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Word Gems
What is a man but the sum of his thoughts?

• "You look exactly the same wonderful boy who, day after day, used to come down to my studio to sit for his picture. But you were simple, natural, and affectionate then. You were the most unspoiled creature in the whole world. Now, I don't know what had come over you. You talk as if you had no heart..." Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

August 1, 2009

You'll be happy to know that I, myself, now, am the latest unerring iteration of THE GRANDFATHER (P.S. #8). My son Joey married on June 6. Here is his new family:

The biggest news in all of this is the arrival of my two new beautiful granddaughters, Faith and Abby. Well... to mark this auspicious coming of my new high office, I decide to take a trip to the library to glance at a few books on coin and card tricks... you know, to amuse and beguile my new subjects, just to maintain my aura of invincibility... that all may continue to heed and fear in my new realm.... gotta get to them young, you know...

So, I'm looking at these books... mmmmm... a little more complicated than I wanted it to be... but I notice a final chapter devoted to the psychology of magic-showmanship... sounds a little more interesting, so I check it out.

The virtue of "misdirection"

The author is a real pro, knows how to wow'em on-stage or at the dinner table... and he says that there's a lot more to entertaining people with magic than merely practising a list of step-by-step techniques.

• He explains the primary key to successful showmanship, something he calls misdirection. While the magician is about his furtive business, he needs to keep the audience busy with diversionary tactics... keep their minds occupied with red-herrings, nonessentials... he must disingeniusly lure their eyes to inspect over there, while the real action takes place over here... he must control the setting, even the discussion and banter... if the magician tells a funny story, smiles at you engagingly, comments on your lovely attire, do not be deceived - such charm is mere distracting cover for his sleight-of-hand... he will hold up his closed fist, in which, he says, there is a coin; but which has already been spirited elsewhere; even so, he will make you believe in the coin that isn't there.

It's all about misdirection...

Stage magic, of course, is presented in good fun; and it becomes a convivial contest between showman and audience to see who can best whom.

• Update, September 18, 2009: Charles Krauthammer: "Obama doesn't lie. He merely elides, gliding from one dubious assertion to another. This has been the story throughout his whole health-care crusade. Its original premise was that our current financial crisis was rooted in neglect of three things - energy, education and health care. That transparent attempt to exploit Emanuel's Law - a crisis is a terrible thing to waste - failed for health care because no one is stupid enough to believe that the 2008 financial collapse was caused by a lack of universal health care. So on to the next gambit: selling health-care reform as a cure for the deficit. When that was exploded by the Congressional Budget Office's demonstration of staggering Obamacare deficits, Obama tried a new tack: selling his plan as revenue-neutral insurance reform - until the revenue neutrality is exposed as phony future cuts and chimerical waste and fraud. Obama doesn't lie. He implies, he misdirects, he misleads - so fluidly and incessantly that he risks transmuting eloquence into mere slickness. Slickness wasn't fatal to 'Slick Willie' Clinton because he possessed a winning, nearly irresistible charm. Obama's persona is more cool, distant, imperial. The charming scoundrel can get away with endless deception; the righteous redeemer cannot." Editor's note: I have often thought that our present Dear Leader lacks the warm-and-fuzzy medium-is-the-message quality of earlier Commissars. A spoonful of sugar, in times past, has made the socialism go down, but Rahm-it-through imperialism makes so many of us "unpatriotic," "Nazis," "racist," and "unamerican" ... as we discover that... the Emperor has no Truth.

"Ladies and Gentlemen... before your very eyes, I shall now saw the economy, and your future well-being, in half!"

But there are some forms of showmanship, some forms of misdirection, that are not quite so innocent.

As I read of the magician's philosophy, I notice within myself a rising tide of unease. What is it? Suddenly I know.

The author's proffered insight regarding the clandestine workings of showmanship-magic, in an instant, seems utterly familiar to me... and a feeling of nausea sweeps over me... as I think of those in Washington - our "public servants," of course - those who claim to be running the national economy.

• Editor's note: Hey, you know which "public servants" I'm talking about... yeah, those ones... the ones who create for themselves lavish pensions, that can't be taken away, even if they commit a felony (a handy little perspicacious safeguard that they inserted for themselves, wouldn't you say? ... such forethought)... create healthcare perks for themselves that no other American has... create for themselves little loophole-laws that tend to exempt themselves from the larger laws that bind all other US citizens... and don't you know, they tend to vote these things for themselves, things like salary increases, in the middle of the night, in a special session of Congress, just so you won't have to worry your little head about such matters... well, that's just how you know who your friends are and what a public servant is...

• Editor's note: Don't forget, it was established long ago, by history's heavyweight thinkers, that no mere mortal can "run the economy." Everything these people say is a lie. I do not use the term ill-advisedly. We have teams of Nobel Prize-winning laureates, and others, who have told us how the economy works... men like Friedman, Hayek, von Mises, Smith, Sowell, Hazlitt, Schumpeter, Gilder, Kotlikoff, not to mention the words of many of the Founders. The idea that an economy can be "stimulated" to any long-term good, that we can spend our way to prosperity, is too offensive to be taken as anything but a crude joke, as it reaches beyond any known empirical evidence. Yet our Masters act as if there is no other possible solution to our maladies. "Cheap money caused our problems, and cheap money will get us out." The fact that our current Saturday-Night-Live team in Washington believes that they can get away with their grand lies is testimony to their disrespect of your intelligence, their lust to accumulate centralized governmental power, and their disdain for historical precedent. But, I digress. Consider, once again, the words of Adam Smith, regarding an elite "running the economy":

Adam Smith (1723-1790),
the great Scottish philosopher and economist,
best known for his book, The Wealth of Nations

Six months have passed since Inauguration Day - on that day I released two articles on politics and economics (P.S. #14 & 15). I made some predictions regarding what this administration would do. I have not disappointed you. F.A Hayek's warnings (P.S. #17) are still more than relevant, and one did not need to be psychic to foresee what would happen.

"We Have to Go Spend Money to Keep From Going Bankrupt"

This is what our revered Masters told us a few days ago. Well, we were worried, but now we rest assured...

sigh...

I will not legitimize such insulting prevarication, this banal sophistry, by offering any studied analysis. We have never seen such brazen lies... everything they say is a lie... when they eat their cherrios in the morning, it's a lie (serial dishonesty)... when they tie their shoelaces, it's a lie... they can't turn around without lying... the previous administration, to be sure, was morally challenged in a number of ways, but our current Dear Commissars win all the prizes.

British historian, Paul Johnson:

• "When we are dealing with concepts like freedom and equality, it is essential to use words accurately and in good faith... beware of those who seek to win an argument at the expense of the language. For the fact that they do is proof positive that their argument is false, and proof presumptive that they know it is. A man who deliberately inflicts violence on the language will almost certainly inflict violence on human beings if he acquires the power. Those who treasure the meaning of words will treasure truth, and those who bend words to their purposes are very likely in pursuit of anti-social ones."

Violence on the language... violence, eventually, toward us... History is clear regarding this connection.

How eloquently stated by Paul Johnson. And how foreboding for us the implications. As my Dad would have said, "I wouldn't trust them as far as I can throw them."

We live in dangerous times. It has been primarily America that has kept the world from falling into the abyss of a New Dark Age... only America, with its hope of personal freedoms, and the rule of law, that has stemmed the tide of so many radical "isms" that threaten our global existence. But those in power today strengthen the bloodied hands of international terrorists; and punish our allies.

All this is by design.

What I want to say here...

There's something I want to say... a different perspective of the current crisis.

There are many today who are diligently working to warn the American people regarding the threat we face - the unprecedented threat - from within , from the very highest levels of government itself. Many are speaking out... even our "enemies" are speaking out!

a Russian's jeremiad, an Old Testament prophet sent to us...  the minions, the dumbed-down population, whimpers... the internal decay... elites, street thugs, those of self-given power... the snickering world... truth, an orphan, crying in the streets... how are the mighty fallen...

• "what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose - how does the quotation run? - his own soul?" Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

How absolutely incredible... here is a recent warning to America from the Russians, from Pravda!

American Capitalism, Gone With A Whimper

Stanislav Mishin, Pravda, April 27, 2009

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American descent into Marxism is happening with breath-taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.
 
True, the situation has been well prepared, on and off, for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.

 

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.

 

First, the population was dumbed-down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a Burger King burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our "democracy." Pride blind the foolish.

 

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.

 

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

 

These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison.

 

Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the sheer volumes. Should we congratulate them? 
 
Then came Barack Obama's command that GM's (General Motor) president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of "pure" free markets, the American president now has the power, the self given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. Come hither, go dither, the centurion commands his minions.

 

So it should be no surprise, that the American president has followed this up with a "bold" move of declaring that he and another group of unelected, chosen stooges will now redesign the entire automotive industry and will even be the guarantee of automobile policies. I am sure that if given the chance, they would happily try and redesign it for the whole of the world, too.

 

Prime Minister Putin, less then two months ago, warned Obama and UK's Blair, not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our "wise" Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.

 

Again, the American public has taken this with barely a whimper...but a "freeman" whimper.

 

So, should it be any surprise to discover that the Democratically controlled Congress of America is working on passing a new regulation that would give the American Treasury department the power to set "fair" maximum salaries, evaluate performance and control how private companies give out pay raises and bonuses? Senator Barney Franks, a social pervert ... and his Marxist enlightenment, has led this effort. He stresses that this only affects companies that receive government monies, but it is retroactive and taken to a logical extreme, this would include any company or industry that has ever received a tax break or incentive.

 

The Russian owners of American companies and industries should look thoughtfully at this and the option of closing their facilities down and fleeing the land of the Red as fast as possible. In other words, divest while there is still value left.

 

The proud American will go down into his slavery with out a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is.

 

The world will only snicker.

September 17, 2009. Mr. Putin refers to our Dear Leader as "brave" for abandoning the defense of Europe... well, Sir, what do you expect from the "Home of the Brave"... stop that snickering, we need a new House Wilson-rule to outlaw snickering...

Who would have thought, in our lifetime, that we would read something like this!!?? and from the Russians!!

Dear readers, notice the following key words and phrases - from a traditional enemy of America... maybe he's not an enemy... maybe he's more like an Old Testament prophet, sent to awaken the sleeping and drunken minion-serfs, before their destruction... maybe these words constitute a jeremiad:

• the American descent into Marxism is happening with breath-taking speed

• sheeple

• roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists

• prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites ... self-given power

• the population was dumbed-down through a politicized and substandard education system

Art Garfunkel, What A Wonderful World Don't know much about history... Don't know much about the middle ages, Looked at the pictures and I turned the pages, Don't know nothin' 'bout no rise and fall, Don't know nothin' 'bout nothin' at all...

• their faith in God was destroyed ... Sunday circuses ... reject Christ in hopes for earthly power

• final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama

• another group of unelected, chosen stooges... street thugs

• Prime Minister Putin ... warned Obama ... not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our "wise" Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.

• world will only snicker

We, supplementing the sentiment of our Russian friend, could go on.

Again, what an incredible state of affairs! a bizzaro-world of fantasy come to life!

Pravda... lecturing us... on the dangers of Marxism!

Wake up America! ... it is almost midnight!

Winston Churchill To those who mused of surrender, he castigated: "Let it end only when each one of us lies choking in his own blood." "If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may be even a worse fate. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."

Words, alone, fail to paint a picture sufficiently dire... but, in all of this, it is easy to blame others for our plight. Abraham Lincoln, so long ago now, reminded us that no external threat could ever topple America; if defeat were ever to come, it must come... from within!

The Picture of Dorian Gray... the unforgiving mirror speaks... judgment day... the hope of resurrection

from the 1945 movie, The Picture Of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde's novel, The Picture Of Dorian Gray, offers a helpful metaphor regarding the state of our national character and soul. We shall ask Wikipedia for a brief overview of the work:

The Picture of Dorian Gray [appeared] as the lead story in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine on June 20, 1890... The novel tells of a young man named Dorian Gray, the subject of a painting by artist Basil Hallward. Basil is impressed by Dorian's beauty and becomes infatuated with him, believing his beauty is responsible for a new mode in his art. Talking in Basil's garden, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, a friend of Basil's, and becomes enthralled by Lord Henry's world view. Espousing a new hedonism, Lord Henry suggests the only things worth pursuing in life are beauty and fulfillment of the senses. Realising that one day his beauty will fade, Dorian cries out, expressing his desire to sell his soul to ensure the portrait Basil has painted would age rather than himself. Dorian's wish is fulfilled, plunging him into debauched acts. The portrait serves as a reminder of the effect each act has upon his soul, with each sin displayed as a disfigurement of his form, or through a sign of aging.

