Super Quotes for Super Heroes

[Darren Dirt]

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those of us who profess to favor freedom yet depreciate agitation are men who want the crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters… . This struggle may be a moral one or a physical one, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without demand. It never has and never will.

– Frederick Douglass

[eye2i2hear]

John Milton: "Are we negotiating?"
Kevin Lomax: "Always."

Kevin Lomax: "What are you?"
John Milton: "Oh, I have so many names..."
Kevin Lomax: "Satan."
John Milton: "Call me Dad."

Kevin Lomax: "In the Bible you loose. We're destined to lose dad."
John Milton: "Well consider the source son."
[eye2i2hear: "Always."]

--from the movie, The Devil's Advocate, Al Pacino ala John Milton/Keanu "Neo" Reeves ala Kevin Lomax

[sagas4]

"Free people find unexpected solutions and those who are not free find unexpected problems." - Bard the condor, in The Adventures of Jonnathan Gullible by Ken Schooland.

[Darren Dirt]

sagas4 said:

"Free people find unexpected solutions and those who are not free find unexpected problems." - Bard the condor, in The Adventures of Jonnathan Gullible by Ken Schooland.

(quote)"The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible" is property of Ken Schoolland (reprinted with permission) (/quote) <-- free online version? THAT'S GOOD NEWS! (I bought this book and read most of it to my kids, and *highly* recommend it as a de-programming tool for any audience from 3 to 103!)


"I'm here to stay. There's plenty of work to do."
- final lines spoken by the titular character in same. ;D

[eye2i2hear]

Tiz a shame, that the school yard poem of "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue..." isn't instead, "In 1792, Thomas Paine penned the principles so valuably true..."

Thomas Paine wrote in The Rights of Man (1792):

Great part of that order which reigns among mankind is not the effect of government. It has its origin in the principles of society and the natural constitution of man. It existed prior to government, and would exist if the formality of government was abolished. The mutual dependence and reciprocal interest which man has upon man, and all the parts of civilised community upon each other, create that great chain of connection which holds it together... every occupation, prospers by the aid which each receives from the other, and from the whole. Common interest regulates their concerns, and forms their law; and the laws which common usage ordains, have a greater influence than the laws of government. In fine, society performs for itself almost everything which is ascribed to government.

["government" meaning The State of Ink, aka policy enforcement by violence]

[Darren Dirt]

Today I got an e-mail from someone who said: "I can't afford to be put in jail and loose my job because I followed the law, but don't know how to keep the Gestapo from bullying me and twisting the truth and making me a criminal with a record."

...Whether or not you agree with them, anyone professing to cherish freedom ought to be disgusted with a government that achieves "compliance," not with reason and law, but with coercion and intimidation.

...And the fear of the feds is not at all baseless. Two days ago, someone I know very well went to prison. He is scheduled to be in for five years. Five YEARS.

Think of that. What would justify sticking someone in a cage for five years? Did he kill someone? Assault someone? Rob someone? Defraud someone? Nope.

Did he at least lie about something, hide something, or engage in some shady financial dealings? No. (He'd probably be in Congress, not prison, if he did that stuff.)

No, while the official charges were about not filing returns, and trying to get money back he had erroneously paid before, his true sin was to stand by his principles, speak his mind, tell the truth, and point out government wrongdoing.

...Keep in mind, Dr. Tom was in the perfect position to let someone ELSE deal with the problem. He had a lot to lose, but he put it on the line anyway. Why? Because the man has principles, and a devotion to the truth I have rarely seen elsewhere. Now the feds are determined, not only to lock him up, but to destroy him financially. They illegally rushed a lien onto his home so that he couldn't sell it before going in, so his family could get the equity from it. They want to make sure that his family suffers as much as possible.

...He received insults and threats, but no answers. He hid nothing. He explained his position, and SOUGHT OUT opposing views from the government; he asked for answers, invited discussion. For his trouble, he had his home raided.

