The Small Nation Manifesto by Thomas Naylor

A small-state world would not only solve the problems of social brutality and war; it would solve the problems of oppression and tyranny. It would solve all problems arising from power. Leopold Kohr Breakdown of… »

Douglas C. Minson Surveys the Secession Scene

Secession, the Humane Scale of Politics, and American Identity by Douglas C. Minson

In other news...

Seven Days: R.I.P. Thomas Naylor, Founder of Vermont Secessionist Group, 1936-2012

Kyrie eleison.

Thomas Naylor Surveys the Vermont Political Scene

La-La Land Liberalism

Unfortunately, there is considerable evidence to suggest that La-La Liberalism is by no means unique to Vermont. Consider the recent Democratic Convention in Charlotte, NC which was long on rhetoric about gays, women, and minorities and short on specific proposals to jump start the economy, create more jobs, and tighten regulations on Wall Street banks. 

All too little attention was devoted to foreign policy including the Middle East, our unconditional support for Israel, China’s global pursuit of natural resources, and what we will do if China cuts back on its purchases of U.S. debt.

Thomas Naylor on What Vermont's Response Should Be to the Duopoly?

Secession of course: Barack Obama and the Temple of Doom

The November election is much ado about absolutely nothing. It will make not one whit of difference whether Obama or Romney wins. Regardless of the outcome the real winners will be the big banks, the big oil companies, the big pharmaceutical companies, big military contractors, and the tiny state of Israel.

There is only one fundamental question which really matters and it will not appear on the ballot anywhere. “Is there any justification whatsoever for the continued existence of the largest, wealthiest, most powerful, most materialistic, most environmentally toxic, most racist, most militaristic, most violent empire of all-time – an empire which has lost its moral authority and is unsustainable, ungovernable, and unfixable?”

A number of political groups persist in the belief that the U.S. government is still fixable. They include Ron Paul supporters, the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, and 350.org. Although these groups have quite different views on what it will take to fix the empire, they each represent major distractions diverting public attention away from the fact that our nation is beyond repair. Until we come to terms with this reality, all is naught.

The Montpelier Manifesto

Related:
5 Issues this Election Should Be About, and One to Drop
If they are the issues, what are the remedies in accord with the Constitution?

Items of Interest, 4 September 2012

Srdja Trifkovic, The Disappearing Middle Eastern Christians
PJB, The Last Recourse of Failed Presidents (AmCon)
Harold Thomas on the War to Prevent Southern Independence and the Confederacy.
Richard Gamble, American Exceptionalisms (see also William Graham Sumner's
The Fallacy of Territorial Extension)
Paul Gottfried, The Left's Unreported Extremism
Allan Carlson, How Protestants Learned to Love the Pill

They won't succeed in getting Vermont to secede, but the declaration should be heard:
The Montpelier Manifesto by Thomas H. Naylor, Kirkpatrick Sale, James Starkey, and Charles Keil (via Rebellion)

The Imaginative Conservative:
Falling into Feudalism by Kate Irvine Deddens
M. E. Bradford, Artists at Home, Frost and Faulkner

Counterpunch:
Dave Lindorff, The Big Lie About Police Brutality

Energy Bulletin:
when the left hand knows what the right hand is doing by Charlotte Du Cann (EB)
Green-washing “sustainability” by Shepherd Bliss
The simplicity exercises: a sourcebook for simplicity exercises (EB)

Peak Oil:
Why the oil industry doesn't want you to remember the last 14 years by Kurt Cobb (EB)

Feminism:
The Manosphere
CR on Sarah Polley and the Cuckholded Husband: For the Good of the Story

Misc.
Vox on the new blogger interface.

Thomas Naylor Reviews Too Much Magic

And he is rather disappointed. I received my copy this week; Kunstler may not be saying anything new, but it may be a good stylistic example? (If you ignore the profanity which may be in the text.)

Items of Interest, 14 May 2012

Doug Macgregor explains how our military reached its current state, so only desperate reform can save us
Seven predictions about our future. Most are unusual. All are certain to happen (I think)

Thomas H. Naylor on Leviathan, Secession and Vermont's Small Nation Dream (original)


Why America is Doomed to One Disaster After Another

Michael Brendan Dougherty (Business Insider) and Daniel McCarthy (The American Conservative)


What are the Purposes of Foreign Policy

What Separation of Power? - nullification

American Burke by J. David Hoeveler
Irving Babbitt formulated conservatism for a world in whirl.

The Household Gods of Freedom

Christopher Lasch, Conservative?

Thomas Storck, The Contradictions of Liberals and Conservatives

Jack Donovan, Mocking the Vote

Charles Hugh Smith, Acknowledging the Arrival of Peak Government

Understanding the Economic Justice of Marriage

The Constitution Doesn't Settle the Marriage Debate

The President’s Still Contorted Position on Same-Sex Marriage by Carson Holloway

Hilton Kramer & the critical temper by Roger Kimball

Tomgram: Rebecca Solnit, American Dystopia, Fiction or Reality?

Economics and Energy:
What is Our Energy Future?

The Ten Cities Most Screwed by Peak Oil

Student Loans Weighing Down a Generation with Heavy Debt
The Ph.D. Now Comes With Food Stamps

Is It Possible To Build An Economy Without Jobs?

Wendell Berry on the Importance of Local, Sustainable Economies
Worth posting again.

Urban Design:
Won’t You Be My Neighbour?
Alexandra Singer on the future of urban planning

JHK on the CNU: Still Standing Amid the Wreckage




Catholic:
Remembering St. Josemaria Escriva
2012 Holds Multiple Anniversaries for Opus Dei
Preparing for June 26th (FB)
Video of May 5 Ordinations

Charity, War, and Peace in St. Thomas Aquinas by John Hittinger (pdf)

France celebrates Joan of Arc's 600th birthday

Filas 1: The Battle of the Sexes… can it be avoided? - soundcloud
Fr. Francis Filas, S.J.

Unlikely bedfellows (Jack Donovan and the pope)

No Doctrinal Obstacle for SSPX

English Is a Perfectly Fine Catholic Liturgical Language
My First Anglican Communion


I Can't Believe You Haven't Read KRISTIN LAVRANSDATTER

TAC: The 2012 Commencement Address of Mother Assumpta Long
College Awards its Highest Honor to Three Recipients
slideshow

When Catholics Were Cristeros

History:
Justinian’s reconquest of the West : ideology, warfare, religion, and politics in sixth-century Byzantium (PDF)

Interview with Dan Jones, author of The Plantagenets: The Kings Who Made England

Feminism:
A comment on "Reframing Christian Marriage"
The Ultimate Short Advice about Women
Suz says: About Submissive Women

Why Are Feminists Against the Male Pill

FDL Book Salon: The New Feminist Agenda

Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders
Is there anyone TED won't feature?

Food, Diet and Health:
Taco Salad w/ Avocado & Cilantro Dressing

Wake Up, Food Television Execs! So Says Chris Cosentino.

New Potential Dangers of Genetically Modified Foods Found


Anthony Bourdain on Vegans



Music:
Steep Canyon Rangers Bring the Bluegrass to Slim's on Friday, May 4th


First Listen: Hilary Hahn and Hauschka, 'Silfra'

Katie Melua: Back from the Brink


Misc:
New Fashion Wrinkle: Stylishly Hiding the Gun

Hot Shots Episode 8 Clip - Clint Upchurch 3-Gun Training


Blue Force Gear is Growing

I need to read more about George Kennan

George F. Kennan, Secessionist? by Thomas H. Naylor

Although best known as the father of “containment,” the mainstay of American Cold War policy, Kennan first revealed his radical decentralist tendencies in his 1993 book entitled Around the Cragged Hill.  “We are…a monster country…And there is a real question as to whether ‘bigness’ in a body politic is not an evil in itself, quite aside from the policies pursued in its name.”  He also noted “a certain lack of modesty in the national self-image” of the U.S.  He proposed decentralizing the U.S. into a “dozen constituent republics” including New England, the Middle Atlantic states, the Middle West, the Northwest, the Southwest (including Hawaii), Texas, the Old South, Florida, Alaska, New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles.  “To these entities I would accord a larger part of the present federal powers than one might suspect – large enough, in fact, to make most people gasp.”

He was a realist with respect to foreign policy. Can he also be considered to be a part of the Old Right?

John Lukacs, George Keenan: A Study of Character
C-SPAN presentation

George F. Kennan and the Origins of Containment, 1944-1946: The Kennan-Lukacs Correspondence
George F. Kennan & Jonh Lukacs



Lukacs and Kennan: Reflections on a Friendship



Related:
Not So Huddled Masses: Multiculturalism and Foreign Policy by Scott McConnell

Items of Interest, 20 December 2011

Fabius Maximus: Fear the enemies within America more than those without

N. Korea:
Srdja Trifkovic, Kim Jong-il, the Leader from Hell
The Dear Leader’s Death Creates Dangers and Hopes

Economics:
Kevin Carson, Don’t Put a State Ceiling on Rents; Abolish the State Floor Under Them
Gregor Macdonald, Why oil prices are killing the economy (EB)
Rob Hopkins, Can we manage without growth? An interview with Peter Victor. Part One (EB)
Simplifying Complexity (EB) - mp3
It’s the December Transition podcast! Community energy companies, farms and resource centres! (EB)
Bill McKibben, At last, a new story for the future (EB)
THOMAS H. NAYLOR, Deep Green Resistance
FPR: The Founding Gardeners
Buying Local Yields More Jobs, Stronger Communities

the spark that lights the stove by Charlotte Du Cann (EB)
She talks about Masanobu Fukuoka and uses work to support what approximates a vegetarian diet:

It takes time for the body, revved up by an exotic, highly processed, high-fat Western diet, to reorganise and recover its natural appetite. It takes time to learn how to absorb the kind of food Fukuoka (and several contemporary Western writers on food) are talking about: plenty of plants, not much meat, not much. It takes time to break habits and to let go of the complexity of diets and science in one’s mind and the emotional reactions caused by an unnatural way of life. To engage in a way of being where food is naturally limited by place and time.

The problem with the Western diet is that it is high-fat? WAPF and paleo followers would beg to differ.

Ron Paul:
Paul Gottfried, Ron Paul's Moderate Foreign Policy

Education:
Oz Conservative: Rethinking Education for Boys

Catholic:
Divine Office at Le Barroux Online
Book Notice: Anton Baumstark - On the Historical Development of the Liturgy
Every Artist Should Buy and Read this Book: Techniques of Icon and Wall Painting, by Aidan Hart
Ordinations - I: a new Russian Greek Catholic priest
Ordinations - II. Two new priests for the Apostolic Administration of St. John Vianney in Campos

Items of Interest, 6 December 2011

Playing With Fire
Obama's risky oil threat to China
Daniel Larison, Obama Must Be a High Hamiltonian Now
Robert Stark interview with Dylan Hales

Distributist Review: Journey into a Libertarian Future

Relocalization:
4 Reasons Why The Future Of Capitalism Is Homegrown, Small Scale, And Independent (via BALLE)

Policies for a shareable city #11: Urban agriculture (EB)

Counterpunch:
DEAN BAKER, Wrecking the World Economy
JULES LOBEL, The Future of the Occupy Movement
DOUG DOWD, The Decline of Imperial America
JOHN V. WALSH, Washington Post Boosts Obama’s Declaration of War on China
THOMAS H. NAYLOR, Is America’s Health Care Crisis Fixable?

Diet and Health:
Jimmy Moore, Jessica Biel Personifies Carbohydrate Addiction Better Than Anything I’ve Ever Seen


Higher Education:
James Schall, SJ, Why Bother Going to College?
Thomas C. Reeves, Are American Colleges Cheating Students?
John Zmirak, Where Theology Keeps Her Crown: Thomas More College

Jackie Evancho:


"I'll Be Home for Christmas"

Items of Interest, 30 November 2011

Gene Logsdon, Sanctuary (EB)

Thomas Fleming, Celebrity Politics and Home of the Free, Land of the Jerk

Rod Dreher, Senate smacks civil liberties. Hard.

Peter Hitchens, Time to leave the EU – the debate

(source)

John Robb, WAR with IRAN? It's closer than you think....
Fabius Maximus, We can only watch as the nation of Israel slowly commits suicide


Economics:
JMG, Pepperspraying the Future

An article by Richard Heinberg in the Guardian.

Alas, if only it were so: EF Schumacher: Cameron's choice

Death of Sprawl: Past and Future by Warren Karlenzig (EB)

The Localizer: If We End Corporate Personhood We Can Define the Terms of a New Economy

Making Local Food Real By MARK BITTMAN

OWS:
Adrian Pabst, The Resurgence of the Civic

Energy:
96 hours to the stone age: How quickly our connected lives crumble when the power goes out via collapse.net

MPG of a human by Tom Murphy (EB)

Counterpunch:
THOMAS H. NAYLOR, Man, God and Secession at Yale
DAVID MACARAY, We Need to Hire George Clooney


Feminism:
Oz Conservative: The unhappiest award goes to...

Welmer, Why is Anglo Feminism so Virulent?

Should it matter if a female fighter is hot?
It turns out that female MMA fighters are like other female athletes - not interesting enough for men to watch. Boo hoo, life is so unfair!

SSPX:
Fellay: “We cannot accept the Preamble as it is”
Rorate Caeli
Pertinacious Papist

Items of Interest, 1 September 2011

Robb Wolf: Caring for the land: an interview with Joel Salatin (part 4 of 5)

Red Tory? by Roberta Bayer

Dr. Fleming on the Federalists and Anti-Federalists:

Is this really a black and white case? Were there no Federalists who believed in limited government? Were they all power-seeking monsters? Even John Randolph’s Federalist friend Fisher Ames? Why would Adams and Hamilton have wanted a type of government they had never experienced? It seems to me the real question on the table–apart from quite practical matters of dealing out favors–was how far to depart from the British model, which was almost universally viewed as the freest and most successful state in the world at the time. Outside of New England, the leaders of the Revolution had been proud to be English, and it was their mistaken belief that their rights as Englishmen were being threatened that led them to rebellion. George III exceeded the king’s traditional powers not by acting as a dictator or usurping authority he did not have. He got his powers honestly by bribing members of parliament. In the political struggles of the time, I generally support the anti-federalists, but that does not mean we have to pretend that the Federalists were, to a man, dirty scoundrels plotting tyranny. And, let us be candid. There are no Anti-Federalists today, not in any practical political sense. One might just as well say that in supporting, a party of law and order one is a confucianist or a fascist. The Anti-Federalists made excellent arguments, and when they elected more or less their man to the White House, they achieved something, but many (not all) turned against Jefferson, when he proved to be a practical statesman, doing his best for his country as he saw it, Constitution or no Constitution. I suppose we could begin the restoration of the old order by giving up the Louisiana Purchase and kicking out all states admitted after 1800. Perhaps we should give back to the states the right to issue their own paper money. They did such a good job of it in the past!

Anti-Federalism is an attitude, not a philosophy. As an attitude, it derives its strength from the great traditions of Aristotle, St. Thomas, and Althusius. If turned into a philosophy, however, it will become a strait-jacket.

Inkwell: Authors and Artists
Topic 417: John Robb on War, Peace, and Resilient Communities

Patrick Buchanan, Looking Back at “The Good War”

Part 3 of Why the History of Nationalism Matters in a Global Age by Lloyd Kramer

Vox Populi: All ur bikes are belong to us

Coming round the Dark Mountain Part 1: Uncivilisation by Charlotte Du Cann (EB)

Less Work, More Living by Juliet Schor
Working fewer hours could save our economy, save our sanity, and help save our planet.

Counterpunch:
GARETH PORTER, Tribunal Concealed Evidence Al-Qaeda Cell Killed Hariri
RALPH NADER, The Empire is Eating Itself
THOMAS H. NAYLOR, Robots of the World Unite!

Items of Interest, 24 August 2011

The Distributist Thinking of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Karen De Coster, Frugality and Self-Sufficiency? Say It Isn’t So!

Federalism: The Cure for Our Constitutional Crisis

THOMAS H. NAYLOR, Pax Obama

CLANCY SIGAL, In Praise of Ron Paul

Bill Gates wants to solve the poop problem
Gene Logsdon, The Contrary Farmer, Mulligan Books

Don’t defend the university, transform it!
Amy Clancy, STIR

The roads to our alternative energy future
Barath Raghavan, contraposition

Bluegrass Blog: New video shoot for Bearfoot

Sam Shepard IS Butch Cassidy By Joe Leydon (trailer)

Saint Paul and Christian Classical Education

IEW Seminars in NC

Items of Interest, 1 July 2011

The cloud with no name: Meteorologists campaign to classify unique 'Asperatus' clouds seen across the world By Luke Salkeld

Another $500 knife from TAD (already out of stock?)

Energy: Making sense of peak oil and energy uncertainty (EB)
Daniel Lerch, Post Carbon Institute
(the report)

Wales: a Co-operative nation? Molly Scott Cato, Gaian Economics

The New Balance Minimus: The Best Minimalist Training Shoe on the Market

Counterpunch:
Darwin Bond-Graham, Nuclear Fiddling, While Los Alamos Burns
Carol Miller, Burning the Truth at Los Alamos: Nukes, Fire and Secrecy
Neil L. Whitehead, Divine Hunger: the Cannibal War Machine
Saul Landau, Targeting Libya, Hitting the Constitution
Franklin Lamb, Dispatch from Tripoli: Countdown to Invasion
Tom Engelhardt, Obama's Military Mantra
Linda Greene, Obama's War on Whistleblowers
Thomas H. Naylor, What are You Going to Do About the Empire?
Martha Rosenberg, Lost in Psychiatryland

Thomas Naylor Calls for the Break Up of the Union

The Politics of Nihilism
By THOMAS H. NAYLOR
A Call for Rebellion

Items of Interest, 21 June 2010

Fabius Maximus, How Obama failed in the Gulf of Mexico. Many of the most common indictments of him are wrong, and overlook his biggest errors.

Energy Bulletin:
Deepwater Horizon: the worst-case scenario

Richard Heinberg, Post Carbon Institute

Already Deepwater Horizon is the not only the worst oil spill, but the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. Multiplying the scale of this existing catastrophe multiple times sends us into truly uncharted territory. ... The consequences for the oil industry as a whole would also be dire. More regulations, soaring insurance rates, and drilling moratoria would lead to oil price spikes and shortages.

Counterpunch:
Ralph Nader, Festering Corruption
Ronnie Cummins, Generation Monsanto
Thomas H. Naylor, Vermont and Israel: Silence of the Liberals
Joshua Brollier/Kathy Kelly, Is Pakistan Unraveling?