A Great Day for Secessionists - Dems Make Us Slaves of State...

Forcing Americans to buy full benefit health insurance and sending one of the 17,000 new Internal Revenue Service employees after them to make sure they do or fine them is the essence of slavery and the Democrats have just voted to make us slaves. Southern Confederates seceded in part because they wanted the states to decide the issue of slavery. Of course, everyone knows it was the slaves who should have seceded from the states that made them slaves. And so with the passage of this absurd and pernicious bill more and more Americans are realizing they should secede from our enslaving federal - and state - governments.

However, these were my third thoughts after I watched passage of the bill. My second thought was - if I had money I'd invest in state of the art new hospitals right across the border in Mexico. Cause that's where the good doctors and the wealthy patients are going to go. If it's not illegal for Americans to buy health insurance in Mexico now, it will be soon enough.

And my first thought? I wonder what kind of extremely unpleasant health problems and/or death I'll face because of this bureaucratic takeover? And just because I'm an American. Not because some government bureaucrats know my goal is the destruction of their paychecks, perks and pensions...

I've had dozens of things to say on dozens of subjects since my last post, but other things take priority. Especially a certain little demanding animal - whose health insurance is fully free market and very cheap and excellent.

UPDATE: After the vote, Rep. Steve King spoke to opponents and allegedly said: "If I could start a country with a bunch of people, they’d be the folks who were standing with us the last few days. Let’s hope we don’t have to do that!" Of course, he also said some crazy stuff about beating his opponents to a pulp. Not your ideal nonviolent secessionist! In fact, Kelly Vlahos on Antiwar.com described the reason I haven't bothered to go to Tea Party events - too many pro-war bigots! (Though it is probable the liberal media are highly exaggerating their presence.) Plus a report on a New Hampshire gathering of more sensible libertarians and others.

Unionists Push Propaganda Penny

The U.S. unveils a new penny, with a big E Pluribus Union sheild used by unionists during the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865). Take that, you secessionists. One nation state united forever, no matter how deep into tyranny, war and poverty that one nation state drags us all.

But as Brion McClanahan explains in Solidifying the Cult of Lincoln, Penny Wise, after quoting various northern politicians opposed to war on the southern secessionists: Lincoln did not preserve the United States; he forged a new centralized despotism, the antithesis of the Founders’ "united States." The Mint, the Congress, and Americans in general gloss over the fact that many Northerners resisted the Federal draft, believed Lincoln started the War and unnecessarily whipped the North into a bloodthirsty frenzy, and blamed Lincoln for the destruction of the Constitution.

If the civil war really had been a war against slavery, of course, Lincoln would have freed ALL slaves, north and south, the day he declared war. It took him a year and four months to issue the Emancipation Proclamation freeing only the southern slaves. (See graphic at left.) Not til after his death was slavery declared illegal throughout the union.

Slavery was an institution on the way out. Was killing 600,000 people, impoverishing whites and black southerners for generations, and leaving a legacy of racial division and bitterness for a hundred years worth ending it a few years sooner?

As a freedom lover, I always say FREE THE SLAVES NOW! be they women sex slaves worldwide or Palestinians enslaved in Gaza, the West Bank and Israeli prisons, or nonviolent drug offenders in U.S. prisons or all the people of North Korea. The latter being the most relevant example. Of course, freeing North Korea via war could lead to the deaths of millions, north and south, since the U.S. would quickly resort to nuclear weapons to ensure victory.

The bottom line? War is not the answer... Including for today's American secessionists and other secessionists worldwide. Nonviolent resistance is.

Cartoon from Gaza Concentration Camp

Ground Hog and Valentine's Day have passed and Mardi Gras is over. But Gaza is still not free. What is a righteous gentile to do but note the millions imprisoned in Gaza (and to somewhat lesser degree, the West Bank) from time to time?

Vermont Secession Candidates Announce

Well, it was a couple weeks ago, but better late than never. In early January 2010 nine Vermonters announced they were planning to run for governor, lieutenant governor and seven seats in the state Senate on a Vermont secession platform. The story was carried by Associated Press and even made it to the New York Times! The candidates are running under the “Vermont Independence Day Party” label. More details here. Videos of two top candidates from YouTube/VermontCommons below.

UPDATE: Time Magazine prints Christopher Ketcham article The Secessionist Campaign for the Republic of Vermont.

