tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27046733111269805252024-03-12T17:03:09.760-05:00MindFilterThey must find it difficult, those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than truth as the authority.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.comBlogger2584125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-89308667598385868852018-04-07T11:15:00.000-05:002018-04-07T11:15:09.767-05:00Food Freedom: A Talk With Kyle Turnblazer at Liberty Forge<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXNISGsVapVHDeTLIXzbjm45RHX_DXmYjLA1xKkPk7UuAzPxH2c2UxYKT9y5EvLq1wpcP25ja83IVLywRUOgdJpulnLCTWDdZi7RqyD2a1WFb16oSxYtbr4DhFgJC86FPMaG45fm6T0vmu/s1600/20180407_110946.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXNISGsVapVHDeTLIXzbjm45RHX_DXmYjLA1xKkPk7UuAzPxH2c2UxYKT9y5EvLq1wpcP25ja83IVLywRUOgdJpulnLCTWDdZi7RqyD2a1WFb16oSxYtbr4DhFgJC86FPMaG45fm6T0vmu/s1600/20180407_110946.png" /></a>
I did an awesome interview with my friend Kyle Turnblazer over at The Liberty Forge about food freedom and taking care of your most prized possession: your body and mind. Wow! What a great talk. Please listen and share. I'm unable to embed the podcast here so head over to <a href="http://thelibertyforge.com/index.php/2018/03/01/21-food-freedom-w-steve-curtin/" target="_blank">The Liberty Forge </a>and listen there, and check out the treasure trove of other information there.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-55661651453011478392018-02-24T12:50:00.003-06:002018-02-24T12:50:52.476-06:00Guns, Culture and Government<b>Leaving our emotions at the door to get to the bottom of a complex issue.</b><br />
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Needless to say it has been impossible to avoid discussions, information, and, especially, disinformation and propaganda over the issue of mass shootings in America. There are outright lies, statistics, statistics out of context, statistics purposefully distorted, appeals to emotion, idiots sawing their rifles in half, and emotionally damaged people coming out of the woodwork to talk about how they almost became a killer. Hardly any of it, hardly anyone, has the courage or the energy to discuss the root of the problem. I think it can be safely said that anyone who tries to say this is a problem that can be solved by infringing on access to guns for private citizens is not a serious person. At all. Becoming hysterical is not an expression of seriousness.<br />
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I cannot honestly or seriously proclaim myself as someone who understands everything that is wrong with society or can prescribe a cure. However, although I am not an old man, I have been alive long enough to know that this is a relatively new problem, and have lived through times when this sort of thing never occurred, even though there were more guns and more dangerous types of weapons (fully automatic guns were only banned a generation ago). What has changed these last couple of decades?<br />
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I can only speak to my own observations and experience, and apply what I know and form a hypothesis. What I can prove beyond doubt is that the problem has not arisen due to easier access to guns, or more deadly guns being available. The laws are stricter. These weapons are not new. People kill every day, and in large numbers, using weapons other than guns. <b><a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/what-its-like-to-teach-a-class-that-doesnt-remember-911/" target="_blank">Hijacked airplanes</a></b> come to mind. <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/13/oklahoma-city-bombing-20-years-later-key-questions-remain-unanswered" target="_blank">Fertilizer-based explosives</a></b>. <b><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36801671" target="_blank">Automobiles at high speed driven into crowds</a></b>. <b><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/33-dead-130-injured-china-knife-wielding-spree-n41966" target="_blank">Knives</a></b>. This occurs everywhere.<br />
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I suppose I should take a step back before moving on and talk about the undesirability and impossibility of living in a safe society. This #neveragain movement strikes me not only as an exercise in futility, but of derangement. Is there anyone who seriously believes they can eradicate violence from a society of hundreds of millions of people and growing? Or would it simply comfort them, would they not care at all, if the violence and death didn't end, just as long as it wasn't done with scary looking, noisy weapons known as guns? Safety provided by government is and has always been the alibi of tyrants. This argument is almost always completely lost on the gun grabbers. The <b><a href="https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM" target="_blank">gentle government</a></b> who holds your hand as you cross the street refuses to let go on the other side. This is the natural consequence of generations of people who've systematically had their sense of ownership and responsibility beaten out of them. You don't own yourself, so you demand your owners provide safety and security. And when they <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/us/fbi-tip-nikolas-cruz.html" target="_blank">fail</a></b>, <b><a href="http://time.com/5171755/broward-sheriff-deputy-resigns-video-parkland-florida-school-shooting/" target="_blank">flagrantly</a></b>, <b><a href="https://nypost.com/2018/02/23/four-sheriffs-deputies-hid-during-florida-school-shooting/" target="_blank">miserably</a></b>, one could say purposefully, most people ignore it. Just keep blaming the guns. Cognitive dissonance is a bitch.<br />
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And, just as an aside, I have no desire to live in a society that is absolutely safe, even for "the children". I am not a head of cattle. Freedom is risky. And you do not have the right to impose your fears, warranted or otherwise, onto my life. <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">A Culture of Death</span><br />
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Before I begin let me make clear that these suppositions are not broad in their scope. Not everyone who has a vaccine gets a reaction. Lactose intolerance varies from individual to individual. Et cetera. There are people who live exposed to this culture who grow up to be perfectly morally adjusted and sane individuals. This of course makes it difficult to pinpoint these problems as definitive. They are simply for your consideration, as we know, if we are honest, that the problem is not with the guns and cannot be solved by limiting gun access.<br />
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Moral, sane individuals see that we have progressively become a culture that worships death and destruction. The media does a very good job of sanitizing this; they are perfectly happy to show you pictures of bombs destroying a building with precision, but are careful not to show you the devastated bodies of the victims, many of them children. The language used to describe these "people", if they are discussed at all, is sanitized. It's not murder. It's collateral damage. This says nothing of our inability, or unwillingness, in general, to consider the morality or practicality of these missions in the first place. What is the objective? What are the unintended consequences? Are they fighting for "freedom" in these countries? How many times does the government have to lie to get into conflicts before people stop blindly worshiping the troops and start demanding they no longer kill and die for no good reason? These do not matter. Because we are not shown the personal toll. You do not see the grieving father holding his child, shredded to pieces by a predator drone attack. When the veterans return home they are discarded, useless. Only lip service is paid to their welfare, if at all.<br />
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Correlation does not always mean causation, but a telling item you will rarely hear discussed in establishment circles is the fact that <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/opinion/veterans-and-mass-shootings.html" target="_blank">many of these killers</a></b> were or aspired to be members of the US military. It seems almost stupid to point out the common sense that if you train people to be killers and then unleash them among a population, some of them may carry out what they were trained to do. And many of them become police, where their crimes become "legal" and not a topic for polite discussion, much less statistically documented.<br />
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At home, our police have become militarized adjuncts of the Pentagon, both in weapons and tactics. This has received little scrutiny among the general population. Most people are very happy that these officers of "the law" are being given better tools to keep them safe in their job of enforcing mostly ruinous laws that have no victim and only one purpose: to extract revenue for the State. Many of them are joyous that veterans, trained to kill an enemy, are actively recruited to "serve and protect". Point out that they have become an occupation force, the citizens a hostile insurgency, and much spitting and gnashing of teeth ensues. Some of us said, rather naively, "Put cameras on our police and they will be less likely to murder people." And we watched as they continued to murder, and continued to get away with it. And many people find any excuse, no matter how absurd, to justify their actions. He should have complied. He was reaching for his waist. Meanwhile the majority of them are unarmed. And the fact that many of these officers take "<b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2017/02/14/a-day-with-killology-police-trainer-dave-grossman/" target="_blank">killology</a></b>" courses that teach them to shoot first and ask questions later, that that first piece of ass you get after killing a man will be the best ass you've ever had, is completely ignored.<br />
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These are uncomfortable or even taboo subjects to many gun rights advocates, who have a cursory understanding of the importance of the right to bear arms yet give unflinching love, loyalty, and even cult-like worship of the very agents who would kick their doors in if they were ordered to seize their weapons. Out of one side of their mouth, they proclaim their ability and willingness to kill an intruder or otherwise implement their arms in the defense of their lives, their family, and their property, or fight against the government if it ever turned tyrannical (bit late for that, champ!), while out of the other side of their mouths spit at and mock anyone who suggests "law enforcement" is an <b><a href="http://gnosis474.blogspot.com/2015/07/thanks-but-no-thanks-for-your-service.html" target="_blank">immoral and unnecessary institution</a></b> - "Don't call the police if someone breaks into your home!" Well, no duh. Isn't that why we own guns? What will you do if the police come to your home to take your guns? Isn't that why you own an AR or an AK? They know this is why the second amendment exists in the first place (as if a piece of paper can define or protect their rights), yet somehow cannot make the connection between a tyrannical law maker, who they hate, and its order followers, who they love. These are very confused people.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Chemically Lobotomized</span><br />
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I will fully admit that I have a heavy bias towards how lifestyle regarding diet and exercise affects our lives. I've been reading about it, and writing about it, for many years. It's not just about how fat you are, or how prone to chronic illness and disease you are. It's about your mental health as well.<br />
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One thing I never studied was the exact timeline this chemical assault on our bodies and minds began. Some ingredients like saccharin and aspartame have been around for generations. <b><a href="http://gnosis474.blogspot.com/2011/07/food-toxins-and-how-theyre-killing-us.html" target="_blank">I wrote</a></b> back in 2011 that there are over 17,000 chemicals food manufacturers can add to your food off label, because knowledge of the existence of these substances in our food might cause people not to purchase them. When I was a child I only received a handful of <b><a href="http://gnosis474.blogspot.com/2011/10/vaccines-pre-industrial-age-quackery.html" target="_blank">vaccinations</a></b>, and their ingredients were probably different than today, when kids receive dozens in a relatively short period during their formative years when their minds are vulnerable. So it seems to me that this issue is something that has snowballed into the catastrophe that it is fairly recently.<br />
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<b><a href="http://gnosis474.blogspot.com/2010/12/welcome-to-costco-i-love-you.html" target="_blank">Please observe</a></b>, if you don't already, the consequences of this when you are out in public. The eyes, they say, are the windows into the soul. Look into the eyes of these people, your fellow human beings, and in many, many people, you'll see that there isn't much there. Even in the children, who haven't been exposed to this for very long. They are assaulted by these chemicals from the moment they are born - a hepatitis vaccine hours after birth, for a child without a fully functioning immune system (their immune system is the mother's milk) and without a functioning blood-brain barrier - there is MSG and other abominations in their formula, fluoride in their bottled water even though they don't even have teeth. Read the labels on jars of baby food. If you're foolish enough to eat fast food, observe the ages of those who are eating there, and ponder the life-long damage these "foods" are doing to a developing mind.<br />
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Even for adults, the affects are cumulative across generations. If you damage your DNA through unhealthy lifestyle, you pass those damaged genes to your offspring, who are then born with a less healthy hand than you were, making them more prone to illness. Then they very likely adopt your unhealthy lifestyle, further damaging the gene pool, which they then pass down when they procreate. And so on.<br />
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Finally, this creates behaviors in children that requires diagnosis and medication with powerful psychotropic drugs acting on, again, a mind still in development. Even normal childhood behaviors are diagnosed as a mental disorder and medicated. Every one of these killers - man and child (the fact that women rarely commit these crimes is also a factor, obviously, although one I haven't explored) was <b><a href="https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/crime/item/28307-from-prozac-to-parkland-are-psychiatric-drugs-causing-mass-shootings" target="_blank">on some sort of psychotropic drug</a></b>. Watch any prescription anti-depressant advertisement and pay attention to its side effects. Psychotic, manic, suicidal behaviors are almost always listed.<br />
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You will never see this discussed in establishment circles, because the pharmaceutical industrial complex is a cappo in the establishment crime family. They are the primary advertiser for establishment news channels and programs. They practically own the medical schools. This is simply a discussion that will never take place in the mainstream.<br />
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All of this results in a society infested with chemically lobotomized zombies who've had their ability to connect, to interact, to feel, poisoned out of their minds. They don't have the capability of empathy, of compassion. They are not "there". They are already dead inside, and for many, probably a statistically insignificant but loud portion of the population, having parents and relatives and peers who were too damaged to provide emotional support and nourishment for them, perhaps suffering further from physical and emotional abuse throughout their formative years, taking a life is nothing to them.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Facing Reality</span><br />
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The solution to this problem, if I am correct, only seems difficult because of our conditioning. Part of that conditioning is a love of and dependency on ease and convenience. Clever marketing has taught us that it's perfectly acceptable to stop at the drive-thru because you worked so damn hard; this society demands more and more of our free time to make ends meet. Parents are exhausted. I get it. Social conditioning, intentional or not, has taught us that people like me are WEIRD. I once made copies of Food, Inc. and The Future of Food and tried to hand them out to people for free. No one - not a single person - would take a free DVD from me to see what they were putting in their bodies. Not because the subject simply didn't interest them; they were literally terrified of the notion that they might learn something about their food that might force a change in their eating habits. Because they were taught that they can't live without pasta, or bread. They can't life without soda, or their favorite fast food. They are physically and mentally addicted. Alternative paradigms literally scare the crap out of them.<br />
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But if we are serious about solving the problem that has become loudly manifested this past generation, if we give more than lip service to caring about "the children", especially, ours, and society, then we must pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and make the effort and make the sacrifices. This cannot continue; the problem has been a downward spiral for generations, and someone has to reverse the course. Someone has to ignore the propaganda and the marketing and the deflections and get to the root of the problem. They have to have the courage to, with love, challenge social convention, customs, beliefs, and norms. That one person, I've endeavored, will be me, even if I am alone (I'm not alone). I know with every fiber of my being it's not the guns. Have I diagnosed the real problem? It's probably even more complex than this, but I know this is a prevalent contributor. I know what's in the food, and I know what it does to the mind; I see it every day. Having read this, being more aware of this, you will as well. You'll look into people's eyes and it will become painfully obvious to you: many of these victims are no longer even human. They're just a mindless organism, barely capable of responding to stimuli, incapable of independent thought or reasoning, unable to connect, to feel, to care.<br />
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I have no use or care for emotional pleas. No, dead children are not more important than my freedom. How many of them have to die before "we" (meaning government - no thanks) "do something" about guns? All of them. Because guns aren't the problem. And the problem will continue until individuals own their share of responsibility, and BE THE CHANGE they want to see in the world. Sawing the barrel off your rifle isn't making a contribution. Petitioning your "representatives" isn't doing anything. It's just making you smug and pompous, and guaranteeing that the problem will continue, with or without the guns.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-81770338215580002002018-02-13T12:35:00.001-06:002018-02-13T12:39:35.014-06:00Kratom and Corporatism<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A lot of people like to talk about democracy, as in, so-and-so politician or such-and-such law is a threat to democracy; or, they like to point out that America is not a democracy, it's a republic. I see no viable difference between the two (if anything, a republic is worse), nor do I, seeing them both as destructive to human freedom, care if they are threatened or weakened or destroyed. Politics is not only immoral, it is less than useless in terms of ordering society along the lines of liberty.<br />
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In America, government has evolved into it's most natural state; that is to say, being influence and force that can be bought, over many generations, especially since the creation of an extra-governmental cartel of banksters with a monopoly on the issuance of fiat currency, and especially since that currency became digitized, people and groups of people (industry lobbyists, corporate lobbyists, etc) have purchased government force and protection to shield them from market forces, destroy competition, socialize losses, and deflect fraud, theft, environmental destruction, and other crimes. This disease has metastasized and spread to encompass every aspect of our society; not only almost every industry, but every social institution: government, military, education, media, etc. There are innumerable examples to highlight this fact, but in the most current of events we can look to the government attack on kratom as an exhibit.<br />
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The FDA, like every fascist unelected alphabet bureaucracy that exists in America, is an adjunct of the industries and corporations we are told it protects us from. In this case, they are staffed by lawyers, lobbyists, and/or former executives of the industrial pharmaceutical and food industries. I can remember the liberal angst and confusion when Obama appointed "former" Monsanto vice president Michael Taylor to a senior position at the FDA. What's hilariously not funny is that many people, when discussing the possibility of a stateless society, wax hysterical that without government we'd all be eating poisoned food, oblivious to the fact that the people they think they need government to keep from poisoning them are in control of the very agencies they think are protecting them. There is simply no way to prevent this corruption from occurring; it is inherent to politics.<br />
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Kratom is a harmless plant related to coffee. It has naturally occurring alkaloids that, in some strains, mimic, to a very limited degree, the opioids the FDA, DEA, and justice department pay lip service to controlling - government black ops playing a major roll in the epidemic to begin with. Many opioid addicts, in fact, are self-medicating with kratom to help them kick an addiction that carries with it a very painful and sickening withdrawal period. <b><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkroll/2016/09/28/top-kratom-researcher-discusses-potential-medical-use-in-opioid-withdrawal/#6f106a254cd9" target="_blank">These testimonies are nearly endless</a></b>. Yet these government agencies wish to label it Schedule 1, meaning it has zero medicinal value. It should be noted that marijuana is Schedule 1, yet the FDA allowed pharmaceutical companies to synthesize THC so they could market it as an FDA-approved drug. Why grow the real thing for practically free when a pharmaceutical company can make an enormous profit selling you its lab-created substitute?<br />
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Kratom, like marijuana, is a threat to the FDA's clients in the pharmaceutical industry on multiple levels. First and foremost, it cuts into their profits. Not only are prescription drugs like methadone expensive, but they are more horribly addicting, their withdrawal more painful, than the drugs users are addicted to in the first place. They trade one horrible addiction for another FDA controlled and regulated one, which pharmaceutical corporations profit greatly from. Second, it promotes the blasphemous idea that people can use natural products to help themselves, without direction from an establishment quack doctor or any expensive FDA-approved drugs.<br />
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It is useful to consider that it is actually the law in this country that only an FDA-approved drug can treat or cure an illness. The FDA has gone so far as the threaten Cheerios for claiming a diet high in fiber such as found in their cereal reduces the risk of heart disease. Wrong. Only an FDA-approved drug can do such a thing. And of course, nothing found in nature would ever be approved by the FDA, because their clients in the pharmaceutical industry cannot control and profit from it. After all, if my doctor, illegally, tells me I have a vitamin D deficiency that's contributing to an illness - and there are few illnesses that cannot be attributed at least in part to a vitamin D deficiency - all I need do is expose myself to sunlight for a few minutes a day. Or eat some fish skin or mushrooms, or take a vitamin D3 supplement.<br />
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Thus, the FDA attacked kratom using horrible "science", disinformation and outright lies. Perhaps the most egregious was linking 44 deaths to kratom use. First and foremost, compared to the number of people using it - an estimated 5 million people - and relative to other benign substances which kill far more, 44 is a statistically insignificant number. Second, 44 people died with kratom in their system. There is <b><a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kratom-deaths-fda_us_5a7a3549e4b07af4e81eda8b" target="_blank">no direct link between kratom and their cause of death</a></b>. Very likely all of these people drank water that day. Many of them likely ate eggs. Perhaps some of them drank soda. They also claim that kratom has the same effect on the opioid receptors of the brain as drugs like heroine or oxycontin. Cheese has <b><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/cheese-triggers-the-same-part-of-brain-as-hard-drugs-study-finds-a6707011.html" target="_blank">similar effects</a></b>. Shall we ban cheese? Ban all the things?<br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkroll/2018/02/09/fda-weaponizes-opioid-label-against-kratom-consumers/#7046c3464536" target="_blank">According to pharmacologist David Kroll</a></b>, the FDA report<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Failed to read 20 years of published scientific literature on alkaloids present in the kratom plant, Mitragyna speciosa.</li>
<li>Failed to demonstrate any mastery of current research on the biochemical pharmacology of opioids.</li>
<li>Was overly reliant on unpublished data from a computational model in the absence of direct, experimental confirmation.</li>
<li>Made safety conclusions based on confirmation bias and a poor assessment of adverse reaction reports where kratom or its constituents were present.</li>
<li>Also made safety conclusions in the absence of considering the impact on public health if kratom were banned.</li>
<li>Concluded that the substance has no medical benefit in the absence of a prospective clinical trial for any indication with a well-qualified kratom product or purified kratom alkaloid.</li>
</ul>
David Kroll criticizes the report "with great respect" for his former colleague, "Dr" Gottlieb, who issued the FDA report. It's all just a giant misunderstanding, surely. Some people are incapable of understanding the corporatist fundamentals at play in the machinations of government. Gottlieb is not an elected official, so Kroll's faith in the democratic process - this idea that the sanctified act of voting for our representatives prevents a rogue, criminal government from manifesting - even if that were true, is misplaced. He is there to act as an agent for the pharmaceutical industry, not to protect "the people" from it. The kratom issue epitomizes this. This is what government is. It is as predictable and as inescapable as gravity.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-44768755629240054252018-02-12T11:17:00.000-06:002018-02-12T11:17:21.942-06:00The Ethics of Eating<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_TJa7kcQeAISHhWxAySmt51ZIbwOx9rbxNXhpKzt8un7Ij0l_o5FAEJGF1k8d6cu794ueMEOIF7f4A3kQMXzloAsU-4dog7Sj55wyhhojrsSas1iTpZsxp_Wf1vZal0n4hKMb3PuKwSi3/s1600/plants.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="768" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_TJa7kcQeAISHhWxAySmt51ZIbwOx9rbxNXhpKzt8un7Ij0l_o5FAEJGF1k8d6cu794ueMEOIF7f4A3kQMXzloAsU-4dog7Sj55wyhhojrsSas1iTpZsxp_Wf1vZal0n4hKMb3PuKwSi3/s320/plants.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Venus fly trap doesn't care about your feels.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
There's a quote from someone - I don't feel like looking up to be precise because my laptop is slow as balls - that goes something like, "The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it's stranger than we can imagine." In other words, it's stranger than whatever our imagination is capable of conceiving. The reason for that, I believe, is that the universe is infinite, and holographic - meaning all parts contain the whole. The conceptual mind cannot grasp what is infinite, because the conceptual mind is finite. This is the whole point of meditation. I've gone off topic.<br />
<br />
The evidence is mounting that plants, which we've long thought to have no nervous system - the nervous system being the conduit for conscious expression - <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/science/plants-consciousness-anesthesia.html" target="_blank">are conscious</a></b>. I happen to believe that not only is the entire universe conscious, but that it is an emanation of consciousness itself. If that seems preposterous keep in mind that, again, the conceptual mind is incapable of describing the infinite, and consciousness is, after all, a concept. Suffice to say, nearly everything we are capable of observing, from electrons in a plasma field to planets to superclusters of galaxies, exhibits what could be called consciousness and intelligence in some form.<br />
<br />
For this reason I have to laugh at militant vegans who compare me to a Nazi because I eat meat. The more evidence that mounts suggesting plants are conscious, that <b><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/plants-know-they-are-being-eaten-2014-10" target="_blank">plants know they are being eaten and do not like it</a></b> (isn't that another way of saying "feels pain"?), the more it is apparent that, according to their "logic", the only ethical way of consuming food is to not consume food at all.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately there is often little distinction made between the horrors of the industrially raised meat most people consume and pastured, organic meats. Every health and ethical and environmental objection raised about meat flagrantly ignores this distinction. Wherever and whenever I can - and unfortunately there is a limited market for this in my current location - I purchase pasture-raised meats. I have my own free range chickens for eggs. Any argument that there is no "humane" way to kill an animal for food is ignorant of the viciousness of wild nature. Though shortened by slaughter, the life lived by pasture raised livestock is superior to life in the wild. These animals have an abundance of food and fresh water, and protection from predators. If we could ask these animals their preference - to live under constant threat of starvation, especially during the cold winter, being eaten alive by a predator, having only a slight chance of living to old age, or living comfortably and safely for a shorter while to provide sustenance for a much more gentle and benevolent predator, which would they choose?<br />
<br />
We can't ask them that question. And yet we must eat. And, as it turns out, plants don't like being eaten any more than animals do. So, we are left with a choice: starve to death or nourish our bodies the way nature intended, applying our intelligence and a sense of empathy to the process, so that we find an acceptable medium between the need to properly nourish the masses of humanity and providing a better life for animals (and plants) that will become our food.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-19097857243047542622018-01-31T11:14:00.000-06:002018-01-31T11:14:08.858-06:00Something on TV Last NightApparently there were some welfare whores on television pretending to hate each other last night, talking about all the ways they can better rule our lives. Obviously I didn't watch. Politics is nothing but a gang of criminals trying to convince you they're legitimate. They have zero legitimacy. Zero. Because I don't consent. I don't vote, I don't petition, I don't give them one iota of my attention or energy, even to mock them. And believe me, with each passing election it becomes harder not to mock them. But I take comfort in knowing that the more ridiculous it all becomes, the more people will consider whether there is a better way. Their power rests solely on myth, on the belief we have that they're powerful. Yes, they are scheming to force me, and to take from me. But my firm belief is that the only counter to that fact is to not participate. To not acknowledge their power and authority. Ancient wisdom teaches us, "What you resist, persists." Like a Chinese finger puzzle, the more you fight it, the more it strengthens its grasp on you. Disregard the constabulary, friends.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-6425930564685285782018-01-30T20:06:00.002-06:002018-01-30T20:06:51.997-06:00A Simple Thought Experiment for Bordertarians If I rob your safe and use the stolen money to buy crack, would you accept the crack in recompense or would you want your cash reimbursed? If the latter, why then is it you have no issue with immigrants except that the welfare state exists? How is it that the crack didn't belong to you - your stolen wealth did - but you feel entitled to say how money you view as stolen - taxes - should be spent and who should have access to those items and services?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-64670698086174909672018-01-30T17:30:00.003-06:002018-01-30T17:30:53.375-06:00The Problem With Whole30 and other "Diets"It's the end of the first month of the year, and all throughout my email inbox and Facebook feed are posts about how close people are to finishing their Whole30. This has always ate at me.<br />
<br />
The "Whole" part of Whole30 isn't the issue. Whole, unprocessed foods are what is needed if you are to remain in optimal health. And oh, by the way, that whole "everything in moderation" thing ... it's bullshit. But I digress. The problem with Whole30 is the "30". It's 30 days. It's temporary. Like I said in a previous post, what is needed is a life-altering paradigm shift in the way you live.<br />
<br />
It also grinds my gears that there's this encouragement going out, like, "Keep going! You're almost there! You can do it!" This reinforces the idea that restricting your diet is some sort of sacrifice, or amazing achievement, like it was one of the 12 Labors of Hercules or something. I want to destroy the myth that has been shoved down our throats, that it takes superhuman willpower to eat clean. It doesn't. All that it requires is the understanding, not just intellectually but actually, that the "foods" you're avoiding aren't really foods, that they're actually poisons robbing you of life and vitality, and that the foods you're allowed to eat, because fat is not only not bad for you but essential for good health, not to mention the flavor of the foods you're now eating, are more than satisfying enough that there's no sacrifice or great feat at all behind avoiding bread, pasta, sugar, and other food-like garbage you'd been accustomed to eating your whole life. It's not a big deal, because what is left for you to eat is still amazing. Especially when I saw the results - and after 30 days if you made that commitment you will see and feel those results - it was obvious to me that I could never go back to that old lifestyle. Very often you don't know how lousy you feel until you no longer feel lousy. Your mind is adept at normalizing whatever condition you're in.<br />
<br />
Anyway, just a rant. Don't set your sites on a finite period. Make the commitment, leave the garbage behind, and watch what happens. The Whole30 book is called "It Starts With Food," but really, it starts with your own mind. How you look at things will determine success or failure. Learning how to cook is a huge asset, and I'll be encouraging and helping you with that on this blog.<br />
<br />
And oh, by the way ... take the same mentality to physical fitness. It has to be a permanent paradigm shift, or you'll fail, again and again. Namaste.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-60817337729939274612018-01-30T13:21:00.000-06:002018-01-30T13:21:15.530-06:00Jason Momoa's AR-7 Workout<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYxHja9lJANTAGOF2E-TG4QOwLABne1E0xpwgCInI5WsxBwlaFdWL8Oj5K7U0LZBQVc1Z0Rm8OqMWW6ECHHFTJr3JSZ6yKVn1EHu66Zkbgd1q2sueWj2F8O0GaC2ZYl2qTo8iZSRSKsReB/s1600/khaldrogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="346" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYxHja9lJANTAGOF2E-TG4QOwLABne1E0xpwgCInI5WsxBwlaFdWL8Oj5K7U0LZBQVc1Z0Rm8OqMWW6ECHHFTJr3JSZ6yKVn1EHu66Zkbgd1q2sueWj2F8O0GaC2ZYl2qTo8iZSRSKsReB/s320/khaldrogo.jpg" width="196" /></a></div>
I recently went through a phase where I was becoming "bored" with my workouts and started looking for something "new". After going paleo I lost 60 pounds in 8 months, but without the strength training to accompany it and without the added pounds to mask my weakness I started to look saggy and "old", so I did P90X and stuck with that more or less for a few years. My body is built through strength training, however, and I just didn't like the extreme leanness of my appearance, and neither did my wife. I was 195 pounds at 6'2, but my wife thought I was too "skinny".<br />
<br />
I shifted from P90X to the <b><a href="https://athleanx.com/" target="_blank">AthleanX</a></b> Inferno Max Shred Program, which was more scalable and was, I had planned, leading into another Athlean program called Inferno Max Size. But those programs are a hundred bucks a piece, so for some stupid reason, still looking for something "new", I became obsessed with celebrity training programs. I started off with Dwayne Johnson's <b><a href="https://www.bodybuilding.com/content/dwayne-johnson-rock-hard-hercules-workout-and-diet-plan.html" target="_blank">Hercules workout</a></b>, and did that for six weeks. For some reason I have it in my head, and maybe this is just the way my body is, that I have to train each muscle twice a week in order to get the results I want. So after six weeks I tried Jason Momoa's <b><a href="https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/jason-momoa-accelerated-results-7-program" target="_blank">AR-7 workout</a></b>. Jason Momoa isn't currently a household name, though most people are becoming familiar with his roles. He was the "new" Conan the Barbarian, and later played Khal Drogo on season one of Game of Thrones. Recently he played Aquaman in Justice League.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSP6JmCuHJyepDRZRn0HS_cChfMa6ZouhpRM2GM9h8LIPAH4atJAsm_qiKH1pIEknp7ugZJG1otfyDcX-FVMk2tVFzbnZE7jIm1j1x1j4qXJthJQRn_bLoR-p6w1OGMIH5Qb8Ts_cCyzwz/s1600/IMG_4087.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSP6JmCuHJyepDRZRn0HS_cChfMa6ZouhpRM2GM9h8LIPAH4atJAsm_qiKH1pIEknp7ugZJG1otfyDcX-FVMk2tVFzbnZE7jIm1j1x1j4qXJthJQRn_bLoR-p6w1OGMIH5Qb8Ts_cCyzwz/s320/IMG_4087.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
So I did AR-7 for the prescribed six weeks and liked it a lot. It allows for adaptability because it's not a specific type or order of exercises or muscles targeted but a principle of sets, reps, and rest time. So my version of this is not identical to his, but the principle is the same. Your first "set" of a particular exercise is 7 reps times 7 sets with 7 seconds rest in between. So if I'm doing bench press, 7 reps, put the bar down for 7 seconds, 7 more reps, etc. After the first 7 sets, rest 60-90 seconds, and do 6-6-6, and then rest, and do 5-5-5. So for each exercise, 7-7-7. 6-6-6, and 5-5-5. These workouts are short and intense if you're doing one body part - typically 30-45 minutes, so I do two body parts a day, and usually superset between them. So I'll do a AR-7 set of bench press, for instance, and immediately do an AR-7 set of barbell bicep curls. The pic to the right is me on my 43rd birthday, towards the end of six weeks of AR-7.<br />
<br />
At this point, I was thinking, okay who is next? I checked into Chris Hemsworth's Thor workout, but what I discovered was that his was just a traditional body builder's workout like I had done most of my life. I was feeling a lot stronger at that point so I decided to go back to what was tried, tested, and true: my old high school workout, which was modeled around many of the legendary body builders of my youth - Schwarzenegger, Yates, Coleman, etc. I felt my old strength returning, which was exciting, however at my age, my joints and tendons were just not cooperating. I was throwing the weight around but it was uncomfortable and often painful.<br />
<br />
For this reason I've decided to stick with the AR-7 tactic for the foreseeable future. Because of the intensity of the workout, I cannot use anywhere close to my max weight load. My bench press, for instance, is typically what I warm up with - 135 pounds. Conventional weight lifting wisdom teaches that higher reps/low weights gives you a lean, ripped look, but somehow this approach has constructed a nice size for my frame - I'm up to 210 pounds, but I'm still around the same body fat percentage at 12-13%. If you're older or you have joint issues due to neglect or injury, this is a workout you might want to try. My specific workout is below. You can use his specific regimen or mine, or you can add your own preferences. Let me know what you think.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>AR-7 Workout</b></span><br />
<br />
<b>Day One: Chest and Biceps</b><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Bench Press</li>
<li>Close-grip barbell bicep curls</li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul>
<li>Incline dumbbell press</li>
<li>Incline dumbbell curls</li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul>
<li>Reverse grip dips</li>
<li>Hammer curls</li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul>
<li>Dumbbell pull-overs</li>
<li>Spider or preacher curls</li>
</ul>
<br />
<b>Day two: Back and triceps</b><br />
<br />
Disclaimer: Jason Momoa claims to do three or four different types of pull-ups using the AR-7 technique. This is literally insane. I'm not saying he doesn't, but that's 110 pull-ups per type, and like I said he does three or four different types - regular grip, chin-ups, close-grip, etc. For this reason I do pull-downs.<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Wide-grip pull downs </li>
<li>Reverse grip/gorilla bench press</li>
</ul>
<br /><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Dumbell rows (these are intense as you are doing the left arm in between sets of the right arm, etc)</li>
<li>Dumbell skull crushers</li>
</ul>
<br /><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Standing cable pull-overs</li>
<li>Rope tricep extentions</li>
</ul>
<br /><br />
<b>Day Three: Legs and Shoulders</b><br />
<br />
On this workout I abandon AR-7 for some of my leg exercises because they aren't practical. For instance, it's difficult to get in and out of a barbell squat position, especially when you get down to the 6 and 5 second rest sets, and this constant in and out causes pain and discomfort in my shoulders, especially my left one. It's also impractical to do AR-7 with walking lunges, and three-way leg press calf raises. Leg press is done AR-7. All shoulder exercises are AR-7.<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Barbell squats (3 sets of 12-15)</li>
<li>Dumbbell shoulder press</li>
</ul>
<br /><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Leg press</li>
<li>Forward dumbbell raises</li>
</ul>
<br /><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Walking lunges (3 sets of 20)</li>
<li>One-armed cross-body lateral cable raise. Same as the dumbbell rows in the back workout, do the left arm while the right arm rests, and alternate until both sides finish the requisite sets.</li>
</ul>
<br /><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Three-way leg press calf raises: 15 toes out, 15 toes parallel, 15 toes in, 3 sets</li>
<li>Shoulder shrugs</li>
</ul>
<br /><br />
Day Four: rest and recovery, start with chest and biceps for day five, and cycle through three days on, one day off, as strictly as you're able. You can throw in a core workout as often as you like. I don't do so as often as I should, but especially at my age a strong core lessens your risk of injury, especially in the lower back.<br />
<br />
Feel free to comment with questions or criticism.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-35304152564594244712018-01-30T11:21:00.000-06:002018-01-30T11:21:32.510-06:00Paleo Life: Chicken and Broccoli CasserolePeople literally think I'm crazy when I describe Paleo to them. There are, I think, two reasons for this. First, we've been indoctrinated by generations of clever marketing to forget that the primary purpose of food is to nourish the body, rather than gratification of our taste buds. This has led to a standard diet loaded with sugar, sodium, artificial sweeteners and flavors, and a blitzkrieg of chemical flavor enhancers like MSG that dull our tongues so that healthy food tastes like cardboard. Second, we've also been indoctrinated over generations to think that fat, which is where the flavor comes from in many foods, makes us fat ("you are what you eat" (no you're not)) and causes heart disease. This was based on junk corporatist science mostly from the sugar and vegetable oil industries, and I can't even begin to imagine how many people met their demise long before their time due to these lies.<br />
<br />
I eat a diet that is high in calories, high in fat, and high in cholesterol, and yet, at almost 44 at the time of this writing, I am in the best shape of my life. I recently had to switch life insurance companies and underwent a physical, and my wife and I both received a discount because of our superior health. My body fat percentage is around 12-13%. All I did was shun all processed foods, excess sugars and grains. I eat a whole foods diet, consisting primarily of meats, eggs, and leafy and cruciferous vegetables. Being high in fat, and no longer destroying my taste buds with mega doses of sodium, sugar, and chemical flavor enhancers, I can taste my food, and I eat like a king.<br />
<br />
I made this dish for about the hundredth time last night, and will continue to eat it because it's easy, it's cheap, it's healthy, and it's filling. I bought a fancy looking notebook to write my favorite recipes in, and as I do so and remove the bookmarks on my browser, I'll share them with you here. This comes from the food blog <b><a href="http://www.grassfedgirl.com/" target="_blank">Grass Fed Girl</a></b> - I recommend you give her a "like" on FB and subscribe to her emails.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.grassfedgirl.com/chicken-broccoli-casserole/" target="_blank">Chicken and Broccoli Casserole</a></b></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;">
<img alt="Recipe Chicken Broccoli Casserole" src="http://www.grassfedgirl.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/instagram-Easy-Paleo-Chicken-Casserole-Recipe.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></div>
<ul>
<li>2T coconut oil or other cooking fat</li>
<li>4 cups fresh broccoli florets</li>
<li>1 medium white onion, diced (use 1/2 onion to cut carbs, if desired)</li>
<li>Sea salt and pepper</li>
<li>8 oz. mushrooms, sliced</li>
<li>3 cups cooked chicken, shredded</li>
<li>1 cup chicken bone broth</li>
<li>1 cup full fat coconut milk or 1 cup organic heavy cream</li>
<li>2 eggs, pastured soy free are best</li>
<li>1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, optional</li>
</ul>
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a casserole pan with half the coconut oil and set aside. Steam the broccoli until just barely cooked and set aside, uncovered. In a sauce pan melt the coconut oil, brown the onions and season with salt and pepper. Add the mushrooms, saute until cooked and move the pan off the heat. Transfer the broccoli, mushroom, onions, and shredded chicken into the casserole pan distributing evenly. Mix the bone broth, coconut milk, eggs, nutmeg with a generous pinch of salt and pepper in a bowl with a whisk and pour it over the contents of the casserole dish. Make sure the mixture is spread evenly and all the contents are covered. Place the casserole in the oven and cook for 35 to 40 minutes until done in the middle. Remove from the oven and let it cool for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.<br />
<ul>
</ul>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-1167012354282028332018-01-29T18:56:00.002-06:002018-01-29T18:56:49.426-06:00Expanding the ScopeThis blog is, I think, almost ten years old, if not older. I don't know, I'll have to check. Throughout the years, it has evolved from a hysterical Infowars clone to a spiritual awakening to shut down to anarchist education. It seems as though my days on social media, particularly Facebook, are coming to a close. First and foremost, I both hate and love Facebook, but over the years the scale has been tipping decisively into the hate category. It has almost no value to me, except to keep in touch with distant family and friends. Lately I'm feeling that, in light of how much I hate it, friends and family aren't reason enough. Second, Facebook has recently marked my shared posts from this blog, particularly those related to vaccines, as "spam", on both the MindFilter page and my own personal profile. My reaction to that was not very enlightened - I told them to eat a dick. So I almost hope they take enough offense to just put me out of my misery and ban my account.<br />
<br />
SO...that said...I wish to expand the scope of this blog to include lifestyle. I'll be talking about homesteading, preparedness, meditation, health, wellness, and exercise. Feel free to question, comment, and respectfully interact. It's been a while since this blog has been running on all cylinders. So I don't expect a lot of readers at first. If you find anything here enlightening, educational, or inspiring, please share, and let me know if you run into any resistance from Zuckerberg.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-64716953332777399612018-01-27T10:58:00.000-06:002018-01-27T11:00:49.195-06:00Loving Life in the Flu-pocalypse<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Yeah, so I'm one of snarky, uppity health and fitness assholes who can't shut up for five minutes about how the modern American/western lifestyle is killing people. I am constantly turning my nose up and grimacing at people and the garbage they joyfully allow to pollute their own temples. What do you want me to say?
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I'm sorry if it's literally insane to me that it doesn't occur to you, while you lay in bed in a puddle of your own sweat, puking and shitting all over yourself, in pain, that you would rather endure that at least once a year and constant colds and other maladies throughout the year than stop feeding your body shit. I watch people suck down two and three or more Red Bulls a day, eat chicken tenders and highly processed pasta dishes made with fake cheese sauce ... you know, I could describe this shit all day ... and I look at them and I'm like, yeah, the flu is going to kick the living crap out of you. And like the self-fulfilling prophecy that is, it happens. Oh, you're sick <i>again? </i>You're just down on your luck, aren't ya.<br />
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I and countless others can attest to you that food doesn't have to be garbage to taste good. The problem with people's perceptions of healthy food is that for years "science" lied to us and said that fats were bad for us. Well, fats are where the flavor comes from in foods, so instead of fat they shoveled a heaping pile of highly refined and nutritionally devoid carbs in your face, and loaded that shit up with sugar and salt - hey, it's low fat! My diet is high in fat, high in cholesterol, and high in calories, yet my body fat percentage is around 12-13%, and I walk confidently amongst the chronically sick and ill utterly unworried about catching whatever bug they're suffering. My food is delicious, because I cook it in bacon drippings and smother it in egg yolk. I eat homemade mayonnaise. I drown my vegetables in butter, my chicken in homemade gravy.<br />
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I see people post amusing memes about wanting to be skinny but also wanting to eat tacos. Well, pick one and own it. If you want to eat tacos - and, oh by the way, I cook the best tasting Mexican dishes you've ever had that have no flour or corn tortillas - then eat tacos and forget about being lean and healthy. If you want to be lean and healthy, forget about Taco Bell and learn how to cook Mexican food at home. You have the entirety of the internet at your fingertips. You're a gourmet chef if you know how to read and follow directions.<br />
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Even if you don't want to go full paleo, you can take some pretty simple steps to lessen your chances of getting sick, and limiting the severity when you do:<br />
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<li>Eat your effing vegetables. Raw preferably, lightly steamed otherwise. Two-thirds of your portions is preferable.</li>
<li>Get enough sleep. You can't fight disease if you're exhausted. If you can't sleep, your adrenal glands are probably fatigued. Stop sucking on energy drinks.</li>
<li>Drink water. Sugar is the number one contributor to disease. If you're drinking soda all day, or energy drinks loaded with more sugar than I consume in a week, you're going to get sick. If you're dehydrated, you won't get enough sleep.</li>
<li>Take care of your gut. 70% of your immune system is the bacteria in your gut. If you're sucking down antibiotics, drinking diet sodas or consuming highly processed, chemical-laden "food", your microbiota is going to take a beating and won't be able to do its job.</li>
<li>Limit alcohol consumption. Alcohol is poison. It's called inTOXICation, people. Geez.</li>
<li>Get sunlight as much as possible. One of the main reasons there's a flu "season" is sunlight is limited. The days are shorter than the nights, and then, typically being cold, we fully cover our bodies to keep warm. Your body converts sunlight into vitamin D, and then vitamin D into anti-microbial peptides that kick the snot out of pathogens. Almost any illness can be attributed at least in part to a vitamin D deficiency.</li>
<li>In lieu of sun, take a whole food-derived multi-vitamin, and remember, you get what you pay for. I take Mercola Whole Food Vitamin-Plus. It's like $52 for a month supply, but almost anything you buy at the store is going to be shit. The vitamin D dose has to be at least 2,000iu; preferably 5,000. The RDA of vitamins is just enough to keep you from getting deficiency illnesses like rickets (vitamin D) and scurvy (vitamin C), etc. You almost always need more than that. A lot more.</li>
<li>If you really want to go all-out you can take a mushroom supplement like turkey tail, which will really supercharge your immune system.</li>
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Health and wellness requires a holistic approach - that is to say, treat the whole body to keep the whole body healthy. Disease is a symptom. It's a symptom of imbalance and deficiency in your body; it's almost always entirely environmental. Yes, some people are genetically predisposed to get certain illnesses, but those are only triggered by nutritional deficiencies or environmental exposure to impurities, be it the air we breathe, or the food and water we ingest. If you're sick all the time now, that will be the same reason you get cancer when you're older.<br />
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Most people don't realize how lousy they feel because they've become accustomed to feeling lousy. So, not surprisingly, they think I'm an asshole because I constantly flaunt in their faces about how much of a machine I am. So I suppose they have no frame of reference when I try to explain to them how awesome it is not to feel like shit all the time. It's your life; torture yourself if you wish. But I'm here to tell you: eating healthy is not a sacrifice. It's not a burden. When you know what the shit is doing to your body, and you realize how awesome healthy food can taste - especially when your taste buds are no longer dulled by mega-doses of sodium and artificial flavor enhancers - it's not difficult. At all. It's so easy, in fact, that I can't shut the fuck up about it.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-86766418039283398082018-01-26T12:09:00.001-06:002018-01-26T12:09:32.280-06:00Spring is Almost HereHere in zone 9a, Gulf Coast, it's been a rather harsh winter by our standards, reminiscent of many winters I spent in New Jersey during most of my life. But spring comes early here and it often comes hard (PHRASING), so it's time to start prepping for the next season, even if you live in northern climates (if you can get a shovel into the soil). Already there are heirloom tomato, cherry tomato, jalapeno and bell pepper starts in my greenhouse. I have several beds broadforked, amended and tarped ("stale seed bedding" technique), and will prepare several more as the month closes out. When February roles around I'll start planting zucchini, cucumbers, and potatoes. I may prep some sweet potatoes to grow slips, depending on time and space. I went a little overboard when building this garden - a quarter of an acre dug and built with hand tools. It's a lot for one person even if I didn't have a nine-to-five, and my nine-to-five is more like a nine-to-seven. So I'll be looking to convert many beds to perennials, perhaps strawberries, sunchokes, and some bushes like goji berry.<br />
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As I mentioned a few days ago, growing your own food is an incalculable benefit to your health and well-being. Not only do you get fresh, pure, nutritionally superior produce, not only does this save you money, but it's a spiritual endeavor as well. It's an act of Creation, especially when you throw a bunch of yard and kitchen waste with manure into a pile and watch it magically turn itself into soil, and as that soil is added to your garden you see the transformation, especially if your soil is poor like mine. Grab a shovel and get to work. Grow a better world. Set the example. Be the Light.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-90593546726532697062018-01-26T11:50:00.002-06:002018-01-26T11:50:41.794-06:00Medical Establishment in a Panic Over Growing Mistrust in VaccinesThey're calling it a virus of mistrust, and it's going to kill us all. Those filthy anti-vaxxers are sowing discord amongst the plebs, and many are now foregoing vaccines. But <b><a href="https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-01-modern-medicine-infected-virus-mistrust.html" target="_blank">this article</a></b> from Medical Express is the epitome of <i>why</i> this mistrust exists. One of the consequences of this mistrust, they say, is that diseases with vaccines like measles, mumps, and whooping cough are resurgent. Vaccine mistrust is causing a spike in preventable disease! What they neglect to tell you, of course, is that the victims of these (relatively benign) diseases are almost all already vaccinated. So of course the vaccine skeptics are being blamed for what is clearly a <b><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-whooping-cough-vaccines-are-wearing-off/" target="_blank">failure of the vaccine</a></b>.<br />
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The fact of the matter is, <b><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5137739/Doctors-brace-bad-flu-season-ineffective-shots.html" target="_blank">vaccines do not work</a></b> (but you should <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/upshot/flu-shot-risks-benefits-strain.html" target="_blank">get them anyway!</a></b>), and they have never worked, except to weaken our immune systems and cause all manner of havoc throughout our bodies that make us clients for the medical establishment for life. With these facts in mind, we can more intelligently evaluate the risk/reward ratio when considering vaccinating ourselves and our children. No longer can it be said that the reward is too far greater than the risk to forego vaccination. We must intelligently and bravely resist the establishment propaganda that it was the vaccines which eradicated these diseases and keeps them at bay. In every case of a disease we are told vaccines saved us from, the rates of mortality had already plummeted prior to the introduction of the vaccine. Here is but one example. <b><a href="http://gnosis474.blogspot.com/2010/02/vaccines-effective-only-in-dumbing-us.html" target="_blank">See more here</a></b>.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-68954073376830303982018-01-23T11:10:00.003-06:002018-01-23T11:10:51.822-06:00Homestead Against the Machine<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If you've been following my blog since the early days, when, wow, was I losing my shit (sorry?), I ranted hysterically about a coming economic collapse and the soft-kill mass murder of the industrial food machine. This is not to say I still don't believe these events are imminent or ongoing; the current corporatist US economy is unsustainable and I still believe the conflagration will be spectacular. The industrial food machine is more poisonous than ever. But, to paraphrase Alan Watts, who was speaking of psychedelics but I think this applies to any type of intelligent or spiritual awakening, when you get the message you have to put the phone down.<br />
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What does that mean? It means that, yes, the economy is fake and unsustainable. It will collapse. The next downturn will be worse than the last, and the last was pretty spectacular. It took us to the brink. Will the corporatist facade survive the next crash, or will the house of cards come crashing down on all of us? Either outcome will be painful. Yes, the industrial food machine is full of chemicals that are designed to make you sick, fat, stupid and weak. Yes, they are permanently defacing the genetic fabric of the planet with their GMOs, and creating horrific environmental destruction with their petrochemical fertilizers and herbicides and pesticides. Yes, this food is toxic and devoid of nutritional value due to depletion of the soil over generations. Where people panic, where they lose hope - and I was victim to this once - is they believe someone else has to come along to save them from it all, to fix things for them and put everything right. That's not how this works, my friends.<br />
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Once it became apparent that inside the paradigm I describe above I am helpless and doomed, I stepped out of that paradigm and decided that taking control of my life was the only way to save myself. There is simply no better or more effective manner of unplugging from the "Matrix" than to start a homestead. People can make all the excuses they want about why it isn't feasible or practical for them, but the fact is if you really wanted to change you would simply do it, and let nothing stop you.<br />
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I grew up in New Jersey, which is the most densely populated state in the country. There are more people living there per square mile than any other state. What's horrifying about this fact is that one-fifth of the state is a protected national forest known as the Pine Barrens where almost nobody lives. The entire rest of the state is one giant city and suburb crammed between New York City and Philadelphia. My family is there, including my two children. All of my friends (at the time) were there. I had a job of almost 15 years. Everything I've ever known for the first 36 years of my life was there. I had every reason to say, "It's hopeless. I'm stuck here." But I knew that if I stayed, I was dead. I knew that in the event of an economic collapse, those people are going to eat each other alive. And New Jersey's economy, due to it's government's disastrous policies which also makes New Jersey, probably just behind California, the number one state people are fleeing from, is worse off than most. We have to have the courage to create "Plan B" and enact it.<br />
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Seven years later, I have a home on two acres. I spend far less on food because I grow my own vegetables, raise chickens for my eggs, and raise rabbits for meat. I grow my own fertilizer (compost), which is the only additive to my gardens besides water and seed. My chickens free range and I supplement with organic layer feed. A good amount of my food is produced on site and I know exactly what was done to it, and what was not done to it. It is nutritionally superior. Due in large part to this, my health is superior. At 43 I am in the best health of my life. And in the event of economic collapse, while I don't have all the resources available to thrive solely off my own production, I wouldn't starve, and I certainly wouldn't have to pillage and loot just to eat. There'll be no waiting in a bread line.<br />
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These actions seem extreme in a society where people have been indoctrinated for generations to forget that depressions happen and the only ones who survive are those who are resourceful, industrious, and independent. For generations we've been taught to be helpless, that government is in control of these things and we can leave all this to them while we obsess over distraction and trivium. Tragically, only a tiny minority of us have the courage to look reality in the eye and take direct action to bring our lives under some semblance of control. This cannot happen at the ballot box. What has happened at the ballot box is the situation I've been describing: we think this is order, but this is the chaos we are told would occur in the absence of this violent, coercive, inept authority. Everything we fear would happen without government controlling every aspect of our lives already occurs, and government is typically the perpetrator of that disorder.<br />
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In future entries I'll document what I've accomplished here over the past 6 years, as well as my failures so that you can learn from them. Some of this is easy. Chickens...EASY. Growing vegetables...not easy. At all. Especially in challenging climates like this. But that's for another talk.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-20196248503371667992018-01-22T10:21:00.000-06:002018-01-22T10:21:00.965-06:00In Search of a MessiahThere is a method of control in place employed by the establishment known as the Great Man vs the Bogeyman. Following the Hegelian Dialectic, the State creates a problem - in this case, the Bogeyman: an object of revulsion and fear that will destroy and kill and harm. Next follows the reaction from the mob: panic, anxiety, confusion, uncertainty: "What is to be done?!" Finally, the State, which created the bogeyman in the first place, steps in and says, "I will save you. Give me more money and more power; surrender your freedom and I will protect you from this new threat."<div>
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Generations and generations of this assault on our minds have indoctrinated many of us to seek out the Great Man - the savior, the messiah - even in a misguided attempt to increase their freedom. It doesn't occur to them that seeking the Great Man is precisely the manner in which we've found ourselves in this horrible predicament. Government has used fear of the Bogeyman for every usurpation of wealth and power in its history, and in America we've seen how it turned the most minimalist government ever into the grotesque Leviathan (if this offends you, compile a list of anything you can do without paying government for permission, and leave it in the comments) we live under today, where the laws are so numerous and vaguely worded it is literally impossible not to break them. </div>
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An adage I've resonated strongly with goes something like, "The master's tools will never destroy the master's house." When you come to a complete, honest, unapologetic understanding of where we are and how we've arrived here, the idea of using political means to erase generations of political ends is seen as the absurdity that it is. The Great Man is a spook. A phantom. It doesn't exist. </div>
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The tragedy of Ron Paul is that, though his intentions were, I assume, good (the road to hell and all that), he hoodwinked people into thinking some good could be achieved through the political means. We are often fooled into believing that because a method worked - and Ron Paul is a statistically insignificant exception to this rule: the overwhelming majority of politicians are scum - that it is or can be a moral and effective way to affect change. Here is why this is absurd (besides all of modern human history): you have consented to the outcome, for good or ill. Even if I run on a platform to leave you alone, it still assumes that someone else has the right to run on a platform to control everything you do. So even if you vote for Jesus Christ, if Satan gets elected, complain about it all you want - you are responsible; you consented to that outcome. </div>
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They say if you don't vote you have no right to complain; the exact opposite is true. And do not allow anyone to tell you that not participating in politics is the same as doing nothing. Politics is neither a moral nor an effective method of ordering society, and I for one have faith in the smartest being in the known universe to order himself without the use of violence.</div>
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People searching for the Messiah will never be free.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-24594608452294535012018-01-16T11:05:00.002-06:002018-01-16T11:05:36.068-06:00Krishnamurti on Authority<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>All authority of any kind, especially in the field of thought and understanding, is the most destructive, evil thing. Leaders destroy the followers, and followers destroy the leaders. You have to be your own teacher, and your own disciple. You have to question everything that man has accepted as valuable, as necessary.</i></span></blockquote>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-57083130914976470992018-01-16T10:57:00.004-06:002018-01-16T10:57:32.440-06:00How Your Brain Is Getting Hacked: Facebook, Tinder, Slot MachinesFormer Google app designer explains how social media manipulates your mind.<br />
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<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JgkvTRz_Alo" width="560"></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-64616417202572535602017-04-28T14:24:00.000-05:002017-04-28T14:24:54.519-05:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-48384904936794440142017-02-03T13:00:00.002-06:002017-02-03T13:03:28.370-06:00Divide and Conquer: Still Duping the Masses<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Over 2,000 years ago, Julius Caesar is
said to have coined the phrase <i>divida et impura</i> – Divide and
Conquer – to describe a strategy for overcoming and conquering
foreign lands. Incredibly, this expanse of time and history has not
taught the average person to see the tactic when it is employed, and
resist it.</div>
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I am not apt to describe what is human
nature, for you can hardly observe the behavior of humans in
captivity and claim to understand their nature. But perhaps it is a
malfunction caused by the human ego to separate this from that, black
from white, up from down, right from wrong; to see the world in a
matrix of dualities. Of course, this is useful at times, but it can
cause us to lose touch with reality when we confuse the world as it
is with the world as we think about it.
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There are many tactics used to advance
the divide and conquer agenda, but most fall within the circle of
what might be termed identity politics. Man; woman. White; colored
(et cetera). Christian; Jew; Muslim (et cetera).American; Russian;
Mexican (et cetera). Left; right; conservative; liberal. All of this
causes us to confuse reality by viewing it through some lens of
cultural or ideological point of view. You don't see things as they
are, you see them as you think you're supposed to see them according
to whatever identity you're currently clinging to.
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<a name='more'></a>The modern day Establishment seems to
have expanded on the divide and conquer strategy by presenting these
divisions onto us like our identities are our favorite sports teams,
so that, no matter how badly our “team” sucks, they're still our
“team” and we'll “root” for them against other “teams” no
matter how “good” or “bad” those “teams” are. The
psychological affliction is commonly known as <i>cognitive
dissonance</i>: the mental stress (discomfort) experienced by a
person who simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs,
ideas, or values, when performing an action that contradicts those
beliefs, ideas, and values; or when confronted with new information
that contradicts existing beliefs, ideas, and values. People will
often avoid that mental stress by repressing, deflecting or ignoring
information that contradicts their core ideology.<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
For instance, as of this writing there
is a great deal of strife amongst Americans over a travel ban
implemented by the current regime. Those who identify as “left-wing”
are angry about this, because they view it as racist. Those on the
“right” view it as defending the “homeland” and national
“security”, which in their view was neglected during the previous
8 years. However, the previous regime, which is identified with as
“left-wing”, <a href="http://fusion.net/story/252637/obama-has-deported-more-immigrants-than-any-other-president-now-hes-running-up-the-score/" target="_blank">deported more immigrants</a> than any regime in U.S. history, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/al-qaeda-kentucky-us-dozens-terrorists-country-refugees/story?id=20931131" target="_blank">implemented a travel ban</a> on Iraqi refugees, <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2017/01/26/when-wall-was-fence-and-democrats-embraced/QE7ieCBXjXVxO63pLMTe9O/story.html" target="_blank">supported legislation</a> to provide funding to build a border wall, and
of course <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/09/america-dropped-26171-bombs-2016-obama-legacy" target="_blank">oversaw the bombing</a> of 7 Muslim countries for literally every day
of their 8 years in power – and of course so much more, beyond the scope of this essay to list.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The left views the above actions as
racist, imperialist, and overall evil; the right views this as
prudent foreign and domestic policy. But because they were
implemented by a regime viewed as leftist, the “left” were almost
universally silent to these crimes, because only the “right wing”
is racist, while the “right” ignored them to the point of accusing the
regime of being soft on terrorism, illegal immigration, and border
security, because in their ideological slant only the “right”
cares about these things. Now that the letter has changed next to the
regime in power, the left is suddenly animated and opposed to
oppressive government power, while the “right” is celebrating some sort of return to “greatness”. It is not a wild assumption to say that
had the other “side” remained in power, these policies would have
continued, more or less, and so would both “sides'” delusional perceptions of reality.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>When you call yourself an Indian or a
Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being
violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating
yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by
belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man
who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country,
to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is
concerned with the total understanding of mankind.</i></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
– Krishnamurti</blockquote>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This is just one scant example in a
massive cauldron of stupidity, ignorance, and distraction. It is
cognitive dissonance on display. If we want to begin to build a
peaceful world, it seems to me that identity politics must be utterly abandoned; as an individual who views collectivism in all its forms
as the root of all evil in the world, I reject it with every fiber of
my being. As Mises taught, only the individual thinks. Only the
individual reasons. Only the individual acts.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
We have to be morally consistent. If
you oppose travel bans on Muslim refugees, then you must oppose the
bombing of their countries that turned them into refugees in the
first place, no matter who is in office or what letter is next to
their name. Similarly, you cannot support or turn a blind eye to the
endless bombing of countries and then call the people who want to
retaliate “terrorists”; you can't destroy their countries
and then piss your pants that those you've driven out may visit upon
you and do you harm, or refuse to assimilate into your culture after
you've destroyed theirs.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
All of this transcends politics,
identity, which by nature inherently causes you to reject reality.
The left/right paradigm and all forms of collectivism was created by
the Establishment to pit you against you and your fellow man,
ignoring the statistically insignificant percentage of elites that
are the root cause of all the chaos and suffering in the world, so
that it is then easier for them to control you. I ask you to consider
this, to transcend and evolve above and beyond it. Do not be fooled again.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-89997804189908343542017-02-03T11:32:00.000-06:002017-02-03T11:32:55.156-06:00Be the Light<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc9-oENH3hf5ebmpbhR4_EEF49YLwk05lZWiA3881r9Gxdii4KD-b5JftAJNwzpBAaXgnUVmBwl84HTKswW-xf5HJZfdW9x-HVp0qYLaxUJEiBh6zzFAR1x39Dkzkzb0es4JV93hFcaQcZ/s1600/lighthouse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc9-oENH3hf5ebmpbhR4_EEF49YLwk05lZWiA3881r9Gxdii4KD-b5JftAJNwzpBAaXgnUVmBwl84HTKswW-xf5HJZfdW9x-HVp0qYLaxUJEiBh6zzFAR1x39Dkzkzb0es4JV93hFcaQcZ/s400/lighthouse.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In today's world, as the old, outdated
institutions of the passing dark age crumble, it is easy to get lost
in a maelstrom of negativity and gloom. This is a time of great
tribulation, and thus it is imperative to be on guard that our ego
not take us further into the depths, when the world so desperately
needs us to ascend.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The problem, in our minds at least,
because we are still so ego-dominated, even those of us who fashion
ourselves “spiritual”, is not so much “us” as it is “other
people”. The world is in darkness as much because of the small,
powerful elite that control everything as it is because of the masses
who are ignorant to it all, despite this being an information age,
despite the tyranny and decay accelerating and climaxing around us,
despite what we see clearly as the obviousness of it all. These
people, the <em>sheeple</em>, we hate them because we've
awoken, and now we have to lay in the mud with a boot on our necks
until they get with the program.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This is pure ego, if you recognize it;
the ego loves to be better. Above the fray. Outside the box.
Superior. You silly people, don't you see? <em>Why</em>
don't you see? We ask the question - <em>why don't you
see?</em> – but we don't put much thought into the answer.
It's more of a rhetorical question motivated by disgust than an
actual desire to know.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<a name='more'></a>It seems to me that many <em>in
the know</em> of the true scope and depth of this calamity, as
well as those responsible, are so singularly obsessed with exposing
these crimes and the overall conspiracy that there isn't much of
anything else to them. You read their Facebook newsfeeds, or their
online weblogs, or actually have a face-to-face conversation with
them, and all you see or hear is chemtrails, bankster oligarchy,
false flags, war profiteering, eugenics, fascism/corporatism, etc. It
is all darkness, all shadow, all the time.<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I feel it is necessary to be mindful
that these so-called sheeple we denigrate are put through the meat
grinder of establishment indoctrination from practically the time
they are born. Out of the womb, they are immediately dosed with
mind-destroying vaccines. Their baby formula is poisoned with
fluoride and MSG. Vaccines, vaccines, and more vaccines. God only
knows what poison their parents continue to feed them. And in school,
they are taught exactly <em>what</em> to think, with the
only emphasis on <em>how</em> to think being to be sure
to think exactly like everyone else. These people are victims. We
tend to be mindful enough to feel compassion and love towards someone
suffering from vaccine-induced autism or other neurological or
autoimmune disorders, yet we don't realize that we've all been
damaged; the differences being only in degree.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Part of that indoctrination is a
deification of the State and Establishment which presents itself as a
comfortable, secure little womb we can all rest in, as the myriad
responsibilities of survival – food … water ... clothing …
shelter – are provided for us, allowing us to revel in distraction
and trivium. So that when you, the Superior, Awakened One, tries to
explain to the slave that he or she is, in fact, a slave, that their
entire reality, neatly constructed for them since they exited the
womb, is wholly fictitious and illusory, a programmed defense
mechanism within their subconscious activates, and their
pre-programmed response spews from their mouth without them even
having to think about it. <em>Conspiracy theorist!</em> …
<em>You just hate America!</em> … <em>Why don't
you just move to Somalia if you don't like it here!</em> Thus
you have just spoken the truth to them, yet their ego, protecting its
identity, just circled the wagons, so that they've heard the truth,
and not only don't accept it; they hate it, and you for speaking it.
They are now all the more unlikely to awaken. And so are you, because
their reaction informs your impression of those beneath you who
reject the truth as you see it. You elevate yourself further, while
shoving them down lower.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
My own past experience in this has
formed my perceptions today. When I started to become awakened to
these deeper, hidden truths, I realized that many of them were known
to me all along; my ego just suppressed them. I accepted lies that
insulted my soul, and when I finally stopped believing them in my
mind, how quickly I forgot that most people still <em>plugged
in</em> suffer from the same pathology I just “cured”
myself of. And so they became, to me, the sheeple. The idiots. The
Statists, the shills.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I feel fortunate and grateful that I
have been able to focus my mind into awareness not only of the real
state of the world, of what we laughingly call “civilization”,
but of my own responsibility within it, towards myself and towards
other people. As far as other people are concerned, my
responsibilities to them are exactly this: none. The responsibility
to save other people is almost always born out of the egoic urge to
be superior to them, to make yourself into their Savior. And in that
context, I know that it does absolutely no good to constantly remind
people of the shadow, of the darkness, in which they are already
aware of, if only at a subconscious level. Besides, in this Hell of a
world we've built for ourselves, every brick of it was laid by people
we looked to as “saviors”.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Imagine a world where everything was
one color – say, red. Everybody was born into this red world, and,
to them, there are no colors at all, because you can't know color
except when contrasted by different colors. Then comes along someone
who runs around and gets in everyone's face, screaming, “Everything
is red! Don't you <em>see</em>?! It's <em>all
red</em>!” Everyone would think this person was crazy,
because red is so ingrained in their collective psyche that they
don't even know it's red. The only way to show these people they're
stuck in a world of red would be to show them the blue, the green,
the yellow, etc.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Similarly, in a world where, at least
politically, darkness and shadow so prevails, pointing out the
darkness and shadow will not have a positive effect on anyone. You
are trying, violently, to destroy their life-long reality, their
<em>identity</em>, by shoving the “truth” down their
throat. How can you not expect them to gag and spit? How can you not
expect that they will hate and fear you for it, hate and fear what
you're trying to tell them, so that the same emotions, the same
impression, will arise again and again every time someone else says
anything similar, no matter how coherently, intelligently, logically?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This might lead you to ask, “But
isn't silence complicity? How can I keep quiet in the face of such
injustice?” Understand that the violence, the corruption, the
slavery prevalent in the world are born of the collective egoic
pathology we all suffer from, more or less. The power elite are not
alien invaders (well, maybe they are), they're not super-villains.
They are, typically, a relatively small group of frightened men and
women who have ingeniously tricked us into voluntarily handing our
power over to them, and convincing us that they need this power in
order to keep us safe. They exist because we are afraid, because our
minds are dominated by fear, which is easy to prey on.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I speak only for myself, for my own
personal solution, when I say: you must be the Light. Don't shove the
darkness down their throats. <em>Be</em> the Light. Like
the lighthouse, stand tall, and shine. The lighthouse doesn't save
the boat so much as it shows the captain the way to safety.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
People don't want to hear about the
darkness. At some level in their minds, they know about it. At worst
they've been taught to adore it; at best they've been taught there's
just no other way. <em>Be</em> the Light. Shine your own
Light, and let them be guided to it, if they choose to. And, you'll
be surprised, they will. They'll know you see the world differently
from them, without you beating them over the head about it, and one
day, a spark inside them will be kindled, and they'll be curious.
They must come to you. They must come to the Truth. To the Light. If
they don't come to the truth willfully, no amount of fact, no amount
of logic, no mountain of evidence will matter to them.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Patience in this time of upheaval is,
to say the least, difficult. Patience is all we can rely on. And
trust. Yes, the world is crumbling. This is not as bad as it seems.
People will suffer for it, but there are already billions of
voiceless people suffering directly due to the past success of our
civilization. Our “civilization” must now reap what it has sown.
Those who cling to it, rather than embracing a new paradigm, will
suffer. We have compassion for them but recognize that calamity often
precedes great change; evolution does not occur except by necessity.
We, trapped in this pit of ego and ignorance, will either evolve, or
we will perish. But we cannot force ourselves to evolve, we cannot
force others to flee the sinking ship; if we try, we will fail. Abide
patiently, with compassion, and, as Lao-tzu teaches, watch the
turmoil of all beings, but contemplate their return. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-79292495469153655672016-07-09T15:48:00.001-05:002016-07-09T15:48:11.562-05:00Law Enforcement: A Plague to Civilized Society<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivL7TOtjTMOGpgMWwEUCsdUA9NEtRXyS8PTx2ilbgjLWFGxhYAYed9XXXMWPzn8GRr87cIgS4O1AWXtzl2bvgzfnhdOEu7RVvuDjEW6WcwEwMXHg4uiJHinWWF-My_XaSsLsaKCvGhbexV/s1600/cops.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivL7TOtjTMOGpgMWwEUCsdUA9NEtRXyS8PTx2ilbgjLWFGxhYAYed9XXXMWPzn8GRr87cIgS4O1AWXtzl2bvgzfnhdOEu7RVvuDjEW6WcwEwMXHg4uiJHinWWF-My_XaSsLsaKCvGhbexV/s400/cops.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<i>Divide and conquer</i> being the most
potent weapon in the establishment's arsenal, before I get started I
want to draw a clear distinction between the ego identities human beings
often associate themselves with, which are illusory, and the actual
human individual, which is real. Human beings are real; our ego
identities are not. So when we identify as a particular “race” –
Caucasian, Asian, African, etc – or religion – Christian, Jewish,
Muslim, etc – etc, these are mental abstractions that have no
concrete reality. They are stories we tell ourselves that we think
define us. So although I begin with the declaration, <i>there is no such thing as a good cop</i>, it should be kept in mind, especially if that statement offends
you, that “police” is a mental abstraction, an ego identity that
mustn't necessarily define the individual.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
We all know of the old adage, <i>the road
to hell is paved with good intentions</i>. Even the greatest crimes ever
committed were carried out with what the perpetrators believes were
good intentions, for “the greater good.” As a voluntaryist, I
almost necessarily have to believe in the inherent goodness of the
individual. However, alas, otherwise good people very often believe
and act in ways that are not good, not moral, and do not even realize
it. So when I say, “There are no good cops,” as I will begin to
explain now, “police” is not what an individual <i>is</i>; it's a learned behavior that can be unlearned and redeemed. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<a name='more'></a>The belief in the need for authority
and that “laws” are necessary and must be obeyed is the
fundamental driving force for practically all evil in the world. I
recently had a discussion with my brother on the morality of “laws”
and the definition of right and wrong. Like most people who're still
plugged in, he equates law with morality. Thus, he believes if he breaks any of the
innumerable arbitrary and cruel “laws” dictated by the State,
whether he agrees with them or not – he admittedly disagrees with
most of them – he has done something “wrong” and has no one to
blame for receiving his punishment but himself. Obviously and
unfortunately this pathology pervades our society – when a man is choked to death by police for the ridiculous non-crime of selling loose cigarettes and his last words are, “I can't breathe,” many mocked his death by claiming they can breathe because they don't break the “law”. Except <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704471504574438900830760842" target="_blank">they do break the law, multiple times a day, without even knowing it</a>. I digress.<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Right and wrong from a moral standpoint
obviously transcends the law. It transcends all authority. Morality
is purely subjective except in the case of damage to life and
property. In other words, if there is no victim, there is no crime. You may consider a certain activity immoral or sinful but you have zero right to force that view onto others if that activity does no harm to anyone. Conversely, if the State and its laws are your standard for “right
and wrong,” you are blatantly and flagrantly ignorant of history.
The worst crimes ever committed against mankind were all legal. But when we think of the holocaust, or Mao's “Great
Leap Forward”, etc, we might find it shocking that they were all perfectly legal according to the laws of those countries, because we know
them to be obviously immoral. We don't apply the same standard to our own
government, because we've been infected with the disease of exceptionalism that is common among strong nationalist societies. For while our government is not rounding up ethnic or
religious groups and leading them to mass murder – yet – in this
supposed free country it is literally illegal to do almost anything
without some kind of government permission, which you of course have
to pay money for. Take a moment, if you are incredulous, to think of
a single activity you can participate in during your day-to-day that
doesn't require permission from government. That's not as bad as
genocide but it's not freedom. It's tyrannical. And there is no law so ridiculous that law enforcement will not kill you if necessary to enforce it.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The overwhelming majority of “laws”
we must obey have zero to do with protecting life and property.
Therefore the overwhelming majority of “laws” exist as a means to
extortion and control, and it is not in the very least immoral to
disobey or break them – if there is no victim, there is no crime.
And yet, it is the duty of every cop to enforce the “Law”
regardless of its morality, regardless of whether the individual cop
agrees with it or not. We can cry ourselves to sleep over the
relentless usurpation of our rights, but it is the order followers
who enforce those laws, it is the order followers who are trampling
our rights under their feet. What could any tyrant in history do if
not for the belief in authority, if not for the order followers? But, at the same time, as the order followers trample our rights,
most people worship the order followers – law enforcement. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This fundamental axiom must be kept in
mind when disseminating every instance of police force: whether the
mundane citizen was right to resist, or whether the police were right
in torturing or beating or even killing him or her for
non-compliance. If there is no victim, there is no crime, so when the
police initiate confrontation with an individual in the enforcement
of victimless crimes, the police are primarily culpable morally for
whatever happens from then on. Therefore there is no moral standing
to say, “If he hadn't resisted, he'd still be alive!” when a person ends up
beaten, tortured, or killed in the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/07/us/falcon-heights-shooting-minnesota/" target="_blank">enforcement of a non-crime</a>. The
police have no right to initiate the confrontation in the first
place, because no crime has been committed – the victim has done
nothing wrong, morally, except rightfully resist being kidnapped by
armed thugs attempting to enforce an illegitimate law. So in such instances, the aggressor's crime is two-fold
as well as an insult to rational and moral people: in the immoral
enforcement of cruel and arbitrary laws, they often dole out summary
punishment to those who justly disobey and resist being kidnapped and extorted.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This scourge underlies the uprising
that seems to be festering in poor and minority communities. Of
all the cruel and arbitrary laws shoved down our throats, the most
vicious is drug prohibition, and the resulting “war” has been waged
almost primarily in poor and minority communities. It is a fact that
no serious person can deny: any correlation that exists between drugs
and violence exists solely because drugs are illegal, and, by and
large, only the most economically desperate, who have little to
nothing to lose, participate in black market drug trade considering
the draconian consequences. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As a voluntaryist, I am explicitly
opposed to violence except in self defense, and violence in
self-defense must be proportional to the threat. However, when
government declares and carries out a “war” in the literal
definition of the word, with its paramilitary training and tactics
and acquisition of surplus military hardware and weaponry from the
Department of Defense; when the police purposely morph themselves
into an occupation force that treats citizens like an insurgency,
while we would prefer non-violent methods were used to resist – the
State is prepared for and desires a violent response – rational
people can hardly be surprised or offended when the citizens realize
they've been in a war for generations and finally start to fight
back. And we laugh at the narrative being pushed by the establishment that there is a “war on cops” when cops have been waging war against citizens since before many of us were born.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Was it self-defense to kill cops in Dallas? I answer that with another question: if police were not men and women who live among us, but were an invading occupier, say, from Russia, would the same action then be considered self defense? You didn't consent to domestic law any more than you would consent to a foreign invader's law (implied consent under duress is not consent, despite the Orwellian word magic they try to cast upon us). When we stop making a distinction between domestic occupiers and would-be foreign occupiers – an occupier is an occupier – and agents of the State no longer feel appreciated, welcome, or safe, and, when the grotesque facade of “serve and protect” is pulled away leaving individuals empowered and responsible for their own care and defense <i>as they should be</i>, there will be relative peace in society. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Not a utopia, just immeasurably better.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-90207329135034739812015-09-08T17:57:00.001-05:002015-09-08T17:58:01.057-05:00The Tao of Anarchy: Love, Freedom, Responsibility<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.7999992370605px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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Spend enough time on social media outlets and you’ll hear as much talk about awareness and spirituality as you like. I have learned long ago that it is not my job, if I were even capable – I am not – to judge anyone or their points of view as being truly aware, truly spiritual, or not. I have enough to deal with concerning my own ego to worry about what you are doing for your own awakening.<br />
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One of the most common memes among those who fashion themselves as aware is the idea of personal responsibility. Though the words are seldom used, the themes are similar. <i>You must be the change you wish to see in the world. You yourself are the teacher and the pupil; you are the Master; you are the guru; you are the leader; you are everything! You have to be a Light unto yourself. You have to seek and search within your own being, because it is already there at the very Core. If you dive deep you will find it. You will have to learn how to dive within yourself, not in the scriptures, but within your own existence.</i> I could go on forever.<br />
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If you’re familiar with the teachings of Krishnamurti, you may have heard him describe two modes of understanding: <i>intellectual</i> and <i>actual</i>. I am often reminded of this when I observe the words of many who fashion themselves enlightened, awake, aware.<br />
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There is great evil in the world. Few can deny the world is a ruinous, grotesque charade laughingly called “civilization”. I would like to point out some of the glaring contradictions in what we often see as solutions to this problem. For if we understand the concept of personal responsibility, not just <i>intellectually</i> but <i>actually</i>, it becomes clear that we are barking up the wrong tree in working towards a solution.<br />
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<i>Would you like to save the world from the degradation and destruction it seems destined for? Then step away from shallow mass movements and quietly go to work on your own self-awareness. If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation</i>. – Wang Fou, Huahujing</blockquote>
It seems to me that for many of us the solutions to the evils of the world involves trying to mold the habits and actions of <i>other people</i>. We don’t like GMOs – with good reason – so we must ban them. We may or may not be concerned about global warming or climate change, or the overall health of the environment, so we must ban or restrict fossil fuel use. We want to throw politicians and bankers and CEOs into prison. Insert your favorite movement or cause here, and chances are, if the shoe fits, your solution to these problems is external. And it usually involves the government in some way, shape, or form.<br />
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This usually stems from a misunderstanding or lack of knowledge of economics. We are told that economics is a grim and boring science and we should probably leave it to experts to figure out for us. But economics is nothing if not a science of human action and how it expresses itself in society. One of the biggest problems with our understanding of economics is we are led to believe that in the West we have what is known as “Capitalism”, and thus all of the flaws and ills in our society are often framed as flaws and ills in “Capitalism”.<br />
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It is beyond the scope of this essay to define what Capitalism actually is, but allow me to explain what Capitalism is not. The various alphabet bureaucracies that, we are told, exist to protect us from corporate and industrial malfeasance are actually wholly owned subsidiaries of those same corporations and industries. From the USDA to the FDA, the SEC to the EPA, you will find each bureaucracy staffed by lawyers and lobbyists for agricultural and biotech giants, pharmaceutical giants, energy giants, Wall Street titans, and on and on. These unelected bureaucrats are literally foxes guarding the hen house, and they are using their purchased share of the US government to shield themselves from fraud and other malfeasance – destroying the environment, destroying competition and forcing people to purchase their products. This is not a “free market”. And most of us go to sleep at night confident and comfortable in the notion that, under a free market, the world would collapse, so thank the Lord these unelected bureaucracies exist to protect us!<br />
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Many people see that these bureaucracies are not functioning correctly, however their solution, for some insane reason I cannot fathom, is to petition the government to step up their responsibilities. But, as just one for instance, when you call the USDA to pressure them to deny approval for Monsanto’s ‘agent orange’ soy, you’re actually petitioning Monsanto to ban its own product. You’re not talking to neutral arbiters; you’re talking directly to Monsanto, “in sheep’s clothing”. And though it may inflate your ego to stick your fist in the face of the Man, that’s about as much progress as you’re likely to make.<br />
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This is just one example, but I feel it is a disease that has infested every level of our government, from top to bottom. And it is the direct result of a population that has invested its time and energy into a mechanism that deflects personal responsibility. The question for many is rarely, <i>What can I do personally to affect change on these issues?</i> That might be the dialogue they have in their heads, but when you pick up the phone and call a bureaucrat or a politician, your actions pervade the demand, <i>What is someone else going to do to affect change on these issues?</i><br />
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<i>The proper study of Man is anything but Man; and the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit to it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity</i>. – J.R.R. Tolkien</blockquote>
It is very sad to see that for so many, the solution is not to build a society where we fix our own problems as individuals, freely and voluntarily, but to simply fix the system that has destroyed society in the first place, as if the system is actually broken; as if it wasn’t <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746" target="_blank"><b>designed this way</b></a> – that is to say, as if we, the individuals, actually had a stake in the whole sham in the first place. And so many still flock to the voting booth, wide-eyed and hypnotized, by the “new blood” of spiritual politicians, Marianne Williamson chief among them. We just need more people like her, and we can take “our” country back – as though some foreign power had invaded, that the situation wasn’t of our own making! Her embarrassingly inept, misdiagnosed social problems and reckless and economically ignorant solutions aside, the very fact that a “spiritual” teacher would want to throw her lot in with that den of murderers and thieves, that she would seek to tell others how they must live, through threat of violence, shreds any credibility she has. The very fact that she wants to be a leader betrays the core tenet of awareness which she thinks can bring change to the nation: personal responsibility. The very idea that we need leaders at all. That we need to be controlled, ruled.<br />
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The downfalls of society that we identify – scarcity, illness, fraud, environmental destruction, etc – are not diseases in and of themselves. They are merely symptoms. The disease, as I see it, is our own refusal to take responsibility for our own lives. And so we continue to petition the government for redress, unaware that, through the State, our refusal to take responsibility actually causes the problems we think we need government for.<br />
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It is perhaps the most destructive fallacy inflicted on Man, the notion that since Man’s technological achievements have paralleled the existence of the State, we naively attribute those achievements <i>to</i> the State – or perhaps it is establishment propaganda which has instilled this belief in us. It doesn’t occur to us whether it is even possible that we may have advanced <i>in spite of</i> the State, or, at the very least, that the correlation is purely coincidental. We think, the government builds the roads, the government has always built the roads, so who would build the roads in the absence of government? It’s as if, without government, I’d have my store over here, trying to sell you stuff, and you’d be living over there somewhere, and everyone would be standing around, confused as to how to make a connection, and without government to handle that for us, we’d all just curl up in a ball and have a seizure. Few have the imagination to see how ridiculous the whole notion is.<br />
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It is outside the intent of this essay to discuss whether the State was ever really necessary, and I am not yet educated enough on the subject to say what the state of mankind would be had the State never been conceived. All I have is the record, and the facts of the current state of affairs.<br />
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Separating the State from Man’s technological achievements, we see that the State is a machine for death and destruction, if it ever was a tool for creation. In the Twentieth Century alone, not including soldiers who perished in war, the State murdered over 200 million people. To put that into perspective, imagine about 3,000 football stadiums filled to capacity. That total number, killed by the State. And when I say “the State”, I don’t mean Hitler, Stalin, or Mao. It is highly likely that these people did not personally murder a single person. It was through the cold, efficient machinery of the State, through thousands of people “just following orders”. No individual could ever of his own singular effort come close to the efficiency the State commits its crimes. When people wonder who, without government, would do the things government does, it <i>never</i> enters their minds the hideous crimes the State is guilty of. Who would build the roads? Who would slaughter hundreds of millions of people?<br />
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<i>If this is the price to be paid for an idea, then let us pay. There is no need of being troubled about it, afraid, or ashamed. This is the time to boldly say, “Yes, I believe in the displacement of this system of injustice by a just one; I believe in the end of starvation, exposure, and the crimes caused by them; I believe in the human soul regnant over all laws which man has made or will make; I believe there is no peace now, and there will never be peace, so long as one rules over another; I believe in the total disintegration and dissolution of the principle and practice of authority; I am an Anarchist, and if for this you condemn me, I stand ready to receive your condemnation.</i> – Voltairine de Cleyre (1866 – 1912)</blockquote>
Anarchy is not a principle for people to whom personal responsibility is a foreign concept. It is for people who understand that the individual is the sole and final arbiter over what is best for the individual. It is for people who understand that good ideas do not require force. It is for people who understand that power feeds on power, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely; therefore no one or any group of people should be given even the seeds of such absolute power – no one should rule over another. It is for people who understand the inherent contradiction in Madison’s adage, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” For, as Jefferson put it, if men are not angels, can men, then, be trusted to govern others? Does the holy sacrament of “democracy” turn elected men into angels? Hitler was democratically elected.<br />
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Those who are capable of seeing the evils the State commits today, usually ignorant of the fact that this is not a new phenomenon, but an inherent trait, maintain their faith in the State, blaming “other people”, that mythical entity that is about as real as the unicorn grazing in my back yard, for allowing State power to grow to the grotesque monstrosity it is today, by not paying attention to politics. The anarchist says, why should I have to pay attention to someone else’s politics? My own politics are my daily needs, and how I provide for them. Why must I proxy that power to others to handle on my behalf? Why <i>must</i> I? Those who understand politics understand full well that if politicians hadn’t had their filthy hands in every single conceivable aspect of our lives, sucking in every last mundanity to regulate and charge us for the “right” to everything, so that we can hardly get out of bed in the morning without permission, we might just be able to figure life out on our own. If government is good at anything, and this, to me, it seems, is their daily bread, it is good at creating problems for which it is needed to solve.<br />
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Again, it is beyond the intent of this essay to explain or theorize how a truly free and voluntary society would function sans the State. That is all actually besides the point. The at-heart anarchist does not believe what he or she believes from a utilitarian perspective. Yes, there are answers to the irrational fears people have, about roads and money and science and all the things we think cannot exist without the State. But we are not interested in “society”. For thousands of years, Man has claimed the mantle of collective responsibility for “society”, and that ideal has “civilization” circling the drain, with nuclear powers and half of the rest of the world fighting amongst themselves over imaginary lines drawn on imaginary maps; over a hallucination, a complete and total mental abstraction. No, the anarchist’s belief in freedom is purely philosophical. We desire full and total control over our own lives, and we wish to leave you to do what you wish, so long as it doesn’t aggress against others. So if you insist we accept your point of view, that “it won’t work”, regardless of why we think it will, that is meaningless to us. Our only concern is, what does building roads and paying for your retirement have to do with my right to be free, to not have my earnings arbitrarily robbed in the interests of “society”? Who are you – who is anyone – to <i>force</i> me, under threat of violence, to do anything?<br />
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<i>We will not become free once the State goes away. Rather, the State will go away once we become free.</i> – Butler Shaffer</blockquote>
A friend of mine recently told me, when I remarked that he seemed to see as I do that anarchy is a spiritual philosophy, that anarchy is a synonym for love. When viewed in proper context, we see that the State has been, is, and always will be, an engine for death and destruction. Naturally we view the removal of this engine as the emergence of the expression of love, as the power for Man to commit his inhumanity towards man is stripped from him, and we are left in a world where all things are equal, where influence cannot be bought (and thus the corporatism we mistake for capitalism is vanquished), where we are all responsible for our own lives, where we can help those less fortunate than us of our own volition, without coercion, in a way we feel is the best and most effective investment of our time and resources.<br />
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Out of this love, we trust that without our god, government, standing over us with a club, we can coexist peacefully because we as human beings are smart enough to understand that peaceful, voluntary interaction is the most beneficial long-term strategy for living our lives; those who fail to grasp this would naturally be avoided, and may even, in self defense, be harmed or killed for their actions – personally empowered people are not defenseless. Those mythical “other people” you fear, who are sharpening their claws ready to burn your house down and kill your children the second the authority of the State is swept away, simply do not exist, or, if they do, would not last very long once they realized the people, even without the State, are capable of and willing to defend themselves. The anarchist understands better than most that much of the criminal element that exists in our society is the result of the scarcity created by the State’s economic policies (debt-based currency back by nothing and perpetually devalued, among their worst) as well as its many oppressive prohibitions (the “war on drugs”, etc). We know that human beings are smart enough, we have enough accumulated knowledge and technology, that, without the State, we won’t devolve into nomadic hunter-gathering barbarians, tearing each other to shreds over scarce resources. How absurd!<br />
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<i>A state? What is that? Well! open now your ears to me, for now I will speak to you about the death of peoples. State is the name of the coldest of all cold monsters. Coldly it lies; and this lie slips from its mouth: “I, the state, am the people.”</i> – Nietzsche</blockquote>
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<i>There is an argument that, “We are the government.” If this reasoning is believed, then the Jews in Nazi Germany killed themselves.</i> – Murray Rothbard</blockquote>
So, I say, anarchy is in truth a spiritual (a)political philosophy, because it demands that I have not only the capability but the responsibility to be free and empowered, and I gladly and lovingly accord you the same right. You are a sentient being, and no one has the right to suppose what is best for you, unless you freely and voluntarily allow it, and I expect and demand the same consideration. I am not interested in what is practical for “society”, and I realize that if such a reality as I imagine here were ever to manifest, it would likely take place long after I have died. But, understanding the sickness that has infected our culture, society, and civilization, I feel that if we don’t evolve, if we don’t transcend this destructive delusion, we will almost certainly, through the State, destroy ourselves.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-29382305653034351442015-09-03T11:28:00.002-05:002015-09-03T11:32:29.859-05:00Bureaucracy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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As by now the whole country knows, there is a county clerk somewhere in Kentucky that refuses to grant marriage licenses to gay couples because it is contrary to God's law, i.e., immoral. We as individuals are free to harbor our own individual morality of course, but to me and, no doubt, most people of the anarchist/voluntarist leaning, the irony has not been lost that a woman who is standing by "morals" is in the employment of the State.<br />
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To most people, i.e. the mob, who are indoctrinated statists (and thus worthy of our sympathy), the concept that it is immoral to work for the State may seem a bit hazy. After all, our society has become such a bureaucracy-choked morass that, at best, we have become numb to the army of bureaucrats we have to deal with on a daily basis; at worst, we think they are necessary. But while many people feel contempt and loathing for the stereotypical welfare whore who lives in government housing, sits around eating Cheetos and Dr Pepper, and makes more babies to be dependent on the State, few if any realize that the bureaucrat is actually more harmful to society.<br />
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Let us clear the air: to begin, taxation is theft. There is no other way to describe it, despite what you have been indoctrinated into believing. For most of us, we do not pay taxes. Taxes are taken from us, before the wages we have worked for and are thus entitled to have been given to us. For others, such as the self-employed, taxes must be payed, or, eventually, law enforcement will be called upon to kidnap and hold them hostage at gunpoint. If they resist sufficiently, they are killed. If this were done by any other entity, say, a gang or the Mafia, we would call it what it is: criminal. But since it is government, it is legal, and, per state indoctrination, legal is moral. You must pay your taxes. It is your patriotic and therefore moral obligation. What the statist must, but cannot, answer, is the simple question: If I take 100% of the fruit of a man's labor, that is considered slavery, and this is obvious to anyone. But at what percentage can I confiscate a man's production that is not considered slavery?<br />
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With this is mind, we see that all public sector employees live off of stolen money. It doesn't matter if what they do is an actual service to society. If that were so, then there would obviously be a demand for that service in a free market.<br />
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Further, a government job is not a job. It's a welfare program. This includes the DMV clerk, the police officer, the soldier; anyone employed by government. And more often than not, public sector employment exists for the sole purpose of extracting more revenue from the private sector. So while the stereotypical section 8 or trailer trash welfare recipient does nothing productive to earn an income, not only is the public sector welfare parasite equally unproductive, they further harm society by robbing the citizenry of even more money, in the form of fines, levees, fees, etc.<br />
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Take, for example, the meter maid, who is to me the epitome of this entire fraud. The citizen is robbed, i.e. taxed, we are told, so that, among other things, roads can be built and maintained. So the citizen is robbed to pay for the roads, and then they often must pay to park on them. From the stolen tax money and parking meter fees, a person is then paid to make sure you've paid to park on the road you've already paid for, and if you have not sufficiently paid, he or she will leave a ticket on your windshield requiring you to pay more money. This ticket, ultimately, is a threat of violence. If you do not pay it, not only will the ransom demand be increased, but if it is not paid, a warrant for arrest may be issued. Your license to drive may be suspended. If you are pulled over without a license, your property (car) will be stolen, and you may be kidnapped and held hostage and ransom (bail) will be demanded. If you resist being kidnapped, physical harm may be visited upon you, up to and including death. Over a parking ticket you were under no moral obligation to pay in the first place.<br />
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So much of our society is overrun with similar atrocities, which is beyond the scope of this essay and could be represented in a book of considerable size (and has probably already been written). Cops, department of motor vehicles, toll collectors, tax collectors, ATF, FDA, USDA, CDC, EPA, and all fascist, unelected corporatist bureaucracies exist for one sole and solitary purpose: they are paid for, with your stolen tax dollars, to take more money from you, often by selling you your own natural rights back to you, such as the right to travel (driver's license), your right to provide sustenance for your family (fishing and hunting licenses), your right to bear arms (gun licenses), your right to grow and sell food, your right to do whatever you want on your own property (building permits, zoning laws, etc), your right to enter into legal contracts with other consenting adults (marriage licenses), etc. They are the dregs of society, infinitely more harmful than the welfare queens we think we hate. They are a symptom of a more fundamental disease.<br />
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That disease is the State, and our belief in and reliance upon it. And if you work for the State, and you want to talk about morality, first quit your "job".Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-13015986283197893672015-08-04T13:02:00.000-05:002015-08-04T13:04:58.192-05:00Borders: Imaginary Lines on Imaginary Maps<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
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It seems to me that the most common and
difficult obstacle a free individual will encounter in conversations
with members of the mob is the collectivist mass hallucination called
nationalism. There are boundaries – in this case ideological
boundaries – one must not cross in respectable society. Not if one
wants to be considered a respectable human being. In respectable society, one is expected to be a “patriot“, to be a member of good standing of the nation you belong to, or that belongs to you.</div>
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It is impossible for the collectivist
mind to comprehend that the idea that you can draw imaginary lines on
maps and call the land within those imaginary boundaries “countries”
is as absurd as the belief in unicorns or leprechauns, and a
compassionate mind can certainly understand why and how this has
happened. Having gone through the same meatgrinder as everyone else –
state indoctrination, i.e. public school, raised by parents who
bought into the illusion, addicted, for a good portion of my life, to
establishment media and entertainment – I do not consider myself
superior for having figured it all out. It hasn't been an easy
journey and there is still much to unlearn.
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For those of us who hate the State, I
feel it is important for this distinction to be made: there is only
one State. Failing to recognize this, typically when we criticize the
American – as one for instance and the one I am most familiar with
– brand of the State, we are often told to pack our bags. “If you
don't like it here, leave!” The “here“ which they speak of
simply does not exist. The tyranny we wish to escape from is not an
entity or a thing; it has no concrete reality. It is but a mental
abstraction, an idea – a bad idea: that nations can be created and that the people who happen to live there, usually by “virtue” of simply having been born there, must live according to its rules.<br />
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For if I leave “my country” and
migrate to another, I am still ruled. I may be more or less free,
relatively speaking, but I will not be free. But “my country” is
an idea in my head. Even if, per my example, America existed as a
concrete object, my sole and solitary attachment to it is, by
pure, dumb chance, it was the place my mother happened to be when I slipped
through her birth canal. From that perspective, the immigrants many
“patriots” loathe have more claim to pride in their “country”
than anyone else; they actually chose to live here.</div>
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<i>In our tenure on this planet we've
accumulated dangerous evolutionary baggage — propensities for
aggression and ritual, submission to leaders, hostility to outsiders
— all of which puts our survival in some doubt. But we've also
acquired compassion for others, love for our children and desire to
learn from history and experience, and a great soaring passionate
intelligence — the clear tools for our continued survival and
prosperity. Which aspects of our nature will prevail is uncertain,
particularly when our visions and prospects are bound to one small
part of the small planet Earth. But up there in the immensity of the
Cosmos, an inescapable perspective awaits us. There are not yet any
obvious signs of extraterrestrial intelligence and this makes us
wonder whether civilizations like ours always rush implacably,
headlong, toward self-destruction. National boundaries are not
evident when we view the Earth from space. Fanatical ethnic or
religious or national chauvinisms are a little difficult to maintain
when we see our planet as a fragile blue crescent fading to become an
inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the
stars.</i><br />
– Carl Sagan</blockquote>
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Borders are not seen when Earth is
viewed from space. They do not exist. They are a collectivist
abstraction. And they are the root of much of the violence and
scarcity (which drives much of the violence) in this world. The
nationalistic ideology states that the people on one side of an
imaginary line on the map are more important than those living on the
other side of that line; their lives are more valuable. Oft times, they are seen as more human. Which side is the correct side varies
according to which side of the line the person you're asking lives
on. To the nationalist, there is nothing insane about this. Not even when men kill
because of it. Of course, little if any energy is expended on the moral or intellectual value of this idea.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The time has come – and of course,
this is already happening, and this is my contribution – for all
men of conscience and sanity to reject notions of patriotism. The
word is absolutely abhorrent to me. I belong to no country, and no
country belongs to me. I swear no allegiance to country, or to any
piece of colored rag commonly referred to as “the Flag”. As
Thomas Paine correctly noted, my country is the world, and all
Mankind are my brethren. I deem you free and equal to do what you
will, so long as you reserve for me that same right.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>When you call yourself an Indian or a
Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being
violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating
yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by
belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man
who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country,
to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is
concerned with the total understanding of mankind.</i><br />
– Jiddu Krishnamurti</blockquote>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It does not matter to me that others do
not share my worldview. It does not matter that others see me as an
American, and view me as their enemy because of it. If such a view
should lead to my untimely death, I accept that. Take the first step.
If you say, I can't, because “other people”, change will never
happen. If you are waiting for some prerequisite before you can
choose peace, no one will choose peace. At some point, people are
going to have to forgive transgressions, and stop seeking retribution
and reciprocity. That cycle is infinite. That cycle is based on the
delusion that people of one nationality or religion or ideology
committed a transgression against people of another group; these
separations do not exist in reality. They are of the mind (this
cannot be repeated enough).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>The fundamental problem does not reside in any set of buildings, or any group of politicians, or any gang of soldiers or enforcers, The fundamental problem is not an organization that can be voted out, or overthrown, or “reformed.” The fundamental problem is the belief itself – the delusion, superstition and myth of “authority” – which resides in the minds of several billion human beings, including those who have suffered the most because of that belief.</i><br />
<i>[...]</i><br />
<i>Instead of fighting against a non-existent beast, what “freedom fighters” need to do is to recognize that it is not real, that it does not exist, that it cannot exist, and then act accordingly. Of course, if only a few people overcome the superstition, they will likely be ridiculed, condemned, attacked, imprisoned or murdered by those who are still firm believers in the myth, But when even a significant minority of people outgrow the superstition, and change their behavior accordingly, the world will drastically change. When the people actually want true freedom, they will achieve it without the need for any election or revolution.</i><br />
– Larken Rose</blockquote>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This is a philosophical concept, which
we must spread through education and enlightenment on a global scale.
Many might agree that the world would be better off without nations,
but assume that by abandoning the notion of nationalism, they would
be left in a void surrounded by the enemies who still wish to conquer
our land, kill its people and plunder its wealth. We must be careful
not to suggest that, say, America should be abandoned as an idea,
while the governments and nations of the rest of the world still
exist, who many assume would simply fill that void by invading. Never
mind that a land crawling with armed and empowered individuals could
never be conquered – and no invader would dare try. The philosophy
should be spread that the State, as a singular global concept, should
be abandoned, that individuals must come into their own power and,
rather than fight and defeat the State, simply turn their backs to
it, and refuse to give it any intellectual authority over them again.
For it is only the idea of the State, not the State as an actual
thing, which doesn't exist, which is our enemy; the idea that men can
put on costumes and assume control over the lives of others, the idea
among the masses that this is a good and necessary thing.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As the State absorbs more power and
control, as it ruins the wealth of the planet and creates more
scarcity, thus perpetuating its justification for absorbing ever more
power and control, the likelihood that this insanity will lead to the
demise of civilization increases. Who can deny this? The individual
must recognize his or her own contribution to this insanity, and
decide whether to evolve and grow, or to continue polishing the brass
on a sinking ship. As individuals, we may not live to see
civilization's final demise, but we can choose to facilitate a future
of freedom and prosperity, a future without the State. We may not see
that event either, nor is our own liberation any guarantee for it,
but that is not ultimately for us to concern ourselves with. We may
destroy ourselves anyway, despite my best efforts. I accept that as
well.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
The philosophy of anarchy rests on the
belief in the freedom of the individual. Even if all of the
irrational fears the mob has of a stateless civilization are
realized, that does not have anything to do with my right to live
free. I for one am willing to accept my responsibility for it. That
includes the responsibility to secure my own safety and security
against those who are foolish enough to think that, without
authority, they can take what's mine. But for now, let us refuse to
buy into illusions and lies, especially the lie that imaginary lines
on maps make human beings more or less important, their lives more or
less valuable. Let us embody and teach that simple philosophy.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2704673311126980525.post-66327914800315295872015-07-28T12:02:00.003-05:002015-07-28T12:10:18.780-05:00Thanks (But No Thanks) For Your Service<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigd4yyyGD3rEKD4uXU6GOqX_MvH9OBh4DsVzDcsZxL-bVzC9h9rSc0a8a-CfTVLrJ_mmdsfz9MLkE3qhtw135EimkRjJC_Z-zrUyFhVDn_P20Mco3SZstX_lNIfbURJCXalViUXXqFtJJl/s1600/troops_stadium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigd4yyyGD3rEKD4uXU6GOqX_MvH9OBh4DsVzDcsZxL-bVzC9h9rSc0a8a-CfTVLrJ_mmdsfz9MLkE3qhtw135EimkRjJC_Z-zrUyFhVDn_P20Mco3SZstX_lNIfbURJCXalViUXXqFtJJl/s320/troops_stadium.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
It seems as though even the most
fervent statist is capable of recognizing the ineptitude of
government almost across the entire spectrum of its grasp. We know it
is wasteful, corrupt, and intrusive. Of course, if you see these
failures and remain a statist, your solution to
this obvious, widely accepted problem will likely be more elections
to try to fine tune government to become the machine it has never,
ever shown any promise of achieving. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
To the statist, the government is like
a man who shatters your kneecap with a baseball bat, hands you a pair
of crutches, demands you pay him for the crutches, lest he break
other bones in your body – your skull, perhaps – and then expects
you to be gracious for his generosity. And “The People” are
grateful. That analogy is absolutely flawless – indeed, if
government is good at anything, it is good at engineering the fear,
crises, and artificial scarcity it uses as justification for itself.
The deception is obvious, we know it, yet we refuse to transcend it.<br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In that vain, the State has, throughout
many decades, methodically designed a system that, in assembly line
fashion, churned out generations of frightened, helpless cowards who
could hardly get out of bed in the morning if they were not assured
of the State's protection over their lives and property. If you
actually watch television or read newspapers, not a day goes by that
fear of some entity who's sole and solitary desire is to kill you and
your family, for no other reason than their own lust for blood and
hatred of “freedom” (I can hardly use that word without putting
it in quotations). Today, we know, because it's what we've been told
since we exited the womb, not to question these facts: without the
State, you would die. Someone would come and kill you and your
family, and take what's yours. Because that meme has been injected
into our minds from such a young age, so persistently throughout our
lives, it is a rare individual who is capable of reflecting on the
logic and sanity of that line of thinking. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This is despite mountains of evidence
showing practically every external enemy we are demanded to fear was
created by our own government. And, my god, we know this. It's become
almost a punchline in America that we intervene in other countries'
internal affairs, usually by giving weapons to factions fighting
against regimes we don't like, and then at some point must then fight
our former allies when we decide we no longer like them either. Yet
we insist on war to destroy that enemy, and never deviate. Who hasn't
seen this picture before:</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7TxkiW2ENjjPeYbpKqZ9NzolFOuVKiwW_wClelb_JAOzE1A9p2b6ZJ63OkpTEGsEWGCg_fvFzrd1YAc1ncWCcYs3e_nkJ-jE2eaR8LfqH0Jop5_z742TPG2rEc3ZrHpWuQr9q8C4hID5y/s1600/rummy-and-sadam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7TxkiW2ENjjPeYbpKqZ9NzolFOuVKiwW_wClelb_JAOzE1A9p2b6ZJ63OkpTEGsEWGCg_fvFzrd1YAc1ncWCcYs3e_nkJ-jE2eaR8LfqH0Jop5_z742TPG2rEc3ZrHpWuQr9q8C4hID5y/s400/rummy-and-sadam.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
That, of course, is Donald Rumsfeld
shaking hands with Saddam Hussein. We all know how that turned out
(well, it's still ongoing). During the 1980's, then-president Reagan
had <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/reagan-freedom-fighters-taliban-foreign-policy-2013-2" target="_blank">leaders of the Taliban at the White House</a>, and <a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=38274" target="_blank">referred to them as</a> “our brothers, these freedom fighters ... the moral equal of America's Founding Fathers”. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2CE0fyz4ys" target="_blank">Here is Hillary Clinton explaining to congress</a> that America created al Qaeda, and National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski under President Jimmy Carter <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/blowback-prequel" target="_blank">testifies</a> that support for the muhajadin preceded the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. <a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/09/sleeping-with-the-devil-how-u-s-and-saudi-backing-of-al-qaeda-led-to-911.html" target="_blank">See here for more</a> on how al Qaeda is the devil spawn of American government black ops (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/world/asia/cia-funds-found-their-way-into-al-qaeda-coffers.html?_r=0" target="_blank">and here</a>).<br />
<br />
The “terrorist” who bombed the World Trade Center
in 1993 was<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/31/nyregion/bomb-informer-s-tapes-give-rare-glimpse-of-fbi-dealings.html" target="_blank"> an FBI stooge</a>, who was given a real bomb to play with.
Whoops? Today, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/21/government-agents-directly-involved-us-terror-plots-report" target="_blank">practically every terrorist attack</a>, carried out or
thwarted, is an FBI black op (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/opinion/sunday/terrorist-plots-helped-along-by-the-fbi.html?_r=0" target="_blank">see also here</a>). The rebels we supported to overthrow Ghadaffi
in Libya were <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8407047/Libyan-rebel-commander-admits-his-fighters-have-al-Qaeda-links.html" target="_blank">avowed al Qaeda militants</a> (<a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/04/28/source-u-s-knew-weapons-and-aid-were-going-to-al-qaeda-linked-militants-in-libya/" target="_blank">see also here</a>), yet most were only outraged
that then-Secretary of State Clinton didn't provide adequate security
for Benghazi. Not, you know, that we deliberately turned an
oppressive but relatively prosperous and stable state into a jihadist
scumhole. And finally, the villain-du-jour, ISIS, was <a href="https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/secret-pentagon-report-reveals-west-saw-isis-as-strategic-asset-b99ad7a29092" target="_blank">created by the Department of Defense</a> to overthrow Assad in Syria. These are not conspiracy theories. They report on these in mainstream news, confident the average dupe is too distracted to notice.<br />
<br />
All of this, perhaps, could be excused if the same policy of funding and arming our future bogeymen did not continue unabated, but the policy, carried out through several decades, is obviously written in stone,</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
By any measure the US has long used terrorism. In ‘78-79 the Senate was trying to pass a law against international terrorism – in every version they produced, the lawyers said the US would be in violation.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div>
– Lt. General William Odom, director of the National Security Agency under Ronald Reagan</div>
</blockquote>
Of course, none of these “enemies”
have the power or the scope to pose a realistic threat to anyone this
side of vast oceans. They have no air force. They have no navy. If
they are here now, within our imaginary borders, it's because they
were brought here. In many cases, terrorists – that is to say,
government stooges (see above) – were given visas and allowed into
the country despite being on terror watch lists – despite being
known “threats”.<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I could go on all day, but let me bring
this to a close by returning to the analogy of your broken leg. The
government has created every threat to your life and liberty you
think you need protection from, yet when most of us see a soldier in
fatigues, we practically fall down at their feet, thanking them for
their protection, i.e. “service”. Police are perhaps worshiped
less, but only by degree. It's as if we know their employers – the State – are
rotten scumbags, yet it doesn't even occur to us that the rotten
scumbags give these saints their orders, and they obey. How quickly
we have forgotten that Nazis were hung at Nuremberg (the ones who
weren't airlifted out by our government) whose sole defense was, “I
didn't have a choice. I was ordered.” No, I am not comparing our
troops and our police to those who tossed Jews into ovens and gas
chambers, but the principle still applies: following orders is not a
viable defense for committing immoral acts. If your options are the
brig or, as a for-instance, launching a hellfire missile at a wedding
party which you know will kill many innocents, including women and
children, then the moral and just choice is the brig. If you would
rather murder people who are of no threat to you than spend time in
prison, you cannot by any standard consider yourself moral. (See <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/did-we-just-kill-a-kid-nicola-abe-der-spiegel-brandon-bryant-2012-12" target="_blank">"Did We Just Kill a Kid?" Six Words That Ended a US Drone Pilot's Career</a>)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The only reason we allow for this
glaring contradiction – that our government creates the threats we
demand it protect us from – is because to accept reality is a
stinging indictment to the soldiers who follow orders to kill the
enemies who would be no threat to us were they not specifically
created as such. That, and, of course, the fact that our pathetic
notion of “civics”, instilled (indoctrinated) into us throughout
our internment in public schooling, teaches us that society would
fall into chaos without soldiers to kill our enemies and police to
protect us from “criminals” (a large percentage of prison inmates
are non-violent offenders, i.e. not criminals), all based on lies.<br />
<br />
Today, the troops we think we need to defend us against terrorists are now being protected by the civilians they are supposed to be protecting from terrorists. It seems to me that, if the "People" are capable of defending those who are supposed to be doing the defending, the whole concept of state defense is redundant as the people are perfectly capable of defending themselves. Perhaps we should just cut out the middle-man.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
So thanks, but no thanks, for your
service. I understand your motives might be well-intended, but they
are grossly and disastrously misguided, and patting you on the bank
and showing my gratitude is not only disingenuous, but does you a
disservice. It deflects the moral responsibility on your part to not
only disobey unjust, immoral, and usually illegal orders, but to take
off the costume and refuse to participate in this entire fraud in the
first place.<br />
<br />
Ultimately it is not government agents who need throw their costumes in the trash for this delusion to end. It is for the masses to come into their own power, to overcome their irrational fears, so that there is no need, amidst empowered individuals, for the State to exist in the first place.<br />
<br />
This is a lesson for humanity, not just Americans.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05804831164514192780noreply@blogger.com0