Quotes of the Week

From the Light:
“The conversion of personality differences into psychiatric disorders, and the forced medication of children, is a dangerous trend. It is but a short step to extend these laws to adults who have a pattern of ‘negativistic, defiant, disobedient and hostile behavior toward authority figures'.”
Mark Nestmann

"The risible idea that public servants share the burden of government when public servants are the burden of government is yet another ideological scale that the libertarian must remove from the eyes of the masses so that they can see the truth. The truth as classic libertarian class analysis demonstrates is that the State divides the people into two classes: tax payers and tax consumers. Tax payers are those who produce and exchange in the market. Tax consumers are those who live off of the production of those who exchange in the market. And without a clear delineation between who is a tax payer and who is a tax consumer, the tax payers will never see that they are the exploited class. They will never realize that the tax consumers live off of their production and that the tax consumers composing the ruling class uses tax payers own resources to crush their freedoms. Instead the tax payers will continue to think that their rulers are actually on equal standing with them."
Brutus

“If you believe in democracy, or a collective will, then you must believe that you are personally responsible every time there is an instance of police brutality, dead civilians in Afghanistan, or innocent deaths due to botched drug raids. If you do not believe you are responsible, then you must accept the logical correlate that there is no such thing as a ‘collective will,’ and that democracy is merely a meaningless tool used by the majority to trample on the rights of the minority.”
Jenn Chou

“The only real answer to the economic malaise is to stop asking the government to create jobs in the first place. Real jobs can only be created by individuals agreeing to exchange their labor and capital by mutual, voluntary consent. The use of force cannot create a job any more than it can create freedom, either here or anywhere else in the world.”
Tom Mullen

“Out of power, the Republican Party preaches Ron Paul-style libertarianism. In power, the party practices Martin Feldstein-style military Keynesianism and military socialism — and Hank Paulson-style financial sector Keynesianism and socialism.”
Michael Lind, Salon

“If the ‘pubic schools’ are the reproductive organs of The State, then ‘law enforcement’ is the reptilian brain. It is the primitive aggressive reactionary part. The non-thinking bestial mind. And it is always over-stimulated with an excess of testosterone and adrenaline. It sees the normal people as ‘the enemy‘. Guilt to be determined later. Without this ‘organ’ the cruel and twisted desires of the Rulers would go nowhere.”
Kent McManigal

“Ethical ideas and actions that are associated with freedom are the very antithesis of a coercive system. The valuators of ideas and actions in a government-run society are the government officials, those that Aristophanes referred to as men of brass, and by necessity they must undervalue freedom in order to drive it out of circulation. Coercion is the coin of the government's idea and action realm. It does its best to polish up this base metal token into something respectable looking, but whatever thin, shiny veneer is applied, the core remains coercive violence.”
Tzo

“Americans have to learn that the government isn't "us." It's an entity that has its own interests, its own life, its own agenda. It views citizens as milk cows – or perhaps even beef cows – strictly as a means to its ends.”
Doug Casey

“If you begin with a skeptical attitude toward the government, watching and thinking can lead to a radicalization and ultimate embrace of a consistent opposition to government involvement. This is why election season always ends up creating a huge flood of new libertarians who buy books, feel the inspiration to get active (perhaps for the first time), and dedicate themselves to reducing the power of the state in whatever way they can.”
Lew Rockwell

“An American Police State was inevitable once Americans let 'their' government get away with 9/11. Americans are too gullible, too uneducated, and too jingoistic to remain a free people.”
Paul Craig Roberts

“The notion that men and women died to defend our freedoms can only be correct if one considers those very few who have died fighting against our own federal government’s encroachment against liberty. ……Those who fight in wars are defending and serving the government, and therefore are harming freedom, not protecting it.”
Gary Barnett

“It is important to remember that government interference always means either violent action or the threat of such action. ……The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning. Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.”
Ludwig Von Mises

“Profit is vital to human well-being. Profit is the payment to entrepreneurs just as wages are payments to labor, interest to capital and rent to land. In order to earn profits in free markets, entrepreneurs must identify and satisfy human wants and do so in a way that economizes on society's scarce resources.”
Walter Williams

“So now we have both the establishment left and right working in concert to stifle the steadfast American tradition of dissent. The right will be cordial, the left will laugh and the criminals in our government will have nice quiet streets to travel down as they take this country straight to Hell.”
Keith Johnson

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

From the Darkness:

“Libertarian rule would make litigation a growth industry, because without regulations to keep businesses in check, citizens will be suing each other left and right over tainted eggs, sticky gas pedals and a very slippery Gulf of Mexico.”

Mark Dalton, TimesUnion.com [“Libertarian rule” is one of the better oxymorons I’ve heard in some time.]

"Any dictatorship would be better than modern democracy. There cannot be so incompetent dictator, that he would show more stupidity than a majority of the people. Best dictatorship would be one where lots of heads would roll and government would prevent any economical growth."
Pentti Linkola, Finnish environmentalist

"The next step could be to use (real-time) information as the basis for centralizing the calculation and deduction of tax."
From a proposal by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs in the UK proposing that employers hand over employee salaries to the government first.

“I’d do some things that would be worse than the death penalty. Because it wouldn’t happen in a second. I would slowly torture them.’’
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, reacting to brutal a killing earlier this month of a pizza deliveryman. [The state doesn't like competition when it comes to dishing out pain, torture, and death.]

"Whether it’s climate change, whether it’s population growth, whether it’s all these factors that impact the health of our world, raising that awareness early among young people is only going to promote the agenda. It’s going to raise that awareness of climate change that, in turn, I think, can make them stewards, stakeholders in policy changes we have to make to try to address climate change going forward and so, another wonderful result that you can yield if you do this environmental education.”
Rep. John Sarbanes, calling for schools and centers of education to "promote the agenda" of climate change and the idea that unfettered population growth is killing the planet.

"We're starting to see some signs of progress. With the right strategy and the right resources and the right leadership, you know, we're starting to move forward."
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, admitting the last nine years of killing Afghans has accomplished nothing.

“Sentiment [towards the Obama regime] has turned very sour in the last three or four or five months. I hope we get over it pretty soon, because it’s not productive. We will come back regardless of how people feel about Washington, but it is not helpful to have people as unhappy as they are about what’s going on in Washington.”
Warren Buffet, statist boob.

“A new strain of populism is metastasizing before our eyes, nourished by the same libertarian impulses that have unsettled American society for half a century now. Anarchistic like the Sixties, selfish like the Eighties, contradicting neither, it is estranged, aimless, and as juvenile as our new century. It appeals to petulant individuals convinced that they can do everything themselves if they are only left alone, and that others are conspiring to keep them from doing just that.”
Mark Lilla, bigoted eltitist, writing for the New York Review of Books.

Children, Beware

Snapshot of the State

Beware of your ruler’s flatulence and gaseous expulsions, disguised as political speech:

Beware of state agents who dazzle you with shiny badges on spiffy uniforms. Their aim is to not to help you, but to rule and control you:

Beware the colorful symbols used to enslave your heart and profanely sanitize the horror of the war dead. Speak up and voice your displeasure:

Don’t let self-appointed authoritarians stifle your spirit and individual uniqueness. Beware of being assigned ranks within the herd:

Don’t allow your free born spirit to be saddled by collectivist obedience. Seek, walk, and follow the unbeaten, self-directed path:

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:
“To make the ‘economy run better’ is to make the individual run better, not to do anything in particular, but to release people from the external threats and constraints that befoul the fertile connections between them. When the state makes the decisions about how to use societal wealth, this does not translate into ‘the people’ making the decisions. That condition exists only in a freed market, absent of force. When government takes the reins, a few oligarchs hold them, steering in a way that solidifies their mastery over us.”
David D'Amato

“Religion might be part of the particular motivation of every major side in the wars and terrorism of today, but it is the secular religion of collectivism, the civic religion of statism, that is most philosophically responsible for all this violence, and that has allowed people to reject their own religious teachings not to kill the innocent for what they have convinced themselves is the pursuit of the greater good. Utilitarianism and materialism and the worship of the worldly, not the spiritual, are the main problem here.”
Anthony Gregory

“The state is a jealous god and will brook no rivals. Its sovereignty must pervade every one, and all feeling must be run into the stereotyped forms of romantic patriotic militarism which is the traditional expression of the state herd-feeling.”
Randolph Bourne

“Patriotism is an abstract notion with no real substance. It means nothing; it's just a façade, a fake, imaginary glue that keeps a people naively devoted to causes, countries, governments, and neighbors who usually bring them harm (the phrase ‘come together’ is similarly ambiguous and empty). National borders mean nothing. They would not exist without government force, and they are usually laid out for reasons of politics and power, not in accordance with the religions, identities, culture, or preferences of individuals.”
Kel Kelly

“We have slid complacently into the notion that not only does the American need their government to both protect them and, more importantly, to create the conditions for all of us to survive, but beyond that, we seem convinced that the rest of the world needs America to fight their own battles too. We oblige with vigor, assiduously turning Blowback into a National Death Cult where war is pronounced over but 50,000 troops remain behind to watch peace erupt out of the blasted newly minted democrats. Somebody once said “War is the Health of the State” but I’d say it’s more like a bloody ten-day drunk of the State.”
D. W. Sabin

“Ballots replace bullets within the democratic state but conflict persists with special interest groups vying for the reins of power so that they can use the perceived legitimacy of the state to impose their will on each other. Beneath the sophisms that grant the state legitimacy there lies the same threat or use of initiatory violence that is present in war. Open war is traded for the illusion of peace.”
Geoffrey Allan Plauché

“The decentralizing nature of organizations finds expression throughout our world. The vertical is collapsing into the horizontal. Plato’s pyramid is being transformed into interconnected networks. The mainstream media — whose function it is to tell us what the established order wants us to know — are being replaced by many autonomous Internet voices — such as LRC — that express a variety of opinions to which tens of thousands of autonomous readers can respond and communicate to one another. It is this decentralization of authority — otherwise known as ‘individual liberty’ — that poses the ‘terrorist threat’ to the vertical power structures. It is the specter of human beings directing their own lives for their own purposes — and not the spectacle of airliners being crashed into skyscrapers — that makes the “war on terror” a permanent feature in our brave new world order!”
Butler Shaffer

“Thus, as civilization advances, does government decay. To the bad it is essential; to the good, not. It is the check which national wickedness makes to itself, and exists only to the same degree. Its continuance is proof of still-existing barbarism. What a cage is to the wild beast, law is to the selfish man. Restraint is for the savage, the rapacious, the violent; not for the just, the gentle, the benevolent. All necessity for external force implies a morbid state. Dungeons for the felon; a strait jacket for the maniac; crutches for the lame; stays for the weak-backed; for the infirm of purpose a master; for the foolish a guide; but for the sound mind in a sound body none of these. Were there no thieves and murderers, prisons would be unnecessary. It is only because tyranny is yet rife in the world that we have armies. Barristers, judges, juries, all the instruments of law, exist simply because knavery exists. Magisterial force is the sequence of social vice, and the policeman is but the complement of the criminal. Therefore it is that we call government ‘a necessary evil.’”
Herbert Spencer

“There is nothing wrong with ‘tax evasion’ unless it is also wrong to hide money in your shoe so the mugger in the alley won't take it.”
Kent McManigal

“Down with the Constitution. What a socialist, centralizing, utopian mistake. It is time for libertarians to stop glorifying early America, the Founders, the Constitution, etc., as proto-libertarian. All states are illegitimate, including America’s.”
Stephan Kinsella

“To fundamentalist adherents of state power, the control exerted by the state is what holds the world together. It’s administered by people who think it only natural that they happen to be the ones in charge. Anyone who threatens their power, anyone with whom they can’t work out a ‘reasonable solution,’ is seen as a threat to public safety. The tendency to protect power at the expense of individual life translates in reality to harming individuals in the name of safety, tearing lives apart and causing havoc in the name of order.”
Darian Worden

“The state, by its nature, is the instrument by which some ruling class extracts rents from the labor of the productive classes. In every society in history since the rise of the state, the state has been controlled by some class that uses it as an instrument for living at the expense of the productive majority.”
Kevin Carson

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

From the Darkness:
“Frankly, Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims. I wonder whether I need honor these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment, which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse.”
Martin Peretz, The New Republic

“Your voice is your vote, man, Your vote is the currency this town [DC] lives on.”
Janet Napolitano instructing the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.

