A Key to Sane Living

And he doesn't want to understand it. And he
doesn't get it that we don't need to do anything
about it, whatever it is. He wants to know, "What
do we do about it?" Hell, go to Disneyland, I
don't care. Whatever it is, these people just
can't live with the "do nothing" sentiment. It's
beyond comprehension, to them, that we do nothing!

The Controller/Hive Mind goes into spastic fits
at this kind of reaction. I've seen it happen.
Try it sometime.

The whole post.

The Fool

FOOL, n.
A person who pervades the domain of
intellectual speculation and diffuses himself
through the channels of moral activity. He is
omnific, omniform, omnipercipient, omniscience,
omnipotent. He it was who invented letters,
printing, the railroad, the steamboat, the
telegraph, the platitude and the circle of the
sciences. He created patriotism and taught the
nations war -- founded theology, philosophy, law,
medicine and Chicago. He established monarchical
and republican government. He is from everlasting
to everlasting -- such as creation's dawn beheld
he fooleth now. In the morning of time he sang
upon primitive hills, and in the noonday of
existence headed the procession of being. His
grandmotherly hand was warmly tucked-in the set
sun of civilization, and in the twilight he
prepares Man's evening meal of milk-and-morality
and turns down the covers of the universal grave.
And after the rest of us shall have retired for
the night of eternal oblivion he will sit up to
write a history of human civilization.
--Ambrose Bierce in The Devil's Dictionary

21st Century Insanity

http://www.yahoogroups.com/index.php? has
collected the evidence that this scenario may be
round the corner. It claims the Western media has
up to now self-censored on the issue – sounding
alarm bells as the gold price soared to nearly
$700. It records Al-Jazeerah, on April 30,
reporting that ‘Oil producing countries such as
Venezuela…and a few of the larger oil consuming
countries, notably China and India, have already
announced their support for the Iranian bourse’
An article : Petro-Euro: a reality or distant
nightmare for US’ quotes US security expert
William Clark saying ‘If Iran threatens the US
dollar in the international oil market, the White
House would immediately order an attack against
it’.

Gold is now at a 20-year high against the
dollar, and the dollar at a one-year low against
the euro. The Financial Times of May 16th, under
the headline: “Fears for Dollar as Central Banks
Sell US assets” reported that ‘central banks sold
a net $14.4 billion during the month, the largest
sale since August 1998.’

At the opening of the IMF meeting on April 21,
Russia’s Finance Minister said his country ‘could
not consider the dollar a reliable reserve
currency because of its instability’. The same
day the Swedish Riksbank halved its dollar
holdings to buy euros.

At that IMF meeting the 2006 World Economic
Outlook was launched, warning of a dollar
collapse – due to global trade imbalances,
spiraling US debt and the demise of the petro-
dollar reserve standard. In the language beloved
of obfuscating economists who hope thereby to
soften the truth, it stated: ‘Global current
account imbalances are likely to remain at
elevated levels for longer than would otherwise
have been the case, heightening the risk of
sudden disorderly adjustment.’

‘Sudden disorderly adjustment’ is the current
bankers’ euphemism for the consequences of a
dollar collapse. Others, including Morgan Stanley
economist Stephen Roach, as well as financiers
Soros and Warren Buffet, refer to it as ‘economic
Armageddon’. How close are we to that?

It's not about Iran's nukes. Never has been. It
wasn't about Iraq's non-existent WMDs. Never has
been.

It's about the dollar.

Always will be.

Damn near everyone's just playing into their
propaganda machine not calling this like it is,
willingly or not is irrelevant.

With all these nations dumping dollars, who's
gonna get the first nuke...or the second or...?

Nah, couldn't happen, could it?

Now I'm gonna get on my donkey and go back to my
cave.

Read it and weep.

Update:

Since this is an "official" statement, I'd bet
it's a lie?

Tehran - Iran's oil minister said Monday the
Islamic republic would continue to set the price
of its oil in US dollars, despite calls by ally
Venezuela for crude to be quoted in
euros.

Read.

Ignore 'em, for the chil'ren

In a private meeting with industry
representatives, Gonzales, Mueller and other
senior members of the Justice Department said
Internet service providers should retain
subscriber information and network data for two
years, according to two sources familiar with the
discussion who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Read

It Begins With Language.

Seeing thru more distractions

Yet more meadow muffins uncovered...

The pol that wrote this must be new to his office.
His head is still screwed on straight. He won't
last long as a whistle-blower so he won't be there
long enough to make a difference.

Who are these gougers? They are the politicians
and bureaucrats in the state and federal
governments. Federal taxes take 18.4 cents of
every gallon of gas. State gas tax is 18 cents a
gallon. The state sales tax adds 22 cents to
every $3.00 gallon of gas. Of course, the amount
of sales tax goes up as the price of gas
increases. Add these together, and the consumer
pays 58.4 cents to the government for every $3.00
gallon of gas. These taxes don’t include the
income taxes paid by oil companies, which last
year was over $108 billion to the federal
government alone.
...
On average, only 30 cents of every gallon of gas
flows to the oil companies, yet politicians, and
their allies in the press, accuse oil executives
of gouging consumers. One politician in
Sacramento wanted to assess a windfall profits
tax on these oil companies this week, claiming
that oil companies were ripping off consumers.
This same politician did not once mention that
government makes double the amount that oil
companies make off the same gallon of gas on
sales and gas taxes alone. The press dutifully
reported his scapegoat tactics, never once
investigating him for his consumer rip off.

Don’t be fooled by the rhetoric. The real price
gouger in the oil industry is government.

Via Bill St. Clair

Who will regulate the regulators?

The distractions and double-standards continue in
The Biggest Soap Opera on the planet...

If the government really is concerned about
creative accounting, perhaps the feds might want
to look in the mirror. There is no more
fraudulent activity on the face of the earth than
the accounting methods of the U.S. Government.
Thus, we have the irony of the U.S. attorney who
represents the biggest accounting fraud in
history accusing others of engaging in fraud.
...
But, then, "progressive" Democrats cheered on
Janet Reno's mass murder at Waco, so why should
we expect them to be any better than Republicans?
All I can say is that the wrong people are going
to prison.

Paybacks are a bitch.™

Full essay.

Blair calls for reform of failing world organisations

Keep those deck chairs shuffled, Tony.

Tony Blair today called for reform of the United
Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the
World Bank and the G8 to meet the global
challenges of the 21st century, including climate
change and global terrorism.
...
It comes against a backdrop of failure and
frustration within multilateral organisations on
international trade talks, the Middle East peace
process and possible UN sanctions on Iran.

I don't recommend reading more of this cluelessness
but you decide.

Message to The Controllers

You will lose. You don't know it yet. Control is
lost.

Jump ship while things look good for you.

Don't wait til they go bad. Then it's too late,
isn't it?

Nothing lasts forever, above all, The System.

I expect few of you to understand.

It takes only a few to make a difference.

Fred Reed on Mexico

I get a lot of email asking me, “What’s it
really like in Mexico, Fred?” A book would be
needed to give a good answer. Since people seem
interested, I’ll take a few random shots at the
topic. Don’t expect literature or organization.

The quick answer is that it isn’t nearly as bad
as many Americans think. Not even close. Sure,
it’s a screwed up country. (Name one that isn’t.
Switzerland, maybe?) It has all manner of
problems and defects: jobs going to China,
corruption, poverty in places, crumbling
sidewalks, loud music, poor services, pollution,
etc. No paradise here.

But…but….

Mexico is a democracy, as much as the United
States. The government is not repressive. Mexico
is not a police state. It is not particularly
criminal: Guadalajara is certainly less dangerous
than Washington. It is not disease-ridden. I eat
in all sorts of restaurants here with no problem.
It is not over-regulated and controlled. It is
not primitive. It is not a backwater. Mexican big-
box stores are indistinguishable from Wal-Mart.
The telephones work, cell phones work, broadband
is widely available (in my town of 18,000, for
example). Guadalajara abounds in book stores and
music stores. (Books in Spanish, yes, but
everything you’ve ever heard of, and what do you
expect in Mexico? Linear B?)

I think I'll take a long vacation in Mexico to see
if he's right.

I expect he is.

Full report.

The Marijuana Muffin Terrorists

Joint Terrorism Task Force Deployed Because of
Marijuana in Muffins

"Could be Weapons of Mass Destruction"

Tainted muffins.

What a show this is all turning out to be, like
pay tv.

Yes, you're paying for it all...in more ways than
you or I know yet.

See it.

What almost no one groks

Meanwhile, in an unknown city, deals are being
brokered to see who's gonna be the next Thug in
Charge...

On the backbenches, the peanut gallery is
yammering about a new and improved partisan
author of Great Change.

Enjoy the circus.

Washington, D.C., has been a combination slave-
market, fencing operation for stolen property,
and street-corner gang long before the current
gang of racketeers took over.
...
The Democrats will replace the Republicans and
the dream restored. What childish nonsense,
particularly when decades of such supposed
“change” has brought about no more reform than
what was implicit in Frank Chodorov’s
characterization of those “who want to clean up
the whorehouse, but keep the business intact.”
Political “change,” within the confines of the
existing system, has never amounted to anything
more than bringing in a relief pitcher from the
bullpen in an effort to save the game for the
home team.
...
The bulk of the major media – long thought of
as an aggressive watchdog of the state – has
become, through incestuous inbreeding, little
more than a whining, obedient lapdog.

Of course, there will be those who, weighing
more heavily the rantings of Faux News babblers
over the lessons of history, will be unable to
digest the idea that the American state might
ever go into an entropic collapse. Like relatives
gathered at the bedside of a terminally-ill Uncle
Willie, they will prefer to comfort themselves
with platitudes that he “will be up and around in
no time.” But any system that relies on violence,
lies, distrust, and force of arms to hold itself
together, has little future.

Full essay.

Oil at $500 a barrel?

The announcement by President Putin of a Russian
bourse trading oil and gas in Roubles threatens
the stability of the US Dollar far more than
Iran's bourse alone would do, and continues the
slide in relations between the old Cold War foes.
...
In his annual State of the Nation address to
both houses of parliament on 10 May 2006, Novosti
reports President Putin said that work on making
the Rouble an internationally convertible
currency would be completed by 1 July 2006, six
months ahead of schedule. To promote the
currency, he announced that an oil and gas stock
exchange will be created in Russia, that would
trade in Roubles.

Venezuela and Bolivia's state oil likely soon to
follow.

Dollar tanking will then be blamed on the "free
market".

Bwahahahaha.

Oil at $500 a barrel anyone?

Anyone here know why that might happen?

Hee-haw.

Full report.

The Bottom Line

It is among the simplest and most proven social
equations in human history.

The use of force escalates to the self-defeat of
the institution that is using force, always.

I linked to this site a long time ago, a boring
site. The author, Doug Buchanan, admits it.
What else would you expect the uncommitted
reader to say about it in this intellectual
dark age we live in? It's alien, otherworldly
to the unthinking in a power-based world.

Full rant.

Being prepared

Nowadays we are being told that consumption is
aesthetically displeasing, and that we should
strive to get back to nature, stop driving here
and there, make a compost pile, raise our own
vegetables, unplug our computers, and eat nuts
off trees. This longing for the primitive is
nothing but an attempt to cast a pleasing gloss
on the inevitable effects of socialist policies.
They are telling us to love poverty and hate
plenty.

As for me, I find consumption pleasing. It
sustains me. I also love plenty and want no part
of poverty, not "longing for the primitive".

On the other hand, I know the "inevitable effects
of socialist polices": The impoverishment of all.

That's why I'm standing here feeding my donkey,
admiring my vegetable patch.

Be kind to the ass that bears you and...

...be prepared for poverty.

Full essay.

Update:

On reading this post, my big bro had this to
say:

Reminds me of the California trendy-precious,
backpacking in the Sierras with down bags,
parkas, exotic light weight pack frames and
rip-stop nylon super tents all the while
talking about how groovy it would be to get
back to the Stone Age - and - when they ran
out of freeze-dried raspberry quiche, they
went home.

Plain talkin' Joe

Yet for most of my life, I believed that social
order depended on government. That is, I believed
that freedom depended on force, and ultimately
that a great good depended on a great evil. I’m
afraid most people believe such things, and
accept armed men in uniforms as their benefactors.
I also believed that lie.

So did I.

When will you give it up?

Full essay.

The world after the dollar collapses

...On our way to a post-collapse, post-dollar
world, Asia will likely transition from a de jure
dollar standard to a de facto gold standard...

I'd say the man's right, de facto being the key
word: from the ground up. Any tinkering by any
institution or government, supporting or
restricting in any way, would be sure to produce
more chaos in the transistion. That's how we got
here, after the US government backed the US dollar
with gold...then reneged.

Therefore, bank on some institution backing gold.
Chaos is what they do best, always trying to fix
that which isn't broken or that which is broken
beyond repair.

Full essay.

Via Sunni

Update:

Sunni tells me the link didn't come from her.

Now I don't remember where it came from. Apologies
to the one slighted.

But go take a look at Sunni's site anyway. It's
well worth it.

Pingoat has a snit fit

I've been using Pingoat for sometime after posting
to this blog, pinging the "wire services".

So some days ago this page comes up at Pingoat:

Hold it right there!!

I freeze, not reaching for my gun or making any
threatening growls or moves. I wonder if this is
a citizen's arrest, a joke or a shakedown.

You have been blacklisted ! This is not because
of the frequency of the pings, but due to the
possible objectionable/non genuine nature of the
blog. Please understand that this is an automated
process. If you believe this is an error, please
quickly post on the forum or drop me a mail to
get it resolved.

I already know I'm objectionable to the Sunday
school/Politically Correct crowd but "non genuine
nature"? What the fuck does that mean? That
phrase itself is non genuine, i.e. meaningless.

My fault, your fault, nobody's fault, I'm no
longer interested in your services. I'll not
yammer on any forum or plead for you to change
your mind. Thank you for past service...

[plonk]

I've already left for Pingomatic.

The Humpty Dumpty Principle

Re-linked by popular request: Mine

States are increasingly finding themselves in perpetual disruption or complete failure. One driver of this is globalization. Globalization has diminished state power across the board ("it melts the map"). So, if we want to build a peaceful (and profitable) system that obeys a new rule set (to borrow a phrase from Thomas Barnett), the limits of state power must be a critical factor in its development. This new revised view might be appropriately called the Humpty Dumpty principle of state failure.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the King's horses and all the King's men,
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

Read.

Horses vs. donkeys

Devlin responded in the comment section in the
previous post:

Wouldn't horses be better? You could ride them
as well as use them as pack animals.

Many make for good, fast transportion. These are
usually skittish beasts, not good for pack
animals. They spook easily. If you need speed,
the horse is fine for personal transportation
when you're in a hurry. Very few are suited to
double duty.

The donkey is usually unflappable. Why do you
think they've been the chosen beasts of cargo
for thousands of years, like free trade has been?

Besides, the donkey is a low-maintenance fellow
with a fine disposition, until he locks all four
feet. Then the stick won't do any good and you
need the carrot. He'll eat just about anything.
Just let him loose. He knows what he wants and how
to get it. See how civilized he is?

Now tell me. What good will the sports car of
animals, the horse, do you in the donkey world
that's coming?

As always, your choice.

Get yours now

There are even reports of those in more rural
counties [Hawaii] swapping their cars for horses
(buy hay, not gas!) to avoid paying for petrol.

You got good pasture, you don't even have to buy
hay.

WhudItellya?

Vindicated. Well, almost.

Except that a donkey is a much better pack animal,
efficiently getting your produce to market and
hauling back supplies.

All the "solutions" to high gas prices in the
report are like applying band-aids after
open-heart surgery.

Don't delay.

Hear 'em bray?

The dearth of free trade

..From a speech by Roderick Long.

Now I like what Dr. Long says, but there were so
many "wings" (left and right) flapping around in
that speech I had to constantly duck so I left
without reading it all.

I thank Randall McElroy at Catallarchy for getting
to the meat of that pear.

Now I think the word "capitalism," if used with
the meaning most people give it, is a package-
deal term. By "capitalism" most people mean
neither the free market simpliciter nor the
prevailing neomercantilist system simpliciter.
Rather, what most people mean by "capitalism" is
this free-market system that currently prevails
in the western world. In short, the term
"capitalism" as generally used conceals an
assumption that the prevailing system is a free
market. And since the prevailing system is in
fact one of government favoritism toward
business, the ordinary use of the term carries
with it the assumption that the free market is
government favoritism toward business.

It ain't, and the corporation is a Big Granfalloon
given birth and suckled by The Biggest Granfalloon,
Mama bummint.

"The limited liability corporation is the rope by
which Capitalism hung itself." --Greg Swann

Movin' fast now

You're gonna have to polish your bullshit filters.

I try to do some of it for you, but I'm not
infallible any more than you are.

Rapid changes coming one right after or within
the other.

Heads up.

Your survival and mine depend on it.

Whether or not there is a conspiracy or
conspiracies is irrelevant.

Your survival is.

Concentrate.

Thousands of distractions make it difficult.

Divorce yourself in print...

...before it's too late.

"Too late for what?", she said.

I dunno.

Just think about it.

If, then, nobody is individually responsible for
the acts of the members who pretend to constitute
the pretended "congress," then these members are
nobody's agents. And if they are nobody's agents,
they are themselves individually responsible for
their own acts, and for the acts of all whom they
employ. And the authority they are exercising is
simply their own individual authority; and, by
the law of nature - the highest of all laws -
anybody injured by their acts, anybody who is
deprived by them of his property or his liberty,
has the same right to hold them individually
responsible. He has the same right to resist
them, and their agents, that he has to resist any
other trespassers or offenders.

The whole load.

To any and all present and future idiots acting
on my so-called behalf without my written
consent:

I have chosen not to participate a long time ago
in any and all ways I can. I've signed no
agreement including myself in your machinations.
I'm just tending my own potato patch.

I'll have no voluntary dealings or support for
anyone who says he represents me without that
consent. I haven't voted for anyone to do so
and will not vote for any replacement, calling
himself "revolutionary" or by any other
political name.

I speak and act alone.

But when you are intelligent and thoughtful and
you knowingly act to support a system which is
destructive, then you are as guilty as any other
person in that system.

Full essay.

A World Too Complex To Be Managed

Current society is rapidly being transformed
from vertically-structured, institutionally-
dominant systems into horizontally-interconnected
networks. Our world is becoming increasingly
decentralized, with questions arising as to the
forms emerging social systems may take. The study
of chaos informs us that the multifaceted,
interrelated nature of complex systems render our
world unpredictable. As our understanding of
chaos deepens, our faith in institutional
omniscience will likely be abandoned.

...an idea whose time has come.

Full essay.

The Cosmic Nipple continued

The Cosmic Nipple done dried up, most lookin' at
it not knowing how it got so wrinkled so fast and
having no idea that it's empty let alone why.
Planet full o' folks still moving those lips about
how they each need some fresh milk for their pet
projects.

Bwahahahah.

But why is it dry?

You can only whack so many folks over the head
to fill it just so long...until they learn how to
ignore ya or stay out of reach.

On a related note...

'Murika's sneezing. Nobody's got a hankie. Rest
of the planet going to ICU and they're outta
oxygen.

Nacchio says "No" and feels no guilt

Yesterday, Nacchio's image took another turn.
His lawyer, Herbert Stern, said that Nacchio
refused to provide the National Security Agency
with access to private telephone records of Qwest
customers, apparently the lone holdout among the
major phone companies.

The article goes on to describe Nacchio as quite
an ornery fellow. I smell someone's spin here.

I, on the other hand, raise my glass to anyone who
knows how to say such a simple word as "No", a
word whose time has come.

Apparently he's not alone...

Qwest and RCN are likely not alone in shirking
the NSA's request. A February CNET News.com
survey pinpointed 15 large telecommunications and
Internet companies that were willing to say they
had not participated in the program.

Odd turn of phrase, "willing to say". Why not just
say it?

Come on, boys, git up off your tongues and just
spit it out.

Read.

Iran: Euro to replace dollar as oil currency

In July Iran will ditch the dollar in favour of
the euro as the currency in which it will accept
payments for its oil and natural gas exports,
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced
Friday.

Now watch the dollar fall get underway with a
vengeance.

Read.

Intelligent Design

Suppose one day we find out that some Intelligent
Designer created Earth at a profit, selling it to
some other Intelligent Designer who wanted a
larger market for their goods.

Bwahahahaha.

Now for a related read see the Hitchhiker's Guide
to the Galaxy.

Examining all political action

Voting and electoral politics are about as
likely to succeed in transforming American
society as lighting farts with matches is to
remove excess methane from the atmosphere.

Take a look.

What very few are aware of concerning The Big Snoops

Yet another threat

The technology for remote-controlled light
aircraft is now highly advanced, widely available
-- and, experts say, virtually unstoppable.
...
And thanks to satellite positioning systems,
they can now be programmed to hit targets some
distance away with just a few metres (yards)
short of pinpoint accuracy.

Full report.

Your government hard at work

Refining corn ethanol results in a net energy loss.

Figgurs. Everything our "friends" in the Halls of
Power do yields a net energy loss. Yes, ethanol
production is subsidized and promoted by them.

Dumber 'n dirt.

Ethanol backers foresee vast vistas of corn
fields churning out feedstock for the clean-
burning fuel additive to run millions of cars in
the United States, the world's largest consumer
of energy.
...
CEO Warren Staley of food distributor Cargill
said last week the industry should focus first on
food, then fuel.

"We have to look at the hierarchy of value for
agricultural land use: food first, then feed and
last fuel. Today we are providing subsidy to fuel
uses while often erecting barriers to new food
and feed technologies," Staley said.

Once you read the article, you will be able to
tell which companies are getting the ethanol
subsidies and which aren't.

I hear that donkey braying again and I see myself
in my garden plot with my wooden hoe, wearing
my burlap sackcloth.

You?

Read.

Wolf's fine ramble

The one and only goal is a purposeful adventure,
wandering off in your own direction, taking
nothing from the rest of us except the sweep of
history: a collective disaster that wrecked more
lives than it glorified, with maybe five or six
innovators who refused to "compete." They didn't
chase after dumb blondes with big tits; they
didn't make a killing on Wall Street; they
followed no one and questioned everything.

Full rant.

Choosing

"Racism - like any other form of conflict - will
come to an end not through moral preachments or
appeals to such vague abstractions as
brotherhood. It is not bad intentions that keep
us apart, but our willingness to live outside
ourselves, and to identify with groups. We are
willing to inflict death and suffering upon
others not because we are filled with hate, but
because we have such an intense love for our
collective identity. We have subdivided our minds
into "exclusive developments," complete with
restrictive covenants to keep out the
"undesirables." [My emphasis] --Butler Shaffer

Well, I'll keep out undesireables in my world but
I don't give a shit which group they belong to.

Irrelevant.

I'll choose my own "brothers", one at a time.

I wasn't aware there was any other way to act.

Is there?

Avoiding the ultimate shame

If my eight-year-old son behaved as these people
behave, I'd punish him severely and work with
every sinew of my body and soul, day and night,
to rehabilitate him. And if, at the end of his
childhood, I discover that I failed -- say, if my
son, when he's grown, aspires to political office
-- I'll hang my head in shame knowing that I've
unleashed on the world someone who is at
best a leech.

Strong words from Don Boudreaux, a usually mild-
manner fellow.

Better to raise your son to be a street beggar -
an honorable profession - than a pol.

Full post.

Call me a cynic

Only a cynic would suggest that Stephen Roach's
about-turn after six years of bearishness is a
major sell signal for the US economy.

Full report.

Chernobyl: 20 years on

Radiation will stay in the Chernobyl area for
the next 48.000 years, but humans may begin
repopulating the area in about 600 years - give
or take three centuries. The experts predict
that, by then, the most dangerous elements will
have disappeared - or been sufficiently diluted
into the rest of the world's air, soil and water.
If our government can somehow find the money and
political will power to finance the necessary
scientific research, perhaps a way will be
discovered to neutralize or clean up the
contamination sooner. Otherwise, our distant
ancestors will have to wait untill the radiation
diminishes to a tolerable level. If we use the
lowest scientific estimate, that will be 300
years from now......some scientists say it may be
as long as 900 years.

...from Chernobyl revisited...take the trip.
(That link has been on this page for a long time.)

As the world marks the 20th anniversary of the
world’s worst nuclear disaster, environmentalists
are releasing new alarming estimates of the
future death toll. Scientists are examining the
deadly consequences of the fallout, while
survivors go on living in contaminated areas,
watching their children, born long after the
blast, die.

Something you probably don't know: Private
insurance companies won't insure nuclear power
plants. Government has to do it.

Does that tell you something? It tells plenty
if you think about it.

Please do.

Full article.

The Central Planner Cannot Plan

That's the irony. The central planner cannot
plan. Order is restored by removing the planner.

Funny thing. Almost no one believes this in the
Halls of Power. They never will. It goes contrary
to their belief system.

That's why we'll get all The New World Disorder
noone want.

Like the man said, "Chaos always wins. It's better
organized."

Full essay.

Gold price

U.S. $ = 1/700th oz. Au

Prime bummint function: eventually convert
their currency to toilet paper.

The essence of politics

MACHINATION, n.
The method employed by one's opponents in
baffling one's open and honorable efforts to do
the right thing. --Ambrose Bierce

...more commonly known in the Amerikan vernacular
as bullshit.

Foreclosures rocketing

RealtyTrac™ (www.realtytrac.com), the leading
online marketplace for foreclosure properties,
today released its 2006 Q1 U.S. Foreclosure
Market Report, which showed that 323,102
properties nationwide entered some stage of
foreclosure in the first quarter of 2006, a 38
percent increase from the previous quarter and a
72 percent year-over-year increase from the first
quarter of 2005. The nation’s quarterly
foreclosure rate of one new foreclosure for every
358 U.S. households was higher than in any
quarter of last year.

State by state details.

A fully informed juror wins

"Juror A" asked an attorney during the trial
whether she had to follow the law or could vote
her conscience because she suspected Rosenthal
was growing marijuana for medicinal uses. The
attorney told the woman she must follow Breyer's
instructions to follow federal law or she would
get in "trouble."

"We hold that here the communication was an
improper influence upon Juror A's decision to
acquit or convict," Judge Betty Fletcher wrote
for the court. She was joined by Marsha Berzon
and John Gibson.

Now see how that works.

Read.

IE destroyer

"You already want people to switch to Firefox.
Now's the time to get serious about it,"
according to the site. "Google is paying $1 for
each new Firefox user you refer. ... Now you can
advance your ideals, save people from popups and
spyware hell, and make some serious money."

I have a gut feeling that these folks ideals
beyond gutting IE are not my own. I don't
understand what "political ideals" have to do
with this.

...continuing...

Google did not return calls seeking comment for
this story, but the search giant offers a
standard $1 per user referral fee to websites
that generate new downloads of Firefox with the
Google Toolbar.

Other reasons the site offers for switching from
IE to Firefox include, "Reduce your weekly family
and friends tech support load to eight hours" - a
reason that pokes fun at various problems users
encounter when using IE - and "If we knew web
designers would hurl themselves off it, we
wouldn't have put the Golden Gate bridge so close
to San Francisco," which cites developer
difficulties in making websites IE-compatible.

But the explorerdestroyer people are as serious
as you want to be. The highest level allows you
to block IE users from your site.

Hmmmm. I wonder. Should I?

Full report.

Amerika's "free economy"

Mussolini's corporatism, and FDR's response to
it, have left a mark on North American society as
deep as Lake Superior. Agriculture, as a case in
point, is heavily regulated by "marketing boards"
and the like, which control the supply and prices
of produce...

A very small part of the story that I quoted here.

Mussolini was hung. How did FDR escape? See
the history of both of these control freaks.

The War of All Against All

Ed. note: Yesterday, WMR (Wayne Madsen Report)
was warned by a reliable European source that
there was unusual access activity detected
regarding our web site. Fifteen minutes later,
our server, which also supports other web sites,
temporarily went down. But we have the identity
of the source of the unusual access activity: the
US Army's 5th Signal Command in Mannheim,
Germany. Two component activities of the 5th
Signal Command -- the 2nd and 7th Signal Brigades
-- appear to be involved in information warfare
operations and influence operations. Note to 5th
Signal Command operators: by hacking into U.S.
computers protected by the First Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution, you are in potential violation
of Federal law (the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act,
Section 1030, US Code, Fraud and related activity
in connection with computers). If your Commanding
Officer, Brig. Gen. Dennis Via, authorizes such
illegal hacking, he is in violation of the law
and it is your duty, pursuant to Army and DoD
regulations, not to obey such illegal orders and
report them to the Army Inspector General -- 1-
(800) 752-9747, 1-(703) 601-1060 or DSN: 329-1060.

Read.

Institutional thievery run amok

Tax his land, tax his wage,
Tax his bed in which he lays.
Tax his tractor, tax his mule,
Teach him taxes are the rule.

Tax his cow, tax his goat,
Tax his pants, tax his coat.
Tax his ties, tax his shirts,
Tax his work, tax his dirt.

Tax his tobacco, tax his drink,
Tax him if he tries to think.
Tax his booze, tax his beers,
If he cries, tax his tears.

Tax his bills, tax his gas,
Tax his notes, tax his cash.
Tax him good and let him know
That after taxes, he has no dough.

If he hollers, tax him more,
Tax him until he's good and sore.
Tax his coffin, tax his grave,
Tax the sod in which he lays.

Put these words upon his tomb,
"Taxes drove me to my doom!"
And when he's gone, we won't relax,
We'll still be after the inheritance TAX,
Hey maybe you'll get a refund!!

1. Accounts Receivable Tax
2. Building Permit Tax
3. CDL license Tax
4. Cigarette Tax
5. Corporate Income Tax
6. Dog License Tax
7. Federal Income Tax
8. Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
9. Fishing License Tax
10. Food License Tax
11. Fuel permit tax Gasoline Tax (42 cents per gallon)
12. Hunting License Tax
13. Inheritance Tax Interest expense (tax on the money)
14. Inventory tax
15. IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)
16. IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
17. Liquor Tax
18. Luxury Taxes
19. Marriage License Tax
20. Medicare Tax
21. Property Tax
22. Real Estate Tax
23. Service charge taxes
24. Social Security Tax
25. Road usage taxes (Truckers)
26. Sales Taxes
27. Recreational Vehicle Tax
28. School Tax
29. State Income Tax
30. State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
31. Telephone federal excise tax
32. Telephone federal universal service fee tax
33. Telephone federal, state and local surcharge taxes
34. Telephone minimum usage surcharge tax
35. Telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax
36. Telephone state and local tax
37. Telephone usage charge tax
38. Utility Taxes
39. Vehicle License Registration Tax
40. Vehicle Sales Tax
41. Watercraft registration Tax
42. Well Permit Tax
43. Workers Compensation Tax

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago and our nation was the
most prosperous in the world, had absolutely no national debt had the
largest middle class in the world and Mom stayed home to raise the
kids.

What the hell happened?

44. Business license tax

I'm sure there are more not listed here, and more
to come.

That vampire has an appetite, don' he. Mom used to
stay home because there was less blood taken back
then. She could afford to.

Had enough yet?

Thanks to simmeringfrogs

So you think you'll be immune

CAPITOL HILL In response to rising outrage over
gas prices, the House has approved criminal
penalties and whopping fines for energy companies
caught price-gouging.

If this bill passes, expect looooong lines at your
gas pumps and gas station shut-downs.

Power...fuckin' with everybody again.

Howling about "price gouging" ain't gonna get you
the gas you want but you'll love the price your
gummint gives you...as long as supply lasts.

"Everything government touches turns to crap."
--Ringo Starr

Full report.

Won't The War be grand

...wait until the Iranians blockade the Gulf of
Hormuz, through which two-fifths of the world's
oil passes. Let's assume that when the supreme
commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards
Corps, Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safa, suggested such
a strategy, he wasn't kidding. In that case, good
luck driving to work: you may have to mortgage
your house in order to afford the gas.

Most probably future idiots wearing historian's garb
will write that the Second Dark Age came when prior
generations used too much oil and ran out.

Bwahahahah.

If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times:

Do you have your donkey yet?

Full report.

US getting colder

Have the rest of you noticed?

The fact in pictures through 1990.

The controlling concept, Power

We do not pay sufficient attention to the fact
that statists are less interested in either the
substance of their specific “problems,” or the
merits of their proposed solutions, than in
retaining and aggrandizing control over the lives
of others. We spend far too much of our time
giving credence to statists’ issues by making
reasoned or empirical responses to their
proposals, and too little time addressing the
underlying power ambitions. Though some of
their fellow travelers doubtless care about the
merits of the policies, the statists’ principal
concern is to advance a tenable case for
extended state control. I am not suggesting that
their proposals go unchallenged, but that we
understand them as fungible expressions of a
deeper need for power. [My emphasis]

As the man says, it's all about power over
everyone whether you're minding your own business
or not.

Full Read.

Impeach 'em all, the long, the short and the tall.

On Tuesday afternoon, Rep. Dave Zuckerman (Prog.-
VT) dropped the third of three nearly unreported
bombshells on the Bush administration. Zuckerman,
along with 12 fellow lawmakers, introduced a
formal resolution for the Vermont state
legislature to call on the U.S. House of
Representatives to impeach President George W.
Bush.

With this resolution, Vermont joined the
California and Illinois state legislatures,
already embroiled in impeachment debates of their
own.

Full story.

Somebody gonna let that cat out

Will it be these boys?

We now see commercial products emerging from our
prototype program during the last half of next
year.

First will be Demonstration Devices. These will
provide irrefutable evidence that the Quantum
Dynamos can be a practical source for the
conversion of an inexhaustible supply of energy.
The target time frame for pre-manufacturing
prototypes is the Summer of 2006.

By the end of 2006, prototype 1 kW Magnetic
Power Modules are expected to be available to the
first few potential licensees.

During 2007, one of these modules will replace
the need to plug-in, a plug-in hybrid, -- in
order to herald the end of dependence on fossil
fuels.

Read.

Puerto Rico closes government offices

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The government of Puerto
Rico ran out of money Monday, forcing the U.S.
commonwealth to close public schools and shut
down government offices, putting almost 100,000
people out of work.

The legislature and governor failed to reach a
last-minute accord that would have averted the
first-ever partial shutdown of the government in
island history.

Bumping up against the tax limit?

It's just temporary...this time. Isn't it?

Full report.

Herds of dinosaurs

(click on the title above)

Could have also been volcanic ash.

Could have been a meteor strike with the attendant
clouds of dust.

Verdict still out as far as I'm concerned.

Have you bought your snowshoes yet just in case?

Ma Nature's still a bitch.™