Quotes of the Week

From the Light:
“I mean, if we had elected, say, a giant fronded barnacle from a geothermal vent, then, sure, I’d want to hear about it. For at least five minutes. Or maybe if we chose a hitherto-unknown tube worm. Though I grant we came pretty close last time. What’s the big deal about a black guy?”
Fred Reed

“Yes, there may be modest or even significant adjustments in the implementation of the imperial agenda. Some of the most visible barbarities might end, or at least appear to. A certain superficial gentility might replace the pugnacious ignorance that characterized the Bush-era executive branch. Where the powers and purposes of the imperial state are concerned, however, these are merely cosmetic enhancements and refinements of technique; it's a bit like giving a cannibal a makeover and teaching him to use flatware.”
Will Grigg, on the Obama Era

“Randolph Bourne, famous for observing that war is the health of the state, might have gone further: war is not only the health of the state, but the health of democracy too. There is hardly any aspect of war that is unwelcome to the modern collectivist-democratic state. War justifies every desired measure for the expansion of state power; it necessitates the removal of all intermediaries among or between the state and individuals, families, or other natural human units. War exalts the collective and tends to kill, maim, humiliate, or corrupt the individual. War lends an air of sacralization to the modern positivist, humanist civic religion.”
Hunt Tooley

“A real transfer of power is not simply a new name on the door. The plantation owner may sell the plantation, but the slaves are still enslaved.”
Paul Hein

“Our politicized training – reinforced by media and government officials – leads most of us to believe that social order is the product of the conscious design of wise leaders, whom the political process allows us to identify and elect. In the face of the wars and economic collapse that are now destroying our world, it is difficult for intelligent men and women to any longer embrace such childlike thinking that is probably a carryover from a dependence on parental authority.”
Butler Shaffer

“The cause of liberty is a cause of too much dignity to be sullied by turbulence and tumult. It ought to be maintained in a manner suitable to her nature. Those who engage in it should breathe a sedate, yet fervent spirit, animating them to actions of prudence, justice, modesty, bravery, humanity and magnanimity.”
John Dickinson (1732-1808)

“From the beginning, prominent Americans saw their nation as the chosen people, their government as destined to advance liberty through force, their faith in freedom and the dignity of man no less firm despite the exceptions made for those not in the establishment’s favor – whether they were American Indians, blacks, Catholics, Mexicans, Southern civilians, Chinese, Spanish, Cubans, Filipinos, Latin Americans, anarchists, war protestors, Germans, Japanese, Communists, Koreans, Vietnamese, drug users, Branch Davidians, Serbians or Muslims.”
Anthony Gregory

“Economic reality is more than a brick wall. It is like the sea or the world's tallest mountain, or like the force of gravity itself. Economic forces pay no attention to the wishes of charismatic leaders and their throngs of adoring followers."
Lew Rockwell

“Israel today is not the country once dreamed, in which Heidelberg professors escaped from Europe would work the soil with their hands on kibbutzim and play chess and the violin at night. It looks more like what the professors fled. Brutal conflicts breed brutal people. Atrocities engender counter- atrocities, extremists come to the fore, and military solutions seem the only solutions.”
Fred Reed

“When normal human beings are in financial trouble they cut back on their spending, as they are doing now. The American polity, in its younger days, would naturally apply the same logic to government, but, in our dotage, we impart magical powers to the organs of the state, which can produce wealth out of thin air, with only the aid of a printing press. Oh, yes, we understand – albeit vaguely – that this is debt for future generations to pay. Yet we recall – even more vaguely – old bromides like "We owe it to ourselves," which are embedded in our collective memory like flies in amber, and we are reassured.”
Justin Raimondo

From the Darkness:
"We have achieved a lot in hitting Hamas and its infrastructure, its rule and its armed wing, but there is still work ahead."
Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi, chief of staff of the Israeli Army
[1400 dead Gazans, 5,500 wounded; hundreds of children killed; 4,000 to 5,000 homes destroyed and 20,000 damaged – 14% of all buildings in Gaza; 50,000 or more homeless; 400,000 without water; 50 U.N. facilities, 21 medical facilities, 1,500 factories and workshops, and 20 mosques reportedly damaged or destroyed; smashed schools and university structures; obliterated government buildings; an estimated almost two billion dollars in damage- and you’re just getting started?]

