Quotes of the Week

From the Light:

"Ask yourself: With the government firmly in the pockets of giant businesses, whom would we trust to oversee a central bank?
No one.
And what would prevent it from becoming anything more than an instrument of private interest, with the power and the purse of the public added?
Nothing."
Lila Rajiva

"When we talk about nation-building, we are talking Obama's language: the language of moral uplift, of misplaced idealism, and soaring rhetoric. We are talking the language of the social and economic planners, who think that government – the US government, specifically – is the answer to all the world's problems."
Justin Raimondo

“Our national catechism tells us that America is Good -- and that America's murders are Good Murders. You may not say otherwise.”
Arthur Silber

“Government power is the root of the problem; everything else is a leaf, a twig, or at most a branch.”
Glen Allport

"Future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st century’s developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and, on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer projections combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to contemplate a roll-back of the industrial age."
Richard Lindzen, Sloan Professor of Meteorology at MIT

“The role of government is commonly misunderstood. It is thought to be an impartial judge...an objective arbiter between competing interests, always asserting the common interest over the narrow interests of the competitors themselves. It is nothing of the sort. It has its own interests...its own delusions of competence...its own lusts for power and money.”
Bill Bonner

“American foreign policy has gotten off onto a tangent that I think our own Founding Fathers never envisioned and would be horrified to see. We’ve decided there is only one way everyone in the world should live, and it’s the way we tell them they should live. This is the essence of the policy and the face that the United States is presenting to the outside world. We’ve decided that we’ve discovered something that other people can never discover and we’re going to force them to do it. This creates a kind of resentment that deeply undermines our security.”
Stephen Kinzer

“In point of fact, statism is a form of paganism, for it is worship of an idol, something made by man. Its base is pure dogma. Like all dogmas this one is subject to interpretations and rationales, each with its coterie of devotees. But, whether one calls oneself a Communist, Socialist, New Dealer, or just plain "democrat," one begins with the premise that the individual is of consequence only as a servant of the mass idol. Its will be done.”
Frank Chodorov

“I rather think “predatory lending” is when the taxpayer lends the government money to finance the clean-up of a malady that government policy caused.”
Wilt Alston

“Now who is opposed to liberty or progress or any of the various other desirable ideals that government officials claim will result from their "unselfish programs for the people"? Probably no one. Thus do the people tend to accept almost any idea — communism, socialism, imperialism, or whatever — if those ideas are advanced under attractive labels such as freedom from want, defense against aggression, welfare, equality, liberty, fellowship, and security.”
Dean Russell

“You have to take the bad with the good in life. There's no going to Heaven without dying. And you can't rebuild a house without tearing down the old one. Mistakes must be corrected. Old, worn-out businesses have to go out of business so that new ones can take their places. Bad investments need to be deflated...liquidated. Failed managers and failed business models must be eliminated. Bubble delenda est.”
Bill Bonner

"Evolution writ large is the belief that a cloud of hydrogen will spontaneously invent extreme-ultraviolet lithography, perform Swan Lake, and write all the books in the British Museum.”
Fred Reed

From the Darkness:

"The fundamental truth that the challenges of the 21st century are increasingly unconventional and transnational, and therefore demand a response that effectively integrates all aspects of American power."

Emperor Obama, commenting on merging the domestic and foreign sides of the White House national-security team while also creating positions at the National Security Council focused on cybersecurity, energy, the environment and the threat of terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction.

"One hundred days ago, in the midst of the worst economic crisis in half a century, we passed the most sweeping economic recovery act in history: a plan designed to save jobs, create new ones and put money in people's pockets. One hundred days later, we're already seeing results."
Master Obama

"We should be owned, as soldiers are by the army, and our pride would rise accordingly."
William James, The Moral Equivalent of War

"If you're going to have people live in a car bomb-prone place, your are driven to not have a light footprint."
Ronald Neumann, a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, commenting on Obama’s plans to spend $736 million to build a new U.S. embassy in Islamabad, along with permanent housing for U.S. government civilians and new office space in the Pakistani capital.

"There is a growing awareness of the need for fundamental tax reform. I think a VAT and a high-end income tax have got to be on the table."
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.)

"People are beginning to recognize that the mathematics of the current system are just unsustainable. You have to do something. And a VAT has got to be on the table if you want to do something big and serious."
Yale law professor Michael J. Graetz

"Climate change is a silent human crisis. Yet it is the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our time."
Kofi Annan

"Our goal is complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and we will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state."
Defense Secretary Robert Gates [This from a state immoral enough to actually use nuclear weapons.]

"The first thing you do is ask what's legal? What do the lawyers say is possible?”
George W. Bush, explaining how he decided torture was cool. [Hey, W- What would JESUS say?]

Image Review of the Week

Don’t let nationalism swallow up your individuality:



Some want to throw him overboard, ....

….and some just want to touch his robe:

Bigger boys = more expensive toys:

Abe is feeling gay, these days:

"Government, then, is the Great Enabler of psychopaths;....

....the One True Ring of Power that corrupts nearly everyone it touches,....



....and which attracts psychopaths in particular."
Glen Allport

Still looking for answers to the wrong questions:



State slaughter + 20:



Order, noun: Regular arrangement; any methodical or established succession or harmonious relation; Conformity with law or decorum:

The signs point the way to the Pork Palace:

"I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses"

Johann Kepler



Obama cuts funds for abstinence-only education and....

“All hail and exalt the glory of the state!”

The best way to start a day is with a good breakfast:

Shrewd marketing- tyranny with a smile.....

…and a laugh:

"There can be no tyrants....

.....where there are no slaves."

Jose Rizal

“I am change and this is what I wear:"

"Shed your personal skin and take on a universal skin:"

Rally for Freedom, Don’t “Prop” Up the State

Re: Hundreds rally in Oak Lawn against court's support of Proposition 8:

"Hundreds of people rallied Tuesday night in Dallas to protest the California Supreme Court's decision to uphold Proposition 8."

Both sides are missing the most important question- Why should the state even be involved in the contract of marriage?

Couple the freedom of contract with freedom of association (I have the freedom NOT to recognize your arrangement) and the problem is solved.

You can marry your goldfish, for all I care- as long as I am free not to recognize your arrangement as legitimate and am not forced (by the state) to pay for politically determined "benefits."

The pro-gay marriage crowd makes a claim of “equal rights” when their true agenda is securing “equal entitlements,” enforced at the point of a gun. Government cannot create “rights” without doing so at the expense of other’s freedom, just as government cannot “create wealth” without taking it from one party and distributing it to another. Any government enforced “solution” to a problem or dispute just creates a different set of victims.

The absence of coercion, coupled with the respect for individual liberty, provides a much better environment to solve disagreements.

Schools Make a Mock-ery of History

A middle school in Mesquite, Texas created a physical reenactment of a local war battle.

What a great example of how poorly government schools “educate” children. They can’t even get the name of the war right! This, in no way, was a “civil” war, but a War of Secession. The term, “civil war” implies that the Confederacy wanted to overthrow the existing central government regime. The aim of the seceding states was to break their political relationship with the existing central government, NOT overthrow it. When the DC thugs would not agree to a peaceful separation, the seceding states had no choice but to fight. The War of Secession was no less than the Second American Revolution- and the good guys lost. Since then, we’ve suffered under a continual and ever worsening state tyranny that promotes state collectivism over individual liberty (make note of the teacher’s glee hearing the students chant, “union, union, union”).

The government school’s mission is to condition children to the idea that the US state has been heroic and benevolent through its history- and here’s the revised history to prove it.

“In the spirit of the war's end, the generals took the field and signed a treaty pledging that all students, teachers, and faculty at A.C. New Middle School will be treated equally, not discriminating on race, sex or age; giving equal opportunity to all people."

In reality, the “spirit” of the war’s end was to punish the rebellious states with an occupying military dictatorship, increased taxation and expansion of state size and debts, political corruption and economic exploitation. There was none of this feel-good, hand holding, truce based around “equal opportunity.”

History is written by the victors. Unfortunately, the victors also tend to have a massive amount of control (government schools, corporate media) over the dissemination of information. Overcoming the lies of conventional wisdom with documented truth is a never ending challenge.

DVD Reviews

Ironweed:
A long, (almost 2 ½ hours) depressing, Depression-era drama made worth watching because of the acting brilliance of Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep.
Recommended

Man on Wire:
Excellent and inspiring documentary chronicles the early life and exploits of high wire artist Philippe Petit who walked between the World Trade Center towers in 1974. The film will help you appreciate the beautiful artistry of wire walking.
Recommended

In the Electric Mist:
Even the acting talents of Tommie Lee Jones and John Goodman can’t save this weak murder mystery set in Louisiana.
Not recommended

Blindness:
Interesting movie based on a novel where a plague that blinds, but not kills, people in a city. The afflicted are herded into a ghastly quarantine facility where all the weaknesses and strengths of individuals come to light. A nice study of potential breakdowns of societal norms and individual morality when people are placed under extreme stress.
Recommended

The Last Enemy:
Excellent British miniseries. The drama takes place in a not too distant future Britain in an atmosphere of Total Information Awareness, surveillance and tracking by the state.
Recommended

Wanted:
Entertaining action drama about super assassins with an underlying message to take control of your life. “Live with the wolves, not the sheep.”
Recommended

Madagascar-Escape 2 Africa:
This sequel continues the fun with some new characters. Watching the antics of the penguins again is worth the price of admission.
Recommended

Dark Matter:
A brilliant Chinese cosmology student comes to America to study his original theories, only to be stifled by the educational establishment. A drama well worth watching, though the ending was very disappointing.
Recommended

The Fall:
An injured movie stunt man befriends a 5-year old girl in the hospital by telling her imaginative stories (which are acted out as part of the movie). Filmed in India, (with some incredible sets and scenery) the work is an interesting piece of film making.
Recommended

Alison Krauss and Union Station-Live:
It’s always a pleasure to listen and watch musicians, at the top of their field, having a good time playing together. This is as tasteful a set of music that you’ll ever have the pleasure to listen to.
Recommended

Quantum of Solace:
I can never remember the name of the previous James Bond movie, let alone what the story was about. But they are always entertaining. This one keeps the string going.
Recommended

The Wrestler:
Mickey Rourke is the perfect choice to play the down and out wrestler who’s quickly reaching the end of the line- in both his career and his personal life. Lots of hand held camera work and dim lighting help give the film the rough feeling needed to match the turbulent story.
Recommended

I.O.U. S. A.:
This was VERY disappointing. The documentary lists numbers and figures about government spending excess that only the clueless and completely ignorant have no knowledge. The rest of the film is nothing but a promo piece for David Walker and those impotent hacks known as the “Concord Coalition" who have prowled around Washington, kissing the boots of politi-gangsters for nearly three decades, while pleading that these bandits suddenly become responsible managers of the “people’s” money. The filmmakers try to convince the viewer that statist solutions can be found for state-caused problems, that the incompetent and irresponsible morons that created the problem can be enlightened enough to solve it. Please, spare me! Finally, how can you take seriously a film that lists Alan Greenspan and Warren Buffet as “leading economic experts?”
NOT recommended

Nothing But The Truth:
Drama that follows a reporter imprisoned by the US Government when she won’t reveal her source- a source that revealed the identity of a covert CIA agent. Watch how the state bullies and cages people to protect its crimes and dirty secrets.
Recommended

Frost/Nixon:
Captivating recreation of the drama surrounding the David Frost interviews of Richard Nixon in 1977. Accurately billed as an “intellectual boxing match,” the movie never tires and the viewer’s interest never withered.
Recommended

Speaking Freely- Chalmers Johnson:
A nice, concise 52 minute lesson in US imperialism, colonialism, militarism, blowback, and the impending demise and bankruptcy of the American Empire.
Recommended

The Blinding Fog of War

The lies continue. After the fog of another Memorial Day has cleared, when death, destruction and suffering is glorified and rationalized, two supreme lies remain in the public sphere:

Lie #1: The dead men and women, whose graves you stand over, died for your freedom.

These folks did not die for your freedom- they died to maintain the power of the US government over its subjects and to project its power towards other governments that don’t follow it’s hegemonic direction. No one now in the gun sights of the US military is any direct threat to you or me. They are merely individuals brave enough to stand up against a rogue, power mad government intent on world domination. They are conveniently created “enemies” to keep the native populace alarmed and motivated. They are manufactured diversions to distract you from the reality that the US government, itself, is the true, genuine threat to your freedom.

Lie #2: War is sometimes necessary to defend those freedoms and we should feel fortunate that these men and women were willing to die for them.

War is the ultimate human failure. War (particularly, aggressive war) means all reason, composure, diplomacy and common sense have been rejected on the bet that killing and destruction will create the desired result.

The fact is that war cannot occur without willing participants. As I have often said, tyrants without armies are impotent. And each war results in less freedom, not more or the same. Only when individuals give up their humanity and principles to kill for the king can the obscene drama of war begin. Only when the state witnesses the fact that individuals are willing to surrender their benevolence and decency to fight, kill and die whenever ordered can the state feel confident to attack still more liberties that individuals hold dear.

I have no problem with people taking a day to remember family and friends slaughtered by the beast of war. What bothers me is the patriotic adornment, state glorification and celebration that accompanies a day better spent in quiet reflection, grieving and repentance. Do not extol their deaths as brave sacrifices but rather ponder the lessons learned from their tragic mistakes. Do not preach the bloody, slavish, civic religion of Capitol Hill but rather meditate on the timeless, always-relevant wisdom of the Sermon on the Mount.

Feeding the empire with your life and surrendered freedom will only bring tyranny; a tyranny that may be impossible to overcome.

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:

“In our book, great men don't really exist. They are merely invented by the historians.”

Bill Bonner

“It is pastors who ought to be teaching and warning their congregations about what is wrong with the U.S. empire, the U.S. military, the CIA, U.S. wars, and U.S. foreign policy. Instead, we have pastors that lead their congregations to pledge to the flag, sing praise to the state on every national holiday, and honor the U.S. war machine on special military appreciation days.”
Laurence Vance

“I'll put it to you this way: You give me a waterboard, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I'll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders.”
Jesse Ventura, on the ineffectiveness (let alone the immorality) of torture.

“The change that we are witnessing is in Obama, not in policies. Obama is morphing into Dick Cheney.”
Paul Craig Roberts

"Every political system is nothing more than a mechanism that allows some to benefit at the expense of the many through violent takings of property.... Politics is unthinkable without property trespasses and takings."
Butler Shaffer

“As you look through history, it seems like governments become emboldened by their failures.”
Gerald Celente

“In short, our government exhibits no fear of socialism/fascism. It only fears those who would hold it accountable to the Constitution and rule of law.”
Michael Gaddy

“To kill someone for defending themselves against aggression is the definition of tyrannical is it not? Or is the U.S. Government so holy, so infallible and morally upright that any who defy it are to be disposed of, like so much human garbage? Is a country that claims to be Christian really ready to accept the blasphemous idea that the U.S. Government is above any laws, even those of the God that the majority of Americans claim to believe in?”
Dan Spielberg

“I can’t see one legitimate reason to respond to the census – in 2010, or ever. The government admits that it largely uses the data to determine where and what kinds of federal subsidy revenues to send out, and I for one do not wish to help them accomplish this task. I don’t wish to help them accomplish anything, in fact, except total self-immolation. I just want to try and be somewhere nondescript and out of the way when it happens. I have no desire to go up with them."
Alex R Knight III

“The lesson to be learned from the financial crisis that began in the summer of 2007, is that nothing succeeds like failure. The greater their failure, the bolder they become. The more they lose, the more they take. The greater the chaos, the more control they exact. The bigger they fail, the harder we fall.
No act is too unthinkable or measure too draconian for the Washington–Wall Street Mob to concoct in order to maintain power, make money and cover their losses. While it is impossible to second-guess what the government will do next, it is absolutely certain that they will stop at nothing.”
Gerald Celente

From the Darkness:

“I don't think we should just roll over when the new administration ... accuses us of committing torture, which we did not, or somehow violating the law, which we did not."
Dick Cheney

"This is the best way to protect our country, while upholding our deeply held values."
Mater Obama, upon his decision to revive military trials for some Guantanamo Bay detainees.

"To the very end of our administration, we kept al-Qaeda terrorists busy with other problems. We focused on getting their secrets instead of sharing ours with them. And on our watch, they never hit this country again.
It is not a record to be rebuked and scorned, much less criminalized. It is a record to be continued until the danger has passed."
Dick Cheney [Always- be afraid. Be very afraid.]

"To call this a program of torture is to libel the dedicated professionals who have saved American lives, and to cast terrorists and murderers as innocent victims. What's more, to completely rule out enhanced interrogation methods in the future is unwise in the extreme. It is recklessness cloaked in righteousness, and it would make the American people less safe."
Dick Cheney, defending his perversities.

"Although it seems unthinkable now, future wars may require censorship, news blackouts, and, ultimately, military attacks on the partisan media. Perceiving themselves as superior beings, journalists have positioned themselves as protected-species combatants. But freedom of the press stops when its abuse kills our soldiers and strengthens our enemies. Such a view arouses disdain today, but a media establishment that has forgotten any sense of sober patriotism may find that it has become tomorrow’s conventional wisdom.
The point of all this is simple: Win. In warfare, nothing else matters. If you cannot win clean, win dirty. But win. Our victories are ultimately in humanity’s interests, while our failures nourish monsters."
From a new report from the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, authored by retired U.S. Army Col. Ralph Peters.

"We've got a lot of people there who we should have tried early, but we didn't. In some cases, evidence against them has been compromised. They may be dangerous, in which case we can't release them. And so, finding how to deal with that I think is going to be one of our biggest problems.”
Master Obama, discussing the Guantanamo prisoners. [It just may be that the evidence was “compromised” because it was total B.S. to begin with. How can they be classified as “dangerous” when there is NO evidence proving that they are?]

“America, look at these young men and women. Look at these Sailors and Marines. Here are the values we cherish. Here are the ideals that endure.”
Big Chief Obama, gushing over his latest additions of cannon fodder.

“After an era when so many institutions and individuals acted with such greed and recklessness, it is no wonder that our military remains the most trusted institution in the nation.”
The Audacious One [Trusted to do what, exactly- bankrupt us and create more enemies to kill us?]

"We have to do it this year. Not next year. This year. The clock is ticking, because Mother Nature does not do bailouts."
Al Gore, hysterically pushing still more anti-carbon, anti-life legislation.

Image Review of the Week

"It is not wisdom but Authority that makes a law."
Thomas Hobbes



Saviors are crowned...



....and immortalized:


Try your hand at politics, but prepare to get them dirty and bloody:



"Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls."
Joseph Campbell



Republicans look to clean up their image....



....and get the public’s attention:



Goin’ to college? Take a gun:



Even committed Soviets don’t like American Bolsheviks:



Always ready- armed and medicated:



"The essence of government is control,....



....or the attempt to control"
Benjamin Tucker



Johnny Law is forever on the lookout....



....and sometimes likes what he sees:



Running out of places to invade? Coney Island is assaulted:


Abe just won’t let us go:


Crusaders have other appetites besides blood and booty:

"The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Remember the lies and liars that killed them:

Image Review of the Week

Go: noun - To move from a place to another that is further away:



More pork (excuse me, stimulus) is on the way:



Havin’ a good laugh- at our expense:




Dick Cheney play things:



Do you tire of the phony gang battles?

Carbon capture is our future:

"Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known." Oscar Wilde

For some people, you just have to spell it out:

Tree huggers, beware:

"Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it."

Thomas Jefferson

Tsk, tsk….A successful crusader needs to have his back(side) covered:



Mama Obama is tickled about killing school kids:

Commencement at the dumb-ass factory:

Joltin’ Joe reminds the youngsters to avoid debt:

"The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it."

Thomas Jefferson

Defense on a tight budget: