Category Archives: Freedom

Quote of the day—John Robb @johnrobb

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21st Century planned scarcity.

As in, “let’s not expand into space for energy and resource acquisition, or take the actions on earth necessary in the short term (nuclear power), because scarcity induced totalitarianism is much safer, just, and deserved.”

John Robb @johnrobb
Tweeted on August 28, 2022
[It’s the ongoing conflict between centrally planned and free markets.Or the zero-sum versus non zero-sum mindset. There exist people who crave and even insist on control. These people believe there MUST be someone, organization, or something in control. They are certain they and the world are a better place if control is exerted over a wide set of peoples action.

Some people believe the world would be a better place if most property and (possibly “or” instead of “and”, but this would be rare when you get down to the details) economic decisions are controlled by some supposedly superior being. This superior being is typically a government controlled by a committee and/or a dictator. These people fall in a spectrum that can generally be considered socialist to communist.

Some people believe the world would be a better place if social position and activity decisions (particularly sexual behaviors) are controlled by some supposedly superior being. This superior being is typically a government controlled or at least guided by a set of religious leaders. These people fall in a spectrum that can generally be considered democratic theists, many monarchists, to theocrats.

In the more general case people can be classified as being on a scale from anarchist to authoritarian. Here I am referring to the somewhat less common definition of anarchist as the organization of society on the basis of voluntary cooperation, without political institutions or hierarchical government rather than a state of disorder and chaos.

All social organizations have tradeoff. And under various situations some organizational types are vastly superior to others. For example an anarchist society does not do well against a communist society in search of hosts to satisfy their parasitic requirements. Yet, not too far up the spectrum from anarchist a society with government formed for the protection can economically and technologically, hence militarily defeat a similarly sized society near the authoritarian end of the spectrum.

I find our current political climate annoying because, as Robb indirectly points out above, a frightening number of people are demanding “progress” toward authoritarian government. There is actually a “sweet spot”, by many measures of societal “health”, which lies far closer to the anarchist end of the scale. This is an old, and mostly ignored, observation. History appears to be nearing another catastrophic rhyme.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Jefferson Mack

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They may try to take our freedom away. Somebody is out there planning it right now. But there is a surprise waiting for them, a spirit they don’t understand.

Every man with a radar detector in his car, anyone who ever cheated on an income-tax form, every seventeen-year- old who has figured out how to buy a bottle of beer, every- one who knows the taste of out-of-season trout, every driver who ignored a parking ticket, anyone who ever made some wine in the cellar but neglected to fill out the federal form the law requires, every woman who needed and got an abortion back when they were illegal, every man that’s made an illegal bet on a football game, every bureaucrat that blew a whistle and embarrassed the guy at the top all these people are already secret freedom fighters.

You are out there waiting, waiting for the day when things get serious, when the people in charge stop trying to limit freedom and start trying to take it away altogether. You will be free, because you will insist on it.

Jefferson Mack
1986
Secret Freedom Fighter: Fighting Tyranny without Terrorizing the Innocent, page 5.
[Read the whole thing.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Adam Kotsko @adamkotsko

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My ideal land use distribution (based heavily on KSR): all agricultural land is collectively owned and scientifically managed to balance quantity, quality, and variety of food against sustainability and ethical practices. No single-family or corporate for-profit farms.

Adam Kotsko @adamkotsko
Tweeted on August 22, 2022
[I think “KSR” means “Knowledge and Social Responsibility.”

As collective farms have always worked out so well when and wherever they have been attempted.

As Robb Allen @ItsRobbAllen said:

My God, the hubris & ignorance to believe this level of central management is even possible is simply breathtaking.

Prepare and respond appropriately.—Joe]

This is what they think of you

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I don’t identify as Republican but for those of you who do. This is what New York State Governor Hochul thinks of you:

Gov. Kathy Hochul, who hasn’t proven shy about issuing orders, had one for the state’s Republicans this week — all 5.4 million of them: “Just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong, OK?” she said. “You are not New Yorkers.”

If you can move beyond the frankly disgusting political partisanship and intolerance, her message is fiscally irresponsible, even dangerous. The governor probably already knows this, but the state’s extensive public sector is heavily reliant on personal income taxes paid by residents, and with nearly $14 billion in projected budget gaps over the next five years, it can’t afford to lose any taxpayers, let alone 5.4 million of them.

The Empire State has already lost 1.5 million residents in the past decade, and there’s no sign of that trend letting up. In fact, more than 350,000 New Yorkers relocated during the 12 pandemic-plagued months leading up to July 1, 2021.

I suspect she cares even less for “my type” of people than she does Republicans.

I find it interesting that parasites, left unchecked, destroy their hosts. However some, such as your gut bacteria, evolve into a symbiotic relationship and are kept under control by the host.

This appears to be true at all level from a virus all the way down to communists. Hochul apparently doesn’t know the number of known cures for her type of parasitic infection are limited and don’t involve a long term symbiotic relationship.

SCOTUS doesn’t represent public opinion

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Opinion | The Supreme Court is Now Operating Outside of American Public Opinion – POLITICO:

The guardrails that kept the Court close to public opinion are failing. Even though Democratic candidates have won a majority of the two-party vote in seven out of the last eight presidential elections, six out of the court’s nine current justices were appointed by Republican presidents. This resulting majority is strong and reliably conservative, and our data shows that it appears to be settling into a position that reliably corresponds to Republican Party preferences — and is to the right of the vast majority of Americans.

They say this as if it were a bad thing.

If you were think about this a little bit you might come to the conclusion that they don’t really understand that the courts are not supposed to represent public opinion. Their job is to represent the law. The U.S. Constitution being the highest law of the land is the primary reference for all their rulings. For example, if a majority, or even a super majority of the public were of the opinion that people should be able to sell their children/white males/Asian females/whoever into a lifetime of slavery SCOTUS has the legal requirement to, and should have the backbone to, firmly say, “No.”

Perhaps they just need things explained to them. Right?

No. That is not the reality of the political landscape. Many do understand that SCOTUS is acting correctly when the uphold the constitution. The political left is now explicitly saying the quiet part out loud:

In a New York Times essay, law professors Ryan D. Doerfler of Harvard and Samuel Moyn of Yale are calling for the Constitution to be “radically altered” to “reclaim America from Constitutionalism.” In order to accomplish this dubious objective, they call for shifting from the “Pack the Court” to “Pack the States.” The attack on “constitutionalism” is chilling but these professors are not the first to lash out at our Constitution as the scourge of social justice.

The New York Times column called for citizens to view the Constitution as the real enemy and to push to “radically alter the basic rules of the game.” The attack on our Constitution has become something of an article of faith for the far left in recent years.

Recently, Georgetown University Law School Professor Rosa Brooks drew accolades for her appearance on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” after declaring that Americans are “slaves” to the U.S. Constitution and that the Constitution itself is now the problem for the country.

CBS recently featured Boston University Professor Ibram X. Kendi, who proclaimed that the Second Amendment was little more than “the right to enslave.”

MSNBC commentator and the Nation’s justice correspondent Elie Mystal has called the U.S. Constitution “trash” and argued that we should ideally just dump it. Mystal, who also writes for Above the Law, previously stated that White, non-college-educated voters supported Republicans because they care about “using their guns on Black people and getting away with it.”

Doerfler and Moyn make the same case with a twist in seeking to pack the states. They insist that “The real need is not to reclaim the Constitution, as many would have it, but instead to reclaim America from constitutionalism.” Rather than recognize that this document has produced the longest standing and most stable democratic system in history, professors denounced it as a “some centuries-old text” because it stands as a barrier to their social and political agenda. The problem, they suggest, is that many liberals still believe in constitutionalism as opposed to raw majority power.

Prepare and respond appropriately.

Quote of the day—Damion @commiedamion

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If your family “suffered under communism” that says a lot more about your family than it does about communism. Good people don’t suffer under communism – slavers and exploiters do.

Damion @commiedamion
Tweeted on August 19, 2022
[Wow! Just WOW!

Evil cannot flourish without believing it is doing good.

Prepare and respond appropriately.—Joe]

Quote of the day—In Chains @InChainsInJail

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The left has never gotten over losing their slaves. Now they just hide their disappointment behind authoritarian central planning.

In Chains @InChainsInJail
Tweeted on August 22, 2022
[Hmmm… that does explain some things:

  • Gun control.
  • Forced “volunteer” public service work.
  • “Free” medical care.
  • “Free” child care.
  • “Free” housing.
  • “Free” education.

Prepare and respond appropriately.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Keith M. Bellizzi

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“Facts First” is the tagline of a CNN branding campaign which contends that “once facts are established, opinions can be formed.” The problem is that while it sounds logical, this appealing assertion is a fallacy not supported by research.

Cognitive psychology and neuroscience studies have found that the exact opposite is often true when it comes to politics: People form opinions based on emotions, such as fear, contempt and anger, rather than relying on facts. New facts often do not change people’s minds.

Keith M. Bellizzi
August 13, 2022
Cognitive Biases and Brain Biology Help Explain Why Facts Don’t Change Minds
[This is probably a big part of the reason that Mao Tse Tung coined the phrase, “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”. Facts and reason are nearly irrelevant in politics. The only reliable means of changing people’s minds regarding politics is with a bullet.

Socialism and communism are so inefficient they cannot tolerate slackers or doubters. They need a very high compliance rate to sustain themselves.

Prepare appropriately.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith

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The big socialist talking points are justice and compassion.

The big socialist motivations are resentment and revenge.

The big socialist results are labour camps and mass graves.

Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith
Tweeted on August 15, 2022
[I would like to add that it seems the word “equity” is showing up a lot. And as I have pointed out before:

Full equality can only be approximated by everyone being in extreme poverty. Full equality comes with death. And it should come as no surprise the political left is well acquainted with death on a very large scale.

Prepare appropriately.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Jack Phillips

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Two months ago, Jordan said that six FBI whistleblowers approached the committee. Two came forward about a memo related to alleged violence and intimidation at school board meetings and four in connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach. In the Senate, meanwhile, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in July that whistleblowers had come to his office to provide information, including disclosures relating to investigations into Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings.

“It’s becoming a well-worn trail of agents who say this has got to stop, and thank goodness for them and that American people recognize it, and I believe they’re going to make a big change on Nov. 8,” Jordan said, referring to the midterm elections.

In June, Jordan sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray warning that several former FBI officials were coming forward, while alleging the agency is “purging” employees who have conservative views.

“In one such example, the FBI targeted and suspended the security clearance of a retired war servicemember who had disclosed personal views that the FBI was not being entirely forthcoming about the events of January 6,” Jordan wrote in a statement. “The FBI questioned the whistleblower’s allegiance to the United States.

Jack Phillips
August 15, 2022
14 FBI Whistleblowers Have Come Forward: Rep. Jordan
[It seems to me it is long past time the Federal government had its “horns” trimmed. This is a job for the states. I hope they are up for the task. If they don’t a real uprising, the debt, and/or hyperinflation may bring about the collapse of everything, perhaps including a significant portion of the rest of the world.

We live in interesting times. Prepare appropriately.—Joe]

Quote of the day—N.S. Lyons

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You are not in high school debate club anymore. You are a peasant in feudal Japan, and every day the Samurai get to denigrate, abuse, and rough up your kind as much as they want. But if you ever talk back to a samurai, let alone try to do a little roughing up of your own, you will be beheaded on the spot. And far from being punished for this, the samurai who does it will be praised for doing his duty, since uppity peasants are dangerous and immoral and need to be dealt with at once, before they threaten the established social hierarchy. That samurai is just protecting democracy the Shogunate. Pointing out the hierarchy of the social order as a peasant will be met only with a nod of approval: “yes, that is how it is, it’s good that now you finally understand.”

…

If you, Class B serf, do not enjoy this arrangement, your lamentations about hypocrisy will not change it, no matter how loud and shrill. Only taking back control of the levers of power and then using that power to strike the fear of accountability into the hearts of your ruling class will ever be able to do that.

N.S. Lyons
August 10, 2022
It’s not Hypocrisy, You’re Just Powerless — A quick Public Service Announcement for Class B
[“Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” And, one must conclude, political power diminishes as your access to guns is infringed.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Damon Root

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The alliance seems less “unlikely” when you remember that the American civil rights movement has long had a gun rights component. This dates back as far as the abolitionists, such as Frederick Douglass, who declared in 1854 that “the True Remedy for the Fugitive Slave Bill is a good revolver, a steady hand, and a determination to shoot down any man attempting to kidnap.”

Douglass continued to preach the virtues of armed self-defense throughout the rest of his life. In 1893, as the noble aims of Reconstruction were giving way to the horrors of the rising Jim Crow regime, Douglass argued that “the liberties of the American people were dependent upon the ballot-box, the jury-box, and the cartridge box.” Without all three securely in place, he maintained, “no class of people could live and flourish in this country.”

Damon Root
August 1, 2022
The New York Times Is Surprised To Find Public Defenders Championing the Second Amendment–Yet the civil rights movement has long had a gun rights component.
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Green is Red

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Via Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith:

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It’s isn’t exactly new information. This was pretty clear, if not the 1960s, then, by the 1970’s. But in this case I give the meme maker a lot of slack for poetic license.

Doomsday cult

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Tweet on July 17, 2022 by The Redheaded libertarian @TRHLofficial:

The democrats run a doomsday cult and I’m gonna break it all down for you. Walk with me.

1. Authoritarian yet Charismatic leadership structure Obama repealed Smith-Mundt, made it legal to detain American citizens indefinitely, & banned protesting government sessions which paved the way for the controlled demolition of the economy. BUT LOOK AT HOW RELATABLE THEY ARE

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2. Deception in recruiting. Go ahead and join up and then tell them you think there should be limits to abortion and sexually transitioning children. Tell them communists aren’t people. I’ll wait.

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3. Use of thought-reform methods You know like struggle sessions for 6 year olds and diversity training for the military and nominating biological men with penises for women’s awards while forbidding the questioning of any of it.

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4. Isolation (physical and/or psychological) Mask up. Stay home. Save lives.

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5. Demand for absolute, unquestioning devotion and loyalty

Check these fundraising emails, jabbed 4 year olds and STAND WITH UKRAINE.

You must pay heavily and support the current thing to show loyalty to the party.

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6. Sharp, unsurpassable distinction between “us” (good) and “them” (bad) They leave that to the media. DJT is the best example.

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7. “Inside language” that only members fully understand Here is a list of their pronouns, the connection between CRT & Marxism, and a link to 33 pages of Critical Race Theory vocabulary. https://racialequitytools.org/glossary

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8. Strict control over members’ daily routines While it’s a gentleman’s agreement that Democrats wear masks, love abortion, and drive electric cars, policies derived from The failed Green New Deal aim to control & limit people via taxes & regulations from mileage to consumption.

9. Scripture “[insert party platform] is a human right.” “Our democracy is at stake” “Diversity is our strength” “Post-Roe world” “Credible evidence” “Putin’s price hike” “No one needs and AR-15” “Meaningful gun reform” “Common sense gun reform” “Abortion is healthcare”

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10. Group thought All Thought is lead by Hollywood, big Tech, Big Pharma, universities & politicians. You are allowed to dissent in approved topics, but not in others. If you disobey, and question the forbidden, they will have you kicked out of the public square indefinitely.

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11. And of course, the Day of reckoning. This all needs to have a deeper meaning. Climate change is their second coming but the dates keep passing, so the leaders will create new dates until eventually, everyone puts on their Nikes and drinks the koolaid together.

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The observation I found most telling was the last one. It is like a new example for the book When Prophecy Fails — A social and psychological study of a modern group that predicted the destruction of the world (emphasis added):

Suppose an individual believes something with his whole heart; suppose further that he has a commitment to this belief, that he has taken irrevocable actions because of it; finally, suppose that he is presented with evidence, unequivocal and undeniable evidence, that his belief is wrong: what will happen?  The individual will frequently emerge, not only unshaken, but even more convinced of the truth of his beliefs than ever before.  Indeed, he may even show a new fervor about convincing and converting other people to his view.

There is something wrong with these people.

Prepare and respond appropriately.

Quote of the day—Robert Spencer

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The endgame is not just to make Americans despise Thomas Jefferson, but to make the average American ashamed of being American. That’s what this has been about from first to last. If the complexities of human experience have to be obliterated in the process, with cartoonish one-dimensional heroes and villains put in their place, so be it. We cannot celebrate Jefferson for all that he did to lay the groundwork for the freest society the world has ever seen. We cannot see him as a remarkable but flawed human being who was exemplary in some ways but not in others.

What’s more, the reason why the Left hates him with such burning intensity is not that he was a slave owner. Leftists love Fidel Castro, who enslaved an entire nation. They love all manner of authoritarians, totalitarians, and mass murderers. They’ve never minded the eggs that have to be broken to make their socialist omelets.

No, the real reason why the Left hates Thomas Jefferson is for all the things for which he should rightly be celebrated: Because he fought against tyranny. Because he helped create a free republic.

Robert Spencer
July 10, 2022
Thomas Jefferson’s Home Has Been Taken Over by Leftist America-Haters
[I do not have a better hypothesis..—Joe]

Quote of the day—Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith

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Liberty without responsibility is decadence.

Responsibility without liberty is slavery.

Lack of liberty and responsibility is childishness.

Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith
Tweeted on June 26, 2022
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Gene editing in people

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We live in interesting times:

Edits to a cholesterol gene could stop the biggest killer on earth

A volunteer in New Zealand has become the first person to undergo DNA editing in order to lower their blood cholesterol, a step that may foreshadow wide use of the technology to prevent heart attacks.

The experiment, part of a clinical trial by the US biotechnology company Verve Therapeutics, involved injecting a version of the gene-editing tool CRISPR in order to modify a single letter of DNA in the patient’s liver cells.

According to the company, that tiny edit should be enough to permanently lower a person’s levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol, the fatty molecule that causes arteries to clog and harden with time.

The patient in New Zealand had an inherited risk for extra-high cholesterol and was already suffering from heart disease. However, the company believes the same technique could eventually be used on millions of people in order to prevent cardiovascular disease.

…

the technology is substantially similar to mRNA vaccines for covid-19. Just like the vaccines, the treatment consists of genetic instructions wrapped in a nanoparticle, which ferries everything into a cell.

While the vaccine instructs cells to make a component of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the particles in Verve’s treatment carry RNA directions for a cell to assemble and aim a base-editing protein, which then modifies that cell’s copy of PCSK9, introducing the tiny mistake. 

That is both very cool and very scary at the same time.

What else will they have “treatments” for which are a single injection and make irreversible changes to your genes? Homosexuality? ADHD? Excessive aggression? Authority defiance disorder?

At what point will such treatment become mandatory or even given by a black ops team. They pull you into a van for a few seconds and give you another drug that causes you to not remember it even happened?

Quote of the day—Scott Galloway

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China is not America’s friend. There is a dangerous sentiment emerging in the U.S. that members of the “other” political party are the enemy. No, Americans are still the best allies for other Americans. If you blanched at the previous sentence, in my view, you have been targeted by propaganda from bad actors and/or manipulated by algorithms or cable news editors whose profit incentive pits us against one another.

The Chinese government aims to weaken the U.S. Its investment in kinetic power is massive (a third aircraft carrier took to sea last month), but it probably won’t match raw American might for decades. So the Chinese press on our soft tissue strategically and play the long game with tactics that offer a greater ROI: IP theft and propaganda. America is most like itself when we perceive an external threat as the real threat, and when we’re optimistic about the return we’ll realize from long-term investments at home: education, infrastructure, research and development. Pessimism is our kryptonite.

Scott Galloway
July 8, 2022
TikTok: Trojan Stallion
[Via email from John S.

Valid points. If you doubt their hostility to the people in this country spend some time talking to someone who grew up there.—Joe]

Long live Clarence Thomas

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I found this interesting:

Clarence Thomas is at the peak of his power

Clarence Thomas is suddenly, for the first time since his confirmation, the main character at the Supreme Court.

Why it matters: Thomas is more powerful than he’s ever been inside the court, and ideas that the legal establishment once treated as his quirky hobbyhorses now carry increasing weight.

…

The big picture: Thomas has spent years essentially laying out a whole parallel understanding of the law. He’s one of the court’s most prolific authors of solo dissents, according to Adam Feldman of Empirical SCOTUS, and has also written a slew of solo concurrences similar to last week’s.

  • Thomas doesn’t just write a dissent here and an additional point about a majority holding there, but rather has created a whole ecosystem of opinions that build on and reference each other almost in the same way as the court’s actual precedents, except for the fact that they are all one man speaking only for himself.
  • Thomas’ solo opinion in last week’s abortion case cited 11 of his past opinions, 10 of which were solo opinions. It drew more heavily from the Clarence Thomas Cinematic Universe than from the rest of the court’s historical precedents, dissents and non-Thomas concurrences.

But as the makeup of the court has shifted around him, Thomas’ views have gotten more influential. And that influence will only grow.

Thomas is a huge influence for good. Not just in the gun rights arena, but in rolling back the power of big government.

Quote of the day—In Chains @InChainsInJail

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We never claimed to be law-abiding.

Slaves were law-abiding.

We are peaceful.

Now, if you want to threaten our rights, our families, or our property, you can discover the limits of that peacefulness.

In Chains @InChainsInJail
Tweeted on June 14, 2022
[See also Huffman’s rule of firearm law.—Joe]