“Our goal is not to further burden an already struggling industry. It is to help America's automakers prepare for the future."
El Presidente Obama, holder of all knowledge.

"I want to be clear from the beginning of this administration that we have made our choice: America will not be held hostage to dwindling resources, hostile regimes and a warming planet."
President Obama [How does a planet hold you hostage?]

"The scientists are practically screaming from the rooftops. This is a planetary emergency. It's outside the scale we're used to dealing with."
Al Gore, doing his Chicken Little routine to a Senate committee.

“We are moving the ship of state in a new direction.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, on Obama’s $825 billion pork bill.

Image Review of the Week

Gazans pick up what’s left:



Prayers of protection or repentance?



Rahm Emanuel makes a good first impression:

Lie #1 and counting. What’s that little red book?

Fair warning while navigating past the state’s lunacy....


....and a friendly reminder to smile:

After spending the night in their remodeled home....


....it’s school time in Gaza:


Strange, puzzling beasts- from killing them to kissing them:

A jackboot finds a soul mate:


Those blue boxes still have some use:


Looks like a dead end. This corpse has already been bled dry of revenue:

The Obama economic team is hard at work- long on voodoo and short on common sense:

They can’t believe they’re getting away with this scam:

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:

“Of course today’s teens don’t act like they have the most brainpower in society. How could they? They are isolated in government schools away from adults and given no responsibilities – they are infantilized. Infantilized by the many laws restricting young people: curfew laws, tougher driving laws, teen wage laws, laws curtailing sexual activities, free speech restrictions at school, censorship of educational activities, dress codes, smoking and drinking laws, ad infinitum.”

Doug French

“Is it that state socialism is the cockroach of government species? Certainly state socialism seems able to survive, and even thrive. But state socialism, corporate capitalism, or fascism are not variants of the cockroach, a hardworking creature who adapts readily, and plays fairly, on its own merits. Instead, these are parasitic systems, and as parasites, they are below average, because they too quickly weaken and destroy the viability of the host.”
Karen Kwiatkowski

“If you see Palestinians as something less than civilized human beings: as "barbarians" -- just as if you see Americans as infidels warring with God or Jews as sub-human rats -- then it naturally follows that civilian deaths are irrelevant, perhaps even something to cheer. For people who think that way, arguments about "proportionality" won't even begin to resonate -- such concepts can't even be understood -- because the core premise, that excessive civilian deaths are horrible and should be avoided at all costs, isn't accepted.”
Glen Greenwald

“All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts. A British Tory will defend self-determination in Europe and oppose it in India with no feeling of inconsistency. Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage — torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians — which does not change its moral color when it is committed by ‘our’ side ... The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.”
George Orwell

“America will not experience a revival or redirection toward liberty and free markets until Americans reject – fully, firmly, and consciously – the premises of the New Deal, for it was the New Deal that codified and institutionalized the American rejection of liberty and its exchange for collectivism and fascism. Before that can happen on any large scale, the alternative of liberty has to have broad appeal as an alternative to government supported by religion and made into a quasi-religious institution.”
Michael Rozeff

“Even in the face of uncertainty, there are some attributes which must be possessed by any moral code worthy of the name. Banning mass murder of innocents is one – and if God can order otherwise, then how could we worship Him as "just, merciful, and loving?"
Joshua Katz

"Worse than thieves, murderers, or cannibals those who offer compromise slow you and sap your vitality while pretending to be your friends. Compromisers are the enemy of all humanity, the enemies of life itself. Compromisers are the enemies of everything important, sacred and true."
L. Neil Smith

From the Darkness:

“The fight against Islamic radicals always seems to come around to whether or not they can, in fact, be deterred, because it's not clear that they are rational, at least not like us. But to wipe out a man's entire family, it's hard to imagine that doesn't give his colleagues at least a moment's pause. Perhaps it will make the leadership of Hamas rethink the wisdom of sparking an open confrontation with Israel under the current conditions.”

Michael Goldfarb, editor of the Weekly Standard

"Microsoft's tying of Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system harms competition between web browsers, undermines product innovation and ultimately reduces consumer choice.”
The European Commission, announcing a preliminary decision to force Microsoft sto sotp bundling Internet Explorer with Windows.

"With the challenges and crises we face right now, we cannot afford to divide this country by race or class or region; by who we are or what policies we support. There are no real or fake parts of this country. We are not separated by the pro-America and anti-America parts of this nation - we all love this country, no matter where we live or where we come from."
Barack Obama [If you don’t support his policies you’re anti-American.]

Image Review of the Week

Image Review of the Week has relocated to enlightened rogue. If you are a regular reader of this feature, you may want to bookmark this site for future viewing. Thanks for visiting!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------D.C’s Via Dolorosa awaits the new state savior….

....and the flock awaits to touch his robe:

"Negroes have natural rights, however, as other men have, although they cannot enjoy them here . . ."
A. Lincoln

"I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races. I am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position."
A. Lincoln

Just who is the puppeteer?

No time to waste- Miracles are needed:

Everything he touches is sacred:

The world shows its love for Barry....

…and he responds with bombs:

Dude, where’s my house?

Mystery wounds in Gaza....

....means the children get a visit from Whiskey Pete:

Taking aim. Future freedom fighter:

Neatly folded rags for the suffering family:

Only chicken hawk cowards hide behind state symbols:

Insult tyrants and wind up in a cage:

DVD Reviews

My Kid Could Paint That:
Documentary that explores the talents of a 4-year old painting prodigy that not only questions the authenticity of her work but examines the question of just what is art.
Recommended

American Roots Music:
Excellent 2-disc review of the history of American roots music and the diverse cultures that originated it. Forget all the democracy crap. The greatest contribution to the world from America is the diverse and ever-evolving musical landscape.
Recommended

A Lawyer Walks Into a Bar…..
Documentary looks at the love/hate relationship toward lawyers in this country and follows several individuals as they study for and take the California Bar exam. Very interesting.
Recommended

Tropic Thunder:
Very funny comedy. Robert Downey Jr., as an Australian actor playing a black, American soldier in a movie, is hysterically funny. Jack Black is his usual manic self and Nick Nolte is perfectly cast as a grizzled, old Vietnam vet.
Recommended

The Fountainhead:
The Ayn Rand novel is brought to life following Gary Cooper’s defense of individual dignity against the collectivist mob. The court room speech he delivers near the end of the film is a real jewel.
Recommended

Shut Up And Sing:
Documentary that gives an intimate close-up of the Dixie Chicks as they deal with the controversy surrounding the disparaging remarks made by singer Natalie Maines against the War Emperor. Their response, as they rebuild their careers artistically and business-wise, is very impressive.
Recommended

X-Files- I Want To Believe:
The latest X-Files movie does not quite have the wiz-bang fun of past efforts but is still entertaining and somewhat thought provoking.
Recommended

Hancock:
Will Smith stars in a post-modern look at superheroes with a couple of interesting twists.
Recommended

Searching for the Wrong-eyed Jesus:
Songwriter Jim White takes a trip through the Deep South to explain and explore the essence of the region. The result is a captivating, soulful journey accompanied by some interesting roots music.
Recommended

The Dark Knight:
The hype about Heath Ledger playing The Joker is legitimate- and he seems to have a great time doing it. More fun and movie magic with the Caped Crusader’s “wonderful toys.”
Recommended

Fun With Dick and Jane:
This remake is not quite the usual vehicle for Jim Carrey’s extreme comedic abilities, but he does it well. The slightly different plot from the original is a nice adjustment to the changing economic times.
Recommended

Freddie King- Live in Europe:
It’s good to discover that filmed performances of the blues singer/guitarist exists. Mr. King died quite young and I’m glad that future generations can enjoy his intense stage presence and searing guitar. I saw Mr. King perform in the early 1970’s, around the same period of time these concerts were recorded.
Recommended

