Hail Discordia!

2006-03-21T15:45:00.000-05:00

"The best lack all convictions; while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity."

76
Men are born soft and supple;
Dead, they are stiff and hard.
Plants are born tender and pliant;
Dead, they are brittle and dry.
Thus, whoever is stiff and inflexible
Is a disciple of death.
Whoever is soft and yielding
Is a disciple of life.
The hard and stiff will be broken.
The soft and supple will prevail.
Tao Te Ching

As we approach the Zero Hour, and the Armageddon Clock ticks down, I sit and marvel at the plans laid before my birth by the overlords of the Military Industrial Complex. How tremendous a project, encompassing so many lives! How many families have known nothing but? To deviate to them would be like scrapping a lifetime. But this is not the case: the expertise of the military and our arms industries will always be in demand, with the proper applications. There is so much dangerous military hardware floating around right now that children get accidentally blown up by leftover mines in old war zones years after the cease-fire: the effort required to clean up the mess will be another few generations worth at least. But let's get real: for short term fun, there's nothing like destruction... and it makes way for new construction. And obviously, there's a lot of toys these boys haven't gotten a chance to try out yet.

"Most of the world's great cities have grown haphazardly, little by little, in response to the needs of the moment; very rarely is a city planned for the remote future. The evolution of a city is like the evolution of the brain: it develops from a small center and slowly grows and changes, leaving many old parts still functioning. There is no way to rip out the ancient interior of the brain because of its imperfections and replace it with something of more modern manufacture. The brain must function during the renovation.
Taht is why our brainstem is surrounded by the R complex, then the limbic system and finally the cerebral cortex. The old parts are in charge of too many fundamental functions for them to be replaced altogether. So they wheeze along, out-of-date and sometimes counterproductive, but a necessary consequence of our evolution." - Carl Sagan, "Cosmos"

I think that the city is the ultimate structural expression of our social architecture: this is why "The Matrix" is a very metaphorically spiritual movie if looked at through the right filter. And of course, "As above, so below": the great political argument between "liberals" and "conservatives" has been that liberals believe that the social environment is responsible for making the individual who they are; and the conservatives believe that the the individual is responsible making for the social environment what it is. Guess what: you're BOTH right! What you do and who you become affect your society, and your society affects what you do and who you become. If you didn't respond to your environment, you'd be dead or hurting; if your environment didn't respond to you, there'd be no such thing as progress, and no point to our labors. So instead of bitching about the problem, let's get down to the roots!

Carl Sagan relates old city design with old brain functions; at one point he mentions that a disaster like the Chicago or San Francisco fires, and perhaps Katrina's destruction of New Orleans, revitalizes a city by providing open spaces in the older parts of town for new, necessary buildings to be built. One of the most telling things about humanity in general has been that we are survivors by necessity. Americans in particular were brought up on the Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett myths of frontiersmen and explorers: I doubt that there's any level of destruction short of a deliberate, patterned glassing of the planet's surface with nukes that would "knock us back to the stone age": we're too distributed now. Even so, the destruction could be unthinkable in such a conflict. However, this product of old thinking falls firmly into the realm of "counterproductive": we don't need Mutually Assured Destruction, we need Mutually Assured CONSTRUCTION.

Since we probably can't rip out our old ways and give up the guns, I say we evolve further and figure out ways to get along universally; where shooting someone is a last resort, not a business. However, since people evolve from the same basic memes into more enlightened frames of reference, we need to be on guard for the young'uns that don't know any better. Sadly, sometimes the only way to survive is to kill: this is an unpleasant fact of Nature, and not to be shied from lightly. However, with the right sorts of control and education, we can keep this necessity to a minimum, and give the most young people a chance to grow up and to contribute brilliance to our world. However, we need something more.

When we face off in foolish clannish conflicts spawned millenia ago and continued in various formats, we do two things: we test the mettle of our nations against each other, and we slough off tremendous sums of energy and genes. Our Elite Disciples of Death would have you believe that this is a culling, merely another application of Natural Selection. However, the selection is most unnatural: not much one can do to prevent an artillery barrage when selected for a mission putting them in harms way... or avoid an atomic blast wave from a terrorist nuke. All-out war is just a way to "kill-kill-kill-kill-kill the poor!" as the Dead Kennedys would put it. And the Chinese, American, and Russian governments seem poised to go demolition derby in a few short months.

They seem really gung ho about it. I personally could care less for their international conflict: I've always said that there are much worse security concerns here in the USA for us to deal with before we can bitch at anyone else about their conduct. I'd support the right international war if the USA were truly on the moral high ground... but that currently ain't the case. If we must fight a war against our international partners, I want to see the American scumbags who got rich building the other side's military get dragged before a court and tried like the traitorous sons-of-bitches they are. To most Americans, it means something special just to be American: to these international elites, nationality is just something to wear like a set of clothes, and they sell us out at every opportunity. When our country goes down the crapper as planned, they'll move to Europe and continue on like nothing ever happened.

I don't refuse my limbic system and R complex, the basic aggressive, territorial and reproductive central pit of my brain. But I do give my cerebral cortex credit for keeping the little bastard in line... and I believe in the power of others to do the same. I believe it's a mistake to surrender entirely to the impulses of one's primitive brain, and elevate its gratification to the highest of pedestals. To do such is degeneration: this is the disease that ate Rome's elite from the inside out in the latter days of the Empire. I for one don't like the idea of degenerates running my country.

We were a country founded on ENLIGHTENMENT PRINCIPLES; those of learned men, not bullshit artists. Our leadership is a travesty. Any conflict run under their helmsmanship can only lead to disaster, and I for one believe that my life will be better spent at home, thank you very much. If the Russians or Chinese or somebody invade us (unlikely at best), I've got the back of any American that's willing to resist. But until that day, or our political system awakens from the nightmare that is neo-con policy to a new Enlightenment, you can count me out.

Now in the darkest days, it is most important for one to be genuine: forget about causes and convictions, they only obscure the core of your self, filtering and blocking the light of one's Divine Spark. Try not to be like anything, but realize that you are perfectly yourself.

Everything is perfect, down to the very last flaw, and bound in accordance with Eris' Law. - Principia Discordia

The Force flows when one lets go. Stop trying to be something you're not, and be perfectly what you are. You evolved to meet your environment; now take charge of it, and yourself. Stop asking yourself "how can I save the world?" and start asking: "How can I save MYSELF?" And once you've answered that, ask "What can I do for my neighbors?"... and if your neighbors can can all agree to work together under a unified leadership, ask "What can we do for the nation?". Start inside and work outside from the small and localized to the large and networked. Your brain does it that way: maybe you should to.

Next article: Social Tumor Removal

2006-03-08T00:12:00.000-05:00

Legal Stuff

Hey all. Seems that the whole militia thing has a lot of precedent in state law... at least in Maryland, anyway. Turns out that there's a whole section devoted to it. I'll snip out the relevant parts for those of us whose brains dry out when reading the legalese:

§ 13-214. Prohibited acts.

(a) Forming military organizations.- Except for the units of the
organized militia and the troops of the United States, a body of persons may not
associate as a military company or organization or parade in public as a
military company or organization without the permission of the Governor.

"Organized Militia" to Maryland consists of the Maryland National Guard and Air National Guard, plus the Maryland Defense Force, which exists as a fully-volunteer supplement to the National Guard at the present moment: the MDF is basically a provisional military force available for the Governor to form, reduce, or disband at will from volunteers, and has somewhat looser regulations than the National Guard at the Governor's whim. There's also the "Unorganized Militia", defined in this section:

§ 13-202. Membership; exemptions; waiver of exemptions.

(a) Membership.- Except as provided in subsection (b) of this
section, the militia consists of able-bodied individuals who are:
(1) citizens of the State; or
(2) of foreign birth and who:
(i) are residents of the State; and
(ii) have declared their intention to become citizens of the
State.
(b) Exemptions.- Subject to subsection (c) of this section, an
individual is exempt from subsection (a) of this section if the
individual:
(1) is exempted by the laws of the United States;
(2) is exempted by the laws of the State;
(3) is a member of a regularly organized fire or police department in a
county, city, village, or town;
(4) is a judge or clerk of a court of record;
(5) is a register of wills and deeds;
(6) is a sheriff;
(7) is a member of the clergy;
(8) is a practicing physician;
(9) is a superintendent, officer, or assistant of a hospital or
correctional facility;
(10) has been judged mentally incompetent;
(11) is addicted to narcotic drugs; or
(12) has been convicted of an infamous crime.
(c) Waiver of exemptions.- An individual exempted under
subsection (b)(3) through (12) of this section shall be available for military
duty in case of war, insurrection, or invasion, or when the danger of war,
insurrection, or invasion is imminent.

So basically, if you're not a part of the National Guard, you can't meet as a "military company" UNLESS:

You join the Maryland Defense Force
You've got the permission of the Governor to form an unorganized militia

They also seem to want you to exempt yourself if possible if you're otherwise needed: cops, doctors, and the person who handles the wills are all good people not to have shot if you decide to fight: rather civilized, dontcha think? However, it says that if there's a war, invasion, or insurrection, or when such is "imminent", that those exempt people can enlist... at least the ones that State or Federal law say can serve... which means that if the shit hits the fan, they'll take basically anyone they can get their hands on that's willing to pick up a rifle and shoot.

Makes sense. They don't want people playing soldier in their backyard without their say-so, and they don't want to have any misunderstanding if shit DOES hit the fan. However, it does NOT say that one cannot form a club; say, a paintball club, shooting range club, or a military history club. Forming it as a military company, however, such as those kids in Virginia did, will land your ass in jail. I'm not sure what the laws are in all states: LexisNexis is a good place to look.

CYA! ("Cover Your Ass"... that'll double for "see ya" this time!)

Tar

2006-02-08T11:24:00.000-05:00

Kallisti

"To the Prettiest One"

Time for the Golden Apple Corps to roll [Law Enforcement Officers please note that the baseball grenade spray-painted gold and marked with the Greek word Kallisti (my own tribute to the Golden Apple of Eris) is inert: all my weapons are perfectly legal civilian arms, and I don't intend to use them unless people start shooting at me]. I've said before in posts concerning the nature of violence that one of the main factors determining the dynamic that violence takes and who's involved is IDENTITY. I.E., premeditated violence (especially war) usually results from an "Us versus Them" mentality.

The problem with our country currently engaging in violence against other countries, especially in a new war (when we're not finished the previous conflicts yet), is that this is precisely a time when the United States is in the grip of a huge identity crisis. Our Elites and "leaders" (I use this term EXTREMELY loosely for our current batch of high officials) don't trust their underlings, or the press which manages their public relations. These are precisely the targets of the NSA's now-renamed-but-still-active FIRSTFRUITS domestic wiretapping program. Essentially, the only reason General Hayden and some other bigwigs don't have their feet to the irons in the Star Chamber at the moment is because they conduced this surveillance under the auspices of a "Training Program" (ever see "Enemy of the State" with Will Smith? Same justification) - thus they never had to keep records of whom they were tapping and why. With such documents, the Bushies would be damned when it comes Impeachment time: at least some of the targets of the surveillance were EXTREMELY likely to be key members of Congress and Administration posts: the very people who would try the President and his crew and push them off the plank. It's hard to get sympathy from someone whom you've shown your deep distrust of by spying on them.

It seems that there's an Us and a Them even within our own country. I'll be blunt: there's the Us that includes everyone who believes America should be a nation of laws and that these laws should be just and provide equal protection to every American. We believe that officials (both government and corporate) should be held accountable for malfeasance and that we must demand results based on facts, the keys to progress, to building a better world. Imagine a world where we can have faith in our nation of laws, with the hope one day that this bright example of ethical behavior and mutual respect would be a beacon and a blueprint to the rest of the world (wasn't this what the American Dream was supposed to be all about???). I call us "We the People".

Then there's the "Them" that thinks that their special class should run the government for their own benefit and use it to hide their crimes behind an official curtain, usually "National Security". Some of the darkest crimes of our century have been attributed to these official criminals: we're talking huge amounts of cocaine and heroin trafficked (the profits supporting death squads in Latin America and drive-bys in Urban America), weapons sent to war zones in exchange for blood diamonds and the dubious promises of warlords and dictators, international trade of sex slaves, occult murder and political assassination. But while they control the puppet show, they decide which dolls sit on a pedestal and which get put in a cage. They think that as long as they can manipulate the people who have come to power and place their true puppets in the highest seats in the land, that they can never be deposed from their comfortable seats, and that We the People will slave away to their benefit forever under the burden of impossible debts, increasing taxes, and illegal official actions... without complaint. Let's call them "They the Scumbags".

That last bit is the kicker: without complaint. We the People have a long tradition and history of protest: from the Whiskey Rebellion to the Million Man March, the Boston Tea Party and the WTO protests in downtown DC. However, this tradition is being put on the chopping block: the new laws state that you cannot protest where the people you're protesting actually are - instead, you must be several blocks away (out of sight, out of mind), and if you're a protester that leaves the protest area, you can be arrested.

Hate to say it, but our First Amendment, the MOST IMPORTANT AMENDMENT TO THE AVERAGE AMERICAN, has been trashed. Gone, finit, done. Not only has our right to free speech been nipped, our press has been muzzled, and most importantly, we're no longer allowed to petition for redressance of our grievances against those who have wronged us... at least, we're not allowed to do so LEGALLY.

Here's the point: we're being told from the Top Down that "We're allowed to act illegally in a blatant fashion, even admitting it on TV, but you must obey the law and not question our misconduct". Meanwhile, we've been told that if we've got a problem, we can always carry a sign and chant... but not anywhere near the people who need to realize that there are a several hundred thousand to a few million people that want them to pay attention and stop whatever bastardry they're perpetrating at the moment. So the only effective protest tactics we've been left with are now illegal. So... they're breaking the law, thumbing their noses at us and expecting the cops and military to fall to their side and stick it to us while letting their dirty backroom games continue... all the while daring us to do something about it and presumably sink to their level.

Perhaps, but that's only if the cops and military personnel have all lined up and sold their souls... which I'm pretty certain hasn't happened en masse yet because those cops and soldiers are paid less than most mid-level white collar employees, and they STILL don't get the respect they deserve. I'm of the opinion that most career cops and military personnel do what they do because of a deep sense of honor and responsibility to their countrymen. They put themselves in harm's way for shitty pay in all sorts of weather and hours because they love our country... and hopefully their neighbors. I think that the cops and the military who HAVEN'T sold their souls (there are probably more than a few at the upper echelons) are probably more disgusted than even I am at the blatant corruption and brinksmanship radiating from They the Scumbags. Really the only thing keeping things together at this point is the terror that if we break ranks and refuse to cooperate with illegal policies, that there'll be an insurrection on American soil between loyalist and rebel factions, and untold misery will result.

Well, I hate to say it, but that's inevitable if the rule of law breaks down. If we can't trust our government to obey the rules it lays down, then we need a new government. Preferably this will be achieved without bloodshed, but if the political and media channels are thoroughly tied up, the intelligence channels are set to block anything working through the system, and even the traditional "people power" of protest can't budge this shitheap... well, there's always the Amendment that backs the First Amendment (and I believe all the others): the Second.

"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

Let's break this down here. Everyone remembers the end part: "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed": this has been the rallying call for the NRA for over a century. However, more important than the fact that we're allowed to own weapons is the first two parts of this most important of Amendments.

"A well regulated militia"... hmmm, seems that the Founding Fathers thought that it'd be a good idea to sit down with your fighting-age neighbors and get to know each other, to establish a local network for common defense and communication. Might not be the worst idea today. "Well regulated" implies that there would be a command structure, discipline, regular communications between members (perhaps meetings) and established signals to ensure rapid deployment at need. The second part, "...being necessary to the security of a FREE STATE" (emphasis mine), seems to imply that the Founding Fathers thought that these militias would be a bulwark of security, not just against external attack, but also against internal corruption: it's a scary proposal to rip off people that are both well-organized and well armed. We often hear that "Sunlight is the best disinfectant", referring to the fact that corruption and dirty deals can't stand public scrutiny. When subjected to the inquiry of a group of ordinary folks, most bullshit is usually pretty easy to detect: you can't fool all the people all of the time. When a group of ordinary folks is led by people of extraordinary morals, unity of action is quite possible, even spontaneous. And unified popular action is precisely what They the Scumbags fear most... because they CAN'T GET IT TO HAPPEN FOR THEM, BECAUSE THEY WORK FROM FEAR RATHER THAN TRUST.

When your leaders don't trust you, when they demand that their security apparatus investigate your representatives and media officials to ensure they're toeing the official line and repeating the proper lies, when they blatantly lie and break the law to ensure their continued domination of the political sphere, when they cut off all means of legitimate protest against their regime... this is PRECISELY the point where conscientious military and/or federal criminal investigators should throw down the gauntlet, where the Congress should protest loudly in the people's stead, and where our media persons should be publishing the high crimes where all can see them: when you're covered in leeches the last thing you worry about is modesty. The end result should be the triumph of law and justice done... or the destruction of Law's meaning and the blatant exposure of tyranny, that we may know our enemy face to face.

Well, I'm here to cheerfully report that we've always had an answer to Open Tyranny in the Second Amendment. It's pretty fucking hard to ignore a bullet. I'm all for letting the Constitutional process work: I'd far rather see a responsible Washington DC than a burned one: Thomas Jefferson himself said "delay is preferable to error": in this regard, most especially. However, there was another thing he said that makes a lot of sense today:

"What country before ever existed a century & half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is its natural manure."

Consider yourselves warned, Scumbags. If you step down peaceably, we'll see you get all the rights and legal protections you deny your enemies while we duly process you. If you rip our nation apart, and insist that we are ruled by secretive, falliable (and deceitful) men and not by public Law, the blood of the Tyrants WILL join that of the Patriots on American soil. It's happened here before, and by God, it'll happen again at their insistence. The American People aren't asleep: we're just waiting. Waiting for the echo of the Shot Heard Round the World... and once the writing's on the wall, we'll fall in; first in a trickle, then in a flood, from the tributaries of the communities, from the rivers of our own government. Ask anybody from New Orleans: nothing stops a flood... except high ground, and if the Levee of Law is breached, then They the Scumbags will reap what they've sown. This Flood of Liberty will wash away those who do not stand on moral high ground, will bring down the false high grounds that have been eroded by years of corruption. The silt left behind after the Flood will be fertile ground for re-growing America, as long as we remember the lessons of our new Rebellion and those of the first: NEVER be complacent about tyrants. Their carcasses make the best fertilizer for Liberty, and their penitent make good examples. Give it up, Georgie and Company: if you want to walk away from this one with a few chips, fold while you've got the chance. The American People are calling your bluff.

I leave you with another quote from Jefferson, this time from the times of the Alien and Sedition Acts, a very dark episode for Liberty in our county's eary history:

"A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt. If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake."

Wayne Madsen Report has a letter from former US Army Counter-Intelligence Special Agent Dave Debatto:

"Folks, cliché or not, what we are witnessing here with this blatant shredding of one the most important of our constitutional guarantees, is the beginning of the end of the republic. Make no mistake about it. When a sitting administration, through it’s highest officials, willfully, knowingly and arrogantly violates the laws of the land as well as the sacred trust it has with the American public, then the end of the government as we know it is right around the corner."

2006-01-27T11:46:00.000-05:00

Message from a REAL Conservative: "Treatise of the Unknown SIGINTer"

Hey all. It's been a while: I've been under the belly of the beast poking around and surveying how bad the mess is. Well, I've got good news: while our country appears to have been hijacked by the NeoCon disease, the body of our nation itself has largely resisted this disease (the common vector seems to be "bullshit"). Note: there's a HUGE difference between the traditional conservatives in this country and the NeoCon scumbags we see today. The REAL Conservatives believe in a limited government, a strong military, and adherence to the kinds of standards (like EXCELLENCE) and values (like HONESTY) that make our country great; the NeoCons claim to believe a lot of shit, but their actions reveal that they really believe only in making shit-tons of money at the expense of everyone and everything else.

They're the most incompetent turds I've ever had to endure in Washington, at least in my lifetime anyway, which hasn't been all that long. What's worse, they KNOW that we're pissed and are trying to rig the system to prevent their removal. However, they seem to have consistently made the same mistake: they persistently disrespect and underestimate the resolve and ingenuity of the American people... and we RUN this machine, not they! They may give the orders, but if we merely refused, had key strikes, whatever: they'd be as helpless as a driver with a fried engine. If they persist in pushing for a nuclear war, they might get to live that analogy for real: I'm certain that our ballistically armed enemies are well aware of the effects of EMP: A well-placed MIRV spread in our upper atmosphere would knock out all electronics and put us back in the 18th Century technologically. As it is, the likelihood of global nuclear war has risen in my estimation with the acquisition of our nuclear production facilities (enrichment and bomb-making, bomb triggers, ballistic missiles) by the Carlyle Group and the negotiations by our President with other nations (France, Poland, etc.) on their stance on a nuclear strike against "terrorist" targets. I'm not the only one who thinks this will happen: the Burmese moved their capital on two days notice to the bumfuck highlands of their country due to the risk of fallout during the monsoon season.

But, like I said, we still have heart in this country. The Neo-Cons are doing their best to stomp it out or herd it into the corral of religious fanaticism and ultra-nationalism, that we can be provoked into wanting to nuke back, invade, whatever. They will ALWAYS rely on a certain level of skill, however: those with specialized talents will be tolerated to a certain degree because there is no one to replace them in many cases... and despite the Grand Philosophy of Bullshit which dictates that what you put on TV or in the news BECOMES TRUE, there still is a level of hard reality upon which you bump your head when your IDEA about the world doesn't match what REALLY is. In other words, the map is not the territory. Some of us are interested in building accurate maps and working from them: this happens to be my job in the literal sense. Others seem more interested in what they can get people to do if they invent crises and other myths, to generate a smoke-screen to cover their own dirty secrets.

I really do believe that if we don't see the Constitutional process upheld and these scumbags held accountable, there WILL be a Second (third?) Revolution in this country, and there ain't a damn thing that could stop it. What any country lives or dies by is LEGITIMACY: the consent of the Governed. The dissatisfaction extends deeply into the military and security worlds as well. As the popular revolution begins, those in the military and security spheres sympathetic to the plight of their countrymen and disgusted with the mismanagement and deliberate looting of our country will stand up as well. I believe that despite the near lock on the media these NeoCons have, the reality of their control is paper-thin. The Schiavo incident made clear that the POLICE still know what the Constitution is and what it means: I suspect that within the military that there are also people who feel the same. The following essay from "The Unknown SIGINTer" (SIGINT stands for Signals Intelligence, or interception of electronic communications: the NSA's specialty, for those of you who live under a rock). I don't consider myself a Conservative any more than I consider myself a Liberal, but I agree with this guy 100%... except maybe the part about the Founding Fathers giving up in disgust if they had foreknowledge of our plight: I think they would have just fought harder, and I for one intend to honor their memory by keeping their spirit alive today.

From a Real Conservative

I am tired of all of the bull going around in this country concerning politics. I am a real conservative. I’m someone that wants my privacy protected at all times. I want government out of my life as much as possible. I don’t want to give half my income for some scheming bureaucrat (Democrat or Republican) to line his pockets while pretending to be fixing things for me. I want the strongest military possible because I believe in the "speak softly but carry a big stick policy".

But I don’t want that same military messing with my civil rights. The founding fathers didn’t want intrusive federal government. I personally believe that if they saw what we did with our freedom, they’d have left us a British Colony. I am tired of having billions of dollars flowing out of our country to prop up some asshole that is screwing his people just as badly as the current den of thieves that pretend to run this country while making their friends rich at my expense.

I hear all kinds of people crying about the 600 billion spent on Defense. Nobody’s crying about how the other 2.2 trillion dollars is spent every year. I know why the "The Roman Empire didn’t see it coming". The only difference between us and the Romans is that we haven’t elected a horse to the Senate yet, several dozen jackasses, but no horse. And that’s for both parties. I believe it was Ben Franklin that stated "people willing to give up freedom for secure, deserve neither".

I have strict set of rules I live by:

• Don’t go out of your way to piss me off, I only take so much crap.
• Keep your paws off what’s mine, which includes my money.
• Stop trying to fix everything in the world at my expense.
• Keep your nose out of the abortion issue. There’s 6 billion people on the planet already!

Keep messing around and I believe you’ll find out what happened around 1776. I find it amazing how we pretend to be a free nation, yet every year Congress pass another 10,000 new laws all for our benefit of course. What ever happened to the KISS principle? How to plan to enforce at this crap? This is exactly what is happening to all of what was a great nation. Bureaucrats have taken everything over and are now screwing it all in the ground World.Com, ENRON, GM, Ford, etc. are shining examples of this in action. And it is happening all throughout our government too.

An excellent example of this is the Intelligence Community. The 911 commission stated that there was too much bureaucracy. So what did we do? We add a whole new department with a whole bunch more bureaucrats, not more analysts. This is like being on the Titanic after it hit the iceberg and somebody deciding after spending several years rearranging the deck chairs that the only solution is to add another deck to the ship and install an uber-captain. Ya that’ll keep the ship from sinking.

And we all know now what happens if you play ball their way, you get promoted to your next level of incompetence. Way to go Hayden!

Signed "The Unknown SIGINTer"

2005-11-18T14:43:00.000-05:00

Delicious Irony

"Primitivists" Can't Seem to Resist Lure of Video Games and Computers

(A Tongue-in-Cheek Report)

"Many were increasingly of the opinion that they'd all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans." - Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", preface

Alrighty then! I've been following a thread on the Anthropik Network for a little while now; every now and then I pop in to check their articles for useful insights to human nature and the sustainability of our way of life. Today, I was told that "I didn't know where I was", that they thought civilization itself was a bad idea, that I was amongst "primitivists" that supposedly espouse a "return to nature", Native American or perhaps even Cro-Magnon style.

And this was posted on a thread about VIDEO GAMES, posted on a WEBSITE maintained for the use of those who idealize the loincloth and flaked-flint spear lifestyle.

Am I the only person who can see the irony here??? Sometimes, I don't know whether to try to explain, just laugh my ass off at the absurdity of it all, or give in to my all-too-human instinctive drive to strangle the things and people that refuse to make sense...

In this case, I tried to explain: both my original position on the fundamental necessity of controlled violence to society, and the ironic nature of the reply. For my part, I can recognize my OWN quixotic nature, and that of my proposed solutions to social ills. Honestly: I don't see the Elite suddenly growing a conscience, or the bankers deciding suddenly that the world would be a nicer place if everyone was doing something useful and beneficial for everyone else, instead of trying to merely be the best rip-off artist out there in a wilderness of wolves and sheep.

"This planet has—or rather had—a problem, which was this: most of the people on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy." - Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", preface

Really, I don't know how the whole Primitivist Movement can work. I mean, no civilization: that means no laws, no customs, no cooperation: would it be just a bunch of half nekkid savages with clubs and spears getting along like animals? In any case, even if there was a social structure, and cooperation, just not an INDUSTRIALIZED social structure, then how precisely to remove the toxins and other scars left on Mother Earth so that said idyllic society could exist without succumbing to poisoned rivers and inoperable cancer... without technology's help? How to provide food in a timely fashion for six billion people without organized agriculture and herding? How to deprive the NON-primitivists of their rifles, aircraft, bombs and mechanized armies, to keep them from marching in like Pizarro on the Incas, guns to spears???

The short answer is, you can't. The only way for the planet to be big enough to sustain hunter-gatherer tribes in the wilderness is to kill something like 90% of the world population. Without agriculture and in the grip of a social collapse, the hunting will get VERY scarce, very quickly. Without law and order, our societies would devolve back to autocracy ruled by warlords. When the food runs out, people will be hungry enough eventually to turn to cannibalism, at least in some cases. Really, the only way to achieve the population drop necessary would be to actively release a plague, or encourage a mass-suicide movement...

"Life's short and hard like a body-building elf

So save the planet and KILL YOURSELF!

If you're feeling down-and-out with what your life's all about:

Lift your head up high and blow your brains out!"

Somehow, it seems these primitive-idealists think that by ending "industrial civilization", you end the barbarisms that characterize it. I, for one, would love to know exactly what flavor of crack they're smoking... this is a "Baby-and-Bathwater" argument if I ever saw one. Have we forgotten the Native American's tribal cultures? As a proud Washington Redskins fan, I certainly haven't... "Braves on the Warpath" isn't just a cute lyric to the fight song: that was the basis of Native American pride back then, and why they took scalps as trophies. The only way to simply END human violence, I say, is to end Humanity. And then it'll just be the Chimps making war on other Chimp Tribes with sticks, until they come up with spears and choppers...

Far simpler, then, to take responsibility for this hard-wired feature, this desire to club out the brains of the persistently stupid, the senselessly demented, and those obviously and arrogantly full of shit. If we each decided to take responsiblity for our own safety and self-control, if we each did a bit of soul-searching about why we occasionally have urges to bash in Paris Hilton's empty skull, for instance, we'd be a much safer and civil society, and a lot of the complaints the pacifists and primitivists have about human nature would dissolve. Ask yourself, have you ever seen a news story about a well-trained martial artist going berserk and killing people? How about someone who just BOUGHT (or perhaps stole) a gun? It's the tempering of power with responsibility that builds discipline and breeds mutual respect amongst people. Sadly, our elected and appointed "leaders" seem to have forgotten this lesson. Hopefully, Patrick Fitzgerald will go a ways to reminding them.

Really, my primitive friends: have you so swallowed the Green-Meme, egalitarian pluralistic relativism, that you idealize our Stone-Age ancestors and the Native Americans and have forgotten that the urge to kill someone is deeper than social structure? It certainly seems so; there's a lot of bullshit blaming war on "heirarchy" and the submission/domination reflex that I've read, and that's just today. Heirarchy and the submission/domination reflex are EXACTLY the keys necessary to control those impulses... though I agree it's a two-edged sword. Someone suggested Religion as a key to sustaining a peaceful society after a Collapse: convenient to disregard the numerous data that support the other conclusion, that Religion is often a driving factor in organizing people for war. As I've said before, the basic recognition that promotes war is the realization that it's "Us versus Them"... religion provides many of the cultural identity cues, and often serves (when partially quoted) to whip people into a righteous frenzy.

Maybe primitives don't have the industrial base to produce nukes, napalm, and automatic rifles. But that doesn't mean that they're shy about USING them against each other. Look at any history of Africa post-1945 to present, and you'll see what I mean. You can blame our industrial society if you want; sure, if all of the industrial nations had simply scrapped all the guns and bombs for Hoola-Hoops after WWII "made the world safe for freedom", *choking with laughter*, the Africans we'd left behind technologically would have copied our scraps and conquered us in short order. And then, the 21st Century would be the "African Century", following the 20th's "American Century".

I for one wouldn't be too happy about that... but I guess that comes from seeing myself as an American, and not an African or Chinese or an egalitarian "World Citizen". Us versus Them, and all that... and of course, the fact that our conquers would certainly place themselves above us factors in as well. The difference between my own opinion on this matter, and those of the Primitivists and the egalitarian Green peaceniks, is that I've got the balls to say it like it is, am comfortable in my identity, and embrace this terrible aspect of my very Human nature for what it is, lest it eventually destroy me in my ignorance. The aspects of your Ego which you push out of your Persona into your Shadow will always rise to the fore, projected onto your enemies when you let down your guard. Don't turn your back on your inherited violent nature: grasp, wrestle and control it, before it controls you.

If you understand the implications of this fundamental psychology for the subject matter, I DARE you to refute this article without resorting to rank hypocracy. Hey, maybe we'll even learn something!

2005-10-10T11:27:00.000-04:00

GREENBACK REVOLUTION!

"Banking is concieved in inequity and born in sin. Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money and control credit, and with the flick of a pen they will create enough money to buy it back again. Take this great power away from the bankers and all great fortunes like mine will disappear, as they ought to disappear, for this would be a better and happier world to live in. But if you want to continue the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create money and to control credit." - Sir Josiah Stamp, Director of the Bank of England in the 1920s

OK... It's been a while; been tying up some loose ends in TRW. But I've also been doing a LOT of reading, watching, and writing... and the most important thing I've seen in a long while is a documentary series called "The Money Masters". You can buy it at that link, or you can download a free version from

HERE

You see, I've long suspected that the main thing wrong with our country is that everyone wants to make lots of money, but there's a lot less concern with actually PRODUCING anything. The worst of this phenomenon is the banking system of our country, a system designed solely to make extraordinary sums off the use of other people's money. I warn you in advance, this is a two-part series, each part one and a half hours long, but trust me, this is a MUST SEE for those of you who want to know why modern society is fundamentally screwed and how to fix the situation.

I leave you with the famous quotes, painstakingly taken from the video segments and transcribed by yours truly. Some are from the freedom loving side, and others are from the bankers. Heed their wisdom: these people were there on the ground when the events described actually happened, and described events from their particular perspectives, shedding light on history that was previously shrouded in darkness.

"If the American People ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency,first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and the corporations which grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on thecontinent their fathers conquered" - Thomas Jefferson

"The colonies would gladly have borne a little tax on tea and other matters had it not been that England took away from the colonies their money, which created unemployment and dissatisfaction. The inability of the colonists to get power to issue their own money permanently out of the hands of George III and the international bankers was the PRIME reason for the Revolutionary War." - Benjamin Franklin

"The hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Money has no Motherland, financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain." - Napoleon Bonaparte

"The division of the United States into federations of equal force was decided long before the Civil War by the high financial powers of Europe. These bankers were afraid that the United States, if they remained as one block, and as one nation would attain economic and financial independence, which would upset their financial domination over the world."- Otto Von Bismarck

"The Government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credit needed to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of consumers. --- The priveledge of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of the Government, but is the Government's greatest creative opportunity. --- By the adoption of these principles, the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest. Money will cease to be master and will become the servant of Humanity." - Abraham Lincoln

"If this mischievous financial policy originating in North America shall become endurated down to a fixture, then that Government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off debt, and be without debt. It will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce. It will become prosperous without precedent in the history of all the world. The brains and wealth of all nations will go to North America. That country must be destroyed, or it will destroy all monarchies on the globe." - Editorial in London Times explaining the Central Bankers' attitude toward Abraham Lincoln's money creation policy

"The money power preys upon the nation in times of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy." - Abraham Lincoln

"My agency in promoting the passage of the National Banking Act was the greatest financial mistake of my life. It has built up a monopoly which affects every interest in the country." - Salmon P. Chase

"The death of Lincoln was a disaster for Christendom. There was no man in the United States great enough to wear his boots. I fear that foriegn bankers with their craftiness and theirtorturous tricks will entirely corrupt the exuberant riches of America, and use it systematically to corrupt modern civilization. They will not hesitate to plunge the whole of Christendom into wars and chaos in order that the Earth should become their inheritance."
- Otto Von Bismarck

"Abraham Lincoln, the martyred emancipator of the slaves, was assassinated through the machinations of a group representative of the international bankers, who feared the United States President's national credit ambitions. There was only one group in the world at that time that had any reason to desire the death of Lincoln. They were the men opposed to his national currency program, and who fought him throughout the whole Civil War on his policy of greenback currency. They were the men interested in the establishment of the Gold Standard money system and the right of the bankers to manage the credit and currency of every nation in the world. With Lincoln out of the way they were able to proceed with that plan, and did proceed with it in the United States. Within eight years of Lincoln's assassination, silver was de-monetized and the Gold Standard money system set up in the United States. "
- Report in Vancouver Sun quoting Secret Service document

I went to America in the winter of 1872-73 to secure, if I could, the passing of a bill de-monetizing silver. It was in the interest of those I represented, the governors of the Bank of England - to have it done. By 1873, gold coins were the only form of coin money." - Samuel Seyd

"The disaster of the Dark Ages was caused by decreasing money and falling prices... Without money, civilization could not have had a beginning and with a diminishing supply, it must languish, and unless relieved, finally perish. At the Christian era, the metallic money of the Roman Empire amounted to one billion, eight hundred million dollars. By the end of the fifteenth century, it had shrunk to less than two hundred million dollars... History records no more disastrous transition as that from the Roman Empire to the Dark Ages..." - United States Silver Commission

"Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce... And when you realize that the entire system is very easily controlled, one way or another, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate." - James Garfield, a few weeks before his assassination.

"On September 1st, 1894, we will not renew our loans under any consideration. On September 1st, we will demand our money. We will forclose and become mortgagees in possession. We can take two-thirds of the farms west of the Mississippi, and thousands of them east of the Mississippi as well, at our own price... the farmers will become tenants, as in England." - Memo calling for bankers to create a depression three years in the future.

"We will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: you will not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." - William Jennings Brian (Senator from Nebraska), 1896, in widely hailed "Crown of Thorns, Cross of Gold" speech against Gold Standard

"Those not favorable to the Money Trust could be squeezed out of business and the people frightened into demanding changes in the banking and currency laws which the Money Trust would frame." - Rep. Charles Lindbergh (R-MN) on Crash of 1907

"Competition is sin." - John D. Rockefeller

"I was as secretive, indeed I was as furtive as any consiprator. Discovery, we knew, simply must not happen, or else all our time and effort would have been wasted. If it were to be exposed that our particular group had got together and written a banking bill, that bill would have no chance whatever of passage by Congress." - Craig Vanderlift, President of National City Bank of New York & Representative for the Rockefellers, on the secret Jekyll Island bank conference

"The Aldrich Plan is the Wall Street Plan. It means another panic, if necessary, to intimidate the people. Aldrich, paid by the government to represent the people, proposes a plan for the trusts instead." - Rep. Charles A. Lindbergh (R-MN)

"The Aldrich Plan was condemned in the platform... when Woodrow Wilson was nominated... The men who ruled the Democratic Party promised the people that if they were returned to power, there would be no central bank established while they held the reins of government. Thirteen months later, that promise was broken, and the Wilson administration, under the tutelage of those sinister Wall Street figures who stood behind Colonel House, established here in our own free country the worm-eaten monarchical institution of the 'king's bank' to control us from the top downward, and to shackle us from the cradle to the grave." - Rep. Louis McFadden, (D-PA)

"Brushing aside the external differences affecting the 'shells', we find the 'kernels' of the two systems very closely resembling and relating to one another." - Paul Warburg, explaining to bank interests how the Aldrich Plan and the Glass-Owen Bill (establishing the Federal Reserve)were virtually identical

"Although the Aldrich Federal Reserve Plan was defeated when it bore the name Aldrich, neverless its essential points were all contained in the plan that was finally adopted." - Frank Vanderlip

"The... bill grants just what Wall Street and the big banks have for twenty-five years have been striving for: private instead of public control of currency. It [the Glass-Owen Bill] does thisas completely as the Aldrich Bill. Both measures rob the Government and the people of all effective control over the public's money, and vest in the banks exclusively the dangerous power to make money among the people scarce or plenty." - Alfred Crozier, Ohio attorney

NOTE TO READER: Glass-Owen Bill was snuck through the Senate during the holiday recess

"This Act establishes the most gigantic trust on earth. When the President signs this bill, the invisible government by the Monetary Power will be legalized. The people may not know it immediately, but the day of reckoning is only a few years removed... The worst legislative crimeof the century is perpetrated by this banking bill." - Rep. Charles A. Lindbergh (R-MN)

"To cause high prices, all the Federal Reserve Board will do will be to lower the rediscount rate... producing an expansion of credit and a rising stock market; then when... business men are adjusted to these conditions, it can check... prosperity in mid-career by arbitrarily raising the rate of interest. It can cause the pendulum of a rising and falling market to swing gently backand forth by slight changes in the discount rate, or cause violent fluctuations by a greater rate variation, and in either case possess inside information as to financial conditions and advance knowledge of the coming change, either up or down. This is the strangest, most dangerous advantage ever placed in the hands of a special privelege class by any Government that ever existed. The system is private, conducted for the sole purpose of obtaining the greatest possible profits from the use of other people's money. They know in advance when to create panics to their advantage. They also know when to stop panic. Inflation or deflation work equally well for them when they control finance..." - Rep. Charles A. Lindbergh (R-MN)

"[the Federal Reserve brought about] a super-state controlled by international bankers and international industrialists acting together to enslave the world for their own pleasure." - Rep. Louis McFadden (D-PA), Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee (1920-1931)

"In the United States today, we have in effect two Governments... We have the duly constituted Government... Then we have an independent, uncontrolled and uncoordinated government in the Federal Reserve System, operating the money powers which are reserved to Congress by the Constitution." - Rep. Wright Patman (D-TX)

"If our nation can issue a dollar bond, it can issue a dollar bill. The element that makes the bond good, makes the bill good, also. The difference between a bond and a bill is the bond lets money brokers collect twice the amount of the bond, plus 20%, where as currency pays nobody but those who contribute directly in some useful way. It is absurd to say that our country can issue $30 million inbonds and not $30 million in currency. Both are promises to pay, but one promise fattens the usurers and the other helps the people." - Thomas Edison

"We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled governments in the civilized world - no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government by... the vote of themajority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it." - Woodrow Wilson

"If one understands that socialism is not a share-the-wealth program, but is in reality a method to consolidate and control the wealth, then the seeming paradox of super-rich men promoting socialism becomes no paradox at all. Instead, it becomes logical, even the perfect tool of power-seeking megalomaniacs. Communism, or more accurately, socialism, is not a movement of the downtrodden masses,but of the economic elite." - Gary Allen, author

"Power from any source creates an appetite for additional power... it was almost inevitable that the super-rich would one day aspire to control not only their own wealth, but the wealth of the whole world. To achieve this, they were perfectly willing to feed the ambitions of the power-hungry political conspirators who were committed to the overthrow of all existing governments and the establishments of a central world-wide dictatorship." - W. Cleon Skousen in "The Naked Capitalist", 1970

"The State does not function as desired. The car does not obey. A man is at the wheel and seems to lead it, but the car does not drive in the desired direction. It moves as another force wishes." - Vladimir Lenin on the financial control of the Soviet Union

"The course of Russian history has, indeed, been greatly affected by the operations of international bankers... the Soviet Government has been given United States Treasury funds by the Federal Reserve Board... acting through the Chase Bank. England has drawn money from us and has re-lent it at high rates of interest to the Soviet Government... The Dnieperstory Dam was built with funds unlawfully taken from the United States Treasury by the corrupt and dishonest Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Banks." - Rep. Louis McFadden (D-PA), Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee (1920-1931)

"These international bankers and Rockefeller Standard Oil interests control the majority of newspapers and the columns of these papers to club into submission or drive out of public office officials who refuse to do the bidding of the powerful corrupt cliques which compose the invisible government." - Theodore Roosevelt

"The warning of Theodore Roosevelt has much timeliness today, for the real menace of our republic is this invisible government which like an octopus sprawls its slimy length over city, state and nation... It seizes in its long and powerful tentacles our executive officers, our legislative bodies, our schools, our courts, our newspapers, and every agency created for the public protection... To depart from mere generalizations, let me say that at the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller-Standard Oil interest and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as the international bankers. The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes. They practically control both parties, write political platforms, make catspaws of political leaders, use the leading men of private organizations, and resort to every device to place in high office only such candidates as will be amenable to the dictates of corrupt big business... These international bankers control the majority of newspapers and magazines in this country." - John Hylan, Mayor of New York, New York Times March 26, 1922

"It [the Market Crash of 1929] was not accidental. It was a contrived occurence... The international bankers sought to bring about a condition of despair here so they might emerge as rulers of us all." - Rep. Louis McFadden (D-PA), Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee (1920-1931)

"I think it can hardly be disputed that the statesmen and financiers of Europe are ready to take almost any means to reaquire rapidly the gold stock which Europe lost to America as a result of World War I." - Rep. Louis McFadden (D-PA), Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee (1920-1931)

"Actually, it was the calculated 'shearing' of the public by the world Money-Powers triggered by the planned sudden shortage of call money in the New York Money Market." - Curtis Dall, son-in-law of FDR, on why Black Tuesday occurred and started the Great Depression

"The Federal Reserve definitely caused the Great Depression by contracting the amount of currency in circulation by one-third from 1929 to 1933." - Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize winning economist

"After WWI, Germany fell into the hands of the German international bankers. Those bankers bought herand now they own her, lock, stock and barrel. They have purchased her industries, they have mortgages on her soil, they control her production, they control all her public utilities. The international German bankers have subsidized the present Government of Germany and they have also supplied every dollar of the money Adolph Hitler has used in his lavish campaign to build up a threat to the government of Bruening. When Bruening fails to obey the orders of the German International Bankers, Hitler is brought forth to scare the Germans into submission... Through the Federal Reserve Board... over $30 billions of American money... has been pumped into Germany... You have all heard of the spending that has taken place in Germany... modernistic dwellings, her gymnasiums, her swimming pools, her fine public highways, her perfect factories. All this was done on our money. All this was given to Germany through the Federal Reserve Board. The Federal Reserve Board has pumped so many billions of dollars into Germany that they dare not name the total." - Rep. Louis McFadden (D-PA), Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee (1920-1931)

"Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men... The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization." - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, March 4, 1933

"Allegations of missing gold from our Fort Knox are being widely discussed in European fiancial circles.But what is puzzling is that the Administration is not hastening to demonstrate conclusively that there is no cause for concern over our gold treasure - if indeed it is in a position to do so." - Edith Roosevelt

"The powers of world capitalism had [a] far-reaching [plan], nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of this system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank sought to dominate its government by the ability to control treasury loans, to manipulate foriegn exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians with subsequent economic rewards in the business world." - Carroll Quigley, Professor, Georgetown University

"The Third World War is already started. It is a silent war. Not, for that reason, any less sinister. The war is tearing down Brazil, Latin America, and practically all the Third World. Instead of soldiers dying, there are children. It is a war over the Third World debt, one which has as its main weapon, interest, a weapon more deadly than the atom bomb, more shattering than a laser beam." - anonymous "prominant Brazilian politician"

"The stock of money, prices, and output was decidedly more unstable after the establishment of the Reserve System than before. The most dramatic period of instability in output was, of course, the period between the two wars, which includes the severe [monetary] contractions of 1920-1921, 1929-1933 and 1937-38. No other 20-year period in American history contains as many as three such severe contractions. This evidence persuades me that at least a third of the price rise during and just after World War I is attributable to the establishment of the Federal Reserve System... and that the severity of each of the major contractions --1920-21, 1929-33, and 1937-38 -- is directly attributable to the acts of commission and omission by the Reserve authorities... Any system which gives so much power and so much discretion to a few men, [so] that mistakes - excusable or not - can have such far reaching effects, is a bad system. It is a bad system to believers in freedom just because it gives a few men such power without any effective check by the body politic -- this is the key political argument against an independent central bank... to paraphrase Clemenceau, money is much too serious a matter to be left to the central bankers." - Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize winning economist

"I know of no severe depression, in any country or any time, that was not accompanied by a sharp decline in the stock of money, and equally of no sharp decline in the stock of money that was not accompanied by a severe depression." - Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize winning economist

"Banking is concieved in inequity and born in sin. Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money and control credit, and with the flick of a pen they will create enough money to buy it back again. Take this great power away from the bankers and all great fortunes like mine will disappear, as they ought to disappear, for this would be a better and happier world to live in. But if you want to continue the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create money and to control credit." - Sir Josiah Stamp, Director of the Bank of England in the 1920s

"We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the world will accept the New World Order." - David Rockefeller, Chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank

"One the one side there is a party which holds the power because it holds the wealth; which has in its grasp all labor and all trade; which manipulates for its own benefit and its own purposes all the sources of supply,and which is powerfully represented in the councils of State itself. On the other side is the needy and powerless multitude, sore and suffering. Rapacious usury, which, although more than once condemned by the Church, is nevertheless under a different form but with the same guilt, still practiced by avaricious and grasping men... so that a small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the masses of the poor a yoke little better than slavery itself." - Pope Leo XIII, 1898

"In our days not alone is wealth accumulated, but immense power and despotic economic domination is concentrated in the hands of a few... This power becomes particularly irresistible when exercised by those who, because they hold and control money, are able also to govern credit and determine its allotment, for this reason supplying, so to speak, the life-blood to the entire economic body, and grasping, as it were, in their hands the very soul of the economy so that no one dare breathe against their will." - Pope Pius XI

"For what will it profit men that a more prudent distribution and use of riches make it possible for them to gain even the whole world, if thereby they suffer the loss of their own souls? What will it profit to teach them sound principles of economics, if they permit themselves to be swept away by selfishness, by unbridled and sordid greed, that 'hearing the Commandments of the Lord, they do all things contrary.'" - Pope Pius XI

Recommendations for the Government

Pay off the National Debt with debt-free US Notes.
Abolish Fractional Reserve Banking. As the debt is paid off, the reserve requirements of all banks and financial institutions would be raised proportionally at the same time...
Repeal the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, and the National Banking Act of 1864.
Withdraw the US from the IMF, the BIS, and the World Bank.

Recommendations for Families (to avert bad times in a depression)

Get out of debt (even if it means lowering your standard of living). In a depression, you stand to lose everything that is financed.
Get liquid. Convert assets to liquid currency and pay off major debts like mortgages.
Worst case scenario: get silver dollars (pre 1965; those are 90% silver, afterwards not). It's been said in a severe depression, a single silver dollar may be able to buy your family groceries for a week. Consider diversification in foriegn currency - a Swiss or Austrian bank account.
Beware solutions to a depression calling for a return to a gold standard: the IMF controls most of the goldsupply in the world, and would then set prices. Also beware a regional or world currency (EUROS!) - this is the international bankers' Trojan Horse.

http://www.themoneymasters.com

Scriptwriters: Bill Still and Patrick S. J. Carmack,1994 Still Productions

Narrated by Rick James (BEE-ATCH!)

2005-08-09T08:25:00.000-04:00

KILL ALL HUMANS!

Why Are We Such Jerks to Each Other?

Happy Nagasaki Day! Today we celebrate the official beginning of the Cold War with the commemoration of the (merciful) incineration of several thousand Japanese, and of course the UN-merciful, slow, painful cancer deaths of thousands more who escaped the immediate effects of Fat Man, the world's first plutonium gun-type nuke. In the paper this morning, I read all about Mara Salvatrucha's wave of stabbings in Montgomery County, that Zarqawi's network in Iraq has mastered the art of posting video of roadside bombings on the internet minutes after they happen, and that's just TODAY. What the fuck is wrong with everyone?

Stabbing someone in public for the right to stand on a street corner in Montgomery County, intimidating people is AT LEAST as stupid as suicide bombing someone... for the right to stand on a street corner in Iraq, intimidating people. In one case, they lock you up and throw away the key, in the other case, you're dead, so you can't stand on your street corner afterwards ANYWAY. If this was about competition for people or resources, it'd be done purely by ideology and advertisement. I mean, hey, here in America, we have organized gangs of people with whole shitloads of money at stake in selling various drugs, and there's some vicious competition out there. But you don't see Seagram's dealers pulling drive-by shootings at Bacardi's offices, and no one expects the Corona folks to strap a fanatical chihuahua with a plastique sweater and send him to take out the Anheiser Bush Clydesdales.

Howard Bloom would say it's about status, it's about lashing back at those who threaten your position, it's about trying to take down the top dog. Howard Bloom is the author of the Lucifer Principle, and his site's got this neat animation called "Why do the Iraqis Hate Us?" It makes some sense, but it's pretty twisted when you get down to it.

Both of these phenomena mentioned above, the gang stabbings and the suicide bombings, are part of a chicken-hawk mentality whereby a group of organized thugs get little people around them that feel like nothing and nobody to feel like a somebody because they're part of this big bad gang. Often it's done by getting them to do something that will get them into a lot of shit if it's revealed: stabbings and shootings are common gang-initiation rites. It's kind of like what they tell officers leading infantry in wartime: your job is to get the guys on the line to shoot, and keep shooting. They say that after the first shot, it gets easier and easier, until it's automatic, and the people you're shooting at aren't people anymore, just targets.

The gangs, Al Qaeda, the Army... all are VERY similar organizations, in that they induct kids that don't know what they're getting into, they don't let you out when you realize what's going on, and they put you in harm's way for a supposed greater good that you don't ever get to really experience. I mean, the suicide bombers are sold on houris in paradise; the MS-13ers are seduced by the illusion of gang glory and protection for themselves and their families (who are usually the victims in the neighborhood drive-bys and stray bullets); the Army sells on patriotism (which doesn't carry the same meaning since a certain administration arrived). The tangible benefits are few: Army gives you a bonus to sign up and sends a big check to your folks when you die; the MS-13ers get whatever they can scrape out of drug sales and maybe prostitution (and not every gang-banger is a dealer or a pimp); Al Qaeda sends the families of its "martyrs" checks to support them afterwards. But what do you, as an individual, get for volunteering yourself for extinction?

Not a damn thing. Hopefully, when you're sitting in a crater in Iraq or an alley in Montgomery, your guts spilling out from the roadside bomb or knife attack or gunshot wound, you've been brainwashed enough to get a fuzzy feeling that you died for something greater than yourself. But that's about it. Did you have a hand in making that greater thing that you served? Probably not. Did you sacrifice yourself on the altar of someone else's organization, removing yourself from all the good things you could have done for your family, for your friends, for the people that actually love you? Most probably. And WHY don't the Seagram's and Bacardi folks, or the Corona and Budweiser brewers do this sort of shit?

Because being an alcoholic doesn't carry with it an ideology. Bloom said it best: IDEOLOGY IS THEFT. And Righteous Indignation is nothing more than hunger for real estate. There are legitimate reasons for violence: I stridently affirm the right of everyone to defend themselves from uninvited aggression. For instance:

"We will go to America with the gun," vows Sultan Atiqur Rehman Allehadi, who quit the Pakistani air force and now guides younger men in the Army of the Pure. "First we will ask them [Americans] to take up Islam. If they don't, then we will use the gun."

Come get some, Mr. Sultan. I may not be a fanatic, I may not be a gang banger. I don't even agree with the concept of taking over your shithole of a sand-trap country for the dubious pleasure of sucking nasty black stuff out of the ground. But this is MY HOME, and I've got my own religion, so I don't need yours. Come here and try to convert me to Islam with your AK-47, and I'll convert you to fertilizer with my Kel-Tec.

Not that I have anything particular against Muslims. I just don't like to be forced into something without a say in the matter. And as I have a non-dualistic, demiurgic perspective of what "God" is, I don't need to replace it with some bastardized over-grown pagan Moon God who's religion got a face lift and scimitar-point marketing campaign fourteen hundred years ago. Not that the Catholic Church didn't do similar conversions in South America and Mexico in the 1500s... but they gave those tactics up hundreds of years ago. Were Islam to crystalize entirely into the militant evangelism that some of its fringes have displayed recently (or were the Fundamentalist Christians to do the same conversion at gun-point in our country), well, as Bugs Bunny was fond of saying, "Of course you realize, this means War."

So, what's it gonna be, folks? Wabbit season or Duck season? Maybe we should turn this around, and make it ELMER SEASON. Time to hunt the hunters, boys and girls. In three years, there probably won't be a neutral country for the reasonable people to go to. Hopefully, Mr. Bloom will have some insight in his forthcoming book, Reinventing Capitalism: Putting Soul Back in the Machine.

I hope we can keep from nuking each other until it gets published.

2005-07-31T11:25:00.000-04:00

Men In Funny Hats

Why Doesn't Great Britan's Police Force Make the Chicks Wear Stupid Helmets Too?

Now, those of you who know me in the flesh know that I'm not a fashion critic. I'm often caught out in public with second-day stubble, BDU pants, and a T-Shirt that says "I Am What I Eat - Fast, Cheap & Easy!". I shop at places like Wal-Mart, Target, and surplus stores, I prefer functionality over style... at least usually, anyway. I often comment that the only problem I'd have with a nudist lifestyle is my skinny ass being cold and a tragic lack of "nasty little pocketses, my love."

But RIDDLE ME THIS: what the fuck is up with the Bobby Headgear?

Ever since 9/11, we've had a fashion-show of security personnel from around the world on our front pages: US soldiers and police in tactical black and sunglasses, carrying nasty-looking M-4 carbine variants with all the out-jutting grenade launchers and sights and bipods... Her Majesty's Royal Marines with their neat bullpup-style weapons that make them feel cooler than the Americans... but use the same magazines... Not to mention the Popetastic Swiss Guard in the ugliest outfits supposedly designed by a famous artist with a grudge, toting the ubiquitous Heckler and Koch (said Heck-ler and "COKE", not "COCK", for you non-Germanics out there) MP-5 submachine guns. If I didn't know that there was a war on terrorism going on, I'd think that it was a fantastic back-door advertising campaign for the gun and security lobby. I mean, how better (or cheaper) to get your product recognized by everybody who can read than by splashing photos of 'em on the front pages usually reserved for the likes of G. Dubya Shrub, famously of the "nuc-u-lar" pronunciation?

Seriously, though: those Bobby (British cops are called "Bobbies" after the founder of their police force, Robert Peel) Helmets stand high enough off the top of their skulls that you could hide a cluster-fuck of flash-bangs in there without discomfort at tea time. Drill a couple of air holes in it, and my hamster could use it as a mobile home. Do they have air-conditioning inside of them for when their cop-brains think too hard? Maybe a doughnut holder for more efficiency, less stops at Dunkin Donuts? Or are the male Bobbies a secret invading army of Coneheads?

For their part, the FEMALE Bobbie's bowler-style hats look something like Slappy the Squirrel from Animaniacs, minus the flower hanging out. I expect them to reach in their purses and whip out a blackjack to clobber the crap out of people oh-so politely when they say something stupid. However much their headgear suggests Squirrelly Wrath, I cannot think of a nice reason why the Brits would differentiate the uniforms based on sex alone (discounting functional differences in uniform tailoring to account for "Bobby boobies" and other secondary sex characteristics), as the photo above suggests. There IS a particular NOT SO NICE REASON that mischievously springs to mind, despite all the pretty British television and movie stars I've seen:

Maybe that's the only way that the Brits can tell their male and female cops apart?

2005-07-15T13:32:00.000-04:00

A Reforging of the Pentagon

Okay, people. I've gone a little into the whole Apple/Pentagon division in the first post I threw onto this sucker. Now I'm going to recommend a few things for our society's Pentagon, yes, that huge monstrous building that some assholes flew a passenger jet into on 9/11. Like I said earlier today, we need a military and political strategy based on the Big R, Respect. Anything else will be undermined and destroyed by its very nature. But a consideration on the Erisian and Anerisian strains in society.

Ken Wilber eloquently puts it in his book No Boundary: That it's fine to make distinctions between supposed opposites. But to think that they're separable or able to be had one without the other is bullshit. Draw a line representing a "convex", and you also simultaneously draw a line for "concave".

Convex ( Concave

Having "above" necessitates having "below", and so on. So you can't be light-hearted and free without taking on some responsibility. So a well-balanced Discordian should be both half-serious, half-joking... and able to recognize where each is necessary. I'll joke at the Apocalypse if it comes in my lifetime, but you'll be damn sure that I'll step up for my enclave. Part of learning to recognize the Apple or the Pentagon involves watching the experts of both, and learning from them. In this regard, our military is one of the finest institutions of pentagon mind, regardless of the shape of a certain building in Virginia. I've had a good look at its structure through normal civilian channels, personal contact with military family and friends, and a bit of historical researching. And I've always been fascinated with the dance of geopolitics, ever since I was a small boy raised knowing that the Dirty Commies were out to get me.

They say that fighting a battle is like two men in a dark room having a fist fight. You have a fixing hand and a smashing hand: one hand feels around in the dark for the opponent, while the other is wound up for a punch. When the probing touches him, it grabs him, and the other fist slams forward into the held enemy.

Our military is an instrument designed to utterly crush opposing armies. This presupposes having an enemy army conveniently gathered for destruction. The Russians were very ready to provide us a "target rich environment" if it came to WWIII back in the days of the USSR. Nowadays, they couldn't coordinate such an invasion without a dramatic reorganization of their state and military structures. But now, our enemies hit and fade, they assassinate those who help us. This is a guerilla war that we're fighting, and a military structured like ours can't cope. Here's how we make sure we're secure, and at the same time, are able to successfully conduct the sort of NATO/UN peacekeeping missions and nation-building we seem to favor due to our economic stance, which will change when hell freezes over or we get Universal HealthcareTM.

One of the main complaints most people have about the National Guard and Reserves is that they're being abused, a "back-alley draft". The National Guard is supposed to be a distributed militia-like organization, ready to be called up by a State Governor in an emergency, like in Florida's hurricanes. The National Guard is also supposed to be the last line of defense should there be some kind of invasion or attack by a foriegn power onto US soil. The most important thing about the National Guard is that they are a regional force. They live where they would hypothetically fight. They already know some if not most of the terrain better than any invader could, because they know it in person, instead of from maps. Better yet, gradually combine the overall Guard structure with the Postal service. We all know where we get "going postal" from anyway; if we incorporated them in a limited fashion, they'd be a constant witness to local events, able to pick up on trends, and they'd know where everything was from delivering mail.

In the event of an invasion on US soil, the Guard would cut off or encode the GPS system so that outsiders navigation using our sats is impossible, and remove all the road signs. Teach them defensive guerilla tactics, urban and rural warfare, and give them appropriate weapons. The career military, being experts on the destruction of masses of units, would set up fire-bases near the front where any battle would be well within the range of their artillery. Make a new standard for an anti-artillery weapon based on the Aegis anti-missile Naval system, so the firebases couldn't be casually bombed by stray mortar teams.

The same kind of support would be integral to nation-building and stomping out bandits an terrorists. We need a flexible force, however, to ensure that these roving bands get hit, while maintaining contact with the local populace. This standing around on a corner waiting to get shot and riding around in poorly armored vehicles in mine infested streets is a bunch of crap. We need an indirect force; a force that operates like the guerillas, that moves from town to town, helping people out in an orchestrated campaign to build trust and stability. This necessitates either a shift in language training and specific units deployed to specific language areas... or a device that can universally translate speech and synthesize speech in other languages. If we are to move into the Iraqs and Afghanistans of the world, we need to have a force that can win these people's trust and respect.

This would require many small units of light infantry, well equipped for light to medium resistance, and able to call in back up for heavier jobs. They should have at least one sniper per unit, and a trained spotter with a laser designator and a radio. They should make the most of the terrain for camouflage, and show up unexpectedly, gaining the element of surprise. They should be trained to collect intelligence and "win hearts and minds" when they enter civilian areas. And they should linger hidden nearby if the people express fear, and watch for returning militants bent on reprisal. With fire bases of regular Army in support and the ability to air-lift in many reinforcements, having such a distributed force would be valuable indeed.

In other words, we've got to be better guerillas than the guerillas. And like I said, we practically invented that shit here in the USA during the Revolution in 1776. We have the finest memetic science in the world here. We can teach our soldiers how to interact with all levels of the Spiral, teach them NLP for better communications. If our foriegn policy can be a light to all other nations in the world, they will be persuasive and heroic. Above all, they'll know why they're doing what they're doing, and they'll likely be proud of it. Such forces would be able to recruit irregular troops from the local populace if persuasive enough. These recruited forces would make the initial backbone of a national army after the establishment of a new government.

Hey, maybe nation building isn't smart; it's a waste of resources. But if we're going to do it, we'd better do it right, because if not, a lot of our boys and girls are going to come home missing things... or in a box.

2005-07-15T09:55:00.000-04:00

"Mine mind has meditated on the spinning of the Chao
It is hov'ring o'er the table where the Chiefs of Staff are now,
Gathered in discussion of the dropping of The Bomb;
Her Apple Corps is strong!

Grand (and gory) O Discord-ja!
Grand (and gory) O Discord-ja!
Grand (and gory) O Discord-ja!
Her Apple Corps is strong!

She was not invited to the Party they held on Limbo Peak
So she threw a Golden Apple 'stead of turned the other cheek
It cracked the Holy Punchbowl and the nectar it did leak;
Her Apple Corps is strong!"

- Battle Hymn of the Eristocracy

Remember kids, every Apple Corps is the beloved home of a Golden Worm. Just don't accept one from Michael Jackson.

So yesterday we got to shout "Hey hey - ho ho - Karl Rove has got to go!" at the White House. The signs were provided, a few hundred people showed up, and we all marched in this circle which had the curious problem of slowing down and speeding back up again like a confused Grandmother on the Beltway. There were some interesting people there: one guy brought his own sign ("Impeach Bush"). I think this is a terrible idea: like setting off the finale fireworks before the main show.

Really now, anyone who knows how puppet theatre works knows that the best way to disrupt the show is to disrupt the puppeteer. And I'd love to watch Georgie squirm on TV without Karl's arm up his ass.

Let's face it, America: as Douglas Adams so presciently wrote in the Hitchhiker's Guide, the function of the President isn't so much to wield power as to draw attention away from those who really do. However, I'm a firm believer that the President should be entertaining: if not a witty charmer like Slick Willy, then at least let him fall on his face and be a laughingstock so we can get a few laughs.

Honestly, I believe that the GOP would have done much better had they let Georgie be a natural jackass and quietly gone about their business. It would have been the perfect distraction: nobody in the world would take him seriously, they'd let down their guard. And that's precisely the advantage Uncle Sam would need to quietly get the Big Sticks into position.

Really now. I think we need a changing of the guard; the old assholes aren't getting the job done, or they're doing the wrong jobs. This is a different America, a different world. These schmucks got their training facing off against the Soviet Monolith in a two-superpower system. Now we've got one confused Hyperpower, some rivals, both old allies and adversaries, and a bunch of rats sneaking around the outskirts of our influence. These rats will try to trip us up to make themselves feel better about being lowly rats. We need a better mousetrap for these vermin... and we can't be picking which vermin to exterminate and which ones to hold court with.

We need a better standard, boys and girls. We need to hold our elected officials accountable, as well as our corporate leaders. We need WYSIWYG government, and transparency in the right places. We need to keep our word. We need to be such a solid voice and force of Honor in the international community that no power could question our right. Under such an ethic, the world would unite; our moral superiority would shame those of questionable ethics and bond us to the morally upright. We need to put our money where our mouth is. We need to call a spade a spade. We cannot shrink from the truth into our comfortable fictions. Americans need to get real; more real than any other nation. No more soft hypocracy or "do as I say, not as I do" politics. A real vision for real people; a vision of RESPECT. A government that respects itself, respects its people, and respects the other nations of the world. This doesn't mean that we won't have to kick the shit out of people or nations every now and then: it just means that we'll kick the shit out of them for the right reasons. We're going to find Osama, mark my words, and we're going to hang that son-of-a-bitch. But we'd damn sure better be Irish Spring fresh when we haul his ass in front of the cameras.

To do otherwise is to court the same infectuous derangement.

2005-07-12T09:54:00.000-04:00

Show Me the Terrorists

"The bill proposed by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) largely gives the Justice Department what it has requested in the review of the Patriot Act antiterrorism law, which was enacted weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The proposal includes 16 provisions set to expire at the end of this year unless they are renewed or made permanent by Congress.But the proposed legislation does not go as far as legislation approved in June by the Senate intelligence committee, which voted to make it easier for the FBI to open mail and issue subpoenas without a judge's approval in terrorism probes. Sensenbrenner's bill also calls for stronger oversight of some of the government's powers."

Permanent Patriot Act Proposed - Sensenbrenner Would Extend Powers but Grant No New Ones

OK, so let me get this straight:

FIRST, our Congress ram-rodded through a piece of legislation (hacked together from an FBI "Christmas wishlist" of long-coveted domestic spying powers) in the chaos and fear inspired by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers... without reading it. It was then euphemistically named "The USA PATRIOT Act", on the assumption that the terrified dumbasses who didn't read the legislation would vote for it, on the assumption that it was a good thing because it had the right label on it.

THEN, four years after the acts have produced numerous abuses and far less convictions than mistaken arrests, our country is being questioned about its detention policies in military bases around the world, and we're outsourcing our torture to places like Egypt and Pakistan, where legal protections don't apply... and we're even using our clandestine agents to kidnap people from allied NATO countries for such extra-judicial extraditions.

And NOW, we're being sold the line that we need to make these new law enforcement activities a permanent aspect of our security apparatus. After they shut down an oversight committee hearing because the testimony went in a direction that made the Republicans uncomfortable.

Something tells me these people need a cranial enema... or an oral one.

Tell you what, Mr. Sessenbrenner: give me a nice, narrow definition of what terrorism is, one that precludes you from eventually using the national security apparatus to harrass your non-violent political opponents. Give me a definition that shows a clear line between what's acceptable political activity, in keeping with generations of tolerance and dissent, and what's straight out bloody-handed terrorism. You'd think it'd be easy: if you make placards and banners for protests and send out emails, you should be left alone. If you sell babies to slavers and send the money to Bin Laden's favorite charity, well, maybe you need to get your ass stuffed in a hole somewhere. Funny thing is, that our reactionary defense spending indirectly benefits Bin Laden's family through the Carlyle Group, which they invest heavily in, along with the Bushes. Where's the asset freeze there? We're cutting off funds to various Middle Eastern charities, stating their support for terrorism, yet we're letting the Chechnyan rebels set up shop in DC and giving them audiences with high officials, merely because they've put the Russians on their fuzzy ursine haunches in the Caspian region, ensuring allied control of the oil reserves there: talk about a double standard!

The problem isn't that we're in danger of being overwhelmed by some domestically infiltrated army of terrorists: if it were an invasion, there wouldn't be a problem. HELLO, America, we INVENTED guerilla warfare as we know it in 1776 when we pitted stealthy hunters in brown clothing against lined up meatshields in red. If we were invaded, the 50% of the American population that's packing heat would arm the 50% that doesn't, and whoever was invading would find themselves facing off against everyone... literally everyone, from the punk kid with the black clothes and headphones to the granny next door. If they were smart, they'd get out faster than they got in. Invaders in the US would be eaten alive.

The real problem is that we're losing sight of the actual terrorists: one wonders if they were ever the target at all. I suspect that the main people that the Bushies are after are you and me: the minds of the American free-thinker, who ask the hard questions and want to be treated like adults. I think that they're trying to scare, bore, and otherwise cajole us into going along with whatever they want, like a husband who ducks responsibility for his kids, because he doesn't want to fight over his kid's latest escapade with his hysterically over-protective and enabling wife. Most of us are tired of the way that the Bushies have talked down one scandal after another, twisting the press and playing the 9/11 card again and again... while it's pretty obvious that he made the FBI lay off Bin Laden and the Saudis in 2001. It's time we started demanding some answers from Captain Contradiction.

I love our troops. I love them so much that it hurts to watch them sacrificed for a hidden agenda. It hurts to watch the benefits for the soldiers wounded in this war callously and hypocritically undercut by the same politicans who praise them publicly. It hurts to watch the spirit of their patriotism tarnished by those all too willing to abuse their trust.

It's not un-American to ask questions when they need to be asked. But it is un-American to question someone's patriotism or accuse them of wishing our troops dead because they question the legitimacy of our foriegn policy. Our officials shut down the meetings when they don't want to hear what comes out of them. The people who are supposed to be protecting us are sticking their heads in the sand like ostriches. Our government is no longer about law, but about which side can shout loudest and longest. It seems that any kind of bullshit can make its way through Washington today without anyone batting an eye.

With this in mind, I propose we run Tian-Tian the Panda for the US Supreme Court. I doubt that he would offer any judicial opinions that would offend either Party (except for perhaps moving that bamboo be served during court sessions), and he'd satisfy both parties need for racial integration, as he's not only Black AND White, but also a Chinese national... and now a family man!

Obviously, nothing's too absurd for Washington these days. Tian Tian for President!

Or Jenna and Barbara for USMC.

2005-07-11T13:12:00.000-04:00

"Onward Christian Soldiers,
Onward Buddhist Priests,
Onward Fruits of Islam,
Fight 'til you're deceased!

Fight your little battles,
Join in thickest fray
For the Greater Glory,
Of Dis-Cord-I-A!"

- Principia Discordia, "An Erisian Hymn"

Hi there all! My name's Tar, you may have seen me recently crawling around the Dickian Gnosti-blogosphere, and other places you'd probably rather not admit to being. *grinz* Well, since I've been taking an active interest in this blog phenomenon, I figured I'd provide my own node with a not-too-serious/all-too-serious look on things. While I hope what I add can be of some value, I also tend to rant a bit and typing seems to be one of the filters where I can hammer out coherent thought... the blogosphere adding the benefit of random people willing to poke holes in one's argument and to add interesting bits. It seems that we write within a sort of campus, where all is open and free to discussion and criticism. The power of the Blogosphere is inherent in the two-way COMMUNICATION, as opposed to one-way INFORMATION. Here in the Sphere, you can check it out for yourself, with links to information others have posted. We are in the process of forming a net of knowledge, a sphere of understanding for those who will grasp it and make it theirs. The power inherent is huge.

"The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only true guardian of liberty." - James Madison

I'm a big fan of Ken Wilber's integral books and Howard Bloom's "Lucifer Principle" and "Global Brain". I'm also a big fan of Chrono Trigger and Conker Live and Reloaded, so don't take my interests TOO seriously! *grinz* Religiously, I am baptised Catholic, and I practice Discordian... though not religiously. Some say I'm a pneumatic; others just think I'm nuts. But I'm intuitive as hell, I love a big picture, and my intuition says this about "reality": it's all a joke... played on itself, and always on each of us. The key is to "get" the joke, to understand it and work with it, and to have patience and humor when you're it's butt. The key to existence is: every time life drops you on your butt, you learn from it, get up, dust yourself off, and keep walking the path. Master your existence or it will master you. Nobody rides for free, and nobody said it was easy; the world's a crazy place... and no wonder!

After all, we're all just "inmates in the asylum", since about 90% of the population is now diagnosably, (medicatably) insane... funny how that 1% of the population own more than the bottom 90% combined, and that the next 9% also own more than the bottom 90% combined...

Just a coincidence of statistics, right? The rich? They're not insane. They're eccentric.

The Gnostics like to talk about the Black Iron Prison and the Archons that run it. The Black Iron Prison is in the Minds of Men... in the gender-neutral sense, ladies. That means that the Keys are within you... and accessible if you're willing to open your mind. I've known plenty of closed ones in my time, including my own sometimes. You can lead a mind to knowledge, but you cannot make it think. But sometimes reality kicks your ass enough times that you're forced to learn lessons to survive. Knowledge of a future hurdle makes one get ready to jump.

Contrary to what Zombietologists like Tom Cruise and John Travolta will tell you, stress can be good for you. Frustrated stress, bottled stress, stress without recourse (ie, torture)... these are negative and self destructive. But stress itself is not bad. It is, on the contrary, necessary. A being under absolutely no stress would by definition fall apart into quivering goo. Bodybuilders have a saying: "no pain, no gain". We need adverstity to strengthen us for the hard times ahead. Bless your adversaries, ladies and gentlemen. They make us stronger, and we they.

Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best and it removes all that is base. - General George S. Patton

Actual warfare might not be advisable for the couch potato crowd... or anyone else, for that matter. But competition drives evolution. And evolution is progress. The Discordian take is here:

It is called the Sacred Chao. I appoint you Keepers of It. Therein you will find anything you like. Speak of Me as Discord, to show contrast to the pentagon. Tell constricted mankind that there are no rules, unless they choose to invent rules. Keep close the words of Syadasti: 'TIS AN ILL WIND THAT BLOWS NO MINDS. And remember that there is no tyranny in the State of Confusion. For further information, consult your pineal gland.

This is the core of the Sacred Chao (as in, "cow", not "chow"). Yin and Yang within a circle, with a pentagon and a golden apple, representing the Erisian and Anerisian poles of Not-Serious and Serious. Neither side is more or less destructive or creative than the other inherently; it's all in how it's used. But in the dynamic interplay of the Golden Apple and the Pentagon is much of society and psychological development. I believe that the single most useful asset in rebounding from the School of Hard Knocks is a good sense of humor. And part of a good sense of humor is knowing when to put the jokes aside and get real.

"I have come to tell you that you are free. Many ages ago, My consciousness left man, that he might develop himself. I return to find this development approaching completion, but hindered by fear and by misunderstanding.

You have built for yourselves psychic suits of armor, and clad in them, your vision is restricted, your movements are clumsy and painful, your skin is bruised, and your spirit is broiled in the sun.

I am chaos. I am the substance from which your artists and scientists build rhythms. I am the spirit with which your children and clowns laugh in happy anarchy. I am chaos. I am alive, and I tell you that you are free."

The Words of the Goddess to Malcalypse the Younger and Omar Ravenhurst

So, with this post, I hereby christen Eristocracy! What, did you think I was going to smash a bottle of champagne over my monitor? Well, that would be entertaining... for all of five seconds. I think we'll stick to the long-game for now.

More later when I get back to it... here's a really neat distraction til then!

http://www.dreamspell.net/LKS/eris-frame.html