Beyond our regular contributors, we also congratulate TTPers dkemp, edd7, feebie, hardcharger, and RonG for freelance link suggestions that met the test.

As we get closer to the election, I encourage you all to continue to fight... more on how you can help inside. Below the Presidential level, there are candidates like Josh Mandel [Sen. OH], Rep. Jeff Flake [Sen. AZ], and Denny Rehberg [Sen. MT] who are close, could make a real difference, and need your support. Happily, TTP friends Rep. Allen West [FL] and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher [CA] are doing well, and so are Mia Love [UT] and Tom Cotton [AR].

To simplify your scans, I've divided the links into sections: Economos (global economy), Techne Logos (tech), Polis (domestic politics), Stratiootika (geopolitics & military), plus 1 Useful Web Resource and 1 Good News This Week item to brighten your week and/or make you better. Enjoy!

Special Alert!

• Why You Need a Passport Now! (Economic Policy Journal, Oct 18/12). devry: The ability to pick up and leave has *always* been the hallmark of free people, but the State Department is about to make the ability to get a passport wholly. dependent on their whim. The time to get that second passport is running out. "Form DS-5513" is the biggest red flag yet, as it is clearly the first step to controlling the US populace. Don't think it stops here...

Polis

Remember the common liberty we fight for, whichever electoral path we have chosen. We'll begin with Bill Whittle at an Orange County event, as he discusses the core psychology underneath modern leftism and its oligarchic elites, the place we're in, and where we go from here:

• America's Ruling Class - And the Perils of Revolution (American Spectator, July/Aug 2010). jkatzman: THE definitive article about an elite that no longer wishes to be bound by its own rules, that elite's crony capitalism, and the dilemma it creates. "The rulers want the ruled to shut up and obey. The ruled want self-governance.... One side or the other will prevail."



• The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (The American Scholar, Summer 2008). jkatzman: Some fails, but also some very sharp insights about the reality of oligarchy: "The elite like to think of themselves as belonging to a meritocracy, but that's true only up to a point. Getting through the gate is very difficult, but once you're in, there's almost nothing you can do to get kicked out."



• Shut up and play nice: How the Western world is limiting free speech (Washington Post, Oct 12/12). Mentioned by Jack Wheeler in last week's Half-Full Report. Deserves more emphasis, especially in light of Marxism's "sword and shield" as explained by Bil Whittle, above.



• In Praise of the Clash of Cultures (New York Times' The Stone, Sept 2/12). "The privatization of moral, religious, and philosophical views in liberal democracies and the cultural relativism that often underlies Western multicultural agendas are a much greater obstacle to a culture of debate than religion"



• Benghazi: Emperor Obama's Waterloo? (Oct 18/12). "The administration's new template of "intelligence failure" is just a convenient and untenable diversion from the central issue. Rather, the real questions are: Why did the president and the secretary of state try to hide the facts about this attack, facts that were being reported by mainstream media sources in Europe and Canada from day one?"



• Swing state small businesses could loom large (Reuters, Oct 17/12). jkatzman: Romney ahead 50% - 38%, but many can still be swayed.



• BIG NEWS!! CBS Talks about "The Real Mitt Romney" Destroying Obama Administration Message (News Ninja, Oct 20/12). From RonG. Includes video, and the whole thing will make your jaw drop. CBS!?! And thank you, USAF vet Wayne Dupree, for this site.

So, you want to fight for your country? Vote, of course. But what's really important in these last days is getting others to vote. You can call friends and family, or you can sign up to help the candidate of your choice by making phone calls from the comfort of your own home. Here's a video that explains how this works for the Romney/Ryan ticket, and discusses basic concerns:

Economos

A discussion of the economic "recovery," with comparison to past recessions, from the Hoover Institution.

• The Gold Standard (McAlvany Financial Weekly Commentary, Oct 17/12). From hardcharger. Video is just an intro, listen to the Mp3 podcast for the commentary. Very solid - and here's the Forbes article they reference.



• How bankrupt governments will confiscate your gold (Sovereign Man, Oct 11/12).



• 3D printers and additive manufacturing set to be a truly disruptive technology (Times of India, Oct 17/12). feebie: Even India is starting to grasp the opportunities in "additive manufacturing"/ 3D printing.