P.S.: Free Gaza - and Palestine

I didn't make it to Egypt or Gaza - or even the local solidarity protest. And I'm only putting up a quick blog entry now about the recent Free Gaza protests after finding some good photos going through old emails. Free Gaza, if I haven't mentioned it lately... And the Palestinian slaves. Take that, Ben Stein!

Thinking libertarians agree. As noted in wikipedia:
Some libertarians have argued for the Palestinian right of return largely from a private property rights perspective. In "Property Rights and the 'Right of Return" professor Richard Ebeling writes: "If a settlement is reached between the Israelis and the Palestinians, justice would suggest that all legitimate property should be returned to its rightful owners and that residence by those owners on their property should be once again permitted." Attorney Stephen P. Halbrook (who convinced the Supreme Court to take 25 years off the Branch Davidian sentences) in "The Alienation of a Homeland: How Palestine Became Israel" writes: “Palestinian Arabs have the rights to return to their homes and estates taken over by Israelis, to receive just compensation for loss of life and property, and to exercise national self-determination.” In "War Guilt in the Middle East" "Mr. Libertarian" Murray Rothbard details Israel's "aggression against Middle East Arabs," confiscatory policies and its "refusal to let these refugees return and reclaim the property taken from them."

Free market that, Ben Stein...

Ben Stein - Apologize to Ron Paul

Catching up on news items, see that Ben Stein called Ron Paul an antisemite on the December 29, 2009 Larry King show because Paul said the United States is an occupier of Iraq. Gee, Ben, Paul never even mentioned Israel. As I wrote as a comment to the video: No one mentioned Israel, Ben. Or do you feel guilty because U.S. REALLY invaded Iraq to stop Saddam from sending $25,000 to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers in Israel. That was the real WMD. At least be honest about it so Americans can freely decide if they want to spend a trillion dollars to defend Israel against a few dozen suicide bombers.

See the full version here. And Antiwar.com's comment which notes which notorious antisemite Ben Stein used to work for.

Collage of 2009 DC Protests

Better late than never, some of the protests I missed in DC in 2009.

"Carol Moore" Verboten on Baidu.com

With China in the news lately - (China surpasses Germany as world's top exporter), (China's Baidu Cyber attacked), (China vs. Google) - I decided to go to the Chinese government-controlled search engine BAIDU.COM and see if "Carol Moore" and her awful politics was censored out of it. Indeed I was, except for some innocuous mention. Also searched Secession.net, which was mentioned in a couple links, and the term secession, which had a number of returns.

Then today I went back to search Baidu.com again - and low and behold the site itself would not come up on either Firefox or Internet Explorer. Was my IP blocked? Searched around for others with the same problem and found a discussion on Reddit.com verifying my suspicion. As one person replied to another complaining his IP had been blocked: "Should have thought about doing those BLASPHEMOUS searches before you wanted to see Reddit show up on a censored Chinese search engine, shouldn't you?"

It's just a matter of time before the Chinese people get fed up with this nonsense. Wait til Baidu sets up its planned video sites and they start censoring all those subversive videos. Then the Chinese people will REALLY get ticked off! Ha ha ha.

2010 - A GET OUR BUTTS MOVING Year?

While waiting to see if New York Times Square New Years Eve Celebration organizers will ring out the old year with John Lennon's IMAGINE for yet a 3rd year in a row... Here's a video of all the DC protests I did NOT attend in 2009. Will my sabbatical end in 2010?? The Magenta line above is the number of current sunspots, filling them with energizing negative ionization. As you can see there are ZILCH motivating people right now - but don't tell that to Iranian protesters.

Iran's authoritarians will fall within two years, you can bet on it. Maybe China's will within 5? And AMERICA's???? Time will tell... Depending in part on whether we Gandhian feminist secessionists get our butts moving...

Midnight Update: Fox News yappers admitted it's a yearly tradition to play IMAGINE - and kept yapping. At least NBC let them just play the music! Let's fulfill the promise of the song a good bit more in this new year of 2010.

World Sings "All We Need Is Love"

While I've generally had neutral to negative thoughts about Starbucks for a number of reasons, I have to applaud this wonderful video singing the most emblematic song of the FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE OF LOVE...

I love SOLSTICE!!

Twenty-one days to solstice. My favorite holiday. The sun is coming back and we won't freeze in the dark!

Above is a decoration that won't win the Christmas home decorations contest, but might win the pagan one! Yoo Ha! And that's just three years from any and all 2012 winter solstice events. In my optimistic opinion, will usher in the AGE OF AQUARIUS, something so much prophesized by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse of Love - John, Paul, George and Ringo.
Of course, I still went to the 2012 movie for the thrills and chills of giant earthquakes, 2000 foot tsunamis and the hero John Cusak's efforts to save his family - not to mention innocently kill off his ex-wife's new husband. But there hasn't been a massive crustal shift like that in 200 million years, so what's to worry?

The biggest political message of the movie (besides that all the politicians manage to save themselves on the big arks, and 2/3 of them seem to be male) is made by a character who remarks on seeing the 5 or 6 giant Arks built in three years inside a mountain - "Only the Chinese could do this!!!" Yup, in this movie the Chinese save the world. Of course, most of them also get inundated.

Luckily, Africa raises 2000 feet while everything else evidently sinks, so it doesn't get inundated. So look out for a couple hundred thousand homeless imperialists in Arks, my African friends!

Obama: Smoke Marijuana, NOT Afghanistan

WikiCommons file photo says: "Wild marijuana plant growing near Islamabad, which you may see throughout the region of Afghanistan, Pakistan and northwest India. These wild plants grow everywhere you see weed plants but people do not use these plants as drugs." Forty years after I first smoked pot, and stupid patriarchs are still killing men, women and children in stupid wars. Obama is only different in making a few more extravagant promises which he has not kept.

Save an Historical Village from Destruction

This article at Palestine Think Tank describes how this historical village of Lifta, on the slopes of the hills of Jersusalem, is destined for destruction by the building of more illegal Israeli settlements. The village was abandoned in 1948 when well-armed Israeli troops drove poor peasants from their land. They have not been allowed to return to the village in years since, even though many former residents live only a few miles away in Jerusalem. According to the article, "Lifta is considered by many as a rare and fine example of Palestinian rural architecture with narrow streets aligned with the slopes of the mountains around it. Its cubist forms are a wonderful manifestation of the mastery of the Palestinian stone masons who were the indigenous owners and builders of these houses."

Sign the petition to save Lifta or do whatever you can do to stop these Israeli atrocities - paid for with by 5-10 billion dollars in US government financial, military and other aid every year. (And billions more if you consider that a major reason the U.S. is in Iraq and Afghanistan is to protect Israel's ability to keep stealing land like this.)

No Thanksgiving over the Afghan Turkey

Support Antiwar.com

Tea Party vs. Immigration shows statist element of movement

Two videos from the November 14th mini-Tea Parties showed that the Tea Party movement is less about individual liberty than using government the way they want it used. In the first, a young man "punks" a Tea Party group getting lots of applause as he declares: "...Let's send these European immigrants back where they came from," he said to wild cheers. "We need to send every one of them back home. ... They stole this land through genocide and ethnic cleansing." Then he leads the crowd in the chant: "Columbus go home! Columbus go home!" Funnier than heck...


In the second video some left-wing Che Guevera fans counter-protest with the signs safely across the street from the Tea Party people. But one or two of Tea Party people come over, try to take their signs and the lefties jump all over them for trying to steal their private property. If only BOTH sides would go libertarian and stop promoting left and right wing STATISM.

Why the psychiatrist went crazy...

Besides being a Muslim who got ticked off for being insulted about being a Muslim in the military, what else could have driven military psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan crazy enough to join those who immorally use terror to protest oppression? (Unless he was dumb enough to think terror is an effective method of proselytizing?)

Anyway, Kevin Tillman is the brother of football player turned American soldier Pat Tillman (above) who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan - which the military covered up for 5 weeks. He was shot 3 times in the head! In 2006 Kevin listed some reasons even Christian and Jewish and Americans of all religions are disgusted with the U.S. government - and most of them still apply to President Obama...

Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.

Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground.

Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started.

Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated.

Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated.

Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated.

Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.

Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.

Somehow torture is tolerated.

Somehow lying is tolerated.

Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense.

Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world.

Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.

Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.

Somehow the most reasonable, trusted and respected country in the world has become one of the most irrational, belligerent, feared, and distrusted countries in the world.

Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active ignorance.

Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.

Somehow this is tolerated.

