Strike The Root Blog

The barrel is still aimed at Iran:

Tyrants always seem to find common ground:

The mind and soul must be kept anesthetized to follow any order:

Chicken crap for brains- #1 cause of environmental hysteria:

The two headed monster that has become Britain and the US:

“See You at the Pole,” where no attempt is made to explain the confusing dichotomy of pledging allegiance to a pagan symbol (flag) AND a God.

Not everyone is warm to the idea of still more of our money to murder in our name:

Playin’ it safe- just in case of “like father, like son…….

From the Washington City Paper:

“Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

“Open the door!”

Neighbors are gathering in their front yards. Soon, an officer appears around the side of Terrell’s apartment, gripping him by the wrist. A lady down the street yells something unintelligible.

“F*** you,” Terrell shouts and jabs the middle finger of his free hand in the air toward the lady. Then he’s in the back seat of a cruiser, sticking his feet out so the officer can’t close the door. ”

What’s Terrell’s crime? Being too fat. Here’s the fascinating story of an increasingly desperate young black man whose eluding the “fat police.” Meanwhile, the courts, social services and the police wring their hands as the young man grows increasingly contemptuous of their determination to slim him down. The entire article here.

911: Press for the Truth: A great source of information. Watch the persistent, wonderfully bright Widows of 911 press corrupt politicians for answers. See Paul Thompson put together his brilliant 911 Timeline that exposes the government lies and the complicity of most of the major media. Learn how the 911 Commission Report is a fraud.

The Magdalene Sisters: Enjoy two hours of watching representatives of the Catholic cult enslave and abuse 30,000 women. Makes you just want to hug a nun.

The Sea Inside: True story about a paraplegic man in Spain who wants to peacefully end his life. A choice scene is his encounter and debate with a paraplegic priest who attempts to talk him out of his suicide plans.

The Tiger and the Snow: Roberto Benigni directs and plays a character similar to his role in Life is Beautiful. Very enjoyable to watch. Some of the story takes place in Baghdad during the American invasion.

Iraq For Sale- The War Profiteers: Documentary that covers the fraud and graft of the war whores- Halliburton, Blackwater, Titan, CACI, etc. involved in the Iraq war. It’s hard to have sympathy with the relatives of killed contactor employees. They complain that their loved ones were not properly protected because of company greed. Yet, their loved ones were over there to make money, as well.

Les Paul- Chasing Sound: Brand new documentary about one of the true pioneers of popular music and great guitarists. Les Paul is now 90 years old and still performing. There isn’t a guitarist in the last 50 years who hasn’t been influenced by this man. Paul is also an inventive genius who helped invent and improve the electric guitar and invented 8- track recording and overdubbing.

The Baron of Arizona: A 1950 film, based on a true story, starring Vincent Price. He plays James Reavis who uses forged land grants in an attempt to swindle the United States out of the entire state of Arizona. Incredible story.

The Astronaut Farmer: A fun fantasy with an accurate portrayal of how the state will do anything necessary to crush the dreams of individuals if they conflict with the state’s agenda.

Unfinished Business: 1986 documentary covers the forced relocation of 100,000 Japanese-Americans from the west coast at the start of WWII and the resulting court case- forty years later. The attitude of fear toward these people is eerily similar to today’s fear projected toward Muslims. Don’t miss the accompanying USG propaganda film from the 1940’s that essentially describes the kidnapping and forced march as a picnic- referring to the prisoners as “pioneers” and their noble work of “reclaiming the desert.” Reclaiming it from what?

War and Truth: Recent documentary discusses the role of the press in reporting and relaying accurate information about wars. Testimony comes from several players including the on-target Helen Thomas and the boot licking Joe Galloway. Many in the press try mightily to obtain the truth, as for the “X’s and O’s” of a war, but they never seem to ask the ultimate question- what obligates a free individual to sacrifice his time and life for the perverted needs of the state?

The Lives of Others: German made drama about the East German Stasi, set in 1984-1989. An intelligence officer spies on an acclaimed E. German writer, only to have his humanity touched by the lives he closely observes. Highly recommended.

The Tsunami Diaries- A Voyage to the Epicenter: An organization of surfers travel to Indonesia to aid survivors immediately after the killer tsunami. Watch a completely private, self-directed effort, completely absent state “assistance,” help numerous, hurting people. A bonus is some nice surfing footage. Dude, feel the love.

Ghosts of Abu Ghraib: An analysis of the torture scandal at the infamous Iraqi prison. Includes interviews with several of the principal perverts directly involved in the affair. This is a great psychological study of how anyone can be turned into an obedient robot, inflicting pain and suffering on others, as long the orders come from a perceived legitimate authority.

Hearts and Minds: One of the best documentaries about the Vietnam War I’ve seen. Examines the mental gymnastics Americans use to justify the imperialistic war crimes of their government.

Control Room: A behind the scenes look at the Al Jazeera news network during the 2003 American invasion of Iraq. Interviews include those of network employees, as well as military press officers. With the passage of time it is easy to see that the journalist’s concerns were legitimate, their perceptions of the war and predictions of its outcome were accurate. The viewpoint of the military has turned out to be absolutely wrong.

On today’s S-T-R, I linked to an article that alleged Bush has prognosticated Hillary Clinton as the imminent Democratic nominee for ‘08. I joked, “Dubya ought to know. After all, he’s good buddies with the folks at Diebold.”

Now get a load of this.

The flag humpers won’t even allow the squirrels to live in peace:

Liberated Iraqis can’t help but ask, “Ain’t freedom great?”

In Bush’s Amerika, you ask a tough question, you get tasered:

Patriots make better lovers:

New serfs pledge their lives, souls, and wealth to the state:

Queen Hillary (a.k.a.,The War Wench) makes herself useful:

Climate Change Kooks freak out about the Northwest Passage, but conveniently ignore the record ice at the opposite end of the planet:

The dollar decline reaches new depths. Time to look up to our northern neighbors:

Some people aren’t so ready for Freddy:

Fallen in battle is another son’s fate.

Where are the mothers who love their children more than the state?

Just keep silent, behave yourself, remain orderly- and you won’t get tasered:

After taking note of one Florida student’s insistence that there were those who wanted to assist in defending the young man tasered by campus gestapo goons at the recent “townhall meeting” with John Kerry, but were barked at by the gestapo goons “to back off,” Colbert said:

“Exactly. How were those students supposed to protest an abuse of authority when authority told them not to???”

Just caught Alan Greenspan interviewed on The Daily Show. To Jon Stewart’s credit, he asked the former Chief Inflationist some rather intelligent questions, such as why is it that our supposedly free market capitalist economy has a central bank?

In Greenspan’s reply was this interesting interpretation of monetary history that should strike anyone versed in Austrian theory as at least disingenous, if not downright deceitful: In the 1930s, said Greenspan, the whole world just up and decided that gold was “strangling the economy.” Seriously.

“The whole world”???? Or just the J.P. Morgans and Chase Manhattans?

UPDATE: Division of Labour has bit more of a thoroughgoing analysis of the interview. (Though I think they’re entirely too easy on Greenspan.)

DOUBLE UPDATE: Brad Spangler takes note of the Libertarian Left-ish class analysis implicit in Stewart’s observations of the Federal Reserve’s relationship to our not-so-free market.

I just came across this story that reports the corporate-state-fascist news media is pushing the idea that young boys should get the vaccine Gardasil in order to protect them from HPV (Human Papilloma Virus). This latest product of the state-privileged drug pushers has been shoved onto young girls and women, since HPV has been reportedly linked to cervical cancer in some women (though it is not an automatic given that HPV will definitely lead to cervical cancer).

Now, as we all know, the male of our species does not have a cervix. But get this: the rationale is that boys could get HPV through having oral sex, thus increasing their risk for throat cancer. I am not kidding:

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So Ben Bernanke and the Fed did the equivalent of dropping off a couple more kegs of beer at an out-of-control frat party today when they cut the Federal funds rate by a half point, which was followed by a corresponding cut in the Prime rate. They also reduced by a half point the so-called “discount window” rate—the rate Fed member banks pay to borrow directly from the Fed itself. This is the second time inside of a month that the discount rate was cut. Not surprisingly, Wall Street reacted like a bunch of hormonal teenage boys laying eyes on their first stripper.

The party is far from over, my friends. Party on!!! YEAH!!!

Anyone want to bet against the price of gold breaking all previous records? That the Chinese aren’t preparing to liquidate all their dollar-denominated assets in favor of gold or euros? Interesting times are ahead.

By the way, if you haven’t already, check out Sean Corrigan’s article “Twilight of the Gods” at Mises.org.

Back in April, I wrote a column titled No Humans Were Harmed in the Making of this War (http://www.strike-the-root.com/71/allport/allport16.html) in which I asked:

Where is the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Humans?(1) You know, the larger, better known, and better funded analog to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Where is the Humane Society – for humans?

Well, it turns out that Nancy and Scott Kerneghan wondered the same thing, and they did something about it: they started just such a Foundation. Here’s there logo and URL:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2555357422

You’ll need to join Facebook to visit the page if you aren’t already a member. The group is in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Here’s their self-description:

I am thrilled to see such a group being put together and look forward to see where they go with this.