Willie’s Journey is Our Journey

I recently expanded on my November post about Willie Nelson being accosted on the road by state agents. It was published this week at Michael Kleen's new site, Untimely Meditations:
Willie’s travails illustrate several common acts of state aggression against individuals that the average, clueless, obedient statist now takes for granted as legitimate and even necessary:

1) Restrictions on freedom of movement. Willie was peacefully traveling down the highway until forcibly stopped with absolutely no justification whatsoever. The bus was not operating in a dangerous manner and no individuals on board were committing acts of aggression against any other individuals.

2) Illegal and unjust search of property. The sanctity of Willie’s private property (tour bus) was violated by the uninvited intrusion of meddling state agents.

3) Theft and/or confiscation of private property. Willie’s weed was literally, blatantly stolen from him without hesitation. The state thereby commits an act of aggression against the property rights of Willie Nelson.

4) Unjust arrest. Willie was arrested and detained for possessing plant material that busy-body tyrants and self-professed “leaders” (politicians) in some far away land (District of Columbia) claim are dangerous and should not (and will not) be consumed. Willie is literally kidnapped to satisfy an unjust law that violates his individual right of self-ownership- the right to consume and imbibe whatever substance he deems appropriate. The state thereby commits still another act of aggression against the property rights of Willie Nelson.

5) Kidnapping and imprisonment. Willie is forcibly removed from his tour bus and transported to a gulag (county jail) and held under armed guard. Any attempt to leave such a facility at his discretion may very well result in being killed by state agents.

6) Extortion. Willie is forced to hand over $2500 to his kidnappers before they will allow him to leave his cage. Still more of his property (cash) is stolen. Still another act of aggression against the property rights of Willie Nelson.

7) Arbitrary change of charges. Willie’s stolen, prohibited plant material now weighs in at four ounces, not six, as originally claimed. The charges are therefore reduced. The state thereby arbitrarily enforces its unjust edicts. This could only occur when prosecuting a victimless crime. The state creates its own reality. Just as the state claims to miraculously make people’s problems disappear, apparently they can also make two ounces of plant matter disappear. Of course, they can also (and often do) create even more plant matter. I guess Willie is lucky the drug warriors didn’t create a few more pounds of plant matter to increase the fine and the profitability of their shakedown.

8) A protection racked financed through the forced extraction of privately owned wealth. Let’s not forget that all the manpower and equipment used to steal from, kidnap, cage and extort Willie was, in part, paid for by wealth previously extracted from Willie through taxes.

This arrest will surely not tarnish Willie’s “outlaw” image. But what the mainstream considers “outlaw” is really nothing more than an individual freely living and making choices- all while not aggressing against other’s lives and property. These choices are not made to appease and obey the commands or suggestions of those who claim to rule, but rather to satisfy the desires, needs, creativity, and ambition of the individual.

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:
“The more we allow institutional purposes to preempt our own, the more detrimental our organized behavior becomes to the processes that sustain us. There is nothing quite so characteristic of life, itself, as resiliency, the capacity to adapt to changing circumstances. The maxim expressed by geneticists – 'cherish your mutations' – applies to social systems as well. It is the changefulness of life – not the permanency demanded by institutions – that is central to our survival, both as individuals and a species.”
Butler Shaffer

“When men face challenges they are at their best. When everything is given to them, all sorts of pathologies appear.”
Paul Bonneau

“The separation of church and state benefits the church more than it benefits the state. States with close ties to religion do not suffer; the religious organizations which ally themselves with the state do. They begin to take on the characteristics of the state: the lack of accountability, the lack of personal involvement in the lives of people they supposedly serve.”
Robert Wicks

“Always remember with cops and soldiers: their first loyalty is to each other. Their next loyalty is to their employer. They aren't there to 'protect and serve' the people in the street. People are all potential criminals and rioters. The people are the last priority, contrary to the fairy tales.”
Doug Casey

“The state is neither a factory nor a business. The logic of history is not quantitative. Economic rationality depends on the relationship between expenditure and production, investment and earnings, work and savings. The rationale of the state is not utility nor profit but power — gaining it, conserving it and extending it. The archetype of power does not lie in economics but in war, not in the polemic relationship of capital to work but in the hierarchical relationship of commander to soldier.”
Ottavio Paz

“Marxism endorses violence against property owners based on purely theoretical grievances. It comes up with theoretical reasons as to why current property owners are not legitimate owners, and thus gives moral sanction to the theoretical victims to violently reclaim what has been 'stolen.' Usually this is done by taking over the state in the name of the theoretical victim class, and from there just taking over everything. Marxist political economy always ends in bloodshed and tears."
Mike P.

“To ask for the economic strengthening of a fictitious middle class means to clamp down on innovation, opening the door to arbitrariness. It is precisely the kind of made-up objectives that justify needless state intervention and limited personal freedom. The people who have a vested interest in propagating the 'class' myth are those who will profit by it in terms of money or power. Making people believe they are in a static class, a caste, from which there is no escape, allows politicians to more easily sell the idea of redistribution in its many forms (health care, progressive taxes, regulation, etc.). There is no such thing as the middle class because social classes don’t exist.”
Cristian Gherasim

“The aim of totalitarian education has never been to instill convictions but to destroy the capacity to form any.”
Hannah Arendt

“No longer can you enter the world as a man (or for that matter, a woman). As captains of our destinies, masters of our fates – beholden to none, free to go in peace. And even more important, able to talk back, to refuse, to question – and to demand to be left in peace if we're not doing anything to cause harm to anyone else.
We are all children now – fearful, obedient – and to be punished, if we're not.”
Eric Peters

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From the Darkness:

“The idea of putting permanent military bases [in Afghanistan] on the table in 2011, I think, would secure our national interests and tell the bad guys and the good guy(s) we’re not leaving, we are staying.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham

"I suggest a new concept: housing footprints. Your housing footprint is the number of bedrooms divided by the number of people in the household. Like ecological footprints, it reminds us that the resource is finite, and that if some people take more than they need, others are left with less than they need."
George Monbiot, environmental activist (who happens to live in a four bedroom home)

"An allegiance to the country has to go hand in hand with being born on our soil to actually be granted citizenship.”
Daryl Metcalfe, Pennsylvania lawmaker

"The rationale is to take advantage of the gains we have made over the last several months and apply more pressure on the enemy at a time when he is already under the gun."
Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell, defending the decision to send 1400 more US troops to the Afghanistan quagmire

"Every family choosing to have more than a defined number of children should be charged a carbon tax that would fund the planting of enough trees to offset the carbon cost generated by a new human being. They should pay 5,000 dollars (4,400 US) a head for each extra child and up to 800 dollars every year thereafter.”
United Nations Eco-Nazi Professor David Shearman

"We are not talking about a national ID card,. We are not talking about a government-controlled system. What we are talking about is enhancing online security and privacy and reducing and perhaps even eliminating the need to memorize a dozen passwords, through creation and use of more trusted digital identities."
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, on a forthcoming cybersecurity effort to create an Internet ID for Americans [Yea, right. I believe you.]

Another Unworthy Selection for ‘Texan of the Year’

The Dallas Morning News, in their annual salute to state rulers, has once again confirmed themselves as loyal promoters of mythical, state benevolence. For 2010, the dubious winner of “Texan of the Year” is Texas Head Gangster Rick Perry (here’s another link if you’re hassled by registration).

Last year, the honor was bestowed to the government gang’s hired assassins at Ft. Hood who couldn’t even protect themselves from a single assailant carrying a hand gun. For this incompetence, the Morning Ooze deemed them “heroic,“ This year, they honor one of the states leading politi-gangsters who claims the illegitimate power to rule others under the threat of violence. The MSM loves terrorists! At least, the domestic variety.

The Ooze recognizes Perry for “his ‘Texas tough-guy’ image and firm grip on the state's highest office,” and for becoming “the quintessential Texas politician and face of the state. In 26 years in public office, he has never lost an election.”

To translate: Perry has generated a mythical image through relentless public relations and well placed media sound bites, despite saying and doing nothing substantive. I don’t see how becoming the “quintessential politician” (i.e., perfect gangster) is any kind of compliment nor is being declared a “face of (any) state” something to be emulated or recognized.

The Ooze declared, "While his record as governor remains open for discussion, Perry's political instincts have been nearly infallible.” Translated: He plays the gangster game well, knowing who best to ally with (as pertains to bribes and political power) and who best to destroy as his enemy.

It would seem to me, a “Texan of the Year” honor should recognize individual achievement, accomplished through peaceful voluntary actions with others, benefiting not only the recognized individual but others who may share his/her community. This standard should immediately disqualify anyone employed or closely intimate with the criminal syndicate known as “the state.”

Let’s look at some of the other nine candidates for this honor and how they stack up against the winner. I think you’ll notice a trend toward recognizing those who actively promote, defend and initiate state sponsored violence against individuals:

Ron Washington: As manager of the financially bankrupt Texas Rangers, he led the team to it’s first ever appearance in the World Series. The team's financial woes are a bit comical considering the millions stolen from tax serfs to help pay for the Ranger’s stadium. Mr. Washington certainly didn’t accomplish this successful season on his own, seeing baseball is a team game and he never swung a bat or threw a ball. I therefore deem this candidate unworthy.

Kelly Siegler: The woman is a former prosecutor employed in Harris county. This fact alone should disqualify her. However she did show some worthiness in helping uncover juridical misconduct by another prosecutor in an 18 year old murder case. However, you have to wonder how she could have been so surprised and disgusted that such a “travesty’ could have occurred. She obviously hasn’t been paying much attention to prosecutorial misdeeds and fraud occurring at an increasing rate around the country. Nor, obviously, has she been reading the works of Will Grigg and William Anderson. I therefore deem this candidate unworthy.

Ed Whitacre: This gentlemen answered the call to be B. Osama’s “auto czar” to lead the fascist takeover and criminal bailout of GM. The Morning Ooze deems Mr. Whitacres worthy because of his “trailblazing” actions, “shaking up the corporate culture,” and restoring “faith in the company” Hilarious! I confidently deem this candidate unworthy.

Border Heroes: These are the folks suffering the effects of the state’s War on (Some) Drugs along the Texas/Mexico border. The Morning Ooze, of course makes no mention of the state’s complicity in such violence due to its absurd laws of prohibition. These folks are the direct victims of drug prohibition and state influenced violence yet insist on living their lives as normally as possible. For this noble attitude I deem these candidates worthy.

Greg Hall: Using his expertise in drilling, Mr. Hall was largely responsible for the successful rescue of the 33 miners trapped in a Chilean coal mine. This is true individual achievement resulting in direct, life saving benefit to others. I hereby declare this candidate as worthy.

Dick Armey: His days as a US congressman are over but Armey has found a way to keep feeding at the Washington teat- by directing the political action of others. Armey hitched his wagon to the lame Tea Party movement and gave it “direction,” according to the Ooze. Armey instructed others how to use political violence and the democratic mob to obtain the power necessary to control others. For this, I deem this candidate unworthy.

Jennifer Smith: She is some kind of crusader against “distracted driving.” Not such a bad cause, but like too many who find a cause to work for, Ms. Smith does not just educate but seeks to legislate. The Ooze recognizes her for working “for stronger laws and, especially, strict enforcement.” For this, I deem this candidate unworthy.

Amy Chyao: This young lady, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, has become quite accomplished in the field of scientific research, despite being just a high school student. I admire her hard work and diligence and I therefore deem this candidate as worthy.

Joel Burns: Mr. Burns is a local politi-gangster on the Ft Worth City Council who is also its first openly gay member. Of course, for this fact only, the Ooze considers the man some kind of “hero.”
Apparently, Mr. Burns is helping lead a campaign against bullying of gay teens. But like Ms. Smith, this campaign has gone beyond education to unwarranted legislation. I hereby deem this candidate as unworthy.

All but four of the candidates have close ties to the state. The mainstream media continually publicizes actions by such actors and in a manner that claims their actions as legitimate and even necessary. In a state of over twenty million people, I’m certain there are people accomplishing things that are far more worthy of recognition than babbling, loud mouth, pushy political actors and pols.

Instead, when looking at past winners, we’re given two war criminals (GW Bush and Karl Rove), city and county politicians and bureaucrats falsely given credit for a city surviving a hurricane (Houston), a father who “sacrificed” two sons to the US state’s wars, a Dallas DA who admirably help overturn at least 19 wrongful convictions yet still pursues the death penalty in some of his cases despite it going “against everything I've been taught," and of course the incompetent Ft Hood hooligans. The only worthy winner was “The Illegal Immigrant” who couldn’t even be given a decent name. The Ooze seems to buy the absurd idea that a human being can be legitimately described as “illegal” simply because his feet rest on a patch of dirt claimed by a criminal gang. How about “Hopeful Migrant” instead?

Awards and recognitions such as this are fun to analyze and pick apart. They are also quite useful in illustrating the statist world view infecting all corporate media.

Translating Tyranny

Nosey government sociopaths in fast growing Collin County, Texas have been busy harassing honest businessmen. It seems that a couple small slaughter houses are suspected of health and environmental violations despite already being cleared by Texas state regulators.

Read through this article and see if you can’t identify and translate the “statist-speak” emanating from these tyrannical busy bodies:

Government hack: “We’re powerless to do anything.”
Translated: “There actually exists a situation in the lives of free-living individuals that cannot be controlled, restricted, inspected and managed by us. We don’t have enough power to force others to do as we command. Give us more!”

Government hack: "It's a regulatory loophole they're slipping through."
Translation: As pertains to operating this kind of business, there appears to still be one shred of freedom remaining to these businessmen.”

Government hack: "It looks like the eastern part of Collin County has become a dumping ground for these under-the-radar operations."
Translation: Despite operating a legal business meeting all regulatory requirements, these businesses still have the gall to operate in our county contrary to our wishes.”

Government hack: "People move to the country to experience country life, not to live near a slaughterhouse,”
Translated: “I have absolutely no clue where meat comes from. I guess meat comes from meat factories in the city or delivered to store customers by the meat fairy.”

State gangsters, at any level, are ignorant, evil, power mad, violence loving WACKOS who should by shunned from civilized society.

TSA Allows Potential Evil-Doer to Escape

Excuse me while I get caught up……..

The TSA thugs gave a special Christmas gift to holiday travelers at DFW International Airport. Some flights were delayed up to two hours when “[T]he airport mobilized its command post while officers searched the terminals for a passenger described as an elderly woman.” Yikes!

“The Transportation Security Administration said agents spotted something suspicious when she went through a body scanner. But by the time they attempted to pull her aside for additional screening, the woman had already moved on into the terminal.”

“Which way did (s)he go, George. Which way did (s)he go?”

It would seem to me the whole purpose of viewing your naked body on the scanner is to detect any “irregularities.” When such an irregularity is discovered is there not some immediate way to detain the person in question? Apparently not. Which seems to indicate that this naked body scanner process is totally useless, inefficient, and ineffective, on top of being an attack on the bodies and liberties of sovereign individuals.

DVD Reviews

Iron Man 2:
Robert Downey Jr. returns in his role as the wealthy inventor whose revolutionary technology has “privatized peace.” The US state, of course, see this as a threat to their protection racket and plots to force Downey to turn over his technology to them.
Recommended

Pig Hunt:
A group of young friends travel to the northern California wilds to hunt wild hogs. They wind up terrorized by a giant man-killing hog that is also worshipped by a group of naked, drug crazed hippies. Oooo-kay. This one is only for those with an insatiable appetite for goofy creature features.
Not recommended

Hop:
A France-based drama about a young boy who is pushed to extremes to keep his father from being deported.
Recommended

Frontline- Digital Nation:
A very interesting look at how the digital world of the internet and instant communication has changed how we live. Some good information on how you may use the technology without losing your humanity.
Recommended

Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour- The Best of Season 2:
I have fond memories of watching the prime time Smother Brothers show while a young teen. I vividly recall how the whole family enjoyed it, even when some of its material was a bit controversial at the time. These episodes aired in 1967-68. The brother’s stand up is still funny, but most of their more extensive skits come across a bit lame. It’s was fun to see some of the more popular rock groups of the time, even though some of their performances are lip synched. The Who’s famous and destructive appearance is here. The musical highlight- Pete Seeger performing his previously banned “Big Muddy.” Some guests to be enjoyed- Pat Paulsen, Leigh French, Don Knotts and Don Rickles.
Recommended

The X-Files, Seasons 1-9:
I was a big fan of the X-Files during its television run and it was quite enjoyable to review all 200-plus episodes; some I remember, many I don’t and probably hadn’t seen. All are wonderful, finely crafted, and imaginative stories about alien abduction and invasion, the paranormal, and various government conspiracies. With the X-Files, you could always count on excellent direction and movie quality production values, all to help remind you “the truth is out there.”
Recommended

Arranged:
Two young woman teachers, one an Orthodox Jew, the other a Muslim become fast friends and work to deal with the cultural and religious tensions between their families, as well as both religion’s tradition of arranged marriages.
Recommended

Toy Story 3:
More fun and creative brilliance from the geniuses at Pixar. A great, well selected cast executing another solid story line.
Recommended

Restropo:
Two journalists, embedded with a US Army platoon in Afghanistan, record life and death during a fifteen month deployment in one of the most dangerous valleys in the country. It’s all here in full view; the arrogance, the ignorance, the bureaucratic foul-ups and ultimate futility of an imperialist military occupation. Ultimately, when their deployment ends, nothing is accomplished but creating martyrs and more enemies.
Recommended

Harlan- In the Shadow of Jew Suss:
This German documentary takes a look at the life and work of German film maker Viet Harlan who was tried for crimes against humanity for his 1940 Nazi propaganda film, Jew Suss.
Recommended

Shrek Forever After:
The final installment of the Shrek legacy. More animated genius to be enjoyed by all ages.
Recommended

Generation Kill:
This HBO series follows a Marine recon unit during the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, based a on a book written by a Rolling Stone writer embedded with the unit. Superb acting and writing throughout, including some of the funniest, wittiest dialogue I’ve heard in any TV miniseries or movie. It was also encouraging to see individualism represented here among the characters (based on real people) despite serving an institution requiring a collective conscious.
Recommended

Invisible Empire- A New World Order:
Alex Jones compadre, Jason Bermas takes a long, detailed and well researched look at the global elites who have worked and conspired to rule the individual lives of millions.
Recommended

The People vs. Larry Flynt:
This 1996 film stars Woody Harrelson as the smut king who boldly challenged the establishment. Whatever you may think of Flynt’s enterprise, you have to admire his defense of free individual expression and his exposing the hypocrisy of violent, puritanical religious extremists.
Recommended

Older Than America:
An Indian woman in Minnesota starts having visions that ultimately help to expose the crimes committed against Indian children at a Catholic run boarding school. Not the best executed film but worth seeing if you had no idea how the institutional churches attempted to whitewash young Indian minds to “kill the Indian to save the man.”
Recommended

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:
“Where once our forefathers, upon entry into New York harbor, came up from steerage to gather on the ship’s deck and watch the Statue of Liberty slide by, today’s immigrants come through an airport. What do they think when they first spot a line of freedom-loving Americans, standing meek with shoes in hand and pants around the ankles as surly TSA agents bark orders and jam their hands into our crotch? Do any of them take a moment to think about the lawlessness they had fled and wonder, ‘Why did I bother?’"
CJ Maloney

“While the government has a lot of weapons at its disposal, its insecurity is evident in its reaction to the truth. The government shows more than embarrassment, it shows fear – fear of its own words being exposed and people knowing what it does. Every day that a truth is revealed, the government loses power and influence. It is a problem of its own making. Do not blame the messengers.”
Kevin Zeese

“Open political competition favors aggressive, hence dangerous, rather than defensive, hence harmless, political talents and will thus lead to the cultivation and perfection of the peculiar skills of demagoguery, deception, lying, opportunism, corruption, and bribery. Therefore, entrance into and success within government will become increasingly impossible for anyone hampered by moral scruples against lying and stealing.”
Hans-Hermann Hoppe

“War, genocide, persecution and human degradation are directly the result of decisions made by those who control the apparatus of power, whether the power manifests itself as intellectual, ecclesiastical, spiritual, militaristic, or scientific. The most malevolent and ruthless power is that over the free human mind: if one controls how one thinks, they control the individual itself.”
Andrew Gavin Marshall

“We kid ourselves when we pretend that history began on September 11, 2001. Can anyone say with a straight face that before that date America was minding its own business according to the noninterventionist guidelines set out by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson? Read some history. Or does American exceptionalism mean not having to know anything before dropping bombs on people and torturing detainees?”
Sheldon Richman

“Today no one believes that our country’s success depends on an informed public and a free press. America’s success depends on its financial and military hegemony over the world. Any information inconsistent with the indispensable people’s god-given right to dominate the world must be suppressed and the messenger discredited and destroyed.”
Paul Craig Roberts

“Children should learn what happened in places like Germany, Cambodia, and Rwanda (as well as places like Sand Creek and Wounded Knee) when people willingly surrendered their guns to their rulers – but a government school classroom is no place for lessons of that kind.”
Will Grigg

“When coercive social systems are revealed to be tools of exploitation by the elite, the masses must decide whether they prefer liberty or submission. Liberty is always the more difficult path, while submission to the status quo is the path of least resistance. Not just physically and intellectually, but spiritually. This is how the inevitable cognitive dissonance that individuals feel when they are ruled by others is soothed by emotional slogans and familiar forms. Psychological and social conditioning over a lifetime buttressed by constant media bombardment that some collective consciousness can better serve as your guiding light than what your own mind provides can seem insurmountable. But some always do and they serve as a reminder to others that they can too. Thus the light of liberty is in each of us, not in some scrap of paper or piece of cloth pretending to represent that light.”
Mark Davis

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From the Darkness:

"We're always looking to improve systems and so forth. But the new technology, the pat downs, is just objectively safer for our traveling public."

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano
"He wants to expose to retribution those who cooperate with us on the ground in war zones. He wants to undercut domestic support for our wars. He wants to embarrass our foreign allies and exact a price for their trust in us. He wants to complicate sensitive operations like securing nuclear material in Pakistan and attacking terrorists with missiles in Yemen.... Confronting a dangerous world is difficult enough without the brazen exposure of the nation’s secrets.... Surely, the same Justice Department that sued Arizona for daring to enforce the nation’s immigration laws can find a creative way to harry and shut down [Julian] Assange."
Rich Lowry. Editor, National Review

"This is not…this is not a game. You know, the debt ceiling is not…is not something to toy with. That's the…the…if we hit the debt ceiling, that's the…essentially defaulting on our obligations, which is totally unprecedented in American history. The impact on the economy would be catastrophic. I mean, that would be a worse financial economic crisis than anything we saw in 2008.
As I say, that's not a game. I don't see why anybody's talking about playing chicken with the...with the debt ceiling.
If...if we get to the point where you've damaged the full faith and credit of the United States, that would...that would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity."
Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers