Tidbits From The Web Tidbits From The Web...: December 2011

Friday, December 23, 2011

Tidbits From The Web #92

"If you silence the truth and bury it underground, it will grow and gather such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way."

                                                         ~~  Émile Zola









America as we know it is dead...
Pandas like snow...
Polar bears are cute...
What are Christmas poinsettias?
Snow angel in space...
No double parking allowed next to Mercury please...
Mother Earth is worth dying for...   (props to Schteke)
Reinventing skateboarding...
Beware the coming $2 trillion dollar sunstorm!
Volcano boarding!
Only from the mind of Isaac Newton...
The importance of cursive writing...
Conception to birth...
What did the early Christians believe about Hell...
From the mind who brought us the Netscape browser (forerunner to Firefox)...
Why you have never heard of the Great Depression of 1920...
Chemtrails, HAARP, and Morgellons...oh my!
Why won't the government tell us the truth about Iraq...
Let's make the CON-gress work again...
Another Earth...the final frontier...
Say NO to fracking!
Baby vs. dog over blanket...
Epic advice...
The new age of malware...
Spanning the world in photos...
Bottled water bad for your health...
A profile of courage...
Long live 8-bit!
Fine art that won't break the bank...
Must see 200" TV...
Spotting the fakers...
Unique places of worship...
Some underwater photos...
Extreme weather photos...
Jim Henson made his start with coffee commercials...
Some of the world's coolest movie theaters...
Left handed writing...
Food trends for 2012...
Surviving martial law...



Water...the great mystery...




PROTECT IP/SOPA BREAKS THE INTERNET!


Tell Congress not to censor the internet NOW! - fightforthefuture.org/pipa

PROTECT-IP is a bill that has been introduced in the Senate and the House and is moving quickly through Congress. It gives the government and corporations the ability to censor the net, in the name of protecting "creativity". The law would let the government or corporations censor entire sites-- they just have to convince a judge that the site is "dedicated to copyright infringement."

The government has already wrongly shut down sites without any recourse to the site owner. Under this bill, sharing a video with anything copyrighted in it, or what sites like Youtube and Twitter do, would be considered illegal behavior according to this bill.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill would cost us $47 million tax dollars a year — that's for a fix that won't work, disrupts the internet, stifles innovation, shuts out diverse voices, and censors the internet. This bill is bad for creativity and does not protect your rights.



New 9/11 eyewitness evidence of bombs at WTC...




Cancer is a serious business...






knowledge




The Healing Power of Tea
 
In places from Buddhist monasteries to English parlors,
tea has also long been recognized for its healing properties, from the antioxidants in green and white tea to the
restorative properties of...
Read more...






Marijuana cannabinoids - oral and transdermal

methods

The research indicates that cannabinoids hold the secret
to helping heal many of the chronic diseases we are
facing. From cancer to diabetes, and from autism to Alzheimer's, medical marijuana helps, and sometimes dramatically so. Cannabinoid medicine holds a great
power to alleviate human suffering. There are no words
to describe how important this substance is for our race
in terms of sanity, compassion and highly rational
medicine.

 

80-Year Olds With 40-Year Old Muscle Mass - What's Going On?

Posted by: Dr. Mercola | December 16 2011

Story at-a-glance

  • Around the age of 40, most people begin to lose about eight percent of their muscle mass per decade. But research has shown this is not an inevitable effect of aging itself—it is the result of inactivity
  • In one recent study, competitive athletes in their 70’s and 80’s were found to have almost as much thigh muscle mass as athletes in their 40s, indicating that muscle deterioration can be halted as long as you maintain an exercise program
  • An animal study from last year discovered that elderly sedentary rats put on a running program developed new stem cells known to repair and build muscle tissue after 13 weeks of exercise
  • Ideally your fitness program should include a comprehensive range of exercises, including balance-training activities, and exercises to improve your strength, flexibility, cardiovascular fitness and human growth hormone production

By Dr. Mercola
Increasing physical frailty as you age is commonly accepted as "a fact of life."
Until recently, most studies showed that after the age of 40, people typically lose eight percent or more of their muscle mass with each passing decade. 
But newer research suggests that this is not a foregone conclusion.
One recent study of 40 competitive runners, cyclists, and swimmers, ranging in age from 40 to 81, found no evidence of deterioration -- the athletes in their 70s and 80s had almost as much thigh muscle mass as the athletes in their 40s.
Quoted in the New York Times, Dr. Vonda Wright, who oversaw the study, said:"We think these are very encouraging results

They suggest strongly that people don't have to lose muscle mass and function as they grow older.

