May 25th, 2009 by admin
The truth isn’t always pretty, popular, or palpable. But it remains the truth. In many areas, the truth is sacrificed for the closely guarded alternative realities of “conventional” wisdom; particularly in times like these. As Senator Hiram Warren Johnson once said, “Truth is the first casualty of war.”
Indeed.
While the claim is rampant, and the sacredity of the cow unquestionable, the reality of our American military personnel is much different. Those fighting a phantom enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan are not fighting for our freedom. Those dying in those theaters of wartime absurdity have not been killed in the service of their country, nor have they made, as is often said, the ultimate sacrifice for we the living.
Though it is much less poetic, and devoid of the tearful, pride-swollen romance of popular sentiment, the dead Americans in the pointless and illegal conflict in Iraq, and the nation-building experiment in Afghanistan have died not for freedom, but for its opposite. These lives have been sacrificed for government, as they were sent in one case, and forced to remain in the other, because government so ordered it. The deaths are part of a not-so-secret neo-conservative plan to remake the world in the shape of “big government conservatism,” (ala PNAC) and to give the United nations a permanent place in the Middle East, another swipe at US sovereignty, and step toward global government.
There was never the slightest threat to U.S. national security posed by a prostrate Iraq, too weakened by sanctions to seriously concern any nation. Without a threat, there can be no protection. Without protection there is no glamorous hero’s death died by our betrayed countrymen.
The other war is at once different and similar. It would matter, were our focus on al-Qaeda. But our military is instead focused on spraying Roundup on poppy fields (which drives up the price of heroin, and thus increases drug-related crime), and chasing disorganized remnants of the Taliban, even after we trained an army and installed a government to do this very thing themselves.
It will be said that some vast conspiracy succeeded in hiding the illusive WMDs in Iraq, and that the Taliban may justly be pursued unto the ends of the earth for harboring al-Qaeda operatives (apparently Pakistan harboring such terrorists is permissible).
Other than actually pursuing al-Qaeda in the months after 9/11, one would search in vain for a time since World War II that American military personnel died while protecting the rest of us from a real enemy. This sad reality does not result in fewer claims to the contrary.
So on this Memorial Day, when we are asked to quietly believe the deceit of our “leaders,” and listen silently to the warm, fuzzy lies of all who wish to sound patriotic by repeating the fictions that allow the state to demand more pointless deaths, we should pause to reflect on the reality. We should neither weep in silence, nor nod in agreement. We should instead demand a return to the just war theory, and insist that elected officials charged with commanding our brave men and women in uniform place them in harm’s way solely in the defense of the Republic; not for the benefit of foreign tyrants, blue flags of despotism, or the revived, frightening call for empire.
May 25th, 2009
admin
April 30th, 2009 by Artus Register
Imagine an obsessive golfer claiming he hates the sport, or a typical shopaholic making bizarre statements about her hatred of finding a good deal. What would you think about your cousin, the reality TV junkie swearing she can’t stand the contrived, scripted nonsense she can’t miss a second of. Crap, right? And those above would be fairly categorized as liars, or crazy people.
Enter U.S. President and flawless messiah, Barack Obama.
Turns out, gaffing the economy, blaming everyone but the guilty (government), destroying industry, playing God, and attempting to outmaneuver umutable, natural laws is a dirty job, but, sadly, somebody’s got to do it.
That this latest incarnation of a state power is a liar is plain to see, and saying so should shock no one outside cave dwellings. But the blatancy has become similar to the examples in the opening paragraph. The latest whopper doubtless caused many a double take, and an instant did he really say that? check.
He doesn’t like to meddle in the free market.
During a another discourse in patent dishonesty, the unabashed socialist-cum-fascist made the following statements, presumably with a straight face:
If you could tell me right now that when I walked into this office, that the banks were humming, that autos were selling, and that all you had to worry about was Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, getting health care passed, figuring out how to deal with energy independence, deal with Iran, and a pandemic flu, I would take that deal.
I want to disabuse people of this notion that somehow we enjoy, you know, meddling in the private sector.
The best way to accomplish such a feat would be to stop doing it, or at least stop smiling as you pillage away accomplishment and pretend to wield more power than the natural laws of mathematics, economics, and human desire.
