oppression in the world.

Via TheSwash.com

Now enjoy girls and guns!

• 42 survivors have been pulled out of the rubble
• Official death toll hits 1,597, but many hundreds believed to be buried under rubble or washed away by waves
• Toll will soar after around 2,000 bodies were found on the shores of Miyagi prefecture
• Second explosion at nuclear power plant
• Number of people contaminated with radiation could reach 160
• Region hit by hundreds of aftershocks, some up to 6.8-magnitude
• Rescue operation begins but some areas still cut off by road damage and flood waters
• 70,000 people evacuated to shelters in Sendai

Forty-two survivors have been pulled from the rubble in the flattened town of Minami Sanrik, where up to 10,000 people are feared to have perished.

Around half the town’s 18,000 residents are missing but search and rescue teams are still working desperately through the rubble to try and find more people.

Police are also trying to stop people returning to their homes.

Despite the first tsunami warning being issued to the town that lies two miles from the coastline, some residents decided to stay in their homes instead of fleeing – leading to the high number of missing people, CNN reported today..

Most of the houses in Minami Sanriku have been completely flattened and waterlogged and one house was found even with seaweed inside.

Scroll down for video report

The death toll surged today after around 2,000 bodies were reportedly found on the shores of Miyagi prefecture.

Around 1,000 people were washed up on the shores of Ojika Peninsulain Miyagi, while another 1000 were seen in the town of Minamisanriku, Kyodo News reported.

Authorities have been unable to contact 10,000 people in Minamisanriku – more than half of the population living there.

Officials were hopeful about unconfirmed reports that many of the town’s residents were uncountable because they had evacuated to nearby Tome city, Kyodo reported.

Before the discovery, police had confirmed 1,597 deaths and 1,481 people missing across the affected areas in northeastern and eastern Japan.

Rescue efforts have been hampered by hundreds of aftershocks, and it is feared the final death count could rise sharply once a full picture of the catastrophe emerges. In Minami Sanriku alone, 10,000 people could have died – more than half of the city’s population.

It only took a few minutes for the 30ft wave to wash the town away with terrifying force. The locals desperately tried to escape to higher ground. But most did not stand a chance.

It is hard to imagine any life remains among the debris. Where last week fishing boats bobbed in the harbour, it is now impossible to tell where the sea begins and the land ends.

One of the few buildings left standing is the town’s Shizugawa Hospital – the large white building to the centre left of this picture. But the rest of what was once the town centre is flooded with filthy sea water.

Other structures lie battered and smashed in piles of broken wood and twisted metal, but most are now little more than debris.

Just visible through the murky waters towards the bottom left of the photograph are the painted stripes of a zebra crossing.

There are vague remnants of roads and the occasional outline of a flooded car, and it is just possible to see the half-submerged outline of the town’s athletics track towards the top left of the picture.

Minami Sanriku lies about 55 miles west of the earthquake’s epicentre and directly in the path of the subsequent tsunami.

Japan has experienced more than 275 aftershocks of magnitude 5 or greater since Friday’s earthquake, further hampering rescue efforts.

Some have been as powerful as 6.8-magnitude, and it is feared that if an aftershock of a magnitude over 7 occurred it could cause another tsunami.

According to the USGS National Earthquake Information Center, Japan has experienced between 12 and 15 aftershocks per hour since Friday’s quake, and it is not known when they will stop.

In the city of Sendai, authorities have had to evacuate nearly 70,000 people to shelters. To add to problems, there has been a spate of panic buying as most petrol stations and supermarkets are out of service.

At least a million households had gone without water since the quake, and food and gasoline were quickly running out across the coastal regions hit by the tsunami.

And in Fukushima, thousands of people were forced to flee the vicinity of an earthquake-crippled Japanese nuclear plant after a radiation leak and authorities faced a fresh threat with the failure of the cooling system in a second reactor.

The government insisted radiation levels were low following Saturday’s explosion, saying the blast had not affected the reactor core container, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had been told by Japan that levels ‘have been observed to lessen in recent hours’.

But Japan’s nuclear safety agency said the number of people exposed to radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi plant could reach 160. Workers in protective clothing were scanning people arriving at evacuation centres for radioactive exposure.

These pictures reveal the brutal aftermath of the tsunami, but an amateur video posted online, filmed by one of the town’s residents, shows the terrifying moment the wave hit.

It shows people desperately driving uphill to escape the wave and the road lined with locals watching open-mouthed as their homes are swept away.

The horrifying footage focuses briefly on those people caught in the traffic, including emergency vehicles, which failed to escape in time. One bus narrowly misses being washed away after speeding uphill as those filming shout ‘Run! Run!’.

Two hundred people were said to have been evacuated from the roof of the hospital and police believe the tidal wave may have washed away an entire train.

One photograph showed the letters ‘SOS’ written on the ground in the car park of the Minami Sanriku Elementary School. The letter H, surrounded by a circle, had also been added, a plea for helicopter assistance.

Tsunami warnings were issued to the entire Pacific seaboard, but the worst fears were not realised. Widespread damage was caused to some coast areas, including California, but there were no reports of fatalities.

President Barack Obama has pledged U.S. assistance and said one aircraft carrier was already in Japan and a second was on its way.

Japan’s worst previous earthquake was an 8.3-magnitude temblor in Kanto which killed 143,000 people in 1923. A 7.2-magnitude quake in Kobe killed 6,400 people in 1995.

The country lies on the ‘Ring of Fire’ – an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching across the Pacific where around 90 per cent of the world’s quakes occur.

An estimated 230,000 people in 12 countries were killed after a quake triggered a massive tsunami on Boxing Day, 2004, in the Indian Ocean.

A magnitude 8.8 quake which struck off the coast of Chile in February last year also generated a tsunami which killed 524 people. Authorities mistakenly told people in coastal regions there was no danger of a tsunami.

Orderly queues are springing up all over Japan as people face a shortage of food, drinks and daily necessities – like this one in Shiogama

People queue up for food rations at a supermarket in Ogawara, Miyagi Prefecture

A pile of burnt out vehicles that were ready to be exported are piled in disarray at a port at Tokai village in Ibaraki prefecture – and an aerial view of the devastation in the town of Onagawa, Miyagi

An old man is piggy-backed to safety after surviving the tsunami in  Tagajo near Sendai, while in Otsuchicho in Iwate Prefecture, a grandmother minds a young child

*Written by Rob Rimes.

“A man who publicly talks or writes about the opposition between capitalism and socialism without having fully familiarized himself with all that economics has to say about these issues is an irresponsible babbler.” - Ludwig von Mises

Capitalism: it is a word that for some means freedom, prosperity and the answer to all of our economic woes. To others, probably most in the media and in the Capital Beltway, it is a dirty word. See, capitalism is one of the most misunderstood words in the English language. We can blame sloppy cuntpickles like Michael Moore and Karl Marx for pimping their bullshit view of it to the feeble masses. Granted, it is also those feeble masses that grasp onto that skewed misrepresentation of capitalism without fact checking and looking into it for themselves. People, especially liberals and college aged hipster-hippie hybrids, view capitalism as the supreme force of oppression in the world. They are so sure of their position and any friendly debate on the subject is usually met with hatred and anger backed by the blind faith in their own idiotic stance. Their theory and understanding of capitalism is similar to Swiss cheese, as it is full of holes. It doesn’t matter to these pro-socialist “moral pillars of strength” what the real facts are. Truth be told, I know I am writing this pretty much in vain, as those who agree with me don’t need a refresher course in reality and those who sit on the other side of the fence don’t really care about what lies on this side because this side is full of evil minions to the money devils who feed on the blood and sweat from the less-fortunate working class people of the world. But fuck it, I’m writing this anyway.

1. An Introduction:

Capitalism, quite simply is complete freedom. It is freedom to do what you want and to use your skills or your sweat to try and prosper and make a living for yourself. It is a flawless and perfect system, contrary to what people think they know to be true. Truth is, in a capitalist system, everybody has a fair shot at being the winner. I know the libsnots reading this are laughing right now, just waiting for me to further prove my insanity. Well, my stance is not insane, in fact, when you look at it realistically and understand the true essence of capitalism and all other isms, you may become enlightened.

See, we have never really had true capitalism in this country. Well, at least not for the last 100 years. What we have had for a century or more is a system where capitalism is in constant combat with socialism, progressivism and big government regulation. We do not live in a capitalistic nation, as much as that pains me to say. What we live in is an oligopoly. You could just call it a clusterfuckistic system but oligopoly seems to fit when one looks at the fact that this country is made up of a cluster of monopolistic corporations that only exist, in the way that they do, through big government meddling. The big government meddling is what destroys the capitalist state. It is that meddling that gives capitalism a bad name.

People, typically of the left, do not seem to be able to make the correlation between crony capitalism and capitalism. Crony capitalism is not really capitalism it is what happens when government implements regulations, restrictions, subsidies, tariffs and any other thing that they do to tweak the system. Essentially, the government picks the winners and the losers in a classic case of “scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”. When the government picks the winners and the losers the free market is eliminated, freedom is snuffed out and capitalism crumbles. Capitalism IS freedom. Capitalism IS the free market. The meddling stifles capitalism. Point blank fucking PERIOD.

When the shitnipple maroons call for “social justice” they do not understand what exactly it is they are calling for. Social justice is a pipe dream, it is something that does not and cannot ever truly exist. It is the bookish lib’s answer to the monstrosity that is capitalism. If only that bookish lib actually picked up a book that wasn’t on their professor’s required reading list. If that happened, they could potentially learn the error of their misguided ways. Then again, they don’t want to.

Most arguments against capitalism are born out of the inability to understand the difference between true capitalism and government-regulated capitalism. One argument is that capitalism creates a divide between the rich and the poor. Another argument is that capitalism keeps the rich in power: forever. It is also believed that capitalism is oppressive and that it exploits the less fortunate. It has been blamed as the destroyer of communities, the essence of greed and the evil empire that devours mom and pop only to shit out mega-super-uber-stores on every corner in America. It destroys the environment. It is looked at as a global epidemic that forces its way into international markets to create Americanized slaves that fiend for Big Macs, Marlboros, Centrum Silver and Levi’s 501 jeans. God forbid capitalism and its intrusion into foreign societies! How dare they make the Chinese buy Adidas deodorant and Coach bags! What’s next, the Chinese themselves turning away from their communist system and embracing capitalism? Um..yes! As they champion in capitalism, we seem to be championing in socialism. It’s a sad ass state of fucking affairs y’all! Maybe China is where I will live in the future. I need to remember to order the Mandarin set from Rosetta Stone when I get home tonight.

2. The Unholy Creator of Class Warfare:

Leaving the China point for now, I want to focus on one of the arguments against capitalism. That argument is that capitalism divides the classes: making the rich, richer and the poor, poorer while the middle class ceases to be. This argument is bullshit, here’s why.

The first question I pose is a common one when discussing the subject of capitalism and poverty. The question is this: have you ever gotten a job from a poor person? Now while that can be foolishly debated, the general answer is “no”. If it weren’t for rich people and the opportunities they provide, due to their own successes, most people would be in a position much worse than they are now. Capitalism creates prosperity all the way down the line. If government stifles capitalism, the opportunity for prosperity all the way down the line is also stifled. The economics of capitalism are really just plain fucking common sense. There are no magic tricks or smoke and mirrors here. Criss Angel is pulling no strings.

Apart from working for someone, the reality is that, under capitalism, no poor man is prevented or prohibited from creating his own fortune and his own prosperity. Let’s jump into the DeLorean, fire up the Flux Capacitor, and go way back to a time when capitalism existed in the United States in a much purer form than it does today.

In the latter half of the 1800′s, droves upon droves of people came to this country for the opportunity to prosper in a truly free society. In the 1800′s, government meddling in the affairs of economics and the free market was damn near non-existent compared to modern times. Thanks to the government keeping their hands off of business and industry, the Industrial Revolution was born and millions of immigrants became successes and lived out their individual American Dreams. America became a great nation, if not the best nation in the world. American Exceptionalism was the reality of the day.

You see, millions of non-English speaking immigrants crashed our shores, set up shop and within a generation, many if not most, became huge success stories. People that could be no more than farmhands, servants, shepherds or cobblers became doctors, lawyers, businessmen, inventors, scientists and tycoons. Capitalism brought these people out of their meager existence and provided them with a platform to become whatever they wanted to become. Within a generation, these immigrants were among America’s elite! Because of this, more people flocked to America and the world’s most talented and most skilled became true Americans citizens that contributed to our rise as the beacon of hope and freedom for the rest of the world. Capitalism gave birth to the greatest nation on Earth.

The pro-socialist front is completely inept to the reality of capitalism. They would rather live under a system where the government “redistributes the wealth” and provides nationalized health care. Let me ask another question: who is better off, the guy who is provided for by the state, who eats, sleeps and breathes regulated and rationed welfare or the guy who busted his ass, persevered amongst the competition and got a job working for Apple, Citigroup, Verizon, Conoco-Phillips, Bank of America, General Electric or AOL/Time-Warner? That guy is the guy who can stand on his own two feet and provide for his own?

To quote a line from the article “Capitalism and Poverty” published on Capitalism.org, who would people rather be under:

“A Mother Teresa who hands them bowls of slop every day, so they can barely exist — or a genius like Bill Gates who creates a fortune for himself by helping others to create fortunes for themselves, i.e., “where the first feeds them for a day, the second helps them feed themselves.” Observe that it is the Bill Gates of the world who are not allowed to exist in India — and the Mother Teresas who are.”

I think the answer here is obvious, but that brings me to another argument. That being the fallacious argument that corporations are inherently evil and that they crush the backs of the little people by exploiting their skills and labor: selling products and services saturated with the blood and sweat of the non-rich. Yawn.

3. The Sinister Seed of Evil Corporations:

First of all, corporations are generally looked at as profit-driven monsters out to devour the common man and rip his soul to fucking shreds. People fail to realize that corporations, in their simplest form, are groups of individuals. Corporations are people too. In fact, corporations employ most people, especially in the United States. If the corporation who provides you with a paycheck is “evil” then get off of your damn ass, go out and get another job: simple as that. Or try to be the hero and destroy the phantom beast from within, but good luck with that approach homie.

See, contrary to popular bullshit, people are not at the mercy of the corporation or their employers. The fact is, in a free market system, people have the freedom to choose their own way. One can argue that a single mother with six kids is locked in her job and can’t quit and that the employer who knows this is going to push her against the wall, day in and day out. While the employer may be a retched douchebag, the woman has the choice to stay there or not to stay there. In contrast to the capitalistic system, in a socialist or communist society the woman would not have the freedom to make that choice. Her position in life would have been chosen for her and there would be no escape from it, other than to flee her country, probably illegally and short of death, in an attempt to make her way to America. I mean really folks, which system perpetuates more abuse?

The truth is that corporations provide countless opportunities for people all over the world. Corporations are the creators of jobs and the supplier of nearly all the world’s currency to the common man. Without corporations, many people would starve. I’m not talking about the amount of starving people we have now, I am talking the possibility of global famine.

Without the opportunities provided by corporations, billions of people would be out of work. Granted, they could go into business for themselves but the dog-eat-dog atmosphere on the global scale would be monolithic. In the end, even in this fantasy scenario, corporations would just rise anyway; it is fucking inevitable. Besides that, the level of just general innovation and progress in the world would be slowed down tremendously. People couldn’t create on a large scale, in the same way, without the corporate entity.

At their core, corporations are a voluntary collection of organized labor and innovation, taking the risk in a shared endeavor. Corporations pull together the resources for a common goal to achieve profit. When it comes to the sheer number of the people that are a part of this voluntary collection, just keep in mind that the top 10 Fortune 500 companies alone employ over 5 million workers. That’s not counting the other 490 companies!

Now, I am not trying to paint all corporations as fucking saints here, let’s be realistic. There are those corporations who do exploit the worker and the common man. However, going back to the issue about government meddling, one can see that it is that factor that allows certain corporations to get away with such activity. It is the crony capitalism that creates these heinous scenarios and because of that, it is crony capitalism that needs to be exposed for what it is. If the markets and trade were truly free, corporations who used these sorts of tactics to fatten their bottom line would quickly fall to a more ethical competitor. Regulation of business and trade, as stated before, picks the winners and losers. When the winner is locked into the top spot, with competition eliminated and politicians turning a blind eye, they are able to run rampant and literally get away with murder. Under a pure capitalistic system, this could not be.

What also must be understood is that corporations don’t do bad things, people do. Once you look at the fact that corporations are a collective of individuals working together towards a common goal, you can better understand that, like with all groups, there are usually a few bad apples. However, for every bad apple, there are several other people within a company who are ethical and who want to prosper and use their goods or services to better the world. Yes, it is about profit at the end of the day, but to create profit one has to create a good or service that is in demand by the consumer. The most successful and important products are the ones that change the world and redefine our lives.

In regards to the bad apples, those are the people we usually hear about on the news. They are able to get away with what they do because of government management and regulation of the system. The ladder climbing dickbags who take the shortcuts and trade favors do so because of our polluted political system. When our eye is off the ball in Washington and our leaders pull off their infamous backroom deals, another example of crony capitalism is born. If “we the people” aren’t responsible and informed enough to hold our representatives accountable, then how can we be sure that they are doing the right thing for our country economically? How can we be sure that they aren’t working out a deal that will benefit their district, even though it may seem noble, that will somehow leave others negatively affected by a seemingly minor regulation that has hatched some sort of unintended consequence? It happens everyday in America.

4. The Apocalyptic Harbinger of Monopolistic Doom:

Moving on to another argument, I want to dispel the myth that capitalism creates monopolies. Just like every other argument thus far, the growth of corporations into monopolies would be damn near impossible if it weren’t for regulation by the federal government. The free market is a natural remedy to the problem of monopolies, let alone the oligopolies that run the world out in the open and behind the scenes. When you look at the sources of nearly every monopoly, you find that it has become what it is through government intervention.

Super-Economist Milton Friedman, the man behind the series “Free To Choose”, asked a student years ago, that if he could pass just one law that would limit the growth of monopolies, what would that law be. The student, after some thought, proposed that the government should limit the size of the market that companies can offer their goods or services to. You see, when you break down what this student said, you can see that his method is simply about leveling the playing field. It is creating “fairness” and thus, limiting the success of the companies who have bested their competition. Most companies would fall under the weight of this proposal and those that survived would not be allowed to grow and in turn could not hire new employees as they expanded. Eventually, we would get to where there is only one company left standing and just by default, that company, by itself, would be a monopoly.

Milton Friedman didn’t go that deep with the student in breaking down his one magic law, but what he did was rebuttal with a suggestion. What Mr. Friedman suggested was that the answer to eliminating the monopoly/oligopoly problem was free trade. He continued with:

“Eliminate all tariffs and all restrictions on foreign trade and you enable the world to come in as competition to prevent domestic monopoly.”

Sounds pretty easy, right? Too bad the government can’t keep their hands off.

It is similar tactics that created and prolonged the Great Depression as well as our country’s current economic recession. The meddling is troublesome and destructive. Chaos is born out of anything that the government has tried to control. There is absolutely no evidence to the contrary, so why should it be any different when they try to tinker and tweak the capitalistic system?

5. The Hate-Mongering Cultural Destroyer:

The next argument is the one that claims that capitalism has poisoned the world by forcibly Americanizing and destroying the cultures of foreign lands. This is one of those senseless and idiotic assertions that make me want to headbutt anti-capitalists in the fucking teeth.

So is there some invisible gun being held to the heads of all the people around the world who are dying to get American products, as well as wanting to experience American pop culture? Only if there is an invisible gun forcing Americans to watch Anime and buy Hello Kitty panties. Common sense shatters this half-assed myth. The point is American culture captivates people, especially those who don’t experience it on the level that we do in the United States.

Realistically, we are all probably so desensitized to everything and most of our cultural awesomeness is taken for granted and considered just common experiences. To rectify our cultural desensitization, many Americans watch Asian cinema and French films. Many buy toys, trinkets and other interesting foreign goods because it is different and unique: an escape from the norm. This works both ways. The cool thing about it is our cultural exchange brings all of us closer together and helps us understand one another on a more intimate level. It is no wonder why the party-pooping shitcocks want to piss on our parade. God forbid we don’t live in fear of one another. God forbid we find commonality and like-interests.

