Sunday, September 30, 2012

Autumn in New York with Billie Holiday

Many thanks to Ducky for recommending this video


 

Autumn in New York, why does it seem so inviting?
Autumn in New York, it spells the thrill of first-nighting.
Glittering crowds and shimmering clouds in canyons of steel; 
They’re making me feel: I’m home.

It’s autumn in New York that brings the promise of new love. 
Autumn in New York is often mingled with pain.
Dreamers with empty hands may sigh for exotic lands;
It’s autumn in New York;
It’s good to live it again.

Autumn in New York, the gleaming rooftops at sundown
Autumn in New York, it lifts you up when you’re let down
Jaded roués and gay divorces who lunch at the Ritz 
Will tell you that it’s divine

It’s autumn in New York transforms the slums into Mayfair
Autumn in New York, you’ll need no castle in Spain
Lovers that bless the dark
On benches in Central Park
Greet autumn in New York,
It’s good to live it again.

~ § ~

~ Vernon Duke aka Vladimir Dukelsky (1934)


Saturday, September 29, 2012


The United States of America 
v. “The World Community” 

The Ongoing Effort to Turn the USA into a Pariah. 
Who’s to Blame?

[NOTE: These remarks first appeared in response to an article posted by AOW expressing concern over the impact of an Arab Muslim and UN initiative to criminalize freedom of speech. We thought they deserved further amplification, and towards that end have posted them here. - FT]

In truth we have Adolf Hitler to thank for the frightful situation concerning The United States of America vis-a-vis "The World Community."

The current mania to imagine it appropriate and "just" to criminalize and punish gestures and commentary deemed "offensive" by -- You Name It -- is part of the Political Correctness that originated in the aftermath of the Holocaust.

Oh yes it did, Virginia!

The enormous power garnered by cries and accusations of "anti-Semitism," a power that increased by leaps and bounds after the war, seemed only fair and decent after the horrors perpetrated by Hitler's Third Reich, of course. However, in the long run it has -- as with most policies designed to inhibit freedom of expression -- it has come full circle to bite us on the buttocks.

Once other Grievance Groups began to realize the enormous power repeated and persistent cries of "anti-Semitism" gave to Jews, naturally they began to follow suit and the Denunciation Disease spread, has now become epidemic, and is threatening to subvert and destroy our Bill of Rights.

First Anti-Semites, then Anti-Blacks -- and now Anti-Islamaniacs -- became the New Salem Witches of our time.

The increasingly powerful drive towards INTERNATIONALISM on all fronts, which has been in the works for well over a hundred years, is part of the Progressive Agenda to dissolve our sovereignty and that of all other nations in favor of One World Government, which of course will be SOCIALISTIC -- meaning a leveling across the board of all societies to uniform mediocrity at best, mutually shared misery at worst ostensibly in the interests of "Fairness" and "Equality."

For several decades now Caucasian Christians have been considered Fair Game -- especially if they are Protestant, prosperous and powerful. The ethnic and religious groups that achieved the most and became the richest and most powerful have been in effect "Scheduled for Demolition" –– what the elitists, of course, prefer to call "TRANSFORMATION."

This current obsession with "concern" over the "feelings" in "The Arab Street" is bogus. It is just another part of the long-planned Agenda to Discredit White Achievement, Decrease White Power, Diminish White Wealth, and thus give Caucasians, Capitalists and Christians their long awaited Comeuppance.

If I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about the Islamaniacs. They TOO are just being USED as PAWNS in the deadly game perpetrated by The Oligarchs to Achieve World Domination.

We ought, instead of getting so involved with all the smelly, Rotten Red Herrings the Oligarchs keep throwing in our path, to work feverishly to learn precisely WHO these would-be Slave Masters that have us all at each others' throats really are, and figure out HOW to DEFANG and CASTRATE the bastards before we are reduced to the status of galley slaves in Trireme Amerika.


~ FreeThinke

Friday, September 28, 2012


1992 Breaking News:
Netanyahu Says Iran Close 
to Nuclear Weapon

Does This Sound Familiar?

Israel's Prime Minister:
Binjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu



By Michael Chester 



Most of us are aware that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been pressuring the United States to stage a pre-emptive attack on Iran on behalf of Israel. He has been constantly beating the war drum claiming that Iran is near full development of a nuclear weapon.


Apparently, many US congressmen and senators have fallen for this line of [propaganda] or been threatened or blackmailed into cooperating with Israel. This deadly hoax has been repeated so often and so loudly that many Americans have been fooled into believing it is true. All of the world’s major intelligence agencies have unanimously stated that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program and their research is strictly In the area of peaceful uses of nuclear energy. In fact  Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has given a fatwa against nuclear weapons. For those unfamiliar with the power structure in Iran, he is the real power broker. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is mostly there for show. His power is quite limited.


