One of my favorite clients stopped by tonight for a midnight romp on his way back into town. I’ve griped about him in the past, but he’s really been behaving amazingly well in recent weeks.
The topic of the evening was China and how the U.S. economy has helped bolster that nation into this position we find it in now where it’s emerging as the world’s next great superpower. Scary stuff to consider, not because the Chinese people ought not have a taste of growth and expansion or even necessarily that the U.S. will be experiencing a decline but because of all the possible ways this may go down. Like usual, my client is more of an optimist on this topic though this evening our talk seemed to depress him a bit. Understandably so. It’s a lot to take in. His perspective is unique among most folks I know due to his previous work experience, so tonight presented an opportunity to pick his brain on how this fallout may play out. We discussed the role of Walmart (a business I’ve boycotted for many years and urge others to do so as well, along with plenty of others selling cheap imported goods) and American consumers, and I asked questions about neighboring Asian countries he’s more familiar with and why our leaders haven’t taken a stance against China when they’re more than willing to complain about Russia and Venezuela. India came up a few times as I wondered out loud if that country may be invaded or attacked (as has happened before) to provoke the U.S. to retaliate someday.
We speculated some on what may be in store for the U.S. economy and he worried out loud about China’s resource depletion and the consequences this may someday have for Americans.
Hmmm…lots to think about.
With a somber expression, the night ended on the note of wearily mumbling hopes for the situation to remain suitable for his children and future grandchildren to live in relative peace. I hope so too.
John McCain has surrendered his campaign to the same political fearmonger who smeared him out of the race in 2000
Wayne Slater has known Karl Rove for 20 years. As the author of Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential, he’s not easily shocked by the Republican strategist’s Gila-monstroid tactics. But even he’s been blown away by Rove’s latest political comeback.
At the GOP convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, Slater watched Rove address a delegation from South Carolina on John McCain’s behalf. That would be the same South Carolina where Rove helped torpedo McCain’s campaign in 2000 by reportedly spreading rumors that the candidate’s adopted Bangladeshi daughter was actually his illegitimate black love child. Addressing the convention delegates, though, Rove acted like McCain’s long-lost friend.
“Karl started talking in this emotional tone about how wonderful Cindy McCain was to adopt Bridget — eight years after he just took a machine gun to the guy,” Slater says in an awed voice. “He’s incredible.”
He sure is. Ever since the nomination of Sarah Palin, Washington has been abuzz with rumors that Rove has been invited to help plot campaign strategy for McCain. His rise from the ashes is the scariest story of an already scary campaign season. Presidents come and go; they sit in a place where the law can still touch them, and they’re subject to the vote once every four years. But Karl Rove is a revolutionary, a man who can’t be stopped by anything except death and maybe — maybe — prison. Rove is trying to finish the work of Nixon and Bush: to achieve the supremacy of a peculiarly American form of Leninism, one that involves the drowning of the electoral process in idiot witch hunts and dirty tricks, the handing over of all policy to anyone with a dollar more than the next guy, and the total aggrandizement of incumbent power at the expense of an entire system of checks and balances. With Rove back in the mix, there’s now a hell of a lot more at stake this November than there was when a batty, battle-scarred old poll-chaser like John McCain was the darkest figure on the ticket. Not to sound too alarmist, but Election Day now becomes a referendum on democracy itself.
I pissed off the anti-prostitution league apparently. Again. Damn, it really wasn’t my intention to come off like I was making light of the situation, but I get tired of all this mindless prostitution bashing. Read the rest of this entry »
There’s plenty I should be writing about, but lately the mood is rather dull around here. I’m tired more often than not, and when an idea springs to mind, it’s always when the computer is halfway across town.
This being a sketchy personal journal, likely much of what’s posted deserves additional clarification but since no questions are forthcoming, I’m not so sure what areas ought to be addressed. Like the topic of feminism and some of the rudimentary elements to prostitution that are glossed over and taken for granted as understood. Might have to fill in some blanks over time, just for my own peace of mind. But not right now since the cigarettes are low and it will soon be time for a nap. Read the rest of this entry »
True that. In fact, it appears the revolution will consist of localized outbreaks and rebellions rather than one united front. Makes me wonder if much of the urban violence of the last 20 years is actually little more than the beginning of major social upheaval, paraded across the television screen generically as “thug crime” for the public to fear when really it’s the cops and government officials who have something to fear. Not us.
I fully expect the news coverage to be limited, just as it is now. Case in point: the Republican National Convention in 2008. Violence occurred, much of which was instigated by police, yet media coverage was scarce outside of Democracy Now. They’ll keep rolling out the advertisements and many of us will never know the truth of what’s being fought out of our sight, rendered publicly out of mind thanks to media compliance that no longer serves the people.
Like it or not, we live in a media driven world. We spend 11 hours a day bombarded by television, radio, Internet, and other forms of media, a non-stop onslaught on the psyche, an ever-churning series of images, sound bites, opinions, and advertisements, but precious little substance.
The media provides shared experience, collective memory. Unfortunately, many of the ideas we’re exposed to are negative and self-defeating. The pervasiveness of these negative ideas makes them hard to ignore; easy to internalize.
If you’re curious about the cumulative effect of all this media upon the mind, here’s a list of 7 negative attitudes common in the media and tips for dealing with them.
1. Mindless Consumerism: The average American is exposed to 247 commercials everyday. Buying things has become reflex, due partly to the ideal lifestyle flickering on the television: big house, giant SUV, three-car garage, flat-panel television. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying life, but are you buying things to improve your life? Or to compensate for feelings of emptiness? Find something to believe in; fill the void with something real.
2. Poor Body Image: Never before in history have we been surrounded by so many examples of physical perfection, shaped by cosmetic surgeons, airbrushed by artists, and distributed by print and video. Remind yourself that fitness is more important than perfection. And while it’s true that Americans outside the media are fatter than ever, even physically fit individuals struggle with a poor body image. Yes, attractiveness is an advantage, but your value runs deeper than your appearance, and those actors don’t look half as good without make-up and lighting.
3. Roaming Eye: Television gives everyone (men in particular) the idea that the world is overflowing with beautiful, willing sex partners; even if it’s true (which depends largely upon your own skills with the opposite sex), that roaming eye, that tendency to want what you don’t have, can be destructive if not monitored and controlled. Like all the elements in this list, human nature is the root here. Remind yourself that relationships are built upon more than physical attraction.
4. Destructive Communication: Electronic media brims with insults and anger. On message boards, gentle persuasion has collapsed beneath the weight of incivility. In real life, victory is seldom obtained with witty one-liners or rude put-downs. Hone those communication skills. Learn to Persuade without offending. Connect.
5. Clique Mentality: As if cliques weren’t prevalent enough, television programs often have casts that are socially, ethnically, and racially homogenous. That’s fine; it’s free enterprise at work, for the most part, and not every story involves a melting pot. I make no bones about it; I’m simply reminding everyone not to be afraid of diversity in the real world.
6. Stereotypes: As evolved as we believe we are, television is overflowing with stereotypes: the dumb jock, the bubble-headed blonde, the geek with a pocket protector, all products of lazy writing. Most of us are smart enough to recognize a stereotype for what it is, but I question the subconscious impact of such repeated exposure. The best defense is to remind yourself that every human being deserves to be evaluated as an individual, no matter how prevalent or justified a stereotype might seem. 7. Danger Fixation: We’re wired to pay attention to danger, which is why the Discovery Channel broadcasts so many programs that show the world being destroyed by tsunamis, earthquakes, and giant asteroids; why the news leads with gunfire and bloodshed. Remind yourself that there are just as many positive forces in the world as negative; your focus on the negative is a matter of personal choice and perspective.
Listen, I’m not trying to say all media is bad; it’s not. Movies in particular can be wonderful works of art or much-needed distractions, and there’s nothing inherently evil about television, radio, print, or the internet; quite the contrary, all forms of media provide wonderful channels of communication.
I’m simply saying that the media’s darker side is bound to seep into our collective conscience; it surrounds us. And we’re receptive to it.
Earlier this year, I watched a short film entitled Evidence. More art film than documentary, the film focused on the faces of a group of small children as they watched television: their blank expressions, comatose eyes. Every now and then, their facial expressions hitched in response to some image on the television, but for the most part, they appeared undead.
I’ve never forgotten that film. And now, whenever I’m watching a sitcom or gameshow, I think of the way my own face must look, staring blankly up at the glowing screen. Sometimes, this compels me to turn the tube off and go outside, exchanging the gloom of the TV room for the calming brightness of sunlight, the sound of commercials for the chirping of birds; detaching from the hive mind long enough to find some peace and quiet and develop some memories (and a few ideas) of my own.
To read more reasons to Kill Your Television, please click here.
Accidentally downloaded this song by Michael Franti’s Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and really like it. They say it came out in 1991 but it’s every bit as relevant, if not more so, today.
After using the free version of AVG for a few years and loving it, its developers have launched version 8.0 – a clumsy resource hog with too many bells and whistles such as a bulky, integrated spyware detector). When we tell the Grisoft developers of our discontent, it appears to fall on deaf ears. Even those of us who were willing to pay to hold on to v. 7.5, so long as they kepy updating it. They refused. Plenty of us aren’t too happy with this crummy level of customer service, to say the least.
So I switched over to Avast! antivirus. It too is free and so far I’m digging its functionality. Plus, it doesn’t interfere with my firewall and I can keep Spybot Search & Destroy as my preferred spyware detector.
If I have any problems with the program, I’ll let it be known here and on the forums, though so far, so good.
Here’s the song I was referring to the other night. “Indian Outlaw” by Tim McGraw. It’s destined to become a classic.
And now the 1971 original that inspired the song up above:
Dumb question, but why have I seen the Native American tribe Crow spelled “Crowe” when that apparently is incorrect? Had me spelling it that way for years and it’s such a dumb habit to try and break now, being part Crow and all. Probably have it mispelled throughout this blog too. Just goes to show how little I keep up on matters of ethnicity and heritage (outside of simply being Southern anyway).
Recently I watched the 2004 documentary “The End of Suburbia,” which was decent though bent on using scare tactics with little follow-up on what can actually be done to weather these economic changes.
Today I watched the Alfred Hitchcock movie “Rope” and it was excellent! My favorite film of his so far, though admittedly I’m not a huge fan to begin with (“The Birds” sucked IMO). Next I’d like to view “Vertigo.”
As for the update…I made an “A” in my Ethics class (95%). That should bring my cumulative GPA up to right near a 3.5. We’ll know for certain once my transcript is updated.
Oh, and btw, the word at the moment is that I won’t be moving back down south but instead may just be heading west a ways, staying within the Midwest. Plans change weekly so we shall wait and see.
Of all people, right? I grew up on his tunes, but before someone rolls their eyes condescendingly, know that I also grew up on the Beatles, CCR, Michael Jackson, “The Fiddler on the Roof” soundtrack, Ray Stevens, and gospel. The Smells Like Children album was the first I remember hearing from Marilyn Manson, and his more popular Antichrist Superstar album came out later when I was maybe 15 or 16. Living in the Deep South during part of that time, his tunes were largely confined to the privacy of my bedroom, though plenty of my peers listened to his albums as well. Most people were into Marilyn Manson’s music temporarily for shock value purposes alone and didn’t care to scratch beneath the surface to concern themselves with the underlying messages. Naturally, I differed from my peers in this respect and spent much time pouring over the lyrics and incorporating them into my artwork. Marilyn’s shock appeal was intriguing, but what really drew me in was his willingness to take that which so many of us deem as acceptable and stand it on its head, exposing the nasty underbelly that people prefer to keep quiet about.
Case in point, The Beautiful People:
And I don’t want you and I don’t need you
Don’t bother to resist, or I’ll beat you
It’s not your fault that you’re always wrong
The weak ones are there to justify the strong
The beautiful people, the beautiful people
It’s all relative to the size of your steeple
You can’t see the forest for the trees
You can’t smell your own shit on your knees
There’s no time to discriminate,
Hate every motherfucker
That’s in your way
[Chorus:]
Hey you, what do you see?
Something beautiful, something free?
Hey you, are you trying to be mean?
If you live with apes man, it’s hard to be clean
The worms will live in every host
It’s hard to pick which one they eat most
The horrible people, the horrible people
It’s as anatomic as the size of your steeple
Capitalism has made it this way,
Old-fashioned fascism will take it away
What I got from this song back then and especially now after giving it another listen (a few years after abandoning this genre) is he’s challenging that which is taken for granted as “beautiful.” The lyric “Capitalism has made it this way, Old-fashioned fascism will take it away” is very telling in that it demonstrates he’s not speaking of all people directly but instead our obsession with consumption along with our sick and relentless drive to alter ourselves physically so as to be accepted by others as beautiful and desirable (whether through fashion or cosmetics or surgery).
People get caught up on the pageantry of his music videos, which unarguably are meant to attract attention and cause discomfort, but what I always found disturbing is how so many of us are unable to back up and observe the degrading pageantry of everyday marketing that floods our television screens. Marilyn Manson is a caricaturist who attempts to magnify the slippery slope in our American way of life. To call him disgusting and immoral is to blame the vulgar art for imitating vulgar life. To an extent, I think my generation understood this. Hence how hedonistic we’ve become in response.
“What do you see? Something beautiful or something free? Hey you, are you trying to be mean?” This bit makes me think of the delusions we feed ourselves and one another, convincing each other that that which is repugnant is actually desirable and should be deemed acceptable. Like the modernized, widely-held concept of freedom that has actually been beaten down to a hollow remnant of what our forefathers and foremothers once intended.
Sometimes I swear the man behind the mask, Brian Hugh Warner, has more in common with most decent Americans than we give him credit. He celebrates the obscene for art’s sake, but much of his art and lyrics speak out against how fake and fantasy-driven our society has become. Or at least that’s my take on it. But instead of taking issue with the underlying message and doing something about it, we set fire to the messenger.
His remakes of classic rock songs really help to draw out the morbidity of their original lyrics. Take the Alabama Song by The Doors for example:
I’m a fan of The Doors and enjoy the original of that song, but where are the Fundamentalists on this one? Listening to the classic version, more than likely, despite its nonsensical, dark words. Unless you think preying on little girls is perfectly all right, which the majority of our society does at least appear to tolerate (in spite of all the talk to the contrary). Jim Morrison was elevated to legendary status while Marilyn Manson is accused of being nothing more than a pervert. But has anyone actually looked into and read about the life Jim Morrison lived?
I love what Brian’s done with one of my favorite songs by Depeche Mode:
Having listened to the original song more times than most, particularly years ago in my headphones while walking the backroads of Mississippi, the lyrics came to have so much twisted depth (and were incorporated into my artwork as well). The lyrics of a lonely nation. Now Marilyn Manson (let’s call him Brian since MM is just the character he plays) comes along and makes a mockery of it, pointing directly to the pornographic nation we’ve become and how our religions have been replaced by our lust and greed (the latter illustrated by the image of G.W. Bush). In my mind, it speaks to the Sodom and Gomorrah we have created in the United States (and are exporting to elsewhere in the world though that’s a different matter), which is a recurrent theme in Brian’s music. In fact, what we have now days in modern society very likely eclipses that which was condemned and complained about in the bible, and yet…we ironically like to refer to ourselves as a “Christian nation.” Begging someone to come along and save our souls, but just not yet.
Who’s the real pervert here, us or him? I personally think it’s us and he just makes a living rubbing our noses in it. Hey, sex sells and that was true long before Brian Warner was born. Our generations were brought in to be eye candy and sexual fantasy fodder for all who came before us (particularly mine and the younger ones hitting the block now…and we could feel this even as young teens in the manner we were treated…with some of us experiencing the societal underbelly more directly at tender ages).
How about “I Put a Spell On You”, one of my favorite songs of all time. Loved the Creedence Clearwater Revival version but positively adore the Marilyn Manson rendition. Ultra sexy hit, but consider the lyrics:
I put a spell on you.
Lord! Lord! Lord!
….’Cause you’re mine, yeah.
I can’t stand the things that you do
When you’re foolin’ around.
I don’t care if you don’t want me.
‘Cause I’m yours, yours, yours anyhow.
Yeah, yours, yours, yours!
I can’t stand your foolin’ around.
If I can’t have you,
No one will!
I love you, you, you!
I love you. I love you. I love you!
I love you, you, you!
I don’t care if you don’t want me.
‘Cause I’m yours, yours, yours anyhow.
Sad aren’t they? And demented. Stalker anthem, really. And yet, uber-popular among the masses since the 1950s. Listen to the original 1956 version by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and tell me that doesn’t sound sadistic:
CCR’s version titillates:
Nina Simone’s version is so haunting:
Just goes to show that people, irregardless of the generation they belong to, share a morbid interest in controlling those they love and obsess over. Brian Warner wasn’t the first to introduce this love affair with the sick and twisted…he just capitalized on what was already there and took it to a disturbing extreme. But would it disturb us if those dark thoughts and feelings weren’t buried down deep inside already?
How about his remake of the Eurythmics song “Sweet Dreams”:
Looks like an illustration of insanity to me. “What is inside you.” One of the sweet dreams being the wish to marry, hence the wedding gown. We’re all familiar with the lyrics:
Sweet dreams are made of these
Who am I to disagree
Traveled the world and the seven seas
Everybody’s looking for something
Some of them want to use you
Some of them want to get used by you
Some of them want to abuse you
Some of them want to be abused
I wanna use you and abuse you
I wanna know what’s inside you
I listened to both versions of the song as a teen and again, it’s one of my favorite songs of all time. Beautiful, twisted, demented, sadomasochistic, and hinting at our recurrent theme of all the lonely people out there. Having experienced firsthand just how many (common) people are out there truly wishing to do harm or be harmed, it’s just maddening. Hence the focus on insanity in the video, IMO.
Remember back in the ’90s when so many came out to blame Marilyn Manson for the Columbine shooting:
And here’s one of my favorite original songs from Marilyn Manson, “Man That You Fear”:
The ants are in the sugar
The muscles atrophied
We’re on the other side, the screen is us and we’re t.v.
Spread me open,
Sticking to my pointy ribs
Are all your infants in abortion cribs
I was born into this
Everything turns to shit
The boy that you loved is the man that you fear
Pray until your number,
Asleep from all your pain,
Your apple has been rotting
Tomorrow’s turned up dead
I have it all and I have no choice but to
I’ll make everyone pay and you will see
You can kill yourself now Because you’re dead
In my mind
The boy that you loved is the monster you fear
Peel off all those eyes and crawl into the dark,
You’ve poisoned all of your children to camouflage your scars
Pray unto the splinters, pray unto your fear Pray your life was just a dream
The cut that never heals
Pray now baby, pray your life was just a dream
(I am so tangled in my sins that I cannot escape)
Pinch the head off, collapse me like a weed
Someone had to go this far
I was born into this
Everything turns to shit
The boy that you loved is the man that you fear
Peel off all those eyes and crawl into the dark,
You’ve poisoned all of your children to camouflage your scars
Pray unto the splinters, pray unto your fear
Pray your life was just a dream
The cut that never heals
Pray now baby, pray your life was just a dream
The world in my hands, there’s no one left to hear you scream
There’s no one left for you
When all of your wishes are granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed
Heart-breaking, isn’t it? But we’re a nation of stone-casters, hurling in all directions. We break one another’s hearts…
Still smarting from their spanking for blowing $500,000 at a swanky resort after getting an $85 billion taxpayer bailout, AIG execs have cancelled a planned spa weekend at a posh California hotel.
The conference for AIG agents at the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay next week was scrapped “after a re-evaluation of the costs under the new circumstances,” AIG spokesman Joe Norton said Thursday.
Among other things, Norton cited “the need to repay the fed while still serving the needs of our policyholders.”
RELATED: EXPERT’S ADVICE ON WHAT TO DO ABOUT 401K
AIG pulled the plug on plans for a weekend of pampering for a privileged few after the feds agreed to lend AIG another $37.8 billion to stay afloat – on top of the $85 billion the troubled insurer received just last month.
“I cannot fathom how in the same day – the very same day that AIG asked the government for another $37.8 billion loan, the company would even consider moving forward with plans to host another large conference at another large luxury resort,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), a senior member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is probing the Wall Street crisis.
One cool thing about ordering an absentee ballot is you can see who all is up for election in the comfort of your own home where the Internet is handy for researching everyone’s track record. Particularly useful for state and local candidates, many of whom some of us aren’t too familiar with (like, for example, the people running to be on the Country Agricultural Extension Council).
I’ve felt guilty in the past of voting for local officials who I just didn’t know much about. Randomly choosing people based on arbitrary critera (like gender) or their political party because you have nothing else to go on is no good. So it’s pretty sweet to be able to do it this way instead, taking it section by section and researching every name on the ballot so I’m clear where everbody stands.
Done! Finito! Complete! All class assignments, papers and the final exam – submitted. That’s it. I have now completed my coursework for my undergraduate degree. Looong time coming, but the day is finally here!
For the record, this last Ethics course was my first to take online and I wouldn’t recommend it to others. It’s very difficult to communicate with classmates and the professor without ever meeting in person, plus the education wound up being sub par. Of course my professor had a problem with taking the time needed to teach the dang class, but still…the lack of face-to-face interaction really undermined the academic setting and the online classroom felt too lax and unstructured. In my opinion, it didn’t offer the quality of education I’ve come to expect in attending the university in the traditional sense. You miss being hands-on and verbal, taking in cues from others’ facial expressions, body language, and voice inflections. After having taken a correspondence course years back, I thought that was loosely structured, requiring mucho self-motivation to remain on track…but I still preferred that to this. Had we met once or twice in person, that might have made a big difference, but a topic as sticky as ethics deserves great care to avoid conflict and misunderstandings. The Internet just didn’t provide the proper setting for a productive discussion of a delicate nature to take place.
Anyway, the professor was still a bit of a bitch, though she mellowed out over the last few weeks. I didn’t rate her too high on the teacher evaluation survey but have dropped the other complaint. She wasn’t the worse I’ve had but definitely didn’t wrap up my time at this university on the best note. Though she did quit picking on me and moved on to another gal who doesn’t seem too bright and probably needs guidance from the professor on improving her writing skills. She needled my APA formatting and choice in wording all the way up to the last paper, shaving points off for minute details that I’ve yet to find in any APA guidebook anywhere, but I did not complain. Not to her. And in the end, after tallying up my points for the term, it looks like my grade will likely be a high B or a low-to-mid A (depending on the final exam results – assuming an 80% or higher). This will bring the cumulative GPA to somewhere around a 3.46-3.5 (to be calculated once the actual grade is assigned). Not too shabby! Now I just need to ask my adviser if she can figure up my Major GPA.
Warning...
This blog contains material and language of an explicit and graphic nature and is not intended for those under the age of 18. This is an adult-only space!
"Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party." -- Winston Churchill
“Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.” -- Thomas Paine
"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." -- Socrates
"To know and not to do is not to know." -- Chinese proverb, regularly repeated by Ralph Nader
"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home." -- James Madison
"The defeats and victories of the fellows at the top aren't always defeats and victories for the fellows at the bottom.” -- Bertolt Brecht
"We need a Jeffersonian revolution. If it doesn't happen, our democracy will continue to weaken and things will get worse. Right now, we have a two-party electoral dictatorship with each party looking for the highest corporate bidder." -- Ralph Nader
"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
"A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury." -- Alexander Tyler
“We are not blind! We are men and
women with eyes and brains… and we
don’t have to be driven hither and thither
by the blind workings of The Market, or of
History, or of Progress, or of any other
abstraction.” -- Fritz Schumacher
“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember it or overthrow it.” –- Abraham Lincoln
"A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself." -- Joseph Pulitzer (1904)
“The minute you read something that you can't understand, you can almost be sure that it was drawn up by a lawyer.” -- Will Rogers
“Laws control the lesser man... Right conduct controls the greater one.” -- Mark Twain
"One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation." -- Thomas Brackett Reed
"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." -- Hermann Goering, Hitler's designated successor
"Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly, I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked about such a thing." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
“The purpose of the law is not to prevent a future offense, but to punish the one actually committed.” -- Ayn Rand
"Ultimately, we need to restore the understanding that in a democracy the rights of citizens to govern themselves are more important than the rights of corporations to make money." -- Lee Drutman and Charlie Cray
"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." -- Samuel Adams
"When people who are honestly mistaken learn the truth, they will either cease being mistaken, or cease being honest." -- Anonymous
"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." -- Abraham Lincoln
"The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living and the get rich quick theory of life." -- Teddy Roosevelt
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." -- Ben Franklin
"Only a government that is rich and safe can afford to be a democracy, for democracy is the most expensive and nefarious kind of government ever heard of on earth." -- Mark Twain
"Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce." -- James A. Garfield
"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." -- James Madison
"The tyrant grinds down his slaves and they don't turn against him; they crush those beneath them." -- Emily Bronte
"The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws." -- Ayn Rand
"Patriotism is the conviction that your country is superior to all others because you were born in it." -- George Bernard Shaw
"Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." -- George Orwell
"Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist." -- Kenneth Boulding, Economist
"Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
"Corporation, n., An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility." -- Ambrose Bierce (The Devil's Dictionary, 1906)
“The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in time of great moral crises, maintain their neutrality.” -- Dante Alighieri, The Inferno
"We are at the parting of the ways. We have, not one or two or three, but many, established and formidable monopolies in the United States. We have, not one or two, but many, fields of endeavor into which it is difficult, if not impossible, for the independent man to enter. We have restricted credit, we have restricted opportunity, we have controlled development, and we have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated, governments in the civilized world — no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and the duress of small groups of dominant men." -- Woodrow Wilson (1913)
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." -- Aldous Huxley
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs." -- Thomas Jefferson (1802)
"Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. The bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take it away from them, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But, if you wish to remain the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create money and control credit." -- Sir Josiah Stamp, president of the Bank of England (1927)
"What is the robbing of a bank compared to the founding of a bank?" -- Bertolt Brecht
“It was not accidental; it was a carefully contrived occurrence. The international Bankers sought to bring about a condition of despair here so that they might emerge as rulers of us all.” -- Louis McFadden referring to the Great Depression (1930s)
"So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?" -- Ayn Rand
"We shall have World Government, whether or not we like it. The only question is whether World Government will be achieved by conquest or consent." -- James Warburg (1950)
“If we don't change our direction we're likely to end up where we're headed.” -- Chinese Proverb
"There are a lot of exiles in this world. Each one has his own reason; we have ours. Long before we left America, the America we knew left us. We travel not to get away from it, but to find it." -- Bill Bonner
"While each of us is entitled to his own opinions, none of us is entitled to his own facts." -- Patrick Moynahan, Senator from New York
"Find out just what the people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." -- Frederick Douglass
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." -- George Santayana
"You don't stick a knife in a man's back nine inches, and then pull it out six inches, and say you're making progress." -- Malcolm X
"A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable." -- Thomas Jefferson (1817)
"No one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand." -- Bertolt Brecht
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius, and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." -- Albert Einstein
"In the beginning of change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for it then costs nothing to be a patriot." -- Mark Twain
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." -- Albert Einstein
"The world is full enough of hurts and mischance without wars to multiply them." -- J.R.R. Tolkien
"The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings." -- Albert Schweitzer
"Agnosticism simply means that a man shall not say he knows or believes that for which he has no grounds for professing to believe." -- Thomas Henry Huxley
"Freedom is participation in power." -- Roman orator, Cicero
"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests." -- Patrick Henry
"The Human Race has improved everything except the Human Race.'' -- Adlai Stephenson
"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed." -- Mahatma Gandhi
"We were created to love and be loved." -- Mother Teresa of Calcutta
"If you tremble indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine." -- Ernesto 'Che' Guevara
"Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value." -- Albert Einstein
"Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom. No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles." -- Patrick Henry
"I find war detestable but those who praise it without participating in it even more so." -- Romain Rolland
"Warmaking doesn't stop warmaking. If it did, our problems would have stopped millennia ago." -- Colman McCarthy
"Good government is no substitute for self-government." -- Mahatma Gandhi
"A truth's initial commotion is directly proportional to how deeply the lie was believed. It wasn't the world being round that agitated people, but that the world wasn't flat. When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic." -- Dresden James
"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men." -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' But conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but because conscience tells one it is right." -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house." -- George Carlin
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