Monthly Archives: September 2019

The United States and Saudi Arabia are busy traipsing around the site of the attack by Houthi forces, and of course we know that they are looking for a way to connect the attack to Iran. We also know what the outcome will be: some piece of evidence planted at the scene will be used to point the finger at Iran. It will be paraded around corporate news broadcasts, New York Times “think pieces” will be written, and the Political Class will speak as one voice: “It must be war”. It has happened so much during the past two decades that there is no way to trust its accuracy. Each war that the U.S. has launched since 2001 has been preceded by fabricated evidence. From Iraq, to Libya, Syria, etc., it is painfully clear that the U.S. and its twin satellites of Israel and Saudi Arabia will do anything to get a war going. How does anyone take seriously this garbage anymore? If Iran is attacked, it will be a crime against the human race. It will be the mass murder of the innocent people of a beautiful culture, who have already had to suffer at the hands of U.S. imperialism for years through sanctions, but also through various petty acts designed to inconvenience and embarrass the nation.

Let’s be clear: the Houthis attacked Saudi Arabia because the Saudi’s have been committing a genocide in Yemen for several years with the aid of the U.S. military. It’s called blowback, and it is the logical outcome of murdering innocents abroad. Considering the depth of the evil committed against Yemen, the Saudi attack is probably mild compared to what might come in the future.  But the reason for the attack is easy to understand.

The crime soon to be committed against Iran does not have to happen. Those soon to die don’t need to. They can be spared, so why won’t they? That goes for Iranians, Americans, Saudis, and Israelis. But because the latter three have decided that their tripartite rule over the Mideast is too valuable to allow and independent, albeit peaceful, nation like Iran to exist without punishment. So punishment will be meted out, many will die, and the dragon’s teeth sown will produce another two decades of continuous war.

It will not be a cakewalk. As bad as Iraq was, this will be far worse. The United States will be an invading force yet again, but the death toll will be far higher. It might be a war with real casualties here at home. Americans think wistfully and romantically about war, because those wars are never fought within their borders. That would probably change during a war with Iran, but once that happens, once American citizens are dying on American soil at the hands of foreign power, it will long be too late to cease the conflict.

From the Washington Examiner.

Hair loss drug, Propecia, allegedly induces suicidal thoughts, sexual dysfunction, depression, and weight gain in the men who took it, according to over 1,100 lawsuits filed around the U.S. Merck had apparently known years ago of the risks, but downplayed them or hid them from the public altogether. The documents in one case were sealed by the judge, a tragically common practice in product liability cases. From Reuters:

“Such court-sanctioned secrecy has become the lethal norm in product-liability litigation in the United States. As Reuters reported in June, judges in large product-liability cases routinely seal evidence relevant to public health and safety. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Americans have been killed or seriously injured by allegedly defective products — cars, drugs, guns, medical devices — while evidence that could have alerted consumers and regulators to potential danger remained under seal.”

Having used the same iPhone 6s for several years, I felt like a veritable geezer upon opening the gleaming iPhone 11 earlier today. It’s a beautiful machine, and yet I distrust it. Upon powering up, it was too happy to greet me, to eager to import my data, to scan my face, file and categorize my location and patterns, to let me know just what all it is capable of. Built-in facial recognition doesn’t instill confidence. The knowledge that my phone is always looking for me, and when my face pops up, the phone unlocks. The seemingly intelligent removal of my autonomy is slightly unnerving. I’ve since placed a tiny star sticker over the front camera, and set up a password to unlock the phone. I like passwords as a protector of gadgets, not fingerprint IDs for face scans. Passwords feel far more secure, and they allow at the very least my delusion that I’m more in control.

The rapid advance of this technology makes me feel, strangely, like this gadget is getting more from me than I from it. I don’t like that feeling. I also feel like this type of technological advance is more of a detour than a true advance. The gadget itself radiates tech addiction. Everything is too easy, too much at your fingertips, no dis-utility, no effort to complete various tasks.

It has Microsoft Word. With a bluetooth keyboard, this thing becomes a portable computer. I can write blog posts or articles and submit them, all from this phone. I can easily find and read every bit of news and opinion I want to. I can save articles offline for later reading, I can download and read entire books.And I have a feeling that this phone is cataloging every single thing I do with it, building a virtual file on me, and doing it far better than any Stazi or KGB snoop ever could.

I don’t like the feeling that this small device could subtly, yet significantly, alter my future in some way without my being aware of it. Even if it consists of the alteration of habits of thought. I can’t seem to pin down just why I distrust it so. And yet I will use it.

Saudi Arabia has wanted a war with Iran for years, they just don’t want to be the ones to fight it. The Israelis have wanted a war with Iran for years, they just don’t want to be the ones to fight it. What they want instead is a situation so rare that it has probably happened less than a handful of times in human history: a proxy war, but with the proxy being the largest, most powerful government on the planet. Proxy wars usually consist of the reverse: a powerful government funds and directs smaller bands of rebels to attack their enemies. Our situation would be unique, and uniquely pathetic. Our military doesn’t exist to fight another nation’s conflicts. Saudi Arabia is a totalitarian, fundamentalist hellhole. One that it currently butchers the civilians of neighboring Yemen.

Both the Saudis and the Israelis want the United States to fight this war. Our government would be roped into expending American lives and American dollars at their behest in an open-ended conflict. Saudi Arabia, nor its oil, is worth neither.

The Hill: Tillerson: Netanyahu “played” Trump with misinformation

Electronic Frontier Foundation: Big Tech’s disingenuous push for a federal privacy law 

Activist Post: Facebook to launch ‘independent Supreme Court’ body to monitor its content

The Federalist: If vaping is banned, millions of Americans will needlessly die

Antiwar.com: Despite assurances, 30 Afghan farm workers killed in drone strike

Reason: Cop accused of stealing over $225,000 can’t be sued thanks to qualified immunity

Vice:The private surveillance system that tracks car nationwide

Bodycam catches cop planting drugs during traffic stops:

Off topic, but I can’t be the only one to feel something Homeric about Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns. Morricone’s angelic music, the desolate beauty of the Italian vistas, the raw amplified depiction of elemental human emotion and drive. The Italians arguably did westerns better than their American progenitors, probably due to a rich poetic and musical heritage that American film producers lacked. This penultimate scene was filmed at Sad Hill cemetery in northern Spain:

The main point of my column at the Libertarian Institute: Vaccine Mandates Are the Antithesis of Liberty

Paralyze the public with fear, declare that disaster is imminent unless we pass various pieces of tyrannical legislation, brand critics as “un-American” or threats to public safety, engage in witch hunts in justify the fear-mongering, etc. These are all the tactics that were used to sell the War on Terror to the American public, and they are now used to sell vaccine mandates. It doesn’t matter to anyone that cool-headed, rational facts never enter the conversation, once the emotions of the public have been hijacked.

The immediate goal of those who oppose vaccine mandates should be to hold back mandates long enough for enough members of the public to stumble out of the manufactured hysteria and listen to facts, which more are doing. It’s difficult for even a government to sustain a climate of fear, particularly if the fear is baseless. That’s why government tries to pass as many laws as possible when the fear is at its height. Governments understand that in a few weeks or months, no one will buy the “sky is falling” act.

This debate between comic Dave Smith and Libertarian Party Chair Nicolas Sarwark was fascinating to listen to in that Sarwark seems to personify all the reasons that the Libertarian Party has failed to achieve anything over the past 10 years, even while buffeted by Ron Paul’s enormously successful twin presidential campaigns. Paul didn’t win, but he woke millions to the philosophy of liberty, myself included. Dave has maintained the energy of the passionate “soldier of liberty” that we all felt back then, and it comes across in his demeanor. Watch the entire debate and witness Dave’s utter dismantling of Sarwark and the strategy of the national Libertarian Party as it stands: