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Enemies

I’ve been trying to return to Saturday’s theme. My aim: to celebrate a few great, inspirational reasons not to be afraid — to be hopeful.

I intended to write about how “these are the times that try men’s souls”, but how they are also times of great creative defiance.

But as I try to write about those reasons, I find post after abortive post going in a different direction. Not because the reasons to be hopeful don’t exist, but because they all lead to a conclusion I don’t want to conclude.

It’s not a new conclusion. Others have reached it long since. It’s just one I think more of us need to quit dancing around, like it or not. We’ve bitched about how the fedgov now treats its citizens subjects as criminal suspects. But that misses the point by orders of magnitude.

You don’t spy on millions of people, militarize your police, encourage neighbor to rat out neighbor, define thousands of innocuous activities as “domestic terrorism, conduct checkpoints and VIPR raids, lock people up without trials, kick down doors in the middle of the night, or arbitrarily deny people the freedom to travel if you’re looking for mere criminals.

You do that only if you’re pants-pissing terrified because you fear that those millions — millions! — of peaceable people are enemies of your regime.

The U.S. federal government has (covertly of course, and gradually) declared war on its citizens. That’s the reality. We’re not mere criminal suspects. We’re enemies — and by their choice, not ours.

Sure, some of us may have philosophically fancied ourselves enemies of the state. Some of us prefer to be ignorers of the state. Most of us have learned to live, one way or another, peaceably in the shadow of the state. But I don’t know one of us who has ever violently attacked the state — or wanted to.

But no matter what we think, or how we live, or with what civility and decency we conduct ourselves, in the eye of Mordor-on-the-Potomac, we are all enemies. All despised. And above all — all subject to destruction at the whim of power.

We need to recognize exactly what that darkness is, massing on our horizon. We need to quit being indignant innocents protesting against it and nattering about constitutions and rights — as if anyone in power listened or cared. We need to understand exactly what the looming darkness portends for us — and what the forces behind it intend for us.

40 Comments

  1. Pat
    Pat January 30, 2013 3:15 am

    “We need to quit being indignant innocents protesting against it and nattering about constitutions and rights — as if anyone in power listened or cared. We need to understand exactly what the looming darkness portends for us — and what the forces behind it intend for us.”

    And then how we – as individuals, or if as a community – intend to cope.

  2. Water Lily
    Water Lily January 30, 2013 5:35 am

    Spot on.

    The magnitude of evil can be mind-blowing. Those average folks that have a suspicion something is amiss, might go catatonic if they allowed themselves to process the deep truths about the gov they worship. I think that is why many live in denial and distract themselves to death. They’re terrified to admit, even to themselves, that their gov is Sauron, because then they’d have to turn off the TV, get off the couch and actually DO something or lose their minds.

    We are merely bugs on a windshield to Mordor.

    For me personally, my faith comforts me and gives me hope.

    Whether we who are awake have to face evil either figuratively or otherwise, there is comfort in fact that we did the right thing.

    Here’s an excerpt from one of my favorite books, GOOD NEWS, by Edward Abbey. (If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend it. It’s a libertarian dystopian tale, and generally unknown.)

    “Listen, boss, I learned one thing at Harvard. There’s one thing wrong with always fighting for freedom and justice, and decency. And so forth.”

    Burns looked up at the blazing sky. “Only one thing? What’s that?”

    “You almost always lose.”

    The old man laughs, reaches out, and squeezes Sam’s near arm. “Well, hellfire, Sam, what does that have to do with it?”

  3. bumperwack
    bumperwack January 30, 2013 5:37 am

    You mean chuckie schumer is NOT my friend? ?!?

  4. Anonymous
    Anonymous January 30, 2013 5:45 am

    > They’re terrified to admit, even to themselves,
    > that their gov is Sauron, because then they’d
    > have to turn off the TV, get off the couch and
    > actually DO something or lose their minds.

    See http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/369eer/

  5. Pre-press veteran
    Pre-press veteran January 30, 2013 5:58 am

    I’ve been thinking along the same lines. The old marketing background shows, in what I think is a possible “counter” to Mordor.

    The PRoppressives have control of the “message” via the media. OK, we can lament that… or…

    we can start our own propaganda campaign. Think of it, as civics education… a public service announcement… we talk about the essential freedoms in the founding document… and show how relevant they are in today’s society. (It’s critical to make an emotional connection with the hypnotized; and then tell them WHY they want this.) We show what’s necessary from each and every person — to make that work. We make it an extremely positive, Captain Kangaroo, bumper-sticker memorable message. And the message doesn’t even mention — doesn’t give one iota of validity or attention to — the evils of Mordor.

    Instead, it gives people a real CHOICE. A competing product. Another option for “belonging” to something that’s hip, cool, and based on “obscure, mystical, traditional” values — which is how many of the media-babies see anything written down in old dusty pages of books… or the founding documents. And then, the message is delivered through their formula-bottle of social media…

    This method works, but it’s not a method that’s without risk. There can’t be any hint of manipulation or coercion or pointing fingers at the “evil” (remember – they know something’s wrong, but it can’t be their beloved leader; they suffer from Stockholm Syndrome); it has to be simply a clean, positive presentation – showing the benefits, being honest about the effort required… and the payoff for the effort… and letting people make up their own minds. This method ALSO takes time to gain the numbers needed to make a difference… but it might be possible to get enough numbers, in time for 2014.

    That’s my .02 idea, anyway.

  6. smitty
    smitty January 30, 2013 7:27 am

    @ Pre-press veteran:

    Your idea appears to have merit…but for “This method ALSO takes time…”

    TIME is something that may be in very short supply…

    By the way, assuming “pre-press refers to lithography, were you a stripper, proofer, cameraman, typesetter or?

  7. Kent McManigal
    Kent McManigal January 30, 2013 7:48 am

    Hmmm. Last night I was sitting, zoning out, and all of a sudden I felt almost giddy. No, there was no external chemical self-medication going on- I just suddenly had an image in my mind of how desperately paranoid the Rulers are becoming. This was due to me thinking about those 11 biometric identifiers you linked to yesterday. It cracked me up to think of the absolute paranoia and “conspiracy theorist thinking” that drives such. They are almost worked into a frenzy of fear of… us. People like you and me. And little old ladies who grow a garden. And farmers who sell milk. And little children who can point fingers and say “bang”. It’s hilarious.

    Sure, in their paranoia they will undoubtedly keep hurting a lot of innocent people, but life is never safe.

    And, you might as well be all that “they” fear you are.

    I’m just hoping paranoia comes before a fall.

  8. JWG
    JWG January 30, 2013 8:07 am

    It gives me comfort to know that the harder they squeeze, the more people slip out between their fingers. The more things that they make illegal, the more people are criminals by their mere existence, the more the gestapo have to prioritize, the more I can get away with because they are chasing bigger fish, or smaller fish who have been labeled “domestic terrorists”. The more eyes they have in more places, the easier it is to jab an eye with a sharp stick. If they spend all kinds of money on special cameras at intersections just to have the camera get shot by a .22, the guy with the .22 wins. If they spend all kinds of money on an armored van that ends up getting immobilized in a pot-hole, the guy with the shovel wins. If a gestapo gets beaten up at a gas station, and nobody saw anything because they think the SS thug deserved it, another small victory. The future is bright for the scofflaw with so many laws to scoff at and so many opportunities to cause mayhem.

  9. smitty
    smitty January 30, 2013 8:14 am

    It may not be fair for Claire to lump all those in power into a single monolith.

    But the true well-meaning Liberty-respecting holders of power may fill a mere lifeboat, and are-practically speaking…-powerless-…while the bulk of them fill the Titanic, with the most evil steering the boat…iceberg, straight ahead…

    All in all though, an accurate assessment of our sorry condition…

  10. akaGaGa
    akaGaGa January 30, 2013 8:18 am

    In the mind of this Christian, the darkness massing on our horizon is plainly labeled evil, and the only antidote to evil is good. In the words of John Adams, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

    If we are reduced to committing evil, then they have won.

  11. IndividualAudienceMember
    IndividualAudienceMember January 30, 2013 8:21 am

    Dang it. I keep erasing what I write.

    “post after abortive post going in a different direction… a conclusion I don’t want to conclude.”

    No doubt.

  12. IndividualAudienceMember
    IndividualAudienceMember January 30, 2013 8:36 am

    Well,… here’s what I read after my last comment:

    … “The idea that the power elite wants to publicly purvey to every nook and cranny of society is that if you oppose the war on terror and wish to fight back in any way, that you, too, will run the risk of being tortured and even killed. Yes … if you ally yourself in any way with the “terrorists” – even though there are no terrorists (not in the sense of the current narrative, anyway) – you, too, shall be considered a “terrorist” and fair game for torture.

    Don’t question the current meme.

    Shut your mouth and go along.

    Waterboarding awaits!

    You see … the war on terror is aimed at domestic Western populations. The power elite spreading the meme is intent on passing laws and enforcing them that further control society and eviscerate the middle class.

    Torture is the other part of the power pincer, currently, anyway. If by chance you wish to oppose what is taking place, the powers-that-be wish you to understand that your fate may involve rendition, torture or, at the very least, imprisonment for what you have tried to bear witness to.” ….

    http://thedailybell.com/28633/Zero-Dark-Thirty-Is-Aimed-at-YOU

    In other words, if they say they ‘just want to talk to you’ – don’t – get in the car.
    Of course their style these days is a bit more sudden.
    No choice for you!

  13. Bear
    Bear January 30, 2013 9:25 am

    Trying to communicate with the scum in DC and advocating constitutional issues served a purpose: warning rattle. It also gets people arrested on terrorism charges (google tea bag Shea-Porter protest, just for a single example; for another, check out the NH legislator who advocated eliminating freedoms — her words — so as to discourage Free Staters coming in to enjoy freedom… and no hanged/burned her even in effigy). It was a sign of sanity on the part of pro-freedom folks that they continued that course for so long. It was an option to civil war, and even a cursory look at the history of civil war in America (Whiskey Rebellion, Shay’s Rebellion, the “Civil War”, Bonus March, all for example) shows that it never gets better; every act of resistance is an excuse to hit back harder, with long term results that stifle what freedom there was.

    We’ve now had a couple of centuries of failed revolution. Call it complacency, public school indoctrination, greedy self interest, whatever… Americans are — generally speaking — more willing than ever to let freedom die. A few will get pissed if the slide down the slope gets too fast, but if the pols offer “compromises” that only take a little bit right now, Americans will put up with it. If they offer to raise the debt ceiling only a little more, that’s fine so long as the welfare checks keep coming. And in case the printers fail and the Post Awful can no longer deliver those checks? What the hell, we use EBT cards anyway so the folks on gov handouts don’t need to be ashamed in public. (Saw an article this morning about Zimbabwe having $217 left in its accounts; that puts them $1,400,000,000,217.00 ahead of the US.)

    If DC is stupid enough to force changes and infringements fast, the S might HTF. But it won’t be war, because no one will know who to trust, and so can’t get that organized. What might happen…

    I’ve mentioned before that people who “snap” still aren’t the ones DC should worry about. The ones who suddenly snap now will mainly react without much thinking or planning. They’ll go out in fast, relatively harmless, isolated blazes of glory.

    The problem is the folks who already quietly broke, and are just treading water. They just don’t care much anymore. They don’t see a lot of point in holding on and working to fix things. They think; they’ve been thinking. And they can plan. That’s who the feds want to filter out with mental health/background checks, which is why we also saw the bill that would allow the AG to then simply declare them terrorists with no effort to even pretend at “due process” (we saw this attempted in New Hampshire a few years- let police chiefs deby revolver/pistol license by declaring people terrorists).

    The feds want “mental health checks” as part of the “universal background checks” because they need to sort out the folks who just quit from the ones who just quit fighting within the system. Because the latter aren’t obvious. They don’t join “jihads” and take advice and dubious equipment from strangers. They read forums, but don’t rant there. They don’t waste time organizing. They just plan and act alone. Because… who can they trust in the Age of the Snitch and Paid Informer?

    They might “vote from the rooftops”, but they pick their targets. Carefully. After planning. And they don’t plan on long term survival.

    A few hundred Carl Dregas, Marvin Heemeyers. But with more patience.

    They won’t be looking for “suicide by cop”. They won’t much worry about dying, though. Except too soon. So they’ll take their time to pick their targets: politicians, enabling lamestream muddia hairspray heads. Thugs.

    They won’t all be snipers; in fact, most won’t be. Some will be the guy who can make a realistic ID badge on his printer, pass for a janitor, and knows how to make a poison gas bomb from ordinary janitorial supplies already on hand in an IRS office. Or how to screw brake lines so they don’t blow until a goon hits the pedal hard on a downhill. They’ll know what a homemade thermite charge — and how to make it — will do to the ACs on a government server farm. They might even be the electronics tech or radio amateur with the gear on hand — some assembly required — to jam electronic communications. They know that a 500 gallon LPG tank for a backup generator is a fuel-air explosive in the right conditions. What bullets do to power transformers. The mess one can make with a bundle of uninsulated wire catapulted onto a power substation. A gallon of gas poured into a telco cross-box and ignited. These will be the people who used to maintain the infrastructure, and know all the vulnerabilities.

    They won’t be organized into cells that can be detected or infiltrated. They’ll act alone. Because they don’t care anymore, and figure, “Why not?”

    They won’t issue statements, demands, or manifestos that can be backtracked by shipping info or IPs. They won’t even need Tracfones. Their actions will be their message, and you can bet that the feds will understand it.*

    They’ll go down. But they’ll take an honor guard to hell with them. Eventually.

    That’s where we’re headed if things collapse dramatically. It won’t be pretty. For anyone. And that’s the (overly) optimistic scenario, that assumes enough people will catch on to what’s happening.

    Nor does that scenario address what comes after. Does anyone really want to bet that we’d get a nice, shiny Smithian confederate-style Anarchocapistan? Or will the “winners” be a bunch of Christian/Islamic/Wiccan fundamentalists who impose their own version of theocracy, or something even less pleasant?

    The reality is… TSA groping of pre-teen girls, arrests of elderly peace activist nuns, FBI terror “stings”, VIPR raids at the end of travel. Public reaction: -crickets- All the feds have to do is say, “Look! Terrorists!” and the complacent will

    do nothing.

    The reality is that there’s a 99.99999999999% chance that we’ll just continue the slide into darkness and the overwhelmingly vast majority of Americans will enjoy the slide so long as it’s lubed with fed handouts and other goodies (expect to see DC suddenly decide that marijuana possession and use is OK after all, probably within a few months).

    I no longer see a good outcome to any of this. And frankly, beyond this rambling post, I’m finding it harder to care. I’m not married, got no kids; so I have no one to worry about saving the country and the future for. And I’m old enough that I probably don’t have to worry about living through the worst of it myself.

    —–

    (* Yeah, I’ve thought a lot about this. Folks who read my old Net Assets/Bargaining Position universe tales might recall the brief mention about why the alien Cassid don’t have governments. The notes are piled up, but I never finished the story I meant to write about that; mainly because it’s so effin’ dark. A couple of hundred years before BP, the Cassid had governments, and are about where we are now headed. Their answer was something like L. Neil Smith’s The Gallatin Divergence, only with nukes and people on all sides crazy and/or desperate enough to use them. Again: Not Pretty. What you see of the Cassid in BP looks innocuous. But they are not people you want to f#ck with (the “negotiating” ship they sent in BP was armed with antimatter particle beam weapons, and they’d never even encountered another sapient species before humans). The only Cassid AI you’ve met was a nice guy, but actually rather limited; the real AIs can be… scary. Even the Stados-class AI in Caveat Emptor wasn’t kidding when it said it doesn’t need a gun. And it isn’t because it’s a pacifist or bound by any “Three Laws”.)

  14. Thomas Morey
    Thomas Morey January 30, 2013 9:55 am

    “Mordor-on-the-Potomac” is the greatest single descriptive line I’ve ever read.

  15. Pre-press veteran
    Pre-press veteran January 30, 2013 10:00 am

    Paste-up artist (yes, real mechanicals…)… typesetter… and 1st generation digital layout… later: teaching those skills to the strippers and even press men… later: teaching teachers how to use tech, to teach — more effectively.

    Previous life: fine arts – painting and printmaking – yes, I can run a letterpress… etching/lithography. Even still have some of the tools/supplies.

    More recent life: part owner of a high-tech industrial parts/tool manufacturer.

    I have a plethora of skills. Even designed and helped build my own house. Master of none though…

    EXCEPT the BS, to sell something made from nothing.

    —————
    Time is definitely short. But what is at stake – and the reason TPTB are paranoid – is public opinion. As people wake up – to smaller paychecks, invisible inflation, and ever more struggle for even less… public opinion is up for grabs. For the last 4 years, we’ve seen how public opinion can be co-opted and led by the nose. Well, just like iGadgets… it’s no longer the latest greatest thing since sliced bread. The message is stale, the promised results STILL aren’t right around the corner… and I think public opinion would be open to, more receptive to another option in messages.

    Just a free market take on messages, public opinion and how that transfers into politics… and crap that rolls downhill into our personal lives… where it doesn’t belong. It’s not “party-specific” either. I think maybe there is consensus building something other than our 2 party system… the belief that they’re both somehow part of the problem.

  16. Claire
    Claire January 30, 2013 10:56 am

    Thomas Morey — Thank you. I’m not sure whether I originated it; I think I did, but it could also be something I picked up and didn’t realize I was borrowing. In any case, I’m seeing it around more and more. And yeah, it’s definitely a frighteningly apt descriptor.

  17. Laird
    Laird January 30, 2013 11:17 am

    Well, that was certainly a “great, inspirational reason not to be afraid”!

    MTY: good link. Thanks.

  18. Howard
    Howard January 30, 2013 2:28 pm

    I saw some one mentioned “Stockholm Syndrome.” Well for most people life is going too well to get really hyper about things. The really scary thing is that the powers are spinning economic news to make people think that things are good and getting better. If you correct the “markets” for inflation how close to highs are we really. Those defense and other cuts that were put off to March have to happen sometime. I think the media’s push on gun control and immigration is aimed at taking people’s mind off the economy. At some point the economic issues will HTF. If the hit is hard enough the welfare debit cards won’t be worth any more than our cash. When “keeping body and soul together” is the real economic issue the average people will have a different attitude. If you look at ancient history It was not one group or another that took over when Rome fell. It was the local “war lord” who could offer local protection who took power as the legions retreated. Think gang turf in the cities and militias in rural areas. True anarchy is what I’m most afraid of.

  19. bumperwack
    bumperwack January 30, 2013 6:27 pm

    OK…if Washington is mordor on the Potomac, what is Chicago?

  20. Oline
    Oline January 30, 2013 7:16 pm

    things started really escalating when Egypt used the social media to rebel. the government got scared more than they were and started to try to crack down on the Internet to help prevent copyright infringement and piracy from what they claimed but in reality I think they are searching for a way to control it because intelligent people are starting to compare notes. The war on terror is indeed a war against us the world’s citizens the non elite those who may rise up and take their perceived power away from them. They know as many of us really know that their power exists only because we the people allow it to exist.

  21. JJ Swiontek
    JJ Swiontek January 30, 2013 9:39 pm

    They mean to subdue us. Those that resist will be killed. Believe it.

  22. JJ Swiontek
    JJ Swiontek January 30, 2013 9:53 pm

    I mis-wrote. Those that resist, they will TRY to kill.

  23. LarryA
    LarryA January 31, 2013 12:41 am

    [OK…if Washington is mordor on the Potomac, what is Chicago?]

    Hint: Where did the orcs come from?

  24. Brent
    Brent January 31, 2013 5:04 am

    “We are merely bugs on a windshield to Mordor. ”

    Actually, I find that the opposite is true. We are all “Frodo with the ring” to Sauron. He fears us all. He must. Because they do not know WHO really has it. Obfuscation, deception and outright prestidigitation will win out over evil.

    They don’t have orcs. all they have are MEN supporting evil. Simply point it out to them and they will SEE IT.

    And we win.

  25. Rich
    Rich January 31, 2013 7:26 am

    I probably shouldn’t post this here because it really seems like we should be looking for something positive to say, but here it is:

    Bear is right. He lives around here somewhere and knows the ground it seems.
    Lead them to water and watch them drink? (sorry Bret, I wish it were so).
    It seems to me that the beauty of the system which has now turned its ugly side to us is that it is capable of presenting whatever is useful to its purpose when confronted – even obliquely as when some diligent and energetic young men approach the tyranny through the court system – they see a stone wall of judges who can’t hear the words and apparently forgot – or never knew – the language of freedom.
    When confronted by mobs a la OWS, the presntation is less subtle, and more openly brutal, but that is the appropriate choice of messages. (not appropriate to brutalize butu appropriate to the continuation of tyranny)
    I doubt that the people who have the power fear anything ordinary people have with which to threaten them.
    That is why Bear is onto something, and probably why he is so troubled by it.
    I sympathize (not empathize) with anybody who seeks comfort after realizing that the situation is not nearly as good as we have imagined it to be for so long.
    As natural as it is, I believe it is as destructive as any superstition and will lead you nowhere.
    Then again, perhaps a good dose of comfort is all that is possible and I don’t begrudge it to anybody.

    Let’s have another round of drinks and find somebody else to blame for our custodial failure. Who else could have taken a semi-frree society and turned it into a decaying prison camp?

    harsh words for a harsh reality.

  26. IndividualAudienceMember
    IndividualAudienceMember January 31, 2013 11:04 am

    Hey Howard, are you aware of this?:

    Beginning no later than the late 300’s and continuing until the fall of the city of Rome in 476, the burden of taxation was so great that the residents sometimes preferred rule by the barbarians to rule by Rome. …

    When the barbarians arrived in a city, there was widespread confiscation followed by tax relief. The people rejoiced after the initial pillaging was over. …

    Life improved for residences of the provinces after Rome fell. Thomas Schmidt cites Joseph Tainter’s book, The Collapse of Complex Societies (1988). Schmidt writes:

    The standard of living of citizens in the new Gothic kingdoms actually ROSE after the collapse, as the burdens of supporting the central state disappeared and the citizens taxes went to support local rulers who did provide some protection in return for their exactions. …

    http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north934.html

    See also: After Empire: Dark Ages or Innovation Explosion?

    So perhaps you mean chaos rather than anarchy?

  27. Howard
    Howard January 31, 2013 12:19 pm

    if anarchy could occur under the philosophy outlined in the article Kent linked above it would be fine but in the event of an extreme economic event in which necessities of life were scarce and any kind of emergency aid a thing of the past many would take by force if they had the power.
    Many areas ended better off in the long run with Rome off their backs but the inter um was often devastating. Most of these provinces were actually producing real wealth (farm and woodland products, fish, and minerals). Unfortunately our current society has a very small percent of its people actually producing useable products. If our centrally supported transportation and distribution system fails the results would be a large number of unskilled desperate people trying to stay alive. This in the kind of anarchy I fear.

  28. Tom Blanton
    Tom Blanton January 31, 2013 12:55 pm

    “The future is bright for the scofflaw…”

    I think JWG has nailed it. This is sure to be a growth industry as we look forward. It’s time to get busy and start scofflawing (my computer indicates by a squiggly red underline that there is a problem with the word “scofflawing” and I am scoffing at that).

    I just have to wonder about all the people out there that talk about restoring the constitution. Is that so we can fight government that always ignored it all over again?

    Then there are those that babble about electing the right people. When has that ever happened?

    I’ve been resisting giving investment advice, but I’ll throw this out there:

    1. If you are a regular person, invest in canned goods, jugs of water and ammo.

    2. If you are loaded with dough, invest in remote third-world real estate and a one-way plane ticket.

  29. IndividualAudienceMember
    IndividualAudienceMember February 1, 2013 8:01 am

    “in the event of an extreme economic event in which necessities of life were scarce and any kind of emergency aid a thing of the past many would take by force if they had the power.”

    That, to me, is chaos, not anarchy.

    “If our centrally supported transportation and distribution system fails the results would be a large number of unskilled desperate people trying to stay alive. This in the kind of anarchy I fear.”

    I do not think that’s anarchy.

    Anarchy would come in the form of the free market filling the empty slots, imho.

    If our centrally supported transportation and distribution system fails something would replace it – quick – unless of course goberment gets in the way and stops it.

    Do you fear anarchy when you push your grocery cart down the grocery store isles? There are no rules about pushing a grocery cart, no dotted passing lanes painted on the floor, and yet things go smoothly. That is anarchy.

    Perhaps you would like to read these two?:

    “In fact, anarchism merely stands for absence of government. There is no violence involved, or certainly violence is not a necessary adjunct.”…

    http://www.lewrockwell.com/rep/are-anarchists-bad-people.html

    What Is Anarchy? – by Butler Shaffer

    “… intelligent minds must be prepared to look behind the superficiality and imagery of words to discover their deeper meaning. Such is the case with the word “anarchy.” …

    http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer60.html

    Anyway, thank you for your reasoned response, Howard.

  30. IndividualAudienceMember
    IndividualAudienceMember February 1, 2013 8:13 am

    “Most of these provinces were actually producing real wealth”

    The question is, for whom?

    Have you seen the cost of the lowest plan on the obamacare offerings?

    “If our centrally supported transportation and distribution system fails the results would be a large number of unskilled desperate people trying to stay alive.”

    The articles about the Dark Ages, that were not dark at all, kind of suggests otherwise. So too, the plethora of private charities.

    In the absence of enforcement of minimum wage laws I could imagine those desperate People being offered work, … a brilliant bloom of opportunity. Of course goberment will want to step on that, as they all do.

  31. Bear
    Bear February 1, 2013 9:16 am

    IAM:“Have you seen the cost of the lowest plan on the obamacare offerings?”

    The IRS is estimating a minimum of $20,000 for a family of four for the low-end “Bronze” plan..
    http://www.irs.gov/PUP/newsroom/REG-148500-12%20FR.pdf

    But it’s all cool, ‘cuz the USSCROTUM says it’s just another tax. ‘Cept when it ain’t.

    Y’all have fun with that.

    I can think of a lot of things cheaper than that, for those who give a shit. An anonymous bullet through an IRS building transformer. A cup of sugar in a gas tank. Cheap household cleaning supplies in the proper proportions. A zillion envelopes containing white flour, and a Wrigley Field return address.

  32. Claire
    Claire February 1, 2013 10:46 am

    I sure hadn’t seen it, Ellendra.

    Damn, too bad that place is so cold (not to mention splitting in half from volcanoes). I could like Iceland. A lot.

  33. Logan Fyfe
    Logan Fyfe February 2, 2013 4:09 pm

    A Super Bowl boycott with an empty stadium and blank TV screens would be an effective, unambiguous statement of American’s disgust with their government.
    It is too late to get this rolling for 2013, maybe next year. There is the World Series coming up. If things hold together that long.

    I know, I know – tough sell. The average bubba will trade his rights for a $5 pizza coupon. Let the beer and circuses commence!

  34. Mark
    Mark February 5, 2013 4:35 pm

    The Declaration of Independence, The Declaration of the Constitution and the Declaration of the Bill of Rights are not Permissions. WE are the only teeth they ever had, have now, or ever will have. Sharpen yourselves.

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