There are countless other ways in which Dr. Tom has been an advocate of the truth ... I won't even try to list them all (or remember them all) right now. Suffice it to say that he is being punished precisely because he gave of himself so that YOU could know the truth about what is being done to you by your own government.

- Larken Rose, 17Feb2007 (I consider this a warning and/or inspiration to the rest of us who talk a lot more than we act ; whether or not we agree with the beliefs which were behind their actions, it's hard to deny that these guys are truly brave and true heroes.)

[Darren Dirt]

FBI WARNING

ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES TAKE NOTE -
THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE WILL NOT
BE ABUSED FOREVER. WE HAVE
STRENGTH IN NUMBERS AND THE
CONVICTION OF OUR BELIEFS.

THE FILM YOU HAVE JUST SEEN IS
ONE OF MANY WAYS OF SPREADING
THE MESSAGE. WE WILL CONTINUE TO
PUBLISH MAGAZINES, HAVE MEETINGS,
DO RADIO SHOWS, USE THE INTERNET -
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY - WE WILL
BE WATCHING YOU.

- Easter Egg on the DVD for "Freedom Downtime" ;D

"At the very end of the film, after a few moments of darkness, what appears to be a normal FBI warning appears. This one is unique in that it's not a warning from the FBI but rather a warning to them. It reads as follows..."

[tru2form]

“I’ve never seen a president — I don’t care who he is — stand up to
them [the Israelis]. It just boggles your mind. They always get what
they want... If the American people understood what grip those people
have on our government, they would rise up in arms. Our citizens don’t
have any idea what goes on.”

— Admiral Thomas Moorer
member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
during the Reagan Administration

[eye2i2hear]

tru2form said:

“I’ve never seen a president — I don’t care who he is — stand up to them [the Israelis]. It just boggles your mind. They always get what they want... If the American people understood what grip those people have on our government, they would rise up in arms. Our citizens don’t have any idea what goes on.”

— Admiral Thomas Moorer
member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Reagan Administration

"I can tell you for an absolute certainty (from intercepted communications) that the Israelis knew they were attacking an American ship."

-- NSA Deputy Director Oliver Kirby

"That the Liberty could have been mistaken for the Egyptian supply ship El Quseir is unbelievable"

-- Special Assistant to the President Clark Clifford, in his report to President Lyndon Johnson

"The highest officials of the [Johnson] administration, including the President, believed it 'inconceivable' that Israel's 'skilled' defense forces could have committed such a gross error."

-- Lyndon Johnson's biographer Robert Dallek in Flawed Giant, Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 430-31)

"A nice whitewash for a group of ignorant, stupid and inept [expletive deleted]."

-- Handwritten note of August 26, 1967, by NSA Deputy Director Louis W. Tordella reacting to the Israeli court decision exonerating Israelis of blame for the Liberty attack.

"Never before in the history of the United States Navy has a Navy Board of Inquiry ignored the testimony of American military eyewitnesses and taken, on faith, the word of their attackers.

-- Captain Richard F. Kiepfer, Medical Corps, US Navy (retired), USS Liberty Survivor"

excerpts from USS LIBERTY Memorial --with obvious apologies for the "patriotic" & Statist/propaganda b.s.
other sites

[and folks wish to say "holy" religious beliefs don't shape other'sreality...]

[NonEntity]

"Government Commits Suicide: Italy Humiliated," ran a huge headline in blood red in Il Foglio, a conservative daily.

"We are a nation of madmen," Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema, who had urged the government to resign if the Senate vote did not pass, was quoted as saying in La Repubblica.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Luca Montezemolo, chairman of Fiat and Ferrari as well as the leader of the nation's business lobby, warned that Italian politics was being left behind by parts of the nation that actually functioned. The economy is growing, and many business people are the ones showing the "excellence" the nation is capable of, he said.

"The risk," he told reporters in Bologna, "is that there may be Italians, but there may not be an Italy."

- NonE

[eye2i2hear]

the "daily news" bares twins...

nonentity said:

"Government Commits Suicide: Italy Humiliated," ran a huge headline in blood red in Il Foglio, a conservative daily.

"The risk," he told reporters in Bologna, "is that there may be Italians, but there may not be an Italy."

It might be a convenient expression to say that the U.S. trades with Japan, but is it literally true? Is it the U.S. Congress and President George Bush who trade with the National Diet of Japan, the Japanese legislature and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe? Or, is it U.S. and Japanese private parties, as individuals and corporations, who trade with one another?

Let's break it down further. Which comes closer to the truth: When I purchased my Lexus, did I deal with the U.S. Congress, the Japanese Diet, George Bush and Shinzo Abe, or did I deal with Toyota and its intermediaries? If we erroneously think of international trade as occurring between the U.S. and Japanese governments, then all Americans, as voters, have a say-so. But what is the basis of anyone having a say-so when one American engages in peaceable, voluntary exchange with another person, be they Japanese, Korean, British, Chinese or another American?

Walter Williams, syndicated editorialist, in his column titled " Nonsense", 02/07

note: "Nonsense" not to be confused with "NonE" (no matter how natural it might seem... ;D

[2i2 "commentary" on the commentary: may we "break it down" even further, what say?!? Did you buy said Lexus from "Toyota"...?!? Indeed, why cut it one way and not the other?!? "individuals AND corporations"?! All that exist are the individuals in the exchange!! So if you can't "deal" with Government(s) how the heck can "they" (and the corporations just LIKE them) BE in any Court for crying out loud?!] [[cyber post-it note to self\: a) the reason "They" can be is... there's a gun in the room; b) and go easy on Mr Williams; you know how seeing is to a cross-eyed newborn's eyes ]]

[freeborn]

"He dreamed that he stood in a shadowy Court,
Where the Snark, with a glass in its eye,
Dressed in gown, bands, and wig, was defending a pig
On the charge of deserting its sty.
The Witnesses proved, without error or flaw.
That the sty was deserted when found:
And the Judge kept explaining the state of the law
In a soft under-current of sound.
The indictment had never been clearly expressed,
And it seemed that the Snark had begun,
And had spoken three hours, before anyone guessed
What the pig was supposed to have done.
The Jury had each formed a different view
(Long before the indictment was read),
And they all spoke at once, so that none of them knew
One word that the others had said.
'You must know--' said the Judge:
but the Snark exclaimed, 'Fudge!..."

The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll

[eye2i2hear]

"Diplomacy is the art of letting someone have your way."

---unknown

[Darren Dirt]

The internet still follows the fundamental form of the written word and the motion picture: non-participatory reception of information.

The internet is essentially a series of Guttenberg presses and Edison kinetiscopes connected by telegraph wire.

...the real achievement of the internet has been to SIMULATE participation.
It has made non-participatory addition of responsive content more rapid ... even instantaneous.

This is a movement towards making the non-participatory form imitate the participatory reality.

-CoryTheRaven, in a video response to "Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us"

(apparently "The full text can be found on Michael Wesch's blog" ; see also mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/?page_id=2 , mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/?p=77 for discussion more info. etc.)

[eye2i2hear]

"[N]obody gives you freedom. You aren’t free unless you claim and defend your freedom. A state doesn’t make you free. It taxes you, it imposes upon you, it regulates your conduct, and it may pretend to offer guarantees of safety. But a state cannot make you free, and isn’t interested in the task. A state serves the interests of those who control the state; anyone else who derives any benefit from the state may be getting a "free ride" which is unlikely to last. And, of course, the cost of those perceived benefits are enormous, paid for by taxes.

A constitution doesn’t make you free. It also makes a lousy bullet-proof vest. I prefer Kevlar and those nice ceramic inserts.

Your neighbors don’t make you free, the police don’t make you free, and your education doesn’t make you free (though it can be very helpful). You are the only person who is able to make you free. You either arrange for your freedom by cooperative means and fight for it when necessary, or you submit to those who command your obedience. If you are not willing to pay the cost of freedom, you won’t have it."

Jim Davidson, Somalia and Anarchy: The Somali Constitution and Freedom