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Gang, even after yesterday's note to you, I need to say: I cannot bring myself to write about the Iran situation every day, important as it is.

I will write about it once in a while. I'm very demoralized about it. "Are you against freeing the Iranians?" is about the level of conversation I'm finding on the subject, and it's really just too much.

Other things still go on while wars take place, and those other things tend to get overlooked. I will keep an eye on those other things.

For today, I thought I would share some American voices, from whom we can perceive the true soul of America.

You will notice that they have not exactly been chosen at random.

First, Henry Clay in the mid-19th century:

By the policy to which we have adhered since the days of Washington…we have done more for the cause of liberty in the world than arms could effect; we have shown to other nations the way to greatness and happiness.…

Far better is it for ourselves, for Hungary, and the cause of liberty, that, adhering to our pacific system and avoiding the distant wars of Europe, we should keep our lamp burning brightly on this western shore, as a light to all nations, than to hazard its utter extinction amid the ruins of fallen and falling republics in Europe.

Here's William Seward, Lincoln's Secretary of State, in 1863:

"The American people must be content to recommend the cause of human progress by the wisdom with which they should exercise the powers of self-government, forbearing at all times, and in every way, from foreign alliances, intervention, and interference."

Felix Morley, who edited the conservative newspaper Human Events before the neoconservative takeover of everything, urged the U.S. away from the temptation of empire, even though he understood the attraction of feeling strong and powerful and awesome because of it, in his 1959 book Freedom and Federalism:

The problem of empire-building is essentially mystical. It must somehow foster the impression that a man is great in the degree that his nation is great; that a German as such is superior to a Belgian as such; an Englishman, to an Irishman; an American, to a Mexican: merely because the first-named countries are in each case more powerful than their comparatives.

And people who have no individual stature whatsoever are willing to accept this poisonous nonsense because it gives them a sense of importance without the trouble of any personal effort....

Empire-building is fundamentally an application of mob psychology to the sphere of world politics, and how well it works is seen by considering the emotional satisfaction many English long derived from referring to "the Empire on which the sun never sets."

Some Americans now get the same sort of lift from the fact that the Stars and Stripes now floats over detachments of "our boys" in forty foreign countries.

(Just 40? That shows how long ago Morley was writing.)

Charles Pinckney spoke similarly at the Philadelphia convention of 1787:

"We mistake the object of our government, if we hope or wish that it is to make us respectable abroad. Conquest or superiority among other powers is not or ought not ever to be the object of republican systems.

"If they are sufficiently active and energetic to rescue us from contempt and preserve our domestic happiness and security, it is all we can expect from them -- it is more than almost any other Government ensures to its citizens."

Combine all this with the passages from George Washington's Farewell Address that I shared with you just weeks ago on his birthday, and we learn something important about America -- and naturally, to the two major parties, glimpses of the real America are like a crucifix in front of Dracula.

At any rate, I'm headed to New Hampshire tomorrow morning ahead of my VIP dinner speech Saturday night at the New Hampshire Liberty Forum, and I hope to see some of you there.

If you don't get a chance to see me there, though, please consider attending one of my murder mystery dinner parties (right now I have two scheduled: Philadelphia and Denver). They're a wonderful night out with like-minded people in your area, and with me, too. Details:
 
And finally: my mastermind guys, who are smart and accomplished and not fad chasers, conveyed to me at our last meeting: yes, there really is something to AI, and yes, it really can be a personal or administrative assistant to you -- you send it text messages and it can perform tasks for you.

We're talking about daily reports, inbox summaries, news summaries from your preferred sites and according to your interests, follow-up reminders, website monitoring, and indeed, personal research assistants: ask it to file things, summarize things, look things up, remember things, run tasks for you, etc.

That sounds amazing to most people -- and you can reclaim MANY hours for yourself this way -- but they have no idea how to make it do these things, and people who do know how seem like magicians.

Well, Woods World is about to learn how to be that kind of magician, and since you're part of Woods World, you should be part of this, too, especially during the early-bird period:
 
Tom Woods






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Tom Woods · PO Box 701447 · Saint Cloud, FL 34770 · USA