War - Tool of Oppression
Michael Moore is just like P. J. O'Rourke, only without the wit, the humour and the insight. -- Tom Burroughes
Mary Lou Seymour at Rational Review - 10th anniversary of the siege at Waco: We'll Never Forget - For her Liberty Action of the Week, Ms. Seymour expands considerably on my idea of posting a "Remember Waco" on your web site until April 19. She even linked to this blog. Thanks, Mary Lou! [smith2004]
I don't know about y'all, but though I always remember April 19, I had completely forgotten that the siege of Waco started on Feb.28. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the all-American atrocity, in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Federal Bureau of Investigations mounted a siege on the Branch Davidians at Mt. Carmel, TX, culminating in an assault that destroyed their home in flames and killed 82 of the 135 men women and children in residence. After the seige, 20 children were sent off to relatives or foster homes; two dozen mostly elderly adults were scattered in Waco or across the country or the world; eleven adults were incarcerated and tried, eight convicted. Seven remain imprisoned.The HTML for the text and graphic that I'm using at the top of this blog's left columns is:
While we may worry about the actions of foreign governments against their citizens, and, some may even want our country to be the "world police" and protect the rights of the oppressed in other countries, the 10-year-anniversary of Waco offers a potent reminder that the government we should worry about most is not headquartered in Baghdad, Pyongyang, Teheran, or Beijing -- but in Washington, D.C.
<center> <font color="red">Remember Waco</font><br> <a href="http://carolmoore.net/waco/cwj-info.html"> <img src="http://billstclair.com/blog/waco-banner-stamp.jpg" width="158" height="104"></a></center>
Ed Lewis at The Patriotist - War - Tool of Oppression - a reminder of the inhuman brutality of war. If you believe in attacking Iraq, read this and tell me that bombing Iraq's cities is part of a "just war". And if you can do that, then explain to me why you, accessory to a conspiracy to commit mass murder, deserve to draw another breath.
Do our people not realize that innocent Iraqi people present no threat to us; that it is unlikely they ever will anymore than we ordinary American people present a threat to them? Of course, as we allow Bush and company to proceed to its desired slaughter - apparently slaughtering innocent people turns Bush on - it is likely the rest of the world will begin perceiving us as wimps who can't control the blood thirsty in the US Government.
Perhaps this will result in the wrath of millions being turned against we Americans. I know that if I were in another country and watched thousands upon thousands of innocent people blown to bits, slaughtered as they trembled within their homes, or shot unmercifully as they fled the US often uncontrolled military [See My Lai, Afghanistan atrocities, Vietnam's Highway of Death, Panama, Yugoslavia, the American Indian, and so on,] that I would do all I could to get back at those doing the slaughtering. Realize this, People. The US Government has developed into the most efficient killing machine on Earth. It can kill millions with the flick of a switch, either by known weapons of mass destruction or those that are currently not well known but very real nonetheless.
The military of the US Government - including those trained to kill in the many black ops organizations - are quite probably the best-trained, most well armed soldiers on Earth. And far too many haven't any qualms about who it is they kill - American Citizen or foreign - or where they do the killing - on American soil or foreign. Waco demonstrates this conclusively.
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So, to Bush supporters and supporters of the horrible events about to unfold, you are just as involved in the slaughter of innocents as they are. You are aiding and abetting them in their murderous intents - and ignorance isn't an excuse.
The evidence is right in front of your mind, floating around in a territory unknown by most - truth and justice. The war being brought on by the Bush Cartel and the Zionists is not in our best interests, nor is it in defense of this country. It is but another step in the plan laid out long ago to gain control over all resources, all countries, and all people by the so-called 'elite'. It is a plan to slaughter people for profit and power.
Jim Peron at Laissez Faire Electronic Times - I Miss America - Mr. Peron has lived outside the United States for a dozen years, but he still misses the spirit of freedom that used to be the bastion of our society. [grabbe]
But when the State confiscates power something else happens as well. State power doesn't reside with any one individual--not even with the President. In Society each individual is a moral agent responsible for his/her actions. But in the State the collective is responsible. And just as common ownership of property means no one is responsible for it, the common possession of power relieves each individual of any moral responsibility for what they do. The lack of moral responsibility, coupled with massive coercive powers, is a dangerous combination indeed.
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Yes, I miss America living here in Auckland. But these day I think I'd miss America even if I were in San Francisco, Chicago or rural Connecticut. The ideas that were American are being forgotten by the people and strangled by the government. The America I miss, I fear, may no longer exist. I hope to God that I'm wrong.
J.J. Johnson at Sierra Times - Common Sense Counterpoints: A Constitutional Response to a Common Conservative - common sense responses to Tom Adkins' Snappy Answers to Stupid Liberal Soundbytes about going to war with Iraq. Well, said, Mr. Johnson! [Chuck Muth's News & Views]
Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk - The 2003 Spending Orgy - tax revenues have fallen severely, yet Congress continues to increase spending. That does not compute. The public debt to the penny is now more than $6.4 trillion, a growth of over $600 billion since September, 2001.
This practice is akin to getting a pay cut at work, then immediately buying a bigger house with a higher mortgage payment. No sensible individual would spend more when his income drops, but Congress operates without any shred of common sense or restraint at budget time. When members of Congress consider the various spending bills, the money- hundreds of billions of dollars- hardly seems real. What's another 10 million dollars, they reason, for a pet project or favor to a lobbyist? Unlike a family facing the loss of income, Congress can raise taxes, borrow from foreign governments, or spend money newly printed by the Federal Reserve. Spending cuts are simply not considered. In fact, the federal budget grows every year without exception, and the previous year's spending is treated only as a baseline. How long could your family survive if it spent five or ten percent more money each and every year?
Stefan Steinberg at World Socialist Web Site - Afghan war documentary charges US with mass killings of POWs - if this is to be believed, more evidence that U.S. armed forces routinely commit war crimes. You can purchase the video here for £19.95 (PAL is the European standard, NTSC the American). Excerpts (RealVideo) are here. [birdman]
Stephen Lathrop at Ideas on Liberty - One Man's Regulatory Nightmare (PDF) - how the Army Corps of Engineers bankrupted a developer who tried to do, for free, exactly what they had concluded would cost millions of dollars in public money. Bastards!
Ron Paul in the House of Representatives - End the Income Tax- Pass the Liberty Amendment - a speech on January 30 introducing H.J.Res 15, the "Liberty Amendment". [liberator]
Income taxes are responsible for the transformation of the federal government from one of limited powers into a vast leviathan whose tentacles reach into almost every aspect of American life. Thanks to the income tax, today the federal government routinely invades our privacy, and penalizes our every endeavor.
The Founding Fathers realized that "the power to tax is the power to destroy," which is why they did not give the federal government the power to impose an income tax. Needless to say, the Founders would be horrified to know that Americans today give more than a third of their income to the federal government.
Gary Snyder at The New York Daily News - Council's creating a nanny state - a response to recent knee-jerk legislation from the Big Apple's City Council. [manhattanlp]
The City Council loves bans. First, the cigarette ban; then the ban on using cell phones in theaters. And last week, Mayor Bloomberg signed into law a ban on unsportsmanlike behavior by spectators at sporting events. Next up: a ban on the sale of toy guns.
The Council's answer to everything is to pass yet another law. It is following the first rule of politics: When in doubt, legislate.
Aaron Swartz - The Wireless Future - Cool idea. Sorta like FidoNet on steroids. One big problem, though. This works for local connections, but somebody's gotta pay for the backbone. The signal's gotta get between widely separated cities somehow. [dougkenline]
Let me tell you how it will go:
Apple gets tired of releasing new, faster wireless hardware (AirPort, AirPort Extreme, AirPort Insane, AirPort Illegal). So they release one box, software upgradeable to use whatever new protocols and frequencies become available. As consumers clamor for more bandwidth the FCC opens up more spectrum, making the adjustable boxes more valuable.
Meanwhile the boxes are getting stronger too, able to push bits for farther distances. They're cheap and popular enough that all of San Francisco is covered a forest of overlapping wireless. It's time to unify them. The next software upgrade turns this collection of hub-and-spoke networks into one large mesh, letting packets bounce from one base station to another, perhaps stopping at a few laptops in between.
This giant network becomes the home to a high-bandwidth file sharing network. The RIAA and MPAA look on in horror. There's no ISP to go after, if they shut down one node the packets just bounce thru a different path. "At least it's just San Francisco," they think.
Brewster [Kahle] buys a faster Internet connection and opens it up to this giant wireless network. Everyone in SF cancels their cruddy cable and DSL service, and uses real high-speed two-way Internet connections, running their email and web servers from home, like the creators intended.
The ISPs are furious; they look for an excuse to cut off Brewster's Internet connection. Perhaps it's all the file sharing going on over it, or maybe someone in the mesh is distributing child porn. Whatever. They cut it off.
San Francisco revolts, pressuring their lawmakers to require ISPs give them access. Maybe it's national; maybe it's just for California. Whatever. The ISPs plead with the lawmakers to stop, but every congressman knows they won't get reelected for cutting off free Internet connections. High bandwidth wireless broadcasting boxes are installed at all the ISPs, who look on in horror. "At least it's just San Francisco," they think.
Other cities follow SF's lead. First New York, then Boston. The same process repeats itself. "It wasn't just San Francisco," they realize.
By then it is too late. The people own the Internet now. When there is censorship, the software routes around it. As long as there is a client and a server, they can communicate. No more DMCA takedown notices, no more Carnivore boxes, no more $40/mo., no more "capped upstream", no more "running servers is not permitted". The Internet is remade in its original image.
Just thought I should let you know.
