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this is a post for off topic comments. OT comments in other posts will likely be deleted. no spam, disguised or otherwise.
this is a post for off topic comments. OT comments in other posts will likely be deleted. no spam, disguised or otherwise.
Posted 20070615 23:00 under Uncategorized. Follow responses through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are closed.
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June 15th, 2007 at 23:49
[originally posted 15 June, 2007 22:51 by Anonymous. moved here and HTML'd by saltypig.]
Completely off the topic here, but would really like to get your reaction to this video:
http://tinyurl.com/y2smkn
I know you tend to be very critical, but I think you’ll find some of the thinking exhibited, especially by Steven Jones, to be tantalizing.
June 16th, 2007 at 00:21
the thinking exhibited, especially by Steven Jones
that video’s generally better than the typical 9/11 hype drivel, but they fuck it away with the fake (yet oh too realistic) trial summation and its melodramatic rhetorical jive. no idea why people need to stray from the path of reality. do they know any of the buildings were inside job demolitions? no. but they deposit the usual drivel in the end. the 9/11 “truthers” are their own enemy.
BTW, i don’t find the tucker carlson bit (refusing to show WTC7) as surely damning and sinister as they appear to. maybe the producers figured nobody gives a shit about WTC7 and wanted to concentrate on 1&2. WTC7′s a strange one. what’s the motive? how would conspirators have known there’d be significant cover damage to excuse the implosion? it’s suspicious, but i don’t see anything convincing there yet.
9/11 was just fucking weird. such a mind boggling thing, watching those clips. i often wonder what someone with foreknowledge could’ve done to gather incontrovertible evidence. naturally, i never put mass murder above the threshold of state psychos. hell, who the fuck else is more willing to destroy lives? that first phone message was a stunner.
June 18th, 2007 at 17:18
Hi Charley,
I went to the Anaheim City Hall, Business Licenses Division today, at the request of my employer, to submit some taxation forms for them. They needed to get them in today as they received notification on Thursday and the city had given them 5 days to return the forms and they didn’t want to be charged any penalties.
Anaheim City Hall is an odd place to go. The community around city hall is what you’d call “economically depressed” or ghetto-like… not much new investment, high density population of immigrants (while not all immigrants are poor or crime-prone, most areas in the country with large 1st and 2nd gen immigrant populations are like this), obvious lack of “public investment” in the area as well.
Then you turn the corner at the block and drive along Anaheim Blvd where City Hall and the other civic buildings are. Suddenly things are a little too nice. Like eerily nice. Sidewalks are perfectly aligned, no cracks or roots shoving up the concrete. The concrete is not normal grey concrete but this reddish mixture that sparkles. Trees line every sidewalk and pathway, planted precisely every X feet. Every building is brand new, or brand new looking. It’s very quiet, birds are chirping somewhere. In the parking lots, signage and directions are EVERYWHERE. In one straight-away section of the lot that was about 100 feet long, there were 6 (SIX) large white arrows pointed on the ground depicting the intended flow of traffic. The lot contained probably 100 parking spaces… 10% of them were handicap spots. Each handicap spot had it’s own “Handicap Parking” sign. Beside that sign was a large sign explaining that penalties would be assessed for parking in one of those spots without a permit.
200 S Anaheim Blvd, the City Hall building, is a palace… a monument of the city to itself. After entering the structure and navigating to the Business License Division, I found myself in front of a computer screen which, after following several prompts, printed out a ticket with “V104″ on it. I sat down in the waiting area (all new carpet and chairs) and was mesmerized by the soft-spoken, semi-computerized female voice chiming out every few minutes alongside the brand new flat-screen LCD panels displaying prompts, “Customer… Q-1-0-1… at window… 8… will now be helped,” or something like that.
Behind the “customer service windows” (which were not windows but simply counter-top spaces with numbers hanging above them) was a well lit, spacious office cubicle set-up (we’re not talking Milton in Office Space, we’re talking Gordon Gekko in Wall Street), again with lots of new carpet, desks, computers and other appliances. All the “workers” had new headsets. Clocks adorned every wall, as did those spooky “Teamwork – It’s what gets the job done” corporate-type motivational posters which are often spoofed on the internet. Most of the people behind the counter were women. The two men I saw appeared to be gay based on their behavior and methods of speech.
When it was finally my turn, I went up to the counter and handed over the permits and check I was instructed to deliver. I thought it would be that easy, especially after seeing all the technology that was obviously purchased to run things efficiently.
“You’re going to need to fill out this…” an Anaheim Fire Department combustible materials questionaire,”…and this…” a food, alcohol and adult media questionaire for businesses (“Will adult products be sold or displayed at your business?” “Will massages or physical manipulation occur at or near your business?”, etc.) said the large-breasted woman behind the counter. I signed these documents, sweating slightly when I noticed that little ol’ intern me could be prosecuted for perjury if I somehow fucked it up.
Then I was informed that the company I was working for was being penalized for being late and not paying some taxes which were already due. Along with the $275 they had sent in check form to cover the business license, they’d also need to pay another $588 to right what was wrong.
As I was waiting for the documentation I needed to take back to the owner, I chuckled as I looked over the documents I had signed. Everywhere the documents asked to “- be specific -” ostensibly so all proper taxes could be levied. Another area of one of the papers asked if this business was being operated out of a home.
“If so, did you fill out and sign a Home Occupation Permit?”
Who thinks this country is free, again?
June 18th, 2007 at 20:33
taylor, i continually refer people to this example:
I know there are some who will say, “Wait a minute, fella. You’re going too far. The U.S. of A. is still a free country.” O.K., then. If you’re free, you should have no trouble doing something that people have done for time immemorial. Buy a cow, shelter and feed and care for it, milk it, and sell the milk. Go ahead, try it and see what happens. Come back and let us know how free you are to do such a simple thing, which has been done since the dawn of civilization.
June 20th, 2007 at 00:29
Hi Charley,
I don’t know what kind of music you like, but I noticed that picture of PJ Harvey. I am not familiar with her music but I tried to take a guess at what she might sound like and remembered a Canadian band with a female lead singer called Metric.
I looked them up on Wikipedia and the lead singer is cute-looking and according to her Wikipedia bio had PJ Harvey as an early influence.
Weird “coincidence” (I don’t believe in the word and I didn’t long before I saw V. I had my own theory formulated by freshman year of college, but I’ve never read any literature or theory on coincidence so I don’t know if I am original in my thinking or not. Probably not.)
As for me, I like all kinds of stuff. I am trying to learn the guitar so I can eventually play some of the metal stuff I like (Metallica, Iced Earth, Blind Guardian, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Opeth, etc.) I listened to a lot of UGHH (underground hiphop) back in high school and early college… I think every white suburb kid has his wanna-be-black phase these days, mine was a little different because I was into the underground rather than commercial radio rap, not that I am suddenly excused for gettin’ jiggy wit’ it. I’ve kind of “grown out of it” at this point, although I still really appreciate and respect some groups and artists (such as 7L & Esoteric, Atmosphere/Slug, Eyedea, DJ and producer RJD2 as well as many of the original forerunners of the genre, like Nas). I also like some electronic/downtempo stuff, such as Thievery Corporation, Zero 7 and the French group, Air.
I’d be curious to see what gets your goat. I know you’ve posted about liking some pop and a few artists in particular, but what did you grow up listening to and what do you really enjoy now?
(Oh yeah, I almost forgot Michael Jackson, but he’s like his own genre…)
June 23rd, 2007 at 16:32
You’ve mentioned that your mom had cancer and although I don’t want to scrape (possibly) unhealed wounds, I would like to know, to the extent that you’re comfortable talking about it, just a bit about that experience. Sorry in advance if these questions seem tactless; please don’t be offended, there is no intention of being hurtful, nosy, or even insensitive.
What kind of cancer did she have?
I assume it was terminal (would be thrilled to hear otherwise, though), how long was her battle and what did she do, if anything, to address it?
What did you think of her doctors and/or other health care practitioners? Did they seem competent and compassionate or just arrogant and ignorant (or something else)? Basically, did her treatment (and I mean that in a holistic sense–not just surgery, chemo, and/or radiation, but also any other care and manner of care) seem to help on balance, at least for a while?
How did it affect the family? Were you or any of your siblings (if any) still living at home or did this occur after all were grown and living on their own? If your dad was still alive, was it a pretty tough blow for him?
Finally, looking back on it now and with the benefit of hindsight, is there any advice you would pass along to someone else to get through a similar situation in light of what worked and what didn’t? (Of course, everyone’s situation is different, but that doesn’t mean others couldn’t benefit from your thoughts.)
June 23rd, 2007 at 21:08
hey, taylor. i heard PJ harvey years ago while spinning the radio dial. was a live recording. i got her name, went to amazon, then just picked an album. bought another one after that. over the years it’s surprised me how deeply that music’s stuck in my soul. love sexy PJ. she’s the kind you need to listen to a million times to really get. least that’s how it worked for me. she does things straight to your gut, skipping the prancer stage.
re coincidence, that’s one of the rare parts of VfV i thought was just terrible. i don’t see how anyone can not believe in coincidence at least for some things. i cringe when i hear those multiple refs to it, especially from V.
grew up listening to big band music and vocal classics that my dad played. then i got into classical, then stuff like yes, ELP, and genesis. ELP, believe it or not, eventually steered me to classic jazz (bop), and i was hooked like a drug addict after that, listening to a local jazz station every night for hours, often till 1 or 2 AM. for much of high school i was learning to play bop (on piano), also with a strong sideline into weather report, which i’m still a big fan of. at the end of high school i discovered jimi hendrix, since he was pretty close to the crazier jazz i was listening to. picked up guitar then, and was soon enough into led zeppelin, van halen, queen, etc.
compared to most people, i guess i went backwards in my music evolution. was a disgusting music snob in junior high and high school, then did little in “music conservatory” (the bullshit “college” foisted on me) but play guitar in a pizza joint band, though i was a piano performance major. in college i got turned onto prince and cameo, then branched out from there. i don’t listen to much new stuff, but more out of convenience than being stuck in a rut. i can always find something new i like very much if i look for it. generally, i’m very picky, but over a wide range. almost any style of music, i can find artists i like.
if i want to jam tunes these days, i generally just hit shuffle and let one of the 5,000 songs on my iPod take me to nevah nevah land. sometimes it works, sometimes i skip to the next song. coincidence? i dunno. the other night i blasted AC/DC and was playing air drums, guitar, and doing all sorts of crazy antics all over (fortunately unseen, far as i know). nothing gets me rolling like music.
June 23rd, 2007 at 22:24
anonymous, i don’t mind talking about my mom’s illness and death so much that i can’t do it. wrote an article at LRC about her death, and some of what you mentioned is covered there. odd thing with that was that many of the people who wrote me after it discussed it like it was about my mom — almost like a biographic tribute or something. but it’s basically a 100% selfish article about how her death affected me and the family that died soon after she did.
in many ways, my mom died for me the day she came home, sat in the living room, and said, through my father seated next to her, that the newly discovered painful lump on her collarbone was cancerous. more accurately, i died to her. i abandoned her mentally that very second, out of fear and narcissistic discomfort avoidance. probably the shittiest thing i ever did to anyone. no one but she would’ve noticed it at the beginning, but it eventually got just achingly obvious. i tried to be away from the situation whenever i could. disgusting. yeah, i showed up and talked with her and whatever, but i was not there for her; her illness in my life was all about me.
so though it hardly applies exactly to anyone else, my biggest advice would be to realize consciously, as i did not, the following. it will sound simple and obvious, but i fucked it away nonetheless, and wish i could have a redo:
- if someone’s diagnosed with cancer and the doctors say she doesn’t have long, they’re probably right. that special person in your life won’t not die in proportion to how much you need her. i had convinced myself, no shit, that my mother, despite the obvious affliction and damage of the disease, would not die from it.
- terminally ill people, in pain, will likely become a huge pain in the ass. wanna swap with ‘em? okay, then fuck yourself. i was not around my mother enough for her dealing with her sickness to annoy me. it bothered my brother and father though. there was not necessarily anyone to blame for that. it was cancer. i’ve heard this is typical of terminal illness; the victim transmutes fear and pain in ways that are sometimes unbearable for observers/targets.
- this last tick is one i don’t like to talk about, but WTF. a family friend got in my mother’s ear early after her diagnosis, and talked her into trying a “macrobiotic” diet. my mother, who decided to eschew chemo and radiation, clung to this goddamned stupid piece of shit diet as if it would cure her. it completely fucked away something she treasured (good, tasty food), while turning my brother and father into logistical knots accommodating the arbitrary and laughably mystical drivel of fuckers who held aloft big stories of momentous cures from eating bread that tasted like brick, and foregoing tomatoes “because they aren’t local”, hot showers, cold showers, whatever. damn, but this shit still pisses me off. so my advice in that regard is that if someone’s probably going to die soon, opt for temporal enjoyment instead of agony. go out with a bang, even if it takes a few weeks away. mentally, eating what she wanted that last year may have helped my mother live longer, more happily. the family would’ve been closer. food is so important socially, and that was yanked from us by someone who should’ve kept quiet about it.
some assholes at my father’s church criticized him for not doing enough, blah blah blah, as his wife was dying, but i said then and i’ll say now that they can kiss my black ass. for my father to go to one of those macrobiotic quack mystics and watch him look my mom in the eyes and give some “diagnosis” (by looking at her eyes), rubbing two sticks of wood together or whatever, then take her to some whack job food store to buy the “nuts r us” survival kit… frankly, if i’d been he, i might have talked her out of it, and i could have. however, he suffered that shit, which i know drove him nuts, and let her do her misguided thing through to the end. he even kept eating that crap for months after she died. we all ate it here and there when my mom was still at home (me the least, as i recall).
the most immature and bullshit maneuver i pulled on my mom is one i’ve not written about publicly, but some men with dying mothers may benefit from hearing it. i visited my mom somewhat regularly in the hospital, though nowhere near as much as people who lived closer. something happened though, and i avoided the hospital afterward. they’d moved a chair toilet into my mom’s room, because she had trouble walking to the bathroom. my dad’s sister was there when i got there one night, and we had fun talking with my mom for a while. then my mom said she needed to use the toilet. this sounds so damned stupid writing about it now, that it could’ve served as such a block in my idiot mind, but they didn’t wait for me to leave the room. even while i got up to leave, my mom said something about how i may as well get used to it or something. and my eyes tear just thinking about this again, because i couldn’t face that embarrassment and discomfort to reach out to my mother when she needed real physical and mental help. just sickening. but from that day on, i avoided the hospital whenever i could.
a couple of years later, as a single dad with a visiting 1-year-old daughter, i realized how such things do not matter in the least to a parent. my daughter could and did spit up on me, poop on my hand (when i made the mistake of letting her 18-month-old self get in a pool without a diaper), or whatever, and my sole focus was on taking care of her. there was no ewww to it, y’know? completely benign. i should have found that for my mom, and i think i was just too lazy, self-centered, and scared.
i wish i’d read The Death of Ivan Ilych before my mom got sick, or while she was dying. would’ve given me at least a slight window into the loneliness of death, and how i should have found strength to let my mom at least not see fear in me. i wish i’d talked more with my mom about her childhood, how she met my dad, etc. She’s gone now, and sometimes when i think of her my image of her gets fuzzy. hearing more about her would’ve cemented her more strongly in my head. i never treated my mother like a person; she was my caretaker always. after my daughter, i think i could be my mom’s caretaker, but that shit just wasn’t anywhere in me until the first time i held my kid — a bolt of lightning from somewhere.
answering your specific questions: i guess my mom had lung/breast cancer, but the first indication of it was on her collarbone. it spread everywhere through her chest after that. she died about a year after the first biopsy. she put her foot down on chemo and radiation, and that was probably a good choice, from what i heard. i didn’t deal with her doctors and nurses much at all. my dad did, and he told me (in his clean language) that some of them were pricks, and others were good. as i recall, he said some had shit for bedside manner and tact, with arrogance being the typical root affliction. combine that arrogance with the confusion of treating/predicting most maladies, and i guess that leads to frustration for all.
i got the impression from watching my mom get run back and forth to the hospital that there was no one accepting responsibility for the trauma that their inconsiderate and impersonal treatment encouraged. usual story. the most pissed i got watching their ham-fisted shit was when they pulled her off some steroid too quickly and she lost her mind temporarily. WTF. i don’t know anything about that stuff, but it seemed to my ignorant view that it was preventable.
my mother remained positive at the beginning, though she was obviously afraid. after a while, i think she just said to hell with it; there was nothing the medical troops were going to do for her if she didn’t sign off on the chemo/radiation thing. death was something i never discussed with her. wish i had. i should’ve gone much farther down that path with her than i did.
June 26th, 2007 at 21:10
In light of your high regard for the police, here’s one you might find interesting.
Hard to tell for sure all that’s going on and the sound’s off until the last few moments as the cop gets it, but it looks like the cop has spotted a “person of interest” and gives chase. Pulls him over and holds him for a couple of minutes (what’s that about?). Finally, the guy he has pulled over gets tired of sitting around and leaves.
Naturally, the cop again gives chase, this time crossing over to the other side of the road to head off his prey and, again, the guy pulls over. Looks like the cop then rammed his car a couple times and it also looks like the guy in the car is trying to wave the cop away to get him to back off.
Next thing you know, the cop sprays pepper spray into the car and the guy in the car shoots and kills the cop.
What do you make of it?
Here (with story):
http://www.caledonianrecord.com/pages/top_news/story/edb867579
and / or:
http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=/watch%3Feurl%3D%26v%3DpMT6UV5vYF4
June 26th, 2007 at 21:31
“Liko Kenney’s use of deadly physical force against Corporal McKay was not justified,”
bullshit. the gestapo expects freeborn people to just sit there and be sprayed in the face, tased, or any other piece of shit aggression. the cop was obviously doing the usual cop thing of, “isn’t it great how i can spray this dude in the face.” he sure wasn’t concerned for his safety, turning his back like that. total typical top psycho attitude, and he got what he deserved. only wish the milfare asshole witness had let well enough alone. the usual “law and order” jive ass. would like to see him prosecuted for murder.
any cop acting outside of individual rights should be treated exactly as what he is when it gets to the usual attack level — a deadly aggressor. glad to hear some in the town are apparently calling that twisted fuck what he was.
here’s even more reason (via LRC blog) why these fuckers better buy more body armor; they pulled the gloves off many years ago, and the “men” in this country need to figure out just what the fuck they’ve allowed for far too long.
June 26th, 2007 at 22:04
in case you hadn’t seen it, here’s the prior incident between an individual demanding “compliance” and his dissatisfied “subject”. the comments of the goon squad are insane. crazy world when a reasonable man’s treated as the asshole. was just thinking of this today when i was at an american black slavery museum, reading some of the insane shit the “justice system” and church fuckers were spouting about slaves. people are nuts. always have been, and probably always will be. dreck.
August 13th, 2007 at 16:52
I know you’re a fan, so you might want to check out this link (Sarah Silverman):
http://www.nextbook.org/cultural/feature.html?id=209
August 13th, 2007 at 20:28
thanks. semi-different article. i lost my jones for her a bit after renting Jesus is Magic, but she is strong.
September 14th, 2007 at 17:49
Check this out (cop “serving and protecting”):
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/19/1961.asp
September 15th, 2007 at 00:37
thanks for the link. posted here.
October 4th, 2007 at 14:25
Although my impression has been that you’ve been a bit too hard on LRC regarding their support of Ron Paul, it does seem as if they’re trying to exonerate you.
Can’t believe that today they actually have the gall to print Ron Paul’s “Statement on the Tax Free Tips Act” as an article with the heading “No Taxes on Tips” (a political stunt that should be beneath both RP and LRC).
But here’s the kicker. Also today, James Ostrowski has a blog entry, ” National Review misses the point,” in which he says, “When a man who promises that all citizens will be treated equally with special favoritism to no one, raises millions, that’s a man bites dog story.” Did he miss the story on the main page today?
October 4th, 2007 at 16:32
thanks. posted here.
October 5th, 2007 at 11:45
Who are the real terrorists in America?
http://www.breitbart.tv/html/6414.html
October 5th, 2007 at 12:01
sickening. good for that girl, who apparently possesses the spirit essential for liberty. sorry she was tortured.
being kidnapped — what she was apparently resisting, and justly — is a damned serious thing. obeyers in the US consider any deviation from the edict of another (or group of others) “all bets are off” time. spray. tase. pummel. it’s all correct.
watching such videos makes me physically ill.
October 17th, 2007 at 13:49
I’ve seen your posts all over youtube, and frankly, you struck me as a rabid guliani-ite. You put up a link that led me here.
I was somewhat shocked to see that you are in fact someone I used to read on LRC a couple of years back — a member of the anti-state, pro-liberty minority.
I’ve poked and prodded around your site a bit, and saw where early this year, you called Lew Rockwell “one of the most brilliant” people, yada yada, and culminating in the half-crazed vitriol that you’re writing up about that crowd now.
I don’t get you … I fully understand that you believe Lew and cohorts are selling out for participating in “the process” — sentiments that I don’t fully disagree with, actually — but why the rage? You’re treating RP and crew as the worst of all possible alternatives.
At one time, back in the elder days of your blog, you even treated RP with casual respect. Why is it so bad now?
Under our current political process, which isn’t going to change because a tiny handful of Austrians say it should, I see the following:
1. Somebody’s going to be president. Ugh, barf, etc.
2. The president is usually an asshole who drives a belligerent foreign (and domestic) policy, as well as leading the way for a domestic (and foreign) welfare extravapalooza.
3. The only remotely possible way to become president is to register with either the Evil Party or the Stupid Party — take your pick as to which is which — and go campaigning for votes. Some of these votes and some of the support might not come from people you agree with 100%, but a vote is a vote.
4. Here we have someone with the stomach to do just that, and refrain from more executive-style warfare in office. On the welfare front, at the very least he can cause four years of gridlock. As an anarchist, don’t you *like* gridlock? I do.
I’ve taken this progression, and come to a conclusion that for once in my life, I need to figure out how to register to vote. Maybe I never will again, but meanwhile I’m supporting Ron Paul vocally and materially.
Sure, his hypothetical and perhaps unlikely administration is not an ideal solution, and no one could ever claim that Ron could or even would try to achieve a perfect libertarian ideal. You’d never get Congress to agree, and you’d never get the people to stop the demand for a Congressional-like body. So what gives in your response? What’s your solution, if an RP candidacy is such a horrible way to at least slow the encroachments on peace and freedom?
“Do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” etc, etc.
I’m reminded of the first time I ever heard of Murray Rothbard, in one of those Ayn Rand essay collections. (I believe the essay was by some Peter Schwartz guy, not Ayn herself.) There were several pages of this blah, blah, blah deconstructing about two total sentences of Murray’s, misinterpreted, denounced to the sky, and I’m pretty certain the phrase “worse than Kant” was thrown around a time or two. This, for the guy who wasn’t too far off their perfect objectionist ideal.
This is essentially what you’re doing. It ain’t perfect, so you bemoan RP, Lew, and supporters as the worst thing since unsliced bread. Yeah, I know RP isn’t promising to eliminate the gummint in one fell swoop, Lew has had some recent (and some not-so-recent) problems with fact-checking, and some of the supporters are mildly delusional. So what? Their delusions are better ones, and more closely related to reality than they might have been since 9/11 or even earlier.
So what gives, man? Can you explain for the confused peanut gallery?
November 1st, 2007 at 20:20
[reply to jaq phule pending.]
December 6th, 2007 at 10:12
To extend Jaq’s questioning, I’m thinking about the RP support question like this:
Would you enlist the help of a petty robber to try to stop a mass murderer?
I’ve enjoyed poking around your site, and it reminded me that limited government is not the ideal. We should be tireless in promoting the virtues of voluntary associations. If Ron Paul wins the presidency, I would love to see him be severely tested in his devotion to liberty. Let’s tell him that he does not rule us. Of anyone seeking the office of president, he would be the most likely to accept secession.
Just my two cents worth…
December 6th, 2007 at 15:24
Would you enlist the help of a petty robber to try to stop a mass murderer?
false question, even if getting around its major flaws (e.g., it’s a lifeboat scenario. ron paul is far worse than a petty robber. the official US crime gang is far worse than “a” serial mass murderer). the real lifeboat question re a ron paul presidency is if you’d enlist a serial mass murderer (US syndicate) to protect you from himself — assuming for the sake of your analogy he’d read a tract on christianity and promised to do better (arrival of ron paul).
BTW, ron paul has already stated several times that he would prosecute whatever war congress declared. helluva guy.
if looking for analogies along these lines, consider “affirmative action”, which in a strong way represents the bullshit RP swillers are trying to sell. “use wrong for right! it’s an emergency!”
December 7th, 2007 at 08:12
Well, I’m not relying upon any “Christian tract” to base my support for RP. I’m simply convinced that he does really intend to shrink the size and scope of the federal government and that he would not pre-emptively attack another nation.
Your comment about his willingness to wage war if declared by Congress is an excellent point. This is a strong indictment against government and anyone who would sanction it (including RP). People will do horrible things that they would never consider as “private” individuals as long as those actions are properly sanctioned by government rules. In other words, they’ll commit crimes as long as they’re acting as “public” officials.
Analogies aside, I do honestly believe that the likelihood of war decreases drastically under a RP presidency. This does not excuse RP’s advocacy for government legitimacy.
BTW, I know full well that your position is the consistent one. What you’ve succeeded in doing is to remind me that as long as you endorse government, you are endorsing evil. RP supporters have been breathlessly saying that we have, for once, an election in which we don’t have to choose the “lesser of two evils”. Many of these people are those who would have, in other circumstances, roundly criticized government activity of any kind.
December 7th, 2007 at 15:50
the RP trap is as old as the hills, and it began the minute the antifederalists were deemed by mass delusion to be not only in the wrong (which they were not), but against the word of god, in the form of the holy US constitution.
this, among other reasons, is what i find perplexing about lew rockwell’s ludicrously over the top support of ron paul. a few years ago at least, lew believed the constitution to be a power grab, not the salvation ron paul clearly portrays at every opportunity. it’s why i suspect he’s being highly disingenuous throwing fuel on that fire, encouraging constitution worship.
it is right to use the constitution as evidence of duplicity, shoving it in the faces of those sworn to support it. that’s about it. as spooner ably enunciated, it’s a shit document, no matter the intentions of the original pushers of it (which range from ignorant to evil).
People will do horrible things that they would never consider as “private” individuals as long as those actions are properly sanctioned by government rules.
wrote an article that begins with that notation.
I do honestly believe that the likelihood of war decreases drastically under a RP presidency.
under a mathematic approach to federal crime analysis, that’s sound instinct. but considering the massive, powerful forces such a decrease stands to “injure”, i think a ron paul presidency could be the trigger for unprecedented false flag operations. when you have a populace as stupid as this, doesn’t take much to have the fools turn against “the liberty president”. so much potential for abuse in this fragile environment of unthinking jackals.
and that points to the major intellectual failure of the paulists — the notion that one man can inflict liberty on many millions of violent clods. it’s almost too silly to even bother refuting, yet that error is the heart of the RP “revolution”. at best, i think they’re rooting for RP to take a bullet for them (or similar “unfortunate” incident).
December 10th, 2007 at 11:11
A discussion occasionally had among Paul supporters:
What do we think established political powers would do in response to a Ron Paul presidency?
I have always been concerned that the responses were a little glib:
Oh, they will resist him in Congress, and we’ll just vote out the people who don’t play along.
I hear you saying (and I agree) that we’re underestimating the current elite if we think they’re simply going to roll over.
the notion that one man can inflict liberty on many millions of violent clods
I see where you’re coming from. We kind of get back to needing to educate people. I’m still not coming all the way to your view. I do think that Ron Paul is challenging the out-right worship of government, and I’m encouraged at the reception that he gets. I do see concern though in continued Constitution worship. I’m also awakening a little to the unpredictability of extreme responses by the people currently in power.
December 10th, 2007 at 12:04
I do think that Ron Paul is challenging the out-right worship of government, and I’m encouraged at the reception that he gets.
after a life of ignorant/comfortable insularity, for better or worse (sometimes seems like a curse) i found the door to rationally defensible freedom via harry browne during his 2000 pres campaign. there will be ron paul newbies who, after the requisite education period, learn independently that their eyes were opened by people with skewed vision, then take it onto the correct path. unknown, but i think it’s very unlikely that this will offset the millions of distortions and the outright fucking of the liberty movement by unabashed statists and flag wavers. from the beginning i’ve noted that there would be isolated benefits amongst the ron paul disaster movement. i see no plausible way they’ll overcome and flip the disaster positive, except maybe 50 years from now, if normal people realize by examining the ron paul pres campaign how full of shit was the very idea.
December 10th, 2007 at 17:03
there will be ron paul newbies who, after the requisite education period, learn independently that their eyes were opened by people with skewed vision, then take it onto the correct path.
I was first exposed to Austrian economics and ultimately to complete rejection of the state by Ron Paul’s speech titled “The End of Dollar Hegemony”. Can’t say yet if I’m on the correct path. But whatever path I’m on, Ron Paul was a major catalyst.
In the end, ideas matter – not personalities. Though I’m warming up to your skepticism, I think that Ron Paul has brought good ideas into the minds of a lot of people. I hope that the good ideas will survive.
Thanks for the exchange. I’ll keep an eye on your blog.
December 10th, 2007 at 17:18
thanks, joe. good talking with you. i hope you’ll drop by around the time my RP article’s up. taking shape slowly. it’ll be published here, if you want to throw the feed into your reader. little activity there, so it won’t noise you out.
December 17th, 2007 at 13:11
Anthony Gregory over at lewrockwell.com wrote an open letter to anarchists on behalf of Ron Paul. As you have influenced my thinking in his regard, I though that you might be interested in seeing my response that I sent to him:
*******************************
Anthony,
I write in response to your open letter (http://www.lewrockwell.com/gregory/gregory153.html) as someone who donated money to Ron Paul’s Nov 5 fundraiser, pledged to the Dec 16 event but then kept my money on that day. As an anarchist, I do applaud the movement that has formed around Paul. I’m encouraged that opposition continues to organize against American empire. However, I have begun to question whether anarchists ought to be openly and enthusiastically supporting the political process and deifying a man – even if he is an exceptional man.
In selling Paul, I found myself advocating limited government. There is something to understanding that the success of American society is not due to Democracy (Republicanism or whatever you want to call it) but to the mere fact that life, liberty and property were respected. Government and many of its evils were restrained for a time — more than at any other point in modern history. Yet in taking this stand, I found myself shoulder to shoulder with people who frankly worship the Constitution. I stood with people who are convinced that the political system is good and that we simply have to get the right people (We the people! – sick collectivist BS) in charge.
I can and will no longer make that stand.
Prior to the last few years, I was a rank and file Republican. My conversion to anarchism came when I identified the state as a monopoly on violence and all that such a monopoly brings. I could not escape the conclusions that such a realization brought to me. You wrote of waking “many people up to the principles of liberty.” I agree that people are waking up to the failures of the U.S. government and are demanding change. Yet I question whether attempting to reform the state will somehow lead them to oppose the state. It is ironic that I may now quote you in one of the articles to which you linked:
“Those who wish to improve the state’s handling of law and order by petitioning it to repeal some of its laws and redirect its focus should be commended to the degree that they challenge grave injustices by the state, but most reformers ignore the crucial problem — socialism in the area of law and rights protection. A reform that leaves the state intact as a monopoly on criminal justice will be as limited as any reform of education that allows the state to continue its near-complete ownership of the schools.”
As you attempt to reform government by supporting Ron Paul, realize that you support the state by your sanction to play its game. You lend legitimacy to the mechanisms of the state. Even if you are successful — if Ron Paul becomes president and accomplishes all that he promises, you will have achieved the feat of convincing a generation that government is good and holy as long as it is restrained, as long as the right people are in charge. I think that we all know where that will lead.
My last argument to myself for openly campaigning for Ron Paul was that it would all be worth it if only to avoid mass murder of countless Iranians and a retrenchment of some of the evils inflicted by a U.S. empire. I still know fully that Ron Paul is the only candidate who promises this goal. If we must have a president and if it must be him, I hope that he is successful. Yet I have begun to doubt whether we ought to have confidence in his prospects for success.
Ron Paul supporters (most notably writers at lewrockwell.com) have been breathlessly saying that the establishment does not understand him and that it doesn’t know how to deal with him. It is undeniably true that stupidity abounds within the establishment. Yet, I don’t suppose that every member of the elite is dumb. Indeed, supposing for a moment some dark conspiracy of world government (ala illuminati), the ones that really run things may be quite intelligent. In any case, smart and dumb alike, they are all ruthless. I now think that it is horribly naive to discount them.
At the least, Ron Paul may put himself in grave danger if elected president. I think more likely though that people whose families have had generations of experts at manipulating popular opinion will simply find ways to turn the gullible public against him. I expect that a Ron Paul presidency could be about as successful as “deregulating” energy was in California. Each of us knows that California did nothing like opening a free market in energy, yet free markets were discredited nonetheless. So may the cause of liberty be discredited when horrible things happen during a Ron Paul presidency. People may come to say “we gave liberty a shot. Look what it brought us. It just doesn’t work in this day and age.”
I’m currently re-reading “Atlas Shrugged” as a bit of holiday light reading. It has occurred to me that Ron Paul and his supporters are much like Dr. Robert Stadler. They are to be damned because they should have known better. In the end, I fear that they will have found themselves on the wrong end of the cause for liberty.
There is no short cut to education in the cause of liberty. As someone said who has recently influenced me, one individual can not “inflict” liberty upon the whole population. We can teach. We can openly oppose evil. But we can not use the methods of evil to save us from evil. If the day comes when enough people are truly devoted to the philosophy of liberty to turn an election, we will find that the election will not be necessary.
I remain an interested observer in the efforts of Ron Paul of those who support him. Yet I fear that you may be undermining your cause. As one anarchist to another, I encourage you to distance yourself from the apparatus of the government.
Regards,
*******************************
I’m looking forward to your article. Thanks!
Joe
December 18th, 2007 at 01:29
thanks, joe. right on. instead of just linking to it, i copied it as a blog post, with a scribbling intro.
February 16th, 2010 at 00:16
Hey, man. I was watching FNC’s neocon line-up tonight, and I saw this:
http://videos.mediaite.com/video/Bernie-Goldberg-On-OReilly-Fact
Apparently, he coined the term “lamestream media” a few months ago, and he’s quite proud of it. When I saw it, I realized that I had read it a ways back, and lo and behold:
http://saltypig.com/blog/2008/02/morning-after.htm
Gave me a laugh. Then I saw this:
http://www.bernardgoldberg.com/store/
Made me gag a little bit, but still gave me a laugh.
February 16th, 2010 at 00:26
yeah, i think it long predates my first use of it.