Joshua Krause
When Czech politician and libertarian activist Vít Jedlička decided to create a micronation in the Balkans, he never had any intention of succeeding. It was merely a political stunt designed to bring media attention to his political party and beliefs. However, after receiving 20,000 requests for citizenship in less than a week, he is now taking the idea seriously.
It started a little bit like a protest. But now it’s really turning out to be a real project with real support.
This proposed nation, which has since dubbed “Liberland,” would be situated along the border of Croatia and Serbia, and is less than 3 square miles in size. Taxes would be voluntary, and there would be no military. He is hoping to draft a constitution that would be inspired by the Swiss government. Just about anyone can apply for citizenship, so long as they don’t have any Nazi, Communist, or otherwise extremist past.
Joshua Krause
Ever since the measles outbreak in Disneyland, there has been a determined effort by legislators in California, to repeal the state’s current vaccine exemptions. If they succeed, the only way parents can skip their children’s vaccinations is if there is an acceptable medical reason. As you can imagine, those who are deeply concerned over the safety and efficacy of vaccines have every reason to fear these developments.
Or do they?
Well, yes and no. No in the sense that I don’t think we are headed towards a future that forces everyone to take the jab, but the answer will likely be yes for folks who don’t have a lot of disposable income. For reasons that I will explain below, you can bet your bottom dollar that there will always be a way to avoid vaccinations for you and your family. However, it’s going to cost you.
Joshua Krause
Now that California’s drought has entered its fourth year, Governor Jerry Brown is finally cracking down on state municipalities, and is trying to get them cut back at least 25% of their water usage.
With the threat of water shortages looming, many residents are quick to point fingers at California’s agricultural industry. What, with almond growers sucking up 1.1 trillion gallons of water a year, and the beef industry using 106 gallons of water for every ounce of meat, it looks like many Californians are ready to throw both small farmers and Big Ag under the bus.
However, this state’s water problems aren’t just relegated to agriculture.
Joshua Krause
When Cody Wilson unveiled the first 3D printed firearm in 2012, it was earth-shattering news. Even though the gun had limited practical applications in the real world, it was still an incredibly novel concept with huge implications for the future. Since that time, several additional homemade firearm designs have caused both outrage and adoration from the public, especially in regards to 3D printed AR lowers.
However, it seems like the whole 3D printing scene has cooled off a bit. It’s a little under the radar now. People are getting used to the concept, and as the technology continues to make progress you’d be hard pressed to find as many sensationalist headlines as you could before. But rest assured that the movement to manufacture firearms at home is still making waves, as it paves the way for a future where no firearm is out of the reach of a 3D printer.
Joshua Krause
Since at least January of this year, billionaire George Soros has been calling for the West to invest 50 billion euros of aid in Ukraine, to stabilize the country and to undermine Russian influence in the region.
Earlier this week, he announced that he would be willing to contribute $1 billion to that fund, if Western governments agree to pay for the rest.
Joshua Krause
After the ATF attempted to add the popular M855 green tip ammo to its list of restricted armor piercing munitions, there was widespread backlash against the move by the public. But barely a week after the ban was proposed, the ATF has already pulled back from its controversial decision. They’ve decided to postpone any action against the M855 round, after receiving 80,000 comments from the public, most of which were “critical” of their proposal.
Yesterday morning, the agency announced on Twitter “You spoke, we listened. plans more study on the proposed AP Ammo exemption framework.”
However, the White House, which most gun enthusiasts suspected of being behind the ammo ban, has remained defiant.
Joshua Krause
The European Union is unique among the nations of history. Most governing bodies are built around a culture and language that is shared amongst the people they rule, which is then followed by a shared system of laws, courts, defense forces, currency etc. Or, in the case of an empire, the system hinges upon military dominance, which then enforces those conditions on every culture it can gobble up.
But the European Union is the only nation (to my knowledge) that attempted to use monetary and economic policy (the Euro) to unite a diverse set of culture, before turning into a real government in its own right. The only thing missing from the EU, is its own standing army. While each EU nation has a military, they still exercise some degree of sovereignty over their defense forces (at least on paper).
Joshua Krause
This past week, the creepy “Homan Square” detention facility was revealed to the public, and the story has been trending heavily throughout the alternative media. First-person accounts of suspects being whisked away to the secret building without any official record of their whereabouts, with no access to a lawyer, while being subjected brutal interrogations, sounds like something you’d hear about from some 3rd world dictatorship.
But, unfortunately, it’s happening right here in America as we speak. And if this facility existed for so long without the public’s knowledge, that begs the question: are there any more of these police run “black sites” that we don’t know about?
Joshua Krause
Now that April 15th is on the horizon, many taxpayers are bracing themselves for the inevitable penalty that will hit them if they don’t sign up for Obamacare. It’s estimated that at least 3 million households may have to pony up 1% of their income, or $95 per adult, if they don’t have insurance; a number which is poised to expand to 2.5% for the 2016 tax year.
However, for all its bluster and intimidating language, the Affordable Care Act might not have any teeth. Recently, a tax expert writing for Forbes noticed that Obamacare, while far-reaching and burdensome in terms of what it demands from the American people, offers little to no repercussions for anyone who would be tempted to avoid it.
Joshua Krause
Well, tax season is officially here, as Americans of all walks of life scramble to get their extortion papers tax returns in order before April 15th. Although, I’m not really sure why they call it “tax season.” That makes it sound like you could draw a comparison to something like the “holiday season.” I guess there are some similarities. You will spend months stressing over your finances, as you struggle to figure out how you’re going spend all your money on stuff you don’t need, but I digress.
There is some great news on the tax front. Apparently, this year the IRS will issue the lowest number of audits since 2005.
Joshua Krause
Last year, students from the University of Massachusetts were celebrating their annual pre-St. Patrick’s Day holiday known as “Blarney Blowout.” As you might expect, when thousands of kids gather to get drunk before spring break and St. Patrick's Day, they can get pretty rowdy. What most people didn’t expect at the time, was that the police would respond with a cadre of riot cops to disperse the crowd.
A total of 73 people were arrested for disorderly conduct, violating liquor laws, and inciting a riot. However, there was one student among them who didn’t appear to be doing any of those things. His “crime” was merely filming the police arrest one of the revelers. For this, he was knocked down, pepper sprayed, and arrested, which led to his suspension from the university.
What’s most chilling, is the fact that one of police officers attempted to destroy the evidence of the encounter, by stomping on his cell phone. Fortunately, the cell phone was protected by a shock resistant case, and the video managed to survive.
Joshua Krause
It seems like every week, there is a trending story about some new leap forward in robotic technology. It’s often a cool new prosthesis, or perhaps a unique military drone. This week, it was the Marine Corps’ new GuardBot, which is basically a rolling sphere with cameras. It can travel 3 mph in the water, and 6 mph on land, where it can tread over a wide variety of terrains.
When it’s ready to be deployed, it’ll be able to use sonar, detect radiation, and sense bomb-making materials. Supposedly, this will give the Marines a significant advantage during any amphibious invasion (though they haven’t taken a single beachhead since World War Two, but that’s a story for another day).
However, given the rapid advance of robotic technology, drones like the GuardBot may look quaint in the next few years. We’re on the cusp of a new age of warfare that will be unlike anything we’ve seen before. In the future, the superpowers of the world will fight their wars with autonomous robots and, unfortunately, most people are completely unaware of what this might mean for their children’s generation.
Joshua Krause
It appears that the Internet's Wild West days are coming to an end, much to the chagrin of pretty much everyone who uses it. Last week, the FEC announced their desire to regulate websites like Drudge, and President Obama called for the government to rein in the Internet, and regulate it like a utility. Obviously, these developments have the potential to destroy everything that makes the Internet great.
The masses have spent the last 15 years ditching television, radio, and newspapers, and turning to the Internet for their news, because it offers an almost infinite number of opinions. Meanwhile, the mainstream media continues to wallow in lies and propaganda, as they pump a steady stream of bland and sterile entertainment into our homes. If the government has its way, in 20 years your computer will become nothing more than a television with a million channels. How novel?
Joshua Krause
During the waning days of the Occupy movement, a FOIA request was submitted by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund in 2013, in regards to the Houston chapter of the movement. In return, they received a heavily redacted document from the FBI that carried some rather disturbing information.
Unbeknown to the peaceful agitators of the Occupy movement, there was a plot to assassinate their leadership, and the FBI knew all about it.
The most damning segment of the document reads:
Joshua Krause
Since 2011, the Austin-based arms manufacturer known as TrackingPoint, has been making high-end precision guided rifles. These are nothing like the firearms that you or I grew up with. Each weapon is mounted with a digital scope that runs on Linux, and includes several sensors that measure range, wind velocity and direction, target size, temperature, and barometric pressure.
