Saturday, April 18, 2009

My Cup of Tea

My Cup of Tea

Unless you have been in a coma, it is hard to escape all the talk about the Tea Party phenomena. People are getting tired of government waste and abuse. Frankly, I'm surprised it took this long. The Declaration of Independence states that, "...and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed." The evils to which we are accustomed are no longer sufferable. It does not take government to decide when its evils are insufferable; or even to decide what the People consider evils, but each individual suffering under the systemic denial of their natural, unalienable rights to reach a point where they say, "Enough!"

Even though the Tea Party phenomena is a good starting point, it relies upon people gathering together to express their discontent. The adage, "there is strength in numbers" may hold true, but there must first be strength within. What happens when the Tea Party participants have disbanded and go back to their daily routine? The strength of their collective body is dispersed to the respective individuals; often to be remanded back into the despotism from which they crawled for a moment of outrage. They resign to pay obligatory homage to the State, mind their business, pledge their allegiance, and comply with every regulatory edict that may inject itself into their private affairs. The State is none the worse for the momentary display of petulance from its conscripts.

If one is to take a honest assessment of their conscience, beliefs, and morals they would be hard-pressed to accede that what government does is in harmony with why it was first created. Many, I posit, are so preoccupied and distracted by the day-to-day demands upon their senses for maintaining their burdensome debt that they give little thought, if any, to just how little autonomy they actually possess. There are movements afoot where some States are proposing bills which purport to assert the State's sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment; which unfortunately has been all but eviscerated thanks to the States having become federal municipalities through the disbursement of federal monies to supplant the reserved powers of the States. Yes, you have even been compromised by your State legislatures who exercised control over you by pandering to Uncle Sam for the spoils which had previously been extracted from you through fraud and coercion. How these States will substantiate their sovereignty with tainted hands dyed green from the Federal Reserve's worthless script, or red from the United States' imperial aggression worldwide, is yet to be seen. It is never too late for change.

Regardless, none of this is worthwhile without a fundamental change within our own minds. There is needed, a paradigm shift in the way we reason. Government is not something that exists in perpetuity. It requires people; people to lend their consent; people to submit to that authority; people to occupy the offices; people to oppress other people. It is all a game. An often violent and oppressive game,but a game nonetheless. If you want to identify the cause for all your suffering you need only to gaze upon yourself.

I held my own Tea Party some time ago. The only participant was myself. There was discord between my conscience and the innumerable demands placed upon me by external restraint and compulsion. I stepped outside myself and took a critical assessment. I was not pleased. Much of what I had done in the past was done through information handed down by others no more invested in their lives than I had been. It was hearsay, presumption, and ignorance. When I asked about the "why" I was to comply with edicts, there was never reasoning founded upon morality or justice, but upon what would happen to me if I did not obey. The truth is, we live under the threat of force, fear, and oppression. We are not truly free, we are free as long as we obey.

Each one of us has to come to terms with how we either submit or rule in our own lives. Over a year ago I took the steps to remove my consent, express or implied, from being a subject under this festering despotism I see before me. I have authored a Declaration which makes unequivocal statements to the world as to who I say I am and where my authority over my life derives. I have divested myself of the subjugation imposed upon me by way of my past ignorance. I can walk proudly and honestly, without fear, and confront so-called authority that believes it has acquired some lawful right to compel my allegiance. After sending a copy to the City of Collinsville, the then-Mayor, Stan Schaeffer, issued a memo identifying me as a possible "threat" because of my promise to exercise my natural right to self-defense. This mentality is prevalent in government institutions. Government actors do not like individuals who have lost their fear and confront their lies. They do not fear me as much as the message I offer taking hold in the minds of other free-thinking individuals. That was my cup of tea.

I still wait for supposed rulers to compel me to obey. I have made my Declaration and stand by it, to the end, if need be. If this causes government actors some discomfort then it is within their minds such discomfort originates. I am a peaceable man, but will defend myself against aggression. I am not to be ruled by any man, or group of men, without my explicit consent. This is where we all find ourselves today. Tea Parties are a good start, but until you possess the temerity, resolve, belligerence, and tenacity to stand upon your natural, Creator-derived rights, you are nothing but a subject. There is no strength in numbers, when the individuals amongst such ranks are living in fear and ignorance. You can read about my journey, and my Declaration, at http://www.markmccoy.com. You can start by freeing yourself, which is only a thought away.

Cops: Public Servants or Fascist Pigs? (Part 1)

It was not many years ago when I considered myself a supporter of
"law enforcement." (I made donations, had the F.O.P. and Sheriff's
department stickers and everything.) Cops were, I believed, the
good guys, protecting the innocent and imposing justice upon
evildoers. Oh sure, I knew there was corruption here and there, and
scattered examples of police abuse--a few "bad apples" in the ranks-
- -but all in all, I thought the cops were the good guys.

Now I'm really darn embarrassed that I ever thought that.

This will be the first in a series of messages where we examine the
question, are the American "law enforcers" of today noble public
servants, or despicable fascist pigs?

First, we must define our terms. For example, someone having a
short temper, or exercising bad judgment, even repeatedly, is not
necessarily a fascist pig. No, a cop's level of "fascismo," if you
will, must be measured by something other than just being stupid or
even malicious. To truly be a fascist, a cop must demonstrate that
he has the fascist mindset. So let's define what that is.

A NON-fascist cop, when he looks out at the world, would see lots
of good people, whom he would want to protect, and would never want
to harm, intimidate, or even inconvenience unnecessarily. His goal
would be to find the nasty people in the world, and see to it that
they are prevented from harming any of the decent people.

A FASCIST cop, on the other hand, would view everyone as his
inferior, to be controlled, interrogated, or even abused at will.
He sees himself, a representative of "authority," as having the
right to forcibly impose his will on anyone he wants, whenever he
wants, for any reason (or no reason) and the right to use outright
violence against any who do not obey his every whim.

So, in this message and the ones to follow, we will examine
examples of police conduct in this country, and rate the level of
"fascismo" demonstrated by American "law enforcement." What we
won't bother looking at are things like a car chase which ends with
a cop with too much adrenaline in his blood, or a cop shooting
someone with somewhat questionable justification. No, we are
looking for ATTITUDE. The goal is to determine if American cops
today think like defenders of justice, or like fascist pigs.

- ---<>---

As you may know, the feds now do internal "checkpoints," anywhere
they want within a hundred miles of the border. If you haven't yet
heard of this Orwellian absurdity, here are the basics:

http://www.aclu.org/priva...

(Yes, I know the ACLU is very selective about which rights it cares
about. It fights hard to defend the First Amendment, while fighting
hard to VIOLATE the Second Amendment. But their site gives a good
summary of the "Constitution free zones.")

With the "checkpoint" information in mind, here is the specific
incident we're considering this time, with our "fascistometers" at
the ready:

http://www.youtube.com/wa...

Once you've watched the entire video (it's less than nine minutes),
consider a few things:

1) First of all, would anyone who is NOT a fascist pig take part in
these warrantless, suspicionless searches at all? Well, no. To
think you have the right to stop and interrogate anyone who happens
to drive down a road, and the right to search through his stuff, is
a classic symptom of being a fascist pig.

2) Would anyone who is NOT a fascist pig view someone's reliance on
his Fourth Amendment rights (to not be subjected to an unreasonable
and unjustified search) as a REASON to search his car? Put another
way, would anyone who is NOT a fascist pig think that someone must
be a criminal if he doesn't want to volunteer to let some jackboot
rummage through his stuff? No. Again, this is a classic symptom of
someone with a fascist pig world view. (Note that in the clip, the
guy describes how the fascist pigs at one point admitted that
everything the guy went through was because he wouldn't answer a
question.)

3) Would anyone who is NOT a fascist pig FAKE "probable cause" in
order to get around that pesky Fourth Amendment? No. They had no
reason to suspect anything--to stop him at all, or to search him
after the stop--and then they LIED about it to make up an excuse to
do a search. Classic fascist pig behavior.

4) Would anyone who is NOT a fascist pig smash someone's car
windows, taser him, and forcibly extract him from his car, without
ANY "probable cause" to think the person had committed a crime?
Again, no. (If you're finding these questions difficult to answer,
please move to Cuba.)

5) Would anyone who is NOT a fascist pig grind someone's face into
broken glass, throw him to the ground, stomp on his head, and
otherwise assault him, when the person is unarmed and not
resisting, and when there is still no evidence that the guy had
committed any crime? No. (The clip doesn't say whether the cops
ever knew that the guy is a pastor.)

6) Would anyone who is NOT a fascist pig openly delight in someone
else's misery and suffering, while the person is handcuffed and
bleeding profusely, mocking and insulting the guy, when there was
still NO EVIDENCE that the guy had committed any crime? No. (I
could make another item about not letting the guy go to the
bathroom, but I'm trying to keep this relatively short.)

7) Here's an important one: Would anyone who is NOT a fascist pig
QUIETLY STAND BY while his fellow "officers" did what is described
above? NO. If this was a case of one or two "bad apples" in law
enforcement, wouldn't some other cop there have tried to stop it,
or at least complained about it afterwards? So how often have you
ever seen that? Where are the "good cops" speaking out about this
stuff?

8) Would anyone who is NOT a fascist pig want to proceed to
prosecute the VICTIM of all the abuse I described above, despite
the fact that there is STILL no evidence that he committed a crime?
No.

Okay, so what's the verdict for this example? Well, if the story
above is an accurate reflection of what "law enforcement" in this
country is like today, then American cops are indeed fascist pigs,
who deserve our utmost contempt and condemnation. (And if it is NOT
an accurate reflection of the attitudes and behavior of the police
in this country, where are the GOOD cops speaking out against this?)

In closing, I'd like to say the following to Mr. C. Diaz, Mr. B.
Griffiths, and Mr. E. Gomez, and any other Nazi swine who
participated in the incident described above. If some day you pick
the wrong target for your Gestapo crap, and the guy blows your damn
fascist pig heads off, the world will be a better place.

Oh, and have a nice day.

Larken Rose
http://www.larkenrose.com

Thursday, April 16, 2009

You Are Being Lied to About Pirates

Who imagined that in 2009, the world's governments would
be declaring a new War on Pirates? As you read this,
the British Royal Navy - backed by the ships of more
than two dozen nations, from the US to China - is sailing
into Somalian waters to take on men we still picture as
parrot-on-the-shoulder pantomime villains. They will soon be
fighting Somalian ships and even chasing the pirates onto
land, into one of the most broken countries on earth. But
behind the arrr-me-hearties oddness of this tale, there
is an untold scandal. The people our governments are
labeling as "one of the great menace of our times" have
an extraordinary story to tell -- and some justice on
their side.

Pirates have never been quite who we think they are. In
the "golden age of piracy" - from 1650 to 1730 - the
idea of the pirate as the senseless, savage thief that
lingers today was created by the British government in a
great propaganda-heave. Many ordinary people believed it
was false: pirates were often rescued from the gallows
by supportive crowds. Why? What did they see that we
can't? In his book Villains of All nations, the historian
Marcus Rediker pores through the evidence to find out.
If you became a merchant or navy sailor then - plucked
from the docks of London's East End, young and hungry -
you ended up in a floating wooden Hell. You worked all
hours on a cramped, half-starved ship, and if you slacked
off for a second, the all-powerful captain would whip you
with the Cat O' Nine Tails. If you slacked consistently,
you could be thrown overboard. And at the end of months
or years of this, you were often cheated of your wages.

Pirates were the first people to rebel against this
world. They mutinied against their tyrannical captains -
and created a different way of working on the seas. Once
they had a ship, the pirates elected their captains,
and made all their decisions collectively. They shared
their bounty out in what Rediker calls "one of the most
egalitarian plans for the disposition of resources to be
found anywhere in the eighteenth century." They even took
in escaped African slaves and lived with them as equals. The
pirates showed "quite clearly - and subversively - that
ships did not have to be run in the brutal and oppressive
ways of the merchant service and the Royal navy." This is
why they were popular, despite being unproductive thieves.

The words of one pirate from that lost age - a young
British man called William Scott - should echo into this
new age of piracy. Just before he was hanged in Charleston,
South Carolina, he said: "What I did was to keep me from
perishing. I was forced to go a-pirating to live."

In 1991, the government of Somalia - in the Horn of Africa
-collapsed. Its nine million people have been teetering on
starvation ever since - and many of the ugliest forces in
the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to
steal the country's food supply anddump our nuclear waste in
their seas. Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government
was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing
off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the
ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first
they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies.
Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and
leaking barrels washed up on shore.

People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than
300 died. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy to Somalia,
tells me: "Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There
is also lead, and heavy metalssuch as cadmium and mercury
- you name it." Much of it can be traced back to European
hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to
the Italian mafia to "dispose" of cheaply. When I asked
Ould-Abdallah what European governments were doing about it,
he said with a sigh: "Nothing. There has been no clean-up,
no compensation, and no prevention."

At the same time, other European ships have been looting
Somalia's seas of their greatest resource: seafood. We have
destroyed our own fish-stocks by over-exploitation - and now
we have moved on to theirs. More than $300m worth of tuna,
shrimp, lobster and other sea-life is being stolen every
year by vast trawlers illegally sailing into Somalia's
unprotected seas. The local fishermen have suddenly lost
their livelihoods, and they are starving. Mohammed Hussein,
a fisherman in the town of Marka 100km south of Mogadishu,
told Reuters: "If nothing is done, there soon won't be
much fish left in our coastal waters."

This is the context in which the men we are calling
"pirates" have emerged. Everyone agrees they were ordinary
Somalian fishermen who at first took speedboats to try to
dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least wage a 'tax'
on them. They call themselves the Volunteer Coastguard
of Somalia - and it's not hard to see why. In a surreal
telephone interview, one of the pirate leaders, Sugule
Ali, said their motive was "to stop illegal fishing and
dumping in our waters... We don't consider ourselves
sea bandits. We consider sea bandits [to be] those who
illegally fish and dump in our seas and dump waste in our
seas and carry weapons in our seas." William Scott would
understand those words.

No, this doesn't make hostage-taking justifiable, and yes,
some are clearly just gangsters - especially those who have
held up World Food Programme supplies. But the "pirates"
have the overwhelming support of the local population for
a reason. The independent Somalian news-site WardherNews
conducted the best research we have into what ordinary
Somalis are thinking - and it found 70 percent "strongly
supported the piracy as a form of national defence of the
country's territorial waters." During the revolutionary
war in America, George Washington and America's founding
fathers paid pirates to protect America's territorial
waters, because they had no navy or coastguard of their
own. Most Americans supported them. Is this so different?

Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their
beaches, paddling in our nuclear waste, and watch us snatch
their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and
Rome? We didn't act on those crimes - but when some of the
fishermen responded by disrupting the transit-corridor for
20 percent of the world's oil supply, we begin to shriek
about "evil." If we really want to deal with piracy, we
need to stop its root cause - our crimes - before we send
in the gun-boats to root out Somalia's criminals.

The story of the 2009 war on piracy was best summarised by
another pirate, who lived and died in the fourth century BC.
He was captured and brought to Alexander the Great, who
demanded to know "what he meant by keeping possession of
the sea." The pirate smiled, and responded: "What you
mean by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with
a petty ship, I am called a robber, while you, who do it
with a great fleet, are called emperor." Once again, our
great imperial fleets sail in today - but who is the robber?

Johann Hari is a writer for the Independent newspaper. To
read more of his articles, click here. or here.

POSTSCRIPT: Some commenters seem bemused by the fact
that both toxic dumping and the theft of fish are
happening in the same place - wouldn't this make the
fish contaminated? In fact, Somalia's coastline is
vast, stretching to 3300km. Imagine how easy it would
be - without any coastguard or army - to steal fish from
Florida and dump nuclear waste on California, and you get
the idea. These events are happening in different places -
but with the same horrible effect: death for the locals,
and stirred-up piracy. There's no contradiction.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Limited Time Offer to Government

I wish to make a point. I know you are watching. You are looking for a reason. I bet it will be tied to some of the draconian legislation dealing with domestic terrorism. The free expression of ideas is no longer sacrosanct. Should an individual's words go against the grain of what government believes is in its best interests in preserving its powers then they are an enemy of the State.

I've been told by people who are concerned for me that I should lay low. I have "painted a target on my chest". It is foolish to express my opinions in provocative and controversial ways. If my words cause government anxiety then that is a shortcoming of government.

I will do this. I will make this overture. To-date, every effort I have made to engage government in extracting honest answers regarding its authority has brought nothing but silence. Considering the increasingly violent actions of government through aggression, police state tactics, disregard for individual liberties, I feel it prudent to avail myself to being humbled by the almighty State should it wish to contact me personally and with proof-shown, enlighten me to the error of my ways. Take me under the wing and reason with me. Correct my misperceptions and elucidate me with the higher, moral-law which I mistake as despotism, fraud, and tyranny. Bring me back into the fold, if you can.

Please, contact me. I will meet with you, personally. I will not engage you on your territory, but will meet at a neutral location. You may email or phone me as well. Know this, I will record the conversation. I will make it public. I am no stranger to being questioned by the "feds". I am aware of the games and pretenses. Do not insult my intelligence. I expect that if there was any evidence which gave rise to a criminal act I would already be in custody. I expect you to make my point and show the people how you assail a peaceable man.

Use my contact us form and provide when and where you wish to meet. I will be unarmed, and I would expect the same.

I will say that I do not expect any takers on this offer. I will instead expect violence, hyperbole, and contrived accusations. I hope you prove me wrong. What is there to fear? Why not take the opportunity to possibly convert me?

I await any contact, but not for long.