Just an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff

Know your enemy.

I have been very concerned by the repeated platforms given in the media to people and organisations-such as Sp!ked online and the von Mises Institute-who espouse a libertarian philosophy.

This is a quote from prominent "anarcho-capitalist" Murray Rothbard about the "rights" of parents over their children:
"the parent should not have a legal obligation to feed, clothe, or educate his children, since such obligations would entail positive acts coerced upon... the parent and depriving the parent of his rights"
Also: "the purely free society will have a flourishing free market in children".
In a fully libertarian society, he wrote, "the existence of a free baby market will bring such 'neglect' down to a minimum".

(from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Rothbard )

Views like these really ought not to be taken seriously but their representatives are quoted repeatedly by the BBC, the Times, Daily Mail, RT and others without ever being challenged or critiqued, particularly with regard to their opposition to campus "safe zones" and No Platform policies.

An ideology called "Objectivism" (basically a variant of rightist libertarianism espoused by nihilist-by-any-other-name novelist Ayn Rand) has even infected our foreign policy and given the United States, United Kingdom and Israel carte blanche as "free states" to intervene wherever they want regardless of the casualties and consequences. This is especially apt with regards to America's approach to Syria-despite supporting ISIS/daesh by default and risking a nuclear confontation with Russia-and its assumption of right to a worldwide monopoly on violence.

What libertarianism and Objectivism and their an-cap variants espouse is simple: zero democracy and 100% freedom, albeit entirely of the negative variety.

Or:
You can buy her, you can buy her
This one's here, this one's here, this one's here and this one's here
Ev'rything's for sale

For sale? dumb cunt's same dumb questions
Oh virgins? listen, all virgins are liars honey
And I don't know what I'm scared of or what I even enjoy
Dulling, get money, but nothing turns out like you want it to

And in these plagued streets of pity you can buy anything
For $200 anyone can conceive a God on video
He's a boy, you want a girl so tear off his cock
Tie his hair in bunches, fuck him, call him Rita if you want

I eat and I dress and I wash and I still can say thank you
Puking - shaking - sinking I still stand for old ladies
Can't shout, can't scream, hurt myself to get pain out

I 'T' them, 24:7, all year long
Purgatory's circle, drowning here, someone will always say yes
Funny place for the social, for the insects to start caring
Just an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff

In these plagued streets of pity you can buy anything
For $200 anyone can conceive a God on video
He's a boy, you want a girl so tear off his cock
Tie his hair in bunches, fuck him, call him Rita if you want, if you want

I eat and I dress and I wash and I can still say thank you
Puking - shaking - sinking I still stand for old ladies
Can't shout, can't scream, I hurt myself to get pain out

Power produces desire, the weak have none
There's no lust in this coma even for a fifty
Solitude, solitude, the 11th commandment

The only certain thing that is left about me
There is no part of my body that has not been used
Pity or pain, to show displeasure's shame
Everyone I've loved or hated always seems to leave

And in these plagued streets of pity you can buy anything
For $200 anyone can conceive a God on video
He's a boy, you want a girl so tear off his cock
Tie his hair in bunches, fuck him, call him Rita if you want, if you want

Power produces desire, the weak have none
There's no lust in this coma even for a fifty
Solitude, solitude, the 11th commandment

Don't hurt, just obey, lie down, do as they say
May as well be heaven this hell, smells the same
These sunless afternoons I can't find myself
Yes-Manic Street Preachers

The Last Days of Jack Sparks

Just finished named novel, couldn't help thinking of the following lyrics. Really sums the novel up, no spoilers, but the book ends up being a supernatural odyssey of self-harm, militant scepticism and time-travel:

Your ritual everyday
A mild shower soak in aftershave
Best clothes do your best
Look in the mirror go on
Belittle yourself yourself yourself
Belittle yourself yourself yourself

You go on day after day
Dreaming on a lie
That you keep locked inside
Of yourself
Yourself
Yourself
Of yourself
Yourself
Yourself

Can you sleep tonight
Cast aside for some pouting young pup
Sink into a slurred veneer
Alcoholic haze so now
Least you can like yourself yourself
Least you can like yourself yourself

You go on day after day
Reservoirs of guilt
That your fixed grin always hides
And yourself
Yourself
Yourself
Of yourself
Yourself
Yourself
And yourself
Yourself
Yourself
Of yourself
Yourself
Yourself

You look at ad's all day
Everyone is perfect and you're so lame
Free scent burns your skin
But no smell can really cover sin
Too many teenage holes to fill
Too many teenage holes to fill

You go on day after day
Speak to your despised
Blanking your loved ones
And yourself
Yourself
Yourself
And yourself
Yourself
Yourself
And yourself
-Yourself, Manic Street Preachers

"Nostalgic Pushead" is a good one also, author Jason Arnopp must be a fan
#JackSparks

Summary: Despite a paranormal encounter as a child former journalist and militant atheist Jack Sparks is determined to discredit ghosts, exorcisms and other aspects of the paranormal. So he begins writing and researching a book on the subject, hoping to disprove the existence of the paranormal forever. His last book "Jack Sparks on Drugs" sent him to rehab, will his new crusade cost him his sanity and life?