Quotes of the Week

Enlightened insights taken from the past week’s reading:

"The State is like the cosmology of the primitive who scoffed at the explanation that the earth is in orbit around the sun.
'Everybody knows,' he explained, 'that the world rests on the back of a giant sea turtle.'
But when asked what that turtle stands upon, he answered, 'It is on the back of another turtle.'
When asked what the second turtle stands on, he answered, 'It’s quite simple. It’s turtles – turtles – turtles all the way down.'
In the State it’s lunatics – lunatics – lunatics all the way down."
Charles Goyette

"By waging endless wars abroad, by bringing the instruments of war home, by transforming police into extensions of the military, by turning a free society into a suspect society, by treating American citizens like enemy combatants, by discouraging and criminalizing a free exchange of ideas, by making violence its calling card through SWAT team raids and militarized police, by fomenting division and strife among the citizenry, by acclimating the citizenry to the sights and sounds of war, and by generally making peaceful revolution all but impossible, the government has engineered an environment in which domestic violence has become almost inevitable."
John W. Whitehead

"The surest defense against evil is extreme individualism, originality of thinking, whimsicality, even eccentricity. Evil is a sucker for solidarity. It always goes for big numbers, for confident granite, for ideological purity, for drilled armies and balance sheets."
Joseph Brodsky

"See, I don’t live in fear of other people. I might live in amusement watching them, granted, but I don’t live in fear of them. Therefore, the government selling me ideas based on fear isn’t going to impress me. I want to see what benefits me as far as keeping my own money, less government intrusion into my life, and not killing other people in my name across the planet. Be that as it may, I know the government is incapable of doing this because they’ve grown far too powerful politically, militarily, and economically. Thus, whatever the government says, I can always know that at some point, the real scam will be revealed given time."
Jack Perry

"Astoundingly, then, [Nancy] Pelosi and her fellow Progressives are correct: Trump’s [travel] ban is unconstitutional. But so is the entire regulatory and bureaucratic apparatus pertaining to immigration that the Feds — whether Dimocrats or Rethuglicans — have enshrined over the last 150 years."
Becky Akers

"High IQ doesn’t inoculate a person against ignorance, bias, wrong ideas, psychopathy or immoral behavior. IQ tests in part present people with puzzles to solve, and they can be tough mathematical or logical puzzles. Scoring high is no guarantee whatsoever that a person understands human behavior or understands his own problems and weaknesses or knows how to handle human situations or has a moral compass that’s suitable for being a leader or a person trusted with power."
Michael Rozeff

"But when it reaches the point that the spy state is essentially using its unconstitutional tools to engage in what amounts to 'opposition research' with the aim of election nullification, then the Imperial City has become a clear and present danger to American democracy and the liberties of the American people."
David Stockman

"Trump handily and fairly won a democratic election just three months ago. If he’s the devil, a wrecking ball that cannot be stopped by the other branches of government, then our entire constitutional system and its democratic mechanisms are defective. Why doesn’t the #neverTrump movement take its arguments to their logical conclusion, and insist an electorate that would install Donald Trump never be allowed to vote again or have any say in organizing society?
The reality is becoming clear, even as it remains uncomfortable for many: democracy is a sham that should be opposed by all liberty-loving people. Voting and elections confer no legitimacy whatsoever on any government, and to the extent a democratic political process replaces outright war it should be seen as only slightly less horrific."
Jeff Deist

"No dullness and clumsiness on the part of the masses can stop the pioneers of improvement. There is no need for them to win the approval of inert people beforehand. They are free to embark upon their projects even if everyone else laughs at them."
Ludwig Von Mises

"The reason [liberals] want to police humor is they can’t control it — because the one thing all authoritarians hate is the sound of laughter."
Milo Yiannopoulos

Quotes of the Week

Enlightened insights taken from the past week’s reading:

"But all the leftist sects agree – they have found the revealed truth, and imposing it upon the benighted normals like us is so transcendently important that they are relieved of any moral limitations. They are ISIS, except with hashtags instead of AKs, committed to the establishment of a leftist caliphate."
Kurt Schlichter

"What we are seeing is another manifestation of ego-centered celebrity politics. This is the problem with voting for brand over substance. It’s a common marketing gimmick that states if people recognize the brand, they’ll buy it without reading the ingredients. Americans these days look like walking billboards for shoe companies, clothing outlets, and various other things they believe give them an 'identity'. Now they’ve latched on to a man who says he will make them 'great' again, yet, we have seen nothing but great ego demonstrated. To wit, where is the emphasis on the REAL issues?"
Jack Perry

"Apart from employees of the executive branch, or active-duty members of the military who have been called into service by Congress, no American really has a 'president.' The office was intended to be peripheral to the daily concerns of Americans, rather than the central focus of their existence. What a wonderful thing it would be if Americans of all persuasions adopted the motto 'Not My President' — and then learned to regard the state itself with the proper mixture of hostility and contempt."
William N. Grigg

"Dealing with individuals is the only possible way of reaching and effecting change within systems. All systems are, after all, composed of individuals. Systems, collectives, groups, aggregates are just concepts and concepts don’t think, feel, speak or dream; only individuals do.
All types of group supremacy, in the form of specific groups or as an unconscious conceptual system, are made possible by authoritarian political, social and cultural structures. The solution is to stop making all forms of authoritarianism possible, and that includes the most authoritarian for of all; statism."
Garry Reed

"ISIS are nothing more than inbred sand people who have memorized a book that keeps repeating, Convert or die.' They are basically Koko the gorilla in a terrible mood."
Gavin McInnes

"There is not a U.S. administration since WWII that has not had killers at its helm. This is who they are. This is what they do. Killing is their stock in trade. Trump has already killed. They are all vitally interested in maintaining and using their powers and forces to kill. They are all vitally interested in having Americans support them in their killing."
Michael Rozeff

"Of course, the US is morally superior to everyone. The millions of peoples we kill and dislocate are proof of our unquestioned moral superiority. Every time we bomb a wedding, a funeral of the wedding guests, a children’s soccer game, innumerable hospitals and medical centers, schools, farms, public transportation, we exceptional and indispensable Americans are demonstrating our moral superiority over the Earth. Only the morally superior can commit vast crimes against humanity without being held accountable."
Paul Craig Roberts

"Renewables do not work. They are a fail. They are an imposition on the consumer, based on a pack of lies invented by anti-capitalist green loons, embraced by corporate shysters, endorsed by ill-informed politicians, promulgated by politically motivated environment and energy correspondents who aren’t doing their job as journalists, and swallowed by brainwashed victims of a dumbed-down education system who are too thick to know better. They are unaffordable, environmentally destructive, morally wrong. The people who make money out of them should retire to their studies with a bottle of whisky and their service pistol and do the decent thing (except they won’t because they’re not decent people)."
James Delingpole

"We have differences -- different interests, attention spans, beliefs, expectations, strengths, weaknesses, skills, habits, languages, etc. The real goal is to be treated equitably and fairly, not as identical interchangeable units.
In an era of massive customization -- of media, products, art, and experiences -- why should we be stuck with one-size-fits-all governance?"
Arthur Brock

"With scarcity artificially raised by tariffs and other ‘protections’ – with abundance artificially reduced by these measures – the people must, as a result, work harder in order to consume the same amount of goods and services as they consumed before, or, if they work as before, settle for consuming fewer goods and services.
Protectionists observe the greater work effort and conclude that this greater effort will cause the people to become more prosperous. Free traders observe the greater work effort and recognize that that this greater effort is the consequence of the people being made less prosperous."
Donald Boudreaux

"There is only one libertarian answer to trade: it should be left to market participants.  What does this mean in this world?  Reduce import tariffs to zero.  Nothing more is necessary.  For those who fear that the US will be flooded with imported product and will, therefore, lose jobs, rest assured – those dastardly Chinese and Germans will have to spend those dollars somewhere – and that somewhere is in the good old USA."
Bionic Mosquito

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOMAN WEARS KIMONO!

WORLD OUTRAGED!

Details from the Loony Left

Not Being 'Evil' - An Addendum

Kent McManigal responded to my post concerning his thoughts to “not being evil.” Please read his response before reading the post below:

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Not treating "symptoms" can create further problems that will be “fatal.” That's the point.

An outline:

Symptom- mass, third world immigration.

Cause- The welfare/warfare state.

New problems created by symptom- expanded welfare state, increased taxation and public debt, civil and racial strife, economic deterioration.

The initial symptom, easily treated (stop the migration) but ignored, becomes the cause of further problems- or if you prefer- a new set of symptoms created by a newer, different cause.

The “fatal” result? The welfare/warfare state becomes even more powerful with its response to such new problems. The state thrives on chaos and conflict. It becomes even more ensconced and still further resistant to reform or abolition. Meaning, of course, the causal welfare/warfare state apparatus (hopefully not forgotten!) becomes even more difficult to eliminate.

Thinking long term while immediately acting short term may help prevent such strengthening. The ultimately “fatal” welfare/warfare state is still there but at least you have not added the also fatal consequences of mass migration to your list of woes. And the state does not add to its repertoire of interventions to (supposedly) solve the consequences of previous interventions.

I will have to leave it up to more creative minds than mine to figure how to convince the reactive masses (with their characteristically short attention spans) to not neglect the long term cause while successfully dealing with the threatening, short term symptom(s).

Which brings a chilling thought to mind: Both Kent and I see the welfare/warfare state as the cause of the symptom we discussed. I think we might also agree that the welfare/warfare state could additionally be viewed as a symptom, generated by a still higher level cause- The Federal Reserve Bank. Such a massive, destructive welfare/warfare state would not be possible without counterfeiting central banksters.

Try to ignore the sense of powerlessness and hopelessness now creeping into your thoughts.

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOMAN SITS AT DESK!

WORLD OUTRAGED!

Details from the Loony Left

Not Being ‘Evil’ Does Not Mean Being Foolish

Clearing up some confusion about what is “evil”:

We all know the saying about the ineffective way of solving a problem- “Treating the symptom rather than the disease.” It makes perfectly logical sense that treating and eliminating the cause of the problem is the only completely effective way to eliminate any resulting symptoms. However, while going through the process of treating the “disease,” we certainly don’t want to ignore the resulting, existing symptoms. Why? Because those symptoms, if left untreated, can cause still additional problems.

It always seems easier to immediately treat the symptoms of a problem rather than the cause. The symptoms tend to be easily identifiable while the cause may not be readily apparent. But does that then mean you should ignore these obvious symptoms while seeking to identify and eliminate the cause? Hardly. The trick is not to forget seeking the cause (if not yet known) or eventually eradicating it (if known) while immediately dealing with the resulting symptoms.

When you have a cold (cause- virus attacking a weak immune system) you may suffer a bad cough as a symptom. You certainly attack the cause with actions to strengthen your immune system (good food, supplements, rest, etc) but you also, in the meantime, attack your bad cough/symptom (with medication, supplements, etc.), which left untreated, may cause further problems, such as spreading germs to others, making work and communication difficult, etc. Treating this symptom will not end its cause but will certainly make the symptom more tolerable and help prevent further, resulting problems.

Yes, drug prohibition has a lot to do with that heroin junkie who needs his fix so bad that he his now putting a gun to your head, demanding your money. This truly criminal act can be argued as a symptom of prohibition, but do you ignore that symptom and criminal act and excuse it for being just a symptom and not the cause of his criminal act? No, you defend yourself with whatever force you have at hand. You still condemn prohibition, but in the meantime you actively defend yourself against violent, parasitic junkies with whatever force is available. By defending yourself, you’ve essentially moderated a symptom of the initial cause (prohibition) and prevented further problems (crime against your person and property and the resulting loss of your money) by attacking that symptom.

The welfare/warfare state is the ultimate cause of the mass migration of mostly, illiterate, unskilled, third world individuals- “immigrants” and “refugees.” The wars of empire cause them to flee and generous welfare states offer attractive destinations. You, the tax slaves, are further fleeced to support such migrants after also paying for the wars that inspired their migration.

Do you simply whine about supporting these parasites (the immediate symptom) and only illustrate the cause of their plight (the welfare/warfare state)? That would be foolish. You do whatever possible to moderate the ill effects of the symptom (parasitic migrants) to prevent still further problems (crime, tax increases, cultural destruction, etc.). You continue to condemn the causal welfare/warfare state, but also work to remediate and even prevent the resulting symptomatic migration. It only makes sense to do so.

Screaming at the god-State, “B wouldn’t be happening if not for A!” will not help you deal with the immediate problems represented by B. A is systemic and highly resistant to immediate change or abolition. The problems created by B can be dealt with immediately and quickly.

Treating the symptoms of any problem will not ultimately correct its cause, but it will help lessen suffering from those symptoms and help prevent still further problems. There is certainly nothing “evil” about that. It’s just common sense. And it’s certainly not “violating property rights” to defend yourself against those who aim (wittingly or not) to violate yours! You are instead defending your person and property against the true “evil” of parasitic invaders created by a truly “evil” institution that also does not respect your person and property. Why welcome still more violent statists to abuse you and your property and potentially even rule you?

A two-pronged approach of dealing with the symptoms as well as the cause is the most rational approach to fighting statist nonsense. Lessening the impact of the symptoms (crime, parasitism, forced integration, cultural degradation) allow you to retain the time, resources, and cultural allies to ultimately eliminate the cause (the welfare/warfare state).

Which brings another wise saying to mind: “An ounce of prevention is worth an ounce of cure.” Another possibility is “Fences make good neighbors.”

When both cause and effect are your enemies, why not fight both?

Quotes of the Week

Enlightened insights taken from the past week’s reading:

"Nobody on TV seems prepared to face the truth, which is, these stupid kids are rioting because it’s really, really, really fun. That’s it. The same was true of the Rodney King riots and the riots in Ferguson. All vandals need is a semblance of a meme for justification and they’re good to go. To pretend it’s anything more than that is to tell your rapist you’re a Malcolm X scholar in hopes that he’ll stop."
Gavin McInnes

"Real men do not desire war and average' people have nothing to gain from it.
Still, the general population, with the right amount of propaganda, can be convinced to sacrifice the lives of countless others based on a foolish masculinity contest or the idiocy of humanitarian intervention and the Responsibility to Protect doctrine. The vast majority, of course, will continue to stare off listlessly into their television screens with no opinion formed whatsoever."
Brandon Turbeville

"It has been said that every ruler builds a house another will inherit. A better way of expressing that insight is that every ruler expands the architecture of oppression, thereby fortifying the prison in which his subjects — and their children — will live. This is true even — no, especially — of rulers who supposedly have a democratic mandate to exercise violence on behalf of the collective."
William N. Grigg

"There is a big danger attached to ideas of making things better. It's a short distance between believing something is better and feeling justified in forcing everyone to follow it 'or else.'
That's the flaw with most 'laws.' Someone got a bright idea they decided would be better, and instead of trying to convince people it would be a good idea, they cheated and made it mandatory. By creating a 'law' based on their idea, they imposed it with guns.
If something is a good idea, you don't need to force people to follow it, and if you do have to force people, it's a clear sign your idea isn't as good as you believe. In fact, it's probably worthless, if not outright harmful."
Kent McManigal

"Social Media and the Internet, hailed by some as visionary tools of liberation and empowerment, are the new digital Platonic caves of false reality and noble lies. They are the vehicles where vulgar manipulation of a generation formed linguistically around the primitivism of tribal Rock music by atavistic poseurs and the monotonous dirge of Rap by nihilistic gangsters, will not be a difficult generation to enslave politically, socially and culturally."
Charles Burris

"Racism and white supremacy, like so many other ills in our world, is the direct product of statism. And statism itself is the direct product of the groupthink collectivist mentality inescapably inherent in every form of authoritarian ideology. It’s why libertarians advocate minimizing or abolishing the state as we know it by taking power from the state and returning it to the individual."
Garry Reed

"The more hopeless a society is, the more under the thumb of the government-corporate nexus, the greater the adulation of professional sports teams and the deification of athletes. It is a kind of sweaty lottery – a means of dangling desperate hopes before hopeless people who might become dangerous if it ever occurred to them that there is no hope for them."
Eric Peters

"Many Constitutionalists constantly badger everyone around them that the restoration of the document or a return to its origins will create a new yellow brick road where the government acknowledges and protects individual liberty at every turn and the central government in contravention of all human recorded history will remain small and vigilant of every predation on individual liberty.
Ad nauseum, the same parroting of nonsense learned in government obedience classes carefully and artfully disguised as civics class begun by a pledge to the centralizing instrument of mankind on the North American continent."
Bill Buppert

"Neither imperialism nor American exceptionalism have a moral basis. They are both immoral. Exceptionalism denies the entire thrust of the Declaration of Independence. That document makes clear that a nation is entitled to choose its own government without the interference of other nations. It implies through its emphasis on the like (equal) character of all men that in this regard a weak country is on the same footing as a strong country. A militarily strong America has no right to judge the institutions and peoples of other nations as a means of injecting itself into their countries and affairs. Neither should it take sides or favor specific nations and strengthen them at the expense of others. The notion that a state, or the U.S. state in particular, has some sort of a Christian or moral duty or responsibility to intervene is faulty and fallacious. A government is not a missionary, and when it attempts that role the results are conflict, disputes, rancor, hostility, genocides and warfare, simply because the state’s basic tool is power and its exercise."
Michael Rozeff

"There is nothing worse than a psychopath with a desperate desire to nurture you."
Brandon Smith

"When the Great Default comes, as it will, there will be a great rethinking of the authority of the federal government. When Washington's checks bounce, all bets are off."
Gary North

"If truth can be spoken, there are only two countries in the world with hegemonic aspirations—Israel and the US—and they are the sources of terrorism. Israel terrorizes Palestinians and has done so for about 70 years. The US terrorizes the rest of the world."
Paul Craig Roberts

Civility Towards Archators?

Kent McManigal’s latest blog post discusses the question of how, or whether, to maintain civility toward the multitude of archators you run across in your daily life. Though consistently berating such state agents may always be considered an appropriate, principled response, Kent believes doing so “doesn’t seem like a pleasant way to live.”

I agree. Demonstrating your disapproval against every archator you encounter creates a miserable existence. It fills you full of hate that sits uncomfortably in the pit of your gut. Though that vitriol you express is deserved against the parties in question, eventually it eats you up inside, rather than empowering you. All that does is make your life less enjoyable. Meanwhile, the archators you excoriated have quickly forgotten you and happily continue with their archating.

I recommend saving your best anti-archating rants for any members of the ruling class you come across- politicians, high ranking bureau-rats, etc. Lower level (and therefore lower IQ) archatrors will probably respond to your berating with nothing more than a blank, indifferent stare. It’s doubtful you’ll have any success making an impression upon them.

Therefore, be judicious in choosing your targets. The higher IQ decision makers who created the edicts that street archators enforce are the juiciest and more deserving targets. Even though they may very well not respond verbally, the look of terror and/or confusion in their eyes and clumsy body language will indicate you have hit a nerve. That perplexed look will confirm their realization you speak the truth and are on to their scam. If they manage to spew a verbal response to your rant, so much the better. The state’s weak, illogical defense is no match against a well prepared anti-archator. Let them have it with still another barrel of reason, logic, and liberty loving passion! And by all means, video tape the encounter!

The slicky boy/girl types may give you a condescending smirk, accompanied by the same tired, propagandist cliché. Merely respond with a sincere smile and boldly counter their childish lies with unadulterated truth.

By this time, a crowd will have gathered, giving you a larger audience to expose these state agents as the true criminals they are. Soon your target will tire and desperately scatter, feeble mind in disarray, surrounded by their posse of subordinate yes men. Being berated in public is toxic to the reputation of a state Mafioso. “Good Lord, there may be cameras around!”  Watch them clumsily sprint to their nearest safe room to recover (by cuddling with a blanket and watching videos of frolicking puppies, perhaps?).

Meanwhile, you will feel charged and emboldened and now even better prepared for your next encounter. Enjoy the gratification of watching your YouTube traffic numbers climb, as hundreds or even thousands more individuals view the weak, depraved, cowardly, ignorant beasts that claim to rule them. A member of the High and Mighty Club has been revealed as a babbling wimp!

The state cannot be defeated by using the state’s choice of weaponry- meaning force. It can only be defeated when individuals reassert their sovereignty and withdraw consent. Individuals will only be inspired to take such a drastic action when they have been exposed to the truth about their government masters- and hear it again, and again and again…….Public shaming seems to be an effective transmitter of such truths.

Selective public castigation against such high level masters (rather than mass berating of lower level, archating grunts) seems to be the better approach. The anti-archator’s time and energy is more efficiently used and I’m confident the increased effectiveness of his noble actions will cause positive mental and spiritual effects that will outnumber any negatives.

Quotes of the Week

Enlightened insights taken from the past week’s reading:

"Political violence is mob violence. The larger the crowd, the more anonymous its violence. And the impunity of anonymity, like the impunity of authority, unleashes man’s capacity for evil. Under the shielding anonymity of the lynch mob and the voting booth, any atrocity is on the table."
Dan Sanchez

"What would happen if combatant status were granted to politicians instantly? Would it dis-incentivize the rush of old men to extinguish young man in forgotten neo-imperialist shitpits around the globe?"
Bill Buppert

"Some people, like libertarians, know how to combine logic with imagination. Some people have very little logic. Some people have very little imagination. Other people have no logic or imagination whatsoever. The latter are the ones who forever think inside the currently existing box and surround themselves in bubbles of like-minded human clones."
Garry Reed

"If Donald Trump turns out to be power-hungry, corrupt, and stupid, if he becomes an icon of an arrogant emperor, it would simply be the first time in recent decades that we the people widely recognized those characteristics in a president.  This – what we are watching today – is how an all-consuming, and all involving state behaves, in its natural environment."
Karen Kwiatkowski

"It is difficult for me to comprehend a life so sterile that it becomes meaningless unless it finds validation through the election of a presidential candidate, yet lives of that kind are quite commonplace. This is proven by the flood-tide of pathos resulting from the nation-wide meltdown of campus-dwelling leftist snowflakes — and by the triumphalist gloating from collectivists of a different flavor who believe that the 'greatness' of the United States is defined by the identity of the federal government’s executive figurehead. Their continent-spanning conniption fit demonstrates that at a level below sentience they understand the essential function of the state they worship — destruction of property, disruption of productive lives and violence against the innocent."
William N. Grigg

"Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible."
Frank Herbert

"The best someone is the one who arises naturally, based on family and kin; the best law is the one to be found in the old and good law.  This was the case through much of the Germanic Middle Ages. This was a time when more men had more real liberty – liberty earned and kept.
Today we have nobles who bear none of these characteristics.  There is nothing noble about them."
Bionic Mosquito

"We can’t be a 'nation' because of a nation, by definition, is a people with similar language, customs, traditions, religion, etc. Northern and Southern Americans certainly have some things in common, maybe many, but their differences are often night and day. Everyone knows it, they just don’t understand why that is important.
America, both then and today, is a collection of republics wedded together for the 'general welfare' of the Union, not a 'nation' of people. That only included commerce and defense. All else was to be left to the States."
Brion McLanahan

"Regulation isn’t the only political meddling that destroys jobs. Licensing is another example that’s ubiquitous — and offensive. A 'license' grants us permission to earn a living; why must supposedly free people seek permission in anything, let alone a right so fundamental to dignity and autonomy? Yet under the guise of protecting consumers, the State prevents huge numbers of professionals from plying their trade without first buying off bureaucrats — I mean, passing exams.
American jobs haven’t vanished because we aren’t 'buying American' but because politicians and bureaucrats have sold us down the river.
It’s past time we fired them."
Becky Akers

"I say we take their wine and let them go. If California secedes and its 55 electoral votes come off the board, Dems will never win another American election. On the other hand, Hillary Clinton could become president of the breakaway state and the rest of us would be free of the Clinton stain."
Michael Goodwin