As 2013 draws to a close, let’s pause to recall some important developments for the cause of liberty – some of which you already know well, and others you’ll be hearing about for the first time.

Edward Snowden. After sitting on the Bush-era warrantless wiretapping story for 18 months, the New York Times revealed a portion of the surveillance activities of the US government in 2005. Thanks to Edward Snowden, we now know that the National Security Agency’s spying activities vastly exceeded anything we heard about in the media.

The Snowden revelations served two functions from the point of view of public enlightenment. First, the regime in DC was once again exposed as untruthful, even sinister. But second, the bipartisan condemnation of Snowden on the part of the political establishment – both Nancy Pelosi and John McCain denounced him, unsurprisingly – reminds us that there is, after all, one party: the state party. Whatever cosmetic differences separate politicians otherwise, when push comes to shove, they rally to one another in the face of a truth-teller.

New President for the Mises Institute. At the end of 2013 the Mises Institute named Jeff Deist, former as chief of staff to Ron Paul, as its new president. Jeff is a significant  figure in so many ways – smart, well spoken, principled, and knowledgeable about money, banking, the Fed, and indeed the entire edifice of Austrian economics.

“Ron Paul’s congressional staff viewed the Mises Institute as our intellectual home,” Jeff recalls. “We applied Austrian principles and scholarship to virtually everything Ron did as a member of Congress. I’m honored to join an organization Ron has enthusiastically supported from the very beginning, and excited about dedicating myself to furthering the Austrian message.”

Ron, for his part, says he’s thrilled that Jeff “is fighting for liberty again.”

Obamacare. Everybody knows about the Obamacare fiascoes – the useless website and “if you like your plan, you can keep it” chief among them. But what a disaster the rollout of this program has been for the regime, which hates nothing more than looking ridiculous and incompetent, and being the butt of the people’s jokes. Meanwhile, supporters of the president think they’re helping matters by casually pointing out that of course the president knew he was lying when he said people could keep health plans they liked; he had to lie to them in order to get this program passed.

It’s rare to encounter such refreshing candor from the political and media classes.

The Austrian School. Meanwhile, interest in the Austrian School continues to grow, and demands for our resources and services have never been greater. Our Austrian Economics Research Conference, which attracts the best scholars from around the world working in the Austrian tradition, promises to be among our best ever, with an illustrious list of named lecturers and scores of papers advancing the Austrian School in new and exciting ways.

The Great Deformation. David Stockman’s gripping book The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America is more than a devastating blow to the conventional narrative of the financial crisis and the geniuses who supposedly put things right. It is a sweeping, revisionist account of 20th-century US history, bristling with insights and little-known history. Imagine reading a book on 20th-century America without a systematic pro-Fed bias, and without the usual deference to the “great presidents.” I reviewed it for LRC. I urge you to read it.

The growth in peace and noninterventionist sentiment. Polls show the public growing war weary, and consistently less convinced of the need for the US government to involve itself in this or that part of the world. This wonderful result owes nothing to Obama and the so-called progressives who follow him.

The Obama years proved what most people had long suspected: the leftist so-called peace movement had been a trick all along. Their outrage was selective: only aggression perpetrated by Republican presidents was worthy of protest, or sometimes even of notice. To observe Obama’s supporters defend the Libya intervention, and try to show how very different it was from Bush’s interventions, was to be reminded of how many people seriously believe the real conflict in America is between the red team and the blue team.

You’d think the Democrats would have learned something when the crazed John McCain said he had more in common with Obama on foreign policy than with some members of his own party, but Obama voters turned out to be not nearly as far from McCain as they pretended to be.

So it is not to the Left that we may attribute this wonderful polling data. Once again, it’s Ron. Everyone suddenly sounded like Ron when the debate over the Syria intervention arose. And the neocons still can’t get a war going with Iran. Ron is winning, which means the cause of peace is winning.

Ron was the one who kept bringing up foreign policy again and again in the 2008 and 2012 primary seasons, and for decades before. His arguments ranged from the pragmatic to the intensely moral. Intervention itself is a good portion of the reason the US government is despised around the world. An open-ended policy of intervention will contribute to the country’s financial ruin. Intervention could well result in the triumph of even less friendly regimes than before.

Today, who can doubt even one of these statements, for which Ron was pilloried not so long ago?

Ron was the only candidate in recent memory to speak of the human toll of the US war machine. Dead Iraqis don’t vote, and the constituency one must appeal to in a GOP primary has not distinguished itself by a profound concern for the fate of enemy civilians, so Ron took this stance on principle alone. This, and not meticulously parsing his words to please the general public, is how Ron secured himself a place in history.

And incidentally, how many times can a man be vindicated in his lifetime? Ron predicted the housing bubble and collapse on the House floor all the way back in 2001. (His opponents, by contrast, were oblivious to the very end – Herman Cain gave the economy a clean bill of health just one week before the Panic of 2008 set in.) Ron warned about government surveillance and the curtailment of civil liberties, and was told he was being paranoid. Today, even right-wing radio is outraged at revelations of what the NSA has been doing. And Ron said the foreign policy of McCain would be counterproductive, not to mention enormously expensive in terms of money and lives. In 1974, Ron was speaking out about the Fed, and where its evils would lead. Today, Ron is joining our board.

No one in his right mind denies any of this any longer.

The Ron Paul Channel. This year witnessed the launch of still another Ron Paul initiative: the Ron Paul Channel. Of all his current projects, this is the one dearest to his heart. Here is unfiltered, 100 octane Ron Paul. It’s Ron’s take on the news, plus guests whom the mainstream would rather ignore. And the channel is about to expand to welcome new contributors and programming, all chosen and guided by Ron.

The Ron Paul Homeschool Curriculum. In tandem with the book, Ron’s homeschool curriculum was announced this year. Ron said in a recent interview with the Mises Institute, “The curriculum I’ve designed, and which I refer to in the book, is more than just history and economics. It’s math and the sciences, it’s literature, it’s writing, it’s public speaking, it’s learning how to start your own business, and above all, it’s learning how to learn. All of these are skills that will serve a young person well. If a substantial number of libertarian young people have these skills, I believe things begin to change.” Check out Ron’s column “Why This Homeschool Curriculum Matters to Me.”

The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. Ron was especially pleased this year to be able to found an organization dedicated to peace and international understanding, and opposed to the juvenile propaganda of the Bush/Obama axis of evil. The Institute’s executive director is the brilliant Daniel McAdams, who advised Ron on foreign affairs and civil liberties issues from 2001 until 2012. Daniel and his colleagues keep us informed about the state of the world from a noninterventionist perspective. But my favorite part of the Institute’s website is “Neocon Watch.”

Ron and Daniel hope to sponsor a summer school for students who support peace and oppose the war machine.

The School Revolution: A New Answer for Our Broken Education System. Ron also found time to publish another book this year, this one on how to carry the Ron Paul Revolution forward. Education, naturally, is the key. Technology has pushed costs lower than before, and is mounting the greatest challenge to the existing education bureaucracy ever posed. We have a critical opportunity to seize, and Ron lays it out step by step.

The Tom Woods Show. Tom Woods, whom you may know from his books, his public speaking, or his YouTubes, now has a weekday podcast that covers a vast array of topics. If there’s an argument against libertarianism, you can bet Tom has a show in response to it. Here are the first 65 episodes, one of which is an interview with me.

Thanks for making 2013 another great year for Liberty! Happy New Year!

Reprinted from LRC with permission.

Despite Colorado implementing on January 1 the legal sale and purchase of marijuana for recreational use, marijuana growers, vendors, and purchasers in Colorado will continue looking over their shoulders concerned that US government police may bust them for violating federal marijuana prohibition. In June, 2011 Rep. Ron Paul joined Rep. Barney Frank as the lead Republican cosponsor of Frank’s Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act (HR 2306). Paul took the introduction of the bill as an opportunity to discuss with Larry Kudlow on CNBC the need to end the US government’s marijuana prohibition and war on drugs:

Six years ago today, on Dec. 18th 2007, Dr. Paul was a guest on Morning Joe. Watch him tackle every major war going back to Woodrow Wilson’s terrible decision to drag the U.S. into World War I:

Joe Scarborough: You had an interesting comment about the Iraq War. Condoleeza Rice, obviously, last night went over to Iraq. She’s there right now. A lot of people are waking up to that news. And you commented that you’re not one of these people who are against the war because you think it was mishandled. You were saying you can’t manage a bad war. Is that right?

