Can a good man spend his days doing bad things and remain a good man? What if he chooses to spend his days doing bad things and could at any time elect not to do the bad things? Could decide – I am not comfortable with this; this isn’t for me – and quit, without risking anything (other than the need to find honest work)?
The German SA man of the 1930s was a very bad man – but he did, at least, have the defense of being under duress.
In 1930s Germany, it was socially (if not legally) difficult for any man to not become a willing helper of Hitler’s in some capacity – or at least, give the appearance thereof. One joined the partei – and sieg heiled along with the crowd. To not do so invited suspicion at minimum – and the very real likelihood of much worse. God help you if you publicly criticized the national socialist state or its leaders.
An even better example of duress would be the camp guard. He had the choice of being on one side of the razor wire – or the other side. We still condemn him for being a cog in the machine of mass murder. But – at some level – his guilt is mitigated by the fact that he could not just walk away without accepting severe repercussions.
It took a brave man – a hero, to use that much over-used word – to say, “no. I won’t be a part of this” – and accept the consequences, come what may.
Very few such men stepped up.
But what are we to make of the man who could easily avoid a job that necessarily entailed tyrannizing his fellow man? Who freely and deliberately chooses to do such work?
Can any such man be a good man?
Is his guilt mitigated by the fact that some of his work is good? What is the magical proportion? And what is the tipping point, beyond which the man can no longer expect to be considered good, regardless of the rest?
That point has probably been reached as regards law enforcement in America. The change of terminology is itself a kind of tacit acknowledgement of this fact. Also revelatory are the uniforms, equipment, the “look” and – most of all – the attitude. A mix of fear (of us, the indigs) and contempt (also for us).
The latter sentiment is now felt by the indigs for them. (i.e., the law enforcers).
The indigs did not used to feel this way – perhaps because they were not regarded with fear and contempt – and treated as indigs. And perhaps because the balance of things was more inclined toward peace-keeping rather than law enforcing.
The SA man and his sort existed to enforce compliance with the edicts of the state. They were law enforcers. Never forget that what the Nazis did was entirely legal under their system of government. This was their defense after the war, at Nuremburg. A still-sane world (at that time) rejected this defense because it grokked the distinction between legal and moral – and understood that a thing could be perfectly legal and morally loathsome. And that human beings had a moral obligation not to do loathsome things, regardless of “the law.”
Unfortunately, that lesson – that distinction – has slipped our collective memory.
This may not be accidental.
Because for history to repeat, that distinction must be smudged into meaninglessness; the lesson of history forgotten.
Hence the refrain, “I’m just doing my job.”
This is what Hannah Arendt meant when she spoke of the banality of evil.
Its ordinaryness. Its stumbling bureaucratic nature. The DMV – and the “resettlement office” of Adolf Eichmann differ only in degree. This is the critical point and if not understood – and dealt with – in the very near future, while there is still time, it will inevitably, lead to a critical mass.
One senses there is not much time left.
And yet, it would be so easy to defuse the bomb before it goes off.
We descend into the abyss solely and only because we – as a society – have lost sight of the plain-spoken, one-time American notion of leaving other people alone so long as they are leaving other people alone. It is – it was- the keystone principle that, when generally accepted, made a free society possible.
Rescind (reject) this principle and a free society become impossible.
It will not happen all at once, nor overnight. But little infringements lead inexorably to bigger ones until – one day – we find there is nothing left to infringe. No line behind which we are, at last, safe. Check Food 4 Less Ad and Food City Ad. Our lives are no longer our own; no decision ours exclusively. Fear and its byproducts – anger and resentment – replace goodwill and ordinary human decency.
This already happening (see here) and will happen more and more often – unless the Gordian Knot is cut in two by our rejection of busybodyism and control freak-ism. No more “uplifting” (as H.L. Mencken nattily styled it).
And no more law enforcing.
Leave people alone, if they’re leaving you (and others) alone.
It’s what good men do.
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Donald Trump doesn’t want you to consider him a good man. He wants you to believe he’s a great man. Like it or not, he’s probably going to succeed at that and many other things as he becomes the next president along with Mark Cuban as his running mate.
Donald Trump. Clown Genius. Scott Adams blog.
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/126589300371/clown-genius
Why making Chris dictator of the currency or following anyone else’s central plan will fail…
What is promised to us as the Road to Freedom is in fact the Highroad to Servitude. For it is not difficult to see what must be the consequences when democracy embarks upon a course of planning. The goal of the planning will be described by some such vague term as “the general welfare.”
Without total agreement on the ends of planning, central planning will be rather like a journey where most travellers disagree over where they want to go. The result is they may all make a journey which most of them do not want at all.
Democratic assemblies cannot function as planning agencies. They cannot produce agreement on everything – the whole direction of the resources of the nation. The number of possible courses of action will be legion. Even if a congress could, by proceeding step by step and compromising at each point, agree on some scheme, it would certainly in the end satisfy nobody.
To draw up an economic plan in this fashion is even less possible than, for instance, successfully to plan a military campaign by democratic procedure. As in strategy it would become inevitable to delegate the task to experts. And even if, by this expedient, a democracy should succeed in planning every sector of economic activity, it would still have to face the problem of integrating these separate plans into a unitary whole.
There will be a stronger and stronger demand that some board or some single individual should be given power to act on their own responsibility. The cry for an economic dictator is a characteristic stage in the movement toward planning. Thus the legislative body will be reduced to choosing the persons who are to have practically absolute power.
There is no justification for the widespread belief that, so long as power is conferred by democratic procedure, it cannot be arbitrary. It is not the source of power which prevents it from being arbitrary; to be free from dictatorial qualities the power must also be limited. Even a democratic “dictatorship of the proletariat,” undertaking centrally to direct the economic system, would destroy personal freedom as completely as any autocracy has ever done.
Road to Serfdom – Reader’s Digest Version
http://www.barefootsworld.net/serfdom.html
Struggling to not be misunderstood, and failing mightily so far..
The whole point of making the three changes, changing the dollar to oxygen from the trees, repealing tax laws, and repealing legal tender laws, is to free our money from the central planners.
Chris wants to be part of a company that banks the new money, succeeding or failing on the demand for its product(s), not dictator of the money!
Jörg Guido Hülsmann
https://mises.org/profile/j%C3%B6rg-guido-h%C3%BClsmann
80% of the Gestapo wasn’t made up of fanatical Nazis.
Rather, it was made up of former policemen from the Weimar Republic.
Police enforce laws. They don’t make moral judgements about the laws.
If it illegal for blue eyed people to live, for example, then most cops will have no problem shooting you on the side of the road for the crime of having blue eyes.
That’s an extreme example, but not much different that being Jewish in Germany.
Cops are not heroes. They are law enforceres. They don’t judge or evaluate laws for moral standing.
Its up to us to vote out or not elect people who pass insane laws.
The cops are just ‘following orders’.
I contend that they’re every bit as guilty as any SS guard. When they put on that uniform, they’re part of the machine and share any guilt for whatever wrong that machine does.
Well-said, Roy!
Given they recently found “guilty” the ACCOUNTANT of Auschwitz…?
We’d be better off frying the lot of them. Apparently, you’re guilty if you breathed the same air…
They breathe OUR air…. some poor tree had to work hard to produce the oxygen these cretins waste…
Without any doubt!
“We have historically been a paramilitary organization, and we serve whoever sits in that chair, regardless of race, gender, creed, or political party. I don’t know what we would do if we had to go to battle, and we had to make a determination, based on past practices, whether or not we wanted to go into battle. … I am a soldier in an army. We serve you in that way…. We should not be in a position where we’re going to have to decide how we’re going to police this city.” – Police Chief Rick Hite,
Indianapolis Police Chief, during a September 17, 2014 City Council meeting.
The 18 milemarkers of our cycle of Plutarchy: 1 war forces national planning. 2 many want planning to stay. 3 the planners promise utopias. 4 but they don’t agree on one utopia. 5 and citizens can’t agree either. 6 planners hate to force agreement. 7 they try to sell the plan to all. 8 the gullible do find agreement. 9 confidence in planners fades. 10 the strong man is given power. 11 the party takes over the country. 12 a negative aim welds party unity. 13 no one opposes the leader’s plan. 14 your profession is planned. 15 your wages are planned. 16 your thinking is planned. 17 your recreation is planned. 18 your disciplining is planned.
http://www.notbeinggoverned.com/road-serfdom-cartoons/
Cyndi Lauper She Bop “acoustic”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYkxlmoBgg8
The PMRC Filthy Fifteen
http://www.nndb.com/lists/405/000093126/
Your best bet is to adapt the “south of the border” attitude towards police, i.e. avoid them at all costs.
Even today, down there, if you are involved in a traffic accident, your best bet is to flee the scene before the cops show up and arrest everybody.
They are not supposed to if you have proof of insurance, but they will anyway, so they can sort things out down at the carcel, which will probably entail you giving them a small “gift” for your release.
1) Anonymity is authenticity
http://www.networkworld.com/article/2228752/microsoft-subnet/4chan-founder-moot—anonymity-is-authenticity—zuckerberg–wrong-.html
2) Anthropologists have realized that race cannot be scientifically defined, much less measured, thus wiping out a whole century of scholarly divagations on “superior” and “inferior” races.
Leading scientists, now argue strongly against the “fallacy of race.” It is only with the emergence of more reliable techniques in biological anthropology that anthropometry got a fresh chance; it concentrated not on trying to categorize noses or spot “races,” but on tracing the evolution of a population, on signs of continuity or disruption, and on possible kinships between neighbouring populations.
http://archaeologyonline.net/artifacts/genetics-aryan-debate
3) Pride in one’s own race – and that does not imply contempt for other races – is also a normal and healthy sentiment. I have never regarded the Chinese or the Japanese as being inferior to ourselves. They belong to ancient civilizations, and I admit freely that their past history is superior to our own. They have the right to be proud of their past, just as we have the right to be proud of the civilization to which we belong. Indeed, I believe the more steadfast the Chinese and the Japanese remain in their pride of race, the easier I shall find it to get on with them. – Adolf Hitler, 1936.
http://www.quora.com/What-was-Adolf-Hitlers-view-on-China
When Trump becomes president…
http://i40.tinypic.com/xlcmcn.jpg
http://i42.tinypic.com/u7eaw.jpg
http://i43.tinypic.com/2z7he9w.jpg
The entire thing can be found here:
https://mises.org/library/road-serfdom-0
Well stated, Eric! We live in a police state – plain and simple. I am so sick of the cop mentality of “I AM the law!!!” and their attitude of maintaining superiority over the sheeple. They kill hundreds of citizens a year, but if one of them gets killed they flock together from points hundreds of miles away and show their solidarity for their “fallen brother”. They are a disgusting blight on our society. I totally agree – a good man could not possibly stomach the rotten “law enforcement” system.
Thanks, Brian!
And, yes, the North Korean-style gushing and rending of hair when a “hero” “falls” is truly nauseating.
What was Germany’s problem after WWI? It was trying to get back on it’s feet.
Who did they blame for the los of WWI? Everyone knows. Didn’t Hitler try to deport them first to Madagaskar before his final solution?
Look at today. A front runner in the GOP declaring he’ll deport Illegals. The press laughing about it but giving it some legitimacy by talking about it. Laughing about Illegals rounded up and put on buses.
Now what happens if Mexico doesn’t want then back?
That’s a scary comparison. I wish America would understand. We already have the mind set in place that “the law is the law” and cops are “just doing their job”.
It’s now acceptable to root people out of their homes.
What happens when we “can’t” ship them back?
Hi KRW,
There are numerous “ominous parallels” between Nazi Germany in its early days and the United States today. The chief difference – the one that blinds so many people to these parallels – is the absence of the racial element. But a racially heterogenous authoritarian state bound by the same idea – exceptionalism – is fundamentally the same as a racially homogenous state afflicted by the same disease.
There is a major difference, in that the illegal aliens here DO NOT BELONG HERE. they broke the law to come here; they are all too often the worthless detritus of the other countries. I admire their balls, but there’s a way to come here legally.
The German Jews were GERMANS. Not Mexicans, Salvadorans, Sandanistas, Chilean, etc.
Further, the Jews publicly said they would oppose the Reich. Right or wrong, they painted the star on their clothing themselves…
Here, they’re a fifth column, contributing to crime, and many are being flown all over the country, such as Hawaii and Boston. MS13 is sent into schools as “children” for an “education.”
See, the reason for borders is to keep out people who want to cause trouble. Switzerland has it easy; Iceland, too. The US, Canada, Russia, not so much; sheer size makes it harder to accomplish. but having a traitor in the white house makes it impossible – and opens the discussion to a lot MORE than the current scope. E.G., most here probably don’t care about the border; I do. I care because I see that border as more than an artificial line – there’s a MEANING to that made-up line on a map, and the laws changed there – and the mindset, the spirit of the people, if you will.
Freedom, within boundaries. The NAP, perhaps, but backed up by the willingness to defend oneself with force.
It used to be, you came here to be an American. Instead, these illegals come here to be Mexican, Salvadoran, Nicaraguan, etc, INSIDE AMERICA. IE, illegal foreign entities, bringing their old prejudices and problems, rather than adopting the new home’s mindset and culture as their own.
Most obvious example, speaking Spanish to the exclusion of English; celebrating Cinco de Mayo, and telling the US Citizens we’ll be part of Mexico… La Raza, too.
So, if we can’t ship them back, we can bury them. But we cannot allow them to stay! They’re enemies.
“They broke the law to come here.” Just like Eric and his friends broke the law by speeding. Not all laws are just laws. There is a difference between legality and morality.
Even if you accept the Constitution, there is nothing in the Constitution authorizing the fedgov to define and regulate immigration.
Private property should be the rule – if someone is invited they are welcome. If not, they have no place to go.
The problem with tax-funded benefits for ‘illegal immigrants’ is not illegal immigrants, it is tax-funded benefits – for anyone.
I think the term is “equivocation,” not sure….
You get to the heart of the matter here, though:
“The problem with tax-funded benefits for ‘illegal immigrants’ is not illegal immigrants, it is tax-funded benefits – for anyone.”
Yes – THAT is the problem. I believe that is also the incentive.
The fact, however, that they are coming without invitation and then leeching off these public benefits skews the entire playing field. How we end those benefits is open to debate; that we end them, I think all are in agreement, is NOT up for debate.
We need not be the world’s policemen, nor the “great white hope” charity master.
But we have become both; we ARE the Fourth Reich, and the same tricks and manipulations are being used – only, we’re dumber as a culture now, and our children are too busy learning about the lesbian poets of the Zulu and have no interest in the dumb, dead, “white” males (E.G., Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cesar, Shakespeare, Chaucer, et al.) And science, math, and technology…? BAH!!! “Ahm gon’ play futball (or B-Ball)….” Reminds me of the 80s, when everyone was going to make it big in a rock band….
Except even the idiots of my generation had to learn history, science, and math – today’s children are being taught outright propaganda as “scientific fact.” Globull Warming; GMOs; Evil White Conservative Capitalists will destroy the world and are waging a war on wymins.
Anyway – I don’t particularly care about a lot of things, but you CANNOT violate the concept of an invitation, and expect to be feted like royalty. The early colonies didn’t have passports, didn’t need them. They still had to pay their way. The illegals – some of whom are Muslims with ill intent, others are gang members with ill intent, others still are low-life criminals without “intent” (no direction, no care, just violent and aggressive – like a rabid dog) – and ALL should be sent back, in pieces if possible.
If they come here and make a legitimate business, fine. If they come to be parasites, they deserve the same treatment you give any parasite: De-wormers, antifungals, antibiotics, apply until the parasite is dead.
Problem solved!
Their presence isn’t the problem. Their sucking the government teat is. and as you note, the removal of that government teat would solve the problem… (Arizona proved that some time back – then ONigger’s Injustice Department mandated that the state ignore the federal law, just like the Feds were doing… And somehow, THAT was Constitutional! Why has there NOT been a revolution yet? the plans are OBVIOUS to anyone with eyes…)
Jean, I think we are pretty much on the same page.
My main point was that, if we hate the fedgov, and deny its legitimacy as well as that of many of its laws, let’s not appeal to THEM to solve the immigration problem (if there is one) because it is their fault to begin with.
Oh, I agree fully on THAT…
But FedGov has issues with burying the illegal invaders (term used intentionally) in the wastes….
(Morally correct, but I hate to see so many Democrat/Socialist/Progressive voters make it to the US… We KNOW where that will lead. I don’t mention the other arm of The Party because the “loyal opposition” don’t get votes from illegals…)
I used to believe in the same things as you have posted Jean, but then I learned about the bigger picture.
What the media and politicians have done is to create lines where none are needed, and to pretend that other lines do not exist.
Lets look at our own communities. Notice the segregation of the classes? I suspect that if you interviewed a few members from each class; you will find that they think their class or neighborhood is superior to others. The wealthier ones will believe that their success is due to hard work and intelligent decision-making processes, which are believed to be lacking in other classes. Some members of the middle class have very high IQs and have the same high standards see the stupid decisions that the wealthy classes have made which has cost them dearly; yet they somehow remain wealthy. Some poor people are also very intelligent and hard working. These are the real lines that exist around us which politicians pretend to not exist: IE , by telling us that we are all Americans. Chinatown exists in “America”. “Communists” and “Facists” exist here as well.
What is really taking place is trickery by the rulers for the purpose of dividing us into loyal ruled populations. The cows at farmer Browns do not want neighboring farmer Old McDonald to milk them because farmer Brown has convinced them that they are better off being milked by him.
Wow Brian,I used to work for a Guy like that,He acted like He was convinced His success was due to His “Smarts”,He would send the rest of His Guys to various classes to obtain license for various things,but never send Me,one time (not very long ago) at this one locale,everyone had to take a class to work onsite,I made a higher score then the Boss and He acted miffed.That is one problem with this great country of ours”First to thine own self be true,then it will follow,the night as the day,that thou then,cannot be false to any man,”I watched this Guys Brother stand there and repeat something to Him self over and over till He believed it.And strangely enough one of His Lieutenants,wouldnt lend Me a book saying”you are already smart enough”,needless to say I’m happy to be no longer employed there.
When I happen to listen to the Conservative babble on the “talk radio”I find the only one I can agree with on occasion is Huckabee,I cant take 5 minutes of a Liberal talk show.I will listen to anybody,who is willing to act like an open minded scientist,so to speak.But now”I will not,suffer fools,gladly”
Everybody that works their a$$ off doesnt make it(you have to be{for the most part},where there is some money to be made and offer a service that others need and want,on the other receiving handouts of others monies isnt ethical either.So if we get off our Donkeys and sit on our a$
$’$,then Clover and His ilk will surely prevail.
Oft times I want to go to “Galt Gulch” or”Fly with a eager wing to,beautiful Antipode.” But ,instead ,I’ll just stay here(the afore mentioned are either fictitious or under water) and keep a low profile,Clover may find a way yet.to put Me out of circulation for awhile.So methinks,I’ll just “go Gandhi” for awhile.
4
No argument on the overall part of false lines, but I do have issues with those who want to come here and then change everything…. E.G., while everyone here speaks English*, we want to come and retain our culture of Spanish / Portuguese / Chinese (Mandarin) / Farsi / whatever.
If I go to Germany, I’m F*cked because I don’t speak German. I don’t expect THEM to speak English (though I understand many do). But knowing I’m going to Germany, I should’ve learned some German! Or French, if going to France! Etc.
The part about the farms, I’ve heard that before as an anti-gun paean. True then, true here. But we ARE getting to where it’s worse – E.G., foreign income in the US is heavily taxed – as if the U.S. had a hand in your foreign business, AT ALL. Britain, for example, doesn’t do that. Nor Brazil, I understand. If I went looking, likely MOST countries aren’t so full of themselves as to tax you aggressively for foreign income streams.
But we also know what happens when killing the human farmers and instating the Pigs as leaders….
Problem I see is, the pigs are here (not just coming, actively rabble-rousing), and they WANT that change – and they’re MORE greedy than Farmer Brown… And McDonald may or may not be more greedy (or less) than Brown or the pigs, but without someone to “explain” to Brown, McDonald, and Bacon-on-the-Hoof that we’re not going to be exploited – there WILL be personal, painful, repercussions – we get milked by whomever gets their hands on us.
And you KNOW those government types have no respect for the feelings of Udders. 😉
We are on the same page on most if not all things Jean. Neither of us can predict how the future will turn out.
A large percentage of our specie had accepted the wrong path 10,000+ years ago when they either chose to or were forced to accept rulers with coercive force along hierarchical lines. I strongly suspect that spiritual and emotional gullibility of the masses along with their herd-like mentality played a very strong role in acceptance of the status-quo just like those things still do today. I have seen for myself what individual people are capable of accomplishing in the spiritual realm, and I have come to realize that the masses have no idea of their actual abilities due to the fact that they have been trained to think small on individual ability levels, and to think big on collective ones.
We humans are designed as or have evolved as fully functional beings which are completely capable of self-governance and voluntary organization of beneficial groups.
I will be the first in line to bet against the likelihood of this kind of widespread enlightenment occurring on a global scale to the masses in the very near future; but current events look both promising and threatening to our ability to evolve as a specie to the next level of consciousness or else to our extinction via global governance and its desire for absolute domination of everyone world-wide who isn’t a member of the so-called ruling class.
Some think that it will take several generations for humankind to evolve back where it should have stayed as groups of individualists in voluntary communities.
I am hopeful that the extremely high rapid growth of anarcho-capitalism continues unabated globally. Do you realize that all governments world-wide would instantly collapse if the masses refused to send them money or support?
An instant turn-around like I have just mentioned would be catastrophic to millions upon millions of people world wide if it happened suddenly. My personal non-binding proposal would be to temporarily keep the government while immediately removing its taxation and so-called law-making powers while we self-organize over time.
THIS COULD NOT HAPPEN UNLESS WE HAVE A GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRASH in my opinion which seems very likely.
I was thinking the same thing.When I was young I always how such a smart country like Germany could do what they did.I now know how it can happen and this country is far from being smart…….not good
With you until the Holo-hoax scam was brought in. Why you would use the Holo-hoax, the ultimate Clover con, to make a point I know not but shame all the author.
Hi Wally,
Here it is from the horse’s mouth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLgzDn0E_zY
The German word, ausrotten, has a very specific meaning.
Himmler meant what he said.
So did Hitler:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWx7nq_lnQM
Of course, the take-home point is that it wasn’t just the Jews who were rounded up and sent “east” for “special handling.”
I would have been on one of those trains, too – and I’m racially “aryan.” But I – and those like me, who dared to question the state (that is, Hitler and his followers) were considered enemies of the Reich as much as any Jew.
If you think the Holocaust was a hoax, you need to go to Germany and visit the camps.
Hi Phillip,
It’s amazing to me that people – some people – deny that there was an organized/systematic effort to herd up and then kill Europe’s Jews. The evidence is literally overwhelming, on the order of the evidence in support of the Earth being spherical.
The number of victims may be less or more than “six million.” But the point remains that huge numbers of innocent people – civilians, women and children and old people – were rounded up and murdered. Period.
It’s also true that Stalin killed more people. And that his crimes are treated with much less contempt.
But that doesn’t obviate the victims of Hitler’s regime.
Well, Turkey still officially denies that they committed genocide against the Armenians during “the 1st World War.” Doesn’t mean it did not happen, nor that there is much evidence that it did.
Yes Stalin and Mao both surpassed Hitler in sheer numbers, though their killing was generic and widespread, they did not have specific targets. And percentagewise, Pol Pot takes the ‘prize.’
Heck, between Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the fire bombings and blanket bombings in Japan and Germany, Truman is right up there on that list as well.
And Hitler was not just after the Jews – he also went after the Gypsies and the handicapped. But they were not as large groups as the Juden.
General Eisenhower wrote a letter to General George C. Marshall on April 15, 1945. The letter starts out with Eisenhower outlining his plans for how he will conduct the war in the next few weeks.
On the second page of the letter, in the second paragraph, General Eisenhower wrote the following:
“On a recent tour of the forward areas in First and Third Armies, I stopped momentarily at the salt mines to take a look at the German treasure. There is a lot of it. But the most interesting — although horrible — sight that I encountered during the trip was a visit to a German internment camp near Gotha. The things I saw beggar description. While I was touring the camp I encountered three men who had been inmates and by one ruse or another had made their escape. I interviewed them through an interpreter. The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and bestiality were so overpowering as to leave me a bit sick. In one room, where they were piled up twenty or thirty naked men, killed by starvation, George Patton would not even enter. He said he would get sick if he did so. I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops the tendency to charge these allegations merely to ‘propaganda.’”
An excerpt from this paragraph is engraved on the front face of the Holocause Museum in DC.
PHILIP, please understand that I am in no way trying to down play the evil done by the Nazis. However, the conventional narrative about the concentration camps and gas chambers and such should be cross examined.
I am not a holocaust denier but I am a holocaust questioner and for one reason – because I am not supposed to question it.
A truth – any truth – does not need to be protected from scrutiny by laws written and unwritten.
I stumbled upon some of these questions about the holocaust while doing research on another project.
For example, the allies finding concentration camp victims starving or starved to death. This was due in large part by the allied bombing of the rail lines to the camps. Food was scarce and getting it to the CC was then made even harder. Starving prisoners of war or civilians in or out of such camps is not uncommon in war especially in wars where the terms are of unconditional surrender (thanks to Churchill, FDR, Truman, and Stalin).
Again, I am in no way defending the evils of the Nazi form of government. Just trying to get an understanding of the overall perspective of what happened.
Thanks for the clarification. But WallyG wrote about the HoloHoax, and my reply was directed primarily toward him.
Understood, no harm intended towards you.
Hi Skunk,
The actual number of people killed has probably been politicized – and without question, the persecution of Jews by the Nazi regime is given much more attention than Stalin’s orgy of mass murder (which was worse) or Mao’s or Pol Pot’s. One can walk down the street in Washington with a Stalin T-shirt on and not be molested.
Try that wearing a Hitler shirt. Etc.
But there is no doubt in my mind that from 1941 through the end of the war, there was a systematic, organized policy of mass extermination. Ordered verbally by Hitler, implemented by (among others) Heydrich and Himmler and executed by subordinates such as Eichmann (who kept notes of, for example, the Wannsee Conference where the whole thing was fleshed out).
It’s quite possible that “six million” Jews were not murdered. But a huge number of them were.
As regards the starvation/disease toward the end of the war: Certainly, that happened. But it does not obviate the ovens, the mass graves, the einsatzgruppen.
Did you listen to the audio clip I posted of Himmler addressing (in private, he assumed) an audience of SS? He explicitly speaks of the extermination of the Jews. He was the Reichsfuhrer of the SS – second only to Hitler in power. I don;t think he was joking.
ERIC, not trying to turn this thread into a debate about the holocaust and WWII but yes, I did see the Himmler clip. Seems to me Himmler was just saying what every Collectivist government thinks about human beings during both peace and war. Nazi Germany was just being more open and efficient about their Statism than Churchill and FDR and Stalin. If you’re going to be collectivist, be collectivist, don’t half-ass it.
Again, I am not trying to excuse or belittle the suffering of those in the camps (the camps themselves were a crime against humanity no matter what took place in them) but there are some serious questions and anomalies about the official holocaust story.
For example: the long and strange history of the number 6 million, doctored photos, lack of proof of gas chambers, the capacities of the crematoriums etc. I do not claim to have all the answers, just that there are some legitimate questions that should be addressed. Why is it forbidden to ask them is what concerns me.
As for the cause of WWII I think Pat Buchanan’s book about it being an unnecessary war is a (surprisingly) good place to start for a more accurate version of history than the official to-the-victors-belong-the-right-to-write-history story.
I too enjoyed reading The Unnecessary War, and especially the section about WW I itself being unnecessary. Wilson has a lot to answer for.
I read a great article once by a Jewish scholar about this. He asked this question; Why was it necessary to embellish the official holocaust story when the truth was already so terrible? His conclusion was that it just wasn’t terrible enough to set the Jews up with their own special level of victim-hood. Furthermore, the Israeli state depends on this special level of victim-hood. Not just to get special treatment abroad but more importantly for the continued support of Jews themselves. It’s hammered into Jew’s heads that they are a special class of victim from the time they are born!! This way they will not question the morality of the Israeli government and the existence of the state of Israel itself.
Here’s an excellent video that illustrates the overall deaths incurred during WWII in a comprehensible manner:
https://vimeo.com/128373915
It also graphically illustrates what the institution of The State is best at: slaughtering people en masse.
I have in my hands a copy of Life Magazine (I used to subscribe to it), dated November 28, 1960. In this issue one Adolph Eichmann authored an article entitled:
“I TRANSPORTED THEM… TO THE BUTCHER.”
A few relevant quotes:
“…In 1941 the Fuhrer himself ordered the physical extermination of the Jewish enemy. What made him take this step I do not know…”
“…It was in the latter part of 1941 that I saw some of the first preparations for annihilating the Jews. General Heydrich ordered me to visit Maidanek, a Polish village near Lublin. A German police captain showed me how they had managed to build airtight chambers disguised as ordinary Polish farmers’ huts, seal them hermetically, and then inject the exhaust gas from a Russian U-boat motor. I remember it all very exactly…”
“Later that year I watched my first Jewish execution. It was at Minsk, then recently come under German occupation. I was sent by my immediate superior, General Muller… I was in effect a traveling salesman for the Gestapo. Muller had heard that Jews were being shot near Minsk, and he wanted a report. I went there and showed my orders to the local SS commander. ‘That’s a fine coincidence,’ he said. ‘Tomorrow 5,000 of them are getting theirs.'”
“When I road out the next morning, they had already started, so I could see only the finish… I watched the last group of Jews undress, down to their shirts. They walked the last 100 or 200 yards… then they jumped into the pit… Then the men of the squad banged away into the pit with their rifles and machine pistols.”
“Why did that scene linger so long in my memory? Perhaps because I had children myself. And there were children in that pit. I saw a woman hold a child of a year or two into the air, pleading. At that moment all I wanted to say was, ‘Don’t shoot, hand over the child…’ Then the child was hit. I was so close that later I found bits of brains splattered on my long leather coat…”
“Later in that same winter Muller sent me to watch Jews being gassed in the Litzmannstadt (Lodz) area of central Poland… I drove out to the designated place where a thousand Jews were about to board buses… I was told the carbon monoxide from the exhaust pipe was conducted into the interior of the buses. It was intended to kill the passengers immediately…”
“…I never had anything directly to do with the gas chambers, which evolved from early measures like those at Litzmannstadt. But I did visit Auschwitz repeatedly… Even today I don’t know how the gassing was carried out. I never watched the entire process. Even a man like Hoess, the commandant at Auschwitz, described the matter to me in a rather rose-colored way…”
“…Since the war I have read that two and a half million Jews were physically liquidated under Hoess’s command. I find this figure incredible. The capacity of the camp argues against it. Many of the Jews confined there were put on work details and survived…”
“Along with the liquidation camps we continued to maintain the ghetto system… The uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943, however, taught us a bitter lesson about putting excessive numbers of people into these enclosures… I could not believe, seeing the pictures, that men in a ghetto could fight like that…”
“As the transport trains rolled into Auschwitz, sometimes bringing as many as 10,000 units a day, the camp staff had to work day and night. I was on close, comradely terms with Hoess… I remember the clearly the first time he guided me around the camp. He showed me everything, and at the end he took me to a grave where the corpses of the gassed Jews lay piled on a strong iron grill. Hoess’s men poured some inflammable liquid over them and set them on fire. The flesh stewed like stew meat… I can still see that mountain of corpses in front of me.”
There’s more, but you get the picture – right from the horse’s mouth. Of course one can quibble about the numbers, and other mass murders in history claimed even more innocent lives. (Eichmann himself found a figure of 2.5 million to be astounding.) But there is no doubt as to the intentions of the 3rd Reich.
Of course mass murder is all in a day’s work for the Clovers’ most beloved institution, “The State.”
JASON FLINDERS, what you quoted is from the so-called “Sasson Interview” which allegedly took place between Sasson, a Dutch Nazi, and Eichmann in 1960 before his capture and trial in Israel.
The authenticity of the interview was so suspect that large amounts of it was not admissible in court.
(It was also either Life or Time magazine which published doctored photos of the concentration camps.)
It is interesting to note that the story of wholesale mass gassing of Jews did not really come into being until the late 1950’s, early 1960’s.
I want to be clear here: I do not know what all is true or not concerning the holocaust. I merely have questions because I see some anomalies in the official narrative. I do not in anyway support anything the Nazis did to anyone. I detest all forms of collectivism.
There is always room for questioning, to an extent we are living in the Matrix. How far down the rabbit hole to go is sometimes a tough call.
As far as the German camps, the clincher to me is what the people who survived them have to say. What I always tell people who say that that intentional mass murder did not happen is that they should convince someone who was actually there, then get back to me.
Of course there are not many left now, but still some with direct experience of these events are still alive. So there is still the opportunity to convince some of them that it did not actually happen.
It should also not be forgotten that an equal number of non-Jewish “undesirables” were also liquidated in the camps. Except maybe for the Gypsies they just weren’t in any specific ethnic group.
The really horrible thing about it is that it is NOT an isolated incident. As I’ve said, and any history book will confirm, mass murder is part and parcel of what governments do on a routine basis.
“Leave people alone, if they’re leaving you (and others) alone.
It’s what good men do.”
Sounds good to me. Sounds pretty close to the non aggression principle.
Seems pretty straightforward to me.Control freaks just can’t do that though,they have to be in everyone’s business unfortunately.
Strange thing,Eight,et al.
Back in the day when shifting the load was legal,I had a legal by(license load on with 5%,ad nauseum) but the problem was,the 5% sticker is not honored on most stretches of interstate(why dont the Feds patrol interstate,rather then VDOT?)
anyway.the “skirmisher” smelled blood and was bright enough to pick me out,He pulled Me over and waited till the scale mobile came,We proceeded to an off ramp,where after several minutes of pulling up on the scales and scribbling,it was determined the truck was a few hundred # over axle(mind you I was still alright license wise) so I had the option of shifting the load(legal then)I asked if they had a shovel I could use(of course they didnt).so got my white mules on and got up in back and started shifting the load manually(I figured each double handful,weighed around 3#,so it was doable) Any way finally,the cute little assistant came to the back of the truck and said”Sir,He said you can go,but next time have the loader man,place the load a little closer to the front.The main man looked like Ned Flanders and was a bit menancing with the butt of his pistol sticking out of its Holster(I had to think-what a joke,Who was I harming?)
This reminded me of Walter Block’s statements regarding the Nazi guard.
Could you become a Nazi Guard and be morally OK? He argues that you can, if your intent is to save lives. In his example the guard still has to kill 9 people each day but he was supposed to kill 10. He is able to save one person each day but only one and to do this he has to remain a guard.
Now this doesn’t mean that the family members of the 9 couldn’t still find him guilty of murder. But he could at least explain his case and ask for forgiveness. In this case I would forgive him. So theoretically, yes you could be a cop today and still be a moral person, but only if you stay/become a cop with the intention of actually thwarting the law itself.
A person who joins the police with the intention of enforcing the laws where there is no victim is an immoral person and should be legally held accountable for their actions. A person who joins the force with the intention of turning a blind eye to victim-less crimes as often as he possibly can get away with could be considered a moral person, yet still he should be held legally accountable in the same way the Nazi guard was in the example. The only difference is that the cop can now say that he tried to save as many people as he could. He could say something like this, “Sir I am sorry that I sent your Son to the Rape incarceration center but unfortunately I had a supervisor watching and I couldn’t save him. I did save many other people and if it had been at all possible to save your Son I would have”.
So my answer is; Yes you can be a cop and be moral, but only if you join with the intention of saving as many people as you can. Any person who joins with the intention of enforcing the laws as they stand today can not be considered a moral person.
Very interesting. Haven’t heard that view before.
That puts the individual in an impossible situation. they cannot take the oath honestly – which means, they are NOT a moral person from the get-go.
It’s a great philosophical theory, but cannot bear out in the world…
For all those who think that they know some “good” cops. If they are “good”, ask them the following:
-Have you EVER ticketed someone for not wearing a seatbelt? A helmet?
-Possessing marijuana?
-Having a taillight out?
If the answer is yes, you know they aren’t so “good” after all, because they have willingly used the color of “law” to steal from others. Just following orders, or just enforcing the law is no excuse. it wasn’t in 1945 and isn’t today.
Enforcing unjust laws and stealing from others is not compatible with being “good”. I have no use for law enforcement whatsoever, as it is our own responsibility to protect ourselves and our families. We have failed miserably, but it’s never too late to start.
Years ago the town I lived in was known for having the worst cops around.However ,there was one cop( i forget his name),who used to get in trouble for NEVER writing a ticket and I mean never.The town loved him,and he never changed his ways no matter how much trouble he got in,god love him.I can also say the town next to us,Stoneham ,Ma,in twenty five years of my life ,I never once saw anyone pulled over.I heard through the grapevine that the Chief was super cool and he didn’t want any unneeded ball busting.I moved away and I am sure it is no longer like that,but at least I got to see the way it could and should be.
My county is like that. We don’t – yet – have a police department. We have a sheriff’s office. They are not Libertarians by any stretch. But they are night and day preferable to the federal assholes who patrol the Blue Ridge Parkway and the county cops across the line.
Eric, You’re fortunate to just have a sheriff over your run of the mill thug factory, but if they’re not “libertarians”, they’re just slave masters that beat you less. Not knocking you, for epautos is one of the best, but as I get older (50) and I’ve awakened, I cannot tolerate compromise. Either we are free or we aren’t. I just can’t afford myself the luxury of compromise, as there’s too much at stake. The more I get it, the more I realize how little others do, and how they cling to their “religion” of statism.
I drive my wife nuts, and she can’t stand the looks I give the NYPD every time, but it’s not TV. They’re not heroes and they’re certainly not glamorous. you wouldn’t believe what a motley group the NYPD are: fat, sloppy, poor grooming standards and a general air of incompetence. I saw some foreign tourists taking a picture with a 225 (min.) lb. policewoman and she was smiling away, blissfully unaware that she was soon to be a punchline in some European’s “look at the amusing s*** I saw on my vacation” slideshow.
What’s not so funny is that these same laughable clowns have guns and badges and will use the authority given to them by the state to soothe their egos.
I know it’s a pipe dream, but if society would just wake up and realize we’re responsible for policing and protecting ourselves, we would save a lot of aggravation, not to mention money.
Last night I went out a little after ten pm. I get through the first major intersection from home and there’s a modified new edge SN95 Mustang to my right and in front of me and I’m driving my ’12 GT. Going along this speed trap arterial at the PSL when a cop in the oncoming lane nails his brakes and takes a dive into a left turn lane pocket (there’s a median)…. I know he’s going to do a U-turn. I’ve seen this before. I can’t see him in my mirrors but then there he is racing up on me. A Cook County cop (usually the local cops troll this road) pulls up along side me looking at me. I wanted to just flip him off so bad. I had dropped from the PSL to 2-3mph under the PSL. He continued at speed for a short distance then slowed to the PSL. The SN95 had reached the next major intersection and was waiting at one of those left turn on arrow only signals to make a left. The pig had nothing to nail either of us on. He sure did want to create/find something though.
I’m just so sick of this crap and the cop worship just makes it so much worse.
Stoneham, huh?
We’re neighbors! 😉
But I’ve seen Stoneham cops pull people over, issue parking tickets, etc.
Wakefield not so much, once or twice.
Beantown, ESPECIALLY Cambridge….? Enemies of freedom. And the people. Also tend to be a road hazard quite often, E.G., manually checking parking meters on the commons – from their vehicle. Blocking a lane of traffic…. during lunch hour.
Clover Cop, maybe?
I think there is a painless way out of this mess, one that won’t be resisted by those depending on checks from the central govt of the USA, because it provides for the continuation of those checks, while simultaneously eliminating federal taxes and debt.
Sounds too good to be true? Maybe, maybe not. Hold that thought and watch this video which is intended to be a proposal to the Virgin Earth Challenge (I understand that you may not be on the band wagon of removing GHG from the atmosphere, but keep in mind that the customer is always right).
https://youtu.be/aUttpXHQeyQ
Here’s a one-line summary: We propose to eliminate environmental degradation and poverty by the expedient of creating money to pay land owners for the services provided by the living beings on their land.
Wow.I must be getting close to the truth ,a certain forum will edit me out within a minute(Guys please,just get ready(whats coming down the Pike doesnt look good,I cant believe how seemingly intelligent people are being duped)The only thing that will shut me up is another trip to the Pen or visit from the MIB.
Anyrate,the only solutions(or comprimises)to the problem are
1.Less law enforcement.
2.A just government.
3.Some kind of a psychological profile to establish who is able to handle,to handle the authority and power over others.
4.(This will get some screaming)The average law enforcement dupe,should not have a firearm(time and time again they have proven a lot of them cannot be trusted)and they should be prohibted from engaging in high speed pursuit under normal circumstances-it looks like the Keystone cops when 20 squad cars are after an 18 wheeler and they run Him for 100 miles(anybody with any sense can stop one of these chases within 5 miles)
The list goes on,I guess some like their shaved heads and tactical gear and I think the citizens should corner the vigilanties and discourage them,until Human Nature gets overhauled,we will have abuses,remember the old saying about power.
I agree with what you say in theory, but the problem is you can never have “less” or a “smaller” government. By its nature, government is authority and coercive power and even a little is too much. It’s akin to a slave asking for a master that beats him less. He’s still a slave and he still gets a beating, it’s just that his life is a little more tolerable.
I cannot accept that I am owned by anyone. Simply having the “right” to vote for who steals from me to feed their own pet project is not ok with me. People will wail and scream the need for order and “how will we build “x”? Well, if we have a system that is KNOWN to be unjust, coercive and wrong, it doesn’t matter how we get to point B, only that we rid ourselves of the problem first.
If a gang of armed thugs sets your house on fire, you run outside. You don’t worry that the thugs may gun you down outside, you just get away from the fire and worry about the next issue when you get to it.
Oh s***, I just described the end to the Waco standoff. Oooops…………
When you say ‘creating money,’ do you mean creating wealth, by mixing labor with raw materials? Or do you mean creating fiat currency, which just makes everything more expensive in the long run?
No, I mean creating new money, which is simply one of the many products available in this high division of labour economy (granted, its the one product that enables the division). In the same way that someone can do work to mine gold ore and refine it and make it into coins of guaranteed (by the manufacturer) weights and then spend them into circulation.
Also in the same way that the federal reserve banks create new money to loan out and then get spent into circulation.
The idea is to use the health of the land as money, and credit land owners’ accounts for every day that their land has some health. The question is how to measure that health, which the proposal says we’ll do initially with a crude measurement which is the amount of oxygen exhaled by the land.
The trick that gets the central government off our backs is that We The People are co-owners of all those trees on the national lands, and we can choose to change the US dollar from what it has been since 1971, which is nothing, to Xg Oxygen. The appropriate value of X can be chosen so that the national lands exhale enough money to fund the central government without any taxes or borrowing. This way we get them out of our pockets but at the same time everyone who depends on checks from that government still gets paid.
And yes, that’s a pile of new money entering circulation every year, but We The People can immunise ourselves against a hyper-inflationary run away by eliminating legal tender laws, to enable competition in the market for money. And you’re right about the monetary inflation causing price inflation, but as detailed in the video, that effect will be mitigated by new jobs created to measure and credit the new money, by less taxes and because the new money will get into circulation through many hands, similar to the way gold has done historically because it’s relatively evenly distributed through the Earth’s crust.
Sounds like another looneytunes Greenbacker scheme.
You mean “creating money” like the Weimar republic did?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_the_Weimar_Republic
I guess on the plus side we could burn wheelbarrows full of paper currency in our furnaces, the way people did at the time.
No, they won’t even print it these days, just add 0’s to our bank balances.
Yes, I mean create new money the same as Weimar, Zimbabwe, the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve banks do. And in times past, the same way manufacturers of Thalers, silver dollars, gold dollars, cigarettes, wampum, salt blocks and herders of cattle did. All those people manufactured things that could be used as money, and therefore had value because money is a necessary product in order to have a high division of labour.
The Weimar and such money got into trouble because it was/is cheap to produce and because it’s production is/was monopolised. If money manufacturers are exposed to competition the same way manufacturers of cars or shoes are then trouble can’t happen because us consumers will naturally choose a money in which prices are not going up.
In 1934 the US dollar was changed from 1/20 oz Au to 1/35 oz Au, and in 1971 from 1/35 oz Au to nothing. If We The People were to choose to change it from nothing to X gm O2 from the plants on the land, with X chosen so that the national lands fund the central govt without any taxes or borrowing, the problem of hyperinflation is removed, because the amount of new money entering circulation every year is near constant and known ahead of time by all market participants.
This makes it different than the money coming from the central banks, because their money is generally a percentage of the money already in circulation and its manufacture is decided by a secret committee. This makes it unpredictable and makes the money supply grow geometrically, eventually leading to hyperinflation as people abandon it.
I see, because creating money out of thin air worked so well in places like Weimar and Zimbabwe.
Many of the things you mention are money, because they have value and are useful for exchange. FRNs have ‘value’ only because the gunvermin says they do, and force people to accept them, ‘legal tender.’
‘Creating’ money with no real value solves nothing.
What he appears to be doing with a lot of smoke, mirrors, hand-waving, and excess verbiage, is to equate fiat currency with precious metals and other objects of material value.
This is nonsense of the highest order. 5000 years of human history says that gold, silver, etc. have intrinsic value and that paper (or its modern equivalent, blips in a computer) does not. It happens every time. Even here in the U.S. while we have so far managed to avoid “hyperinflation,” in my own lifetime I have seen Federal Reserve Notes lose over 90% of their value.
The whole thing is reminiscent of those who are still pushing the discredited, bankrupt economic philosophy of Communism; insisting that if only they can get the right people in place “This Time It Will Really Work.”
If Chris wants to ignore the lessons of history and put his faith in money created out of thin air that’s his business. I’m not buying it and expect few here will.
What he appears to be doing with a lot of smoke, mirrors, and excess verbiage is equating fiat currency to precious metals and/or other objects of material value.
This is nonsense of the highest order. We have thousands of years of human history saying that gold, silver, etc. are of intrinsic value and that paper (and its modern equivalent, blips in a computer) are not and the fiat currency loses its value over time, sometimes very quickly if the entity issuing it is not sufficiently crafty.
This is not an isolated phenomenon, It happens every time. While in the U.S. we have so far managed to avoid hyperinflation, in my own lifetime I have seen the Federal Reserve Note lose over 90% of its value.
The whole thing is reminiscent of those who still push the discredited, bankrupt economic philosophy of Communism; insisting that if only they can get the right people in place “This Time It Will Really Work.”
If Chris wants to put his faith in fiat currency and promote it that’s his business. I’m not buying it and I expect that few here will.
(Trying again, the first 2 times the site lost my response, fortunately I put it in a text editor. Definitely a bug lurking around here…)
What Chris appears to be doing with a lot of smoke, mirrors, and excess verbiage is equating fiat currency to precious metals and/or other objects of material value.
This is nonsense of the highest order. We have thousands of years of human history saying that gold, silver, etc. are of intrinsic value and that paper (and its modern equivalent, blips in a computer) are not and the fiat currency loses its value over time, sometimes very quickly if the entity issuing it is not sufficiently crafty.
This is not an isolated phenomenon, It happens every time. While in the U.S. we have so far managed to avoid hyperinflation, in my own lifetime I have seen the Federal Reserve Note lose over 90% of its value.
The whole thing is reminiscent of those who still push the discredited, bankrupt economic philosophy of Communism; insisting that if only they can get the right people in place “This Time It Will Really Work.”
If Chris wants to put his faith in fiat currency and promote it that’s his business. I’m not buying it and I expect that few here will.
I suspect (but can’t be sure) that we are in the presence of a ‘Greenbacker.’ Someone who thinks fiat currency is not the problem, only that the Fed uses debt to create it. Wants Congress to be in charge instead. Like that’s going to help.
Worked out well for the “Continental” didn’t it? What’s the popular saying about that currency?
That worked out real well for the Continental didn’t it? What was the popular saying about that particular currency… ?
Not worth a continental (IIRC) 😉
Sorry for my poor communication and excess verbiage!
No, I’m on the band wagon that fiat is exactly the problem, and I’m proposing a pain free way to escape. One which the ruling bureaucrats can’t object to because their checks will keep coming. The only problem with FRN or whatever fiat currency is that demand for them is created at gun point by way of legal tender and tax statutes. If some manufacturer prints up some high quality notes and attempts to spend them into circulation then no problem. You are free to either accept or not accept the notes in exchange for your valuable good or service. The only problem comes if the manufacturer forces demand for those notes the way the tax and legal tender statutes do now.
I’m not equating fiat currency to anything, I’m trying to explain that money is simply one more product in a high division of labour economy, and that We The People can choose to fix ours. See “The Ethics of Money Production” by Jorg Guido Hulsman.
Contrary to what you might think, gold and silver don’t have any intrinsic value. Any value they have is because people have found uses for them that make their lives better. Silver has a lot of industrial uses and not so much for monetary uses, and gold is the opposite. Many people don’t understand this, but one of the reasons gold won the monetary arms race is that it doesn’t have many other uses. The reason that is a good thing for a money is that it results in a relatively constant amount in circulation as less gets used up.
Again, I’m not proposing a fiat currency. I’m proposing that We The People follow the precedents set by Presidents Roosevelt and Nixon, and make a change to the US dollar. It was as simple as a president signing his name and it could be that simple again.
“What Chris appears to be doing with a lot of smoke, mirrors, and excess verbiage is equating fiat currency to precious metals and/or other objects of material value.”
You are conflating different concepts.
Fiat vs. non fiat refers to force or lack of force, and has nothing to do with whether gold or silver or cigarettes is being used as money.
And by the way, according to the laws of the USA, every one of those dollar bills in your wallet are IOUs for 1/42 oz Au. So the legal argument can be made that our official monetary unit, the US dollar, is a quantity of gold weighing 1/42 of an oz. In other words, our fiat currency, or rather our fiat money, is in fact gold.
And yes I understand that all the bills can’t be redeemed at 1/42 oz per bill. I’ve seen at a blog called FOFOA an estimate that they can possibly all be redeemed at something closer to 1/100,000 oz per bill.
As you know, this is why President Nixon, or anyone who had held the office at the time, had to close the so-called gold window. All the bills couldn’t be redeemed at 1/35 of an oz per bill, and all the bosses of the Bretton Woods signatory countries knew it and there was a ongoing run on the bank. President Nixon would have been shot before “they” would have let all the gold flow out of the country.
My point, though, is that I’m proposing the opposite of a fiat currency, or what I’m referring to as fiat money. I’m proposing that in the same way that President Roosevelt signed his name on a piece of paper on January 30 1934 and the US dollar changed from 1/20 oz Au to 1/35 oz Au, and the same way that President Nixon signed on 15 Aug ’71 and the US dollar changed from 1/35 oz to effectively nothing (since everyone knows the debt can’t be paid at 1/42 oz), President Whoever could sign whenever and change the US dollar from nothing to Xg O2. (Note that this also is not, as they say, “money created from thin air”. It kind of literally is thin air. The money itself is created by the plants and all us humans have to do is measure it. It is a certain quantity of what arguably is to us humans, the most materially valuable element in the periodic table: oxygen.)
Again, the thing that gets the tax man off our backs is our choice of the value of X. There is a certain number (my guess is somewhere in the neighborhood of 100g) that will enable the entire federal budget to be raised from the trees on the national lands without any taxing or borrowing.
Since the central govt budget is now met without any taxing or borrowing, the proposal is for We The People to sign, either by way of our elected representatives, or amongst each other if they don’t cooperate, to sign this agreement:
1) The US dollar is now Xg Oxygen.
2) All federal level tax laws are repealed.
3) All legal tender laws are repealed.
(The third item is just in case this was all a mistake – it allows for competition in case there is an unforeseen problem with $O. And it makes the US dollar a non-fiat money, because there is no demand caused for it by laws enforced by force. It will live or die on its own terms. I predict this idea will also be attractive to our politicians because I think it will make the US dollar the king and leader of all the other currencies. It will make them look like heroes for adopting a money which increased linearly and predictably in supply, instead of exponentially and unpredictably, and which reduced our tax burdens. Everyone loves a politician who does that!)
Law enforcement is only found in totalitarian regimes. Legitimate laws require no enforcement, and illegitimate ones should not be forced.
That’s why we have a second amendment in the US Constitution. Not to enable another revolution, but to make it unthinkable and unnecessary. Unfortunately, government at every level forfeited legitimacy long since.
“The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any bands of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States. A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power, and jealousy will instantly inspire the inclination, to resist the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and oppressive. ” Noah Webster
“The people of the various provinces are strictly forbidden to have in their possession any swords, short swords, bows, spears, firearms, or other types of arms. The possession of unnecessary implements makes difficult the collection of taxes and dues and tends to foment uprisings.” — Toyotomi Hideyoshi, dictator of Japan, August 1588
“Militias, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves and include all men capable of bearing arms. […] To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.” — Senator Richard Henry Lee, 1788, on “militia” in the 2nd Amendment
I like to sum it up as:
generally, the type of people attracted to “law enforcement” are exactly the type of people who should NEVER be allowed to be “law enforcement” people.
I was thinking just that today, as I was following an unmarked VA state trooper. Essentially, all that exists between the awesome (meaning large) power of the state and (little-ole) me is the moral fiber of the man who is the police officer. An immoral officer is an evil. An ammoral officer is also pretty bad. We really need police officers who are of the utmost moral character. How do you screen for that? Is it screened?
The fact that he was willing, at least, to do that despicable job under cover, hiding in an ambush tells us that he has no moral fiber. Only the cowardly and the evil attack from anonymity.
I would feel completely justified in hanging all undercover ‘police’. If the task cannot be done in the light of day, metaphorically speaking, it is likely that it should not be done.
Sounds like how I feel about all ‘secret’ gunvermin activity.
Hayek dedicated an entire chapter to “Why the Worst Get on Top.”
The Road to Serfdom.
The U.S.A. has not been invaded by a foreign power that imposes foreign cops with foreign agendas. Do a google search. Surveys show that most citizens have a high regard for cops. Jurors regularly collaborate with cops to convict defendants of being disorderly, resistant, vice criminals, etc. Busybodies call cops to watch their violence.
The S.S. is in town rounding up Jewish kids; let’s go down to the tavern, drink, and sing some songs with them. There are more bad people in the U.S.A. than good people. Have a talk with your family, friends, and neighbors.
The primary reason for the rise of violence and aggression in the police force can be attributed to the 2005 SCOTUS decision in “Castle Rock v. Gonzales”. The court ruled the police have absolutely NO duty to serve or protect. This case would have cost the city of Castle Rock, Colorado tons of money so the Supreme Court fixed the problem forever. Every new police recruit ever since is keenly aware of this law case and thus police forces everywhere have become a magnet for angry aggressive psychopaths. The only way a cop can face charges is if he’s actually filmed emptying the entire clip into the back of a fleeing man. Beating up this elderly sidewalk singer is all in a day’s work. The police are here only to protect themselves and serve the State.
Eric, another outstanding essay.
However, permit me to quibble: regarding Nuremburg, those who were the adjudicators were not good men.
Yes, LM, they just were on the winning side.
Libertymike, very good point. The whole Nuremburg thing was political theatre at its finest. Let us not forget Operation Paperclip either. They certainly didn’t execute any of those nasty ol’ Nazis that the shadow government in D.C. saw as useful. No, they cleaned up their pedigrees and brought them over here in droves to continue doing what they had done for the Third Reich.
On a lower level scale, it’s pretty much the same way narcs work with their “confidential informants” today. As long as the C.I. keeps feeding the cops actionable information, they’re free to deal dope, use dope, steal, lie and harass their neighbors while the noble thin blue line looks the other way and even covers for them. I know this for a fact because I lived next door to one of these rats and he made our lives hell for nearly eight years. Finally we sold the house and moved. Liberty and justice for all? Equal protection under the law? Don’t make me laugh.
The same American government that prosecuted the Nazis for their crimes is unwilling to let its own soldiers be subject to the International court of justice. But then again hypocrisy is just one of the hallmarks of the state – do as I say, not as I do.
Certainly.
40 years ago, My Lai was regarded with loathing by the American people and Lt. Calley was considered a criminal and treated accordingly.
Today, machine gunning Iraqi civilians is “cool” – and Manning is a “traitor” for spilling the beans.
I read four books about Lt. Cally.
1) He is a convicted mass murderer (22).
2) One of the crimes that he was convicted of was throwing a baby that barely fit in his hand into a ditch and shooting.
3) During his three years of trial and appeals he was roomed at officers quarters. He went to the base exchange, had visits from his girlfriend, and built large-scale model airplanes.
4) The four different accounts give his time in prison from three days to a couple of months after lost appeals. He wasn’t pardoned by Nixon, but he was released for a reason not explained.
5) His Georgia Draft Board resigned in protest of his prosecution.
6) Pilot, Thompson, and his crew intervened and trained their guns on Calley and his men. Thompson was ostracized by fellow officers. Some congressmen denounced him as a traitor.
7) The American Legion had fund raisers for Calley.
8) At the time, telegrams to the president were popular. These telegrams condemned the prosecution as “scapegoating”, favoring Calley by 49 to 1. War protesters also had this sentiment. This issue and proposed vitamin regulations were the most telegramed.
I am sure that you can figure out my generalization about the American people.
LIBERTYMIKE, agreed. Nuremberg was a sham show trial and one of the most glaring examples of hypocrisy in history.
It is terrifying to know what men will do to each other for The State.
Hi Skunk,
I agree that injustices occurred at Nuremburg. For instance, Julius Streicher may have been a truly obnoxious and loathsome person, but – as far as I am aware – he was never accused much less convicted of having actually killed anyone. Yet he was sentenced to death for what amounted to thought crime. Hess was also badly treated.
But the principle that “I was just following orders” was challenged – and the idea that we each have an obligation to not follow murderous orders was articulated, however imperfectly applied.
ERIC, the evil principle of “I was just following orders” surely needed to be challenged but I argue that none of the governments involved had the moral authority to judge the others.
Contrary to the History Channel version of WWII, there were no good guys. Hitler was no worse than Churchill, FDR, and certainly Stalin. All were guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
But you cannot have war crimes and crimes against humanity without The State. It is the essential factor.
Our challenge is to get people to understand this and to at least not serve the damnable Beast, but also to resist it in every way possible.
Here’s a good, short read. Is gunvermin necessary?
http://blog.independent.org/2015/08/12/a-call-to-order-in-the-hobbesian-jungle/
Of course Clover would choke on this.
Cope should behave themselves, the worm can turn quickly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3LVgeOTjqg
Talk about a power trip,check out the so called correctional officer or county Deputy(probaly the only way they could a good substandard job,with benefits) a lot of them are good people,a lot are pricks on a power trip.
Back in the day,I noticed in the Fast Break store,that there was a never dry,free coffee urn there,forcertain law enforcement people(who were busy writing us $900-$1000 tickets for supposed ,over axle and,so they said overweight tickets(mostly only by VA standards,that is)Well I liked coffee then(it costed out the wazoo there)and I confronted the clerk about,where the free coffee was,I wanted my share,she sez”Oh ,there were some scary types that came in here and the cops,scared them off” So that apparently,was the way,the weinies rewarded people ,who were just doing thier job.Needless to say poor ol’ Honest Joe ,Me, had to pay for His “Joe”
Kevin, I either get by or don’t every day. I’ve been taking some very offbeat routes lately to thwart those that would take your money for some heinous crime such as a crack, that could be seen, in the corner of your windshield. Yep, it’s DOT law. Gee, I sure miss that view of the cowl without that little line through it so you’d better take my money and teach me a lesson, especially since I just got that crack about 20 miles back. Or that windshield fluid reservoir that’s empty, gotta pay. BTW, a backup light that doesn’t work, something that simply illuminates “something” under a trailer MUST WORK….or else. Never mind from inside the cab you can’t see what ever it is that’s supposed to be lighted anyway. If I need to see what’s going on back there in the dark, hooked up or not, bearing a load or not or whatever the case may be, I suspect my Cree quadzillion mega torch will work just fine. And we just can’t be having big rigs with no license plate light. Why, they (the driver)might shoot you or beat you up or simply be on the road when you are and when you feel he’s being a bad boy/girl, then you need to be able to find out all about him/her to go after that driver. Sure, he’s probably gonna fly outta sight instantly with 40 tons while your car is stymied with only 10 times the HP per pound than he has.
Every time(frequently)I hear some revenooer say “The reason I stopped you was to conduct a Level 2 inspection’, I really want to reply “The reason I killed you was to make the world a better place”…..but then I sit there and have to aid and abet the sorry a-hole for as long as he desires. Meanwhile wrecks are happening, the world is burning and he’s just on his power trip of collecting revenue.
And unarmed truckers, the law for a couple decades now, is just a little icing on the cake to those highway men of any sort to take everything you have, including your life.
I grew up in a small Idaho town in a relatively small–by Idaho standards–county. The Sheriff of the county from the early 80’s to 1992 or 94 arrested IRS agents attempting to seize property without warrants. He went after the bad guys. Because he was a good man. When he lost the election in the early 90’s, I remember my dad saying that the sheriff’s office would be corrupt and the IRS and FBI would have free reign in the county. When they came, it wouldn’t do any good to call the sheriff. He was spot on. I haven’t seen a peace officer in the area since. They are all servants of the state.
30 years ago, when I was a child, I had no fear of the police. I remember my dad getting pulled over at dusk one time and told ” I just wanted to let you know your tail lights are out, would you like me to follow you home? He knew we were just a few miles from home. He just wanted to help us out, make sure we didn’t get rear ended. No tickets, no warnings, just can I help you out. Not 10 years later, I don’t think you could find a cop that wasn’t a loathsome prick.
I think things started going downhill when they were no longer content to be a “policeman” or “peace officer” or a “cop”. The “law enforcement” moniker brought with it an almost totalitarian attitude, and a considerably lower class of personnel. The community college “police academy” brought even more meatballs that couldn’t make it in any honest endeavor to the fold.
When I was a kid (granted, I grew up in a small town) you never had a reason to fear the police. They were all honest men just looking to make a living, and because of that we respected them. It wasn’t at all uncommon for a rookie with a chip on his shoulder to be forced to publicly tear up an unjust citation in front of its recipient. I remember one mouthy young cop being drug to the front door by the police chief to apologize to my grandmother for writing her a school zone ticket – on a Saturday. I fondly remember being followed home pushing my old Bultaco 125 after I got caught popping wheelies downtown (after a couple of warnings not to). A lot of these guys would never think of drawing their weapon until they were actively being shot at, and then they’d think twice for fear of bystanders.
Unfortunately, Joe Friday and Barney Miller aren’t on the beat anymore. The old timers that once kept the idiots under control have retired or moved on, leaving nothing but power hungry, corrupt steroid freaks occupying their desks. I recently had one of these modern cretins show up at my humble abode to ask if I had seen the neighborhood’s worst serial criminal (a 12 year old riding his Tote Goat type bike on the street) that day. From the ridiculous “high and tight” haircut to the excessive tattoos to an overloaded “utility belt” that Batman would be proud of, nothing at all indicated professionalism.
Dude singing the Beach Boys gets brutalized in front of a restaurant filled with the new silent majority.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaF2xv42hd0
Second angle of same incident. Listen to the women laughing before the sturmabteilung superheroes arrive to save the day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MffCIf7iK8
Not a single good man was on hand as usual, no one said a fucking word. It was a woman who had the courage to put this vid on facebook and face all the brownshirt backlash from shitbag Americans.
When I was a young man, you would never have seen that kind of abuse. We would have jumped in and done some whoop ass on the thugs in uniform; much like in the video Fred posted above. We have raised a generation of scaredy cats; too afraid that they might get hurt to do the moral and honorable thing – that is, jump in and help the man being brutalized. Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery.” Today’s ilk would say, “Better red than dead.”
I watched a great old movie last night entitled “A Face in the Crowd”, from the 1950s. It’s about the discovery, rise and fall of a southern media star (Andy Griffith). Much of the film centers on the presidential candidacy of a stuffed shirt senator and the “elites” that run things. In those days, the media portrayed elitist club seemed to be more concerned with “moral fiber” and keeping America true to its principles. Maybe true, maybe not so much. Today’s elite is all about subjugation of the masses and ignoring America’s founding document. In the movie, the star’s fall happens when a microphone is left on during a commercial break and the whole world hears what he really thinks of them. This is why it is so important to film the actions of the police forces who carry out the orders to interfere with, humiliate and otherwise de-humanize the population.
Texas Chris’ Two Rules:
1) Love your neighbor, but mind your business.
2) Harming none, do as you will.
When I was a child, my parents and grandparents constantly impressed on me the importance of minding my own business. Unfortunately publik skools have indoctrinated this nation to do just the opposite and now we live in a society of nosy busybodies. And what profession would suit a nosy busybody better than law enforcement. You can snoop in anyone’s affairs with impunity and use force against those who object. We are largely living in a prison the size of the nation now and many of the guards are militarized sadists with combat experience. They aren’t going to change as long as they get the free pass of “officer safety.” We’ve also reached the point to where social pressure no longer works either. The police are isolated from the rest of us for the most part and who would dare tell one, “Sorry I won’t do business with you, get out of my store”? Even if you did, they’d just go buy what they needed at Target or Walmart. So much for shunning.
I would like to think we could still turn this around and reestablish something at least akin to the country I grew up in back in the 60’s & 70’s and do peacefully and painlessly. But I now believe that’s wishful thinking. We are apparently so far down the slippery slope there’s no turning back. I think we’re reaching the brace yourself for impact point and we’d all better be ready.
Reaching the “bracing for impact” point. I suppose so. I’ve been stunned so badly I suffered permanent damage. There ain’t no goin back. TPTB have done just what they strived to do, reach that point of (no matter how you view yourself and the opposing “team”)no return, the point of real people who ain’t in on the shill going against the hired thugs to make sure they do. I’m betting on the people who have made their own way their entire life. I have my big battery pile and growing, plenty of wood to melt it and plenty of casting material to make it whatever I want.
I have other necessities I won’t name but let’s just say they’re “smokeless”. I’ll learn the primer soon.