Or, more appropriately, where are we?
Projected GDP growth has proved to be non-existent, our body politic has reduced our ability to govern to mush, and the U.S. and the rest of the West are now fully under surveillance at all times by our friendly police state courtesy of the internet and mobile communication technology.
I have theory... it goes something like this... our government has gotten so efficient at regulating and has educated our population how to take complete advantage of this, that nothing outside of the Big Corporations functions anymore. Small businesses can't hire a receptionist, or a cleaning person, or ANY entry/low level employee anymore... if they do they will have brought on themselves a sexual harassment claim, a "slip and fall" disability claim, an improper termination claim, etc...
Our government "revenue agents" have destroyed the black market in part time "off the books" workers... and now these people are on the government dole. The legal profession has incentivized all manner of contrived claims and special interest groups, from the NAACP to the Women's Movement to the Catholic Knights of Columbus to Jewish Media Moguls, into believing that they are operating under an aggrieved status... and now everybody hates everybody else, and everybody is a victim. (My response? Stop over for a glass of wine and a walk through my garden... and I don't care what victim class you belong to).
Clearly, I am not the first to attempt describe this... the media and our government has been in the business of creating a series crisis/catastrophes for a number of reasons: "The Lawyer Full Employment Act" (my brother's)... Michael Crichton coined it the "Politco/Legal/Media Complex"... I called it the "Marriage/Divorce Industrial Complex" year's before I read Crichton's excellent book "State of Fear"... but its all the same thing.
In the West, the legal profession is overpopulated... and they desperately need a new crisis-de-jour in order to get paid... the judiciary and Law Enforcement fit in here, too... the primary vehicle, despite what you might think, to get the vast majority of Lawyers paid was the War on Drugs, liability and personal injury, and divorce/family law. There just aren't that many suckers like the Dow-Corning Corp. and their multi-billion$$$$ award to lawyers for silicon breast implants...
The media needs an audience... and nothing sells like disaster, crisis, fear, and victimhood... and as Will Rogers famously quipped "all I (we) know is what I (we) read in the newspapers"... and who consumes the most media? Who controls consumer spending? Well, whoever "they" are, that is the group that all of this "victimhood" is most directed at... and the consequences? Eating disorders, depression, BPD, anger, hate, rage, divorce, abuse.... all from people that have never missed a hot meal and always sleep in a warm clean bed. Go figure.
And here we are watching the debt debate in Washington, DC! What a freaking joke! We have only loonies and innumerate lawyers conducting this debate... and given my dim view of the media and their coverage of anything... oh, never mind... in the end, fiscal discipline will be forced on the U.S.... and not by a Balanced Budget Amendment... not by the "fiscal conservatives" (they don't really exist... we have better chance at sighting a unicorn...)... and certainly not by America's Left (ROFL!!! The only people more evil than people that describe themselves as "religious")... Nope. Fiscal discipline will be forced on the U.S. by the Bond Market. When, you ask? I don't know... exactly... soon enough and with certainty.
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I hear knuckleheads saying crazy things like "watering the tree of freedom with blood" or whatever silly sh#! these folks have to say. Wanna be a "patriot"? Really??!!
The ultimate display of patriotic civil disobedience - don't drive/don't consume.
Here's the best thing you can do for yourself. Unplug. Focus on having a good time and working hard and smart (being frugal). Life is short. Stay out of ANY entanglement with the government, law enforcement, lawyers... to do that, shrink your life... the biggest risk of any collision with those evil bastards is in your car... that means, drive as little as possible. If you are not behind the wheel, you can't get: shot by the police for "failure to obey", arrested for DUI, sued for an accident... its just probability theory in practice... every mile driven increase the odds of all of the bad things that happen while driving... I have tried to cut driving out of our lives as much as possible, and have taken up hobbies and interests that do not require me to do so... when I venture about, I take great care... pay your taxes in full and on time... want to rage against the machine? You'll do it best by staying home and not consuming.
As an organized political force... a well organized group of 3 to 5% of the electorate could do more to force the government's hand than all of the loonies with their shoot-em-up fantasies could ever dream of. I have already mentioned action number 1: stop driving and consuming. Action 2: Get on a jury and exercise your ABSOLUTE RIGHT of jury nullification. When Courts (the Judiciary) see hung jury after hung jury for victimless crimes... that will be the end of that... because defendants will stop taking plea deals and will go to trial... the Court system would have to stop being an armed government extortionist and start functioning as they were intended because the number of defendants that choose to count on their fellow man to actually do their job and PROTECT them from our government would increase many fold. Drug crimes, prostitution, tax crimes, and crimes where the punishment does not fit the crime... let jurors have be conscience of the facts AND the morality of the underlying law itself, and watch how fast that system comes around.
Starve the f***ing beast.
I hear knuckleheads saying crazy things like "watering the tree of freedom with blood" or whatever silly sh#! these folks have to say. Wanna be a "patriot"? Really??!!
The ultimate display of patriotic civil disobedience - don't drive/don't consume.
Here's the best thing you can do for yourself. Unplug. Focus on having a good time and working hard and smart (being frugal). Life is short. Stay out of ANY entanglement with the government, law enforcement, lawyers... to do that, shrink your life... the biggest risk of any collision with those evil bastards is in your car... that means, drive as little as possible. If you are not behind the wheel, you can't get: shot by the police for "failure to obey", arrested for DUI, sued for an accident... its just probability theory in practice... every mile driven increase the odds of all of the bad things that happen while driving... I have tried to cut driving out of our lives as much as possible, and have taken up hobbies and interests that do not require me to do so... when I venture about, I take great care... pay your taxes in full and on time... want to rage against the machine? You'll do it best by staying home and not consuming.
As an organized political force... a well organized group of 3 to 5% of the electorate could do more to force the government's hand than all of the loonies with their shoot-em-up fantasies could ever dream of. I have already mentioned action number 1: stop driving and consuming. Action 2: Get on a jury and exercise your ABSOLUTE RIGHT of jury nullification. When Courts (the Judiciary) see hung jury after hung jury for victimless crimes... that will be the end of that... because defendants will stop taking plea deals and will go to trial... the Court system would have to stop being an armed government extortionist and start functioning as they were intended because the number of defendants that choose to count on their fellow man to actually do their job and PROTECT them from our government would increase many fold. Drug crimes, prostitution, tax crimes, and crimes where the punishment does not fit the crime... let jurors have be conscience of the facts AND the morality of the underlying law itself, and watch how fast that system comes around.
Starve the f***ing beast.
No kidding. I counted no less than six individual local LEO traps just driving 10 miles into the in town property yesterday. They are on the prowl.
ReplyDeleteAh, but now technology has come to the rescue of the small business owner. Networked security cameras with microphones have become cheap and are easy to install and operate. A desktop PC to store the A/V streams, cameras attached to the network (or wireless ones, depending on your place of business), some software and you are protected against frivolous lawsuits.
ReplyDeleteI installed quite a few during my stint with Corrections. Most of them were to monitor the public interactions with staff and inmates. Quite a few were to watch the staff. I didn't put many up to watch inmates. A prison rights woman picked a fight at the main office front desk and then sued. We produced the sound and video of that incident. She paid court costs and lawyer fees.
It's not fun to be watched all the time, even if it's you that's doing it. It does beat the alternative by a long shot. So far there's been no need to hook my vehicles up the same way, with cameras and sound. The local police haven't been making up tickets or throwing their weight around. It's nice to know the option exists, though.
Tweel:
ReplyDeleteI am coming around to your point of view... initially, I HATED the idea of being watched all the time... still do... but if this is the NEW REALITY, perhaps we can turn the tables on abusive government (and abusive people using government as institutionalized violence agains US).
And "abusive government" HATES cameras (and the now the internet). Just look at all of the arrests of people for horrible crime of video recording Law Enforcement! LEO's have been willing to point guns at innocent human beings, threatening to kill them, for the crime of documentarian!
ReplyDeleteOh yes, the corrupt in power are starting to realize that video cameras are a threat to them and not much help (traffic cameras). The Internet is a great tool for control, but even greater for slipping information around that control. There are limits to what American citizens will put up with, and be sure that the government realizes that our population is well armed.
ReplyDeleteOne advantage to being a British culture offshoot is that the rule of law is not supposed to have exceptions. A murderer is a murderer, no matter if they are rich or poor, a celebrity or unknown. Reality falls short of that ideal, but if our rulers openly flout the laws they hold us to, there are consequences that go far beyond their desires. Those consequences depend a lot on what the people have to work with, of course.
That's another reason I'm happy to be back in Arizona. There are many drawbacks, but the advantage of being in a state with open and concealed carry for all is huge when dealing with corruption in government. Ultimately government relies on force to deal with those who do not follow the government decrees. In this state, at least, those decrees can't be too far off from the wishes of those governed, for the government KNOWS that the people have the upper hand when it comes to force. Police are more polite, even jackasses have a sense of self-preservation. Anyone here has the right to be armed, and possibly could be. It's a different attitude, not noble to serf or wolf to sheep, but fellow citizen to fellow citizen. With that, our police also have the advantage of having people come to their aid when in trouble. One recent event locally was a policeman who got in over his head while arresting a criminal - the taser didn't take the guy down, pepper spray did more to the policeman than his target, and the guy managed to get the policeman's service pistol away from him before he was taken down by fellow citizens. That's the way it should be everywhere, these people are supposed to be working for the common welfare and entitled to help from, well, us.
Anybody legitimately working for the common welfare is entitled to help from, well, us... and it is people like "us" , those that follow the law that deserve to be PROTECTED by it.
ReplyDeleteI still believe (hope?) that the pen is mightier than the sword... though there is no shortage of fire power on the Jeffers ranch...
The country was founded in part by smugglers. So, it seems fitting that the pro liberty movement runs the information blockade today.
ReplyDeleteEspecially when our elected representatives just passed a light version of an enabling act complete weigh our verry own Politburo.
On the lawyer's. That is a common problem thrue time. Check out what Gibbons had to say around the middle of chapter 17 of the decline and fall...
ReplyDeletehttp://m.ccel.org/ccel/gibbon/decline/files/volume1/chap17.htm
Search on"the profession of the law"
SSDD
I like your blog a lot. It interests me very much. I like that an American besides myself can see what their doing to us. Being watched is against our rights. Anything dealing with our picture being captured and stored is against the law. Not sure how they got these traffic cameras set up, but hey its the government. Let me go take some pictures of them and record their actions. I guarantee by tomorrow ill be in jail serving a nice sentence. Sooner or later they will have cameras all over the place taken pictures whenever they want. They will also have a chip inserted into each persons wrist. This chip will allow them to track anything from your blood type, financial situation to the size of clothes you wear. Oh and not to mention they will be able to ping your location at anytime. How's that for freedom? Only question I have for you would be, Are You Free??? Come check out my page.
ReplyDelete