I'm still flummoxed as to why pocketknives on planes has so galvanized aviation's unions and congress-criminals; maybe it's just their usual allergy to freedom, so that this tiny loosening of the serfs' chains itches them unbearably. Whatever, the article quotes one of Congress' dimmer bulbs in a chamber so full of 'em it's dark as Hell: "'I would hope with recent events in Boston and poison-based letters that we would realize we're still under attack,' Rep. Janice Hahn (D-Los Angeles) said Wednesday."
Oh, we know, Janice. We're under daily, even hourly, attack, from you and your accomplices there in DC's sewer.
The empire has invaded the homeland--the chickens have come home to roost, as Malcolm X put it--with more than a million people ordered to stay in their homes. Businesses, schools, university, public transport are all ordered to close. By what authority? Blankout. Army-style police, and a police-style army, combined with various secret police forces from the feds, state, and city, stomp around in total control, and loving it. We have enhanced martial law, accompanied by the media cheera. It's American fascism on display, with the usual crony capitalism operasting behind the scenes. Competitive terrorism so benefits the government.
The War State Journal reports, "Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal Aviation Administrator Michael Huerta said they have no choice but to cut controller staffing by 10 percent, which will reduce how many planes airports can handle. But a spokeswoman for Airlines for America, a trade association for the airline industry, said the furloughs are unnecessary and airlines are considering suing the government."
Poor babies. One thing the airlines will never consider, however, is providing their own infrastructure and control towers rather than forcing taxpayers to subsidize their industry. From its inception, aviation has tried to offload as many of its costs to the public as possible. And has succeeded virtually 100% of the time, thanks to its cronies in Congress and the bureaucratic regime.
Josh Crosby downloaded the Constitution Project's report per yesterday's blog. He writes:
Here is a gem on page 38 from Lt Col Diane Beaver, Staff judge Advocate for the man in charge of interrogation at Guantanamo.
Concerning the use of techniques that technically were considered torture by the UCMJ that she approved. Her excuse was that she was only given 4 days to think about it, didn’t have access to much in terms of books or research, and wanted to get something in writing.
Is this what the military does? When asked if torture is wrong it takes 4 days to figure it out and then you decide that it is ok? If it takes you longer than zero seconds to determine its immorality, you are a piece of garbage human being.
When I asked Josh how he'd like me to identify him for this post, he responded, "Please use my full name" and gave me not only that (including middle one) but his complete street-address because, he said, he wants the world to know he "objected to these things done ostensibly in my name [and] I want it publicly documented that I find them categorically abhorrent and any legal status afforded them is only further condemnation of the entire structure that arrogates for itself the position of judge."
Ahem. All I can add is, "Take that, Leviathan. Yet another serf who hates your guts."
...of the ability of the state at all levels to unify militarily and violate constitutional rights en masse, supported by state media and massive weaponry. The breathlessness and tenor of the mainstream reporting is particularly agitprop. A decade of unnecessary war and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and two decades since the Waco murders were nationally "celebrated" make statist sense now. Thanks, Anthony, for your great work on this, it's certainly timely today.
Demonstrating that the media is just as incompetent as the authorities, reckless and breathless photos of brown-skinned and Middle Eastern-looking people plastered across the pages of the (thankfully) dying corporate print media are terrorizing innocent teens who are nevertheless pictured as "persons of interest."
It is a mob rule mentality, fanning the flames of the lynch mob. What a horrible time to be living-while-Muslim (or appearing that way to some morons) in the New England area.
As Politico points out, the corporate media no longer even plays lip service to the basics of reporting and fact-checking. It is only about sensationally naming the "suspects" based on rumor and whispers.
Meanwhile, we apparently are not supposed to notice a bunch of incredibly spooky-looking guys, dressed nearly alike and carrying suspicious backpacks at the scene of the crime.
Well-known and well-loved Gospel singer George Beverly Shea has died at age 104. He had a voice that people of all faiths can admire. A New York Times obituary is here.
The author deserves an appropriate answer, of course, and here it is: Ha ha ha ha.
Oh, and note, the sellout-Republican NRA deserves no credit. They wanted to compromise, as usual. The people kept their expensively shod Beltway feet to the fire.
The front desk called called nervously as we closed in on a half hour before the press conference start time yesterday. Two young men fully dressed in Ron Paul regalia, but unfortunately of the t-shirt and shorts variety, were desperate to get in to the press conference announcing Ron Paul's new Institute for Peace and Prosperity. Unfortunately the venue had a dress code, and shorts and t-shirts were definitely out, Ron Paul fans or not. The young men were dejected, pleading with the front desk as I arrived downstairs.
"Please please if we can put some better clothes on can we come in to the conference," they asked desperately. They pointed to a small group going upstairs in only slightly-more-formal-than-shorts jeans and casual button-down shirts.
I smiled and joked, "surely you can do better than that, but sure come back when you have changed."
I rushed back upstairs to try and handle the million and one details and forgot about it.
Pat Toomey (R-PA) went down in flames with Obama on guns. And Pennsylvania is a gun-owning state. Will the former head of the (neocon and anti-Ron Paul) Club for Growth now be defeated? Let's hope so.
Just more proof that Ron wants to attract people from all political parties--and none (and that the Republicans are just another swarm of flies buzzing around the government garbage can).
You know Lew, when I saw this story (which is said to have started out with a car bomb), several observations came to mind:
1. This did NOT happen in America. Firemen here would not have let Amanda retrieve her pups. Firemen in America demand center stage and total obedience from their tax victims.
2. This mother of pups is a better mother than many, many humans in America; she protected her pups on how many levels? She demanded to be with her (dying) girl pup. She feared being separated from her pups.
If only American mothers would defend their babes this well.
A pretty good article from the pro-war National Review. They make fun, right at the start, of a humorous answer to a snarky question. No, Ron Paul and Daniel McAdams do not expect to abolish war, anymore than the Church expects to abolish murder. But surely the fight is worth it. The article also takes notice that this is the first organization Ron has ever put his own name on, showing how close the cause of peace is to his heart. (Thanks to Floy Lilley)
Robert Anderson, Austrian economist and former #2 to Leonard Read at FEE, writes his old friend Gary North, and copies me:
Gary: I’m only a third of the way through Stockman’s book, but I’m overwhelmed by his knowledge, analysis, and excellent prose. His personal perspective and incredible frankness reporting on our economic, political, and financial history is so refreshing, but the aspect of his book which amazes me most is his willingness to “tell it like it is, and was!” (He takes no prisoners!) I’ll say it again, Gary, there is Read the rest of this entry »
Faux News has wasted spent a good deal of time this morning telling us of the burdens of a president who must travel from the site of one disaster to another (e.g., Tucson, Newtown, Boston, etc.) to "comfort" the afflicted residents. It would be a mistake to assume that he does this primarily for personal aggrandizement or egoism. That four former governors and mayors of Boston are also attending offers a clue to the purposes. And keep in mind that this practice was not invented by Obama: prior presidents, governors of various states, mayors, etc., have been doing this for decades. A tornado, earthquake, or flooding hits an area, and the state governor or city mayor is quickly up in the air flying over the damage, looking down from on high. Empathizing with those who have suffered losses? Hardly. None of these political celebs show up to comfort the family of an isolated shooting victim - unless, of course, the killing has acquired national attention.
The purpose of political moguls making such appearances is, rather, to reinforce the vertically-structured model of society; that, like God looking down upon his people, the well-being of the commoners is being watched over by the superior beings whose role it is to plan for, direct, and console the underlings. How else can the foundations of the pyramid be reinforced?
The Constitution Project is a "good-government" group, "created" as it was "out of the belief that we must cast aside the labels that divide us in order to keep our democracy strong..." And the personnel of its "Task Force" are with one exception committed statists who have either swilled for years at the public trough or pretended that those who do have some sort of legitimacy -- men such as "Asa Hutchinson (Task Force Co-Chair) - former Undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and former GOP Congressman" and "Judge William S. Sessions - former Director of the FBI."
These are not folks willing to set the woods on fire against the Feds. That makes their latest publication, released this week, especially damning (or so I assume, based on their press releases: I haven't yet had a chance to read all 607 pages): "The report of the blue ribbon Task Force on Detainee Treatment [sic for 'torture'] is the most comprehensive, bipartisan investigation into the detention and treatment [sic for 'torture'] of suspected terrorists yet published. The product of more than two years of research, analysis and deliberation by the Task Force members and staff, it provides the American people with a broad understanding of what is known -- and what may still be unknown -- about the past and current treatment [sic for 'torture'] of suspected terrorists detained by the U.S. government during the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations, and across multiple geographic theatres, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo and the so-called 'black sites.'"
The report's first "finding" states, "U.S. forces, in many instances, used interrogation techniques on detainees that constitute torture. American personnel conducted an even larger number of interrogations that involved 'cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.' Both categories of actions violate U.S. laws and international treaties. Such conduct was directly counter to values of the Constitution and our nation." And remember, these are people who like Leviathan!
Thanks to Michael J. Harrington for alerting me to this report. Make Our Rulers unhappy: download and read, or at least skim, it.
So many Austrian and libertarian scholars lock up their work for a 100 years in copyrighted obscurity, by going to one of the British publishers, including the university presses. The cover price is always outrageous--designed for EU library sales--and the book is never put online. That means no one-especially students--will read it or cite it. And imagine that some American institutions actually pay university and other presses, in a variant of the old vanity operations, to publish significant books, thereby dooming them. And the author gets no or virtually no royalties. In addition, books, unlike journal articles, do nothing for your CV. So authors, self-publish through Amazon, in Kindle and physical books. Earn some money, and more importantly, influence people. Don't bury your book.
The US specializes in anti-civilian starvation sanctions against countries it hates, from Iraq to Iran to North Korea. The dead pile up, but the US says that's OK, because the sanctions will make the offending regime kowtow to the empire. Here's my question: is there a case where a government has surrendered or even backed down in response to such murder-sanctions? I leave aside my own view, that those who rise in government are moral monsters who enjoy killing and punishing, that there is sort of a unspoken Devil's pact among politicians on both sides. Sanctions strengthen them all, and allow them to wade in blood.
The Rev. Obama, seeking to place himself at the center of the Boston bombing, will preside over an alleged religious service. He will, of course, focus on the greatness of all the government employees who failed miserably to prevent the murders and maimings, despite vast powers and budgets. The governor of Massachusetts and the mayor of Boston, two of Obama's Mini-Me's, will also be at the rite, along with a host of other power-mad parasites.
That might call into question the main reason that has been given for the past ten years for the U.S. military aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan: "We need to fight them over there so that they don't come over here."
Someone might even hypothesize that all the murder and mayhem imposed on the civilian populations of the Middle East by the U.S. military might possibly motivate someone from over there to try to do the same over here.
. . . in identifying the Boston murderer(s) and claims to have identified two suspects in a video. Why, then, is this video not playing nonstop on every TV channel, like the bombing itself was on Monday? Why isn't the photo on every front page? My local paper has on its front page the headline, "FBI Finds Image of Bomb Suspect," but the associated photo is of some guy in Boston kneeling over a pile of flowers. Just asking.
. . . is that Boston doctors are much better at amputations than they would otherwise be after all that practice when some of them were in the military, said Sean Hannity on his radio show yesterday.
There was no mention of the possibility that someone from Iraq and Afghanistan might be motivated to seek revenge against American bombing and murdering of civilians there.
I've been taking this opportunity to stock up on some yellow metal. Went to Hang Seng bullion counter yesterday. The line was out the door. It took an hour wait to see a teller. When I asked if people were buying in the dip or selling in panic, she told me that they haven't had once ounce of gold sold back to them all day. She told me they have sold more gold in 24 hrs than they normally do in 3 months. Yes, there was a lot of extra security. The guy in front of me bought over $1 million USD in gold. He paid in cash and walked out of the door with the bullion in a Nike bag. Amazing.
UPDATE from Scott Weisman
Lew, notice how a $1M cash transaction didn't even draw any scrutiny (at least, it doesn't sound like it) in a sane country.
Here, the man would be arrested and jailed just for having his own money in cash. Oh, and the cash would be stolen.
Politico gives a pretty good rendition of an historic day, the opening of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity at a packed press conference on Capitol Hill. But they have to try to foment some split between father and son. Each man has his own views, of course--Ron is a libertarian and Rand is a conservative--but that hardly means a split.
Tom, I would have said that even Iowa Republicans are just Pentagonians. But look at what your speeches wrought. The comments are almost all great! As to the smear, it shuts down fewer and fewer discussions, and instead, hurts the user.
As Lew mentioned, I had a chance to speak to a GOP audience over the weekend. I spoke three times: on the economy (and not on "lower taxes and less regulation," but on the Fed and the bailouts), nullification, and foreign policy. On foreign policy, I made a 30-minute case for nonintervention using only conservative arguments and principles. I'll link to it when it goes online.
The Iowa Republican liked two of my three talks. But although my foreign-policy talk was interesting and worth considering, the author said, it was all wrong. All right, that's about what I expected. But in the comments section, I was called one of those names that is meant to destroy people's names and reputations. I'll give you a hint: it's the right-wing's answer to "racist," the left's discussion-stopping word. And I'm a weird combination of "conservative" and "liberal," they say.
The comments are beginning to swing my way at this point, but yikes.
I will be saying some of the same unsayable things this Saturday at the Young Americans for Liberty State Convention (which is open to old Americans for liberty as well) in Manhattan, Kansas. I'm still anxious to meet like-minded Kansans, so it would be nice to see you there.
"A Boston Globe reporter has a source saying the courthouse was evacuated because of the media swarm. No bomb threat. Just a crowd of press. And a man playing a bagpipe."
It was a story out of the Southern Poverty Law Center playbook: White supremacists murder Texas DA, his wife, and an assistant DA!! Then the hype stopped as if a memo had gone out. Well, I guess it did, since a former judge and his wife are apparently the culprits. It was all intra-regime, and therefore hardly news.
Because through its massive subsidization, the State has made college cost so much more while making it worth much less in the world of work. This has also dictated a dumbing down, as Murray Rothbard pointed out, since if everyone is to go to college, everyone must be able to pass.
Here is a more subversive point. Fewer and fewer boys are going--in addition to all the above, they also pay to be demonized as responsible for the world's ills--so there are fewer eligible husbands in college. And many parents assume the costs of higher education to make sure their daughter is in a suitable social circle. As the girl majority grows, this rationale is undermined.
To protect the stooge-king and his toady government, in light of the Syrian civil war started and stoked by the US, so that it can occupy Syria and Jordan, and murder the Iranians.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran, which follows the logic of Islam, is opposed to any bombings and killings of innocent people no matter if it is in Boston, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria and condemns it," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iranian military leaders he was addressing in Tehran.
Or so the police state's house organ, WaPo, alleges. "Expect to see more people in uniform, a greater display of law enforcement firepower, added security in places where it had been relaxed and increased efforts to poke into backpacks and purses," claims the dying paper paper. All this failed in Boston, of course, but it is comforting, we are told.
During the winter, I sometimes found that my barefoot shoes were not warm enough. That was a problem, because they are good for my feet as well as so comfortable. But with spring, I am delighted to be back on track, and I am especially enjoying these Merrell barefoot casual shoes.
Since I am not a speculator, in gold or anything else, I always try to take the advice of the late Burt Blumert and keep track of my ounces of gold and silver, and not their fluctuating dollar value. Some day I may have to exchange them for dollars, but until then, I see dips only as buying opportunities.
Expect the details of the deaths and maimings committed by the Boston murderer to be told to us over and over and over again by the media. (Another good reason not to watch TV.) They never do this with dead and wounded soldiers, for example, because the government sees it as not in its interest. But this is. Just this morning, a mother complained to me about her 10-year -old son being terrorized by his public school teacher. She rehearsed in great detail about what happened to the Boston victims, and warned the children to be on the lookout for similar events everywhere. Like a vampire, the government feasts off such fear, and does everything possible to increase it.
Some of us immediately considered the possibility of agent provocateurs and this news story gives a hint that something may have been set in motion and then may have gotten loose; with the cops then being alerted about a threat afoot, before the bombings, by whatever agency was trying to reel it back in.
On "FOX and Friends" this morning the female host bemoaned the fact that her children ask her "why people do things like this," referring to 9/11 and the Boston bombing, and she said she didn't know what to tell them.
Huh? What? It was FAUX News, more than anyone else, that has been preaching to us for the past twelve years that "THEY HATE US BECAUSE OF OUR FREEDOM."
Having been a university professor for the past 33 years I know that young people are very good at sniffing out bullshit and bullshitters. Maybe the show's hostette understands this, too, which is why she has no answer for her own children.
Not only are the Republicans bailing out Obamacare (of course: they are always for bigger government, especially subsidies to the Pharma-Medical Complex), but they are lining up to erase what remains of our civil liberties, too. Oh, and they are pillars of the empire and constant war.
Oh the fear, the paranoia, the pleas for greater protection, scores of asinine comments about the costs of a "free" society, and the endless worship of our government leaders who will protect us. Each time these isolated events happen, such as the Boston bombing, the serfs rise up to declare their allegiance to the state and its torchbearers of security. This is the generation where "freedom isn't free" is the acclaimed motto of the Killing State.
My local news played back some comments from local listeners on the Boston Marathon blasts, and one lady stated, "it's because we have taken prayer and God out of our schools that these violent events are happening." But then again, Mike Huckabee invoked similar utterances after the Sandy Hook shooting.
The fundamentalists can't let go of the fact that personal and voluntary prayer to one's God is not compatible with a compulsory and despotic government school system that suppresses individuality in order to indoctrinate children collectively. And these schools that formerly embraced God are the same schools that have always promoted the worship of the state, its flag, its wars, its military superiority, and American exceptionalism, all while paying lip service to the tenets of diversity and political correctness.
The photos and video of first responders rushing to secure the homeland are pasted everywhere to pay homage to the state and its agents of glory. Not only has Sports Illustrated put the famed Boston cops on the cover of its current issue, but the media has not been shy about boasting that one of the cops on the cover is an openly gay cop. So the guy is not only a hero for reacting to a bomb blast, but he is also a part of the special victim class, which makes him doubly heroic.
Regarding the Boston bombing, Obama said today: "Any time bombs are used to target innocent civilians it is an act of terror." How many innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan (and Vietnam) were killed by U.S. bombs?
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