Ron Paul: That is exactly the point. Bad wars, when you start it yourselves, when you go in there without a declaration, you don’t know who the real target it. There’s no real enemy. It becomes a political war. Actually one of the reasons we went in there and gave the President this authority was to enforce UN resolutions.

No, you can’t manage that, and some of that candidates now who voted for the war are complaining that “Oh it’s just being mismanaged. I can manage this war much better.” No, you’re exactly right, it’s overall policy, it’s foreign policy. I want the foreign policy of the Founding Fathers, the foreign policy of George Bush in the year 2000. The humble foreign policy and no nation building. No policing of the world. That’s what I want. That’s what the American people want. And besides, we can’t afford this foreign policy anymore. We’re going broke, and we have to quit before it collapses on us.

Joe Scarborough: Let me ask you about other wars; whether you supported them or not. Again, just so people have a better understanding of your view of foreign policy. What about the first Gulf War? Did you support or oppose that?

Ron Paul: No I did not because there was no declaration, we weren’t attacked, our national security was not threatened. That was a regional war that should not have involved us.

Joe Scarborough: What about Bosnia & Kosovo?

Ron Paul: Absolutely opposed to it, and all the Republicans almost opposed to that. They even had a suit against Clinton, and that’s what George Bush ran against. They thought that was way too much.

Joe Scarborough: What about Vietnam & Korea? Do you think those wars should not have been fought?

Ron Paul: Absolutely not. Once again, the same arguments: undeclared wars, our national security was not threatened, we didn’t win the wars, a lot of men were killed, and it cost us a lot of money. We’re still in Korea. It makes no sense whatsoever.

Joe Scarborough: World War II?

Ron Paul: World War II would be hard to avoid. But you have to understand why World War II was fought, and it was because of World War I. That was a continuation of one war, and we should not have gotten into World War I. Wilson dragged us into that war. The war was almost over and there was a stalemate, and he wanted to participate in the Versailles Treaty, and that was the disaster.

The Versailles Treaty, for instance, designed this modern Iraq, and created the problems that we’re facing today because of that. But World War I really led to Hitler, and then World War II.

Joe Scarborough: So over the past century, the only war that you would say America should have been involved with would have been World War II?

Ron Paul: That was the only one that was justified because we were attacked viciously, and then Germany declared war against us. But if you look at the overall policy, it could have been prevented by us having a wiser foreign policy earlier on.

Dec. 17 – RPI Director Daniel McAdams is on RT Television discussing the Ukraine visit of Sen. John McCain and the strong US and EU intervention in Ukraine affairs.

Two years ago today, the FoxNews Iowa Presidential Debate took place, and the subject of Iran was discussed. Dr. Paul had to defuse the nuclear warhawk Michele Bachmann.

Watch the clip below, or you can read the transcript after the video:

Bachmann: “Iran will take a nuclear weapon. They will use it to wipe our ally Israel off the face of the map, and they’ve stated that they will use it against the United States of America. Look no further than the Iranian Constitution which states unequivocally that their mission is to extend jihad across the world and eventually to setup a worldwide Caliphate. We would be fools and knaves to ignore their purpose and their plan.”

Paul: “Obviously I would like to see a lot less nuclear weapons. I don’t want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. I would like to reduce them, because there would be less chance of war. But to declare war on 1.2 billion Muslims, and say all Muslims are the same, this is some dangerous talk.

Yeah there are some radicals, but they don’t come here to kill us because we’re free and prosperous. Do they go to Switzerland and Sweden? I mean, that’s absurd! If you think that is the reason, we have no chance of winning this. They come here, and the CIA has explained it to us that they come here and they want to do us harm because we’re bombing them.

What in the world is this about the drone being in Iran? And we’re begging and pleading on how we’re going to start a war to get this drone back? Why were we flying a drone over Iran? Why do we have to bomb so many countries? Why do we have 900 bases in 130 countries? And we’re totally bankrupt! How are you going to rebuild a military when we have no money? How are we going to take care of the people?

So I think this wild goal to have another war, in the name of defense, is the dangerous thing. The danger is really us overreacting. We need a strong national defense, and we need to only go to war with a declaration of war, instead of carelessly flouting it and starting these wars so often.

Bachmann: “And the problem would be the greatest underreaction in world history if we have an avowed madman who uses that nuclear weapon to wipe nations off the face of the Earth. We have an IAEA report that just recently came out that said literally that Iran is within just months of being able to obtain that weapon. Nothing could be more dangerous than the comments we just heard.”

Paul: “There is no UN report that said that. It’s totally wrong. That is not true. They produced information that led you to believe that, but they have no evidence, there has been no enrichment of these bombs.”

Bachmann: “And if we agree with that, the United States people could be at risk of our national security.”

Paul: “If she thinks we live in a dangerous world, she ought to think back when I was drafted in 1962 with nuclear missiles in Cuba. And Kennedy calls Kruschev and talks to him, and we don’t have a nuclear exchange. And you’re trying to dramatize this, that we have to go and treat Iran like we’ve treated Iraq, kill a million Iraqis and eight thousand Americans have died since we’ve gone to war. You cannot solve these problems with war. You can solve the problems if we follow our Constitution and go to war only when we declare the war, go in and win them and get ‘em over with. Instead of this endless fighting, and this endless attitude that we have enemies all around the world.

Bachmann: “But as President, I stand on the side of peace for the American people.”

What a treat to have this video of RPI Founder and Chairman Ron Paul interviewing RPI advisor Lew Rockwell on the Ron Paul Channel. They have been the great teachers in my life — and in the lives of so many millions! And thankfully their influence continues to grow at a rapid pace. So sit back and enjoy…

RPI Executive Director Daniel McAdams is on RT Television today discussing the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. What is the democratic legitimacy of the mob in the street versus the elected parliament? His critique was of the Washington and EU reaction to the unrest, particularly of EU politicians who are leading protests in Ukraine in violation of that country’s sovereignty.

RPI Academic Advisor Mark Almond was interviewed on RT today about the intensifying conflict in Ukraine. Prof. Almond is a long-time expert on the “color revolutions.” As he points out in the interview, protestors in Ukraine are using a well-known template for color revolutions used with success, “in Serbia in 2000 and in Georgia in 2003: storm public buildings, hope to face a demoralized government.” Read the transcript of Prof. Almond’s interview here and watch the video below.

When people ask me which of the books I have written was my favorite, I respond with my first one: Calculated Chaos: Institutional Threats to Peace and Human Survival. In it, I analyze how institutions – i.e., organizations that have become ends in themselves – have a need to structure our thinking and our behavior in order that we may dedicate our lives to their purposes. Political systems are the most pervasive and vicious expressions of this syndrome, but other institutions have learned to play this same game. The modern corporate-state is the most apparent example, wherein business corporations have managed to convince most Americans that their interests are synonymous with those of the nation-state. The song from the musical Li’l Abner reminds us that “What’s good for General Bullmoose is Good for the U.S.A.”

The entertainment industry, the mainstream media, schools, churches, foundations, and other permanent organizations have, with but few exceptions, climbed aboard the bandwagon of corporate-state-collectivism to extoll the virtues of a society structured around the principle of state-directed violence. So widespread is the practice that most people hardly recognize it.

High-school, college, and professional sports teams are awash in the symbols of state-violence. From the high-school in Richland, Washington that calls itself the Richland Bombers – whose football helmets have a mushroom cloud on them – to the many other schools and colleges whose athletic teams dress in various forms of military attire, students and other fans have their statist identities reinforced by cheering for the young warriors on the field; warriors who will soon be killing the scheduled foe in other lands. No doubt the most vulgar expression of this insanity was found in Northwestern University’s recent football game in which their players dressed in uniforms and helmets designed as American flags, with an abundance of make-believe blood spattered throughout so that students and fans would realize that more than just the outcome of a game was being played out on the field.

This same military theme has been employed by many other colleges, from the substitution of camouflaged uniforms, to players carrying gigantic American flags onto the field. Nor have professional sports been left out, as witnessed during the recent World Series with incessant showing of the troops as part of the stage props; along with flag color guards and repeated patriotic songs – in case any fans might have thought they were there to watch a baseball game!

