Monday, January 18, 2010

Hurting People For a Living


Pure, distilled badness : Unlike agents of state coercion, Hawk never preyed on the weak and helpless.









I don't like him. He hurts people for a living.

Only people who've hurt others, or who haven't kept a promise.



Spenser explains Hawk's code of ethics to his inamorata, Susan Silverman



For neither the first nor last time I find myself lamenting the fact that those employed by government typically aren't as moral as Hawk, the fearsome muscle-and-gun specialist created by novelist Robert Parker (and memorably brought to life on screen by Avery Brooks).


Singularly capable when it came to inflicting injury on other people, Hawk employed that gift for commendably narrow purposes: If you hurt others for whom he was responsible, or attempted to, he would hurt you; if you reneged on a loan made by someone who employed him, Hawk would inflict the necessary duress until the debt had been satisfied.


While he was honest and -- in the estimation of those who knew him -- honorable, Hawk wasn't entirely laudatory, particularly in his choice of employers. But he wasn't a predator; he didn't target the weak or helpless.


Hawk was a violent man, but he exercised violence only to deter or punish aggression and fraud.


If you chose not to get involved with the kind of people who employed him, Hawk -- for all his tightly coiled ferocity and potential for lethal violence -- was no threat at all. Think of the principle symbolized by the snake found on the Gadsen Flag given life in the form of an uber-slick urban enforcer so palpably deadly he'd make Shaft soil his underoos, and you've got Hawk.


Although he was frequently employed by unsavory people, Hawk was immeasurably more moral than those who presume to rule us, and the government they operate at our expense on their behalf. This is why he displayed nothing but wary contempt toward the government, especially those given the task of enforcing its laws.


Forget the banner of Empire: This is my flag.



Government, we are told, exists to protect us against anarchic violence that threatens life, liberty and property.


As Papa Hemingway might reply: Isn't it pretty to think so?



In practice the government ruling us is always and everywhere the single largest source of lethal violence and most acute threat of the same.


In order to find one's self on the receiving end of the kind of violence Hawk embodied, one has to make a specific set of bad choices involving contracts -- beginning with the inexcusably foolish choice to enter into such agreements with the kind of people who would hire Hawk as a debt collector. To an extent, then, Hawk's victims were volunteers.


However,
any of us can experience state-inflicted violence at any time as a punishment for doing literally nothing, or by refusing to be bound by "contracts" arranged by other people in transactions to which he was not a party.


A perfectly infuriating illustration of the former -- an innocent person being assaulted by state-employed agents of violence as punishment for doing nothing -- took place at the Jets-Chargers game yesterday (January 17).





Many who have seen this clip pointed out that the partisan Chargers fans defended the admittedly obnoxious Jets fan after he was seized by a squad of tax-feeders.


What is most noteworthy about this brief clip was the harassment, intimidation and apparent arrest of the most outspoken critic of the police assault. This was done because the individual in question had the presence of mind and apparent strength of character to object when an annoying but harmless man needlessly became the victim of officially sanctioned violence.


When an armed police officer says "Let's go outside" while placing hands on someone and shoving him in the direction of the exit, this constitutes what people in official costumes call an "arrest," and refusing to cooperate constitutes what such people call the supposed crime of "resisting arrest."


No, the specific phrase "you're under arrest" wasn't spoken, but it doesn't have to be: Any time someone wearing the habiliments of the coercive caste detains, restrains, or redirects the progress of a member of the productive class, an "arrest" has taken place. Police were given permission to do this to you at their own discretion -- whether or not you've actually inflicted an injury upon anyone else -- by people whom you've most likely never met and wouldn't care to know.


What if the gentleman in San Diego who was escorted from his seat to "talk" with a police officer had offered the following reply to the officer's invitation: "No, thanks -- if you want to `talk' we can do it right here, in the seat I've paid for, on my terms rather than yours"?


What if he had reacted to the officer's presumptuous (and illegal) gesture of placing hands on him to escort him from the area by knocking the hands away and saying, "You don't have permission to touch me -- keep your hands off!"


There's little reason to doubt that either of those reactions would have resulted in an immediate escalation of aggressive violence by the police officer and his comrades, who would then file a "cover charge" against the victim (most likely "resisting arrest" or "disorderly conduct").


Amid the ugliness of that incident could be seen evidence of a small but welcome change in public attitudes toward state "authority": The Chargers fans, doubtless aggravated by the taunting they endured by a Jets fan as their home team went down to defeat, criticized the police for their needless display of authoritarian violence.



Granted, their reaction (with the exception of the insistent protests of the fan who was "invited" outside) was far too subdued. But even this somewhat timid and torpid resistance is a miraculous improvement over the bovine docility most Americans have displayed as the garrison state has taken shape around us.


Were it not for my principled opposition to mob violence, I'd be tempted to think it would be a healthy development if American sports fans get in touch with their inner Soccer Hooligans next time police needlessly rough up a spectator at a sporting event:






The case of New Hampshire resident Ed and Elaine Brown illustrates the second way innocent people regularly find themselves on the receiving end of the state's criminal violence -- that is, refusing to be bound by "contracts" made by other people.


Federal Judge Gorge Z. Singal recently decreed that the 67-year-old Ed Brown will spend the rest of his life in prison. This isn't a punishment for anything Brown did to anybody, but rather for "tax evasion" --- that is, refusing to surrender his honestly earned money to a criminal government -- and "stockpiling weapons and explosives" -- that is, taking reasonable precautions to defend himself and his wife when heavily armed stormtroopers in the employ of the Regime surrounded their "compound" -- that is, what honest and rational people call their "home."


A reminder of sieges past:
Randy Weaver, whose wife and son were murdered by the Feds, holds a picture of his slain son Samuel during a visit to the Brown home (aka "fortified compound") in New Hampshire.




"I have no doubt in my mind that Mr. Brown would have killed multiple marshals if they hadn't dealt with him so quickly," insisted Singal as he imposed a 37-year prison sentence.




In fact, neither Ed nor his wife -- whatever one thinks of their beliefs and the wisdom of the actions they undertook -- threatened aggressive violence of any kind. Reasonable people have ample cause to suspect that if the couple hadn't acquired the means to defend themselves by force, they may well have been slaughtered by the heroic paladins of public order.


U.S. Attorney John Kacavas referred to Brown as "a dangerously defiant individual ... whose conduct posed a clear and imminent threat to the public and to law enforcement officers." While it's true that residents of Plainfield, New Hampshire grew weary of playing host to a horde of disreputable federal trigger-pullers, there's no evidence to support the characterization of Brown -- as opposed to his armed pursuers -- as a "threat to the public."



The real "poker tell" in Kacavas's soundbite is the use of the expression "dangerously defiant."



Ed Brown stole nothing, defrauded nobody, and posed no threat of aggressive violence. His "crime" -- the act that made him "dangerous" -- was his defiance.


Once again, it's useful to compare Brown's supposed crimes to the behavior of another "tax evader," Timothy Geithner. Like Brown, Geithner refused to pay certain taxes. Like Brown, Geithner is now living at public expense, albeit in a well-compensated job as Treasury Secretary, rather than a federal prison.


Unlike Brown, Geithner has actually committed criminal offenses at the expense of innocent people. As an employee of the criminal syndicate called the Federal Reserve System, Geithner conspired to cover up evidence of a massive "backdoor bailout" using funds extorted from the taxpayers to compensate Goldman Sachs and foreign "counter-party" banks who had invested in fraudulent securities issued by AIG.


Here's the system we're sentenced to live under, concisely described:


Steal hundreds of billions from taxpayers, and you're a public servant; refuse to permit your legitimately earned wealth to be stolen from you, and you're a felon.


Geithner has been given a congressional subpoena to explain himself. Something tells me that he's not exactly palsied with terror over the thought that Congress would actually do something to hold him accountable.


The street crime equivalent of Geithner's actions would be something like this:


Hawk, pressed by an underworld figure to collect on a large number of bad debts, goes on a crime spree, shaking down shop owners and other small business owners in order to collect the necessary sum from people who had nothing to do with the transactions.


Geithner, of course, is a desk-bound nebbish who couldn't conduct shakedowns of that sort in person. Owing to his principles, Hawk would never do something so contemptible. Yet we're told by those who defend Geithner and his ilk that the system they've created is what protects us from common criminals, and that if that system were to collapse we'd be at the mercy of people like Hawk.


We should only be so lucky.


In Memoriam: Robert B. Parker, 1932-2010


With sorrow for his passing and gratitude for his gifts I note the death of "Spenser" creator Robert Parker, who suffered a fatal heart attack at his desk while working on a new book. Mr. Parker was born on Constitution Day, 1932.


The natural heir to Raymond Chandler, Parker leaves behind a large body of work -- more than sixty novels, including several fine westerns and two unfinished Spenser books. Each of his books was dedicated to his wife, Joan.




(Today's essay is dedicated to Lysander Spooner on the occasion of his 202nd birthday.)




Be sure to join me for Pro Libertate Radio each weeknight from 6:00-7:00 PM Mountain Time on the Liberty News Radio Network.

















Dum spiro, pugno!








35 comments:

jdogg said...

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. ~Aesop

Anonymous said...

While I understand, and to an extent commend, your stance on mob violence; it's becoming more clear by the day that it represents the last chance of free people to show what they think about the excess of authoritarian bullshit going on today.
That aside, thanks for another eloquent illumination of the problems facing us today.

Anonymous said...

Did you notice, in the San Diego clip, the fellow up the stairs who happened to look like Donald Trump? What exactly did the guy arrested do? You can see nothing and if being obnoxious is a crime then the police should arrest themselves. And what is it with the shaved head syndrome these bozos exhibit time and again? Do they have a lice problem? Maybe being the vermin they are that's self evident.

On the soccer "riot" you can clearly see the security thug using his night stick to repeatedly ram it into the guy on the ground and when the crowd spilled onto the field he made haste to escape but some people kept an eye on him and pursued. Sounds eastern European to me.

Anonymous said...

The amerikan gov't is truly the most dangerous criminal organization on the planet.

To myself, I actually cheer when one (or four) of the gov't goon's gets gunned down sitting in a cafe - or anywhere else for that matter.

That little shiny piece of pot metal is simply four inches to the right of a well placed round from a suitable caliber (and if you like big belted mags try and line up a couple of the goons for a Lon Horiuchi Two-fer - lesser caliber point of aim should be twelve inches higher).

Sad to say isn't it, when one's supposedly own employees aren't worth pissing on if they are burning up in a fire - and that is how I've come to view gov't.

Shall I just say I've become so disgusted by it all that seeing the likes of our bureau-rats lynched does not disturb me in the least.

In Male Fide
Sic Semper Tyrannis

Lemuel Gulliver said...

Mr. Grigg,

What we see in the second video clip is the fans swarming onto the field and attacking the police, following the brutality of the one on the right, who was using the end of his nightstick to punch in the head the fan who had been wrestled to the ground. Every time he did so the crowd roared their fury, and finally swarmed out and attacked the police. They got one on the ground and swarmed over him like a pack of wolves, leaving him prostrate when they finally moved away.

(Magnificent. Europe is far, far freer than the so-called "USA." In spite of the stirring words of our national anthem, which refers to freedom, but apparently not freedom from internally imposed slavery.)

This is a far cry from the docility of the American crowd. I never saw or heard off-camera more than two or three fans - Jets OR Chargers - verbally protesting the actions of the cops. Next time I hear "The land of the Free and the Home of the Brave," in my mind I will have to think, "Bullshit." It would only have taken a couple of hundred fans to leave their seats and stand passively in the exit passage and the police could have done nothing and gone nowhere. But no, this is a land of sheep. Woolly little baa-baas. Cutey-poos.

My God, if Washington, Adams, Franklin, Patrick Henry, Madison, Jefferson and John Hancock could see what miserable worms we have become they would weep bitter tears.

What happened to the so-called "First Amendment?" The so-caled "Bill of Rights?" The so-called "Constitution?" The so-called "United States?" Nothing anymore. Nothing. Just a pile of stinking bullshit.

Thank you George W. Bush.
Thank you George H. W. Bush.
Thank you Dick Cheney.
Thank you Karl Rove.
Thank you Newt Gingrich.
Thank you Tom de Lay.
Thank you John Yoo.
Thank you Alberto Gonzalez.
Thank you Samuel Alito.
Thank you John Roberts.
Thank you Scooter Libby.
Thank you David Addington.

Dog turds and vermin one and all.

They stole our country from us. They stole our life savings from us. They stole our jobs from us. They stole our children's and grandchildren's bread out of their mouths from us. They stole even our hopes and dreams from us. What have they left to us?

Bullshit. Pure and simple. Black, stinking bullshit. All over America.

May they all spend many eternities in the deepest recesses of hell.

Lemuel Gulliver.

Lemuel Gulliver said...

PS: And as far as the wolly little baa-baas and miserable sniveling worms, I would include Barack Obama, Joe Lieberman, and about three-quarters of the yellow-bellied, corrupt, expedient, pussy-footed, shit-stained present Democratic Congress in that category as well.

kirk said...

The things we see will only worsen as the combination of bad economic times and police state converge to their apogee.

The response of the people will determine if this continues to progress, stops, or, hopefully, is reversed.

For the sheep to be free, all they need do is stomp the guard dog watching them into the ground, an easy task once decided upon, given the numbers and the inability of the guard dog to get many before he is gotten.

liberranter said...

While I understand, and to an extent commend, your stance on mob violence; it's becoming more clear by the day that it represents the last chance of free people to show what they think about the excess of authoritarian bullshit going on today.

Indeed. Remember this too: There are INFINITELY more of US than there are of THEM! All of their Pentagon-furnished killtoys will do them no good at all once the somnulent sheeple are jolted awake by that one act, that one egregious fit of overkill against the wrong person, in the wrong place, at the wrong time that represents the spark that ignites the powderkeg. Let that happen at around the same time that China and the other world economic powers decide to dump that Monopoly currency called the dollar, leading to complete economic collapse, and the forces of state-sanctioned thuggery are doomed!

Anonymous said...

"For the sheep to be free, all they need do is stomp the guard dog watching them into the ground, an easy task once decided upon, given the numbers and the inability of the guard dog to get many before he is gotten."

I have a small herd of an old breed of sheep which seem to have retained their ferrel instincts. I have to laugh when I hear the human population referred to as 'sheep'.

At one time we considered getting a border collie to help us with sheep management. A woman with a border collie 'rescue' service brought out a couple of previously trained dogs to demonstrate their value as work dogs. Our three Lincoln ewes created a united front and attacked the dogs. By the end of that very short session, the dogs were in the corner of the corral and the lady was packing up her gear with an extremely red face.

We have built our herd to close to 200 since then and live out along the Missouri River in the Dakotas. There are all kinds of predators in the ravines & hills, but in 11 years we have not lost a lamb or ewe to one.

Maybe the Biblical references to 'sheep' are based more on a more rugged hill type of sheep than the domestic breeds of today.

Have You Had Enough Yet said...

"The response of the people will determine if this continues to progress, stops, or, hopefully, is reversed. " kirk at 7:12

Can you name any nation, after its people have fallen to the level of deep debauchery as have the people of this one, that has succeeded in standing up on its hind legs and overthrowing its slave masters and returned to a sufficient degree of purity to maintain its freedom?

Nineveh, maybe, but 40 years after Jonah, they had fallen back into their evil neo-American ways, and God nuked 'em.

I can't even manufacture a weak pollyanna hope that Americans will get right, get up and get rid of the official criminals. Truly, if history is any indicator (and it surely is), then the horrors of the totalitarian state will have to run its natural course.

Americans are no different than the German people were not too long ago. They don't have inner soccer hooligans because they haven't come out the puckered end of their state-is-god beast yet. They still think they have too much to lose if they actually insisted on liberty.

Anonymous said...

About 10 years ago, I was living in Philadelphia. My friend was a public defender who has plenty of stories of cops "finding drugs" on people they didn't like. I also learned that they get additional pay for criminal testimony. At least in that city cops have a financial stake in arresting people.

One day we watched as a cop called a whole bunch of other cops over a guy of color who was insufficiently suppine over the fraction of a minor parking violation. The mere presence of two middle class white women closely observing their actions made the men in blue behave better and prevented them from planting evidence. They did find an excuse to arrest the guy unfortunately. She gave the guy's brother her card which also helped no doubt.

Thank God for video phones.

Sans Authoritas said...

Everyone should have a video camera handy. The more people see of what the State is, the better.

-Sans Authoritas

R.S. Ladwig said...

Great post William, it was glorious to see those thugs in government costumes scatter like a bunch of cowards after their criminal assault on that streaker of the clothed variety.

kirk said...

To: Have You Had Enough

Since the situation, as you see it, is so dark with absolutely no hope of it ever getting right, what do you plan to do? Run - to where? Hide - where? Fight - and simply die as another number chalked up by the state?

AS to me, I believe Sam Adams was correct when he indicated, paraphrased, that for things to change it only takes a relative few with fire burning in their hearts.

Do you, or do you not, believe there is a significant few remaining with fire in their hearts?

Lemuel Gulliver said...

With thanks to Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain):

"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress."

"Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress....But I repeat myself."

I guess nothing has changed in 100 years! As regards dealing with the thuggish police, this advice of Mr. Twain's might be useful:

"Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more."

And finally, a quote from Mr. Twain which applies beautifully to the Jets-Chargers fans in the first video:

"By trying, we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man's, I mean."

Have You Had Enough Yet said...

To Kirk (7:41):

I do believe it will "get right" eventually but not until we've been put through the grinder first. Not all of us will come out the other end, I believe. If you've educated yourself and know how we've been set up,then certainly you must see by now how the banksters, et al, have all the guns, plenty of hungry young men to use them and all the material resources cornered. Add to that the moral corruption of a vast majority of Americans and it's pretty difficult to see a ray of sunshine here. However, extreme trials have a way of burning off the dross. Not that I want them to come, mind you.

My future is unknown; however, I can tell you a bit about what I have been doing, leaving much out, of course, since the HTML editor has already made me edit half my response. I have shed all the ties to the computerized government system that I can. I have no drivers' license. So, I've been to jail a few times for simply not agreeing to regard myself as a commercial driver for the pleasure of the state's revenuers.

I have no social security number, bank account, credit card, voters registration (I'm an American national, NOT a US citizen and, thus, have no right to vote in the corporation's selection of officers). Not that it matters in the least. Back when I had no clue that there are different citizenships within the United States, one free and the other not, I voted for all the right people. They won offices and not only did they not return lawful government, as they took an oath to do, but they contributed to the building of the police state, too.

I do not have a mailing address or anything that provides the government with a nexus to my status. It takes a mighty amount of faith to come out of the beast and suffer the economic consequences. I totally understand how much more it takes for family men and entrepeneurs to step out of the boat in faith. I watch all the groups in the liberty movement talk about how "we" need to do this, and "we" must do that, et cetera ad nauseum. The truth is, all want "the group" to do that which the individual is too frightened to do himself. But for any real change to occur, it can only come from the individual refusal of individual men to be a part of, and give perimission to, the state that enslaves him. In other words, if you want the income tax to go away, YOU have to stop paying. If you want proper education in this country, YOU must take your babes out of public schools. If you want to be free to travel without permission of a group of other people, YOU must stop enrolling YOURSELF into the system. You get the picture. Whether my past actions help me in the future, I can't say. All I can say is that I have done everything I could to stop feeding the beast when I became aware of it.

Have You Had Enough Yet said...

To Kirk, continued:

I agree with Sam Adams, for the most part. They say the American patriots of his day were a mere 3% or so of the population. But the Americans of his day were well-educated and, in the words of de Tocqueville, good. Also, the patriots then were, as often as not, the men of influence. Our men of influence now are, as often as not, a major part of the problem, traitors themselves. The "representatives," judges and military men all take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. But do they? Well, if they did/had, we wouldn't have a socialist/communist oligarchy cracking its cat-o-nine-tails over our backs today, would we?

Yes, I do believe there are a significant few with fire burning in their hearts. I know many of them in my neck of the woods. I read yet more on the web. Inspirations all. But few have been willing, as yet, to step all the way out of the boat in faith, come what may. We all have our own ideas about how to get where we want to go, and there is plenty of infighting. Have you tried to herd cats lately? Remember, Isreal of old, Germany, Russia and China always had a fire-hearted remnant and stout resister, but they went through the grinder with the rest of their nations, as well.

I'm just saying that it's very late in the game now, and the score is: Bad Guys 1,000,000; Good Guys zip.

ROM said...

DEMOCRATS: WELCOME TO HELL!

Lemuel Gulliver said...

People,

One of the finest magazines in America, and one of only three that I read, is "The American Prospect".

You can read the current issue online. It has a special section on why and how all the jobs in America were sent abroad, mostly to China. I really, really believe everyone should read these articles:

"The Plight of American Manufacturing":

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_plight_of_american_manufacturing

"Playing Ourselves for Fools":

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=playing_ourselves_for_fools

"Industrial Policy: The Road Not Taken":

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=industrial_policy_the_road_not_taken_

"The Politics of Industrial Renaissance":

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_politics_of_industrial_renaissance

"The Great Industrial Wall of China":

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_great_industrial_wall_of_china

In these articles, you will read that over 42,000 US factories have closed since 2001, and that while our government might want to bring jobs back to the USA, our corporations and banks and finance houses are making countless billions of dollars sending the jobs to China, and bribe our "elected representatives" to allow our jobs to be taken away by doling out vast sums of money for political campaigns.

Why do you suppose Obama in his campaign promised to put America back to work but instead has spent enormous effort and time on health care reform? And bailing out the corporations and banks?

No prize for figuring it out. A moron from Mars could do so.

Corporations, banks and brokerage houses are "persons" in law, but with no heart, no morals, no conscience, no blood, no flesh and nerves, but with First Amendment rights. These First Amendment rights have been defined by the Supreme Court as including the right to make unlimited donations to politicians for their re-election funds. According to the Supreme Court, this is "protected speech." (Unlike the speech of the fan in Mr. Grigg's video clip. Go figure.)

So, I would like to ask, if I blew up a police station, why would that not be "protected speech?"

If I shoot four cops in a bar, why would THAT not be "protected speech?"

(I hope the guy died happy - I'm sure a lot of prayers were said for his soul's repose.)

If I bribe a Senator to vote for the laws I want, why would THAT not be "protected speech?" Why would that land us both in jail, but not a corporation? (Which cannot, of course, be jailed. Even if it IS a "person" according to the Supreme Court.)

This land is your land, (NOT!)
This land is my land, (NOT!)
From the New York mountains,
To the piles of black stinking bullshit in Washington, DC....

Okay, it does not rhyme or even keep rhythm, but it sure is a hell of a lot truer than the original version.

Read those articles. Download them and save them. Nobody will believe what's in them unless you show them the hard copy.

Lemuel Gulliver.

kirk said...

To: Have You Had Enough Yet

I cannot disagree with what you have written.

Several points:

1. I am well informed;

2. I am well educated;

3. I know that, economically, the recent TARP/bankster theft is merely a continuation of the same theft that began in 1913 with the Federal Reserve formation. This ongoing crime includes fractional reserve banking, which has allowed empire formation abroad, police state at home and forever warfare with "no cost to the citizenry", save for the cruelest tax of all, the stealthy theft we call inflation;

4. I know that, politically, the corruption is so deep rooted as to be beyond change without getting rid of the entire political and bureaucratic classes all at once;

5. I know that, morally, we have become poverty stricken, dependent and enabled to all form of negative, to the point that the majority faith of this nation, Christianity, cannot even be mentioned in public any longer. Even now laws are being enacted that will outlaw stating one's religious convictions as "hate speech". This is only the tip of the (anti-) social agenda of those occupying the cesspool on the Potomac.

There are so many other issues that could be undertaken that is beyond the space to do so and I have purposely attempted to be very general in nature above.

In the end, from where I sit, the following apply:

Leviathan may appear to be near invincible, but it is corrupt. Since it is corrupt, the seeds of its own destruction are in place. Sooner or later, the rampant spending on the warfare/welfare/police state will result in the USD reaching its intrinsic value - zero. At this point, there will be change.

As to me, I no longer am angered by the enormity of the theft that has taken place in this nation since 1913. In fact, I want the theft via currency creation to continue unabated, for this only hastens the day the currency assumes its true value, zero, which will mark the end of all as we now know it.

This is how leviathan will be brought down - by its own hand - via the printing press. All we need do is sit and wait, knowing time is on our, not their, side. The key is to prepare for this day and what one thinks will take place in the vacuum created.

galenrog1 said...

Hey Will, Someone posted a bad rewrite of part of your latest at the Daily Paul. Even had the nerve to give his post the same title. Never referenced you in the text but did link at the end of his post.

Hope all is as well as can be.

Isaac Stanfield said...

Kirk and HYHEY,
It's obvious that you agree with each other. Kirk though seems to have an optimistic view of the end of this particular corrupt empire, or at least I have gathered that from what he has written. Before The End, before people realize the true value of everything this empire has to offer (once again, that would be zero), there will be a whole lot of violence. Other countries experience the result of resistance to the program, whether economically or explosively. This country hasn't yet, mostly because people have been too caught up cheering on the punishment of the foreign others.

I guess my point is that yes, there are plenty of people who are attempting to understand true liberty and are also trying to find a way to get a hold of it, but when those kinds of ideas start growing, Leviathan, in order to survive, has to suppress them by any means necessary, violence being a good one to use since everyone knows that fear is the mind killer. Sure, it might end up well and people will finally be free, but Leviathan won't give up without a fight, and they are well prepared for it. I'm sure that isn't anything new to either of you.

HYHEY, you may not have a materially comfortable life, but I'm sure your conscience allows you to sleep well at night.

Mister Spock said...

On the glass half-full/half-empty issue, I would like to share something I read recently that was posted in Lew Rockwell's blog. A friend of Lew's wrote:

"Keep hammering away. As every stone mason knows, each hammer-hit on the chisel brings him that much closer to splitting the stone. Although nothing may appear physically on the surface, with each hit there is something happening within the stone that the eye cannot see.

"When I was five my grandfather — a contractor and stone mason — demonstrated this principle to me, and let me do it too. As he explained, in days before there was scientific evidence to support him (scanning tunneling microscopy did not develop until the early 1980’s), “With every tap of the hammer on the chisel along the scored line, the atoms inside the stone move to reconfigure themselves in preparation for the split. Nothing appears on the surface, however, until the last tap when the stone falls apart.”

"So just keep on hammering. The Empire will fall apart."

That is exactly right, and it is validated by Galatians 6:9: "Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary."

Perseverance furthers, folks.

Have You Had Enough Yet said...

To Isaac Stanfield and Kirk:

You nailed it, Isaac. I was about to respond to you, Kirk, and say that we're pretty much on the same page, same paragraph and maybe even the same sentence, after all. I'm sure you can see the sense of what Isaac says about the beast going to every extreme to prevent successful opposition. I carefully avoid using the term "destruction" because, as you say, Kirk, it is a self-destroying system. Eventually.

It's what comes down the pipe between now and the time of Leviathan's death that we must prepare for as best we can because I do not foresee an escape or revival of liberty before then.

Isaac, it's amazing how accustomed to physical discomfort (not talking torture here) a body can become, given enough time.

May Our Divine Lord bless you both, and add a double portion for William.

Anonymous said...

Could be worse.
Well, it actually IS worse for many, is what I'm trying to say.
Ask Michael Kreca.
We won't be reading any more of his awesomely researched and footnoted articles now will we?
A Side Note:
Does anyone know how to find out more info on the lawsuit his family "won" against the San Diego Police?
The lawsuit "won" PRIOR to Michael Kreca being shot point-blank and killed by the San Diego Police that is.

Anonymous said...

I'd love to have all the details on Kreca. I read some of his material and it was eye opening. The man was clearly murdered.

Lemuel Gulliver said...

WASHINGTON, Janury 22, 2010
by Sharon Theimer
Associated Press

"Dozens of current and former corporate executives have a message for Congress: Quit hitting us up for campaign cash.

Roughly 40 executives from companies including Playboy Enterprises, ice cream maker Ben & Jerry's, the Seagram's liquor company, toymaker Hasbro, Delta Airlines and Men's Wearhouse sent a letter to congressional leaders Friday urging them to approve public financing for House and Senate campaigns. They say they are tired of getting fundraising calls from lawmakers — and fear it will only get worse after Thursday's Supreme Court ruling.

Among the others signing the letter are current or former executives of Quaker Chemical Corp., Brita Products Co., San Diego National Bank, MetLife and Crate & Barrel.

Congressional candidates who find themselves attacked by a flood of special-interest TV ads in the 2010 elections will likely reach out to their party's biggest donors for money to help them counter the blitz.

"Members of Congress already spend too much time raising money from large contributors," the business executives' letter says. "And often, many of us individually are on the receiving end of solicitation phone calls from members of Congress. With additional money flowing into the system due to the court's decision, the fundraising pressure on members of Congress will only increase."

===================================

YES, FOLKS, IT HAS GOTTEN THAT BAD. NOTE THE CORPORATIONS SIGNING THE LETTER - NOT AN OIL COMPANY OR DRUG COMPANY AMONG THEM. ONLY ONE SMALL-TOWN BANK. ONE MINOR INSURANCE COMPANY. NO WALL STREET STOCKBROKERS. NO MINING COMPANIES. NO MANUFACTURERS WITH OPERATIONS IN CHINA.

THESE MOTHERS ARE THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE DECIDED THEY OWN OUR NATION. DO THEY?

THE PUSTULENT WHORES AND LICE-INFESTED PIMPS ON CAPITOL HILL LIVE ONLY TO ACCUMULATE MONEY AND POWER. PUSHING AND SHOVING FOR A PLACE AT THE PIG-TROUGH, THEY ADORE THE BULLSHIT - THEY LIKE WALLOWING IN IT - IT'S THEIR NATURAL ENVIRONMENT. THE DIRTIER AND STINKIER IT IS, THE MORE THEY LOVE IT.

MAGGOTS, ALL OF THEM. VAMPIRES. LEECHES, ONE AND ALL. BLOOD-SUCKING TICKS. CHILD-MOLESTERS. LIARS. CHEATS. HYPOCRITES. WORSHIPPERS OF SATAN. KILLERS OF WIDOWS. MURDERERS OF ORPHANS.

AND IF YOU WONDER WHY THEY JAIL ANTI-TAX PATRIOTS AND ANYONE WHO DARES TO RAISE HIS VOICE ABOVE A WHISPER ABOUT ANYTHING, THERE IS YOUR ANSWER. SHEEP WHO GIVE UP BLEATING AND START TO ROAR ARE SENT TO THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE TO BE RENDERED INTO MUTTON.

TIME TO BRING BACK THE GUILLOTINE.

TIME TO BRING BACK THE FIRING SQUAD.

TIME FOR THE LAMPPOSTS OF WASHINGTON TO BLOSSOM WITH LOW-HANGING FRUIT.

TIME FOR A CLEANSING OF OUR NATION. A FLUSHING AWAY OF ROTTENNESS AND CORRUPTION.

TIME FOR THE SHEEP TO STOP BLEATING AND START BITING.

LEMUEL GULLIVER.

Bob said...

As I have mentioned time and again, it's time for the breakup of this country. Preferably into dozens or even hundreds or thousands of smaller countries.

Lemuel Gulliver said...

Folks,

This is most interesting.

The Associated Press, which is a CIA-and-corporate-controlled organ, has taken down the story which I cited above. Yahoo News which ran it earlier has also taken it down. For now, you can still find it on only two newspaper sites in America, which picked it up before Yahoo and the AP killed the story - the San Diego Union-Tribune, and Fox News Alabama. Go check the story quickly before it disappears from there also:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/22/ceos-to-hill-quit-calling-us-for-campaign-cash/

http://www.myfoxal.com/Global/story.asp?S=11865468

Now ain't that cute? Who says the AP, Reuters and ALL the news outlets are not controlled? I keep saying they lie to us all the time - here is another example.

Think about it.
Lemuel Gulliver.

Anonymous said...

LG... I don't get it. Those companies want the public to shoulder the burden of "public campaign financing" by the very rat bastards who presently run amok with the public purse? I wouldn't trust public financing any more than I presently don't trust them without it. I'm all for a new "Devils Island" where all present "law makers", scoundrels, and hangers on of both government, military etc. are deported to upon pain of death should they ever return. They can take that road or a quick firing squad. As much as I hate to see anyone perish I'm convinced they care not one whit for anyone but themselves and will suck us dry. Like vampires they keep enough of us alive to feed off of. So long as we're useful and don't complain too much they keep the thumb screws turning ever so slowly, for their benefit obviously, but once we bite back then out come the knives. I trust nobody from the entrenched political class to ever willingly relinquish anything to anybody and so you can already see where its headed.

Anonymous said...

I live in plainfield and never once felt threatened by Ed Brown. The federal goons, state police and their stupid roadblocks well that was another issue.

Lemuel Gulliver said...

MoT,

I agree 120%. Except, my first choice before the firing squad would be the guillotine, with one refinement: Each one of them gets to see the one in line before him lose his head and spout blood copiously all over the scaffold. So they have time to think about it. The firing squad is way too sanitary.

The blood could be collected in buckets and used for fertilizer to grow luscious organic vegetables, which could then be distributed free to the unemployed of America. Doesn't that have a certain poetry to it? Maybe we could do like the Maya and cut out their hearts too. And livers. Send those to the dog food factory.

And to think I was once an altar boy. That's what 63 years on this planet, 40 of them lived in America, will do to you.

Lemuel.

Anonymous said...

Gulliver is a Democrat party hack!

Most everyone else who posts here is vehemently opposed to BOTH statist, authoritarian parties of shit.

To borrow the words of Gerald Celente, we're political atheists here!

FTDs and FTRs!

Lemuel Gulliver said...

Anonymous,

And you are someone who needs to get the wax out of his ears and the wool out of his brain. I am no way a Democratic Party hack. The Republicans are greedy vampires and vicious wolves. The Democrats are corrupt worms and yellow-bellied sheep. Which do I want ruling America in these disastrous times which Administrations and Congresses of both parties have spent 40 years bringing upon us? (And I include the grinning dweeb Jimmy Carter, the most ineffectual bleeding-heart in history, who let us get mauled by a bunch of beturbaned mullahs and ranting mustachioed sand-niggers, who have come back to haunt us in the person of Ahmadinejad, and Carter's spiritual child, Barack Obama.) Answer: None of the freaking above.

Recommendation: Go and pleasure yourself in some dark corner, Mr. Anonymous. This will relieve some of the mental constipation engendered by the use of your two brain cells.

Anonymous said...

You have stated very little that has assuaged my charge that you are nothing but a collectivist in populist libertarian clothing. Your criticisms aimed at the Democrat Party are nothing but lamentations of disappointment piled upon discouragement for a political party you desire to reach a more perfect, morally unstained and uncorrupted collectivism. You rightfully disdain fascist socialism, i.e. corporatism, but embrace egalitarian collectivism, which is the sort of collectivism -the kibbutzim- practiced in a nation you despise. How ironic.

BTW, the Anglo-American power elite assisted the Ayatollah to power in 1979. The Anglo-American power elite are good at creating new and useful enemies. It has nothing to do with their meat puppet Carter's "bleeding heart liberalism". Cyrus Vance and Zbigniew Brzezinski can vouch for that. The Ayatollah was exiled in Paris before making his trip to Iran to replace an ousted Shah courtesy of the CIA/MI6, just like Lenin in Switzerland and Trotsky in New York were assisted by the same coterie in London, New York and Washington.

I recall your support for the Obama administration in earlier posts, encouraging Will to ease up on him, to give him a chance; but anyone who knows anything about modern politics knows it's all a sham, a circus sideshow. It is the rare politician (Ron Paul and the murdered Larry McDonald) who possesses the moral courage to ever buck the system.

The national Republicans are just like the national Democrats. And you, sir, have come along way, but you need to completely shed that abhorrant collectivist mentality I occasionally detect in your thought.

Join us! Become a Free Market Austrian (not the phoney corporatist shit that passes off as "free market capitalism") and a proponent of individualism and extremely limited government, a minarchist, if you will. Make your transition complete! You'll feel so liberated!

FTS!

I wish you well, LG. (Join us!)