I am scaling back the blog to spend more time on other writing activities I have going on, including Trade War and freelancing. I plan to blog irregular updates on my work, and brief comments on our exciting and absurd world. Since Metal Monday appears to be a popular feature and it doesn’t take long, I’ll probably keep it up.

Speaking of Metal Monday, the soundtrack for this post is Tyr’s awesome new song Hold the Heathen Hammer High.

In the meantime, browse the archives on darianworden.com.

I’m also going to try to limit my activism to attending events, writing needed literature, and putting propaganda in convenient places when I walk around.

In a somewhat related matter, Brad Spangler asks “Who are you calling a pirate?” in today’s Center For a Stateless Society audio clip. It’s well worth a listen.

According to the Associated Press,

The president’s new science adviser said Wednesday that global warming is so dire, the Obama administration is discussing radical technologies to cool Earth’s air. John Holdren told The Associated Press in his first interview since being confirmed last month that the idea of geoengineering the climate is being discussed.

One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun’s rays. Holdren said such an experimental measure would only be used as a last resort…

…At first, Holdren characterized the potential need to technologically tinker with the climate as just his personal view. However, he went on to say he has raised it in administration discussions.

What could possibly go wrong?

This is a potential boondoggle of apocalyptic proportions. Government routinely shows that it is not concerned with the needs of common people, regarding them as little more than tax hosts or cannon fodder. Government did not even keep the New Orleans levees from breaking. Why should they have more control of the environment?

Politics is based on the pursuit of power. Every technology that they can find a way to use for strengthening social control will be used for strengthening social control.

If climate control research yields the ability to trigger local weather effects, the government will find a way to weaponize the technology.

Science and technology can solve many problems. But if the goal of research is to find solutions that require centralization, then the results will not only be less flexible than the technology of decentralization, but will also require centralized control to work.

Why should the entirety of the only inhabited planet become an experiment controlled by the political class? Regardless of what happens to carbon emissions, the climate of the world will change over time. Attempting to make nature static is insane.

Adaptation to climate change can be accomplished through voluntary forces on a scale much smaller than the entire world. The demand to have your possessions above water is strong enough to stimulate free market solutions.

Government always has been and always will be a tool for connected interests to secure advantages by force. When the state is eliminated, the privileges of those who profit from the status quo will be gone. The stage will then be open to seemingly unlimited competing and cooperating innovations, and there will be no political forces to hold the productive in poverty. Money that today goes to things like building thousands of $25,000 bombs would be left in the hands of people who desire a cleaner environment or democratic space settlement. Flexibility requires freedom, and the stasis that the powerful want to put all of Earth into cannot hold for long.

I had the pleasure of hanging out with some awesome folks Saturday night. Fr33 Agents Jason and Pete stopped in Bordentown on their motorhome trip to promote liberty and had some food and drink with local activists. Coolness ensued, literature was exchanged, and signatures were left on the ceiling.

Thanks go to Dan Patrick for getting the meetup together. I’m looking forward to seeing the crew again at Porcfest, the freedom party of the summer. Have a good trip guys – the following nine minutes of awesome are for you.

From blog of bile comes news of an exercise that Comrade Bosco calls a “Police State LARP.”

According to The Carroll Daily Times-Herald:

The purpose of the April 2-5 drill will be to gather intelligence, then search for and apprehend a suspected weapons dealer, according to Sgt. Mike Kots, readiness NCO for Alpha Company.

Citizens, law enforcement, media and other supporters will participate.

Troops will spend Thursday, April 2, staging at a forward operations base at Carroll. The next day company leaders will conduct reconnaissance and begin patrolling the streets of Arcadia to identify possible locations of the weapons dealer.

The primary phase will be done Saturday, April 4, when convoys will be deployed from Carroll to Arcadia. Pictures of the arms dealer will be shown in Arcadia, and soldiers will go door to door asking if residents have seen the suspect.

Soldiers will knock only at households that have agreed to participate in the drill, Kots noted.

“Once credible intelligence has been gathered,” said Kots, “portions of the town will be road-blocked and more in-depth searches of homes and vehicles will be conducted in accordance with the residents’ wishes.

“One of the techniques we use in today’s political environment is cordon and knock,” Kots explained. “We ask for the head of the household, get permission to search, then have them open doors and cupboards. The homeowner maintains control. We peer over their shoulder, and the soldier uses the homeowner’s body language and position to protect him.”

During this phase of the operation, troops will interact with residents and media while implementing crowd-control measures and possibly treating and evacuating injured persons…

Kots said the exercise will replace Alpha Company’s weekend drill for April.

“We have a lot of extended drills this coming year,” he added.

In addition to surveillance, searching and apprehension, the exercise will also give the troops valuable experience in stability, support, patrol, traffic control, vehicle searches and other skills needed for deployment in an urban environment…

Some may think of this as a simple PR and recruitment stunt. But as I have said before, the experience that the military gains in subduing foreign populations is applicable to subduing any population. Have you noticed that new armored vehicles like the MRAP and Stryker are primarily designed to protect troops deploying against insurgents? Who exactly is the government protecting us from?

ADDENDUM: The military has done training exercises involving civilians for a while. It would be interesting to study whether the frequency and focus of such exercises has changed. It should also be noted that an Army brigade has recently been deployed for domestic roles including crowd control and dealing with civil unrest.