enlightened rogue

Quotes of the Week

2012-01-22T13:29:00.005-06:00

From the Light:
“I can give you a prediction about the next presidential election almost a year before it happens. Ready? The U.S. government will win and America will lose. The status quo will be elected once more.”
Kent McManigal

“History reminds us that civilizations are created and sustained by individuals; they are destroyed by collectives.”
Butler Shaffer

“Why is it that when government charges people with conspiracy the general public simply nods and approves, but when people charge government with conspiracy that same public chortles and guffaws and calls those people conspiracy nuts?”
Garry Reed

“The notable thing is that the Web as we know it has been built by private hands working together, not by bureaucrats and politicians. This is the great lesson that our Jetsons world has taught us, and it points to a truth that all governments want to suppress: namely, that order is the daughter of liberty. How dare the bureaucrats and politicians presume to be the lords of what they had nothing to do with creating!”
Jeffrey Tucker

“There is a helluva lot more evidence of the negative effects of government power than of liberty, and a helluva lot more evidence of the positive effects of liberty than of government power.”
Michael S. Rozeff

"I do not like the pretensions of Government—the grounds on which it demands my obedience—to be pitched too high. I don’t like the medicine-man’s magical pretensions nor the Bourbon’s Divine Right. This is not solely because I disbelieve in magic and in Bossuet’s Politique. I believe in God, but I detest theocracy. For every Government consists of mere men and is, strictly viewed, a makeshift; if it adds to its commands ‘Thus saith the Lord,’ it lies, and lies dangerously."
C. S. Lewis

“Fear is the psychological weapon of choice for totalitarian systems of power. Make the people afraid. Get them to surrender their rights in the name of national security. And then finish off the few who aren’t afraid enough. If this law [NDAA] is not revoked we will be no different from any sordid military dictatorship. Its implementation will be a huge leap forward for the corporate oligarchs who plan to continue to plunder the nation and use state and military security to cow the population into submission.”
Chris Hedges

“The development of massive and diverse movements against established power is promising for the future of human life, liberty, and dignity. They can call out the crimes of governments and make the political environment less friendly toward oppression. They can undermine politicians’ sources of power by dispersing state power and developing and defending better options outside the system. The status quo is killing people.”
Darian Worden

“Over the years I have read or listened to many men rattling on about this and that arrangement of matters human, socialism, capitalism, republics, direct democracy, fascism, militarism, all the gang. What the theorists all seem to overlook is the irresistible buoyancy of excrement. Communism, theocracy, the divine right of kings, all eventually fall into the hands of the crafty and unscrupulous. If they don't, it is only because they haven't gotten around to it.”
Fred Reed

“Though depicted as utopians, obsessed with pie in the sky daydreams, or as bomb-throwing provocateurs of pandemonium, anarchists petition simply for a society in which freedom is the guiding principle. Granted, on its own, that doesn’t mean much, but without aggression against innocents, the state could not exist.”
David S. D'Amato

“The natural law is rooted in the religio of Christianity and sets the epistemic and moral foundation and context for the existence of all people as individuals and that such laws make the cooperation, norms, and relationships of community possible. To break the natural law in the name of a secular theocracy is to simultaneously break the relational bonds of community that are the basis for the natural rights of all individuals to be free and responsible.”
David Theroux

“Our system is supposedly based on the ‘consent of the governed.’ If you believe it still is, then withdraw your consent. Not even the hardest tyranny can exist without the support of the ‘drawers of water and hewers of wood’ (to use an old Irish example). Once we withdraw our consent psychologically, then we can begin to withdraw it physically. Simply put, don't work for them in any capacity and don't give them anything you can keep out of their thieving hands. Don't patronize their institutions. Don't vote for anyone who runs in their pack. Remember, they are robbing you (and your posterity) blind under color of law without fear of reprisal. Make them earn what they steal from you.”
Dr. Michael Hill

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From the Darkness:

“America is in truth the first altruistic force for good on planet Earth. A population which will defend people, set them free, and then come home.
America does what it does to protect the freedom and the peace of the world against those who want to control everything and tell everyone what to do. We hold back the dark forces. Provide stability. Check chaos. We give the people of the world the opportunity to prosper.”

Martin C. Boire, Chairman of Support Our Troops

“…We’re in a war, and we’re talking about terrorists. We do things we don’t normally do. We could identify enemies during previous wars; it’s harder today. I hated to see the Japanese internment camps, too but a lot of times, circumstances create hardships for certain individuals. But sometimes, for the protection of everybody, they have to do these things. It’s a tough situation. If you haven’t done anything wrong, you don’t have anything to worry about.”
Gary Gore, chairman of the Cherokee County, OK Republican Party

“Now I’m hopeful that some of the things we’re seeing with respect to the [Iranian] nuclear program that the United States is involved with. Which is, on occasion, scientists, working on the nuclear program in Iran, turn up dead. I think that’s a wonderful thing. I think it sends a very clear message- that if you are scientist from Russia or North Korea, or from Iran, and you’re going to work on the nuclear program to develop a nuclear bomb for Iran, you are not safe. And if people say, ‘you cannot go out and assassinate people,’ well tell that to al -Awlaki. Okay? We’ve done it. We’ve done it to an American citizen. We can certainly do it for someone who’s producing a nuclear bomb that can be dropped on the state of Israel or provide a nuclear shield for a country that will support terrorism.”
Rick Santorum, murderous piece of fascist dog manure and candidate for US Dictator

“Andrew Jackson had a pretty clear idea about America’s enemies. Kill them!”
Newt Gingrich, pseudo-historian and candidate for US Dictator

“I have sat back and assessed the incident with the video of our Marines urinating on Taliban corpses. I do not recall any self-righteous indignation when our Delta snipers Shugart and Gordon had their bodies dragged through Mogadishu. Neither do I recall media outrage and condemnation of our Blackwater security contractors being killed, their bodies burned, and hung from a bridge in Fallujah.
All these over-emotional pundits and armchair quarterbacks need to chill. Does anyone remember the two Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division who were beheaded and gutted in Iraq?
The Marines were wrong. Give them a maximum punishment under field grade level Article 15 (non-judicial punishment), place a General Officer level letter of reprimand in their personnel file, and have them in full dress uniform stand before their Battalion, each personally apologize to God, Country, and Corps videotaped and conclude by singing the full US Marine Corps Hymn without a teleprompter.
As for everyone else, unless you have been shot at by the Taliban, shut your mouth, war is hell.”
Rep. Allen West, belligerent, American exceptionalist, defending his peeing soldier boys [Yes, war IS hell, created by monsters like you.]

"He [Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak] is a just man, not a dictator... and a man like him cannot be held responsible for criminal acts like those he is accused of committing."
Farid al-Deeb, Mubarak’s lawyer, claiming there is no evidence that Mubarak ordered Egyptian security forces to open fire on protesters

"To enact legislation that protects consumers, businesses and jobs from foreign thieves who steal America's intellectual property, we will continue to bring together industry representatives and Members to find ways to combat online piracy.
Due to the Republican and Democratic retreats taking place over the next two weeks, markup of the Stop Online Piracy Act is expected to resume in February.
I am committed to continuing to work with my colleagues in the House and Senate to send a bipartisan bill to the White House that saves American jobs and protects intellectual property."
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith

"Racism and libertarianism have had their dalliance, as Ron Paul's personal journey makes plainly evident. Even today, Paul opposes the civil rights legislation of the 1960s on the ground that society has no right to deny the 'liberty' of racist behavior. Even if Ron Paul himself is no racist, he gives comfort to racists. "
Jeffrey D. Sachs, economist

"If the [Supreme] court makes a fundamentally wrong decision, the president can in fact ignore it.
I fully expect as president that there will be several occasions when we will collide. The first one, which is actually foreign policy, the Boumediene decision which extends American legal rights to enemy combatants on the battlefield is such an outrageous extension of the court in to the commander in chief's role.
I will issue an instruction on the opening day, first day I'm sworn in, I will issue an executive order to the national security apparatus that it will not enforce Boumediene and it will regard it as null and void because it is an absurd extension of the supreme court in to the commander in chief's (authority)."
Newt Gingrich, candidate for US Dictator

"Yeah, I'd take out their [Iran’s] army and navy. No problem."
Bill O'Reilly, neo-con, chicken hawk, talk show host

Quotes of the Week

2012-01-16T12:28:00.004-06:00

From the Light:
“From Plato and Aristotle to our Founding Fathers, a nagging fact about history endures: As the band of robbers camouflaged as crusaders for democracy plunder the planet, the iron fist of tyranny waits its turn.”
Christopher Manion

"Chaos is found in greatest abundance wherever order is being sought. It always defeats order because it is better organized."
Terry Pratchett

“In rebellion, there is, of course, a right time and a right place. Barreling forward like a brainless bull charging the deceptive red cape of the matador is not the way to win back one’s freedoms, but a great way to end up impaled by the weight of one’s own thoughtless force. Respectively, resorting to random violence, or extraneous acts of revenge against current representatives, no matter how traitorous, would do nothing to alleviate the stresses of our country. They are mere middle men. Errand boys for corporate interests. Sock puppets. They are not the root of the ailment, only a symptom.”
Brandon Smith

“The vibrancy of any system depends upon its capacity and willingness to both generate and respond to change. Neither individuals nor civilizations can remain creative unless people are free to direct their own energies and to convert some portion of the material world to their self-interested purposes The death of civilizations, on the other hand, is facilitated by a movement from individualized to collective patters of thinking and conduct. Fear mobilizes mass-mindedness which, in turn, produces the state’s deadliest expressions; wars and genocides.”
Butler Shaffer

“Among campaigning politicians, the constant rhetorical refrain is fixed on practical solutions to problems facing the country, on “making government work” for ordinary folks. But the representative politics that Americans recognize just isn’t designed to do anything outside of cementing and legitimizing a system of state-enforced corporate capitalism.
Getting money out of politics is made impossible by the very nature and definition of politics. The state is an agency of an economic ruling class, and elections are its exiguous attempt at public relations. Real democracy in a stateless society would mean consensually organized groups administering their own affairs, free from aggressive, external rule.”
David S. D'Amato

“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”
Thomas Jefferson

“When those who are curious about voluntarism ask the ‘we’ questions, the underlying collectivist philosophy is still there, and this is what needs to be addressed first before any practical questions can or should be answered. Otherwise, you are just trying to get them to abandon their system for your system.”
Chris Dates

“Freedom, morality, and the human dignity of the individual consists precisely in this; that he does good not because he is forced to do so, but because he freely conceives it, wants it, and loves it.”
Mikhail Bakunin

“The [Occupy Wall Street] protestors show a very conflicted relationship with the police. They seem frightened and cowed by them yet the police and the protestors share the same common goal: increased concentration and use of violence to guide human behavior to fit the mold of the new homo Sovieticus the protesters desire.
The police and the protestors have one thing in common: they both have a pathological hatred of individual volition, free markets and free moral agency. The former represent the very concrete realization of the utopian ideal the latter wish for.”
Bill Buppert

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From the Darkness:

“I don’t believe the people should be empowered to do what pleases them the most. We have a responsibility beyond ourselves.
That is not the kind of freedom our founders envisioned and it’s not the kind of freedom that makes up a society that is devoted to the common good. The definition of liberty, as our founders understood it, was freedom with responsibility. Well responsibility to who? To themselves? No. It was a responsibility to others. It was as responsibility to our family, your neighbors and your country .”

Rick Santorum, fascist/collectivist candidate for US Dictator

"I would send troops back into Iraq, because I think we need to start talking to the Iraqi individuals there... the idea that we allow the Iranians to come back into Iraq and take over that country with all the treasure — both in blood and money that we have spent in Iraq — because this president wants to kowtow to his liberal leftist base, and move out those men and women. He could have renegotiated that time frame. I think it is a huge error for us. We are going to see Iran, in my opinion, move back in at literally the speed of light. They're going to move back in and all of the work we have done — every young man that has lost his life in that country — will have been for nothing because we got a president who does not understand what is going on in that region."
Rick Perry, candidate for US Dictator

“Are they [Iran] trying to develop a nuclear weapon? Uh, no, but we know that they are trying to develop a nuclear capability.”
Leon Panetta

“I can’t live with the implications of not doing it [undertaking a ground invasion of Iran]. I can’t live with the thought of what a nuclear Iran brings to the region and what they said about Israel, which is our centerpiece alliance in the region. I can’t live — I can’t live with the world with a nuclear Iran.”
Jon Huntsman, candidate for US Dictator

“Ron Paul and his right-libertarian ideology does espouse a new kind of freedom, just as rebellious children who fantasize about running away from home dream of a new kind of freedom. But as much as we may have rebelled against our parents as little kids, we eventually matured and realized that the rules and regulations our parents imposed on us were meant so we'd grow up to be responsible, functioning adults in society.”
Carl Gibson. Huffington Post

“In fact, democratic government is one of the greatest institutional inventions of modern Western civilization. It allows us to pool our resources and to act collectively to address the serious social, economic, and environmental problems that we are unable to deal with as individuals. The public sector is also how we provide for essential human needs that are neglected by the market – such as clean air and water, safe workplaces, and economic security. What’s more, government serves as an essential instrument of moral action – a way for us to rectify injustices, eliminate suffering, and care for each other. In short, democratic government is one of the main ways we work together to pursue the common good and make the world a better place.”
Douglas J. Amy, from a website called, “Government is Good" [Check out the website- It’s hilarious!]

“We need to make sure that we tone things down, particularly in light of the Tucson tragedy from a year ago, where my very good friend, Gabby Giffords — who is doing really well, by the way, — [was shot]. The discourse in America, the discourse in Congress in particular… has really changed, I’ll tell you. I hesitate to place blame, but I have noticed it take a very precipitous turn towards edginess and lack of civility with the growth of the Tea Party movement. You had town hall meetings that they tried to take over, and you saw some their conduct at those tea party meetings. When they come and disagree with you, you’re not just wrong, you’re the enemy.”
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, blaming the shooting of politi-gangster Giffords on the Tea party, though the shooter has absolutely no connection with that group

“It certainly seems the Iranians are intent on carrying out the threat to deal with the Little Satan, meaning Israel, destroy it completely, and attacking in any way they can U.S. interests and personnel.”
Oliver North

“[Ron] Paul's conception of liberty is not the same as Lincoln's -- which is not a condemnation of Lincoln. Paul's view would have freed African-Americans from the statism of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil Rights Act. It would have freed the occupants of concentration camps from their dependency on liberating armies. And it would free the Republican Party from any claim to conscience or power."
Michael Gerson, Washington Post

"The actions portrayed are not consistent with our core values and are not indicative of the character of the Marines in our Corps.”
A Marine Corps official commenting on a video posted on YouTube showing four combat Marines urinating on the corpses of three dead men in Afghanistan [Yea, right. You only look on them as sub-human, then kill them, but your “core values” prohibit you from pissing on them.]

Quotes of the Week

2012-01-08T16:17:00.001-06:00

From the Light:
“To those who would argue that coercion is necessary to foster freedom, that force is a prerequisite for peace and that the expropriation of individuals’ property on threat of violence is compulsory to fund an agency that, alone, is capable of guaranteeing safety and prosperity, we say: you don’t know the real meaning of anarchy, you don’t know what voluntarism is and, until you do, you will never know what it means to be truly free.”
Joel Bowman

“War is the spectacular and bloody projection of our everyday living. We precipitate war out of our daily lives; and without a transformation in ourselves, there are bound to be national and racial antagonisms, the childish quarreling over ideologies, the multiplication of soldiers, the saluting of flags, and all the many brutalities that go to create organized murder.”
J. Krishnamurti

“So much of the big lie that we’re witnessing on the world stage is simply projected pride – the big, fat, stinking manufactured pride of pathological egomaniacs reinforcing a fabricated world of their ugly, demented imaginations. Whether world conquest piggy-backing on natural and manufactured catastrophes, or attempting to morph humanity and terraform our environment to meet their specifications for world control, it’s all defensive.
They’re scared.”
Zen Gardner

“Remember: The system relies on our tacit consent. Withdraw that consent and the system will be laid bare for what it is.
And then it will not last long.”
Eric Peters

“Responsible men a women bear the costs of their actions, confine their decision making to their own property interests, and do not impose burdens upon others . Political institutions, on the other hand, are the epitome of irresponsibility because their very nature consists in violating property boundaries.”
Butler Shaffer

“Banish the word 'struggle' from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration. We are the ones we have been waiting for."
Hopi elders

“The dogs of war are set to be loosed upon the throat of anyone who gives voice to peaceful opposition and creative resistance; for this is the Wolfsbane they have continuously stomped upon. The assassinated messengers of peace comprise a long and distinguished list of familiar names, but is also a list filled with myriad third-world democratically-elected leaders who had the hubris to suggest that their nations and people should remain independent from fascist jackals with nothing more to offer than loaded words and loaded guns.”
Nicholas West

“From a Commie under every bush, America has moved to a Mommy behind every bush. Can I have my Commies back?”
Fred Reed

“The federal government does not need an efficient manager. That's a pipe dream based on the noble but flawed premise that government can be made to operate as a business. It cannot. Business is subject to the forces of free choice, supply and demand, and competition. Can you imagine government subjecting itself to the forces of competition? Can you imagine government permitting us to ignore it?”
Andrew P. Napolitano

“The difference between chattel slaves and 21st century slaves can be measured in degrees. Just as slave owners staked ownership claims on their slaves, the government stakes an ownership claim on you. The two masters are exactly the same in the fact that both wish to only extract your labor, the state just found a more efficient way of doing it. By claiming ownership of your labor the state has staked an ownership claim on to your own body.”
Chris Dates

“Governments ignore their own 'permission to exist documents- their ‘hall pass'- and will kidnap or even kill those who point out the violations.”
Kent McManigal

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From the Darkness:

“It might seem that Paul’s libertarianism is the very opposite of theocracy, but that’s true only if you want to impose theocracy at the federal level. In general, Christian Reconstructionists favor a radically decentralized society, with communities ruled by male religious patriarchs. Freed from the power of the Supreme Court and the federal government, they believe that local governments could adopt official religions and enforce biblical law.”

Michelle Goldberg, Daily Beast

"I am sure [Ron] Paul’s motives derive from ideological fervor rather than a conscious desire to oppress minorities. But the relationship between the abstract principles of his worldview and the ugly racism with which it has so frequently been expressed is hardly coincidental."
Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine

“I think a lot has changed since 2008 actually, and I think there has been a lot of soul searching in the financial services industry, quite rightly too.
It is important not to treat banking lik esome mysterious art. Banking is a business and all businesses fact this question- what is your contribution to human welfare and to the common good.”
Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint, UK, a former chairman of HSBC [Good luck finding a “soul” in the financial industry.]

"I don’t see us as militarizing police, I see us as keeping abreast with society, and we are a gun crazy society.”
William Bratton, Homeland Security adviser

"We will ensure that our military is agile, flexible and ready for the full range of contingencies."
B. Obama, reassuring us that his hired assassins are ready to kill still more people

“One of the criticisms I make is to what I refer to as more of a libertarian-ish right. They have this idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do, government should keep our taxes down and keep our regulations low, that we shouldn’t get involved in the bedroom, we shouldn’t get involved in cultural issues. That is not how traditional conservatives view the world. There is no such society, that I’m aware of where we’ve had radical individualism and that it succeeds as a culture.”
Rick Santorum, authoritarian, fascist candidate for US Dictator

“But when ideas are blocked, information deleted, conversations stifled, and people constrained in their choices, the internet is diminished for all of us. What we do today to preserve fundamental freedoms online will have a profound effect on the next generation of users. More than two billion people are now connected to the internet, but in the next 20 years, that number will more than double. And we are quickly approaching the day when more than a billion people are using the internet in repressive countries. The pledges we make and the actions we take today can help us determine whether that number grows or shrinks, or whether the meaning of being on the internet is totally distorted.”
Queen Hypocrite Hillary, top ranking official of a regime that has openly declared war on a free internet

“I think Jefferson or George Washington would have rather strongly discouraged youth from growing marijuana and their techniques with dealing with it would have been rather more violent than the current government.”
New Gingrich, supposed “historian” who doesn’t know that Washington and Jefferson grew marijuana

DVD Reviews

2012-01-04T17:34:00.001-06:00

Eastern Promises:
This drama involves a British midwife who searches for family information about a newborn whose mother has died after child birth. Her search results in crossing paths with the Russian mafia in London. This apparently well-researched story gives a glimpse into the intricacies of that organization and its unforgiving violence. Viggo Mortensen is excellent representing the subtle nuances of a smooth, well tempered mobster.
Recommended

Hesher:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a somewhat weird, long-haired metal head who moves himself into the home of a grief stricken family that has just lost its wife/mother. In his own strange way, he manages to help each overcome their debilitating sadness. Not a great movie, but quirky and funny.
Recommended

The Train:
This 1964 film has Burt Lancaster leading an effort by the French underground during WWII. The allies are approaching Paris and the Nazis aim to ship a train full of classic, priceless, French art to Germany before the liberation arrives. Lancaster’s character directs the counter action. Based on a true story.
Recommended

The Overture:A very interesting and inspiring film made in Thailand. Based on a true story, it follows a musician, highly skilled in playing a xylophone-like instrument called the ranard-ek. This musician and others work to preserve the traditional music threatened by the government’s attempted cultural genocide in the 1940’s. Includes some amazing scenes of musical prowess.
Recommended

Super 8:
Though a decent coming of age story (probably only attractive to pre-teens) and entertaining child acting, this sci-fi effort lacks the gee-wiz quality of typical Steven Spielberg produced movies of this genre.
Not Recommended

The Tree of Life:
A very different kind of film that some will love and others hate. Brad Pitt and Sean Penn star in this story about a man looking back on his life that included a loving mother, an overbearing father, and the devastating loss of one of his brothers. As one who has experienced the loss of a brother, I can identify with the spiritual reflection experienced by the character. Even if you wind up not liking this effort, you’ll have to admit that it’s an interesting piece of filmmaking.
Recommended

Seven Days in May:
A very riveting, enjoyable drama released in 1964. Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster square off during an attempted military coup by a high ranking general against the president of the United States. It’s quite ironic and even spooky that a movie with this kind of story was released not long after the Kennedy coup.
Recommended

Soul Surfer:
A true story about a young teen girl in Australia who loses an arm in a shark attack. This tragic event, however, doesn’t dampen her ambition to remain a competitive surfer. A nice enough story but the film is so directed at young kids and pre-teens that it winds up being too sugary.
Not recommended

The Devil's Double
This interesting drama looks at the man who worked as a body double for Uday Hussein, one of Saddam’s demented progeny. While forced to give up his own identity, he struggles to find a way to return to his family and being the man he once was.
Recommended

La France:
This French made film finds a young wife who takes off to the front to find her soldier husband during World War I in France. She takes up with a French army unit that turns out to be made entirely of deserters. A sometime strange film that seemingly attempts to convey the desperation and hopelessness of war but doesn’t quite succeed.
Not Recommended

The Ascent of Man:
This 5 disc series, 1973 documentary is written and narrated by Dr. Jacob Bronowski, a leading scientist and versatile intellectual from the early and mid-20th century. It presents a unique perspective of the history of human beings through scientific endeavor, and the resultant technological and social evolution.
Recommended

What in the World Are They Spraying?:
This documentary features G. Edward Griffin, Michael Murphy, and Paul Wittenberger researching and discussing the phenomenon of geo-engineering, manifested in the form of chem-trails in the sky left behind by jet aircraft. A must see if you wish to understand how the global elites are poisoning your air , soil and water to exploit and even kill you.
Recommended

The Reef:
A suspenseful drama done in the spirit of “Open Water.” Five individuals sailing off the coast of Australia find themselves in the water after there boat runs aground and sinks. They then attempt to swim through shark infested waters to the nearest land .
Recommended

Atlas Shrugged- Part I:
I’ll come clean and painfully admit I’ve never read Ayn Rand’s novel. I can sense the story is a bit rushed to fit within the context of a feature film. But this is not surprising considering it was condensed from a 1000+ page novel.. Not much time is allowed for character development. For those who immediately “get” the theme and idea of the story, Part I is quite enjoyable and inspiring, as well as illustrating nicely the very conflicts between individuals and state criminals that exist today. Those who don’t “get” this attitude will probably find it a bore.
Recommended

9th Company:
A very intense drama about Russian soldiers who train at boot camp together then are sent off to fight in the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. It just so happens they are there during the final year or so before the withdrawal of Soviet troops. The film does an excellent job of conveying the merciless brutality of war.
Recommended

Wild Target:
A nice little British comedy about a hit man, who instead of killing his target, winds up being her protector. All in all, mildly amusing despite running out of steam at the end.
Recommended

Boom Town:
This 1940 feature stars Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy as two oil wildcatters. Unfortunately, an entertaining film about two roughnecks repeatedly making and losing fortunes (and always with a smile on their face) is bogged down by their mutual relationship with a woman. Must all story plots contain a love interest?
Not Recommended

Faith Like Potatoes:
An attractive true story about faith and resilience is marred by a mediocre screenplay and even worse acting.
Not Recommended

He Forgot the Gun

2012-01-03T10:03:00.002-06:00

Michael Anthony Fuller, 53 walked into a Lexington, NC Walmart attempting to pay for his merchandise with a million dollar bill. Despite his insistence that the bill was real, the clerk turned him down and called the police.

Mr. Miller neglected to bring along one very important component necessary to give legitimacy to his paper currency- a gun. The US Government produces fiat money, based on nothing, in the form of Federal Reserve Notes. They are backed by nothing but a promise. The dirty, little secret, unknown to many, is that the acceptance of each FRN is enforced by an invisible gun that forces all participants in a transaction to accept such worthless paper as legitimate currency.

The irony is that if Mr. Fuller had brought a gun, he would have also been arrested for attempted robbery. When can we expect identical charges against those who offer that other funny money?

Secession- There Is No One Way

2012-01-02T12:57:00.002-06:00

My piece on personal secession received a great amount of response from around the world. Within a 24 hour period the declaration was published at three high traffic sites; Lew Rockwell, Activist Post, and InfoWars. The latter one surprised me, as I’ve never heard Alex Jones even utter the word “secession,” let alone discuss it as a viable option. I love Alex, but he seems hell bent on restoring a republic and its regulating piece of paper (constitution) despite its massive failure to protect individual liberty.

The goal of my statement was as much to inspire others to take similar action, as much as it was to make a personal declaration. I would never insist that my declaration be the definitive proclamation for one to make, nor my resulting actions be the one path to follow.

Thinking, rational, and awakened individuals ultimately come to this conclusion: The power of some individuals to rule others is a fiction that only exists within the minds of those who claim to rule and those who accept such rule. They also realize that this rule is maintained not through consent, but at the point of a gun.

Each individual comes to this moment of clarity in a different way. Once this realization is made, each individual has his own way of declaring his sovereignty back from those who claim to own it in the present. This declaration also doubles as a notice and warning to those who may threaten it in the future.

Each individual will also each have his unique way to actively seek that now-declared freedom and decide how to defend it. From past reading and from recent communication with others, I can immediately list at least four legitimate plans of action:

Beating them at their own game - If you enjoy getting down in the mud with these brutes by participating in “the process” of “legally” defending yourself (as the state sees it), this is the path for you. Some folks in Canada have had success with such a method. Just make sure you are adequately armed with the proper knowledge to fight your opponent. But also be inspired by the fact that most of these self-professed rulers are ill-prepared intellectually (or morally) to defeat a well educated adversary.

Giving up citizenship or changing citizenship- Many have taken this route. There is a defined process (defined by the state, of course) to complete such an action. From what I’ve read, this process will be made more difficult in the future, as our rulers begin to be alarmed at the large numbers of their livestock running off from the barn yard. But please remember, your are swapping one ruling state master for another. Certainly, your new master will be perceived as more benevolent, but how long will that last?

Working for state secession- I see this plan of action gaining increasing popularity, not in the years ahead, but the immediate months. The eventual economic collapse of that piece of fiction known as the United States of America will make state secession all but necessary if survival (at least the political kind) is desired. I see state secession as a legitimate stepping stone to eventual personal secession. More and more folks will see how much better life is without the burdens put forth by the DC Death Cult. They’ll next turn their attention toward their state capitals and begin to ponder why they are necessary. Of course, existing states may break apart in still smaller states, as in this example a reader sent me from New York.

Going stateless- This is certainly the most extreme, the most direct, and the riskiest action to take. No stepping stones here. I greatly admire those who choose this route. If this is chosen, be prepared for near daily conflicts with a variety of state rulers who will claim you as their livestock, lay their brand on you, and insist that you recognize such a claim. Two individuals that come to mind who chose this path are Jeff Knaebel and Mike Golguski. Read their accounts and other’s thoroughly before deciding if this is the course of action for you.

The power of such a secession declaration isn’t as much an act of resistance to the powers that be and announcing your contempt for their arrogance, coercion, and tyranny. The greater value is creating a mindset within an individual that will inspire and direct their actions toward achieving true independence from ruling state criminals. Their declaration will also inspire others to take their own actions. Again, there is no one way to declare or take action. Creativity and originality, held hostage by state imposed conformity, will be released to produce a multitude of ideas to de-legitimatize and defeat the state.

But it is necessary to first make that affirmation. Napoleon Hill said, “What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” Such a declaration or affirmation is necessary as a guide and motivator, directing you successfully down, what may very well be, a dangerous path.

Quotes of the Week

2012-01-01T14:03:00.001-06:00

From the Light:
“In the interest of efficiency, I suggest the government consolidate the Wars on Drugs, Terror, and Piracy into a single war: The War on You. That would make things a lot simpler — and a lot more honest.”
Kevin Carson

“SOP U.S. Lies and Bull Shit. That's what America is to the world now and even the intelligent and knowledgeable Americans now take it for granted. SOP.
America has become an incredible farce to the whole world.”
Jack D. Douglas

“As the ranks of those dependent on the welfare state continue to grow, the need for the rulers to pay attention to the ruled population diminishes. The masters know full well that the sheep will not bolt the enclosure in which the shepherds are making it possible for them to survive. Every person who becomes dependent on the state simultaneously becomes one less person who might act in some way to oppose the existing regime. Thus have modern governments gone greatly beyond the bread and circuses with which the Roman Caesars purchased the common people’s allegiance.”
Robert Higgs

“Like the wolves, we have become part of a collective whose operating principle is violence, with the goal being to inflict it onto others and avoid having it inflicted upon us.”
Eric Peters

“The monolithic hurdle that Voluntaryists face, even in such an atmosphere of discontent and rebellion, is demonstrating how the underlying problems can never be solved simply by replacing one government with another, no matter how radical the change might seem to some. The paradigm must be shifted to include all political government itself in order to cure the ongoing and worsening ills we all face. We don’t need to change the government. In fact, we can’t. Its fundamental nature prevents any such change before we even get started. We can only eliminate it altogether in favor of non-violent, non-compulsory, free-market solutions.”
Alex R. Knight III

“When American evangelicals launch campaigns to deal with attempts to outlaw the ‘under God’ portion of the Pledge of Allegiance, they are not preserving religious freedom, nor are not paying homage to the ideals of liberty that inspired many of the founders of this nation. Instead, they are endorsing a pledge created by a socialist who despised the founders of this country and who hated the views that the framers of the U.S. Constitution had on law and the state. Indeed, the Pledge of Allegiance is the antithesis of all of those ideals upon which conservative evangelicals claim to be supporting and it is collectivist and Progressivist to the core. Yet, because it has the phrase ‘under God,’ Christians are willing to engage in what only can be idolatry and pledge their troth to another god.”
William L. Anderson

“It is the invariable habit of bureaucracies, at all times and everywhere, to assume…that every citizen is a criminal. Their one apparent purpose, pursued with a relentless and furious diligence, is to convert the assumption into a fact. They hunt endlessly for proofs, and, when proofs are lacking, for mere suspicions. The moment they become aware of a definite citizen, John Doe, seeking what is his right under the law, they begin searching feverishly for an excuse for withholding it from him.”
H.L. Mencken

“That genuinely exceptional America earned the admiration of the world – not because its government possessed the power to murder people by remote control, or annihilate entire continents in a nuclear paroxysm, but rather because its people were free and independent, and its society -- although displaying all of the imperfections to which fallen man is heir – aspired to be governed by the Golden Rule.”
Will Grigg

"It seems fitting that in a country where people aspire to two of everything – cars, kids, and homes – we should have two histories as well. And so we do: a public chronicle, or ‘Disney version,’ so widely available as to be unavoidable . . . and a second one that remains secret, buried, and unnamed."
Jim Hougan

“From the perspective of institutions, individuality becomes a form of entropy (i.e., energy otherwise unavailable for their productive purposes) that they insist on repressing. Liberty is a very volatile condition, conducive to all kinds of uncertainties and unpredictability’s. Institutions prefer uniformity, standardization, and the sense of security that comes from knowing that their interests will not be upset by diverse and spontaneous influences that cannot be exploited for organizational ends.”
Butler Shaffer

“The only way to protect ourselves, to restore our liberty, our security, and our prosperity, is to totally decentralize America. States must secede in a coordinated effort. If the political Powers That Be who are in control of state governments don’t want to do that and instead desperately cling to that dying, tyrannical, criminal regime in Washington, then it is up to the people themselves to secede, to withdraw support for the occupying federal regime, and to practice their right to protect and preserve their lives and their families’ lives.”
Scott Lazarowitz

“Life will give you back what you deliver. The Universe empowers the conscious. It’s available to all.
The rest of the mechanisms are at ground level. Stay there and be hamburger. It’s your choice.”
Zen Gardner

“Freedom is work, and there is no abstracting one’s self out of the market as if it were some independent process outside of ourselves that ‘will take care of everything.’ The market is us. Push us toward a better world by demanding wisely if you can bear it, as anyone who would dare call themselves an adult should be prepared to do.”
Ross Kenyon

“All public school is, in the US today, is indoctrination for jail or to train you to be a cubicle rat for the rest of your life.”
Jeff Berwick

“Without your right to have money that holds it's value, all else just fails because you don't have any real money. And that's what they're doing – they are robbing us blind.”
Bernard von NotHaus, creator of the Liberty Dollar

“A given society is either building up and becoming more ethical and innovative, or it is falling down and receding further into immorality and destruction. Peace and prosperity are the direct logical inevitable conclusions of the sum total of moral voluntary commerce; war and poverty are the direct logical inevitable conclusions of the sum total of immoral involuntary crime.”
Vahram G. Diehl

“Those who don't read history probably don't know that America's Ruling Sociopaths have manipulated or outright lied the United States into virtually every war it's ever been in. The rulers get power, wealth and glorification in history books while everyone else gets folded flags and bugles played over boxes of their mangled remains.”
Garry Reed

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

From the Darkness:

“Anyone who votes for [Ron] Paul and is not brought up short by his denuding us in our defenses against terrorism and his passivity in the face of Iranian nuclear weapons, has to realize that nominating him is tantamount to re-electing Obama.”

Dick Morris, Fox News analyst and Republican strategist

“Millionaire job creators are like unicorns. They’re impossible to find, and they don’t exist…Only a tiny fraction of people making more than a million dollars, probably less than 1 percent, are small business owners. And only a tiny fraction of that tiny fraction are traditional job creators…”
Sen. Harry Reid

“The truth is that a military strike intended to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, if managed carefully, could spare the region and the world a very real threat and dramatically improve the long-term national security of the United States.”
Matthew Kroenig, Foreign Affairs

“With the Obama administration and European countries failing to implement crippling sanctions against Iran and openly stating that a military option could be devastating to the global economy, it seems that the radicals ruling Iran will soon not only have nuclear bombs but also the means to deliver them almost anywhere on the globe. There’s no time to waste."
Reza Kahlili, former CIA operative, writing for Faux News

"I think he's [B. Obama] a decent, patriotic American. He loves America different than me, but I don't doubt he loves America."
Mike Huckabee

“You don't have to vote for a candidate [Ron Paul] who will allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Because America will be next."
Rick Perry

“….Make no mistake: ‘strengthening’ the dollar by ending quantitative easing or raising interest rates is not a principled libertarian stand, and it has nothing to do with our ‘national character‘; rather, it is a highly politicized attempt to benefit the financial sector and large corporations at the expense of almost everyone else.”
Kyle Victor, Huffington Post [Obviously, absolutely no knowledge of basic economics is necessary to write for this rag.]

“There is a New Axis of Evil that has emerged with North Korea, between Pakistan, between China, and between Iran…and with Russia. Russia supplied the nuclear scientists to help Iran gain that nuclear weapon.”
Michelle Bachman

“I, the undersigned, pledge that I intend to support the nominee of the Republican party for president.”
Text of a loyalty oath that must be signed by every voter in the upcoming Virginia primary election. [Still more proof that Leviathan’s elections are rigged.]

“Don’t give me this idea — I hear this: ‘Oh, you’re a moralist. You’re trying to impose your values.’ Everybody’s trying to impose their values. That’s what America’s about.”
Rick Santorum, candidate for Head US Moralist

"Moreover, I want to clarify that my Administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens. Indeed, I believe that doing so would break with our most important traditions and values as a Nation. My Administration will interpret section 1021 in a manner that ensures that any detention it authorizes complies with the Constitution, the laws of war, and all other applicable law."
B. Obama, in his statement upon signing the NDAA. [Funny statement coming from a man who insisted that such detention power be included. “Laws?” You mean the ones you make up as you please?”]

THIS is Courage, THIS is Guts, THIS is Serving Your ‘Country’

2011-12-30T20:35:00.001-06:00

Even many libertarians offer support and appreciation for the “service” so selflessly offered by those enslaved within the US military. WRONG!

Luke Rudkowski and We Are Change give us a nicely done video mix highlighting their adventures and encounters over the past year. Courage is seeking and exposing the truth, no matter what the potential cost. It takes absolutely NO courage to obey and execute the actions of the thieving, warring, and deceptive Powers-That-Be. Look for even a more explosive year in 2012.

Are They Coming for Your Gold?

2011-12-29T14:31:00.001-06:00

On November 21, 2002, Ben Bernanke (then a Governor on the Federal Reserve Board) gave a speech before the National Economists Club in Washington, D.C. When listing possible Fed actions to cure any possible deflation in the future, Bernanke lists this possibility:

“Although a policy of intervening to affect the exchange value of the dollar is nowhere on the horizon today, it's worth noting that there have been times when exchange rate policy has been an effective weapon against deflation. A striking example from U.S. history is Franklin Roosevelt's 40 percent devaluation of the dollar against gold in 1933-34, enforced by a program of gold purchases and domestic money creation. The devaluation and the rapid increase in money supply it permitted ended the U.S. deflation remarkably quickly. Indeed, consumer price inflation in the United States, year on year, went from -10.3 percent in 1932 to -5.1 percent in 1933 to 3.4 percent in 1934.17 The economy grew strongly, and by the way, 1934 was one of the best years of the century for the stock market. If nothing else, the episode illustrates that monetary actions can have powerful effects on the economy, even when the nominal interest rate is at or near zero, as was the case at the time of Roosevelt's devaluation.”

Can we look forward to Bernanke pulling “an FDR” in 2012?

Lindsey Williams seems to think so, as he stated in an interview this week with Alex Jones.

Snapshot of the State- Prohibition’s Burial Ground

2011-12-29T13:49:00.002-06:00

The War on (Some) Drugs creates a massive body count. In Mexico, the bodies are falling faster than they can be identified and buried.

Morgue workers place a coffin holding an unidentified body into a grave at San Rafael cemetery on the outskirts of the border city of Ciudad Juarez. The bodies of 36 unidentified people, killed in drug-related incidents, were buried on Tuesday after being held in the city morgue for several months without being claimed by relatives.

I Hereby Secede

2011-12-28T16:21:00.006-06:00

Secession is a topic that seems to increasingly pop up in conversation, discussion, and written opinion. I believe that more people every day are seeing state secession as a viable and even necessary action to counteract increasing personal oppression, stolen liberties, and monetary incompetence and thievery by the United States Government. According to the Declaration of Independence, when such conditions become intolerable for the people, “it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

But why wait for your state to secede? In the meantime, why not make a personal declaration of secession? Below is my idea of what a personal declaration would look like. I encourage others to make this same declaration and add or subtract any statements you deem relevant. Or write your own. Make copies and distribute to friends and relatives, encouraging them to do likewise. By all means, send copies to your Congress critters and other ruling tyrants. Convey the message that you no longer willingly submit to their arbitrary rules, and the theft and violence committed against you personally and against others in your name.

Some will dismiss such a declaration as merely symbolic, lacking any legitimate authority. By how does it contain any less authority than a state and constitution created by others a couple centuries before you were born? Here is my declaration:

I, Roger Young, a sovereign, free-born individual, and a child of God/Nature, do hereby declare my personal secession from the political entity known as the “United States of America.“ Though reason tells me that this entity has no inherent legitimacy toward ruling my life (as this arrangement was not created by me, nor obtained my consent), I find it necessary to declare such a separation.

By this act of secession, I hereby withdraw any present and future consent toward being ruled by this authoritarian organization. Any laws, edicts, regulations, executive orders, or demands issued by this organization will be ignored as so much verbal static emanating from tyrants lacking any legitimate authority.

By this act of secession, I declare I will no longer consent to being described as a willing citizen or subject, collectively enslaved under the rule of the “United States Government,” nor its permanently ensconced ruling class. I hereby refuse to be labeled a participant of, nor a collaborator with, the criminal actions executed by those individuals declaring to be representatives, employees, or agents of the “United States Government.” Such actions include waging war and stealing the property and wealth of other individuals. Any such actions declared to “be in my name” or “for my benefit or protection” will be considered blatantly fraudulent. I will hereby consider myself only as a sovereign individual residing on the North American continent, responsible only for the actions I commit as an individual.

By this act of secession, I will no longer be a party to the collectivist “we” used to describe those residing within the geographical boundaries claimed by some as the “United States of America.” I will no longer be subject to the responsibilities, agreements, debts, or liabilities, claimed by that institution and “shared” by its subjects

By this act of secession, I will no longer consider my body subject to the rules and regulations of that entity known as the “United States Government.” Any attempt to restrict my consumption of any food or drug will be branded as illegitimate and ignored Any attempt to actively apply such restrictions by this entity will be considered an act of violence and dealt with accordingly in a peaceful, though effective and persuasive, manner.

By this act of secession, I will no longer consider my physical, property (tangible or intangible) subject to any “laws” or regulations put forth by the entity known as the “United States Government.” Any taking or taxing of such property will be considered theft and will be dealt with accordingly in a peaceful, though effective and persuasive, manner.

By this act of secession, I will no longer deem any restrictions, regulations, or limits on the use of my labor as legitimate, nor the taking or taxing of the fruits of such activity. The interference in the voluntary, contractual associations and agreements that involve my personal labor will not be tolerated. Such agreements and contracts will be considered sacrosanct and immune to the dictates and interventions from that entity known as the “United States Government.”

By this act of secession, I will no longer maintain any allegiance or loyalty to the political abstraction named “The United States of America.” I will not recognize its “boundaries” as legitimate nor use their existence as a regulator or hindrance toward interacting with those individuals who reside outside said “boundaries.” I will also declare no aggressive intentions toward destruction or take-over of this entity. I will also by this act declare no immediate allegiance or loyalty to any other present or future political abstraction.

By this act of secession, I hereby declare absolutely no reverence or respect for that political entity known as the “United States of America” nor its self-declared ruling body known as the “United States Government.” I will from this time forward view both with suspicion and as dangerous predators, preying on the lives, fortunes, and liberties of free individuals.

By this act of secession, I will not automatically obey any illegitimate “laws” or orders, not previously mentioned, put forth by that entity known as the “United States Government.” Any perceived obedience by me will be the result of carefully calculated submission to an entity exhibiting superior firepower.

Any state agents sent forth by the “United States Government” to contact me will be dealt the equivalent respect and kindness that is shown toward me by such agents. Any perceived obedience by me will be the result of carefully calculated submission to an entity and its agents exhibiting superior firepower.

By this act of secession, I will not tolerate, as a free-living, free-thinking, peaceful individual, any violent, unjustified attacks on other such individuals and private organizations or their property by this entity known as the “United States Government.” I will utilize all available time, talents, and resources available to me to expose and ridicule those agents of the “United States Government” that initiate such attacks. I will also help and support any active, peaceful countermeasures to help prevent or overturn any such violent, aggressive actions against sovereign lives and property.

By this act of secession, I will no longer listen to any speeches, comments, or information communicated by that entity known as the “United States Government.” All such information will be instantly declared not credible and subject to verification and confirmation by reliable, non-state sources. Any verbal or written communication emanating from this entity will automatically be considered a lie until proven otherwise.

By this act of secession I remain open to the idea of being ruled by similar such entities, but such an action will occur only with unequivocal consent by me and legitimized by mutual contractual agreement.

By this act of secession, I do not make the arrogant assumption of speaking for other sovereign, free-born individuals. This declaration is relevant only to me and not to any other sovereign individuals known personally to me or related by birth. However, I encourage other like minded individuals to do the same. I encourage and even implore them to stand up for their lives, liberties and property. I passionately advise they throw off the yoke of bondage that inhibits, strangles, and even kills them, destroys and steals their wealth and property, and poisons the futures of all who seek to live unchained. No shedding of blood or violent extremism is necessary. Just take the time to officially declare withdrawal of your consent.

“Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed.”

Quotes of the Week

2011-12-25T12:10:00.003-06:00

From the Light:
“I would rather roam and idle about in a muddy ditch, at my own amusement, than to be put under the restraints that the ruler would impose. I would never take any official service, and thereby I will [be free] to satisfy my own purposes.
There has been such thing as letting mankind alone; there has never been such a thing as governing mankind [with success].” The world “does simply not need governing; in fact, it should not be governed.”
Chuang Tzu (369-286 B.C.)

“Fascism has no new ideas, no big projects, and not even its partisans really believe it can accomplish what it sets out to do. The world created by the private sector is so much more useful and beautiful than anything the State has done that the fascists have themselves become demoralized and aware that their agenda has no real intellectual foundation.”
Lew Rockwell

"In the long run even the most despotic governments with all their brutality and cruelty are no match for ideas. Eventually the ideology that has won the support of the majority will prevail and cut the ground from under the tyrant's feet. Then the oppressed many will rise in rebellion and overthrow their masters."
Ludwig von Mises

“A democratic, or republican, or constitutional state is basically a combined mass of individual powerless people, lacking in any natural or God-given or humane right to oppress anyone, who become powerful in the embrace of the state or as the state and then claim rights to do almost anything. In this embrace, the value of each person, which should be paramount and which necessarily includes that person's freedom, is suppressed and replaced by the value of the state. State education hasn't been abolished yet because most people value the state above the person. They'd rather have the state be paramount, even if individual persons are thwarted and crushed.”
Michael S. Rozeff

“Too bad order means accountability to the law. Too bad the State is accountable only to itself. Too bad an entity accountable only to itself is an inherently unaccountable entity. Too bad unaccountable means rogue and criminal. Too bad none of the minarchist strategies – ballot boxes, Bills of Rights, separation of powers – designed to make the State accountable have made it accountable to anybody but itself.”
Tony Pivetta

“The oligarchs think that the people are both dangerous and stupid. Their point is moot. But we do know that the oligarchs are a good deal more dangerous to the polity than the people at large."
Gore Vidal

“The decentralization of decision-making that is implicit in a system of privately-owned property provides another instance of the unity that inheres in apparent opposites. By distributing authority widely rather than narrowly, private property provides a greater flexibility allowing individuals to voluntarily join with others in concentrated communities in which they can choose to associate with others in pursuit of shared interests.”
Butler Shaffer

“Education is the process of a rational mind coming to healthy maturity, during which the individual adopts accurate conceptions of the world and its various functions. It is a process of self-empowerment, where each new piece of knowledge can be independently verified and remain logically consistent with all other information obtained earlier. It is a voluntary process, fueled only by the individual learner's inclination toward intrigue and choice to pursue understanding of the unfamiliar.
Indoctrination is a process of externally enforced self-degradation. Subjects are commanded exactly what to think. They are never taught how to rationally differentiate truth from illusion. Each new piece of information obtained is potentially a major danger to the subject, for the student is at the mercy of whoever happens to be the information enforcer for the day.”
Vahram G. Diehl.

“I have often thought that to be a Communist at the beginning of the twentieth century was possibly an intellectually defensible position looking at the scant history of the movement in power and practice yet one hundred years later this extreme form of collectivism should be universally reviled and is intellectually and morally indefensible; and here in 2009, not only are the same miserable failures and barbaric practices heralded but endorsed by no less than the President of this decaying country known as America.”
Bill Buppert

“The genius of modern democracy is that it makes the citizen a party to his own enslavement. Rather than give up 10% of his output to his feudal lord and master, he gives up 30% to 50% to his democratically-elected bosses. They tell him what to do. And he believes he is giving the orders!
And then, he believes he has discovered the best form of government in the world. It is so good he can’t wait to force others to be democrats too.”
Bill Bonner

“If you only like the term democracy because you want to enforce your will on others fewer in number or just less empowered, you’ll continually find yourself cutting deals with entrenched powers over whose numbers matter. If you want real democracy — power vested in the people — you should be interested in anarchism.”
Darian Worden

“The free market, and the free society in general, cannot be understood without also understanding their indispensable political, legal, and moral conditions. Freedom from government whim is one of those conditions, despite its inconvenience for those who lust after power.”
Sheldon Richman

“I look at the U.S. Postal Service and see the future of the Federal government. I have seen the future, and it is mostly junk mail.”
Gary North

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

From the Darkness:

“To those American citizens thinking about helping Al Qaeda, please know what will come your way: death, detention, prosecution. If you are thinking about plotting with the enemy inside our country to do the rest of us harm, please understand what is coming your way: the full force of the law.
The law I am talking about is the law of armed conflict. You subject yourself to being held as an enemy of the people of the United States, interrogated about what you know and why you did what you did or planned to do, and you subject yourself to imprisonment and death. The reason you subject yourself to that regime is because your decision to turn on the rest of us and help a group of people who would destroy our way of life is not something we idly accept. It is not a common, everyday crime. It is a decision by you to commit an act of aggression against the rest of us.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham

“Please know what will come your way: Death, detentions and prosecution. And when they say, ‘I want my lawyer,’ you tell them, shut up, you don’t get a lawyer.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, describing what life will be like after passage of the NDAA

“There is a fear that if we the [BATFE] get too big, it will infringe on gun rights, which is the furthest thing from the truth. Having strong firearms policies and laws is the best way to preserve gun rights.”
Dewey Webb, retiring head of the Houston division for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

“Well, the Ron Paul people are not going to like my saying this but to a certain degree it will discredit the Iowa caucuses because rightly or wrongly, I think most of the Republican establishment thinks he is not going to end up as the nominee, so therefore Iowa won't count."
Fox News Pundit Chris Wallace, discrediting in advance any Ron Paul electoral victories

“…We still are facing the problem of building such a world order. We have crises: we are facing problems of the environment, of backwardness and poverty, of food shortages. All of these problems are because we do not have a system of global governance. We are living in a global world. The political prerequisites for a global world do exist, they have been created. But we were not ready and we still have to learn to live in a global world. This is the No. 1 problem, and a lot depends on how countries like the United States will act, how Europe will behave, how Russia will behave.”
Mikhail Gorbachev, still a Bolshevik at age 80 [Don’t most people outgrow that ideology at about age 24?]

“People are going to look at who comes in second and who comes in third,. If [Mitt] Romney comes in a strong second, it definitely helps him going into New Hampshire and the other states.”
Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, advising what people should do if Ron Paul wins the upcoming Iowa caucus.

“The most recent changes give the president additional discretion in determining how the law will be implemented, consistent with our values and the rule of law, which are at the heart of our country’s strength.”
Jay Carney, White House press secretary, on passage of the NDAA

"I have called on the Governor to bring in the National Guard. We are at war and when you’re at war, you have to bring in soldiers.”
Austin Badon Jr., Louisiana state lawmaker, reacting to soaring crime levels

“I am a law-enforcement officer. I want to put people in jail.”
ICE Special Agent William Ross

"The president went in based on intelligence that they [Iraq, in 2003] had weapons of mass destruction. Had he known that that was not the case, the U.N. would not have put forth resolutions authorizing this type of action, the president would not have been pursuing that course. But we did not know that."
Mitt Romney [Don't Mormons consider lying a sin?]

“That’s why I’m a cop, I can do whatever I want to do.”
Police officer Dayle Long, just before shooting and executing a man in a bar in Murrieta, CA while off duty.

“One of the things that we've learned from Vietnam is to separate the warriors from the war. You can be opposed to the war — you can disagree with the tactics and the political decision involved — but the individuals on the battle field are there protecting us."
Paul Spera, past commander in chief of the VFW [If the war is wrong, how can soldier boys be protecting us? If a war is wrong, how can I not blame those who are executing it? ]

"And let's say a [holiday] prayer for all our troops standing post all over the world, especially our brave men and women in Afghanistan who are serving, even as we speak, in harm's way to protect the freedoms and security we hold dear."
B. Obama, offering a blessing for his murdering assassins

"I have advised the Congress that I will not construe these provisions as preventing me from fulfilling my constitutional responsibility to recommend to the Congress's consideration such measures as I shall judge necessary and expedient."
B. Obama, in a signing statement after signing the 2012 omnibus funding bill, declaring he will pick and choose what provisions of the bill he will obey

“Even as we challenge it to be better, fairer and more honest, we still have to believe that democratic governance by the people, through their institutions, can and should exist. Like Santa Claus, democracy requires us to believe that collective faith can be greater than our individual doubts.”
Melissa Harris-Perry, MSNBC [Have faith, folks, that mob rule and collectivism will create a utopia.]

‘A Noble Lie’ Tells the Truth

2011-12-24T14:12:00.001-06:00

I just purchased and viewed the new documentary which was just released, “A Noble Lie- Oklahoma City 1995.” This well researched film reveals a lot of information previously censored and unknown to the general public. It all points to the total murderous, criminal behavior by the Clinton regime and the US Government.

If you insist on being well informed and wish to be further armed with “truth ammunition” to fight the DC Death Star, this film is a must to see. You can purchase a copy at the InfoWars.com store.

I also recommend viewing the Alex Jones interviews with Hoppy Heidelberg. Mr Heidelberg who was picked to be on an Oklahoma Grand Jury in 1995. His search for the truth was constantly hindered by US initiated deception, lies, incompetence and even death threats. You can view this interview here, here, here, and here.

Merry Christmas! Fuck the State!

2011-12-24T11:54:00.002-06:00

In the months ahead the state will attempt to rule you, rape you, extort you, molest you, regulate you, restrict you, dominate you, insult you, demean you, and even kill you.

Endeavor to resist peacefully, as best you can. The state’s reign on earth will soon end with a pathetic whimper. Make sure you’re still around to enjoy it.

They're Coming for YOU, Now

2011-12-20T16:48:00.003-06:00

Obama’s hired assassins are leaving Iraq in droves. This is certainly good news for Iraqis who have suffered over eight years of war, brutal attacks, occupation, torture, rape and plunder initiated by the US Empire. However, now it’s time for us abused serfs residing in the Homeland who must fear the future.

Yes, some of these warriors will be shuttled on to new killing fields in Syria, Iran, and Africa. But now that The Emperor has the power to use his military to kidnap and hold indefinitely any dissident he pleases, many of these relocated grunts will be locked and loaded to “serve” on our neighborhood streets.

Many others, who have mercifully survived their period of state enslavement, will become civilians. A significant number of these folks will wander the streets, totally unprepared to function within a civil society that frowns on coercive relationships and violent solutions. Others will become the civilian jackboot version of their military identities, cruising the streets enforcing all manner of illegitimate “laws” and regulations- some made up on the spot. They’ll have a keen eye, sharpened by combat experience, for identifying easy targets from which to extract much needed revenue.

Can these misfits be persuaded to do otherwise? Can they be encouraged to live their lives not as violent, obedient servants but as self-directed, enlightened individuals, seeking a life of peace and productivity? Can they be rehabilitated? I have to believe some can. By all means, approach them with such intent. But be wary.

I honestly don’t look forward to a day when these folks come calling, sweeping through neighborhoods and snatching individuals. Some will refuse such duty. But how many will? Will the numbers be sufficient to render their master’s politically impotent? We can only hope. The alternative is seeing your family, friends, and neighbors caged in gulags and torture chambers and the streets littered with the carcasses of dead soldier boys.

What’s that? Did you assume there would be no resistance?

Quotes of the Week

2011-12-18T14:08:00.001-06:00

From the Light:
“What makes anyone think that government officials are even trying to protect us? A government is not analogous to a hired security guard. Governments do not come into existence as social service organizations or as private firms seeking to please consumers in a competitive market. Instead, they are born in conquest and nourished by plunder. They are, in short, well-armed gangs intent on organized crime. Yes, rulers have sometimes come to recognize the prudence of protecting the herd they are milking and even of improving its ‘infrastructure’ until the day they decide to slaughter the young bulls, but the idea that government officials seek to promote my interests or yours is little more than propaganda—unless, of course, you happen to belong to the class of privileged tax eaters who give significant support to the government and therefore receive in return a share of the loot.”
Robert Higgs

“I don’t have to prove freedom to be true; I only have to prove slavery to be false.”
Chris Dates

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In those choices lie our growth and our happiness."
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In those choices lie our growth and our happiness."
Vicktor Frankl

"When the government’s boot is on your throat, whether it is a left boot or a right boot is of no consequence."
Gary Lloyd

“The more artificial taboos and restrictions there are in the world, the more the people are impoverished...The more that laws and regulations are given prominence, the more thieves and robbers there will be...”
Lao Tzu (6th century B.C.)

“In the coming New Year, 2012, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union address will occur on the same day. This is an ironic juxtaposition of events. One involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to an insignificant creature of little intelligence for prognostication. The other involves a groundhog.”
David Galland

“To me, to be a citizen of a country means you belong to that country, which means the country – really, the government, or the community as a collective – owns the individual within the territory. Citizenship cancels out self-ownership as well as any notion of private property ownership. One of your most important aspects of private property is your own life. The individual’s most important private property is one’s own person, labor and what one honestly acquires through voluntary trade. But what the statist conservatives want, and what most people seem to want, unfortunately, is for the collective of the territory to seize ownership and control of the entire territory and all property, capital and resources within it. That includes the people themselves.”
Scott Lazarowitz

“Respecting the inviolability of the boundaries that enclose our neighbors’ property claims accords them our respect for the autonomy that is essential to any meaningful form of individual expression. In acknowledging one another’s realms of unimpeded activity, we not only confirm our sense of their self-justifying existence but, in so doing, dissolve the barriers of distrust that separate us. Only in a condition of such mutual respect can we expect to find a reasonable basis for social harmony.”
Butler Shaffer

“American presidential candidates generally fall into three categories. Those who are obviously incompetent. Those who are scalawags. And those who are jackasses. The job of the voters is to choose the defect most suited to the time.”
Bill Bonner

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

From the Darkness:

“[Under competition] businesses are forced to cut every corner, cheapen every product, cut out every service, lay people off, cut people's wages while adding hours, gut benefits … and probably go under anyway because when every business does the same 99 percent of us can't afford to buy or do things anymore.”
Dave Johnson

"Our strong presence in the Middle East endures. And the United States will never waiver in the defense of our allies, our partners and our interests."
B. Obama [Translated: “Still more wars on the way!”]

"We have asked for it back. We'll see how the Iranians respond."
B. Obama, audacious enough to ask for the return of his drone that was spying on Iran

"Let's get beyond the anger."
Cameron Munter, US Ambassador in Pakistan, asking Pakistanis to forget and move on after the November 26 attack by US drones that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers

"We need election systems that are free from fraud, discrimination and partisan influence — and that are more, not less, accessible to the citizens of this country."
Attorney General Eric Holder [This from a man that run guns to the Mexican drug cartels…..and lies about it.]

“The right response to that would have been to go in immediately after it [Iranian captured US surveillance drone] had gone down and destroy it. You can do that from the air. You can do that with a quick airstrike, and in effect make it impossible for them to benefit from having captured that drone.”
Dick Cheney, also looking to create more death and destruction to glorify the state

"Eight years from now is a death sentence on Africa, told me. For every one-degree celsius change in temperature, Africa is impacted at a heightened level."
Nigerian environmentalist Nnimmo Bassey, chairperson of Friends of the Earth International

“I’m sure that the [Ron] Paulistas will find a way to claim that their man has been right about everything, even though his predictions have been all wrong. But he really has built his political career around the notion that he’s an expert in a subject about which he actually understands nothing.”
Paul Krugman

"To be sure, the cost was high — in blood and treasure for the United States and for the Iraqi people. But those lives were not lost in vain: They gave birth to an independent, free and sovereign Iraq."
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, at a ceremony in Baghdad marking the second “end” of the Iraq War

“There's a reason our military is the most respected institution in America. They don't see themselves or each other as Democrats first or Republicans first. They see themselves as Americans first.
For all our differences and disagreements, they remind us that we are all a part of something bigger, that we are one nation and one people."
B. Obama [Hiel!]

Quotes of the Week

2011-12-11T16:39:00.001-06:00

From the Light:
“War is essentially an evil thing. Its consequences are not confined to the belligerent states alone, but affect the whole world. To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”
From the Nuremberg Tribunal’s Final Judgment

“What's the great need for a monopoly state that may simply end up being a vehicle for some few persons in power to suppress minorities? Obviously those who feel they can win power and rule will want the single-government outcome, and that's all the more reason to avoid it as an institutional structure for a society that has divisions (and every society has them) that matter and that really is not one society for many practical purposes and according to the subjective values of many persons and groups. The identification of disparate persons as one society and the further identification of that single society as the ground for a single government and state are at fault here, in my opinion. These false presumptions then are used to rationalize the domination of a few over everyone else, which seems to be the human drive that needs to be mitigated, not given more ground to expand.”
Micheal S.Rozeff

“It's clear the so-called government and it's plethora of bloated agencies are not there to help you, but to manage, seduce, suppress, subjugate and control you. Yet they convince you otherwise to keep you dependent and upside down and backwards while telling you everything's on the up and up.
Their fundamental technique is trauma-based mind control and cognitive dissonance. Keep affronting your senses with violent images and then reversing your sense of right and wrong and telling you white is black and black is white long enough and you'll finally give in.”
Zen Gardner

“It is incredible how as soon as a people become subject, it promptly falls into such complete forgetfulness of its freedom that it can hardly be roused to the point of regaining it, obeying so easily and willingly, that one is led to say that this people has not so much lost its liberty as won its enslavement.”
Etienne de la Boetie

“We still cling to the myth that the state virtuously declines to exert its monopoly on coercion in order to respond to its own institutional incentives. Whether we recognize it or not, however, the state does — consciously or otherwise — serve the oligarchs orbiting around its center of gravity, around the headspring of privilege created by authority.
In doing so, allotting favors to the ruling class, the state produces imbalances that represent the difference between labor-saving, streamlined economies of free decisions, and the rigid, inflexible economies of today. In short, widespread corruption and widespread insolvency are natural companions.”
David S. D'Amato

“Soldiers are meant to be killed, and politicians are meant to be bought.”
Russell Longcore

“Far from protecting us, the government has now spent more than a century busily making enemies for Americans around the globe. Some protection! If the government were a private security guard, we would have fired him in 1898 and never purchased his trigger-happy services again. Americans desperately need to clarify a basic distinction: protecting the just rights of Americans here in America and exercising a globegirdling hegemony over other people are two different things.”
Robert Higgs

“Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.”
Henry David Thoreau

“To wield power over an individual’s ability to choose is the same as wielding power over his body. It is the power of choice that makes us who we are. The body is the vehicle for free choice, and when the individual’s ability to freely choose is coercively forced, then the individual has become nothing more than an organic robot. An individual’s individuality spawns from the choices he makes; it is what makes up his personality. To remove the decision making from a person because you think he is too stupid or too selfish to decide for himself is to remove the very thing that makes him human.”
Chris Dates

“[The average man] is not actually happy when free; he is uncomfortable, a bit alarmed, and intolerably lonely. Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men. It is the exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority, like knowledge, courage and honor. It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty — and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies.”
H.L. Mencken

“If ‘war is the health of the state,’ as Randolph Bourne wrote, then conservatives are the health of war.”
Joel Poindexter

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

From the Darkness:

"The biggest problem for the United States is not Iran getting a nuclear weapon and testing it, it's Iran getting a nuclear weapon and not using it. Because the second that they have one and they don't do anything bad, all of the naysayers are going to come back and say, ‘See, we told you Iran is a responsible power. We told you Iran wasn't getting nuclear weapons in order to use them immediately.’ ... And they will eventually define Iran with nuclear weapons as not a problem."

Danielle Pletka, head of foreign policy at the American Enterprise Institute

“Proper procedures were followed.”
A unnamed TSA spokesman, after an 85 year old woman complained about being strip searched at Kennedy Airport

"[T]here is a certain crowd in Washington who, for the last few decades, have said, let’s respond to this economic challenge with the same old tune. 'The market will take care of everything,' they tell us. If we just cut more regulations and cut more taxes--especially for the wealthy--our economy will grow stronger.
Now, it’s a simple theory. And we have to admit, it’s one that speaks to our rugged individualism and our healthy skepticism of too much government. That’s in America’s DNA. And that theory fits well on a bumper sticker. But here’s the problem: It doesn’t work. It has never worked."
B. Obama

"In the United States, we don't much govern at gunpoint. We require willing ... participation.”
Judge James Zagel while sentencing Illinois’ former Thief-in-Chief Rod Blagojevich, to 14 years in prison

"We're in this economic moment coming out of a severe financial crisis, almost slipped into a great depression, inequality's been rising … the middle class is getting squeezed. There's a sense that the same rules don't apply for the people working hard out there in America and the people at the top."
B. Obama [“...the people at the top?” You mean like your Wall Street buddies who give you millions in campaign bribes?]

"I simply do not know where the money is, or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date. …(I) believed that (MF Global's) investments in short-term European debt securities were prudent."
Former Wall Street high-flyer and Democratic politician Jon Corzine, telling US lawmakers he did not know what happened to an estimated $1.2 billion that disappeared from the accounts of now bankrupt broker MF Global.

"Those of you that will be 21 by November the 12th, I ask for your support and your vote.”
Rick Perry, seemingly not interested in the votes of 18-20 year olds

"Remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire. And I think that we've have invented the Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs and are historically part of the Arab community, and they had the chance to go many places."
Newt Gingrich [Gingrich commits cultural genocide without firing a shot. Why do any group of people have to align themselves with a state to be recognized?]

"We want to work with the Senate to ensure our counterterrorism professionals have the tools and flexibility they need to keep America safe."
National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor looking for more abolition of individual rights

"The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) strives to provide the highest level of security while ensuring that all passengers are treated with dignity and respect. TSA has programs in place for the screening of people with all types of disabilities and medical conditions and their associated equipment."
Statement from the TSA claiming that it is planning its own advocacy service to immediately act on complaints by passengers over security screenings.
[So now strip searching old ladies is a “program.”]

Quotes of the Week

2011-12-04T15:30:00.002-06:00

From the Light:
“By definition, revolution simply means returning to the beginning, to the point of origin. No wonder they say history repeats itself, or that it at least rhymes…We’ve been running and re-running the same experiment over and over again, always expecting a different result – the very definition of insanity.
You’d think that, after 6,000 years – and a body count in the hundreds of millions – we’d give up on the State and try something different.
We don’t need to revolve, in other words, we need to evolve.”
Joel Bowman

“The institutions of government that claim authority do not rest on grounds that are consistent with freedom and consent. Their grounds are other things like order, police power, public safety and health, and traditions. Aspirations for freedom and consent come into conflict with power that draws its authority from other traditions.”
Michael S. Rozeff

“You hear slogans about the ‘land of the free’ and we still sing patriotic songs at the ballpark and even at church on Sunday, and these songs are always about our blessed liberty, the battles of our ancestors against tyranny, the special love of liberty that animates our heritage and national self identity. The contrast with reality grows starker by the day.”
Jeffrey Tucker

“I don’t want to hear how our fore-fathers died in countless wars of aggression so that I could have the right to vote. That’s not what they died for. Voting was never what they died for unless voting has [.Inc] after it. (I guess it does).”
John Boering

“In many ways, reality is just a creation of widely shared opinions. Nothing should be accepted just because it exists, including the state. Concepts take on lives of their own, unless someone challenges them. And the concept of the state is sorely in need of a challenge.”
Doug Casey

“Public schools, by their very nature, are designed to promote government. They teach children to accept that government is exempt from the ethical code that prevents someone from stealing their neighbor's belongings; without government theft, the schools would not exist.
They teach children that the biggest problems of the day can only be solved by central planners. Through these exercises, children learn that humans are so simplistic that one policy can solve a major problem with thousands of variables.
It teaches kids that everything happens in a vacuum. The idea that every man is a unique, free-thinking individual who faces unique choices is replaced with the view that all men are part of a herd, which can be easily manipulated and coerced.”
Justin Hayes

"When men hire themselves out to shoot other men to order, asking nothing about the justice of their cause, I don’t care if they are shot themselves."
Herbert Spencer

“When soldiers are sent to fight unnecessary, unjust foreign wars (is there any other kind?), there will always be questions in their minds about why they are fighting in a place they couldn’t locate without a map and against a people that never harmed an American until Americans first stuck their noses in their business. And we wonder why soldiers get depressed and suicidal?”
Laurence Vance

“In light of the vastness of these incontrovertible assaults on humanity and the obvious connections to corporate, banking and government insanity, whoever does NOT think that there's an underlying motive with definite objectives by those controlling these massive programs is a stark raving lunatic, voluntarily living in a straightjacket of self-preserving denial, staring in a zombified trance at the shadows on their cell walls.”
Zen Gardener

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

From the Darkness:

“Look at the level of violence they've [the drug cartels] done to society. You can either be in the Ron Paul tradition and say there's nothing wrong with heroin and cocaine or you can be in the tradition that says, 'These kind of addictive drugs are terrible, they deprive you of full citizenship and they lead you to a dependency which is antithetical to being an American.' If you're serious about the latter view, then we need to think through a strategy that makes it radically less likely that we're going to have drugs in this country.
Places like Singapore have been the most successful at doing that. They've been very draconian. And they have communicated with great intention that they intend to stop drugs from coming into their country.”
Newt Gingrich, looking to create more violence through drug prohibition

“The enemy is all over the world. Here at home. And when people take up arms against the United States and [are] captured within the United States, why should we not be able to use our military and intelligence community to question that person as to what they know about enemy activity?"
Sen. Lindsey Graham, supporting the passage of SB 1867 which eliminates habeas corpus and allows DC‘s military assassins to arrest American civilians

“We all appreciate how deeply this tragedy has affected the Pakistani people, and we have conveyed our heartfelt condolences through multiple channels. Ultimately, the only way to move the ball forward is to focus on areas where our interests align and where we can really make progress. Our two countries need each other.”
Sen. John Kerry, voicing a lame apology for the murder of two dozen Pakistani soldiers in NATO airstrikes last week

"I would ask my colleagues to reject [the amendments], which ... would take away the authority of the executive branch as allowed by our Supreme Court and would bring us back, would make us less safe in this country."
Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), encouraging rejection of a Senate amendment to spare U.S. citizens from potential indefinite military detentions [Terrorist Ayotte offers the same bogus solution for security- centralizing more and more power into the hands of fewer and fewer state criminals.]

"We cannot have a strong defense without a strong national economy. But we will not solve this problem on the back of the Defense Department or on the defense industry.
When I think about it from an industrial base point of view, I think about sequestration more as fiscal castration. It truly will emasculate the industrial base ... if we implemented it as it exists."
Brett Lambert, U.S. deputy assistant defense secretary for manufacturing and industrial base policy, whining about potential cuts in the Empire’s military budget

“[Ron] Paul was not invited to attend the RJC’s candidates forum because the organization – as it has stated numerous times in the past – rejects his misguided and extreme views.”
A statement from the Republican Jewish Coalition explaining why they have not invited Ron Paul to their Dictator Debate

“I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world. I have my own State Department, much to Foggy Bottom’s annoyance. We have the United Nations in New York, and so we have an entree into the diplomatic world that Washington does not have.”
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose big head is set to explode any moment now

"We haven't been able to build a fence on the border because we have not been a serious country."
Newt Gingrich [The Chubby Tyrant is correct. Tyrannies and their controlling despots are not really “serious” until they start walling and fencing their subjects.]

Quotes of the Week

2011-11-27T14:37:00.001-06:00

From the Light:
“Governments of our choice, all within this land of America, is a visionary concept. But the status quo is also a visionary concept. I don't think that people appreciate that when they automatically assume that we must be one democracy or one republic or one America or one people, or when they see such things as already a fact, they are invoking an idea and a visionary concept. We wouldn't have whatever reality we have without it reflecting some vision or visions. Just because it happens to be the current reality doesn't give it any precedence in terms of being a more just or good or better or right arrangement. It may give it an advantage in terms of a hold on our minds and imaginations and our pocketbooks, but not in terms of visions of where we may go in the future or like to go. We can reshape America. We can do it in the course of one or two generations. That reshaping has been occurring visibly in my lifetime. It has occurred in lifetimes preceding mine. There is nothing special about the status quo.”
Michael S. Rozeff

“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?”
Gandhi

“The descendants of African slaves now have equal opportunity to oppress people all races via the State. This was not the type of 'equality' that members of the Civil Rights movement suffered and died for.”
Brutus

“An awakened populace is the enemy of the would-be Controllers. The war on terror is a war on human freedom by a dystopian state structure disguising itself as a protecting surrogate parent from an enemy of their own making.
It's all by assumption and generations of conditioning. But the veil is coming off.
Thanks to their own military invention called the internet millions are discovering the full truth. History is a lie. Religion is a control system. Money is a hoax. Government is a for profit corporation.
And we don't need their goddamn hierarchy.”
Zen Gardner

“The police are to the government as the edge is to the knife.”
David Bayley

“No individual or institution has the moral right to use aggressive force. That principle applies not only to the Federal Leviathan, but to the loathsome little replicas of that vile beast found in every city, county, and state. Rather than helping to consolidate the existing police state, supporters of the rule of law should work to end their local government's monopoly on the police power -- with the ultimate objective of abolishing it outright.”
William Norman Grigg

“The only ‘greater good’ is to respect the life, liberty, and property of every individual. Nothing can be greater than that, and that is the root of all good. Anything less great or less good is evil.”
Kent McManigal

"How many people would feel compelled to battle on foreign lands, the whereabouts of which were heretofore unknown to them, to slay ‘the enemy,’ to lay waste to husbands, fathers and brothers they have never before met, to Napalm fields, Agent Orange crops, to litter terrain afar with landmines, if they didn't believe the patriotic claptrap with which their State ceaselessly indoctrinates them?"
Joel Bowman

“It's politically and economically advantageous for the US Empire to help its fellow oligarchs keep their populations submissive so the oligarchs of all countries can grow ever more wealthy, powerful and arrogant.”
Garry Reed

“Once initiating violence is part of your worldview, the difference in hitting a defenseless child and murdering an innocent civilian becomes one of degree.”
David Kramer

“What do you think ‘govern’ means. It doesn’t mean ‘suggest’ or ‘implore.’ It doesn’t mean two people sitting down, talking it over, and compromising. ‘Govern’ means ‘force’ and ‘force’ means ‘violence.’ When you advocate any government action, you must first believe that violence is the best answer to the question at hand.”
Allen Thornton

“As it always has, anarchism represents the way forward to a society unencumbered by political government and the class warfare which inevitably accompanies it. If the Occupiers hope to accomplish anything worthwhile, they must likewise reject conformity to past patterns. Even if the movement fails, let it ‘fail forward,’ revealing worthwhile lessons and creating the template for a mass movement come not to praise Caesar, but to bury him.”
Thomas L. Knapp

“This is one of the many problems with an imperial foreign policy. It teaches us to be tribal participants in a global football game, rooting for ‘our’ team over ‘their’ team. There is nothing like a great foreign bogeyman to draw attention away from the real tyrants here at home.”
Robert Taylor

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

From the Darkness:

“The local police are not your enemy. Your committee is not here to attack them, blame them for violating the Constitution or your civil liberties because they are enforcing a measure of the Patriot Act or conducting a joint Federal and State anti-terror drill. Those are federal issues, which the local police in some cases may have already have little to no say if they are to continue receiving their additional Homeland Security funds, new equipment and weaponry.... We urge all responsible citizens in this community to work with us to ...[s]upport our local police in the performance of their duties [and] oppose all harassment or interference with law enforcement personnel as they carry out their assigned tasks.... [We must accept] our responsibilities to our local police, to defend them against unjust attacks, make them proud and secure in their vital profession, and to offer them our support in word and deed wherever possible."

From “Support Our Local Police” by the John Birch Society

“In my opinion, Turkish Army has the track record and past international engagements for maintaining peace and could do the same in Afghanistan after ISAF withdrawal in 2014.”
Former US diplomat, looking to swap one occupier for another

"A radical leftist station that becomes an instrument of incitement must not be allowed to broadcast to the public."
Danny Danon, member of Israel’s Likud party, explaining why the Israeli government has closed down a dovish Israeli-Palestinian radio station [Remember, we must protect Israel because it’s the only “democracy’ in the Middle East.]

"All of us will be in danger for the rest of our lives. You want to use every tool you can possibly use to gather intelligence. The dangers are literally that great.”
New Gingrich, defending the Patriot Act

“We need to go back to the time, back to the day when parents saw, somebody, saw some kid foolin’ around. It wasn’t your child but they’ll whup you anyway. Or at least they’ll tell your parents. And parents will, you know……"
B. Obama, promoting child abuse to the NAACP

“Don’t let some congressman sitting in an air conditioned office in Washington, DC decide what the rules of [military] engagement are. ……..For us to micromanage them [our brave soldier boys] in a civilian way, without their commanders truly being in charge, is absolutely irresponsible and as commander and chief of this country I will not allow it to happen.”
Rick Perry, apparently oblivious to Article I, Sections 8 of the US Constitution

"I would call on the President, and do call on the President, to immediately introduce legislation which says will we not have a $600 billion cut to America’s military. We should not cut any funding from our base Department of Defense budget. That should not occur."
Mitt Romney, standing up for war whores and hired assassins

“The stumbling block for the board regarding Representative Paul dealt primarily with ‘States’ Rights’ as it pertains to the sanctity of human life and God’s design for marriage.”
From a statement from the Family Leader (a social conservative advocacy group) on why it can’t endorse Ron Paul for president [The typical Christo-fascist position- the Federal Beast should be inspecting wombs and controlling marriage unions, despite having no constitutional or moral authority to do so.]

“I have long been concerned that my party’s rigid anti-tax ideology is harming the fiscal health of our nation. Now it is harming our national security as well, as cuts in defense spending on a calamitous scale are about to be triggered. Congressional Republicans need to look back at this sad episode and decide: Do they care more about keeping 'a no tax pledge' or giving our troops the tools they need to protect the nation?”
Former Defense Secretary William Cohen, calling for more looting to prop up the regime

“I think it’s time for a 21st century Monroe Doctrine. …..As the President of the United States, I will promise you one thing, that within 12 months of the inaugural, that [Mexican] border will be shut down, and it will be secure.”
Rick Perry, lover of walls and prisons

“….A much more comprehensive approach to economic governance is now the priority for the euro area. And this means more economic and financial integration for the euro area, with a significant transfer of sovereignty to the EMU level over fiscal, structural and financial policies.”
ECB executive board member José Manuel González-Páramo [Centralization causes the problems and the state's answer to that failure is still more centralization. Governing power moves more and more into the hands of fewer people.]

State Criminality is Worldwide

2011-11-24T12:21:00.000-06:00

No matter its form, structure, ideology or location, the state is an institution that exists to conquer, loot and rule the many for the benefit and enrichment of the few.

Here is how it’s done in Europe. Watch the roaches scatter and the rabid rats turn angry when exposed by the light of truth.

(Thanks to Simon Black)

Quotes of the Week

2011-11-20T16:44:00.007-06:00

From the Light:
"Religion is not God, and experiencing religion is not the same as experiencing God. Religion is a human social institution and its failings do not prove or disprove the existence of God. They just demonstrate shortcomings in mankind that pervade all human institutions, from government to sports to marriage."
Gary B. Meisner

“The real problem with the OWS movement is its political naiveté. The protestors imagine that by attacking free enterprise and the capitalist system they are upholding the rights of the common man. The exact opposite is true. The only real alternative to free enterprise is an economy owned and administered by society’s most ruthless and cruel elements, who always seems to gravitate toward statist means.”
Jeffrey Tucker

“The world to me is a strange place in which human beings inhabit worlds of their own perception. Trouble is they think their perceptions are truth. Trouble comes when they succeed in getting the power to impose those perceptions on everyone.”
Michael S. Rozeff

“The truth, indeed, is something that mankind, for some mysterious reason, instinctively dislikes. Every man who tries to tell it is unpopular, and even when, by the sheer strength of his case, he prevails, he is put down as a scoundrel.”
H.L. Mencken

“Being blind to the obvious is part of the human condition.”
Simon Black

“Humans continue to rebel against their governments, the scope of each getting smaller and smaller. As the scope gets smaller, the power gets smaller, and thus the people become stronger. Inch by inch we, as a species, are becoming more confident in our ability to achieve happiness and success without the protection of a ruler.”
Theo Zagtech

“So if the military doesn't exist to protect our rights and freedoms, why does it exist? The answer is simple. It exists to back our national will with force. Most of the time, that is a good thing, particularly when our national will is to not be attacked by jackasses who threaten us. But when the national will turns to taking your guns away, you will be the jackass who threatens "us." Then the military will execute that national will with cold, unthinking and bureaucratic efficiency. And wrap itself in the flag while doing so.”
Tom, of StarvingtheMonkeys.com

“Cooperative creatures beget cooperative society. Government appears later, and besides acting as a parasite on the fruits of the good people’s labor, it inevitably ends up corrupting that society by redefining morality and ethics through its public ‘education’ institutions and its positive legislation.”
Tzo

"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live."
Oscar Wilde

“Freedom and government (save for self-government!) cannot co-exist. They are the pipers; we are the lemmings, being led to the edge of the cliff. If we were smarter than lemmings, we would simply stop marching to our own destruction.”
Paul Hein

“We often hear people say, with a tone of saintliness, ‘We're a nonprofit organization,’ as if that alone translates into decency, objectivity and selflessness. They want us to think they're in it for the good of society and not for those ‘evil’ profits. If we gave it just a little thought and asked what kind of organization throughout mankind's history has accounted for his greatest grief, the answer wouldn't be a free market, private, profit-making enterprise; it would be government, the largest nonprofit organization.”
Walter Williams

“The notion that foreign wars and entanglements are wrong still emanates from a sparsely populated philosophical quarter that has no majority presence in the academy or the government–media complex. It is a true voice in the wilderness. That voice has one signature message: you cannot thank a veteran for your freedom because they have actively done nothing more than endanger its very existence. In fact, American military power abroad (and increasingly, at home) has made civilians more unsafe than they have ever been. The threat not only emerges from aggrieved victims of American brutality abroad but a government desperate in bad times to ensure that not one dollar of military expenditures is reduced.

Veterans don’t need gratitude but a self-realization on their part that the machine they worked for was never an engine for liberty but a device whose single purpose was aggrandizement of American political power at home and abroad. And that political hammer always extinguishes liberty and never expands it.”
Bill Buppert

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

From the Darkness:

"I know that a lot of people refuse to accept the possibility of such things, and nothing will convince them that a monetary expansion can ever do real good. But they’re mistaking their own confusion for profound insight."

Paul Krugman, dissing Miseans

“We have more than 40,000 American troops that remain in the Gulf region. We're not going anywhere."
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta

“We are writing to urge you to put our country ahead of politics.

For the fiscal health of our nation and the well-being of our fellow citizens, we ask that you increase taxes on incomes over $1,000,000.

We make this request as loyal citizens who now or in the past earned an income of $1,000,000 per year or more.

Our country faces a choice – we can pay our debts and build for the future, or we can shirk our financial responsibilities and cripple our nation’s potential.

Our country has been good to us. It provided a foundation through which we could succeed. Now, we want to do our part to keep that foundation strong so that others can succeed as we have.

Please do the right thing for our country. Raise our taxes.
Thank you.”
A Letter written to Congress and the President by a group called “Patriotic Millionaires”

“I think that’s good for the world,. I actually think, over the long term, it’s [Australia’s draconian carbon tax] good for our economies, as well, because it’s my strong belief that industries, utilities, individual consumers — we’re all going to have to adapt how we use energy and how we think about carbon.”
B. Obama

“It is now the task of our generation to complete the economic and currency union in Europe and create, step by step, a political union."
Angela Merkel, Germany's Chancellor

"We face the threats from rising powers, China, India, others that we have to always be aware of, and try to make sure that we always have sufficient force protection out there in the Pacific to make sure they know we're never going anywhere,"
Leon Panetta, standing up for his gang

"While the political views of OccupyDallas vary greatly over the subject of current military deployments and actions in foreign countries, there is one message to Veterans that we all agree on: Thank You for your service. Today, we celebrate your bravery and stand up to show our appreciation.”
From the website, OccupyDallas.org

“I’m not a believer in the Old Testament theory of business cycles. I think that if we can help people, we need to help people.”
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke ["Help" people by propping up zombie banks and businesses and lowering the value of individual's savings? No thanks, we can do without your help, Benny.]

It’s Time to Overthrow Statism

2011-11-20T11:26:00.001-06:00

Take a good look at the images on this excellent video produced by Adam Kokesh. You will soon be seeing similar occurrences on the North American streets occupied by the criminal syndicate known as the United States Government.

Statism knows nothing of reason and compassion. It only knows power and control. It has no conscience. It will, ultimately, do whatever necessary to maintain its grip on free individuals.

Statism operates exclusively through violence, be it offensive or defensive action. Peaceful persuasion and voluntary action and interaction is NOT a part of its repertoire. Be forewarned, and don’t become one of the clueless fools surprised and shocked when such events occur.

DVD Reviews

2011-11-15T16:11:00.001-06:00

Ken Burns- Jazz:
This 10-disc series released in 2000 provides an adequate and entertaining summary of the evolution of this uniquely American art form. I’m sure many expert aficionados would view it otherwise. My only complaint, as a guitar lover, is the complete lack of any history of jazz guitarists, outside of a brief reference to Charlie Christian.
Recommended

The Lincoln Lawyer:
Matthew McConaughey is good at playing slick and witty characters. This role is custom made for him. He plays a successful defense lawyer who discovers disturbing information about his client that cannot be revealed due to attorney-client privilege.
Recommended

Green Dragon:
This drama looks at several different Vietnamese refugees, as they are resettled at Ft. Pendleton, near the conclusion of the Vietnam War. They struggle to deal with separation from family, hopelessness, and the anxiety of starting over in a new land.
Recommended

Beyond the Sea:
If you, like me, enjoy the seemingly unlimited talent of Kevin Spacey (who stars, directs, and sings) this film is worth viewing. However, the screenplay for this biopic of singer Bobby Darin has a lot to be desired. The fantasy sequences and Darin’s conversations with his “younger, child self” were extremely annoying and distracting. A straight ahead view of the short, explosive, life of one of music’s great singers would have been much more appealing.
Not recommended

The Misfortunates:
This Belgian made drama looks at a coming-of age-age boy being raised by his grandmother, alcoholic father, and three loving, though drunken, uncles. Even within such a dysfunctional family, familial love and loyalty is preached and practiced.
Recommended

Paul:
This comedy feature can rightly be considered the “Anti-E.T.” A bawdy, cigarette smoking alien takes off on adventurous road trip with two UFO watchers in order to meet up with his mother ship. The character of Paul is endearing and you’re given just enough laughs to make viewing worthwhile.
Recommended

Oliver Twist:
This is the 2005 film version of the Dickens tale directed by Roman Polanski. Very entertaining and includes a wonderful performance by Ben Kinsley as Fagin.
Recommended

Warrior’s Way:
A sword warrior escapes from the Far East to Old West America after refusing to kill the last remaining baby of an enemy clan. Even the brilliant Geoffrey Rush can’t save this turkey.
Not recommended

Of Gods and Men:
This is an enthralling, well made, French spoken, historical drama about Trappist monks who attempt to deal with Islamic fundamentalists in Algeria. This occurred in the mid-1990’s. A gripping, real life tale of perseverance and commitment.
Recommended

Everything Must Go:
Will Ferrell plays a good natured alcoholic who loses his job and is thrown out of his house by his wife on the same day. He decides to take residence on his front lawn while he takes stock of his life, make some new friends, and refocus his direction.
Recommended

Police State Four- The Rise of FEMA:
This is an informative, 2009 update by Alex Jones and the InfoWars crew concerning the growing fascist police state that is the United States.
Recommended

The Beaver:
Mel Gibson is excellent playing a chronically depressed man who adopts a hand puppet and alternate personality to turn his life around. Sometimes black, sometimes emotional, but always interesting and thought provoking.
Recommended

Sons of Anarchy- Season 3:
Another great season of action and suspense for the California MC. This season finds the Sons spending time in Belfast, Ireland, as they search for Jack’s kidnapped son. This is one of those well written and expertly acted series (oh so rare) that finds yourself wishing they would produce an episode 52 weeks a year, rather than a dozen.
Recommended

Pulp Fiction:
I finally took the time to venture into Quentin Tarantino's 1994 journey into violence and depravity. Surprisingly, with the exception of a couple well acted scenes, I found myself bored.
Not recommended

Hanna:
Hanna is a teenage girl who is was created as an embryo in a discontinued, government sponsored experiment to create super soldiers. She is rescued as an infant by an ex-CIA operative who trains her in the isolated Arctic forest as a highly skilled assassin- all to assist and defend her when she inevitably decides to return to the civilized world she has only read about in books; a world that includes a US government that wants her dead.
Recommended

The Ledge:
A very well executed drama that revolves around a young man on a ledge, preparing to jump to his death and the police officer (with extreme family issues of his own) who attempts to persuade him otherwise. The film includes a very intelligent discussion among the characters about the existence or not of God, the meaning of life, and the relevance of faith.
Recommended

Winter in Wartime:
This is a very enjoyable Dutch war drama which revolves around a teenage boy in German occupied Netherlands in World War II. His frustrations with his father’s seeming lack of will to resist the Nazis inspires him to assist a shot down British pilot to escape to freedom. It’s a decision that has major repercussions on his family.
Recommended

Quotes of the Week

2011-11-13T17:19:00.005-06:00

From the Light:
“Governments are like primitive cannibals feasting on a great treasure trove of sheeple. You can't force them out, and you can't vote them out. But you can sure as hell starve them out. When enough people pick up and leave, essentially voting with their feet, it accelerates the system crash.
This is the only way to truly change the system.”
Simon Black

“The Occupy movement, much like the Tea Party before it, has been co-opted and turned into a partisan distraction. Popular anger is inappropriately redirected against the other half of the population, rather than against the ideas of government which have brought us to this state. By continuing to blame figureheads and people instead of institutions and ideas, we guarantee that the future will be as bleak as the present. I weep for future generations.”
Kaiser Leib

“The constant barrage of ‘Thank you for your service’ and ‘We thank our veterans’ is enough to make me ill. There has been no "service" and I have no ownership interest in any ‘veterans.’
People working for a mass-murdering psychopath are not to be thanked, even if they thought they were doing good. Naive intentions may matter, but the end results are extremely important, too.”
Ken McManigal

“Nothing interesting happened in the realm of religion this week. It was only the usual Catholic priests molesting children, Islamists murdering Christians, Hindus murdering Muslims, and Christian American military personnel murdering Afghanis and Pakistanis while their families at home wave the flag proudly and call the soldiers “heroes.” And then the soldiers come home to America and commit suicide in the largest numbers in history. Perhaps the Prince of Peace has been misunderstood.”
Russell Longcore

"Why should either two men live at the discretion of three, or three at the discretion of two. Both propositions are absurd from a reasonable point of view. If being a slave and owning a slave are both wrong relations, what different does it make whether there are a million slave owners and one slave, or one slave owner and a million slaves? Do robbery and murder cease to be what the are if done by ninety-nine percent of the population?"
Auberon Herbert

“The ultimate 'bargaining' toll of the state is the threat of violence- which its devotees believe is the cement that holds society together. To the extent political mandates conflict with the expectations of members of the community to have their property claims respected, social discord will ensue. Over time, a politically-grounded society infects the community in destructive ways, as fear, force, confrontation, punishments, and other socially discordant practices manage to trickle down into all levels of social conduct.”
Butler Shaffer

“Natural patriotism may be defined as follows: an automatic and wholly uncritical, instinctive attachment for hereditary or traditional ways of life which are collectively accepted, and an equally automatic and instinctive hostility toward any other way of living. It is love for one’s own, and a hatred for everything foreign…”
Mikhail Bakunin

“Tyrants are convinced that their own personal philosophy is correct for everyone, and they demand, with the threat of violence, that everyone emulate and obey the Positive Law as set forth by their personal philosophies. Representative governments claim that somehow, the majority can combine their distinct personal philosophies together to form some sort of composite personal philosophy that everyone must obey. These positive laws are then enforced with the threat of violence, just as in the case with tyrants.
Subjective political philosophies based on personal decree, backed by force, is the stuff of which governments are made, whether that government is tyrannical, representative, or anything in between.”
Tzo

“Here is the soul of the American approach to existence, bottomless self-admiration devoid of knowledge or curiosity, wrapped like a psychic burrito in the patriotism of overwrought middle-schoolers. And there are many, many of them.”
Fred Reed

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

From the Darkness:

“Without the ‘nanny' state we would be in serious trouble. More people would die on the roads or smoke themselves to an early grave; more would be maimed by defective consumer goods, and conned by false and misleading advertising; and more toddlers would drown in backyard swimming pools.
...Yes, we have reason to be thankful that governments sometimes legislate in ways that infringe on our liberties. Personal responsibility is too flimsy a bulwark against the forces of irresponsible, laissez-faire capitalism.”

Adele Horin, The Sydney Morning Herald

“This is a deep concern for me. I know others disagree, but we have very lax laws when it comes to guns. My concern is that there’s been a lot said about Fast and Furious, and perhaps mistakes were made. But I think this hunt for blame doesn’t really speak about the problem. And the problem is, anybody can walk in and buy anything.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, blaming individual gun owners for violence rather than the ineptitude of the BATFE

"The purpose of the new program would be to increase the demand of Christmas Trees in the United States."
From an order issued by the U.S. Agriculture Department which imposes a 15 cent Christmas tree assessment to study the promotion of Christmas tree sales

"They [Occupy Dallas protestors] need to be safe. There are kids in that camp; that's not safe. When police get hurt, that's not safe. When citizens potentially get hurt, that's not safe. So, safety first; freedom of speech second."
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, pulling the usual “safety over freedom” scam beloved by state gangsters

“I want peace. And if I am president, I will begin by imposing a new round of far tougher economic sanctions on Iran. I will do this together with the world if we can, unilaterally if we must. I will speak out forcefully on behalf of Iranian dissidents. I will back up American diplomacy with a very real and very credible military option. I will restore the regular presence of aircraft carrier groups in the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf region simultaneously. I will increase military assistance to Israel and coordination with all of our allies in the region. These actions will send an unequivocal signal to Iran that the United States, acting in concert with allies, will never permit Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.”
Mitt Romney, creating “peace” by threatening other people and telling them what to do

“Television news footage from outside the university's main administration building showed officers pulling people from the steps and nudging others with batons as the crowd chanted, ‘We are the 99 percent!’ and ‘Stop Beating Students!’”
From an AP report which describes cops beating students with batons as “nudging”

“First of all, maximum covert operations to block and disrupt the Iranian program, including taking out their scientists, including breaking up their systems, all of it covertly, all of it deniable. Second, maximum coordination with the Israelis in a way that allows them to maximize their impact in Iran. Third, an absolute strategic program comparable to what President Reagan, Pope John Paul II, and Margaret Thatcher did to the Soviet Union, of every possible aspect short of war, of breaking the regime and bring it down.”
Newt Gingrich, telling us how he’ll punish Iran if he is US Dictator

Quotes of the Week

2011-11-07T20:12:00.003-06:00

From the Light:
“The leaders and law makers in the government are psychopaths. The heads of the media, the military, and Wall Street are intra-species predators. They are in complete control. We are ruled by monsters.”
Bob Alexander

“There's a reason why libertarians say there's little difference between left and right.
Jackboots always come in matched pairs, a left boot and a right boot.
When the jackboot heel is crushing your neck do you really think you'll care whether it's the right/fascist/Nazi boot or the left/liberal/socialist boot that's killing you?”
Garry Reed

“Hard to keep track of what’s illegal these days. The most innocuous deeds can land a serf behind bars even as crimes worthy of a sociopath earn rulers the Nobel Prize.”
Becky Akers

“Honor? A soldier is just a nationally certified hit-man, perfectly amoral. When he joins the military he agrees to kill anyone he is told to kill, regardless of whether he has previously heard of the country in which he will kill them or whether the residents pose any threat to him or his. How is this honorable? It is cause for lifelong shame.”
Fred Reed

“The American government has become like a mean drunk — a big, burly mean drunk. He’s angry and you can’t really say anything near him that won’t elicit some kind of angry response.
It doesn’t matter that the drunk may have been a wonderful husband and father for many years...or that he might go through rehab and be a great guy in the future. Right now, at this moment, he’s a mean drunk.”
Eric Fry

“Our obligations are to ourselves, our families, and whomever else we choose to let into our circles. There is no natural debt to society or political servitude simply by accident of birth.”
Simon Black

“I have noticed that many people, including several preachers I have heard over the years, criticize the government and say that we can't trust the government or that the government is corrupt or evil. Yet, these are the same people that praise the military every chance they get. It's as though the military is not part of the government. The truth, of course, is that the military is the president's personal attack force and the government's enforcer.”
Laurence Vance

“Ego-boundary thinking, another expression of our dualistic way of organizing our experiences, has collectivized our minds and created our world of institutionally-directed conflict and disorder. By identifying ourselves with any category of persons, we necessarily separate ourselves from those who are not part of our group. Being other than us, they become less than us. When the interests of one group come into contact with those of another, particularly along the boundary lines that divide one group from another, conflicts easily arise.”
Butler Shaffer

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

From the Darkness:

"I'm tickled to death. It's so simple in its design and the objectives, you just wonder why anyone would choose not to have it."

Chief Deputy Randy McDaniel of the Montgomery County, TX Sheriff's Office commenting on his department’s recent acquisition of a $300,000 ShadowHawk UAV weapons platform purchased by way of a Homeland Security grant.

"As a former police chief, I recognize we are not going to arrest our way out of the problem. We also recognize that legalizing marijuana would not provide the answer to any of the health, social, youth education, criminal justice, and community quality of life challenges associated with drug use."
Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy

"They've [China] indicated that they're trying to develop nuclear capability and they want to develop more aircraft carriers like we have. So, yes, we have to consider them a military threat."
Jon Huntsman, standing up for his gang

"Our blacks are so much better than their blacks."
Ann Coulter, commenting on blacks who reside on the conservative plantation

“Bottom line is if you don't want to have barriers, you have to behave."
NY City Michael Bloomberg, to the OWS protestors [Submit! Submit!]

“I’m very proud to know the Koch brothers. This may be a breaking news announcement for the media: I am the Koch brothers’ brother from another mother.”
Herman Cain, candidate for US Dictator

“The National Football League will continue its long history of honoring veterans and active duty members of the military with its new annual ‘Salute to Service’ campaign that will occur each November. The “Salute to Service” campaign is designed to unify and elevate the extensive military appreciation work of the NFL and its clubs. Throughout November, teams will designate home games as special military appreciation games. During these games, teams will display ‘Salute to Service’ banners on their sidelines, in addition to hosting ceremonies to honor the service and sacrifice of our nation’s troops.”
From a statement issued by the NFL [That’s why you’re known to many liberty lovers as the National Fascist League.]

“I’m going to beat you into submission.”
Aransas County, TX Court-At-Law Judge William Adams, in a video showing him beating his teenage daughter with a belt [You're pretty good at that with little girls, Willy. Let's see how successful you are with me. You can bring your belt.]

Occupy the Fed-Dallas on the 5th of November

2011-11-06T14:12:00.001-06:00

References:

www.Facebook.com/OccupytheFedDallas

www.YouTube.com/TexasVideoTruth

http://www.wardennewmedia.com/

Your Rulers in Action

2011-11-02T06:10:00.003-06:00

Below is a video documenting the “domestic activities” of Aransas County, TX Court-At-Law Judge William Adams. This is a “man” who wears a black robe at work and demands you stand up and respect and revere him as he enters the room.

This is just one of your self-proclaimed rulers. If he is willing to do this to a member of his own family, just think what violence he would be willing to commit against you!

Quotes of the Week

2011-10-30T18:42:00.003-06:00

From the Light:
“Libertarians understand that providers under capitalism – in their lexicon meaning the free market without government intervention - have no choice but to offer the best goods and services at the lowest possible prices. If they don't, someone else will. This is not ‘unbridled’ capitalism. Every shopper, every purchaser, every consumer, everyone who pays for services or products, is the bridle of every provider in the marketplace. Companies don't have armies of enforcers gong from door to door demanding that consumers buy from them or go to jail. If they did they wouldn't be companies, they would be the equivalent of governments, and if they could do that they wouldn't bother selling products or services, they would just take people's money at gunpoint.”
Garry Reed

“When nature becomes our government, humans will evolve at an exponentially greater rate. No longer will resources be wasted on national muscle being exercised to show dominance. No longer will people be waiting on their knees to get their fair share squeezed out of their neighbor. And no human being or group of human beings will maintain a significant power without being challenged by the world. Humans will integrate solely based on their volitional interactions with one another, giving them the freedom to master the art of creating the reality out of their imagination without hindrance from another’s.”
Theo Zagetch

“The retention and expansion of political power is the central task of every ruling class throughout history, no matter what their ostensible ideological orientation. Dictatorships, democracies, and everything in between all share this common trait: it is the organizing principle at the core of the policymaking machine, the brain behind the brawn. The various ideological explanations offered by these elites for their actions are invariably self-serving and ultimately irrelevant rationalizations.”
Justin Raimondo

“For sanity’s sake, we must pretend that the money we’re getting – those of us who are getting it – comes from some amorphous 'somewhere' never to be thought about too much. For if each person who received a government check had to confront the reality, had literally to send burly men armed with truncheons and guns over to his next-door neighbor’s home – better yet, had to personally troop over to his neighbor’s home armed with a truncheon or a gun – and accost those poor people himself, in order to force them to “contribute” – then his moral choice would be made crystal clear.
Instead, we have the vote – and speak in euphemisms, politely.”
Eric Peters

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living in society, they create for themselves, in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."
Frederic Bastiat

“Veterans apparently cannot understand why such experiences, which they call ‘military service,’ does not make them marketable in the private sector.
Here's a job tip for these veterans: You’re screwed up, dude. You should have gone to trade school or a community college instead of signing up for a mass killing adventure in a Middle East desert. You were fooled. You were lied to by your government. You did not do a damn thing to ‘defend your country.’ All you did was help make more enemies for your country, while making life more dangerous for all of your friends and family via a possible future "blowback" attack. So don't behave like a "greatest generation" veteran and spend the rest of your life wearing one of those stupid ball caps describing what unit you were in when you went on a killing spree when you were 19.”
Thomas DiLorenzo

“The State is everybody’s enemy. Why don’t the [OWS] protesters get this? Because they are victims of propaganda by the State, doled out in public school, that attempts to blame all human suffering on private parties and free enterprise. They do not comprehend that the real enemy is the institution that brainwashes them to think they way they do.”
Lew Rockwell

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

From the Darkness:

“As a veteran and commander-in-chief of national guard forces, I cannot express enough appreciation for our military service members who have protected and defended American interests in Iraq. Our Iraq war veterans made enormous sacrifices to make our nation and world safer.”

Rick Perry, praising US terrorists

“Others, including myself, have spoken about a new world order, but we are still facing the problem of building such a world order…problems of the environment, of backwardness and poverty, food shortages…all because we do not have a system of global governance.”
Mikhail Gorbachev

“The establishment of a world political Authority should be preceded by a preliminary phase of consultation from which a legitimated institution will emerge that is in a position to be an effective guide and, at the same time, can allow each country to express and pursue its own particular good. The exercise of this Authority at the service of the good...should be made in the interest of all, not only to the advantage of some groups, whether they are formed by private lobbies or national governments.”
From a report at the Vatican’s website supporting global government [More nonsense from the Catholic Cult.]

“Now that military operations in Libya are ending, there will be renewed focus on what practical military options might be considered to protect civilian lives in Syria.”
John McCain, proposing more “humanitarian” killing, this time in Syria

"Obviously, you never like to see anybody come to the kind of end that he [Gaddafi] did, but I think it obviously sends a strong message around the world to dictators that ... people long to be free."
B. Obama [Maybe some day that “message” will reach you, Bankster Boy.]

“Not a single U.S. troop was on the ground [in Libya].. Not a single U.S. troop was killed or injured, and that, I think, is a recipe for success in the future.”
B. Obama, demented, American exceptionalist [So, was it a “success” for the thousands of Libyans you murdered?]

"No country on earth believes government is the problem!"
Slick Willie [Maybe not, but millions of individuals do.]

“On occasion, scientists working on the nuclear program in Iran turn up dead. I think that's a wonderful thing, candidly….I think we should send a very clear message that if you are scientist from Russia or North Korea or from Iran, and you are going to work on a nuclear program to develop a nuclear bomb for Iran, you are not safe."
Rick Santorum, endorsing assassination as a instrument of state policy

“I don’t think we can stop them [Iran] from getting a nuclear weapon without some sort of pre-emptive strike.”
Herman Cain

"The president, he put us in Libya. He is now putting us in Africa. We already were stretched too thin, and he put our special operations forces in Africa."
Michelle Bachmann, not aware that Libya is in Africa

Obama Moves ‘No Child Left Behind’ to Libya

2011-10-27T19:57:00.000-05:00

This is “success” in Libya to the murderer, Obama. As long as none of his precious, hired assassin/soldier boys aren’t injured, this child’s gruesome injury is just part of the process- a necessary bump in the road to improve this young piece of livestock’s future.

(Warning, very graphic video.)

Quotes of the Week

2011-10-23T17:09:00.001-05:00

From the Light:
“The American military is supposed to be our protection against invasion from foreign aggressors. Instead, it has become nothing more than a plaything of the political classes.”
Garry Reed

“The envious do not believe that members of the productive class are entitled to their property. They should only be allowed to keep a percentage and that percentage is determined subjectively according to the desires of the envious. The democratic State gives the envious a minute amount of power through voting. They use this power to vote for politicians or policies designed to take wealth from the productive class.”
Brutus

“So it strikes me that instead of sweating blood over the iniquity of foreign States, my fellow-citizens would do a great deal better by themselves to make sure that the American State is not strong enough to carry out the like iniquities here. The stronger the American State is allowed to grow, the higher its record of criminality will grow, according to its opportunities and temptations.”
Albert J. Nock

“The American government is going to die because they screwed up the money. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY. IT’S THE MONEY,STUPID. And it’s DC’s greed that will be its undoing. Fiat currency…the dollar…is an nonredeemable debt instrument. The dollar-based monetary system is 100% based in debt. Precious metals are money. They are 100% based in value. Redeemability provides stability, which produces predictability. THAT’S how you run an economy.”
Russell Longcore

“Truisms reject moral relativism, and American exceptionalism. They compel an understanding of the laws of nature that animate and regulate all human beings at all times, in all places, and under all circumstances. And truisms equal freedom.”
Andrew P. Napolitano

“You want a real freedom revolution? Then go inside your own head and demand that you free you. Heavens, the influence you can have there! The change you can spark! It’s awesome.”
Claire Wolfe

“Christians who vote are not obeying his admonition to 'Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's' and are instead giving Caesar that which does not belong to Caesar: their attention, time, and respect.”
Kent McManigal

“Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting and doing the things historians usually record, while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry and even whittle statues. The story of civilization is the story of what happened on the banks. Historians are pessimists because they ignore the banks for the river.”
Will Durant

“All hail humanitarian war. Regime change can be a bitch. Start with sanctions because of 'humanitarian' reasons. If they don't work, arm ragtag mercenaries and implement a 'no-fly zone' through an international body. If the rebels can't hunt down the defunct leader, then just bomb the hell out the country until a bloody carcass vaguely resembling the leader turns up. Then claim that the humanitarian intervention was a wild success. PS: Make sure you destroy enough of the infrastructure to secure a huge IMF bondage loan for reconstruction.”
From The Activist Post, regarding the destruction of Libya

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

From the Darkness:

“Black market cigarettes are robbing our coffers of a critical revenue source that we need to pay for vital domestic programs like health insurance for children.”

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, the chief Senate sponsor of the Smuggled Tobacco Prevention, or STOP Act, which would require that tobacco products carry a high-tech stamp that allows government investigators to track cigarette packages and determine whether taxes were paid and whether tobacco is being diverted to "illegal" markets.

“I would love to see Barack Obama be Bulworth. I’d love to see what I’ve always wanted to see, somebody run as a one term President and show me that people aren’t stupid. They do care about each other. And when he does the right things and takes on the controversies, he’s going to win the next election.”
Sean Penn

"I've looked at the writings of people like Amb. John Bolton. I've looked at the writings of Dr. Henry Kissinger -- KT McFarland, someone I respect."
Herman Cain, when asked who has shaped his views on foreign policy [God help us.]

"I don't think the war in Iraq was a mistake, because there were a lot of other reasons we needed to go to Iraq, and there have been a lot of benefits that have come out of Iraq."
Herman Cain [“Benefits” for whom? Morticians?]

"We hope he [Moammar Gadhafi] can be captured or killed soon so that you don't have to fear him any longer.”
Queen Hillary, in her weekly shout out for more blood

"It's very clear that private-sector jobs have been doing just fine; it's the public-sector jobs where we've lost huge numbers, and that's what this legislation is all about."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, explaining his support for higher taxes as part of the teacher/first-responder bill

“Let’s get in on the ground in Libya]. There is a lot of money to be made in the future in Libya. Lot of oil to be produced. Let’s get on the ground and help the Libyan people establish a democracy and a functioning economy based on free market principles.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, leading the future looting of Libya

“We came, we saw, he died.”
Queen Hillary, making light of Gaddafi’s execution without trial. [Your time will come, War Wench. We will delight in seeing your fat carcass buried at sea.]

"Where is a terrorist more apt to be found? Not these days on an airplane more likely on the interstate.”
Bill Gibbons, Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security Commissioner [If they’re not on airplanes, why are your perverts still molesting and microwaving people? They’re now on the interstates, you say? Based on what evidence?]

"For the region, today's events [the murder of Gaddafi] prove once more that the rule of an iron fist inevitably comes to an end."
B. Obama [Your time will come, as well, Bankster Puppet Boy]

“The demand for out facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts. For instance, any changes with respect to drugs o illegal immigration could affect could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby reducing demand for out correctional facilities to house them.”
From the Corrections Corporation of America annual report

Welcome Back, Adam!

2011-10-17T19:34:00.001-05:00

Adam Kokesh has returned to the “interwebs” with his now independently produced, “3.0” version of “Adam vs. the Man.”

Here, Adam shows the world the historically ignorant, economically clueless, collectivist, authoritarian, fascist, walking turd known as Kevin Zeese. Adam does an excellent job of instantly refuting the nonsense offered by this “spokesman:”

Zeese articulates well the general anti-war message concerning US involvement in wars of empire throughout the world, yet sees no hypocrisy in proposing his leftist, authoritarian war against sovereign individuals who happen to reside geographically within the US collective. It’s apparently not enough for Lord Zeese and his supporters to live their own, freely chosen collectivist lifestyle. They insist on the participation of all 310 million of us in their centralized fiascos. If you disagree with their violence-enforced policy- tough luck!

Mr. Zeese, if your proposed acts of aggression against, free living, sovereign, liberty loving, and otherwise peaceful individuals are successful, please don’t act surprised when you find a well aimed hollow point between your eyes. Violence, no matter what form it takes, merely begets more violence. Your inherent threat to cage or kill me and others for not cooperating with your mob-enforced “policy” will more than likely be met with justified, defensive, retaliatory force. Do you and your aspiring tyrants really believe that your opposition will merely sit back and accept your oppression?

Your Inspiration for the Day........

2011-10-17T11:28:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Bankster-Controlled America, Part II

2011-10-16T22:43:00.003-05:00

The Federal Reserve wants Alex Jones to take down his video where he illustrates how the Federal Reserve is a private bank impersonating a Federal agency.

“We have received a privacy claim by agents of the FED,” says Jones on his YouTube channel. “They are threatening to remove the video and take down the channel within 36 hours if we don't bow down to their demands.”

Here are the initial two videos about this most recent development concerning Fed and banker tyranny. The Fed has now moved quickly from monitoring critics in the blogosphere and social media outlets to actively working to censor and restrain people’s speech. Stay tuned for more updates from Alex, later on Monday.

UPDATE:

I don’t know if this related to the attack by the FED, but the Alex Jones Channel has received this notice (shown below) from YouTube. One of the channel’s videos has been removed due to “copyright infringement.” The video in question can (at least at this moment) still be viewed here on another channel.

Apparently, the problem arises from the use of a news clip from CTV-Calgary showing their famous “dumb reporter” who is ignorant of the historical record concerning gold being used as a reliable currency.

Welcome to Bankster-Controlled Amerika, Part I

2011-10-16T22:35:00.002-05:00

While watching these two videos, please remember that these people are not anti-bankster protestors merely posing as customers. These are actual account-holding customers! At Bank of America, they are not even allowed into the lobby to transact their business. At CitiBank they are actually arrested- for attempting to secure their money!

Please notice who the police (those thuggish, blue bellies who fraudulently claim to “protect and serve”) are “protecting” here. Please notice how they are turning away and even arresting the victims, not the perpetrators!

Quotes of the Week

2011-10-16T12:02:00.002-05:00

From the Light:
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
Steve Jobs

“Yes, there is class warfare in America. But the real war isn't left vs. right. It's freedom vs. tyranny, its libertarianism vs. statism in all its ugly forms, socialism and fascism alike.”
Garry Reed

“For all of the 'American Exceptionalism talk I have been hearing, I have concluded that 'American Exceptionalism' means that Americans are exceptional in that they demand less freedom and liberty than people who once lived under communism. We have become 'exceptional' in that sorry regard."
Bill Anderson

"The big problem with the honest Left is their absolute and obstinate refusal to learn the most basic economic principles."
Rod Rojas

“Anarchism comes down to a very simple argument ... all you have to know is it's never acceptable to use violence, or threaten violence against the innocent. When you say that to someone, everyone says 'well, of course!' But then, of course, it turns out they don't actually believe it. They believe in war, they believe in taxation, they believe in regulation. Everything the state does is violent. They claim the right to kill you if you sufficiently resist paying a parking ticket. So that's the opposition, this is mankind's worst enemy on earth ever."
Lew Rockwell

“The idea of a citizen is really a great con. We are given a lofty and noble title with a laundry list of obligations, but very little protection in return. This is the problem with entrusting anything to a coercive monopoly.
It appears that citizenship now is nothing more than a way for people to participate in the grand scheme of organized robbery that is participatory democracy. Every few years, everybody's life, liberty, and property is sold to the highest bidder, and ‘citizens’ vote for as much loot as possible to be transferred in their direction.”
Robert Taylor

“The idea of a strictly limited constitutional State was a noble experiment that failed, even under the most favorable and propitious circumstances. If it failed then, why should a similar experiment fare any better now? No, it is the conservative laissez-fairist, the man who puts all the guns and all the decision-making power into the hands of the central government and then says, ‘Limit yourself’; it is he who is truly the impractical utopian.”
Murray Rothbard

“The world is lurching toward an impasse, a crossroads between the old and the new. Awaiting rejection from the establishment...and mounting challenges to its hegemony. It is an epoch of sorts. A chance for a brand new experiment in freedom and voluntarism...or an opportunity to dive back into the failed model of the state, only to begin the loopback process all over again.”
Joel Bowman

“Governments do not come into existence as social service organizations or as private firms seeking to please consumers in a competitive market. Instead, they are born in conquest and nourished by plunder. They are, in short, well-armed gangs intent on organized crime.”
Robert Higgs

“Yo, Do-Gooders: politicians stick together, OK? It’s us against them. Expecting one government's thugs to arrest those of another is like asking Bonnie to turn in Clyde.”
Becky Akers

“It's hard to believe that any genuine democracy would accept a claim by its leader that he could have anyone killed simply by labeling them an ‘enemy.’ It's hard to believe that any adult with even the slightest knowledge of history or human nature could countenance such unlimited, arbitrary power, knowing the evil it is bound to produce. Yet this is exactly what the great and good in America have done. Like the boyars of old, they not only countenance but celebrate their enslavement to the ruler."
Chris Floyd

“The flags, the fake debates, the false promises, the ‘god bless our nation’ -- it's nothing more than pure deception. It's proven to be so convincing that although its creators don't deserve the title of Human, one could easily say it's a masterpiece worthy of the title of genius. This picture of America -- a magical fairyland with freedom and prosperity for all -- is painted with blood on the dead flesh of freedom.
Do not stand up for it. Do not represent your government, just as they don't represent you. Denounce your association with them. Refuse to participate in a system that wreaks havoc on innocent human life. Refuse to play their game any longer. Refuse to believe their lies and refuse to let anyone else tell you otherwise. We are humans, living beings, individuals with souls who are born free. Refuse to be tied down by authority.”
Josh Vick

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

From the Darkness:

"I cannot live with a nuclear-armed Iran. If you want an example of when I would use American force, it would be that."

Jon Huntsman, totalitarian fascist

“It’s really important for us not to give any legitimacy to these people in the streets. I remember what happened in the 1960s when the left-wing took to the streets and somehow the media glorified them and it ended up shaping policy. We can’t allow that to happen.”
Congressman Peter King (R-NY) commenting on the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrations [Those 1960's demonstrations helped end the Vietnam holocaust. Goodness no, we can't let that happen again.]

"It's critically important that we unite the world in the isolation of and dealing with the Iranians. That's the surest way to be able to get results."
Joe Biden [Only barbarians see conflict as the first method of action. Civilized folk first try peaceful discussion and persuasion. Even street gangs do this.]

"We will work closely with our international partners to increase Iran's isolation and the pressure on its government and we call upon other nations to join us in condemning this threat to international peace and security."
Queen Hillary, hypocrite and state barbarian

"We are looking for countries to join us in increasing the political and the economic pressure on Iran. We believe that all countries should look hard at how they can tighten sanctions, how they can enforce sanctions and whether sanctions are well-enforced to the limits of their own national law."
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, hypocrite and state gangster

“Pakistan has to be part of the solution or they will continue to be part of the problem. And therefore, as frustrating as it is, we just keep every day going at it and I think we make very slow, sometimes barely discernible progress, but we’re moving in the right direction.”
Queen Hillary, blaming Pakistan for the US Empire’s defeat in Afghanistan

“My choice is not to cut defense. I think it’s a terrible idea to cut defense.”
Mitt Romney, showing us where a good chunk of his bribe income is coming from

"If we sit by and wait until the impacts of climate change are so severe that is impacting our supply chain then that puts us at a greater risk. From a business perspective we really need to address this now, and to look five, 10, and 20 years down the road."
Jim Hanna, Starbuck’s sustainability director, warning of a threat to world coffee supply because of “climate change”

“They’ve [Iran] not just crossed the red line, they’ve jumped over the red line, and this to me is an act of war.
This is such — again, this violates all international norms, violates international law. Basically, you’re talking about an act of war. I think we have to — the United States has to really consider taking very significant action.”
Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, ready to make war against Iran based on a phony terror plot

"We have got a sick patient -- the American economy. And we can see that the patient in the next bed -- the European economy -- he's looking even sicker and there's a real risk of contagion. And what I think we have to do at a moment like this: Have a very, very open creation of money and credit. This is not a moment for government to be cutting back."
David Frum, former Bush II speechwriter, offering us more self-destructive idiocy

“Return to the gold standard? Give me a break. We’re not in Kansas. This is an integrated world economy. And forget doing away with the Fed, Every country has a central bank. Money cannot manage itself.”
William Nordhaus, the Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University and resident, apparaently, of Oz

“I hope the president continues to exercise extraordinary constitutional means, based on the history of Congresses that have been in rebellion in the past,. He’s looking administratively for ways to advance the causes of the American people, because this Congress is completely dysfunctional.”
Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., claiming that congressional opposition to the American Jobs Act is akin to the Confederate “states in rebellion”

“Under the Law of Unintended Consequences, it appears that your newspaper, the Sun-Sentinel, is not only a contractor but may be considered a lobbyist, as well as its editors and the reporters. Therefore, until this is clarified, I will be needing all reporters and others from the paper who contact me for information to file whatever is required as a lobbyist to the City of Lauderhill before I can communicate further.”
Richard Kaplan, mayor of Lauderhill, Fl, in an email to reporters at the South Florida Sun Sentinel [So now reporters are considered "lobbyists" by some of our rulers. It will be interesting to see if this precedent is used by other state gangsters.]

Quotes of the Week

2011-10-10T15:22:00.004-05:00

From the Light:
Due to a busy work schedule this past week, I was unable to do much reading and therefore am unable to pass on small jewels of wisdom to this blog’s readers…….at least from those enlightened authors I enjoy reading.

However, I did manage to catch some babbling ignorance from the darkness.

From the Darkness:
"But if you watch them [Republican presidential opponents] and watch me, the difference in the depth of knowledge and the difference in the ability to debate Obama, the difference in actually having done it at the national level, I can’t only think if you’re worried about the future of the country and you’re worried about how we get the country fixed, I’m a pretty good mechanic who knows how to fix the car and the other folks are good at selling it.
They’re nice people, but they don’t have the knowledge to do something like this on this scale. This is enormously complicated.”
Newt Gingrich, claiming only he is intelligent enough to run the lives of 300 million people

“It may require our military in Mexico.”
Rick Perry, who would consider sending U.S. troops into Mexico to combat drug-related violence

"End capitalism. That is the problem- capitalism. Capitalism has to go.”
Michael Moore, who has made tens of millions from capitalism

"These officers put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe. We're incredibly proud to help them build this program and let them know how much we value their hard work.”
Jamie Dimon, CEO and chairman of JPMorgan Chase & Co, who donated an unprecedented $4.6 million donation to the New York City Police Foundation at the very moment the NY police were brutalizing Wall Street protestors
[They certainly keep your sorry, criminal ass safe. Your time at the guillotine will come, my friend.]

"President Obama has elected to continue the Bush administration’s post-9/11 policy of authorizing the killing of U.S. citizens abroad if there is strong evidence of their involvement in terrorist activities. There is believed to be an official, secret list of those citizens who can be targeted. The elimination of a man who methodically planned to kill hundreds of his fellow Americans is exhibit A for the wisdom of this policy. To be sure, a great deal of care needs to be taken in identifying those on the list. However, American citizenship shouldn’t protect someone living abroad from suffering the immediate consequences of plotting mass murders on American soil."
Mark Peredes, Deseret News, defending the US Dictator’s new found power to assassinate anyone he deems unworthy

"As we continue our close cooperation with Nigeria through the second year of our Bi-national Commission, we will set forth our priorities, and they include improving governance, fighting corruption, delivering services more effectively to the people.
We want to work with Nigeria and West Africa to improve security and to make sure that we also address the legitimate needs of people before extremists have a chance to exploit them"
Queen Hillary outlining her plan on how she will rule Nigeria

"This is America's moment. We should embrace the challenge, not shrink from it, not crawl into an isolationist shell, not wave the white flag of surrender, nor give in to those who assert America's moment has passed. That is utter nonsense.
This century must be an American century. In an American century, America has the strongest economy and the strongest military in the world. God did not create this country to be a nation of followers. America is not destined to be one of several equally balanced global powers. America must lead the world, or someone else will."
Mitt Romney, looking for more God-inspired wars

“You would think that the president and the people in Washington would recognize the importance of the United States military and the need not to shrink our military budget but strengthen it.”
Mitt Romney, looking for a pay raise for the state’s hired assassins

“I can say very clearly that any kind of U.S. presence (in Iraq) demands that we protect and provide the appropriate immunity for our soldiers.”
Leon Panetta, demanding blanket protection from accountability for his hired assassins

Occupy the Fed-Dallas! - A Photo Essay

2011-10-09T17:17:00.006-05:00

About a week ago, talk show host Alex Jones called for “Occupy the Fed” rallies at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and its branches in Houston and San Antonio in response to the global insurrection against banker occupation. Jones also wanted to point out the true source of the present economic difficulties; this in response to “Occupy Wall Street, ” whose participants voice their displeasure against the symptom of the problem (banker corruption and unaccountability) rather than the cause.

I visited the rally Friday afternoon, October 7, at the Dallas Federal Reserve building at 2200 North Pearl St., Dallas, TX (All photos by Roger Young).

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

The Dallas Fed is a huge complex rising out of the north Texas prairie. It takes up an entire city block. Why does it need so much space just to produce counterfeit digital money?:

The numbers are small when I first arrive….

…..Yet the doors to this behemoth complex are closely guarded from the masses:

Fencing was strategically placed to corral and control the state’s restless and disobedient livestock….

…and to aid in closely monitoring their activities:

No surprise here- Ron Paulians appeared to be the dominant force among the participants….

…..though Todd, an anarchist from Denton, TX joined the group…..

….and expertly stated his case toward a stateless society:

The message was conveyed to passing motorists by way of concisely worded signs:

….and passionate, informative speech:

Many passers by showed interest and curiosity:

Some messages were composed on site:

Families were prevalent among the demonstrators:

Even the very young showed their concern about their future….

….and even Johnny Law is approached with the message:

Many lively and thought provoking discussions can be heard among the participants:

Need proof the that the “Federal” Reserve is private?

As late afternoon approaches, the numbers start to swell:

No one states the case against the Fed better than Alex Jones (watch here and here):

As the light starts to disappear and twilight approaches, the message remains on track….

….and the enthusiasm grows.....

…..and the watchers watch closer:

Darkness is imminent, but the protest continues…..

….with sovereign individuals becoming ever more defiant……

…..while looking for that elusive peace:

Quotes of the Week

2011-10-02T15:29:00.003-05:00

From the Light:
“The truth is radical. Sticking to the truth is radical. Accepting nothing less than the truth is radical. Reality is radical.”
Kent McManigal

“Killing made easy seems to be the motive of the rulers. Killing with emotionless robots spares the conscience of the murderers. Killing without consequence allows for more killing, and no justice. Killing for the sake of killing then becomes the norm.”
Gary D. Barnett

"A secret ballot makes a secret government; and a secret government is nothing else than a government by conspiracy. And a government by conspiracy is the only government we now have."
Lysander Spooner

“Has anyone seen this social contract that obligates you to surrender a 'hunk' of what you produce under penalty of violence? Sorry, I don’t trust unwritten open-ended so-called 'contracts' into which any advocate of government power may read conditions ex post.”
Sheldon Richman

“Collective cultural egos of the world continue to exist with the direct mental and physical support of the people who compose them. It is from the agreement of these well-intentioned but ignorant men that the prejudices at war in the world derive their power and can continue to function. They who have freed themselves and successfully adopted right mindsets and lifestyles must now take on higher roles as the injectors of new ideas into the collective mind.”
Vahram G. Diehl

"The Natural Law is a powerful Truth that governments cannot tolerate. They have been trying to discredit this particular Truth for at least the majority of the last three millennia, and they continue on today with the vigorous effort of trying to stamp it out once and for all.
Some truths are discovered, only to be subsequently lost. But a lost truth does not disappear, it merely waits to be discovered once again. And to those who attempt to destroy the truth, they are on a mission impossible and cannot succeed no matter how many of them get together to sign the death certificate."
Tzo

“One’s native land and country are not the government. America is not the United States of America, which is a government. One’s land and country are not the Department of Education, the Internal Revenue Service, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and the Transportation Security Administration. Emotion felt toward one’s country is different than emotion felt toward the government of one’s country.
Why connect one’s consent or non-consent to government (one’s loving it or not) to staying in the country or leaving it? Why connect consent to location? If one does not consent to a government, why is exit from the country thought to be a necessary implication? Why not simply end one’s relations with that government and remain in the country?”
Michael S. Rozeff

"A fruitful field of disengagement might be called domestic expatriation – the recognition that living in a country makes you a resident, not a subscriber. It is one thing to be loyal to a government that is loyal to you, another thing entirely to continue that loyalty when the Brown Shirts march and the government rejects everything that you believe in. While the phrase has become unbearably pretentious, it is possible to regard oneself as a citizen of the world rather than of the Reich."
Fred Reed

“….The term “slavery” has been abolished, with the modern slave being designated “citizen,” and our children indoctrinated with the concept of “good citizenship.” Today one becomes a slave not by being purchased, but simply by being born in a certain area dominated by a particular master. Since the entire known world is so divided, escape is futile; slavery is universal.”
Paul Hein

“Your children pledge their allegiance to the same flag that will be waving on the day the local Little Tyrant will rob them of their property. Indeed, some of these children will even die in battle defending the flag that has flown over some of the worst injustices the world has ever known, and it flies in every courtroom in this country. This is the depth of the indoctrination. Think about it.”
Chris Dates

“The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.”
Mahatma Gandhi

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

From the Darkness:

“The sovereign nation of Pakistan is engaging in hostile acts against the United States and our ally Afghanistan that must cease. They’re killing American soldiers. If they continue to embrace terrorism as a part of their national strategy, we’re going to have to put all options on the table, including defending our troops.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, looking for more blood

“If you are a patriotic American, you want every American to be covered [with health insurance] the same as you. No, not 'I'm going to get ahead because I have health insurance and they don't.'"
Michael Moore, defending Obamacare and healthcare programs similar to it around the world

“You don’t deserve to keep all of it [your income]. And it’s not a question of deserving because what government is is those things we decide to do together. And there are many things we decide to do together, like to have our national security, like have police and fire. I think you need to pay your fair share to do the things we decided, our national priorities.’
U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, when asked how much of an individual’s income should we be allowed to keep

“If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a janitor makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that with a badge of honor. I have no problem with that.”
B. Obama [That’s what happens when the Audacious One speaks without a teleprompter. The working class pay little or NO incomes taxes.]

"When America goes to war, America needs to win. We need to close out the [Afghan] war successfully."
Jon Huntsman [ Successful" means what- when everyone in the country is dead?]

"We all want our troops to come home as soon as possible, but we shouldn’t adhere to an arbitrary timetable on the withdrawal of our troops from Afghanistan. This decision should not be based on politics or economics."
Mitt Romney [Not based on politics? How is that possible, considering that war is a political decision and policy.]

“In the end, the Federal Reserve System is a well-designed institution, created by Congress, that keeps the government from relying on the printing press to finance public spending. It is independent, credible, accountable, and transparent. It is a nearly 100-year-old success story that has served the nation well.”
Christopher J. Waller, from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review [Yea, right. On which planet?]

"I teach a journalism class, and I tell my students to fix people's grammar, because you don't want them to sound ignorant. For them to do that, it's code,[for being racist] and I don't like it."
“African-American author” Karen Hunter, complaining about the Associated Press’ transcription of an Obama speech that included “dropped G’s” in some words- the exact way that Obama intentionally said them

“There are powers only governments can exercise, policies only governments can mandate and enforce and results only governments can achieve. To halt the worldwide epidemic of non-communicable diseases, governments at all levels must make healthy solutions the default social option. That is ultimately government’s highest duty.”
NY City mayor Michael Bloomberg

“Therefore, any person who uses or is addicted to marijuana, regardless of whether his or her state has passed legislation authorizing marijuana use for medicinal purposes, is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance, and is prohibited by Federal law from possessing firearms or ammunition.”
Arthur Herbert, Assistand Director of Enforcement Programs and Services of the BATFE, in a memorandum to all gun dealers in the United States, denying legal marijuana users access to firearms

"The decimation of our middle class, our manufacturing sector, and the American economy as a whole has come in large part because developing nations like China have used illegal currency manipulation and other aggressive, mercantilist tactics to tilt the playing field in their favor.”

Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing [Expect China to be the scapegoat for a bad economy in the US for some time.]

“They [China] get away with economic murder.”
Lil’ Chuckie Schumer, looking to make war on China

"I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover.I really hope that someone can agree with me on that. ... You want people who don't worry about the next election."
North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue

“To solve the serious problems facing our country, we need to minimize the harm from legislative inertia by relying more on automatic policies and depoliticized commissions for certain policy decisions. In other words, radical as it sounds, we need to counter the gridlock of our political institutions by making them a bit less democratic.”
Former White House Budget Director Peter Orszag

Quotes of the Week

2011-09-25T14:05:00.004-05:00

From the Light:
“Ask yourself this: ten years into the post-9/11 era, haven't we had enough of ourselves? If we have any respect for history or humanity or decency left, isn't it time to rip the Band-Aid off the wound, to remove 9/11 from our collective consciousness? No more invocations of those attacks to explain otherwise inexplicable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and our oh-so-global war on terror. No more invocations of 9/11 to keep the Pentagon and the national security state flooded with money. No more invocations of 9/11 to justify every encroachment on liberty, every new step in the surveillance of Americans, every advance in pat-downs and wand-downs and strip downs that keeps fear high and the homeland security state afloat."
Tom Engelhardt

“And so it is that while the world is dominated by the human ape, the species is greatly hindered in its progress by stupid monkeys. Let anywhere near the levers of power, it is a certainty these stupid monkeys will start pulling madly, and keep pulling even as the machine begins to shudder and smoke.”
David Galland

“I am pro-peace, anti-government, pro-people, pro-freedom, pro-liberty, and pro-privacy. If this makes me a radical, then so be it. If it makes you uncomfortable, ask yourself why. I am anti-government because of the brutality, blood, and murder done on behalf of what is supposedly ‘us.’ I will not condone it no matter what you say.”
Shaun Lee

“Ending the federal government allows people more freely to live their lives. This includes more freely arranging their health, education, welfare, security, economy, and jobs as they see fit. That this freedom will improve most people’s lives is a proposition that has been known for centuries. It is a proposition that is still fairly widely known. It may even be known by a majority of persons, at least at some times and in some places. Remarkably, it is also one of the most ignored propositions when it comes to governing.”
Michael S. Rozeff

"If taxation without consent is robbery, the United States government has never had, has not now, and is never likely to have, a single honest dollar in its treasury.

If taxation without consent is not robbery, then any band of robbers have only to declare themselves a government, and all their robberies are legalized."
Lysander Spooner

“And although in truth the anti-authority proposition of the anarchist, put to the test, would shake the existing order (if we can really call it such) at its foundations, it wouldn’t be in the way most people likely expect. Authority is, in its essence and in the anarchist conception, the enemy and antithesis of liberty, an imposition against the natural autonomy of the individual, her judgments and her conscience.”
David D'Amato

“Every ‘political’ solution consists of coercion and aggression. Yet voters never ask their candidate of choice, ‘Why, exactly, should I want to let you forcibly control me?’”
Larken Rose

“This is the great weakness in any political system: 'government' is based on the idea that some individual or organization is awarded power than no human being should possess-- the power to kill, to declare war, to steal, to defraud, to counterfeit.
All of these powers are considered immoral by man, but perfectly acceptable for government... and no matter how much they dress it up as being good for the people, any political system makes full use of its authority in order to maintain the status quo and keep the ruling elite in power.
This is why advocating for political change, while virtuous and noble in deed, is ultimately a wasted effort. Power-hungry megalomaniacs and their sycophantic yes-men will always rise to the top, conning the masses along the way that 'change is coming'. It's all a big snow job.”
Simon Black

“The ‘right’ and the ‘left’ are both equally evil, differing only in the way that evil is put into motion. It all comes down to slavery vs. liberty, theft vs. honest possession, and truth vs. deception.”
Kent McManigal

“Government is significantly different from anything else in society. It is the only institution that can legally threaten and initiate violence; that is, under color of law its officers may use physical force, up to and including lethal force — not in defense of innocent life but against individuals who have neither threatened nor aggressed against anyone else.
Given this unique feature, then, why isn’t everyone wary of the State? Whether or not one thinks it’s necessary, it’s dangerous by its very nature, and we ought to assume it will remain so no matter how many paper checks and balances and bills of rights are thought to contain it.”
Sheldon Richman

“Once a population internalizes that authorities have the power to coerce, few will experience actual coercion because passive submission avoids it. Excessive government control ultimately leads to a psychological change in the people of a nation.”
F.A. Hayek’s

“America was a great idea. That idea died decades ago. What has slithered in, in its place, is the worst parts of all the worst forms of government.”
Jeff Berwick

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

From the Darkness:

“We saw [Egyptian] President [Hosni] Mubarak fall while President Obama sat on his hands. And we’ve also seen now the rise of radical elements all across the Middle East region.”

Michelle Bachmann, showing her love of brutal dictators

"This is not class warfare -- it's math."
B. Obama, on is proposed massive tax increase on the wealthy

"Modernizing our aging ... fighter force depends on the fifth generation capabilities of the Joint Strike Fighter. Simply put, there is no alternative to the F-35 program. It must succeed."
Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, defending the production of a useless jet

"I would hope that any tax-paid school will say the Pledge of Allegiance, and frankly I'd wonder whether taxpayers ought to subsidize it if it's not going to teach people how to be patriotic and how to be pro-American."
Newt Gingrich

“Now, obviously, [Tony] Bennett's comments about 9/11 — even though they're not very different than the things Ron Paul says all the time — are going to cause an uproar. But before everyone freaks out and storms Bennett's castle with pitchforks and torches, we'd like to point out that he's 85 years old, and therefore is pretty old, and old people are allowed to say whatever crazy shit they want.”
Dan Amira, NYMag.com, commenting on Bennett’s claim that USG created blowback led to 9/11

“We’ve had too many of our troops spending too much of their time painting schools and digging wells. They should be allowed to focus on killing Islamic extremists who want us all to die.”
Mike Huckabee

"What Greece needs at this particular point in time is a military junta that would not have to worry about its popularity and could use tanks to enforce some order among strikers and rioters."
Jussi Halla-aho, an MP for the populist True Finns party in Finland

"I encourage everyone I know to never travel to Georgia, never buy anything made in Georgia, to never do business in Georgia."
Michael Moore, urging collective punishment on people residing within the arbitrary boundaries claimed by the Georgia State Criminals who executed Troy Davis [Davis’ appeal was also rejected by a US District Judge. Using Moore’s reasoning, the entire US should then be boycotted.]

Quotes of the Week

2011-09-18T14:51:00.004-05:00

From the Light:
“The state is a covenant with death and an agreement with hell. To abide it is to embrace the glamour of evil and accept mastery by sin, to willingly submit to continual baptism in the innocent blood of kin and stranger alike.”
Thomas L. Knapp

“Dear statists: not following state customs is not an affront to society or an insult to you or any other individual, even a ‘hero’ who may have ‘paid the greatest sacrifice for my freedoms.’ The state and its symbols are not synonymous with society. Nor are they representative of you or any other individual in particular. When your identity is intermixed with your government and your patriotism becomes sacerdotal reverence, you become a mindless minion of the state to be manipulated into agreeing to whatever loss of liberty best suits your god government.
Be a good neighbor to your fellow man, not a doting subject to the state.”
Orlando Machado

“The only idea they have ever manifested as to what is a government of consent, is this – that it is one to which everybody must consent, or be shot.”
Lysander Spooner

"An evil that is left unnamed will perpetuate itself with lavish zeal. Exposing lies that destroy is mercy. Ignoring lies that destroy is mercilessness. Supporting lies that destroy is murder”
Emanuel Charles McCarthy

“Each year, 9/11 reminds the Afghans of an event in which they had no role whatsoever. American colonialism has shed the blood of tens of thousands of miserable and innocent Afghans.'"
From a statement emailed to the media by the Taliban

“Emotion is the enemy of objectivity. When people get emotional about something, they close themselves off to other points of view. This poses a great danger to truth.”
Simon Black

"What did lasting damage to the nation was not 9/11, it was remembering 9/11. Not only did overreaction to 9/11 play a substantial role in bankrupting the country...it also made Americans fearful and sheepish. They’re convinced the towel-heads are trying to kill them. They believe they can protect themselves by spending trillions of dollars they don’t have on military campaigns that don’t work.
Ten years ago, only a few fanatics wanted to do Americans harm. Now, after throwing so much military weight around, half the world would happily pull the trigger on an American tourist if he had the chance."
Bill Bonner

“If September 11 was indeed a nightmare, 9/11 as a memorial and Ground Zero as a ‘consecrated’ place has turned out to be a blank check for the American war state, funding an endless trip to hell. They have helped lead us into fields of carnage that put the dead of 9/11 to shame.”
Tom Engelhardt

“The guys with guns, and no ethics, who absolutely and reflexively follow orders, have all the real power. They are not going to let their rice bowls be broken. So, forget about it. Ron [Paul’s] candidacy, like those of Harry Browne in the 90s, is useful only for advertising sound values. It's a pipe dream to think he can be elected by the mob. And a fantasy to think he'd be able to change anything if he was.”
Doug Casey

“Intentions are the great exonerator of government action. Governments almost always conclude that the motives of their own agents are exculpable, regardless of how many people they killed. But a focus on motive as the prime determinant of the morality of action is inherently flawed when judging state actions because politicians and governments routinely misrepresent their motives. It is far easier to count the dead than to determine the thoughts in the minds of the killers.”
James Bovard

“With the exception of trespassing on private property, people have an absolute right to travel in peace and at their own discretion. This right is an extension of self-ownership, which is the basis of libertarianism. Self-ownership means that all human beings, by virtue of being human, have a right to the full and peaceful control of their persons and property. Traveling is nothing more than an expression of that control not only over your body but also over your goods, which may require transport. Requiring a passport as the key to freedom of movement is akin to gagging someone while maintaining that he retains freedom of speech.”
Wendy McElroy

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

From the Darkness:

“I stand in awe of the men and women in uniform today who are answering our country's call. One of the greatest parts about being governor of Texas is the time I get to spend meeting with those brave men and women, be it in my visits to the many great bases throughout the state, or in my travels overseas to such places Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Rick Perry, lovingly kissing the boots of the occupation force in Texas

“Good conservatives recognize a need for limited government, but they also know that America has an obligation to spread democracy and promote international security.”
S.E. Cupp, NY Daily News, talking out of both sides of her mouth [It's impossible to have "limited" government while creating an empire.]

"American leadership in aerospace and defense is being threatened by forces in Congress and the administration. The security of our troops, our technological future and our economic stability are all at risk. We must preserve jobs across the nation that keep our nation strong."
Marion C. Blakey, president of The Aerospace Industries Association, decrying proposed cuts in defense

“We [the defense industry] understand the nation has to balance its books, but we've already given at the office.”
Chuck Gray, vice president and chief operating officer of Frontier Electronic Systems [“Given at the office?” You mean the bribes paid to Congress critters?]

"I'm off of the [super] committee if we're going to talk about further defense spending."
Republican Senator Jon Kyl's, threatening to quit if defense spending cuts are discussed

“There is no alternative but to give birth to the missing ingredient: a European treasury with the power to tax and therefore to borrow.”
George Soros, arguing that further integration in Europe is the only way to prevent catastrophic financial meltdown. [Yea, right. Centralization is what caused the problem and further centralization will solve it.]

“As I mentioned when I was at La Raza a few weeks back, I wish I had a magic wand and could make this [immigration reform] all happen on my own. There are times where — until Nancy Pelosi is speaker again — I’d like to work my way around Congress.”
B. Obama, still wanting to be dictator

"The test of every policy the [US] Administration develops in the Middle East is whether it is consistent with the goal of ensuring Israel’s future as a secure, Jewish, democratic state. That is a commitment that runs as a common thread through our entire government."
Daniel Shapiro

“If anybody ought to be looked out for, it ought to be the persons who represent the most significant and the most loyal part of the [President’s] base. That would be African-Americans."
Tavis Smiley

"My vigilance will be unflinching for the law to be applied. Praying in the street is not dignified for religious practice and violates the principles of secularism.”
Paris, France Mayor Claude Guéant, defending a new law in Paris that outlaws praying in the streets

“I gotta tell you, I’ve just about had it with these 9/11 truthers. If there is one phenomenon in our sick, sick culture that sums up how far gone and utterly damaged we are as a people, it is 9/11 trutherism. It pretty much covers everything: self-loathing, antisemitism, zero knowledge of rudimentary physics and a general inability to think logically.”
Ann Barnhardt, Capital Management, Inc.

DVD Reviews

2011-09-13T12:37:00.001-05:00

Bruce Springsteen: We Shall Overcome- The Seeger Sessions:
Watch and enjoy the music as Springsteen and a house full of musicians record a tribute album to Peter Seeger. These same musicians and tunes can also be heard live on the DVD, “Live in Dublin.”
Recommended

Unknown:
Liam Neeson stars in this mystery drama as a man who recovers from an automobile accident in Berlin but is missing any identifying documents. His claims as to his identity are contradicted by others and any documented evidence. As he struggles to prove his identity, he begins to discover he may not be who he thought he was. This entertaining story illustrates well how important it is in this world to have documentation to prove just who you are.
Recommended

Illegal:
This foreign drama takes place in Belgium, following the trials of a Russian woman who is jailed as an illegal immigrant and faces deportation. The film helps expose the inherent cruelty of thinking of other humans as “illegal.” One riveting scene has the lead character forced onto a plane to be deported. Other passengers on the plane (and even the pilot) rush to the woman’s rescue to protest her harsh treatment. Think you would ever see such a protest in sheepish America?
Recommended

To Tulsa and Back- On Tour with J.J. Cale:
I’ve been listening to JJ Cale’s music for nearly forty years. This documentary is produced and edited in the same laid back style that Cale plays his unique mixture of blues, jazz and country. It’s nice to finally get a comprehensive background on the artist I and others have enjoyed for so long.
Recommended

The Eagle:
This drama takes place in second century Britain during the days of the Roman Empire. A Roman centurion returns to a forbidden area of northern Britain to recover a gold eagle standard that disappeared years earlier, along with 5000 Roman soldiers, including the centurion’s father. As they encounter native tribes, the soldier and his British slave must reverse roles in order for both to survive. The film shows how symbol worship has a long history among men (as today, with the flags of nation states). The role reversal among master and slave makes the film much more interesting than it would otherwise have been.
Recommended

Phil Ochs- There But for Fortune:
This documentary takes a look at the influential singer/songwriter/anti-war activist of the 1960’s and 70’s. It’s a shame he seemed to lose his drive and creative energy once the Vietnam War finally ended.
Recommended

Source Code:
This sci-fi flick is propelled by an interesting premise that the memory from the final moments of a person’s life can not only be electronically recovered but placed into another person’s mind to relive those final moments- the purpose to solve a crime and prevent a future one.
Recommended

The Music Never Stopped:
This is a very moving drama based on a true story. A young man loses his ability to retain short term memory (because of a brain tumor) but his older memories can easily be recalled by listening to music experienced during those older periods of time. His therapy therefore includes using music to help him retain short term memory, as well. J.K. Simmons is outstanding as the young man’s father who learns to appreciate his son’s music to reconnect and redeem himself for past parental mistakes.
Recommended

Harry’s War:
This 1981 comedy has a man fighting an unjust action by the IRS. Though not the best made movie, it does strongly project the very important message that lives and property cannot be destroyed without due process of law; a process, unfortunately, continues thirty years later.
Recommended

The War You Don’t See, by John Pilger:
I watched this excellent documentary on YouTube. Mr. Pilger looks at the corporate media’s role in the USG’s misinformation campaign in its long string of wars going back to World War I.
Recommended

Ronnie Hawkins- Still Alive and Kickin’:
This charming documentary looks at what was to be the final year of the rock and roll legend’s life after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. “The Hawk” shows much grace and candor as he reconnects with old friends, continually joking about his desperate condition. The story takes a surprising twist when his tumor suddenly disappears, baffling his doctors, and giving Mr. Hawkins new inspiration to continue performing.
Recommended

The Adjustment Bureau:
Matt Damon stars in this thought provoking sci-fi drama that studies the question of free will. The story includes men with angel-like powers directing Damon’s life in ways that conflict with his wishes. It’s entertaining how he manages to outwit their every move.
Recommended

My Own Love Song:
Renee Zellweger and Forest Whitaker work nicely together as friends helping each other through present difficulties caused by past traumas. Very emotional and uplifting.
Recommended

The Great Global Warming Swindle:
You can view this on YouTube. An excellent documentary that contradicts all the claims professed by the anti-carbon, climate change crowd.
Recommended

How I Ended This Summer:
This Russian drama is photographed beautifully and presented at an extremely slow, though attractive pace. The story surrounds the life of two men, working at an isolated weather station in the Russian Arctic. What’s troubling is how the characters act and react to each other in a way that is unbelievable or simply makes no sense.
Not recommended

Limitless:
This is an intriguing film about a young writer suffering a creative drought who is given a pill that allows him to make full use of his brain; not just the usual twenty percent. He is able to achieve unparalleled success in the financial world that creates unforeseen, dangerous problems and conflicts that must be dealt with.
Recommended

The Beautiful Country:
A very compelling drama about a young man in Vietnam who smuggles himself across the world to the US to find his American GI father. Nick Nolte contributes a fine performance.
Recommended

Craig Ferguson-Wee Bit O’ Revolution:
The Scottish comedian celebrates his newfound US citizenship with an enjoyable 79 minutes of comedy performed live in Boston, Mass. on the fourth of July.
Recommended

The Slaughter Rule:
A very melancholy and sometimes depressing drama about a high school football player in Montana who is cut from the team on the same day his dad commits suicide. He then strikes up a friendship with a man with a questionable past, joining his six-man football team. The filmmakers make fine use of the bleak fall/winter Montana landscape. David Morse gives us a topnotch performance.
Recommended

The Conspirator:
Robert Redford directs this historical drama about the trial of conspirators involved in the Lincoln assassination. It focuses particularly on Mary Surratt, the owner of the boarding house where many of the conspirators lived and the reluctant attorney who is forced to defend her.
Recommended

Quotes of the Week

2011-09-11T15:45:00.001-05:00

From the Light:
“In any event, as we are all instructed to celebrate the further empowerment of the banking-military junta, and as we are warned about some alleged threat from agent provocateurs, I say: Bah, humbug. I do not consent to be ruled by this murdering, lying gang of thieves. I reject the State and all its works, and all its empty promises."
Lew Rockwell

"The State calls its own violence law, but that of the individual, crime."
Max Stirner

“In traditional Christianity, the leader sacrificed himself that the followers might live forever and the gentiles gathered in as well. The 9/11 cult’s approach is precisely the opposite: It is the followers and the foreigners who are sacrificed that the political class might thrive.
In Catholic communion, the wafer and wine become the body and blood of Christ, representing his sacrifice on your behalf. Behold the 9/11 cult’s miracle of record: Transubstantiation of the Ski Mask, in which you and your labor become wafer and wine, consumed at gunpoint by holy muggers for the perpetual vivification of the state”
Thomas L. Knapp

“The secret ballot makes a secret government; and a secret government is a secret band of robbers and murderers. Open despotism is better than this. The single despot stands out in the face of all men, and says: I am the State: My will is law: I am your master: I take the responsibility of my acts: The only arbiter I acknowledge is the sword: If anyone denies my right, let him try conclusions with me.
But a secret government is little less than a government of assassins. Under it, a man knows not who his tyrants are, until they have struck, and perhaps not then. He may guess, beforehand, as to some of his immediate neighbors. But he really knows nothing. The man to whom he would most naturally fly for protection, may prove an enemy, when the time of trial comes.”
Lysander Spooner

“It is said that 9/11 changed everything, but in fact it changed nothing whatsoever. Opportunistic politicians simply used the attacks to do much more of what they had already been doing and were hoping to continue in greater measure. Admittedly they were good at that. The attacks gave them a unique chance to frighten Americans into acceding to whatever the ruling elite wanted.”
Sheldon Richman

“Americans see all motivation to hurt us as proof that we are the best, the freest, the bravest, the strongest, the invincible. Yet the prospect of some dictator without a navy flying balsa wood planes over and bombing us with anthrax will lure us into supporting a multi-trillion-dollar war that grinds up thousands of bodies.”
Anthony Gregory

“The US no longer does decisions. It can neither stop the drug traffic nor legalize it. It can neither win wars nor abandon them, neither make money nor stop spending it, neither stop immigration nor assimilate the immigrants. Washington can beat its thumb with a hammer, yes, and notice that it hurts, but it can’t stop beating its thumb. That would take a decision, and Washington doesn’t do decisions.”
Fred Reed

“The history of the last decade or so proves, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the US government, far from being this great liberating force, the greatest factor for good in the international equation, is instead a force for naked evil. It isn’t that “we are not angels,” it’s that we’re devils. It’s as simple as that.”
Justin Raimondo

“The ‘Pledge of Allegiance’ (which was written by a socialist to help sell flags and magazine subscriptions to public schools) – is creepy. I do not pledge myself to a piece of fabric. I will gladly swear allegiance to my daughters, my wife, my family, my God, people truly important to me… but to a government? No. Governments are forever changing and catering to the interests of something or someone else. To pledge myself to a government is to pledge my loyalty to the whims and corruption of others, and to the tyrannical monopolizer of force that continually finds new ways to aggress against me and my loved ones (to the tune of hundreds of thousands of laws).”
Orlando Machado

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
Albert Camus

“Nation states when stripped of the patriotic bunting and jingoistic propaganda are nothing than claimed tax jurisdictions where the subjects are drained of resources at gunpoint to subsidize the rulers and their parasites and looters who maintain their constituent power.”
Bill Buppert

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

From the Darkness:

"We cannot tolerate it. There are just too many guns on the streets and we have to do something about it. We need the federal government to step up.”

NY City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, inanimate objects for his city’s high crime rate

“There’s lot of stuff on the Internet, lots of weird conspiracy theories that people believe – we’ve got to have a controlled demolition if you like of those misconceptions, remind people of the tragedy of what really happened.”
London Mayor Boris Johnson, promoting government myths about 911

"What we have to do is I think demonstrate the strategic patience that is necessary to win a long war. It is going to require more resources, its going to require time. I hope we can bring all those to bear, because as hard, painful, as expensive as this has been in blood and treasure, it has cost a lot less than 9/11 did.
These are tough, determined guys, and we have got to stay in the fight, because if we decide we are done, without completing the mission along the lines I laid out earlier, well the Taliban is going to be back."
Ryan Crocker, a career diplomat who was ambassador in Iraq, justifying the US quagmire in Afghanistan

“Those that criticize us the most are the ones we're most committed to protect.”
Michael Aguilar, the TSA Federal Security Director, in response to critics.

"The real ‘problem’ with Dick Cheney, though, isn't really a problem at all: It's that he refuses to let the conventional wisdom of 'official Washington' stand unchallenged. He prefers facts to cheap and misleading narratives. And he refuses to kiss up to the establishment's demi-gods and demagogues."
Quin Hillyer, American Spectator

“The potential for that kind of [9/11] attack remains very real. Yemen has risen to the top of the list.”
Leon Panetta, keeping the fear alive and creating more bogeymen.

“I think my nickname is ‘Big Sis.’ I don’t think he means it kindly, actually. I think that what he means is we are watching too much—kind of an Orwellian view. He’s just wrong. I mean, he’s just wrong.”
Janet Napolitano, calling out web news aggregator Matt Drudge for suggesting that she’s an ogre eager to invade the privacy of Americans and in particular those who travel by air.

“These wristbands are a reminder not only of 9/11, but also of our shared sacrifice and collective commitment over the past ten years and a rededication to continue carrying out our counterterrorism mission. Thank you for your service and for taking care of one another.”
John “The Perv” Pistole, TSA’s “Administrator,” in a a memo explaining the wristbands issued to TSA agents

"Al-Qaida leadership ranks have been devastated. Virtually every major affiliate has lost key operators."
Queen Hillary [“Devastated?” I think their Number 2 “Operator” has been killed four or five times now.]

“The Department of Defense is not what’s causing the debt and the deficit. It’s the entitlement programs. If we make that mistake, we’re doomed to suffer another attack of some kind, and our intelligence will be less strong and less effective.”
Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld

Quotes of the Week

2011-09-04T14:32:00.001-05:00

From the Light:
“If, then, nobody is individually responsible for the acts of Congress, the members of Congress are nobody's agents. And if they are nobody's agents, they are themselves individually responsible for their own acts, and for the acts of all whom they employ. And the authority they are exercising is simply their own individual authority; and, by the law of nature – the highest of all laws – anybody injured by their acts, anybody who is deprived by them of his property or his liberty, has the same right to hold them individually responsible, that he has to hold any other trespasser individually responsible. He has the same right to resist them, and their agents, that he has to resist any other trespassers.”
Lysander Spooner

“There is no Utopia, but you can prevent a place from becoming a dystopia. Allow people to opt out of anything they don’t want, never put your neighbor’s inalienable rights or liberty to a vote, don’t enforce laws that have no ethical foundation, embrace “live and let live,” and respect the property and person of others.”
Kent McManigal

“Dramatic acts of public ritual like public hangings of tyrants serve a purpose in restoring social cohesion, re-establishing the rule of law, and reaffirming the values of a community. People should not look down on hanging tyrants and war criminals. It is a basic principle of any free, peaceful, stable and sane society.
But, it is not good to be obsessed about the evil nature of any particular political leader, while remaining blind about the responsibility of indifferent and selfish elites.”
Saman Mohammadi

“The correct case against war, and the strongest case against war, begins with a rejection of the state as the sole and exclusive provider of security. Market prices and voluntary patronage are a far better restraint on power than any constitution.
The myth of the state as noble provider of security is deeply entrenched. The state exerts pressure through its public institutions to replace local culture with national culture, individual pride with national pride, and individual identity with national identity. Many people have nothing else left.”
Roman Skaskiw’s

“Those who support democracy but wish to go beyond appeal to an intuition of its desirability have work to do. Perhaps there is an argument that does show that democracy is entailed by sound morality. Much more likely, it seems to me, there is not. The slogan ‘Vox populi, vox Dei’ and its endless modern variants are best consigned to the rubbish heap of exploded superstitions.”
David Gordon

“My point is simple: every Establishment rules in terms of lies, spin, and cover-ups. Most of the citizenry is vaguely aware of the lies and the spin on this or that minor matter, but voters side with the regime on the big lies. To do otherwise is to call into question their own wisdom. It is to admit that you were successfully taken in on some major matter – you and millions of others. This undermines the religion of democracy. It means that republican patriotism is based on widespread gullibility. ‘Fool me once, shame on the government. Fool me 20 times, shame on me.’ So, once the masses have adopted the Official Party Line, to abandon it means abandoning your old self and your old world of political legitimacy. It means that you are now on your own – an outlaw, a pariah."
Gary North

“Spain’s Prime Minister and its Congress changed Spain’s constitution to work in a debt limit. Who knew that Spaniards had bigger cojones than the jugheads in Washington? Answer: everybody. A male mosquito has bigger balls than the DC criminals.”
Russell Longcore

“If visitors from another planet happened to observe a presidential election, what would they conclude about the human race? Would they conclude that we have hit upon a remarkably ingenious way to select our rulers? Or would they conclude that we are a race of masochists with a deep-seated desire to be ruled by the most ruthlessly depraved people on the planet?”
R.K. Blacksher

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

From the Darkness:

“I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to start listening to me here? Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we've got to rein in the spending.' ”

Migraine-Michelle Bachmann

“I think the president [Bush] made the decision. He felt strongly about it, too. He understood the dimensions of what we were doing. I certainly supported it. I advocated it. I thought it was the right policy. I believe that still today.’’
Dick Cheney, on the invasion and destruction of Iraq

"When I wake in the morning, I wait on the Lord, and I ask Him to give me the strength to do right by our country and its people. And when I go to bed at night, I wait on the Lord, and I ask Him to forgive me my sins, and look after my family and the American people, and make me an instrument of His will."
B. Obama, explaining where he gets his instructions to kill and destroy

"Every day for the past 10 years, these men and women have succeeded together as one American team."
B. Obama, speaking to his hired killers

"We do feel like veterans should have priority because of their service to their country. Almost every state, they tell me the veteran unemployment is higher than the regular unemployment. That doesn't seem right."
Eddie Price, an 86-year-old World War II veteran from Wilson, N.C, speading the meme that those who kill for the state are exceptional and worthy of special treatment

"I think he's an idiot. We are spending $900 million a week in wars and he is arguing about whether we should spend some amount of money? FEMA now has currently $900 million budget available to it. This is a ridiculous conversation. I really don't understand what he is talking about and I'm not sure he does."
Conn. Governor Dannel Malloy, commenting on Ron Paul's remark that FEMA gets in the way and wastes money.

"I mean, think about it. There are already National Registrys [sic] for convicted sex offenders, ex-convicts, terrorist cells, hate groups like the KKK, skinheads, radical Islamists, etc. This type of 'National Registry' would merely be for information purposes."
Pastor Michael Stahl, who wants to start a grassroots organization to keep a database of atheists called "The Christian National Registry of Atheists."

“They must be very busy people. Regardless of one's political views, the president is still the president – and an opportunity to speak with the leader of the free world is a rare and special one.
You'd think whatever photo shoots or sponsor appearances these drivers have lined up on Wednesday afternoon – if that's indeed the reason – could be rescheduled. After all, this is the President of the United States we're talking about here.”
Jeff Gluck, SBNation.com, outraged that nearly half of the 2010 NASCAR playoff contenders will not attend a White House ceremony they were invited to. [Note to writer- what little remains of the “free world” doesn’t have a ruler. That’s what keeps it “free!”]

Quotes of the Week

2011-08-28T14:03:00.001-05:00

From the Light:
“Liberty alone can only fail; compassion alone can only fail. Neither is a complete answer for human society. But together, liberty and compassion cannot fail, because the need for that combination is the human truth within us all.”
Glen Allport

“The state is the ultimate expression of violent intolerance against the smallest minority on earth- the individual.”
Jacob Spinney

“As with all governments, the US Federal government is nothing more than a manufacturing facility for generating tyranny. Liberty is its enemy. It is nothing more than a sophisticated program to fine, cage, maim and kill ALL citizens if they happen to fall afoul of the impossibly incomprehensible web of laws and regulations it vomits out on a perennial basis.
There is no reform or repudiation or referendum or reconstitution possible to remedy the vicious and wicked system of laws emanating the Federal government. The only path to redemption is its ultimate self-destruction at its own hands to join the ash-heap of history that the other empires have tumbled on to”
Bill Buppert

“Laws: We know what they are, and what they are worth! They are spider webs for the rich and mighty, steel chains for the poor and weak, fishing nets in the hands of the government.”
Pierre Joseph Proudhon

“A man is none the less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years. Neither are a people any the less slaves because permitted periodically to choose new masters. What makes them slaves is the fact that they now are, and are always hereafter to be, in the hands of men whose power over them is, and always is to be, absolute and irresponsible.”
Lysander Spooner

“And so we find that all governments must of necessity continuously violate Jesus' ultimate social commandment even to simply exist. The principle which all governments are founded upon and follow may properly be termed the 'Luciferian Principle.' This logically follows, because to not follow the Golden Rule is to do the opposite of the Golden Rule: i.e., rather than doing to others what you would want others to do to you, you would instead be doing to others what you do not want others to do to you. Hence, if we may term the Golden Rule the ‘Christ Principle,’ or otherwise the 'Christian Principle,' then it certainly follows that the opposite of this principle would properly be termed the 'Luciferian Principle': which is none other than doing to others what you do not want others to do to you.”
James Redford

“The stranglehold that was placed on truth and information is slipping away. State propaganda and disinformation is being rendered useless. Tyrants are like children who hold clay in their hands, the harder they squeeze, the more they lose. This is what every government has failed to understand throughout their tragic and horrible 10,000 year history. Pure tyranny brings with it pure liberty. As awful as it sounds, my desire is that the grip of tyranny continues. Coercive, violent governments have proven to be the best recruiting tool for those who long for liberty, and if liberty is what lies on the other side of this tyranny, the juice is definitely worth the squeeze.”
Chris Dates

“No, the real Greatest Generation hasn't happened yet. The Greatest Generation will be the generation which finally stomps out collectivism and exalts liberty for ALL. Perhaps even rejects the religion of The State altogether. Not a generation that wants to collect all it feels entitled to- which was stolen from its descendants.”
Kent McManigal

"Democracy has proved only that the best way to gain power over people is to assure the people that they are ruling themselves. Once they believe that, they make wonderfully submissive slaves."
Joe Sobran

“People can see that the newspapers and mainstream media broadcasts are pure propaganda that utilizes the Hegelian dialectic to create an illusion of democratic debate – when in fact all it is doing is constraining the discussion in order to arrive at pre-determined conclusions. People can now see the outright lies that spew forth from the mouths of the puppet leaders who pretend to run the State.”
Anthony Wile

“The problem is never what form government takes, nor the details of its composition: the problem is the beast itself.”
Becky Akers

“Do you care what percentage of goods people in your state sell to people in some other state, vs. how much they buy from people in your state? Of course not. Then why should you care about China? What difference does an invisible judicial line make regarding the profitability of your trade with someone else? Why do you care whether the other guy is named Wong or Brown? UPS will still deliver. So will FedEx.”
Gary North

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

From the Darkness:

"Under President Bachmann you will see gasoline come down below $2 a gallon again. That will happen."

Migraine-Michelle Bachmann

"I think there is a path to citizenship for those young men and women who have served their country. That is a very unique set of individuals, and different than folks who have come here illegally and not given back in that particular way."
Rick Perry, claiming “illegal” aliens should be made citizen slaves if they have served time as US military slaves

“Looming over the interesting and appealing ideas of the [Ron] Paul campaign is a veritable political tornado of allegations involving anti-Semitism, racism, pacifism, far left-wingism and, at the edges, a tiny flicker of intimidation.”
Jeffrey Lord, American Spectator

"Anarchism is a political philosophy which considers the state undesirable, unnecessary and harmful, and instead promotes a stateless society, or anarchy. Any information relating to anarchists should be reported to your local police."
From a warning issued by the city of Westminster, England.

“Laws are written for a reason, usually to help keep us safe. Parents who find ways to circumvent the laws should be held responsible when their children suffer because of their actions.
But to buy this product [raw milk] and feed it to your children? Might as well lock them in your car on a 100 degree day while you stop by the casino to try and win the jackpot.”
Richard Raymond, Real Raw Milk Facts

“There is no question that our troops are courageous and selfless. They expose themselves to inconceivable dangers under conditions of enormous hardship and fight because they want to keep the country safe. We owe them respect and gratitude—even if we think the wars they’re asked to fight are often wrong."
William Deresiewicz, NY Times, Sunday Review

"I would strongly support using it [waterboarding] again if circumstances arose where we had a high-value detainee and that was the only way we could get him to talk."
Dick Cheney, still in love with torture

"In New York, so-called leaders are talking about human rights. But what they do is abuse the very meaning of this phrase. They condemn tiny Israel, democratic Israel, free Israel – Israel which values human life above all others."
Glenn Beck [Tell that to the Palestinians, who they slaughter daily.]

“[Hurricane] Irene’s got a middle name, and it’s Global Warming.”
Bill McKibben, Daily Beast

"I think the economy does need more stimulus. Everybody says we should've (had)...a bigger stimulus package. Yeah, we should've. I was pushing (for) it."
Joe Biden

Come Forth and Kneel

2011-08-26T19:28:00.001-05:00

Surely, this video illustrates the arrogance and abuse from those who claim to rule us. Make note of it. But what really caught my eye was the wide camera shot of this council of lords, this panel of oppressors, this board of brutes, this chamber of sociopaths, this assembly of assholes.

Sitting up high, giving themselves an air of regal superiority, I half expect the servile class attending this masquerade to bow and kneel before them in obedient supplication. Given the described setting, such action would certainly be appropriate and unsurprising.

When lowly citizen serfs attend one of these meetings, it is for one of two purposes: either the individual or group aims to convince these lords to bless them with the property and/or wealth belonging to other individuals (tax revenue and property transfers) or they are there to desperately beg and plead to retain a precious scrap of remaining freedom that is threatend or to regain a previously lost liberty. Such is the essence of collectivist government.

Neither action is worthy of a free living, peace loving, sovereign individual.

“Resolve to serve no more and you are at once freed.”
Étienne de La Boétie

Western Terrorism in Tripoli

2011-08-24T13:19:00.001-05:00

“There is a clear program of state terror. This is the business of which NATO is involved in, in Libya, in Afghanistan, and anywhere else it operates. It’s state terrorism, pure and simple.”

And the violence is just beginning as we can look forward to a bloody civil war. The present union of tribal factions will begin to turn on each other. As a result, western troops will march in and the corporate occupation and looting will begin. The Obamatrons are getting a war hard-on as you read this.

Quotes of the Week

2011-08-21T12:00:00.001-05:00

From the Light:
“The liberal critique of the argument in favor of war is fundamentally different from that of the humanitarians. It starts from the premise that not war, but peace, is the father of all things. What alone enables mankind to advance and distinguishes man from the animals is social cooperation. It is labor alone that is productive: it creates wealth and therewith lays the outward foundations for the inward flowering of man. War only destroys; it cannot create. War, carnage, destruction, and devastation we have in common with the predatory beasts of the jungle; constructive labor is our distinctively human characteristic. The liberal abhors war, not, like the humanitarian, in spite of the fact that it has beneficial consequences, but because it has only harmful ones.”
Ludwig von Mises

“I will state my desire up front: I don’t want the police to be reformed, watched, video-recorded, monitored, disarmed, watch-dogged, controlled, quality checked, investigated, punished, prosecuted or anything else. I simply want them gone. I want their current employment to cease and desist.”
Bill Buppert

“Remember, too, that to rule over another person means to use force against him. How much force? Well, whatever force is needed to make him yield. If you are not willing to apply enough force--then you no longer rule. This means that if you endorse anything but anarchy you must endorse the killing of those subjects who will not yield to any force but deadly force. Are you willing to kill people, if necessary, to get things done by government instead of getting them done privately? If not, then perhaps you should consider becoming an anarchist.”
Richard D. Fuerle

“Most of the harm in the world is done by good people, and not by accident, lapse, or omission. It is the result of their deliberate actions, long persevered in, which they hold to be motivated by high ideals toward virtuous ends.”
Isabella Paterson

“By seeing and acknowledging the world as it actually is—by accepting a model that is better grounded in reality and by rejecting irrationality—you do the world a great service: You cease to carry forward the abuse. You begin to heal the world. It is frustratingly slow, and many will die before anything can be done, but you did not create the situation and you should not be under the illusion that you can fix it quickly. You just can’t. It is an unbelievably large problem that has been going on for a very long time. There is no quick fix. Quick fixes correspond to the irrational short-cut methods typically enacted through the violent offices of government, enabled by well-meaning, good people that cause the problems to expand, not contract.”
Tzo

“We don't live in a world full of idiots, we live in a world full of unprocessed child abuse, neglect and rejection. Only the traumatized cling to ideology, as ideology is the avoidance of what really happened. It is the navigation around the damaged areas of the brain, because ... acknowledging them, much less the tough work of healing, is too painful for most people to deal with.”
Nathan McKaskle

“In the name of providing us welfare throughout life, they [government] loot us throughout life. In the name of providing us security, they humiliate us and treat us all like animals — and then have the gall to say that this system is all about public service. They manufacture billions of laws that no one can possibly keep and yet put us in jail when they decide to catch us breaking them. They order us to kill each other in the name of patriotism, but they are the only winners in this game
But there's no need for any escape to anywhere. We are already home. It is the state that is the uninvited guest, the interloper who trashed the place, the invader who has distorted reality and violates our rights. We need only to assert our authority over ourselves and claim what is rightfully ours. They will be left to scramble, but their propaganda will have no effect, because we know the difference between the truth and their lies.”
Jeffrey Tucker

“Denying the right of self-defense to a person because he might get hurt is like denying freedom of speech because he might misspeak or denying freedom of religion because he could join the wrong church. The denial is not an act of concern or protection; it is the imposition of social control.”
Wendy McElroy

“The people who snub those who advocate a challenge to the status quo and a challenge to government-controlled money and banking, government-controlled medicine, and a challenge to the U.S. government’s immoral and bankrupting wars of aggression – aggressions that do nothing but provoke foreigners to act against us – the people who close the door to the challenger and keep it open for the statists, despite all the destruction the State has wrought, is further confirmation of my assertion that statism is a sickness."
Scott Lazarowitz

“The idea that people can be equated with their governments is one of the most pernicious beliefs afflicting humanity. It tells us that those who live under an evil or aggressive state are somehow responsible for the acts of that state and that it is therefore acceptable to kill them.”
Bretigne Shaffer

“Statism’s evil lies in that it gives people an excuse to behave badly by transferring moral responsibility onto a fictional being that isn’t real. Anarchism is the rejection of that myth and as a consequence it places moral culpability where it belongs, the individual.”
valhelion

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

From the Darkness:

"….Terrorists who commit acts against United States citizens, people who come from foreign countries to do that, do not have any right under our Constitution to Miranda rights."

Migraine-Michelle Bachman

"One thing that distinguishes [Rick] Perry from the rest of the field, for instance, is his military service in the 1970s, when he flew C-130 planes as a captain in the Air Force; no other candidate in the race can boast military service."
Erin McPike, Real Clear Politics [Apparently, it’s not “real clear” to Ms. McPike that Ron Paul did time in the US Air Force.]

“If we discovered that space aliens were planning to attack and we needed a massive buildup to counter the space alien threat and really inflation and budget deficits took secondary place to that, this slump would be over in 18 months. And then if we discovered, oops, we made a mistake, there aren’t any aliens, we’d be better. There was a Twilight Zone episode like this in which scientists fake an alien threat in order to achieve world peace. Well, this time…we need it in order to get some fiscal stimulus.”
Paul Krugman, looking for more war “stimulus.”

"Before we get started, let's all say 'Happy Birthday to Elvis Presley' today. We played you a little bit of Promise Land when we pulled up. You can't do better than Elvis Presley and we thought we would celebrate his birthday as we get started celebrating taking our country back to work."
Migraine-Michelle Bachmann, speaking at a political rally on Aug. 16, the date of Elvis’ death

"We are a nation that has a special role in the world - a special role because of our military power, a special role because of our diplomatic power.”
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, pushing American exceptionalism

“I went to work in that system [the IRS] because the first rule of war is ‘know your enemy. So I went to the inside to learn how they work because I wanted to beat them.”
Migraine-Michelle Bachmann, defending her time working as a tax lawyer for the IRS [Yea, right. We believe you.]

“What people recognize is that there’s a fear that the United States is in an unstoppable decline. They see the rise of China, the rise of India, the rise of the Soviet Union and our loss militarily going forward.”
Migraine-Michelle Bachmann [The Soviet Union has been dead for 20 years. Is it rising from the dead?]

"These scenarios give us reason to limit our growth and reduce our impact on global ecosystems. It would be particularly important for us to limit our emissions of greenhouse gases, since atmospheric composition can be observed from other planets."
From a NASA report suggesting that the Earth's rising levels of greenhouse gases could provoke an alien attack [You’re stolen tax dollars at work. This does illustrate just how desperate the anti-carbon climate kooks are about keeping their scam alive.]

Quotes of the Week

2011-08-14T14:12:00.004-05:00

From the Light:
“Yet although the connection should be obvious – an institution that instills into people the capacity to see other people as subhuman enemies to be killed is going to breed people with problems handling their violent impulses – it is never asked outright if the military, and especially its wars, encourage acts of violence. But as long as we are at perpetual war, living with a permanent warfare state, there will be more Abdos, Nissans, and McVeighs.”
Anthony Gregory

“No taxpayer alive today had anything to say about repaying any money the government borrowed to keep it’s promises. We did not have any choice in the matter. We did not choose to accept this obligation. It has been forced on us. It was manufactured for us by a government that spends the peoples’ money not on the people,. but on wars of conquest, gifts to Israel, and endless bailouts for Wall Street and European bankers.”
Michael Rivero

“As a ‘stealth tax,’ inflation requires no legislation to impose, no agency to collect, and diverts responsibility for damages onto politicians’ favorite whipping boys. It gives government the ability to buy almost anything for nothing, while creating endless problems that serve as a pretext for intervention. Inflation is the foundation of arrogant government and a prescription for our own demise."
George F. Smith

“The State is not MY enemy, I am The State's enemy. The State is the enemy of Liberty and all those who understand it. I did not go looking for a fight; The State brought the fight to me when it declared me and all the things that I value to be its enemy. The State started the fight and declares that any who defend themselves from its attacks are ‘terrorists.’”
Kent McManigal

“The primary concern of every government is to ensure its continuance in power, irrespective of the men who form it. If they are bad, they want to remain in power in order to enrich themselves and to satisfy their lust for authority; and if they are honest and sincere they believe that it is their duty to remain in power for the people. ... The anarchists ... could never, even if they were strong enough, form a government without contradicting themselves and repudiating their entire doctrine; and, should they do so, it would be no different from any other government; perhaps it would even be worse.”
Errico Malatesta

“The right to withhold your identify, like the right to remain silent, is not the sign of a thug or child predator. It is the sign of a free human being.”
Wendy McElroy

“Time and time again we see that the people who make decisions to send troops to war are the very people who profit financially from such wars. Today's troops can see this. It is part of the public record, yet they still do not question their missions. They join the military with a promise never to question orders. Taking history into account, I see no pride in this kind of service.”
Jesse Richard

“To issue a paper currency not redeemable in specie is a fraud. Issuing paper dollars with no underlying value steals the very value of the nation’s money. For this action alone, each Governor, officer and employee of the Federal Reserve Bank, Treasury officer and employee, each officer and employee of the US Mint, and each member of Congress should be deemed guilty and put to death. Otherwise, there is no justice in America.”
Russell D. Longcore

“The use of the State, with its compulsory monopoly powers of aggression, has enabled the people to realize their infantile, primitive drives without regard to the lives, liberty or property of others. Statism is the sickness that has made criminals out of decent people. And statism is the sickness with which society has afflicted itself to ruin itself.
Statism is a pathology of human thought and behavior that causes people to passively and obediently lie on the ground while the rulers and their obedient servants walk all over the people, and enslave their labor and torture them with impunity.”
Scott Lazarowitz

“To be a citizen is to rationalize irrational aggression. Coercion, theft, and murder are elevated to virtues. This inverted state of ethical affairs should be troubling to a society full of good people, and yet it seems not to be.”
Tzo

“It is not enough to appeal to those who start and live by wars to make them stop. We must identify the real source of all war: Not a particular nation or even a particular kind of weapon, but the institution of the state itself, with no real mechanism to hold it accountable, that enables some people to rain death and unimaginable misery upon others with impunity.”
Bretigne Shaffer

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

From the Darkness:

"The United States can pay any debt it has because we can always print money to do that. So there is zero probability of default."
Alan Greenspan

“When you go and talk to any audience about climate, you hear them washing back at you the same crap over and over and over again. There’s no longer a shared reality on an issue like climate even though the very existence of our civilization is threatened. People have no idea! … It’s no longer acceptable in mixed company, meaning bipartisan company, to use the goddamn word climate. It is not acceptable. They have polluted it to the point where we cannot possibly come to an agreement on it.
It may be volcanoes.’ Bullshit! ‘It may be sun spots.’ Bullshit! ‘It’s not getting warmer.’ Bullshit!”
Al Gore [The Climate Toad is finally starting to lose it and admit defeat. And it’s so fun to watch!]

"John [McCain] and I feel as if we have lost members of our families."
John Kerry, commenting on the downing of a US helicopter by the Afghan resistance [Yea, right.]

“These men and women [lost in a helicopter crash in Afghanstan] put their lives on the line for the values that bind us together as a nation,” the president said. “And some of them, like the 30 Americans who were lost this weekend, give their lives for their country.”
B. Obama, reminding us of the evils of collectivism

“This [helicopter crash killing 30 US soldier boys] is a reminder, a reminder to the American people that we remain a nation still at war.”
Leon Panetta, reminding us of the evils of collectivism ["…….and 'we' remain at war whether you like it or not.”]

“I believe this is, without question, the tea party downgrade.”
Sen. John Kerry, shifting the blame for Standard and Poor’s downgrade of the USG’s credit rating

“Ron Paul continues his effort to crash the world economy. The only change in recent days is proof positive that major players in both parties are acting as silly and irresponsibly as Dr. Paul. If anyone were foolish enough to follow Paul's advice and destroy any attempt to reach a bipartisan agreement through a committee, every rating agency would downgrade the U.S. The American and world economies and global markets would crash.”
Brent Budowsky, The Hill

"We would welcome any kind of explanation that China would like to give for needing this kind of equipment [an aircraft carrier]. This is part of our larger concern that China is not as transparent as other countries. It's not as transparent as the United States about its military acquisitions, about its military budget. And we'd like to have the kind of open, transparent relationship in military-to-military affairs. In our military-to-military relations with many countries around the world, we have the kind of bilateral dialogue where we can get quite specific about the equipment that we have and its intended purposes and its intended movements."
US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland

“If we have learned anything from the history of the presidency, it is this: experience matters. Judgment matters. Achievement matters. Integrity matters. The wisdom to see the truth, the clarity to state it and the courage to fight for it matter above all in the presidency. Voters would know, before [Al] Gore even announces his candidacy, that he already qualifies for a lifetime achievement award that would help informed Americans make the wisest decision about who should lead the nation.
Let’s begin a draft movement to make Al Gore president in 2016. While times are tough today, let’s stop selling short our aspirations and start planning for the next New Frontier.”
Brent Budowsky [As far as I know, Mr. Budowsky does not write for The Onion.]

“Free flow of information can be used for good. But it can also be used for ill. Everyone watching these horrific actions [street rioting] will be struck by how they were organized via social media. We are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron

“I don’t understand why it is even controversial to talk about dismantling industrial civilization when it has shown itself for 6,000 years to be destroying the planet and to be systemically committing genocide.”
Lierre Keith, environmental wacko

“If it were up to me, all the people associated with the Gulf oil spill, which is murdering the Gulf, would be executed. That would be part of the function of a state.”
Derrick Jensen, environmental radical [How can that be when the “state,” being involved in oil extraction, was part of the cause?]

“Representative Ron Paul ridiculously claimed that the United States is bankrupt.”
From NY Times editorial reviewing the recent GOP presidential debate [“Ridiculous” only to those who live in a fantasy world.]

Quotes of the Week

2011-08-07T17:19:00.004-05:00

From the Light:
“America is, despite the conservative and liberal propaganda to the contrary, essentially as much a welfare state as most other nations of the West, and the hugest chunk of the entitlement expenditures are going not to the easily scapegoated classes, but rather to the respectable masses.”
Anthony Gregory

“It is the duty of the state to always feign crisis wherever possible so as to justify their existence and the employment of their multitude of divine agents who exist to protect us from annoyed sisters, unlicensed lemonade sellers, raw milk, unapproved advertising slogans, and the Muslims hiding in our closets. Thus, the state has fostered a dependency on itself, on the part of the masses, in order to warrant its immense growth and intrusive deployment. The state has created a need for the state by the masses who can no longer survive daily rituals, let alone modest abnormalities. The masses have been dumbed-down, made into milksops, and turned into yellow-bellied flakes by the paternal state that enslaves them.”
Karen DeCoster

“In every time and in every country the ruling class forcibly extracts what it wants from its domestic livestock: eggs from chickens, milk from cows, wool from sheep, honey from bees and taxes from humans.”
Garry Reed

“All great systems of commerce are fractured: It is their eventual cohesion that gives rise to empires. But the natural state of humankind is one of dissipated authority. It is from this that freedom arises, and freedom midwifes wealth.”
Anthony Wile

“Accepting the idea of sovereignty of the individual brings much responsibility, but that responsibility leads to a freer society. A freer society leads to a society based upon voluntary cooperation. Voluntary cooperation is the basis for free markets. Voluntary cooperation and free markets leads directly to prosperity.”
Gary D. Barnett

“Political government is the past. Anarchy is the future.
Political government brought you hundreds of millions of murders in the last century, and sent you the butcher’s bill.”
Thomas L. Knapp

“At bottom, the success of despotic governments and Big Brother societies hinges upon a certain number of political, financial, and cultural developments. The first of which is an unwillingness in the general populace to secure and defend their own freedoms, making them completely reliant on corrupt establishment leadership. For totalitarianism to take hold, the masses must not only neglect the plight of their country, and the plight of others, but also be completely uninformed of the inherent indirect threats to their personal safety. They must abandon all responsibility for their destinies, and lose all respect for their own humanity. They must, indeed, become domesticated and mindless herd animals without regard for anything except their fleeting momentary desires for entertainment and short term survival. For a lumbering bloodthirsty behemoth to actually sneak up on you, you have to be pretty damnably oblivious.”
Brandon Smith

“Ideas, be they right or wrong, are indestructible. The only possible change is people's attitude toward them. There is indifference or acceptance or rejection. Ideas on liberty are greeted more by indifference than by rejection, an attitude that tends to harden if left undisturbed. But when we try to turn indifference into acceptance by obtrusive and officious methods we get only rejection for our pains and, for good reason: these are not the methods of liberty.
The sole force that will turn indifference into acceptance is the power of attraction. And this can be achieved only if the eye is cast away from the remaking of others and toward the improvement of self. This, as an aim, is in harmony with personal and human evolution; the effort demanded of each individual is not a sacrifice, but the best investment one can make in life's highest purpose.”
Leonard Reed

“In the same way that some battered wives cling to their abusive husbands, the more debacles the government causes the more some voters cling to rulers. The craving for a protector drops an iron curtain around the mind, preventing a person from accepting evidence that would shred his political security blanket.”
James Bovard

“There is no such thing as a courageous politician because they are self-selected strata of psychopathy whose prime directive is preservation and expansion of power at everyone’s expense except their own. Any expectation otherwise will always result in severe disappointment on your part. It is ironic that the worst elements of humanity are those in charge but history is rife with such folly.”
Bill Buppert

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

From the Darkness:

“When times are good and the ship of state only needs to sail straight, mentally healthy people function well as political leaders. But in times of crisis and tumult, those who are mentally abnormal, even ill, become the greatest leaders. We might call this the Inverse Law of Sanity
Great crisis leaders are not like the rest of us; nor are they like mentally healthy leaders. When society is happy, they toil in sadness, seeking help from friends and family and doctors as they cope with an illness that can be debilitating, even deadly. Sometimes they are up, sometimes they are down, but they are never quite well.”

Nasser Ghaemi

"A Norway incident could definitely happen here; the same things that played into the Norway suspect's mindset are here in this country. If anything, extremists are much more capable of committing violent acts here due to their access to weapons and ammunition, which they don't have in Europe."
Daryl Johnson, DHS domestic terror analyst

"Anarchism is a political philosophy which considers the state undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, and instead promotes a stateless society, or anarchy. Any information relating to anarchists should be reported to your local police."
From a flyer issued by the London Metropolitan Police

“We may come to a point where defense is more actively and aggressively defined even for the private sector and what is permitted there is something that we would never let the private sector do in physical space… Let me really throw out a bumper sticker for you. How about a digital Blackwater?”
Gen. Michael Hayden, suggesting that mercenaries were needed to deal with growing cyber threats

“We have negotiated with terrorists. This small group of terrorists have made it impossible to spend any money.”
Rep. Mike Doyle, lasing out at tea party Republicans

“Robert E. Lee is important historically because he devoted himself to a cause that was, at its core, anti-American; yet he -- among countless other Confederates -- was convinced that he acted only as a paragon of patriotism. It’s the essential delusion of every traitor.”
Glenn W. La Fantasie, Salon

"He's nobody's boy. He's your president and he's our president. And that's what y'all have got to get through your head."
Al Sharpton, responding to Pat Buchanan describing Obama as “your boy in the ring”

“I am appalled by the Syrian government’s use of violence and brutality against its own people. The reports out of Hama are horrifying and demonstrate the true character of the Syrian regime. Once again, President Assad has shown that he is completely incapable and unwilling to respond to the legitimate grievances of the Syrian people. His use of torture, corruption and terror puts him on the wrong side of history and his people.”
B. Obama, ignoring the log in his eye

“Alas, that is the Tea Party. It is so lacking in any aspiration for American greatness, so dominated by the narrowest visions for our country and so ignorant of the fact that it was not tax cuts that made America great but our unique public-private partnerships across the generations. If sane Republicans do not stand up to this Hezbollah faction in their midst, the Tea Party will take the G.O.P. on a suicide mission. No American politician was more allergic to debt or taxes than Thomas Jefferson, but he also appreciated the need to have the resources to make the Louisiana Purchase and insisted that on his tombstone it be written that he founded the University of Virginia.”
Thomas Friedman, NY Times

DVD Reviews

2011-08-03T14:18:00.004-05:00

Bomber:
This light hearted British comedy follows an elderly couple and their adult son on a journey of atonement. The father travels to Germany to apologize to the village in which he, as a British bomber pilot in WWII, dropped his bomb load. The son also works to help his parents communicate with each other after years of growing more distant.
Recommended

Surfwise:
This documentary covers the life of 85 year old Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz, doctor and surfing legend, who along with his remarkable wife raised their nine children in a camper while traveling the country. All parties involved (the children now as adults) are interviewed, relating both the advantages and disadvantages of such an unconventional upbringing.
Recommended

The Rape of Europa:
A very interesting documentary chronicling the pillaging of artwork throughout Europe by the Nazi regime as they conquered most of the continent in the 1930’s and 40’s. It also describes the efforts of individuals who worked to protect these works from war’s destruction, as well as to locate and return the huge numbers of stolen works.
Recommended

Bill Hicks- Sane Man:
A blazing set of stand up comedy performed in Austin, TX in 1989. Hicks had many fans in Austin so this set found an appreciative, attentive, and responsive crowd.
Recommended

Cry, the Beloved Country:
Based on a novel, this drama takes place in 1946 South Africa. Richard Harris and James Earl Jones play two fathers, one black and one white, who suffer closely related family tragedies. The tragedies help promote a personal bond between the two, despite living in a world of racial apartheid.
Recommended

A Shine of Rainbows:
This is one of those “family” dramas that succeeds by having just enough of an edge to the story to avoid a lot of syrupy sentiment. The story takes place in 1950’s Ireland when a couple adopts a young boy who must then deal with the loss of his new mother.
Recommended

Wild Bill:
This 1995 film version of the Wild Bill Hickock story gives us Bill tripping on opium while avoiding constant assassination attacks and the squirrelly harassment of Calamity Jane. Jeff Bridges does much better work in the recent and much better executed remake of True Grit.
Not recommended

Bill Hicks Live- Satirist, Social Critic, Stand-up Comedian:
This disc includes several performances by the brilliant comic as well as some interviews with family and contemporaries. You can always count on a unique “ride” when listening to Hicks perform.
Recommended

Captain Abu Raed:
This nicely made drama, filmed in Jordan in Arabic, centers around the dreams of young boys who are inspired by the stories shared by a supposed airline pilot who in reality is a janitor at the airport. The “Captain” also takes an active role in the less than desirable home lives of some of his young friends.
Recommended

Science and the Swastika:
This two-disc series examines the heavy emphasis on scientific and medical research by the Nazi regime in Germany. The series covers in great detail the absolute corruption of the medical profession, medical euthanasia of “useless eaters,” experimentation on prisoners, and the attempted development of a nuclear bomb.
Recommended

Clapton- Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010:
Another fine effort by EC and company celebrating the most versatile music instrument. Some interesting collaborations of guitarists here to listen to. One of the best is Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes (of the Allman Bros.) with Caesar Rojas and David Hidalgo (of Los Lobos). Another stand out performance is by the incomparable Jeff Beck.
Recommended

Omagh:
A very emotional drama about the brutal 1998 IRA bombing in Omagh, Northern Ireland. The victims family unite and demand answers and accountability from the powers that be, but are met with stonewalling and corruption
Recommended

Army of Crime:
A French film about the immigrant led civilian resistance to the Nazi occupation of Paris. All characters are real life. You come away impressed and inspired by the actions of these martyrs against tyranny.
Recommended

The Most Dangerous Man in America- Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers:
A must see documentary about the life of Daniel Ellsberg and his releasing of secret documents that exposed truths about the Vietnam War.
Recommended

The Hired Hand:
This restored 1971 western was Peter Fonda’s first directorial effort after Easy Rider. Not a typical shoot-‘em-up western, the storyline is based around basic human emotions using symbolism that wasn’t apparent to me until I listened to Fonda’s commentary (which is really worth the time). Fonda isn’t much of a lead actor, but is assisted ably here by Warren Oates and Verna Bloom. The film includes some excellent cinematography for a low budget film.
Recommended

Bloodworth:
Kris Kristofferson stars as a songwriter/musician who returns to his wife and sons 20 years after he abandoned them. Instead of enjoying his final days of life, his return causes more chaos to his already dysfunctional family. His grandson seems to be the only stable one of the bunch. An excellent screenplay based on a novel.
Recommended

John Hammond-The Paris Concert:
The veteran blues guitarist and singer (now in the business for 50 years) gives a rocking live performance at a club in Paris. Hammond primarily does covers from some of the early blues composers, so it’s like a watching a living history of the genre being performed for you. Hammond is one of those unique, veteran performers who has his chops down to such a fine art, his soulful playing and singing seem effortless.
Recommended

Battle Los Angeles:
Aliens land on earth, disguised as meteors and immediately attack a number of major cities. Though the fighting sequences are entertaining, the drama winds up being a recruiting film for the US Marines with all the hokey, goofy, hooh-rah dialogue you would expect.
Not recommended

Quotes of the Week

2011-07-24T12:14:00.001-05:00

From the Light:
“When society serves human beings, there is liberty. When human beings serve society, there is tyranny.”
Russell Longcore

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”
William Pitt the Younger

“A statesman is merely a politician who keeps his gun well hidden and does not discuss it in mixed company.
In the end, politics is about the savaging of human beings through violence, misdirection and the glorification of the physical boundaries of tax jurisdictions. Nothing less and nothing more. It is about the wholesale forced appropriation of wealth, time and resources from vast swaths of humanity through either chicanery or implied and explicit use of violence. It is involuntary surrender to thuggery on a mass scale.”
Bill Buppert

“The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.”
George Orwell

“The illusion that government protects us, that it is designed and structured in a way to do so, is everywhere. Liberals believe that it shields us from economic inequality and dangerous consumer products, despite all evidence to the contrary. Conservatives believe it upholds moral virtue, the absurdity of politicians being moral role models notwithstanding. Everyone believes it protects us from violent crime, regardless of its horrific record in doing so, and the greats costs to our liberties inflicted by the criminal justice system. But probably no myth is more pervasive than the myth that U.S. national security policy keeps us safer than we otherwise would be, that even when it fails in particulars, its general composition is aimed toward achieving this goal effectively. It is a bunch of hogwash. The wars and homeland security state do nothing to diminish the terrorist threat and indeed in many ways enhance it, and the politicians in both parties are either to dense to notice or they do notice but are too wicked to change approaches.”
Anthony Gregory

“It should come as no surprise to us that, when systematic violence is introduced into the economic sphere, it is the rich and powerful rather than the poor and powerless who ultimately profit. Although concern for the impoverished and for the worker are today associated with advocacy for an omnipotent, total state, the state has never truly been the ally of the disadvantaged and victimized.
The state is rather an organ of the power elite, of a grouping of economic interests that aspire to close off options outside of the statist economy. Whatever the state does that seems facially to aid the poor is done only to keep the labor engines of the economy running so that the oligopolistic corporate economy doesn’t destroy itself.”
David S. D'Amato

“In theory, the Left focuses on compassion; the Right on limited government – on ‘restrained aggression,’ in other words, rather than on non-aggression. But, even aside from the aggression involved, neither Left nor Right can ever be a healthy whole by itself, because both love and freedom are equally necessary. Like a deprived child who grows into an adult who can never get enough,* the public is constantly dissatisfied with the results of political action and so always wants more. This is partly because government policies and programs do the opposite of their stated aims and partly because any action that leads to over-emphasis of one side of the Duality while under-serving the other must create imbalance and lead to discontent.”
Glen Allport

“Truthfully, real criminals aren't back alley types, but rather the policymakers who spread fear and paranoia in the name of justice. They cloak their crimes in good deeds while building a brainwashed class of future Thought Police.”
Simon Black

“Fundamentally, without governments’ propaganda and distortions, most of us love peace and liberty, except those who benefit from war and those who adore power. As long as fear exists in our minds, we will put up with war and coercion out of fear and hatred. Peace and Liberty will be only realized when we have no fear other than the fear of not having them.”
NguyenKhaPham Thanh Chuong
“Those who value liberty should keep on seceding until the only political formations that exist are voluntary and get all powers from the consent of self-governing individuals.”
Darian Worden

“Scratch a military man and you will often find a zombie. Or you’ll get punched in the mouth.”
Bill Bonner

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

From the Darkness:
“I do not understand what I think is the maligning and maliciousness [directed at] this president [Obama]. Why is he different? And in my community, that is the question that we raise. In the minority community, that is the question that is being raised. Why is this president being treated so disrespectfully?”

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee

“I’m not ready to tell you that I’m ready to announce that I’m in. But I’m getting more and more comfortable every day that this is what I’ve been called to do. This is what America needs.”
Gov. Rick Perry, discussing his presidential plans [“Called?” Oh, God, here we go again.]

"You can say it's extreme to start medications in pregnancy, but what gives you the most bang for your buck—educating kids later or changing something in the womb for a short period of time that will have an effect for years and years?"
Brian Iriye, on a study, sponsored by the U.K. government, aiming to use medication to change the environment in the uterus of pregnant women in order to improve the child's health later in life, a concept known as fetal programming.

"No big financial institution in any country [should] be allowed to fail."
Larry Summers

"The [UN] security council should join the general assembly in recognising climate change as a threat to international peace and security. It is a threat as great as nuclear proliferation or global terrorism."
Marcus Stephen, the president of Nauru

“Rather than subsidizing the production of unhealthful foods, we should turn the tables and tax things like soda, French fries, doughnuts and hyperprocessed snacks. The resulting income should be earmarked for a program that encourages a sound diet for Americans by making healthy food more affordable and widely available.

Simply put: taxes would reduce consumption of unhealthful foods and generate billions of dollars annually. That money could be used to subsidize the purchase of staple foods like seasonal greens, vegetables, whole grains, dried legumes and fruit.”
Mark Bittman, NY Times

ZAP- It's So Easy.........

2011-07-19T16:33:00.000-05:00

........a child can understand it:

Potential Terrorist Caught

2011-07-18T19:52:00.003-05:00

In the post, Delta Gives Discount to Terrorists, I claimed how military slaves shouldn’t even be allowed to fly, let alone get discounts. I outlined the reasons why they are justifiably a high risk, considering their occupation, blind obedience to orders, unstable personalities, and penchant for violence.

MSNBC reports, “Police in Arizona have arrested a U.S. soldier after he attempted to board a flight to Los Angeles with a small amount of high-velocity plastic explosive in his baggage.” Easy access to explosives, of course, is another good reason any such slaves attempting to fly should be given extra security consideration.

The report states, “Authorities found no evidence that he intended any harm with the small amount of explosives in his possession.” Well, of course. If your intent is to do harm and you are caught before you can do so, you sure as hell don’t admit to it. If this were a civilian who was caught with such an explosive do you believe he would have been given such consideration? He, of course, would be rotting in some gulag somewhere or at the very least, put on a no-fly list. You can be sure though that this idiot will not suffer such a fate, but rather can look forward to future discounts!

Quotes of the Week

2011-07-17T22:23:00.002-05:00

From the Light:
“While members of both groups would likely be loath to admit it, Constitutionalists and communists are united by a shared delusion: the belief that their preferred system would work wonderfully if only ‘the right people’ were in charge.

The problem is that within the confines of any system of domination and exploitation, 'the right people' simply do not exist.”
R.K. Blacksher

“….In regard to the so-called social contract, I have often had occasion to protest that I haven’t even seen the contract, much less been asked to consent to it. A valid contract requires voluntary offer, acceptance, and consideration. I’ve never received an offer from my rulers, so I certainly have not accepted one; and rather than consideration, I have received nothing but contempt from the rulers, who, notwithstanding the absence of any agreement, have indubitably threatened me with grave harm in the event that I fail to comply with their edicts. What monumental effrontery these people exhibit! What gives them the right to rob me and push me around? It certainly is not my desire to be a sheep for them to shear or slaughter as they deem expedient for the attainment of their own ends.”
Robert Higgs

“To be GOVERNED is to be kept in sight, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right, nor the wisdom, nor the virtue to do so. To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction, noted, registered, enrolled, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, trained, ransomed, exploited, monopolized, extorted, squeezed, mystified, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, despised, harassed, tracked, abused, clubbed, disarmed, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and, to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality.”
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

“Today's democracy is nothing more that pseudo-authoritarian rule by an elite few, executed by legions of self-deluding freeloaders who have convinced themselves that their current bureaucratic roles are both necessary and honorable... as well as a stepping stone into the next job which will be even more necessary and honorable.
With each successive position up the bureaucratic ladder comes more power, more privilege... until they actually expect to be called ‘The Honorable…’ so and so, or ‘His Excellency’ so and so, etc.
Simon Black

“What apologists for U.S. wars and the military really believe is that American soldiers and security forces are exceptions with a license to kill. Foreign killers are evil unless they do our bidding. It is only Americans who are heroes for obeying orders and killing on command.”
Laurence Vance

“In the end, ALL governments seek to maim and kill the non-compliant because obedience is the signal contribution of ANY citizen in a tax jurisdiction yesterday, today and tomorrow.”
Bill Buppert

“When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.”
C.P. Snow

“A people incapable of leaving their neighbors alone cannot be expected to leave the world alone.”
Eric Peters

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

From the Darkness:

"We're within reach of strategically defeating al-Qaida."

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta

"The reason you guys [US military] are here [in Iraq] is because of 9/11. The US got attacked and 3,000 human beings got killed because of Al-Qaeda. We've been fighting as a result of that."
Leon Panetta, speaking to about 150 soldiers at the Camp Victory US base

"The IRS has a job to do, so I'm not going to hold it against them.”
Christian Lopez, referring to his future tax bill for accepting free season tickets from the NY Yankees

“The climate crisis knows no political boundaries. Ferocious storms and deadly heat waves are occurring with alarming frequency all over the world. We are living with the reality of the climate crisis every day. The only question is, how soon can we act?”
Al Gore, The Climate Toad, keeping his scam alive.

“It’s going to be–it’s going to feel very hard, harder than anything they’ve experienced in their lifetime now, for some time to come. And that–but that is because that is the tragic effects of a crisis this deep and this bad caused by a long period of lost opportunities to do things to make the country stronger."
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner speaking about the coming Greater Depression

“No.”
Ben Bernanke, when asked by Ron Paul if gold is money

“If you want to believe that the public debt is immoral and that taxation is theft, go right ahead and believe those things. But acting on them in a world that does not agree with you is a different matter. I can believe that driving on the left side of the road is a superior method of locomotion, but if I try it on the way in to work in the United States, I’ll be a public menace, endangering myself and my fellow citizens.”
Michael Tomasky, The Daily Beast

"We are extremely careful and cautious in identifying legitimate military targets and avoiding civilian casualties [in Libya]. And actually we have no confirmed information about NATO being responsible for civilian casualties."
NATO's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen

“It is an infringement and an abuse of our freedom of religion. And I don't agree with what's happening, because this isn't an innocent mosque. It is another example of why I believe in American laws and American courts. This is just another way to try to gradually sneak Shariah law into our laws, and I absolutely object to that."
Herman Cain, commenting on plans for an Islamic center in Murfreesboro, TN

“I am announcing today that, until an interim authority is in place, the United States will recognize the TNC [Transitional National Council (i.e., Al Qaeda)] as the legitimate governing authority for Libya.’’
Queen Hillary

"The Beckhams, and others like London mayor Boris Johnson, are very bad role models with their large families. There's no point in people trying to reduce their carbon emissions and then increasing them 100% by having another child."
Simon Ross, chief executive of the Optimum Population Trust

The Message and Myths Stay the Same….

2011-07-16T12:28:00.001-05:00

…only the names of the evil-doers change.

The state can only successfully plunder your wealth if it can convince you that such action is not only for your benefit but necessary for your very survival. Want to stay alive and “free?” Then work hard and feed The War Machine! This piece of state propaganda was issued in 1943. Notice how the same message is preached today, though often in a more subtle and sophisticated manner.

Here Come Still More Drones

2011-07-14T20:46:00.001-05:00

Homeland Security “officials” announced this week that a second drone (UAV) will begin flying the skies along the Texas/Mexico border “to better fight drug and immigrant traffickers along the sparsely populated border in South Texas.” In other words, it will be used to protect Texans from honest business transactions originating from south of the border and brown, sub-humans lacking proper, authorized-deeds-of-ownership-by-the-US-Empire who wish to migrate north.

Surely, these two drones will eventually grow in numbers to scores of spying monsters, eventually being armed as the death machines now operating in foreign war zones. We also can look forward to sharing our once free world with these little buggers:

According to Reuters, “The mission is to develop microaviarys (MAV’s) that can find, track and target adversaries [meaning you] while operating in complex urban environments.” Ghastly new anti-human technologies are always first used in foreign war zones to test their effectiveness and to allow time for people to be accustomed to their existence. Only then, are they turned against the Empire’s own subjects. What a wonderful future to look forward to.

Quotes of the Week

2011-07-10T18:45:00.002-05:00

From the Light:
"The only conceivable merit relating to majority rule lies in the fact that if we obtain monopoly decisions by this process, we will coerce fewer persons than if we permit the minority to coerce the majority. But implicit in all political voting is the necessity to coerce some so that all are controlled. The direction taken by the control is academic. Control as a monopoly in the hands of the state is basic."
Robert LeFevre

"From a structural, legal perspective, the ratification of the Constitution arguably represented an endorsement of some of the least libertarian ideas that were on the table at the time. Assume, for a moment, that United States military action against Libya is perfectly legal. Then what? Are we as anti-imperialists who want to see an end to murder and occupation to simply throw up our hands and concede that if it’s legal, it’s permissible?"
David S. D'Amato

"Forcing people to obey an ethical structure against their will may provide an illusion of a free society for a short while, but the force needed to make them conform is unethical. When means do not align with ends, the end will not be reached. Means are ends in progress, and so if unethical means are utilized, unethical ends will be reached. That is failure, and that is not the Voluntaryist goal."
Tzo

“When the belief in either-good-or-evil is wedded to the force and fraud inherent in politics, along with the infantile narcissism and simplistic thinking inherent in the Mob, it is no wonder politics has slaughtered more people than everything else in the world put together.”
Bob Wallace

“The law is the whim of the state and its ‘interpreters’ – and, of course, its enforcers.”
Eric Peters

“A pledge of allegiance better fits a totalitarian regime like North Korea than any nation deemed the land of the free. Those who reject the Pledge are on the side of America’s founding principles of liberty and constitutionally limited government, whether or not they know it. Those who put it on a pedestal are unwittingly embracing an alien ideology of nationalist statism.”
Anthony Gregory

“The United States is a political thing, one heir to the typical failings of politics, and the almost imperceptibly slow decay of republican virtue into nanny statism and imperial hubris.
America, however, is something different. It is not the same thing as the United States that seek to overlay it and to smother it. America is an idea that precedes the US and, we like to believe, both transcends the nation-state and will outlive it.”
Gary Gibson

“Government is the enemy of resiliency for its constituents and will always elevate the most despicable in human instincts and ennoble the worst greed of all: the sociopathic need of all politicians and their sycophants to paint humanity into a corner and kill it after impoverishing their works, minds and souls. Politicians are the core evil of a system which over time always ravages the productive and empowers the parasite and the looter to live at another’s expense. This is the system that most modern journalists embrace and champion, whether they are aware of it or not.
History is nothing more than philosophy in action.”
Bill Buppert

“We are masters of the universe as customers and as compliant as lambs when acting as citizens. And perhaps that's easy to understand. The government has a gun pointing at our heads. The merchant is trying to persuade us to part with our money in exchange for goods and services. One won't take no for an answer; the other sees no as just part of daily life.”
Jeffrey Tucker

“Regrettably, America has largely ceased to exist, having been replaced by the United States.”
Doug Casey

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

From the Darkness:

"You raised your right hand and said 'Send me,' and today you raised your right hand again and said 'Send me again, if needed.' I cannot say how impressive your action is. It is the most meaningful display of patriotism possible."

Gen. David Petraeus, speaking to American military slaves during a re-enlistment ceremony in Afghanistan

“We praise our Founders annually for revolting against royal rule and for creating an exceptionally durable system of self-government. We can wreck that system if we forget our Founders' purpose of creating a representative form of national authority robust enough to secure the public good."
E. J. Dionne

“Lord, hold our troops in your loving hands and protect them as they protect us. Bless them and their families for the selfless acts they perform for us in our time of need. Amen.”
From Texas Conservative Digest

"….The project of reversing the Great Society, the New Deal and progressive reform is not ideological purity; it is socially disruptive radicalism."
Michael Gerson, Washington Post

To Refuse is to Resist

2011-07-08T11:26:00.002-05:00

In the post, “To Petition is to Beg” I pointed out the futility of political action in the cause to end war. My example given was the petition effort by Veterans for Peace to impeach Emperor Obama for his illegal actions. VFP has another weapon in their arsenal which I see as far more useful and the type of approach that can ultimately end the obscenity of mass, state sponsored war. This program is Truth in Recruitment/Alternatives to Military. Veterans speak to young people about the truth of military recruiting and offer alternatives to military service as a career path.

I can scream all I want to young people to dissuade them to not join the military and help them purge any reverence or respect they may have for this institution. I can explain to them how the military has nothing to do with “defending” anyone (except the ruling regime) and is instead a tool of US imperialism. I can point out how if they join this institution, they will not be “fighting for their country” but killing to satisfy the demonic, self-serving goals of ruling oligarchs and predatory world banksters.

However, that message is much more effective when the testimony comes from someone who was once enslaved and now has the wisdom and courage to speak out against such a decision. Not having been previously enslaved (one of the few correct decisions made as a young man) my opinions would ring hollow and weak to those already hell bent on “serving.”

Such testimony could plant enough seeds of doubt in young minds to give them pause. Shattering the myths they have been indoctrinated with since birth may just convince them to redirect their futures elsewhere.
War cannot occur without willing participants. Tyrants without armies are impotent. With no willing, obedient slaves to carry out the mission of war, power mad tyrants (politicians) become isolated and exposed for the babbling, authoritarian despots they are.

War will continue as long as someone is deranged and/or brainwashed enough to feel an obligation to obey orders to execute such action. Remember, the politicians only give the orders to commit acts of war. The military does the actual damage.

Too many individuals are still lost in the paradigm of reverence and respect for the military as an institution. Until that critical element changes, the killing will continue. Until military supporters are marginalized and ostracized to the outskirts of civilized society (where they belong) the carnage will continue. Until people associated with and supporting of the military learn to think as empathetic human beings rather than loyal, faithful, nationalistic subjects, the destruction will continue. As long as people maintain an allegiance to a criminal state and its obedient, standing armies, the murder will continue.

The 'Terror' is Fake, the Cage is Real

2011-07-03T13:27:00.001-05:00

“The manufactured plot would have been a colossal attack, if carried out. The fact that is was fake doesn’t matter.”