Cheerful

[There's a video above that does not display in some feeds. Click over to the post (or click on the read more below where that is visible) to view it.]

Facts Versus VIPs

If you have ever looked at my masthead (up there ^ at the top) you may have wondered what in Blaise Pascal's Provincial Letters  was so remarkable. I'm about to tell you in simple terms.

He made a clear distinction. Be wary about following the recommendations of famous men simply because there is similarity with what they said then and what is being discussed now. Follow instead the procedures that let them arrive at the substantive and universally acclaimed opinions that earned them their fame.

This is an important distinction that every common man should bring to bear when powerful people try to invoke the words of famous men to aid them in their quest for power. It may well be, and sadly is true, that all the powerful men are doing is exploiting the names of the men who were once famous or courageous, but who have no more wisdom about the current issue at hand than do you. Indeed, their names may have been bought, or at least they were patronized and flattered into going along. In allowing their names to be used, they trustingly fell prey to the powerful men. We, to our advantage, have the benefit of not having been flattered into letting our guard down. For this reason alone I was not prepared to discredit accomplished men until the depth of their involvement with the scoundrels was better known. Cautious skepticism was good counsel. Now the degree of deception employed by many climate "scientists" stands revealed.

Daily Recognition

No matter what job I do, good or bad, I am often never sure if anybody notices.

But there is one sure exception.

My cat notices and appreciates it every time I clean out and add more litter to her box.

Trapped In 'Coma' 23 Years, Man Conscious Whole Time

This story, published in the UK's Mail Online today, apparently has been under wraps for about three years, Lord knows why. It testifies to the strength of the human spirit, so I love passing it on to you. That would be true even without the bonus of it poking the death cultists in the eyes.

Doctors were convinced that a man left totally paralysed by a 1983 car crash was in a vegetative state for 23 years. According to this news report, written by Allan Hall, once the doctors of then student Rom Houben misdiagnosed him, that remained his official condition.

From reading the article, this is my summary:
1) due to the work of a single investigative doctor working with the newest technology, the error was finally discovered three years ago;
2) that error, and the fact that Herr Houben was actually conscious the whole time, was not revealed until November 21, 2009.

He had no way of letting experts, family or friends know he could hear every word they said.

'I screamed, but there was nothing to hear,' said Mr Houben, now 46.

Doctors used a range of coma tests, recognised worldwide, before reluctantly concluding that his consciousness was 'extinct'.

But three years ago, new hi-tech scans showed his brain was still functioning almost completely normally.

Read more of the original report here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1230092/Patient-trapped-23-year-coma-conscious-along.html##ixzz0XekjAcE4

My additional commentary follows below the break.

A PC Bubble Bursts

I have been informed that the NBC direct embed of the featured video does not play in some foreign markets. So I am now providing the LiveLeak alternative in addition (found at Instapundit).


(The following is the address to the original NBC version I had embedded here.
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/clips/china-cold-open/1178451/)

Pray this is but the first of many extra dividends to fall out of the CRU hack revelations.

S I N I S T E R Sponsors

Today's title asserts that S I N I S T E R Media did not come about without the distinct aid of sinister sponsors. Let's look at what supports it.

Media is now what was once solely the province of newspapers. Newspapers were so much an essential element in our republic's functioning that our Founders were counting upon a free and independent journalism class to provide another check in their checks and balances scheme. So much so that they are the only profession mentioned in the Bill of Rights. Adding even more distinction to their importance, they were dubbed the "Fourth Estate" by the father of modern conservatism, Edmond Burke, without a trace of the irony hanging over his grave.

So media is heir to the Fourth Estate. As such, it is given somewhat more of a blank check in gaining access to the halls of government to ask nettlesome questions of those in power.

Why, with all the hoopla attendant to lobbyists in the halls of power, is there not even more hoopla over who influences the Fourth Estate and its editorial policies which affect what questions are asked of whom? Surely if it is a public concern over whether or not the money of corporations and other entities can influence government officials, whose sole source of money is not those entities, then surely similar concerns ought be raised of the money which principally sponsors the Fourth Estate and thereby affects its biases.

One of the biggest players in this game is General Electric. Not finding it sufficient to be a big sponsor for many TV programs and advertising in newspapers, GE bought RCA in large part to gain control of NBC, and with it control of its satellite operations like MSNBC, CNBC, and assorted other outlets. Gee, is it any surprise that one of the biggest gainers from the election of Obama and the Dems has been GE. I've warned of the rise of Minitrue before. How much further down the road are we to when the sponsors don't even have to pay to influence those in government? They can force your tax dollars to do it for them.

S I N I S T E R Media

Sinister wing = all those who promote, foster or tolerate new Marxist/socialist run governments despite that ideology's historic murder of 100 million people.

Sinister (adjective)

3 : singularly evil or productive of evil
4 a : of, relating to, or situated to the left or on the left side of something;

This morning I received an email from the Media Research Center.

MRC clearly have not gotten with the program of forcing the media to apologize for its huge shift L E F T.

One way to force the predominant media to answer for their bias is to persistently connect that bias to horrific results. The first few sentences of MRC's email, slightly edited (shown in bold red), provides an example.

From the Desk of:
David Martin, Executive Vice President

MEDIA RESEARCH CENTER
11/18/2009
Pascal,

While the sinister media focus on defending President Obama’s awkward bow to the emperor of Japan during his Asian sightseeing trip, millions of American seniors and working class citizens anxiously search for the truth about the government’s attempt to take over their health care.
But relying on an increasingly irrelevant sinister news media only leaves us frustrated by the steady dose of misinformation and spin.

In a badly dis- and misinformed society, where many who help spread the false information are well-meaning themselves, persistence in exposing the sinister roots of those in charge matters a great deal.

*******Update: S I N I S T E R Sponsors********

Progress-of

Back in July I delineated the progressive peeling back of the facade to reveal the true face of the "Progressive" with the following equation

Altruistic ==► Casuistic ==► Craven ==► Shameless ==► Brazen ==► [TBD]

I've been considering replacing TBD with Sneering for some time as there has been quite a bit of sneering on the part of Obama administration, especially as the healthcare bills have been dragged through Congress, despite constituents and many legislators kicking and screaming.

But it took a journalist's question and Nancy Pelosi's blunt response to reveal the current face of the "Progressives."

Altruistic ==► Casuistic ==► Craven ==► Shameless ==►
Brazen ==► Sneer at US ==► Contempt for US ==► [TBD]

Stay tuned. Don't dare look in Nancy Pelosi's attic as you're apt to find hidden there a horrifying portrait that has yet to be completed.

***UPDATE2*** 10 April 2015
The posers don't like this video much it seems. it and audio version keep getting deleted. Had to find another one.


The title is "Pelosi: we have to pass the health care bill so that you can find out what is in it" and it was posted by rexanders8


*** UPDATE *** 28 MAY 2010 ***

Someone does not like it that Madame Pelosi was shown on the video clip above actually displaying her contempt for us.

Her infamous response "Are you serious? Are you serious?" to the question "Where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority for enacting an individual health insurance mandate?" has been removed.
Allegedly "due to terms of use violation."

Fortunately there are still audio recordings, but still -- the evil doer forcing the removal of proof of the evil doing is just one more flagrant demonstration of the Progress-of.

One Thing Will Save Our Republic

I posted this as a comment to Victor Davis Hanson's Thoughts from the Later Republic. I wrote it because so many other commentators were comparing Obama to Caesar, Pompey, Marius, etc.

51. Pascal (the derivative):

The significant similarity between Rome and US lay in our cultural decline and ossification of our institutions.

The significant disparity between Rome and US lay in that its leaders were also generals that had armies loyal to themselves, whilst our leaders are hardly close to the stature of any of theirs.

Our army, while ostensibly loyal to the constitution that is fundamental to our republic and not to any man, which sadly has declined along with our other institutions due to political inroads like affirmative action, PC, and long-standard CYA, could unseat any of our string of Marian-like socialists (Bush being the lite precursor to the heavy-handed Obama). But there really is no mechanism for them to do so without due process, and that is not likely coming from a gaggle of like-minded weak legislators and justices.

And Marius was deposed by Sulla, his long-standing fellow patrician-general but mortal enemy. Where oh where do we have anyone akin to Sulla politically let alone militarily?

