Snapshot of the State

"There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul......

......than the way in which it treats its children."
Nelson Mandela

Dhaka, Bangladesh: Policemen hit a child with batons during clashes with garment workers protesting over poor working conditions.

DVD Reviews

Katyn:
This Polish made drama revolves around the Katyn massacre where 20,000 Polish military officers were murdered by the invading Soviets in 1940. The film focuses less on the military aspects of the event and more on those who were left behind and how they dealt with the tragedy, as well as the lies created about the massacre.
Recommended

Sherlock Holmes:
I always enjoy watching the versatile Robert Downey work. Here he plays the literary detective figure in an entertaining, action filled romp.
Recommended

Auschwitz- Inside the Nazi State:
This 4.5 hour BBC documentary takes a detailed, comprehensive look at the famous concentration/death camp from its initial planning stages right up and beyond its liberation. This extremely thorough program impresses me with the fact that the state performs only one task efficiently- killing.
Recommended

American Radical- The Trials of Norman Finkelstein:
An inspiring documentary examining the life and work of the author and professor who is one of the leading Jewish critics of the Israeli state. He takes on all critics, despite their sometime hateful rebukes. I always enjoy listening to those who gracefully and courageously challenge the conventional wisdom.
Recommended

The Hurt Locker:
Shot documentary style (which is very appropriate for a movie about war), this drama follows the exploits of a US Army explosive ordnance disposal team in Iraq. The issue of the rightness or wrongness of war is not covered in exchanges between the characters. Their focus is how to stay alive and sane in a chaotic, deadly, and unpredictable situation. It’s interesting that the leading roles are played by relative unknowns while more well known actors play the minor roles.
Recommended

A Serious Man:
The latest by my favorite movie makers, The Coen brothers. Although I wouldn’t rate this work as one of their best, it has all the quirkiness and wonderful, subtle humor typical of their work. This “very Jewish” film revolves around the life of a Jewish professor who suffers one setback after another in his personal and professional life, inspiring him to seek answers about life’s purpose.
Recommended

Crazy Heart:
Jeff Bridges shows he’s deserving of his Oscar. A well written and acted drama about a middle aged country singer/songwriter whose career is going nowhere. I get the feeling that Bridges has been waiting to play this kind of role his whole career. He seems totally involved in it. His singing performances combine the swagger of Waylon Jennings and the folksy delivery of Guy Clark. An excellent story from start to finish.
Recommended

Avatar:
Technically, this movie is brilliant at showing what is possible with movie making. But it also has a well developed story line that makes sense without being entirely predictable. Technical wizardly is useless without a solid story to be told. This one doesn’t disappoint. A very entertaining underdog movie that also includes a few life lessons.
Recommended

Defendor:
Woody Harrelson plays a mentally challenged man who reinvents himself as a super hero, fighting crime. His role is both hilarious and moving, particularly when you discover his character’s personal history and underlying motivation. Harrelson shines in his role, as do several other actors in this sweet, little gem.
Recommended

The Messenger:
Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster play Army notification officers whose job is notifying next of kin of their loved one’s death. The two characters have differing opinions on how to approach such a difficult assignment- one by the book and the other not.
Recommended

Inglorious Basterds:
Quentin Tarantino gives his take on WWII. Brad Pitt leads a group of Jewish Allied soldiers, dropped behind enemy lines in Nazi occupied France. Pitt’s character is hilarious but he’s almost overshadowed by the hysterically inspired performance of Christoph Waltz as the Jew Hunter.
Recommended

The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall:
This is a dramatization of the 2003 shooting of British peace activist Thomas Hurndall by IDF forces in Gaza, while he was attempting to rescue children during a shooting. The film focuses on the courageous investigation done by his family to seek answers and justice. A good look at the arrogance, stonewalling, and whitewashing of the facts that is typical of the Israeli state. My only complaint is we get little personal background on Mr. Hurndall.
Recommended

Martin Scorsese Presents: The Blues- A Musical Journey:
This 7-disc series produced by Scorsese explores the history and character of the blues from the viewpoint of seven different directors. A true visual and musical treat. No blues fan, or anyone interested in learning more about this uniquely American art form, should miss viewing this series.
Recommended

Five Minutes of Heaven:
Liam Neeson is a murderer in violence torn, 1975 Northern Ireland who attempts a reconciliation with his victim’s younger brother (James Nesbitt), 33 years later. An intense, well acted look at the powerful and sometime debilitating emotions of guilt and revenge and that hard to reach goal of forgiveness.
Recommended

Nightjohn:
A plantation owner in the Ante-bellum south purchases a slave without the knowledge that he knows how to read. He begins to teach a precocious, young girl her letters which leads to all sortsof disruption.
Recommended

Edge of Darkness:
And darkness is in ample supply with Mel Gibson at his gritty best. He plays a Boston police detective looking to find why his daughter is murdered and lets nothing stand in his way. The movie brings up a very scary, false flag scenario that the US state may very well use in the future.
Recommended

The Obama Deception:
The Alex Jones gang outlines how The Magic Negro is just another well marketed puppet of the ruling elites. The documentary also points out his campaign lies and the continuance and even escalation of Bush’s criminal policies.
Recommended

Light Flashes

More kids trapped in sweltering cars are dying

Is it just me, or are people getting stupider and stupider? How can a parent “forget” that their small child is still in the car? How can even small children not know how to get themselves out of a car after entering an unattended vehicle? I clearly recall shooting a BB gun at age 4. I have to assume I also had the capability of letting myself out of a locked vehicle.

“Safety advocates said the deaths have been more prevalent since the mid-1990s when parent-drivers were required to put their children in the back seat, where they are safer in transit but more likely to be forgotten.”

What an excellent example of a well-intentioned law that brings unintended tragic consequences. The child is literally trapped and unable to free himself. The state seems to enjoy seeing people strapped, belted, restrained, locked in, chained and even caged “for their own good” - Even if it kills them.


Tiny turtle thwarts taxiing jet's takeoff

Questions:

1) Is there any common sense left in the world?

2) Apparently, dealing with the TSA terrorists is not enough of an annoyance. Airlines must also think it appropriate to treat their customers like dirt.

3) Was it really necessary to inconvenience a plane full of people to rid the flight of a small turtle? Just to comply with a “regulation?”

4) Why do people fly anymore?


Fort Worth police issue warnings over backyard beer machine

“The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission says that any money transaction for alcohol is illegal without a permit or liquor license.”

The reason for the state’s restricting voluntary trade between consenting individuals always comes down to this fact: The state objects to any activity that doesn’t pay tribute (taxes, permit purchases, licensing, etc.) to the state gang.
If the neighbors have an objection to this activity, why not approach the homeowner themselves in a civil manner and politely discuss their concern?

Why send armed thugs to do your dirty work? This can only result in unnecessary violence and/or mistrust between neighbors.

Chief Bernal welcomes probe of Brown Jr. funeral escort

The tragic irony of the son of the Dallas Police chief being a cop killer is overwhelming enough. Now it comes out that this murderer received a 12 motorcycle police escort to his burial! I’m sure the other man he murdered (an innocent gentlemen enjoying a Father’s Day celebration with his family) did not receive such a perk.

Robert Redford wants artists to push government

And do it with YOUR money, of course. Redford’s Sundance Film Festival has been suckling at the Federal teat for years.

“Redford started the Sundance Film Festival with a National Endowment for the Arts grant. Now it generates $90 million over 10 days for Utah.”

Redford makes it sound as if the claimed $90 million of economic benefit was equally apportioned between all residents of the state. Of course, only a relative handful of individuals directly benefit. Wouldn’t it be more peaceful and ethical to secure investment for the festival from those individuals that actually benefit from it? Then we could avoid the violence, theft, ill will, and argument about the necessity of state involvement in such activity.

But then, it’s just so much easier to use clever marketing and political bribes to just STEAL the money. Right, Rob?


Dallas residents join 'town hall' on U.S. debt

Please notice that among the “top consensus picks” of “pre-packaged options,” not ONE included any kind of spending cut or elimination. They ALL call for still more extraction of wealth from the state’s enslaved subjects.

Amerikan serfs still seem hesitant to withdraw their belief in a free lunch, all paid for with other people’s money.

This meeting was moderated by the “non-partisan” organization, America Speaks. How can you claim to be “non-partisan” when you display an obvious bias toward command and control government centered in Washington D.C.? Why are only state controlled solutions offered to state caused problems? Look at their list of contributors. Do you recognize any liberty oriented groups among them?

Count this event as just another propaganda scam, convincing the lowly serfs that they actually have some control over their self-proclaimed rulers

Crackdown on illegal gaming in Hunt County

Once again, the state abhors and will not tolerate competition. Private gaming competes with the state’s business of gambling- the lottery. That’s the game where Boobus spends his measly paycheck on useless tickets and the money is then redistributed to the state’s long and growing client list of parasites.

LP Board of Ed candidate no "paper tiger"

No self-proclaimed “libertarian” would have anything but contempt and disgust toward any state gangster operated Board of Education- let alone seek to become part of it. If her goal was to dismantle and abolish such a board from within, her goal might be useful. But it appears that she just wants to be part of the illegitimate game of state controlled education enforced at the point of a gun.

Will Ms. Parsons please explain to me how is it moral and ethical to FORCE me and others to finance the education of other people’s children? Will Ms. Parsons please explain to me why the tyranny of democratic majority should decide how children are educated and just who pays for it? Will Ms. Parsons please explain to me when and where did I consent to be a participant and contributor to such an arrangement? And would she please explain to me where and how she and her fellow state cultists secured the moral authority to enforce such a non-consensual agreement?

This is what you call “freedom?”

Ms. Parsons doesn’t even seem to meet the standard of a “paper tiger.” I would describe her instead as the state’s compliant kitten.

Mass. Rep. Nyman dies after being found in pool


Maybe he drowned in the debt he helped create.

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:
“Darwinism destroyed the concept of natural law. If the universe is evolving in autonomous, unpredictable ways, in terms of such random phenomena as genetic mutation, there can be no such thing as natural law. No social order is permanent; no legal order is permanent. The laws change as society changes.”
Gary North

“The operation of government intensifies ethnic divisions and escalates social conflict. Nationalism, whether defined along ethnic or ideological lines, involves one group of people ruling over another. As people struggle for advantage, conflict ensues. And politicians will exploit this conflict to deflect criticism of their destructive policies.
Anarchy, by contrast, entails that no person rule over another. People are not entitled to special rights based on the ethnicity, gender or other category they find themselves in. So long as they do not violate the ability of others to exercise maximum individual liberty they are allowed to live where and how they wish.”
Darian Worden

“A nation’s government is the creation of its people, the thinking goes. It represents them, and its interests are aligned with the interests of 'its' people. The notion that those in government have their own agendas that have nothing to do with the well-being or expressed interests of 'the people,' and that they pursue these agendas to the detriment of 'the people,' is heresy in this worldview. It is a worldview that persists despite an endless parade of corruption and broken campaign promises to demonstrate its fallacy.”
Bretigne Shaffer

“The Internet lets people relate to each other purely as individuals, instead of viewing themselves as American or French or Brazilian, seeing themselves as citizens of some nation-state. I think in the future people are likely to see each other as citizens of informal organizations – not countries – and will seek each other out on the Internet and join together on that basis.”
Doug Casey

“Abolishing the institution of slavery was a good start, but only a start. Coercive government is in fact nothing but slavery by stealth; when a ruling elite can take (or direct) as much as they please of your time, your actions, and your money, then de facto slavery is in season. That some people may have voted for a particular part of what transpires is no more helpful to the victims than was the divine right of kings and other fantasy justifications for control of the many by the few. Likewise, that some slavemasters may be kinder than others does not make the slavery itself right or acceptable, or safe for the slaves of even the kindest master; masters come and go, and again, the tendency is for outright psychopaths to rise to Power at the expense of more compassionate souls.”
Glen Allport

“Of all the ‘ideas’ out there, statism has shown itself to be the ultimate ‘idealistic’ and ‘Utopian’ dream. It has been tried, in every imaginable permutation, for thousands of years and it always fails. Always. Why think ‘next time we'll get it right’ against all evidence?”
Kent McManigal

“Anyone who wants to vote probably shouldn't be allowed to vote. Voting is the first step towards zombification - trying to get something without actually working for it. People who can't get what they want by honest trade or innocent persuasion turn to the ballot box. The next thing you know they're voting for Hugo Chavez.”
Bill Bonner

“The hubris of government is that multi-thousand page bills can actually accurately describe and account for the complexity of the real world, where hundreds of millions of economic actors interact in virtually infinite combinations.”
From CivilSocietyTrust.org

“Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and generation which preceded it. The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave, is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies.”
Thomas Paine

“Limiting the power of the state, once it has been granted a territorial monopoly of legislation, is impossible, a self-contradictory goal. To believe that it is possible to limit government power – other than by subjecting it to competition, i.e., by not allowing monopoly privileges of any kind to arise in the first place – is to assume that the nature of Man changes as the result of the establishment of government (very much like the miraculous transformation of Man that socialists believe to happen with the onset of socialism).”
Hans-Hermann Hoppe

“The public acceptance of war is the default position that perpetuates its insanity. ‘Truth’ is the input that "does not compute" within the logic of the war system, and the state undertakes every precaution – such as censorship, labeling documents and other discomforting facts as ‘top secret’ – to silence any doubts that might be raised as to the validity of the propagandized campaign on behalf of death and destruction.”
Butler Shaffer

“Many of the people who argue for the necessity of the state believe that humankind is essentially petty and cruel and thus make the case for a centralized political system to maintain order, peace, and prosperity. But if humankind is all of those naughty things, then how are the people in government any different? If people are profit-seeking and brutal, then they don’t become magnificently well-intentioned and public-spirited after joining the state.”
Ross Kenyon

“We need to announce that we do not accept the legitimacy of the regime. This regime is blatantly, openly and proudly violating our natural rights. It is not legitimate within the clear understanding of our founding document, the Declaration of Independence. Thus, you have no moral obligation to support it. Withdrawing moral support for the regime is critical since public support is the very basis of the regime’s power.”
James Ostrowski

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From the Darkness:

"The battle for food is a matter of national security."
An unidentified official from the Venezuelan Food Ministry.

“So I say to my friends on the Internet, relax. Take a look at the bill. And this is something that we need to protect our country.
Right now China, the government, can disconnect parts of its Internet in case of war and we need to have that here too.”
Sen. Joe Lieberman, defending, a bill that would give President Obama a "kill switch" to shut down parts of the Internet.

“So, we probably won’t have to have that test of whether or not there’s [constitutional] authority. Certainly, he had some moral authority that they responded to.”
Sen. Ben Nelson, when asked whether President Obama has the constitutional authority to have BP surrender the stockholders’ money without due process of law.

“I am of the opinion that, since there is an ongoing war, since the threat is permanent, since the intention of the enemy in this case is to annihilate you, the right doctrine is one of pre-emption and not of retaliation.”
Shabtai Shavit, a former head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, pushing for a pre-emptive strike on Iran.

“The CBP’s work is grounded in the fundamental belief that government should work to improve the lives of the people it serves. The CBP maintains a deep commitment to ensuring that public policies and programs respond effectively to the needs and interests of lower-income individuals, families, and communities throughout California.”
From the California Budget Project website. [Yes, those “programs” worked so well that now your state is bankrupt.]

“Mr. President, I want to see the boot on the neck of BP tonight. I want to see some finger-pointing whether it's in your personality or not and it's OK tonight to act kind of like a dictator and call the shots saying this is the way it's going to be. BP has lied to the citizens of this country long enough. It's been one misstep after another. One lie, one half-truth after another. It's time for the President of the United States to lay it out there in full force for the citizens of the United States and make it very clear that BP is going to make us whole, whole again and whole for a long time.”
MSNBC’s Ed Schultz, before Obama’s speech about the Gulf Coast oil spill.

“In a way, Obama is standing above the country- above the world, a sort of God. He’s going to be bring all different sides together.”
Evan Thomas, MSNBC

“Right now the Germans are dragging their neighbours into deflation, which threatens a long phase of stagnation. And that leads to nationalism, social unrest and xenophobia. Democracy itself could be at risk.”
George Soros, economic and historical illiterate.

"Border security is primarily a responsibility of federal government […] we cannot have 50 different state legislations. It will not work."
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano [Wrong, Janet. There’s absolutely nothing in the US Constitution that authorizes the federal government to secure state borders from immigrants.]

“The beginning of UAV flights over the west-Texas portion of our border with Mexico marks an important advancement for border security in our state. We are working hard to make round-the-clock surveillance the standard for all 2,000 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border.”
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, pushing for more Big Brother surveillance drones in out skies.

"The strategy continues to have NATO's support and our forces will continue to carry it out. We will stay for as long as it takes to do our job."

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, reacting to the naming of Gen David Petraeus as Head Killer in charge of Afghanistan genocide [What exactly IS the job and how will you know when it is completed?]

"Sadly we need disasters like this [BP oil rig explosion] to show people. Some people don't believe in climate warming - like those who don't believe there was a Holocaust.”

Paul McCartney

"I call on all human rights activists in the world - go to Tehran, that's where there is a human rights violation."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, enforcer of the murderous blockade of Gaza.

"The public has nothing to fear with this legislation and the way the police will use this legislation. It really comes down to a case of common sense and officer discretion. If you're approaching that fence line, we want to know why. We're bound by duty to protect the people that are going be within that fence line. If you refuse to tell us [why you're there], then we have to assume that your purposes are not of a peaceful nature."
Sgt. Tim Burrows of the G8/G20 Integrated Security Unit, defending new regulations, specifically empowering those policing the G8/G20 summit.

“If this were Texas, a state that borders Mexico, I would have to look twice at this, but it’s Arizona, a state that is removed from the border…”
Peggy West, geography-challenged Milwaukee county supervisor, during debate on a measure about boycotting the state of Arizona.

"Students who spent their valuable, precious time diving through dumpsters before this event in order to silence someone ... what a wasted resource."
Sarah Palin, commenting on students that found part of her speaking contract in a dumpster. [Hey, Legs- Just who is attempting to “silence” anyone by seeking the truth? And for how long now have you had the thouroughly Marixst attitude that people are “resources?”]

Light Flashes

Dallas violated own zoning ordinances for senior homes

This a great illustration of the failure of any kind of central planning. No one individual or ruling group of individuals can possibly have all the knowledge and information necessary to plan economic activity. Here, in a very isolated context, the ruling authority that decides how many senior centers to allow in an area didn’t even have any idea how many senior centers already existed!

Texas Democrats go to court over Green Party

Tyrants HATE competition and like any other street gang, will do what is necessary to prevent a competing war lord to invade their turf.


No shooting required: Concealed weapon licenses with a twist

What a sweet end-around one of the goofy laws state gangsters saddle us with- in this case, requiring a license for carrying a firearm. The conceal carry license take less time and is easier to get in Utah. Yet, Texas (by law) respects the holder of such licenses (as well as from other states) within their territorial boundaries. Of course, the Texas gangsters are outraged by the competition and loss of control of their human livestock.

I’m sure the next Texas state legislature will end this “loophole” during their next gang summit, which occurs (fortunately) only every two years.

Richardson ISD faces violation for polluting creek

No surprise here. The state, which claims to protect us from pollution, is probably the largest polluter out there.

"Though polluters often face fines, Dallas said it would likely ask the district to just clean it up.”

The state is always lenient on one of its own whenever they violate the very laws they claim to uphold and enforce. If this had been a private business doing the polluting, it would have been unmercifully looted through fines.

Homeland Security to use drones along border

How wonderful. Texas will suffer still another USG invasion- this time it’s Big Brother snooping from above. I feel so much safer now that my rulers seek to actively protect me from people crossing meaningless, arbitrary boundaries and from honest businessmen (who the state smears as drug “smugglers”) looking to satisfy customers in voluntary trade transactions.

How long before these drones are soaring above the interstate highways looking for any kind of “illicit” or “illegal” activity? How long before they are constantly buzzing about the larger cities looking for more of their livestock to harass? Certainly there are more potential targets within a larger population. How long before one of these drones collides with a commercial or private aircraft? Will the dead just be considered more collateral damage? We’re at war, after all!

I see where Arizona is being blessed with Project Roadrunner (don’t you love these cute, catchy names?), “an integrated license plate reader recognition (LPR) system, to target both north- and southbound drug trafficking and other illegal activity along the Southwest border.” I guess it won’t be long before Texas politi-gangsters will be crying out for just such a program on their turf.
　

A Closed Mouth Catches No Flies?

"As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport."
William Shakespeare

Whip Me, Beat Me, (and Finally) Chain Me!

The daily parade of videos exposing physical abuse by state agents (primarily local police forces) has sovereign individuals everywhere voicing righteous outrage. But I don’t think enough attention has been given to a less visible abuse that continues the evolution of state tyranny from mere annoyance to outright shackling.

This article about ankle bracelet monitors extols the virtues and supposed effectiveness of government putting DWI “violators” in electronic leg irons:

“The bracelet measures alcohol consumption by reading vapors given off in perspiration. It samples a person's sweat every 30 minutes, then transmits the readings to the company daily.”

I find this spooky and even terrifying that state agents literally monitor the creation and movement of your bodily fluids in order to coerce avoidance from what they consider an illicit activity- drinking alcohol. There is also the ridiculous, unspoken assumption that just because an individual imbibes alcohol, he will drink to intoxication AND then drive an automobile.

This monitoring becomes even spookier with the revelation that there is still another, complementing device that state agents prefer- a GPS monitor:

"If we did get a reading that they are drinking, we'd know exactly where they were so we could go out and get them if we wanted to."

Does that mean merely sending a couple LEOs to pick you up and cage you or can it mean (at least in the future) sending the latest drone aircraft technology your way to turn your carcass into toast?

There seems to be virtually no limit on the amount of abuse the state is willing to perpetrate on its subjects, and nearly no limit to the abuse the public is willing to endure. The tyranny has surpassed merely verbal restrictions on our lives, the violation of which results being caged like an animal. Now, the more “humane” and “cost effective” approach is to literally being physically restrained and controlled like a dog on a leash.

What next? Will there be ankle bracelets that monitor brain activity to assure your masters that you are not thinking corrupting “anti-government” thoughts or considering subversive activities? Will new, more sophisticated monitors record what your eyes view- books read, television programs watched, people you talk to and associate with?

Rest assured that ambitious and creative government employees and contractors are feverishly working (supported and enriched by your stolen tax dollars) at finding new ways to effectively curb “inappropriate” behavior and create even more compliant and obedient subjects.