Asymetrical separation

Separation of church and state means the government has nothing to say about religion, not that religion has nothing to say about the government. --l. reichard white, November 27, 2007

Notes on speaking the truth

You will know you have spoken the truth when you are angrily denounced; and you will know you have spoken both truly and well when you are visited by the police. -- J. B. R. Yant

Occam's Razor -- and Einstein's Caution

"All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best." --William of Ockham (with apologies)

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." --Albert Einstein

"Don't tell them, then it will not exist" --Goebbels

Debates Ignore Questions About Presidential Power and Civil Liberties

A new study by the watchdog group Media Matters has found that Democratic and Republican candidates have been asked few questions about their views on executive power, the Constitution, torture, wiretapping, or other civil liberties concerns during the first 17 presidential debates. According to Media Matters there has been only one question about wiretapping. Not a single question about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or renditions. The words "habeas corpus" have not once been spoken by a debate moderator. Candidates have also not been asked about whether telecoms should be granted immunity over their role in domestic spying. Last week's debate ended with Senator Hillary Clinton being asked whether she preferred diamonds or pearls. The question was asked by a UNLV student who has since said that she was forced by CNN to ask that question instead of a pre-approved query about the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. --Democracy NOW! November 20, 2007

The ULTIMATE Mockingbird

William Arkin in the online Washington Post, Feb. 1, 1999, described a voice-morphing technology developed at the government’s Los Alamos laboratory. Arkin reported that digital morphing, including appearance, “has come of age, available for use in psychological operations.” --Why Were The Tapes Destroyed?, By Paul Craig Roberts, 04/02/08 "ICH"

Operation Mockingbird was the seminal PsyOps (psychological operation) instigated on the U.S. public beginning in the early '50s, and a natural evolution of war induction and maintenance which officially began in the U.s. with President Woodrow Wilson's creation of the "Committee on Public Information"

The REAL Enemy?

"The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it." --Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus, THE MATRIX

Epitaph?

"To grasp the horror of military Keynesianism, consider this statistic: By 1990, production for the Department of Defense amounted to 83 percent of the value of all manufacturing plants and equipment in the US. Only 17 percent of the US manufacturing base actually made products not meant to kill."--Trends for Downsizing the US: The Bright Side of the Panic of ‘08, Sunday, 27 January 2008, Christopher Ketcham

Monopoly buster

... the monopoly of the use of force [by government] is a European concept. It’s not an American one. A State Monopoly in violence is explicitly forbidden by the 2nd Amendment, just as a State Monopoly on press, assembly, or church is forbidden by the 1st. --Dan tdaxp, Ungoverned Megacites, 03 Nov 07 at 9:57 pm,

Pots & kettles

What exactly does it mean when the biggest bully on the block -- the U.S. Government, for example -- calls someone else a "troublemaker?" --L. Reichard White, Oct. 28, 2007