Category Archives: Politics

Barak E. Neuman – Hope v. Hopeless

Based on the extensive use of the word ‘hope’ in the Obama campaign it appears that this is considered a good word. I have to disagree, looking where this word is most often used. Mr. Hubbard once framed the expression “Hope – the word of skid row” and skid row indeed appears to the area where hope is most rampant.

If we are able and willing to DO something we do not need hope – we have knowledge and confidence that we can manage. Once we have lost this confidence we are down to ‘hope’ – the area of skid row.

This also means that that we should lose that hope and become hope-less – again used in a not so common fashion. Usually hopeless is considered worse than having only hope, but considering we don’t need hope and can be hope-less if we have confidence in our ability to accomplish, hopeless is the state to be obtained.

So, therefore I present to you this polarity and let you decide what is the be better choice…

Fascinating to me is also to observe myself how I sometimes succumb to hope. For example during the last month of serious campaigning I subjected myself to the ‘hope’ that Ron Paul would make it – I still think that he is the only one on the scene that could have made a difference – and I was disappointed that he was killed off by the powers behind all this. I realize how powerless hope can make us.

So, let’s become hopeless and look at some facts that Charlie Reese, a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper, so eloquently assembled…

545 PEOPLE

By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don’t propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don’t have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don’t write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don’t set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don’t control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don’t care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislators’ responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it. The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted by present facts of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can’t think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it’s because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it’s because they want it in the red.

If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ, it’s because they want them in IRAQ.

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it’s because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems. Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like “the economy,” “inflation,” or “politics” that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

 

The only thing where he might be off base is that we are still able to ‘vote’ them out of office. Just as it is now most common in companies, the moment an employee is fired he is escorted out of the building never to return, just in case he is so disgruntled as to cause some serious damage in his Rueckzugsgefecht (withdrawal combat – the way Germany left Russia in shambles on their way out when beaten.)

And am I able to imagine that a politician being disgruntled when he is fired?

Dancing for the Election Victory

Here we have another great way to decide the election in a more reasonable fashion than it is done right now…

Don’t you think that this is way more civilized than hiring ad agencies and professional smearers to decide the election based upon the skills of these people?

The idea that people decide based upon issues I gave up when Ron Paul was outed. Sure, he was more outed by the media killing him by nor reporting about him, but then again, the populace should be interested in finding out about candidates and not wait for the press to spoon-feed them the information they think is the right for the herd to have.

The End of America – Naomi Wolf

Here is a film with and about Naomi Wolf, author of “The End of America: Letter of Warning To A Young Patriot,” I think every American should watch.

She starts out her story that, in a conversation, a friend repeatedly says “They did this in German” – “They did this in Germany” referring to the current events in the US.

In the film that intersperses her talk with footage, driving home the points she makes, she then demonstrated how the ten points common to all totalitarien regimes, can today be observed in the good old US of A.

It’s a long film, so get a beer, get some chips, lean back and enjoy – Oh well, don’t know if you can really ‘enjoy’ it, but it’s not all doom and gloom, because once you know and understand what’s going on, then and only then can you start to do something about it.

The End of America – Naomi Wolf

I noticed that this link does not go to the film any more, so here’s a YouTube video where she conveys her story in a different setting…

and here she is in an interview…

The Right to Bear Arms

The most compelling reason against gun control is the consideration that with gun control and laws prohibiting the ownership and use of arms the law abiding citizen will give up his arms while the criminal, by the very definition of criminal not following the law, will keep and bear his arms. So the next time he wants to rob somebody his chances that the other person is able to defend him or herself are much smaller.

The organization Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership has published a very well made video discussing all the aspect of the second amendment…

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.

Spread the word!

Campaigning all together

Remember the scene in one Harry Potter film where the wizards in training are taught to face their biggest fear? The trick was to stand up to the fearsome thing and yell out “Ridiculous!” I try to teach this also to my son when he is afraid of something, for example in a dream, or if he accidentally sees something really scary on TV and any monsters follow him into his bedroom.

Now, politics, especially before an election, can be very scary – especially when you read and understand some of the things Larken Rose tries to tell us. But we can look beyond the scary part and actually see how ridiculous the whole business of campaigning is and I am glad to report that there are some out there who can still say a hearty RIDICULOUS!

Supporting our troops on Patriot’s Day

So, today we celebrate Patriot’s day, don’t we?

I know, most of us would not consider this ‘celebrating’ per se, but I am sure that the people behind the patriot act which gave them all the additional power over you and me, certainly think of 9/11 as a day to celebrate a great success.

I could go into my usual anarchistic rambling, but I let my favorite anarchist ramble for me, because he is certainly more eloquent than me, and why should I try to re-invent the wheel.

So, here is Larken Rose…    (again!  I know.)

Supporting the Troops

My disclaimer: Telling the truth when everyone agrees may feel good, but it’s pretty useless. Telling the truth is far more important when it goes AGAINST what most people think. So I will. If you think the way 99% of people think, prepare to be offended by the following.

Amongst all the discussions about this war and that war, this policy and that policy, this military issue and that military issue, it seems that almost everyone feels obligated to constantly throw in, “But of course we should all support the troops.”

I don’t. And here’s why…

Morality does not change based on birthplace or citizenship. Whether something is good or bad doesn’t depend upon whether it’s an American doing it, nor does it depend upon where in the world it is being done. So let’s set aside pack-mentality nationalism, and the usual excuse of “This is war!” (which usually means, “Right and wrong don’t count right now!”), and consider whether “our troops” actually deserve support.

Suppose there are criminals in your town. (This won’t take much imagination for most of us.) Now suppose that a bunch of cops with machine-guns are barging into one house after another, at random, looking for the crooks. Would it be okay with you when they showed up at your house? Well, that sort of thing wasn’t okay with the people who wrote the Constitution. The Fourth Amendment in particular stated that law enforcement has no right to come into your house without your permission, unless they have probable cause (more than a suspicion or wild guess) to think that a crime is happening, or that evidence of a crime is there.

Of course, a cop’s job would be a lot easier if he didn’t have to respect individual rights. He could barge in where ever he wanted and rummage through everyone’s stuff (contrary to the Fourth Amendment), randomly stop people and forcibly interrogate them (contrary to the Fifth Amendment), take peoples’ stuff or punish people on a whim, lock people up without charging them with anything (contrary to the Fifth and Sixth Amendments), and so on. Of course, he’d be an evil fascist, but his job would be a lot easier.

Now watch some footage of U.S. troops on Iraq. What are they doing? Barging where ever they want, with guns drawn no less, randomly stopping people and forcibly interrogating them, detaining people without charges, taking property and punishing people without a warrant or even probable cause, and so on.

Um, why is that stuff good over there if it’s bad over here? The sad but accurate answer, for most Americans, is that the victims are not Americans, so their rights don’t really matter. From the perspective of the regular folk in Iraq, there is a foreign military occupying their country. Ever wonder how that would feel? Wouldn’t it be swell if China, for our own good, decided to send Chinese troops to drive tanks around our cities and towns, setting up random road blocks and check points, questioning people at random, searching where ever they wanted, and so on? Would you feel good about that? How about if they said, “Well this is WAR, so we HAVE to do this!”? Would that make it okay?

The American troops in Iraq are not good guys. They are invaders, whose job it is to violate individual rights on a daily basis. Of course, the excuse is that they’re going after really nasty people, and they NEED to be able to do that stuff. Right. And that’s what every tyrant in history has used as an excuse for depriving individuals of their rights. It’s been the default excuse for theft, torture and murder since the beginning of recorded history. Committing evil in the name of combatting evil is both hypocritical and patently stupid. Incidentally, it’s also EXACTLY the same excuse that the foreign terrorists use to justify their atrocities: desperate times call for desperate measures, so they NEED to ignore individual rights for the “greater good.” It’s the creed of U.S. troops and foreign “terrorists” alike.

Many Americans thought it was outrageous for the Supreme Court to say that, at least in certain cases, military folk shouldn’t be doing searches and arrests in Iraq without first obtaining warrants, which requires showing “probable cause.” Why is that outrageous? Let’s try the shoe on the other foot: “The Chinese people were outraged today when the Chinese High Court ruled that Chinese troops in the U.S. can’t search homes or arrest people without first showing probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed.” Wouldn’t you consider that a good thing?

Once upon a time, some radical extremists declared that they believed it was “self-evident” that ALL men are created equal, and endowed with certain inalienable rights. Since then, some have opined, with good reason, that what they MEANT back then was that all white males are created equal. Well, we’ve come pretty far since then, but today it just means “all Americans are created equal.” How about Iraqis? Nope. They must have been sick the day inalienable rights were handed out.

Now, in case there are any flag-wavers anywhere whom I haven’t offended yet, I’d like to give the ultimate example of how incapable of objectivity Americans are (not that the nationalists of other countries are any better). On 9/11/2001, something really nasty happened. Why was it so evil? Because thousands of innocent civilians were intentionally murdered in order to achieve a political goal.

Now, for the trivia question. What was the largest terrorist attack in history, and who committed it? I’ll give you a hint: it killed about FIFTY times as many innocents as died on 9/11/01. I’ll give you another hint: When it happened, almost all of America cheered.

It happened on August 6, 1945. It was the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, by the order of President Truman. And three days later, he ordered the second worst terrorist act in history: the bombing of Nagasaki, which killed about TWENTY times as many people as died on 9/11/2001. (Keep that in mind if you’re one of those who are unable or unwilling to even consider the possibility that some in “our” government would do the same to American civilians to serve the tyrants’ agenda.)

Let’s review: killing lots of civilians, in order to bully a government into changing its ways. When Arabs do it, it’s called terrorism. When Americans do it, it’s heroic and righteous. “But we needed to, to end the war!” Well duh, the ones who kill civilians ALWAYS say it was necessary, and think that the ends justify the means, or they wouldn’t do it. That doesn’t change the patently obvious fact that the American terrorists murdered a couple HUNDRED THOUSAND Japanese civilians, in order to instill suffering and terror, in an attempt to intimidate the Japanese government into changing its behavior. And Americans do some amazing mental gymnastics to try to avoid facing the fact that that makes “our” government the biggest terrorist in history.

So do I support “our” troops? No. In fact, “we” don’t have troops. GOVERNMENTS have troops, and they are always used, first and foremost, to provide power to the governments they serve. They certainly don’t represent me, and I don’t want their “protection,” if the price is the constant violation of individual rights. And this is true even if “our” troops only violate the rights of people who have darker skin, wear funny clothes, and talk funny. I guess that makes me un-American.

Larken Rose
http://www.larkenrose.com

(P.S. If anyone in the armed forces actually wants to defend freedom, my advice is: quit the military, join a militia. You swore an oath to defend the CONSTITUTION, from all enemies, foreign AND DOMESTIC. If you think some guy wearing a turban, hiding in a cave in Afghanistan, is a bigger threat to the Constitution than your own congressman*, then you need your head examined.)

(* If you happen to live in Ron Paul’s district, I take it back.)

PS: wondering how many know that this picture up there is against the law. Yes, there is a law codifying the conduct in regards to the flag, and using the flag to scantily drape a sexy shape definitely means to dishonor the flag. There is no penalty for doing this in the code but it’s probably just as bad as protesters burning the US flag on the steps of congress.  In other words, that’s a good picture then, isn’t it?

Calvin and Hobbes and the IRS

Calvin and Hobbes

I just browsed through some comic strips of Calvin and Hobbes and found one that was very interesting when compared to my experience with the government in general and the IRS in particular.

I would love to post the whole strip here but I am afraid the copyright owner would not like that, so I leave it to your imagination and just give you the text.

Dialog between Calvin and the bully in the school yard:

Bully: I want that truck, Twinky

Calvin: It’s mine, Moe. I brought it from home.

Bully: I said, give me the truck.

Calvin: Moe, you can’t just take things from people because you’re bigger!

Bully: I’m not taking it. You’re giving it to me because we’ll be so much happier that way. (grabbing Calvin’s collar and clenching his first.)

Calvin (by himself): How touching…

Calvin (a bit later): Moe, give me my truck back. It’s not yours.

Bully: It’s now. You gave it to me.

Calvin: I didn’t have much choice, didn’t I!? It was either give up the truck or get punched!

Bully: So?

Calvin: So I only ‘gave’ it to you because you are bigger and meaner than me!

Bully: Yeah? So?

Calvin: The forensic marvel has reduced my logic to shambles.

Bully: You’re saying you changed your mind about getting punched?

So, honestly, does that remind you of any interactions with the Infernal Revenue Service?

I am working on some spiritual solution for that problem at a site that will help to get rid of fear of the IRS. Join me there and help spread the word. The site and program are still in the construction phase but you can help getting it off the ground and – – – be a guinea pig.

Don’t Steal – the Government Hates Competition

Don't Steel - the government hates competitionThis is the sign that a member of that very government has on his desk. If you ever read any other article from this block you know that I am supporting Ron Paul – the person with that sign on his desk as you can see in the picture to this article.

I sometimes wonder how this guy got so far up into government without being eliminated. I mean, look at all the ‘accidental’ death that people suffer when they are about to expose somebody high up in the power structure…

There is either of two possibilities that Ron Paul could maintain to be a pain in the butt of the tyrants – either he is not considered to be that dangerous and is used to get intelligence about all those people who are dissenters, or, and this is what I hope is the real reason, Ron Paul got so much into the spot light that it is now very difficult to eliminate him without creating a martyr and be even more damaging as such.

But whatever it is, it seems now time to remove our ‘Ron for President’ signs from the cars and yard and look into the future. Ron Paul himself had indicated that his run for the nomination would not necessarily be successful, but that it was the start of a campaign that would eventually lead for America to find back to its roots.

Now Dr. Paul has officially started this campaign and I certainly have joined and I want you all to do the same.

Our Mission

The mission of the Campaign for Liberty is to promote and defend the great American principles of individual liberty, constitutional government, sound money, free markets, and a noninterventionist foreign policy, by means of educational and political activity.

This from the new website Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty that I want you to go to, join, and think about the best way to contribute and get the word out – the word that there actually is an alternative, now that after his nomination “Barak Obama bin Laden” changed course from a peaceful warrior to just warrior, willing to continue the Middle Eastern policies.

Here is Dr. Paul’s announcement of his Campaign for Liberty…

Coldplay’s Violet Hill – the Brutal Version

Coldplay’s Violet Hill all by itself is already a very good piece of activist’s art, but with the following imagery it becomes even better. Maybe the original meaning of the lyrics shift a bit by becoming way more shocking, but I have to say, that only confirms that I must be an anarchist – I certainly don’t want anybody in a position to send me – or my son – into a war to be killed and just dumped into a hole in the ground – – and then dance about it…

To make things more complete, so that you can sing along happily, here are the lyrics…

Was a long and dark December
From the rooftops I remember
There was snow
White snow

Clearly I remember
From the windows they were watching
While we froze
Down below

When the future’s architectured
By a carnival of idiots on show
You’d better lie low

If you love me
Won’t you let me know?

Was a long and dark December
When the banks became cathedrals
And the fog
Became God

Priests clutched onto bibles
Hollowed out to fit their rifles
And the cross was held aloft

Bury me in honor
When I’m dead and hit the ground
A love back home unfolds

If you love me
Won’t you let me know?

I don’t want to be a soldier
Who the captain of some sinking ship
Would stow, far below

So if you love me
Why’d you let me go?

I took my love down to Violet Hill
There we sat in snow
All that time she was silent still

So if you love me
Won’t you let me know?

If you love me,
Won’t you let me know?