Wednesday, August 30, 2006

The Circus, Part II

The US war in Iraq is a political disaster against
the guerrillas - a half-trillion US dollars spent
there and in Afghanistan have left the United
States on the verge of defeat in both places. The
"shock and awe" military strategy has utterly
failed save to produce contracts for weapons
makers - indeed, it has also contributed heavily
to de facto US economic bankruptcy.

...among a host of other straws on the dromedary's
hump and all brought to you by the folks that gave you
Hiroshima. The state's monopoly on the use of force
has been unwittingly exported to any little group or
individual who wants to challenge that monopoly.

Like I've said, force always eats itself.

It's anarchy out there. Has it ever been otherwise?

Read.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Paybacks

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has during his tenure approved the use of a dozen extreme interrogation methods above and beyond those previously permitted by the Pentagon, including, but not limited to, hooding, disrobing, placing detainees in stress positions and exploiting their "fear of dogs." When the resulting Abu Ghraib photos leaked out in 2004, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) declared that he was more "outraged by the outrage" than by the actual evidence of detainee abuse.

So: Inhofe should be blindfolded, put in a straitjacket and left in a room full of crazed chihuahuas until he explains why he believes that the U.S. military should not be constrained to follow the laws of the land, such as the Anti-Torture Act.

The iconic photo from the Bush/Rumsfeld interrogation era is that of the Iraqi detainee covered in a shroud, standing on a box, with wires attached to his body. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) spearheaded the coverup of the CIA's use of secret prisons throughout Eastern Europe, so he could stand on his own box wired to an electric charge until confessing why he believes that the Geneva Convention prohibition on making detainees "disappear" is null and void.

Exposure to extreme cold and heat is another method routinely used by U.S. interrogators. Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) has been the biggest Democratic apologist for Abu Ghraib in the Senate, so perhaps he could be strapped to a block of ice until he explains how using "coercion" helps the United States win hearts and minds in the Muslim world.
Eminently worthy plan.

Whole article.

Thanks to L. Reichard White

A look at creation

So you want to be more creative, in art, in business, whatever. Here are some tips that have worked for me over the years:

1. Ignore everybody.

2. The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to change the world.

3. Put the hours in.

4. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.

5. You are responsible for your own experience.

6. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.

7. Keep your day job.
...
See the rest of this fine piece.

Monday, August 28, 2006

A look at Socioeconomics by the pioneer

PRECHTER: We're racing headlong toward outright authoritarianism. That's one of the traits of very large bear markets. We had creeping socialism until Janet Reno, but that's when the trend hardened. Congress's terrorism laws ignore individual rights and the Constitution. Since taking office, Bush has issued threats and commands to about a dozen governments. In his inaugural speech, he claimed that God wants him to democratize the world, by force. How one can state a more anti-American agenda I can't imagine. Democracy was anathema to the Founding Fathers, as was using force on neighbors for anything but self-defense. If you don't think this righteous vision will lead to conflict, you don't understand human nature. The army's sexual torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo was sick behavior, and it wasn't aberrational; it was policy; the worst photos are so bad that they won't release them. It's as if Saddam were in charge. This makes the U.S.'s Japanese interment camps of World War II look quite benign by comparison. I've been on record that Hillary will be President. I have no doubt that she will jam the authoritarian ratchet even harder, and Bush will have laid the groundwork for her. Hillary gave us a glimpse of her vision when she got a couple hundred lawyers in a room and drafted that intricate list of punishments for physicians. She's the closest thing to a Stalinist that we've ever had, and she's a philosophical leftist, not just an emotional or pragmatic one. So yeah, I guess you could say I think we are moving toward totalitarianism, but it won't be "to keep things in order." It will destroy all order. Government fosters hostilities among people . Free people help each other and create their own order.

It really doesn't matter who will become president.

The stage was set a long time ago.

See the whole interview.

It's not about "winning"

One point Schneier either doesn’t yet get or avoids mentioning when he says “Our politicians help the terrorists every time they use fear as a campaign tactic” is that the aims of the terrorists and our politicians are frequently aligned: both want us scared. Neither wants the other gone because politicians who don’t push fear on their subjects would negate the efforts of the terrorists and without terrorists how would the fearmongering politicians keep expanding their power? The War on Terror is not just a war they can’t win, it’s a war they don’t want to win.
No, they don't want to win it and they won't til they're
bankrupt.

They are.


Read.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Sobran at his best

We live in terrible, confusing times, the worst I can remember. Events are so far beyond our control that about all we can hope to achieve is to keep our own minds clear. It’s not just that our rulers lie to us; it’s that they wouldn’t know how to tell the truth if they wanted to. Honest language is among our few remaining hopes.
See it all.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Short guide to civilized living

According to The Right Rev. Beau Daschious this
below is attributed to William S. Burroughs:
If you’re doing business with a religious son of a bitch, get it in writing; his word isn’t worth shit, not with the good lord telling him how to fuck you on the deal.

If, after having been exposed to someone’s presence, you feel as if you’ve lost a quart of plasma, avoid that presence. You need it like you need pernicious anemia. We don’t like to hear the word “vampire” around here; we’re trying to improve our public image.

Build up a kindly, avuncular, benevolent image; “interdependence” is the keyword — enlightened interdependence. Life in all its rich variety, take a little, leave a little. . .

According to my pappy, always get it in writing.
It's worked for me over the years. You never
really know how the other guy is gonna act and it's
easier to get a payback or shame him if he fucks a
deal with his signature attached.

That works both ways, in case you forgot.

Like the man says tho, "..take a little leave a little..."
or 'take a lot and leave a lot' or 'take nothing and
leave nothing'.

Now, if you hang around folks that don't subscribe
to the previous paragraph, expect to be in the line
of fire when retribution visits. You can make of that
what you will.

Friday, August 25, 2006

What's mine is mine and what's yours is mine - the application

contradiction

One significant problem with this cartoon:

To expect honesty out of a pol particularly
in front of one of his victims is akin to
expecting a wolf to show the sheep his mouth
when it's full of wool.

Via Les Jones

Graphic rendition of The Iron Law of Oligarchy

It's a comic book world.

Take a look.

tax collector

tax collector

The very lowest form of human scum. An agent hired by a government to coerce and collect money from innocent people to pay for politically correct social programs.

Matthew was a tax collector and a sinner. The Lord hung out at his place and came under fire from religious people.


From the Urban Dictionary.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Another magnetic motor

“I could have sold my motor to some foreign buyer, but I am not going to sell it,” said Mr. Strushchenko. He believes that inventions like that should belong to the state but the state does not seem to care. He says that he has been trying to donate his invention to the state for the last five years. According to him, everybody agrees that his invention is a work of genius. Still, he can not get a patent.

The Glory of the State still lives in this politically Dull
Spark.

Unbelievable.

Complete report.

--This has been another Zombie Alert brought to you by jomama

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

The Hubble picture show and more

I'm fascinated looking at the Whirlpool Galaxy on
my computer screen. All that energy and me like
the cat pawing at the fish tank for hours on end,
the fly on the other side of the glass, the hog
looking at a wrist watch.

How does it make you feel?

If you want it on your desktop go here, right click
and select "Set as desktop". (Windows XP)

The small version is here on the right panel.

A shame to have to look at pictures of pieces of
the Universe in two dimensions, isn't it.

Take the whole tour of the picture album.

Then take a look at other logarithmic spirals from
the chamber nautilus to the Spiral Nebula.

There's something big and small going on here.

Consumerism

There's a lotta that going around nowadays, in
more ways than one. The use of the word hints at
telling me that I'm just gonna have to "cut
back" my consumption of x, y, or z based on some
other sombitch's values instead of my own.

But how do you avoid being a "consumerist" and
still survive?

The use of the word has lost all meaning, full of
sound and fury. Most everyone should know where
that leads.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

How do you like the results of this?

The men that American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest the most violently are those who try to tell them the truth. -- H. L. Mencken (attributed: source unknown)

Monday, August 21, 2006

All together now...

The depravity of an absolute state domestically and perpetual wars internationally has not yet even knocked on the mushy skulls of the majority of American pinheads.
Whole rant.

--This has been another ZombieAlert brought to you by jomama.


Sunday, August 20, 2006

Who are "they"?

shoot lib

Friday, August 18, 2006

The largest corporation on the planet

 What is the largest corporation on planet earth today?

Is it currently accountable to anyone?

Back to the future


Makes ya wonder
what the poor
dearie on the right
fed her six kids,
don't it.

So you thought it was all about "public servants"

The widespread belief that our relationship with our "public servants" is the same as our relationship with our servants in the private sector is pathetic self-delusion.When we hire servants, we become the servants' employers, and the servants become our employees. If we are dissatisfied with our servants' performance, we simply tell them, "Thank you, but your services are no longer required."When we elect a president, we are not hiring a "public servant."Are you able to tell US President George W. Bush or ROC "President" Chen Shui-bian, "Thank you, but your services are no longer required."

Does anyone still believe this crap we were
force-fed in our hi-school civics classes?

Nothing was mentioned in this essay of all the other
"public servants" we deal with up front and personal.

Full essay.

Via Bill St. Clair

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Airline losses mount

“The impact on the airlines, of executives choosing not to travel, could be fairly significant,” said Dan Solon, an analyst at London-based Avmark International.

“For them, it’s as much the hassle factor as confidence in flight safety.”


...to say nothing of the rest of us who don't have to
go by air.

The hassle factor is also the only thing that keeps
me on the ground  and I can quickly think of three
people who will do likewise.

I wonder how many of us there are.

Expect a large number of airline bankruptcy filings
to follow.

The whole report.

To End All Wars

How does one break into this vicious circle of institutionalized and sanctified destruction and put an end to it? We make the feeble excuse that wars will end when “others” change their ways and decide to quit the practice. But you have no control over others. The illusion that you do is what creates the war system. Since war involves two or more parties, and you cannot control the energies of others, your efforts to end wars is necessarily confined to the withdrawing of your participation in the system.

The rest.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

So you like ethanol...

Even as the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated the first forecast of the fall harvest of the corn crop to be at 10.98 billion bushels, which is the third biggest harvest ever, the amount of corn consumed by U.S. ethanol manufacturers, food makers and livestock feeders could well lead to the corn stockpiles being depleted within two years.

I've written about this before.

Full article.

The zombie in us

According to Christof Koch, a neurobiologist at CalTech in Pasadena, "Zombie agents control your eyes, hands, feet, and posture, and rapidly transduce sensory input into stereotypical motor output. They might even trigger aggressive or sexual behaviour when getting a whiff of the right stuff. All, however, bypass consciousness. This is the zombie in you."
...
In a 2001 article in NATURE entitled "The Zombie Within", Koch and Crick first speculated that: "It may be because consciousness allows the system to plan future actions, opening up a potentially infinite behavioural repertoire and making explicit memory possible."

Thus, consciousness would appear to be more varied, useful, and adaptable.

Interesting article.

--This has been a  prime  Zombie Alert brought to you by jomama.


After the fat lady has sung

There will be a vast range of appalling messes,
and corresponding enormous business opportunities.
Those who plan furthest ahead how to take up those
opportunities will be in the best position to make
a whole series of fortunes--but they won't come
easy. The problems posed by centuries of government
are of staggering complexity.... Suppose you're
good at tree farming and have your eye on a few
thousand acres of prime Alaska forest to be worked,
to keep you and your family in comfort for the next
several generations. You check it all out,
calculate the price you're willing to pay, find
that nobody is trying to outbid you, and get out
your checkbook. Oops! To whom, exactly, do you
make out the check?

Possible scenario:

The GAO (Government Accounting Office) is
portioned off for bid to ~100 of the biggest
accounting firms as the GAO knows where some of
the government property is. The accounting firms
get a percentage of money collected. Hundreds of
bankruptcy courts are also formed getting a
percentage.

...or...

Just move on, stake your claim, put some junkyard
dogs on it pissing in all the corners, and go to
work.


After The Glorious Experiment goes tits up, you're
going to have to defend your own claims. You may
want to add something a bit meaner to guard your
property.

The whole essay.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

These boys got their rulers out and wagged a new one

This just in from my big bro...

"They never learn - infinity scares the fuck outta
them."
Scientists now estimate the universe to be about 13.7 billion years old (a figure that has seemed firm since 2003, based on measurements of radiation leftover from the Big Bang) and about billion light-years wide

The whole article.

Magick for Materialists: How to Get What You Want

We don’t have to simply accept the programs handed to us. We can write our own. It can be done very simply: through repetition. The reason you write that sentence 23 times in a row, and do it every day, is for the repetition. You will accept and, on some level, believe anything that you have heard stated frequently enough. This is the key to all advertising and propaganda (both of which are forms of magick.) It goes straight to the subconscious, and when your subconscious believes something is true, then you will begin to act as if it were true.

If you act as if it is true, then in accordance with “like begets like” you will cause it to become true.

Avoid the zombie syndrome. We've all got plenty of
it.  Try something different.

You're going to have to read it all to understand it.

Monday, August 14, 2006

The Lockdown continues...

The new land border crossing regulations are expected to negatively impact tourism and trade across the U.S.-Canada border as people will see traveling to Canada as too much of a hassle. A 2005 Canadian Tourism Commission report (PDF) predicted 7.7 million fewer Americans would visit Canada, and 3.5 million fewer Canadians would visit the U.S., in the three years following implementation of the land border restrictions.

Via strike-the-root.

All you need to know about economics...in one paragraph

It's just this simple.

Looking for Huns in all the wrong places

"Barbarian invasions would be superfluous: we
are our own Huns." -- Bertrand de Jouvenal

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Latest terror threat - more government foreskin

The British press admitted that it was a Scotland Yard "covert operation" that disrupted the alleged plot. Another newspaper admitted that it was a "pre-planned, intelligence-led operation by the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch and security services." What we always find out later is that the government anti-terrorism forces had covert agents within these groups, monitoring their activities at best, and provoking and instructing them at worst. If the recent Canadian sting operation is any example, we will find that government agent-provocateurs were busy enticing angry Muslims to join the group and giving them training on building lethal devices. That is hardly independent, homegrown terrorism. It's induced, controlled terror for political purposes.
...
Today, both governments are releasing more "details." Keep in mind, information about terrorism is always a tightly controlled government secret. We never have any independent information to confirm what government tells us and much of the information given the public about terrorism has been self-serving and self-justifying.

Remember the Shoe Bomber?

Why did they overlook banning shoes on flights?

Bwahahaha.

Full article.

Contradictions abound

Orwell saw, perhaps better than any others, how the corruption of language is essential to the corruption of society via the expansion of state power. "War is peace" has become widely accepted in our world (the Strategtic Air Command's motto "Peace Is Our Profession" demonstrates how easily dull minds can metabolize contradictions). In case there are any nascent perceptive minds about to fall through the net of statist lies and unreason, Faux News will be there to catch them up with slogans to remind us that police-state tyranny and butcherous warfare are part of "The Cost of Freedom."


Link.

--This has been another Zombie Alert brought to you by jomama.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

...about Mel Gibson



[This page intentionally left blank]



Friday, August 11, 2006

Google the way it ought to be

Sullivan asked Schmidt why Google does not purge its users' data from its computers every month or two to guard against building up too much history of any Web user's search habits.

"We have actually had that debate," Schmidt said, adding that security protections Google has put in place would make it very difficult, if not impossible, to steal customer data. He said keeping users' trust was Google 's most essential mission.

Er, ah... Politician's response. I detect a sideways
moving Schmidt crab.

Obviously, the result of the debate was that they
decided against it so the government can have
some more data when they want it otherwise the
Dull Sparks at Google would delete the data.

Now try Scroogle Scraper: Google the way it used
to be: without ads, sponsored links, cookies.
They say their access log is deleted within 48 hours.


The whole article.

Best idea I've heard all week

Norm Singleton at the Lew Rockwell blog says:
Comes from Richard Wilkins at More Liberty. In commenting on how the the federal government keeps two sets of books to hide the true size of the federal deficit Wilkins suggests subjecting Congress to "Section 404 of the infamous Sarbanes-Oxley Act which would require them to personally certify the accuracy of the government's financial information or face civil and/or criminal liability if the financial information released to the public was found to be inaccurate."

Fry 'em in their own sauce, I sez. Then make 'em
walk the plank, me hearties.

Maybe that's too good for 'em.

Link.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

It's government oil now

Yet Big Oil is pretty small next to the industry's true giants: the national oil companies (NOCs) owned or controlled by the governments of oil-rich countries, which manage over 90% of the world's oil, depending on how you count. Of the 20 biggest oil firms, in terms of reserves of oil and gas, 16 are NOCs. Saudi Aramco, the biggest, has more than ten times the reserves that Exxon does. Those with misgivings about oil—that its price is too high, that reserves are running out, that it damages the environment, that it is more a curse than an asset for countries that produce it—must look to NOCs for reassurance.

These companies are certainly sitting on a reassuring amount of oil. Saudi Aramco's proved reserves alone could keep the world supplied for several decades. But it is only exploiting ten of its 80 or so fields, so will be able to pump at the present rate for about 70 years even if it never discovers another drop of oil. In fact, Aramco and other NOCs are likely to find plenty more if they look, since their territory has not been very thoroughly explored. Only 2,000 wildcat wells have ever been dug in the countries around the Gulf, according to Leonardo Maugeri, an Italian oilman, compared with more than 1m wells in the United States.

Read.

New links

I just added two new links on the side bar, both new
blogs by my friend L. Reichard White. Here are
some samples of what he's published elsewhere.

Rather prolific sort he is, even working on a book
at the moment.

See his blogs at Common sense and Uncommon
sense.



The New Religion exposed, soon to die

Politics is a religion. Like all religions, politics is also chock full of its own rites and rituals. In the West, voting is the most seductive--and perhaps, most important--ritual in the repertoire of rites of this particular cult. Specifically, it is used to help maintain the fantasy that politics is a peaceful art. By assaulting our consciousness regularly with the rhythmical, methodical, and incessant recitation of scripture-like propaganda, and urging us to fulfill our destiny as citizens, the state teaches us, prods us, implores us, patiently and hypnotically, into the fine art of gentle submission to unjust and unearned authority.
...
Much like the Church of Rome, they employ rites meant to sanctify their status as moral superiors to mere supplicants, who are drawn to the polls by blind lust, on each holy day of ritual sacrament.

The Church was eventually defanged and so will go
The New Religion at some point as the supplicants
stop praying to it.

All of it.

It's not how people work

Fred Reed at his best...
If the Chinese bombed your home, and killed your sister, would that make you join the Chinese and want a puppet government?

It is not how people work.

Full rant.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Tagging

I've been meaning to write this for some time in
anticipation of being tagged to spill my tripe
here on my favorite this or that. I should have
posted this earlier, but my first name is The
Procrastinator and now Vache Folle has gone and
done it.

Save your fingers, all ye who would tag me. I'm
not playing. I have my own agenda. You want to
know more about me, come on back and read,
particularly read thru the "Powerful links"
section on the right panel. These are some of the
thoughts that blow my skirt up.

If you've come here for anything other than ideas
you've wasted your time. If you want "nice" go
here
for just one example of many.

Nice?

Don't we already know what "nice" is and where to
find it?

This is an "idea" blog. Ideas rule. They live
forever in the fine turn of a phrase.

Now, don't get me wrong, Vache. I like reading
you. You're one of the good guys who thinks
with clarity.

I suppose I've got over 100 favorite books but
going thru the routine of listing some reminds me
too much of a high school assignment. That was
long ago and far away in more ways than I want to
remember.

Aack!

This is my rifle, this is my gun. Blogging is for
fun. So is my gun.

Sincerely ornery,

jo

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

A box of chocolates for everyone just showed up

The Long Tail theory is not set out to prove that the blockbuster hit is dead. Whether or not this is true can be argued, but like I said it is not the point. The more important insight is with barriers to entry, and more importantly to domination. Those, in many industries, have left the hands of the elites. As such, these industries are now open for everyone - journalism, books, music, movies - all are but examples of alternative mediums which compliment the traditional channels. Sometimes in a way that makes the older channels even obsolete
...
I believe The Long Tail is a 101 book, as is Small is the New Big, by Seth Godin for anyone who is interesting in really understanding the new dynamics and how to play them right.

Oooha. Markets for everyone. Jump on.

Read.

Knowing is the Greatest Barrier to Learning

A thinking mind protects itself against the usurpations of society and does not cower to human opinion. Remember, everything Hitler did was legal. Humans were born into a world that was against them in a thousand little ways, and then devoted most of their energies to making it worse. Work without a vision is slavery, Vision without work is a pipe dream, But vision with work is the hope of the world. Unity of mankind means: No escape for anyone anywhere. Anyway, a police officer friend of mine once said that if you're going to do something illegal, do it big, do it once, and don't tell anybody.

See it all.

Tragically hilarious

When it comes to Turkmenistan, it’s often difficult to tell whether stories belong in our “satire” or “Turkestan” section. Sometimes I think the entire country is a creation of The Onion. Today’s news is no exception:

The folks at cominganarchy.com are on a roll.

Take a look.

Those self-deluded nitwits again

At its core, "freedom isn't free" is a simple
way for millions of self-deluded nitwits to
rationalize government-generated mass murder and
destruction. That's it. It ain't any more
complicated than that. Surprisingly, the sheep
are content, and even proud of what is
accomplished with their support, and the state
gets a license to kill with no immediate cost.
Blowback is a long-term cost, but, in the words
of an icon of the state-worshiping crowd, "in the
long run, we are all dead."

Hell of a way to live, waiting to die.

If I were a True Believer, I might be inclined to
call it Hell's Waiting Room.

Anyone have a better name for it?

See the whole essay.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Someone to vote for...every time

My ballot allows write-ins, and I take advantage of this to vote for myself for every position. Since no politician has ever understood what is best for me, I figure the only person who I should elect is myself. I recommend to others in my area to do the same — vote for themselves. We have a growing minority in my county, and I hope to see the youngest voters taking advantage of the polls to vote for themselves as well.

If you must vote, why not do it right like the man says?

Full essay.

What the US is close to

A real view of England, minus the illusions...
And what of society?

A people that used to work, to produce, are now expert at playing both sides of any rotten system,buying their prime's worth of happy house living to die in poverty, zero-sum cynicism where even our worldly effects won't outlast us, seeking ways to trick money out of any situation, like a gut digesting itself in a freak case of uncontrollable gastric juices.

And the productive that remain are regarded as fair game, the human sacrifice to bring comfort when the world begins to peek into this disgusting lair, this septic isle.

Very nicely stated.

See it all at owlsarentwise

Far beyond Castro

Most Americans look at Castro as a great evil
dictator, but I see markable resemblences between
his wielding of power and the power which has been
taken by the US Federal body. Castro has promoted
the following that is very similar to where the US
is heading:

* Federal funded Social Security
* Federally funded education
* Federal wealth “equalization” through taxation
* Terrorist treatment — revocation of due process, no right to an attorney, no juries, secret courts and trials (military tribunals)
* Massive federal budget dedicated to military “defense”

Note how this article is not about just Fidel. Dada,
the author, sees The Big Picture too...
When Bush leaves office, he’ll leave
to his successor a government that is bigger than
it was when he took office, just as Clinton did
for Bush, and just as Bush I did for Clinton. We
can follow this process back to Lincoln — every
President takes office with more power than the
previous President did. When Mark Warner grabs
the baton from G.W. Bush, he’ll be more powerful
than Bush was, and he’ll have more State-created
problems to try to annihilate with more State
power.

Guaronteed.(sic)

Now look around blogdom and tell me how many
are continuing to look for A New Savior of Their
Flavor of Government.

The Circus continues...

Full article.

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Donkeys, think donkeys

It was here, almost 60 years ago, that modern American suburbia was born. Work began on the town in 1947 and Long Island potato fields were soon covered with a radical new form of housing: single, similar, purpose-built houses designed for car-owners and aimed at families. At the time it was a shock. Social scientists scoffed at Levittown. But within decades the suburban experiment had come to define US life and what began in Levittown now covers the country in urban sprawl, strip malls and a way of life revolving around the car.

Now there are fears it is coming to an end.

Fear is running rampant, ain't it.

Full report.

The intergalactic gardeners at work?

Strange red structures may be alien life

I'll say this about that.

Either they are or they aren't.

Via orlin grabbe

For those who need the picture



Made by ali at alisvoice

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Another Grand Illusion, the belief in honest government

"When we start hanging government liars, we will
have an honest government." --unknown

This illusion is alive and well.

How could individuals "working" in an institution
that practices mass thievery and mass murder ever
be considered honest?

What makes grown-ups live in such a fog?

Eating their own foot and doing it while the whole world watches


Congress has written its own accounting rules — which would be illegal for a corporation to use because they ignore important costs such as the growing expense of retirement benefits for civil servants and military personnel.
From the tune, "Who could expect anything more?"

The article.

Friday, August 04, 2006

Big cojones

"And may George W. Bush drink the blood of every man, woman and child in Iraq," he continued, according to Robynn Jaymes, who co-hosts a morning radio show with Sharp and was also among the stunned observers.

The crowd's reaction was loud enough for John Saunders, the civic center's assistant director, to hear from the front office. "It was a restless kind of booing," Saunders said.

Then the man took off his hat and sang what he said was his native national anthem. He then told the crowd to be seated, put his hat back on, and launched into a butchered version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" that ended with the words "your home in the grave," Sharp said.

By then, a restless crowd had turned downright nasty.

"If he had been out there a minute longer, I think somebody would have shot him," Jaymes said. "People were booing him, flipping him off."

Hey, who let that guy in here?

Bwahahaha.

Full article.

Live without fear

When we live without fear, we end up making better decisions. We think more creatively. We stop refusing to look at the realities of our circumstances. We start enjoying life more. In short, we become more whole.

Read.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Laying the idea of government to rest

Orthodox, i.e., statist, political theorists, from
John Locke to James Buchanan and John Rawls, have
tried to solve this difficulty through the make-
shift of "tacit," "implicit," or "conceptual"
agreements, contracts, or state-constitutions. All
of these characteristically tortuous and confused
attempts, however, have only added to the same
unavoidable conclusion drawn by Rothbard: That it
is impossible to derive a justification for
government from explicit contracts between private
property owners, and hence, that the institution of
the state must be considered unjust, i.e., the
result of moral error.
...
Once the principle of government – judicial
monopoly and the power to tax – is incorrectly
admitted as just, any notion of restraining
government power and safeguarding individual
liberty and property is illusory. Rather, under
monopolistic auspices the price of justice and
protection will continually rise and the quality of
justice and protection fall. A tax-funded
protection agency is a contradiction in terms – an
expropriating property protector – and will
inevitably lead to more taxes and less protection.

I think Hoppe has nailed that coffin shut.

How many do you suppose can see it, to say nothing
of going cold turkey and kicking that monkey off
their back?

See the rest of this fine thinking.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

War again

War always has been about bombing folks back into
the stone age. It's never worked. Someone ends up
picking up the tab to bring the ones left back to
the present.

What the fuck's the attraction to all that?

Read.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Why I blog

I knew a fellow once who ran a very successful
restaurant for a long time before he retired. I
asked him one day what was the secret of his
success. He told me, "I cook for myself. I tell
people that don't like my food about another
restaurant up the road apiece, 'Perhaps you'll
like their food better'. Trying to please,
everyone usually satisfies only a few, if that.
I feed 'em in my style."

His food was excellent. I liked his style.

That applies to blogs as well, and there's
plenty of fare to chose from, ain't there. Been
there and chosen myself. I do it every day like
you do, looking for that special something that
someone has to say that blows my skirt up. If I
can't find it, I don't hang around. I hope you
do likewise, here and elsewhere. Life is short.

I do this blog thing to please myself and yes,
there are multiple reasons that happens but you
regulars already know I'm a person of few words
so I'm leaving it at that.

As far as I can tell, that's why everyone else
does it too.

If you can't please yourself first, why bother?