Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Considering the Nanny State


photo: Carson River, taken by freeacre

By freeacre


”Move over Big Brother! An insidious new group has inserted itself into American politics. They are the nannies—not the stroller-pushing set but an invasive band of do-gooders who are subtly and steadily stripping us of our liberties, robbing us of the inalienable right to make our own decisions, and turning America into a nation of children.

As you read this, countless busybodies across the nation are rolling up their sleeves to do the work of straightening out your life. Certain Massachusetts towns have banned school-yard tag. San Francisco has passed laws regulating the amount of water you should use in dog bowls. The mayor of New York City has French fries and doughnuts in his sights. In some parts of California, smoking is prohibited . . . outside.

The government, under pressure from the nanny minority, is twisting the public’s arm into obedience. Playground police, food fascists, anti-porn crusaders —whether they're legislating morality or wellbeing—nannies are popping up all over America. In the name of health, safety, decency, and—shudder—good intentions, these ever-vigilant politicians and social activists are dictating what we eat, where we smoke, what we watch and read, and whom we marry.

Why do bureaucrats think they know what's better for us than we do? And are they selectively legislating in the name of political expediency? For instance, why do we ban mini-motorbikes, responsible for five deaths each year, and not skiing, which accounts for fifty deaths each year? Why is medical marijuana, a substance yet to claim a single life, banned and not aspirin, which accounts for about 7,600 deaths?…”

from a book entitled The Nanny State by David Harsanyi

And, from Wikepedia:
"A nanny state is the perception of a situation characterized by governmental policies of over-protectionism, economic interventionism, or heavy regulation of economic, social or other nature.
The subjective term nanny state is typically used pejoratively, expressing an anxiety that these policies are being institutionalized as common practice. Opponents of such policies use the term in their advocacy against what they consider to be uninvited and damaging state intervention.”

And, from Survival Acres.com 12/31/11
“The global grab on the world’s food supply isn’t about protecting anybody. It is about making sure that you and everyone else on this entire planet is forced to buy something extremely essential like food from a gigantic Ag-business. These companies will have the power of life or death, something they already have now, but it will be significantly worse in the days ahead.
Even growing your own food, or buying it from the local co-op or farmers market is now at risk.
We all seem to think we are not at risk, because we are not yet experiencing the utter defeat being experienced by other countries. In India alone, over 200,000 farmers are already known to have committed suicide. The reason is because they are being forced into bankruptcy, having to buy GMO modified seeds from the Ag giants, who could care less about your health, your freedom, or your right to eat safe, healthy foods. All they care about is that you are being forced by necessity (to stay alive) that every dollar you spend has gone into their pockets.
Nobody has any idea how many other farmers have just utterly given up or killed themselves.
It’s getting serious folks. If you want to survive into the future, then you are going to have to start helping yourselves.
I’ve seen ZERO evidence that the best interests of the people are being supported. What I have seen however, is agency after agency, government after government, and entity after entity being arrayed against the individual and collective rights of the people in a non-stop fashion, forcing us all into a tighter and tighter grip.”

Our last post, from Belgium, has had me mulling over several aspects of freedom. On the one hand, the pejorative term, “Nanny State”, signals more than simple meddling in personal affairs. It encourages a callous disregard for the thoughts, rights, decisions and feelings of others. I overheard a couple of grocery clerks chortling about the cost of cigarettes rising three dollars a pack next year. “Well, ha ha, I guess that’s going to make some more people quit smoking…” he said with a satisfied smirk. Is this a blatant infringement of my civil liberty? Yes, by God, it is. But, they could care less. Shaping behavior by raising prices translates into the rich being able to afford to do whatever they want, while for the rest of us, the politically correct is mandatory.
Parenthetically, “Nanny State” also includes a derision of the Feminine influence – as if nannies are stupid cows that spoil children and don’t know the real world…
But, is there no role in government for the protection of its citizenry? Yes, of course there is. The Federal government is mandated in the constitution to protect our borders and to provide for the national defense. The power of the federal government is supposed to be aimed at large forces (corporations, big banks, foreign armies, etc.) that would curtail our rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Big corporate entities like Agra-business, Big Pharmaceuticals, and the Central Banks cannot be fought by individual efforts alone. In my opinion, it is the duty of the congress to monitor the globalist fraudsters and polluters and protect the rights of the common citizen and the planet we hold in common.
But, of course, just the opposite is happening. The foxes (lobbyists, miscreants and minions) are ruling the hen house, and our rights are systematically destroyed.
Furthermore, the agencies, which are supposed to be protecting us, like the DEQ or the EPA or FEMA are actively working for the misanthropic mutants. So, the DEQ in Oregon is concerned with NITRATES in the water (which is almost totally harmless) and not the hormones, toxic pesticides, antibiotics, and chemical runoff that corporations are guilty of spewing into the environment. Or, the EPA just ruled that they won’t go after Big Agra for over-medicating healthy cattle, which is creating ever more virulent diseases. Eighty percent of the antibiotics used in this nation are given to animals we eat.
It looks to me like the people in these agencies “help” the country by collecting their substantial paychecks and spending them on big-ticket items, vacation homes, ski trips, and luxuries whether they do anything good for people and the planet or not.
The “nanny state” term is also used with great animosity toward the social welfare system as well as the social security system. Programs which were sold in the 60’s, like The War on Poverty” have been dismal failures. The endless rules and more and more entanglements have created two generations of dependence and dysfunction. I bet about the same percentage of those on welfare are married as were married on the plantations. Two parent families don’t qualify for welfare. “Get a divorce” Is the advise from the social workers. So much for “family values” and caring about the state of families in this country.
Come to think of it, any of these so-called “wars” seem to be false. The war on poverty, the war on drugs, the war on terror… all rackets that take their tolls on all of us.
The hypocrisy never stops. Liberal Dems are “shocked….shocked!” if anyone utters “racist” terms - but do nothing about laws that incarcerate a third of the black men in this country and leave them ineligible for much of anything other than to distribute drugs to enrich the Rich and enslave their brothers and sisters.
And they funnel the rest of the working class kids into the military by offering the carrot of a job, career, or education in a skilled trade. Or they indenture themselves for years in the hope of a professional career.

Meanwhile, the wisdom of the Mother State is never advanced. There is one, you know, or could be. A state based on the natural law that mothers love all their children. The baby cries, the mother lactates. She can’t do otherwise. She doesn’t care for and nurture her offspring so that they can be dependent on her forever. She raises them to grow up to be free men and women with a sense of their talents and capabilities and a responsibility for and to their world. And, She provides them with the knowledge and opportunity to demonstrate their abilities.
As the paternalistic, militaristic, and materialistic world we know continues to deteriorate, now is a good time to imagine what we would like to create in its place. I think it would start with the balancing of masculine and feminine “energies” that p often refers to, and their practical applications in our world.
It would begin by considering ourselves to be Human Beings first and foremost. We have done it before. Somewhere within we can feel the memories.

55 comments:

rockpicker said...

Ach, aye, my dear Freeacre, human beings first, spirits incarnate, children of Mother Earth, subjects of their individual gods, answerable first to conscience, then to their fellow men and lastly to the artificial state, which endeavors to suckle even the fiercest independents.

nina said...

It is never a good thing to impose ones opinions on others, but we have fallen into an extraordinarily destructive trap by allowing it to ensnare just about all species in gradually increasing increments of pointless laws, rituals, ceremonies and observances which long ago lost meaning, voyeristic dramas and torturous, insanely abusive punishments which never, ever consider the truth of our existence. I'm not exactly sure why this is, where it originally came from or why it continues, especially on the scale it is today because it is producing mutants, deviants and helpless generations of narcissists while extincting many species simultaneously. We are so far gone by now that to extract explanations for man's ignorance of himself and everyone and everything around him has become lost as if the ignorance is no one's fault, there was never a first cause, it was in reality the flaw in natural evolution and eventually we won't be around anymore. It could happen very quickly since we're not supposed to be aware of how close we really are to nuclear winter. Just think about Iran and Fukushima for example. Think about how inhuman machinery produced by entities with legal personhood are lapping up global energies and the never healed divisions between who/what succeeds and who/what does not.
I used to read science fiction novels depicting the world we have today. Anybody want to dispute Orwell as fiction? We continue to waste precious time in which we could be growing spiritually, instead, all the good discoveries get maligned by making them into more devices to divide and conquer, steal and dominate, devour and use up until whatever good was uncovered has vanished. The point of making insane fortunes is to give the fortunate free time during which greater and more ignorant narcissism breeds. Perhaps the human species is the great predator corrupter, not really the mistake it appears and if continued farther into the advancement of the Universe, might mean we were naturally designed to bring it all to an end leading to universal rebirth of a more efficient system.

The most disturbing graphic I've seen recently was of energy company logos spread across a map of the Middle East.

So while the walls are moving inward upon us shoveling all species into smaller and tighter spaces while making it increasingly difficult to breathe, its also mandating a fully delusional population wherever, however it can be accomplished. It is happening so fast, most don't really take much notice.

dennis said...

Every aspect of our lives right down to how many electric outlets you have in your kitchen. What would happen if we just let people be creative? I'd like a small 4 wheel bike built like an old wagon powered by a electric golf cart motor. Parts about $1,000.00. Maybe 100 hours labor. Free transportation if I add a couple of solar panels. Could I drive it on the roads?

How about a house built out of all cheap local materials. Red worm and grey water for septic. Wood heat and cooking rocket stove style. 12 volt solar. Old fashioned true ice box. Maybe a well maybe just collect rain water. $4000.00 materials. Could I get it past the planning department? Bet the health and welfare would take my kids!

How about I want to home school your kids? A years training in math,woodworking,history,art, and esoteric mentoring in exchange for a cow. Pretty sure I couldn't get the out house approved. Your child's loss.

Ya I know...just daydreaming.

rockpicker said...

I think Morris may read this blog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_u5KjVGjGI

freeacre said...

Nina, I console myself with the thought that evil empires and dictatorships have been met with resistance that led to martial arts, temple sanctuaries, secret libraries, and all sorts of counter-cultural adaptations. I would think that we would be no different. The bovine masses will always be clueless, I guess. Unless a new way of living is practiced by the imaginative that inspires the herd to follow.
Rockpicker - maybe we are just catching the same mental wave.
Dennis - Consider yourself a part of the Dream Team. That's what we need - teams of dreamers to think of ways we can live more free and better as human beings.

izzy said...

Dennis, your dream bike is already here:

http://www.rhoadescar.com/index.html

As for the rest, I can vouch from lots of personal experience it is all occurring. Just keep your head down and forget official approval. Life is a risk, and like FA says, the bovine masses will always be bringing up the rear.

rockpicker said...

Look at this passage from "They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45
by Milton Mayer


"You see," my colleague went on, "one doesn't see exactly where or how to move. Believe me, this is true. Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don't want to act, or even talk, alone; you don't want to 'go out of your way to make trouble.' … In the university community, in your own community, you speak privately to your colleagues, some of whom certainly feel as you do; but what do they say? They say, 'It's not so bad' or 'You're seeing things' or 'You're an alarmist.'

"These are the beginnings, yes; but how do you know for sure when you don't know the end, and how do you know, or even surmise, the end? On the one hand, your enemies, the law, the regime, the Party, intimidate you. On the other, your colleagues pooh-pooh you as pessimistic or even neurotic… the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That's the difficulty. If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked… But of course this isn't the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C?"

If that doesn't chill you to the bone, better check your pulse.

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2012/01/dear-americans-we-are-surrounded.html

freeacre said...

Another good look at creeping fascism and police state is a powerful movie that we watched last night - "Imagining Argentina." Man, that was a chiller. All about the "disappearing" of so-called "dissidents" in Argentina, with references to the disappeared in many other countries as well. Requires pie or a back rub or something soothing to get over it.
Good contribution, izzy. It's nice to hear from the quiet ones.

murph said...

It appears to me that the concept of life, liberty, freedom etc in America has been deteriorating for some time now. A 100 years? The elites in control of this have been smart about it. Very gradual changes so the majority of people don't get upset over it. Us older folks have been around long enough to see these changes if we look. The younger ones have not or haven't bothered to notice.

That article posted by Rockpicker points this out very well. It also shows how this proceeds and the consequences.

We all have some serious choices to make and how we are going to proceed. As our choices are more and more limited, what are we to do? Is getting out of the country a viable option? For many, it is not.

I'm standing on the side of localization and community defense positions. We shall see.

Anonymous said...

Hey Dennis,

Here's another bike to dream of:

http://www.madsencycles.com/

My wife and I ordered a yellow one for ourselves for Christmas, which should be arriving late this week or early next. My old Honda is falling apart and we're not going to replace it or fix it once it dies, which could be any day now.

Dang, rp! That passage IS chilling as heck! Yeah, I'm trying to limit my swearing. My Dad use to say to me, "Stop you're goddamn swearing -it sounds like hell."

I think that one of the biggest problems that keep the sheeple to BE sheeple is that THEY, the sheeple, believe that we, the US of A, Murika has a FREE PRESS and that free press is telling them the truth. "If Bill O'Reilly says it's true, then by Gawd, it's gotta be true." My Mom still watches Brian Williams spew garbage no matter how many times I tell her he's lying. These people are paraded as authority figures and people beleive everything they say. Information on the internet is just conspiracy theories.

Nothing will ever change till Murika's FREE PRESS is discredited completely.

-Randy

rockpicker said...

Randy,

Showing the American people the extent to which the lamestream is willing to go to protect the corporate elite may be the best thing to come out of the Ron Paul campaign.

Anonymous said...

You're right, rp.

I think he talks in a way that some Faux News junkies can understand. He doesn't talk in plattitudes like Romney or Obummer does.

It will be interesting to see where the circus is going next.

-Randy

rockpicker said...

"They're selling postcards
of the hanging,
they're painting
the passports brown..."

Bob Dylan, 'Desolation Row'


Another incremental step?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/01/08/report-obama-administration-plans-create-internet-id-americans/#ixzz1jCP61Da4

rockpicker said...

A message from a CIA whitehat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKlKGB3YwjE


wv= pickle (are we in one?)

Anonymous said...

history will view you as... "the intelligence minutemen of this century."

damn! that's POWERFUL!!

...p

Anonymous said...

the nanny state. i shouldn't be surprized but for some strange reason i am. cuz, its like this: when even the godhead is considered a patriarchy by most in society, why would something like a pejorative nanny state surpize me?

fa... here's my fantasy... one of these days i'm going to be clickin thru the channels and run up on PBS doing one of their money drives. and on stage in front of a whole gagle of people perched on the edge of their seats will be YOU delivering brilliance like this latest. can't wait for that to come true. we the people need you!! ...p

rockpicker said...

Remember in Braveheart, when a young William Wallace enters a barn with his uncle to find the 'strange fruit' of local noblemen hanging from the rafters?

In my horrific fantasy, the homespun breeches and crude brogans of the dead are replaced by Brooks Brothers suits and Gucci footwear. A few of them still clutch brief cases...

freeacre said...

oh, garsh, p... or, how about as "post collapse" PBS show - "Trout Clan Cooking" with freeacre. Ha!

You really gotta see "Imaging Argentina," rp. You might feel less inclined to post things that could get us all rounded up one of these days. Just sayin'.. Survival Acres wrote a thought provoking post on Jan.8 that speaks to this issue. A must read.

Parenthetically, we have a poultry problem going on. A friend brought over 14 hens to butcher or exchange with our flock, but they jumped the fence and two went running down the street not to be seen again. The rest are running around the surrounding properties and murph and his friend are attempting to round them up. They are wilder than our chickens and have no idea where they are, so it's looking like one of those Benny Hill wild chases... Never a dull moment around here.

murph said...

Hah! Next day.

Finally, all the chickens got rounded up. Now the culling and choosing starts. Now I have twice as many chickens around than we have facilities for. lol. Who goes, who stays, that is the question.

Anonymous said...

Ach, aye, my dear Freeacre, human beings first, spirits incarnate, children of Mother Earth, subjects of their individual gods, answerable first to conscience, then to their fellow men and lastly to the artificial state, which endeavors to suckle even the fiercest independents.
dude!!!! whoa!

i plan to get rich and sell blindfolds,, politician' we know and love montana senators
cigarettes ,for all of us that are stupid we beg forgiveness . can we make a deal?

rockpicker said...

Dude! Whoa!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNZVV4Ciccg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

rockpicker said...

Here's Sibel Edmonds making some pretty cogent points on a talk radio show. She's the third guest.

http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Media/Media-Files/001-0116114529-2012-01-16-ernie-am-FINAL.mp3

rockpicker said...

Your tax dollars at work for you...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8xmLCGzuVI&feature=player_embedded

rockpicker said...

Clearly more tin foil hat paranoia. What will they drum next?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVk0YBjgdvE&feature=related


wv=whish (I knew)

rockpicker said...

Mr2tuff's got a good one to see.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Mr2tuff

Anonymous said...

Hey Murph & FA,

What's the storm doing in your area? Windy? Snowing like a mo-fo?

We're supposed to get it this afternoon/evening. The skiiers are happy and I guess I'm glad to be getting some storms. It keeps the smog away.

Oh, the latest Survival Acres is good.

-Randy

Anonymous said...

Sats

Murph, Drancy Avenir, a very sideways and oblique reference to your chicken culling problem. See how Hitler dealt with the selection problem. Maybe Netflix has it?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0276929/

Now you can bring order to the chicken overpopulation problem by deciding which are to have their freedom, well temporarily at least, he, he, he.

Btw, did you ever get around to seeing your techie?

Freeacre, you already know I love the post.

freeacre said...

Woke up to about six inches of wet snow this morning. Snowed more all day, but it seems to be melting now. Will probably freeze overnight, so the roads will be treacherous. Supposed to rain tomorrow - we'll see. Guess it's heading your way, Randy and Rockpicker. Good time to stay home and hunker down with some hot chocolate and a book. I'm proud of Henny Penney. She just plowed her way through the snow over to the rabbit hutch (about 3 yards) so the others could get out and hang out over there. What a girl!
sats - I think we're going to keep the best layers and also the nice, gentle rooster. We'll give the oldest ones away.We'll always keep Henny Penney. She'll probably outlive us.

rockpicker said...

Whoop 'im, good!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5dZt27YTSY&feature=related

freeacre said...

That's a riot. Ha! ... and "I don't wanna go to Guantanamo," either.

rockpicker said...

Anybody hearing the trumpets of the apocalypse out there?

rockpicker said...

Grandmother Drum, in Peru.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8km0J9vH04A&NR=1&feature=endscreen

rockpicker said...

The anti-counterfeiting trade agreement?

http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/censorship/what-is-the-anti-counterfeiting-trade-agreement.html

rockpicker said...

Here's a reprinted comment from another website I came across this morning. Thought it was "spot on," and deserves many more eyes.

"On another note: I have always known that the “revolution” needs to be economic. People do not realize the spending power they have. For me the entire TSA issue would have been halted if people just refused to fly. It would have been over in a week. If people would agree to just not buy or even work for a small time period that would mean no payroll taxes would be paid, no usury payments would be made…economic sanctions by the people would literally halt this totalitarian regime that has slowly and insidiously taken control. The United States does it to other countries all the time….maybe it is time for the people of the US to do the same?"

Anonymous said...

Sats

Rockpicker, I have been saying such things for a long time now. The Occupiers should learn from the tried and trusted techniques of Sharp, Ackerman and Helvey (the Non Violent Resistance proponents) and label the USG dictatorial and themselves as democratic. The only problem with this one is that I figure they are smart enough to realise that democracy “Isn't working” - sigh.

rockpicker said...

Remember back when NPR really did a great job reporting the news? When George Schultz called NPR 'the Voice of Managua'? Well, if you've been wondering what's happened to public radio, read this...

http://www.rense.com/general95/nprpbs.html

murph said...

SATS and Rockpicker,

I agree that IF a substantial part of the population withheld money from the system it would implode. There are other actions that might be equally effective, but the problem is having a consensus and enough folks willing to take up the banner.

I am currently reading "Apocalypse Not, everything you know aout 2012, nostradamus and the rapture is wrong" by John Michael Greer. Want some history lessons? Wow! Excellent perspectives and history.

rockpicker said...

Go ahead. Make my day.

Anonymous said...

Sats

Murph, I read the free stuff Greer gave away on the appropriate Amazon page and it is a pretty interesting read. If you have convinced yourselves however that the apocalypse meme is all BS then maybe you might care to pass your food stash in my direction, I am still clinging on by my fingertips to the Precautionary Principle:-)

By the way, on a similar theme, care to pass a comment on the David Griffin site referenced right at the end of the comments on the previous post?

freeacre said...

No, no, he doesn't say that collapse won't happen, just that almost every monotheistic religion since Zarathustra has predicted some sort of Apocalypse wonce (in joke) things deteriorate enough and people lose faith in whatever system they are in.
On the contrary, Spirit, we are re-doubling our stocking up through Feb. Got to get ready for whatever-it-is that Clif predicts will happen in March. Things are really strange. Coronal mass ejections, human-to-human bird flu, Iran and India preferring gold instead of petro-dollars? Strange world-side humming noises? Radiation disclosures from Fukushima... duck and cover. Been to Celestial Convergence lately? Pie time.

rockpicker said...

SATS; m'man! Thank you for redirecting us back to David Griffin's great website and keeping his contribution in the light. I'd forgotten all about it, what with the new post, redeployment of armies and armadas, cme's, earthquakes, apocryphal brass solos and anathematic weather conditions, not to mention the spell-binding domestic political theater...

Greer reminds me of Faulkner. Yeah, he's really smart, I get it, but his sentences are way too long. And, he's actually quite conservative.

Check out this lecture, and compare this guy's version of history to what we've been told and what we can see is left of
the "old" world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMn2K-TDIL0

Anonymous said...

Sats.

Well okay Freeacre, if you really want to hang on to that stash then, I guess it was worth a try. Excuse me whilst I wipe a tear of disappointment from my eye ;-) It was really just a bit of silliness on my part as you well know. Even if you did want to get rid of it, it would actually cost more to send it than I could buy it for over here. Anyway I am pleased the precautionary principle is alive and doing reasonably well. That's something Cliff High can take credit for. I guess he is one of those Greer would refer to as entertaining but wrong. I can't remember the last time he got one right, maybe he did wonce. Anybody remember what it was? I hadn't really noticed that Greer writes long sentences though. Maybe he does. I tend to link ideas together which results in my linking clauses together. I must keep a watchful eye on that one without going Hemingway. The problem I have with Greer is that tends to be dismissive of people who don't agree with him right down the line.

David Griffin has a lot of good stuff on his site, I thought. He does require a leap of faith at various points though. Faith being something that is believed in but can't be proved. I found his reincarnation stuff hard to come to terms with. If, as with most people, you have not experienced it personally then you have to choose between dismissing it or taking it at face value. It is much the same choice in deciding whether God exists or not. His assertion that the Jewish banking community are being controlled off planet is another one. Maybe! This is something to hold in the back of your mind and be aware of but that doesn't directly affect the day to day running of your lives. There seemed to be some duplicity over whether aliens are good guys or bad guys. He contended that ones that are here are the throw outs from their society in a similar way that the British colonised Australia with their bad lots. Then he went on to say that they were actually good guys because they went around disarming our nukes just to let us know they were keeping a watchful eye on us. It did occur to me that if there is an admission that alien societies have bad sorts, they are no more socially progressive than we are even though they may be more technically advanced. There is also the fatuous thought that if we all took a holiday from Wally World we could bring down the Empire together with the USG. It looks from this that I am anti Griffin but this is not so. There is a lot of good stuff on his site also. For example the way the MSM interchange the words debts and deficits had got by me on the blind side but not any more.

Anyway, I have just got back from the shop and not having a car I use a shopping trolley on wheels. I have just received the hundred yards stare for pulling out yet another tray of a dozen cans of carrots and peas. This is one of the more immediate problems life throws in our direction :-)

Anonymous said...

Sats

Murph, Freeacre

You have got the same comment two times in your spam bin. Can you get rid of one and put the other up.

Thanks

rockpicker said...

Hey, some really good news , for a change.

http://www.westernjournalism.com/united-states-v-jones-rebuilding-the-property-foundation-of-the-fourth-amendment/

rockpicker said...

Uh...make that one step forward, two steps back...

http://www.infowars.com/shock-docs-total-federalization-of-police-under-new-homeland-security-mission/

murph said...

SATS,

This morning I found the duplicate comment in the Spam box, eliminated the duplicate and put up one of them. I actually do check it periodically.

Greer's "Apocalypse Not" book I find fascinating reading for the historical information and how he weaves it to a context. I do find his logic to be faulty in his conclusions. He is using inductive logic for the conclusions which become a non sequitur ie the conclusion does not follow the assumptions. I also find a problem with definitions of apocalypse. If an apocalyptic event includes wiping out 90% of the existing life forms, it has happened before. If an apocalyptic event includes flooding over a large percentage of the settled land mass and wiping out large societies, it has happened before. Same for earth quakes and other natural disasters.

He is correct that over recorded historical time lines, apocalypse events have been predicted and not happened, but it seems illogical to me to then assume that they can't/won't happen. Personally, I do not buy into the religious predictions of an apocalypse, but in the end, a belief system is just that and is a circular argument, a tautology which I equate to some extent to idiocy. The religions of the world have been predicting an apocalypse and have been accepted on faith alone, and haven't happened. I find that there is a large difference between a man made apocalypse and a god induced one. I would sure put a large scare nuclear war in the apocalypse category.

Whether we wish to include a financial meltdown of the world's financial systems and what follows as an apocalyptic event would be open to discussion. I personally don't buy into the religious apocalypse predictions. But any condition that would lead to a vast uncontrollable die off of a large percentage of humans would sure seem apocalyptic to me, whether human caused or not.

I agree that Greer is not very forgiving of disagreements with his pronouncements, which is one reason I chose not to comment anymore at his site. Which does not negate my respect for his research and at least some of his conclusions.

All in all "Apocalypse Not" is an instructive read and worth the time.

rockpicker said...

Archaeoacoustics? Sounds anachronistic.

http://www.landscape-perception.com/archaeoacoustics/

wv= fantab (!)

rockpicker said...

Some great comments on this situation.

http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.com/2012/01/obamas-attorney-jablonski-slapped-down.html

Anonymous said...

Tell me this isn't really happening.

http://www.aspeninstitute.org/sites/default/files/content/docs/pubs/HS-HPSCI-hearing-011812.pdf

Anonymous said...

Anonymous, We are so fucked

Anonymous said...

Sats

I'm afraid that it is really happening. This is a working through of PNAC from Condi Rice's day. The object is to have all US citizens inside borders and all non Americans outside borders by some future date. Can't remember what that date was now, 2015 seems to stick out but this could be wrong. Interestingly they mentioned port security. It was during Bush's watch that he wanted to sell five US ports to the Arabs. But I guess the Saudis are honorary Americans or the the Americans are honorary Saudis or honorary Israelis or some such. You will have to work that one out for yourselves.

VW comas - other mass induced states.

Anonymous said...

Hey Anonymous, January 26, 2012 4:09 PM


We're NOT "fucked."

We are totally DOOMED!


-Randy

Anonymous said...

Sats

This from Flanders News in English

" Trains, buses and metro all hit by the strike
VRT

Mon 30/01/2012 - 10:18 Update: Mon 30/01/2012 - 13:11 Public transport is largely at a standstill in Belgium today as a result of the general strike called in protest against the government's austerity measures.

Train traffic came to a halt at 10 PM on Sunday. The railways expect little change in the situation in the course of the day.

Only one in three services of the Flemish public transport company De Lijn are operating in Flanders. In Brussels there are no metro, bus or tram services.

There are, however, big regional variations at De Lijn. In Antwerp and Limburg only one in three services is operating. In East Flanders there is a more mixed picture. Some regional services are running quite normally, while on other routes there is hardly a bus. In Ghent there are no tram services. In Aalst and SInt-Niklaas no buses are running either.

In West Flanders there are no coastal tram services. Only one in four bus services is operating on regional routes in the Ostend and Bruges areas.

International Thalys and Eurostar services are at a standstill too. Services halted on Sunday night. Further disruption as a result of Monday's strike is expected on Tuesday. Passengers are advised to contact Thalys or Eurostar for the latest details."

Thalys and Eurostar are high speed international trains.

Another brick in the wall.

Anonymous said...

Sats

This evenings update to the above.

" flandersnews.be
News
Sports
Flanders Today
MAS Museum


5 "Belgium's general strike is a success"
Belga

Mon 30/01/2012 - 16:14 Belgium's three main unions say that the general success is a success. They are pleased with the response from the workforce and stress that order reigned throughout.

The unions are now pressing for serious talks with the government so that pension reforms and other austerity measures can be modified.

Marc Leemans of the Christian union: "We are striking where possible and staging actions where necessary. This morning I visited picketers in scores of places. Our people are determined."

"They clearly see where the challenges lie and they refuse to accept that it's especially employees who have to foot the bill for measures to get us out of the crisis. Other income groups are not affected! That's the signal from working people today."

The unions are now anticipating an invitation from the government to come and discuss pension reforms and other austerity measures.

Rudy De Leeuw of the socialist union: "I expect a clear signal from Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo." Mr De Leeuw's union intends to evaluate the situation again at the middle of next month.
Belga

Belgium’s employers beg to differ with the unions’ verdict on the strike. They insist that the strike was everything but general affecting public transport but leaving industry largely unscathed.

At the start of the EU Summit in Brussels Belgian Premier Elio Di Rupo (Francophone socialist) underlined the importance of consultations between unions, employers and the government: “There are lots of meetings between employers and the unions and the government supports this dialogue now and in the future with regard to the measures needed for our country.”

Deputy Premier Steven Vanackere (Flemish Christian democrat) says that he has understood the signal from the unions, but that strike action remains an instrument that should be employed with the necessary thrift."

I will keep you up to date as things progress - Sats

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