While the government in Iran bitches about the Americanization of their youth, Glenn Beck is balling his eyes out over the Chinese toys in Happy Meal boxes. You can’t force cultural nationalism. That useless and bullshit tactic is quickly becoming a thing of the past and those who don’t go with the flow of the river are just going to be smashed on the rocks.

6. The Sadistic Rapist of the Consumer:

Another stupid fucking argument against capitalism is that by allowing companies to run free without regulation, those companies will take advantage of the consumer. That sounds logical, I have to admit, but when one observes and understands the machinations of federal regulation, common sense takes over and shatters that crackpot myth. Keeping this as simple as possible, let me break it down.

When the government regulates a business, that business’ profits are negatively affected. A regulation, whether it is a limit on their reach as a producer or a tax or tariff on their goods, shrinks a company’s bottom line. If the bottom line is shrunk enough, the company has to lay off their employees and often times has to shut their doors. If they want to remain competitive, they simply can’t. So for a company to survive under these circumstances, it has to pass the cost of these various regulations on to the consumer.

For example, a Mace Windu lightsaber for your kid that was once $20 is now $30 because of corporate tax hikes on the plastic company that makes the shell of the lightsaber. Also, new safety regulations were implemented on the electronics company that makes the lightsaber light up while having cool sound effects. That’s not all; the factory that prints the boxes for the lightsaber was affected by the rising cost of ink, due to the ink company’s attempt at surviving environmental regulations. The company that distributes the toy from the factory to the store is affected by the rising gas prices due to new regulations on petroleum as well as payroll increases do to union meddling. The store then has to compensate at the end of the line due to new local taxes it has to pay on its property. This seems like a crazy scenario but this is what is happening to businesses all over.

In a capitalist system without these regulations, the lightsaber would still be $20. Hell, it would probably be a lot cheaper. The fact of the matter is, once again, that crony capitalism and regulation are to blame here, not capitalism itself! Is the common sense aspect of how capitalism works starting to sink into your skull yet?

7. The Savage Rip-off Artist:

Another area where capitalism takes a lot of shit is in regards to prices. People often bitch about the price of things and blame capitalism as the greedy beast behind what these people feel are goods and services that are too expensive. Apparently these people don’t realize that they don’t have to buy a goddamned thing that they don’t want to: well except for health insurance, thanks to fucking Obamacare. Realistically though, what you buy is your choice. There are plenty of choices and alternatives out there.

The fact that people have freedom of choice doesn’t seem to concern the government however. Just like with everything else, the federal government thinks that they have the authority and right to meddle with the system. In this case, the government directly sets limits and regulations on prices! To some of you bleeding heart pissants, this may sound great. However, those of us with a sense of reality can clearly see how this is fucking horrendous. For those confused, let me explain why.

I’m going to use the example of rent control because I recently read Robert P. Murphy’s “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism” and he made a great point with it. Also, it is an example that hits home: literally.

See, with rent control, the government is essentially capping the price a landlord can charge for a particular unit in his building. This is, of course, done so that poor people can have “affordable housing”. Like with every socialist program, to the unenlightened it seems noble but in reality, it is a gigantic clusterfuck of unintended consequences.

What rent control really does is it provides less housing for people, not to mention turning the existing housing into slums. The reason being that if the government comes in and says that Unit A which is priced at $500 now has to be priced at $100, more people are either going to buy up more units or the landlord is going to rent out less, as the government regulation has just eliminated the opportunity for profit. In essence, a housing shortage has just been created. Try explaining this logic to progressives.

In fact, if the landlord does rent the units out, his very small profit margin makes it difficult for him to be able to maintain the property. So if a dishwasher breaks, a leak destroys a ceiling or the heater needs repair, chances are, it is less likely to be taken care of by a landlord with little to no money. Thus, the slumlord is born.

So when a property developer shows up in your town to make a multi-million dollar high-rise apartment complex, the developer is doing this to make as much profit as he can: that’s Business 101. Now, is this developer going to build in the area where there is government regulated rent control or is he going to build where he has the freedom to charge what he wants? You see, under this example, rent control programs disable a town from being able to effectively manage their long-term growth. Basically, the growing population is stuck in the same shitty rundown apartments that the city has been controlling for years.

Rent control takes houses off the market and prevents new ones from being erected. This is just one example of government intervention in price control but it doesn’t take much to see how to apply this to other areas.

8. The Egomaniacal Environmental Enemy:

Capitalism also catches a bad and misunderstood rap when it comes to how it affects the environment. Lefty Greenpants wants you to believe that the evil corporations spawned from the satanic womb of capitalism are polluting our oceans, smogging our skys and creating the mythical creature known as “man made global warming”.

Man, why are hippies still around? They are pretty much a useless and whiny sect of society apart from just living in the past and looking for their new Vietnam to protest, which they’ve found in the green movement that is relentlessly pushing for eco-fascism. So anyway, sorry for the previous run-on sentence. Moving ahead, let me use my magic to dispel this bullshit liberal talking point.

If capitalism does anything, it helps the overall health of the environment. Yes, I wrote it. Hell, I’ll write it again. If capitalism does anything, it helps the overall health of the environment. There, has it sunk in? No, probably not.

The real problem is that government meddling, as with all things, makes this particular situation worse. You see, the environmental practices in a socialist or communist society are much worse than they are in a capitalist society. One has to look no further than the tragedy at Chernobyl. The nuclear reactor accident that took the lives of dozens of people and still leaves the area radiated 25 years later, could have been prevented in a capitalist society. It was the government controlled communist regime that allowed the nuclear power plant to fall into ruin. Do you think this would have happened had the power plant been privately owned? The short answer: fuck no!

Now clueless lefties may want to counter with the Three Mile Island scare in the United States but in reality, it was just a scare. Public outcry and their overblown reaction were really due to the fact that the film ‘The China Syndrome’ was released less than two weeks earlier. That film, its premise being about meltdown at a nuclear reactor, came out during the big boom of Hollywood disaster films. This was the primary cause of the hysteria that surrounds the incident even to this day.

When the subject is recycling, capitalism also outshines government regulations on that. The fact is, government and Lefty Greenpants did not invent recycling: capitalism did. For decades, if not centuries, capitalism has recycled and reused countless products and resources in an order to maximize their profits and eliminate senseless waste. Whether those products or resources are plastic, steel, cardboard, aluminum, etc.

The way government screws it up is that they enforce environmental regulations that force companies to recycle nearly everything. By trying to eliminate waste the government is creating more waste. How so?

Under regulation, companies are forced to make changes to the way they run things. They now have to transport, or pay someone to transport materials to a facility to be recycled. In some cases, they have to build and maintain their own facilities to handle the recycling of resources. These practices cost money, time and negatively impact profit. Also, the transportation of goods causes pollution, as does the new methods of recycling. It is an example of how trying to fix a problem, which isn’t even a problem mind you, only makes the problem much worse for everyone. The government invents new problems while killing jobs in the process.

Private corporations are well aware of which materials are beneficial to recycle and which aren’t. The government is just working for lobbyists with an uninformed or blatantly wrong agenda. There are times when producing new goods and materials are cheaper and more beneficial than having to recycle them. The corporations are going to do what is best to maximize their profits. Capitalism in and of itself is anti-waste. Let them make the best decisions for their company and stay the fuck out of the way.

9. The Devilish Promoter of Greed:

It is often said that capitalism is the promoter of greed. Do I need to refer to Gordon Gekko’s Oscar-winning “greed is good” speech from the amazing 1987 film ‘Wall Street’? No? Well, to this argument I say, “so fucking what?” Is greed really a bad thing? Sure, greed can lead people down a road of doing underhanded and shitty things in an effort to make more money, but this goes back to my long section on corporations and individuals.

The point is, is that greed has created much more than it has destroyed. That’s the reality that your liberal professors don’t want you to know. Greed has fathered more innovation and more progress than any other conceivable factor one can come up with. To argue against this is fucking ludicrous and completely and utterly pointless. Without greed, we’d all still be cave dwellers chewing on bark!

Throughout history, whenever a scientist or an inventor said that they were trying to better mankind and the world, I’m sure they were telling the truth. However, it was the fattening of their wallet that gave them that motivation. Whether it was greed for money, fame, success or just general notoriety, doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that greed was the catalyst.

Why do you get up every morning? You get up to make money. It doesn’t matter if you desire to make money for yourself, your family or to buy a nicer car. The point is: money is your motivator. To deny that fact is just ignorant and pretty fucking arrogant, especially, when each and every one of us would be happy to receive more money.

Now some of you may feel like you have enough and are fine with what you’ve got. That’s admirable, a bit lame and borderline moronic, but admirable. Anyway, are you telling me that you wouldn’t take more money? It isn’t something you necessarily have to use on yourself but if you’re the charitable type, which I personally feel should be everyone, isn’t there a lot you could do with that money? I’m posing this question without implying what the source of the money could be, just assume in this example that it is legit and clean money. Wouldn’t you use it for something positive?

See, I understand the guy who doesn’t want to take money from a shady source or cash that came from some sort of criminal activity. There is nothing wrong with putting morals before prosperity for some people and I respect that, as I too wouldn’t take a couple grand from a hypothetical drug dealer to use on whatever I saw fit. However, as far as earning an honest living and doing what it takes to maximize your profits, that is what makes the world go ‘round kiddos. Greed is the creator: love it or hate it. As Junior M.A.F.I.A. said back in ‘95, “Get Money!”

10. In Conclusion:

There are many more subjects I could tackle in regards to capitalism and the anti-capitalistic mentality but this article has already surpassed epic proportions. As I am confronted with other issues and examples I will continue to write on the subject. The first sentence in this article was: Capitalism: it is a word that for some means freedom, prosperity and the answer to all of our economic woes. Hopefully now, you understand and see why.

Take what was written here if you must and go do your own research. If you approach the subject objectively and honestly, your doubts and fears about capitalism will be greatly diminished. However, if you want to be a jackass twatbag, keep believing the lies of your coffee shop heroes and your unionized teachers. Point blank: capitalism is butter baby!

“Capitalism demands the best of every man – his rationality – and rewards him accordingly. It leaves every man free to choose the work he likes, to specialize in it, to trade his product for the products of others, and to go as far on the road of achievement as his ability and ambition will carry him.” – Ayn Rand

AVAILABLE NOW! The Swash Book titled: LIBERTY BURNING is a comprehensive collection of some of our greatest articles. It is available in paperback from Lulu.com (and soon Amazon) as well as in a downloadable e-book format!

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Here’s the description: “For decades, there has been a war going on: a war between conservatives and liberals. Today, both sides of the fight have become caricatures of themselves. Liberals scream for socialism while conservatives scream for Jesus. Somewhere in the middle lies the truth; somewhere in the middle lies Rob Rimes, the creator and premier writer for TheSwash.com. Since 2010, Rob Rimes’ diabolical wit sprinkled with just the proper amount of expletives has set the political world on fire. In the apocalyptic wasteland that is Obama’s America, Rob Rimes has been at the forefront: exposing tyranny and pissing in its eye. This is a monstrous collection of some of his best articles. These writings are not for the faint of heart; they are for the hardened patriots – unafraid of forging their words and thoughts into weapons against any and all enemies of liberty.”

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Here’s the description: “For decades, there has been a war going on: a war between conservatives and liberals. Today, both sides of the fight have become caricatures of themselves. Liberals scream for socialism while conservatives scream for Jesus. Somewhere in the middle lies the truth; somewhere in the middle lies Rob Rimes, the creator and premier writer for TheSwash.com, also known as Swashbuckling, Liberty & Waffles. Since 2010, Rob Rimes’ diabolical wit sprinkled with just the proper amount of expletives has set the political world on fire. In the apocalyptic wasteland that is Obama’s America, Rob Rimes has been at the forefront: exposing tyranny and pissing in its eye. This is a monstrous collection of some of his best articles. These writings are not for the faint of heart; they are for the hardened patriots – unafraid of forging their words and thoughts into weapons against any and all enemies of liberty.”