The changes that we've assumed were due to aging and therefore were unstoppable seem actually to be caused by inactivity.

And that can be changed."
Other recent studies have had similar results. For example, in an animal study from last year, elderly sedentary rats put on a running program developed new satellite cells after 13 weeks. These cells are specialized stem cells known to repair and build muscle tissue.

Lifelong Activity is Best, but it's Never Too Late to Start

Over the past several years, researchers have discovered that it is indeed possible to restore the ability of old human muscle to repair and rebuild itself. However, the need to keep aging muscles in shape has also been demonstrated, as long periods of atrophy are more challenging to overcome. These findings fall into the category of common sense, along the lines of "use it or lose it." And as you age, physical exercise becomes an ever more important aspect of optimal health and longevity.
The good news is that it's really never too late to start an exercise program, even if you've been inactive for a long time. Just keep in mind that older muscles do not respond as well to sudden bouts of exercise, so to take precautions and start off slow, to avoid injury.

Making Exercise Safe and Effective as You Age

Safety is always an important aspect of exercise, but becomes crucial if you're older and just embarking on a regimented exercise program. Unfortunately, many elderly forgo exercise altogether because of a fear of injury or pain, when, in fact, proper exercise will ultimately reduce your risk of injury as well as help to improve pain.
If you're elderly, it's advisable to get a workout buddy -- a personal trainer or someone who is experienced -- to help guide you through your routine. Start off slowly and gradually increase intensity as you grow stronger, avoiding activities that aggravate or cause pain. Just keep in mind that while you need to use caution, you do need to exercise at a level that is challenging to your body.
Otherwise the true benefits will be forfeited.
Ideally your fitness program should be comprehensive, providing the necessary balance-training activities for stability while also improving your strength, flexibility, cardiovascular fitness and fat-burning capabilities with high-intensity "Peak" exercises.
During 'peak exercises,' you raise your heart rate up to your anaerobic threshold for 20 to 30 seconds, followed by a 90-second recovery period. You repeat this cycle for a total of eight repetitions. Peak exercises are particularly beneficial for aging bodies as this type of interval training triggers the natural production of human growth hormone (HGH), also known as "the fitness hormone." HGH plays an integral role in maintaining youthfulness and strength. (For an in-depth explanation of my peak fitness regimen, please review this past article.)
While anaerobic Peak exercises may seem too advanced for the elderly, don't let the intensity dissuade you! Rest assured you can perform Peak exercises at ANY age. The only difference is that the older you are the lower your maximum heart rate will be.

My Latest Findings on Optimal Exercise

I've been recommending doing Peak 8 exercises three times a week, but after doing that myself for about a year, I gradually felt that it was too much for me. I cut down to once a week, which seemed to work out well.  But after discussing it with Phil Campbell, he made a compelling argument to increase it back to three times a week. Getting growth hormone produced three times instead of just once a week can have profound health benefits, so I bumped it backed up.
I decided to make additional changes after I interviewed Dr. Doug McGuff, who is a strong proponent of Super Slow weight training. That interview will be published on January 6th, so for more information about Super Slow weight training, please open up that newsletter. Dr. McGuff believes that you only need 12 minutes of Super Slow type strength training once a week.
I really enjoyed my interview with him as he helped me appreciate a nagging truth that I hadn't quite captured yet, and that is the crucial nature of recovery integrated into listening to your body.  

The Importance of Recovery

I have known the importance of "Listen to Your Body," and always advocate this when it comes to selecting foods. But this also applies to exercise and recovery. The epiphany I had with Dr. McGuff is that I wasn't applying the 'listen to your body' principle with respect to my exercise program.  When I grilled him on the parameters of how to know if you are recovered from your exercise, he said:
 "You would have a restless energy and feel like you have to engage in some type of physical activity.  You will spontaneously just want to work out."
Well that had not happened to me for some time, and I believe I was pushing myself too hard and had not allowed myself enough recovery time. This is probably not a problem for most people who exercise, as they are more than likely not pushing themselves hard enough, but when you go to extremes like in Peak Fitness, this is a serious risk you need to pay careful attention to.
So right now I'm in a massive experimentation phase, and I'm having fun playing around with my exercise program. I will likely be exercising the same length of time, just breaking it up differently, and listening to my body.  I suspect that will be more ideal for me and I intend to report on my results so you can learn from it.
The lesson here is that life is an exciting journey, and you're never "too old."  As you age, you do need to adjust however, and discover through trial and error what works best for you. Learn to listen to your body so it can guide you onto a path that will provide you with the most efficient and effective benefits.

For the Elderly, Exercise Can Quite Literally Save Your Life

As you get older your muscle and bone mass decrease and the senses that guide your balance -- vision, touch, proprioception -- may all start to deteriorate, and this can make you unsteady on your feet. Needless to say, bone fractures and brain injuries resulting from falls can be life threatening. Exercise is a key to maintaining your balance as you get older, and should really be viewed as a necessity -- like eating and sleeping -- as it can quite literally save your life.
By taking the time to do balance, strength and other exercises on a regular basis you can keep your sense of balance strong, and even restore what's already been lost.
In a study published last year, eight weeks of balance training reduced slips and improved the likelihood of recovery from slips among the elderly. Separate research, which noted that "altered balance is the greatest collaborator towards falls in the elderly," found balance training is effective in improving functional and static balance, mobility and falling frequency in elderly women with osteoporosis.
The ability to balance on one leg is also an important predictor of injury-causing falls, so if you know that you'd be shaky if you tried to stand on one foot, you're at an increased risk of being hurt in a fall and should start appropriate exercises immediately.

Yes, You Can Exercise at ANY Age

Earlier this fall I posted a couple of videos showing my mother's exercise routine. She didn't start working out until she was 74 and now, at the age of 77, she has gained significant improvements in strength, range of motion, balance, bone density and mental clarity.

Exercise Strengthens More than Muscle

Your muscles aren't the only benefactors of a comprehensive exercise program. While many are misled into thinking toxic drugs are the answer to combat decreasing bone density, the truth is that weight-bearing exercise is one of the most effective remedies against osteoporosis—another common problem related to aging.
Without question, osteoporosis drugs are likely to cause more long-term harm than benefit. Studies have actually linked bisphosphonate bone-strengthening drugs like Fosamax, Actonel, Boniva and Reclast to an increased risk of femur fractures. One of the latest and largest studies to date discovered that women who've been on bisphosphonates for more than five years have a nearly three times higher risk of these dangerous fractures…
Your bones are actually very porous and soft, and as you get older, your bones can easily become less dense and hence, more brittle—especially if you are inactive.
Resistance training can combat this effect because as you put more tension on your muscles it puts more pressure on your bones, which then respond by continuously creating fresh, new bone. In addition, muscle is heavier than fat, so as you build more muscle, and make the muscle that you already have stronger, you also put more constant pressure on your bones which automatically helps maintain bone strength.

The Many Health Benefits of Exercise

There's an overwhelming amount of evidence confirming that exercise is a key player in disease reduction, optimal mental, emotional and physical health, and longevity. After reviewing 40 papers published between 2006 and 2010, researchers found that exercise reduces the risk of about two dozen health conditions, ranging from cancer and heart disease to type 2 diabetes, stroke, dementia and depression. Exercise also slows down the rate of aging itself, providing perhaps the closest example of a real life fountain of youth as we will ever find.
Ideally, you will have made exercise a regular part of your life long before you reach your "golden" years … but if you haven't, there's no better time to start than the present.  Research has shown that regular exercise, even initiated late in life, offers profound health benefits. For instance:

Remember, It's NEVER Too Late to Improve Your Health

It should be obvious by now that optimal health is dependent on an active lifestyle; eating fresh, whole foods, avoiding as many processed foods as possible, and addressing the stress in your life. Ignoring any of these basic tenets of health will eventually lead to a decline in health and any number of diseases.
Physical exercise is particularly important to maintain a high quality of life, as limited mobility can take a great toll… So start moving, and don't stop no matter what your age!













David Icke Newsletter Preview
AFTER 45,000 MILES, 17 CITIES AND 10 COUNTRIES …
… THOUGHTS ON A CRAZY (BUT AWAKENING) WORLD
by David Icke
Another 18 hours in the air took me to Cleveland, Ohio, once one of the industrial and manufacturing giants of America in its economic heyday, but now a shadow of what it once had been. Cleveland was the point on the tour that provided the symbol for the systematic destruction of the United States, economically and eventually militarily. It was the city where J D Rockefeller (1839–1937) grew up and, ironically, it is the cabal that he so effectively represented which has since destroyed the manufacturing heart of the once-mighty Cleveland. 

Manufacturing that was the foundation of the American economy has been outsourced to China and the Far East along with many other jobs once done by Americans. This has devastated cities like Cleveland exactly as planned. They are already so close to their goal with Associated Press reporting this week that 48 per cent of Americans, some 146.4 million, are now considered low-income or poor. More than half of all children in major US cities, including Cleveland, are living in poverty. 

The idea has always been to destroy America economically and militarily to bring it under the jackboot of a world government tyranny and now we have the apparently extraordinary situation of America up to its neck in debt to countries like China - the major beneficiary of the outsourcing of American manufacturing. 

But it is not extraordinary when you realise that the plan all along has been to destroy America and not to improve the lives of Americans. This has all been callously done on purpose by a rigged and corrupt political system that serves the global cabal, not the American people. 






Whiskey and Gunpowder
by Eric Peters

December 15, 2011
Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

We've Crossed the Rubicon

Do you suppose cows have any idea what's coming as they're marched down the chute? Or do they stare with bovine indifference at the tail and hind quarters in front of them, until they're suddenly -- and very briefly -- startled by the man with the nail gun?

Perhaps Americans will -- likewise too late -- ask themselves what happened in the very near future. Perhaps just after the midnight knock comes and they are taken away into the night.

It is not an exaggeration.

America is now on the cusp of becoming a state that does exactly such things -- things exactly like the things done by 20th-century horror shows such as National Socialist Germany or Stalin's USSR. Literally. Not "this is where it might lead" or "the tendency is similar." Exactly, literally, the same thing. The only difference is that it awaits being done on a mass scale. But the power to do it openly -- brazenly -- has been asserted.
And is about to be sanctified by law.

The National Defense Authorization Act will make it official. It will confer upon the executive branch and the military (increasingly, the same things) the permanent authority to snatch and grab any person, U.S. citizens included, whom they decree to be a "terrorist" -- as defined or not by the executive or the military -- and imprison him indefinitely, without formal charge, presentation of evidence or judicial proceeding of any kind. These "detainees" will have neither civilian rights in the civil court system nor -- crucially -- even the minimal rights to due process and decent treatment conferred upon prisoners of war. (And we are allegedly "at war," are we not?)

The language of the bill specifically includes American citizens "caught" within the borders of the United States -- aka, the "battlefield." It is claimed by sponsors that only those awful them -- you know, the enemies of freedom the Chimp and his successors like to reference as they systematically gut our freedoms -- need worry. But read the actual document, and be afraid.

The wording is such that any shyster lawyer for the government will be able to draw up a memorandum at some point in the near future equating, say, criticism of the federal government's policies in the Middle East with "substantially supporting" the enemies of the United States. As defined by the United States.
That is, as defined by the government.

At its whim. At the personal discretion of whomever happens to be the Maximum Leader, or even one of the ML's duly appointed minions.

As the always excellent Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone recently observed, what happens when some nutjob who attended a few Tea Party meetings tries to bomb a federal building? Will the Tea Party itself -- and anyone who "substantially supports" it -- be thus transformed into an "enemy combatant"? How about the OWS protestors? How about this newsletter or website -- and this author -- which have on several occasions called b******* on the federal government's usurpations and follies? How hard will it be, really, to describe such actions -- such thoughts expressed in an article or an interview -- as "substantially supporting" whatever the government decides amounts to "terrorism" or the threat thereof against itself?

Surely, the door is now wide open for such an interpretation by some John Woo or Dick Cheney waiting in the wings. Prospective jefe Newtie is practically turgid at the prospect of getting his hands on such power. And there is no longer (or soon won't be) any legal means available to contest a one-way trip to Treblinka in Topeka -- or wherever it is they will send you.

Taibbi writes:
"The really galling thing is that this act specifically envisions American citizens falling under the authority of the bill. One of its supporters, the dependably unlikeable Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, bragged that the law ‘basically says …for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield' and that people can be jailed without trial, be they ‘American citizens or not.' New Hampshire Republican Kelly Ayotte reiterated that ‘America is part of the battlefield.'"
Graham further stated:
"It is not unfair to make American citizens account for the fact that they decided to help al-Qaida to kill us all and hold them as long as it takes to find intelligence about what may be coming next. And when they say, ‘I want my lawyer,' you tell them, ‘Shut up. You don't get a lawyer.'"
The key thing being...it is entirely up to the government to decide what constitutes "helping" al al-Qaida. It can be nothing more than a vague assertion. Indeed, no evidence of any kind whatsoever is necessary to "hold them as long as it takes" in order to "find intelligence" (not defined, either) by any means it wishes to employ.
As Taibbi notes:
"If these laws are passed, we would be forced to rely upon the discretion of a demonstrably corrupt and consistently idiotic government to not use these awful powers to strike back at legitimate domestic unrest."
The Fuhrer (oops, President Obama) is about to sign this latter-day enabling act, and when he does, it will mark the moment that America's coffin is nailed shut. The corpse has been on view since Sept. 11. But there was always some hope that, perhaps, it might be jolted back into life. Now we know the awful truth. Death is permanent.

And it's coming for us.




Health Sciences Institute ~~ Jenny Thompson

US is ranked 34th with the level of health care!!!

Many years ago a friend of mine lost a newborn to SIDS. I'll spare you the details -- as you can imagine, it was heart wrenching.

After seeing the emotional toll that experience took on my friend, it's hard for me to fathom the depth of pain hidden in the cold, hard statistics of infant mortality rates.

IMR is the number of deaths of children less than one year old, per 1,000 live births. And any individual country's IMR is generally regarded as a sort of snapshot of that country's overall health conditions.

So how can a country like the U.S., with such an advanced level of health care, place 34th on the worldwide IMR list?

Our IMR is actually worse than Cuba, Brunei, and Croatia! It's baffling.

Or...maybe it's not.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Tough schedule
---------------------------------------------------------------------

If your doctor suggested you get more than two dozen doses of vaccines next year, you might wonder if all those different medications, given in a relatively short period of time, might have some negative effects.

And yet, this is what we do to millions of newborns every year.

The U.S. immunization schedule calls for 26 vaccine doses in the first year of life -- more than any other country in the world. So a team of independent researchers wondered how all the countries in the top 34 of the IMR list would compare in number of vaccines required for infants.

In an issue of Human & Experimental Toxicology published earlier this year, the researchers found "a high statistically significant correlation between increasing number of vaccine doses and increasing infant mortality rates."

Yeah, THAT'S sort of a red flag!

But don't think this is leading to an anti-vaccine rant. An excessive load of first-year vaccines seems like a risky way to welcome an infant into the world, but we can't jump to the conclusion that this huge set of vaccines is the actual cause of infant deaths.

Here's what strikes me as much more likely: All those vaccines represent a "symptom" of a culture with a too-much-is-never-enough attitude toward synthetic drugs.

Just imagine, for instance, how many women discover they're pregnant while taking a variety of drugs -- everything from acetaminophen for headaches, to a daily antacid, a statin, an antidepressant, an NSAID for joint pain, etc. In those cases, every fetus starts off in an environment awash in pharmaceuticals.

In addition, the excessive use of Pitocin (the synthetic hormone that hurries labor) might play a role. Many fetuses share a dose of anesthesia with their mothers during the labor. And artificial measures to boost fertility could also come into play.

It seems quite possible that all these factors, combined with a massive vaccine load, are just too much for some infants to bear.

And if that's the case, then the deplorable IMR of the U.S. might be the RESULT of our advanced health care, not in spite of it. Because that "advanced" World Class Modern Medicine status comes with a promise that each new drug and vaccine provides wonderful benefits that only make us better, not worse.

But as we've seen again and again, that promise is often little more than wishful thinking -- fingers crossed!

This simple study points the way to much-needed research. We owe it to every infant and every parent to follow that thread, because there's no excuse for a 3rd World level of IMR in the U.S.






The Daily Reckoning Presents
“Power Corrupts...”




This is the last in a series. We began by wondering how come some people get to boss other people around...

We’re not talking about wives and husbands or employees and their employers. In those cases, the bossing is legit. Husbands ask for it. And employees can walk off the job anytime they like.

We’re talking about people who have the right — by law — to tell other people what to do. The TSA agent...the policeman...the building inspector...the customs agent...the IRS clerk...the FDA...the CIA...the FBI...

It is a remarkable thing, don’t you think, dear reader? It says right there in the Declaration of Independence that ‘all men are created equal.’ Equality under the law is supposed to be the law of the land. And yet, some people are clearly above the law...some give orders to complete strangers...and some people even claim the right to make laws any way they want.

There are laws that tell you not to murder...and not to steal. In the 10 Commandments given to Moses, God named 10 laws that he considered important. But the folks walking the floors of Congress, the EPA, the SEC, the IRS and a plethora of other government agencies have added 10,000 more commandments. ‘Thou shalt’ this... ‘thou shalt not’ that. You can barely go to the bathroom or drill an oil well, without asking permission from a dozen different bureaucracies. ‘Ignorance of the law,’ is said to be an ineffective defense. But it’s a very effective explanation. There are so many laws, rules, regulations, edicts, commandments, prohibitions, interdictions, injunctions, requirements and obligations that you are bound to miss one or two of them.

The latest Defense Authorization Bill just passed by Congress shows how far the law-makers and law-enforcers will go. The doctrine of habeas corpus goes back to before the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215. It was an ancient Anglo-Saxon limitation on the power of government. If the feds held a prisoner, a writ of habeas corpus required them to “produce the body.” The government had to either release the person or charge him with a crime. For more than 800 years, this gave people some protection against government.

But now, in the Year of Our Lord 2011, the Congress of the United States of America, with the complicity of POTUS, himself, has seen fit to deny the right of habeas corpus to American citizens. Henceforth, the feds can capture you, put you in prison and waterboard you every day for the rest of your life. They don’t have to charge you with murder or jay-walking or any crime at all. They don’t have to let you talk to a lawyer. Or to your spouse. Or to your Congressman... They don’t have to read you your rights or provide any evidence against you. Like the Argentines in the ’80s, they just ‘disappear’ you. And you’re gone forever.

The Guardian reports:

Human rights groups accused the president of deserting his principles and disregarding the long-established principle that the military is not used in domestic policing. The legislation has also been strongly criticised by libertarians on the right angered at the stripping of individual rights for the duration of “a war that appears to have no end”.

The law, contained in the defence authorisation bill that funds the US military, effectively extends the battlefield in the “war on terror” to the US and applies the established principle that combatants in any war are subject to military detention.

“It’s something so radical that it would have been considered crazy had it been pushed by the Bush administration,” said Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch. “It establishes precisely the kind of system that the United States has consistently urged other countries not to adopt. At a time when the United States is urging Egypt, for example, to scrap its emergency law and military courts, this is not consistent.”

Rand Paul, a strong libertarian, has said “detaining citizens without a court trial is not American” and that if the law passes “the terrorists have won”.

“We’re talking about American citizens who can be taken from the United States and sent to a camp at Guantánamo Bay and held indefinitely. It puts every single citizen American at risk,” he said. “Really, what security does this indefinite detention of Americans give us? The first and flawed premise, both here and in the badly named Patriot Act, is that our pre-9/11 police powers were insufficient to stop terrorism. This is simply not borne out by the facts.”
So now the feds, whose salaries we pay, can spy on us with drones we paid for too. They can send a swat team to disappear us...and keep us in prison.

Our question is: ‘what gives them the right?’ What bread to these people eat? What air do they breathe?

We’ve seen the theories. We’ve seen them in practice too. The ‘divine right of kings.’ The ‘social contract.’ ‘From each according to his abilities...’ ‘The greatest good for the greatest number.’

What they all have in common is that they are not theories, but apologia. One claims to know God’s own plan. Another imagines that the powerless masses agreed to be pushed around. Still another pretends that it’s for their own good.

Some of the excuses are implausible or unbelievable. Others are absurd. The ‘theories’ make no sense. But the facts are undeniable. And the fact is that there are always some people who are willing, ready and able to boss others around. Some rulers — the ‘insiders’ — are smarter than others. Some are nicer. Over time, you see all sorts. Their goal is always the same — to take power and wealth away from the outsiders. How much? As much as they can get away with.

You may wonder, for example, how come the governments of the developed countries all seem to be in the same deep hole of debt. If you listened to the politicians, for example, you might conclude that France and America were an ocean apart. Actually, overall tax, spending, and debt levels are similar in all OECD nations. And tax levels, generally, are about 10 times higher than they were in the last century. And their forms of government are about the same too — even though the insiders claim to have very different ideas about how to govern.

What happened?

The genius of modern democracy is that it makes the citizen a party to his own enslavement. Rather than give up 10% of his output to his feudal lord and master, he gives up 30% to 50% to his democratically-elected bosses. They tell him what to do. And he believes he is giving the orders!

And then, he believes he has discovered the best form of government in the world. It is so good he can’t wait to force others to be democrats too.



Peace, love and happiness...until next year!