JK Podcast

Jad and Kevin branch out from the usual political conversations and delve a bit deeper into the technical details of Bitcoin this week. Bearing in mind of course that Bitcoin is certainly affecting policies.

We talk a bit about Coinbase, discuss who the Dread Pirate Roberts is, and get into the difficulties of TOR and IP management. We also discuss the types of materials available on the silk road including drug types, weapons, and other treats known only to those on the so-called dark web.

Towards the end we spend a brief amount of time discussing the great lengths that people have gone through in the past to move drugs around - including building fucking submarines. Yes, drugs are popular. We both support them fully.

As Kevin's campaign for the 2014 Texas State House of Representatives ticks on, Jad and Kevin discuss the first major breakthrough the campaign has seen, in this case entirely thanks to Reddit.

Besides that little bit of luck, Jad and Kevin spend some time discussing potential alternate voting methods. In particular, they examine one method used by the Texas Libertarian Party known as approval voting. They also consider why it's so difficult to find people willing to fight for the same message of liberty.

As many people across the United States may have seen on television, a pseudo-debate was hosted between Bill Nye and Ken Hamm. We won't go into detailing who Bill Nye is because if you're listening to this podcast you probably already know. On the other hand, Ken Hamm is a wealthy Australian best known for his creationist museums in the United States.

The two of them debated the age old question of intelligent design versus evolution. Jad and Kevin weigh in at a meta-level of how this kind of conversation still exists in 2014.

Recently one of the country's most famous idiots, Sarah Palin, made some some off-colored remarks about the NRA. Around the same time a man few had ever heard of before named Donald Sterling (incidentally the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers) made some off-colored remarks about African Americans.

Jad and I compare and contrast these comments and open a dialogue around the freedom of association. We discuss the civil rights movement of the 1960s and consider what the government's role should be in forcing people to get along with one another.

In this second of three parts detailing the Libertarian Party of Texas's 2014 state convention, Jad and Kevin discuss the gubernatorial race.

The race essentially came down to two candidates, Kathie Glass and Robert Bell. Jad and Kevin go into the nuanced rules that the Libertarian Party uses for voting called approval voting.

In the second part of our talk on human communication, Jad and Kevin discuss being comfortable while trying new things. It seems this is a pretty common element to therapy.

Jad tells us a little bit of his family background and what it was like being raised in a military family. Although the two had fairly different upbringings, Jad and Kevin connect on the all-too-familiar human experience of sweeping problems under the rugs, something we both experienced in our respective families.

After Kevin experienced the emotions that came with a failed relationship, Jad and Kevin decide to spend a few episodes discussing human communication.

The topic actually fits extremely well into the political spectrum since let's face it, one of the largest problems we have as a society is knowing how to communicate effectively with one another. The pair spend most of the episode sharing therapy experiences and how learning to communicate more effectively has benefits far beyond romance.

This is the first of a two-part episode of which will be concluded next week.

With Kevin currently running for the Texas House of Representatives, he definitely felt he should attend his own party's 2014 state convention.

Over the next three Monday Morning episodes Jad and Kevin will walk through what that experience was like. In this first part we discuss the gun rally led by CJ Grisham (which admittedly turned a lot of non-libertarian heads in the wrong direction), introduce the candidates for various offices, and detail the various statewide positions being voted on.

This week Jad and Kevin spend a little less time debating political theories and a little more time discussing current world events.

In the past few months there have been several very serious uprisings happening around the globe. Some of the more notable ones include Venezuela, Ukraine, and Egypt. As the proper history-geek of the JKPodcast, Jad explains what is going on and how tensions being created in otherwise unrelated countries could inadvertently become catalysts for a much larger war.

We spend the last few minutes of the show discussing Scott Horton, host of antiwar.com.

This is a super short episode, but we promise to be back next week with our usual bouts of philosophy and debate! We even have a few special guests on the horizon.

This week Jad and Kevin revisit an older topic of conversation and one that has come up in the podcast several times. The gist of that conversation is learning how to say no to people asserting authority.

We primarily examine the idea from a corporate level. Specifically, we consider how big-box retailers are more commonly attempting to search their customers as they exit the building. Admittedly this is not a search procedure like that of the TSA, but it's a search nevertheless.

The problem isn't necessarily with the store asking, but rather with people not immediately and instinctively understanding that they needn't subject themselves to such a thing. Moreover, and for the sake of liberty that they shouldn't either. Our hypothesis is that these small occurrences ultimately weaken one's ability to be assertive when dealing with other forms of authority.

It's then no wonder police abuses and agencies like the TSA can so easily prevail.