No. No. NO! This is not the late Roman Republic. We will not get a temporary respite from a Marius/Obama socialist because we lack for a potential dictator/general like Sulla.

Now, you may say, but what if we could elevate a stately man into the more benign Cincinnatus dictator style of the early republic?

Sorry, Cincinnatus reigned as temporary dictator (twice) to repel external invaders, while Sulla had to overcome perfidy from the inside, which is more our situation. A scenario better fitting of a Cincinnatus would require that Islamo-fascist terrorism is anywhere akin to Parthia (who obliterated Crassus and his army) by the simple-minded proxy that contemporary Iran's locale is ancient Parthia, and the denial that traitors within our republic do not exist.

In my humble opinion — and very humble it is because I don’t see anyone here even giving me the time of day to respond in kind, let alone Dr. Hanson — the only thing that can save this republic short of a major upheaval is a major restoration of our great cultural heritage by majority agreement. Good luck with that project short of massive prayers that are miraculously answered.

IOW, short of divine intervention, we (~230 years) are on track for the appearance of our Imperator at a far faster rate than it took Rome (~500 years) to get there.

Radical Left = Sinister Wing

For the last few days I've taken to calling the radical left wing of our politics by the label – S I N I S T E R   W I N G – which they well deserve. It is guaranteed to be a label that namby-pamby "conservatives" will avoid out of fear of seeming gauche for stating the unpleasant reality.

With the deadly things that have happened under Marxism for the last hundred years, how can radicals – who still want to create a global government based on that proven deadliness – be thought of as not merely left but also sinister? It will be safer for all of us targeted-subjects to speak no longer of the Radical Left wing, but of the Sinister wing.

Please keep that in mind when you read the following comment I left at Eternity Road to an important Mark Alger thread a short while ago.

KG:

The danger from radical islam comes not from the shootings on home soil but from the insidious advance of this ideology by social means, by undermining the will to resist, by using our own institutions and insistence on freedom of religion and free speech to destroy our way of life.

Sinister-wing strategist Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals no. 4:

Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.

Any further questions? Please direct all who may have forgotten to this early warning (March 2004) from The Convergence of the Death Cults:

The signal danger of our era is that all the death cults, whether powered by pseudo-religious zeal, by Marxian economic nonsense, by environmentalist visions, or by the simple desire for power, are reaching out to one another. In their shared enterprise of subjecting Man to the will of an elite, they will suppress their parochial differences, at least until an inescapable yoke has been fastened upon us. -- Francis W. Porretto

The Radical Left has taken over the Democratic Party. They have been exceedingly and uncharacteristically accommodating to the most restrictive religion on the planet. That party now holds the reins of power in the Executive and Legislative branches of our government, and is still but a shaky (Kennedy) vote away from control of SCOTUS.

And the Justice Department is setting the stage to allow the planners of the 911 terrorist attacks to defend themselves with all the tricks I described in Victimoguery.

That is an awful lot of power in the hands of S I N I S T E R forces.

********Update: S I N I S T E R Media **********

Recovering from the Political Correctness Disease [Updated]

I was in the midst of writing what I consider an important essay titled "Reassessing Fundamentals" when news of the Fort Hood murders came to my attention.

Not only did I not finish it on 5 Nov, but I also had two other efforts I had started on 3 Nov and 1 Nov respectively with the revealing working titles "I'm sorry that I'm not completing my screeds," and "A Sign of Frustration."

I wasn't in a funk due to what was about to happen. No, I don't believe I was so clairvoyant this time. I was having difficulty because I feel that Orwell's warning, "the purpose of Newspeak is to destroy man's reasoning ability," required a more active counter-offensive. Before I could move on I wanted to reassess fundamentals of our language so that I could help lift the clouds on our minds.

Funny thing now that I consider it. Political Correctness is a form of Newspeak, with its inherent double-think of "better not say that." PC has long been in our schools and in our media (even much of "conservative" talk radio) and in most of all in our politicians. And now it is clearly at the very top of our military. It is what made the massacres at Fort Hood all that more inevitable -- and thus even more outrageous.

So I stopped writing what I was working on and moved around the web to add to the comments at various sites. I think I helped form thoughts at those places, and that's really what a writer hopes to achieve, gaining scarce credit or even no credit.

From the first my comments attacked the reports that had one voice after another calling the event a tragedy. I called it an outrage for a number of reasons, especially the gall of an army officer and presumed gentleman to act as if he were a cloaked spy; worse: an infiltrator bent on murdering enlisted men who were trained to respect and trust his rank. His act was so rank.

But in retrospect, as the role of the PC climate came to light, along with its diversity and multicultural aims, Political Correctness has finally begun to appear to be the worst element present. PC was the murdering Hasan's silent partner. Political Correctness was the institutional disease that was Hasan's great enabler.

That is the conclusion I hope all in America, the very many who still love her, will arrive at on their own. I give up trying to convince anyone who is viscerally unable to arrive at this same conclusion by using their own God-gifted commonsense . If commonsense and a core personal survival instinct cannot convince my fellow Americans, what chance do I have?

Here's how you will know when America is on the road to recovery from this disease. It could be very soon if Americans simply demand this first thing.

Even before Hasan is found guilty and executed, Political Correctness in our armed forces -- and all its concomitant poison -- must be executed long before he is.

*****Update*****

Michael Ramirez on Hasan's un-indicted co-conspirator downloaded from Townhall's archive.

The original ny post url image went bye-bye

For the Handful of People Smart Enough To Understand This, Not One of Whom Is "raygun"

They know how to bleat "death panels" with a guffaw, but haven't a clue that they're being led by Judas goats.

Thanks to Og for inspiring me to summarize his insight -- from our conversation.

Fair Warning to NY23

A combination of circumstances, attitudes on display, and personal experience compels me to offer this warning.

Expect widespread voter fraud in favor of the Democratic candidate for Congress, and expect the GOP to not only look the other way, but to obstruct any oversight, whether it be by Conservative Party leaders who have a candidate in this race (Doug Hoffman) or independents who wish to see some breaks in the lock the Democratic/Republican Parties have on everything from the electoral process to governing itself, or even lay Republicans dissatisfied with all leadership in DC.

I don't have a foolproof solution for you watchdogs. The best advice I can offer is to be very certain who you trust, and to watch your backs in any event. If your candidate is a good one, and you do the right things, at least you will feel Him by your side when push comes to shove.

USA Sovereignty: It's Been At Risk Since 1789

Last week I highlighted a segment of Lord Christopher Monckton's speech wherein he warned us of the threat to our sovereignty. Then I gave you a glimpse into how dismaying was his comment.

Since then Mark Vande Pol has put together a thorough review of how much treaty law affects our nation's constitution, and the federal power over the states and over our personal rights, the Bill of Rights notwithstanding.

In Patrick Henry, “Ratified”: The Treaty Power, Its Perils and Portents, Mr. Vande Pol (a recognized land restoration expert and author) provides us with several troubling observations and conclusions. One quite startling is:

Virtually every major Federal environmental law cites treaty law as its source of authority, simply because extending Federal police power within the States exceeds the enumerated powers the Federal government was granted in the Constitution.

He provides the records of the founding fathers during struggles to ratify our US Constitution so as to contrast for us the arguments between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. It was clear that the anti-federalists spotted the dangers inherent in the proposed constitution from the very start. Still, the Federalists poo-poohed those concerns, but not very convincingly, as shown. However, the forces clamoring to fix the then current financial crisis were so great that the majority of states representatives were willing to at least temporarily give power to foreign governments over how we governed ourselves as a form of guarantee for the loans they would then provide us (viz.: treaty law as the justification to pass federal taxes so as to repay national debt.)

Somehow, in all the years since 1789, the USA has never ratified an Amendment to our Constitution that would rescind that power of treaties. Not even after WW II when we were providing loans to the world through the Marshall Plan did we seek to amend that clause in our Constitution.

Mr. Vande Pol argues for and demonstrates what such an amendment would look like:

Whether to limit the treaty power in Article VI is one thing, but there should be NO disagreement about Amending Article II, Section 2, Clause2 of the Constitution as follows:

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present three quarters of the legislatures of the Several States concur;

Treaties operate at the Constitutional level. The same standard should apply to treaties as to amending the Constitution itself.

So this change at least goes a short way toward restoring some of the benefits of federalism without the bulk of its historic complications.

It is a very simple amendment that should brook no argument, so fire any representative who resists. It is that important.

He even provides us with this stunning observation:

"Now you know why George Bush’s administration was instituting programs to cut greenhouse gas emissions despite the fact that the Senate had rejected the Kyoto Protocols 98-0 -- Clinton had signed Kyoto."

I bet most of you are surprised to learn that. Mr Vande Pol shows it to be a consequence of another treaty ratified by the Senate in 1969 that allows the spirit of any international agreement signed by one of our Presidents to be followed even when our Senate fails to ratify the treaty.

This, my review of Mr Vande Pol's important work, is only a sketch. Please go and read the whole thing.

It will serve you and our nation to learn and understand how urgent it is that we prevail upon Mr. Obama not to sign the Copenhagen agreement. Copenhagen's provisions will be onerous far beyond what most all Americans have been informed.

We were woefully ill informed, that is, until today.

Thank you Mr Vande Pol.

Weathervane Politicians No More

Politicians have often been called weathervanes because "they move in the direction that the wind is blowing."

That remark was always meant to be disparaging because it implied that they would move in the direction that would get them reelected rather than the right direction.

Well, thanks to Lord Monckton, we have a new metaphor for the tendency of our politicians.

Lord Christopher Monckton speaks on October 14th, 2009 at a climate skeptic event sponsored by the Minnesota Free Market Institute. 

In the clip above, at about 1:28:40, after he quotes Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger pumping Global Warming, he says

"that's the traffic light tendency: they call themselves Green because they're too yellow to admit that they are really Reds."

Personally, I preferred them when they were more like weathervanes. There they exhibited more humility and tended to act more like public servants and less like rulers.

Will BHO Cede the USA to UN Authority?

What am I talking about?

“An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy,” -- Daniel Webster (1782–1852), arguing against the taxers in 17 U.S. 327 (1819), a fact conceded by US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall even as the court decided in favor of the taxers. More at the source.

Keep that in mind as you listen to this:


If you believe that there are many more big hurdles to overcome before BHO's signature becomes constitutionally binding law (putting aside what the UN thinks his signature means), and that we may still be relatively safe from foreign control since the Senate still would have to affirm it with a two thirds vote, or that your rights under the constitution are protected even if it passes, you are horribly misinformed.

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur. [emphasis added]

all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land;

There is a chance you still fail to see the imminent threat. The above extracts from the United States Constitution are fully sourced at Treaty Law: The Constitution's Original Trojan Horse. I urge you to go there and read it. You will find a clear discussion of the relevant consequences of how treaty laws have, in the past, superseded our constitution and your rights.

And remember that Supreme Court ruling at the top as BHO blithely signs that "global warmimg" treaty at Copenhagen in December.

Statist Tools: Victimoguery

Most of us are willing to live and let live.
They could care less as long as they get what they want.

If the media and its journalists and opinion writers were truly independent, this word, or one that means the same thing, would have been invented long before now. Also, add this to the reasons for doubting that those whom we have accepted as  "leaders" of the Right opposing Statism are all that we need them to be. In that we are lacking leadership in this, I have stepped in to fill the vacuum.

Yesterday I spoke of one of the Statist tools that are used to divide us that I call tripwires. I went on to explain that there are phonies out there who act wounded by pretending that a tripwire has gone off and harmed them. I saw that they deserve special scrutiny. Every day that we lack focus on what it is they are doing, that is another day we permit them to continue their charlatanry. It is another day they succeed in stirring the pot of divisiveness. I referred to them yesterday, for want of a better word, as professional victims. I simply could not think of a word that accurately described these despicable people.

So I turned to my old friend, Francis W Porretto of Eternity Road, to see if he could provide me with the word. He quickly likened the scenario to which I'm referring to that of a professional staked goat. I interpreted that his simile suggests one who makes their living as bait to entrap an innocent target who has the misfortune to say or do anything with or related to them. He promised me he would think about it. That was days ago. When Fran cannot come up with a word, I am pretty confident it does not yet exist.

So here we are.

I am proposing to call such highwaymen, victimogues. They are either the setters and beneficiaries of such traps or the goats who bait themselves.  

victimogue (vik' tih mog): from victim + demagogue; one who masquerades as a victim and exploits the alleged harm in order to achieve personal gain. In the process they create real victims of the individuals, institutions, or whole communities who have been ensnared by the victimogue. Their practice is called victimoguery (vik' tih mog' uh ree).

Although I do not remember the names of the principals involved, I recall an incident from a few years ago that provides an outrageous example – or at least it was outrageous then. One man, upon hearing the word niggardly used properly to describe cheapening behavior, reacted as if the speaker had said the N word, and his reaction, though mistaken, still subsequently cost the bewildered speaker his job.

It is not clear who played out the incident to its despicable end. Someone involved acted as a demagogue, making a mountain out of a molehill, and rode out the incident to the extent that it made the speaker a victim of political correctness. Whether it was the reactor who played the victim or it was the speaker’s boss who chose to see the listener as a victim in order find cause to fire his employee, this is an example of what I propose we call victimoguery. 

Someone who discovers that some words used by others can grant them sudden and great power, and then chooses to ride it out despite a commonsensical explanation that should have ended the issue, that person is acting as a victimogue, and deserves as much societal reproof as any demagogue.

In insurance fraud cases, there are people who have been known to throw themselves into the path of cars and subsequently sue the actual victim of the staged event. Frequently the perpetrator is allied with a lawyer and a doctor to carry out the scam to the detriment of the real victim, all while playing the victim himself. It often takes a lot of detective work to uncover a racket ring like that. But the victimogue often employs his shtick in the broad daylight, counting on political correctness to stifle any support for the real victim.

This has gone on for so long because our media has not served its purpose and cried foul when indeed it is a foul deed. Instead they give one of the biggest perpetrators a slot on FNC. I doubt that is the kind of "fair and balanced" that Fox's favorable viewers have in mind.

Their "success" -- that is lack of real resistance -- led to this travesty inflicted upon Rush Limbaugh that really harms all of us. If Rush can be harmed simply by orchestrated charades and the perpetrators suffer no consequences again, what's to stop them from harming any of us? The victimogues couldn't make hay with what he really says. They resorted to libeling him with false reports of him uttering the type of words that keeps victimogues in business.

So I decided a word for their practice finally needed to be coined so their game could begin to be shut down. Had this been done sooner, the opinion of an Al Sharpton would carry no weight at all.

To aid us from allowing such nasty people to continue to acquire any degree of respect, our culture needs a special pejorative name that aids us in quickly identifying them. Whether anyone takes up my suggestion, victimogue, or chooses another more eloquent, I pray it be done. Such people need a name for their chosen profession so that everybody understands how damaging they are to comity. Most of us are willing to live and let live; they could care less as long as they get what they want.

Statist Tools: Tripwires

• "The evil Boosh. Bush is responsible for everything bad according to you."
• "STOP with the death panels stuff. It's just not true."
• "You third party boosters are nothing more than Democrat shills."
• "Sarah Palin? [Sneering laughter] My God man, there's nothing more you can tell me." [Walks out]

I suspect I am not alone in hearing similar exhortations erupt in the midst of an otherwise reasonable discussion. In each instance that I heard these, what I would call a "tripwire" had been triggered. What are tripwires? Where did they come from? What may be done about them?

In the incidents above, the tripwires were, respectively:

• The first mention of any of GWBush’s errors (reaction from a variety of conservatives who’ve been conditioned by the untrue attacks on W to defend him for nearly everything);
• After receiving a news story about QALY (reaction from a captive of the statist media);
• After anyone threatens to leave the GOP unless its leadership stops demonizing lower party members (reaction from a party hack);
• Any mention of Sarah Palin (reactions by any Dem and many RINOs).

When, upon hearing some words or phrases, a listener launches into a rant or other unbridled action, we may say metaphorically that the words acted as a tripwire.

As with someone who triggers the tripwire of an antipersonnel mine, most people who are set off by a tripwire (the 'sploder if you will), or a speaker who inadvertently sets one off (the tripper), are not pleased with the result.

But what of those who gain from the tripwires being triggered? Are they simply the beneficiaries of the tripwires naturally sprouting up as do weeds after spring rains, or do they have some role in setting or keeping the tripwires in place?

Deliberately speaking such words in the presence of a listener known to respond explosively is clearly a ploy that is seeking a repeat of that explosion.

• In the case of a joker, we see it done purely for entertainment, especially when applied to someone known to be strung too tightly.
• In the case of a trainer, the reason is to callous the listener so that they become inured to hearing the words.
• The more Machiavellian hit tripwires to derail the listener from whatever course or thought in which they are presently engaging.
• The worst are demagogues who use them to enrage mobs.

Those who engage in such manipulations can clearly be seen as provocateurs or, at the very least, tools of provocateurs. So clearly, some people gain from the setting and maintaining tripwires.

Then there are those who respond angrily to some words, as if the words were their tripwires. They aim to cause many speakers to curb their speech in the interest of maintaining comity or avoiding sanctions. Such a manipulator may become known as a censor or tool of a censor. Clearly, such people enjoy a degree of power from this situation than they would otherwise experience. So they benefit to from the setting and maintaining of tripwires.

Included in this group would be those who we should recognize carry around a chip on their shoulder and are ever ready to respond to any utterance that even vaguely sounds like a tripwire. For lack of a better word now, let's call them professional victims. I will provide an example of this tomorrow because this is a special case that may be the source of great damage to our society. At any rate, this sort of person helps provide justification for the promulgation of the tripwires and thereby aiding both the of the two previous types who set and maintain the trips.


Conclusion:

I have provided but a few examples of what I call tripwires and their consequences. You probably have more than a few of your own. You may call them hot-button items instead. Consider sharing some of yours in the comments. What is important to recognize is that our society has been put on edge by these items. And who is the primary culprit who has pressed them upon us by constant repetition of issues and items that promulgate them? Why it’s the media that most of us – as revealed by their financial collapse – have learned to mistrust in the extreme.

If you wish to be able to join with your fellow Americans to counter the Statist push we all recognize at least to some degree, you have got to find ways, train yourself if needed, to stop from exploding when someone trips your wires or pushes your hot-buttons.

Don’t let the scoundrels win. They who constantly lay landmines that harm our society and culture will continue to succeed until you get wise to their manipulation of you and your neighbors. Get together with your neighbors and discuss how it is that tripwires exist and shed light upon each and every one you can perceive.

Each tripwire is a little thing. Uncovering them one at a time will help you keep from triggering them and maybe, hopefully, defuse the bomb-like issues that divide us to begin with. Any success from each small but cumulative effort will serve you and America very well.

Memory Hole 101: Obama Worship Hidden Away for Now

********* UPDATE 10/17/09 to my post Not til 1909 published 9/24/09***********

The notorious "mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm, Barack Hussein Obama" School-Children Indoctrination Worship Song was blocked. Little doubt this was due to the extreme embarrassment it brought the President just as the heat from a previous gaffe had cooled. The poor baby was just recovering from the grief he brought on himself with his outrageous "I am God's Partner in matters of life and death" declaration that had been overheard and reported when this worship session turned up on the Internet.

So here is a new version of the video. If anyone notices that this one is also removed, please inform me. Thanks.

As If In Answer to a Prayer

I apologize for my extended absence. I have not abandoned my pledge, going back to early July, to increase my participation in the fight. I had good reason for silence -- I was seeking advice from some knowledgeable and talented friends before publishing about what I consider to be a very important issue.

A couple of days ago an idea struck me as if in answer to this prayer.

Dear Lord, lead us in the paths that will thwart those who divide us.

Since I still call myself agnostic, this probably is no miracle, but more like a sudden awakening to a purpose. However, it may be proper for you to offer thanks to Him should you find my efforts at all beneficial.

I began putting together what may be a multi-part essay, but I am trying to keep it to a single entry and powerful. I'm told that much of what I'm writing about is not really new. However, I've searched for others who have dealt with the topic, and I don't see anyone suggesting that you might consciously take note and do something about it, and for you to seek out and get help from others who are like minded.

If I complete it soon, it will be the next entry in my series "Statist Tools."