Sexing up the police state isn’t easy – but Lincoln’s trying.
Ford’s luxury line now offers – scratch that, includes as standard equipment – a “complimentary” membership in CLEAR, which is the Department of Homeland Security’s “fast” and “efficient” biometric cattle tag program, already in use at public airports and other public-access venues.
But not, it’s worth a mention, at private-access airports – i.e., general aviation, where the Heimatsicherheitsdienst (that’s Homeland Security Department in the more appropriate – and original – German) does not fondle and grope, nor body scan travelers rich enough to avoid public air travel. This includes, of course, the politicians who gave us the Heimat and the Sicherheitsdienst.
But not themselves.
Naturlich.
Just as they exempted themselves from the strictures of Obamacare.
Which is, as Charlie Chan used to say, very interesting.
Maybe the ululating “enemies of freedom” we are constantly menaced by – so we’re told – are too broke to afford a charter flight for their evildoing. They fly coach. This, at any rate, appears to be the thinking. If we assume that preventing “terrorism” via airplane is the true purpose of the TSA.
Which of course, it’s not.
Anyhow.
Instead of presenting his papers, old timey-style – and being interrogated (and felt up) by a blue-uniformed government goon until he’s satisfactorily passed his Submission Training session – the lucky Lincoln owner will be greeted curbside by a helpful CLEAR “team member” – we’re all just one big team, you know – who will then “escort” him to a “dedicated” CLEAR lane, where the “customer” (yes, they actually use that term) will step up to a special kiosk for speedier processing via iris scan and fingerprint.
Do this just the once and your unique biological signature will be recorded forever – allegedly in order to hasten your transit through the Heimat. In actuality, to make it easier for the organs of the Heimat to keep tabs on you forever – and not just at the airport. Once your eyes have been scanned, you can be scanned anywhere there is a scanner. Which is eventually going to be everywhere – and already well on the way.
The sell is that you’ll “bypass the usual long lines” and “walk through security in minutes every time.” Temple Grandin – the famous animal behaviorist – developed a similar technique, intended to soothe cattle making the transition from four hoofs on the ground to sides of beef hanging in the meat locker.
Keep them calm – and make the trip more enjoyable.
Two hooves or four, the end goal is the same. And it’s not in the best interests of the cows.
“We are thrilled to be part of Lincoln’s vision to enhance its clients’ lives in new and exciting ways,” exults CLEAR CEO Caryn Seidman-Becker. “There’s a natural fit between our shared focus on making travel simpler at every step along the customer journey.”
Mark that. The “customer journey.”
Just like Temple Grandin’s happy cows.
It’s all logical, as inevitable as C follows B follows A. First, normalize the outrageous. Get people used to affronts, most especially intrusions upon their privacy and personal space without cause.
Routinize the rifling of their possessions, first. Then, compel them to accept being routinely touched – again, without cause – by government workers; and not merely touched, but violated in the most personal way imaginable short of actual insertion. Make them endure this being done to their wives and children, while they stand by, helpless and degraded.
Treat people who’ve done nothing exactly as if they had. Take it a step further and compel them to prove they haven’t done anything as a condition of being treated – after the fact – as innocent.
It was once the case that only those who’d been charged with a serious crime – a felony – were subject to being fingerprinted. Now, we’re being conditioned to accept being fingerprinted and retina-scanned as a luxury by Lincoln.
Such is life in the Heimat.
. . .
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Watching that Lincoln/Clear commercial, I’m thinking ‘where have I seen that before?’
Then it occurs to me, here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOV8mBjHHYg
The overwhelming majority of human beings can be very healthy on a diet without carbohydrates.
Doing so obviates the possibility of diseases that are dependent on carbohydrates in general and glucose in particular.
Only sympathetic dominants have an absolute need for carbohydrates, and even they can manage without them.
The majority of the requirement for carbohydrates is a hidden need for the plant-based nutrients that are not available from malnourished animal sources. These can most easily be provided by supplementation.
Nothin’ wronmg with carbs.
Certain genetic types may have a problem with ’em though.
Eating refined(simple) ones as opposed to complex (whole_ can be a problem.
Eating them in combination with certain other things/bad diets, can be bad too (Like carbs and a lot of sugar).
My grandfather used to eat pasta EVERY day….he was skinny.
I eat a lot of pasta- but all whole-grain, and I’m quite healthy.
Asians do pretty well on high carbs….even non-complex/refined ones….
Nutrition “science” is probably the most dubious discipline of them all today- except perhaps for global warming….
Psychiatry is the only medical field with absolutely no use for science, the DSM containing nothing provative.
Nutrition isn’t anything that medical doctors are taught. Most of them don’t learn anything about nutrition until they get a patient whose survival depends upon it.
Whole grain isn’t better than no grain if there are no trace nutrients in them, as is the case with the majority of what is in the grocery store. Plants don’t need trace nutrients to thrive. Mammals cannot thrive without them. All failure to thrive, infant through adult is traceable to malnutrition based on trace nutrient deficiencies.
Global warming is based on the enlightened self-interest of scientists whose paychecks depend on their consensus. Much of all science is based on the same premise, especially if it is dependent on government support. It is becoming clear that the majority of publications in professional journals are collections of lies based on proving the funding sponsor’s findings.
I agree with you on this one Bill. Starving African children have huge bellies, but are starving due to improper diet. Another problem is the use of artificial sweeteners.
Given the gross malnutrition of Africa, artificial sweeteners’ effects will be that of the neurotoxins that they contain.
My mention of artificial sweeteners was an explanation of why so many Americans are fat. I figured that readers here would understand this shift without my having to underline it like I would have to do in front of a group of strangers.
90% of the food items you see on grocery store shelves did not exist 100 years ago.
All of the artificial sweeteners are neurotoxic excitotoxins, but not all excitotoxins are artificial sweeteners. The most common excitotoxins in processed food are hydrolyzed vegetable proteins.
All excitotoxins cause metabolic problems such as obesity and diabetes.
It has always been best to avoid anything in a bottle, bag, can, or box, and those have always been on shelves in grocery stores.
RMD Bill, there was a rime when canned/boxed/packaged foods did not contain all of the chemicals and junk which they now do.
The litany of preservatives, sweeteners; flavor enhancers; artificial fats, etc. which are in everything today, pretty much were only getting their start in the 50’s, and did not become common until the 70’s.
Even today in Europe, you can buy a loaf of bread that is pretty much still real bread. Europeans come here and see the novel-sized listing of ingredients on our packaged store-bought bread, and are aghast.
The crap most Americans eat today isn’t really even food.
Your post contains too many unproven assumptions to begin to either agree with or refute it.
Do your own research if you’re not already aware of these simple facts, Bill- unless you want to pay me to edumacate your Mongoloid ass…..
((9Not that the older stuff was much better… When they started making the switch to hydrolized erls in the 70’s and 80’s, it was usually to replace things like lard…)))
polska foods
http://www.polskafoods.com/polish-recipes
I dated this Polock girl once. Her mother used to make ice cubes…till she lost the recipe.
[cymbal crash]
😉
When I was a kid we had Hormel dried beef for junk food. It was locally grown and processed, pure beef, no steroids, and the shit on a shingle made from it was to die for. Gee, that sounds good.
Starving Ethiopians have big bellies. Overfed American welfare queens have big EVERYTHINGs…. They’re both malnourished, but the American only because they eat junk (and tons of it) with no nutritional value, and all the drugs they take create deficiencies.
I can tell when in line at the grocery store, exactly who is going to whip out an EBT card. She’ll be obese; usually have a whole gaggle of kids in tow; and have a cart (or maybe even two) piled high with frozen pizzas and potato chips and expensive processed convenience foods. Zero fresh produce; zero stock items; no pasta, rice or beans….
And then they’ll get a carton or two of cigs, which they’ll pay for with cash- which they can, since they got their food for free.
Back when poor people were poor, like in the Depression- they weren’t obese, and they ate simple but nutritious and healthy foods. My mother still eats a lot of those things to this day, and thank goodness, as a result, I too now make them- things like broccoli and beans; squash and potatoes; cabbage and potatoes (and we’re mot even Irish!); pasta e fagioli; eetc. You can make a whole meal for a buck or two, and it’s delicious and healthy. But thanks to food stamps and Medicaid, poor people can be gluttons and get all the diseases that were once the province of the rich…..and we get to pay for it all.
for some, merely walking is a feat. welfaros shuffle and shamble and talk in a dull manner, their reasoning is also retarded
i call them the sloths
Sloths\welfaros move so slowly that they are able to support entire ecosystems in their fur. Also, they only poop once a week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0o51Anhz78
bowel drop rates are a good indicator of health
They used’ta just call ’em “shiftless, Tor. I guess now they call them aerobically-challenged or something….
[in Ben Stein voice]” Behold, Welfaricus coal-burnicus, in all it’s glory. Observe how it’s superior intelligence allows it to live off of others, in a symbiotic relationship, as it procreates in far greater numbers than does it’s host species.
Congress makes the laws and the judicial system (police to Supreme Court) enforce them. If the American people would clean out Congress, you might find that tyranny takes a big hit!
Under the Constitution, the police are executive, not judicial. If the American people enforced the Constitution, as those who wrote it expected them to, there never would have been tyranny to take a hit.
“The spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. A single zealot may become persecutor, and better men be his victims. It can never be too often repeated that the time for fixing every essential right, on a legal basis, is while our rulers are honest, ourselves united. From the conclusion of this war we shall be going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will be heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion.”
Thomas Jefferson
Thank you for your comment. Yes I know about the police departments’ place in the hierarchy and that is why I mentioned them in my own personal definition of the word “judicial” so you would understand where I placed them for my comment.
As the old saying goes, you are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.
Police departments are standing armies, which the founders tried to prevent occurring, because a standing force will always be looking for a justification. They did this by limiting the appropriation of funds for an army to two years, and allowed for a permanent navy, since the Marines already existed. There is substantial legal thought to justify the abolition of police departments, beginning with the excellent ARE COPS CONSTITUTIONAL? at http://www.constitution.org/lrev/roots/cops.htm
They would have regarded police departments as unnecessary given the existence of the well-regulated militia.
You got it, Bill! Having a defacto standing army, and just calling it “a police department” is nothing but semantics- just like the BS they did 100 years ago to unconstitutionally create a central bank- and so all the other BULLSHIT they do.
Police departments, beginning with Sir Robert Peel’s bobbies, were created to deal with the riff raff that would most stridently resist their incorporation into society.
Archie, a better solution – abolish the whole federal government entirely.
Literal enforcement of the Constitution by the well-regulated militia would accomplish that within weeks.
Bill, the Constitution is a fraud, a myth. It was created with one goal – to create a centralized federal government.
The Constitution should not be enforced. Exactly the opposite. It should be torn into a hundred pieces; so too the “United” “States”.
As for the militia, the question is Who is doing the “regulating” and by what authority?
SB,
Your post indicates that you have never read any of the founders outside of a public school setting.
Once the majority of the Congress had determined that body was composed of more loyalists and British agents than any patriots, their goal was to create as dysfunctional a foundation as they could with the hope that the situation would improve further from the winds of war. It would have worked if the resulting Constitution hadn’t been deified by those who simply ignored it. As it is, so few really understand anything about what was happening during the convention to be able to get a simple majority of acquiescence, let alone agreement. The current morass is entirely the fault of the grossly ignorant public remaining so with the help of a public fool system.
Bill, your ad hominem snark is based on a twofold false premise: 1) you have no idea what I was taught in government skool therefore 2) you have no idea whether or not I am advancing what I was taught.
I graduated HS in ’79 and we were taught then that the constitution was designed to protect peoples’ rights and to limit government which is the exact opposite of what I am arguing i.e. that the constitution was designed to create a centralized government.
I do not know what is being taught now but I am willing to bet that the number of government skools teaching my argument is somewhere around zero.
As to your thesis that the constitution was intentionally created to be a dysfunctional foundation replacement for the Articles of Confederation can you recommend a book or two that supports it?
I do heartily agree with you that the public is grossly ignorant because of the government fool system.
I have never attended a skool, so I have no idea what you are talking about.
I have never attended a “public fool system” but I think I have an idea what you are talking about.
Somewhere they moved to teaching the USC grants people rights.
It is a living document doncha know. ; )
Mary Shelley should have helped them write it.
Yeah, Brent- At some point, they went from it being a document which protects your God-given inalienable rights….to a document that “gives you rights”- and if it gives you rights, then those who give you the rights are thus able to revoke them on whatever conditions they establish.
WOW! You attended a skool skunkbear. Most of us attended school.
Was it a pooblik school?
Most schools don’t teach spelling anymore since everyone uses spell checkers. Grammar checkers are next, then math checkers. Then there will be no reason for public school educations, which will be the best time for private schools to rebound.
Bill, the admitted objectives of those who foisted the concept of pooblik skools on us, has nothing to do with reading, riting, and rithmetic…..their goal is to create good and compliant citizens who are “good workers”.
Half the kids coming out of the schools today are already functionally illiterate, but they’re perfectly comfortable with group-think; ceding their own autonomy to the group; going through metal detectors on a daily basis; pigs and drug-sniffing dogs scrutinizing their lockers….etc.
And they and their parents are proud that they got trophies for showing up.
Will there be trophies for starving?
I think starving would be preferable to the gluttony we see today.
Ever notice: Today, it seems the “poorer” the person…the fatter they are.
And even the middle-class and rich people know, though they may not be as fat….are literally killing themselves by what and how much they eat.
My relatives who grew up during the Depression are healthier than just about anyone today.
Just what the Romans wanted in a subject.
I would have thought it was what the Japs want, since they tend to look like Sumo wrasslers…..
Leon, I do not know if you are new here or not but I use mockery as much as possible when it comes to anything with the government.
Much like Bill’s “public fool system” comment.
Or do you really think I do not know how to spell “school”?
Right, Skunk?
I mean, ya don’t have to be a nukular scientist to figger that out…. 😉
Nunz, some people just wanna be obtuse. ; )
Nunz, some people just wanna be obtuse. ; )
All anyone here can do is go by what we actually write ourselves without further explanation.
Skool and nukular are self-indicative of ignorance.
Public fool system is a simple recognition of reality based on its outcome.
I am not aware of which generation you are, so yes there was a possibility you did’t know how to spell school.
Did’t should be didn’t.
Unless you’re Ricky Riccardo. (But then you’d have a lot of ‘splainin’ to do.
Leon, you do not know yet you decide to ignore the context and nuances of the conversation that was taking place and instead opted for snarky?!
And if the Constitution were enforced, that would mean the enforcement of Congress’s obligation to lay and collect taxes.
The Bill Of Rights is the only worthwhile part of the Constitution- but since it is in conflict with the above, and much of the rest of the Constitution, -which makes the Constitution a legal contradiction- one has to conclude that it was intended to be something merely to pacify the people.
The Bill of Rights was merely an advisory to the newly created Congress that the people were aware of their rights and for Congress to keep their hands off of them, since it contains no enforcement clause and relies on whatever tiny shards of honor survived the ratification process for any value at all.
The bill of rights is a list of restrictions upon the power of congress.
Art 1 sec 8 contains 17 specific powers (not obligations) granted to congress.
Art 1 sec 9 and the first ten amendments(bill of rights) restricts how those powers may be used.
That they changed the original sentiment from “Life, liberty and property” to “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” says it all.
Since property rights are the basis of all human rights and liberty, if the Constitution is soft on property rights- as it had to be, to allow for taxation and eminent domain, etc. – then it can not be the basis for liberty- which of course, any document which bestows special powers and authority on a few men (creating a ruling class) and gives those men power over the lives, property and affairs of others- just so long as they use “due process” to do so- can not be.
Dear Nunzio,
Precisely.
All constitutions are pretty much the same. They are pretexts which power seekers use to hypnotize people into a trance-like state, and accept that a piece of paper somehow gives those who drew it up the right to rob you.
Clear away all the BS about how it was “ratified”, and one realizes one has been conned mercilessly.
Ratified my ass. No one who wasn’t at these “constitutional conventions” has any obligation to pay it any mind whatsoever.
It’s so ironic, Bevin. The document which people think makes them free, is the very basis of their enslavement.
And even if a piece of paper could restrain government, how could it do so while at the same time being the very instrument which attempts to legitimize government? 😮
It’s like a slave holding up a piece of paper in his master’s face and saying “This says that you have to do thus and such for me because as my master, you are obligated to abide by the terms it sets forth for the conduct of slave masters” -It would be crazy for the slave to think that he was free because the master is obligated to give him a few concessions by reason of the fact that he is a master; or that the slave could even make the master abide by those paltry terms, when the masters have all the guns and power, and the salves little more than sticks.
No political document will suffice to protect the rights of any person whose ignorance of them is rife.
Ignorance is far more enslaving than any written document could ever be, especially if the ignorance is OF the document.
“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Which ratification were you in attendance at?
My point exactly.
Unless an individual has voluntarily agreed to the terms of a contractual arrangement, how can he possibly be said to have bound himself to it?
A group/gang of people cannot unilaterally make some sort of arrangement and bind people who weren’t even in attendance to it.
what sort of nonsense is that?
The usual nonsense that has always been used by a dictatorial autocrat against its grossly ignorant subjects.
Those who insist that “We need government” and “cannot do without government” invariably resort to the Big Lie of the “Social Contract”.
But the plain truth is that people cannot be bound by “contracts” they never even saw, let alone signed.
The assertion that merely having been born inside a line drawn by complete strangers on a map somehow relegates one to the status of a tax slave is patent nonsense.
The Social Contract: a fictitious agreement not worth the paper it isn’t printed on. https://anenemyofthestate.wordpress.com/quotations-from-chairman-zhu/
this is common mis-characterization …
The federal government entity was established by the federal constitution.
You are not bound by it or to it in any way…unless you work for the federal government.
That federal entity rules people according to its written constitution.
So, your agreement, your assent, your consent was never asked for and never needed.
These organizations (federal and state governments) rule the populace according to their constitutions.
To our mutual dismay
That’s the way it’s SUPPOSED to be, Absolute Rights.
In practice, they use the very document which is supposed to protect OUR rights, to restrict those rights; while violating the very restrictions which that same document imposes upon them.
e.g: They will claim that YOU violated someone’s “civil rights” if you “discriminate” against them when filling a job, or renting space in your own premises.
How can this be, since YOU are not the civil power, AND by forcing you to uphold someone else’s rights, they force you to violate your own.
Yet that is exactly what they do.
Try putting a rental ad stating “Only straight white Christian males need apply” and see what happens to YOUR rights.
Somewhere along the way, the rights of the majority were subordinated to the rights of certain minorities (defined by the government) and the obligations of the government to uphold all citizens rights are denied and instead shifted to certain citizens….
Thus, this is a completely lawless and unconstitutional government, which operates not by the laws which once established and empowered it, but rather by brute force.
Ooops…meant to wrap it up with…
so a gang of people can get together and unilaterally make and enforce rules upon others. Its called being ruled. and its old timey nonsense that should be done away with once and for all.
Listen to this podcast from Lew Rockwell on the NAP.
It lays out the fatal, hence treacherous moral contradiction in even “limited government”.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/podcast/11-the-non-aggression-axiom/
After having said that the Bill of Rights is the best part of the Constitution, how can it be part of a document which is soft on property rights in which they are elaborated?
And therein lies the contradiction. How can a Constitution uphold private property if it simultaneously establishes the authority to tax, seize for eminent domain, and otherwise deprive you of, as long as “due process” is practiced?
How much space is given in the Constitution to the sanctity and protection of private property? Precious little! And what is there, must compete with things like taxation and eminent domain and the other whims of the god-men whom the Constitution bestows special rights upon; rights which we mere common men do not have.
Where does it specifically “establishes the authority to tax, seize for eminent domain, and otherwise deprive you of, as long as ‘due process’ is practiced,” while using none of the cited specific language?
You’re kidding me, right, Bill?
If you can’t cite it, it doesn’t exist by the rules of any court of appropriate jurisdiction.
Section 8. Clause 1. The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes.
Amendment V:
….No person shall … be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law
Amendment XIV. Section 1:
nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;
Art 1 sec 8 establishes congress taxing authority.
5th and 14th amendments talk about due process
Because it is self-contradictory.
Portions of it say “the government can’t do this and that”.
Other portions of it say “the government can rob you”. The tax clause.
To sum up:
People don’t get to unilaterally make up rules that others must obey.
The only rule consistent with Nature is the Non-Aggression Principle. It is the only rule consistent with equality and therefore justice.
The reason being is that it is non-selective, aka universalizable. It applies equally to everyone.
Also, Bevin, practicing the NAP is virtually the only way that ensures that we can refrain from violating the rights of others, while not compromising our own rights- unlike the phony “civil rights” which are lauded today, which in order to establish some supposed rights of others, requires some to deprive themselves of their own rights, such as those of freedom of association; dominion over one’s own property; dominion over one’s body; the fruit of their body; the fruit of their labor; etc.
Therefore, the NAP is a universal and natural law, because it does not restrict certain rights of some in order to grant some supposed right to others.
Nunz, you and Bevin are spot on.
“Civil Rights” is a pure political fiction. There is no such thing as “Civil Rights”. The Civil Rights act of 1964 was one of the government’s biggest power grabs and the foolish sheep worship it like it came from the burning bush itself.
The only legitimate rights are Natural Law Rights which can be exercised and protected only through the NAP.
Right on, Skunkmeister!
The whole premise of “civil rights” assumes that government has the power and right to bestow rights and privileges to some, and to deprive others of the same.
If someone is now somehow entitled to not be offended or not be “discriminated against” at my expense of not being able to specify if I want a man or a woman to fill a job [You can’t even advertise for a ‘girl Friday” anymore. I wonder if you could advertise for a Faggot Friday?] or the type of person that I want to rent my property to, what gives the government the right to bestow these special privileges upon the non-property owner, or non business owner, while curtailing my right to do as I please with what is mine; and to deprive me of free speech, etc.?
The government thus makes itself the arbiter of all rights, and determines who is allowed to exercise which right- which equals total control, or conditionally granted rights as opposed to inherent universal inalienable rights.
Nunz, yup. No human being has the authority to deprive another human being of their Natural Law Rights. Yet that is exactly what CR does.
But Skunk…. CR gives people the “right” to vote [i.e. to be a part of the majority which gets to dictate what everyone else does]- surel, that makes it all O-K, ’cause voting = freedom, right 😉
Most of the rules that most people obey were made up by people who never knew them, under total unilaterality.
It is necessary when debating constitutional and legal issues, to remember that the elaborate legal terminology statists use is intended to put people into a trance state in which the existence and necessity of government is taken for granted.
It is all part of the Myth of Authority, and how that myth is perpetuated in peoples’ subconscious.
The way to break this trance state is actually quite simple. The reversion to plain language.
If someone says that “The Continental Congress convened and ratified the Constitution, making it the law of the land”, it sounds “official”. It sounds like something momentous took place. Something that one must defer to.
But if one describes what happened in plain language, as:
“A group of strangers held a meeting, made up a bunch of rules, and now expect everyone to obey them. Whether you were there and agreed to the rules doesn’t make any difference. You will be expected to pay the group money on a regular basis, and obey their commands.”
then the spell is broken, and one realizes that the entire process was a con job.
Bevin, looking at the positive vs. the negative- or what is stated as being condition vs. what is implied as long as those conditions are followed, says a lot.
e.g. If we may not be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process….that means that we CAN be deprived of those things as long as the due process is followed.
It is easy to grasp at the positive statements, like lifesavers in a billowing sea where such are rare….but once we learn to swim, and see that the lifesavers are toxic…..we see them for the death traps they are.
Most people never get that far before they are set in front of a television for the beginning of their programming, for which it continues for most for life.
Bevin, well understood and well said.
Dear SB,
I really do think that particular point I made about trance states is more important than usually imagined.
Hence the pressing need for plain language that denies statists the opportunity to hide the intrinsic violation of rights in their actions.
The simple fact is that anyone who is yammering on about “passing legislation” is ultimately talking about a Hero in Blue pointing a gun at your head.
Bevin, fully agree with you. The statists, especially the left, are masters of language manipulation.
Your example is excellent. When such language is broken down to its rawest meaning it all comes down to violence. I cannot count the times I have pointed out to others that government is nothing but a gun to the head only to have them stammer and mutter while looking at me as if I were insane. But hopefully I may have planted a seed in their washed, dried, and neatly folded brains.
“Political language… is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” – Orwell
Edward Bernays was neither a statist nor a liberal. He was an advertising and marketing genius, as are all of our most successful politicians.
wrong!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXtHd25RyV4
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, and our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of…. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind.
Bernays, 1928, Propaganda
http://theconversation.com/the-manipulation-of-the-american-mind-edward-bernays-and-the-birth-of-public-relations-44393
Bill, sometimes you come up with some interesting and witty things….
And then you spoil it, by posting nonsense like that about the monster, Bernays- who has probably done more to advance statism than any other single man who has ever lived.
Sometimes you are a ringmeat mongoloid! 😉
“But hopefully I may have planted a seed in their washed, dried, and neatly folded brains.”
Indeed. Otherwise, the future is going to be everything that dystopian prophets such as Orwell and Huxley predicted, and then some.
that was a quote from the declaration of independence…not the federal constitution.
And its only part of the non-operable preamble. (It didn’t make any law)
I write this because its important we know the fundamental laws and how they operate so we can improve upon them…
>”I write this because its important we know the fundamental laws and how they operate so we can improve upon them…”<
It makes no difference, as our forefathers allowed the government to overpower the people, so we have no way of forcing them to obey any rule of law.
They now just make illegitimate laws, and don't bother to obey the laws which are supposed to restrict them.
What can we do about it?
Congress makes the law; state legislatures make the law; counties make the law; city and town hall make the law; agencies with various acronyms make the law; appointed judges and “czars” make laws…..that’s a lot of cleaning out to do, and it’ll never happen, because the people have put all of those people there by voting for them, and supporting them; and obeying them; and believing in authority instead of individula freedom.
Agencies outside of the legislative branch lack the authority to produce laws. They produce regulations and rules. Such are usually not binding outside of the producing agency, unless some ignorant wishes to traverse to them.
Individual freedom involves the participation of the interested individual, and has been largely failed by such.
The simple enforcement of the Bill of Rights by a well-regulated militia would end the tyranny rather quickly. The problem lies in the fact that not one in a hundred understands the well regulation of a militia.
“…violated in the most personal way imaginable short of actual insertion…”
Due to a violation “in the most personal way” of my wife two years ago, we have ceased to patronize commercial airlines ever since. Indeed, I narrowly missed rendition for my loud protests to her mistreatment and physical challenge to her thuggish oppressors.
I find it hard to believe that the TSA is stopping “short of actual insertion” over two years later. Indeed, I have read that they now observe no such inhibitions.
Wonder if the author of this has visited here.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/455018/autonomous-vehicles-will-spark-government-efforts-ban-driving
If those politicos weren’t exempt from this bullschytt, they would never inflict it upon the rest of us. Which shows why political “solutions” to any so-called problem are never intended to solve the problem; they’re just intended to raise the temperature in the pot another degree or two.
Or, as the example from the article says, to “make the cattle’s journey a little more comfortable.” More comfortable than what?
No need to answer that; I already know the answer.
Just as I’m sure everyone else that reads this knows the answer.
WAS IST HIER GESCHEHEN?
Alles ist in Ordnung, Herr Oberst!
Gut. Heil Hillary!
(alles) HEIL HILLARY!
It is hard to get away from your native language, huh?
Akshully, I took german in high school. That’s just about the extent of it. As for my native language, sorry, don’t speak Mohawk, Iroquois or Cree.
Given another generation, neither will anyone.
Now why would the capitalist Ford Motor Company want to get into the business of people control with the US government?
Especially since they entered that arena in Nazi Germany by building vehicles for and funding the Third Reich.
Yep…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_International_Jew
WTF?
Obey the law?
How do you obey the law when everything is illegal?
How do you obey the law when just existing is a crime?
How do you obey the law when our overlords don’t tell us what the laws are?
http://www.bendbulletin.com/opinion/3987223-151/editorial-oregon-law-should-not-be-a-mystery
How do you obey the law when one law says something is illegal and another law says the opposite?
How do you obey the law when carrying cash can be seized by the police, but depositing less than $10,000 in a bank account is illegal?
How do you obey the law when starting a business is illegal and begging is illegal?
How do you obey the law when doing good and doing bad are both illegal?
How do you obey the law when being homeless and living in a tiny home is illegal?
How do you obey the law when you are forced to buy a product that you don’t want?
Obeying the law is difficult when everything is a crime.
How can you say that you live in a free country when hourly room rentals, license plate covers, dog sales, plywood, passing garbage trucks, horse meat, boating while drinking, ticket bots, riding horses, car sales, shooting ranges, trans fat, hedgehogs, leaning bikes on trees, fake service dogs, hookah lounges, clowns, holding hands, hollow logs, interracial marriage, hitching posts, cheetahs, pinball, pesticides, powder caffeine, feeding deer, potlucks, glue, mobile homes, snow brushing, fixing tractors, sharing passwords, visiting banned websites, fortune-telling, declawing, air taxis, Kratom, seed libraries, dwarf tossing, cemetery picnics, selling hair, drunk surfing, being annoying, golf carts, street parking, parking backwards, lawn parking, paved yards, masks, powdered alcohol, spitting, unlicensed bicycling, deer scents, pitbulls, speed trap warnings, aluminum bottles, stun guns, drinking, cursing, body odor, RV’s, cigarettes, hate speech, texting while walking, dirty cars, monkeys, boating without life jackets, feeding homeless, tiger selfies, shoveling snow, not mowing, food in trash, not wearing helmets, watering lawns, not watering lawns, caged chickens, fois gras, curfews, microbeads, recording police, sleeping in cars, secret compartments, fireworks, leash free dogs, unlicensed dogs, jaywalking, sex without a contract, porn condoms, ginseng harvesting, baggy pants, subway gymnasts, styrofoam, smoking, sodas, cellphones while driving, washing car in driveways, astroturf, tiny homes, plastic bags, alcohol, Airbnb, Uber, nudity, gardens, signs, toy guns, transporting illegals, ballot pictures, Tesla, sledding, gambling, prostitution, driving without insurance, radar detectors, kill switches, no seatbelts, garage sales, sitting on milk crates, circuses, protesting, self-serve gas, sex toys, calling 311, hitch-hiking, warming cars, eating while driving, structuring, electronics recycling, fences, alcohol contents, dancing, camping, fires, bottled water, feeding strays, electric bikes, loitering, repair cars on street, menus without calories, unlicensed dogs, possession, ATV’s, manspreading, science, skateboards, dogs in trucks, knives, brass knuckles, not having health insurance, dirt bikes, go carts, outdoor sleeping, panhandling, blocking sidewalks, drugs, ammunition, ferrets, failing to report worldwide assets, foreign bank accounts, net cafes, slow driving, sex, flags, failing to register as sex offender, cohabitation, no vaccination, cupcakes, flashing headlights, working too early, fireplaces, failing to declare cash, recording farms, fast food, rent control, tinted windows, minimum wage, failing to carry ID, adultery, cutting down trees, volunteers, collecting rain, decorations, importing cars, hammocks, labels, discounts, pet burials, basketball hoops, wading pools, satellite dishes, BBQ, playing in street, hoverboards, switchblades, biking on sidewalk, sidewalk sitting, flying lanterns, donation bins, salt, pigs, and martial arts are all against the law?
http://libertarian.forumbuild.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13&start=0
Is the government always right?
Millions were killed in Nazi Germany, Soviet gulags, the Cultural Revolution in China, and Cambodia’s killing fields because they were silent.
When Americans remain quiet about rising debt, Obamacare, food stamps, regulations, endless US wars, increasing taxes, illegal immigrants, nanny state laws, security cameras, license plate readers, checkpoints, redlight cameras, speed cameras, FBI facial and voice recognition, curfews, gun bans, NSA wiretapping, the end to the right to silence, free speech bans, searches without warrants, private prisons, mandatory minimums, 3 strikes laws, DNA databases, CISPA, SOPA, NDAA, IMBRA, private prison quotas, no knock raids, take down notices, no fly lists, terror watch lists, Constitution free zones, stop and frisk, 3 strikes laws, kill switches, National Security Letters, kill lists, FBAR, FATCA, Operation Chokepoint, TSA groping, civil forfeiture, CIA torture, NDAA indefinite detention, secret FISA courts, FEMA camps, laws requiring passports for domestic travel, IRS laws denying passports for tax debts, gun and ammo stockpiles, laws outlawing protesting, police militarization, chain gangs, boot camps, and Jade Helm what kind of message does that send to the elites?
Do you think the 1% is just going to turn around and restore freedom? Do you think our overlords are just going to stop increasing tyranny on their own?
Now the elites buy off the politicians with campaign donations and cushy job promises, politicians make the laws that benefit the 1%, the Gestapo enforces the laws, and the 99% obey the laws and pay the taxes that fund their own enslavement.
The whole system exists because people still think it is legit.
If people stopped obeying the laws and the police stopped enforcing them, the whole rigged game would collapse.
No one rules if no obeys.
Anyone who is silent about tyranny now is as guilty as the ruling powers that make the laws, the Gestapo who shoot unarmed people in the back, the tyrants who shred the Bill of Rights, the TSA agents who grope Americans, the NSA spies who wiretap people, the IRS agents who steal, and the CIA agents who torture.
In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.
Liberty has never come from government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of government. The history of liberty is the history of resistance.
http://f2bbs.com/bbs
It’s all about the future. Americans have this strange dichotomy when it comes to time. On the one hand most of us are fairly quick to mortgage our future for objects or experiences today. We tend not to think about the real cost to our time that new car or vacation represents. On the other hand most of us think that the future will be much better, because today’s problems will be solved somehow. It’s the plot of just about every movie, TV show and commercial. Eventually we get so embedded in the system we just accept it as the way things should be, riding the debt treadmill, punching out at 4:30 on Friday, watching the games on Sunday, and back at it again Monday.
Then again, many of us dream of a time when we get off the treadmill. Maybe we just want to retire and downsize. Maybe we want to do our own thing, whatever that might be, to earn a living. But many of us aren’t very happy with today, and look forward to a better tomorrow.
Uncle takes advantage of our wish for a better future and our fear of screwing it up by making everything illegal. As long as we can play the game we’re ahead. If we come under the scrutiny of the various “referees” we might end up in the penalty box, or worse. Pretty harsh future, and everything you’ve done up ’til now to plan out your future goes up in smoke.
There are subcultures that resist playing the game. For them, Uncle’s referees are a constant threat. I’m not talking about drug dealers or other small businesses that aren’t politically popular. I’m talking more about people who view work as a necessary means to an end. They work for a few years, then take off. Or maybe they do the minimum necessary to sustain themselves. They live in places that aren’t very expensive. They have homes that aren’t pretty. They might have inherited their land, and it’s covered in “junk” their family has collected over the decades. They might get their wife and kids hunting licenses in order to get extra meat for the winter, so that they don’t have to work. They always have some side hustle going on, or maybe they set up at the flea market a few times a year. Some might call themselves carney trash. Others might live out of an RV, living on BLM land for 15 days at a time, then moving a few miles up the road to another spot. They might work a few days a month for gas money, or seasonal work over the holidays, or just live on a disability check -which might be the best deal of all for them. They don’t have any savings, because they don’t want any.
It’s this other culture that the central planners find abhorrent. Like the Amish story Eric posted a few days ago, it’s all about conformity.
When everything is illegal, everything is legal.
Well-said, Free Speech. Except that whether one is quiet or not, doesn’t really matter at this point. The time has passed, when merely making people aware, or rallying like-minded souls to action, could save the day.
Things like valuing personal liberty, justice, and truth, have been bred out of modern man by generations of soft tyranny [lately become hard tyranny], government schools and the media.
When we speak, we are only preaching to the choir. Everyone else has left the building.
See all of those fools lining up by the millions every day at airports all over the country? The ones who are willing to have their balls inspected and their property rifled and maybe seized or thrown away? The ones who are consciously trading all of what remains of their Constitutionally-guarenteed rights, for a little convenience and perceived “safety”? They don’t care.
They don’t care about their own freedom or that of their own children; they care even less about that of their neighbors.
They are already living the very things people like us warned them would come about. They don’t care. They’re fine with it. They think that such benefits them; and any impropriety they may suffer, they chalk up to “being a good citizen” and all of that crapola.
Our words fall on deaf ears. We cheer each other, but the rest are a lost cause. We’re not going to change the world. Mankind has been hell-bent on tyranny/collectivism for thousands of years. It gets worse, not better. If the world were nuked tomorrow, the first survivor poking through the rubble would yell: “Icall President Of The World!” and the guy next to him would say “I call Vice President!” (Or, if he were more ambitious, he’d kill the first guy and then proclaim himself president!).
The ruling class has used the foibles and weaknesses of unbridled human nature to establish a veritable religion which exalts them as gods. It’s not so easy to get rid of one’s religion/god, once firmly established- as the religion of statism is.
Our time would be better spent looking for places where those of us who cherish freedom can be lft alone, and be free to live out our lives in some semblance of what we advocate. The world is a lost cause. The USA is a lost cause. Not that any place is totally free anymore- but some places are freer than others [places where they do not have the wealth to establish a police state) and where it is easier to fly under the radar/be left alone.
But proclaiming the virtues of liberty and the abuses of tyranny in the midst of a police state is like trying to convince the Germans in the 1930’s that Hitler is a bad guy, and that the Jews really didn’t burn the Reichstagg building. It’s not what the majority want nor believe, so the proclaimed just becomes marginalized, or is proclaimed anemy of the state, and all cheer when you “get yours”.
They love their captors. You just can’t undo brainwashing like that, especially when it has been perpetrated on a mass scale.
Ignorance is a wonderful pillow for the ignorant.
There’s a lot of truth in what you wrote.
A lot of very depressing and discouraging truth.
Depressing, yes, Bevin- but once we face it, we can direct our efforts in ways which will at least do those of us who care, some tangible good- instead of just beating our chests, only to realize later that we accomplished nothing.
I sort of went through a microcosm of this same thing when I first got into Christianity in my early 20’s. I thought “If people only knew what the Bible REALLY says…”- But then it occurred to me that anyone could read the Bible any time they want to- but few do; and if they do, they let somebody else “tell them what it means”- and they choose whom that person will be, according to how closely that person agrees with their already preconceived beliefs.
I just have to look at the millions of people willingly living where I’m originally from on Long Island- so many people, who pay top dollar to live where there are 5 layers of government; where if your property taxes are below $10K a year, it’s considered “cheap taxes”; and where everything you do, whether on your own property or in public requires some kind of license; permit and or fee.
A place where, when a parent goes to a public school for parent-teacher night, they are put through as much or more security as airline passengers.
And they love it! They pay among the highest prices in the country, if not the world, to live like that; when they can no longer afford to live in such a place, they migrate en mass to other places, which they make into models of their former locales.
If you ever hear anyone speaking of “freedom” or “liberty”, it is only some vague concept or archaic sentiment, usually accompanied by some tribute to the past or to their mercenaries.
If you speak of any concept of real liberty, you are looked at as if you are crazy, because “it would never work” or “would be too dangerous, and inconvenient”- after all, if they can’t get their subsidized 60 mile train ride to work every day, and actually had to pay the true cost of that ride, themselves, even though to do so would save them a fortune in taxes (not to mention also saving the people who don’t take the train the same fortune)….well, that would be too high of a price to pay- after all, what would they do with liberty anyway, since they are content to let everyone from politicians to corporate bosses dictate every facet of their lives?
In fact, I think it’s too the point that they would know how to even live without being told what to do.
The closest that any English bible has come to the original, written long before English appeared, is the Geneva.
The Geneva was good; the KJV better. But even they contain errors and prejudices of the translators- as pretty much all translations do.
Both of ’em get their NT from the Textus Receptus, which is good- and is what separates them from the modern junk; but they also both get their OT from the Masoretic text, which extant copies we have are only from the 9th century AD- and were heavily edited by the Jews- mainly to hide the Messianic prophesies.
Ever notice that a lot of NT quotes of the OT don’t line-up with the OT in our Bibles? But they do match the Septuagint (LXX)- unfortunately, there is no English Bible which uses the LXX as the exclusive basis for it’s OT.
It works a lot better, too, when both your OT and NT are translated from the same language- Greek- so you can see where the same words are used in each.
I use the KJV (but usually read a separate LXX for the OT)- but these people who say that the KJV is perfect and inerrant, etc. are smoking crack….or just ignorant.
I own several different translations, most of which I have actually read, some of them several times. My favorite translation is the Farrar Fenton translation. He was a gentleman who was dissatisfied with the available translations and so he undertook to learn the languages the source documents were written in and then translated the oldest manuscripts he could get his hands on. The differences between his translation and the others are – interesting. As an example, in Genesis, he uses periods rather than days for the time frame for God’s creation of the universe. I’m not saying he didn’t bring his own prejudices to the translation, as I think it would be impossible to avoid interjecting one’s biases into such a project; I am saying that one can get a better idea of the original meaning of the source material if one reads multiple translations.
I’m not familiar with the Fenton translation- but using “periods” is a perfect example of inserting one’s own preconceived ideas and beliefs into a translation, when there is no linguistic justification for doing so, but rather quite the opposite.
The Hebrew word “yom” can be used to refer to a period, such as “in that day”- but when used in combination with a number, it always refers to a literal day.
This is confirmed also by the fact that the 7th day- the Sabbath, is a literal day. If we make it a period/era….then we have a big problem, because we are told that God created heaven and earth and all that in them is, in 6 days and rested on the seventh.
Also, each description of each creation days says “there was evening, and morning”- It makes one think that God anticipated the wranglings men would do in our day, who believe the pagan philosophers rather than His Word.
Ditto with the Greek of the LXX- The Genesis account is just worded as any other reference to literal days of the week- with zero linguistic precedent to assume anything else.
I would thus conclude that Fenton was a liberal- and I’d be willing to bet that he used the Alexandrian/Nestle text family for his NT (Usually called “the oldest” because it’s source manuscripts remained intact, because they were rejected by all but the Catholics- and thus not used- so did not deteriorate).
The problem with reading many translations too, is that you don’t know which one is right. Better to pick one to use as a reference point, and then familiarize yourself with the underlying texts, and not discrepancies….and that way you end up with something cohesive and constant- instead of jumping around from translations of different texts, and which may be accurate in one place, and inaccurate in another- whereas another translation is just the opposite.
I think the absolute WORST translation I have ever seen was one called “The Scriptures” by The Institute For Scriptural Research(ISR). Holy crud! The translator, one CJ Koster was ALL over the freaking place! He’d use the Nestle text where it suited him, then the Textus Receptus if that suited him better….then the Aramaic Peshitta in another place….then the Meunster…. -He was essentially saying “We have no valid source texts, so I’ll just piece together something by using snippets of everything that’s out there, to make a finished product that jives with my own preconceived ideas”!
It’s only the last 100 or so years that we have all of this BS- all of these different BS “translations”- which have proven to do more to destroy Christianity than anything else ever could.
The KJV was sponsored by a king who understood that people obeyed churches more than they would him.
The KJV was several translations after the transliteration of the Geneva, and the difference between translations and transliterations is critical because much of the original languages can’t be translated into English of any era.
Yeah, Bill- ironically, the KJV was the “authorized” Bible- but King Jimmy actually had good motives- wanting to get the English-speaking world of the time out of the darkness of Catholicism (In addition to the political benefits).
He really didn’t interfere in the translation at all- except for two or three small requests: One: That the translators preserve a verse of two to maintain “the devine right of kings” [So we have 2 verses which could have been translated better] and that something be there to “preserve the feasts of the church”- which is why the word “Easter” appears one time in acts, for the Greek word which is properly translated as “Passover” everywhere else.
Small price to pay to have a translation which still can’t be beat to this day, and which became readily and commonly available, which enabled it to pull the world out the darkness imposed upon it by the Calf-lick church.
The problem James and others had with the Geneva, was not the Bible itself…but the notes it contained, which were more of a Libertarian nature, and thus the kings felt that such would diminish their “authority”.
So that was the third requirement they placed on the KJV translators: No commentative notes.
The real star of those times though, was Erasmus’s assembling of the textus Receptus, from old Greek manuscripts; literary references, and old Bibles which preserved the Christian narrative, which he traveled all over Europe to see.
Why would a supposedly Christian king and the presence of a Christian darkness be an improve on a Catholic darkness?
If that were true, there are several reasons why we’d be better off under Putin than Trump.
We’d certainly be better off under Putin than any under currently active politician.
Our forefathers were better off under George Wurshington than King George.
We were probably better off under FDR than Stalin.
Even if pretty good isn’t perfect, it’s better completely horrible.
Being able to read a Bible in your native tongue, that is also a beautiful literary work, and 99% accurate, is a hell of a lot better than being burned at the stake for daring to read a book- or not even having that book in your native tongue.
Jesus often spoke in parables when He walked this earth- not to make the meaning clear- but just the oppossite- to hide the meaning from those who were not truly open to receiving it.
Nunz, “You just can’t undo brainwashing like that, especially when it has been perpetrated on a mass scale.”
Exactly my point in my posts on Eric’s other article No Exceptions.
Our job as Liberty minded people is to not save the current system or the people who blindly support it (both are beyond repair/reform). Our job is simply to survive the coming collapse. Then maybe we can start a new society based on the NAP. We must understand that a NAP based society can never be a “sea-to-shinny-sea” proposition. This is why the US must be collapsed and broken into hundreds of independent and sovereign nations. Everything else is “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” mindlessness.
I agree with ya 99% of the way, Mr. Skunk. Only thing I take exception with is the idea of the establishment of a NAP society after “the big one”.
Human nature will still be the same. Same as it has always been- around the world, and for thousands of years- where people seek to dominate others and get advantage of them- whether by overt force and violence, or by establsing a system where the victims are complicit and “consenting” because they in turn think that they are getting an advantage, or some protection from the Boogeyman, etc. at someone else’s expense.
Those of us who advocate non-violent voluntary cooperation and individualism, will still be as much of a minority as we are today.
If the USA ceased to exist today….tomorrow, the new one would be founded by those of our neighbors who are left, and it would be a socialist hell-hole, with no guaranteed protections of the Bill Of Rights, even in word, because so few today truly appreciate the value of things like free speech, and privacy, and bearing arms.
The people who are left after the zombie apocalypse, will likely say “We had those things [sic] and they didn’t work!”.
Free Speech, a very solid grasp of the situation.
“There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with”.
– Ayn Rand, “Atlas Shrugged”
One of my most oft-used quotes!
That, and:
“The right to life is the source of all rights—and the right to property is their only implementation. Without property rights, no other rights are possible. Since man has to sustain his life by his own effort, the man who has no right to the product of his effort has no means to sustain his life. The man who produces while others dispose of his product, is a slave.”
Are you a non-gentile leader of “the goyim”? Because that is what I am going to call you jew. You blather on too much without a so much of a sliver of spine. Just an ingrown toe nail full of puss and chutzpah.
Why are you trying to out-emulate me?
You can tell a tyranny when everything that isn’t forbidden, is mandatory!
The United States has always relied on social sanctions before legal remedies.
VP Pence is in town this week, spending time with some big Republican donor up Owl Creek rd. I was blessed enough to see the entourage rolling down Highway 82 (because you see, Air Force Two is too large to land at Sardy Field. It’s not a mere Gulfstream after all). Rolling shutdown, black Army helicopter overhead, about 20 Colorado State Troopers, an ambulance, and 3-4 black SUVs with what would be illegal tinted windows for you and me. All barreling down the highway at about 3:30 in the afternoon at crazy high speed. The linked story has a pic of the motorcade.
This is, of course, the payoff for all the “hard work” Pence did to get to the top. Sure Google has private jets, so do most corporations. Taylor Swift might get a police escort from her hotel to the venue, but is probably on her own after the show is over. Only Uncle personified has the kind of power to shut down highways, summon state troopers or restrict airspace around their friends’ homes for a week. Just seeing that spectacle left me feeling like I should genuflect. Or shoot the moon. Either way, it was a pretty big demonstration of “hey look at me and how important I am” ego. Ron Paul flew coach. Ron Paul got flagged for a pat down all the time because of his knee. Ron Paul had a set of nail clippers confiscated because they had a 1″ knife attached. I’m sure Paul isn’t the saint we all make him out to be, but at least he did what he could to walk the walk.
And don’t think this is a “Trump is crap” post. I said the same thing when Michelle Obama made the trip. Every time she made the trip. And the time that Joe Biden made the trip over President’s day weekend. If these people are that afraid to travel they should just be sequestered in the White House and maybe Camp David until they serve out their terms. After all, they keep telling us they aren’t in it for the perks, just the chance to serve the public.
Couldn’t Pence just take Marine One from the nearest airport that could support Air Force Two, like Dick Cheney did? Landing the helicopter on a HOA golf course happened only once, thereafter he took the 3 SUV parade through Jackson at 15 mph, with many lining the route to administer the single finger salute.
The thing is, Owl Creek road literally runs along the back side of the airport in town. He could have flown in on a reasonable aircraft, had all the secret service, secure vehicles, advisors, holy men and court jesters not under protection fly in on commercial flights and not have to go to such extremes. Once in Aspen it would be trivial for Pence and his family to go about their business unmolested. If all the celebs in town can go about their business without drawing attention, so can the VP (who most of us couldn’t pick out of a police lineup) of the United States.
How do you know he’s a king? He hasn’t got shit all over him.
It’s all about being able to cause problems for people. About being above everyone else. Obama or any recent president would come to town and have expressways shut down. In rush hours even. If the fedgov wasn’t meddling in so many people’s lives they could go around unmolested. The only other danger comes from within the government and all the government security in the world won’t protect them that. Instead it will create the very gaps and conditions required to put the target in danger.
Hi Brent,
Hitler had less security – and made less of a ruckus – than our current Dear Leaders do….
“I’m sure Paul isn’t the saint we all make him out to be…”
Why are you sure of that? Funny this reflex that so many people have developed, to make concessions and qualifications that tone down their statements.
Don’t you think Dr Paul should be deemed innocent until proven guilty?
You don’t have to go through this crap in Communist China. This is an outrage.
Then again, the Chinese people are well aware of what happens to them when they get out of line. Remember that kid who stood up to the tank in Tiananmen Square? Yea, that didn’t last very long…
Glad you say that…. Growing up in the US during the end of the cold war, still remember all the horrible stuff they told us about communism and the police state in places like Russia and China. Now that ive been lucky enough to live and travel quite a few places, I find more and more that its really the west which has become a complete police state where one cant move a finger without permission from the government – whereas places like China where there may in theory be central planning or communism, there is always a way around it…. and a way to get on with life…. the media may all be controlled there, but nobody ever believes the media and know its all a lie, and use their faculties to come to their own choices….. while in the west the masses tend to believe and follow whatever is pumped into them….. I mean when I tell people at work here in the UK that the media is completely controlled, they look at me like IM crazy….. Sad to see that in the west we are more and more becoming what we were told was wrong….. whats amazed me is how easily people have rolled over and accepted, particularly those of my generation…….
How old are you, Nasir. I largely agree about what you are saying. I have visited Cambodia. It is a communist country. People aren’t well off, but there are a lot of people on motorcylces and scooters not wearing helmets. Try doing that here. Police are not out enforcing traffic laws either. The only thugs are the people at the airport, but they don’t body scan. Personal freedom is better. I can’t speak for economic freedom. Their infrastructure is a mess and if you say the wrong thing to the wrong person, it can get dicey, but other than a certain level of freedom of speech, you don’t have to be particularly well informed to get through the day.
Hi Swamprat, was born in 80, so borderline millennial. Left the US at 14, returned to the west (though in the UK) at 25. Think it was the best thing that happened to me as I saw another part of the world in my formative years…
I very much feel that outside the western countries, though the official media is very blatantly state controlled, people know and understand that and live accordingly – something that they dont in the west, where there is an illusion of “free” media, which people tend to blindly trust and rely on (say for global warming, or hillary is winning, brexit won’t happen, i can go on and on). The I try to tell people this, say at work, they never believe me and act like im nuts or watched too many movies.
On freedom in the case of say driving, a cop will hassle you for doing something stupidly dangerous (say running a red light when there is rush) there are no pointless laws which you constantly get fined for (say driving in the wrong lane at the wrong time because the government decided its for someone else, or above that pre set speed limit). Even when it comes to economic freedom – I feel there is more in the east, developing countries. you CAN start a small business anywhere, say selling something without infinite licenses, taxes up front, approvals and certifications. You can buy, say gold or silver in physical form without giving all your life history to a bullion dealer. Even when there is red tape, say to get a driving license, there is always a way around it. Yes may cultures require “bribes” as we term them to be paid, but at least a job gets done and if you have the right help, fairly quickly. but hows that any different to having exorbitant fees for simple tasks with a premium to have them done slightly faster which we face in the west…… So what if it doesnt go to the “government”, less food for the beast the way I see it…….
What I fear most however in the west is the upcoming war on “thought crimes”…… when extremely powerful governments are trying to get more and more involved in all modes of communication, so anyone who doesnt think right can instantly be punished…. and with more and more ways to constantly track us all, really fear how my kids will be in the west…. and for a guy like me who doesnt know when to keep his mouth shut – it cant be good…….
Hi Nasir,
Hey, just wanted to say thanks for the donation the other day; send me your address, mang! I’ll get you a magnet!
No problem, will send across my address. Great reading your writing, great break from all the “official” news we are all bombarded with all the time!
Crap? Outrage? These are your fellow citizens gladly, with joy in their hearts, bending over to smooch Big Brother’s fat ass. They are the pioneers who will lead the way for all of us to do the same, and we’ll all do it voluntarily. The Inner Party doesn’t want mere obedience; it also wants wholehearted approval.
I can’t remember the last time the populi and I agreed on anything significant.