All these numbers are crunched by the on-board computer, which then displays the spot you need to aim for. The scope even follows the target as it moves, and when you pull the trigger the rifle doesn’t fire until you are on target.
In short, this is an incredible piece of technology that has been rapidly advancing in recent years. When TrackingPoint came out with their first .338 caliber rifle in January of 2013, it was capable of hitting a target up to .75 miles away, and moving at 20 mph. Now the company is unveiling their latest model, which can hit a target up to a mile away while moving at 30 mph.
Joshua Krause
By all appearances, Daniel and Alexander Meitiv are smart, responsible parents who want to instill independence in their children. They don’t like to throw caution to the wind, but they do believe that kids should be granted some freedom, so that they may learn how to take care of themselves from an early age.
They practice what’s known as “free range parenting” as opposed to hovering over their kids and showering them with fear and paranoia like most parents do these days. Unfortunately, their attempts to instill responsibility and self-reliance in their children has met with resistance from the society they live in.
Joshua Krause
When Jeff Mizanskey was arrested for his part in a drug deal in 1993, he had no idea what he was in for. After all, he had been arrested for the possession and distribution of marijuana twice before. Once in 1984, and again in 1991. Both carried relatively light sentences compared to what he was facing. Though he didn’t know it at the time, he was about to become the latest victim of the drug war, as well as Missouri’s draconian “3 strikes” law.
Unbeknownst to him, the two men on the other half of the deal had been recently arrested, and agreed to sell out their “co-conspirators” in exchange for leniency. Mizanskey ended up with the short end of the stick, and due to his prior history was facing the longest sentence. The prosecutor offered him 25 years in prison if he pleaded guilty, but he refused. After losing the trial, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Joshua Krause
Watching the results of Scotland’s secession gambit was quite a ride, if not a little disappointing in the end. It would have been fantastic to see that proud nation independent once again. I suppose it’s not to be, at least for now. While Downing Street breathes a sigh of relief, perhaps they should reexamine the demographics of the voting results. They certainly don’t bode well for the future of the United Kingdom.
For starters, the growth of the independence movement was quite impressive. From 2011 until the day of the vote, there were quite a few polls taken on the matter. While there were many swings from month to month, support for independence probably averaged around 30 percent until 2013. From 2014 on, it slowly but consistently climbed into the mid 40s. So who was responsible for this growing popularity?
Joshua Krause
Exactly one month ago I wrote about, and charted the alarming spread of the Ebola virus. As I explained in the article, the virus is behaving very strangely. It doesn’t become infectious until the person shows symptoms, it isn’t airborne and it’s extremely lethal; all conditions that would normally keep a virus from reaching an epidemic status. And yet it continues to spread like wildfire.
By the time I had the opportunity to write about it, 800 people had died in the span of over 5 months. Now one month later, the number of deaths has nearly doubled to over 1500 people. Extrapolating on that trend, it would not be surprising to see the virus infect over a hundred thousand people by December.
Despite the uncharacteristic spread of the virus, it isn’t the oddest thing to come out of the news lately. Recently it was found that the Ebola virus had spread to the Congo, and a total of 31 people have died of the infection. In a strange twist, however, that outbreak ended up being completely unrelated to the Ebola in Western Africa:
Joshua Krause
On the surface, self driving cars sounds like a godsend. You could sit back and relax during your commutes, safe in the knowledge that your computer-driven vehicle will get you to your destination safe and sound. “Safe” being the keyword here, because these vehicles will supposedly be safer than any human driver. The computer will never experience road rage or fatigue, and will have lightning fast reflexes. So far, Google’s test vehicles have driven over 700,000 thousand miles without incident.
However, we don’t really know how safe or effective they’ll be until ordinary drivers begin adopting the technology on a wider basis. Many of the test drives may have been restricted to ideal conditions. In California, for instance, Google has painstakingly mapped out 2000 miles of roadway for their testing, ignoring the other 172,000 miles of public roads. They’ve essentially created the perfect lab setting to test the technology, and their self-driving cars may not be prepared for real-world conditions.
Don’t tell that to Google though. They’re busy patting themselves on the back for driving 4,000,000 miles in a virtual matrix, and they have the gall to lobby the state in favor of virtual testing over real world experience. According to Google’s safety director:
