The Freedom Search

Last March, the State of Utah passed the Legal Tender Act, thus making it legal to allow payments using gold and silver coins minted in the US.

After that, other 12 states passed similar bills, and returning the US into a gold backed economy gains support every day.

Thanks to this, residents of Utah will be able to use gold-backed Visa debit-cards:

This could come about through establishment and activation of a privately owned state depository that will accept (and value on a continual basis) gold and silver coins, including coins with high numismatic value. The holdings of an individual or business at the depository will provide the backing for dollar purchases run through the Visa debit card, but could work equally well for precious-metal-backed Visa purchases abroad, denominated in foreign currencies.

Read the complete story at Human Events: Utah spurs gold rush.

On my daily feed round I came across this, from The Atlantic: Time to panic about federal debt limit.

It starts comparing american economy to an airplane with engine problems

just barely maintaining altitude above the tree line. Although the plane is holding its own, if almost anything else goes wrong, it will crash.

And then ends with demands of more “stimulus”. Well, american economy (and we should include most of european contries, specially greek, portuguese and, oh yeah, spanish) are like an airplane… not with engine, but with FUEL problems.

Flying in circles only does one thing: it keeps spending fuel. Being aware that fuel quantity is always limited (btw, are not the same people warning us about peak oil?), the pilots should stop wandering and start looking for a piece of land to bring the plane down and get everyone (The People) out the plane safely.

If pilots keep rounding and rounding, demanding increase the debt ceiling (aka asking for a refill), the only thing that could will happen will be that the plane WILL spend all the fuel, and it will crash, and there will be casualties.

No more stimulus, no more bailouts, no more bullshit.

Recently we got new computers. I named mine “Jeff”, in a tribute to Thomas Jefferson.

From one of my late discoveries, Ilana Mercer, I would like to share her today’s article, A July Fourth toast to Tomas Jefferson—and the Anglo-Saxon tradition.

Jefferson, in particular, was adamant about the imperative “to be watchful of those in power,” a watchfulness another Whig philosopher explained thus: “Considering what sort of Creature Man is, it is scarce possible to put him under too many Restraints, when he is possessed of great Power.”

“As Jefferson saw it,” expounds Mayer, “the Whig, zealously guarding liberty, was suspicious of the use of government power,” and assumed “not only that government power was inherently dangerous to individual liberty but also that, as Jefferson put it, ‘the natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.’”

To be watchful of those in power has been one of the issues since Greeks invented democracy. However, failing to do so can lead to the very situation Greece is facing now, and even worse, to any totalitarian regime, which could rise up ‘legally’ and with a tremendous applause if we incur in dereliction of our civic duties of being watchful of those in power.

But anyway, let’s make a toast to the venerable Thomas, whose Declaration of Independence was published and read aloud 235 years ago.

To Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

PS: David McGregor, from Sovereign Life, wrote an essay named “July 4: a promise betrayed” sometime ago, but it’s worth reading today.

Did you ever thought what is under the “Police State” expression? Well, some days ago I found this on BoingBoing, a video in which a police officer arrest a woman in her yard (illegal trespassing?) simply for being there with a camera.

I thought that guy was insane.

Today, thanks to a hint, I discovered this:

Seriously, there’s something really fucked up with these so called ‘law and order’ officers.

Watch the whole pack of videos in Police: the largest gang in America. I couldn’t.

If anyone has seen international news the last three days, it will probably noticed some rumor about the Spanish Revolution.

All this movement comes from a ‘grasroots’ activism movement started after Congress passed the Internet Control Bill, designed to split the bipartisanship which made possible the bill. The movement is called “No les votes” (don’t vote them).

Some days before, all spanish websites offering links to movies and tv series organised a blackout to protest against that law, which will punish them really hard. It was Sunday afternoon, and half the country started their computers to find a good movie to finish the weekend. They saw a black screen, and only then started moving.

Another ‘grassroots’ movement named “Democracia real ya” (Real democracy now) set a rally in the main Spanish cities for last Sunday, with the motto “Toma la calle” (Take the street). After the demonstration, some people decided to stay and camp at Puerta del Sol in Madrid, and Plaça Catalunya in Barcelona, both neuralgic centers of the two main cities.

And this is where the fun began: assembly was called, and everything was to be voted. Then came night, and after night, came the police and disbanded the camping at Madrid.

After that, another rally was called for Tuesday afternoon at Puerta del Sol, and the demonstrations and camp settings started to grow all around the country. People started to mass-tweet about the situation, and to compare it with the arab revolts in Tunisia and Egypt. “Spanishrevolution” came to be trending topic on twitter, and some movements started to avoid another police raid, claiming the right of reunion.

A legal note was written, so those camping could deliver it to the authorities and avoid the raids from the police. And this is where the fun continued: the sovereign assembly voted not to deliver the note, and to face the risk of another police raid.

This ‘grassroots’ movement is nothing more than the reaction. It has nothing to do with the arab revolts, despite it was all organized and ‘broadcasted’ using twitter. This is not a ‘distributed’ revolution, because all is dancing around a central node called The Assembly in the name of Real Democracy. All those old enough will agree that an Assembly is the least democratic body of all.

More over, the Assembly is demanding Real Democracy in the form of the old times socialism: more intervention, more regulation, more subsidies… get back to the condition pre-crisis, back in 2007.

But here are good points in this protest. For the first time, a movement started within the Internet has reached the street.

As I said at the beginning, it started after the passing of the Internet Censorship Law by the Socialist, Conservatives and Catalan nationalists.

Unrest rang some bells and people went, finally, to the streets. And this is, I repeat, good. Healthy. Now The People are on the street, all around the country. But again they are demanding a “good movie to end the week”, a week of work (or lack of work and subsidy) to pay the mortgage of their construction-bubble hyper-inflated home.

This ‘witty’ demand has more to do with reality than it should. There are no real demands. No objectives. No points. Just… “indignation” and “unrest”. TV and media, after a day and a half of blacking out the protest, started to speak about “the outraged campers“.

This is no revolution. This is an intention to step back three years, to the good old days when everyone was happy to be studying to become a public servant for life, a perfectly safe workplace, with perfectly safe privileges. We face a protest. Less more.

A year ago I was writing about the possible future of the European Union, starting with Greece’s bailout and ending with a prediction of what could be happening in Spain.

I depicted an hypothetic dark future for the country, developing in autumn 2010. Well, autumn passed, and so did winter, and now spring came… and the possible scenario went worse than advised.

After Greece, Ireland was bailed out, and within past two weeks, Portugal has been on the edge, falling out yesterday, at last.

All sources tell that Spain is different. That Spain won’t need any bailout, because is doing the homework. Let me explain that homework.

Unemployment rates hiked up 0.8% in march, to reach more than 4.3 million. The highest record, doubling since the start of the financial crisis back in late 2007-2008.

The rating of Spanish debt became so awful that only its issuer, this is the Government of Spain, wants to buy it. And indeed bought it! Using 80% of the money for, allegedly, paying worker’s future retirements. That’s a nice ponzi scheme, isn’t it?

Spanish baking system was bailed out back in late 2008. Construction sector, the top responsible for the enormous burst, has been also bailed out. Now, the banks are asking more money, and it will be granted.
And all of this will be paid (is intended to be) with tax-money…

Spanish government, circumventing the Parliament, passed the Sustainable Economy Bill, thus opening the door for internet monitoring and arbitrary disconnection of users, in order to fight piracy. It also passed the Law on equal treatment and Non Discrimination and some other totalitarian crap. This made the Spanish blogosphere boiling and there are some campaigns asking “Do not vote them”, mentioning corruption on political parties, etc…

After all this, Spanish PM, Mr Zapatero, told the world he won’t be racing for re-election, but he stays until finishing his term next year. Next candidate (which will be elected in a primaries), will not be responsible at all for any of this turmoil and crapping out of the country, and all will be fine to start a new propaganda campaign for 2012.
The other major party, Popular Party, sees how the polls gives them almost absolute majority.

Both parties started to agree self-assuring policies: Spamish MP can retire after 7 years’ service at the parliament, getting 100% of their retirement monies (casual workers have to retire at 67, after at least 20 years of work, and it’s not clear they will perceive anything due to the ponzi scheme depicted above).
Spain’s local councils will be elected next May 22nd. Both parties agreed not to talk about the other party corruption issues, despite (or shoud I say ‘because’?) both parties are presenting corrupt candidates, many of them under current trial processes, to this election.

All of this makes anyone to be, at least, suspicious about the predictions of Spanish Finance Minister and/or government, the same whom years ago said that “there was absolutely nothing named ‘financial crisis’ or anything alike”, the same whom dared to say that Spain was out of that inexistent crisis because they fore-casted the GDP to rise 0.1%… and after all went down again. The same whom were talking about achieving an employment rate of 100%, but only achieved an unemployment rate of 20%…

Spain is different indeed. And as it happened with Greece, Ireland and Portugal, three countries which did not needed any bailout at all whatsoever, they all requested it at the end. And so it will happen with Spain. The later, the worse.

Buddhism is a peculiar religion. I was interested in it years ago, and found that it was an atheist religion. But even without any visible gods, it’s just ‘fun’ to see how the western minds embrace this far east system… and how those minds get screwed and interpret everything, thus creating a brand new religion: Middle-Class Buddhism.

Middle-Class Buddhism is the perfect socialist religion:

1. The ultimate goal is to achieve the Nirvana and exit the karma wheel: the end of reincarnation.
2. You were born in this world due to karma, some cosmic energy based on your past actions.
3. Being born in this plane is more a punishment. That’s: you are guilty.
4. We all came to this plane of existence to suffer.
5. The path to end self suffering is to seek pleasure for the others.
6. You are guilty.
   1. You are guilty of your own birth.

For those not knowing, Nirvana is the supreme state, in which one becomes selfless (literally), finding the fusion with the whole, and thus exiting the karma wheel. This is, finally, the end of existence. No more reincarnation. The vacuum. The nothing. Void. Zero.

In order for them to become zero, middle-class buddhists must enjoy looking for others’ ‘sentient’ creatures well being. Become an herbivore is strongly advised. Also to work for others, help others, forget about oneself and act purely in an altruist way. The way of the Bodhisattva.

This figure is the supreme middle-class / socialist character. One that completely refuses to achieve the Void in order to help others get there. Nice, huh? Somewhat similar to the ‘more equal’ people, but real working middle-class buddhist.

The Bodhisattva cares so much about all the others, is so compassionate, that even rejects, refuses and postpones the achieving the Supreme Zero, so he/she/it can work even more for all other sentient beings. To help them realizing that this whole world is a complete illusion, and that the only real thing is that nothing exists, just one big fat and great Zero, without even a zero-shape.
And this is done through positive emotions like joy, devotion, gratitude and enthusiasm… even when Buddhism itself encourages to get rid of emotions. Because emotions lead us to suffer, so we must work more for the collective well being.

Oh, and speaking of devotion, you just have to see the huge devotionalism of middle-class buddhists when dealing with their gurus. The guru knows it all, because he is aware. Because he cares. And he cares so much, that he choses first not to depart from this illusion-world, in order to help us, allowing us to work for him, please him, bring him food and presents, thus letting us to be aware too. Because he cares.
And then you have middle-class buddhists arguing publicly about who is the more aware (aka who is the most rightfully person to work for the guru).

As you see, middle-class buddhism is the perfect solution to those aware. It gets you more awareness and even more, allows you to build a franchise in order to help other people being more aware… by letting them volunteer for your ‘charity’ projects!

And now I must go to the bathroom to read the paper, so if you’ll excuse me…

Ever wondered what’s all about the Earth’s Hour®? Where it came from? What is the purpose of it?

I’m starting my first book where I will explain the roots of eco-fascism. Where it comes from, what are the ends and why must be stopped at all costs. For now, you can watch a clue and try to guess the answer to my first question:

Scary? Well, it gets even worse…

A few hundred years after the Renaissance, came the industrial revolution, the most important transformation of humanity since we decided to get off the fig tree. The industrial revolution brought, among other things, mechanized work. After the invention of the Spinning Jenny, a machine that wove multiple cotton threads simultaneously instead of only one, the growing demand for cotton in England could be fulfilled, though it cost to James Hargreaves, the inventor, the legendary clashes with the Luddites, lovers of manual work which implemented outsourcing of responsibilities to machines, instead of dedicating themselves to renew their workshops in order to keep their jobs.

Another major contribution of the industrial revolution was the railroad, which allowed to connect remote and distant places, and develop new concepts and ideas that a Scotsman named Adam Smith had written years earlier.

But after the industrial revolution, came another era of obscurantism: the Victorian era. Victorianism is basically defined by its moral, or rather, for its double moral standards. While the German Queen of England made the tablecloths from the tables of his palace to reach the ground, thus men did not see the legs of the table which could remind the legs of a woman, erotic shows made with children were the main attraction in London.
While it was incredibly un-correct, and even posed a grave offence, mentioning the word “pants” in front of a lady, more than 2000 prostitutes roamed the streets of London enjoying the latest trends in infectious diseases: tuberculosis.

Victorianism praised Gothic, considering it the height and the summit of art in general, neglecting classicism as a form of standardization, and symbolizing its aversion of the progress meant by the Industrial Revolution. John Ruskin, writer and art critic with an unusual appreciation for beauty in 10 year old girls, was the main supporter of this thesis.

But the Victorian double moral standards posed even a major change. And this was the shift from a moral self, who remained at home, into another public morality that should be modest, aseptic, asexual and cloying, moralizing gooey which turned into conventions and measures of distraction of all the putrid scent and to justify the pile of shit and rot that was that society, which still publicly condemned the legs of tables and mentioning of “pants” in front of a lady, while turning a blind eye (or enjoying) to paedophiles and hideous monsters.

Finally, Victorianism and its perfumes brought their own contributions. Jack the Ripper, the first modern serial murderer, and electromechanical vibrators, which were used to treat the second fashion disease, female hysteria, caused by another great Victorian model: that of women who self-denied their own passions and desires. Vibrators helped in the tedious “pelvic massage” therapy, designed to induce “hysterical paroxysm”… that women were to cum wildly.

But apart from the serial sex murderers, electromechanical vibrators and political correctness, Victorianism also had their cultural contributions by hand of the happy and colourful novels of Charles Dickens, Jane Austen or Bram Stoker, joint with Lewis Carroll, Oscar Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle’s cocaine addict detective, Sherlock Holmes.

At the end of the day, so much poverty, sexual diseases, murders and steam-punk vibrators aroused somewhat ‘awareness’ movement, specially in some upper-class bores who had nothing else to do than to ‘care about’ others. Although this happened always in history, the improvements in communication infrastructures made it easier for them to be in touch.

Wilhelm Hegel (raised in the court of the Duke of Württemberg), Claude Henri de Rouvroy (better known as the cunt de Saint-Simon), Friederich Engels (son of a wealthy German cotton manufacturer) and Karl Marx (son of a middle-class and relatively prosperous lawyer and ex-rabbi, owning several Moselle vineyards) started to care about all those social problems of their time, and write about them. They successively formed a compendium of all things social, gaining momentum with Marx’s Capital and The Communist Manifesto, both written in german, by two germans, and both being books talking about the problems of England.

By the way, Germany was the country where, finally, socialism was sublimed, with the rise to power of the best-known dictator of all history, although he was not the most maniac, cruel or bloodthirsty.

After the storm it came the sun, Victorianism diluted… until now…

To be continued…

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Theoretically, going ahead into the future means to move forward. Evolve. Get better. Abandon outdated concepts and structures for other things more efficient, fair and equitable (not equal).
But there are different moments in history when the movement, instead of forward, has gone backwards.

One of them, perhaps the most spectacular, was the advent of the Dark Ages or Middle Ages.
The successive invasions of barbarians just ended up finishing off the decline that was already in vogue in Rome. People had stopped reading. Knowledge was not being transmitted properly and, therefore, was finally forgotten and tucked away in some temples, being somehow rescued by some responsible people.
The emergence of Christianity, which in its early days was devoted primarily to destroy pagan temples and burn furniture, caused the loss of much of ancient knowledge. On the other hand, it later helped in some way to its preservation, but not its spreading, in the famous libraries like the one Eco describes in The Name of the Rose.

On the other hand, the emergence of large rural ‘villae’ encouraged what, at first glance, it seemed a good idea: the owners, drowned by the huge tax burden of the empire, began to rent their land to free citizens who could make a living from the land instead of having to suffer living in urban environments, while landlords could pay taxes and get on with life.

But time passed, the tax burden continued to rise and rental contracts began to harden even more. Until it reached a point where those former free workers were tied, by contract, to the land they worked, without the possibility of breaking that contract and go to seek new horizons, and thus secured the landowners to pay taxes to the governors.
This, together with the appearance of barbaric vandalism and the expansion of the new religion, gave birth to feudalism and its medieval aberrations.

The new religion was able to seize the momentum to expand and impose its dogmas. Among them was the imposition of a moral depravity by which the ecclesiastical elites justified their excesses with the excuse that God wanted it (Deus vult!), while former tenants became serfs tied to the land of the Lord in the earth plane, with many numbers in the lottery to go to the terrible hell, like the one described in the frescoes of the cathedral of Albi (click to view detail), if they did not met the requirements. Living servants, slaves for eternity.

The public morals of the dark ages was based on guilt, in the “do not do such a thing if you do not want to spend eternity in flames,” where “this thing” was equivalent to any small action that the Church considered harmful. Since sin of thought to hide a turnip to feed the family.

This system of public morals promoted major characters like Thomas de Torquemada, who used that guilt to create a self-monitoring and betrayal control system: The pious God-fearing Christians should be watchful of faith and reveal any heretic who would endanger real faith … at risk of burn forever themselves if they failed in their duty …

The loss of knowledge, the emergence of feudalism and the new moral system based on guilt are the defining features of the Dark Ages, which slowly disappeared with the advent of the Renaissance, culminating with the return of those who preserved the ancient knowledge migrating eastward to the Eastern Empire.

(Continues)

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