Militarism long ago began consuming holidays. In my childhood, what is now celebrated as Memorial Day was known as Decoration Day. Our family went to the local cemetery to lay flowers on the graves of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other relatives. While the graves of soldiers were also decorated, it was the remembrance of ancestors – however they might have died – that was the purpose of this day. But no more: the militarists have turned the day into an occasion for celebrating wars. Old John Wayne movies are now trotted out, in which Wayne recreates his brave exploits in defending the back-lot of Republic Pictures during World War II.

July 4th is another victim of the war machine. What began as a celebration of independence from British rule, has become yet another conscript in the war against peace and liberty. To emphasize just how separate our liberty is from our actions, most states prohibit individuals from using fireworks to celebrate their “independence,” with the state taking over this function on their behalf. This is done in the name of “safety” and “security,” the emotional scarecrows used by statists to keep the boobeoisie huddled in collective fear at the feet of their rulers.

While an abundance of war films is available to entertain people on this day, perhaps the worst of the bunch is the old Bing Crosby movie Holiday Inn. Crosby has a resort lodge that is open on all the major holidays. On July 4th, he comes on stage wearing a large red-white-and-blue “Uncle Sam” hat, and sings a song about “independence.” On a screen behind him are pictures of soldiers, bombers being manufactured, Navy ships, more soldiers, and an occasional photo of FDR, more Navy ships, bombers flying in formation, etc., etc.

We have recently witnessed one of the more troubling corruptions that have turned “holidays” into “hostility days.” In my youth, November 11th was celebrated as “Armistice Day,” to celebrate the ending of World War I – a war that innocent minds believed would “end all wars.” End all wars? What a treasonous thought! “War is the health of the state,” Randolph Bourne reminded us, and to be against war – i.e., to favor peace – marks one as an enemy of the state! It’s enough to get the war-monger, Bill Clinton and other statists, upset with the notion of people “hating their government.”

At the school one of my grandchildren attends, an Army officer came – on November 11th – to speak on the importance and virtues of the military. Both my daughter and grandchild were troubled by this pro-war propagandizing, particularly in a school that is supposed to help children learn to live a civilized life. But the statist agenda did not end there. Some ten to twelve days later, the students put on a Thanksgiving play, which included an unabridged singing of “The Star Spangled Banner.”

Just how the school bozos managed to segue the national anthem into the Pilgrim’s first Thanksgiving – and to do so with a straight face – remains a mystery to me. I know that the details of this first celebration are a mix of fact and myth, but poetic license does have some limits. Perhaps school officials have unthinkingly bought into the statist proposition that any public celebration must have, at its core, the rejoicing over the war system. If this be the case, I would urge these pedagogues to do some elemental research. Should they do so, they will discover that the original Thanksgiving was held in 1621, an event that preceded the creation of the United States of America by 168 years, and “The Star Spangled Banner” by 191 years.

They might also be reminded that the occasion of that first Thanksgiving was to celebrate the acts of production that made possible the survival of those who considered these successes a worthy reason to rejoice. It would be another 312 years until the celebration of one’s work efforts as a source of sustenance would be discarded and replaced by the system of federal “food stamps.” Furthermore, those who reportedly gathered for the first Thanksgiving were family members and friends – including Indians – who regarded themselves as having a common purpose in rejoicing their accomplishments. It was not until 200 years later – in the mid-19th century – that the aforesaid Indians were looked upon as hindrances to the “Manifest Destiny” that had become the purpose of the United States of America to advance. I suspect that the red-white-and-blue enthusiasts of those subsequent years paused to “give thanks” and ‘honor the troops” of the 7th Cavalry who bravely slaughtered the helpless and harmless Indians. Perhaps these Thanksgiving Day festivities were also accompanied by the playing of “The Star Spangled Banner.”

Reprinted with permission from LewRockwell.com.

Watch Ron Paul Institute Director Daniel McAdams and other guests debate the P5+1/Iran agreement on RT’s Crosstalk with host Peter Lavelle:

Judge Andrew Napolitano, an RPI Advisory Board member, explains on Fox News last week that the US Congress can restrain the National Security Agency’s mass spying by cutting the NSA’s budget. “The recourse is to persuade Congress to clip the NSA’s wings by taking some of its budget away from it—and that almost happened a few months ago, and it may happen after the first of the year,” says Napolitano.

Watch the three minutes news segment here: