Local Pundit’s Message to the Masses- Submit!

During the most recent uproar about TSA abuses against airline travelers, an appreciable amount of commentary space on mainstream tabloids was dedicated to discussion of this controversy. Most authors, of course, followed the usual, dutiful role as state apologist and defender. I don’t usually pay any attention to the local columnists writing for the Dallas Morning Ooze but a particular title caught my eye during by daily headline scan: “TSA's invasive airport screenings don't guarantee safety,” by Jacquielynn Floyd. Is there actually dissension among the ranks, I asked myself? Is Ms. Floyd one of those extremely rare writers who stands up for truth, armed with the facts?

After reading Ms Floyd’s thoughts, I realized her column’s title and ensuing text was merely a tease. Within the body of her commentary she accurately describes the unlawful and immoral aggression by TSA agents against individual travelers and her rightful disgust with such activity. However, the opening and closing statements of her column express the predictable and re-occurring theme seen within all statist commentary- obedience:

“If I want to fly – and I do – I will submit.”

“But rules are rules. Assume the position.”

In other words, forget all peaceful acts of resistance you may have in mind. Abandon any plans including determined, unbending battles to challenge and eliminate such abominable “security” procedures. Yes, these procedures are despicable, objectionable and don’t increase my safety one iota. But our rulers are ultimately in control, surrender is inevitable, and resistance is futile.

This bring us to another local commentary, this by a local TV anchor-puppet by the name of John McCaa who gives us his video commentary, "Why pat downs and scan are necessary." . Mr. McCaa wastes no time making a fool of himself, immediately stating, “We’ve sent a bad message to out troops in the field the last few weeks.” He’s referring, of course, to all those ungrateful boobs who have objected to being groped and sexually molested by state agents at the airport. The implication is that voicing objections is the equivalent, treasonous action of not “supporting the troops.” He then articulates the usual glorification and admiration of “our” brave soldiers, killing disobedient brown people on the other side of the world “to make sure you and I are safe.” He seems to place a large emphasis on describing the troops as “our troops” as if the national collective has some claim of ownership or control over their activities. Mr. McCaa makes a mild admission that these security measures may not be “proper” but then predicts the evil doer’s “luck will change” sometime in the near future and all us misfits and complainers will forget our objections. Not likely.

Mr. McCaa then once again brings up “our troops still under fire” (with no mention, of course. why- they’re aggressively invading and occupying other’s property) and appeals to our collective sensibility by suggesting we “think of what’s being asked of us.” Being asked by whom, Mr. McCaa- our state masters? You mean those same self-proclaimed rulers who lie, steal, torture, and murder at will around the world and even here in the “homeland?” Those same gangsters, elected by majority mob, who thereby claim to “represent” me? Besides, the last time I looked, no one was “asking” me or others to submit to such security theater and abuse- we were ordered! Any objection or rightful resistance means not flying or being caged. State monopolies enforced by violence never have to “ask” anything!

Writers, such as Ms. Floyd and Mr. McCaa both work for the large media conglomerate, Belo Corp. Such companies are highly regulated by the state (either by law or by limiting access to authority) and thus really have no credibility concerning opinions involving state intervention in people’s lives. They may tantalize and bait us here and there (as does Ms Floyd) with thoughts similar or paralleling our own but it’s just a ruse to stay relevant and desperately keep their steadily decreasing readers and viewers. Most likely they will blatantly and without hesitation repeat the state order of obedience to state mandates (no matter how unreasonable or ineffective) and unbending allegiance to the armed assassins who enforce such servility (as Mr. McCaa).

Ultimately, they know who controls their livelihoods and controls your life. So, shut up and assume the position.

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:
"Ideas are the motive power of human progress, the force which shapes the world. Ideas are more powerful than armies, because it was ideas which caused the armies to be raised
Morris & Linda Tannehill

“Government employees think they are an elite class; above everyone else. Their wishes and opinions become 'law', while ours, if acted upon, are crimes.”
Kent McManigal

“As long as the American people continue to believe that their most formidable enemies are distant foreign terrorists rather than their own governments -- federal, state, local -- they will continue to lose their freedom and their wealth to the very entities they so wrongly believe exist to protect them.”
Brutus

“Historically, criminality implied intent and required at least one victim. Today, however, crimes are whatever politicians and bureaucrats say they are. The law should deal with actions, not hypothetical situations, probabilities, or the mere potential to harm someone.”
Trevor Bothwell

“In reality the state is nothing more than a group of men and women that force everyone else to buy services from them. So even if the document that they claim is the foundation of their law, the constitution, does not give them permission to do this, so what? Why should they care? They have a monopoly on interpreting and applying the constitution. No one else gets to do this. So as you would predict given this situation, they have been interpreting it in favor of themselves for years, if not outright ignoring it. It really is an irrelevant document. A 250 year old parchment is not going to stop bullets.”
Michael P.

“When people say ‘God bless America’ or ‘God bless our troops,’ aren't they really trying to cast a spell? Do they really believe words can change reality? Or that a bumper sticker that reads, ‘Support our troops’ is nothing more than a talisman (‘A trinket or piece of jewelry thought to be a protection against evil')? Isn't this exactly what magic is? The belief that mere words, in the correct incantation, can alter reality to suit your tastes?”
Bob Wallace

“The gravest threats to their security that Americans face are domestic. They come from government. Government is strongly institutionalized. It is in place. It is everywhere. Government communicates to the public. Its speech invariably gets publicity. Government still commands a significant degree of trust. Government monopolizes certain missions that are crucial to Americans. Consequently its threats to national security are much more serious than any of the threats it purports to fight, including terrorism.”
Michael S. Rozeff

“People often have a hard time believing that the terms 'authoritarian' and 'tyranny' apply to their own government, but that's because those who meekly stay in line and remain unthreatening are never targeted by such forces. The face of authoritarianism and tyranny reveals itself with how it responds to those who meaningfully dissent from and effectively challenge its authority: do they act within the law or solely through the use of unconstrained force?”
Glenn Greenwald

“The world is very complex, with billions of people reacting to each other. It is impossible to predict all of the ramifications of our actions. That’s why moral rules are so important. If we set out to do things 'for the greater good,' believing that the ends justify the means, we may realize to our horror that we have ushered in great evils.”
Bob Murphy

“The culture of war . . . is not like the culture of ordinary peace-time life. It is a culture dominated by fear, blood, and sadism, by irrational actions and preposterous . . . results. It has more relation to science fiction or to absurdist theater than to actual life”
Paul Fussell

“[The] problem is the state, the one institution we allow this peculiar exemption from all of the general, moral assumptions that guide our daily dealings with one another. All ventures into politics are ultimately to prove unavailing at anything but reinforcing the untruths that hold it up.”
David D'Amato

“All politics that exist within the state monopoly are only variations on the question of what sector the wealth will come from and where the surplus that doesn’t go directly to the state apparatus will end up. This has always been the nature of the state. The state must and will continue to confiscate in order to survive.”
Gene DeNardo

“Clandestinism is not the usage of a handful of rogues, it is a formalized practice of an entire class in which a thousand hands spontaneously join. Conspiracy is the normal continuation of normal politics by normal means.”
Carl Ogelsby

“A cursory vetting of the evidence reveals that elected representatives are no more deliberative, nor sapient, nor any less rapacious than the plebeians whose vote they seek. It is understandable, really: the plebeians, theoretically and in fact, are the ultimate judge of all ideas and the source of all power; thus, they demand a representative who excels in nullity and mediocrity in order to best reflect majority opinion. The plebeians demand a mirror, even if it is cracked.”
Stephen Mauzy

“Nobody is born with a mandatory obligation to invisible lines on a map. Our fundamental obligation is to ourselves, our families, and the people that we choose to let into our circles...not to a piece of dirt that's controlled by mob-installed bureaucrats.”
Simon Black

“'Treason’ to and ‘betrayal’ of the state is service to humanity.”
Thomas L. Knapp

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From the Darkness:

"I think the man [Julian Assange] is a high tech terrorist...he's done enormous damage to our country and to our relationships with our allies around the world, and he should be prosecuted."

Sen. Mitch McConnell

“When historians look back at 2008-10, what will puzzle them most, I believe, is the strange triumph of failed ideas. Free-market fundamentalists have been wrong about everything — yet they now dominate the political scene more thoroughly than ever.”
Paul Krugman

"Some years down the pike, we're going to get the real solution, which is going to be a combination of death panels and sales taxes. It's going to be that we're actually going to take Medicare under control, and we're going to have to get some additional revenue, probably from a VAT. But it's not going to happen now."
Paul Krugman, on the future of you heatlth care

“And we intend to follow that up with public hearings and bring some of those in front of a public hearing to explain how they justify the use of federally regulated airwaves to offend people based on who they are -- not using free speech based on what their opinions may be.”
Al Sharpton, calling for the FCC to hold hearings on “what should be standards in regard to race and gender on publicly regulated TV and radio.”

"One myth that's out there is that what we're doing is printing money."
Ben Bernanke

"What I am trying to do in this interview is to make people aware of the fact that the threat is real, the threat is different, the threat is constant."
Attorney General Eric Holder keeping the fear alive.

"It's clear that our policy is going to be to continue to impose pressure on Iran so long as it defies its international obligations."
Stuart Levey, US Treasury, announcing new financial sanctions on Iran's elite military unit and the country's largest shipping company

"I say to all Americans, gay or straight, who want nothing more than to defend this country in uniform, your country needs you, your country wants you, and we will be honored to welcome you into the ranks of the finest military the world has ever known."
B. Obama, after repealing the ban on gay men and women to killon the state’s command [You neglected to add, "Your country owns you."]

"Defeating your own is a form of sophisticated cannibalism.”
Outgoing Sen. Arlen Specter, on the tea party activists who worked to defeat GOP centrists

“Some governments deal with us because they fear us, some because they respect us, most because they need us. We are still essentially, as has been said before, the indispensable nation."
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates [Hubris on parade.]

Rest Easy- The War Criminal is Safe

US nationalists are resting easy in Dallas today after reading of the overnight incident near the residence of brutal war criminal, George W. Bush. It appears a drunken holiday reveler was too enthusiastic in showing off his classic automobile and promptly crashed it into someone’s yard. Some reports says the yard was Bush’s, some say a neighbor’s- the discrepancy to confuse potential terrrrrists, no doubt. We all sighed in relief after being confidently notified by authorities that Bush and his wife are “OK.”

When Bush first moved to this address in a heavily populated area in the heart of north Dallas, I was kind of surprised. Considering his unpopularity, wouldn’t he feel safer, I reasoned, in a more remote and rural area? Then I realized that Bush has adopted a popular protection tactic practiced by his hated “evil doers.” Just as a desperate Iraqi or Afghan insurgent has been known to use human shields to protect himself from enemy fire, Bush has situated himself among a dense, civilian population. Any troubles that find him now become his neighbor’s, as well. I guess The Shrub is more clever than I give him credit for.

We peons are already suffering the economic disruption caused in great part by his massive, expensive, and unending wars of aggression and occupation. Now we get to look forward to sharing in any trouble that comes his way in retirement. So nice of him to share.

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:
“The irony of it is that, even as the government is justifying its unaccountable power based on the stuff it knows that we don’t, it’s simultaneously warning us not to acquire any knowledge it doesn’t want us to have.”
Kevin Carson

"Government does not exist of necessity, but rather by virtue of a tragic, almost comical combination of klutzy, opportunistic terrorism against sitting ducks whom it pretends to shelter, plus our childish phobia of responsibility, praying to be exempted from the hard reality of life on life's terms."
Wolf DeVoon

“When someone asks how much liberty you’re willing to trade for security, you should ask why they assume there is a tradeoff. What we’re purchasing with our liberty, privacy and wealth is not security. It is a society of submission. True security is founded on liberty at home and abroad.”
Darian Worden

“The question that is never asked is: Do I have any right to impose my will on my neighbor, who is doing me no harm? For to ask that simple but penetrating question – and to come to grips with the moral implications of the answer – would cause the ‘conservative’ and ‘liberal' authoritarian alike to suddenly see the blood each have on their hands."
Eric Peters

“In a state where the people are sovereign, state secrets are maintained for one reason and one reason only: to permit certain elements of the state to operate freely without taking into account the will of the other elements of the state. This is why state secrets are intrinsically authoritarian and invariably lead to the loss of human liberty over time.”
Vox Day

“No state regulations and no economic calculus can replace each individual’s plans for his daily needs. The free man is the best man for this job. And there’re no free men without self-ownership.”
Cristian Gherasim

“Even if Americans become convinced that their government is lying to them about something having to do with war, they'll assume that the government is honest in its overall message about war: anything that the U.S. government does that is bad is done to stop something that is worse.”
Anthony Gregory

“To recap 'Obama justice,' if you create an illegal worldwide torture regime, illegally spy on Americans without warrants, abduct people with no legal authority, or invade and destroy another country based on false claims, then you are fully protected. But if you expose any of the evils secretly perpetrated as part of those lawless actions -- by publishing the truth about what was done -- then you are an Evil Criminal who deserves the harshest possible prosecution.”
Glen Greenwald

“The poisonous pedagogy of statism and collectivism has institutionalized the sacrifice of the individual, one’s rights and one’s liberty to serve the collective needs of the community, and to obey the will of the State, the community’s hired guns.”
Scott Lazarowitz

“The leak, in other words, is only the catalyst for the desired counter-overreaction; Wikileaks wants to provoke the conspiracy into turning off its own brain in response to the threat. As it tries to plug its own holes and find the leakers, he reasons, its component elements will de-synchronize from and turn against each other, de-link from the central processing network, and come undone. Even if all the elements of the conspiracy still exist, in this sense, depriving themselves of a vigorous flow of information to connect them all together as a conspiracy prevents them from acting as a conspiracy.”
Julian Assange

“It has been said that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. But such vigilance is a constant non-productive expenditure of energy, and it is grossly unreasonable to expect men to keep expending their energy non-productively out of ‘unselfish idealism.’ There is no area of the free market which requires the constant vigilance of the entire population to keep it from going awry.”
Morris & Linda Tannehill

“Stop playing by everyone else's rules. Refuse to be enslaved by the idea that it's your civic and moral responsibility to pay off the debts of your government's failures. Cast off the yoke of their control... and summon the courage to live a life by your own design.”
Simon Black

“If publishing is a crime, your editor is in trouble. If publishing 'sensitive' documents that make US officials look like fools is a crime, we're all in trouble.”
Bill Bonner

"You've got to stop this war in Afghanistan."
Richard Holbrooke, US diplomat, immediately before entering surgery he did not survive

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From the Darkness:

“New media has empowered citizens around the world to report on their circumstances, express opinions on world events, and exchange information in environments sometimes hostile to such exercises of individuals’ right to freedom of expression. At the same time, we are concerned about the determination of some governments to censor and silence individuals, and to restrict the free flow of information. We mark events such as World Press Freedom Day in the context of our enduring commitment to support and expand press freedom and the free flow of information in this digital age.”

From a US State Dept. press release , announcing that it will host UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day event in 2011

“At this point, we are beyond indictments and courts. The damage has been done… Kill him.”
Jeffrey T. Kuhner, Washington Times, on Julian Assange

“I'm not advocating that we bring out of retirement the KGB proxy who, on a London street, killed a Bulgarian dissident with a poisoned umbrella tip. But it would be nice if people like [Julian] Assange were made to worry every time they go out in the rain.”
Charles Krauthammer

“In Washington, the view is that the banks are to be regulated, and my view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks.”
Spencer Bachus, Alabama Republican , the incoming chairman of the House banking committee

“Childhood obesity isn’t just a public health threat, it’s not just an economic threat, it’s a national security threat as well."
Michelle Obama [No more a threat than nosey, busy-body women with large, obese butts.]

"The Federal Reserve does not release specific information regarding the borrowings of individual institutions from our lending facilities. The approach is completely consistent with the long-standing practice of central banks."
Ben Bernanke

“I think it's understandable, and I'm very respectful of the feelings of the American people, but the question I would ask is, how do you feel about a continuing American commitment that is aimed at protecting you and your family now and into the future? Because that's the question we've asked, and this is how we've answered it.”
Queen Hillary, responding to a poll showing public disapproval of the Afghanistan war

"We've been taking a lot of heat for what we do. We just put a new face on TSA — I think a positive face."
Ernie Perez, a TSA security supervisor and tenor, commenting on the TSA choir serenading the human livestock at the airport.

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:
“As Ron [Paul] has also long noted, the American State claims the right to know every single thing about us: every dime we earn and spend, every phone call we make or email we send. To track our movements. To know what we are teaching our children. To ascertain our shower head and toilet tank. Now even to see all of you naked or feel you up. And a million and one other insanities, indignities, and outrages. Every single aspect of life is within the State’s jurisdiction, or so it claims.
But for us to know anything about the State, aside from its propaganda, is treason. That is, of course, because the State is a criminal enterprise that depends on our consent. The more we know about its murders, its looting, its lying, the less willing we are to consent, to be good little robots, indeed to worship it as a god, which is always its ultimate ambition.”
Lew Rockwell

“I’m confused. It’s disregard for human life to [WikiLeaks] publish documents naming people who cooperate with invaders and occupiers and in naming them may get them killed, but it isn’t disregarding human life to actually invade and occupy a country, killing people in the process. Could someone please explain the morality to me, because I continue to look at this and the statist view makes utterly no moral sense to me.”
Charles Featherstone

“Ultimately, Wikileaks is about the desire to expose compromising secrets, not about maintaining Websites. And Wikileaks is just one incarnation of that push for transparency — taking the Website, the organization or its leader out of the picture only shifts the action elsewhere.”
J.D. Tuccille

“Let the debtors default and let the capitalists pick up the pieces.”
Eric Fry

“One by one, people will wake up and consider their options. 'Stay and fight' is just a bombastic rallying cry of the institutionalized, not a real option. The fact is, there is no enemy, there is no fight... there is only gradual erosion of freedom and opportunity.”
Simon Black

“Every increased resistance to the empire or any concocted event is going to be played as a threat to the mythical national security and used to enhance control over people so as to dampen any resistance. The new Old Order is not going to give up without a struggle. Trash it in your minds. Think of it as trash, as rubbish, which it is. It trashes everything it touches. And think of the people unalterably in it and who unwaveringly support it and have every intent to extend it further as trash for being the liars, manipulators, hypocrites, thieves, murderers, usurpers, and traitors that they are.”
Michael Rozeff

“Nothing could be more unnatural, indeed incompatible with the natural order, than placing the supposed 'interests' of the amalgam of inanimate objects that we call earth above the inviolable rights of the individual.”
David D'Amato

“Laws and rights are not the same thing. Laws either respect or disrespect rights, but they do not bestow them, because the government is not from whence rights flow, and you cannot bestow that which you do not first possess."
Karl Denninger

“One might worry that these [WikiLeaks provided] leaks could weaken international relations to the point of war. But the fact is... international relations are already at the point of war. And while some obedient citizens may remain loyal to their governments, many others are no longer going to be so eager to fight and die for the interests of their disgraced leaders.”
Anonymous

“If secrecy is necessary for national security and effective diplomacy, it is also inevitable that the prerogative of secrecy will be used to hide the misdeeds of the permanent state and its privileged agents. I suspect that there is no scheme of government oversight that will not eventually come under the indirect control of the generals, spies, and foreign-service officers it is meant to oversee.”
Tom Kirkendall

“Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence. Any man who has once proclaimed violence as his method is inevitably forced to take the lie as his principle.”
Alexander Solzhenitsyn

“For those who can read the writing on the wall, the message is clear: we’re living in a corporate police state. The government has taken on the identity of the corporation, which exists to make money and amass power – not protect freedoms.”
John W. Whitehead

“We have a trans-political ideology; it is not right, it is not left, it is about understanding. Before you can give any advice, any program about how to deal with the world, how to put the civil into civilization. How to gain influence on people. Before you can have that program, first you have to understand what is actually going on. How does the world actually work. How do human civilisation and institutions actually work. What are they doing? Because, any remedy must be based on what is actually happening in practice. Because, if it is not based on what is actually happening it is based on some kind of fantasy. And therefore any program or recommendation, any political ideology that comes out of that misunderstanding will itself be a misunderstanding.
So, we say, to some degree all political ideologies are currently bankrupt. Because they do not have the raw ingredient they need to address the world. The raw ingredient to understand what is actually happening."
Julian Assange

“Democracy is the legitimizing story for modern government. But government actually suppresses democracy by ruling over people and using its control of information to mislead the public. The success of WikiLeaks in dispersing the power of knowledge among the broader population damages the ruling class’s ability to prevent people from making informed decisions.”
Darian Worden

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From the Darkness:

“We have to reinforce the authority of the public authority. It is on the authority of the public authority that we can continue the resistance to an environment which is very demanding and will continue to be demanding for a period of time.”

Jean Clude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank, hinting the ECB might launch a European-style quantitative easing program.

“Given the total, absolute, and final disappearance of Homo Sapiens, not only would the Earth’s community of life continue to exist, but in all probability, its well-being would be enhanced. Our presence, in short, is not needed. And if we were to take the standpoint of that Life Community and give voice to its true interests, the ending of the human epoch on Earth would most likely be greeted with a hearty ‘Good riddance!’”
Paul Taylor, philosopher and environmentalist in his, Respect for Nature: A Theory of Environmental Ethics

“Human happiness, and certainly human fecundity, are not as important as a wild and healthy planet. … [The ecosystem has] intrinsic value, more value to me than another human body or a billion of them. … Until such time as Homo Sapiens should decide to rejoin nature, some of us can only hope for the right virus to come along.”
David Grabe, biologist

"I think the man is a high-tech terrorist."
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, on Julian Aassange

"He should be treated as an enemy combatant."
New Gingrich, on Julian Aassange

“The people who are leaking these documents need to do a gut check about their patriotism.”
Sen. Claire McCaskill on WikiLeaks [ You're right, sweetheart.  Patriotism doesn't come from the brain, but from the gut, the colon and the anus.]

“Our sources are bravely risking their lives when they stand up against the tyranny of al Qaeda, the Taliban and murderous regimes, and I simply will not stand idly by as they become death targets because of Julian Assange. Let me be very clear, WikiLeaks is not a whistleblower website and Assange is not a journalist.”
Sen. John Ensign

"We haven’t got into the specific areas of where we’re looking because we don’t want to provide a road map to the bad guys as to what we’re looking (at) and where we’re looking. But I can tell you, we’re not touching genitals.”
Nico Melendez, TSA apologist

"National security of the United States has been put at risk.  The lives of people who work for the American people have been put at risk. The American people themselves have been put at risk by these actions that I believe are arrogant, misguided and ultimately not helpful in any way."
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, whining about WikiLeaks

“I certainly believe WikiLeaks has violated The Espionage Act. The New York Times has committed at least an act of bad citizenship. Whether they've committed a crime, I think that bears very intensive inquiry by the Justice Department.”
Joe Lieberman

"I will go back convinced that our strategy is working. The bottom line is that over the last 12 months we've come a long way. . . . There is no denying that the security climate is improving and that the sacrifices of Afghan and coalition troops are achieving greater safety and security."
Robert Gates ["Waist deep in the big muddy, the big fool says to push on."]

“Americans rightly lack an imperial mentality. But lessening our engagement with the world would have devastating consequences for humanity. The disruptions we witness today are but a taste of what is to come should our country flinch from its international responsibilities.”
Robert D. Kaplan

"Texas is the only state that is grandstanding about abstract concepts of federal intrusion and not taking care of its industries."
David Doniger, an attorney and policy director for the National Resources Defense Council's Climate Center, after a federal appeals court denied Texas' request to halt nationwide greenhouse-gas regulations

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:
“The essence of all things political is force. The state has no power but that which it has taken from the people through brute force or deceit. In entrusting the protection of one's person to bureaucrats, one must first surrender the responsibility that one has to protect himself from harm. The instinct of self preservation is quite common in the animal kingdom, but to modern man, it has become an inconvenience to be shrugged off and handed over to the nanny state. In my humble opinion, anyone with so little self respect deserves whatever misery they invite upon themselves.”
Cal Bittersmore

“Al Qaeda didn’t hijack those planes because Osama bin Laden got an undercooked hamburger at a fast food joint, or because some big box chain store sold him a defective lawn chair.
They hijacked those planes by way of attempting to blackmail powerful politicians into doing things they don’t want to do by scaring their constituents into demanding it. Take the power away from the politicians and the tactic goes away with it.”
Thomas L. Knapp

“Instead of regarding torture as aberrant within the statist social configuration, a deviation from an otherwise open society of laws, we ought to acknowledge it as the inevitable denouement of a system that, across the board, takes violence as its means. For every problem faced by human beings, without exception, coercion is the state’s proposed solution; individuals are treated as disposable.”
David D'Amato

“History’s most important lesson is that it has not been possible to make coercion compatible with truth.”
Yale law professor John H. Langbein

“Scratch a ‘progressive’ and you find a neocon with sandals. The attacks on the Judge [Andrew Napolitano] tell you all you need to know: they prefer the neocons to a consistent advocate of liberty. They attack the neocons now and again, to be sure, but not in the career-destroying mode they reserve for actual dissidents."
Thomas Woods

“…..Those of us who care about civilization must not become what we seek to oppose. We must not dismiss their humanity as they have been dismissing ours.”
Bretigne Shaffer

“American liberty is measured inversely to the credit rating of the United States government.”
Gary North

“Thanksgiving wasn’t made a national holiday until 1863. Then, it celebrated not the success of the American experiment, but the end of it.”
Bill Bonner

“Soldiers have difficulty with the notion of people, of citizens, of populations, who are mere impediments to the proper management of a swell war. The military longs for mechanized battle in which men in machines destroy other men in other machines, tank against tank, fighter plane against fighter plane, in a spirit of simple-minded adolescentt romanticism. You know, battle-scarred tanks growling across the Algerian desert, against a flaming red sunset burning out to night, desert wind blowing scarves of heroic etc. People don’t figure in this dream, which is why the results are so regularly dismal.”
Fred Reed

“Yet, the fact remains that Government is a human organization, consisting of men who are exactly like the men they serve. That is, they too seek to satisfy their desires with the minimum of exertion, and they too are insatiable in their appetites. In addition to the run-of-the-mill desires that possess all men, Government personnel acquire one peculiar to their occupation: the adulation showered on them because they alone exercise coercion. They are people apart.
The honorifics that stem from the exercise of power arouse a passion for power, particularly with men whose capacities would go quite unnoticed in the marketplace, and the temptation is strong to expand the area of power; the negative function of protection is too confining for men of ambition. The tendency then in the world of officialdom is to assume a capacity for positive functions, to invade the marketplace, to undertake to regulate, control, manage, and manipulate its techniques.”
Frank Chodorov

“To a consistently authoritarian mindset, a neighborhood is a mere administrative unit, not a community where individuals enrich each others’ lives through free association. Municipal authorities must keep everything under control.
State control is not a necessary precondition for social life, but is actually an intrusion into social life that actively cripples the development of free association and autonomy. The goal of safety through submission begins with ceding responsibility to agencies with little accountability, corrodes community in favor of conformity with the posted rules, and ends with life and liberty subjected to the mercy of the powerful.”
Darian Worden

“Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich.”
Peter Ustinov

“Leaking secrets only hurts lying, cheating, sneaking, backstabbing, double-dealing, two-timing hypocrites.
In other words, politicians.”
Garry Reed

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From the Darkness:

“Anytime anyone says anything libertarian, spit on them. Libertarians are by definition enemies of the state…. Like Communists before them, they are actively subverting the Constitution and the American Dream.”

Mark Ames, The Nation

"As long as many of our sons and daughters and husbands and wives are at war, we've got to support their mission and honor their service."
B. Obama, promoting his hired assassins.

"We've got to do it as one people. And in the coming weeks and months, I hope that we can work together, Democrats and Republicans and independents alike, to make progress on these and other issues."
B. Obama, prmoting mob rule as as solution to the country’s economic problems.

“A lot of people fear artificial intelligence. I will stand by my artificial intelligence against your human any day of the week and tell you that my A.I. will pay more attention to the rules of engagement and create fewer ethical lapses than a human force.”
John Arquilla, executive director of the Information Operations Center at the Naval Postgraduate School, promoting the use of military combat robots.

“What is getting in the way of deeper cooperation with the U.S. military is that the Mexican military, political and intellectual leaders, abetted by U.S. intellectuals, still have their heads in the Mexican and American wars for the 19th century and the Cold War of the 20th. They talk of imperialism and hegemony — which are irrelevant today.”
Edward Schumacher-Matos,Washington Post columnist

“To be clear -- such [WikiLeaks] disclosures put at risk our diplomats, intelligence professionals, and people around the world who come to the United States for assistance in promoting democracy and open government."
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs [It looks like the government became much more “open” thanks to WikiLeaks.]

“The latest controversy over Transportation Security Administration body scans and enhanced body pat-downs leaves no doubt: America truly is a nation of whiners.
Yes, I've been through body scans. Yes, I've been patted down, not just at airports, but also covering political events. Yes, I've had to contend with the rare overbearing TSA worker who let the power go to his head. Are these searches intrusive? Sure, but they beat crossing the country in a covered wagon.”
Debra J. Saunders, San Francisco Chronicle

“I don’t know what the [WikiLeaks released] cables may say, but we’re at war. The world is getting dangerous by the day. People who do this are low on the food chain as far as I’m concerned. If you can prosecute them, let’s try.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham

“I do not believe for one second that Iran's nuclear activities are peaceful. Iran is still very much on a path to be able to develop nuclear weapons. We've actually been thinking about military options for a significant period of time. And I've spoken with many others, that we've had options on the table… And we will continue to do that in the future.”
US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen

“This is worse even than a physical attack on Americans, it’s worse than a military attack”
Rep. Peter King, on the latest WikiLeaks release

“The Second World War and the concept of rationing is something we need to seriously consider if we are to address the scale of the [climate change] problem we face.”
Kevin Anderson, Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research

"This [WikiLeaks] disclosure is not just an attack on America’s foreign policy interests. It is an attack on the international community.”
Queen Hillary

"Pentagon spending comes first. Everything else comes second."
U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Dallas, showing his true allegience

"Whoever in our government leaked that [WikiLeaks released] information is guilty of treason, and I think anything less than execution is too kind a penalty.”
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee

State Simpletons Whack Willie

Willie Nelson was arrested for possession of a harmless plant by agents of the US Gestapo. The harassment occurred at a USG checkpoint not far from the border between the territory ruled by the US gang and the territory ruled by the Mexican gang. There was no comment from the arresting jackboots about just who the victim of this dastardly crime might be.

I feel so much safer now that a 77 year old weed smoker has been jailed and relieved of his $2500. There’s no telling what havoc may have ensued down I-10 if those six ounces of harmless plant matter was not confiscated and its human holders temporarily kidnapped and shaken down.

I keep asking this question- Since when does a supposed "free country" have checkpoints? Isn’t this what we see in totalitarian countries that are inferior to the wonderful USA? Isn’t this the type of government oppression that our brave soldier boys give their lives and spend trillions of our stolen dollars to protect us from? Will one of you mouth breathing, boot licking, flag humping, red, white and blue wearing, puritanical, nanny state loving, Constitution worshipping, unbending USG loyalist, bloody nationalistic, fools please answer that question?

Don’t expect these Stalin-esque checkpoints to remain where they are. Expect them to steadily move north into the Heartland of the Homeland. Look for it, now- coming soon to your town!

That progression will surely be speeded up now that the FBI has created its second American car bomber. Muslim extremists have apparently given up or tired of box cutters and underwear bombs and have graduated to exploding the ubiquitous automobile. Now your car will be closely examined at these new checkpoints and if you look the least bit suspicious, I’m sure there will be an eager, willing TSA Molester to forage in and around your underwear, as well.

In Texas, some Austin, politi-gangster, yahoo wants to bring sobriety checkpoints back to the state. I wonder if “sobriety” will also mean willingness to submit with unbending obedience and allegiance to nosey, prying agents of the Texas Sicherheitspolizei?  “This man refuses to be searched, you say? He claims his rights are being violated? He must be crazy drunk!”

I recall first learning of Willie Nelson after reading a glowing review of his just released album, “Red Headed Stranger,” in 1975. I purchased that album and have been a fan ever since. I also became a fan of the man- a man who peacefully lives life as he sees fit, respects the lives and wishes of others, is always willing to help other people, and never says an unkind word about anyone.

Willie, along with Waylon Jennings and others, led the Outlaw movement in country music back in the 1970’s. These artists were considered “outlaw” because they dared to defy the convention and conformity prevalent in that style of music. Willie and others strived to expand the creative reach of this art form while preserving its essential character. They succeeded, created even more fans of country music, and inspired confidence in a multitude of other performers and songwriters to express and maintain their originality and not conform to industry “standards.”

It’s good to see Willie still living life his way (harming no one) and even stickin’ it to the man. May he continue to inspire others to do the same.

UPDATE:
The state gangsters who kidnapped and robbed Willie Nelson have showed their deep compassion by reducing Willie’s “charges.” According to the report, “Instead of charging Nelson with carrying 6 ounces of reefer, a felony that reportedly carries a $10,000 fine and 180 days in the clink, authorities now accuse Nelson of holding just 4 ounces, which has a lesser fine.”

