1. Any comment I don’t think contributes to the discussion gets tossed when and if I notice it or if it comes up in moderation.
2. The process for deciding if a comment meets with the criteria in #1 is something called “judgment”. In short, there are no hard and fast rules you can try and skirt, no funny semantic games you can play etc.
3. Any comment may be used as the subject of commentary, ridicule or the bestowing of praise.
4. You will notice that your opinion of what is and isn’t fair is not part of #1.
5. This blog will fluctuate between requiring moderation on all new comments or not as I see fit, thus not every comment that appears will have necessarily been moderated by me yet.
6. Whining about “libel” and “slander” is pointless. Get a lawyer or stay quiet.
7. You have NO first amendment right on this domain. It is private, not public, space.

I really do enjoy thoughtful debate, even if it is heated. You certainly don’t need to agree with me to comment here. That said, blogs are free – if you don’t feel like you are getting to speak here then go publish it someplace else.

In a very real way, Ronald Reagan saved the world.

I know, I know, the left and even many on the right won’t like that reality. This is an age where courage is not a virtue but cowardice is. The only leaders with any courage these days seem to be the insane ones. Those charged with the protection of freedom cloak cowardice and appeasement in the mien of “compromise” and “discussion”. Discussion and negotiation are fine tools that well meaning men can use to co-exist… but it has no place in the dealings between men and animals.

[Achilles to Hector] There are no pacts between lions and men. – Troy

The Berlin wall was not torn down by Reagan, or indeed by any single man. The wall came down for the same reasons the jail keepers of the Soviet Union finally were forced to face their failure – because many, many regular people finally said “we will not be your slaves any more”.  This defiance was the only possible because those people were given a stark choice, and they knew that someone somewhere had their backs. That someone was Reagan, and that choice was simple – freedom and progress or slavery and stagnation.

There are many who will downplay the contribution that Reagan made to the destruction of the Soviets. They will tell you he was just one man, and that no one man matters that much. They are lying to you.

The Soviet Union foundered on the million rocks of their citizens, but the keel was snapped on the rock hard will of an actor turned president who had the balls to look all their might dead in the face and flat out declare that he would not be moved or ignored.

So relax and enjoy, I will be back to regular blogging here in the near future. In the meantime, here is a gentle reminder

p.s. – thanks to Tori for permission to use this picture!

Once again we are here on 9/11 As I look back on the events of that morning and my reactions I realize nothing has changed. I still stand by my thoughts of the time.  I will keep this entry short, because frankly it does not need to be very wordy.

Even now, after 7 years, we are still in a fight with forces who seek nothing less than our extermination. The seek to wipe us out not for anything we have done but simply because of what we are. We do not worship their god. We do not bow down to their laws. We do not place our lives and our families second in importance to their priests. We are free of their control and as such we are a threat to everything they believe in.

People of good conscience can, and do, disagree on how we will achieve our security and the removal of the threat to us. That is the core of a healthy democracy. What we cannot forget is that this is a fight for our very existence.

“Absolutely. The US is the target of their anger and hate not really because of what we do – it is what we are. Our existence is abhorrent to them – this is why appeasement, deal brokering or trying to buy them off will not work. Their ability to inflict harm on us must be forcibly eradicated” – me, in a thread on friendfeed

If you lost someone close to you on 9/11/2001 you have my sympathies. My thanks go to the police, firefighters and others who work in support of our society at personal risk. If you serve in our military you have my deepest gratitude… you place your life in between us and those who wish us harm and I will never forget that.

As for the memorials – personally I think we should have re-built the towers and added 10 stories. We should have done it as a crash national program and gotten them up inside of 6 months. That we have not is to our shame.

Yes indeed once again a minute or two spent on Above Top Secret has yielded a whole new species of whack job to be amused by.

“The real force behind the irritant is the hyperdimensional entities using less aware people like puppets, implanting ideas on a level of frequency that the recipient is not aware that their emotional responses are being triggered by an outside force.” – agent TrueLight laying down the troof!

That sounds familiar right? I mean, aside from the paranoid ravings of people throughout history… it reminds you of a recent movie doesn’t it? Hint… “The Matrix”. That just proves it of course, the movie was clearly someone trying to blow the lid off the whole thing!

Anyway, back to why that hot guy or girl is evil. They are probably what these folks would call an “Organic Portal”. Let me just quote it for you, so you can enjoy the full tapestry of crazy involved.

Organic portals are said to comprise approximately half of the human population; the other half mostly consists of souled humans1. Here we define “soul” as the core of individualized consciousness that remains intact between successive incarnations.

Due to genetic mixing, Organic Portals exist among all known races today, though with unequal distribution among them. While souled humans have a divine spark of consciousness that gives them the ability of individual self-awareness, OPs lack this divine spark and are only dimly conscious in comparison. They belong to an animal-like group soul that exists, evolves, and incarnates collectively rather than individually. While each souled human has a relatively unique energy shaped by that person’s awareness, experience, and essence, the energy that animates one OP is the same animating any other.” – Matrix Agents: Profiles and Analysis (Part I)

But watcher you say, that doesn’t say anything about how hot they are! I’ll bold the relevant portion of the text below to help you.

“Physically, the two races are virtually indistinguishable. Statistically, there are minor physiological and perhaps genetic differences. Physiologically, OPs tend to be more attractive and well proportioned. Because they exist on an emotionally primal level, natural selection has ensured that sexuality, physicality, and attractiveness play a large part in their physical evolution. Also, unlike souled humans, OP bodies are conceived and develop independently of soul pressures or karmic burdens, so they are as attractive as probability allows within the constraint of environmental and genetic parameters.

Because soul and genetics are coupled, karma and soul composition influences the physiology of souled humans, not just genetics or environment. For metaphysical reasons, they rarely maximize the potential for attractiveness allotted to them by genetics unless their soul quality deserves it. Also, souled humans tend to marry or reproduce for reasons other than just physical attraction, so the lowering of priority of physicality reflects in their offspring. There may be genetic markers in the X chromosome that distinguish them, or perhaps differences in body chemistry and hormones, but such are not known at this time.” – Matrix Agents: Profiles and Analysis (Part I)

There you go. If your not attractive you shouldn’t feel bad… it just proves how deep and karmically alive you are. In fact, the less attractive you are the more complex and evolved your soul probably is.

There’s lots more of this tripe and it wanders into the typical karmic, energy and chakra crap these sorts of new age types usually fixate on. It’s worth a read though just to remind yourself that not everyone who needs to be under professional supervision actually is. The whole thing is a recipe for functional paranoia. God, I love the Internet.

Just for fun, you might be interested in how your average ATS reader feels about all this. The answer is they hit it with the same critical thinking and logic that leads the to believe repitillian aliens (or the Jews, they can’t decide) were behind the 9/11 attack.

“very good post op, I have always suspected this to be the reason why there are wars, not only are we feeding these entities, but it looks like we also feeding aliens as well (on top of bodily fluids etc..)” – thefreepatriot is an independent thinker

Remember rebels, attacks can happen anywhere, at any time! However, crossing your ankles can help. As we all know, beings from higher dimensions who can control organic robots hate it when you cross your ankles.

“June last year I had an encounter that was sooo freaky. My father and I had just sat down on a seat in a local train when what looked like an ordinary girl of ~20 yrs old sat down on the seat in front of me, which faced my way.

She felt ‘cold’ and somehow I wondered if she has been abused in the past or so (I do have my empathic moments.. )

I swear that suddenly she just stared at me with this bizarre look. Ultimately she has done this for 20 minutes straight! As far as I can recall, she did this without blinking or blinking extremely rarely… like she was in a trance, almost like this smiley without the eyes becoming bigger/smaller all the time:

Initially I was just looking outside, not really paying attention to her.. but I noticed her odd behavior in my peripheral vision. Within seconds I knew that this was not an ordinary encounter and I could feel my energy shift. I know a little bit about the human energy system, so I tried to prevent her from whatever she was doing by crossing my ankles and connecting the tips of my index fingers and thumbs and also visualizing a shield around me.” – mirador fights back!

Ok. I’ll stop now. Go ahead and check out the thread and all the congratulatory back patting they went on for four pages about.

The watcher, signing off!

Disagreement with the government and the course of the nation is the right of every U.S. citizen and so deeply ingrained in our national character that our founders considered it the first thing they had to remind us of. The first amendment grants us the freedom to not only disagree, but to attempt to persuade others to join us in that dissent via our ideas and our reason.

This freedom was considered so critical that to safeguard it the second thing they did was ensure that we had the right to arm ourselves so that we can never be truly silenced, and so that no one could attempt to persuade us by force instead of reason.

I am heartened beyond words that at a time when so many people are screaming loud and long that our rights have been removed the highest court in our nation issued a strong decision supporting that second amendment right to keep and bear arms. They not only supported it, they did so for exactly the right reason – in recognition of the critical role an individually armed populace plays as a check against rampant abuse of power.

I’ll say it again. I consider the right to dissent an essential freedom and a core American value. However that does not mean that all dissent is inherently valuable, or that reflexive dismissal of all that is amazing about this nation is inherently right and good.

We see the same thing happening in the conspiracy community. Since a mark of intelligence is asking questions then they are always at a loss that their penchant for asking stupid questions and ignoring the answers is not considered a sign of intelligence. They confuse the effect (questions) with the cause (intelligence). Dissent and criticism is the same way. Yes, many intelligent people dissent. It is not, however, true that all dissent is the result of intelligence.

To be fair, Chris is better than most. Chris is taking on important issues… I just think he misses the obvious in his analysis. Chris feels that if at any given single moment in time the U.S. isn’t operating perfectly to our ideals that it indicates a catastrophic failure of our nation and those who are part of it.

I disagree.

To me, the pride of the U.S.A. is that we have a system that corrects. We are a nation of humans, lead by humans, dealing with other humans in a complex world. We will make mistakes, we will occasionally loose our way and we will sometimes have to do seem things we are less than thrilled with to survive. Yet we always correct because the core of this nation is self correcting. There is no need for despair and there is no need to run around screaming. The system is in place – all you have to do is use it. Act. Speak. Persuade. Set an example.

Think about what even reading this missive of mine actually means:

• I publish this on a website that grants me instant voice to the vast majority of the places on this earth. No government censor approves it, and there is no delay between my decision to publish it and it’s availability.
• I do this from a house that is protected to a large degree from the random invasion by the government.
• I write this less than 6 feet away from at least one handgun that I could use to defend myself and my freedom if I disagreed with that invasion, were it to happen.
• I will post this to a blog that is covering an election in which the current front runner is a member of a party that in some cases may use it’s new power (if elected) to attempt to try the outgoing party as war criminals.
• As contentious as that election is there is not a single hint (to anyone who is sane) that there will be serious violence, any issues with the exchange of power or serious compromises in the electoral process.
• When I am done I am packing up for a long weekend where I will join about 500 others freaks for a celebration of our choices in how we live and what we do for fun.
• At that event there will be a signing for a book written by my good friend and published by me. At no point in the creation, printing, distribution or sale of that book have we ever needed to beg the permission of the government or gain it’s approval of the content.

These are not the characteristics of a totalitarian nation.

I am proud as hell of this nation. I am proud of the vast majority of our actions, I am proud of what we stand for. As a superpower we wield enormous influence. Anyone rational can see that this influence has by and large been a force for good in the world. Untold billions of humans live better, in more freedom and with more peace than they would have without us.

• There are many who revile us. Success always breeds envy.
• There are many who blame us. When you have influence and resources there are always those who wish you used it to their benefit, and not your own.
• There are many who seek our downfall. Our influence and indeed our very existence stands for something that many in this world consider evil. The right of individual humans to live for their own sake, and not as literal or moral slaves to their fellow man. On an individual level such a belief leads to hatred from others… of course it does on a national level as well.

I do have one real regret and disappointment in us as a nation this year. Each and every week I travel past the still gaping hole where the World Trade Center stood. That there is nothing there is, to me, a indicator that we are timid and that somehow we feel guilty about who we are.

We should have build the World Trade Center again the year it fell as a national project. We should have built it taller, wider and stronger. We should have built it in a way that was instantly recognizable as the buildings that were taken down. It should have stood as the largest collective “fuck you” in the history of mankind.

We did not, and I think I know why. Somewhere within us there is shame over what we are. That shame is not the shame expressed by Chris in his article. His distress is a symptom. Somewhere, deep down, many of us are ashamed of our collective success and power. We are as a nation wracked with the same doubts and fears that many powerful and successful individuals feel in a world that is trying to convince them to give it all up and be servants of the evil and weak.

Do not fall for this trap, either as a individual or a national citizen. There is nothing about ability, success or power that is shameful.

By all means this 4th of July keep in mind your questions and your dissent. Make your plans for how you will speak and act to make the changes you feel are needed. Discuss the upcoming elections and persuade those you can to vote the way you wish them to.

While you are doing all that however, do not despair but rather feel uplifted and proud. Appreciate that you live in a nation that protects your ability to do all that, provides you with the means to accomplish your goals and supports you in the attempt. Look around you at the monument this nation is to the work of those who were not crushed for the sake of their brothers. Reflect and remember that the greatest all volunteer military in history is keeping you safe and extending these freedoms to many who would otherwise never taste them.

Pause in your debates and take a moment with your opponents to smile in sheer delight at your freedom to debate and argue. Allow yourself the joy that comes from being an American.

I promise, it is ok to be proud.

I am going to continue to let Herdwatchign find it’s own way as I continue to play with the format. Part snark, part satire, part serious commentary but hopefully constantly entertaining.

Enjoy!

Of these, one of the ones I like best is Robert Scoble. Scoble is incredibly well plugged in, a nice guy and very personable. Generally speaking he is a fantastic canary in the web coal mine. If it’s important Scoble will pick up in it very, very quickly. As an interesting side note, Scoble is also the kind of guy who can go out and do incredibly cool things, then talk about them without sounding like an arrogant self centered prick. It’s pretty cool.

So this morning when an urgent Scoblegram came across Twitter I immediately checked out the issue at hand. I mean, how could I help it? The very web was in peril!

“Why Microsoft will buy Facebook AND KEEP IT CLOSED!!! http://tinyurl.com/4g5hka Please link to this, the Web is in peril.” – Robert Scoble

The Friendfeed thread quickly got going, then another  and we were off to the races. What was this all about? There is a rumor that Microsoft might buy part of Yahoo and then grab Facebook. To those people who think Microsoft is the work of Satan this is apparently a bad thing. Why?

• First off, Microsoft is just evil man, didn’t you know that?
• If Microsoft buys Facebook, then it won’t support a mostly unimpressive thing called Open Social that promised to lead us all into nirvana
• When we weren’t looking, all of our blogs, web pages, search engines and applications were replaced by cleverly disguised Facebook pages… you only think there is an Internet!

It all centers around a concept called data portability. The idea is that thanks to the growth of service websites we are all accumulating vast amounts of potentially valuable data that reside in places we don’t own or control. For instance if you use Gmail then Google has a huge amount of data about you, including your "social graph" (who you email, how often, who replies and so on). If you store your images in Flickr then someone has your photos. Blogger might have a list who you link to, and so on. Obviously Google is the grand-daddy of them all here and despite "don’t be evil" protestations does not have a stellar record on privacy issues. The core of Google’s business basically revolves around you are letting them strip mine your life for data they can make a profit from in exchange for free services.

The fear is that all this data is locked away and thus in peril. Let’s say that you are one of those folks who has their whole life on Facebook. You keep your images there, you message your friends there, you keep in touch with family via Facebook. Then let’s say someone else comes along and does a better system. Are you able to move? Or are you locked into Facebook because all your data lives there? The answer is of course both.

What confuses me is the seeming assumption that this issue (the tension between the inertia of a current system and the benefits of a migration to a new system) is new to "Web 2.0". It isn’t. This same tension has always existed, and always will. The "Open Social" API won’t change that. Even if I could move all my data from Facebook to the next big thing I would still face the inertia of all my contacts and friends still being on Facebook. The only way to avoid that would be for every social networking service to offer exactly the same feature set, with no value added abilities and an absolutely zero barrier to participation. Now only would that be unlikely, but it would be financially suicidal for the networks in question.

In short, the idea of perfect data portability eliminating friction and inertia in what services we use is simply impossible.

That being obvious then, how is the lack of this utopian future causing such panic and upset? Let’s pretend for a moment that Microsoft buys Facebook and keeps it closed (it is closed now, by the way, and yet the Internet still functions). This is not a given by the way, Microsoft is making a lot of very smart moves around engaging the wider web and they certainly understand the power of network effects. Hell, let’s go a step further and pretend Microsoft buys Facebook and then nukes it.they delete all the data and sink the servers at the bottom of the ocean.

Would the loss of Facebook really mean the literal death of the Web? Of course not.

It’s an interesting time and there are certainly things here to keep an eye on, but really people, get a grip.

“Scientists have discovered that all women will , at some point, contain intelligent DNA. Unfortunately 95% of them will spit it out.”

I don’t care who you are, that’s funny right there…