And that’s why I’m always amused when I hear these, you know, criticisms of, oh, you know, Obama wants to grow government. No. I would love a nice, lean portfolio to deal with, but that’s not the hand that’s been dealt us.
Yes, Mr. President, critics calling things exactly the way they exist in reality is hilarious. Laugh it up, buddy. History will rightly remember you as the destroyer of free enterprise, the man who murdered the greatest system in the greatest country in history. And you dealt the hand.
So Mr. Obama would take a deal that allowed him a little extra time to focus on complete economic fascism, and destruction of only these select areas of illegality? Of course he would. He’s in no hurry. The next crisis will afford government the opportunity to use it’s reverse-Midas Touch on other industries. What’s the rush? He has eight years to corral the entirety of the free market, and transform it into a motionless pile of socialist stagnation.
To paraphrase this insane megalomaniac:
If I could illegally use the power, might, and economic strength of this government to insert my opinion into places from which it is Constitutionally forbidden, pretend I am a king, rather than a President, continue illegal, undeclared wars and further weaken the dollar through unlawful nation building, pretend government can solve every issue and that I have extensive medical knowledge, uproot the medical ingenuity tree that is free market health care, blame everything possible on the concept of liberty, and use government to try to solve an energy issue that government created, I would.
I hate to meddle.
April 30th, 2009
Artus Register
March 30th, 2009 by Artus Register
It is big of Secretary of State Clinton to admit that the U.S. shares the blame for the drug cartel violence near the U.S.-Mexico border. But as is almost always the case with government types, the reasons she gave were much different than the reality.
Clinton blamed the violence on America’s desire for intoxicants and the lack of American gun control.
“Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,” she said. “Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians.”
There was no mention of our insatiable demand for more government to deal with every issue, or our inability to demand that government officials read and obey the Constitution they have sworn allegiance to. But more government is, of course the only answer she and her ilk are capable of offering. Had the Secretary not been calling for the Almighty State to “do something,” she wouldn’t have been speaking.
What Mrs. Clinton doubtless realizes and pretends not to is that people the world over seek various levels and types of intoxication, and have since time immemorial. No amount of government intervention is going to change that. People have always sought to alter their consciousness, whether seeking the relaxation from the alcohol gleaned from fermented sugar, the energetic stimulation of coffee beans, coca leaves, etc., or the “mind expanding” hallucinations of various plants and chemicals.
Drugs, once discovered, are not going to be forgotten. And the idea that government can combat desire is about as foolish as ideas come. Stiffer penalties, eradication programs, and more criminalization only succeeds in wasting money and reducing the supply of drugs, which drives up the price and increases drug-related crime. With increased crime government pretends its way out of blame and calls for more money, programs and laws, and the cycle is repeated. And the sheeple clamor for more.
As to our gun problem, we simply don’t have one. What we have is a backward, hopelessly corrupt “justice system” that does little or nothing to prevent violent crime, puts zero focus on restitution, and ensures that those guilty of force and fraud are released while those dealing in the commerce of plant matter remain in cages.
With violent criminals come weapons. The concept that the law abiding, non-violent public should be disarmed as a way to reduce the violent tendencies of the criminal class is absurd prima facia and enjoys attempted justification only by the criminal class of government who pretend to offer people safety from their non-government criminal cousins. While guns are a tool of criminal gangs, they are also a tool of protection for the non-criminal. As with drugs, weapons will be obtained by those who want them regardless of the number of laws passed, or penalties promised.
Mrs. Clinton seems to be blaming the state as a pretext from which this Administration’s statist trap can be sprung on the American people. Government hasn’t done enough, is the implication. And we have one eager to do more. Much more.
Having gone through the illusions, let us sample the reality.
Last fall, the Mexican government had a foolproof plan in motion to stop the drug violence. The proposed legislative changes would have immediately removed the profit with which the violent drug cartels were built and maintained. As Mexico moved toward decriminalizing “illicit” drugs, a panicked U.S. government–clearly concerned that the simple truth of economics would expose the fraud that our own drug war is–put enormous pressure on the Mexican government to abandon the idea. And like an obedient dog, Mexico listened without complaint.
The U.S. encouraged Mexico to follow our shining example of violent coercion and endless budgets that have resulted in the abysmal failure of that is the Drug War. It’s broke, so don’t fix it.
Prohibition Economics 101
Drug gangs, on either side of the border, exist because of the huge profits that are realized in a black market. When a thing becomes illegal, it doesn’t go away, it just becomes expensive. Those dealing in illegal objects, information, or substances are taking a much greater risk than a man selling vegetables, for example. As the risk increases, so must the reward; hence the high prices of illegal drugs.
For every thing the government outlaws, a new black market is created. When operating outside of the law, there are no contracts, agreements, arbitration, or court rooms. Areas of operation, or “turf,” asking prices, and type of drugs sold are often agreed upon intra-criminally. But as in any business, disputes arise. Without a legal system or enforceable arbitration, gangs have only the choice between surrender, and violence.
Decriminalizing drugs would immediately end the profits of those involved in the drug trade, from smugglers, to violent drug gangs government claims to oppose, to street corner dealers. Continuing the absurdity that is our wealth-wasting Drug War creates and maintains the drug economy. In short, prohibition creates, then maintains a new class of criminal.
The massive violence that grew out of alcohol prohibition died with the repeal of the 18th Amendment, while that of drug prohibition remains, and is expanding is size, scope, and sophistication. “Staying the course” in the Drug War means that government will continue to toss good money after bad, and legislate away more liberty, “for the children,” or “for the greater good.” It also means that the dead people on both sides will be replaced, and that the hopeless, pointless war on drugs war on people will continue.
Yes, Mrs. Clinton, the U.S. is certainly to blame. But not for the sophomoric reasons you came up with.
March 30th, 2009
Artus Register
March 24th, 2009 by admin
That novay Bolshevik Timothy Geithner, the man Obama has likened to a faultless economic messiah, has somehow managed to make some deadly accurate statements as of late.
The AP is reporting that:
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Monday that the severe banking crisis shows the U.S. financial system failed a major test and is in need of an overhaul.
Geithner told a Washington conference that the Obama administration plans to work with Congress to put in place a stronger, more stable system with a modernized government regulatory structure.
“Our system basically failed its most fundamental test,” he said in remarks to a conference sponsored by the Wall Street Journal. “It was too fragile.”
Spot on, Tim! If you meant any of that in a real-world, spot-the-obvious, why-is this elephant-in-the-room sort of way, well, you’d be asked to give your Workers of the World Unite card back. In reality, those truly interested in economic recovery do not find themselves in an alliance with Mr. Geithner. Rather he is laying new ground in the field of logical fallacies.
Coming close and missing by miles has become a recent trademark for Geithner:
In his appearance Monday night, Geithner said it was critical that the government make the needed reforms.
“The world is watching us to see if we have the will and ability to fix this,” he said.
He called it a “terrible, tragic thing” that the country did not have better tools such as the power to take over major institutions when the crisis hit with force last fall.
The terrible tragedy is that the country is not in possession of more than one leader willing to try freedom for a change. The travesty of ignorance or deliberate sabotage is that Obama, Geithner, & Co. are hard at work blaming the free market for the ill-effects of central banking, state-created boom and bust cycles, absurd regulations, and forced loans made with easy money and baseless credit.
They might as well hang the Kennedy assassination on the Magna Carta, and ban the NYSE to ensure future political murders are rendered impossible. To the new destroyers at the helm the best way to combat a raging inferno is to pay the original arsonist to set more and larger fires, ensuring complete destruction.
The proper “actions” and “reforms” government should take are simple and easily calculable: slash spending, and get the hell out of the way. But this administration has thus far declared war on logic, and have raked over the breadcrumbs that lead from this crisis to the childish government that left them as it seeks out fear-induced demons to slay with the gavel of declaratory idiocy.
With a messianic president and his angelic guard swearing to the existence of Freedom Phantoms that feed on the flesh and prosperity of the nation, the salvation of reason can only be found in action: a concerted and heart-felt promise to replace any reactionary idiots in either House of Congress who assist with the de factco transformation of the once great Republic into a socialist cesspool of abject poverty.
Comrades Obama and Geithner must be made aware that runaway government, not the free market, caused, and worsened this crisis, and that only capitalism, not corporatism, socialism, or a fundamental and overt shift toward European-style soft Marxism, is capable of righting the ship of American economic power.
March 24th, 2009
admin
March 22nd, 2009 by Artus Register
The concept that John McCain would behave exactly like George W. Bush was terrifying for many Americans, and thus an effective campaign tool for the Obama crowd. There were even popular bumper stickers that admonished the thought of a McCain Administration, warning us: McCain: Bush’s Third Term.
It is safe to assume that exactly zero Obama voters ever considered the possibility of their man playing the same role. They probably don’t see it now, either.
The mainstream media’s excitement over the new Administration’s “reversals” of Bush policy is the stuff of headlines, comedy show monologues, and supporter’s bloviations. But despite the droning on about such decisions, the Obama Administration has–in most major areas–parroted the arrogant and unlawful policies of its predecessor.
In the foreign policy arena, Obama and company have promised to copy the Iraq surge in Afghanistan, spending countless billions more in cash and untold quantities of American blood for increasingly vague objectives. The Afghan theater spilling into Pakistan is almost a foregone conclusion. And despite sincere-sounding rhetoric, we aren’t exactly rushing out of the abortion the U.S. has made of Iraq.
Obamanomics needs no explanation, and can enjoy no justification. But for every right-winger shouting “Marxist!” there are three stubborn examples of Bush 43’s abject socialism, indulgent squandering, and exponential government growth.
So-called conservatives (whatever that word means in the post-Bush era) are vocally, and legitimately, if hypocritically, concerned about Obama’s plans to tax and spend, expand government, and gut the Constitution. But it seems such misdeeds don’t count when political and economic tyranny is perpetuated by a Republican the media’s broken compass has signaled as “a staunch conservative” and “strict constructionist.” To the alleged Right, it is the letter that decides the morality of positions, rather than actions: a (D) apparently means “Damn communist!” while an (R) indicaties, “Right on, man!”
The sad reality is that anyone remotely concerned with a healthy economy, the continued survival of a partially-free market, or the rule of law, should be too hoarse from calling for Bush’s head for the past eight years to say much of anything. Those who didn’t certainly have no room to admonish Obama for sins he has not yet committed.
Fortunately as one who recognized the Bush fraud very early, and who experienced daily blood pressure spikes from continued subjugation to W’s endless stream of lies and shattered promises, I am exercising my reserved right to verbally accost this administration and predict the worst kind of governance–a lot of it. Unlike the denizens of hypocrisy that compose the rank-and-file Republicans, I do not spell tyranny f-r-e-e-d-o-m when a Republican dons the jack boots.
Despite the little Easter eggs of difference that will be played up by the media’s abysmal huger for sensationalism and division, this administration will likely do a great service to the cause of freedom by slaying once and for all the perpetual myth that any true and substantive differences exist between the two major political parties.
March 22nd, 2009
Artus Register
February 28th, 2009 by Artus Register
In an apparently attempt to publish important news, the brilliant, thumb-on-the-nation’s-pulse minds at Time have not only constructed an article informing us that some “senior officials” in the new administration drink Coca-Cola products, ut managed to have this dedunged excrement published by allegedly professional news outlets.
Important stuff, that.
This might be forgivable were we in a slow news year with readers tire of hearing about the social and economic utopia, lack of dead Americans, jobs apleanty fed by diminutive taxations, etc. But with a plan at the cliff’s edge that will finish off the dollar, a fresh new “surge” in the works for the abysmal failure that is the Afghan war, and statist policies offering endless kicks to the ribs of Liberty, Time is seriously reporting on governmental soft drink preferences. And it isn’t a two-sentence blurb, either.
Michael Scherer cranked out a detailed nine-paragrapher–The Obama Team’s Drink of Choice? Coke, Not Pepsi–that chronicled his investigative journalistic skills, telling of his exploits in the White House recycle bins, revealing the product of crunched numbers, and gifting faithful readers with in-depth analysis of carbonated beverage choices among those currently sporting the jackboots of power.
It is good to know that is such perilous times, the watch dogs at the world’s last (fairly) free press are doing their jobs. Riveting stuff.
But lest Time be alone relegated to the ninth circle of journalistic hell, this writer would be blissfully ignorant that this steaming pile of irrelevance existed were it not for comanies like Yahoo, whose “news” division thought this tripe to be not only newsworthy, but the sixth most important thing happening in the world as of 2:13 am, February 28th.
February 28th, 2009
Artus Register
February 25th, 2009 by admin
The Labor Department–a shameful and disgusting example of government agencies that exist solely for the sake of sounding necessary–surprised no one by stating that a lot of jobs were lost last month, and that it was a lot worse than the previous January
Breaking news like this is made possible with a mere $53.1 billion budget.
No word on whether the bloated, bureaucratic and mostly-unnecessary government the labor Department exists under has any plans to shut off the misery valve opened wide with the endless spend-and-print-athon that the Republicans began and Democrats are eagerly continuing. But it is fairly safe to assume that we will be receiving these multi-billion dollar updates on the worsening job market for some time to come.
February 25th, 2009
admin
February 25th, 2009 by admin
It isn’t the quantity of increased socialism critics oppose, its the quality.
State-sponsored insanity of steal-from-the-haves continues to snowball, and continues to be met with complaints that the theft, ignorance, and awful life lessons should be worsened.
Students whose parents are delinquent on their children’s government school lunch accounts may be gifted a lower-end meal from the local tax-payers.
Some school districts are instituting a “cheese sandwich” policy, designed to cut the cost of feeding children who aren’t yours. Some parents complain that this special, low end meal comprised of a cold cheese sandwich and carton of milk singles out these children, and is potentially embarrassing. Government, however, is not the slightest bit embarrassed that the entire “public” school system is funded with money taken at gun point from many people who do not even have children. Still, those clamoring for fairness may have a point.
The cheese sandwich doctrine applies only to parents who can afford to feed their kids, but do not. The offspring of professional parasites needn’t worry–the inability to pay anything will not cause your child the slightest discomfort, as they are left free to enjoy the same standard fare as kids from wealthy families, who are actually buying several lunches.
February 25th, 2009
admin
February 18th, 2009 by admin
There was never much hope among the educated that the Obama administration would do much for the cause of freedom, save for adopting a slightly more sane medical marijuana policy, considering ending the abortion of a war in Iraq, and closing Gitmo. That said, such immediate idiocy of Obama & Co. is a bit of surprise. Both of the nations two remaining fiscal conservatives had predicted that the new President would delay the implementation of Marxist moronity until summer.
There was no time, the then President-elect explained as he readied for phase one of Operation Outspend Bush even as the echoes of his own voice blaming Bush’s spending record for the economic woes America faces were still audible.
In fairness, it takes a brave soul filled with self-confidence, and equally assured of public complacency to even attempt a feat as far-reaching and dangerous as outsquandering Bush the lesser. Mr. Obama, apparently feels up to the task.
Beyond the dual absurdities of calling for abject socialism without limit, and the championing of the heretofore veiled and sanitized concept that government can do limitless good if given limitless power, comrade Obama is now performing his Disaster-is-Necessary trapeze act without a net, making real decisions rather than paper ones. This first of many colossal blunders-in-waiting (as recognized by everyone without a government job) has been relegated to fail-safe by Mr. Obama’s economic advisers, who, judging by their obtuse refusal to accept plain economic realities, likely doubt gravity and a heliocentric galaxy, as well.
Passing billions of newly-printed dollars through the extraordinarily greedy and inefficient hands of the state before watching as the remnants are gifted to companies helmed by those too stupid to turn a profit, we are told will magically “stimulate” an economy choked out of consciousness by government itself. This is the plan conceived by the Godlike agent of change. Excuse me, waiter, I ordered the change.
I loathed Bill Clinton in a way that defied explanation. But George W. Bush made me long for the days of the sexually frustrated and Teflon-coated Bubba. I hated Herr Bush with a passion usually reserved for 20th century tyrants from other hemispheres. But I may miss him yet.
February 18th, 2009
admin
January 21st, 2009 by Artus Register
What kind of person has no regrets? Perhaps I just live worst than most, and make many more mistakes. But I have many regrets. Sure, it is difficult to truly regret things when mistakes have combined to make you–finally–a person you are proud of. But mistakes are mistakes, and the “butterfly effect” is greatly exaggerated. It is folly to think that a few hundred errors of your past would truly prevent you from finding your way to happiness. At any rate, most of us count among our sins actions taken in relationships, whether with family, partners, co-workers, etc. We may also regret having stolen a pocket knife at an early age, or blamed something on a younger sister. We often chalk such things up to youthful indiscretion.
The great majority of us have not sent men and women to their deaths searching for phantom weapons, nor continued such an exercise in stupidity after material’s non-existence became clear. We have not started wars for one reason, and continued them for another. We have not lied to to our countrymen, accepted their faith, and stomped on our promises, and their liberty.
The man exiting the White House yesterday did all of that, and more. Had most people behaved this way, the last shred of conscience would scream so loudly at night that it could only be silenced by a drug cocktail Lindsay Lohan would refuse.
Much is said about the difficulty of being the President. Which is nonsense. The problem Presidents have is with reading the instructions. The Constitution is a short and easy read. The job of President has a short description. There are a few things allowed, and everything else is not.
Because they don’t follow instructions, they create a lot of problems for themselves; what with all the unlawful jailing, torturing, killing, etc. From there I would imagine sleeping would top the list of problems. That murderous tyrants slumber at all is testimony to their completely jaded nature. Worse is the smugness of men like Bush, smiling at the cameras, talking about his Christian faith (or perhaps he is truly an *antinomian, and fancies himself above above all human law), and dropping verbal bombs that should be the talk of the media, earn him Most Cavalier ribbons, and exude collective vomit from anyone possessing a soul. The most recent: That he has no regrets.
You’ll find that gem in today’s paper, on page 71-Z. On returning to private life, the new Butcher of Baghdad was brazen, as usual, stating, “When I get home tonight and look in the mirror, I am not going to regret what I see. Except maybe some gray hair.” Yeah, hilarious.
That the MSM basically ignores this amazing proclamation is disgusting. The pundits seem to revere his deceit, and his brash refusal to apologize for mistakes that cost countless lives, many of them American.
“He kept us safe,” they parrot, from either of their several faces.
What is safe about a foreign policy that clones terrorists, turns friends to enemies, and exports hatred, is not clear.
“We haven’t been attacked again,” supporters mutter sheepishly, only fairly certain they repeated correctly the line they heard on Hannity, Limbaugh, or one of the other apologist shows. Except that we have. Bin Laden has stated that he is delighted by our military’s proximity to him and his gang. Iraqis have found common ground with Al Queida, and “insurgents” and terrorists alike can kill Americans without too much trouble; without traversing an ocean, or spending millions of dollars and years of time to finance and plan the deaths of “infidels.” And they applaud the safety success of the man without regret.
Wars aside he and his Republican congress have spent us to the breaking point, growing government, expanding socialism, broadening the rot of education with more Washington, and more tax dollars. The man made criminals out of sick people, terrorists out of dissenters, and a mockery of Constitutional government. He gleefully shredded the Constitution and snarled “9/11″ at anyone who objected. He behaved most often as a dictator, rather than a President. He was “the decider,” after all.
The man who once boasted that the country had misunderestimated him was exactly right. We did. Who could have predicted this agrammaticist’s prophecy? Who would have imagined the man who campaigned on a “judicious use of our military,” and a humble foreign policy free of nation building, would have propped up houses of state on a foundation of innocent corpses?
Documented civilian deaths approach 100,000 in Iraq alone.
Add 28,000 for Afghanistan.
The AP counts American military deaths in at 4,227.
There is no accounting for reputation points lost, but the number would be staggering. Neither is thee a counter for infidelity shown to the Constitution, the same Mr. Bush swore to uphold.
Hands dripping with blood, he has passed the torch, and returned to private life, apparently without regret.
If the worst Mr. Bush sees is some gray hair, there must be a magical mirror in the bathroom at Crawford. Many of us see a beast; a murderous thug and tyrant who spent almost eight years waging a horrific war against peace and freedom.
A nagging sense of moral justice forces one to wonder about the contents of his medicine cabinet.
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*antinomian / an tee NOME ee an/ n • A person who believes that faith in Christ frees him or her from moral and legal obligations.
–Another amazing word from Depraved and Insulting English by Peter Novobatzky and Ammo Shea
January 21st, 2009
Artus Register
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