“Lately, Israel has been subjected to incessant attacks from people and countries around the world who cast aspersions on its policies and its very right to exist. The Goldstone Report and Turkish flotilla incident illustrate just how vital it is for each and every Israeli citizen to take part in Israel’s public diplomacy.”
Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein, about a new website that aims to help Israelis defend the country’s image abroad.

"Goldline employs several conservative pundits to act as shills for it’s precious metal business, including Glenn Beck, Mike Huckabee, Laura Ingraham, and Fred Thompson. By drumming up public fears during financially uncertain times, conservative pundits are able to drive a false narrative. Glenn Beck for example has dedicated entire segments of his program to explaining why the U.S. money supply is destined for hyperinflation with Barack Obama as president."
From a press release from Rep. Anthony Weiner announcing that a September 23 hearing of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection (a subcommittee of Rep. Henry Waxman's Commerce Committee) will focus on "legislation that would regulate gold-selling companies, an industry whose relentless advertising is now staple of cable television."

"We need to have confidence and be able to demonstrate, I would say in four to six months, that we are moving in the right direction; we are moving toward the accomplishment of our goals. I think there is a general feeling that there has been some progress in that area, but it will have to be sustained."
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, sugar coating the continuing Afghanistan quagmire.

“‘Global warming’ is a (dangerous) misnomer. That term implies something …uniform across the planet, mainly about temperature, gradual, quite possibly benign. What’s actually happening is… highly nonuniform, not just about temperature, rapid compared to capacities for adjustment, harmful for most places and times. We should call it ‘global climate disruption.’”
John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, trying to re-brand, yet again, the global warming scam.

“I would say maybe in a grade, a B- in creating the jobs."
Wendy Greuel, Los Angeles controller, commenting on the city’s spending $5.9 million of stimulus money to create a total of 16 jobs.

"The best thing about the TSA is that though we do deal with the public every day, customer service is not a priority for us and we are told that on a regular basis….

We get briefed before every shift and at least twice a week they remind us that though customer service is good, it is not our priority. We are federal security officers, and if you walk away from dealing with me and you are not happy its not going to hurt my job security at all.”
From a blog written by a TSA screener

‘Heroes’ Get Swindled by One of Their Own

It seems that a man’s goal to build a memorial to the Empire’s fallen military servants is not as honest and forthright as perceived by its contributors.

The state attracts sociopaths (politicians) and psychopaths (military slaves). Mr. Coleman seems to exhibit both of these characteristics. That’s why his victims were attracted to him in the first place.

Militarists are easily swayed by the ruling regime’s “3’S’s” - service, sacrifice, and servitude. They allow their emotions to overpower their reason, despite the blatant, tyrannical realities of the US state. They become convinced that blind obedience toward and killing for an omnipotent state is the hallmark of heroism- a characteristic to be lauded and rewarded. Thus explains their attraction to supporting this memorial.

"I just can't imagine anyone that is sinister enough to do that... I don't know... for money," cries one of the deceived. The state you serve does far worse “for money,” including caging and killing innocent people. This fact is undeniable. It’s also time to wake up to the reality that those who claim to rule you also claim to own you. How is it “heroic” to defend, fight for, and die for such a despicable mob?

DVD Reviews

Sleepers:
This 1996 drama follows four neighborhood chums in 1960’s Hell’s Kitchen. They’re sent to reform school after a street prank turns into disaster. They are subsequently abused by the guards who have complete control. Years later they find a way to achieve justice and revenge in a very clever, well thought out scheme.
Recommended

The Book of Eli:
Denzel Washington stars in this post-apocalyptic story in post-war America. The film makers add to the dreary, desperate atmosphere by toning the film in a high contrast, almost monochromatic, palate. Washington (Eli) happens to possess the only remaining copy of a certain sacred, religious text. Eli feels called to take this book west to an unknown location but is intercepted and harassed by a local warlord who sees the book as a guide to achieve power over others.
Recommended

Frontline- Behind Taliban Lines:
An Afghan video journalist is invited to spend time with the Taliban insurgents in northern Afghanistan. I was struck by the resoluteness of the insurgents, but also the crudity of their operation. It’s puzzling to think that the greatest fighting force in the world is getting their butts kicked by these guys. A very interesting and eye opening piece.
Recommended

Sherman’s March:
The History Channel takes a detailed look at one of The USG’s most successful terrorists, William Tecumseh Sherman. The film focuses primarily upon his destructive, murderous march through Georgia and the Carolinas during the War of Northern Aggression. Most of the historians interviewed act as mild apologists for Sherman’s sickening, but militarily brilliant, rampage that became a decisive factor for the Union winning the war.
Recommended

Hitler’s Lost Sub:
This 2000 Nova program examines the discovery of a sunken German WWII submarine just sixty miles off the New Jersey coast. It takes six years of dangerous deep diving to finally identify the craft. The piece also includes an excellent history of submarine technology with the focus on the German U-boats and their pivotal role in the war.
Recommended

Cocaine Cowboys:
This documentary takes a close look at the peak of the Miami area cocaine trafficking in the 1970’s and ‘80s. The trade was peaceful and profitable until prohibition efforts stepped up to make Miami the murder capital of the world. A couple of very sharp, intelligent participants are interviewed about their role in the drug’s distribution. Their testimony is quite entertaining. Interviews with those involved in the violence, however, tend to be a bit depressing.
Recommended

Under the Bombs:
A very moving drama based around the 2006 Israeli bombing of south Lebanon that went uninterrupted for 33 days. A cease fire is finally put into effect. A Lebanese woman from Dubai arrives and recruits a taxi driver to take her to the south to locate and retrieve her small son. The film becomes an accurate portrayal of the desperate, suffering innocents caught amongst gang warfare.
Recommended

The Ghost Writer:
Roman Polanski directs this thriller based on a writer hired to ghost write the book of a recently resigned British Prime Minister. During his work and research he comes across some disturbing information that may endanger his life.
Recommended

Hacking Democracy:
This 2006 Docurama takes a look at voting irregularities and fraud discovered in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, particularly centered around the multitudinous problems with and unreliability of electronic voting machines. A small group of dedicated investigators discover startling information that threatens their confidence in democracy. Let’s hope so.
Recommended

Wooly Boys:
Peter Fonda and Kris Kristofferson play two old, grizzled, North Dakota sheep ranchers who work to “de-citify” Fonda’s grandson. The film contains just enough humorous, salty one liners to keep from becoming overly sentimental and maudlin. Only the totally cynical should avoid this one.
Recommended

War Games/ Culloden:
This disc contains two great anti-war documentaries from Peter Watkins. The 1966 War Games dramatizes what would happen in Britain after a Soviet nuclear attack. Culloden is a re-creation with narration of the 1746 battle between the British army and Scottish rebels that resulted in the extermination of the Highlander clans. See if you can pick out the same absurdities and justifications for killing people that are still used today.
Recommended

Ajami:
This film, though sometimes difficult to follow, is a very interesting piece of film making. Taking place in Israel and Palestine, it uses very well coached, non-professional actors with no script to follow. The language is Arabic and Hebrew. The plots are multiple and intertwined and the film jumps back and forth between different time periods. Overall, the film aims to show how murder and revenge are dealt with in this part of the world. You may not be entertained but you will be educated.
Recommended

Sixgun:
I’m a big fan of the western genre. So few film makers will make westerns anymore, and when they do, they usually suck. This one, filmed in the Texas hill country, doesn’t quite suck, but it comes close. The mediocre acting is somewhat bearable, but what disturbed me most was the wardrobe. Authenticity, apparently, wasn’t a priority, as you see cowboys working a bankrupt, hard scrabble ranch in new, clean, nicely pressed clothing that looks like it was just purchased off the rack at the Austin J.C. Penneys. And if that’s not enough, a corrupt, thieving bad guy walks into his saloon with….. sun glasses on?
Not recommended

Welcome:
A heart wrenching film about a young Iraqi, teenage refugee who manages to migrate to France. He needs to get to England to rejoin his girlfriend but has been repeatedly rebuffed by authorities in attempts to smuggle himself across the English Channel. He then decides to take swimming lessons to swim the Channel to get there. A nice treatment of both the state’s tyrannical control of individual movement and the indomitable human spirit that constantly works to thwart it.
Recommended

Harry Brown:
Michael Caine plays a retired, ex-British Marine who works to avenge the death of a close friend by local thugs. Sometimes vigilantism is the only practical method of self-defense when the police “authorities” are indifferent.
Recommended

Cream- Classic Artists:
The creators of this documentary spend hours interviewing Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and their contemporaries about their personal beginnings in the music business, the eventual creation of rock’s premier super group and their eventual, highly successful reunion concerts in 2005. The disc also includes a few vintage Cream performances from the 1960’s.
Recommended

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:
“The message of real promise, of peace and independence, will never emanate from an institution defined by aggression or from anyone who applauds what it does. Reduced to its essentials, market anarchism is the extension of the anti-war reasoning to all patterns of human interaction, tolerating force only as an act of defense. If individuals forswear hostile intervention in each other’s lives, whether next-door or across some line on a map, then a stateless society is the ineluctable result.”
David D'Amato

“Government, being a system premised upon the initiation of coercion, is essentially stupid. The stupidity lies in the fact that those who participate, manage, govern, and believe in this system do not understand that coercion is death. If they did, they would see not only that counterinsurgency vs. counterterrorism is a legitimate conundrum, but that, conversely, to emphasize 'protecting the people' rather than killing ‘terrorists’ (and soon-to-be-terrorist toddlers) is also a path to ultimate ruin.”
B. R. Merrick
 
“In Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, you can see that Pentagon version of an American foreign policy straining to be born. In the end, of course, it could be stillborn, but it could also become an all-enveloping system offering Americans a strange, skewed vision of a world constantly at war and of the importance of planning for more of the same.”
Tom Engelhardt

“To embrace anarchism is to embrace the reality that there is no one perfect way to interact and to embrace that there are flaws in systems. To embrace the state is to embrace one way that is believed to be the only solution and to enforce that belief and way upon others."
Punk Johnny Cash

“Herewith a searing insight for the ever-puzzled State Department: Actions have consequences. If you support Batista, you will engender Fidel. If you support the Shah, you will get Khomeini. If you attack Moslems, you will get bin Laden. It might be better to stay home and read a book.”
Fred Reed

“It has always been so throughout history - us against them, we the sovereign individuals of the world versus the arrogant wealth-robbing power-wielding self-worshipping psychopaths who presume to rule us.”
Garry Reed

“If the only reason to oppose war is it’s a waste of American blood and money, there will be no stopping the next Republican president from unleashing even more death and destruction than did Bush, so long as it can be excused in the name of "national security." For Americans to embrace peace, they must accept the notion that foreigners have all the natural rights Americans do, and dropping bombs on them while they sit peacefully in their homes and neighborhoods is every bit as barbaric, monstrous and murderous as 9/11 or any other terrorist act.”
Anthony Gregory

"Nowadays, the members of our ruling class admit that they do not read the laws. They don't have to. Because modern laws are primarily grants of discretion, all anybody has to know about them is whom they empower."
Angelo M. Codevilla

“Personally, I see no good for others that involves sticking guns in people’s faces, threatening their lives, invading their countries, or bombing their cities. There is no help that stems from the barrel of a gun.”
Charles H. Featherstone

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From the Darkness:

"People should understand: Those who drink, those who smoke are doing more to help the state."

Alexei Kudrin, Russia's finance, minister has urgeing his countrymen and women to support the country (through paying consumption taxes) - by drinking and smoking more.

“The United States avoids resorting to military force, preferring to wield all other instruments of power in the pursuit of national objectives and in the context of international competition and conflict. Therefore, diplomacy routinely blocks the need for the application of the military instrument of power.”
From the U.S. Army Special Operations Forces Unconventional Warfare manual.

“America is experiencing an Islamist cultural-political offensive designed to undermine and destroy our civilization. Sadly, too many of our elites are the willing apologists for those who would destroy them if they could. No mosque. No self deception. No surrender. The time to take a stand is now – at this site on this issue.”
Newt Gingrich, finding new ways to articulate hate and ignorance.

"The world looks to us because America has the reach and resolve to mobilize the shared effort needed to solve problems on a global scale - in defense of our own interests, but also as a force for progress. In this we have no rival.

For the United States, global leadership is both a responsibility and an unparalleled opportunity."
Queen Hillary [“Leadership” = Dominance.]

“The terrorist threat that led to the declaration on September 14, 2001, of a national emergency continues. For this reason, I have determined that it is necessary to continue in effect after September 14, 2010, the national emergency with respect to the terrorist threat.”
B. Obama, in the “Letter from the President on the Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Certain Terrorist Attacks” sent to Congress. [And the beat goes on……]

"May the memory of those who gave their lives here continue to be an inspiration to you and an inspiration to all of America."
Michelle Obama, spewing nonsense at the Pennsylvania crash site of Flight 93. [Yea, Michelle, it’s always “inspiring” to be murdered by your government.]

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:
“Frankly, in terms of gritty realism, I’ll put my belief in the power of market competition to restrain business against their belief in the power of democratic majorities to control the state, any day of the week.”
Kevin Carson

“When considering that such an overwhelming consensus is so seldom reached in today's political arena (consider both Britain and Australia's recently hung parliaments), it is little wonder politicians rank marginally below economists on popular opinion polls. What is incredible, however, is the fact that so many people are content to simply cast their vote and to take the consequences on the chin, believing all along that they were a vital part of the process and that one must take the good along with the bad, and even the ugly.
Self government, through individual and collective acts of voluntary cooperation, therefore, seems to be the only philosophically consistent, defensible form of government available to man. The state, with its various forms of coercion, shrouded in the cloak of good intention and peddled by forecast-mongering central bankers, be damned.”
Joel Bowman
 
“Rather than being a problem, apathy when it comes to political stuff is fantastic. The idea of a world where people don’t spend time thinking about how to control and manipulate other people seems great to me. Isn’t that exactly where we want to go?”
Mike P.

“Just as the economy is not some elephantine life form capable of being tweaked or of concerted movement in any one direction, the state is not really an institution itself; more precisely, it is a category of human action, distinguished not by ornate buildings or volumes of Byzantine legal code, but by the initiation of physical force. And, it is important to remember, this initiation of force is undertaken by people, real, flesh and blood like you and I, not by gods, angels or neoclassical monuments in Washington. The state, then, is no more than an abstraction we use to represent these existing individuals who act in this particular way, and who do things that, if attempted by anyone else, would not enjoy the same presumption of legitimacy.”
David D'Amato

“The best kind of individualism has a broader social element to it which could be labeled solidarity. The pursuit of maximum individual liberty suggests the benefit of promoting the maximum level of individual autonomy – taking steps to reduce dependence on people who try to control others. This is where cooperation and competition both enter the picture. Recognizing the mutual benefit of cooperating for greater autonomy, free people work together in solidarity. Viewing one arrangement as less conducive toward individual flourishing, free people create competing arrangements and advocate for them.”
Darian Worden

“The cerebral narcissism and smug self assurance that are the hallmarks of elitism causes elitists to look upon those not considered elite with disdain. This isolates elitists into small groups of like-thinking members. This self-imposed isolation, results in a loss of diversity in their thinking. Just as a lack of diversity in isolated gene pools results in genetic deformities, the lack of diversity of thought in isolated intellectual thought pools results in deformed ideas. This form of group think is nothing more than intellectual inbreeding.”
Bob Shoup

“The war on Iraq was never about ‘blood for oil,’ or at least not just that. It’s always been about blood for armored humvees, blood for ‘smart’ bombs, blood for no-bid contracts to build and operate bases, blood for jobs (and votes) in your congresscritter’s district, blood for campaign contributions, blood for ever-expanding political power and for never-ending access to your wallet."
Thomas L. Knapp

“The small respites from government growth build false hope in the government process. In reality, the government can change no more than can the Bloods or Crips. The king will throw a bone from his table to placate the masses, but don’t expect him to give up his seat.”
Vedran Vuk

“The men who led us down this path, the presidents who presided over our wars, the military figures and secretaries of defense, the intelligence chiefs and ambassadors who helped make them happen, will have libraries to inaugurate, books to write, awards to accept, speeches to give, honors to receive. They will be treated with great respect, while Americans – once we have finally left the lands we insistently fought over – will undoubtedly feel little culpability either. And if blowback comes to the United States, and the first suicide drones arrive, everyone will be deeply puzzled and angered, but one thing is certain, we will not consider any damage done to our society ‘collateral’ damage."
Tom Engelhardt

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From the Darkness:

“The competitor is our friend and the customer is our enemy. The only place you see a free market is in the speeches of politicians.”

Archer Daniels Midland CEO Dwayne Andreas

“For globalism to work, American can’t be afraid to act like the almighty superpower that it is. The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist. McDonald’s cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the designer of the U.S. Air Force F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley’s technologies to flourish is called the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.”
Tom Friedman

"No mosque in Murfreesboro. I don't want it. I don't want them here. Go start their own country overseas somewhere. This is a Christian country. It was based on Christianity."
Evy Summers, Murfreesboro resident, on a new Islamic center to be built in her town.

"It is a religion — and here is the deep, dark, dirty secret of Islam — it is a religion that promotes pedophilia... sex with children."
Dr. Robert Jeffress, head pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas

"Nothing is more important than saving ... the Lions, Tigers, Giraffes, Elephants, Froggies, Turtles, Apes, Raccoons, Beetles, Ants, Sharks, Bears, and, of course, the Squirrels. The humans? The planet does not need humans."
James J. Lee, deceased environmentalist

"America should do something. If the Treasury Department will guarantee that everyone will get their money, maybe that will work."
Mahmoud Karzai, Kabul Bank's third-biggest shareholder, begging the U.S. to guarantee deposits at Afghanistan's largest bank to stop a developing bank run fueled by fears of fraud.

"Everything is pointing to the need for more spending. Even aside from the need to stimulate the economy, when the federal government can borrow very cheaply, that’s probably a good idea to get some projects started."
Paul Krugman

Identity Crisis

Snapshot of the State

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin autographs a photograph during a stop on the newly opened Chita-Khabarovsk highway, near Khabarovsk, approximately 6100 kilometers (3800 miles) southeast of Moscow

Those who choose to be enslaved by men they don’t even know don’t hesitate to show idolatry when given the opportunity. A tyrant’s sordid history is forgotten, the blood on his hands ignored. It seems an attempt to forge a superficial bond with the collective abstraction integral to the individual’s identity.

Butler Shaffer writes:

“One of the deadliest practices we engage in is that of identifying ourselves with a collective entity. Whether it be the state, a nationality, our race or gender, or any other abstraction, we introduce division – hence, conflict – into our lives as we separate ourselves from those who identify with other groupings. If one observes the state of our world today, this is the pattern that underlies our deadly and destructive social behavior.

Through years of careful conditioning, we learn to think of ourselves in terms of agencies and/or abstractions external to our independent being. Or, to express the point more clearly, we have learned to internalize these external forces; to conform our thinking and behavior to the purposes and interests of such entities. We adorn ourselves with flags, mouth shibboleths, and decorate our cars with bumper-stickers, in order to communicate to others our sense of 'who we are.' In such ways does our being become indistinguishable from our chosen collective.”

When these “abstractions’ are personified in living, breathing, fawned over humans, the attraction is irresistible.

U.S. President Barack Obama shakes holds bags of takeout food as he greets lunchtime diners at Nancy's restaurant in Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard.

The Power of Music

Music is the language of peace. Music is a force to help us withstand, repel, and reject the advances of barbarism- one soul at a time.


Music can rekindle the humanity and passion for life in even the most brutal and cynical among us.

Long live the power of music. May it shield us from incessant evil and continually remind us that beauty and light are the norm- evil and darkness, the aberration.