Just as the state claims to miraculously make people’s problems disappear, apparently they can also make two ounces of plant matter disappear. Of course, they can also (and often do) create even more plant matter. I guess Willie is lucky the drug warriors didn’t create a few more pounds of plant matter to increase the fine.

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:
“Our civilization may at the outset have taken its chances with the current of Statism either ignorantly or deliberately; it makes no difference. Natures cares nothing whatever about motive or intention; she cares only for order, and looks to see only that her repugnance to disorder shall be vindicated, and that her concern with the regular orderly sequences of things and actions shall be upheld in the outcome.”
Albert Jay Nock

“The one thing large, bureaucratic organizations are good at is aggregating concentrated power, and then making up plausible-sounding lies to justify that power. It’s generally a good policy, when an official spokesperson for such an organization claims a measure is either safe or effective for the purposes it ostensibly serves, to assume everything they say is a lie.”
Kevin Carson

“The important point to remember is that our views on security are related to our political ideology. Free individuals understand that they themselves are always the first responders to any aggression against their person and property. They understand that no protective service is perfect and they must be prepared to defend themselves, their family, and their property on their own if necessary; they only need the liberty to do so.”
Brutis

“The GOP-dominated element of the Tea Party was produced through the political equivalent of genetic engineering. It is a recombinant political organism that blends facile populist hostility toward 'Big Government' with unqualified support for militarism -- which is Big Government denuded of any humanitarian pretense.”
Will Grigg

“The last thing [TSA head] John Pistole or any other ‘national security’ bureaucrat wants to see, the thing they all fear most, is you taking ‘responsibility’ for your own safety. They want you to leave it to them, they’d rather watch you die than take ‘no’ for an answer, and every time they fail they’ll use their failure as an excuse to double down on their pleas for more authority over you.”
Thomas L. Knapp

“The State always seeks to be omnipotent. It always wants its blue-gloved mitts around our throats (and, apparently, in our pants). It always seeks to be a god, and Moloch has quite a congregation. So we cannot let up the pressure. We have given the regime a hotfoot, but the killipede has many more shoes. We can defeat the State, with all its guns and bombs and germs, by withdrawing our consent. Then we can bring all the boys home, staunch the hate, and copy Switzerland.”
Lew Rockwell

"Here (in America) the daily panorama of human existence, of private and communal folly, the unending procession of governmental extortions and chicaneries, of commercial brigandages and throat slittings, of theological buffoneeries, of aesthetic ribaldries, of legal swindles and harlotries, of miscellaneous rogueries, villanies, imbecilities, grotesqueries, and extravagances is so inordinately gross and preposterous, so perfectly brought up to the highest conceivable amperage, so steadily enriched with an almost fabulous daring and originality, that only a person born with a petrified diaphram can fail to laugh himself to sleep every night and wake up with all the eager, unflagging expectation of a Sunday-School superintendent touring the Paris peep-shows."
H.L. Mencken

“The list of things these human sheep are willing to tolerate in the name of protecting the Newspeak version of freedom -- endless wars, the 'collateral' murder of innocents, torture, domestic surveillance, oppressive taxation, volatile currency, an economy ravaged by parasites, and forced dependence on a massive centrally-controlled infrastructure that monopolizes the provision of the basic necessities of life while remaining comfortably out of popular reach -- is mind boggling. That these things could be conflated with freedom indicates that the majority of the population has gone completely and certifiably insane.”
Cal Bittersmore

“Either people own their own bodies — meaning they have a right to do what they want with their private parts within the framework of non-aggression and private property — or they do not. Prude-bashing should be seen as the hatefulness that it is, and the mass groping of normal Americans is as clear an example of severe sexual intolerance as exists in American history.”
Anthony Gregory

“It amazes me that when Congress created it [the TSA], they somehow found 50,000 people who thought that getting paid to go through fellow citizens' dirty underwear at airports was a good deal.”
Doug Casey

“Think about it. Would a terror organization capable of outwitting all 16 US intelligence agencies, all intelligence agencies of US allies including Israel’s Mossad, the National Security Council, NORAD, air traffic control, the Pentagon, and airport security four times in one hour put its unrivaled prestige at risk with improbable shoe bombs, shampoo bombs, and underwear bombs?
After success in destroying the World Trade Center and blowing up part of the Pentagon, it is an extraordinary comedown to go after a mere airliner. Would a person who gains fame by knocking out the world heavyweight boxing champion make himself a laughing stock by taking lunch money from school boys?”
Paul Craig Roberts

“….Society is a mythical construction. It serves to support the idea of a single government for that single society. That’s what makes it so insidiously dangerous. Finally, the idea that the collective is above the individual person is wrong too. The collective invariably comes right back to an elite few who speak for the group, and that’s nothing more than government again with all its attendant ills.”
Michael S. Rozeff

“If you have ever wondered how a serial murderer -- a murderer who is sane and fully aware of the acts he has committed -- can remain steadfastly convinced of his own moral superiority and show not even the slightest glimmer of remorse, you should not wonder any longer.
The United States government is such a murderer. It conducts its murders in full view of the entire world. It even boasts of them. Our government, and all our leading commentators, still maintain that the end justifies the means -- and that even the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocents is of no moral consequence, provided a sufficient number of people can delude themselves into believing the final result is a ‘success.’”
Arthur Silber

Well-meaning conservatives are unfamiliar with economic logic. They have no understanding of how the free market works. They think they are free market people, but they are ignorant. So, they are easily deceived by leftists and statists who come in the name of the free market, but who want votes to make the state bigger. They get sucked in by rhetoric. Some supposed conservative writer seems so sincere. He must be correct. He says he is in favor of America. He says he is for the little guy.
Gary North

****************************************************************

From the Darkness:
“Molester, pervert, disgusting, an embarrassment, creep. These are all words I have heard today at work describing me, said in my presence as I patted passengers down. These comments are painful and demoralizing, one day is bad enough, but I have to come back tomorrow, the next day and the day after that to keep hearing these comments. If something doesn’t change in the next two weeks I don’t know how much longer I can withstand this taunting. I go home and I cry. I am serving my country, I should not have to go home and cry after a day of honorably serving my country.”
Anonymous TSA agent

“I think we have to use every aspect of law enforcement that we have, including the military. Any means that we can [use] to run these [drug trafficking] people off our border and to save Americans’ lives, we need to be engaged in.”
Texas Governor Rick Perry

"I think you're doing a terrific job."
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, to Head TSA Groper, John Pistole.

"Given the list of threats on subways and rails over the last six years going on seven years, we know that some terrorist groups see rail and subways as being more vulnerable because there's not the type of screening that you find in aviation,. From my perspective, that is an equally important threat area.
I want to take TSA to the next level.”
John Pistole, spreading the fear.

"The United States must also continue to do its part to reinforce Iraq’s progress. That is why we are not disengaging from Iraq -- rather, the nature of our engagement is changing from a military to a civilian lead.
That is why, even at this difficult economic time, we are asking Congress to fulfill our budget requests to support America’s continued engagement, including our broader diplomatic presence, a modernization plan for the Iraqi security forces and financing for a police development program."
Joe Biden, promoting an American-style police state in Iraq.

“Instead of making this Wednesday National Opt-Out Day in which a bunch of self-appointed guardians of liberty slow down the [airport security] line for everyone by asking for pat-downs, maybe what we need is a day when everyone who goes through the line says, ‘Thanks for what you do.’ ”
Stewart Baker, former DHS hack.

“I think we all understand the concerns Americans have. It’s something new. Most Americans are not used to a real law enforcement pat-down like that.”
Janet Napolitano, defending the TSA molesting.

“If you are asking me, am I going to change my policies? No.”
TSA Administrator John Pistole during a Congressional hearing.

"I see flying as a privilege that is a public safety issue."
John Pistole [This boob finds still more ways to make an ass out of himself.]

"We need to explain to the Afghan people why we are here, and both convince them and show them that their future is better with us than the Taliban."
Norine MacDonald, president of The International Council on Security and Development. [Why is "us" better?  Because "us" kills them with more expensive ammunition?]

“I think the tighter we get on aviation, we have to also be thinking now about going on to mass transit or to trains or maritime. So, what do we need to be doing to strengthen our protections there?”
Janet Napolitano, looking for new markets for her TSA molesters.

“One year of bedding down with someone else might expose you to 2 millirems, at least 200 times the dose from an airport scanner.”
From a CBS News article.

“There’s no bright line to indicate where our quest for security becomes intolerably invasive of our privacy, but we’re still pretty sure the TSA hasn’t yet crossed it.”
Editors of the Los Angeles Times  [So, just where is that "line"- 51% up your rectum?]

“In the coming days, millions of Americans will travel to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends. May I pose a novel idea? As we go through the airport screening line, let's stop and say 'thanks' to the men and women of the TSA who give up time with their families during the holidays to keep us safe from terror.”
Marc A. Thiessen, bootlicker with the American Enterprise Institute.

Wife of Local Gangster Robbed

The wife of a Dallas City councilman was robbed while withdrawing cash from an ATM. Like a good, obedient, statist stooge, she had no way to defend herself (even when the assailant showed no weapon), complied with the street gangster’s orders (always comply with a criminal’s orders) and called police (who were busy eating turkey donuts and took 45 minutes to show up). If she’s really lucky the donut eaters will find her robber and lock him in a cage at her (and our) expense. But she will never get her money back.

Ms. Atkins just experienced what all taxpayers ultimately experience. The street robber desires your money and directly puts a gun to your to head to obtain it. The politician (her husband), however, assigns intimidating men dressed in clown suits and shiny badges on their chests to put a gun to your head to obtain the desired cash. Two very slightly different methods to achieve the same result.

Does the money stolen from you do any good? Who knows- there’s no way to calculate. You’d be simply guessing. Does this stolen tax money help others? Well, it certainly helps the robber, be he a street thug or a politician. Should I defend myself against such state sponsored robbery? You can but the enforcers likely have more firepower than you and are able to steal all your property at will. Should I call the police to help protect me against these state robbers? Sorry, but the police work for the robbers.

Taxation is theft. It’s time to grow up, wise up, and face this undeniable reality. This claim is not illogical, it is not obnoxious, it is not inflammatory, it is not extremist. It is fact.

Give Thanks for John Wilkes Booth

I received an email expressing Thanksgiving greetings from a business contact of mine. J.R (I’ll not use his name as to avoid him embarrassment) appears to be a Lincoln cultist, diligently promoting the myth of the “honorable Lincoln.” He offers in his greeting several quotes from Abraham Lincoln, including Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation on Oct. 3, 1863. Says J.R., “I am a fan of Abraham Lincoln and I’ve read several books about this great man. Each time I’m humbled and learn more about myself. I’m also, like many of you, a big fan of Thanksgiving.”

J.R.’s message contains the text of Lincoln’s proclamation in its entirety. I’ll not waste space and bore you with it here. You can look it up if you’ve never read it. Suffice to say that Lincoln, admittedly an excellent wordsmith, rarely believed anything he wrote that could be considered truthful or accurate. Nor did his actions confirm these stated beliefs. Any time studying these actions will prove his statements disingenuous, deceptive, and even outright lies. Personally, I’m as likely to be motivated and inspired by a message from A. Lincoln as I am from the blabbering nonsense of Kim Jong Il.

If J.R. or anyone else enjoys reading books about Lincoln, I highly recommend two by Thomas DiLorenzo, “The Real Lincoln” and “Lincoln Unmasked.” These well researched books (often using Lincoln’s own words) shatter the long standing myth of “Honest Abe,” often proclaimed the most heroic American “leader” in its history.

J.R.’s message concludes, “If only we had Lincoln’s leadership and greatness to help us through our challenges of today.” Yikes! I always cringe when I read or hear that horrid sounding, collective “we.” Yes, “we” should all think of ourselves not as sovereign individuals born with inalienable liberty, but as a homogenous collection of helpless, clueless cattle to be “led” by all-knowing leaders to national collective greatness- or to collective slaughter, whichever comes first.

Lincoln was such a “great leader” that he was willing to sacrifice over 600,000 of his subjects to preserve an abstract, meaningless, political union. I’ll refer to Mr. DiLorenzo to elaborate in more detail;

“…..Lincoln established a French Revolutionary/Stalinist-style regime that imprisoned tens of thousands of Northern political dissenters, employed an army of spies and informers (on Northern citizens), shut down hundreds of opposition newspapers, illegally suspended habeas corpus, deported an outspoken member of the opposition party, confiscated firearms, illegally created the state of West Virginia, censored all telegraph communication, and myriad other assaults on the Constitution, including waging war on his own country after promising to defend the lives and liberties of the very people he was waging war on.”

And this is just a smattering of the crimes initiated and executed by one of the worst political tyrants in world history. Lincoln’s tyrannical rein set the foundation for the centralized, fascist, thieving, police state that we now suffer under. And for this I should be “thankful?”

Not bloody likely!

No Owls Allowed in ‘God’s’ House

It seems that a family of barn owls have taken up residence in a local church. Church “leaders” want the owls moved. They complained that the owls were “swooping down on people.” A wildlife expert was called in and claimed the owls to be “federally protected.”

First off, as a firm believer in property rights, the church has the inherent right to dispose of the owls as they wish. I’m certain no one wishes to kill them, but moving them would certainly be reasonable. No level of state busybodies has any legitimate authority to tell or order how the church manages the problem.

That said, I find it sadly comical, that such wonderful representations of God’s creation are rejected for such a minor inconvenience. What a grand opportunity for church goers to directly observe and experience such an intriguing creature. Yes, rats and roaches are God’s creation as well, but they can be easily controlled and don’t offer the unique, rare opportunity the owls offer.

Being “swooped” down upon by an owl seems likes a nice break from the typical sterile, suburban life experience, not to mention the plastic, choreographed “worship experience” that occurs within the church’s walls. Just one glimpse of these owls flying must provide more spiritual value than any large, climate controlled, Sunday morning worship extravaganza sporting sophisticated light shows and amplified music.

Some years back I quit going to any Sunday services. Instead I would take long, brisk walks through a 400 acre park I lived near. During the walk, my mind clear of any artificial distractions, I would meditate on a variety of subjects. Just one morning out there, filling my lungs with fresh air, feeling the warm sun on my neck, and viewing and listening to the wonders of creation gave me more spiritual awareness, inspiration, and even enlightenment than a year’s worth of church services. I know some prefer a bricks and mortar church service for the experience of communal worship. This never appealed to me, though I surely tried to appreciate such an experience. I just got nothing from it. What better way to appreciate and glorify God’s creation, I thought, than to spend time out experiencing it. No, I don’t worship that creation as a pagan would, but I do gather much inspiration from it. My mind was also crystal clear, free, and fertile to work out life’s problems and mysteries.

Church institutions and church buildings are artificial constructs that have no relation to the reality of Creation. They are mere decoration. These glorious owls represent reality, the flesh and blood creation displaying the magnificent miracle of life.

Go to any church service and what do you get- a self-professed gate keeper who claims to “understand” the words of Christ and the ability to “interpret” his words. I’m sorry but I can read quite well, and can certainly understand the wisdom and clear message His words proclaim. Those who “interpret” tend to interject their own philosophies to serve their own agendas. Even Paul, a member of the first generation church, was guilty of this.

Certainly, the noise and actions of God’s beautiful creatures are much more interesting and inspiring than the nonsense and blather that emanates from the pulpit.

Go Ahead, TSA, Make My Day!

I think I’m probably the last blogger to post something about the TSA’s recent grope-athon and molestation madness directed at the victimized flying public. I haven’t flown in ten years and refused to fly post-911 if it meant submitting to the relatively mundane (as compared to now) “security enhancements.” Just a simple bag search and being treated as a criminal was, and still is, totally unacceptable to me. I’m just amazed it has taken others this long, and having to suffer this degree of madness, to finally speak out and take action.

While reading numerous accounts of security brutality a couple ideas on how to respond developed in my head. I began to think those ideas might be quite original until this gentlemen stole my thunder.

The initial response to any state sponsored foolishness is to use reason and common sense to convince the self-proclaimed powers-that-be that their actions and policies are unreasonable, ineffective, and even outright insane.  Failing that (which is often the case), the next plan of action should include directly demonstrating the ridiculousness of the activity. That is, illustrate absurdity by being absurd. You achieve this by making fun of the state’s actions through peaceful, equally absurd actions.

Mr. Wolanyk simply took the TSA’s search to the next, succeeding level- the strip search. Why bother with the cagey hand searches, feeling around your body’s perimeter, when simply dropping trou’ will expose any illegal, unacceptable irregularities? After all, that is the TSA’s aim, is it not- to expose and uncover any shielding of any dangerous component, not naturally a part of your body? Why waste the time and discomfort (for both parties) with hand searches or the millions of stolen dollars spent on naked body scanners? Take the quick, low tech, time saving, inexpensive approach and get nekid!

Mr. Wolanyk seems to retain a very competent lawyer, considering his past success in dealing with LEO lamebrains. Most certainly, counsel could successfully argue that his client merely wanted to cooperate and assist the TSA’s “mission” in the most expeditious and efficient way possible.

Another thought comes to mind is why should only male TSA agents inspect male passengers and female TSA agents inspect females? Isn’t this discrimination? Since I’ve chosen to “opt out” being irradiated by the dreaded porno scanner, do I also have the option of choosing what sex my molester will be? If not, why? What if I argued that I’m really a woman trapped inside a man’s body? Would they buy it? Would they legally be required to accept and accommodate my peculiarity? Just speaking for myself, a homely, middle aged bachelor, being caressed and probed by a female would be a much less traumatizing experience and might even be stimulating and memorable. Even having my “junk” “handled” by a typical, plain looking, unalluring, female, federal employee would be less upsetting than being probed by some blue gloved, hairy nosed, coffee reeking, Nancy Boy wannabe. Just the thought of such an experience makes me retch!

If disrobing is just too extreme a response, how about arriving to the search line wearing no underwear? This should bring some interesting feedback and facial expressions from your assigned molester. You can add to their discomfort by emitting soft, agreeable cooing sounds during the course of the molestation. That might just be enough to cause the depraved, tax eating hack to immediately resign his phony job in understandable disgust. Quite possibly, his threshold of shame and repugnance will have been exceeded.

There are always ways to sidestep tyranny and humiliate your oppressors. All it takes is a bit of courage, a dose of creativity, and just a pinch of psychological knowledge. In the end, you may help free yourself and others from state sponsored cruelty and injustice. You may even help state terrorists realize the error of their ways. And you may even have some fun along the way. I realize the probable serious consequences that may result from such fun, but what the heck. Why not have a good laugh before they slam the gate at your gulag.

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:
"The state itself is a continuing war on humanity, reincarnated in every year, in every moment, since the first conscienceless gang of muggers decided it suited them to set a conflagration to fruitful, voluntary society. To extinguish that fire, we must denounce aggression in all of its forms, not just when darker-skinned people in strange garb lash out against American military colonization."
David D'Amato

“There has never been a time when the so-called ‘Left’ party in our two-party system represented a genuine alternative to the ruling class. Always, at all times, it has represented the ‘liberal’ wing of the ruling class. The state, by its nature, cannot be controlled by a majority; it’s an instrument by which a ruling class extracts wealth from the producing majority.”
Kevin Carson

“The average man’s mental horizons are extremely limited, not only in America but also throughout the globe and throughout recorded time. In his political knowledge, opinions, and behavior the average American is for the most part an ignorant savage, so when he sticks his nose into the democratic process he displays much in common with his contemporaries around the globe.”
CJ Maloney

“Quantitative easing is ‘just monetary policy’ like pornography is ‘just cinema.’ QE and pornography both utilize the conventions of mainstream activities in order to conduct and legitimize questionable activities. Chairman Bernanke considers quantitative easing to be an oeuvre d'art - a monetary masterpiece. But to most of the outside world, QE looks like nothing more than monetary porn.”
Eric Fry

“The more freedom the average man has, the more productive he is and the richer we all are for it. Intellectuals and politicians are fundamentally different, because they get richer and more powerful to exactly the same extent that the average man is less free. There is no hope for economic recovery unless we get these intellectual and political parasites off our backs by recognizing the profound role of the average man in creating wealth, and the abject immorality of the intellectuals and politicians who strangulate him.”
Mark R. Crovelli

“Political establishments always favor the ‘status quo’ over ‘change’ because they are the status quo. Any appearance of change that goes beyond tinkering with details and introducing more fundamental questioning of existing arrangements, will be co-opted by the ruling forces and directed toward their ends. In this way, the owners reinforce the popular illusion that the subjects can control the system.”
Butler Shaffer

“One may put it in a word that while government is by its nature concerned with the administration of justice, the State is by its nature concerned with the administration of law- law, which the State itself manufactures for the service of its own primary ends. Therefore an appeal to the State, based on the ground of justice, is futile in any circumstances, for whatever the action the State might take in response to it would be conditioned by the State’s own paramount interest, and would hence be bound to result as we see such action invariably resulting, in as great injustice as that which it pretends to correct, or as a rule, greater.”
Albert Jay Nock

“…..A violation of a person's intrinsic, God bestowed human dignity and transcendent value is evil regardless of how normalized it has become, how culturally acceptable it has become, how 'holy' it has become or how legal it has become.”
Fr. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy

“Yes, any individual may decide to break the natural law in his interactions with other human beings, but the statistical insignificance of a single violation does not in itself doom the human race. But when social institutions are implemented which violate natural law, and when an appreciable percentage of the human race begins to more flagrantly violate natural law in their everyday existence, then the social order—the human-to-human cooperation that is the foundation of continued human existence—is endangered.”
Tzo

*********************************************************************

From the Darkness:

“You should be prepared to stand with the president against Iran’s nuclear aspirations using whatever means necessary to ensure the mullahs in Tehran do not get their hands on nuclear weapons. And you can stand with the Iranian people who oppose the tyrannical rule of the clerics and concretely support their efforts to win their freedom – even if the president does not.
You need to say no to cutting the necessities in our defense budget when we are engaged in two wars and face so many threats – from Islamic extremists to a nuclear Iran to a rising China
You can stand with allies like Israel, not criticize them.”
Sarah Palin, in an “open letter” to Republican freshman representatives.

“In a time of war—and that’s what we’re in with Muslim jihadists—you have to do things you would not ordinarily do. For example, Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War. So to waterboard three high-ranking terror suspects in order to get valuable information that likely saved thousands of lives seems to be logical and responsible unless you live in a theoretical world where feeling noble is the ultimate objective.”
Bill O’Reilly

“AIT [Advance Imaging Technology] machines are safe, efficient, and protect passenger privacy. They have been independently evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, who have all affirmed their safety.”
Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano

“If this country ever wants to be energy independent, if we ever want to stop sending our monies to the terrorists who want to take our freedoms away and kill us, we’ve got to wean ourselves off all this foreign oil. We’ve got to make this decision: do you want to stop sending your money to terrorists and have terrorists come here, or do you not?”
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg

"I'm wildly excited that I can walk through a [TSA naked body scanner] machine instead of getting my dose of love pats.”
Sen. Claire McCaskill

“There’s a little bug inside of me which wants to get the FCC to say to FOX and to MSNBC: ‘Out. Off. End. Goodbye.’ It would be a big favor to political discourse; our ability to do our work here in Congress, and to the American people, to be able to talk with each other and have some faith in their government and more importantly, in their future.”
Sen. Jay Rockefeller
 
“I am very sensitive to and concerned about people’s privacy concerns and I want to work through that as best we can."
John Pistole, TSA Chief Molester

"In taking that action, [counterfeiting $600 billion new dollars] the Committee seeks to support the economic recovery, promote a faster pace of job creation, and reduce the risk of a further decline in inflation that would prove damaging to the recovery."
Ben Bernanke, admitting the Fed causes and promotes inflation.

"Striking the right balance is what this is about. And I am absolutely confident that our security experts are gonna keep trying to get it better and less intrusive and more precise."
Queen Hillary, expressing her faith in the TSA thugs.

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:
"One can no more advance liberty through violence than he can regain sobriety by embracing an alternative brand of alcohol. The state is a system that enjoys a monopoly on the use of violence. It is no answer to this destructive menace to introduce a competitor who employs the same means and seeks the same ends, namely, to construct society on the principle of the power to compel obedience to authority."
Butler Shaffer

“Voting is a charade designed to dupe the people into thinking they are free. The state enforces a political monopoly, meaning that dissenters may not opt out of the system for any reason. Thus we are all slaves. The acquisition of liberty is dependent upon the majority's withdrawal of its consent to being ruled by a criminal gang, not upon tacitly or overtly granting it.”
Trevor Bothwell

“Elections happen in the U.S., but change doesn’t necessarily follow. The same shit just gets done to us by a slightly re-shuffled arrangement of oh-so-concerned faces.”
J. D. Tuccille

“It’s time to start making our own reforms, living our lives the way we want without waiting for permission from the government. We can build the society we want, cooperate and do business with one another through institutions of our own making, here and now, without having to persuade a majority of the public to vote on it first.”
Kevin Carson

“The power of every state ultimately depends on a statist ideology that glorifies the state and its functionaries while denigrating and attacking the civil society, private property, and private enterprise. This is as true of democracy as it is of totalitarian socialism.”
 Thomas J. DiLorenzo

“Ours was supposedly a society founded on the liberal principles of self-ownership and self-governance and yet we have morphed into a gigantic, fascist police state whose chief exports are debt and violence. Moreover, those most entrusted with shedding light on the truth turn their eyes inward, looking only at and serving those issuing the edicts as opposed to the effects of those edicts; cheerleading the empire, or worse, making excuses for it, while everyone else suffers.”
Thomas Luongo

“It is high time that Americans stop holding veterans and current members of the military in such high esteem. It is scientists, engineers, inventors, businessmen, industrialists, software developers, and entrepreneurs that made America great – not veterans of foreign wars. It is doctors, iron workers, taxi drivers, bricklayers, writers, electricians, and cooks that positively contribute to society – not soldiers.”
Laurence Vance

“In the statist lexicon, the United States, with its state of the art machinery of death, is a righteous force for freedom while the panicky strains of subdued people fighting against occupation are ‘terrorism.’ The methodical devastation of an entire region of the world is regarded as morally legitimate, while a victimized population’s admittedly wrong and misguided attempts at self-defense are rebuked as the maniacal savagery of evil subhumans who ‘hate us because we’re free.’”
David D'Amato

“The argument for voting usually uttered is that it is a (sometimes, and perhaps more correctly from their point of view, stated as ‘the only-) way to ‘make one’s voice heard’ in government. They certainly do make their voices heard in the sense that they increase the state’s statistics of the number of implicit supporters for its continued rule. I don’t want to be part of any such thing, and I do not fear telling them what I truly think of their despicable behavior.”

Per Bylund

“We do not have one dictator, of course. We switch him out every few years, in the festival of democracy.”
Lew Rockwell

“The military is a hiding place for the country’s degenerate class. Until they can get out and become cops.”
Don Cooper

*************************************************************

From the Darkness:

“Nothing ever justifies the slaughter of innocent men, women and children.”

B. Obama [How does he say this with a straight face?]

"The takeover of the House by Republicans is great news for Israel and her supporters. The House leadership and almost every single GOP member is rock-solid behind Israel. At times like this, Israel needs friends everywhere."
Ari Fleischer, White House spokesman under President George W. Bush

“I strongly believe the mission is worth the cost. Fortunately, I am not the only one.”
G. W. Bush, in his memoir, praising President Barack Obama’s decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan.

“On election night, I was moved by images of black men and women crying on TV. Barack Obama had campaigned on hope, and that was what he had given many Americans.”
GW Bush

“When it comes to Israel’s security there can be no daylight – no daylight – between Israel and the US.
It is critical to keep the international spot light on the genuine threats to the Israel like the Iranian nuclear program, not Israel.”
Joe Biden

“There is no fondling, squeezing, groping, or any sort of sexual assault taking place [by the TSA] at airports. You have a professional workforce carrying out procedures they were trained to perform to keep aviation security safe.”
Response to a question about TSA passenger abuse, posted on the TSA website.

"We need to be straight with the American people. We can't just engage in political rhetoric."
B. Obama [Dude, your whole material existence and power over the lives of others is based on “political rhetoric.”]

"I am fearful that a chasm will develop between those [soldier boys] who protect our freedoms and those who are being protected. I am concerned that the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, will fade in the American consciousness, and that the purpose of our efforts against extremist terrorists will fade. It could come to pass that the American military could become isolated from American society and that Americans' thoughts may fail to consider our men and women in uniform.
I sincerely worry that the needs of military families will be overlooked as we go through this budget drama."
Departing House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton [Let’s hope and pray this “chasm” continues to grow.]

“Plaintiffs’ assertion of a fundamental right to their own bodily and physical health, which includes what foods they do and do not choose to consume for themselves and their families” is similarly unavailing because plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to obtain any food they wish.”
From a bill being supported in the Senate “To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to the safety of the food supply.”

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:
“The key to government control is voluntary compliance. Without self-government, the civil government cannot exercise control. Self-government relies on widespread trust far more than widespread fear.
Widespread trust is fading. Widespread fear will fade with it.”
Gary North

“Regardless of the rationalization, the State, by a process of moral alchemy, or moral laundering, claims to turn bad things into good. By this ideology, rulers have kept the idea of freedom tightly contained, when it is in effect at all.”
Sheldon Richman

“The state is the ultimate weapon in Hobbes’s 'war of all against all,' and so long as it remains loaded it shall be continuously fired by those whose fingers have access to the trigger. You can have the state or you can have peace, but you can’t have both.”
Thomas L. Knapp

"It's odd that people trust the government when the government doesn't trust them at all. If the government treats you like a criminal, a terrorist, a lab rat and a vaccine depository, doesn't that only prove they don't honor you as a sovereign individual?"
Mike Adams

“My experience convinces me that participation in electoral politics is more than futile: it only adds energy to the system; it confirms the central premise of all political thinking, namely: important change can occur only within the halls of government. Besides the fact that the electoral process is unavoidably rigged in favor of the status quo, it also assures that, no matter who you vote for, the government always gets elected. Voting is designed to give people the false sense that they are in control of the machinery and the policies of the state.”
Butler Shaffer

“Market anarchists envision a world without poverty or war, where individuals are not forced to subsidize the domination of one another, nor have our own lives paternalistically guided by bureaucrats, politicians, or generals, irrelevant of how they were placed in a position of political power.
This world is possible, and it isn’t really all that complex of an idea: there should be no arbitrary political boundaries and thus no forced collectivization. Political relationships should be based upon consent and problems resolved through decentralized common law negotiation amongst the affected parties, not non-refusable legislative representation based upon geographical lines.”
Ross Kenyon

“A war crime is an artificial construct hatched in the ‘advanced’ Western mind. Take a look at the Hague Convention of a century ago and consider the weapons described. For a war crime to have any meaning, no distinction should be made between the means of killing.”
Hiroaki Sato

“Formerly trained to kill people and break things, American soldiers now attend to winning hearts and minds, while moonlighting in assassination. The politically correct term for this is ‘counterinsurgency.’”
Andrew J. Bacevich

"The net result of the state’s involvement in economic life is and always has been to diminish the bargaining power of the proles while cultivating the appearance of benevolence. Equality is a worthy goal, and we should scrutinize corporate power at every opportunity, but it is crucial to dislodge that goal from the case in favor of statism.”
David D'Amato

"Fashion consultants and beauticians are indispensable to the professional politician. Voters refuse to accept a candidate that looks like an ordinary person. At a time when fewer and fewer people wear suits and ties, it is odd that people expect politicians to wear the costume of the least trusted people in society - lawyers, insurance salesmen and television news readers."
Tom Blanton

“'Government of the people’ means that Washington can do whatever it damn pleases in their name.”
Kirkpatrick Sale

“Initiatives that begin as 'state services' invariably end up making us servants to the state. And, in the end, voters only have themselves to blame.”
Joel Bowman

“Modern authoritarian movements tend to adopt the strategy of avoiding talking about or even hinting at the coercion they will adopt to deal with those opposed to the supreme rule of the all-powerful state apparatus. They deny that they are fascist movements and instead adopt a slew of fanciful euphemisms for the coercive policies they propose to inflict on their brutalized subjects.”
Ben O’Neill

*************************************************************

From the Darkness:

“Here is where Obama is likely to prevail. With strong Republican support in Congress for challenging Iran's ambition to become a nuclear power, he can spend much of 2011 and 2012 orchestrating a showdown with the mullahs. This will help him politically because the opposition party will be urging him on. And as tensions rise and we accelerate preparations for war, the economy will improve.
I am not suggesting, of course, that the president incite a war to get reelected. But the nation will rally around Obama because Iran is the greatest threat to the world in the young century. If he can confront this threat and contain Iran's nuclear ambitions, he will have made the world safer and may be regarded as one of the most successful presidents in history.”

David Broder, Washington Post

“I'd like to ask a simple question: Why isn't Julian Assange dead? . . . WikiLeaks is easily among the most significant and well-publicized breaches of American national security since the Rosenbergs gave the Soviets the bomb. . . So again, I ask: Why wasn't Assange garroted in his hotel room years ago?  It's a serious question.”
Jonah Goldberg

“The government has a wide range of options for dealing with him [Julian Assange]. It can employ not only law enforcement but also intelligence and military assets to bring Assange to justice and put his criminal syndicate out of business.”
Marc Thiessen

"We have no intention of allowing our great achievements to be rolled back."
Nancy Pelosi, after her party got its butt kicked in the latest gang war.