What many of us may not recall is that this drumbeat about Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program began many years ago. Netanyahu is on record as early as 1992 claiming that Iran was “close” to having a nuke.


Scott Peterson at the Christian Science Monitor did a useful timeline for dire Israeli and US predictions of an imminent Iranian nuclear weapon, beginning 20 years ago.


• 1992: Israeli member of parliament Binyamin Netanyahu predicts that Iran was “3 to 5 years” from having a nuclear weapon.


• 1992: Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres predicts an Iranian nuclear warhead by 1999 to French TV.


• 1995: The New York Times quotes US and Israeli officials saying that Iran would have the bomb by 2000.


• 1998: Donald Rumsfeld tells Congress that Iran could have an intercontinental ballistic missile that could hit the US by 2003.


To add insult to injury, recently de-classified FBI reports have been released from a 1985–2002 investigation into how a network of front companies connected to the Israeli Ministry of Defense illegally smuggled nuclear triggers out of the U.S. The newly released FBI files detail how Richard Kelly Smyth, who was convicted of running a U.S. front company, met with Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel during the smuggling operation. At that time, Netanyahu worked at the Israeli node of the smuggling network, Heli Trading Company. In an obvious attempt to cover his illicit past, Netanyahu recently issued a gag order that the smuggling network’s unindicted ringleader refrain from discussing “Project Pinto.”


In his blog post of July 3, 2012 author Grant Smith offered the following synopsis:

Netanyahu Worked Inside Nuclear Smuggling Ring

As revealed in previously released FBI files and the tell-all book Confidential: The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon Arnon Milchan, the Hollywood producer was recruited into Israel’s economic espionage division (LAKAM) in his 20s and learned how to establish front companies and secret bank accounts for smuggling operations. Arnon Milchan encouraged Smyth, a California engineer, to incorporate MILCO in 1972 and serve as a front for the Israel-based Heli Trading’s (also known as Milchan Limited) acquisitions of sensitive military technologies on behalf of the Ministry of Defense. 

Smyth fled the U.S. after being indicted for violating the Arms Export Control Act in the mid-1980s. In July 2001, Smyth was arrested in Spain by Interpol and returned to the U.S., and in November, he was convicted of exporting 800 nuclear triggers (called krytrons).

FBI agents interviewed Smyth on April 16-17, 2002, at the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles. The secret interview report details how during a trip to Israel Smyth was “spotted” by Milchan, who claimed he worked as an exclusive purchasing agent for the Ministry of Defense. Smyth was introduced around to high military officials including then-general Ariel Sharon. Smyth was also put in contact with Benjamin Netanyahu, who worked at Heli Trading Company. According to the FBI report, “Smyth and [Netanyahu] would meet in restaurants in Tel Aviv and in [Netanyahu's] home and/or business. It was not uncommon for [Netanyahu] to ask Smyth for unclassified material.”

Milchan pulled Smyth into his glamorous, star-studded movie circuit. “While in the United States [Smyth] met with [Milchan] numerous times in Los Angeles. … Milchan and Smyth would have dinner frequently and would visit one another’s house often … it was quite common for [Milchan] to invite [Smyth] to various Hollywood parties and introduce [Smyth] to celebrities.”

During the 2002 Smyth counterintelligence debriefing, the FBI learned that the Ministry of Defense ordered and paid Heli Trading for krytrons. Heli in turn sourced them from MILCO in a clandestine operation codenamed Project Pinto. The report reveals how MILCO illegally shipped prohibited articles under general Commerce Department export licenses rather than smuggling them out via Israeli diplomatic pouches. The last time Smyth saw Milchan was in 1985. The Ministry of Defense issued a burn notice on Smyth after discussions with U.S. officials about the krytron smuggling. According to the FBI report, “Shortly thereafter, [Smyth] fled the United States.”

A March 2012 statement by the co-authors of Confidential claims that “Hollywood mega-producer and former secret agent Arnon Milchan has been asked directly by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres to avoid any public discussion of the book Confidential, asserting that the matter is too sensitive at this time.” Although the book’s authors point to the escalating tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, Netanyahu’s own hands-on involvement in nuclear weapons–related covert action against America is presumably a far more compelling reason for the gag order.

* The FBI referred an additional 164 pages of the Mandatory Declassification Review to another government agency — presumably the CIA — for further review. The additional pages will likely never be released. The CIA has refused requests for similar documents in order to preserve intelligence sources and methods abroad.


Related Posts:







Thursday, September 27, 2012


Springtime for Obama



In Cairo and in Tripoli,
In Yemen and Amman,
Our Foreign Service diplomats
Are mobbed and set upon.

At embassies and consulates
In London and Kuwait,
The mobs that burn the Stars and Stripes
Spew venom, rage and hate.

From Europe to the Middle East
The street has gone berserk,
Infecting Asians, Africans,
The Arab and the Turk.

To which the Foggy Bottom crowd
Expresses its remorse;
They find the safest thing to blame:
America, of course.

And with the rising body count,
And chaos from the crowd,
The White House gives a firm response:
“We couldn’t be more proud.”

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

One of the Most Terrifying Videos 
You Could Ever Hope to See



From a cute little woolly-headed black kid to a caricatured clone of –– who is that supposed to be? –– Natalie Wood? –– Liz Taylor? –– maybe an amalgam of both? –– and all with the persistent, unending grin of a death's head exhumed in an archaeological dig in one of the darkest, most remote corners of this benighted world.

The immense popularity of this grotesque, largely unreal, terribly sad, mentally ill, hideously exploited individual speaks so poorly for the degraded state of the Popular American Mind it's enough to make one burst into tears.


~ FreeThinke

Monday, September 24, 2012



So Thomas Paine 
Was a Crypto-Marxist. 
Who Knew?

Thomas Paine c. 1806

[The following essay, truncated and edited with emphasis added by FT, was published anonymously, and appears largely to be a rationalization of the author whose belief in Marxian ideology is patently obvious, yet it provides interesting, little-known information on some of the more curious and eccentric ideas of Thomas Paine, who was disavowed and disowned by George Washington and other Founders after the success of our revolution.]


Thomas Paine’s Take on Social Justice


I recently read Thomas Paine’s essay “Agrarian Justice”, and I think it’s important that we bring it up in today’s climate.


Every day, it seems, I hear or read people say things that imply that they believe that liberalism originated with The New Deal, that any government social justice programs are inherently derived from Communism or Socialism ...  that our country was founded as a Capitalist, Christian nation, and that liberalism is somehow ... a rejection of, the foundational ideals of our government.


Even many “liberals” seem to accept the assumption that the founding fathers laid a foundation of Capitalism and Christianity.  Hence the seeming need of some to denigrate and defile their memories.

My position, after reading many of the original works of these men, and other great Americans ... is that they knew they were laying a foundation.  They knew there was only so much work they could do, and that other work would be the task of future generations.


For instance, they proudly proclaimed that each and every man should be his own master, though some of them owned slaves because they recognized that dismantling in international economy built on human trafficking was the work of many generations.


They correctly assessed that their time was the time to undermine the assumption of the Divine right of Kings, and to elevate Natural Philosophy above superstition as the means of lighting the path for future innovations.  That is a great enough task for any generation, I would say.


The Founding Fathers were liberals.  Most of them used the word “liberal” to describe themselves, and at least three of the greatest minds and eloquent spokesmen for the American Revolution were not Christians, but were deists (Men who, though they believed in God, cast aside the mental shackles of religious superstition to embrace the idea of natural laws as being the supreme expression of God).  One was Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence.  Another was James Madison, primary author of the United States Constitution, and a third was Thomas Paine, author of “Common Sense” and the “American Crisis” series of essays (among others) that galvanized and propelled the American Revolution (as well as the French Revolution) with his ... sheer virtuosity with the English language.


To be liberal is to be American, but lets take a moment to define liberal.  Conservative pundits would have you believe that “Liberal” means taking drugs, having meaningless kinky sex with many anonymous partners, destroying families, having many abortions, and loving trees and animals more than human beings.


Some people who call themselves liberals might do some of these things, but none of these are “liberal values”.


“Liberals”, in the traditional American sense, are people who believe in the principles of the Enlightenment.  Liberals believe that reality is the ultimate test of any ideology.  They rely on the basic premise that natural laws and natural philosophy (exploring natural law with the tools of reason and logic) should be the foundation of human effort.


One idea that came about through this thought process is the idea that in a natural state, every man belongs to himself.  Where there is no government or religion to tell him what to do, he is free to do as he chooses.  Whether he lives or dies, lives in prosperity or wretchedness, in health or sickness; it is on his merits and his alone that he achieves of fails.  If he dies, he dies as a man.  If he lives, he lives as a man.  If he is moral or immoral, noble or brutish; he is so of his own power.  It is a state neither superior nor inferior to a state of civilization, it is merely the natural state of man.  It is not an ideal state.  Though man is in control of himself, he controls nothing else.  He cannot control the world around him, other men, or his destiny outside of what he can do of himself and his own power.  But he does control himself, completely.  ...


In “Agrarian Justice”, Thomas Paine described that natural state as one that entitled every man equally to the fruits of the earth, and to existence on the earth.  Though some were better suited to survive than others, all had equal inheritance to strive.  No one “owned” land, in the sense that one’s ability to exploit the benefits of land was only equal to your ability to hold it and make use of it on your own or at most in a family unit.  


This is, of course, a thought experiment, as we can have no idea what life was actually like before any kind of civilization.  It is up to [us] to decide if the picture painted is useful or enlightening.



Civilization changed that with the cultivation of land.  Once land was improved, such that it could yield many times more food than it could before, it became essential that one person be able to “own” a given piece of land.  Nobody would cultivate land that could be taken away.  Instead of cultivating it, they merely moved on when they had used what bounty it yielded on its own.  They would hold it and chase others away only as long as it was worth the effort.


Civilization, land ownership, and land improvement evolved in an interconnected way.  You could not have one without the other…and once those conditions arose, it became impossible to reverse.  Land, once cleared of forest, cultivated, and owned, where that ownership was supported by a government, and the government supported by land owners, would forever be property.


But Thomas Paine argued that it was still not the land that was “owned”, but the labor to improve it, which was irreversible (for all practical purposes) and inseparable from the land.  Civilization provided the means by which an individual or family could hold onto the land they cultivated.  Cultivation provided the means by which soldiers and laborers and craftsmen could be fed ...


Paine goes on to point out, however, that though most people benefited from this innovation, there were many who suffered by it.  ...  Poverty, Paine asserts, is an artifact of civilization.  There are people that society simply has no place for.


And though society has no place or use for them, they are unable to live in the natural state, as land must be owned.  Therefore, society owes them such consideration as to at least give them a means to avoid wretchedness.


In other words, a social safety net.  People who cannot work to maintain a place in civilization, whether it be because they are too young, too old, too sick, or ... disabled, should be provided for by those who benefit from civilization, at the expense of others.  (I would add, n modern times, people who require re-training due to outmoded skills sets)  He did not propose this as charity.  He did not view it as beneficence, but as justice.  As society paying these people back for the loss of their inheritance of the bounty of the world that they would have equal share of in the natural state.


Paine [proposed the idea] that [while] civilization certainly benefited everyone to different degrees  ... [no one]  should be worse off under civilization than he would be in a natural state.

He had very specific proposals as to how it would be executed, and I’m sure they made sense in sparsely populated post-colonial America where most of the wealth was in land. ... [O]ur modern Social Security System is a very good analogue for his proposal.  There are some ... differences, but what stands out as the same is the sense of social justice.


Liberals believe that people are entitled to dignity, and to the ability to meet their basic needs.  In a natural state, most people would die.  Because of civilization, there are more people alive who would have died in the natural state.  Civilization cannot, will not, and should not dispose of them ...   [instead[ it must maintain them, or help them maintain themselves ...  They should be able to get food, clothing, shelter, health care and education.  They should have decent jobs if they can work, and their basic needs provided for if they cannot.  And certainly, society should not turn it’s power against them to keep them wretched for the benefit others.


This cannot be done unless the people who benefit from civilization give some of their wealth back to the society to pay for it.


The conservative model of “faith-based initiatives” seems to be centered on the idea that charity should be the prerogative of the giver.  The giver should be able to choose who he thinks is worthy.  That people should have to supplicate themselves to churches and “sing for their supper”.  There is a meanness and pettiness to this that is unworthy of the wealthiest nation on Earth.  And somehow, a lot of people think that this is the American Way.  That it is a foundational value of our society.


Well, I have at least one founding father on record that says it isn’t so.  I prefer the idea that a just nation will have little need for charity.


~ § ~

[NOTE: Undoubtedly, it would be a good idea to read "Agrarian Justice" the essay by Thomas Paine that supposedly inspired this article. It may be found at the following link:

http://www.constitution.org/tp/agjustice.htm


The complete essay that constitutes this article, may be found,as originally written, at the following link:


Another article of interest on the ultimate fate of Thomas Paine may be found here:]


Many thanks to Les Carpenter of Rational Nation for prompting us to examine this topic. ~ FT

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Automne by Gabriel Fauré





 Autumn, time of misty skies and heart-breaking horizons,
 ____ of rapid sunsets and pale dawns,
 __________ I watch your melancholy days
 _______________  flow past like a torrent.

 My thoughts borne off on the wings of regret
 _____ (as if our time could ever be relived!)
 __________ dreamingly wander the enchanted slopes
        __________ where my youth once used to smile.

 In the bright sunlight of triumphant memory
 _____ _____ I feel the scattered roses reblooming in bouquets;
 __________ _____ and tears well up in my eyes, tears which my heart
        ______ at twenty had already forgotten!


__________ ~ Armand Silvestre (1837-1901) translated by  Peter Low