Today’s Thoughts, Jan. 27, 2014: Heroic Encounter

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eric
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The other day, we had a little snow – as in maybe two inches of dry powder. The roads were not bad – assuming the person behind the wheel’s not a bad driver.hero pic

I was headed home from Christiansburg – about 35 miles away from the homestead via rural windy roads. I came upon the scene of a wreck. Guy had – somehow – gotten his truck literally vertical in the ditch. There were fireclowns and EMS standing around about 200 yards ahead of the wreck scene. As I approached – already having slowed down to about 20 – they all gave me the frantic SLOW DOWN!! hand motions and became increasingly frantic when I did not virtually stop the car.

I creeped forward, closer to the wreck scene.

Just before I got within the vicinity of the skyward pointed truck – which was completely off the road, to my left (that is, in the ditch adjacent to the other travel lane) I came upon a cop just kind of standing there. I stopped, rolled down my window, asked what happened. He was friendly enough, asked me to wait there a minute – though for what reason I couldn’t fathom. The EMS guys had already removed the truck’s driver; no one was doing anything. The righthand travel lane (my lane) was clear.

So, I sat.

Then came Officer 82nd Airborne, a spittle-spewing asshole who first harangued me about my New Jersey plates (press car) and advised me that “around here” people slow down when instructed. I advised him that I had slowed down – which was absolutely true. He stomped his hoofs and insisted I was doing “at least 50” – which was ludicrous and also bullshit. I told him so. I was prepared to go all the way, if he was.

I held his piggy death stare; conveyed I was not intimidated by his Command Voice – and tried to exude fuck you from every pore.

The porker did not push it. His partner waved me on.

I made it home without further incident.

But my contempt for these power-tripping, petty-minded “heroes” continues to fester and grow. Their arrogance, their entitlement-mindedness. The air of contempt they have for us. It’s becoming insufferable. Most of them are GED or cow college graduates (at best) with IQs in the 90s – if that. Take away their special outfits, their badges – and their guns – and you’re typically left with an utter nobody.

And they know it.

Here’s a video of Russian Heroes getting some payback. It made me feel better. Maybe it will make you feel better, too:

Related posts:
  1. Today’s Thoughts: Jan. 24, 2014 – Bust
  2. Today’s Thoughts: January 17, 2014
  3. Today’s Thoughts, January 8, 2014
  4. Today’s Thoughts, Jan. 24, 2014: Winter
  5. Today’s Thoughts . . . Oct. 5, 2013

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71 COMMENTS

  2. The shame of it all, in regards to the last video, is that this wasn’t happening here in the Nazified OOO ESSS Ayyy! Now that would be high entertainment.

    • I was looking through some info from Zimbabwe about the hyper-inflation over there (trying to get some info to showcase how foreign car parts might be hard to get or too expensive here in the unitedstate when SHTF, even if they”re made here, found nothing concrete to share, but it did seem that way) and I came across a number of Zimbabweans expressing exasperation over the fact so very few people objected or did anything about Mugabe and his prolonged destruction of their currency and their country.

      Add in history such as the French Revolution, the end of the GDR, and Ukraine today and such, it seems that things have to get *really* bad before people seek something different?

  3. meth and Bevin, I blended your two comments into one great one, I might find an opportunity to post them elsewhere later:

    Read The Hunger Games, you will not be disappointed!

    Not only are they an excellent insight into the Agenda 21/NWO plan–and its inevitable outcome–but unlike other dystopian (near) future novels, they present a plan of resistance.

    And that plan is simple–destroy consent. Use simple symbols to unite where the PTB have divided. Strike the root; de-legitimize the system.

    Larkin Rose talks about how conventional revolutions don’t work in one of his best videos.

    “Until then revolutions don’t do any good. You knock it over, we’ll put up another one. Just as long as people still believe that government can be legitimate, they’ll bicker over who should sit on the throne and what kind of throne it should be. You know, a parliament, or a congress, or a king, or whatever. But as long as they believe in authority, they will set up a new God and it will stomp on them and oppress them to varying degrees, and it will happen over and over again.”

    • Hi Panarch,

      Undermining consent is key. Ridicule works well toward that end because it’s both emotion-based and logical. Make them look silly – and show they’re stupid. Evil, even.

      Once you do that, you’ve won.

      All they have left is their guns.

  4. Wow, excellent observation, #David.

    Hitler united germanic lands and german speaking peoples. Stalin united russians and continues to provide itself a buffer zone from aggressors.

    Perhaps Mao hated Marxism, and only played the ideologue game and swallowed the bitter egalitarian pill, as a last resort against ceaseless western invasionists. Why wouldn’t he want to enjoy the privileges of Chinese Dynasty Clan Heads, I mean heck, talk about having privileges!

    China only battles in its own neighborhoods, and even there, is fairly tolerant and slow to aggression.

  5. Heil Honey I’m Home
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf9jJx0

    This sitcom is about the fictionalized lives of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun as if they were living in an apartment and acted like any old husband and wife.

    They must also avoid the crazy antics of their Jewish neighbors, the Goldsteins.

    This show is famous for having only one episode before it was pulled from TV stations. Originally, the only way to see this was on bootleg. Now here it is: uncut, unedited, and all in one segment at 25 minutes long.
    – – – – –

    Which dictator killed the most people? Funny pictures, fucking-facts, infographics. (protip: Keep things spicy and sometimes use profanity, it annoys the clovers and statists to no end. Also the stockholm syndrome publically righteous posers. Also be OT and jarringly dischordant, nannies HATE that.(ooohhh… CAPSLOCK – suck it cyberNAZIS!!!)
    http://joyreactor.com/post/459392

    Know your meme – popular
    http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/popular

  6. Eric–that video is simply delectable…how long before we see that here?

    Of course the downside is they’re heading for a Jacobin revolution in Ukraine. Soros is funding the major opposition; he, of course, WANTS them in the criminal EU cabal.

    More and more I’m seeing this turn into Elysium. Or Children of Men.

    Or The Hunger Games.

    My last great hope right now, before I once again contemplate Chile, is that the states will start splitting off or nullifying. I can’t see states like Wyoming, the Dakota, Montana…hell, even Texas…letting this progress All The Way.

  7. Zappos HQ is the probably the only solvent entity in downtown Las Vegas, besides a few shyster law offices. Their HQ is the old city hall. Surely, the official municipal government is elsewhere in a new city hall busily shitting in the citizen’s beds and calling it democracy, but who cares?

    Strictly speaking, I live in Zappos . com more than in any other pretend panarchy.

    Tony Hsieh – Combining Happiness & Business
    http://bigthink.com/users/tonyhsieh

    Tony Hsieh’s of Zappos Net Promoter System – connect service to profit.
    http://www.netpromotersystem.com/videos/trailblazer-video/zappos-trailblazer.aspx

    Zappos embraces Holacracy
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnQkP691a_s

    Both of the Zappos CEO’s parents are from Taiwan(ROC). Tony Hsieh was born in Illinois. In 1995, graduated from Harvard University with a degree in computer science.

    While at Harvard, managed the Quincy House Grille selling pizza to students in his dorm.

    After college, Hsieh worked for Oracle Corporation. After five months, Hsieh found himself dissatisfied with the corporate environment and quit to found LinkExchange. In 1998, LinkExchange was sold to Microsoft for $265 million.

    Tony Hsieh. Born 1973. Residence: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Alma mater Harvard University (B.S.). Occupation Internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist. Known for: CEO of Zappos. Net worth: US$ 840 million

    • Dear Tor,

      Zappos sounds really good!

      It’s as if the “two Bobs” in the satire “Office Space” actually went ahead and implemented the suggestions offered by Peter Gibbons after he was hypnotized.

      Excerpt:

      Peter Gibbons: The thing is, Bob, it’s not that I’m lazy, it’s that I just don’t care.

      Bob Porter: Don’t… don’t care?

      Peter Gibbons: It’s a problem of motivation, all right? Now if I work my ass off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don’t see another dime, so where’s the motivation? And here’s something else, Bob: I have eight different bosses right now.

      Bob Slydell: I beg your pardon?

      Peter Gibbons: Eight bosses.

      Bob Slydell: Eight?

      Peter Gibbons: Eight, Bob. So that means that when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That’s my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.

      Bob Slydell: I’d like to move us right along to a Peter Gibbons. Now we had a chance to meet this young man, and boy that’s just a straight shooter with upper management written all over him.

      LOL!

  8. I left a comment at the YT video.

    Bevin Chu
    1 second ago

    All governments are evil incarnate.
    Why?
    Because when you strip away all the “official” trappings, all governments are merely glorified crime syndicates.
    Without consulting you, without your actual consent, they claim “jurisdiction” over you, merely because you fell inside a line they drew on a map.
    They then demand that you obey their rules (“laws”) and pay them protection money (“taxes”).
    Wake up people! No government is “YOUR” government. Every government is THEIR government.
    Reply
    ·

  10. I understand you guys down south are getting hit hard this winter. Up here? It’s, uh, in the fifties. Has been for about a month. As of last weekend, the ice roads are officially unusable — the ice isn’t thick enough anymore. Bizarre.

    • Hit hard? We’re getting the crap kicked outta us!

      I’ve lived here 10 years and never seen anything remotely like this. Right now, it is 4 degrees – and “feels like -12” with the wind chill. We’ve had days of such weather. It has rarely gotten above freezing for any length of time this entire month; typically, we have several days in the 50s and even 60s, and very few, if any, days when the temperature drops below the 20s, even at night.

      And we still have at least February to suffer through … and March…. that’s four months of shit weather.

      Unacceptable.

      If “climate change” means my area is going to be like Minnesota from now on, Elvis is gonna leave the building.

      Life is too short to throw away a third of every year.

      • Isn’t it strange? On my honour as an internet dork: we’ve had fifty degrees and sun or rain for almost a month here in south Alaska. It’s a true fact: I went to work on Friday and told everybody my funny story about how where I’m from (in Massachusetts) is way, way colder and snowier this year in balmy tropical Alaska. And I was immediately hoist by my own petard; one of my co-workers told me that it’s colder in *Georgia* than it is here!

        Paging Dr. Gore: your “global warming” model is a bit more weird than you blithely assumed.

      • And yet the public schools scream “Global Warming” and hope nobody notices.

        That’s why I just ignore them when they claim macroevolution as a fact as well. Unfortunately I’m not scientifically inclined enough to figure out everything myself. I do have enough common sense to know the public schools are full of crap.

      • This is really a return to the winters of my childhood… where I could build a snow fort in December and keep it until February. This year the solid day after day cold seems to have gotten pretty far south though, that is probably unusual. Although Florida hasn’t frozen…. even in a mild winter they get hit at least for a day or three.

        The global warming the children will die if they have to go to school crowd tell me this has never happened before…. just like they tell me every year it’s never been warmer… which is also BS. I’ve lived through hotter myself.

        It seems weather is yet another thing where if the TVeee tells people something they forget their own experiences.

  11. Here’s that same hero in the picture, now he’s Russian Spetsnaz – Beta Squad – agitating the Ukraine Agora
    http://i0.wp.com/www.russiaslam.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/berkut1.jpg?resize=600%2C400

    Ukraine Liberation – Girl with club ruling road traffic instead of traffic heroes.
    http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=af1_1390775603

    Ukraine Liberation – Individualist Agoras rule the commons not heroes
    http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=104_1390757648

    • I respect the Russians – they’re a tough, resilient people. It was they – not Ahmmmmmericuh – who defeated Nazi Germany. The casualties incurred by the Russians pushing back the Germans were something on the order of 10 to 1. A body count in the millions… in comparison with which the U.S. casualty (about 250,000 IIRC) count was literally a drop in the bucket.

      This is not an expression of approval of the Soviet Union. It is an acknowledgement of the Soviets’ (the Russians’) endurance. They showed the same tenacity against the Grand Armee of Napoleon, too.

      Don’t fuck with the bear.

      • Dear Eric,

        Yes. It’s amazing how brainwashed most people are.

        Years ago, I was totally indoctrinated with the perspective of WWII implied by “The Longest Day,” “Saving Private Ryan,” and “Band of Brothers.” I too assumed that Eisenhower and Churchill “won the war.”

        Imagine my astonishment when I learned that 8 out of 10 Nazi Germany casualties were inflicted by the Russians, and not by the Anglo-American alliance!

        Talk about a successful Big Lie.

        • I’ll grant you that I was always a troublemaker; even back in high school I was questioning how much impact the US really had on the war in Europe. The US was in the war for, what, ten months when Nazi Germany surrendered? And I’m supposed to believe that all those plucky little Great Generators plunged headfirst into the invincible Wehrmacht and destroyed it in ten months because they had so much heart and grit and hustle and all those other things sportswriters like to talk about? Come the heck on. Clearly something’s up with that story.

          It is funny, though, that even if you press that issue, people won’t admit the truth. No, see, it was just the Russian *winter* that defeated the Germans! Hitler was just a big dumb dummy and forgot there was such a thing. The Russian people? Forget it. All too busy COMMUNISMING to fight back.

          • The US effort was to a great extent a mop-up operation. The best German units were in the East – or had been decimated in the East. Even so, the depleted Wehrmacht put up one hell of a fight in the West, too. Grossly outnumbered in men and materiel, with no effective air cover, the Germans fought tenaciously right up to the end.

            And against the Russians, the effort – the sacrifice – was even more astonishing. On both sides. Check out the number of Russians who died during the final battles of the Seelow Heights and the occupation of Berlin.

            It is probably true that the Americans could not have taken such losses – and it’s entirely likely there would have been some sort of negotiated peace that left Hitler in power – if you took Soviet Russia out of the equation.

          • Was Hitler really any worse than Stalin? I kind of see that as a wash, and that fact makes me lose even the slightest sympathy for the “we needed to get involved” position. Its just absurd.

            • Arguably, Stalin was worse.

              He was responsible for more death and misery over a much longer timespan.

              The Third Reich lasted 12 years. Stalin ruled the Soviet Union for about 30 years and in that time, organized the mass murder of tens of millions of people.

              So why is Hitler reviled more?

              Because – get ready for extreme political incorrectness – Hitler’s white racialism was (and is) regarded as the ultimate sin.

              It’s not even “the Jews” – as is often argued by anti-Semites. If that were the case, Stalin would have been in the same boat as Hitler since he also systematically targeted Jews and was, according to abundant evidence, about to initiate a genocidal slaughter just before his death.

          • Yet for some reason, we’re expected to believe that Hitler intended to conquer the entire world, including the US, despite the fact that Stalin in reality never did such a thing and Hitler would almost certainly not have done so either. Heck, Hitler tried to make peace with England because he was too busy with Russia. Yet, we’re expected to believe he would have come over to the US if we had left him alone.

            I don’t even dispute the Holocaust or any of that but some of the cartoonish portrayals are kind of ridiculous. And I do kind of wonder if FDR would have killed off the Japanese in his camps if the US had been invaded.

          • I’ve always wondered that about FDR, too. People like to claim that the US concentration camps weren’t the same kind of evil as the German camps, since the interned were not murdered… but the US didn’t lose the war. If the Axis powers were overrunning the country, can we really be sure the prisoners wouldn’t have been disposed of the same way?

            • Hi Darien,

              The US kept German POWs in absolutely brutal conditions – open air, in bitter cold. Many died and countless others suffered horribly. The US (and Britain) also “repatriated” Poles and others to the Soviet Union – to certain death. Churchill and FDR knew Stalin was a murderer. He told them so, in person. Churchill asked, at a dinner, what happened to the Kulaks. He quotes Stalin: We killed them.

              No Soviet was ever prosecuted/pursued over the massacre of 40,000 Polish officers, clergy, “intellectuals” and other “un-Soviet” persons at Katyn Forest.

              Lavrenti Beria is unknown to most in the West – while the name of Heinrich Himmler is known to almost every GED graduate.

              I doubt one out of 10,000 people know that Italian Marshall Badoglio – who took over Italy after Mussolini was deposed – had previously been his chief military commander and had personally participated in – ordered – the gassing of helpless civilians in Africa during the campaigns to pacify Italian Somali-land/Eritrea.

              Badoglio was never even charged.

              Nuremburg was exactly as Herman Goring described it: Victor’s justice and the apotheosis of hypocrisy.

          • Dear Eric,

            I used to believe Churchill was the heroic “English bulldog” depicted in the 60s era documentary series “The Valiant Years.” Remember that? Also, “Victory at Sea?”

            Later of course, much later, I wised up.

            Churchill and other “national leaders” knew their war policies were wrong. They loudly condemned the very actions they would take later on. By then of course they had invented a whole new set of rationalizations.

            To wit:

            “America should have minded her own business and stayed out of the World War. If you hadn’t entered the war the Allies would have made peace with Germany in the Spring of 1917. Had we made peace then there would have been no collapse in Russia followed by Communism, no breakdown in Italy followed by Fascism, and Germany would not have signed the Versailles Treaty, which has enthroned Nazism in Germany. If America had stayed out of the war, all these ‘isms’ wouldn’t today be sweeping the continent of Europe and breaking down parliamentary government – and if England had made peace early in 1917, it would have saved over one million British, French, American, and other lives.”
            — Winston Churchill
            Interview with Editor William Griffen
            New York Enquirer, August 1936

        • Band of Brothers is great writing, some of the best I’ve ever seen. If you completely ignore the war footage and propaganda, it’s an immensely enjoyable piece of fiction, just don’t buy into its premises and mentally keep it at arms length.

          Governments and militarism may even make sense at a certain period of planetary development. During the eras when territory was truly unoccupied, forming a government and military to maximize ones territorial gains might be prudent.

          But the use of unreasoning force is no way to hold territory, and to develop it to its highest and best use. In a non-dysfunctional world, the geographic territorial political system would just be one of many possible systems you could choose to affiliate with.

          • Dear Tor,

            “Band of Brothers is great writing… just don’t buy into its premises and mentally keep it at arms length.”

            Exactly! That’s what I do with a lot of mainstream entertainment. Fortunately hardcore libertarians have a clear enough overview of the PTB and their machinations, and are not about to be led around by the nose.

            I’ve watched Band of Brothers several times, every time they reran it on HBO here in Asia. Great story telling. Deeply moving. Just filter out the implied political messages, and experience it as story qua story.

            Of course, some fiction is just too much to take. For example, the many cop and military cop shows on cable, all entrenching the Myth of Authority. Those I can no longer stomach.

      • Dear Eric,

        “It was they – not Ahmmmmmericuh – who defeated Nazi Germany.”

        Almost forgot to include “Captain America” as part of the “America defeated Nazi Germany” myth.

        http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs48/f/2009/184/2/c/Captain_America_vs_the_Nazis_by_Maxahiss.jpg

        http://www.zoom-comics.com/archives/7738/defenders-vs-nazies/

        http://www.comicbookmovie.com/images/users/uploads/10300/8652header_banner6894184.jpg

        http://ladygeekgirl.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/captainamericahitler.jpg

          • Dear Darien,

            You’re absolutely right.

            That one, “God Comics” trumps them all!

            After all, what’s Captain America next to… gulp… God?

            “Hitler crucified my son.”
            “I’m saved!”

          • I grew out of Superman, Justice League and those guys about the time my balls dropped! But to this day, I re-read Watchmen, which (along with V for Vendetta) are, to me, brilliant not just as art but also as literature and philosophy.

            Anyone who hasn’t read these graphic novels ought to.

            The movie (recent) is a superb adaptation of the Watchmen story, but here’s a “clip” from the original Gibbons-Moore novel:

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLdqKIj3-A0

          • Dear Eric,

            Good suggestion. I used to read comics when I was a kid, but they fell away somehow around high school or maybe even junior high. I didn’t consciously push them away. They just fell away somehow.

            But seeing what film makers have done with many later comics or “graphic novels” as some like to call them, makes me want to get back to some, albeit not all of them.

            I’m going to check out the V for Vendetta comics first.

            On a related note, I just finished reading Suzanne Collin’s “Hunger Games” trilogy. That is not a “Young Adult” novel! That is, in my humble opinion, right up there with Heinlein’s libertarian novels, such as “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.”

            In fact, Collins successfully did what Ayn Rand tried but failed to do in her pro-liberty novels — fully integrate the concept of freedom into her characters.

            • Hi Bevin,

              I am glad to have had so many people “hip” me to the Hunger Games – the books more so than the movies. I assumed they were more teenager pap, of a piece with the vampire stuff that’s all the rage with the 14 year olds now…

              Count me in – I’ll be ordering the books this week!

          • I own the entire Hunger Games trilogy, but I have not read word one of any of them (my wife bought them). Everybody tells me I should, and, honestly, everybody is probably right.

          • @Eric and Darien–

            Read The Hunger Games, you will not be disappointed!

            Not only are they an excellent insight into the Agenda 21/NWO plan–and its inevitable outcome–but unlike other dystopian (near) future novels, they present a plan of resistance.

            And that plan is simple–destroy consent. Use simple symbols to unite where the PTB have divided. Strike the root; de-legitimize the system.

          • Dear Darien,

            The Hunger Games is surprisingly sophisticated for a “Young Adult Novel.” It is actually more sophisticated than the Star Wars Saga, which is not bad, and follows the Joseph Campbell “Hero’s Journey” model.

            Star Wars has much to commend it. The Darkside of the Force. The political allegory of America as Rome.

            But in other respects it is on the simplistic side. The Empire is evil, the Rebels are good.

            The Hunger Games is more politically sophisticated, especially in Book Three.

            Larkin Rose talks about how conventional revolutions don’t work in one of his best videos.

            Until then revolutions don’t do any good. You knock it over, we’ll put up another one. Just as long as people still believe that government can be legitimate, they’ll bicker over who should sit on the throne and what kind of throne it should be. You know, a parliament, or a congress, or a king, or whatever. But as long as they believe in authority, they will set up a new God and it will stomp on them and oppress them to varying degrees, and it will happen over and over again.

            Collins is not so explicit. But she hints at the same thing in Book Three. I don’t want to drop too many spoilers into this comment, but I think this gives you an idea of how surprisingly politically sophisticated Collins is.

          • Meth: Okay, then, I guess since I already own them I really don’t have any excuse. 😀

            Bevin: I’m pretty fond of Star Wars, both as adventure movie and for its moral philosophising (warning: intense nerdity ahead, as well as spoilers if you’ve never seen Star Wars), but I do have some problems with it, philsophy-wise.

            The big one, of course, is the destruction of the Death Star. I appreciate the concept of self-defense, of course, and Yavin 4 was almost certainly getting exploded if the rebels didn’t do something, but the immense amount of “collateral damage” caused by destroying the entire station has never sat well with me. Sure, I’ll accept that Grand Moff Tarkin was a villain and an aggressor, but there are a whole *lot* of other people on that station. Were the janitors evil? Was it justified to kill them? Or is this a situation in which alternative solutions to the problem should have at least been given a hearing?

            Sadly enough, this is not as academic a point as I’d like it to be. Timothy McVeigh rather famously cited the destruction of the Death Star as the moral inspiration for the bombing of the Murrah building; when the station explodes, the audience cheers, right? Hooray for the good guys! Nobody seems to spare a thought for the innocent people who get exploded along with the murderers. And so, McVeigh reasoned, overkill was clearly acceptable; innocent people may die, but as long as he gets his target that’s all that matters.

            On the bright side, the ending of Return of the Jedi was and still is one of the most amazing things in cinema — the Emperor attempts to goad Luke into giving in to his rage, and it almost works, but in the end Luke throws away his lightsaber, refuses to kill Vader, and won’t lift a finger against the Emperor. And then the Emperor becomes enmeshed in his own trap; his own rage and violence become his undoing. When I was a kid, I never understood this scene; why doesn’t Luke just chop them up? It took a bit more intellectual development for me to appreciate what actually happens.

            • Hi Darien,

              I agree with Brent on this – that the Death Star was basically a space battleship. It was a military machine designed to project force. I agree that – as in a real battleship – there are almost certainly people on board who are “good” (or at least, not actively evil; draftees, civilian personnel, etc.). But I do submit there’s a definite qualitative difference between a military vessel – especially one clearly training its guns on innocent victims – and a civilian building full of women, children and ordinary worker bees….

          • Dear Darien,

            “Bevin: I’m pretty fond of Star Wars, both as adventure movie and for its moral philosophising… ”

            I am too!

            Star Wars’ philosophising is quite explicit, and no accident. Lucas consciously incorporated his understanding of creeping tyranny into the films.

            “All democracies turn into dictatorships — but not by coup. The people give their democracy to a dictator, whether it’s Julius Caesar or Napoleon or Adolf Hitler. Ultimately, the general population goes along with the idea… How did the Republic turn into the Empire? …How did Anakin turn into Darth Vader? How does a good person go bad, and how does a democracy become a dictatorship? It isn’t that the Empire conquered the Republic, it’s that the Empire is the Republic. One day Princess Leia and her friends woke up and said, ‘This isn’t the Republic anymore, it’s the Empire. We are the bad guys… This democracy is a sham…'”
            — George Lucas, creator of “Star Wars”

          • The deathstar was essentially a very large battleship. A military vehicle. It wasn’t an office building filled with bureaucrats or a planet, or anything but a very large planet blasting piece of military hardware that had destroyed the planet Alderaan. People who are aboard battleships at a time of war kinda of know what they might be in for.

        • Ha!

          I never liked Captain America, even as a kid…!

          I was more of a Spiderman/Batman kind of guy. Looking back, I think I know why. Spiderman and Batman were outliers, trying to do what good they could for individuals. They were not government tools – like Captain America!

          • Dear Eric,

            I confess that back then, I was pretty oblivious to the Jingoism behind Superman and Captain America. I was still a minarchist who admired the “American Dream.” I suppose I still do, if it is properly defined.

            In fact, when the first Superman film with Christopher Reeve debuted, I cheered when Superman said “Truth, justice, and the American Way.”

            My excuse? It was only 1978. 9/11, the War on Terror, the DHS, the TSA were nearly a quarter of a century away.

            Of course as we all know, the creators of Superman were oblivious to this tragic decline.

            Superman Renounces His U.S. Citizenship in 900th Issue of Action Comics
            http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2011/04/28/superman-renounces-citizenship-00th-issue/

            “I intend to speak before the United Nations tomorrow and inform them that I am renouncing my U.S. citizenship,” he says in a cell in the issue. “I’m tired of having my actions construed as instruments of U.S. policy.”

            Superman even questions his longtime motto: “Truth, justice and the American way.”

            “Truth, justice, and the American way — it’s not enough anymore,” he states.

            Batman by contrast, was always a private sector vigilante from Day One. Definitely not a robotic “Law and Order” type content to “let the police carry the guns and protect us” kind of guy. More like Charles Bronson in “Death Wish.”

          • Errata:

            Wrong: Of course as we all know, the creators of Superman were oblivious to this tragic decline.

            Right: Of course as we all know, the creators of Superman were NOT oblivious to this tragic decline.

          • I was always a huge Fantastic Four fan. Still am, but in the background; I will confess, though, that now that I’m an adult and know what words mean, the moniker “Four Freedoms Tower” for the FF’s 90’s headquarters gives me the hives.

          • Hmm… the trailers for the new Captain America movie makes it seem like he questions things more and criticizes “Shield” for confusing freedom with fear. Sounds kind of familiar. I do look forward to seeing what can be done with it.

            I’ve kind of trained myself not to let things like “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” or Captain “America” or whatever have you get to me. Its just not helpful when it comes to spreading our principles. I totally get your point, obviously. I just don’t enjoy being against the whole world ALL the time. Even with the important matters it gets frustrating sometimes.

  12. This is the first real Chicago winter in some time… where it just goes on and on without break… but the people are just idiots now.

    15-25 mph in light snow…. or now even no snow.

    And then the red light cameras. Last night I’m in the snow and normally I would just go through the yellow slowly and if I got some red no big deal… but with the RLC I had hammer on the brakes and I slid to a stop before the yellow expired. Shouldn’t get a ticket as I was at a dead stop when it turned red and no flash as confirmed by video.

    • RLCs are like gun control for me – I can’t tolerate either.

      I know the tide is making its way across the country and that, eventually, nowhere (even “the woods”) will be free of these things. But I will evade and avoid as long as I possibly can. And once I can no longer, then I will join the growing ranks of people – notably, the current 18-25 set – who have just given up on driving entirely.

        • I was ecstatic but slightly disappointed when we got them removed in Houston.
          I was looking forward to doing some “maintenance” on the one near my house.

          • Don’t worry. Given how degraded things are, expect their quiet return after boobus has moved on to the next area of focus provided for them.

      • Eric, I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, I don’t think RLCs are tolerable in any respect (nor government, really) but I’m not sure that’s a red line for me in the same way gun control is. If they take our guns, they can literally take anything else, our kids, our lives, etc. with no real resistance. I don’t really see how that applies to RLCs. Maybe I’m not sure how those things work ,but as far as I understand the only thing they’d really stop you from doing is passing through a red light. Not sure how that compares.

        • RLCs are many (bad) things, but the chief bad thing they are is an affront to due process. You are presumed guilty and cannot (usually) cross-examine the “witness” against you since one cannot cross-examine a camera.

          The principle they establish is extremely dangerous.

          Then, there’s the practical aspect: They (along with speed cameras) make driving utterly un-fun. Enforced Cloverism. It’s exactly like being the one bright/normal kid mistakenly put into the LD class… only it’s no mistake.

          They want to make everyone LD.

        • OK, here’s the thing….
          They still need a court order to get tracking on your phone (sort of, and in the version that GPS would be used. Not passively monitoring, mind, but actively tracking GPS.)

          If they know your routine, they can ambush and kill you. RLCs will help with that. If someone else is driving, well, they just killed a different member of the terror cell.

          GPS in the car, same deal. OnStar, for example.

          That’s WITHOUT considering hacking – just using ground troops, munitions, or drones to kill you.
          Of course, the RLC nearby will show you were SPEEDING and IGNORED A RED LIGHT…. And you got killed by another poor driver (also a possibility if they’re staging the event, use a car as the weapon… Fudge the lights, instant evidence.)

          You know how they present the weather on nightly news? Greenscreen? Nothing’s real, the forecaster is given a green screen, and an image is shown to them as well – and forecaster just points to where the graphic shows, and instant weather map.

          But if we see it, we believe it.

          so when the camera shows the lie, we BELIEVE the camera…. Even though there are trick photography events, special effects, etc. all around us, all the time.
          For instance, a photo of the WTC made the rounds – supposedly recovered from a camera of a tourist on 9/11. It showed a plane about to fly into the tower.
          Complete fake, but made the ‘net anyway…

          How about Photoshop?
          Painting film?

          And if you mess with a timer, the light could be green when the car comes in, the light turns red immediately when it can take the snapshot, there’s PROOF you violated the red light…
          That was green, and never even hit yellow…

          RLCs (as they become ubiquitous) are just another surveillance tool. Total surveillance actually means an end to free thought, as outlined in Orwell’s 1984. The mind learns to NOT think certain things. Learned helplessness & controlled thought patterns emerge as a result. So, faced with an attacker, you’ll sit and cower, call the police, and WAIT…. Even if there’s a machine gun given to you, you’ll die rather than think to USE that gun for defense – because that THOUGHT is anathema. SOMEONE might see. SOMEONE would HEAR your thoughtcrime… Assuming you could even reason that far.

          Look up “Monkey cage story” (or experiment). Quick version here: http://www.georgefotion.com/marketing_plan/the_banana_story.htm

          For our purposes, wrong conclusion, but I like including the link anyway.
          See, it’s incrementalism in one version, and stultifying tradition on the other.
          Either way, FORCE the mind to ONLY think in these ways, and you’ll always get the same result.
          Controllable.
          Stupid.
          GOOMBAS.

          The only difference between the Super Mario Brother’s King Koopa and Obama, ultimately, is the setting. The cartoonish violence, blatant evil – it’s the same creature. We just PRETEND it’s more complex out here – so we can justify being cowardly, not taking the risk, or the pain, of acting. We allow the camel’s nose into the tent.
          Having conceded the field (been sprayed with water), we PRETEND we’re content… And abuse anyone else who would DO something to beat the camel back out of the tent (abuse monkeys who would break the mold, or try for the banana.)
          Eventually, no monkeys will go for the banana (freedom; love; beautiful women; fast cars; strong liquor; anything the State has deemed “immoral” or “illegal”…)

          Because it’s “immoral” and “Can’t be done” and “The Gods will be ANGRY and PUNISH US!”

          Same deal…. Same reasoning.
          Same result.

          RLC = accepting the surveillance state. The state that kills you to protect you. The state the demands instant obeisance to all its diktats. Which enriches its cronies at your cost. And ALWAYS has evidence of WHERE you were, WHO you associated with, WHAT you were doing… And therefore can always MANUFACTURE evidence – and NO ONE will even THINK to challenge it.
          Because the camera doesn’t lie, you know….

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