RedStateEclectic

As Freedom Wanes

So does scientific discovery:

But science nowadays IS like this: Disagree with the conventional contemporary scientific wisdom and you won’t get grants, won’t get published, will be compared to Holocaust deniers.

And it really wasn’t always this way. Nowadays "science," "pure research," has become cutthroat in the extreme, and there’s much corner-cutting and sheer dishonesty in science. For example, NIH newsletters routinely name specific individuals who are being barred from seeking grants for some specified period because of some act of dishonesty.

There was no need, in the good not-so-old days, for a federal Office of Research Integrity – a designation that George Orwell would have relished. But now we do have such an Office, and at colleges there are Centers for Research Ethics, and publishers put out journals like Accountability in Research – there’s a burgeoning young academic industry devoted to telling scientists how to behave properly.

That’s what science has come to. Genuine science, the search for better understanding, has been hijacked by self-interest and vested interests and is now captive to knowledge monopolies and research cartels: A single theory exerts dogmatic control over grants, publications, jobs, promotions.

WHY?? How did this happen?

Remember, everything must be controlled.

Christmas Cheer

Should Yoga Enrich the State?

Everything... EVERYTHING is regulated nowadays.

We should really just drop the whole "free country" routine. Such rhetoric is getting to sound ridiculously empty.

Stossel and Burdensome Mohair Laws

John Stossel is getting a show on FOX. Between him and the Judge things should get a little better at that awful network.

The Freedom Movement Freight Train

Scott Smith interviews James Jaeger, producer of FIAT EMPIRE - Why the Federal Reserve Violates the U.S. Constitution. Mr. Jaeger has some pretty strong words to say about our political future:

Daily Bell: Where is the freedom movement headed in America?

Jaeger: The "freedom movement" is currently defined by Ron Paul's CAMPAIGN FOR LIBERTY (www.campaignforliberty.org), such based on libertarian political philosophy, the Austrian school of economics, the insights to fiat money as explicated by G. Edward Griffin and Edwin Vieira in their respective works and most of all the hundreds of millions of hard-working American citizens in the middle-class that are fed up with the IRS, the Federal Reserve System, the IMF/WORLD BANK, the UN, NAFTA, GATT, the WTO, the Counsel on Foreign Relations and soon the GOP and the Democratic party. In other words, the plutocracy that meets in DAVOS every year is getting on their nerves. The Ron Paul Revolution is thus a freight train full of CHANGE headed straight towards Wall Street and K-Street so the 1-percenters better take cover. At the end of ORIGINAL INTENT we make three suggestions on what all Americans can do to board the freight train. See clips at www.OriginalIntent.us.

Daily Bell: Is the freedom movement being co-opted by the "conservative" movement?

Jaeger: They are trying, but I don't think the American people are going to bite. More and more middle class Americans realize that the Democrats and Republicans are BOTH heavily influenced by the CFR-infested Globalist Agenda, and it was this Agenda that shut down their domestic manufacturing base and has relegated them to unemployment lines and Walmart check-out lines. I predict at some point they will defect and "go indi" en masse. They will realize that, unless the Sarah Palin's of the world are talking about FIAT money, shutting down the Fed, and abolishing the IRS -- they are FAKES. Sarah Palin does NOT talk about any of this like Ron Paul does, nor do any of the other DemGOP fakes. Fake "conservatives" showed their colors on the way they treated Ron Paul last year. There's no way patriotic Americans can forget how FOX News and Sean Hannity snubbed them when their own polls showed that Ron Paul won three (3) distinct times. The so-called conservatives are thus traitors to their country because most of them supported "free" trade and NAFTA, globalization and the corporate fascists that have invaded Congress. Also, have any of them read or applied Robert Zubrin's book, ENERGY VICTORY. Of course not. The Republican party therefore deserves to die. Same thing with the cultural Marxist-infested Democratic party. Both of these parties are traitors to the U.S. Republic envisioned by the Framers.

He predicts a shake-up. I hope he's right and that the shake-up goes our way. 

Monty Python in Afghanistan

Tom Engelhardt has a good article up over at C4L talking about the situation in the country of Afghanistan - where empires go to die.

Honestly, if it weren't so grim, despite all the upbeat benchmarks and encouraging words in the president's speech, this would certainly qualify as Monty Python in Afghanistan.  After all, three cabinet ministers and 12 former ministers are under investigation in Afghanistan itself on corruption charges.  And that barely scratches the surface of the problems in a country that one Russian expert recently referred to as an "international drug firm," where at least one-third of the gross national product comes from the drug trade.  In addition, as Juan Cole wrote at his Informed Comment blog:

"Months after the controversial presidential election that many Afghans consider stolen, there is no cabinet, and parliament is threatening to go on recess before confirming a new one because the president is unconstitutionally late in presenting the names. There are grave suspicions that some past and present cabinet members have engaged in the embezzlement of substantial sums of money. There is little parliamentary oversight. Almost no one bothers to attend the parliamentary sessions. The cabinet ministries are unable to spend the money allocated to them on things like education and rural development, and actually spent less in absolute terms last year than they did in the previous two years."

In addition, the Taliban now reportedly take a cut of the billions of dollars in U.S. development aid flowing into the country, much of which is otherwise squandered, and of the American money that goes into "protecting" the convoys that bring supplies to U.S. troops throughout the country.  One out of every four Afghan soldiers has quit or deserted the Afghan National Army in the last year, while the ill-paid, largely illiterate, hapless Afghan police with their "well-deserved reputation for stealing and extorting bribes," not to speak of a drug abuse rate estimated at 15%, are, as its politely put, "years away from functioning independently"; and the insurgency is spreading to new areas of the country and reviving in others.

The Truth shall Set You Free

Unless you do it like this:

While I agree with most of what they're saying, this is the type of thing that governments look for to justify their actions against us. As much as we need to send a strong message, we need to always remember that we are also trying to win over the public opinion as well. These tactics won't help in that regard.

Judge and Jury

An Important barrier against unjust law has slowly been forgotten:

Even though it was once the written law, would you vote to convict an escaped slave from the south, return him to his "Master" and to then be punished, maybe by inflicting torture and disfigurement to that escaped slave? Your answer is hopefully "NO!" But, at one time that was the law. How about burning a witch? Once too that was the law, a bad law and one that should not to be acted upon by our juries. If these laws were again passed today, how should you vote if on that trial's jury?

[...] "Jury nullification of law," as it is sometimes called, is a traditional American right defended by the Founding Fathers. Those patriots intended that the jury serve as one of the tests a law must pass through before it assumes enough popular authority to be enforced. Our constitutional designers saw to it that each enactment of law must pass the scrutiny of these tribunals before it gains the authority to punish those who choose to violate any written law. Thomas Jefferson said, "I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution."

[...] About 18 months ago, armed with a number of pamphlets explaining the importance to each of us in having the courts fully inform juries of their rights, I stood in the Mendocino County Courthouse. I had been talking about this issue, with courthouse visitors when I was "invited" into Judge James Luther's courtroom by two of his bailiffs....

Be sure to read the rest.

Also check out the juror's handbook.

A Good Comment

While reading a hit piece on Ron Paul (you can tell the primaries are coming), I found a comment that was pretty good at describing his views in a way that really portrayed what we like about the good doctor:

On War...
RP--Wars should be defensive only and declared by Congress, with a clearly defined mission and exit strategy.
U.S.--The UN, the Congress, or the President can send our troops wherever they want without a formal declaration of war, a strategy, clearly defined enemy, definition of victory, or exit strategy.

On Civil Liberties...
RP--The government exists for one reason--to protect our liberty. Any actions taken to do more can only come at the expense of those liberties.
U.S.--The government gives you your rights and can take them away at will [see rendition, torture, "don't taze me bro", countless 10th amendment violations, war on drugs, income tax, excessive punishment of "hate crimes", etc.

On Monetary Policy...
RP--End the Fed! [a message he's consistently delivered for decades], sound commodity-backed currency (or at least legalize competing currencies)
U.S.--Just keep printing, borrowing, spending with reckless abandon. There will be no consequences... ever.

On the Economy...
RP--Balance the budget by cutting bureaucracy and reigning in the empire
U.S.--Just go to the mall. Everything will be ok. The dollar isn't crashing. Just keep buying. We'll punish you from saving by devaluing the currency faster than you can save money and earn interest.

The Jobs Summit

Why do I get the feeling that all aspects of the economy will be scrutinized except for the tax-feeders in the room?