Snapshot of the State

"In order to have a plot, you have to have a conflict, something bad has to happen."

Mike Judge

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:
“If we pay close attention to events in our world, we are reminded of the fallacy of the long-standing belief that ‘in unity there is strength.’ Formalized, structured systems foster strength for the organization only to the degree it promotes the weakness of its members. Centrally-organized behavior creates a jugular vein of vulnerability, a point which, when attacked, allows the attacker to control or destroy the entire group.”
Butler Shaffer

“….When the government steps in and gives itself the responsibility to ‘protect’ your rights, it is simultaneously stripping you of your ability to actually defend your own rights. When you are dependent upon the whims and capabilities of another human being to protect your rights, you are literally handing your rights over to them and essentially submitting to slavery.”
J. G. Vibes

“'War is hell,' as the old saying goes, so why do so many support war and those who prosecute them? Why are all those doing the murdering considered heroes to the masses in this country? Why do soldiers follow orders to kill, when that killing is unjustified? Why are American flags constantly waving, and why is the national anthem, a celebration of war, always sung at every local and national event? Why do so many pledge their allegiance to a flag, an allegiance that is the communistic epitome of worshiping the state regardless of its actions? Why do Americans love war?”
Gary D. Barnett

“Most authority in our modern world is, really, only petty authority. True authority is fostered by a sense of respect that is earned through leadership by example. The greatest authorities are those who teach, not those who command; and political governance is null and void if that governance was attained through subversion and lies.”
Brandon Smith

“The notion that 20-year old soldiers from the bottom of western society can win hearts and minds of Afghan tribesmen is one of the most ludicrous myths of our times.”
Eric Margolis

“The Gloomy Gus prognosticators of the Internet are always complaining that the ‘sheeple’ just ‘don't get it.’ But it only takes, what ... five percent of the population to be ‘illuminated’ before big changes begin to happen.
Of course, there's no science to such an analysis. But we would argue that if even the RIGHT three percent of a population finally understands the ways their World Works, that societal evolution is all but inevitable. Change will come. Freedom may increase.”
From a staff report at The Daily Bell

“The procedures which have been put into effect to ensure that humankind remains in a state of non-awareness are many and varied. Many, which are quite deadly underneath, look innocuous enough on the surface and remain accepted by the majority as necessary aspects of the standard routines of daily life. Others are less easily received and even resisted; but few amongst us comprehend the fact that they all belong to one underlying plan of repression, control and domination.”
Julian Rose

“Greed is not good when it comes to public policy. Greed causes people to advocate for more guns in the room. Greed causes people to advocate for violence against their neighbor. Greed causes people to worship the printing press and the theft of wealth through inflation. Greed causes people to demand services from others while simultaneously demanding that others pay for those services. Greed and the gun go hand in hand.”
Michael Suede

“I believe that Christians have for the most part failed to fulfill their calling. Instead of making converts and instructing them in the biblical precepts of Christian living, they turn to the state to criminalize what they consider to be immoral behavior. Instead of changing people’s minds about what is and what is not acceptable in society, they seek to use the state to change people’s behavior. Instead of being an example to the world, they want to use the state to make the world conform to their example. Instead of educating themselves and other Christians about what is appropriate behavior, they rely on the state to make that determination. Instead of being the salt of the earth and the light of the world, they want the state to assume those roles. Instead of minding their own business, they mind everyone else’s business.”
Laurence Vance

“Time and time again throughout history as once great empires accelerated their declines, governments have taken steps to protect their interests against the people.
In the past, they have imposed curfews, disarmed the population, curtailed civil liberties, and declared national emergencies, usually against some great faceless enemy from abroad who threatens their way of life.
As it turns out, though, our great faceless enemy is not some mythical boogeyman living in a cave, nor some angry brown person who hates us for our freedoms... but the very people within the system who've taken an oath to 'support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.'“
Simon Black

“The longer people live with educational socialism, the more they adapt to its inefficiencies, deprivations and even indignities. So it is with American public schools. Many people love them, but it’s like the ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ We’ve come to have a special appreciation for our captors and masters because we see no way out."
Jeffrey Tucker

“Liberty is a birthright. Yet we’re trying to beg government for rights to it. Anyone see a problem with this? Everything is backwards. Yet the world drudges on in its labors to earn its freedom and security. What a scam.
Wake up slaves! Wake the hell up!”
Zen Gardner

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From the Darkness:

“The thing we’re trying to do here is recognize the commitment these young men and women have made [to the military]. If they’re willing to say, ‘You know what, I’m ready to serve,’ that’s somebody stepping up to the line who has demonstrably acquired some critical thinking, strategic planning and leadership skills.”
Elizabeth Schultz, Fairfax County (Va.) school board member, on the proposal to honor those who have enlisted in the military at school graduations [Wars will not end until people refuse to fight them. People will not refuse to fight them until such a choice is seen as insane, rather than honorable.]

“Governance is the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented (or not implemented). It also can be defined as the rational organization of society in order to achieve the objectives emerging from its common concerns emerging from material, economic, historical and cultural foundations and needs. Governance includes the creation and the functioning of institutions and of norms at various levels from the local to the global.”
From the United Nations’ "Draft International Covenant on Environment and Development" [This isn’t a definition of “governance.” This is a definition of centrally planned tyranny.]

