Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Is the USA the Next USSR?

Reason's Nick Gillespie joins the Judge to explain why a vibrant culture of freedom must supplement America's politics of freedom if we wish to preserve our freedom.

Working Versus Printing Money

Judge Napolitano asks the question if the Federal Reserve can print an infinite amount of money then why do the citizens of the United States have to do any work at all?


American Fascism


Question of the Night: Will The News of A Cell Phone Cancer Connection Change Your Cell Phone Habits?

Possible Link Between Cell Phone Radiation and Cancer







Radiation from cell phones can possibly cause cancer, according to the World Health Organization. The agency now lists mobile phone use in the same "carcinogenic hazard" category as lead, engine exhaust and chloroform.
Before its announcement Tuesday, WHO had assured consumers that no adverse health effects had been established.

A team of 31 scientists from 14 countries, including the United States, made the decision after reviewing peer-reviewed studies on cell phone safety. The team found enough evidence to categorize personal exposure as "possibly carcinogenic to humans."-WHO: Cell phone use can increase possible cancer risk






When I got my first cell phone I constantly held it up to my head. In fact, there was one marathon conversation I had by cell phone with a friend of mine when I was bored out of my mind at a convention I went to with some other friends, so I sat out in the lobby area at the hotel we were at and talked straight through for a couple of hours. By the time I said goodbye, the phone was blazing hot. I must have really given myself a good dose of radiation that day. In recent years I've rarely put my phone to my ear, but I know others, including my mom, who still do. Mom has come around only because of these recent reports on the dangers of cell phone radiation, though she's ignored my warnings to her on the matter for years.

Hitler Finds Out About Kokesh Dance Party

The elites had taken near total control of every aspect of Americans lives, but when they tried to outlaw dancing, something went terribly wrong, and Hitler is pissed!

From Around the Web: May 31st, 2011

Adding to the long list of failed ideas for posting themes on SE from yours truly, I figured I would try an under-handed lob format where I just post some things I found. Sometimes they will be new, sometimes they will be old classics, but one thing they will always be: picked by me and put on SE for all to see.










The True(ly Disgusting) Conservative

I used to be a conservative.  The operating phrase here is “used to”.  I admired them for their stand on limited government.  I was such a fool back then.

If you want to ever understand what a true conservative is, look no further than Mark Levin.  He is probably the most conservative talk radio show host out there these days and he certainly says a lot of things I do agree with.

But he’s got one huge and potentially fatal flaw when it comes to his views, one that he doesn’t ever reconsider and arrogantly defends at all costs: his support of the military and police force.

And this is the fatal flaw of any conservative you’ll come across.  They will blindly and strictly defend the actions of all military and polices forces without question.  If you question what they are doing, you will be called a liberal or a nutjob.  If you suggest that the weapons and boots of the government could be used against you when you fight for limited government, you are no longer considered a conservative.

The fact is, I’ve had more insults and illogical arguments thrown at me from conservatives rather than liberals.  I’m sure I could get a full share from both if I regularly went to the liberal forums, but I guess I had set my expectations too high.

You see, I’m more of an individual than most people would like.  I don’t care for fitting my belief system into a specific box.  Heck, I have disagreements with Christians over things.  I mean, don’t get started on the fallacies and sheer absurdity of Calvinism.

But conservatives are not free thinkers anymore than liberals are.  In fact, many libertarians lack any original thought and tend to spout out views that were given to them by smarter men than them.  I guess it is just the way of the collective: to look to the smarter people to guide them.

There is a difference though in how the “low Church” members of any group handle opposing views they can’t resolve on their own.  When any group has members who are more than willing to resort to insults and not to reason or to simply admit, “I don’t know”, you’ve got Brutals and yahoos and not a group you should associate with.

That is why I have little tolerance for insults in any debate.  It’s not that I’m thin-skinned, if I was, I would simply hunt down your bosses and get you fired, much like what Dave Ramsey did to Matt Collins.  It’s got more to do with the fact that once the insults start flying, I know that I’ve won the debate and that there is no point in moving forward.

But this is how Mark Levin operates.  If you make any reasonable argument against him, he’ll insult you and shut you down.  He’s probably banned more dissenters from his Facebook page than I have followers on my twitter account (it’s only less than two hundred though).  But if you were to read some of the vile shit his followers throw at their opponents, the rules become clear: you can only be a bastard if you agree with me.  This is how most popular pundits operate and it’s getting sickening, regardless of their ideology.

But it is for that specific reason that I abandoned conservatives, libertarians, anarchists, and just about everything else: it’s because I have yet to find a group that doesn’t treat its opponents like garbage.

And yes, I used to be an asshole myself to a lot of people on these stupid forums.  So I know that you can change if you’re one yourself.

America: The "No Vacation" Nation?

Expedia reports that out of 18 vacation days, the average American worker only used 14 last year.


Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com


About 25% of American workers don't even get any paid vacation time, and the rest of us are lucky if we get two weeks (actually, that's only ten work days) of time off from the job. The mentality is to work us to death. That's the capitalist system of exploitation. American workers are always kept in fear because of lack of job security, as well, so even when they do have vacation time, they're often reluctant to take it, or are cautious about how much they take at one time (when my dad was working, it took him ten years to earn 4 weeks of vacation a year, and then he would take it all at once, which he said the managers didn't like, but those were the days when more private sector jobs were unionized, so he at least had a union to offer some protection from arbitrary employer actions).

We live under a system designed to keep the working class in constant fear of losing their jobs, with just enough unemployment to keep the peons in line with the knowledge they can be easily replaced with another job-hungry wage-slave waiting in the wings, but not so much unemployment to threaten the system itself with riots in the streets and the overthrow of capitalism and its replacement with a just system of true worker control and ownership of the workplace.

I recently took two days off from work, and when, a couple of weeks later, I needed just a schedule change giving me a Monday off for that week only, our manager threw my recent vacation days back in my face (he considers himself a "liberal" Democrat, by the way) saying "You just took a week of vacation." A week? I took two days! With my weekend days that equaled a total of 4 days off in a row! But in his capitalist, pro-boss, anti-worker, hierarchical mindset, I was now asking for too much, because, Good God!, I'd had a couple of days off.

The Yankee money-grubbing big business "work-ethic" is another thing we have to thank Lincoln and his war of aggression for, because it imposed this system on the entire country.

But some will defend it all like the filthy shills for capitalism that they are:

“Sure, there are those who complain, and some for good reason, but it seems that this country, being dubbed the no-vacation nation, is more of a testament to employers and employees alike, rather than a black eye for capitalism and the American way of life.”

It's a testament to the injustice of wage-slavery, idiot! That's all it is!

Ron Paul 2012: The Youth Strike Back



Go to any Ron Paul event and it strikes you immediately: What's up with all the young people?

The 75-year-old Texas congressman packs halls on college campuses. His campaign volunteers often look too young to shave. And even at a recent New York City book signing, it's surprising how many teenagers and 20-somethings are lined up for an autograph, clutching Paul's new book, Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom.

Sixteen-year-old Rob Gray says the age of the crowd doesn't seem odd to him.

It's "the old canard of the young being more open-minded than the old," he says.

Paul, the world's most unlikely teen idol, is running again for president.-Ron Paul: Why The Young Flock To An Old Idealist

Why Certain People Hate the Idea of Others Going To College

click image to enlarge

Monday, May 30, 2011

Champ, the Amazing Ball Balancing Budgie

Historic Protest in Ras al-Amud, Jerusalem

For the first time in decades, Palestinians invite Jewish Israeli solidarity activists to Ras al-Amud, a neighborhood of Jerusalem referred to as "the daily intifadah".


Dr Deagle on Jeff Rense

Listen to Dr Bill Deagle and guests highlighting more problems with the Japanese attack on Mar 11th 2011 and whats going to come of it all in the future. Dr. Bill Deagle Fukushima reporting on Jeff Rense that the situation is deteriorating fast, way way worse than any government is ready to admit to the citizens , the Japanese economy is toast which means that the dollar is toast cause Japan is the second largest US treasury Bills buyers just after China , Tepco won't survive without government bailout.

Dr Bill Deagle: The Situation in Fukushima is catastrophic




Dr. Bill Deagle - Jeff Rense Radio Show

Ron Paul: Obama's War in Libya

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Ridding The World of The Red, White, and Blue Death

Want to know why I so intensely hate the encroaching police state and all its tools- the counterfeit "laws", the cops, the judges, the politicians, and all the other parasites that infest The State? Because I do not want that world for my kids.

Read more at Kent's "Hooligan Libertarian" Blog: Surviving The Red, White, and Blue Death

How Important Is Higher Education? Paypal Founder Pays Students To Drop Out Of College!

More Than A Dozen Mothers and Children Killed By U.S. Air Strike In Afghanistan

The United States "apologized" and said it was an "accident", so of course, it's okay and our government isn't guilty of murder and terrorism. And hey, these kinds of incidents won't create any more simmering hatred for America in the region, because those that do hate us already hate us simply for our freedoms.


Living With Diabetes - For 85 Years!

When Bob Krause turned 90 last week, it was by virtue of an unflagging determination and a mentality of precision that kept his body humming after being diagnosed with diabetes as a boy.

A leading diabetes research center named the San Diego resident the first American known to live 85 years with the disease, a life that has paralleled - and benefited from - the evolution in treatment. Read more: Man celebrates 85 years of living with diabetes

It's interesting as he talks of how treatment has changed in all those years. Just living to age 90 is pretty damn good by itself, living since childhood with his disease is even more amazing.

I have several relatives who have developed adult onset (now called type 2) diabetes. My parents haven't, so I suppose that's good news for me, but I have aunts on both sides who have, and my grandmother on my Mom's side did. Cure or not, it is such great progress we've made in keeping people alive with serious illness and allowing them to live long and full lives. This will only increase and, even better, true cures (maybe even for aging itself) await us as this century unfolds.

Cooling System Stops At No.5 Reactor At Fukushima For Fifteen Hours

Cooling system at a reactor of the crippled Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant stopped from Saturday, the plant's operator said Sunday.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the pumps to cool the nuclear reactor and fuel pool have stopped at the No. 5 unit, and the operator is now working to switch to backup pumps to restore the cooling system.

Adam Kokesh Arrested - True News from Freedomain Radio

What happened, why it happened, and what needs to happen now!




Adam Vs The Man


Freedomain Radio

The Sunday Jesus: Jesus Was Wrong and Should Be Ignored

By the Bible's own standard, Jesus is a false prophet and should be ignored. He made a prediction about his return to Earth that didn't come true. Why don't Christians believe their Bible on this?


The Last Week: A Day-by-Day Account of Jesus's Final Week in Jerusalem

Sunday Eye Candy: Nozomi Takeuchi











Nozomi Takeuchi (竹内のぞみ/竹内希実 Takeuchi Nozomi?, born June 25, 1980) is a Japanese gravure idol, and a female talent. She is from Aichi, belonged to the show-business production Yume Kikaku. Her nickname is 'Kojocho' (means a factory manager), derives from her handle name of the official blog. She graduated from 'Kunitachi College of Music' (in Japan), and plays the piano.-Nozomi Takeuchi



Long Live The Republic: "The Answer Is 1776"



Obama Disrespects Joplin Tornado Victims? Sits in Front Row and Chews Gum at Joplin Memorial

Mass Murder In Afghanistan

At least 14 civilians, including women and children, have been killed in a NATO air raid in the Afghan southern province of Helmand, local authorities say.

US Marines in Helmand's Nawzad district called in air support after their base came under attack from small arms fire, the provincial government said in a statement.

"During the air strike, two civilian houses were targeted, which killed 14 civilians and six others were wounded," it said.

The statement said the dead included five girls, seven boys and two women.

...

Afghan authorities said on Sunday NATO had killed 52 people, mostly civilians, in air strikes against fighters, as violence picked up in recent weeks with the start of the fighting season.

Separately, the governor of Nuristan on Sunday said that 18 civilians and 20 police were killed by "friendly fire" during recent US-led air strikes against al-Qaeda-linked fighters in his troubled northeastern province.


Afghan civilians killed in NATO attack



But the murderers, whose rotten deeds we're supposed to celebrate in an orgy of militaristic fervor on "holidays" such as Memorial Day, are to be called "heroes" and thanked "for their service" in "defending our freedoms" by their killing of innocents. The reality is that every last member of the U.S. Military is a criminal scumbag worthy of nothing more from you and I than to be spat upon and cursed at and called what they really are, filthy vermin and agents of evil.

End the Empire! Stop the terrorism of the U.S. Government!

Indiana Citizens Take Back 4th Amendment

After the unconstitutional Indiana Supreme Court ruling removing the protections of the 4th Amendment, the people of Indiana spontaneously organized in a trans-partisan alliance uniting for the Constitution at their state capitol. Gary Franchi was on the scene to report.

Will the tyrants in our increasingly fascist government go so far that they set off the spark that ignites revolution?



RTR.org

Global Corporate Power and the Authoritarian Information Order

For years, global digital copyright treaties and the IP provisions of assorted “free trade” agreements have been drafted in secret by proprietary content industries. Even the digital copyright laws of ostensibly independent countries are drafted by lobbyists from those same industries, then rubber-stamped by the national parliaments with most members never even having a chance to actually read them.

For example, a large batch of diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks in April includes several on a massive effort by the global entertainment industry to model Canada’s copyright laws on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Wikileaks also released hundreds of cables showing that the U.S. content industries essentially wrote New Zealand’s “three-strikes” legislation — and the U.S. government even offered to fund New Zealand’s copyright enforcement police at American taxpayer expense. Spain’s new copyright law was also written by global entertainment industry lobbyists.

The old Spanish law, incidentally, was comparatively sane, with private file-sharing for personal use covered by the “fair use” doctrine and third parties like ISPs and torrent sites treated as safe harbors. As a result Spain, like Canada, made it onto the U.S. copyright cops’ “Special 301″ list of the “worst of the worst” offenders.

In cables released by Wikileaks on the negotiation of ACTA, support for the treaty by such countries as Russia and China was treated as a gauge of “free market” friendliness of those countries, to be used as a stick in negotiations over other trade provisions desired by those countries.

Against this background of secrecy and corruption, it’s interesting that the major developed countries previously involved in drafting digital copyright treaties are now squealing like stuck pigs about a proposal by developing nations to hold their own private inter-regional conferences on IP laws within the World Intellectual Property Organization framework. In response to complaints from the developed countries, the developing countries proposed making only the first conference private and allowing the developed countries to attend a second one with non-voting “observer status.” No dice, said the rich fat white boys. “No meeting should be restricted to only some members” (seriously!).

One law for the lion and one for the lamb is tyranny.

One recurring theme in most discussion of corporate globalization is the importance of the state in the global economy. It’s commonly argued that the transnational corporation has eclipsed the nation-state as the dominant actor, and that hollowed-out states are no longer capable of restraining corporate tyranny. But the truth is just the opposite: Corporations can’t afford to enforce, at their own expense, the monopolies and artificial property rights on which they collect rents and tribute. Absent a state to enforce copyrights and patents, and to externalize those enforcement costs on taxpayers, proprietary content companies and manufacturers would bleed themselves dry. And without the U.S. Navy to keep the sea lanes open at general taxpayer expense, and without the World Bank and U.S. foreign aid budget to subsidize the road and utility infrastructure Western-owned factories need to be profitable in the Third World, offshoring would be a lot less popular.

In the days of gunboat diplomacy, colonial regimes depended on the puppet governments of their protectorates to enforce the extraterritorial rights of their nationals and corporations against the local population. Corporations are just as dependent today on governments to suppress competition at gunpoint and externalize their operating costs.

Likewise, the corporate world order depends for the enforcement of its centrally important “intellectual property” rights on a “DRM Curtain,” enforced by the satellite states of the U.S. and the Washington Consensus. If states defect from this global corporate order, or if their populations simply render the law unenforceable, global corporations will shrivel like garden slugs covered with salt.

Global corporate power, and the authoritarian information order on which it depends, cannot survive in a freed market.

By Kevin Carson at Center for a Stateless Society under Creative Commons




Has Ron Paul Moved Left On Immigration?

Most immigrants do not come for handouts; rather, they come for survival reasons and have a work ethic superior to many of our own citizens who have grown dependent on welfare and unemployment benefits. This anger may reflect embarrassment as much as anything.-Ron Paul


Ron Paul Moving to the Left on Immigration?

Democrat and Republican Wars

Which presidents and political parties were responsible for America's deadliest wars? To what extent can you blame a president or a political party for choosing to go to war? This map may hold some answers. It illustrates the history of American war from 1775 to 2006.



Notice that the Great Wars, the Atomic Bomb, Korea and Vietnam (great finishing there, eh?) were DEMOCRATIC inititatives. The major war the GOP started was the Civil War.- The Commentator: Playing With Facts And War

Adam Kokesh: "Dance party next Saturday at Jefferson Memorial!"

Several people have been forcibly arrested in Washington for dancing at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. Among those held were RT America presenter Adam Kokesh.





"In the United States you have to understand something about the police force here...the police force in America does not exist for public safety. It does not exist to provide for the needs of the people. It does not exist to solve crimes or hunt down criminals. It exists to generate revenue for the government and to control the population"-Adam Kokesh


Dance Party at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Pigs Arrest Adam vs the Man Host Adam Kokesh

Adam Kokesh body slammed, choked, police brutality at Jefferson Memorial



A flashmob in Washington has felt the full force of the law, by being forcibly arrested by police - for dancing in public. They'd gathered at the Jefferson Memorial in defiance of a ban on dancing at the monument. Among those held were RT America presenter Adam Kokesh, who says he was slammed to the ground by officers. The ban came in during 2008 when an activist sued police for arresting her for public dancing. The group say they were paying tribute to her as a champion of the First Amendment, guaranteeing freedom, and in response to US District Judge John D. Bates' ruling that denounced dancing on the site.





Buddhism and Autonomy

Ajahn Brahm challenges ideas about autonomy and freedom, and about knowledge and faith, in Buddhism and in other religions.


via Check Your Premises

Discussion: State Size

Should more populated states like California, Texas, Florida and New York be divided in order to make governing them easier, while also providing them a more equal (though still under-represented) presence in the Senate?

Michael Moore Wants Humans To Stop Driving Cars And Take Mass Transit

The video description says: Moore proves he is a complete 100% nut job! Wants humans to stop driving cars and take mass transit!

Do you agree? Personally, I dislike mass transit. If it was more convenient, more widespread, and frankly, cleaner, I'd consider it. If it was free (or dirt cheap), I'd consider it, too. But even under the best of circumstances, you spend more time waiting for your ride, and longer getting to where you're going, than you do in your own car. In places like southern California, the main means of "mass transit" are bus lines, and if you've ever attempted to make it somewhere in a timely manner by bus, you'll know the utter hassle involved in simply using the system.

Generally, you have to take more than a single bus, and it can sometimes take hours to get to a destination that might have taken you less than 30 minutes by hopping in your car (yes, hopping in your car might seem strange, but it helps pass the time while you're driving).

There's this new guy at work, and as we were leaving for the weekend on Friday, he had his backpack on and told me he had to walk to the bus stop. He had his iPod with him for the ride (or rides) and would be waiting at least 20 minutes for the bus once he made it down to the stop. Meanwhile, my car was right there in the parking lot, giving me total freedom to go wherever I wanted without waiting for anyone (except for all those other cars in my way on the highway, though being a holiday weekend, there wasn't much traffic).

As an anarchist and a socialist, I do believe we should have better transportation options for everyone, including the poor (which there would be fewer of, obviously, under anarchy), but I think that also means giving the poorer among us the freedom of the automobile, as well. Nothing can replace the personal automobile when it comes to freedom of movement for ordinary people. Smaller, less expensive, and more fuel efficient (including cheap diesel vehicles that US Federal regulations currently prevent being sold in the U.S.) must be produced.

Used cars have always been an option for the poor, but thanks to your compassionate Federal government, the Cash for Clunkers program of a couple years ago wiped many of them from the roads, meaning fewer older (and affordable) vehicles are now available for purchase, helping to drive used car prices up. Let's get rid of regulations, licensing fees and car taxes (including sales taxes on vehicle purchases) and eliminate all mandatory auto insurance laws (which just enriches private corporations like billionaire Warren Buffet's GEICO), which just drive up the costs of owning a vehicle. That would really show true compassion for the transportation needs of those without large incomes, not the phony statist "compassion" of a hypocrite millionaire like Moore and his "we're destroying the planet" baloney.

Sunday Sports: The Crossover



The Crossover on Display

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Why Are You Still A Statist?

If you still refuse to morally condemn your government's violent imperialism, then do your dignity a favor and STFU about Osama Bin Laden because all things considered, he's small potatoes compared to the crimes of statism.

Utah Sound Money Act: Hello Real Money, Goodbye Johnson Sandwich?

Over dinner Larry Hilton shows off a swanky iPhone app that allows him to buy and sell gold at the click of a button.

Then he talks about the portion of his life savings that he has invested in precious ingots, which are locked away deep inside a bank vault in the City of London.

But when it's time to pay the bill, Hilton, an attorney from a small town just outside Salt Lake City, is forced to settle his debt in the bog-standard way: by either handing over a plastic credit card, or digging into the stack of bank-notes which is shoehorned into his wallet. Not for much longer, though. Because this week, Utah passed a law allowing gold and silver coins to be used as legal tender.


Cold, hard cash: Utah brings back the silver dollar



I have in my wallet a 1964 silver quarter (the last year they were issued) given to me by a friend for "good luck", or maybe just because I didn't previously own any silver coins. In 1965 the US mint replaced the silver quarter (actually 90% silver and 10% copper) with the clad quarter, so-called because it has a copper core covered by cupronickel (75% copper, 25% nickel), also known as the infamous "Johnson Sandwich" after the scumbag LBJ, who was president at the time.

The old quarter was real money, and if we compare just its melt value at today's silver price, it is worth approximately $6.86. A gallon of gas in 1964 was just 30¢, while today it is almost averaging $4.00. If the value of our money had not been destroyed by our criminal government, a quarter would still buy a gallon of gasoline today (and at current silver values, more than a gallon and a half).


Actions such as those in Utah are occurring because the individual states must protect their citizens and I believe we'll see more and more of this as time goes on. As the Federal Government begins its collapse, the immediate hope will be with the states and the people. Go Utah!

I Think I'm Noam Chomsky

School or Prison?

Adam plays "IS IT A SCHOOL, OR IS IT A PRISON" with Alexander McCobin and Sloane Frost of Students for Liberty.

Criminal-In-Chief Illegally "Signs" Unconstitutional Bill

It's been one of the most controversial tools in the fight against terrorism, but Congress passed an extension of the PATRIOT Act.


Loudest critic of extending the Patriot act? That very evil Sen. Rand Paul (he's evil because he doesn't believe in government as our savior - at least, that's the world according to "liberals").

I am worried about a government that is sifting through millions of records without asking ‘are you a suspect.’ Without asking are you in league with foreign terrorists. Are you plotting violent overthrow of your government?”-Rand Paul


pp

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com




Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.) is questioning President Obama's use of an autopen in signing an extension of the Patriot Act.

In a letter Friday, Graves asks Obama to confirm that he saw the law prior to its autopen signing.

"Mr. President, I write to request your confirmation that S. 990, as passed by Congress, was presented to you prior to the autopen signing, as well as a detailed, written explanation of your Constitutional authority to assign a surrogate the responsibility of signing bills passed into law," Graves wrote.-Rep. Graves questions Obama's autopen signing of Patriot Act extension


Why did Obama, the black messiah and agent of hope and change, have to go to the extraordinary measure (apparently unprecedented in Presidential history when it comes to actually signing a piece of legislation) of signing the bill remotely by autopen? Because, the George W. Bush era PATRIOT Act would have otherwise expired at midnight. Horrors! Mr Hope and Change sure has made a difference in the White House, hasn't he, you stupid liberals?



...the fact that a Republican was loudest in his opposition -- and a Democrat -- Majority Leader Harry Reid -- pushed for its extension was an irony not lost on Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett. She dug up some 2005 video of then-Senator Barack Obama:

OBAMA: “We don’t have to settle for a PATRIOT Act that sacrifices our liberty or our safety. We can have one that secures both.”

But most Democrats on Capital Hill only seem to revile the Patriot act when the Republicans controlled the White House. Now ten years later with a Democrat in the Oval Office they’re no longer complaining about the expansion of police power stifling civil liberties.




Generations of children learned the basics of the American legislative process from a “Schoolhouse Rock” cartoon, in which “Bill” sings, “If he signs me, then I’ll be a law.”

But now, apparently for the first time in United States history, a bill has been signed into law by autopen, at the direction of President Obama, who is in Europe on a weeklong trip. - Making Legislative History, With Nod From Obama and Stroke of an Autopen

Friday, May 27, 2011

The Magic Question

The importance of not cutting off the tree branch you're sitting on.

The "Liberal" Argument Playbook

Number One: Ignore any facts that don't fit your lies and falsehoods. If you do stumble over a fact that shows your position is absurd, use a strawman argument or even better, go for the old argumentum ad hominem against your opponent who brought up the inconvenient fact.

Number Two: Say it's all the Republicans fault (or libertarians, right-wingers, tea partiers, Ron Paul).

Number Three: Call your opponent a racist (and if they think Lincoln was a tyrant and the South was right to secede from the Union and the War for Southern Independence was a right and just cause, say they support slavery).

When all else fails, just tell the person with the facts on their side to go fuck themselves.

Bob Chapman: The Fed Behind The Greatest Fraud In History






We believe that for the past 2-1/2 years the price of gold has been mainly driven by a flight to quality, as gold vied with the dollar for supremacy, as the world's reserve currency. As we have witnessed gold has won that battle. The only way the dollar or any other world reserve currency can compete is by being backed 25% by gold. The elitist's royalty of Wall Street and the City of London are quite upset with these developments, because they want all currencies to be fiat, so that they would not have to have a gold backed international monetary unit.

Over the last six months another historic factor has come into play in evaluating gold versus currencies, and that is the interconnectivity of gold's relationship with inflation. In the late 1970s this was the underlying factor for the rise in the prices of both gold and silver. At that time they never had the luxury of strength also coming from recognition of being monetary units. We hear the manic claims that gold and silver are bubbles or are manias. That cannot be because gold is and always has been the only real money. Every time the major media makes these bogus claims they always fail to mention that both gold and silver have appreciated in value in excess of 20% annually versus nine major currencies.

Forest Sounds

Back to nature! Enjoy your forest sounds on your Friday!



Filthy Good For Nothing Democrat Scum Want to Steal Even More of Your Income!

Media reports in recent weeks say that Senate Democrats are considering a 3% surtax on income over $1 million to raise federal revenues. This would come on top of the higher income tax rates that President Obama has already proposed through the cancellation of the Bush era tax-rate reductions.

If the Democrats' millionaire surtax were to happen—and were added to other tax increases already enacted last year and other leading tax hike ideas on the table this year—this could leave the U.S. with a combined federal and state top tax rate on earnings of 62%. That's more than double the highest federal marginal rate of 28% when President Reagan left office in 1989. Welcome back to the 1970s.

Yes, welcome back to Carter Country! Obama, Jimmy Carter 2! One Termer Barack James Earl Obama!

Read the rest at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304066504576343611464445594.html

The Government's War on Cameras!

Your traitors in the US Congress have just given us more government terrorism by extending the Orwellian named Patriot Act. The "evil"" Rand Paul, son of the "evil" Ron Paul (who are both worthless according to some pretend "liberals") opposed the Patriot Act and was accused by Senate Majority leader Harry Reid of trying to "protect terrorists". Funny then how it's defenders of civil liberties such as the Pauls that get all the hate from some "liberals", while those same people don't write endless attacks against truly evil worthless scum like Harry Reid.

Your traitorous Senate (lead by worthless pond scum Harry Reid) even voted down an amendment that would have required greater congressional oversight of the Patriot Act's provisions.

So, your government has voted itself more power to spy on you, while it wages a war on ordinary citizens who try to keep an eye on what the government and its clown-costumed criminal goons are doing.







Who will watch the watchers? In a world of ubiquitous, hand-held digital cameras, that's not an abstract philosophical question. Police everywhere are cracking down on citizens using cameras to capture breaking news and law enforcement in action.

In 2009, police arrested blogger and freelance photographer Antonio Musumeci on the steps of a New York federal courthouse. His alleged crime? Unauthorized photography on federal property.

Police cuffed and arrested Musumeci, ultimately issuing him a citation. With the help of the New York Civil Liberties Union, he forced a settlement in which the federal government agreed to issue a memo acknowledging that it is totally legal to film or photograph on federal property.

Although the legal right to film on federal property now seems to be firmly established, many other questions about public photography still remain and place journalists and citizens in harm's way. Can you record a police encounter? Can you film on city or state property? What are a photographer's rights in so-called public spaces?

These questions will remain unanswered until a case reaches the Supreme Court, says UCLA Law Professor Eugene Volokh, founder of the popular law blog The Volokh Conspiracy. Until then, it's up to people to know their rights and test the limits of free speech, even at the risk of harassment and arrest.

Who will watch the watchers? All of us, it turns out, but only if we're willing to fight for our rights.


Michael Allison, a 41-year-old backyard mechanic from southeastern Illinois, faces up to 75 years in prison for an act most people don’t realize is a crime: recording public officials. Read more: The War on Cameras



How to Record the Cops



What’s the best way to record the cops? Here’s a quick run-down of the choices.

Cameras without wireless networking capabilities are the least attractive option. If they are destroyed or confiscated in the field, you probably have lost the damning video you just recorded, including any footage documenting how your camera was confiscated or destroyed. But provided you can hold on to your machine, digital video recorders today are inexpensive, small, and practical. The most popular easy-to-use brand right now is the Flip Video line of cameras, which start at $149. Even the cheapest Flips fit in your pocket, power up in about three seconds, and feature one-button recording. They include a built-in USB port and instant formatting for hosting sites such as LiveLeak and YouTube. Read more: How to Record the Cops: A guide to keeping law enforcement accountable

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Gas Price Myths

As Americans across the country gas up their cars for their Memorial Day getaways this year, their wallets will take a bigger-than-usual hit. That's because gas prices are up $1.06 from last year according to a study by AAA. In fact prices have more than doubled since President Obama took office. And while the media has been slow to demand answers of the President, he has been busy trying to deflect attention away from his incoherent energy policy with a number of gas price-related myths. From overstating the impact of green energy to downplaying the devastating impact of his drilling moratorium, the President should spend less time trying to deflect criticism and more time working to ease pain at the pump.



via Berman Post

The Right to Know the Truth

This video explains the people's right to know the truth. The peoples of the world demand that governments tell the truth.

All governments without exception are secretive, and all governments without exception lie to their people

Peter Schiff Calls BS on Porter Stansberry

Peter vs. Porter: Peter exposes the real story behind Porter Stansberry's "predictions"


Secular Coalition for America's 2011 Strategic Summit in Washington, D.C.

The Secular Coalition for America held its first-ever Biennial Strategic Summit in Washington, D.C. May 19 - 21, 2011. More than 100 secular and nontheistic leaders met to discuss strategies and lobby Congressional offices on Capitol Hill with the goal of increasing the respect for and visibility of secular Americans in public life. Speakers included writers Susan Jacoby and Jennifer Michael Hecht.
For more, visit http://www.secular.org/.


WTF Should I Do?

Nik [or is it Mr. Jakson? No, only if I’m nasty] has taken to addressing you, the reader, a lot lately, and I like it. It’s something I do from time to time, and I think it’s something I should do more. I don’t much care for it when I write something that stretches for pages without ever acknowledging that someone out there may actually be taking the time to read it.

Hello! Whatever your left hand is touching just exploded. Be honest… is anyone out there now neutered?

So, I have a question for you, the reader: what should I be posting? Should I follow Nik’s lead and go in the direction SE is taking of being a news aggregator, posting stories I find interesting from elsewhere? Should I write more on political theory? More on religion? More fiction? More humor? More humor that’s actually funny? Whoa, whoa… let’s be realistic, here…

I feel like I’ve neglected not so much my duty to Skeptical Eye the past couple weeks, but also the opportunity. I’ve been unusually busy in my real life of late (for a while, I had begun to question if I even had one of those anymore). Do you want to read about what’s happening here? Scratch that, I know you don’t. You may think you do, but it’s not a good story, one mostly centered on cleaning and necessary chores, sort of a male Cinderella tale without magic. I’m shopping the movie rights, but so far no takers.

But what about old stories? I mean, I’m not ancient, by any means. I may be the youngest contributor on SE (anyone younger than 27?), but I did some weird things in my life, and the financial privilege of the family I come from has afforded me some interesting opportunities. Not lucrative ones, but many that take vaudevillian turns (sorry, no musical numbers… yet).

I’ve always been someone who thrives on format (see: my blog’s weekly features). Sitting down and knowing what I am going to write makes it easier, and it helps even more as I’m going through my day-to-day life while not blogging to have in the back of my mind, “Be on the lookout for weird words, Wednesday is coming up.”

So, any ideas (even crudely insulting ones) are more than welcome. I wait with baited breath to see how many stars this gets…

Note: if you want me to kill myself, please be specific regarding method.

Stefan Molyneux on The Rapture

Harold Camping said he had a tough weekend, but he recovered quickly once he realized that Judgment Day was to be interpreted spiritually, even though he told us it was "guaranteed" that the rapture would take place on May 21. But hey, by his logic (he's said this) the world "has been warned" by all those advertisements and billboards, so all the money donated and spent to proclaim the message of Judgment wasn't in vain, even though the warning was supposed to be about what was to occur on May 21, 2011, so should everyone ignore the warning as a false alarm? No, says Camping, the end of the world is now only FIVE MONTHS away on October 21, 2011, though Family Radio, he assures us, won't be spending a dime promoting that prophecy.

Makes perfect sense, as did Camping's answer to a reporter's question on the Monday after asking if he would sell or give away all his worldly possessions, like his house. Camping said why would he do that, because he still has to live for the next five months (though if it was me, I wouldn't worry about living for just another five months, even if I had to sleep in my car - and Camping has offices, supporter's homes, motels and such that he could live in - if I was really flying off to paradise in October). What Harold Camping didn't explain was why he wouldn't arrange to have his home and assets transferred on October 21 to a charity, for example. It won't matter if it's the end of the world, as he says it will be, and it would prove he's really serious this time, and truly believes his own crap, rather then just make-believing and deceiving himself that he believes it.

Oh well, enough from me.

Here's Molyneux on The Rapture:

Over 2,600 Activists Arrested In US Protests

According to the Nuclear Resister, arrests at protests have been surging since Obama became President in 2009, with over 2 thousand six hundred political activists arrested. 665 handcuffed and carted off to jail in 2009, 1290 arrested in 2010, and so far this year 670 faced charges of everything from failure to disperse to resisting arrest.

Insider Trading - Doug Casey

Doug: The SEC is concerned with the enforcement of a set of stupid, counterproductive, expensive, completely unnecessary, and destructive laws. It does so by having its bureaucracy create a myriad of even more stupid, counterproductive, expensive, completely unnecessary, and destructive regulations.

L: But you’d say that about all government law.

Doug: I would, actually, although I know that confuses some people because there is an overlap between government law and what might be called natural law. But this one is topical at the moment, and worth debunking here and now, even though by this time next week people will have totally forgotten that the guy has been locked away for years… along with about 2.2 million others now in American prisons – most of whom absolutely shouldn’t be there.

...

So… where to begin?

Doug: With a definition, as always. The SEC’s definition of insider trading is constantly evolving and growing, though the definition itself – forget about its application – is imprecise and arbitrary. But, more or less, it says that any officer, director, holder of more than 10% of a public company’s stock, or anyone they talk to about material information regarding the company, is an insider.

Like most of the SEC’s rules, the ones on insider trading are arbitrary. They’re similar to the tax laws, in that you often can’t know whether you’re breaking them or not. You’d almost have to live with a specialized attorney to keep from getting in trouble. They can’t be enforced in anything but a sporadic way – basically to cause fear, in the hope that fear will keep the plebes in line. But worse, they are unnecessary and destructive.-Doug Casey on Insider Trading

When Money Dies - The Dollar Vigilante Interviewed

Jeff Berwick, the host of Dollar Vigilante speaks to Stefan Molyneux of Freedomain Radio about inflation, the Federal Reserve, fiat currencies, fiscal collapse and the light at the end of the tunnel...





The Dollar Vigilante

Post of the Moment: Imagine There's a Heaven

I remember back when John Lennon’s song “Imagine” came out and reached wide popularity, how there was an outcry of protestation against it from the evangelical community. The song begins with the lyric, “Imagine there’s no heaven.” Evangelicals were outraged by this because we’re not supposed to do this – we’re not supposed to imagine that there is no heaven.

Rather, we’re supposed imagine that there is a heaven.

After all, what alternative do we have to imagination when it comes to contemplating the heaven which is described in the Christian bible? We can’t see it, we cannot infer its existence from empirical facts, we cannot conclude that it is real by reference to what we discover to be real. Indeed, we have no alternative to imagining when it comes to something as fantastic as Christianity’s heaven.


Incinerating Presuppositionalism: Imagine There's a Heaven

The Lie That Anarchists Are Thoughtless Agents Of Chaos

The Existing Disorder



A couple weeks ago in The Guardian, Ellie Mae O’Hagan very thoughtfully bewailed the mainstream media’s treatment of anarchists. “The problem with the contemporary media narrative on protest,” she said, “is that, in its refusal to understand the nuances of anarchism, it is using the term as a euphemism for ‘dangerous’, ‘violent’ or ‘bad’.”

O’Hagan couldn’t be more right, and while she has no trouble recognizing that anarchism is a “broad-based political philosophy,” she points out that the media at large is intent on using it as a proxy for vandalism and destruction. The smearing of anarchism, she argues, is approaching the level of McCarthyism, with spurious, “Orwellian charges” becoming more and more frequent in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

The anti-anarchist, police state phenomena highlighted by O’Hagan cry out for anarchists to instruct society in our creed, not to explain it away in a way that compromises its radical message, but to convey what it really is. And that, as O’Hagan correctly notes, is a tradition of thought that “accommodates people of significantly contrasting viewpoints.” Arbitrary violence and destruction of property are about as much (or rather as little) a part of anarchism as they are of any other political persuasion.

Governments enjoy playing up “propaganda of the deed” as necessarily a feature of anarchism; it allows them to turn around and use the phrase “known anarchist” in the headlines when they throw people in a cage on trumped up charges. Random, warrantless police raids are far more palatable to a public that has been suckled on the lie that anarchists are thoughtless agents of chaos.

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, the first to explicitly style himself an anarchist, did not choose the word out of a desire to promote chaos or disorder. Indeed, Proudhon identified himself as “a firm friend of order” and saw anarchy as expressing the “highest limit of liberty and order to which humanity can attain.” Through the history of anarchist thought, its proponents have taken great care to emphasize the differences between the kind of order offered by the state and that by free and voluntary society.

The former, they argued, was no order at all, but a war executed by a small elite against its own subjects, an abrogation of the natural, social order that would obtain in the state’s absence. Quite contrary to championing disorder or some kind of lawless mayhem, Proudhon imagined the coercive apparatuses of the state “dissolved” within a true market, with “political functions … reduced to industrial functions.”

In a very real way, it is the state that substitutes the chaotic and the violent for what is otherwise innate in the value-for-value trades between sovereign people. Government intrusions against, for example, a farm in the French village of Tarnac and a peaceful community action group in London demonstrate all too clearly that simply concerns about public safety is not the whole story.

In fact, it has been increasingly obvious that public safety is a mere subterfuge used to mask the state’s blatant attempts to discredit anything that might expose it for the band of criminals that it is. Since anarchism opposes hierarchy, authority and an economic system grounded in coercive privilege, it is eminently understandable that the state would want to bring its advocates into disrepute.

Against the rubric of senseless violence, however, anarchist couldn’t hope to approach the carnage rendered by the state. So when anarchists or other political dissidents are taken in for things like “suspicion of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance,” a healthy dose of skepticism is in order.

If anarchists succeeded in replacing the state with voluntary, consensual institutions, it wouldn’t mean a perfect, crimeless utopia. What would surface, though, would be a society that could avail itself of all the latent potential now stamped out by the rigid, decaying force of statism; it would be a society without sanctioned coercion, without the ancient idea, absurd on its face, that society’s worst, most powerful criminals are to be revered and respected.

That the state is a moral abomination is easy enough to show and to understand. What is more difficult is communicating that message in a world rigged so that people can’t understand, so that disinformation becomes truth. That’s the state’s game, but, as they say, truth will out.

-by David D'Amato at Center for a Stateless Society under Creative Commons


C4SS News Analyst David D'Amato is a market anarchist and a lawyer with an LL.M. in International Law and Business. His aversion to superstition and all permutations of political authority manifests itself at www.firsttruths.com




The treatment of anarchists by the police and media echoes McCarthyism in its criminalisation of a valid political philosophy

The problem with the contemporary media narrative on protest is that, in its refusal to understand the nuances of anarchism, it is using the term as a euphemism for "dangerous", "violent" or "bad". So when the Telegraph reports that 100 masked anarchists were "thwarted" by pre-emptive arrests before the royal wedding, it encourages us to make a judgement on those arrested. They were anarchists, we think; ipso facto, they must have deserved it.

The dangers of this way of thinking hardly need explaining. There are flickers of McCarthyism in the way the state is currently dealing with those it perceives as threatening. Potential anarchists are intimidated and smeared, and denied liberty on the grounds of nebulous and almost Orwellian charges. Protester Charlie Veitch, for example, was arrested "on suspicion of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance", which is something we should apparently be relieved about – because, according to the Telegraph, he's a "known anarchist". Although we should be careful not to exaggerate the issue, I must admit I notice parallels between the police's recent actions and senator Margaret Chase Smith's condemnation of McCarthyism. She argued that the practice fundamentally inhibited "the right to criticise; the right to hold unpopular beliefs; the right to protest; the right of independent thought".-http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/02/anarchists-civil-liberties-media-police

Osama and The Bin Ladens: It's All Lies, Still You Believe

Everything you need to know about politics in a song you can sing along to!




It's all a lie made of nonsense for you to buy
still you believe all of their crap
never suspecting that it's a trap
You're being had, you're being used
it's just a game & you're going to lose.
Still you believe.... still you believe

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

The End is Nigh?

1 What do you think is causing the belief the end is nigh?
2 Do you think it has any validity in any way?
3 If so, what is the substance of that?
4 What will the outcome be?


American Religiosity Is American Hypocrisy

We're used to hearing that America is an exceptional nation when it comes to religion. Certainly, the hold that religion has over public life is unparalleled among wealthy nations, and most Americans readily tell pollsters that they are dutifully religious.

But it seems that American religiosity might also be exceptional for quite another reason. It turns out that the gap between what they tell pollsters and what they actually do is bigger than for any other nation.

We've known for a long time that, when asked, people report going to Church more than they actually do. That's not too surprising. It's well known that, when you ask questions that relate to personal esteem, people will tend to tell you what they wish was true, rather than what actually is true.

They tell you what they want to believe.

Americans: not as religious as they think they are


h/t Francois Tremblay



I don't think there's any question but that Americans are more religious, at least when compared to comparable countries, such as those in Europe. The real difference though, is that Americans are just bigger hypocrites. I don't know how many times I've seen people around me, including friends, go on and on about Jesus or God, and then live no different than anybody else, or never or rarely show up at church, read a Bible, or pray. I've known drunks who were members of their church choir, fornicators who were "born again", and thieves and liars who nevertheless made sure they had their rosary with them.

Ron Paul: The Last Nail

The last nail is being driven into the coffin of the American Republic. Yet, Congress remains in total denial as our liberties are rapidly fading before our eyes. The process is propelled by unwarranted fear and ignorance as to the true meaning of liberty. It is driven by economic myths, fallacies and irrational good intentions. The rule of law is constantly rejected and authoritarian answers are offered as panaceas for all our problems. Runaway welfarism is used to benefit the rich at the expense of the middle class. Who would have ever thought that the current generation and Congress would stand idly by and watch such a rapid disintegration of the American Republic? Characteristic of this epic event is the casual acceptance by the people and political leaders of the unitary presidency, which is equivalent to granting dictatorial powers to the President. Our Presidents can now, on their own:

1. Order assassinations, including American citizens,
2. Operate secret military tribunals,
3. Engage in torture,
4. Enforce indefinite imprisonment without due process,
5. Order searches and seizures without proper warrants, gutting the 4th Amendment,
6. Ignore the 60 day rule for reporting to the Congress the nature of any military operations as required by the War Power Resolution,
7. Continue the Patriot Act abuses without oversight,
8. Wage war at will,
9. Treat all Americans as suspected terrorists at airports with TSA groping and nude x-raying.

And the Federal Reserve accommodates by counterfeiting the funds needed and not paid for by taxation and borrowing, permitting runaway spending, endless debt, and special interest bail-outs.

And all of this is not enough. The abuses and usurpations of the war power are soon to be codified in the National Defense Authorization Act now rapidly moving its way through the Congress. Instead of repealing the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), as we should, now that bin Laden is dead and gone, Congress is planning to massively increase the war power of the President. Though an opportunity presents itself to end the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, Congress, with bipartisan support, obsesses on how to expand the unconstitutional war power the President already holds. The current proposal would allow a President to pursue war any time, any place, for any reason, without Congressional approval. Many believe this would even permit military activity against American suspects here at home. The proposed authority does not reference the 9/11 attacks. It would be expanded to include the Taliban and "associated" forces—a dangerously vague and expansive definition of our potential enemies. There is no denial that the changes in s.1034 totally eliminate the hard-fought-for restraint on Presidential authority to go to war without Congressional approval achieved at the Constitutional Convention. Congress' war authority has been severely undermined since World War II beginning with the advent of the Korean War which was fought solely under a UN Resolution. Even today, we're waging war in Libya without even consulting with the Congress, similar to how we went to war in Bosnia in the 1990s under President Clinton. The three major reasons for our Constitutional Convention were to:

1. Guarantee free trade and travel among the states.
2. Make gold and silver legal tender and abolish paper money.
3. Strictly limit the Executive Branch's authority to pursue war without Congressional approval.

But today:

1. Federal Reserve notes are legal tender, gold and silver are illegal.
2. The Interstate Commerce Clause is used to regulate all commerce at the expense of free trade among the states.
3. And now the final nail is placed in the coffin of Congressional responsibility for the war power, delivering this power completely to the President—a sharp and huge blow to the concept of our Republic.

In my view, it appears that the fate of the American Republic is now sealed—unless these recent trends are quickly reversed.

The saddest part of this tragedy is that all these horrible changes are being done in the name of patriotism and protecting freedom. They are justified by good intentions while believing the sacrifice of liberty is required for our safety. Nothing could be further from the truth.

More sadly is the conviction that our enemies are driven to attack us for our freedoms and prosperity, and not because of our deeply flawed foreign policy that has generated justifiable grievances and has inspired the radical violence against us. Without this understanding our endless, unnamed, and undeclared wars will continue and our wonderful experience with liberty will end.


Low Margin Manufacturing Moves Back To North America - From China!

That's right, you Chinese job stealers! It ain't over yet! You haven't got us beat, not by a Popsicle stick!

Why has Global Sticks, a manufacturer of wooden ice cream sticks, moving from Dalian, China, to Thunder Bay, Ontario?

It’s the kind of low margin manufacturing that is never supposed to come back after it leaves North America for cheaper labour abroad.

But wage costs are no longer everything they were cracked up to be. In today’s world of soaring energy costs, power rationing and export taxes on key commodities such as wood, wage gaps are less important. When the power goes off, it suddenly doesn’t matter if your labor is expensive. Factories don’t run on sweat alone.


Are China's factories running out of power?

New White House Web Police?

The White House announced the new position of "Director of Progressive Media," and chose Jesse Lee to fill the position, drawing the ire of critics.


Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com



Others are crying foul - calling the appointment a preemptive strike in favor of the president’s 2012 re-election campaign. Some Fox News analysts say President Obama started his re-election campaign early - on the tax-payer’s dime.

Fight The System With Its Own Rules

Jeanne, an activist based near Greenfield, MA, took time to share a fraction of the knowledge she's acquired from her years as an activist working within the system.

When we each stand up for our own rights we are all safer. If we don't do it today just imagine how much more difficult it will be for the next generation.




Liberty on Tour

Scotty McCreery Wins American Idol?

According to Drudge, yes. McCreery has won almost twice the votes of finalist rival Lauren Alaina.

There is talk about American Idol's irrelevancy to today's music, and two country signers in the final makes the point even more, but if Scotty wins, he should do better than other recent Idol winners. He will probably have a long career in country music, which is one genre that a new singer can do well in, with the right voice.


In the previous three years, the winners' trophies have gone to a Cute White Boy Dynasty whose low-key rock styles have been far removed from the techno-fueled sounds which dominate today's pop charts and radio airplay.
As we reach the finish line, the rockers' reign will indeed end this year, but, as it turns out, it will be broken by the only style more old-fashioned than mainstream rock -- country music -- which gave "Idol" both of its finalists in Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina.

It's not just the finalists, however.

Pre-season promises were bandied about doing away with the clunky theme weeks. Not only did they stay in the end, but the show devoted weeks to the song books of Carole King and Leiber and Stoller, composers about as relevant to today's music marketplace as Gilbert and Sullivan.


Read more: Getting old
When did 'Idol' become 'Antiques Roadshow'?

Glimmer of Hope: Obama to Veto "Endless War"?

The Defense Authorization Bill has gone through several drafts, and has finally come up with clear provisions. But the administration says that if these provisions are included in the final draft of the bill presented to Obama, his senior advisors would recommend a veto. We explain how the President is saying he's ok with reducing his powers. We'll have to wait and see if the President really will veto the Defense Authorization Bill.

Lindsay Lohan's Nip Slip!

I've decided to go "mainstream news" with this post, because our statist corporate media knows what the really important stories are...


Lindsay Lohan had yet another body part escape her clothing, when her right boob plopped out of her bathing suit while body surfing in Miami.

Bob Chapman on The National Intel Report




Bob Chapman

The Social Security Ponzi Scheme

“The whole government is a Ponzi scheme.”-Bernie Madoff


If the Social Security is fundamentally flawed, the entire US Economy is fundamentally flawed. This financing mechanism the Fed provides creates NO REAL WEALTH, it merely creates cash out of thin air. Social Security then takes that cash and sets up a generational Ponzi Scheme to take from those that are working, to those that are not. Please don’t tell me that you paid in and that you are just taking out. The money that you put in years ago, got paid out almost immediately to those that were taking from the system back then. Those of you that are collecting money, are directly from workers who are working right now. What is worse, now we are paying people on money we have not even collected yet. With 80 million baby boomers coming to take from the Ponzi scheme this will end as badly as it did for Bernie Madoff’s victims.-Alan Greenspan Admits To Big Ponzi Scheme

News and Notes: Stats and Me

"If I was a contributor here at your blog, Mr. Jakson, I would take full advantage of your traffic and post at Skeptical Eye all I could, because you're getting a lot more visitors than my pathetic, low-traffic blog"-Byron H., potential SE contributor.

My reply to Byron is that "pathetic" traffic is in the eye of the beholder, and it's all relative. Over 1000 unique visitors a day is nice, but still pitiful compared to the big players in blogville. Still, I am happy we're getting such steady traffic and that it is building rapidly.

I was thrilled at the boost we received from the Harold Camping controversy, but it only lasted three days, and we are now back to our regular 1,000 a day or so (see chart below).


The blue bar represents unique visits, and the traffic surge started on Saturday, May 21 (Rapture/Judgment Day). Yesterday, we were back to just over 1,000.


The thing is, even I myself am not taking advantage of this opportunity. I don't post as much as I'd like to, or all the original posts I've been working on, because I simply don't have time. My shift at work has changed, and I have to get up and be there much earlier than before. By the time I get home at night, I'm just too exhausted to make the contributions here that I would like to, and instead find myself falling asleep at the keyboard.


I shall try to do better...

Stink Bug Alert!

An insect with a voracious appetite, no domestic natural predators and a taste for everything from apples to lima beans has caused millions of dollars in crop damage and may just be getting started.


image by Dendroica cerulea under Creative Commons



The brown marmorated stink bug, a three-quarter-inch invader native to Asia, is believed to have been brought first to the Allentown, Pa., area in 1998. The bug began appearing in mid-Atlantic orchards in 2003-04 and exploded in number last year.
This spring, stink bugs have been seen in 33 states, including every one east of the Mississippi River and as far west as California, Oregon and Washington.

Stink bug spread worries growers across nation

Alerting Motorists

Mark Dice posts some new signs on photo red light cameras that automatically issue tickets to alert the motorists about the Orwellian devices.






Federal Tyrants To Mandate Black Boxes On All New Cars



The Feds will mandate next month that all new cars be fitted with a black box, according to news reports. So-called black boxes record information about speed, seat belt use and brake application.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been involved in the use of black boxes since their introduction. In 2006, the safety administration encouraged but did not require automobile manufacturers to install the systems and also did not set a single standard for the way data would be recorded, according to the New York Times.

...

Now they will make the installation of these device mandatory under federal law. If we are to gauge the reaction of the corporate media, this story is not very important. Outside of industry and technology publications, the story was not reported.-Feds to Mandate Black Box on all New Cars

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Dennis Kucinich on Ron Paul

Nick Michelewicz asks Dennis Kucinich who he would choose as a running mate if he had to choose from the GOP. Without hesitation Kucinich chooses Ron Paul.

He also says if he was the Democratic nominee, he would consider Ron Paul as his VP running mate.

Crazy Ben Bernanke Creates Massive Bubble

It's cost $600 billion of your money. And it was supposed to rescue the economy. But has Ben Bernanke's huge financial stimulus package, known as "Quantitative Easing 2," actually worked as planned?

QE2 is being wound down in the next few weeks. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has said it has left the economy "moving in the right direction."

But an analysis of the real numbers tells a very different story.


...

Turns out the program has created maybe 700,000 full-time jobs at a cost of around $850,000 each.

House prices are lower than before QE2 was launched. Economic growth is slower. Inflation is higher.-QE2 Has Created a Massive New Bubble

My descent into workaholism

Over the past six months, I have morphed into a full blown workaholic. It's now been over a week since I took a day off from my job. Is this healthy? I think not.

One way or another, I will have to find more free time to do the things I love...like complaining about our fascist government!

Peaceful Republic or Police State?

Judge Napolitano on how our freedoms have been systematically wiped out since the Constitution was signed.




Peter Fonda Wants To Start Something

Son of Hollywood legend Henry Fonda, brother of Jane Fonda, star of Easy Rider, and now...revolutionary leader?

“I’m training my grandchildren to use long-range rifles,” said the actor, 71. “For what purpose? Well, I’m not going to say the words 'Barack Obama’, but …”-Peter Fonda



Peter Fonda encourages his grandchildren to take up arms against President Barack Obama

Peter Schiff: NIA reacts to Pump & Dump Revelation

Critics Defy NYC's Outdoor Smoking Ban

Bloomberg's Nazi Nanny State continues its march to total tyranny.


Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

Man Has Sex With 1,000 Cars!

His current girlfriend is a VW Beetle.

United States Government Puts Israel Before The American People

US politicians prefer Israeli lobbies over the citizens' basic needs as President Barack Obama reaffirmed Washington's "unbreakable" ties with Tel Aviv.

Interview with Eugene Michael Jones, editor of Cultural Wars Magazine, from Indiana.


Newt Gingrich is Not a Conservative

Newt Gingrich's dismissal of the Paul Ryan plan and support for the individual healthcare mandate are simply the latest examples of the former House speaker's long established statism.


via Bungalow Bill's Conservative Wisdom

Blog of the Moment: Forever In Hell

This could've been just a Post of the Moment, or a link post to discuss issues surrounding credit scores and the evils of wage slavery, but I think the blog as a whole as earned something more, our highest blogging award here at SE.

Good credit scores are for the wealthy, the healthy and the lucky. If you're poor, you don't have a good credit score. You couldn't. You will pay your bills late, and if you've been poor more than 6 months, you know exactly how long each utility will wait before shutting you off- and you pay your bills accordingly. I've heard the advice not to get a credit card, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Gas has gone up, electricity has gone up, water has gone up, food prices have skyrocketed, but you know what hasn't gone up? Wages.

More and more people are living one paycheck away from absolute ruin and part of the problem is credit scores. It wouldn't do me much good to finish college, because I couldn't pass a credit check anyway.

And what's the logic? I have no idea. There's no correlation that I could find between poor job performance and poor credit, and what sort of people do they think are desperate to get a bank teller position paying a little over minimum wage?

It's just another way to keep the boot of the plutocracy to my throat and make sure I, and millions more like me, don't ever climb one rung up the ladder.-Keeping the Boot on Your Throat, One Policy at a Time

Forever In Hell







I know from personal experience what it's like to find yourself suddenly unemployed (happened to me a few years ago) and without any savings to rely on to get you through, because, how can you save any money when each paycheck disappears before you've barely had a chance to hold the phony Federal Reserve Notes in your hands?

As for credit cards, face it, the banks are pond scum, in numerous ways, from the criminal interest rates they charge, to their practices when it comes to people unable to pay the bills. Do I use credit cards? Sure, but I'd rather not. I like having one just for emergencies, but find myself forced instead to use them to make it to the next paycheck, otherwise I wouldn't be able to get to my slave job in the first place, because I wouldn't be able to put gas in my car.
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