• In case you trip over your shoelaces... (Sovereign Man, Oct 17/12). dkemp: Health care tourism to Thailand? In a world that gives us Obamacare in the US and Medicare in Canada and the NHS in Britain, this is refreshing.



• Citizen K2: Why were Romney's remarks about not allowing ships which have transported Iranian oil into U.S. ports VERY important? This severely limits the number of ships available to transport Iranian crude to sanctions-exempt countries like Japan, Korea and China. At a time when single-voyage charter rates are down, owners/managers of ships will not want to reduce their options. This would significantly reduce the number of ships available to transport Iranian crude. It's a pretty slick move and position. It's quite safe to say that ship owners worldwide, as well as all oil companies, heard this loud and clear.

Techne Logos

The Hunted and the Hated: An Inside Look at the NYPD's Stop-and-Frisk Policy (Mike Krieg, Oct 18/12). prosenberg: 2 angles here. One is to note the surveillance tech that's now available to even poor citizens. The second is that most of us look like we can hire a lawyer if we need to. That insulates us. This video shows why people who can't hire a lawyer don't like cops.

JK: This is an important video. It went against my natural sympathies, but Alvin (the kid on the street) has the correct understanding of what it means to be an American, and his polite insistence on mutual respect is dead right. I'm glad some police officers see the problem, too. So... been in an airport lately? Did looking like you can hire a lawyer help you? Alvin's experience on the street is going to become yours, too, unless we wise up fast as a country. Step 1: learn to use our smartphones + youtube for monitoring, recording and advocacy.

Stratiootika

Done long before the terrorist attack in Benghazi. But the theme continues.

• The Coming Collapse: Authoritarians in China and Russia Face an Endgame (World Affairs Journal, Sept/Oct 2012). And the worries are coming from inside these regimes.



• Boss Rail: The disaster that exposed the underside of the [Chinese] boom (New Yorker, Oct 22/12). jkatzman: An in-depth, human look at China's corruption, with a focus on transportation. Great read!



• China Weaponizes Trade and Investment (Forbes, Oct 14/12). "The bad news is that China's officials are determined to use their economic might to accomplish geopolitical goals. The good news is that this is one initiative that should fail on its own."



• A Cancer at the Center of the Presidency: Robert Roche a Chinese Agent-Of-Influence? (Breitbart's Big Government, Oct 21/12). edd7: Guess who owns the Obama.com site, where you make credit card donations with no security code?



• How the Russian 'Reset' Explains Obama's Foreign Policy (Foreign Policy, Oct 16/12). jkatzman: And not in a good way.



• A Red Carpet for Radicals at the White House (Emerson's Investigative Project on Terrorism, Oct 21/12). prosenberg: Stunning. A year-long [IPT] investigation... has found that scores of known radical Islamists made hundreds of visits to the Obama White House, meeting with top administration officials.... [including] groups serving as fronts for the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and other Islamic militant organizations.



• How US Ambassador Chris Stevens May Have Been Linked To Jihadist Rebels In Syria (Business insider, Oct 19/12). hardcharger: (The late) Chris Stevens seems to have been close to Libya's work sending jihadists and weapons into Syria. So who organized the hit on the embassy, really? The plot thickens...

Useful Web Resources

hardcharger suggested adding 1-2 clever web sites each week for bookmarking and use, to help people become smarter Internet users, or just improve themselves. Good idea.

• Scr.im. jkatzman: Never, NEVER post your email to a web page or Internet forum. But people need to get in touch with you, so use this site to turn your email into a web link that spambots harvesters can't steal. I'm using it below.

Over The Hump: Good News This Week

An Introduction to the Constitution, from Hillsdale College. Hillsdale is what an institute of higher learning is supposed to be. As we head into the final stretch, read it and remember what it is we're all really fighting for. And know that you stand with those who so bravely, and wisely, fought before us.

Hillsdale has also put some free courses online. Constitution 101, Constitution 201, and Western Heritage 101 (from Genesis to John Locke) are all available online gratis, though I'd recommend a small thank-you donation to help them expand that list.

Reader with questions or submissions for next week can email me (thanks to the great scrim service!)

For The Constitution!

Joe Katzman