“A caring state is no nanny, it is doing its job. Whenever the accusation of nanny state is made, people are effectively mocking a venerable tradition of beneficial state involvement, a journey that began with habeas corpus (which provided citizens with protection from unlawful imprisonment). Chris Middendorp , The Age
[Uh, Chris- habeas corpus was created to protect the individual FROM the state.]

"There is increased attention on the terror inflicted upon innocent people by the LRA {Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda] — and that's a good thing. I am hopeful that we can use this momentum as a force for change. We must do all that we can to protect innocent civilians — especially children — and end LRA violence once and for all."
Rep. Jim McGovern, introducing a bipartisan resolution spotlighting the Ugandan war lord and his Lord's Resistance Army this week, calling for stepped-up efforts to expand regional forces to "protect citizens and pursue LRA commanders."
“Well I would give myself a pretty good grade because if you look at what we’ve done, and what we’ve supported, and the breakthroughs that have occurred during this tenure, I think it speaks very well.”
Department Of Energy Secretary Steven Chu, when asked what he would grade himself, considering the abysmal track record of the agency he heads

"There are laws against purveying hard-core pornography. And that—we have attorney generals in the country, at least under the Bush administration, who did prosecute that.”
Rick Santourm, still insisting on protecting us from dirty pictures

“This isn’t about promoting sterilization. No one -- there aren’t college girls lining up to become sterilized because they feel like it. And we’re talking about medical procedures.”
Rep. Xavier Becerra, on a new Obamacare regulation that requires all student health insurance plans to offer college women free sterilizations [Those of us who live in the real world realize that subsidizing is exactly the same as promoting.]

"While recognizing that terrorists are willing to manipulate societal norms to evade detection, our officers continue to work with parents to ensure a respectful screening process for the entire family at the checkpoint."
Statement from the TSA in a response to a video showing a 3yearold boy with a broken leg, in a wheelchair, being molested by one of their agents

"I have noticed that teachers tell children they shouldn't have a best friend and that everyone should play together. They are doing it because they want to save the child the pain of splitting up from their best friend.”
Educational psychologist Gaynor Sbuttoni, commenting on a new policy started in some UK schools that bans school children from having best friends

“You can go back 500 years. You cannot find a more audacious plan [the illing“ of Osama bin Laden]. Never knowing for certain. We never had more than a 48 percent probability that he was there.”
Joe Biden [Actually, Joe, the probability was zero, since he’s been dead for 10 years.]

"My opinion is that we will need significant combat power [in Afghanistan] in 2013."
Marine Gen. John Allen, looking for more blood

“Anyone who regularly consults Internet sites which promote terror or hatred or violence will be sentenced to prison. What is possible for pedophiles should be possible for trainee terrorists and their supporters, too."
French president Nicolas Sarkozy, proposing a new law that would criminalize viewing selected websites

“Since the gold standard determines the money supply, there is not much scope for the central bank to use monetary policy to stabilize the economy. Under a gold standard, typically the money supply goes up and interest rates go down in a period of strong economic activity – so that’s the reverse of what a central bank would normally do today.”
Ben Bernanke, explaining why a gold standard handicaps the government’s ability to address economic conditions [Duh. That’s why we want it.]

Snapshot of the State

"If a psychiatric and scientific inquiry were to be made upon our rulers, mankind would be appalled at the disclosures".

Alfred Korzybski

The Controllers Make a Huge Mistake

The global, controlling elites have made a catastrophic error in judgment. They tried to make use of the alternative media to spread their deceptive propaganda and it has backfired. The KONY 2012 video was immediately proven not only deceptive but its message and producers as outright frauds.

The controllers, for decades, have owned and manipulated the mainstream, state regulated media to their advantage. Because information was filtered through a small number of news gathering bodies, contrary information, news, and opinions were conveniently censored from public consumption. A vertical control system (with the governing elites at the top) prevented any such information from interfering with their agendas.

Seeing the low cost and immediate and viral spread of information possible through alternative media (thanks to a relatively, still free internet), the controllers saw another opportunity to spread their deception. The problem (for them) is that the internet is a horizontal system of information networks, free of any command and control filtering which allows individuals to freely seek near infinite sources of information and opinion. Individuals can, through experience, decide themselves which sources are credible and reliable This network also allows ANYONE to become a source of information or opinion. Due to this open and free network, and the free exchange of information it fosters, the dishonest and deceiving content contained in KONY 2012 was quickly exposed. In an environment of unsuppressed information, the truth will ultimately prevail.

If the internet remains free (a condition that is threatened daily) the governing elites have no chance continually and successfully deceiving, controlling, murdering, stealing from, and destroying the liberties of free individuals. Keep the pressure on.

DVD Reviews

Aftershock:
A powerful drama that takes place during a 1976 earthquake in China where over a quarter of a million people died. During the rescue, a mother must choose only one of her twin children to live (her son) and leave her daughter to die. The daughter manages to survive without the mother’s knowledge. The story revolves around the separate lives of each and their eventual reunion. Very moving.
Recommended

Margin Call:
This is a very interesting drama that seeks to replicate what happened within one fictional investment house during the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis. A number of psychological pathologies are exhibited by the various characters involved in solving the problem. Kevin Spacey is excellent as the one member of the firm deeply disturbed by his firm’s fraudulent direction.
Recommended

Equilibrium:
This 2002 film, starring Christian Bale, looks at a possible future where all feelings and emotions are suppressed within a drugged population- all to prevent war and violence. You only have to look at recent headlines to realize that the world’s control freaks see this as a viable policy.
Recommended

Sam Kinison- Breaking the Rules:
This 1987 HBO performance finds Sam in top form as his fierce and biting wit takes aim at a variety of issues. I often look at recent events and wish Sam and Bill Hicks were still around to interpret the craziness.
Recommended

Cashback:
This unique British film tells the story of a young artist who suffers a tumultuous breakup with his girlfriend. Now suffering from insomnia, he takes a night shift job at a grocery store. He finds he is able to stop time and uses this newfound ability to disrobe and sketch beautiful, young women who happen to shop in the store. Yes, its sounds kind of kinky, but the film is thoughtfully produced and helps define and explain the keen appreciation for beauty residing in the heart of the artist.
Recommended

Trollhunter:
Shot in documentary style, this Norwegian film follows three young filmmakers who attempt to interview a bear hunter. But they soon learn that he actually hunts trolls for the Norwegian government. Needless to say, a very different and amusing monster flick.
Recommended

Cowboys and Aliens:
An entertaining sci-fi flick that uses western style, setting, and characters in a good old fashioned shootout- but this time between humans and invading aliens.
Recommended

The Host:
This is a well made Korean creature film that is never short on suspense and action. The story revolves around a young girl who is captured by the monster but her family receives no help from the authorities. They then set out on their own to find her. The story includes several standout moments that illustrate and ridicule the ineffectiveness of government led disaster response.
Recommended

Z:
This is an excellent, French drama recalling the true events surrounding the 1963 assassination of a Greek doctor and humanist who led a campaign against the country’s military dictatorship. A good portion of the story centers around the dauntless investigating magistrate who refuses to be pressured by the controlling authorities.
Recommended

Blackthorn:
Not many westerns are made these days- and even fewer are worthy of watching. I couldn’t resist watching this one, seeing that it starred Sam Shepard, whose gaunt features, piercing eyes and raspy voice are custom made for western characters. Here he plays Butch Cassidy, who despite historical accounts of his death, has survived to live in Bolivia. He leaves to visit a son in California he has never seen. But his trip is disrupted by a Spanish robber (very well played by Eduardo Noriega) who claims to be his friend.
Recommended

Rise of the Planet of the Apes:
What a pleasant surprise this was. I had heard reviews that claimed it was a human hating film that celebrated the extinction of humans. To the contrary, I interpreted it as a film about revelation, awakening, and freeing oneself from the existing control grid. One of the most inspiring moments I’ve seen on film shows Caesar, the chimpanzee, loudly saying, “NO!” to his abusive handlers. I also see the gas that accelerates the intelligence evolution of the apes as a metaphor for the ongoing and increasing awakening of sovereign individuals through the new media.
Recommended

The Debt:
The incomparable Helen Mirren plays a Mossad agent, who supposedly kills a pursued Nazi war criminal in 1965. Thirty years later she finds him still alive and must now finish the task while confronting her own fraudulent past.
Recommended

Point Blank:
This French thriller never sees a slow moment. An excellent suspense thriller. A man’s good deed results in a confrontation with the criminal underground that threatens his life and his family’s. A very gritty and intense drama.
Recommended

Monster’s Ball:
Billy Bob Thornton plays a Louisiana state prison guard who falls in love with a woman who also happens to be the widow of a prisoner he knew and helped execute. The experience results in a personal awakening for his character who aims to redirect his time and life.
Recommended

Leaves of Grass:
Tim Blake Nelson directs and also acts in this very Coen Brothers-like, quirky comedy starring Edward Norton as a pair of identical twins. One twin is a free spirited marijuana grower, the other a sober college professor. A well written comedy that will turn suddenly dark at times.
Recommended

Seven Days in Utopia:
I’ll watch just about any film that has Robert Duval. Playing a character custom made for his talents, Duval’s screen presence and authenticity elevates what could have been just another lame “family” drama into a film worth watching.
Recommended

Thunder Soul:
A very enjoyable documentary about a stage band director at a Houston high school in the 1970’s. Not only does he inspire and elevate his students to be professional quality jazz musicians, he incorporates funk into the band’s arrangements, distinguishing it from other stage bands of the era. This documentary revolves around preparation for a reunion concert a few years ago where this director’s past students gather to honor him. An entertaining and moving tribute.
Recommended

50/50:
A nice little film, both touching and funny, about a young man diagnosed with cancer and 50/50 chance of recovery. Joseph Gordon-Leavitt ably plays the doomed man and Seth Rogen is quite funny as his goofy best friend.
Recommended

There Be Dragons:
A present day Spanish journalist works to uncover the mysterious past of his estranged father who participated in the Spanish civil war. He uncovers a past of love and betrayal that also reveals new truths about his own life.
Recommended

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:
“America was founded by undesirables, and built by non-conformists. We are a nation whose blood is thick with defiance and outright knock-out revolutionary badass anti-authoritarian hostility. We cut kings down to size.”
Brandon Smith

“….Real-time commerce is the most overlooked force in the universe. Commerce even provides the test of the long-run merit of ideas: Ideas rooted in truth instantiate themselves in institutions and become part of history. Therefore, following the commercial thread through time means following meritorious ideas and the real ways in which people use them to live their lives. Yet because economic ignorance is so pervasive, especially in journalism and academia, few are in a position to follow this thread. They end up daydreaming about untruths for a living.”
Jeffrey Tucker

“Boiled down, ‘national sovereignty’ is simply the assertion that mutual recognition of turf lines on the part of various overgrown street gangs (‘states‘) is sacrosanct.
‘National sovereignty’ and the turf lines (‘borders‘) it holds sacred are bad ideas in general. They’re even worse when politicians demand the benefits of their protection while repudiating the restrictions they impose. Let’s just hope that as ‘national sovereignty’ and ‘borders’ disintegrate, the state itself disintegrates with them.”
Thomas L. Knapp

“When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion.
When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing.
When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors.
When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you.
When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice – you may know that your society is doomed.”
–Ayn Rand

“I have never understood the mindset of parents who failed in what is, perhaps, their highest moral duty: to protect their sons and daughters from harm or destruction brought on by others. How any human being can love the state more than they do their own child is beyond my capacities to explain.”
Butler Shaffer

“If we attempt to examine government from an outsider’s perspective, we would see a world where people are grouped into two different categories, those in government and those not. At face value, we can see that these two groups of people have completely different standards and expectations, even though they are the same species and have the same basic needs. Looking closer, we can see that these different standards and laws are not neutral, they are very much benefiting those in government at the expense of those who are not. The most important discrepancy to mention here is the fact that those in government have a license to kill anyone who happens to disobey them.”
J. G. Vibes

“The only way to limit government is to eliminate it. Anything else sounds good but has never worked. Never in all of human history. But remember that without consent, government is powerless. I do not consent. The fewer of us who consent, the less government can really do.”
Kent McManigal

“The bottom line is that regardless of the so-called ‘legal’ authority, all U.S. wars are wars of aggression, which means they are immoral, unholy, and murderous. They are waged for purposes of imperial conquest, for power, to steal or control the natural resources of other countries, and to enrich all those government supporters who are dependent on warmongering, such as government contract corporations, and the big banking sector.”
Gary D. Barnett

“The founders of these United States of America knew exactly what government was and yet they created one anyway.
Apparently they thought they could give us a dangerous servant; instead we have a fearful master.
What were they thinking?”
Garry Reed

“US Special Forces pride themselves on being problem-solvers in open-ended situations, on being leaders not followers, and on being aggressive not meek. They think of the rest of us as being meek followers. They could not be more mistaken. The remaining population contains huge numbers of problem-solvers, leaders and aggressive persons. They just do not join the armed forces and go into the elite branches of those forces. They direct their capacities in more peaceful directions.”
Michael S. Rozeff

“Much of what passes for ‘conservative’ these days is actually materialism: The ‘defense’ leg of conservatism's famous ‘three-legged stool’ (defense, social, economic) of conservatism often demonstrates no ‘values’ other than its own desire for plunder. ‘Democracy’ simply becomes a fig-leaf for the lust for power. And the banksters of ‘business’ are hardly better."
Christopher Manion

“We have gone from Southerners being the only group in American history to seriously challenge the ‘supremacy’ of Washington, D.C. over everyone's lives, to a culture that gleefully panders and grovels to its imperial rulers in Washington by sacrificing its children by the thousands in the state's wars.
Most Southerners will continue to support the neocon agenda of endless unjust war that has nothing to do with national defense because to do otherwise would be to admit that, for generations, they have willingly sacrificed the lives of their children for no other reason than to kiss the asses of the politicians in Washington.”
Thomas DiLorenzo

“The man
Of virtuous soul commands not nor obeys.
Power like a desolating pestilence
Pollutes whate’er it touches; and obedience,
Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth,
Makes slaves of men, and of the human frame
A mechanized automaton”
Percy Bysshe Shelley

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From the Darkness:

“We must advocate for the traditional family, protect the sanctity of procreation and ensure that all men using PDE-5 inhibitors are healthy, stable, and educated about their options -- including celibacy as a viable life choice. This legislation will do just that.
I’m fed up over all this concern, consideration and conversation over the feeble and fragile minds of women who are unable to make decisions on their own. I thought it was time to show our men some love and some regulation. It was time to level the playing field for all.”

Ohio state senator Nina Turner, after introducing a mill aimed at protecting men from the risks of PDE-5 inhibitors -- drugs like Viagra that are commonly used to treat symptoms of erectile dysfunction -- in an effort to “guide men to make the right decision for their bodies.”

“I think (these are) options [a naval blockade of Iran] that whoever is willing to participate should explore, including Israel and including the United States.”
Sen. Carl Levin

"You just have to push through these things [the massacre of about 16 Afghan civilians by a U.S. soldier].
I hope that the strategy partnership agreement between the United States and Afghanistan will stop the narrative we’re leaving. We can win this thing. We can get it right."
Sen. Lindsey Graham

"As of March, every last gun shop remaining in Venezuela - and there are less than 80 - should be closed. That is to say, in Venezuela, the perverse chapter of the commercialization of firearms and munitions is over."
Venezuelan Interior and Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami

"Our democracy has been hacked. The Internet is the most fantastic tool ever brought into being to make things right and to fix our democracy."
Al Gore, promoting the internet as a tool of mob rule

"I do not believe this incident [Afghan massacre] will change the timetable of a strategy that was designed and is being implemented in a way to allow for the withdrawal of U.S. forces, to allow for their transfer of lead security authority over to the Afghans."
White House spokesman Jay Carney

"We’re not going to fix Afghanistan. It’s not possible. What you have to do is say, ‘You know, you’re going to have to figure out how to live your own miserable life… Because you clearly don’t want to learn from me how to be unmiserable.’”
New Gingrich, the most consistent slime ball in the race for US Dictator

“Including LFTB [lean, finely textured beef, i.e., “pink slime”] in the national school lunch program’s beef products accomplishes three important goals on behalf of 32 million kids: 1) improves the nutritional profile, 2) increases the safety of the products and 3) meets the budget parameters that allow the school lunch program to feed kids nationwide every day.”
Beef Products Inc. spokesman Rich Jochum

“Unless and until the law [Obama Care] is repealed by Congress or overturned by the Supreme Court, all health care stakeholders — including state policymakers — need to prepare for it as though it will be the law of the land forever. Wishing the law away is not a strategy. Hoping that it is overturned is not a plan.”
David Merritt, health advisor to Newt Gingrich and also a senior adviser at Leavitt Partners-  a consulting firm that makes money by helping states implement ObamaCare

“We are on the right path [in Afghanistan]. I am absolutely convinced of that but the key right now is to stick to that path. And if we do anything precipitous to back away from that, I think that, in my mind, could very well jeopardize our mission.”
Leon Panetta [“Mission?” Which is what- killing people? How many must you kill before the “mission” is completed? Or will having 100% of surviving Afghans licking your boots be sufficient?]

"Here at the site of the twin towers, Ground Zero, here is the place to remember why what we do overseas is so important, so people are safe at home."
British Prime Minister David Cameron, completely oblivious to the truth of blowback

"In all of our interactions – including today – I've learned something about David [Cameron]. In good times and in bad, he's just the kind of partner that you want at your side. I trust him … I've seen his character. And I've seen his commitment to human dignity, during Libya."
B. Obama [So the slaughter in Libya was “dignified.?”]

“Items of interest will be located, identified, monitored, and remotely controlled through technologies such as radio-frequency identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers, and energy harvesters — all connected to the next-generation internet using abundant, low-cost, and high-power computing; the latter now going to cloud computing, in many areas greater and greater supercomputing, and, ultimately, heading to quantum computing.”
CIA director David Petraeus explaining how the rise of new “smart” gadgets means that Americans are effectively bugging their own homes, saving US spy agencies a job when it identifies any “persons of interest”

“Our freedom of religion and freedom of practice of that religion in the military is one of our greatest assets to our fighting force.”
Leroy A. Petry, Medal of Honor recipient [Kill for Jesus!]

“De Oppresso Libre -- free the oppressed,. Our friends are those in need and even though they don’t know us we do it because we believe it’s right.”
Leroy A. Petry, Medal of Honor recipient, defending and justifying murderous, American Exceptionalism

“Rick Santorum believes that federal obscenity laws should be vigorously enforced. ‘If elected President, I will appoint an Attorney General who will do so.’”
From Santorum’s website [Ricky wants to protect us from dirty pictures, but not from state agents spying on us.]

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:
“That yearning of humanity to feel connected is so strong, yet the political divisions imposed on them by controlling tribal leaders tells them otherwise. Fight, attack, destroy anything foreign to ourselves and our way of life, and maintain that state of continual war. All false stimuli.”
Zen Gardner

“The reason that the U.S. is concerned over Iran and cruising for an all-out fight is that the empire demands weakness among all those around it that might conceivably challenge its dominance. It demands compliant satellites wherever it can create them or force them into compliance. Is this the historic role of Americans? Is this what America is about? Is it about political domination of the world? Is it about empire? Is it about suppressing progress and liberty in the aim of keeping other nations weak? Is it about putting into practice a psychopathology of power?”
Michael S. Rozeff

“I just don't feel sorry for aggressors who reap the fruits of their actions. Even when the person they are attacking is worse than they are. In fact, I find it very humorous when bad guys clash, as long as no innocent person is hurt in the crossfire.
Let them all arm themselves however they want, and I'll seek shelter until they have all ‘honored’ themselves to death. Good riddance to these burdens on civilization.”
Kent McManigal

“If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go; perchance it will wear smooth — certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.”
Henry David Thoreau

“True leaders set a positive example for others to follow by partaking in voluntary interactions with their peers and showing the community how to live more meaningful and peaceful lives. These people may be artists, philosophers, inventors, builders, entrepreneurs or skilled workers that are involved in win-win scenarios with their fellow human beings. In other words, people who create some sort of value for the community, even if that value is just a good imagination or personality. With that being the case, if someone spends their time barking out orders, committing acts of violence and meddling in the lives of their peers, does it make any sense at all for us to call that person a ‘leader‘?”
J. G. Vibes

“Government says it is making us safe. Meanwhile, the government’s wars kill tens of thousands and put Americans in harm’s way, and the domestic police state has never been so violent Government says that it is forcing us not to harm ourselves, but government threatens us with harm constantly with its guns, fines, courts and 10 million micro-coercions, not to mention its relentless looting of our bank accounts and purchasing power Government says it is making us polite and civil, but it unleashes an army of bureaucrats who are the very soul of rudeness, hence coarsening society in so many ways.”
Jeffrey Tucker

“In my view, that which is extreme is not that which violates the boundaries of ‘normal’ society, but which violates the boundaries of inherent truth, and conscience. In an honest society, an extremist is someone who denies the universal foundations of existence, and tries to play demigod in a fantasy world of moral relativism and rationalized criminality. A disjointed freak of nature that seeks to impose his twisted will upon others. Unfortunately, the honest definition of extremism is not the most popular amongst the frothing elitists that reside over the functions of our political structure today."
Brandon Smith

“Liberty is an easy word to say, but it is a hard word to live up to. Freedom has little to do with financial gain or personal pleasure. Accompanying Freedom is her constant and unattractive companion, Responsibility. Neither is she an only child. Patriotism and Morality are her sisters. They are inseparable: destroy one and all will die.”
Chuck Baldwin

“Despite all the mystification of ‘national security’ and ‘national interest,’ the interests served by the state’s military violence are every bit as particular as those served by any other violent actions carried out by other groups of individuals. The state is nothing but an association for armed violence on the part of those who make money at the expense of other people.
In this Orwellian conceptual world, the question of whether the state has the right to use violence doesn’t bear looking into. But in the real world, it does. The state is by far the greatest concentration of organized violence, and it almost always employs such violence for evil purposes — whether at Tahrir Square, Hama, or Oakland.”
Kevin Carson

“The government not only lies about war, it routinely lies about its lies about war.”
Charles Goyette

"One man with courage is a majority."
Thomas Jefferson

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From the Darkness:

"The Obama administration has been quite clear in our opposition to decriminalization or legalization of illicit drugs."

Dan Restrepo, the top Latin America official of the Obama Regime

“I have said that when it comes to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, I will take no options off the table, and I mean what I say. That includes all elements of American power: a political effort aimed at isolating Iran, a diplomatic effort to sustain our coalition and ensure that the Iranian program is monitored, an economic effort that imposes crippling sanctions and, yes, a military effort to be prepared for any contingency.”
B. Obama

"The President must state unequivocally that under no circumstances will [Syrian President] Assad be allowed to finish what he has started, that there is no future in which Assad and his lieutenants will remain in control of Syria, and that the United States is prepared to use the full weight of our airpower to make it so."
Sen. John McCain, looking for more death to get off on [I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- The North Vietnamese would have the saved the world a lot of future grief if they had rightfully carved up McCain in a fit of revenge and thrown his remains in a rice paddy.]

“The ultimate goal of airstrikes should be to establish and defend safe havens in Syria, especially in the north, in which opposition forces can organize and plan their political and military activities against Assad. These safe havens could serve as platforms for the delivery of humanitarian and military assistance – including weapons and ammunition, body armor and other personal protective equipment, tactical intelligence, secure communications equipment, food and water, and medical supplies. These safe havens could also help the Free Syrian Army and other armed groups in Syria to train and organize themselves into more cohesive and effective military forces, likely with the assistance of foreign partners."
John McCain, outlining the coming US colonization of Syria

“We're a very pro-military state up here [in Alaska]. We recognize what it is that our men and women in uniform sacrifice for all of us to keep us secure. And at this point, we're watching Obama with his naive apologies to savages in Afghanistan who turn around and kill our soldiers.”
Sarah Palin, a whining bigot from the wilderness

“It’s clear that United States citizenship alone does not make such individuals immune from being targeted. Some have argued that the president is required to get permission from a federal court before taking action against a United States citizen who is a senior operational leader of Al Qaeda or associated forces. This is simply not accurate. Due process and judicial process are not one and the same, particularly when it comes to national security. The Constitution guarantees due process, it does not guarantee judicial process.”
Eric Holder, US Attorney General

"Yes, the situation with the Koran burning concerns me. I think that it is an indication of the challenges in that environment, and it's an indication that now is the time for us to transition.
We are not interested in staying there any longer than is necessary to assure that Al Qaeda is not operating there, and that there is sufficient stability that it doesn't end up being a free-for-all after ISAF [NATO's International Security Assistance Force] has left.
There are going to be bumps along the road. just as there were in Iraq."
B. Obama [Those “bumps” happen to be human lives being destroyed every time you come up with a new “transition.”]

“If Iran doesn’t get rid of nuclear facilities, we will tear them down ourselves.”
Rick Santorum, candidate for US Dictator [Let's see you lead the way, Ricky.]

“I will provide all available intelligence to the Israeli government, ensure that they have the equipment necessary, and reassure them, that if an Israeli prime minister decides that he has to avoid the threat of a second Holocaust through pre-emptive measures, that I would require no advance notice.”
Newt Gingrich, outlining his actions as future US Murderer-in-Chief

“Amazingly, some people refuse to acknowledge that Iran’s goal is to develop nuclear weapons. You see, Iran claims that it’s enriching uranium to develop medical research. Yeah, right.
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then what is it? That’s right, it’s a duck. But this duck is a nuclear duck and it’s time the world started calling a duck a duck.
A nuclear-armed Iran would dramatically increase terrorism by giving terrorists a nuclear umbrella. That means that Iran’s terror proxies like Hezbollah, Hamas will be emboldened to attack America, Israel, and others because they will be backed by a power with atomic weapons.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, spewing his Zionist nonsense

“The reduction in the number of pregnancies compensates for the cost of contraception.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, proclaiming that the new requirement that all health insurance plans cover sterilizations and contraceptives will be good for employers and health insurance companies because it will mean less births.

“Since the national attention is on birth control, here's my idea: If we want to fight poverty, reduce violent crime and bring down our embarrassing drop-out rate, we should swap contraceptives for fluoride in Michigan's drinking water."
Nolan Finley, The Detroit News

“Again, our goal would be to seek international permission and we would come to the Congress and inform you and determine how best to approach this. Whether or not we would want to get permission from the Congress, I think those are issues we would have to discuss as we decide what to do here.”
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, when asked whether the Obama regime can act without Congress to initiate a no-fly zone in Syria, without Congressional approval

Thoughts About Faith and Reason

Belief in Christianity certainly requires faith- but no more so than believing that an institution (government) consisting of corruptible men, given a monopoly of power (yet “regulated” by a Piece of Paper), can protect the lives and liberties of individuals. The problem with Christians is not their religious faith, it is their loyalty to church institutions- subscribing to church dogma and the perfunctory bowing to, and believing, the rants of salvation gatekeepers (preachers). This is similar to the problem statists have with believing state propaganda and accepting the spoken and written gibberish of politicians. In this control system, individual thought and action must yield to collectivist, obedient response to central planning and control by self-professed elites.

You, as an individual, born with the tool of reason, are blessed with an advantage that every other member of the animal kingdom envies. By all means, use that tool and rise above the nonsense that permeates the mainstream culture and discussion. Release your soul from the pressure to conform. Free your mind from the powers that aim to enslave it.

School Honored for Collecting Garbage

A school in Mesquite, Texas has been honored for it’s students success at collecting huge amounts of supposed “recyclable” materials, i.e., garbage.

The students at Sam Rutherford Elementary, “averaged 38 pounds of material per day per student, more than seven times the national average. This was very close to the best of ANY school in the contest (the winning school reached a stunning 42 lbs). Regardless, the 37 pounds reached by Rutherford meant they won 'best of state.' They are officially now the best recycling school in Texas.”

Are you also “stunned” or impressed? The powers-that-be in Mesquite certainly are, as they have a grand celebration planned to honor the school for taking the “state title.” No, the school and its “educators” will not be honored for enlightening their students about the wonders of the world they live in, the surrounding, infinite universe, and the mysteries to be solved and marvels to be experienced. No, they will not be recognized for motivating students to think for themselves and search within for the unique, inherent, value and talent characteristic of every living individual. No, they will not be complimented for encouraging students to explore the fascinating, aforementioned mysteries of this boundless universe. No, these educators will not be toasted for motivating each child’s creativity to offer solutions to such mysteries.

Instead, the school will be honored because they were able to motivate and encourage their students to be best at……collecting garbage.

These students will never hear from their controllers about the economic inefficiency of most of this recycling effort. They will only be indoctrinated with the collectivist meme that these materials MUST be collected and reused to prevent harm to the planet. This type of activity also teaches obedience to authorities that “know best” and to mindlessly follow their direction- goals, of course, characteristic of any state controlled “education.” Collectivist thought, obedience, and activity supersede any individual initiative.

As Glenn Horowitz, in his article, Dumberer and Dumberest writes:

“If you're not familiar with it, the Prussian system was a teaching methodology designed to stamp out good little worker bees assembly-line fashion, trained to be complacent with their station in life and compliant with every demand of the State. An elite of those better educated but still proven unquestioningly loyal to the State were promoted to lead the proletariat, rewarded with elevated status and material success commensurate with their skills and the zeal they demonstrate in supporting the system. It specifically avoided developing creativity and independent thought, reasoning these were skills the worker classes didn't need in their roles as mass produced labor.”

If the state can successfully motivate and convince students that collecting trash is a sensible and productive use of their time, it should make the state’s future challenge much easier- that dying in the empire’s wars (or at least giving up their liberties) is certainly worth the cost and sacrifice of not only their time, but their very lives.

And if they choose not to follow such a direction, this newfound skill of collecting trash will serve them well in that dark, dystopian future when they’ll be dumpster diving, trying to survive.

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:
“Virtually every adult person contravenes the ubiquitous regulations of democratic government at many times in their life. And regardless of their actions, everyone living under unlimited democracy is treated as the property of the government, with rights that are disposable at the whims of the mob. Under democracy, everyone is subject to the rule of any group that can acquire large numbers and become adept at capturing political power.”
Ben O’Neill

“So called empirical knowledge supposedly based on scientific or academic fact is so much hooey. You can’t trust any of it. Oh, there’s truths in there, that’s not the point. It’s the abuse of truth that so permeates the supposed facts projected by the Powers That Be that’s the problem.”
Zen Gardner

“Class after class of American youth have been taught that Americans may kill other peoples to achieve American political aims and that this is good, for other peoples are children or savages or inept or ignorant or inferior, while the American ways are superior. Americans have in the past imagined themselves the reluctant killers and victors, without the aims of conquest of past civilizations. They have imagined themselves as the kind, generous, and beneficent empire while not counting those whom they have murdered. For America is good. It has a big heart. It may make mistakes, but its intent is noble. It has a good heart. These have been the myths cultivated in the breeding grounds of those who man the machinery of empire.”
Michael S. Rozeff

“Alas, surprising numbers of Constitutionalists who cry ‘Foul!’ at imperialism, the PATRIOT Act, the NDAA of 2012 and other violations actually urge the Feds to eviscerate the highest law of the land when it comes to immigration. Nothing in the Constitution empowers the central government to patrol the country’s borders – and let those who dispute that cite the article and clause supporting their position.
We who love liberty never echo the eugenicists and justify a man’s exercise of his freedom based on how valuable he is to society; gracious, were that our criteria, we’d immediately deport all politicians and bureaucrats! Liberty is the highest end, in and of itself; we need not earn it, regardless of where we were born, what language we speak, or what culture we embrace: the simple fact of our humanity entitles every one of us to it.”
Becky Akers

“The Christian should use peaceful means to persuade others to live as he does. The non-Christian should use peaceful means to persuade others to live as he does. However, the democratic State precludes such peaceful means. Instead of peacefully persuading others to live as he wishes while accepting the fact that many will not live as he wishes, the statist Christian aims to persuade enough people to pass a law which will compel everyone to live as the Christian wishes. And it never occurs to the statist Christian that forcing people against their will to live a Christian life is itself unChristian.”
Brutus

“Our continued participation in this circus performance we call politics continues to feed the illusion of its legitimacy. By withdrawing our consent and participation in politics we may be freeing up considerable resources to apply toward the creation of a better world, while simultaneously helping to snuff out this energetic vampire that feeds heartily on our collective good will and positive energy.”
Dylan Charles

“The main difference between the feudal system of five hundred years ago and the feudal system that is developing in the First World today is that the packaging is more sophisticated. Instead of having identifiable kings whom we may all hate, we have the distraction of two political teams that we may "choose" between. While we praise the good guys (our preferred political party) and hope that they will vanquish the bad guys (the opposing political party), they are in fact one and the same, and they both work for the kings.”
Jeff Thomas

“Networks and other free associations run circles around authoritarian hierarchies. They’re more agile and react to situations more quickly. Because they are not divided among themselves by mutually exclusive interests, because they can trust each other, their local nodes and individual members are free to react to emergent situations on their own initiative and take up promising innovations from other nodes without having to follow endless bureaucratic rules and standard operating procedures in order to get permission to act.”
Kevin Carson

“The mortal enemies of the superclass are those people who have a seven-word offer: ‘I can sell it to you cheaper.’”
Gary North

“Countries whose politicians have been able to squander ever larger amounts of a nation's resources have not only failed to make the world more fair, the concentration of more resources and power in these politicians' hands has led to results that were often counterproductive at best, and bloodily catastrophic at worst.”
Thomas Sowell

“Human beings have not, can not, and never will live in harmony with nature. Our prosperity and health depend on technology driven by energy. We exercise our intelligence to command nature, and were admonished by Francis Bacon to exercise our dominion with ‘sound reason and true religion.’ When we are told that our primary energy source, oil, is ‘making us sick,’ or that we are ‘addicted’ to oil, these are only the latest examples of otherwise rational persons descending into gibberish after swooning to the lure of the Noble Savage. This ignorant exultation of the primitive can only lead us back to the Stone Age.”
David Deming

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

From the Darkness:

“If and when American power declines, the institutions and norms that American power has supported will decline, too. Or more likely, if history is a guide, they may collapse altogether as we make a transition to another kind of world order, or to disorder. We may discover then that the U.S. was essential to keeping the present world order together and that the alternative to American power was not peace and harmony but chaos and catastrophe – which is what the world looked like right before the American order came into being.”

Robert Kagan, justifying American genocide and imperialism

"Our brave servicemembers have done all that we could have asked them for and more in Afghanistan.”
Elizabeth Warren, candidate for Sena-Gangster from Massachusetts [That's the problem.]

“I did always feel in my heart that God had big plans for Rick. Eventually it was there, tugging at my heart. When Obamacare passed, that was it. That put the fire in my belly.”
Karen Santorum, wife of the Dictator wannabe

“I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute. The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country.”
Rick Santorum historical ignoramus and candidate for US Dictator

"Too many states are making cuts that I think are too big. Budgets are by choice, so today I'm calling on all of you: invest more in education, invest more in our children." B. Obama [Government budgets are by “choice.” I choose zero. How soon will that take effect?]
“We're not going to let the events of the past week [in Afghanistan], which are regrettable and unfortunate and tragic, influence the long-horizon view that we're taking.”
Pentagon press secretary George Little, staying the course in the wake of violence over the burning of Qurans by the US mililtary [Typical state response- Why should still more failure change our course of action?]

“Abortion is largely accepted even for reasons that do not have anything to do with the fetus' health. By showing that (1) both fetuses and newborns do not have the same moral status as actual persons, (2) the fact that both are potential persons is morally irrelevant and (3) adoption is not always in the best interest of actual people, the authors argue that what we call ‘after-birth abortion’ (killing a newborn) should be permissible in all the cases where abortion is, including cases where the newborn is not disabled.”
The abstract from a paper entitled, “After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?” by Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva

“People [banks] won’t settle with us if they have to admit wrongdoing because it opens them to liability in civil damages lawsuits.”
Mary Shapiro, SEC Chairwoman [Duh.]

"Based on definitions of war criminal and crimes against humanity, there would be an argument to be [Assad of Syria] made that he would fit into that category."
Queen Hillary

"I would not agree with the premise that the drug war is a failure. It is a continuing effort to keep our peoples from becoming addicted to dangerous drugs."
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano [Stay the course to still more failure!]

"Suffocating sanctions could lead to a grave economic situation in Iran and to a shortage of food. This would force the regime to consider whether the nuclear adventure is worthwhile, while the Persian people have nothing to eat and may rise up as was the case in Syria, Tunisia and other Arab states The Western world led by the United States must implement stifling sanctions at this time already, rather than wait or hesitate. In order to suffocate Iran economically and diplomatically and lead the regime there to a hopeless situation, this must be done now, without delay."
From an unnamed source in the Israeli government [If you can't kill them all with bombs, you can always starve them to death.]

“It is past time to acknowledge the immense injustice toward other species represented by climate change and other human assaults on the biosphere and to reform our environmental ethics and behavior accordingly.
Ending human population growth is almost certainly a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for preventing catastrophic global climate change. Indeed, significantly reducing current human numbers (emphasis added) may be necessary in order to do so.”
Philip Cafaro, Colorado state university professor, calling for still more human genocide