Near the end of the novel, Dorian, now utterly corrupted, haunted by the demons of guilt...

...unveils the portrait to find it has become worse... he decides to destroy the last vestige of his conscience. In a rage, he picks up the knife that killed Basil Hallward and plunges it into the painting. His servants hear a cry from inside the locked room and send for the police. They find Dorian's body, stabbed in the heart and suddenly aged, withered and horrible. Beside him, the portrait has reverted to its original form; it is only through the rings on his hand that the corpse can be identified.

I offer to you a parable. It features Dorian, as ourselves - the soul of America, that one Person in the world who once understood the virtue, and responsibilities, of Freedom.

The portrait, its shifting images of debauchery, represents, of course, that which we have done to ourselves. It is a mirror of our own souls.

But, in my parable, I want to say more.

The mirror, this portrait of Dorian, a reflection of our own diseased national depravity, manifests as the corrupt leadership in Washington. They are there because we allow their dark reign to continue; the portrait reflects the decadent and traitorous knavery that we, ourselves, allow at the head of government.

Washington is a mirror of ourselves! Their corruption is merely our own... because we underwrite all of it!

We must not be too hard on our Great Leaders... they, in their fraudulent ways, merely act as our agents... we are co-conspirators with them... who is puppet of whom?

And why do we allow this cancer within?

We, like Dorian, have been seduced by the "new hedonism." We have sold our souls to materialism... to short-term pleasures... to greed and avarice... to the siren-song of socialism, which is larceny on a grand scale, the unlawful taking from others in order to benefit oneself... and by this untoward process the diseased Dorians vote for themselves government handouts... while those in power, effectively, with public funds, have purchased those votes... and by such malfeasance, this dance with the devil, they hope to remain in power.

Today's version of The Wild Animal and The Lying Teacher (P.S. #21) would have you believe that there is something wrong with one enjoying the fruits of one's own efforts... that if you are unwilling to "share" what your own hand has created, then you are "mean spirited" ... and "greedy" ... but they, as they take from you that which is not their own, are not greedy, of course.

Entering the holy of holies... centering oneself... the one-person debate... light meets darkness... the phoenix rises... finding freedom in an unfree world...

• "... the portrait that Basil Hallward had painted of him would be a guide to him through life, would be to him what holiness is to some, and conscience to others, and the fear of God to us all. There were opiates for remorse, drugs that could lull the moral sense to sleep. But here was a visible symbol of the degradation of sin. Here was an ever-present sign of the ruin men brought upon their souls." Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

As I speak to myself of these atrocities, I feel my temperature rising... the anger is surging in my veins... I think of my children and grandchildren; of the weak and oppressed of this world, now, fitted with tighter chains ... and I think of other children as well, of the 16 year-old Islamic girl, her plight, and so many like her.

But... as this anger in my heart becomes ever more palpable, I do not like what I feel... I have entered that world of anger before, have lived there, for many years... and I begin to recoil as I know, too well, that no long-term good can come from such visceral negative response.

The instruction from Dr. John Welwood comes to mind once again:

• "Dissociation is our mind's way of saying no to and turning away from our pain... It constricts or shuts off access to two main areas of our body: the vital center in the belly - the source of desire-energy, eros, vital power, and instinctual knowing - and the heart center - where we respond to love and feel things most deeply. In saying no to the pain of unlove, we block the pathways through which love flows in the body and thus deprive ourselves of the very nutrient that would allow our whole life to flourish. And so we wind up severing our connection to life itself... a disconnection from the loving openness that is our very nature."

And it becomes clear to me that, if I were to remain in this state of anger, I would, in so doing, extinguish, within my heart, all positive feeling toward others, all kinds of love... friendship love, humanitarian love, romantic love, familial love... and, most of all, the love of oneself... as Welwood says... we wind up severing our connection to life itself... a disconnection from the loving openness that is our very nature.

And I am deeply bothered by all this.

What is the proper response - to oneself - as one contemplates the pandemic oppression of The Wild Animal and The Lying Teacher in this world? (P.S. #21)

And I step back, and try to remember what I know about this, but have already forgotten. I have recently written an article about forgiveness (P.S. #23)... but how distant it seems to me, at this moment of rage toward the injustice of the world.

I think about something I once read about the Quaker religion - they speak of "centering oneself" at times like this. And I am reminded of something else from a long time ago - I shall not bother to look it up - the apostle Paul liked the metaphor of the body as temple of the Holy Spirit, that state of "Purified Consciousness." In some of Paul's writings, the original Greek for "temple" referred not to the building-at-large, but to a small cubicle, the Holy of Holies, into which the High Priest, once a year, entered to offer sacrifice and to meet God.

This Holy of Holies, in Paul's teaching, was meant to signify the Inner Recesses, our deepest and truest Selves, our own Souls, where we commune with God.

And it occurred to me, as I attempted to right myself, that anger, now encircling me - even anger for a good cause - will cut oneself off from the flow of divine energy, that Artesian Well spoken of by Jesus, the bubbling effervescence of all that is good within oneself.

A One-Person Debate in the Darkness

And I asked, debated with, myself, why are you so upset? It's not as though you should be surprised or anything. What do you expect... from those who do not know the wonder and glory of their own souls!

Of course, they - in their spiritual immaturity, in their mad delusions - will seek to take from others, and fill the restless void, of their own debauched hearts, with materialism... that's all they have... it is a sickness, a disease, a psychosis... and they have no idea how they are corrupting themselves... no idea how much they are setting themselves back... no idea of the horrific suffering, for decades, even hundreds of years, that lies ahead of them! (P.S. #40)... these people might literally gain all the money and power in the world... but, as per the saying of Jesus, even that much is not nearly enough to rescue one's own soul.

And in my debate I recalled what I had written about forgiveness as "giving before" the offense occurs. It is a spirit of seeking the highest and best for another... even before the infraction manifests... because, for darkened and immature hearts, the spirit is pregnant with such inevitable malfeasance, and merely awaits opportunity to arrive... so why should I be surprised when it comes... I already know it will come... so why my outsized response?

And as I debate these things, like one with a spinal injury beginning to feel his own legs once more, I slowly begin, finally, again, to feel the warmth of my own soul-life beginning to flow, to assert itself... yes, they are schmucks and schlepps, with monster-hearts (P.S. #21), of the very worst sort... but I don't have to wish evil upon them... they are creating so much misery for themselves, they've beaten me to the punch... actually, as I regain a sense of my True Self... I no longer wish violence upon them... I just feel sadness for them... and for all of us... in this tragic world... this world that is another world's hell.

Ours is not an easy world to live in. Let us always remember... it was never meant to work... we don't come here to find a world that works... we come here to temporarily experience some hard things that we can't get in the Real World from whence we came.

What's the good news... finding freedom in an unfree world

A few days ago, while visiting Richard and Annette Forkun, old college friends who live north of Toronto; while discussing some of these disturbing current events, Richard asked of me - almost a plea - "What's the good news?"

That's the right question!

And it's important to insist upon such perspective when delving into the sordid details of this troubled world.

It's the right question because all things are working toward a good end. The word "God" is merely a shortened version of "The Good" - that is what divinity is. Everything... all things... that God allows in this world are "good." Some of you will not like this view. What about all "the bad"? many will quickly say.

But the reason some will counter with such question is due to their having forgotten why we came to this world... it's not the "health and wealth gospel"... we already had that in the Wonderful Realm from whence we came... if we'd wanted that alone, we'd never have come here. An egocentric viewpoint will misconstrue the issue. That which we myopically call "bad," in fact, is meant to serve a longer-term higher purpose; stated another way, there are certain "good" things that can be seen and received only by experiencing certain "bad" things.

• We came to this world to gain greater perspective... greater depth of understanding... greater wisdom... greater awareness and consciousness... unfortunately, for most of us, in our immaturity, the only avenue of access to these universal virtues, is the road of suffering.

And I submit to you, to state the painfully obvious, that the mass of humanity lacks these virtues... today, there are so many who are incredibly naive and shallow... so many childish ones who love to play with matches and loaded guns... and they will elect thugs and gangsters to high office... because "that nice man over there has such a nice smile... and he said he would be so nice... and he would even pay my mortgage... and he said that everybody else is a bad man, but he's a good man, and he just wants to be our Great Leader so everybody can be happy" ... yes, and thank you comrades for coming to the chanting rally...

Civilization and the Silver Thread

Well, friends, the "bad news" is that civilization hangs precariously by a most slender thread... it is a thread of hope and confidence in the future... without which, good people will stop planting oak trees, or building structures made of stone, and other long-term projects... in fact, they will stop doing much of any work at all... why should they, if they have no assurance that they, or their children, will ever enjoy its fruit... the last time such downward-spiral happened on a large scale, what did they call it? ... I think it was... "The Dark Ages."

We can avoid this replay of an old movie... if we want to... do we want to? We'll find out how the drama unfolds.

But the "good news" is that suffering, while not essential to the growth process, has been known to most adequately, and so effectively, offer wisdom and understanding... even to little children... little children who vote... who vote for more candy... candy they've been promised from the Nice Man.... candy they haven't paid for... candy they expect you to pay for... you're so selfish, you just won't share...

Well... the good news is that we just might live long enough to experience a worldwide bursting and blossoming of enlightenment; the enflowering of previously-unknown elevated levels of human awareness and consciousness... the process might not be pretty... but, maybe, in the aftermath, we could even witness the next stage of our progression as a species... as we find ourselves dragged, kicking and whining, against our collective Egoic Will, into the promised land...

No real power over you!

Our current trouble can be discouraging to contemplate. But I'd like you to think about, once again, what my friend Adrian said (P.S. #21). Allow these words to hearten you:

• These people who inflict violence upon the language; who hide their agenda in the shadows; who dare not reveal their true intensions... who live by bribery, vote-buying, misdirection, chicago-thuggery, and misrepresentation... have no real power over you... that's why they operate in the murky world of deception!

When you wake up... the game is up... for them!

Editor's note, August 8, 2009:

Last night I returned from a quick visit to see Adrian (P.S. #21) and Roxanne on their most picturesque hilltop-farm in New Brunswick, near the Bay of Fundy. What a great time! Three days of non-stop laughing, eating, drinking; and, most of all, exquisitely good conversation... well worth the very tiring 2600-mile round-trip drive.

And, among many topics, we spoke of the dire political situation in the US. As I write this, Dear Leader has instructed his union-thug brownshirt-minions to disrupt, to "strike back twice as hard," against the most untidy townhall meetings now taking place across America where people are raging against what is happening to their freedoms.

In the last few days, this Joker-poster was released in LA; apparantly, by an unknown artist.

Adrian commented on the new Marxist thuggery. It truly is like Marx, who disdained the rule of law as a mere ploy by "the rich" to suppress "the poor." What is so dangerous about the current regime is their utter contempt for the rule of law... the process of law... notice how Dear Leader, whenever his teleprompter allows, speaks to all of his comrades out here in terms of "I will do this" and "I will do that."

He, emboldened by one-party rule, largely, is doing whatever the hell he wants to do, in utter and blatant contempt of long-established tradition of law. We last saw this famously shoved in our faces by a little man who insisted, "I am Germany"; meaning, his word was to be law, and if he said it, it was to be deemed right... and if you didn't like it, he would send his brownshirts to quell opposition...

In totalitarianism, the brownshirts are never very far away, because - I think it was Al Capone who said it - "when arguments fail to convince, a gun can come in very handy..."

Editor's note: See my cousin Perry Schumacher speak out at a townhall meeting in Cassleton, ND:

http://www.viddler.com/explore/scotthennenvid/videos/25/ (at the 0:59:08 marker)

Perry has been an organizer of tea parties in ND! good going, my friend! My cousin's son attends West Point. Something tells me that America will be hearing more from this family...

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