Somehow nobody is accountable for this.

Update: Washington Post writes: "The Army psychiatrist believed to have killed 13 people at Fort Hood warned a roomful of senior Army physicians a year and a half ago that to avoid 'adverse events,' the military should allow Muslim soldiers to be released as conscientious objectors instead of fighting in wars against other Muslims."

Video: Halloween Protest at the White House

Halloween being my favorite holiday besides Winter Solstice, I got out to the Code Pink Halloween protest against Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran wars at the White House. As it happened, the Obamas were having a Halloween party for a bunch of kids who won a lottery, so we couldn't get close to the building. But we were right on top of the line of kids waiting to get in and gave them quite a dramatic show of ghouls and vampires sucking our blood to feed their wars. Hope one of them asked Obama when he was going to END the wars!! (That's me with "Don't Bomb Iran" bomb.)

30 foot asteroid explodes like 3 Hiroshimas

Luckily for Indonesia last October 8th, it was over ten miles in the sky. But in the video it looks a lot closer! Meanwhile one of many articles reveals: "NASA calculated that to spot the asteroids as required by law would mean spending about $800 million between now and 2020, either with a new ground-based telescope or a space observation system, Johnson said. If NASA got only $300 million, it could find most asteroids bigger than 1,000 feet across, he said."

BIG Tea Party - Medical shortages another good reason...

September 12 Washington DC Tea Party was yet another demonstration I missed. I kept hearing how big it was and saw one somewhat impressive photo. Then recently discovered this site and three very impressive photos. Assuming they aren't claiming some big gay or women's right's rally was theirs, very impressive!

Most of these people are against the laws and taxes that are destroying the economy and crushing our freedoms. Unfortunately, too many still support spending a trillion dollars a year to keep the rest of the world under control, what with those 800 foreign bases, and those two big wars in the Middle East. (Some even criticize Obama for the little he is doing to try to stop Israel from attacking Iran and starting a truly catastrophic war.) But more and more of them are going LIBERTARIAN and are able and willing to admit it's time to retrench big military as well as big government because...

THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT IS BROKE - and so are most of its people.

The nation is so broke that not only do we not produce most of the medicines and medical supplies we need in this country, but have to import them - and pretty soon no one's going to take the dollar from a bankrupt nation. China isn't going to pay for our wars - AND divert medical supplies from its 1.3 billion hard working/hard saving people to our 300 million increasingly unemployed, retired and indebted ones. One of several reasons medical supplies, vaccines and tamiflu are in short supply.

Of course, the U.S. government owns one third of the land in the country and we can always sell that off... (Here's the Fed's view on it all. Here's Cato Institute's reply. And Ron Paul's.)

Anyhooo- as someone who had the flu twice in 2007-2008, plus a couple bad colds directly after, I got a flu shot last fall and it worked. No flu or colds in 2008-2009. This year, despite trying at CVS and the doctors, I'm very frustrated I still can't get a regular flu shot. (I don't intend to get the swine flu shot but feel sorry for those who want it and can't get it - assuming it doesn't turn out to be a killer toxin after all!)

I DO have a couple masks I got from somewhere, something else also in shortage. And lots of Kefiyah's to cover my face, in case I have to go out in public during flu season. Now if I can just get my roommate to cover his face when he sneezes and wash his hands when he walks in the door. Anyway, click on photo below to get to dramatic Youtube video.

MARIJUANA! A tiny big more legal....

Yoo Ha! President Obama does one tiny little bit towards legalizing the most wonderful medicinal on the planet: Obama administration won't prosecute where medical marijuana is legal.

Here's a nice NORML map of status in different states.

Oh, my arthritis! Oh, my aching back! I need my medicine and I need it now!!

Iranians Love U.S. Secessionists

Iranians Love U.S. Secessionists because they seek to undermine the "Great Satan" (or "Evil Empire")... and yet Imperial U.S./Israel war on Iran and the ensuing economic fiasco, civil liberties abuses and even nuclear war are the things most likely to turn tens of millions of Americans INTO secessionists and break up the U.S. Ironic, eh??

Secession Is the Future
Kirkpatrick Sale Talks To Iranians About the Death of Empires

The following interview with Middlebury Institute director Kirkpatrick Sale appeared in the Kayhan International newspaper of Tehran, Iran on July 21, 2009, and in the Persian language Kayhan News the same day. The interviewer was Seyed Yasser Jebraily.

You have argued that the major theme of contemporary history is the break-up of great empires. Would you elaborate on this and also evaluate the current status of U.S. Empire, I mean its failures and successes?
(see link for rest)

American secessionist leader: US could break up fast
Tue, 13 Oct 2009 (Interview with) Professor Thomas Naylor of the Second Vermont Republic. The following is the transcript of a Press TV recent interview with emeritus professor of economics at Duke University, author and founder of the Second Vermont Republic movement Thomas Naylor.

Press TV: First of all when does the secessionist movements date back to and why is the United States facing a growing number of secessionists today?

Prof. Naylor: The legacy of secession goes all the way back to our inception in 1776. The United States was created by secession from England.

Press TV: Professor, what is the movement fighting for?
(see link for rest)

Nobel Peace Prize for President Who Will NOT Meet with Peace Activists

My pre-Nobel Prize post about the peace protest against Obama failed to mention that one demand was that Obama meet with peace protesters. As I wrote in reply to a Cindy Sheehan article on the topic: Will he remain the Nobel Peace Prize winner who REFUSES to meet with peace activists?? Will he promise to do everything to prevent war against Iran, including telling Israel he will not support any Israeli attack and might even cut off the aid?? Inquiring peace activists want to know. (Stole the graphic from that site, too.)

Update: Another good one from Paul Craig Roberts: Warmonger Wins Peace Prize. Ron Paul's Opinion below:

Finally - civil disobedience against Obama...

Same group of protesters during Clinton's bombing of Serbia in 1999

Sure, it was only the usual suspects protesting in front of the White House complaining about Iraq and Afghanistan, with no mention of the coming holocaust against Iran, but it was a protest, including civil disobedience sit downs and arrests, against Obama's continuation of most of Bush's pro-war policies. (Unfortunately, some tried to turn off most Americans by chanting for socialized medicine!) Dozens were arrested, including Cindy Sheehan.

Report from David Swanson:

We moved down the street and the truck came too. But we made a lot more noise. Prisoners in orange from Witness Against Torture chained themselves to the White House fence. So did Cindy Sheehan whose son died in Iraq. Veterans for Peace displayed US, Afghan, and Iraqi coffins and read the names of the dead and shouted: "Mourn the dead! Heal the wounded! End the wars!" The National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, the World Can't Wait, and lots of other groups joined in. Many of us donned black shirts, white placards with the names of dead troops or civilians, and white masks: the March of the Dead. We marched on the sidewalk in front of the White House in silence.

Then the police horses came at us. The police tried to drive us into the street with their horses, but we lay down on the sidewalk, and they didn't trample us. Instead they put police tape around a huge area, moved everyone else out of it, gave three warnings, and began arresting people. We lay on the sidewalk for approximately two hours, rode with lights and sirens blaring in an escorted caravan of vans and buses to the jail, and were out within an hour with tickets to pay $100 fines or challenge in court. The crime? Exercising free speech in a group of more than 25 people. Seriously.

Plus Swanson includes text of a Peace Action Press release: Twenty-three non-violent peace activists calling for an end to the US war in Afghanistan were violently pushed and dragged away from a White House gate by Secret Service officers this afternoon...After a non-violent “die-in” at the White House gate, the peace activists waited for over three hours while various police departments, including the Washington, DC Metro Police, Park Police and Secret Service, gave conflicting stories about whether the activists would be arrested or not, the group’s request to meet with someone from the Administration having been summarily rebuffed by White House guards. Suddenly, with no warning and with dozens of other police officers watching, a group of about a dozen Secret Service officers swooped in to push and drag the protesters, who included a number of retirees, away from the White House gate and outside a police perimeter that had been established in the normally public area in front of the White House....“Clearly, the Obama Administration, which has increased the violence in Afghanistan with its escalation of troops earlier this year, would rather have Secret Service thugs rough up peace activists than to engage in a dialogue with us about Afghanistan,” said [ Kevin Martin, Executive Director of Peace ActionMartin. Paul Kawika Martin (no relation), Peace Action’s Policy Director, had just returned from a citizens’ peacemaker delegation to Afghanistan organized by the peace group Code Pink. “But we will not be deterred, and the American people have turned decidedly against this war. We call on Obama to meet with us to discuss Afghanistan and apologize for the brutality of the White House police force, and to begin bringing US troops home so the people of Afghanistan can resolve their country’s problems.”

Happy Birthday Gandhi-ji!!

Even Google says so. Some favorite Gandhi quotes below.
GANDHI ON SOUL
Desire for enjoyment creates bodies for the soul...The soul that is hidden beneath this earthly crust is one and the same for all men and women belonging to all climes. There is a real and substantial unity in all the variety we see around us...The force of spirit is ever progressive and endless...

GANDHI ON TRUTH
Truth alone will endure; all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time....What may appear as truth to one person will often appear as untruth to another person. But that need not worry the seeker....Truth and untruth often co-exist; good and evil often are found together....Use truth as your anvil, nonviolence as your hammer and anything that does not stand the test when it is brought to the anvil of truth and hammered with nonviolence, reject it....

GANDHI ON SATYAGRAHA (TRUTH-FORCE)
Satyagraha is a relentless search for truth and a determination to search truth....Satyagraha is an attribute of the spirit within....Satyagraha has been designed as an effective substitute for violence.... Satyagraha is a process of educating public opinion, such that it covers all the elements of the society and makes itself irresistible....The fight of Satyagraha is for the strong in spirit, not the doubter or the timid. Satyagraha teaches us the art of living as well as dying....Satyagraha, of which civil-resistance is but a part, is to me the universal law of life....Satyagraha can rid society of all evils, political, economic, and moral...A genuine Satyagraha should never excite contempt in the opponent even when it fails to command regard or respect....

GANDHI ON FREEDOM
The spirit of political and international liberty is universal and, it may even be said, instinctive...The attainment of freedom, whether for a man, a nation or the world, must be in exact proportion to the attainment of non-violence by each...There is no such thing as slow freedom. Til we are fully free we are all slaves...I want freedom for the full expression of my personality. I must be free to build a staircase to Sirius if I want to...No action which is not voluntary can be called moral.

GANDHI ON GOVERNMENT
I look upon an increase in the power of the State with the greatest fear because, although while apparently doing good by minimizing exploitation, it does the greatest harm to mankind by destroying individuality which lies at the heart of all progress...Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest....We find the general work of mankind is being carried on from day to day be the mass of people acting as if by instinct....If they were instinctively violent the world would end in no time...It is when the mass mind is unnaturally influenced by wicked men that the mass of mankind commit violence.

GANDHI ON NON-VIOLENT GOVERNMENT
Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by fear of punishment and the other by arts of love. Power based on love is thousand times more effective and permanent than power derived from fear of punishment....
When a respectable minority objects to any rule of conduct, it would be dignified of the majority to yield...No organization can run smoothly when it is divided into two camps, each growling at each other and each determined to have its own way by hook or by crook...

GANDHI ON NON-VIOLENT ECONOMICS
Government control gives rise to fraud, suppression of Truth, intensification of the black market and artificial scarcity... Economic equality is the master key to non-violent independence...A non-violent system of government is impossible as long as the wide gulf between the rich and the hungry millions persists....A violent and bloody revolution is a certainty one day unless there is a voluntary abdication of riches and the power riches give and a sharing of them for the public good....All have not the same capacity...I would not cramp talent...I want to bring about an equalization of status....
More at WhatWouldGandhiDo.net

Dang - nuke war STILL on the horizon...

I thought OBAMA might give me a year's rest from worrying about NUKE WAR, but, no, he's already threatening away at Iran for MAYBE but openly building the capacity to do what Israel has done for 40 years - build nuclear weapons. Sure, Obama wants to talk to the Russians about bringing down number of Russian/U.S. nukes. But as long as Israel has hundreds of nuclear weapons, and threatens Russia should it help the Arabs or Iran in some critical situation, why should Russia give up enough nukes to defend itself? (Of course it only needs a dozen to destroy Israel. Plus a few more to get all its submarines.) Interesting video based on Mordechai Vanunu's revelations about Israel's nuclear facilities.

Big Ed speaks truth on Health Care Reform

Ed Crane, like me, was a slender sex pot tool 30 years ago. Now all these years of scarfing down goodies - and imbibing the ambient pollution which body fat accumulates to protect us from (and government won't let us sue polluters for) - have left us both 80 pounds overweight. Which ain't good for the health. In this video he talks about the need for competition between states for health insurance, need for individuals to get the same tax benefits as business when buying health care, and medicare and government control driving doctors out of medicine and discouraging young people from entering.

Good start Ed!! Sheldon Richman has other good suggestions here.

The Democrats plan to make us all give the IRS all our financial info so they can grab all our money to make the non-competitive insurance companies richer is the greatest government farce since ...the draft, the IRS itsself, Patriot Act? - where do we start??

The Candym... I mean Government Can...

Thanks to Tim Hawkins comedy... Yoo Ha!! The people is rising....


However, contrary to the macho female speaker in the video below: NO, there does NOT have to be bloodshed to make Secession happen - not if you do it NON-violently and only among those who want to secede, not forcing anyone who does not want to. See Secession.net.

Marriage in the Bible

From Mrs Betty Bowers, aka some very funny male writer.

A Brave Woman on Women's Equality Day

Congratulations to Cindy Sheehan for spending Women's Equality Day (89 years since women got the vote in the U.S.) on Martha's Vinyard telling Barak Obama he's only marginally better than George Bush on peace issues - and a bunch of others.
*Cindy Sheehan hopes to make peaceful splash

*Boston Herald's Julia Rappaport - ‎18 hours ago‎

*Cindy Sheehan's Lonely Vigil in Obamaland CounterPunch

*Peace activist Cindy Sheehan targets Obama's vacation Christian Science Monitor

*"Peace Mom" Cindy Sheehan trades Bush ranch for Obama's Martha's ... etc.
To keep up on her adventures, visit her Cindy's Soapbox Blog.
UPDATE: Cindy press conference on Martha's Vinyard - leads finally to national publicity for her quest.

Dang, I have to get off my dead butt soon and get active again...
Thanks to Jo Freeman for the photo of Cindy and me.

Yes, I was invited to Woodstock

It was August of 1969. I was living in Cambridge, MA, starting my 9 month career as a pot smoking love child. But I wasn't quite hippy enough to accept the invitation of a couple of guys to go to some music concert way the hell across Massachusetts and into New York State. Never having gone camping - or had much of a desire to do so - I just wasn't motivated. And that's how I never made it the 1969 Woodstock Festival which we're all reminiscing about this weekend!

Happy Hiroshima Day - No War on Iran!

Thanks to antiwar.com

Feminist Commentary on Man Going to the Moon

Yuk. Yuk. Courtesy of my brother.

Across the Universe

Something cosmic as we contemplate the deaths of stars... human and cosmic... Three versions of John Lennon's song "Across the Universe."

Video: Another Righteous Israeli vs. Occupation

My comment on the video, which basically asks Obama to kick Israel's butt til it leaves the occupied territories: Excellent. Righteous Jews in Israel give us hope. Just like righteous Americans like me are fed up with US support for Israel (and the war contractors), including through attacking Iraq, Afghanistan and eventually Iran. Many of us are working to dissolve the U.S. and its empire through secession. Righteous Israelis should create a radical decentralist secessionist movement too.

Making fun of the reptilian brain...

George Carlin wrote in Complaints and Grievances, 2001: I realized some time ago that I'm not separate from nature just because I have a primate brain - an upper brain - because underneath the primate brain, there's a mammalian brain, and beneath the mammalian brain, there's a reptilian brain; and it's those two lower brains that made the upper brain possible in the first place. Here's the way it works: The primate brain says, "Give peace a chance." The mammalian brain says, "Give peace a chance, but first let's kill this motherfucker." And the reptilian brain says, "Let's just kill the motherfucker, go to the peace rally and get laid."

While it's often amusing to watch authoritarians like Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez stand up to U.S. imperialism, it's even more amusing to watch their subjects stand up to and make fun of them - like in video below. For much as they believe they are motivated by spiritual or politically progressive higher brain, in fact they are little reptiles using violence to grab and hold their territory and subjects.


(Yeah, I'm on twitter, just barely.)

Iran protesters and rising sunspots

Sunspots give off solar flares that increase negative ionization on earth--and increased negative ionization during sunspot maximum periods increases human excitablity and activity. A cycle averages 11.5 years, though it can be shorter or longer. Right now we are coming out of the bottom of the last cycle (which peaked in 2000-2001). More details here.

While people will rebel when things are bad enough, no matter what the sunspots are doing, a revolution starting at the beginning of a cycle will probably be a big one, even if things calm down for a few more months. (And that includes that little secessionist movement that is getting going.)

But angry Iranians don't seem to be in the mood for calming down. The Iran government has clamped down on media so it's hard to tell what is and isn't true. But two stories bolstering those who say the election was stolen are here in Forbes and here. That a disgruntled government official leaked results showing Mousavi won is reported in the New York Times and the British Telegraph. Articles about uncertainties include in the Washington Post and Salon.com. Needless to say Iranian challenger Mousavi and his supporters want a brand new election where they will actually have election observers at every polling place!

The Mullahs are promising to count some votes - but that's not enough. Those who want war against Iran hope they can both prove that Ahmadinejad cheated AND see him remain president - one more excuse for a military attack on Iran. Those who love freedom and democracy want to see the truth come out, whatever it is. But by now the election results have no credibility so a new election with observers (not to mention the right for ANYONE to run instead only those approved by the Mullahs) is really the only answer.

In any case, an Israeli and/or U.S. attack on Iran under the pretext of protecting (the colonialist apartheid state of) Israel, will only lead to massive genocidal murder of Iranians and probably escalate to world nuclear war.

Iran101.blogspot.com is one of many sites with lots of photos and videos. Their logo shows a popular picture. (Not to encourage American anti-capitalist black blockers to get a hard on looking at stuff burning in the streets!)

Righteous Israelis Praise Obama's Speech

Haters vs. Obama Speech in Cairo- In vino veritas?

People are preoccupied with hate, after an elderly white supremacist psychopath shot an African-American guard at the Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C. However, the same people denouncing this action excused the racist insults and even a death threat hurled at Barack Obama by Jewish Americans and Israelis in Jerusalem on June 3, the day before his June 4th speech to the Muslim world in Cairo. See this Jerusalem Post article and this Jewish Telegraphic Agency article, linking to another apologia here. Evidently some drunks are allowed to speil hate and be excused as drunks. IMHO these drunks were just as objectionable as the Texas drunks Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat encouraged to sing "Throw the Jew Down the Well" in his 2007 movie.

After the speech, the Mossad's trigger finger must be getting very itchy; but they want to wrap the assassination in a terror attack that can be blamed on someone else, so they have to bide their time. I'm sure these drunken fellows will cheer.

The most interesting quotes from Obama's speech below. Obviously what matters is what Obama does, and except for his refusing to send helicopters to Israel he hasn't done much yet.

FROM BARACK OBAMA CAIRO SPEECH, JUNE 6, 2009
Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and anti-Semitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust. Tomorrow, I will visit Buchenwald, which was part of a network of camps where Jews were enslaved, tortured, shot and gassed to death by the Third Reich. Six million Jews were killed – more than the entire Jewish population of Israel today. Denying that fact is baseless, ignorant, and hateful. Threatening Israel with destruction – or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews – is deeply wrong, and only serves to evoke in the minds of Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve.

On the other hand, it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people – Muslims and Christians – have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than sixty years they have endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. They endure the daily humiliations – large and small – that come with occupation. So let there be no doubt: the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own.

For decades, there has been a stalemate: two peoples with legitimate aspirations, each with a painful history that makes compromise elusive. It is easy to point fingers – for Palestinians to point to the displacement brought by Israel's founding, and for Israelis to point to the constant hostility and attacks throughout its history from within its borders as well as beyond. But if we see this conflict only from one side or the other, then we will be blind to the truth: the only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security.

Tiananman, Waco and Freedom Lovers

Me protesting in June 1989 at the Chinese Embassy in front of the same symbol students put up during the Tiananmen Square protests which ended in mass slaughter by the state. (Four years later the US government would massacre 82 civilians at Waco and similarly cover up the motives for and savagery of their attack.)

And here's a photo of the new Chinese embassy, whose construction I wrote about when they were building it back in 2006 - and running off any Americans who tried to take photos. (It's about ten stories deep beneath street level - great for a nuclear bomb shelter or generators for spy equipment.) Plus another later rant on a similar topic here.
Of course, as a libertarian I'd be comfortable with a 100 million Chinese moving here, preferably to a continent filled with independent communities making their own immigration policies. Just make sure you leave your communists, state capitalists and weapons of mass destruction back there. True freedom lovers are always welcome.