the veterans day lie

so i don't know if anyone's noticed, but today is 'veterans day'. (or at least it is in the united states. other countries have their own terms). while i appreciate the day off work, it aggravates me to see how the government (in concert with a few deluded people) has twisted history in order to beguile the general populace. in order to expose the lie(s), let's take a little trip through history and i point out a few areas of contention.

the term 'veterans day' comes from an act of congress in 1954. before then, it was known as armistice day. on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 in compiègne france, an armistice was signed between germany and the western allies. for the west, it marked the end of what was then known as the great war and is now known as world war 1. never before had warfare been on such a grand scale.

if the holiday was still known as armistice day and celebrated the end of hostilities, i would take no issue. after all, war is a terrible thing. but even during the great war, there were mistakes. mistakes that had dire consequences.

before the US involvement in world war 1, the opposing forces had more or less fought themselves to a stale mate in the west. this balance of power was broken when woodrow wilson (who we have to 'thank' for wilsonianism and its legacy) decided it would be a great idea if the US had a seat at the negotiating table in what became the treaty of versailles. the combination of the US tipping the scales, and the restitutive nature of contemporary government's ideas on end-of-war treaties created the conditions that would lead to the next greatest conflict the world had ever known: world war 2. in fact, world war 2 could be considered blow-back from 'our' actions during world war 1.

it's becoming increasingly apparent to me that the majority of the world's wars have been mistakes. it seems as though the wrong people are always benefiting from them: the tyrants, the authoritarians, the big businessmen, the war mongers. the more i look into history and wars, the more i see this disturbing trend.

war is the health of the state. it automatically sets in motion throughout society those irresistible forces for uniformity, for passionate cooperation with the government in coercing into obedience the minority groups and individuals which lack the larger herd sense.
-randolph bourne, the state, 1918

it's interesting to me that this was known as far back as world war 1. the founders of the united states were highly critical of government, and penned the abuses the british government imposed on them in the declaration of independence. in fact, the abuses of power go back as far as the existence of mankind, and is where the phrase 'power corrupts' originates.

so how does the government amass increasing power? it creates fear in the populace; it starts wars; it raises up heroes, many from the ashes of war. and all the while, it erodes the freedoms and liberties of 'its' populace. we can see this in the latest war: the war on terror.

since this latest war began government can now: spy on the general populace with impunity (the PATRIOT act); threaten the involuntary government agents (banks, internet service providers, google), and tell them they cannot inform their customers that government is spying on them (another provision of the PATRIOT act); confiscate firearms from peaceful 'citizens' (hurricane katrina), as well as the plethora of other rights violations during that fiasco; prop up businesses that are deemed 'too big to fail' (TARP); create 'money' out of nothing thus effectively stealing from everyone that holds federal reserve notes (the federal reserve); unduly molest people excising their right to travel in spite of the constitutional ban on unwarranted searches and seizures (TSA); imprison anyone it pleases and hold them indefinitely on terrorist charges (guantanimo bay); assassinate whoever they deem to be a terrorist (osama bin laden, anwar al awlaki) as well as whoever happens to be in their general vicinity at the time of the assassination. this is not a complete list, nor is this power aggregation limited to the post-2001 era.

i'm told i went to afghanistan to 'fight for freedom'. who's freedom? the US is quickly becoming a police state. what i did in afghanistan did nothing to arrest this trend. in fact, this tyranny has been enabled by the warfare apparatus i am a part of. thank a veteran? NO, DON'T THANK ME!!! the notion that veterans are some kind of heroes is a lie! we are not heroes; we are cogs in the machine of big government.

veterans day...what a bunch crap. this is a holiday where government wants 'its people' to worship those it deems heroes. because if people worship government's heroes, that's just one step away from worshiping government itself. that is what government really wants: it wants your worship, your obedience, your undying reverence. so long as people continue to blindly follow government dictates, wealth and power can continue to be usurped from the individuals to which it rightly belongs. this is why today's celebrations are so insidious.

a hero of war
is that what they see
just metals and scars
so damn proud of me
but i'll carry that flag
to the grave if i must
cause it's a flag that i love
it's the only flag i trust
-rise against, hero of war

porcfest

so i just got back from new hampshire a couple days ago, and it was amazing. spending a week around that many liberty activists has a way of changing one's perspective.

tyrannical laws (you know, the victimless ones) were being broken constantly. people were putting whatever they wanted into their bodies. people were selling whatever they wished without begging the government for permission (licenses). even when there were problems (there were a couple incidents), interference from the authorities was unnecessary. a combination of arbitration and/or ostracism were enough motivation to elicit restitution.

the one time a cop did show up, he had a swarm of followers; many of them with video recording devices in hand. if he'd tried anything, i'm sure their station's phones would have been flooded, and there would have been a huge crowd of protestors outside barraging anyone in a police uniform with questions. and if you're one of those types that love cops, i'd encourage you to run over to copblock for a list of police abuses. the vast majority of which result in no punishment for the offending privileged class (cops, lawyers, judges, politicians, anyone that is given leeway where a 'common citizen' would not).

i was also able to do a good deal of bartering (with the silver i brought). the only vendors that wouldn't take my silver dimes were the metal dealers (gold, silver, copper) because they re-stock via federal reserve notes, and one of the food vendors that needed to run into town to buy supplies. neither of these instances would have been the case if the federal reserve in tandem with the government hadn't indoctrinated and/or coerced the general populace into accepting paper and cupronickel as something of value for decades.

i also got to meet a lot of activists. they ranged from bloggers, radio talk show hosts, entrepreneurs, professors, some liberty minded politicians, and even one with his own tv show. not a single one of them was stuck-up. all that was necessary to meet them was to walk up, shake their hand, and introduce yourself. many of them even came to me and introduced themselves. this was completely unexpected.

what had the biggest impact on me, though, was the veterans for ron paul meeting i attended. being around all those veterans each with their own story of how they came to believe the current united states government is evil was the last thing i needed to fully open my eyes. all these years of 'serving' i'd thought i was doing something noble; i'd thought i was protecting 'my country' from terrorists. now i realize the biggest terrorist of all is the united states government. i have helped spread tyranny across the globe. i am part of the reason so many people hate americans. i look back on it, and i am ashamed.

i've accepted the government's blood money for 14 years, and i've finally broken though the propaganda. i'm stuck in the system for 2 more years. when my current enlistment is up, i'll be leaving the service of uncle sam. i'm having issues with my conscience right now, and i can't imagine perpetuating my current situation longer than i've enslaved (contracted) myself to. i don't know what i'll do, but at least i will have peace knowing my money will not be acquired by the threat of violence.

government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.
-george washington

so let mercy come
and wash away
what i've done
i face myself
to cross out what i've become
erase myself
and let go of what i've done
-lincin park what i've done

arab spring not just for arabs

i've heard several media reports referring to the 'arab spring' lately. while there's no doubt things are pretty intense in the middle east and north africa, the people that talk about an 'arab spring' have their vision narrowed a little too much. the cry for freedom from oppression is global.

in debt laden greece, thousands crowd into public squares to protest austerity measures. in spain, tent cities reminiscent of hoovervilles are springing up filled with young unemployed people protesting all parties of their political establishment. in france, pretty much the entire country was locked down by military and police personnel in an attempt to quell the rampant g8 protests (actually, every g8/g20 meeting since '08 has been met with protests and police crack-downs). in switzerland, independent journalists harassed police outside the bilderberg meeting. in china, they've stopped reporting the number of protests because there have been so many. in australia and new zealand, people have continued planking despite government crack-downs.

here in the united states, a judge decreed it was just fine for police to arrest people dancing at public memorials (specifically the jefferson memorial in the district of columbia). a small group of protestors went and danced at tj's in protest and were arrested. the videos went viral, and a week later hundreds of people showed up to dance around the statue of thomas jefferson. but they weren't dancing alone. all across the world, there were dances on the same day in support.

the world is in revolt. every day, more and more people are waking up to realize just how much their inalienable, natural rights are being trampled. as their eyes are opened, increasing numbers are taking up the mantle of political activism by getting into politics (tea party), or outright civil disobedience.

ever wonder why ron paul has such insane support? the people are awakening. in '08 he raised more money from active duty military members than any other candidate. even with miniscule name recognition he managed to run a relatively successful campaign for president in the face of clear attempts by the media to block him out. this time he's too popular for the media to ignore. a number of the republican presidential hopefuls have even begun to sound like him. but they don't have the decades long record of voting for liberty.

next week, i'll be in new hampshire for porcfest (the porcupine freedom festival). for those that are unaware, it's a week long celebration of freedom. this year, expected attendance is over 1000 people from all over the country. i'm sure quite a few liberty minded politicians will be there too.

on résiste à l'invasion des armées; on ne résiste pas à l'invasion des idées.
-victor hugo

translation: One resists the invasion of armies; one does not resist the invasion of ideas.

or a variant...

one cannot resist an idea who's time has come.
-ron paul

bradley manning

i'm a little behind the power curve on this, but i came across an awesome interview about bradley manning today. for those of you who don't know that name, he's the one the government is convicting of being responsible for some of the items wikileaks has released. the audio is of a private conference call given for the benefit of a the media. it's been tacked onto the back end of an episode of free talk live. to get it, just go to their archive page, and download the podcast for 25 may. if you don't want to listen to the whole show, skip ahead to around 2:18 (2 hours 18 minutes). you'll know you're in the right place if you hear them talking about a cruise as that's right before they tacked on the call.

i think what's said throughout the call makes it quite clear just how corrupt the united states government (of which the military is a part) has become. i got to experience some of this corruption when i was in afghanistan. fortunately, i didn't observe any war crimes. however, the minor instances i did see were responsible for most of the stress i had while i was there. it seemed like every day i was either in an argument or trying to decide if it was worth starting one.

the one thing i did learn was that it's a rare person who can remain impervious to the siren call of power. i even managed to catch myself abusing my position sometimes...and i was near the bottom of the chain.

a couple nights ago i watched the documentary 'fair game' (the 2010 film...there are several with that name). it's about a CIA agent and an ambassador who end up on the wrong side of the bush administration during the second invasion of iraq. add that to the evidence of power corrupting government.

it's rather ironic that the US government is becoming more and more like the brittish government our forefathers fought against 200 years ago. if there's one thing government needs it's a healthy dose of transparency. it's people like bradley manning, daniel ellsberg, julian assange, etc that bring it. instead of being prosecuted, they should be praised for their courage to stand up to the powers that be, and bring the truth to the ignorant masses.

the internal military mechanisms do not work to bring justice or accountability.
-julian assange

police state rising

do you think the united states government is your friend? do you think the cops are there to help the little people? think again. this post is about exposing just how destructive the monopolies known as governments can be.

we'll begin with a ruling by the united states supreme court: kentucky vs king. full details can be found at the link, but i'll summarize. the cops were chasing someone for a drug violation. he ran into a building, and by the time the cops got to the hallway, there were 2 doors (separate apartments) the guy could have run into. believing they smelled burning marijuana, the cops picked a door, knocked, and allegedly heard noises consistent with destruction of evidence. it turns out they cops had the wrong apartment; the guy they were chasing had run into the other one. however, the first apartment did have cannabis. bonus for the cops, they get two incidents for the price of one.

the defendants correctly asserted the confiscated drugs could not be used as evidence as it was obtained by violating the fourth amendment. you know, the one that says a person's house can't be entered without a warrant. the us supreme court, however, doesn't seem to believe in the constitution. they claim destruction of evidence (or the suspicion there of) is good enough to break into a residence. so don't be flushing any toilets when there are cops at your door, because they'll use that as an excuse to break into your house and start a detailed search.

the next case is barnes vs indiana. a couple were arguing so their snitch neighbors called the cops. the defendant argued with a cop in the parking lot before entering his residence. the cop attempted to follow him. the guy told the cop his presence was unnecessary, and asked him to leave. the cop refused so the guy attempted to shut the door on the cop. the cop forced his way inside where the guy threw the cop against a wall, and a fight started.

whether the cops were justified in forcing their way into the house is debatable, but what's really shocking is the indiana supreme court's ruling. they basically said it's unlawful to resist illegal entry into one's house by the cops. there are several problems here. 1) a person should have the ability to resist the unlawful presence of any intruder. 2) how are people supposed to know if the intruders are cops? any clown can dress up in a cop uniform and claim to be the police.

then there's the story about the marine veteran who was executed by a swat team in ariozona. being a veteran and responsible gun owner, the victim was naturally inclined to grab his ar-15 and investigate the situation. as he was entering the hallway the swat team broke down the door and fired 71 rounds. the marine's weapon still had the safety engaged. paramedics were on sight within 2 minutes (which is actually rather impressive). the cops prevented the emergency responders from entering the house claiming it was dangerous. the only other people in the house were the guy's wife and 4 year old kid. an hour later, (yes, i said an hour) the cops dismissed the emergency medical technicians because the victim had died. talk about adding insult to injury.

the lesson? americans are not safe in their homes. the castle doctrine appears to now be legally dead. it's been de facto dead for quite some time now. one more cop story....

adam kokesh covered a story in washington dc (it's in the second 1/2 of the show). there's video depicting cops assaulting a guy in a wheelchair. the official story? -- a guy was drunk. the cops attempted to issue a citation. the guy refused to comply with the citation's issuance. the cops attempted to arrest the individual. the guy resisted arrest, and assaulted the cops. -- watching the video clearly shows the cops are the aggressors and are only concerned with being violent. the saddest part of the whole story is that without the video evidence, the cops in question would have gotten away with it. they still might, but at least now there's a chance they'll be disciplined.

i want to have faith in the united states. i want to believe i was in afghanistan defending freedom. however, as more time goes by, i become increasingly aware of the truth. the greatest enemies of the united states constitution are not to be found in some distant land, but right here in the united states. american citizens are more likely to be killed by a cop than a terrorist. the incarceration rates in the united states are the highest in the world. free country? clearly not.

i fear the day may come when i'm faced with a difficult choice. to follow the constitution that i swore an oath to defend, or follow the illegal orders just handed down to me. it's not too hard to imagine this country embroiled in civil unrest. it's just as easy to imagine the government response would be to quell the rebellion by whatever means are necessary (even if those protesting are not violent). this cannot be allowed to stand. the ultimate question is: if such a day comes, how many of my fellow patriots will stand with me in keeping true faith an allegiance to the constitution?

osama bin laden? really?

ok, so this is something that would probably have been better posted yesterday, but i was busy. it's not like anyone reads this blog any more anyway so...mute point i guess. i do feel the urge to record my thoughts somewhere quasi-permanent though; call it therapy.

i've been quite disturbed at the reaction to the latest news to come out of our government propaganda machine. the death of bin laden is all over the media, and the general public seems to be drunk with euphoria. i guess it's an indictment on the intelligence level of the general populace. i guess i need to explain myself now. here we go....

a threat? really? bin laden's been in hiding since september '01. i know he wasn't directing any of the insurgent activity i had the pleasure of dealing with in afghanistan. that was all being done by a bunch of unsophisticated splinter cells.

it doesn't take much to fight a gorilla style war with improvised explosive devices. in fact, this is exactly what he trained the afghans to do when they were fighting the soviets in the 80s. this time, they don't have our stinger missiles and the invading force is a little nicer, but those are the only substantive differences. hell, many of the villagers think we're the russians. now i'm getting sidetracked though.

and funding? we cracked down on bin laden's sources of capital. while cutting it all off would be impossible, he at least would have had a hard time moving money around. what little money and supplies the insurgents got was not from bin laden. it comes from people that hate having americans running around in their back yard.

contrary to popular belief, bin laden hasn't had any tactical value to terrorism for years. at best, his remaining alive was a great public relations boost for the haters of america.

so that makes killing him good for us, right? i'm not so convinced. it seems his death may actually galvanize the people our government has declared war on. has anyone checked the latest travel advisories? i know the tsa is a great reason to not go to airports, but anyone that does end up at one will notice even more 'security'. it appears letting him live would have been the better option.

but that's me being logical; let's look at people that are clearly not logical: the american populace. sunday night there was a huge party outside the white house. people were drinking, chanting, doing drugs.... adam kokesh went out there with a camera crew to ask a few questions. if anyone's curious to see just how stupid he discovered them to be, i've got a nice little link to the show where he covered it. americans truly are retards.

and that's probably the reaction obama was going for. let's see, what would we have been talking about if it wasn't for this huge upstaging event? there's a debt ceiling limit that's going to get voted on pretty soon. gary johnson and ron paul's campaigns are just starting. the dollar's been tanking pretty hard, and inflation's been flying pretty high. oh yeah, and there's a united nations gun control treaty that's up for the senate's ratification. seems like a good time for a distraction doesn't it?

seriously america. quit being a bunch of sheeple, and use your brains for a change. stop accepting everything the government feeds you on blind faith. hold your representative's feet to the fire, and let them know you're watching. wake up!!!

death of a blog

so i haven't blogged in a while. i totally can't write about myself, and my life; there just isn't anything happening. i'm sure i could blog about current events and my opinion on them, but i don't think that's the purpose of this site.

so i've been toying with doing an opinion blog. it would no doubt have a lot of politics and econimics as that's what's attracted my attention as of late. does this interest anyone? does anyone really care what i think? is anyone still reading this to answer me? i'll give it a few weeks.

i guess i can throw in a little about my life. i just got back from arkansas where i had a 2 week class. it was...well...boring (no surprise there).

i tried to throw together an outdoor football (not american, real football) team. i discovered i don't have enough friends to fill a roster; that'll do wonders for self esteem. so i'm going to hit up the captain's meeting and try to see if i can get the few friends i did manage to scrounge up onto other existing teams. i expect i'll be able to get everyone onto a team and able to play so net positive if that works out.

fastest blog post ever. well...of the ones that weren't rushed anyway. laterz........