Traitor:
Don Cheadle is a Muslim bomb expert with questionable loyalties, to both sides. Well acted and interesting story. Lesson: Don’t allow yourself to be used by states and religious fanatics.
Recommended

River Queen:
Though the writing and acting aren’t the best, this movie does give some insight to a period of history rarely dealt with- the Irish colonization of New Zealand and the resulting conflict with indigenous tribes.
(Barely) recommended

Gram Parsons- Fallen Angel:
Excellent, detailed documentary about the life of singer/songwriter Gram Parsons. Parsons was integral in turning on the young masses of the 60’s to country music through his involvement with The International Submarine Band (arguably the first country/rock band), The Byrds, and the Flying Burrito Brothers. A brilliant talent who flamed out at much too young of age.
Recommended

Ghost Town:
Ricky Gervais is quite funny as a person who can see and communicate with ghosts. A comedy to be enjoyed while being reminded just what is important in life.
Recommended

Winter Soldier:
The fact that this documentary was banned from network television is enough reason to watch it. The film documents the 1971 Detroit Winter Soldier Investigation in Detroit. Nothing fancy. Just testimony after testimony of the atrocities committed by US Troops in Vietnam. The film provides still more evidence that the state converts men into murderous beasts.
Recommended

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:

“Then we listen to speeches by the president-elect, who is going on about the great stimulus package he is going to push through Congress. It's like listening to one quack doctor propose bleeding the patient even as the last quack doctor who bled the patient is packing his bags to leave. You want to shout: is there a real doctor in the house? But it seems like no one is listening.”
Lew Rockwell

“As for the republican form of government, the American people have progressively repudiated it almost from the time they won their independence from the British Empire, and during the past century, they have increasingly favored a form of electoral dictatorship cum empire in which, every four years, the people cast ballots for one of the candidates put forward by the two wings of the one-party political apparatus. This system, vigorously promoted by the imperial running dogs known as the mainstream news media, brings great delight to the masses, who love a good horse race, even if it has been fixed. They are also kept contentedly semi-comatose by the bread and circuses their masters provide in the form of the welfare-nanny-therapeutic state and its Hollywood adjuncts. The few who object strenuously are tased or shot dead by the police, who are ever ready to serve and protect the state that employs them.”
Bob Higgs

"If you've ever been in a room full of vegetarians, a lot of methane is being produced. “I'm wondering if they're going to start putting a permitting process on them."
Texas rancher, Pete Bonds, responding to the EPA’s proposal to regulate cow emissions as a cause of global warming.

“If the feds were paying attention, they should listen up here:
The cure for a slump is a slump.”
Bill Bonner

“The golden age is over, in other words. In the space of 40 years it passed from gold, to silver, to paper...and is now somewhere between plastic and navel lint.”
Bill Bonner

"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one!"
Charles Mackay

“It is vital for the Zionist movement to realize that the idea of an Israeli land does not equate to, nor require, an Israeli state. It is also vital to realize that there can never be peace and stability in the region as long as there is an Israeli government, nor can there ever be a "free Palestine" as long as there is a Palestinian government. The only way to achieve prosperity is through peace and commerce, and that can only come through a stateless society.”
Markus Bergström

“Only collectivists consider they have any moral right to criticize the “profligacy” of those who create enough wealth to use whatever they can buy on the free market, in any way they choose, whether it be “energy,” land, or long underwear. Underneath their cloak of presumed holiness, collectivists are would-be thieves, aiming to impoverish those of whom they are jealous. They simply lack the courage to pull out a gun and deprive the “profligate fat cats” of their wealth DIRECTLY – they prefer to hire bully-boys in government uniforms to do the job for them, under the sanctified cloak of “shared sacrifice.”
Vin Suprynowicz

From the Darkness:

"The jobs we create will be in businesses large and small across a wide range of industries. And they'll be the kind of jobs that don't just put people to work in the short term, but position our economy to lead the world in the long-term."

The-All-Knowing-All-Seeing-Man-With-Melanin.

"I want to be realistic here. Not everything that we talked about during the campaign are we going to be able to do on the pace we had hoped."
The Emperor-Elect [That’s NOT what the masses want to hear.]

“I have often spoken to you about good and evil – this has made some uncomfortable — but good and evil are present in this world, and between the two there can be no compromise.”
GW Bush [So……..which one are you?]

"When it comes to national security, what we have to focus on is getting things right in the future, as opposed [to] looking at what we got wrong in the past."
Barack Obama, indicating he would oppose investigations of wrongdoing by the CIA and other agencies.

Image Review of the Week

Image Review of the Week, by Roger Young

Tragedy Strengthens the State

This week an Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed at Texas A&M University, killing one person. Much speculation has arose on why the chopper crashed. Upon closer examination, one fact is certain- the state will only be strengthened, not weakened by such an event.

When realizing the fact that the military produces nothing but death and destruction, this should be considered a successful flight. Mission accomplished! One death and a destroyed piece of equipment amounts to an institution well-focused on what it does best!

All sarcasm aside, the tangible benefits to the state after such a tragedy are:

• Those employed as crash investigators will have plenty of work to keep them busy while they calculate just what caused the accident.


• The destroyed helicopter will have to be replaced, resulting in more job security and revenue for the ever-busy military industrial complex.


• The personnel lost will have to be replaced, creating a new assignment for aggressive military recruiters.


• The new personnel will have to be trained, clothed, fed, etc, resulting in a multitude of support opportunities.


• The treatment of the injured and the care of the deceased’s family will necessitate more work for the military medical and compensation establishment.

Add to these tangible benefits the intangible gains:

• Militarists everywhere now have another dead hero to fawn over. Only the military honors those who have failed.


• The media will expound on the “service” of the deceased, contributing to the statist conditioning of the populace that the military is comprised of brave, courageous folk who are our only barrier between being free and living under tyranny.


• The military uses this event to expound on the dangers involved in “protecting” the populace from ever-increasing (and state created) threats.

Bastiat said, "Society loses the value of things which are uselessly destroyed." Yes, society suffers but the state is strengthened, at further cost to society. Society is forced to pay for the state’s mistakes- in this case, the military’s. The state is not only tangibly compensated but intangibly strengthened.

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:

“Anti-terrorism laws are not meant for terrorists; they're for people that governments don't like. That's why they have a conviction rate of less than 2%. They're just a means of putting inconvenient people away without bail for a long time and eventually letting them go.”
Arundhati Roy

“Israel doesn’t seem to understand that superior power doesn’t buy security as long as the adversary’s grievance lingers.”
Ivan Eland

“These elites, and the corporate system they serve, have ruined the country. These elite cannot solve our problems. They have been trained to find “solutions,” such as the trillion-dollar bailout of banks and financial firms, that sustain the system. They will feed the beast until it dies. Don’t expect them to save us. They don’t know how. And when it all collapses, when our rotten financial system with its trillions in worthless assets implodes and our imperial wars end in humiliation and defeat, they will be exposed as being as helpless, and as stupid, as the rest of us.”
Chris Hedges

“The recognition of the insuperable limits to his knowledge ought indeed to teach the student of society a lesson of humility which should guard him against becoming an accomplice in men's fatal striving to control society — a striving which makes him not only a tyrant over his fellows, but which may well make him the destroyer of a civilization which no brain has designed but which has grown from the free efforts of millions of individuals.”
F.A. Hayek

“Every dead American soldier is a hero. What a beautiful word is that word, hero. The more hideous the death, the more beautiful name it is necessary to find for it.”
Laurence Vance

“Honor means nothing more than prickly infantile vanity dressed up, usually, in desperate class-consciousness. Of all the symptoms of a weak ego, honor is the most embarrassing, and the most harmful. In a right-minded society it would be made a capital offense.”
Fred Reed

"The most serious threat to the United States is not someone hiding in a cave in Pakistan or Afghanistan, but our own fiscal irresponsibility."
David Walker, former Comptroller General of the United States
"The truth is that the only way out of this mess is less government, more savings, and increased production."
Peter Schiff

“We have explained why bailouts don’t work. You can’t solve a problem caused by too much debt by adding more debt. The ‘hair of the dog’ technique won’t work – not even if you throw in the whole pooch.”
Bill Bonner

“I am an agnostic regarding the claim that the State of Israel, as it presently exists, is the fulfillment of the pious desires of ancient prophets and martyrs. But I am convinced to the point of moral certainty that Israel has no legitimate claim on our tax dollars or military aid, and that Washington’s subsidy of Israel has been an unalloyed disaster for both Israel and the region.”
“Those in charge of the Israeli State, and those who aspire to run the embryonic Palestinian State, simply find the conflict too politically and materially profitable to abandon, despite the horrors it inflicts on the victims of their misrule.”
Will Grigg

“Those who understand and cherish individual liberty should never allow themselves to become the agents of another person's will.”

Will Grigg

From the Darkness:

"We are close to achieving most of our objectives [in Iraq] We have a significant reduction in the overall level of violence."
Dick Cheney [Ummm…Who created the violence in the first place?]

\"The vulgar trend has deeply harmed the mental and physical health of the young generation ... Many parents are calling out: 'Save our children'. They want the government to take drastic action."
The Chinese Information Office, commenting on its crusade to make the Internet safe for its young population to surf without encountering pornography.

"A strong government that deals forcefully with the Palestinians will bring international condemnation and sanctions against Israel, but the Lord will uphold his people despite world opinion."
Pat Robertson

“Many will focus on the upfront cost of this legislation. While we are not discussing small sums, focusing on the price tag alone ignores the cost of inaction and the real payoff in terms of job creation and increased revenues to our Treasury."
Nancy Pelosi, House speaker. [Spending trillions you don’t have, while already trillions in debt, to erase trillions in debt. Orwellian economics at its best.]

“And we know that our recovery and reinvestment plan will necessarily add more. My own economic and budget team projects that, unless we take decisive action, even after our economy pulls out of its slide, trillion-dollar deficits will be a reality for years to come.”
The Man With Melanin, commenting on the projected deficit.

"It is very difficult in circumstances like Gaza, which is a very densely populated area. I might note it's also an area in which Hamas participates in activities like human shields, using buildings that are not designated as military buildings to hide their fighters. So it's hard. I was encouraged that Prime Minister (Ehud) Olmert, after an extensive conversation we had, agreed to open a new humanitarian corridor."
Condoleeza Rice, commenting on Israel’s slaughter of civilians in Gaza. [Humanitarian corridor? What’s to keep them from bombing that too?]

“Now, what my point is that I don’t think anybody saw it coming.”
Dick Cheney, on the current financial crisis.

Image Review of the Week

Image Review of the Week, by Roger Young

A Reminder of What Gang is in Charge

A Dallas police officer was shot and killed this week while serving a warrant. A tragedy, to be sure, particularly since the officer had a record of mentoring youth to keep them out of trouble. But any grief is tempered by the immensely huge funeral procession that accompanied the dead officer. Humility has never been a virtue for the those working in law enforcement. Public expositions such as this bring to mind the reality of the relationship between the state and the individual.

The police don’t exist to protect individuals. The police exist to serve the needs of the state and collect its revenue. The police will continually remind us just who matters most (it’s not you) and just who is in charge (it’s definitely not you). Today’s obscenely ostentatious display of pomp and public expense illustrates that well.


The police are just another gang looking to control turf. The only difference between them and the street gangs is that the police wear uniforms and badges. When street gangs rob and kill individuals it’s called “crime.” When the police and state rob and kill individuals it’s called “good government” and “effective law enforcement.” The only reason the police and the state (the government gang) fight street gangs is because they are perceived as a threat to their monopoly of force and coercion.

The life and property of you meaningless, tax paying, peons is irrelevant. So, pull your cars to the side of the road and get out of their way!

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:

“Whether we are talking about an autocracy, oligarchy, or democracy we are in the final analysis dealing with a coercive force which will become violent to attain its ends. As the state increases its power base and the demands upon its citizens, it will seek to have a domineering effect upon the human spirit. The result is the destruction of self-reliance, self-determination and self-confidence of free citizens and replacing them with a dutiful, subservient drone totally reliant on the state.”
Tim Case

“The financial authorities are clumsily turning screws and tightening valves. They think they can fix the machine by simply getting more credit into consumers’ hands. But this machine is not that simple. In fact, it’s not a machine at all...but a living, organic thing. It has emotions as well as a brain. It is capable of self-delusion, deceit, corruption, wishful thinking, and extravagance.”
Bill Bonner

“The reality of the state is that it is a looting and killing machine. So why do so many people cheer for its expansion? Indeed, why do we tolerate its existence at all? The very idea of the state is so implausible on its face that the state must wear an ideological garb as means of compelling popular support. Ancient states had one or two: they would protect you from enemies and/or they were ordained by the gods. To greater and lesser extents, all modern states still employ these rationales, but the democratic state in the developed world is more complex. It uses a huge range of ideological rationales – parsed out between left and right-that reflect social and cultural priorities of niche groups, even when many of these rationales are contradictory.”
Lew Rockwell

“When dishonesty is practiced by bureaucrats and politicians for their personal gain, it is regarded as "corruption." But when such conduct is institutionalized (i.e., engaged in for the furtherance of governmental and establishment purposes), it is considered "economic planning" or, modernly, an economic "stimulus." We see the same phenomenon at work elsewhere: if someone goes into a school and kills ten people, it is properly considered an act of "murder," with the assailant hunted down and punished. But when the government employs its weapons to kill Americans, it is referred to as "law enforcement;" when used to kill millions of foreigners, it is called "national defense," with its practitioners often later rewarded with a Nobel Peace Prize. If a power-seeking group uses fear against a population to achieve its ends, it is regarded as a "terrorist" organization. When the United States used super-bombs against the Iraqi people to subdue them with mass-fear under the name of "shock and awe," such practices were characterized as "sound military strategy."
Butler Shaffer

“So fear not the gallows, ye radicals. As much as they probably fear us and would love to be rid of us, the statist ruling class (at least in the West) needs radicals, and not because they truly believe in tolerance and liberal democratic values for their own sake. Instead: (1) they need ideological scapegoats to project blame for their hubris, and (2) tolerating our presence, weathering our harsh criticisms peacefully, and even engaging us allows them an air of legitimacy as far as their current “democratic” system is concerned. In the end, it boils down to image. It’s hard to defend an arrogant and openly ravenous monster, but a smooth-talking serial rapist might manage to dupe you into thinking he’s God’s gift. Who do you think would win the battle of public opinion? The ruling class understands this; they ain’t stupid.”
Marcel Votlucka

“You see, politicians are not competent to judge the proper analysis, much less formulate a credible solution. The use of lobbyists seeking special favors as experts to educate them further corrupts this process. Finally, they have only one tool: the use of force. When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Agenda-driven solutions simply look around for someone else to blame and hammer. “
Mark Davis

“The state gets to determine not only who gets protected, but what protection even means. You don’t get to choose to be protected, you don’t get to choose how you are protected, you don’t even get to choose whether or not you want state protection. You are "protected" when you don’t want it in ways you never wanted, and left "unprotected" in ways you don’t want. But you don’t get to choose. The state wages war either nearby or far away (with the same indiscriminately murderous results) and calls this protection and, voilà, you are protected. You don’t get to object, to say "excuse me, but that’s not what I asked for or wanted." You don’t get to say, "well, I don’t feel safer" or "I don’t believe the deaths of hundreds or many thousands makes me any safer."
Charles H. Featherstone

“To believe that the more the state threatens my person, and the more that the state invades my property, the greater my security is to believe the lie central to the state. And to watch fellow countrymen harassed, only to assume that the state must have reason for its harassment is to turn backs on the very same rights expected to protect us in the end.”
Jim Fedako

“Financial interests, the military-security complex, and the Israel Lobby are the powers that rule America. They are buttressed by neoconservatives and Christian Zionists and by the patriotic hubris that America is the main force for good operating in the world. The evils America commits are dismissed as necessary to the service of good.”
Paul Craig Roberts

“Economies are not machines. Instead, they are organic, natural phenomenon in which the principal actor – man – is subject to fits of brutal sanity, interspersed by long periods of hallucination in which he is trying to get something for nothing. Fundamentally, it is a ‘moral’ system, not a mechanical system. When people make mistakes they have to pay for them.”
Bill Bonner

"The ultimate result of shielding man from the effects of folly is to people the world with fools."
Herbert Spencer

From the Darkness:

"I think generations pretty soon are going to start to thank this president for what he's done. This generation will.
When you look at what this president took on in terms of AIDS relief and foreign assistance to the world, when you look at the number of countries ... and the number of people that this president has actually liberated — you know, I really am someone who believes that you don't want to pay too much attention to today's headlines."
Condoleeza Rice

“I can’t wait to get to Washington DC , roll up my sleeves and get to work solving everybody’s problems.”
Alan Grayson, Representative-elect of Florida ’s 8th District [Thanks to Mark Davis]

“Banks, including those in USA and Britain are not now just talking of, but actually implements flexible and pragmatic central bank programs where these are deemed necessary in their national interests.
That is precisely the path that we began only 4 years ago in pursuit of our national interest and have not wavered from that critical path despite the untold misunderstandings, vilification and demonization we have endured from across the political divide.”
Gideon Gono, central banker in Zimbabwe, where inflation is running 230 million percent.

“That's why we need an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that not only creates jobs in the short-term but spurs economic growth and competitiveness in the long-term. And this plan must be designed in a new way - we cant just fall into the old Washington habit of throwing money at the problem.”
The Emperor-Elect on how he plans to save us all. [I guess wanting to spend at least $1 trillion is not “throwing money at the problem.” Perhaps, heaving or tossing would be more accurate verbs?]

“We must make strategic investments that will serve as a down payment on our long-term economic future. We must demand vigorous oversight and strict accountability for achieving results. And we must restore fiscal responsibility and make the tough choices so that as the economy recovers, the deficit starts to come down. That is how we will achieve the number one goal of my plan - which is to create 3 million new jobs, more than 80 percent of them in the private sector.”
The Economic-Ignoramus-Elect [More of the collectivist “we” crap. All for one and one for all. Unite to save The Fatherland!! This statement brings to mind the words of Mussolini; "Everything within the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State."]

Image Review of the Week

Image Review of the Week, by Roger Young

Why Give Tyrants Your Blessing?

Protests are now underway against the prayer to be offered by Rick Warren at St. Obama’s coronation. People are actually upset that a Christian will recite a prayer that mentions the name of Christ! Can people get any stupider?

A fact that should genuinely upset Christians is that a man who claims to be a minister of the gospel of Christ chooses to even participate in such an event.
No true Christian would have anything to do with the state- let alone give a blessing in His name. The state is Satan's tool on earth-why give it legitimacy? Why would God send a Savior to earth only to preach subservience to the most wicked of earthly inventions- the tyrannical state?

The actions and words of Jesus Christ show nothing less than contempt for the state and its deceptive, self anointed, elitist “leaders.” The state embodies the worst qualities of fallen man: murder, theft, forced collectivism and deception. To fall under the spell of the satanic state is to become a walking abomination to God- as you are living as a slave, rather than as a free individual. Sanctioning the state’s existence (by participating in its grandiose ceremonies) is an affront to the will of God. Christians should reject the state in all its forms and work for its demise, not kowtow in acts of reverence and approbation.

The term, “Christian nation” is an oxymoron. “Nation” implies a forced collectivist, politically created community that claims territorial boundaries. Christianity is a faith for individualists, not an excuse to be subservient to the will and whims of perverted, earthly tyrants who claim a piece of real estate to be under their dominion. The Body of Christian believers is the only entity that Christians need have allegiance and its reach is limitless.

The state and the institutional church have been cautious allies for centuries. The continued existence of both institutions is contingent on them maintaining power over the lives, property, movements, and even thoughts of individuals.
Both entities long ago realized that each can complement the other by deceiving individuals into maintaining allegiances to both. Mr. Warren continues this infamous tradition.

Mr. Warren is a suck-up and a sell out. You either serve God or you serve the state- you can't do both.