The Descent into Police-State Hell

[caption id=\"attachment_1371\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\" caption=\"No Words For This, Just Pain\"]\"Kelly[/caption]I know that it is impossible, but for a second try to put the hideousness of the gleeful maceration of Kelly Thomas' body by these animals out of your mind, and look simply at the proportionality of the incident. A mentally-ill man \"disrespected\" the sub-human Manuel Ramos (and his partner Jay Cicinelli), and for that offense against His Radiant Personage, he was pounded, literally, into hamburger, in such an extended effort that they had to tag-team the helpless, dying man to finish the job;

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[caption id="attachment_1371" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="No Words For This, Just Pain"]Kelly Thomas[/caption]I know that it is impossible, but for a second try to put the hideousness of the gleeful maceration of Kelly Thomas' body by these animals out of your mind, and look simply at the proportionality of the incident. A mentally-ill man "disrespected" the sub-human Manuel Ramos (and his partner Jay Cicinelli), and for that offense against His Radiant Personage, he was pounded, literally, into hamburger, in such an extended effort that they had to tag-team the helpless, dying man to finish the job;

The (insurgent) Campaign for Liberty (2008)

The term ‘insurgent’ has been used (and misused) a whole lot since about ten minutes after the officially announced ‘end’ of the Iraq War. Lucky for us, the US Army Special Forces Counterinsurgency Field Manual

(the book that ‘Surgin’ General’ Petraeus is said to have ‘written’ on the subject)

contains, along with tips on how to win friends, subvert democracy and destroy due process in an occupied country, a handy field guide to three main types of insurgency.

One of these, in light of the end of Ron Paul’s Republican presidential bid, and the beginning of his new vehicle for change, The Campaign For Liberty, is pretty interesting;

“Foco Insurgency.

A foco (Spanish word meaning focus or focal point) is a single, armed cell that emerges from hidden strongholds in an atmosphere of disintegrating legitimacy. In theory, this cell is the nucleus around which mass popular support rallies. The insurgents build new institutions and establish control on the basis of that support.”

Except for the “armed” part (The Revolution has always been explicitly peaceful and anti-war) and the “establish control” bit, this essentially describes the new strategy – to establish a core group of liberty-loving people and to have them (democratically) infiltrate the current system so that they will be ready to liberate the masses when the corrupt, incompetent Empire falls flat on its face.

“The insurgents build new institutions and establish control on the basis of that support. For a foco insurgency to succeed, government legitimacy must be near total collapse. Timing is critical. The foco must mature at the same time the government loses legitimacy and before any alternative appears. The most famous foco insurgencies were those led by Castro and Che Guevara.”

Bad role models from a philosophical perspective, for sure, but in terms of strategy pretty relevant.

“The distinguishing characteristics of a foco insurgency are The deliberate avoidance of preparatory organizational work. The rationale is based on the premise that most peasants are intimidated by the authorities and will betray any group that cannot defend itself. ”

This part doesn’t apply, because this revolution is peaceful, democratic, and overt, the ‘counter-insurgency’ strategies to this will be completely ineffective. Unfortunately, many other CI strategies are already in place and are well-advanced;

“Restrictions. Rights on the legality of detention or imprisonment of personnel (for example, habeas corpus) may be temporarily suspended. This measure must be taken as a last resort, since it may provide the insurgents with an effective propaganda theme. PRC [Population & Resources Control] measures can also include curfews or blackouts, travel restrictions, and restricted residential areas such as protected villages or resettlement areas. Registration and pass systems and control of … critical supplies such as weapons, food, and fuel are other PRC measures. Checkpoints, searches, roadblocks; surveillance, censorship, and press control…”

You get the picture.

Apparently ‘Counter-Insurgency’ has become ‘Pre-emptive Counter-Insurgency’.

We have our work cut out for us.

Ron Paul's Speech After New Hampshire Primary

Ron Paul New Hampshire Speech\nMAGNIFICENT. Last time, New Hampshire was such a bitter defeat, this time, an incredible vindication;

\n

Watch Ron Pauls Speech After New Hampshire Primary - YouTube.

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Ron Paul New Hampshire Speech MAGNIFICENT. Last time, New Hampshire was such a bitter defeat, this time, an incredible vindication;

Watch Ron Pauls Speech After New Hampshire Primary - YouTube.

What Went Wrong in 2008 On Wall Street

\"...capitalism has been hijacked, and I'm infuriated. For capitalism to work, people who assume risk should reap the rewards of success, but they also must suffer when losses occur.\" ~Leland H. Faust\n In the 2008 implosion, the banks that were bailed out should have been left to go under - their assets stripped and sold, their officers indicted for fraud or driven out into the street, their profits disgorged, they and their children made outcasts, leaving them in the outer darkness,wailing and gnashing their teeth.

\n

This, after all, is the basic moral logic of capitalism - success is rewarded, failure mercilessly punished. And this is EXACTLY what the politicians prevented from happening - all of them, except Ron Paul, who warned about it, and tried to stop it.

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"...capitalism has been hijacked, and I'm infuriated. For capitalism to work, people who assume risk should reap the rewards of success, but they also must suffer when losses occur." ~Leland H. Faust In the 2008 implosion, the banks that were bailed out should have been left to go under - their assets stripped and sold, their officers indicted for fraud or driven out into the street, their profits disgorged, they and their children made outcasts, leaving them in the outer darkness,wailing and gnashing their teeth.

This, after all, is the basic moral logic of capitalism - success is rewarded, failure mercilessly punished. And this is EXACTLY what the politicians prevented from happening - all of them, except Ron Paul, who warned about it, and tried to stop it.

No Pornoscan, No Way

[caption id=\"attachment_1347\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Michael Chertoff Can Kiss My Fat, Pale, Hairy Ass\"]\"Michael[/caption]\nIn Atlanta yesterday, I \"opted out\" of the pornotron. An unhappy-looking middle-aged gentleman was summoned to give me my Federally mandated physical. Visibly uncomfortable, he did his 'job' such as it was, all the while being coached by a group of apparently low-intelligence, but senior \"workers\". I felt sorry for the man.

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[caption id="attachment_1347" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Michael Chertoff Can Kiss My Fat, Pale, Hairy Ass"]Michael Chertoff Can Kiss My Fat, Pale, Hairy Ass[/caption] In Atlanta yesterday, I "opted out" of the pornotron. An unhappy-looking middle-aged gentleman was summoned to give me my Federally mandated physical. Visibly uncomfortable, he did his 'job' such as it was, all the while being coached by a group of apparently low-intelligence, but senior "workers". I felt sorry for the man.

So Long, American Express

\"End\nI cancelled my American Express card today. Throughout most of the past eleven-odd years, American Express has always treated me as well as their spendiest platinum-card holder - letting me buy what I wanted, pay the way I wanted, and helping me any time my card was lost, misplaced, etc., anywhere in the world I went. They ran a decent rewards program that I took full advantage of, their annual fee was reasonable, and, grateful, I never failed to give credit where credit was due, pardon the pun.

\n

So what changed? Well, my life, mostly. When I got married, and started having kids, I realized that the life of a \"road warrior\" was not compatible with the kind of family life I wanted. So I took a job with a LOT less travel, which meant I had much less use for the rewards program, for one thing. Alongside that, tough times in the credit-card business apparently led them to trim back on the rewards, and increase their annual fees. My no-interest \"green card\" was beginning to lose its lustre.

\n

Then, last September, I was picked to attend the International Occupational Hygiene Association conference in Rome, Italy. Having relatively little available cash, but plenty of credit freeboard on my trusty AMEX card, I embarked on my trip confident that it would render me capable of traveling - if not in style, exactly, then at least relative comfort. Boy was THAT a miscalculation.

\n

I discovered that virtually none of the shops, restaurants, pubs, and other attractions I wanted to attend in Rome would accept the American Express card! Aside from high-street luxury-goods shops (and the ever-present moneychangers), my card, which had served as my little plastic passport for so long, in so many places, had apparently worn out its welcome. I started to feel like a customer at Big Pete's House of Munch.

\n

To be fair, credit cards of all issuers were slightly less welcome than a bum's handful of faintly urine-scented euro notes in Rome, the local pastime having become, apparently, the evasion of sales taxes, said pastime being far easier to engage in successfully in cash. But not being able to spend as much as I would have liked on excursions and gifts for the folks at home caused me actual distress. Everywhere I went, the story was the same - 'we don't take the card, the fees are too high'. A welcome loan from one of my traveling companions eased my discomfort a bit, and allowed me to enjoy my trip more than otherwise. Traveling with the boss does have its compensations too.

\n

I resisted the urge to cancel the card precipitiously, deciding that one bad experience shouldn't compromise an otherwise mutually-beneficial relationship. But ultimately I could not let bygones be bygones. So I called today to cancel. The service rep I talked to sounded genuinely sympathetic, but the \"member services\" person I was transferred to simply tried to sell me a different (revolving interest) card, in which I had no interest, HO HO. She promptly then closed the account with little fanfare.

\n

It's sad for me personally, and it felt like the passing of an era in travel.

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End Of An Era I cancelled my American Express card today. Throughout most of the past eleven-odd years, American Express has always treated me as well as their spendiest platinum-card holder - letting me buy what I wanted, pay the way I wanted, and helping me any time my card was lost, misplaced, etc., anywhere in the world I went. They ran a decent rewards program that I took full advantage of, their annual fee was reasonable, and, grateful, I never failed to give credit where credit was due, pardon the pun.

So what changed? Well, my life, mostly. When I got married, and started having kids, I realized that the life of a "road warrior" was not compatible with the kind of family life I wanted. So I took a job with a LOT less travel, which meant I had much less use for the rewards program, for one thing. Alongside that, tough times in the credit-card business apparently led them to trim back on the rewards, and increase their annual fees. My no-interest "green card" was beginning to lose its lustre.

Then, last September, I was picked to attend the International Occupational Hygiene Association conference in Rome, Italy. Having relatively little available cash, but plenty of credit freeboard on my trusty AMEX card, I embarked on my trip confident that it would render me capable of traveling - if not in style, exactly, then at least relative comfort. Boy was THAT a miscalculation.

I discovered that virtually none of the shops, restaurants, pubs, and other attractions I wanted to attend in Rome would accept the American Express card! Aside from high-street luxury-goods shops (and the ever-present moneychangers), my card, which had served as my little plastic passport for so long, in so many places, had apparently worn out its welcome. I started to feel like a customer at Big Pete's House of Munch.

To be fair, credit cards of all issuers were slightly less welcome than a bum's handful of faintly urine-scented euro notes in Rome, the local pastime having become, apparently, the evasion of sales taxes, said pastime being far easier to engage in successfully in cash. But not being able to spend as much as I would have liked on excursions and gifts for the folks at home caused me actual distress. Everywhere I went, the story was the same - 'we don't take the card, the fees are too high'. A welcome loan from one of my traveling companions eased my discomfort a bit, and allowed me to enjoy my trip more than otherwise. Traveling with the boss does have its compensations too.

I resisted the urge to cancel the card precipitiously, deciding that one bad experience shouldn't compromise an otherwise mutually-beneficial relationship. But ultimately I could not let bygones be bygones. So I called today to cancel. The service rep I talked to sounded genuinely sympathetic, but the "member services" person I was transferred to simply tried to sell me a different (revolving interest) card, in which I had no interest, HO HO. She promptly then closed the account with little fanfare.

It's sad for me personally, and it felt like the passing of an era in travel.

Ron Paul: The Only One We Can Trust - YouTube

CNN’s Sanjay Gupta Thinks Battlefield Medicine Is Just Super

I happened to catch a bit of this on XM the other morning, and I was SHOCKED by the, er, ENTHUSIASM Gupta and his co-host showed toward the idea that getting to work on war-pulverized bodies was a good thing; CNN’s Sanjay Gupta, MD highlights Battlefield Breakthroughs - National Military Community | Examiner.com.

Robert Higgs Has Had It With The 'Social Contract'

"I most emphatically do not hate America. I was not born in some foreign despotism, but in a domestic one known as Oklahoma, which I understand to be the very heart and soul of this country so far as culture and refinement are concerned. Moreover, for what it is worth, some of my ancestors had been living in North America for centuries before a handful of ragged, starving white men washed ashore on this continent, planted their flag, and claimed all the land they could see and a great deal they could not see on behalf of some sorry-ass European monarch. What chutzpah! I yield to no one in my affection for the Statue of Liberty, the Rocky Mountains, and the amber waves of grain, not to mention the celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County. So when I am invited to get out of the country, I feel like someone living in a town taken over by the James Gang who has been told that if he doesn’t like being robbed and bullied by uninvited thugs, he should move to another town. To me, it seems much more fitting that the criminals get out." via Consent of the Governed? | The Beacon.

Uh Oh – Italy Is Coming Apart Like a 20-Dollar Suit

[caption id="attachment_1250" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Standing Around While Rome Burns"]Standing Around While Rome Burns[/caption] Last October I spent a week in Rome. The tax police (Guardia di Finanza) were EVERYWHERE, and NO ONE was paying any tax...and the Communists were decrying government "austerity" measures;

[caption id="attachment_1252" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Italy Is Not Greece"]Italy Is Not Greece[/caption]

If it does turn out that Italy needs a bailout, it is going to change the entire game in Europe.

What is going on in Italy right now is potentially far more serious than what has been going on in Greece. Italy is the fourth largest economy in the European Union. If Italy requires a bailout, the rest of Europe might not be able to handle it.

An anonymous European Central Bank source told one German newspaper the following on Sunday....

"The existing rescue fund in Europe is not sufficient to provide a credible defensive wall for Italy"

The source also added that the current bailout fund "was never designed for that".

Uh Oh – Italy Is Coming Apart Like a 20-Dollar Suit.

Ron Paul, The Compassionate Libertarian

\"...libertarians have the reputation of being hardhearted. It's not true, and Ron Paul--in so many ways--shows that. He is the Compassionate Libertarian.\" - Lew Rockwell\nvia Lew Rockwell's Political Theatre | The Comedy and Tragedy of the Political World.

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"...libertarians have the reputation of being hardhearted. It's not true, and Ron Paul--in so many ways--shows that. He is the Compassionate Libertarian." - Lew Rockwell via Lew Rockwell's Political Theatre | The Comedy and Tragedy of the Political World.

Rupert Murdoch's Failing Attempts to Control the Internet Reformation by Anthony Wile

\"Murdoch's properties are supposed to provide the conservative half of a worldwide Hegelian dialectic. He's been funded by Western elites to provide this vision because if one is to move society toward global governance, a conversation is necessary. Thesis, antithesis ... synthesis. Murdoch provides the antithesis, with relish.\"\nvia Rupert Murdoch's Failing Attempts to Control the Internet Reformation by Anthony Wile.

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"Murdoch's properties are supposed to provide the conservative half of a worldwide Hegelian dialectic. He's been funded by Western elites to provide this vision because if one is to move society toward global governance, a conversation is necessary. Thesis, antithesis ... synthesis. Murdoch provides the antithesis, with relish." via Rupert Murdoch's Failing Attempts to Control the Internet Reformation by Anthony Wile.

If You Love Peace, Become a "Blue Republican" (Just for a Year)

"...the one potential Presidential candidate (Ron Paul) who wishes to stop killing innocent people in foreign wars and stop transferring the wealth of poor and working Americans to the corporate elites happens to be -- this time around -- a Republican." via Robin Koerner: If You Love Peace, Become a "Blue Republican" (Just for a Year).

About That "Right" to "Healthcare"

You have a right to your life, you have a right to your liberty, and you have a right to your justly-acquired property. All three rights are aspects of a right to property. There is no way to derive a right to force others to pay for a service for you, whether it be healthcare or anything else. Moreover, the entire \"healthcare\" meme is a kind of fraud. Medical treatment has some moral sanction in society and has always been recognized as, while not a \"right\", an obligation or duty placed upon the community. \"Healthcare\" as coined by modern statists contains a whole raft of things never dreamed of in four or more millenia of historical medicine. So even if there were some kind of vague \"right\" to medical treatment, appropriate to certain civilizational norms, a \"right\" to \"healthcare\" is simply a front for a particularly gross kind of corporatism, as illustrated by the ObamaCare Plan's action of handing over 40 million new unwilling customers to the insurance companies at the point of a gun.

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You have a right to your life, you have a right to your liberty, and you have a right to your justly-acquired property. All three rights are aspects of a right to property. There is no way to derive a right to force others to pay for a service for you, whether it be healthcare or anything else. Moreover, the entire "healthcare" meme is a kind of fraud. Medical treatment has some moral sanction in society and has always been recognized as, while not a "right", an obligation or duty placed upon the community. "Healthcare" as coined by modern statists contains a whole raft of things never dreamed of in four or more millenia of historical medicine. So even if there were some kind of vague "right" to medical treatment, appropriate to certain civilizational norms, a "right" to "healthcare" is simply a front for a particularly gross kind of corporatism, as illustrated by the ObamaCare Plan's action of handing over 40 million new unwilling customers to the insurance companies at the point of a gun.

What The World Needs Now Is Default

Remember, the game of the big commercial banks, central banks, and the IMF and World Bank is to get control of the entire world economy so as to do 2 simple things; 1) Run all commerce and trade through their books so they can profit off of every transaction by every single person on earth, regardless of the economy, and; 2) To juice economies around the world( by issuing bonds to governments, and inflation by central banks and fractional-reserve commercial banks) to increase the flows from which they skim. It is why, for instance, "conservative" governors have been elected in the US to try to balance state budgets - not to help the poor state taxpayer, but to keep the bonding party going. That is why ALL levels of government must DEFAULT.

Some Truth In Advertising for the PLCB

[caption id=\"attachment_1207\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"528\" caption=\"There, I Fixed It\"]\"There,[/caption]\nOn vacation this week in my former home state of Pennsylvania, I passed a billboard on I-95 south at 322 (undoubtedly paid for by the taxpayers of said state) touting the \"Chairman's Selection\" by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. It slickly presented typical bucolic wine-business images of grapes, vines, barrels, etc, all to give the casual viewer the idea that a state wine monopoly is just great, look, we even have special selections of wines by our Chairman. I am sure this was by the merest coincidence a mile or three from the massive privately-owned wine store just across the border in Delaware, a state whose residents presumably live their lives bereft of the wonderful wine selections made by the chairman of their neighboring state's liquor monopoly.

\n

I couldn't find the billboard online (Joe?) but in the spirit of trying to help all those folksy bureaucrats in Harrisburg to successfully put across their message, I corrected the PALCB's \"Chairman's Selection\" logo. You're welcome!

\n

Here's one someone did earlier;\n[caption id=\"attachment_1209\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Wine Revolution For The People\"]\"Wine[/caption]

\n

(PHOTOS: PLCB, wikipedia, me, Empty Bottles)

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[caption id="attachment_1207" align="aligncenter" width="528" caption="There, I Fixed It"]There, I Fixed It[/caption] On vacation this week in my former home state of Pennsylvania, I passed a billboard on I-95 south at 322 (undoubtedly paid for by the taxpayers of said state) touting the "Chairman's Selection" by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. It slickly presented typical bucolic wine-business images of grapes, vines, barrels, etc, all to give the casual viewer the idea that a state wine monopoly is just great, look, we even have special selections of wines by our Chairman. I am sure this was by the merest coincidence a mile or three from the massive privately-owned wine store just across the border in Delaware, a state whose residents presumably live their lives bereft of the wonderful wine selections made by the chairman of their neighboring state's liquor monopoly.

I couldn't find the billboard online (Joe?) but in the spirit of trying to help all those folksy bureaucrats in Harrisburg to successfully put across their message, I corrected the PALCB's "Chairman's Selection" logo. You're welcome!

Here's one someone did earlier; [caption id="attachment_1209" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Wine Revolution For The People"]Wine Revolution![/caption]

(PHOTOS: PLCB, wikipedia, me, Empty Bottles)

Ron Paul versus Michael Gerson on Drugs

Gerson, neocon that he is, uses Ron's principled stand for liberty and against putting people in prison against him, as though rabid criminalization were somehow evidence of \"compassion\". I politely argued otherwise;\n\"Congressman Paul was speaking of principles, not of policy. He has stated, clearly and repeatedly that the states can and should be the locus for any (slight) conditions under which adults can consume certain (or any) substances. And he makes the point within a framework where the choice to abuse drugs, being no longer supported within a welfare state, carries high personal and economic costs, high enough to be a deterrent to most people, even if his exposition was a tad too facile. The problem with Gerson's allegedly more \"complex\" conservative response to drug use, prostitution, etc is it fails to consider any of these issues other than in a sterile vacuum. For most of our history drugs were legal, widely recognized for their dangers, and their use self-limiting. The medicalization of everything in our culture and the concurrent criminalization of certain substances has effectively subsidized irresponsible, widespread, and growing use of illicit drugs, while at the same time greatly increasing overall societal costs from their use. The current course is financially unsustainable, and deadly to personal and political freedom. Kudos to Dr. Paul for having the courage to finally declare it.\"

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Gerson, neocon that he is, uses Ron's principled stand for liberty and against putting people in prison against him, as though rabid criminalization were somehow evidence of "compassion". I politely argued otherwise; "Congressman Paul was speaking of principles, not of policy. He has stated, clearly and repeatedly that the states can and should be the locus for any (slight) conditions under which adults can consume certain (or any) substances. And he makes the point within a framework where the choice to abuse drugs, being no longer supported within a welfare state, carries high personal and economic costs, high enough to be a deterrent to most people, even if his exposition was a tad too facile. The problem with Gerson's allegedly more "complex" conservative response to drug use, prostitution, etc is it fails to consider any of these issues other than in a sterile vacuum. For most of our history drugs were legal, widely recognized for their dangers, and their use self-limiting. The medicalization of everything in our culture and the concurrent criminalization of certain substances has effectively subsidized irresponsible, widespread, and growing use of illicit drugs, while at the same time greatly increasing overall societal costs from their use. The current course is financially unsustainable, and deadly to personal and political freedom. Kudos to Dr. Paul for having the courage to finally declare it."