Sunday, May 8, 2011

Peer-to-peer currency takes banks out of the picture

A few months ago we looked at Irish CurrencyFair, a peer-to-peer site that effectively removes banks and other middlemen from currency exchange. Pushing the peer-to-peer concept even further into the world of finance, Bitcoin is a collectively managed and open-source digital currency that's completely independent of any central authority.

Now in beta, Bitcoin bills itself as “the first digital currency that is completely distributed.” In essence, that means that it's managed collectively by a global network of users, so no bank or payment processor is required between buyers and sellers in any transaction. Users begin with Bitcoin by downloading its client program for Linux, Mac or Windows, thereby creating a digital wallet and associated Bitcoin address for themselves. Next, very small quantities of Bitcoins are available for free from the Bitcoin faucet, but to get larger ones, users can visit various currency exchanges and sites. They can also accept Bitcoins as payments for goods and services.

Either way, once they have Bitcoins — abbreviated “BTC” — users can spend them at various participating online merchants for a wide variety of goods and services. It's free for merchants to accept Bitcoins, and there are no chargebacks or fees. Currently, there is no charge for processing Bitcoin transactions, but eventually a small fee of about one bitcent will be charged every transaction to one of many competing Bitcoin “miners,” who create Bitcoins in a controlled way by running a dedicated program. A video on YouTube explains the Bitcoin concept.

Bitcoins have rapidly appreciated in value over the past few months, going from USD 0.50 at the end of January to more than USD 1 in early February.

Outlaw: The True Story of Claude Dallas


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Jeff Long has written a most interesting story of the last old west type shootout that may ever occur in this country. It is true. Dallas was a guy who came from Virginia and wanted to be a cowboy. He went west and became what he had always wanted to be, and he was good at it. He had a superb work ethic. Along the way, he acquired some of the trappings of a real cowboy. He had a Winchester rifle with an octagonal barrel. He was a good shot, both with the rifle and pistols.

Over time, when he was living in Nevada, he spent his winters trapping coyotes and cats, with an occasional mountain lion thrown in. His last winter season he was trapping right along the Nevada/Idaho line and ran into a couple of Fish and Game officers from Idaho. One of them, Bill Pogue, the senior of the two, had a bit of an attitude problem, according to Jim Stevens, a friend of Dallas's who had brought him supplies. Pogue and Dallas were like kitchen matches and gasoline. Pogue was most likely playing it hard and Dallas most likely was stubborn.

The confrontation erupted in gunfire and Dallas, deadly quick, dropped both Pogue and his backup, Conley Elms. He finished them off, trapper style, with a gunshot behind the ear with a .22 rifle. I know Claude Dallas. The book pretty much portrays Dallas in a true light. Crowded, like he was that day, he would not back down. Later, when he was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, he was captured without a fight and without any firearms. I've liked this book well enough to own it and to read it several times. Jeff Long's work is first rate all the way through. Though this book is no longer in print, it is a book to own.

Morgan Stinemetz

NCFIRE- ACTION ALERT!

NCFIRE


We need our members to contact the NC General Assembly on Monday and Tuesday.(Once is not enough) There are several illegal immigration related bills that are stuck in committee and if they are not out within a week or so, they will die! If we don't capitalize on these bills now, they won't be coming back and our chance to get real illegal immigration enforcement in NC will be lost. There is no second chance here folks.

PLEASE, contact the primary sponsors of these bills first. Ask them:
1) What are the chances of House/Senate Bill... getting out of committee?
2) What can you do to assist them in their effort to get their bill out of committee?

Then contact the Chairmen of these committees and explain (be civil):
1) NC is spending over $1.3 billion dollars per year just to educate, incarcerate and give emergency treatment to illegal aliens
2) The majority of NC citizens support immigration enforcement
3) When is House/Senate Bill ... coming out of committee?


On the HOUSE side:

HB343- Support Law Enforcement/SAFE Neighborhoods
It is currently in the Committee on Judiciary Subcommittee A
Chairman:
John M. Blust
Phone: 919-733-5781
Email: John.Blust@ncleg.net

Primary Sponsors:
George Cleveland
Phone: 919-715-6707
Email: George.Cleveland@ncleg.net

John M. Blust
Phone: 919-733-5781
Email: John.Blust@ncleg.net

Mark K. Hilton
Phone: 919-733-5988
Email: Mark.Hilton@ncleg.net

HB351- "Voter ID"
It is currently in the House Committee On Appropriations
Chairman:
Harold J. Brubaker
Phone: 919-715-4946
Email: Harold.Brubaker@ncleg.net

Primary Sponsors:
David R. Lewis
Phone: 919-715-3015
Email: David.Lewis@ncleg.net

Tim Moore
Phone: 919-733-4838
Email: Tim.Moore@ncleg.net

Ric Killian
Phone: 919-733-5886
Email: Ric.Killian@ncleg.net


On the SENATE side:

HB33- State Law to Provide for Acceptable ID's
It is currently in the Committee On Rules and Operations of the Senate
Chairman:
Tom Apodaca
Phone: (919) 733-5745
Email: Tom.Apodaca@ncleg.net

S204- Public Entities & Contractors/Use E-Verify
It is currently in the Committee On Rules and Operations of the Senate
Chairman:
Tom Apodaca
Phone: (919) 733-5745
Email: Tom.Apodaca@ncleg.net

Primary Sponsor:
Austin M. Allran
Phone: (919) 733-5876
Email: Austin.Allran@ncleg.net

S205- No Benefits For Illegal Aliens
It is currently in the Committee On Rules and Operations of the Senate
Chairman:
Tom Apodaca
Phone: (919) 733-5745
Email: Tom.Apodaca@ncleg.net

Primary Sponsor:
Austin M. Allran
Phone: (919) 733-5876
Email: Austin.Allran@ncleg.net

S352/S595- "Voter ID"
They are currently in the Committee On Judiciary I
Chairman:
Peter S. Brunstetter
Phone: (919) 733-7850
Email: Peter.Brunstetter@ncleg.net

Primary Sponsors:
Senator Wesley Meredith (S352)
Phone: (919) 733-5776
Email: Wesley.Meredith@ncleg.net

Ralph Hise (S352)
Phone: (919) 733-3460
Email: Ralph.Hise@ncleg.net

Debbie A. Clary (S595)
Phone: (919) 715-3038
Email: Debbie.Clary@ncleg.net


James Johnson
President-NCFIRE
North Carolinians For Immigration Reform and Enforcement
www.NCFIRE.info
www.Facebook.com/NCFIRE
NCFIRE@ncfire.info
NCFIRE Hotline: 1-888-885-0879
cell # 910-286-3022

Wartime Virginia

BESTDEST
Virginia Historical Society

Pvt. Henry Bird of the Petersburg Grays

================================

"A number of museums and historical groups are commemorating this year's 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. Among the best exhibits: "An American Turning Point: The Civil War in Virginia." Assembled by the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond, the show features more than 200 objects (among them: Gen. Stonewall Jackson's pocket watch), interactive technology (can you text faster than a telegraph operator from the 1860s?) and 17 audio-visual programs (including an all-too-vivid battle scene)."

Via Ann, Belle Grove

Ulstermen march with Confederate flags in County Tyrone


"Flying the colours in Northern Ireland

Proud sons of Ulster took to the streets of Newtownstewart in County Tyrone on 6 May, 2011 to show the colours and their loyalty to their country. For this son of Dixie it was especially stirring to see that they marched with the Confederate and Bonnie Blue flags, symbolizing the cultural and ethnic ties between the Ulster-Scots (“Scots-Irish”) and the people of Dixie."


========








Confederate Army mural in Northern Ireland


Sons of Ulster who led the Confederate Army during the War of Northern Aggression.

IRS: The Biggest Scam in History, by Sheriff Richard Mack

The County Sheriff: America’s Last Line of Defense

IRS-probably the three most frightening letters in the English language. This deep-seated fear and loathing serves a very specific purpose. It serves to keep the People of America in submission to an illusion, a lie.

The IRS has a horrible reputation and has earned every bit of it, has by their own admissions committed crimes against innocent Citizens, and continues today to be the “Gestapo” of America . They confiscate more homes, destroy more families, take more money, ruin more lives, and commit more crimes than all the street gangs combined. They are indeed vivid proof that the greatest threat we face, as a nation, is our own Federal “Government.” [The County Sheriff : America ’s Last Hope. Author Richard Mack].

Here it is in a nutshell. The IRS is a private, debt collection agency for the private banking system known as the Federal Reserve Bank. The IRS is not a government agency. I repeat, the IRS is not a government agency. Never has been, never will be.

African Monopoly and King Mussa

African Monopoly and King Mussa:

“The first West African state of which there is any record was called Ghana. The people were farmers and traders and metal-smiths. Their capital city, Kumbi-Kumbi, was an important trading center during the Middle Ages. From the Arab countries came caravans of wheat and fruit and sugar and textiles and brass and salt. They went back loaded down with rubber and ivory and gold and another product the Africans were able to turn out better and in greater quantity than any other people. As a matter of fact, they had monopoly. We refer to Negro slaves.

The next Negro kingdom of any consequence was called Melle and comprised roughly what is now French West Africa. It was ruled during the first thirty years of the 14th century by a free-wheeling fellow by the name of Gonga-Mussa.

A good Moslem, King Mussa made a pilgrimage to Mecca in the year 1324. He travelled in style. There were 60,000 people in his party, including 12,000 slaves. Five hundred men [were] marching at the head of the procession bearing staffs of pure gold. To finance the trip, King Mussa took along eighty camels loaded down with gold valued at more than $5,000,000!

(My Old Kentucky home, Good Night! W.E. Debnam, The Graphic Press, 1955, page 19)

Via Bernhard

========
African Monopoly and King Mussa

No Emancipation of the Wage Slaves


It is often remarked that the Northern climate led to slavery’s demise up there, though it is more accurate to say that Massachusetts inventor Eli Whitney, New England cotton mills, and a plentiful supply of wage slaves had more to do with it. The South had great expanses of cultivated land to produce raw cotton for those Northern mills, Manhattan banks provided financial lubricant, and New England slave ships continued to ply the Gulf of Benin for dusky laborers to work the plantations.

Bernhard Thuersam, Director
Cape Fear Historical Institute
www.cfhi.net
========
No Emancipation of the Wage Slaves:

“Negro slavery was a flop in the North.

The accent there was on manufacturing and the Negro was at his best when teamed up with a hoe and a cotton patch. The thrifty manufacturers of New England had a cheaper and more efficient labor supply readily at hand in the white wage slaves already there and the immigrants from Europe who came flooding in.

The chattel slave [in the South] had to be fed and clothed and taken care of in sickness and in health. When he got too old to work he had to be provided for. Some States made it illegal for slaves to work on Sundays under pain of a fine of five pounds. The average work day was about eleven hours [and] The slave was given a holiday between Christmas and New Year’s. Louisiana prescribed by law that every slave had to be given a minimum of 200 pounds of pork a year.

The New England white wage slave wasn’t nearly as expensive and a lot more efficient. He represented no capital outlay. He worked for starvation wages. Laborers in the North in 1860 were earning 60 cents a day, and a day was often 14 to 16 hours.

The plight of women workers was even more appalling. In New York city, during the Civil War, women umbrella workers, after laboring 18 hours from six in the morning to midnight, earned three dollars a week. Seamstresses in the underwear crafts got seventeen cents for a twelve-hour day. When the wage slave got sick he went off the payroll. When worn out by age and hard work, he was discarded like an old shoe.

Bells rang at daybreak in most factory towns. The wage slaves – men and women, boys and girls – had to report at the factory gates in fifteen minutes. An hour later they were allowed twenty-five minutes for whatever breakfast they had brought. They got another twenty-five minutes at mid-day. The gates opened again at 8 o’clock that night to let the wage slaves go home.

In the Eagle Mill, at Griswold, Conn., the work day lasted fifteen hours and ten minutes. At Paterson, New Jersey, women and children began the day’s work at 4:30 o’clock in the morning. Overseers in some textile mills cracked a cowhide whip over the backs of women and children. That isn’t to say that chattel slavery was to be preferred to wage slavery........

(My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night! W.E. Debnam, The Graphic Press, 1955, pp. 30-31)

========
No Emancipation of the Wage Slaves

Geert Wilder's Final Court Statement

... Geert Wilders made his final statement in court yesterday where he is still on trial for telling the truth about Islam. This, as often noted, is a judicial outrage, a public nightmare, and an existential threat to liberty as we have known it which doesn't end because bin Laden is dead. There is a raw, ugly fear of Islam in the non-Islamic world, and the grotesque reflex of the frightened power classes is to side with the raw, ugly power of Islam, which, never let it be forgotten, is derived solely from their own fear. The results are to be seen in the travesties around us from the Netherlands' campaign to silence, penalize and make an example of the courageous Wilders, to the USA's grotesque staging of a dignified, Islamically correct "funeral at sea" for a mass murderer whose corpse should have been disposed of as the human trash that it was.

Reading Geert's words is a sobering experience, spoken as they are in the face of a thoroughly craven but still powerful establishment-machine. In this desperate hour for free speech, they sound an SOS we seem powerless to answer. But they are inspiring, too, for the example they set. Here in the 21st century is a man whose allegiance to liberty is paramount.

Geert Wilders:

Via Sarah Maid Of Albion

Reclaiming Our Free Society, by Judge Andrew Napolitano

Via Green Mountains Homesteading

Wanted Gunwalkers: Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano

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Via Sipsey Street Irregulars

Note to ATF: When you give guns to Mexican Cartels, they use them

"When you give guns to the Mexican cartels, they use them to kill people. That is the finding of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which involved allowing thousands of guns collected through suspicious purchases to walk across the Mexican border. The guns were later used against U.S. Border Patrol agents........his scandal is especially striking given all the complaining and the false numbers that President Obama released at the beginning of his administration over the number of U.S.-bought guns being used by cartels in Mexico."

=======

ATF told gun stores to arm drug cartels
, by Vin Suprynowicz

On the House side, Rep. Issa said last month, "I have four investigators working full-time on this, and we're not going to quit until we see, not just an answer, but an absolute guarantee that this cannot happen again. ... The gun shops are often vilified for being the source -- well in this case, they did the right thing, they contacted the agent, and they were told to go ahead. ...

"Two individuals, maybe more, lost their life needlessly because AK-47s got over the border -- not by accident, they got there as part of, effectively, a plot, by the very people who we believe should be protecting us from those weapons getting into the wrong hands."

I doubt we've gotten to the bottom of Operation Gunwalker. But that's what we know, so far.

How To Destroy An Administration's Credibility

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First, refuse to release an actual birth certificate when you're challenged on your bona-fides to be President during the original campaign. Then, when pressed, release one that is heavily compressed and bears no relationship to an actual simple scan of a piece of paper, leaving plenty of doubt about exactly how it came to be. Once you've done this, be extraordinarily "Presidential" and take cheap shots at a potential political opponent during a Press dinner in a scene more reminiscent of South Park than that befitting a President of The United States.

Next, make lots of noise about how you're not going to Washington to pander to banksters. As soon as you're elected, however, make sure you appoint the man who runs the NY Fed to be your Treasury Secretary.

Tell the public you're going to cut the budget deficit in half within your first term during the campaign, fully-aware that we're headed into the worst recession in decades at the time. As soon as you get in office, nearly triple the deficit spending of your predecessor instead.

Campaign on the horrors of the drug war and the need to stop criminals from shooting people in Mexico in furtherance of this activity. Once in office set up "Project Gunwalker" and "Fast and Furious" allowing more than 1,000 illegally-purchased firearms to be transported to Mexico, some of which are then used to shoot both Americans and Mexicans. Oh, and to make sure the Mexican drug lords can pay for those guns allow a major US bank to launder nearly $400 billion dollars of Mexican drug money and get off with a tiny little fine instead of sending everyone involved in that scam to prison and revoking the bank's charter.

Tell the public you are being elected their President to stand and fight for the "little people." Once in office, however, allow more than 150,000 perjured affidavits to be filed in furtherance of stealing the common man's home, and instead of directing your Justice Department to empanel a grand jury and indict everyone involved work behind the scenes on a sweetheart deal where these very same firms promise - very nicely - not to do it again.

In keeping with the same premise, demand and pass not one but two 2,000 page monstrosities of bills, one attempting to force everyone in the country to buy a thing they may not want to (Health Insurance) and the other claiming to fix "too big to fail" while doing nothing of the sort, refusing to force the unregulated credit default swap and other derivative markets to come under margin supervision and public exchange posting of pricing and spreads. When challenged on the cost-savings of your health reform bill wave your hands, scream and shout - right up until you're caught double-counting alleged savings and your HHS Secretary is forced to admit you did it in a Congressional hearing.

Advocate and get passed a bill called "Cash for Clunkers" that is claimed to be intended to help the auto industry and middle-class America. Ignore the fact that it also caused a huge number of affordable cars and their most-valuable parts to be intentionally destroyed, thereby dramatically increasing the cost of acquiring basic transportation for those who are in the lower economic strata.

Then, after you've done all this, claim to have killed Bin Laden in a SEAL raid, trumpeting the best and finest military units that the world has ever known. Promise to release pictures proving that the most-hunted and wanted man in the history of the United States - the mastermind behind blowing up three buildings with airplanes and attempting to hit a forth - has expired at America's hand.

Day By Day

GoodBadUgly:DaybyDayCartoon

Osama’s Dead? Again! Still?

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============================
Freedom Watch
Saturday, May 07, 2011
Osama’s Dead? Again! Still?
Dr. A. H. Krieg
kriega@frii.com

Expanded on 05.06.11

Machiavelli, (The Prince) in his grave, laughed so hard that it caused a minor earthquake in Italy, when Obozo gave his speech on Sunday last. Osama, it seems has more lives than a cat. In an interview of Benazir Bhuto former head of Pakistani’s People Party and Pakistani PM, by David Frost in 2007 on al Jazeera, (also played on BBC) the later assassinated Bhuto clearly stated, that Osama had been dead for some time, as he was killed in 2000. In her opinion, his son Hansa bin Laden had been managing the operation for years. This has been backed by Pakistani retired intelligence general Hamid Gul who on 5.2.11 on syndicated US radio, stated that Osama had been dead for some time and that this was a make believe drama for Obama’s re-election campaign. The Frost program aired on the BBC on November 2nd 2007. Frost did not challenge the death assertion on the program. Dale Watson FBI counter terrorist proclaimed Osama to be dead in 2002. Hamid Karzi proclaimed Osama to be dead on CNN in 2002. In 2006 the French Secret service proclaimed Osama dead. Senator Harry Reid proclaimed he was dead in 2005, and Angelo Codevilla in 2008.

DNA testing as carried out by reliable labs takes 24 hours to complete but the Navy Seals were able to conclude DNA tests of Osama in three hours. The body was then immediately dumped out of an airplane, at sea, oh, that’s after a 45-minute Arabic Islamic funeral held in the airplane? All this before any forensic tests could be made. This was, we are told, so that Islamic burial procedures would not be violated. If you believe that you are more than just gullible. But wait, it gets better, in a parody of the Keystone Cops the Director of the CIA, Leon Penetta, stated on Wednesday morning 5.4.11, that there was no live video link with the Seal Team and that everyone in the much shown picture of the situation room was looking at a blank screen. All those photos of the president, secretary of state and VP were nothing but more campaign efforts.

It is noteworthy to mention that Osama was diagnosed with kidney failure in 1988, had hepatitis B, and was a diabetic, this much we know from CIA files, which considering that he was a CIA asset (Tim Osama) from 1980 to 1989 during the Russian/Afghan war, we may accept that as fact. So, I have a question, did the Seal-Team also shoot the dialysis machine, and the refrigerator containing the insulin and anti-biotic and the generator? This guy actually lived with kidney failure, hepatitis B and diabetes in a location that provided him no basic medical infrastructure, for 23 years? By –the-way this compound in Pakistan was over four acres, had it’s own electric generating plant, and it took the CIA who can locate a package of cigarettes in my backyard from space ten years to find? Well not really, CNN reported its existence in 2007. The matter of scores of computers reputedly found in the compound strikes a peculiar note, when we are informed that the facility had no telephone, telex, or Internet connection, was Osama perhaps talking to his wives in different rooms on all those computers?

Now, a few days later we have the following inconsistencies from observer participants in this made-for re-election drama. First Bin Laden was armed then he was not armed. Then there were weapons and then there were no weapons. Then he used his wife as a shield then he did not. Then Bin Laden was shot on sight then he was shot after capture. Then the compound was a plush palace and then it was a dirty house with out air conditioning and second hand furniture. Lies, it seems have the uncanny ablity to expose the liars, especially when they lack the acumen to get their stories straight.

There appears to be yet another problem with this fable. British Daily Mail, London Times and The Guardian, have all removed photos of Osama’s body pronouncing it as a fake. This took place after New Zeeland’s largest paper revealed that the image provided by the American government was a photo-shopped combination of two pictures, one of Osama in 1998 and one of an unknown victim. These images have been on the Internet for over two years, having first appeared on April 29,2009 by a Middle Eastern Internet site themedialine.org, exactly what government security service they are related to we can’t at this time say.

Victory is inevitable when the victors control the source, media, and action, and since victors write the history, this just as the birth certificate, is a done deal. The absolute gullibility of Americans is nothing short of astounding. I wrote of Osama’s demise ten years ago and was called a cook, had I the media in my pocket like this administration, we would have moved on long ago.

I must say this is very convenient, not only for Obozo’s campaign but also to support his promised troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. This orchestrated illusion is one of many that have become the mainstay of modern journalism and this administration. We learn from Sun Tzu (The Art of War) that victory is certain if you attack something that cannot be defended. Better yet, al Qaeda is an idea verbiage that was first floated by Zbigniew Brzezinski shortly after he successfully got Bonesman David Rockefeller, who was at the time the Chairman of the CFR to start the Trilateral Commission, fellow Bonesman George Bush (Sr.) headed up the CIA at that time.

I was in Pakistan, Peshawar, and Islamabad, which is very close to the location of this sited compound in the waning years of the Russian/Afghan war and I can confirm that the leaders of Pakistan are very serious people. They may well have differing goals from us but they are educated with considerably more international acumen than the fools running our nation. As they are certainly closer to the action than our Sodom on the Potomac crowd, I accept their pronouncement that Osama was killed or died of kidney failure in about 2000 and that all of this is very grand theater, which has ulterior motives.

The war on terror must be continued and expanded, how else can the principals of the military-industrial-complex continue to fund the president’s campaign for re-election? This entire event is beginning to take on the mantle of the Pentagon fabricated Jessica Lynch story, that was used to prop up military support in the Iraq war. Or better yet the testimony of Nayirah al-Sabah the daughter of Kuwaiti ambassador Sud bin-Nasir who claimed that the Iraqi’s were bayoneting babies in the Safat hospital with tutelage from Hill & Knowlton a DC ad agency when she was actually a student in America and had not been in Kuwait for the invasion. Then there was the Pat Tillman story a sports athlete who in a patriotic fervor after 9-11 turned down a 3.6 million dollar contract from the Cardinals to enlist in the Army. Seems that he was disenchanted with the war after his second deployment to Iraq and had a set up interview with Norm Chomsky, the infamous anti-war author. Tillman never made it back to America alive, an army medical report stated that he was shot in the head three times at a range of 10 yards with an M-16. I leave the conclusion up to the reader, but deduce that the military is not as lily white, as they like to have us believe.

But then you will be assured that all this is just silly conspiracy theory!

Dr. Krieg’s new book, “Rendezvous with the New World Order” will become available in May.
Via Nancy

H&R Survivor Rifle .308 survival kit project



Via Tommy

Look Away! Columnist Decimates The Civil War

I recently read an article lamenting the fact that federal participation in commemorating the 150th anniversary of the War Between The States has been practically nil.

This lackluster performance should have come as no surprise, since the U.S. is too busy meddling in everyone ELSE’S civil wars to acknowledge its own Civil War. At least our recent escapades do conjure up memories of “Gone With The Wind.” (“This is a fine time to tell me ‘I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout birthin’ no revolutions!’”)

I am just as well pleased that Washington is staying out of the planning of events. We will appreciate the sesquicentennial more if it is handled by states, communities, grassroots organizations and that one eccentric dude who paid the Met to stage “Eatin’ Goober Peas: The Opera.”

I mean, these are the paper-shuffling jokers who very nearly starved both the Union and Confederate forces. Thank goodness they failed to finalize the regulations blocking hungry soldiers from plundering chicken houses unless the farmer had posted detailed nutritional data about the fowls.

Via SHNV

Syria - What's next? A DT Analysis:


Syria: how will this thing end? Can Assad crack down enough to suppress the revolution? Or will he go the way of the Dodo bird and bail to Paris to be with the rest of his (and Arafat's) family?

I'll tell you - he's staying. He's a crazy and ruthless dorkator who (it's rumored) has already waxed over 800 people, has arrested an entire city (all males over 15 years old), and rolled tanks through the streets. But Bashar learned from one of the best, Pappy Assad, who killed over 10,000 people in the 1980's, in order to suppress revolutionary stirrings.

It is the official opinion of this doubletapping blog, that Assad will be successful in squashing those poor blokes, he will secure his military from defection, and there will be no international community intervention save for a strongly worded retraction of a previously-sent Memorial Day picnic invitation. For God's sake, the US still has their new ambassador sitting in Damascus! C'mon!

So, what will the future be in Syria? Will anything change? Can Israel utilize this opportunity to increase her homeland security?

Happy Mother's Day

Quote via Southern Nationalist Network
=============================

Posted verbatim

Abe Lincoln Libels His Mother

by Stephan Kinsella

"Tyrant, war criminal, liar, racist, and mass murderer Abe Lincoln said of his poor mother:

All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.

On this Mother’s Day, for her sake, let’s hope he was wrong."

===============================================




"
As children, we were poor. Some would say, “Oh yeah, right. You guys always say that.” But no, we were really poor. In fact, one-year things were so bad that the four of us, my brother and 2 sisters only had enough money to purchase my mother a 69-cent bottle of nail polish.

Being so young and poor, the color was not an issue. We simply wanted to get my mother SOMETHING SPECIAL for Mother’s Day.

We were also aware that the local soul music stations would play a song by the Intruders that was incredibly popular at the time and made especially for Mother’s Day.

“I’ll Always Love My Mama” was the name of the song that became a mega hit in the late 60’s and remains incredibly popular until this day. Moreover, it was just as important that we tune into a radio station that played both sides of this song recording.

And so we presented my mother with her present early that Sunday and decided to give her the morning to herself.

Are You Credulous, Stupid or Both?

Verbatim post.

In light of the string of the blatant falsehoods being announced by the U.S. government these days (FDA, DHS, White House, etc.) it’s interesting that so many people still believe whatever they are told by “official” sources. It brings up the question of the functioning of their brains: How could a person swallow official information so gullibly and so completely without even asking common sense questions about the reliability or factual basis of that information?

These people, it turns out, are operating from what I called The Gullible Mind. It is a psychological processing malfunction that filters out information based on its source rather than its integrity. People who operate from The Gullible Mind tend to have misplaced trust in governments, institutions, mainstream news networks, doctors, scientists or anyone who wears the garb of apparent authority.

Whereas a normal, intelligent person would raise commonsense questions about information they receive from all sources, the Gullible Mind wholly accepts virtually any information from sources that occupy the role of apparent authority in society.

Governments never lie

But how does this work inside their heads? It’s an interesting process. Gullible Mind people do believe it is possible for a government (or institution) to lie; but they believe that governments, institutions and doctors choose NOT to lie even when it would serve their own self interests to do so.

Follow this carefully, because this is the fascinating part. These Gullible Mind people effectively believe that even though a government official could lie about something, they would never actually do so. And why wouldn’t they? Because, ultimately, the Gullible Mind crowd believes that governments, institutions and mainstream media outlets operate from a sort of honor code. So even if it were in the interests of our own government to lie to us, it would never happen because that would violate this imaginary honor code.

Where does this honor code exist? Where is it written down? Nowhere, of course. It is imaginary. But to The Gullible Mind, it seems real. Interestingly, even though this “honor code” only exists in the imagination of The Gullible Mind person, they project this honor code onto sources of authority, imagining that they abide by it.

Extreme gullibility

This is how The Gullible Mind person believes that network news always reports the truth. The news networks have a sense of “honor,” they believe, and this sense of honor requires them to always report the truth and never manipulate the news for any nefarious purposes. So news networks never “shape” the news and they only report what is factually true without any consideration whatsoever of politics or advertiser profits.

This view of the world is, of course, laughably naive. And yet it is the core belief system of at least half the population — the Gullible Mind half that believes everything it is told by its own government, media or authority figures.

Interestingly, the Gullible Mind is also inwardly gullible because it does not recognize its own gullibility. Instead, it believes it is operating as a Rational Mind. This false Rational Mind believes it functions as a critical filter of incoming information, but even this is self deception. In truth, this false Rational Mind is on “auto filter” so that it filters out any information that conflicts with the information it is receiving from official sources.

This is the key to understanding the Gullible Mind — it isn’t the quality of the information itself that matters; it is the confirmation of the story from official sources that “makes it real” in the Gullible Mind.

The Easter Bunny killed Bin Laden!

For example, let’s say a Gullible Mind person comes across an announcement that says the Easter Bunny has killed Osama Bin Laden. The report claims that colored eggs were found near Bin Laden’s body, and there was evidence of feathers being left at the scene, which proves the Easter Bunny was there.

Now, an intelligent, rational mind would have a lot of questions about this. For starters, rabbits don’t have feathers. And the Easter Bunny is a piece of fiction, too. On top of that, how could the Easter Bunny kill Osama Bin Laden? An intelligent person would, upon reviewing the holes in the story, be forced to conclude the story is fiction. The only logical conclusion from that is that the government is lying to them.

A Gullible Mind person, however, would not ask whether rabbits have feathers, or whether the Easter Bunny is capable of conducting a military raid. Instead, the Gullible Mind person would first look to other confirming news sources in order to determine the reliability of the story. They would turn on the TV or surf the internet, looking for the news to be repeated through “official” sources.

Once they found CNN, or Fox News, or some other “official” source reporting that the Easter Bunny killed Osama Bin Laden, then that news report would instantly become “real” in their minds. Suddenly it has shifted from their mental processing queue to the “absolutely truth” part of their brain, and from that point forward, no one can question that reality in their heads.

Don’t bother arguing with a Gullible Mind – they are immune to facts

At this point, their rational mind is completely shut off on the topic. No accumulation of facts can, at that point, rattle their “reality.” For example, a person who believes the government’s story of 9/11 has already embraced the Easter Bunny version of terrorists flying airplanes into the World Trade Center towers. So how did this act cause the WTC 7 building to collapse in a demolition-style free-fall a few hours later, when WTC 7 was never struck by airplanes? How can a steel and concrete building suddenly and magically collapse in perfect structural synchronicity merely from being on fire?

The answers don’t matter to The Gullible Mind, you see. There is no room for facts inside their heads, because all the space has been taken up with what is essentially a cult-like belief in institutions of authority.

We saw this in the Heaven’s Gate cult in California a few years back. The leader of that cult, a man named Applegate, positioned himself as the one and only source of authoritative information among the cult followers. So HE became the authoritative source whose information was wholly accepted without questioning or skepticism of any kind. At that point, he was able to quite easily convince his followers that an alien race was going to land a UFO on the far side of a comet, and that if they killed themselves, they would be transported onto the alien ship (or something like that).

The belief in such a story may seem silly… until you realize that the governments of the world use the exact same cult-like tactics to get their own “followers” to believe everything they say, without question. So if President Obama announced that an alien race was going to land a mother ship on the White House lawn, and that people who voted for him would have their consciousness transferred to an immortal alien body, the remarkable truth is that millions of people would believe that. Perhaps tens of millions. They would even worship him as an interstellar saint.

Remember Orson Welles’ radio program that announced aliens had invaded the Earth and were destroying our cities? Huge numbers of people believed it was really happening… and not because it made any sense, but because the information came from the source they trusted. To those people, the alien invasion was just as real back then as Bin Laden’s official death is to government followers today.

Throughout history, many conspiracy theories have turned out to be true

Government lying, of course, has been going on for as long as governments have existed. Not all conspiracies theories are true, of course, but so many of them turn out to be true that the idea of “not believing” in conspiracies makes no rational sense.

To not believe in conspiracies means you don’t believe two people have ever sat down and plotted to take advantage of others in some unethical and deceptive way. Well gee, that describes virtually every board meeting of every large corporation in the world! Conspiracies are not just commonplace; they’re practically synonymous with modern-day capitalism! Even right now, Apple is being accused of a conspiracy to keep employee wages artificially low: http://www.appleinsider.com/article…

I wonder: Do the Gullible Mind people also not believe in that conspiracy theory? Are all conspiracy theories automatically tossed out merely because of the word “conspiracy?”

For those who don’t know their history, here’s a list of 33 conspiracy theories that turned out to be true: http://www.newworldorderreport.com/…

The Manhattan Project, of course, was a secret government conspiracy. The Tuskegee Syphilis experiments on African Americans was a secret medical conspiracy. Operation Northwoods was a conspiracy plot to create support for a war on Castro by staging terrorism events in U.S. cities.

These are all historical facts. They are indisputable. But to The Gullible Mind, none of this history exists. What’s real is only what they are being told right now by the White House. When George Bush occupied the White House, the daily fibs were things like, “The Iraqis want us to occupy their land with military personnel because we are setting them free!” Oh yeah, that’s a bit of twisted logic, for sure. But it’s no different from Obama’s version of the war fairy tales, which includes such gems as, “We’re only dropping humanitarian bombs on Libya.” Or, “It’s not actually war. It’s only kinetic military action.”

But you see, it makes no difference whether anything they say is actually true… at least not to The Gullible Mind, which believes there is no such thing as a conspiracy theory. There is no such thing as a nefarious government, either. Heck, when Columbus landed in the New World, his entire crew shared food and wine with the Native American Indians, we’re told. There was no raping, no murder, no genocide. That’s why we continue to celebrate Columbus Day every year! Because the Gullible Mind wants a reason to get off work for a day, even if it requires a complete revision of actual historical facts.

The most popular issues of Gullible Mind people

Vaccines are good for you – Vaccines are “safe and effective” merely because doctors and the CDC say they are, not because of any reliable scientific evidence.

The economy is in great shape – Gullible Mind people are easily influenced to stop thinking about the $14 trillion national debt that’s growing by the day and simply go along with whatever economic fictions are being woven in Washington.

Governments and corporations are looking out for your best interests – The drug companies only want to find cures and make everybody healthy. The government is here to help. We should all stop asking questions and just do what we’re told.

Nothing will ever run out – There’s no such thing as Peak Oil. Our world can continue its throwaway economy without end, they believe. We’ll never run out of gas, water, soil or natural resources. Keep using stuff up and throwing it all away!

Food additives are good for you – Otherwise, the FDA wouldn’t have approved them, would they?

There’s no such thing as a cure for cancer – The ultimate pessimists, the Gullible Mind crowd believes cancer has never been cured! And if a cancer cure did exist, we would know about it by now, right? (Because our scientists already know everything that’s worth knowing, you see…)

There are no other non-terrestrial civilizations or beings in our universe – Amazingly, we are the only intelligent forms of life that have ever existed, they believe. Any talk of non-Earth intelligence is just a bunch of “fringe” nonsense. There was never any life on Mars, either.

Herbs and plants have no medicinal value – That’s right, only conventional medicine can “treat” you, because that’s what the doctors say. Herbs and plants have zero biological value beyond their calories alone, they insist.

… and on it goes, one delusion after another. A Gullible Mind, it seems, will believe almost anything if it comes from a “trusted” source. But that same Gullible Mind will discount straight-up facts if they don’t come from those same trusted sources.

How to stop being a Gullible Mind

Interestingly, most of the people who are intelligent, skeptical thinkers today used to be Gullible Mind people at one time or another. There was a point where they simply “awakened” and began to consciously question the world around them.

Intelligent, informed skeptics are the people asking questions like:

• Why do twenty different mainstream news sources all report the exact same news, using the exact same words, on the exact same day? If they were all investigating and writing their own news, wouldn’t their news be different?

• Why did Wall Street get a multi-trillion-dollar bailout from Washington while the American people are still required to pay taxes that involve sending money to Washington? If Washington can just magically create a trillion dollars overnight, why do we pay taxes, then?

• Why does the USDA now actively conspire with GMO seed companies to keep approving genetically modified seeds even without any scientific evidence of their long-term safety?

• If mercury is one of the most toxic substances known to modern science, why is it still being deliberately placed into the mouths of children in the form of “silver” fillings? And why are they called “silver” when they actually contain more mercury than silver?

• Where does the fluoride used to fluoridate the public water supplies really come from? And if fluoride is so good for people, then why is it so hazardous to handle, and why is it considered a hazardous chemical by the EPA?

• What really happened on 9/11? How did WTC 7 collapse if it was never hit by any airplanes? Why did they sweep away the rubble before a proper forensic analysis could be performed?

• Are vaccines really safe? Where’s the study comparing vaccinated children with non-vaccinated children? Why won’t the vaccine industry allow such studies to be conducted?

• Why does the cancer industry seem a lot more interested in treating cancer and recruiting cancer patients than actually curing cancer and ending the epidemic? Why does the industry refuse to talk about cancer-causing chemicals or the anti-cancer effects of vitamin D?

• Why are toxic food additives still allowed in the food supply? What’s the real story on aspartame and the FDA? Why did the FDA oppress stevia for so many decades?

• Why is the medical police state now using guns to force parents to medicate their children? In what kind of medical system is it necessary to use the threat of violence to force compliance?

• Why did Clinton bomb the Sudan in the middle of the Monica Lewinsky crisis? Why did Obama suddenly announce the death of Bin Laden in the middle of his “birther” crisis?

• Why do we still have the DEA’s “War on Drugs,” especially since there is ample evidence that the war is a total failure that only increases the prison population while actually enriching the drug gangs with higher street prices?

• Why is the TSA still reaching down our pants at the airports if Bin Laden is now dead? Wasn’t he the whole reason we created the TSA and hired on those 60,000 security agents in the first place? (http://www.naturalnews.com/032267_B…)

An intelligent, skeptical thinker would ask these questions (and many more) as a natural course of basic human curiosity. But a Gullible Mind, attacks the questioner for even daring to ask such questions.

Who are some of the awakened people?

That’s why the Gullible Mind is more than merely gullible: It is a cowardly mind. It is afraid to ask questions on its own, and it simultaneously attacks those who have the courage to stand up and actually ask those questions (like Jesse Ventura).

Most members of the conventional press are, of course, cowardly minds. They almost universally buy the corporate spin (or the White House spin) and never ask any tough questions anymore. Some of the REAL heroes — the people who are asking intelligent questions about our world — include:

Alex Jones
Jeff Rense
Charlotte Gerson
Jonathan Landsman
David Icke
Jesse Ventura
Gerald Celente
Ron Paul
Robert Scott Bell
Dr. Andrew Wakefield
Suzanne Somers
Dr. James Forsythe
George Noorey
Russell D. LongcoreEd.

Do you see a pattern here? Each one of these individuals has been marginalized or viciously attacked and slandered simply because they chose to ask intelligent questions about the world around them. Now, I don’t agree with every single thing said by each one of these people, but I admire each of them for having the courage to ask the questions that need to be asked if we are to move forward as a society (and civilization).

These kind of people represent the complete opposite of The Gullible Mind. They are, instead, the “true skeptics” of the world. The reason they are viciously attacked is because our world is so steeped in deceit and conspiracy that only Gullible Minds are tolerated. Those who question the status quo are not merely annoying to the powers that be, but actually dangerous because the most dangerous activity in which you can engage today is helping others awaken to what’s really happening around them.

It is that “awakening” that is so utterly despised by the web of corporations, governments and media lackeys that they will do everything in their power to prevent any sort of awakening from taking place at all. The functioning of the Matrix, after all, depends on people believing in the illusion.

And it is so much easier to govern, of course, if people just believe whatever you tell them. Gullible Minds make great voters and willing slaves. But lousy company.

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