Lyn Ulbricht is a political activist and advocate for individual freedom, privacy and criminal justice reform. She is also the mother of Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to double life without parole for all non-violent charges associated with his role in the Silk Road website. This was a “dark web” marketplace designed to protect the privacy of its users.
The site was product agnostic: buyers and sellers determined what was anonymously exchanged using the little-known currency bitcoin. This included both legal and illegal goods, including drugs, although involuntary things that created victims, such as child porn and stolen goods, were prohibited.
Ross has petitioned the Supreme Court to hear his case on important and far-reaching Fourth and Sixth Amendment issues.
Having seen her only son incarcerated for life after a trial riddled with proven corruption, Lyn is dedicated to fighting not only for Ross’ freedom, but for the thousands who have been victimized by our flawed criminal justice system and the drug war. She strives to direct awareness to the important precedents being set with Ross’s high-profile case, issues that will impact the freedom and privacy in the digital age.
Lyn has spoken at numerous events in several countries; appeared on many TV, radio and podcast shows— including Reason TV, CNN, HuffPost Live and Fox; and been interviewed by major and alternative media, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Buzzfeed, John Stossel and The Guardian. She is also prominently featured in the documentary Deep Web.
When not working to raise awareness, Lyn focuses on raising funds for Ross’ legal fight through www.freeross.org
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Note– There will be ZERO teacher bashing in this show. Well zero teacher bashing as a wholesale group anyway, I promise.
Yesterday I pointed out how many problems and divisions in society would not even exist if the state were not involved in key issues. Once again I dared touch the sacred cow of pubic education. Once again my inbox is crammed full of hate mail because I am “bashing teachers” when the truth is the word teacher wasn’t even used in yesterday’s show.
Why this reaction? Because logical and other wise intelligent and sane people become irrational even to the state of temporary insanity when something they see is necessary is called unnecessary. They may not know why they even believe it to be necessary, they just do and that alone causes at times even a violent response when anyone even infers that they are wrong.
School is important and an education is priceless. Every child has a fundamental right to an education, everyone knows that right? There are both truths and inaccuracies in those statements and combined they create what we call a logical fallacy. What is a logical fallacy? Logical fallacies are unsubstantiated assertions that are often delivered with a conviction that makes them sound as though they are proven facts. This is often done by taking true facts and combing them with total fabrication or unsubstantiated conclusions based on some of the actual facts.
In this case “school is important”, well no, education is important, but school is only one form of education. School is not required for education to even occur.
Every child has a right to an education is another one. We must first understand that a right as used above means the following…
A moral or legal entitlement to have or obtain something or to act in a certain way.
This means that there is a moral and legal obligation to provide everyone with an education. Is that actually the case? I don’t believe it is, not in the way we are led to believe anyway.
This also omits a critical reality, that every right comes with corresponding responsibilities. Further that the State is to ensure rights primary by not oppressing them or allowing others to oppress them.
For instance your right to free speech comes with responsibility to not say incite violence or yell fire in a crowded theater. More over, the state isn’t responsible to provide you a venue for your free speech nor to force people to listen to you, only to ensure your rights are not trampled on, nor are they permitted to impede them. This brings us to yet another fallacy, the “fallacy of omission” which is…
Errors occur because the logician leaves out necessary material in an argument or misdirects others from missing information.
The reality is there are hundreds of fallacies and almost all of them at one point or another could be applied to most things we hold sacred such as public education.
Today I would like to examine what a true free market education system might look like. Once we do I ask that you use logic and reason to determine for yourself not if such a system would be perfect, only would it be better than what we have. Every system is flawed, this doesn’t mean a system with flaws can’t be better than a system with even greater flaws. To assert that a flawed system isn’t a better system simply because it has some flaw, when the underlying system itself has greater flaws, is also a fallacy, can anyone name that fallacy?
Join Me Today to Discuss…
Is every child entitled to a good education
Does the current system provide a good education to every child
Who’s children are they anyway
Why teachers are not to blame
Why teachers can’t fix the system and why many would not if they could
Answering the big but what if style questions…
But who decides if an education is valid
How would we ensure standards are met or that standards are valid
What about children that can’t afford a “good education”
Then how would we insure access to education if not provision of education
But students with wealthier parents get a better education this way
But every other modern nation provides public education
But children need school for social skills, to meet other people, etc.
This system will create an unfair advantage for many
But we have to at least make sure that the average person can read, write and do math
Why we must abolish compulsory public education to solve most of our current problems
The system I would institute to wean society off the current system
No child can be compelled to go to any school ever, the end
The state can continue to offer education but not compel attendance
A taxes funding education are to be lowered in an evenly apportioned manner as students exit the system
Any person or entity may set up any form of education as longs as the activities conducted are other wise legal
Any group or entity may set up a standards body, publish its own standards and issue certifications
The only state over sight is contract resolution criminal police enforcement
The contract resolution component must be voluntary
Why a free market system would work better even if it has flaws
Bob Wells Plant of the week – Red Skin Peach – Adaptable from zone 5-B to zone 9.
This is an off shoot of the old time Elberta Peach. Excellent quality all-purpose yellow freestone. It is frost hardy, disease resistant and very sweet. It does not require a pollinator and ripens early to mid-July. This is Bob Wells personal favorite when it comes to peaches. Find this plant and more at Bob Wells Nursery. Bob Wells Nursery specializes in anything edible: fruit trees, berry plants, nut trees, as well as the hard to find specialty trees. Find them at BobWellsNursery.com
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to () and you might hear yourself on the air.
Also remember we have an expert council you can address your calls to. If you do this you should email me right after your call at jack at thesurvivalpodcast.com with expert council call in the subject line. In the body of your email tell me that you just called in a question for the council and what number you called in from. I will then give the call priority when I screen calls.
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I think this is a valuable thought experiment and I have some ideas I want to share today. The goal is to get a discussion going about what can be done, vs. what can’t be done. What might work vs. why nothing can work.
As part of this I created a forum thread to discuss a Virtual Nation’s Constitution would be like. There has been some interesting discussion and in particular some clear examples of limited thinking demonstrated in it. Part of this is my fault, for calling it a constitution. That framed it in the world of Statism vs. Nationalism. A better term would have been a Technical Specification.
Join Me Today As I Discuss…
First I don’t want to be in charge, this isn’t my thing it is a thing
Why we really should consider this
Why we would not need, presidents, senators, etc.
What makes a nation accepted by other nations and where VNs have an advantage
Land
Hard Force
Money
Population
Soft Force
Defensive Force
Defined Borders
What is a nation vs. what is a state
Nation – a large group of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent or history.
State – an organized community living under one government
How the economy might work
A set amount of contribution to the national reserve is established
A new citizen buys something like bitcoin
The bitcoin is exchanged for the nations currency
The bitcoin or other currency is held as a reserve
The two currencies are pegged to a fixed exchange rate
Citizens do business in the virtual nation with the nations currency
The reserve is a vault that citizens can buy currency from or convert it to an outside currency
Divorce Corp – Should make you sick and ashamed a an American
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK (866-658-4465) and you might hear yourself on the air.
Also remember we have an expert council you can address your calls to. If you do this you should email me right after your call at jack at thesurvivalpodcast.com with expert council call in the subject line. In the body of your email tell me that you just called in a question for the council and what number you called in from. I will then give the call priority when I screen calls.
Remember in addition to discounts to over 40 vendors who supply stuff you are likely buying anyway, tons of free ebooks and video content, MSB Members also get every edition of The Survival Podcast ever produced in convenient zip files in blocks of 24. More info on the MSB can be found here.
I call myself a personal libertarian. What do I mean by that? I mean that I simply accept society isn’t ready for some of the changes I have experienced in my life, they are not ready to be responsible for themselves. Many people do want the governmetn to solve their problems.
I have seen it and not just from people living on welfare and off government jobs. I have had intelligent and fairly successful people look me strait in the eye and say things like, “well if the government isn’t there to pass laws and solve our problems why are they there”. That is indeed a great question, one we will answer today.
We will quickly though move from looking at how things should be to understanding how they are, from there we can determine how we can carve our own piece of libertarianism into our own lives.
Some might ask, “is this a survival topic”, I would say indeed. Firstly, it is a fact that many of us know what lies ahead, many of the things provided by government are going to fail in time, math says it is invertible. The middle class is being systematically slaughtered. At some point much of what we take for granted will not be available.
When this happens a year of rice, beans and freeze dried food is a great asset but a finite one. The reality is we all must begin a path to self sufficiency now, not wait for failure and then hope we have enough stuff stored up to make it until things return to normal. There have been countless shifts in society, stabilization always follows eventually but thing never “return to normal” as that would mean returning to the way they were.
There is no philosophy that leads faster to self reliance than libertarianism. There is no time to wait for others on it either, the time is now, today’s episode discusses my steps to attaining a personal libertarian life.
The Personal Libertarian Lifestyle
Believe and do as you please (with in the law)
Spread your belief by example, never with force
Create independence from the systems
Solve your own problems when ever you can, especially with neighbors
If you vote, vote for what you believe in, not who you think can win
Know why you believe what you believe
Accept challenges to what you believe but require facts
Never submit to government authority voluntarily (legally resist)
Create your own systems, your own networks, etc.
Value education and be a self directed learner at all times
Let no man speak for you or put words in your mouth
Accept that others many ignore, demean or attack you
Debate ideas, do not ague the validity of the individual
Remember no matter what anyone says, what you do matters
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK and you might hear yourself on the air.
Episode-1176- Shawn Hipskind - Libertarian Candidate for Arkansas Governor[ 1:20:04 ]Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Shawn Hipskind and Family
I am joined today but the first ever political candidate on TSP. Shawn Hipskind my long time friend is running for Governor of the State of Arkansas as a Libertarian. Shawn’s real goal isn’t so much winning but to bring awareness to problems in our political system, how votes are bought and paid for and the concept of zero dollar campaigns.
I want to warn some of our audience that today you are likely to hear many things you disagree with. Specifically on many libertarian issues like the use of force, the war on drugs and gay marriage. Note that no one is trying to convince you of anything, frankly no one is trying to tell anyone here how to live their lives. What we are simply asking is that you at least consider some of these concepts in a new light.
Not interfering with another individuals natural rights does not mean your endorsement of their decision as to how to exercise said rights. If you want to learn more about official positions of the Libertarian Party you can do so at LP.org.
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK and you might hear yourself on the air.
We have had some pretty good discussions about libertarian concepts on the blog here in a very old article I posted almost 4 years ago. I guess something happened a lot of new people found it. What I am coming to understand is many see libertarianism, objectivity and anarchism as the same things, they are not the same things.
Many how would ______ get accomplished questions about libertarianism don’t actually apply to minarchist libertarianism. So today I am going to discuss how a society that is at least moving in the direction of libertarianism would function and how things would get done and how our lives would be better for it.
Join Me Today to Discuss…
On Libertarianism
What is a libertarian
How do we differ from democrats, independents and republicans
What do libertarians really want
What is the libertarian view of social issues like marijuana and gay marriage
Is there any room for any form of taxation in a libertarian system
Could an “income tax” ever be fair
How would we run a food system in a libertarian system
How would we run a banking system in a libertarian system
How would we “build schools and roads” in such a system
What safety net would exist for the truly disadvantaged
How is this related to self sufficiency, self reliance and independence
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK and you might hear yourself on the air.
We just had Brian Newhouse on with a discussion on Permaville. Since then I have been reading his book and while I like a lot of it, there are some compoenents I don’t agree with. Such as having land “where no human may step”.
Though my view is if anyone buys land individually or collectively it is their land to do with as they please. Hell there are definitely some parts of my heavily wooded 5 acres I haven’t stepped on, at least a few square feet of thick brambles or two. Of course it is by choice, not decree.
This got me thinking that I have often described in pieces and parts what my vision for what we could call my own version of Permaville would be like but I have never described it deeply. So I am going to do that today. If you hear anything you think is “totally wrong” remember that anyone could build a community anyway they choose if you can find others to willing do it with you.
Just to be clear my ideas here would be for my community and any rules or ways of things confined to the borders of a privately held piece of land. It is in no way how I think others should live. When it comes to my day to day life I am a libertarian, but when it comes to my ideology, I am a voluntarist, please keep that in mind today.
Join Me Today As We Discuss…
My community would be started from scratch so all involvement is voluntary
There would only be 5 main rules
1st rule would be individuals may use personal property as they choose, period
2’nd rule would be people must attempt to solve problems directly first
3’rd rule seek community arbitration before “contacting authorities”
4th rule no one may harm another or take their property
5th rule common areas have their own rules
The concept of private property and collective ownership
Each land unit is one “share” of the whole
Common areas are managed for community and commercial use
Community needs before commercial gain
Commercial gain is distributed based on share holdings
Expenditures and purchases are voted on by share holders
All “community dues” are voluntary
Community dues can be sweat, commodity or monetary
Functions, Goals and Operations
Individual home sites in the 1 acre range
Approximately 20% of total land should be common or infrastructure
Property should be as off grid as possible (about regulations not polar bears)
Lots are privately held and common areas are in a land based trust
Common areas are use for community production, education and commercial production
This isn’t a full picture just the basic components but I feel a society run this way would be tight nit, highly resilient and solve almost all of its own problems. Someday I may formalize this into a book and call it Perma Libertyville.
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK and you might hear yourself on the air.
I spend a lot of time on “individual liberty”. I do so because I think the tide to turn government is so deep that it will take decades or longer to really change things. Until such time I refuse to live in oppression so I have and will always teach that when it comes to liberty like many things, what you do matters is the number one component to success.
However being in New Hampshire for a few days with the crazy, radical, libertarian folks that call themselves the “Free Staters” has given me renewed hope as I watch how they are making progress at the personal level as well as at a systemic level. Each member does their own thing, some are inside the system, some fully outside and others such as myself are working a bit in both worlds.
Join me Today as I Discuss…
Yes I am still a minarchist but have no further need to debate anarchists
You really can make a change at the state level
Over 12 State Reps are Freestaters
Many more backed by the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance
Over 1,000 people have moved as part of the FSP
Competing Currencies are Alive and Well
Lots of AOCS currency was in place
I understand bitcoin a lot better now
Shire Silver is onto something
TSP Copper will be back soon with even more options
People are waking up
Photography and video are making LEOs accountable
The local/real/etc food movement is hitting a critical mass
Many Free Staters were really taken in by “modern survivalism”
People in the FSP have each others back – BIG TIME
The impact on me
I likely won’t ever move to NH, but it could happen
My determination to fight is stronger than ever
My receptiveness to competing ideas is more open than ever
My view on currency isn’t different, it has however, expanded
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK and you might hear yourself on the air.
Several dozen of you told me that this article sounded like 8 things I say often on TSP.
So rather than read the article at all I decided to do the show based just on the 8 tenets of Franklin and see how much in sync we really are or are not. One thing for sure old Ben’s advice seems quite timeless to me.
Join Me Today as we Discuss these 8 Pieces of Advice from one of Our Founders
Understand the true value of things
Be self-sufficient
Invest in yourself
Surround yourself with friends who share your values
Don’t compromise your integrity for money
Steady diligence is the way to wealth
Time is money (I have changed this to time is value)
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK and you might hear yourself on the air.
So it is Friday and we have some calls today on some great stuff. Today we hear about permaculture, data encryption, non intervention, the reality of poverty, libertarianism and more.
Remember to be on a show like this one just pick up your phone and call 866-65-THINK. The best way to improve your chances of being on the air is ask your question or make your point up front, then provide details. Also call from a quite area with a good connection and speak up so you can be well heard. I can’t put all calls on the air but I do my best to get most of them on.
Join Us Today as we Discuss…
Establishing perennial plantings on remote unoccupied property
Some fun rants and practical advice from “Carson from Canada”
Protecting chickens while you are away
More on what real poverty is like from someone who has seen it
When is it time for to declare bankruptcy
No you don’t “make money” with credit card programs
Prep with food or save cash, making the decision
Judge Andrew Napolitano asks, “what if elections don’t matter”
A listener tells us how TSP has changed his life and world view
Designing a home business based on creating tax write offs
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK and you might hear yourself on the air.
Episode-2201- Lyn Ulbricht on Silk Road Going to the Supreme Court Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
