A coercively funded, government controlled education monopoly verses liberty.
I’ll put it another way. Let’s suppose we put that on a national ballot. You have two selections. You may vote for the coercively funded, government controlled education monopoly on one hand, or liberty on the other. Either/or. That’s your choice.
But wait; do you or anyone else, no matter your numbers, have the right to vote against liberty? Why?
To surrender completely to the control of others – either a secular government or a religious one – control that invades every waking action, requires people unwilling to do for themselves. The first step is and must be the destruction of education. People must be prevented from thinking for themselves, from reasoning. George Orwell explained it with “Newspeak” in his novel 1984:
…
That preparation started in the early years of the 20th Century. Thus today we have “politically correct” speech. With destruction of language skills comes the destruction of logic skills – if you can’t read, you can’t integrate ideas new to you. In fact, new ideas are gibberish – words that have no meaning. “Politically free” is a null value to someone planted in the fields of politicism. It’s a weed.
A free society requires an informed and virtuous citizenry.
“Free,” “informed” and “virtuous” have become null terms.
The 21st Century will be a century of struggle between freedom and politicism. Polticism has two competing versions – Marxist and Muslim. Freedom?
Null term.
Kevin Baker
July 4, 2011
TL;DR
[Kevin has some good points. There are even some points that he doesn’t directly address that support his pessimistic outlook. For example, the title, “TL;DR”, is very telling. Our society changed dramatically with instant entertainment. I’m certain that television and even radio are factors in the transformation of our culture into a more ignorant one. We can be mindlessly entertained rather than improving our minds and/or our bodies or producing something of value. The idiot boxes are such a great temptation that instead of doing something productive we take another hit of the entertainment drug. And there is so many “drugs” to chose from. If one doesn’t grab you in the first 15 seconds you change the “channel” until you find one that does grab you. Instant gratification is critical to success of a “channel”. Who in their right mind would be willing to read and understand, let alone write, books like those of Locke and Hobbs (unless it was Calvin and Hobbs) when you have Grand Theft Auto, Entertainment Tonight, and meth available? Those are so much easier to understand and offer near instant gratification. Who has the time to even read a Kevin Baker post? Understand it? Bah! In the grand scheme, it’s almost no one.
The fraction of the population that is capable of that is so small and the fraction of those that would care even if they could understand it that the blip on the vote tally would be impossible to detect in the statistical noise let alone the voter fraud. And the voter fraud will always be aligned against the likes of Kevin.
I understand all that. But I still have, perhaps perverse, optimism for the outcome. While the upside of our near instant communication isn’t as obvious as the downside I still think the potential exists to ultimately prevail. Because we have the ability to communicate to thousands across vast distances at nearly the speed of light and publish we have a incredible advantage over Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and Samuel Adams. They were part of a nation of just three million people and built the foundation of most powerful economic and military force the world has ever seen. We have three million or more like minded people in our country now. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are ten times that many. The problem is that those people’s voices have been drown out by the noise from the parasites clamoring for “social justice”, or “their fair share”.
There have been many great civilizations before us that collapsed and some of the causes may even be common to our own. Internal and/or external enemies, exhaustion of natural resources, over population, or even climate changes (you have heard of the little ice age, right?). But our current crises is mostly due to internal enemies with some added pressure by external enemies. As Kevin points out these are the cults created centuries ago by Marx and Mohammad. I think the Marx cultists is doing most of the damage and is the bigger threat. But I think it is possible that even they have reached the zenith of their power and may soon experience a catastrophic collapse even more rapid than our society as a whole.
What the socialist/communist/progressive masses don’t understand is that they are, as Ayn Rand pointed out, looters. And the life of an unhindered looter is only great as long as there is someone left to loot that doesn’t offer meaningful resistance. And they just looted the last “store” on the planet.
The Marxists always describe people in terms of “class”. I think there is a grain truth to be harvested from a class division of people. But it’s not the class division taught by Marx and his cult. The class division I find useful is of producers and looters. And as the economic realities of discovering the last store on the planet has already been looted the looters will either become producers or they will die off. I suspect there will be lots of dead. Most from starvation and disease and a few from being shot by the producers that finally start doing what should have been done a long time ago—protecting their property from the looters.
The instant communication channels will allow us to find other producers and identify looters. This will give us hope and it will enable our cooperation. This is the upside to our technology and may yet save our species from the great endarkenment looming over us. This is an ace-in-the hole that no civilization before us ever had available.
The looters of the future will not be so well camouflaged as the looters of today. Today they have a few leaders who wear suits and smile as they wave to the camera and ask for your vote. In the not so distant future their leaders are likely to live lives that of the last couple of years of Saddam Hussein and meet similar ends. The looters will be hungry, dirty, and run in wild packs. Without the camouflage producers will recognize them for what they are and appropriate action will be taken.
I don’t know the end result of the coming final class struggle. Maybe the looters will destroy the last of the producers and it will be another ten thousand years before a civilization can rise from the ashes. But at this point I don’t think that is a forgone conclusion. I think the producers may have to look the other way as millions of looters become beggars and then finally corpses. They may be millions of tons of rotting flesh to be cleared but the producers may be able to survive the coming apocalypse and end up with a much stronger society two or three generations from now.
Some lessons are very, very difficult to learn. But sometimes you cannot advance to the next level until you master the current level.
I just hope Gerard Vanderleun is wrong and our society can learn the lesson of this level before we have lost all our lives and it is game over.—Joe]
Becoming a burden on society is not a problem of liberty and private property. It’s a problem of socialism where one person is forced to take care of someone else. That being the case, the government, in the name of reducing health care costs, assumes part ownership of you and as such assumes a right to control many aspects of your life. That Americans have joyfully given up self-ownership is both tragic and sad.
Walter E. Williams
2009
Who May Harm Whom?
[Via Lyle in the comments.
Read the whole thing. I think the concepts presented have the ability to shut down, in my favor, many of debates that I sometimes get into.—Joe]
My hope is that the recent hearing will further expose the ATF’s and Attorney General Eric Holder’s assaults on law-abiding gun owners, and more people will start questioning the need for unconstitutional agencies like the ATF that exist solely to infringe on American citizens’ God-given right to keep and bear arms.
Ron Paul
June 21, 2011
Rep. Ron Paul slams Obama over gun scandal, Second Amendment
[This is a little weak. The words “right to keep and bear arms” should be replaced with “rights”.
At least that would be a good start. Calls for tar and feathers would gain further support from me.—Joe]
This is an addendum to the post below.
As stated; as a public employee, as a public servant, your job, your individual tasks, your pay and the very existence of the department for which you work, exists purely at our (The People’s) pleasure. It is our prerogative to alter this relationship, to dismiss you, or to eliminate your department entirely, at a whim.
As a public servant, you have no “right” whatsoever to a particular salary, or to a particular job, etc. If we decide we must lower your pay or dismiss you altogether, your proper response would be something like; “I understand. Thank you for the opportunity to have served you.” At that point you are free to go your own way and prove your worth in the marketplace as you see fit. May you live long and prosper.
If you decide, on the other hand, to get hostile about it and start in with the name-calling and the threats, what can We The People conclude about the relationship we’ve had with you? Look at me when I’m talking to you!
In private practice, a servant that gets hostile with the home owner will probably result in the police being called in on a domestic disturbance. At the very best it would result in an unflattering reference when you apply for another job. This is OUR house. If the hostility continues and becomes threatening, what are we to do? If the police aren’t able to help us get you public servants under control, well then, what? What are we left with for options in that case? You aren’t going to get your way, let me just put it like that. Not for long, I can tell you. This is OUR country.
College students are asked to sign a petition to impose Affirmative Action upon the basketball team (for diversity), to redistribute GPA points, ban conservative talk radio, etc. Good stuff. Enjoy.
What I took away was the students’ apparent total lack of ability, or preparation, for these discussions, meaning that high schools and universities aren’t encouraging such critical thinking at all. I believe my son, who just graduated from high school, could give these petitioners a resounding talkin’ to.
HT to Glen Beck
Admit it– somewhere in the recesses of your mind, you thought there were only the best of intentions behind the creation of FEMA.
Little Grasshopper; I’ve been trying to get this across for some time now. I know it’s extremely difficult, but you have to try harder to grasp this pebble from my hand. People with good intentions want YOU TO BE STRONG ALL ON YOUR OWN. In the harder times, when you fall down and get seriously hurt, they want YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY TO BE STRONG ALL ON ITS OWN. In the hardest of times they want YOUR REGION TO BE STRONG ALL ON ITS OWN. If the end of the world seems to be upon you, they want EVERY INDIVIDUAL TO BE AS INDEPENDANTLY STRONG AS POSSIBLE. Only then can Mankind face the biggest challenges and come out strong.
Creating a system that operated through coercion, funded coercively, which by its nature weakens charities and weaken individuals in favor of centralized power, is not the result of good intentions. It is the result of hatred. I know it’s extremely difficult, Little Grasshopper. I know there are all those assertions of warmth and light and compassion, but those are deep, deep lies, all the more the egregious because of their mockery of love and compassion.
What evidence will it take to convince you?
If there were a woman close to me that had read the book I would seriously consider buying this bracelet for them.
In other news Atlas Shrugged Part II is scheduled to be out in the fall of 2012.
Although some government officials may wish otherwise, protected speech is called “protected” for a reason. The courts will safeguard it at the financial peril of those who violate the Constitution. Parody cannot be criminalized, and those who create parody cannot be treated as criminals.
Erica Goldberg
June 7, 2011
Court Holds Prosecutor Personally Liable for Unconstitutional Search of Student Who Created a Parody Newsletter
[H/T Say Uncle.
Someday we need to leverage this ruling or others like it into legal action against those that violate our specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms.—Joe]
There is no legal basis to the idea that the Second Amendment protects the right of an individual to take up arms against the government.
Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence
June 7, 2011
The Truth About ‘Second Amendment Remedies’: How to Counter Insurrectionist Arguments
[I see. Are they saying there is no law, no act, no outrage so terrible that the individual has no legal option but to endure it?
It seems to me people of that mindset are inviting a future which resembles the worst of our past and the most dystopian of our visions. When the police are again the KKK and the police battalions become executions squads will the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence still be advocating for compliance?
I can only see two possible reasons for these people to make such claims. Either they are either incredibly naïve useful idiots or they are advocates for tyranny.—Joe]
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government has grown out of too much government.
Senator John Sharp Williams
From Respectfully quoted: a dictionary of quotations found in Williams works, Thomas Jefferson: His Permanent Influence on American Institutions, p. 49 (1913). Lecture delivered at Columbia University, New York City, 1912.
Although this is often attributed to Jefferson himself this is probably false with Williams deserving most of the credit.
[This certainly applies to many many instances of bad government. I suspect it is a direct effect of power corrupting. The more power a government has the more it becomes corrupted. The only real solution, realized at the time our country was founded, was to enumerate and limit the power of government. Now that those enumerations and limitations are ignored we again have corrupted and bad government.—Joe]
I was over at friend, Cliff’s house last night. He showed me his new LED light bulbs. They’re awesome. Nice spectrum, smaller than a regular bulb, plenty of light, no observable strobe effect from the power supply, and IIRC they used only 1.5 Watts. Cool to the touch after being on for hours.
But wait. This is the North. With the low temps this Spring, we’re still heating our homes. Therefore any reduction in the heat output of your lighting and other appliances has to be made up, one for one, by the home heating system. Zero energy savings until we get warmer weather (outdoor lighting is of course exempt from this issue – any reduction in consumption means direct energy savings).
That means there will be maybe 120 days this year in which your ultra efficient indoor lighting pays off anything in this region. Remember that when making your pay-off calculations.
Cliff is in the stage production supply business. He showed me some of the new LED Par cans (stage lighting, in this case also computer [MIDI] controlled). Stage lighting can be brutal on the performers, since even with the biggest, most powerful sound systems, it is the lighting that traditionally used the majority of the electrical power. That’s why you’ve so often seen performers soaked in sweat. We’ve been running the old, hot cans, and then running clusters of fans to try keeping the performers halfway comfortable. With these new LED cans, it’s going to be much, much nicer to be on stage, and we won’t need to have the sometimes difficult to accommodate power requirements in our performance contracts. This particular model also changes color by switching the LEDs, something like the way a color video display uses the different color pixels, which means no more screwing around with color gels.
Technology is wonderful, just so long as we keep the retarded politicians (but I repeat myself) out of our business. Let them shovel shit instead. With some training in shit shoveling, maybe they could be of some small service to humanity. I’ve done it. It can be quite important at times.
It never ceases to amaze me that so many can get so upset over something so innocuous as simply leaving people alone.
Lyle@UltiMAK
May 31, 2011
Comment to Quote of the day—Dave Workman.
[Yeah. Amazing isn’t it? But yet it happens over so many things like homosexuality, skin color, what (if any) religious beliefs you observe, and how many rounds of ammo your gun holds. Why should there even need to be constitutional protection for something so innocuous?—Joe]
I would just love to hear about one these RAIDS coming up short because the doors wouldn’t batter down and the windows just chipped instead of breaking. I can just imagine the SWAT team standing outside of the little bungalow they tried to force, a bit perplexed that they couldn’t get it, when grandma’s voice comes out of the intercom speaker by the door, “Can I help you?”.
Mad Rocket Scientist
May 24, 2011
I think I’m gonna start a business
[There are other outcomes that I have fantasized about which also bring a smile to my face. But implementations are not cheap and the risks are unacceptably high even though the deterrence effects would be “significant”. It also probably would require “entrapment” of the police by the homeowner which would be frowned upon by many.—Joe]
…of end-of-the-world cults. Yes I know– wishful thinking. End-of-the-world cults are as old as history, and they’ll just keep right on coming and going, no matter how many times they’re proven wrong (much like socialism and jihad). Eventually of course the world will end. All Things Must Pass. Then one of these cults will probably be proven right after all. That’ll show us.
This should be a course of study in high school – “Introduction to End of The World Cults.” Students could get involved by forming into groups within the class and starting their own end of the world models and doctrines. I’m trying not to be too flippant because this is a very serious subject.
Religious and political leaders, or leader wannabes, and most hippies, find that people desperately want to believe in something that makes them extra special. It is easy to convince people that they are part of a special group. A group that has super duper important information, and that the rest of us will rue the day if we don’t take heed of it and recognize that group as The One, and so on. It’s usually all about power. Raw power and nothing else. Algore and the Global Cooling, I mean Warming Now/Global Cooling Now/Oh What the Hell; Climate change cult is one of thousands of examples. Most churches practice some variant of it also, and it always works on someone. No matter what. Since people can’t bear the thought that they’ve been duped to such a deep level– that they’ve been so, so very foolish. They’ll do anything to explain it away somehow, to avoid the profound sense of embarrassment and shame.
That’s when the bullied become the bullies. The cycle repeats.
I know, I know. Trust me. I’ve felt The Spirit too, I know exactly what you cultists are going through. I was young and impressionable. I deeply wanted to believe in something that would relieve me of my doubts, confusion, self-loathing or whatever it was. And then there was that need to “fit in”. That’s when they get you. It’s a form of hypnotism, and it works on you because you want it.
It’s never going away, but you don’t have to participate in it. When you let go of that garbage– that baggage people have used to control you, and live a life guided by principles, none of it can touch you.
This may be reading too much into a few words but it bears watching. From Salon.com, “How many Americans are targeted for assassination?”:
Dozens of Americans have joined terrorist groups and are posing a threat to the United States and its interests abroad, the president’s most senior adviser on counterterrorism and homeland security said Thursday. . . . “There are, in my mind, dozens of U.S. persons who are in different parts of the world, and they are very concerning to us,” said John O. Brennan, deputy White House national security adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism. . . .
“If a person is a U.S. citizen, and he is on the battlefield in Afghanistan or Iraq trying to attack our troops, he will face the full brunt of the U.S. military response,” Mr. Brennan said. “If an American person or citizen is in a Yemen or in a Pakistan or in Somalia or another place, and they are trying to carry out attacks against U.S. interests, they also will face the full brunt of a U.S. response. And it can take many forms.”
See also Congress Proposes Bill to Allow Worldwide War … Including INSIDE the U.S.
It’s may be important to note that exercise certain, perhaps any, rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights could cause you to be considered a “low level terrorist” and the DOJ, FBI, and JTTF will consider it justification to be watching you.
Via email from former co-worker Chet.
I had lunch with someone today that told me they attended a “Privacy Conference” recently. One of the interesting things that came out of it was that the technologist all thought the lawyers would be the ones that would save privacy and the lawyers all thought the technologists would save it.
Other observations included:
I think I’m depressed again.
There’s been some talk about it lately and it’s been in the news, but it’s also been in your home town school for some time. Here is a history paper, handed out in my son’s history class, complete with syntax errors, inexplicable asterisks, bad grammar, omitted words, and miss-numbering. The kids were told to memorize it. Keep in mind the title of the piece – “U.S. History” This is all American. Everything below is what made/makes us tick;
U.S. History
Philosophies — Foreign and Domestic
“What Made/Makes Us Tick”
1. Capitalism – Pure*** vs. Regulated
An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market.
OK, right there; no mention of property rights, the acknowledgement and protection of which result in capitalism. “Corporately owned” IS privately owned, but they must make a distinction.
Pure capitalism over time results in poverty, worker abuse, environmental destruction, a two class social structure, and governmental control by the wealthy. All economic, political and social norms were control directly ad indirectly by the wealthy. Even the presentation of religious views were seen through the eyes of the capitalistic values.(2-
Karl Marx would be giddy with pride seeing what our public schools are teaching my kids today. There’s so much wrong with that one paragraph I don’t know where to begin. For one thing, “governmental control by the wealthy” defines a corrupt government. The acknowledgement and protection of property rights, which defines capitalism, does not lead to governmental control by the wealthy. That’s a contradiction in terms, but you’re not supposed to notice. Corrupt politicians lead to governmental control by the wealthy, and for that they should be arrested.
Regulated Capitalism – has produced our nation. Government regulates what industry can do within limits. Environmental impact (air quality), worker safety, fair pay, fair trade, and business dealings are regulated by law.
The Fascisti would certainly approve of that statement, and they were committed Marxists. Notice throughout this whole piece that there is no mention of human rights, or of America’s founding principles. That would blow the whole thing though, wouldn’t it?
2. Expansionism
The belief that the nation must grow to acquire natural resources, new areas of trade, and living space. (Safety Value Theory – Turner Thesis)
3. Manifest Destiny (New Manifest Destiny)***
— Similar to Expansionism. This was the belief that God had pre-determined (destined) the United States to expand. It was an outgrowth of the Puritan ethic [God rewards those who work hard and live an exemplary life.] The term eventually meant that the U.S. would eventually control the land from coast to coast. This belief system motivated the “Western Movement.” The acquisition of land and the displacement of Native Americans became justified in part by this belief system. The Mexican War, the Southwest land, Northwest Territory, and Alaska are also acquired with belief system as the driving force for America to expand.
Nearly every country that ever existed has practiced some version of Manifest Destiny or Expansionism. The American government did some terrible things to the Indians. The innuendo I get from this is that there are wrongs remaining to be righted, which is actually being said elsewhere, complete with the “R” word (revolution) in the above linked video, as part of a school curriculum.
4. Whiteman’s Burden – Anglo Saxonism*** The term is taken from a poem by Rudyard Kipling in which he states is was “the white man’s burden” to colonize the other nations for their benefit. In practice it was the belief that:
God had chosen the Anglo-Saxon race to colonize the “less fortunate” peoples of the world. In so doing they were to bring them education, the Christian faith, a Puritan work ethic, capitalism, health care, and the other “benefits” of our culture.
Ah, so America really IS racist! Crap!
5. Imperialism***
–,The control of one nation over another nation or territory for the purposes of acquiring natural resources, trade, and/or military advantage. This is the core of U.S. expansion. The acquisition of Hawaii, Cuba, and the Philippines are examples of imperialism.
Notice how they slipped trade in there, like trading with people in another nation amounts to Imperialism. We bastards! Those poor victims!
6. Rugged Individualism
— The belief that individuals are to provide for their own needs without the help of others. “I can do it myself.” This was the pioneer spirit and the belief of the nation in the 1800s. It worked against the average person during the latter part of the Industrial Revolution as corporations controlled the variables of life. Working harder did not mean greater rewards for the worker. It meant greater profits for the corporation.
The ideal of self sufficiency worked against the average person, eh? So you’d be better off relying on others. Notice too the repeated use of the word “worker”. “Workers of the World Unite” then, I guess. There are those evil corporations again, and the use of “profits” as an epithet.
7. Social Darwinism
— Applying the theory of Darwinism, survival of the fittest, to political and social life. The strong must survive to benefit the entire nation. No sympathy for the weak, (poor, workers). Laws and social customs were for the benefit of the fittest (rich, industrialist, upper crust of society). When you combine the philosophies of Social Darwinism with imperialism, and Manifest Destiny., the world created was a tough one for the average person.
The Nazis were Social Darwinists, or I would say “Socialist Darwinists”. Let’s be clear.
8. Humanitarianism
— the belief that mankind should help others just because they can. “Social Gospel” of the latter 1800s.
“Just because they can”, mind you. Not because it’s the right thing to do. Not because there are rich people who are, you know, actually human.
9. Liberty/Freedom/Self-determination*
These fundamental beliefs began to take on a new meaning for many of society as the end of the century approached. The empathy to “occupied countries” overseas and to the oppressed at home gains attention of a wider spectrum of society in the late 1800s.
Again no mention of rights, rights protection, or founding principles. Instead it’s all up for grabs, depending on prevailing theories.
9. AMERICAN IMPERIALISM
It is easier to define American Imperialism by contrasting it with Imperialism.
Imperialism is centered on Social Darwinism, Manifest Destiny, and White Man’s Burden.
There were never, ever, anywhere, any non-white Imperialists then. You racist, you.
American Imperialism tempers those beliefs with humanitarianism and the beliefs of self-determination, freedom and liberty. Our present foreign and domestic policies are motivated by this belief.
There you have it. We’re an Imperialist nation. Damn us all to hell.
This history lesson is a self-contradictory and confused jumble of omissions, lies, half truths and truths. Would Karl Marx strongly disagree with any of it?
In the country where I grew up only the KGB had the guns.
Maksim Khrapov
[If you think you want to live in a place where only the police and military possess firearms you should first talk to various people who have lived under such conditions before attempting to force your beliefs upon an entire nation. Those that have lived in those countries and talked to such people may be less accepting of and more vigorous in their opposition to your plan than you anticipate.—Joe]
That rifle on the wall of the labourer’s cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there.
George Orwell
[I slightly disagree. It is a symbol of the ultimate power residing in the hands of the general population rather than solely in the hands of the despot or the well connected. Those that seek and exercise power to their own advantage will always exist and will always take advantage of those that are less powerful. But the rifle on the wall creates limits such that truly epic injustice is unlikely to occur because of the fear by the powerful and their thugs that their reign of terror will be ended by a bullet. And if it does occur the rifle guarantees it will not long continue.—Joe]