Common Sense

Got Kids? Save a fortune - - -

2011-12-31T19:01:00.001-08:00

M.I.T.x represents the next logical evolution in the mushrooming business of free online education by giving students an interactive experience as opposed to a simple videotaped lecture. Academic Earth (picked by Time Magazine as one of the 50 best websites of 2009) has cornered the market on free online education by making a smorgasbord of online course content -- from prestigious universities such as Stanford and Princeton -- accessible and free to anyone in the world.... --M.I.T. Game-Changer: Free Online Education For All - Forbes

Governments Don't Facilitate Progress, they Retard it

2011-10-18T08:06:00.001-07:00

"I really have no argument with someone who wants to believe that human existence c. 40,000 BC was better than today. I think virtually everyone on the planet would think that postion is insane, but I can't argue with such a person's *belief*. --Greg

You insist on assuming that without governments, modern conveniences wouldn't exist. I would suggest just the opposite: Governments, trying to freeze change as the name "State" confesses, actually retard progress.

For example, the research from Penn State that proves a certain virus kills all grades of breast cancer cells in 7 days. That's in vitro (in a test tube, etc.), which is significantly different than in vivo (live organisms). None the less, this seems to be a novel approach, and if I had terminal breast cancer (don't laugh, men DO get it) I'd rather try some version of treatment using the virus than just sit still and die.

That, of course, won't happen -- the FDA won't permit it, at least not in the open market. I might die quicker as an unexpected effect of the virus. Or it might do no good at all, but so what? Why should people with a death sentence according to the establishment be prevented from trying to save their own lives and at the same time, contributing to research which might lead to the proper way to use this virus to save later victims?

Lest you think this notion that "The State" retards progress is an original idea with me - - -

Government, in its very essence, is opposed to all increase in knowledge. Its tendency is always towards permanence and against change...[T]he progress of humanity, far from being the result of government, has been made entirely without its aid and in the face of its constant and bitter opposition. --H.L. Mencken

"The objective of war is not to kill people; the objective is to obtain a political end," says John Alexander, a retired army colonel and former head of a non-lethal weapons program at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. "In the current political situation, that end is to maintain stability." --A Fate Worse than Death?, Laura Spinney, "New Scientist" (science weekly), London, Oct. 18, 1997

"Any factors that could jeapordize our stability must be annihilated at early stages." --Chinese President Jiang Zemin to Chinese police officers, MSNBC Watch It, 28 Dec 1998, ~11:08:12 AM EST

~"Change has the effect of enlarging the state, not diminishing it." --well-known economist John Kenneth Galbraith, NWI Century, 09-22-97, 3:26pm EST

. . . What led the greatly advanced civilisation of China to fall behind Europe was its governments' clamping down so tightly as to leave no room for new developments, while, as remarked in the last chapter, Europe probably owes its extraordinary expansion in the Middle Ages to its political anarchy (Baechler, 1975:77) --F. A. Hayek, THE FATAL CONCEIT The Errors of Socialism, (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press 1988), p. 44 & 45

As far as tribal life, which we're designed for, being better in general, even 40,000 years ago -- although you only have to go back maybe 13,000 years, if happiness counts for anything, it may indeed be better. No? Explain this:

The REAL Human Condition http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/2011/08/29/white.html

< C:\USR\WP_DOCS\TROLLEY\TRIBES~1\WK\27_CLIQU.WK Governments Don't Facilitate Progress, they Retard it >

The Essence of Government -- by Ostensive Definition

2011-10-16T18:18:00.001-07:00

"Can you please give us an all-inclusive, objective, non-ideological definition of what you mean by "government"? Surely you must have one, since you comment on it in practically every post!" --Greg

Well first off, most folks don't have too much trouble understanding what organizations called "governments" are, since they loudly proclaim themselves and thoroughly intrude into nearly all aspects of your life. And if you try to ignore them, they often bash you.

"all-inclusive, objective, non-ideological definition?" Apparently you have way more confidence in the ablilty of my words to capture the essence of things than I do. But OK. I'll play. Since normal definitions seem to have left you with some doubt, let me give it a shot, though, relying mostly on my favorite mode, ostensive definition. More or less.

So Greg. Let's try this: There is a class of groups of people who arrogate to themselves the right to coerce others -- using force and threats of force -- to do things, not to do things, how to do things, and the right to insist on payment of their choosing for that "service" without getting the others' informed consent.

One such group might be the Mafia as depicted in film and fable, although, compared to the normal groups that operate that way, they are mild by comparison. For example, mafias rarely hassle folks for smoking marijuana, tell you you can't sell booze or burn trash on Sundays, fire bomb or nuke cities in foreign countries, etc..

The main such coercive groups however, are groups and sub-groups which people normally call "government." Typically such groups also attempt to gain a monopoly on the use of force to keep their "customers," both willing and unwilling, paying them "taxes" so they can continue to exist in the life-style to which their group has become accustomed. These organizations include the only groups that engage in "war."

Such groups, often the slightly more benign ones, may be taken over by other cliquish sub-groups who then enjoy the advantages of taxation, etc. The Nazis used this ploy quite successfully in Germany for example. In the older days, those who arrogated themselves positions in governments traditionally took on titles like "King," "Queen," "Duke," etc.

Like classical slavery, children are ass-u-med to be born into the condition of servitude to these "government" groups. They are expected to selflessly and without complaint, take up the yoke of the government debt (euphimistically called "national debt") these organizations have run up in their name, and to be subject to largely arbitrary rules they have had no say in producing.

These coercive groups, knowing they can't get away with most of this in broad daylight, usually learn to disguise their enterprise. Joel Barlow pointed out the essence of the scam centuries ago like this:

The art of constructing governments has usually been to organize the State in such a manner, as that this operation could be carried on to the best advantage for the administrators; and the art of administering those governments has been so to vary the means of seizing upon private property, as to bring the greatest possible quantity into the public coffers, without exciting insurrections. [1] Those governments which are called despotic, deal more in open plunder; those that call themselves free, and act under the cloak of what they teach the people to reverence as a constitution, are driven to the arts of stealing. These have succeeded better by theft than the others have by plunder; and this is the principal difference by which they can be distinguished. Under those constitutional governments the people are more industrious, and create property faster; because they are not sensible in what manner, and in what quantities, it is taken from them. The administrators, in this case, act by a compound operation; one is to induce the people to work, and the other to take from them their earnings. --Joel Barlow, [2] "Advice to the Privileged Orders in the Several States of Europe - Resulting from the Necessity and Propriety of a General Revolution in the Principle of Government," written between 1792 and 1795 VOTE? 109_clip18

So, the smart "governments" pretend to deliver "services" most (if not all) of which could be provided by voluntary exchange. In other words, they don't tax to provide services, they provide meager services so they can get away with taxing.

Currently such exactions amount to at least 43% of the average American's cost of living.

In short, whenever you see large numbers of people in uniforms, mass murder and violence (as in "wars" etc.) -- and mass starvation, hyperinflation and other economic mayhem -- or the possibility of nuclear extinction -- you can safely bet a "government" is intimately involved.

Did that help?

< C:\USR\WP_DOCS\TROLLEY\TRIBES~1\WK\27_CLIQU.WK The essence of government >
Notes:

[1]

MUNICH Suddeutsche Zeitung (centrist): Russia's crises have been repetitive, and almost all have the same causes. The government is unable to get a grip on its finances because it is incapable of enacting an effective tax system and of parsuading taxpayers to obey the law .... What Yeltsin needs is money, and lots of it. To get it on good terms, he must convince the IMF that he is collecting taxes to reduce the budget, if necessary, by expropriating the assets of delinquents. -Josef Riedmiller [WORLD PRESS REVIEW, AUGUST 1998, p.7]

Only one in 10 Russians is registered with the taxing authorities. Communists are particularly adept at avoiding taxes. The IMF loans won't go to pay the miners, and others who haven't been paid for over six months, or for any other social welfare programs; they will go to stabilize the financial markets. -NWI, 10 Aug 1998, 4:31:32 PM EDT

The United States is urging the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, to rein in provincial warlords who are hijacking hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, and has not ruled out US military assistance in the event of a showdown.
+
The US views Afghanistan's deepening financial crisis - which threatens the legitimacy and the future of Mr Karzai's administration - with increasing alarm, a Western diplomat said on Monday. Karzai set for showdown over revenue, May 14 2003 return

[2] In 1788 Barlow went to France as the agent of the Scioto Land Company and induced the company of Frenchmen who ultimately founded Gallipolis, Ohio, to emigrate to America. In Paris he became a liberal in religion and an advanced republican in politics. In England he published various radical essays, including Advice to the Privileged Orders (1792), proscribed by the British government. In 1792 he was made a French citizen. Thomas Paine had become his friend in England, and during Paine's imprisonment in Paris Barlow effected the publication of The Age of Reason. return

ECONOMICS IN ONE EASY LESSON

2011-03-05T10:50:00.001-08:00

Economics is simpler than you think -- if you're an Austrian Economist (Hayek, Mises, etc.) rather than a Keynesian Economist (J.M. Keynes), monetarist (Milton Friedman), neo-Keynesian economist (Bernanke, Krugman, etc.).

1. The "law of supply and demand" applies to "money."

2. An increase in the "money" supply greater than the increase in production -- because of the law of supply and demand -- causes a general price inflation across the boards.

3. Credit (I.O.U.s of various types, including stock certificates, bonds, etc. -- that note on the back of granddad's cigarette pack), as Daniel Webster put it, is equivalent to "money" and has all the effects of "money."

3A. Most I.O.U.s start out as limited circulation I.O.U.s -- and stay that way unless a market is established which allows them to be traded, that is, makes them "liquid."

4. A sudden change in the amount of either "money" or credit -- in either direction -- disrupts trade and thus the advantages of specialization and division of labor -- which ultimately determine the physical level of well-being of the human race -- and make the "modern" large populations possible.

5. Without the advantages of trade (and thus division of labor), extremely large numbers of men, women and children would die.

6. Barring the crash of a solid gold or silver asteroid, a sudden change in the supply of gold and silver (transactional hard money) are highly unlikely.

7. Because their value depends on psychology rather on a directly perceived value of a strictly limited physical commodity, the effective supply of both credit and paper/megabyte money can change suddenly.

8. The supply of both credit and paper/megabyte money CAN change with extreme rapidity, paper/megabyte because it's easy to create, credit because it completely depends on confidence that the debtor can and will pay, and without that confidence, a credit vehicle becomes devalued or even worthless. That is, because people can lose confidence in an I.O.U. and so don't want it, it becomes less, or even completely, "illiquid." That is, "people don't want it" = "illiquid" = "devalued" or even "worthless."

9. Since most people hold money for later use, at least partially, it's important that people have confidence it will hold its trade value and NOT devalue. Thus, the main "psychology" that determines whether or not people will hold a particular I.O.U. is their expectation as to its future value. If they expect its value to drop -- or equivalently, expect prices to rise -- they will spend it quickly. That is, if they expect a general price inflation, they will lose confidence in their money and spend it quickly.

10. Once people in general start to spend quickly, this puts more money into circulation quickly, thus increasing its effective supply, which causes more inflation, more inflationary expectations, destroys more confidence, and so forth. The Austrian School of economics calls the rapid spiral that results a "crack-up boom" or "catastrophenhause." Others call it "hyperinflation." Which is why U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Bernanke and the FED are so concerned by peoples' "inflationary expectations." This is, of course, not a problem with transactional hard money -- which, barring that solid-gold asteroid, can't suddenly inflate -- or suddenly deflate.

Looking for trouble?

2011-01-05T05:47:00.000-08:00

When someone or some group gets "hooked" on one way of "making a living," for obvious reasons, that way is strongly defended. Like farming vs. hunter-gathering, for example. Hunter-gatherers could merely move on when crowded by other tribes. Farmers didn't have that option: They had to stay and fight. The same applies to modern societies lacking easy flexibility of "income" producing modes. --L. Reichard White, Wednesday, January 05, 2011 8:41 AM

Deadbeats?

2010-11-09T08:16:00.001-08:00

There's always a discount on an I.O.U. The amount depends on its
perceived likely-hood of being paid. The dollar is, in essence, such an
I.O.U. The perception of repayment is dropping and you can follow it
by watching the value of dollars on the market. --L. Reichard White, Tuesday, November 09, 2010 11:04 AM

Learning curve

2010-06-28T07:54:00.001-07:00

~"There is a test of Keynesian economics going on all around the world. In the U.S., in Europe, even China. The idea is that you can spend yourself out of an economic downturn. This is an experiment that has never been tried before."--Dan Hertzberg, Editor Wall Street Journal, BBC WORLD NEWS, February 9, 2009, ~06:37:06

"We're all Keynesians now." --U.S. President Richard Milhous Nixon, 1971

"It is astonishing what foolish things one can temporarily believe if one thinks too long alone, particularly in economics ...where it is often impossible to bring one's ideas to a conclusive test either formal or experimental." --The original Keynesian, John Maynard Keynes, December 13, 1935 from introduction to his "THE GENERAL THEORY of EMPLOYMENT, AND MONEY"

The Keynesian Dead End, Spending our way to prosperity is going out of style --http://online.wsj.com, JUNE 26, 2010

Your comedian wasn't funny.

2010-04-27T07:12:00.001-07:00

After recording the Peter Schiff vs James Galbraith interview on CNBC 4/26/10 , it seemed appropriate to post the following email to CNBC:

Subject: 4% interest rates for 20 years???? Your comedian wasn't funny.

Hi CNBC!

It doesn't matter whether Prof. Galbraith is right about interest rates remaining at 4% for 20 years (like drawing 10 blackjacks in a row in Vegas. -- OK, 20), it's the "off balance sheet" unfunded liabilities that everyone so glibly dismisses with a single sentence.

The minimum estimates of the cost of those (Social "Security" and Medicare -- before Obamacare) was somewhere around $66 trillion.

The debt clock currently shows them at about $108 trillion.

Health, happiness, & long life,
L. Reichard White

P.S. OK, like drawing 100 blackjacks in a row. And as Prof. Galbraith suggested in a backhanded manner with his "U.S. controls its currency" comment, inflation is the nearly inevitable outcome.

New drug treatment for cannabinoid addicts

2010-03-12T05:04:00.001-08:00

. . . Sweet, fatty foods like chocolate can trigger an addiction in vulnerable people, rewarding them for ingesting such goodies with the release of pleasure inducing opiates in the brain, studies have indicated --Science News, June 17, 1995, p. 374.

Now, pharmacologists at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego report finding that chocolate contains not only its own cannabinoid--a compound that resembles the ingredient in marijuana (cannabis) that induces euphoria--but also a pair of related chemicals that could prolong any pleasurable sensations elicited by a cannabinoid. --Science News, October 12, 1996, p.235.

I guess we'd better get ready to spend a lot more money for prisons, etc. -- the average American eats more than eleven pounds of chocolate every year!! --THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE, Number 18, November 15, 1996., Please Protect Me --- From Myself!, By L. Reichard White

But now there's help!

Help for chocoholics: New chocolate inhaler will fool your brain into thinking it has eaten chocolate and reduce your chocolate cravings without the calories. --CNBC, March 12, 2010, 06:42:36

Medicare - - - The BIG Picture

2010-02-21T11:02:00.001-08:00

At somewhere between $44 trillion (with a "t") and $85 trillion in unfunded liabilities, the 800 pound animal in the room is Medicare.

About half the health "care" in the U.S. is delivered by Medicare. It isn't the tail, it's the dog. And it wags so-called "private" health care like Lash LaRue wags the tip of his bullwhip.

The only way to fix the system is to "reform" Medicare. Mostly by eliminating it.

No, I'm not heartless, see, I just understand that the alternatives to markets aren't just worse, they're deadly.

According to "OUTCOMES RESEARCH," only 20% of the people in US hospitals absolutely belong there. The other 80% are either receiving scientifically unproven procedures or are being treated for non existent conditions. --William F. Buckley interview with Dr. Robert E. Weinberg of Dartmouth, Firing Line aired 25 April, 1993 in Las Vegas. (Video tape available. Call 803 799-3449.)

lrw

P.S. Lacking such radical reform, USA Corp will follow the Greek path. In fact, the path of all fiat-currency nations.

Except it can't happen here of course.

Why To Abolish The Federal Reserve. In A Nutshell.

2008-11-03T14:37:00.001-08:00

Abolishing the Fed would put a huge brake on the planning state. Without the ability to expand the money supply at will, the federal government would become about as threatening as state or local government. That is to say, the federal government would still be an intolerable imposition on life, liberty, and property. But we wouldn't be worrying about hyperinflation, large scale bubbles in specific sectors, crazy business cycles, trillion-dollar bailouts, controls that reach into every nook and cranny of our lives, a cradle to grave welfare state, or a global empire that invades any and every country at will, and makes America the enemy to whole regions of the world.

That's only the beginning of what the end of the Fed would mean. It would dramatically change the political culture in this country. Bureaucracies would tumble. Trade would stabilize. ...The left could no longer live out its pipe dreams of socialist utopia at our expense. The right would have to give up its wacky notion of a world police state. The power ambitions of whole sectors of society would be scaled back.

The state is always and everywhere a danger, even when it has no monopoly on money and no printing press that can create money tickets at will. But a state with the ability to make its own money is a grave and relentless threat to prosperity and freedom. It leaves the future entirely to the discretion of the money managers. Every day we live under the threat that the US could be the next Weimar Republic or even another Zimbabwe. All that stands between us and that day is the wisdom and prudence of the Fed. -- Why Austrian Economics Matters More Than Ever, by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Huckaboom?

2007-12-27T23:04:00.001-08:00

A friend of mine worked at a relatively local Rockwell Corp. resort. Rockwell had myriad government contracts, and their claim to fame was that they had a factory in nearly every congressional district in the country.

Needless to say, when they needed a vote in Con gress, they could get one. But just to be sure, they ran a few of these "resorts" around the country to wine and dine the recalcitrant few. And reward the faithful many.

My friend Mike's job was, when the Con gress critters wanted to go hunting, to give them a successful outing. Even if they had only a half hour or so.

They did this by taking the politician to a pre-arranged blind, and then Mike and his crew would release captive birds from trenches until the "skilled" critter managed to bag one.

Huckaboom??

P.S. And what about Cheney's "hunting" accident?

NewSpeak 2007: Hillary's Health Care

2007-09-21T07:43:00.001-07:00

Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed an overhaul of the nation's health care system Monday that would require Americans to buy insurance ... --Clinton unveils details of her health care plan, Richard Wolf, USATODAY

WASHINGTON - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday that a mandate requiring every American to purchase health insurance was the only way to achieve universal health care but she rejected the notion of punitive measures to force individuals into the health care system.

"At this point, we don't have anything punitive that we have proposed," the presidential candidate said in an interview with The Associated Press. ...

She said she could envision a day when "you have to show proof to your employer that you're insured as a part of the job interview — like when your kid goes to school and has to show proof of vaccination " ... --AP Interview: Clinton on health care, BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer, Tue Sep 18, 12:59 PM ET

So let's see, Hillary's system "would require Americans to buy insurance," "a mandate requiring every American to purchase health insurance" is necessary, and soon you would have to "show proof to your employer that you're insured as a part of the job interview — like when your kid goes to school and has to show proof of vaccination," (or like when a cop pulls you over while you're "driving.") BUT, says Hillary, "we don't have anything punitive that we have proposed" AND "she rejected the notion of punitive measures to force individuals into the health care system."

NewSpeak or not NewSpeak, that is the question.

P.S.

"We" will almost certainly get "universal health care" or "single payer" or "socialized medicine" -- pick your label -- because corporations like WAL*MART, General Motors, etc. ALL favor it too.

That alone should warn you. Why would giant corporations want "national health care?"

Let me rephrase that: "Why would giant corporations want you to 'show proof to your employer that you're insured as a part of the job interview'?"

And one more time: "Why would giant corporations want you to be forced to pay for your own health insurance?"

On the other hand, why would YOU want the government to?

Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah): "We've held hearings in the Joint Economic Committee about medical costs, and there is a perverse and countner-intuitive circumstance going on and that the more technology we bring into health care, the more it costs. And this is exactly different from the way things work in other parts of the economy, the more technology you apply, the lower the cost becomes. And as we've tried to pursue why we have the opposite trend in health care, ah, it's because you keep people alive longer. If you were aimed at cost control only, you would let them die and thereby save the cost of their medical care in their later years." --to Senate Banking Committee, July 16, 2003, 10:43:52

There's an answer that doesn't involve mandatory anything. What?

Check out Ron Paul's plan.

REAL Enemies

2007-05-07T06:51:00.000-07:00

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." --President George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004

In Section 2 of the Act of March 9. 1933 [1] (Exhibit 17), we find the following:

"Subdivision (b) of Section 5 of the Act of October 6, 1917 [The 1917 "Trading With The Enemy Act" -lrw] (40 Stat. L. 411), ...is hereby amended to read as follows;" "During time of war or during any other period of national emergency declared by the President, the President may, through any agency that he may designate, or otherwise, investigate, regulate, or prohibit, under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe, by means of licenses or otherwise, any transactions in foreign exchange, transfers of credit between or payments by banking institutions as defined by the President and export, hoarding, melting, or earnarkings of gold or silver coin or bullion or currency, by any person within the United States or anyplace subject to the jurisdiction thereof."

What just happened? As far as commercial, monetary or business transactions were concerned, the people of the United States were no longer differentiated from any other enemy of the United States. We had lost that crucial distinction. [Also] Comparing Exhibit 17 with Exhibit 19, we can see that the phrase which excluded transactions executed wholly within the United States has been removed from the amended version of Section 5 (b) of the Act of March 9, 1933, Section 2, and replaced with "by any person within the United States or anyplace subject to the jurisdiction thereof." All monetary transactions, whether domestic or international in scope, were now placed at the whim of the President of the United States through the authority given to him by the Trading with the Enemy Act. --WAR AND EMERGENCY POWERS, RESEARCHED AND WRITTEN BY: Gene Schroder Aivin Jenkins Jerry Russell Ed Petrowsky Russell Grieder Darrell Schroder Walter Marston Lynn Bitner Billy Schroder Van Stafford Fred Peters Tinker Spain Paul Bailey AMERICAN AGRICULTURE MOVEMENT, Box 130 Campo, Colo 81029 [ADDRESS NO LONGER VALID]

This "State of Emergency" has been repeatedly re-declared, and is in effect to this day, May 7, 2007.

"The United States is at war with America. And we have been for 60 years." President George W. Bush, "Tonight" with Jay Leno, June 29, 2006

Notes: [1] This law was passed by Congress in an extraordinary noon session, especially called by FDR on March 9, 1933, a scant five days after his inauguration. At that session, Roosevelt submitted an already written bill (but written by who in that scant five days), calling on the "rule of necessity" -- essentially a legal excuse saying circumstances are so dire, it's necessary to break the law, in this case, the U.S. Constitution -- to deal with those circumstances. And what were these dire circumstances? Essentially, the insolvency of about 50% of the nations banks from excess printing of bills by the Federal Reserve, which claimed, right on their face, to be "REDEEMABLE IN GOLD ON DEMAND," but for which redemption, there simply wasn't enough gold. --lrw return

Who shattered the MSM barrier?

2007-04-01T05:20:00.000-07:00

As you may know, U.S. MSM (Main Stream Media) "works" for what President Dwight David Eisenhower called "the military-industrial-congressional complex." And seminal linguist Noam Chomsky pretty much nailed the results:

The United States is unusual among the industrial democracies in the rigidity of the system of ideological control - 'indoctrination,' we might say - exercised through the mass media.

So when a high profile celebrity with a top-rated show "speaks truth to power" in MSM, shattering that "ideological control" -- AND the audience applauds, you know a sea change is in the forecast.

Rosie shatters the main-stream-media barrier

The View

Cause and effect?

2007-01-28T10:10:00.000-08:00

Gambling Subpoenas on Wall St . By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and STEPHANIE SAUL, New York Times, Published: January 22, 2007

Outcry as US targets City firms over online gambling, UK bankers issued with Subpoenas, Rhys Blakely, The London Times, January 22, 2007

Threat to New York as centre of finance, By By David Wighton in New York, FT.com, MSNBC

Beijing to diversify investment strategies, By Richard McGregor in Beijing, FT.com (Financial Times), Published: January 21 2007 19:35 | Last updated: January 22 2007 03:21

Will we use nukes?

2007-01-09T04:07:00.000-08:00

According to The Sunday Times, Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran. The article suggests that "the disclosure of the plans could be intended to put pressure on Tehran to halt enrichment, cajole America into action or soften up world opinion in advance of an Israeli attack."

Will America be cajoled?

It seems "we" already have been:

Former UNSCOM Chief Weapons Inspector SCOTT RITTER: Look, we're already overflying Iran with unmanned aerial vehicles, pilotless drones. On the ground, the CIA is recruiting Mojahedin-e-Khalq, recruiting Kurds, recruiting Azeris, who are operating inside Iran on behalf of the United States of America. And there is reason to believe that we've actually put uniformed members of the United States Armed Forces and American citizens operating as CIA paramilitaries inside Iranian territory to gather intelligence.

Now, when you violate the borders and the airspace of a sovereign nation with paramilitary and military forces, that's an act of war. That's an act of war. So, when Americans say, "Ah, there's not going to be a war in Iran," there's already a war in Iran. We're at war with Iran. We're just not in the declared conventional stage of the war. The Bush administration has a policy of regime change. They're going to use the military, and the military is being used. --Democracy Now! interview, Oct. 16, 2006

SCOTT RITTER: The bottom line is, within two days of our decision to initiate an attack on Iran, every single one of you is going to be feeling the consequences of that in your pocketbook. And it's only going to get worse. This is not something that only I recognize. Ask Dick Lugar what information he's getting from big business, who are saying, "We can't afford to go to war with Iran."

SEYMOUR HERSH: Final question: given all this, are we going to do it?

SCOTT RITTER: Yes, we're going to do it. --at the ethical culture society oct 2006

P.S. The inaccuracy of headlines: According to MSNBC, Israel denies it’s planning Iran nuclear attack, however, nowhere in that article does an official Israeli spokesperson specifically deny the Times story. This is fairly obviously another well orchastrated Israelie government "psyops," probably designed to "put pressure on Tehran to halt enrichment, cajole America into action and/or soften up world opinion in advance of an Israeli attack.

Is This Appropriate for a Free People #00003

2006-10-23T05:18:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK --
A city plan to ban restaurants from selling meals containing an unhealthy artificial fat could open a new front in a national fight over the safety of America's food supply ... Experts said New York City would take the boldest step yet ... to ban restaurants from preparing foods containing more than trace amounts of artificial trans fatty acids. ...the ban on trans fats would bar chefs at thousands of restaurants from using partially hydrogenated vegetable oil ... -NYC trans fat ban is latest volley in fight over food safety, By DAVID B. CARUSO, Associated Press Writer, October 2, 2006, 1:48 AM EDT

This may make more sense than a ban on smoking -- but neither is appropriate for a free people. As the quip goes, "The result of protecting fools from their folly is to fill the world with fools." Governments have ceratinly made major contributions to that enterprise.

The result is sleeping sheeple who think they're being taken care of -- and thus believe they don't have to take care of themselves -- and thus a lax market place that tolerates what may be poisons -- lots of them -- in the food supply and elsewhere.

Proof? Here's the punchline from the above article: "public health law experts said they were stunned that New York would ban a substance the Food and Drug Administration only began listing on food labels this year."

So, the FDA is NOT protecting you from trans-fatty acids -- heck they didn't even tell they're in your food -- you are NOT demanding food that doesn't contain them -- and neither are other customers, who see no point in being informed because there's no hope of bucking 'the system'. Thus the normal market forces that would have caused restaurants to stop using these substances long ago have been silenced and we still have hydrogenated oils widely used.

See, governments, just like most other ogranizations, end up working for those who have money and influence. So the FDA, USDA, FAA, FCC and even CIA don't work for "we the people," they work for GM, Chrysler, ADM, etc. -- and the other organizations that can afford one of the ~27,000 registered and paid lobbyists in Washington D.C. -- and they maintain the status quo. No matter what it is.

Is this appropriate for a free people?

Remember, BIG Brother IS Watching You!!

2006-10-02T06:28:00.000-07:00

The FBI has opened a "preliminary investigation" of disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley over the sexually explicit Internet messages he sent to congressional pages, all male high school students under the age of 18.

Agents in the FBI's Cyber Division have already begun to examine the texts of some of the messages, according to a FBI spokesperson.

Officials say the FBI and Department of Justice lawyers are trying to determine how many such e-mails were sent, how many different computers were used ... -FBI Opens "Preliminary Investigation" of Foley, October 01, 2006 6:00 PM, Brian Ross Reports

The Mortal Enemy

2006-09-29T04:10:00.000-07:00

According to [veteran reporter Bob] Woodward, insurgent attacks against coalition troops occur, on average, every 15 minutes, a shocking fact the administration has kept secret. ..."That's more than 100 a day," says Woodward.
+
..."The truth is that the assessment by intelligence experts is that next year, 2007, is going to get worse and, in public, you have the president and you have the Pentagon [saying], 'Oh, no, things are going to get better,'" he tells Wallace. "Now there’s public, and then there’s private. But what did they do with the private? They stamp it secret. No one is supposed to know," says Woodward. Bob Woodward: Bush Misleads On Iraq, CBS NEWS, NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2006

"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the State." -Chief Nazi 'Information Officer' Dr. Joseph P. Goebbels

Is This Appropriate for a Free People? #00002

2006-09-04T16:34:00.000-07:00

Steamboat Springs [Colorado] — One of the owners of a fresh produce store said Saturday that it is absurd that two men are in jail for taking spoiled fruit and vegetables from the store’s trash area.

On Wednesday, Giles Charlé, 24, of Somersworth, N.H., and David Siller, 27, of Wayne, Pa., pleaded guilty to misdemeanor trespass and were sentenced to spend six months in Routt County Jail and pay $15 in restitution to Sweet Pea Produce. ...They originally were charged with felony second-degree burglary and misdemeanor theft. They accepted the plea agreement offered by Assistant District Attorney Kerry St. James, they said, because they did not want to risk being convicted of a felony.

“Once I found out what these guys were being charged with, I contacted (St. James),” said Jonathon Hieb, who owns Sweet Pea with Katherine Zambrana. “I told him, ‘We’re not behind this prosecution. We don’t want anything to do with it.’ I thought for sure my input would have some kind of bearing, but he wasn’t hearing any of it.”

Hieb said St. James told him he was going to make an example of the men.

...Charlé most recently worked as a social worker. Siller is an Americorps volunteer and a yoga instructor. Both men had plans to go to graduate school, family and friends said.

...St. James also asked Judge James Garrecht to fine the men $42 for each day they serve in jail, the standard cost of care for inmates. Garrecht refused.

...Hammond, like Westphale, advised the men to plead to the misdemeanor and accept the six-month sentence.

“The way I put it to them was, ‘Could you win your case? Yes. But am I willing to gamble a felony conviction that you’re going to win? No,’” Hammond said Saturday.

Hammond said there really was no choice. If they pleaded guilty to the felony, he said, the men faced four years of supervised probation before their records would have been cleared. Also, they would have had to apply for an interstate transfer to serve their probation outside of Colorado.

“Defendants are given these kinds of choices every day,” Hammond said. “This one is particularly egregious, but the same kind of thing goes on in a lot of cases.” Sweet Pea owners: 'We didn't want this' Jail time for taking food from trash ‘ridiculous,’ Hieb says, By Scott Stanford, Saturday, September 2, 2006

The Iron Law: An Illustration

2006-08-24T06:09:00.000-07:00

"The fundamental sociological law of political parties (the term 'political' being here used in its most comprehensive sense) may be formulated in the following terms:

'It is organization which gives birth to the domination of the elected over the electors, of the mandataries over the mandators, of the delegates over the delegators. Who says organization, says oligarchy.'"

Lee Harris, The Iron Law of Oligarchy, RevisitedThis is an excerpt from Robert Michels' book "On the Sociology of Political Parties in Modern Democracies," published in 1911. The English translation was titled "Political Parties."

The Illustration:

And thanks to: http://www.lesjones.com/www/

And thanks to Jomama for the lead!

Faces of Terror - - -

2006-08-18T07:43:00.000-07:00

According to The Six Faces of the Terrorist , these are the facial expressions all those security screeners at airports -- and eventually bus stations, train stations, and, who knows, eventually, perhaps, on every street corner (AND all those street-cams cities are installing all around the country) are looking for:
And below are the normal faces of folks about to face the security screeners - - -
P.S. Of course, when it comes to all those street-cams, well, they don't work very well:

Surveillance cameras like those authorized by the D.C. Council for police investigations and now being put in place have shown limited success in decreasing violent crime in other cities. + Baltimore, for example, set up about 80 cameras in May 2005 in high-crime neighborhoods. Volunteers and retired law-enforcement personnel monitor the images in real time, but the cameras have not helped put criminals behind bars. + "Generally, the State's Attorney's Office has not found them to be a useful tool to prosecutors," office spokeswoman Margaret Burns said. Spy cameras fail to focus on street crime, Matthew Cella, THE WASHINGTON TIMES, August 13, 2006

ANOTHER Argument Against Standing Armies?

2006-08-12T00:24:00.000-07:00

Unless trained to kill, most people won't

Soldiers allegiance is to their buds more than to the state

The group, from the [Dutch] Interior Ministry's General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD), spoke at length of how jihadist groups are becoming much more dynamic, fluid, and diffuse, coming together to cooperate on specific goals and targets. Unlike the al Qaeda of old, these are local, autonomous, "self-radicalizing" jihadist cells, not controlled from overseas. They rely heavily on virtual networks and training, through the Internet, and then shift into actual, operational networks. The Internet is "the cement" of these new terrorist networks, the analysts stressed. Another trend seen by Dutch intelligence is a worrisome drop in age among participants, with increasing numbers of teenagers, often with petty crime records. Other trends include the recruitment of women and western converts. Of jihad networks and the war of ideas, David E. Kaplan, USNews.com, Posted 6/22/06

Gang members use military to get training

Is this appropriate for a free people? #00001

2006-08-07T05:06:00.000-07:00

Way back in 2003, the Wisconsin Legislature enacted the Wisconsin Premises Registration Act, which became effective in November 2005. Sally, and everyone else in Wisconsin who owned even one chicken, horse, cow or any other livestock animal, was required to register her premises with the state by Jan. 1, 2006.

Sally didn't register her premises – and became an outlaw by doing nothing. Grandma is an outlaw

The answer is .....

2006-07-27T23:31:00.000-07:00

...the Saracens. The question is here.