Ladies and Gentlemen...

In the event you have not noticed it, we have finally arrived. Our fair land is for all intents and purposes a police state. For those of you who may not be convinced, I have graciously supplied the below video. View it and get back to us.


This is neither jest nor hyperbole. Your humble writer in a previous life (too long ago) earned his bread in a career which he understood categorized him as a "peace officer". During the course of that career he had occasion to supervise street cops who made arrests for a broad range of crimes; some serious and some not so serious. In those times if a deputy brought to jail an arrestee, that arrest was required to be approved by yours truly. On only one occasion over a period of 12 years as a supervisor did I need to disapprove an arrest made in the field.

If a deputy sheriff assigned to my supervision made an arrest as described in this situation he would not only have been the laughingstock of the Los Angeles County Lennox or Catalina Island Sheriff stations but be the subject of serious disciplinary action instituted by yours truly.

Alas, times have changed; and this old Greek is ashamed to reveal in most social contexts that he is a retired "law enforcement" officer.

Heaven help us!

ht:Travis Holte @LRC blog
cross posted at: Eternity Road

Some Much Needed Levity

Occasionally an exceptionally amusing parody catches our eye. The following is an excerpt from such an example by Christopher Manion in Crisis magazine. Go here to read the whole hilarious anecdote.

Nelosi then called a meeting with other Democrats to hear the tearful story of Sucha Flake, a law student who moonlighted as a bartendress at a pickup bar on M street. Although Flake was thirty years old, she was still in school, and she spoke poignantly of the plight of her fellow student inebriates.
“I attend an Alcoholics Anonymous law school that does not provide beer coverage in its student health plan. Just as we students have faced financial, emotional, and medical burdens as a result, employees at sober hospitals and universities across the country have suffered similar burdens. We are all grateful for the new ObamaBeer regulation that will meet the critical health care needs of so many women and our partners. For me, this is deeply personal. I have one friend who can’t go to sleep at night without consuming a six-pack. Since a good night’s sleep is a prerequisite for getting to class on time in the morning, for getting good grades, and for getting that all-important government job after we graduate, I think it’s time that the Obama administration remove the stigma of furtive students paying big bucks for false ID’s, as well as the painful decision many of us students must face every night – forced to choose between having a decent meal or going out for a few beers.”
“When I look around my campus,” Flake continued between dainty dabs at her tearful cheeks with a tissue thoughtfully supplied by the taxpayer, “I see the faces of the women affected, and I have heard more and more of their stories. On a daily basis, I hear from yet another woman from AA Law or other schools or who works for a sober employer who has suffered financial, emotional, and medical burdens because of this lack of beer coverage. And so, I am here to share their voices and I thank you for allowing them to be heard, even though they could not appear today because they’re all drunk.”

More Can-Kicking?

Briefly yesterday the Dow Jones Industrial average spiked above 13,000 before closing at 12,966. The price of gold also continues in the bullish territory of $1,750.00 per ounce today. What gives? The talking heads of the "financial" media are laying these events off on the "deal" struck between the European bureaucrats and the politicians in Greece over the past weekend which are to produce a second bailout for the socialist Greek government to the tune of 130 billion Euros. What could possibly go wrong?

It is good to have cleared the Greek Damocles sword for a few months,” said Raphael Gallardo, the head of economic research at Axa Investment Managers in Paris, which oversees about 515 billion euros ($680 billion). “The euro area governments and European Central Bank have won some time, two months at least. It is positive for risk assets in the short run.  

In other words: "we have kicked the can down the road yet again". What appears to this observer to have been ignored is the Greek elections due in April. The Greeks, now in the 5th year of a serious economic contraction are unhappy to the extent of manning the barricades. The bond holders are expected to suffer a 53%+ haircut and thus unlikely to favor a rollover of Greek debt.

The main players on the political left hoping to form a government after the April elections are already proposing a distribution of the bailout spoils cash:

Syriza and the DemLeft's proposal is for Greece to declare a selective moratorium on debt repayments and use the euro bailout money for a programme of social reform.

In other words: "we will stiff the bondholders and use the bailout cash to prop up our allies in this failed socialist society". This is the usual leftist theft as utilized by the Obama administration takeover bailout of the US auto industry.

We are in for interesting times.

Through The Looking Glass

If any of you gentle readers has attended a course in either history, journalism or economics in the last two decades you have doubtless been encouraged to believe the following in order that you accept the expansion of the power of the state:
    1. "Higher taxes and more government spending will make us prosperous;"
    2. "taking naked x-ray photographs of everyone passing through airports is constitutional;"
    3. "the Constitution gives the president the right to bomb any country on the planet without consulting with anyone else, especially the Congress"
    4. "the founding fathers thought it would be a good idea to place everyone’s freedom in the hands of five government lawyers with lifetime tenure (i.e., clowns in gowns)"
    5. "healthcare socialism will cause health care costs to decline"
    6. "recessions and depressions are caused by sudden outbursts of greed and animal spirits" (according to John Maynard Keynes and revealed by Alan Greenspan)
    7. "capitalists get rich by selling people products that harm or even kill them"
Government schools inculcate these concepts as well as radical environmentalism into their captive audiences who often cannot even read or understand the completion certificates (diplomas) they are awarded.
Is it any wonder that governments will utilize any means to retain their monopoly on pedagogal indoctrination?

The Evolution of Our Prison Nation

One of the most coveted items of contraband in the various facilities of incarceration across the fruited plain is the cell phone; and for valid reasons. The ability to engage in and coordinate criminal activity is one of the very legitimate reasons for categorizing these communication/recording devices as prohibited items in detention facilities such as jails, prisons, government schools and in at least one recent incident a TSA cubicle at the Nashville, TN airport. At 1:30 into the video you will learn how cell phone use is viewed by the TSA.


We Americans are becoming inured to being monitored, video recorded and photographed by our rulers in virtually any public and many private venues. Such routine practices should not however, lead ordinary citizens to conclude that they have license to engage in such surveillance of leviathan's agents while they are engaged in "keeping us safe". One such event resulted in the suspension of a middle school 9th grade student in Tulsa, OK. It seems the cell phone photo of a substitute teacher asleep in class was discovered posted on the web. A youth indoctrination facility school official stated the "...student was suspended because they’re not allowed to use cell phones on campus". There is no word as yet explaining how the cell phone slipped by the alert guard school employee monitoring the metal detector at the entrance to the facility. It becomes increasingly clear that the real reason for the government schools has become not to educate but to condition the population to servile reactions to tyrannical government acts.

Outside these "facilities" and even though the courts have upheld a mundane's right to do so, you will likely be charged with either "disorderly conduct" or "interfering with a police officer" for undertaking to record in public these minions of the state as they go about "making the state us safe".

Smackdown!!

Whether or not one is a fan of Newt, this exchange probably won him the South Carolina Republican primary.

This Will NOT End Well

The European financial system explained in less than 3 minutes

Is "Electable" The Stupid Party's Nominating Criteria?

By Mark Crivelli and stolen with permission from Here

Republicans sure have short memories. It was just four years ago that they went to the polls in the primaries and elected the most "moderate" and "electable" candidate they could find in the hope that they had a man who was palatable to the general population. Their reward for their unprincipled pragmatism was an ass-kicking in the general election that few Americans will ever forget. John McCain and Sarah Palin certainly won’t forget it.
Four years later, having learned absolutely nothing from the election of 2008, Republican voters are once again lining up behind the most moderate and supposedly "electable" candidate that they can find in the pragmatic hope that they can beat Obama in the general election. They have become so unprincipled and pragmatic, in fact, that they are lining up behind the very man who brought European-style socialized medicine to our fair shores, simply because they have been told that he is more "electable" than anyone else in the field. How they can expect an outcome that’s better than four years ago is difficult to fathom, unless they think that their new moderate’s plastic hair can compensate for his obvious blandness.
In one respect, moreover, the selection of this particular "moderate" is even more ridiculous than the selection of the kooky moderate four years ago. This guy came in second place in the primaries to the "moderate" who got his ass handed to him in the general election. Think about that for a minute. This guy was moderate enough to come in second in the primaries two years ago, when the Republicans first decided to eschew principle and select a moderate, and yet he was deemed less "electable" than the guy who lost so badly.
In other words, if the more "electable" moderate got his ass kicked four years ago, how badly is the second-place moderate going to do this time around?
Here’s a novel idea for Republicans: Vote based upon principle, not based upon whatever the bobble-headed morons in the media establishment say is strategically expedient. Your strategic pragmatism got you nowhere four years ago. Young people and independents in this country are not any more impressed with bland flip-floppers from Massachusetts than they are impressed with nut-job moderates from Arizona. These guys don’t even impress Republicans themselves. If they want a "moderate" who stands for war and socialized medicine, they might as well stick with the moderate, warmongering socialist they already have.
How about nominating someone who has a record of standing up for individual liberty for once? How about nominating someone who believes in the Constitution for once? How about nominating someone who opposes liberal nation-building and warmongering for once? How about voting for a real capitalist for once?
In other words, how about voting based upon your own damn principles for once, instead of voting like pragmatic Trotskyites taking strategic orders from the political-media establishment? Forget this ridiculous, immoral and futile idea of "electability" and vote for Ron Paul and the principles of your own party.

A Clever Analogy

Our national debt, the legal limit on which was raised with much feigned gnashing of teeth a mere 6 months ago now exceeds the GDP and will reach the "current" limit later this year. Of course, the collectivist economic philosophy of John Maynard Keynes which has driven the nation's fiscal and monetary policies for the last 75+ years avers that the economic laws which govern individuals, families and corporations do not apply to the federal leviathan. This attitude doubtless drives the actions in which the government engages and for which it would incarcerate or murder ordinary citizens i.e. printing money out of thin air and expecting no negative consequences.

This Keynsian hypothesis is of course based on a similar concept to the warmista religion and the collectivists including most of the current crop of aspirants to the presidency subscribe. Great is the legislative power of governments but the repeal of natural law is not within their purview. Attempts to engage in such fatuous projects inevitably result in human suffering.

A "Senior" Moment

There are good reasons that the late Samuel Francis designated the Republican Party as "The Stupid Party" and one of them is due to their proclivity toward nominating presidential candidates based on seniority within or favor with the party leadership. The video below is evidence that the suicidal policy continues.

This raises the question: would the nation be better or worse off had this old fool been elected in 2008? A tossup? Yeah!

The "Racist" Dr Paul

In case you, dear reader, haven't noticed, the long knives are out for Ron Paul. Among the mud and feces being thrown at this humble and honorable man by the political elite of both of the major parties is the charge of "racism". The ruling class is becoming afraid, very afraid.



h/t Claire Wolf

Whoda Thunk This?

When we first learned of the tragic Christmas day shooting in a Fort Worth, Texas suburb, mental alarm bells went off. Few details of the incident were released and we expected a press release from the Brady bunch demanding stricter gun control. Sound of crickets chirping.

We now know the probable reason for the organized gun grabbers silence. The names and identities of the victims and the shooter were withheld until the 26th. As details of the shooting are becoming available we learn the shooter and his dead family members were of the Islamic persuasion and the shooter's 19 year old niece who was among the dead was dating a non muslim.

Political correctness is a wondrous tool of the left and involves a hierarchy: in the interest of "diversity" concealing societal issues involving cultural incompatibility trumps the exploitation of the citizen disarmament agenda.

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

Down and Dirty

More and more of what this writer observes of the current and apparently permanent presidential campaign convinces him that there is little of substance to differentiate the two major political parties here in the US. The now four decade long descent into a collectivist/fascist dictatorship has been presided over by all three branches of our government and under the aegis of both Republicans and Democrats. Should you, dear reader doubt it, I would hasten to call your attention to this evidence. It is a rather long read containing researched data and devastating in its logic.

The evolution of our republic into an empire of global dimensions has resulted in the emergence of an executive who not only wages war without the niceties required by our constitution but now claims the power to detain and/or execute citizens by merely declaring them to be terrorists or "enemy combatants" in a never ending "war on terror" waged at his discretion.

The complicity of both of our major political parties which are in reality only one party obsessed with exercising power is evidenced by the fact that one candidate (Mr Gingrich) has implied he would seriously consider support for the candidate of the supposed opposing party should his own party nominate Dr Ron Paul.

Do you, dear reader need further evidence of the validity of George Wallace's remark that "There's not a dime's worth of difference between Democrats and most Republicans"?

Please excuse this old Greek while he retires to the Imperial vomitorium.

cross posted at: Eternity Road

We Are Totally Screwed

Like most of you I have had difficulty wrapping my mind around the numbers casually displayed and quoted in the media recently. This video may be able to help you all get a handle on the deep doo doo we are in.

An Outlaw Government

For the better part of 2011 the mainstream media (which was by the way only dragged kicking and screaming into reporting on it) the scandal designated "Fast and Furious" by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (BATF) has been reported as a "botched sting" operation. No such characterization of the operation could be further from the truth. A "sting" operation in law enforcement parlance involving known contraband must of necessity in its planning and execution include a system of observation either electronic or visual of the contraband in order to maintain an unbroken chain of control ultimately linking it to a suspect. There is no evidence such a method of observation was a part of the F&F operation. Indeed, when ATF field agents attempted to initiate such a chain they were ordered to refrain from doing so by supervisory personnel. Understand, dear reader, that the "contraband" in F&F consisted of items capable of causing death and mayhem when wielded by dangerous criminals i.e. Mexican drug cartels.

Fast and Furious involved the willful and knowing transportation of firearms across an international border a violation of Title 23 Section 150 of the US Code. It is impossible such an operation could be carried out without the authorization of the highest level of ATF's parent cabinet level department, the Justice Department yet the Attorney General Eric Holder would have us believe he was unaware of it and testified to that effect before Congress.

The following is an open letter to Mr. Holder from a US government agent operating in Mexico. The letter was posted at the whistleblower site CleanUpATF on 9 December 2011:   

Posted 09 December 2011 - 11:47 AM
An Open Letter to Attorney General Holder

Dear AG Holder:

From deep inside Mexico, thanks to streaming video, I was able to watch and listen to the entire House Judiciary Committee hearing. I'm a registered
Independent - not Republican and not Democrat, so this is a non-partisan commentary. As I write this, my life, and the lives of my family members are more
at risk because of the reckless actions of you and your ATF buddies allowing, facilitating and even paying for firearms to be smuggled into Mexico for
criminals.

Wow! You really made points with us when you refused to acknowledge you were under oath.

How many times did you answer "I don't know"? You must be the most "know nothing" Attorney General in history.
Funny, you had the answers for all the other issues brought up during the hearing.....

You said those who created "Fast & Furious" will be held accountable, but you still don't know who did it and no one will be fired? You have to consider
their overall service to the department???? Do you consider their overall service for any other crime?

It's been nearly a year since you assigned the investigation of Fast & Furious to the DOJ IG, although not in writing. Interesting. So, the DOJ is
investigating itself? How long does it take for the IG to investigate? Is this the same IG that cooked up the false $16 muffin story? Is this the same IG
that took (as gospel) ATF's word that 90% of the guns recovered in Mexico and traced came from the U.S. - statistics later discredited - by ATF themselves?

We watched and listened as you and your Democrat sycophants on the Committee parroted the same tired scripted mantra praising you for advancing gun control
and begging for more gun regulations and more ATF funding. The same old figures were quoted about how many guns were traced from Mexico. Did your figures
include all the duplicate traces from Mexico? All the.22 rabbit rifles and farmer's shotguns that Mexico traced? Did they include 100 year old guns used by Pancho Villa? Did you explain that the average age of those guns traced from Mexico is over 14 years? ATF calls that "time to crime", but may have nothing to do with a crime.

Did you explain that as far back as 1992, and as recently as 2009, the Congressional Research Service warned against the use of statistics from ATF's
tracing system? Did you also not read their warning, "The ATF tracing system is an operational system designed to help law enforcement agencies identify the
ownership path of individual firearms. It was not designed to collect statistics."? Or did you simply ignore it?

Did you explain that the new multiple rifle regulation which you are so strongly supporting would not have stopped a single Fast & Furious gun from being
smuggled to Mexico? And won't stop any future smuggling? And the multiple rifle purchase report requirement is so overly-broad that it includes 50 to 100 year
old rifles of interest only to collectors - which will now be reported as 'crime guns'? What's with that? Oh, yeah..... Those sales are now permanently 'registered'
in ATF registration databases. Was this supposed to be "under the radar", too?

Did you explain why your buddies at ATF are reporting personal information (name, address, height, weight, date of birth, drivers license number, etc.) of
totally innocent American gun owners to corrupt Mexican cops - through eTrace? Enough information for ID theft? These gun owners may have disposed of the guns
many years ago - but ATF still reports the original owner as a 'suspect' to Mexican cops. Thanks a lot. That makes me feel really good while I'm here in Mexico.....
Have you forgotten that in Mexico, you're guilty until proven innocent?

So this is the "Most Transparent Administration" in history? Well, on that issue, that's right. With your performance in front of the Committee, and your
obstruction of justice and obfuscation of the issues, you were completely transparent. Everyone could see right through you. And you're refusing to release
any more documents? What could be more transparent than that? Wow!

Watching you in front of the Committee, for the first time in my life, you make me ashamed to be an American. Hell, Watergate was easier to understand....., and people didn't die. How many people are going to be killed as a consequence of Fast & Furious?

How do I explain to my Mexican friends and associates why ATF has illegally armed Mexican criminal gangs? And no one has gone to jail, or been fired, or
suspended, or even identified.....? Isn't that great for international relations.....

Mr. Attorney General, you will be held accountable - by the American People.

Sincerely,
(Name Withheld - still in Mexico)

Incredibly, Democratic members of Congress and their mainstream media cheer leaders insist on the need to enact more stringent gun laws affecting private law abiding US citizens as a result of the criminal actions of a government bureaucracy. Only in the fevered minds of gun grabbing hoplophobes and leftist politicians; but I repeat myself.


ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

Seasonal Observations

Readers of this observer's postings are doubtless aware of his libertarian proclivities. Like most of you gentle readers I have continued the search for a politician or opinion leader whose positions are congruent completely with my own views. Not surprisingly, the quest has been thus far in vain. Pursuant of that end I have regularly frequented one of the most visible libertarian sites on the web, Lew Rockwell.com.  Please feel free, gentle readers to suggest any additional fertile areas of research.

Yesterday, on the above linked site the following blog posting appeared without comment by Mr. Rockwell and was entitled: No War Toys for Christmas

Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy suggests that if your parish collects toys for Christmas gifts, you might ask your pastor to note that war toys are not wanted. "It could be explained in the bulletin why toys that fill children with the spirits of homicide and enmity and self righteousness do not fit into the meaning and purpose of Christmas."

 Is it truly toys and not moral teachings that influence our young? I have no knowledge of the identity of Father McCarthy nor of the sect or diocese he represents, but responded to the posting as follows:

Re: No war toys for Christmas

What is a "war toy"? I would submit that such items are merely non functioning children's versions of tools that are used for military purposes. McCarthy's implication is that all military purposes are evil and must be discouraged. This is the logic of those who would disarm law abiding citizens thus preventing them from engaging in self defense.

Would Father McCarthy decline toy guns used by defenders of the constitution or toy cannon such as used in our revolutionary war?

Objecting to and imputing morality to mere tools borders on idiocy. Are toy guillotines also to be banned? Ultimately it is human intent which should be the subject of moral condemnation. Was it Jesus in Luke 22:36 who stated: "Let him without a sword sell his cloak to buy one"?

As of the time of this posting, Mr Rockwell has neither responded to nor posted my comment on the blog. Having said that and in the spirit of a lively libertarian discussion I am pleased to report that one of the contributers to Mr. Rockwell's site with which this writer almost totally agrees is Dr. Walter Block; closely followed by Drs. Thomas DiLorenzo and Thomas Woods.

Tangentially apropos the subject, one of the practices disturbing to this writer is the recent characterization by the mass media of all military personnel especially those wounded or killed in the  current conflicts as "heroes".  Having served previously in the military wherein extraordinary heroic actions were a requisite for that designation, it seems to me a disservice to genuine heroes to assign the title to those who's only misfortune though tragic, is to have suffered the consequences of warfare.

In any event, to quote an ancient philosopher: "Only the dead have seen the end of war". For now I, for one would council keeping one's powder dry and compiling a list of candidates for the future decoration of lamp posts á-la signore Mussolini.

Merry Christmas

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

A Deliverance?

As this posting is being composed an unconstitutional "super committee" of Congress is wrestling over the issue of "solving" the crisis of debt which threatens the very survival of our nation. This writer posits that the premise upon which this so called committee was instituted is false. The current US national debt now exceeds $15 trillion with the annual budgetary deficit projected for the coming decade to be $1.3 trillion. The committee is charged with reducing the annual deficit by a total of $1.3 trillion over the next 10 years.  That supposed "reduction" amounting to $130 billion per annum  accepts an actual expenditure increase by the federal government of $1.170 trillion per year. Only in the fevered minds of Washington political operatives' "baseline budgetary" calculations can such a figure be characterized as a budgetary "cut".

Underlying the sturm und drang of this issue are the philosophical assumptions of the two major antagonists in our society: the collectivists and the individualists, and the divide has seldom been more pronounced and divisive.

The collectivist position is currently represented by the extreme left wing of the Democratic party as espoused by the current occupant of the presidency who considers himself an heir to the New Deal legacy of Franklin Roosevelt. In Roosevelt's State of the Union Address of 11 January 1944 he proposed the following "Economic Bill of Rights":

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.

Each and every one of the above "rights" envisions the seizure of private property in the form of labor, capital or property from individual citizens of our nation in violation of the black letter of the founding documents dully ratified by the people of the United States.
Opposing the collectivists in this epic struggle are the so called individualists who advocate:

A free market economy – an economy unhampered by political regulations, rigid controls, bureaucratic guidelines, high taxes, mandatory racial quotas, compulsory minimum wage rates, redistribution programs, and other coercive distortions – presupposes the principles of self-ownership and private property rights in peaceful adult citizens. The Left attacks freedom and civilization at this crucial foundation level by denouncing and undermining private property rights at every opportunity, from the income tax and antitrust laws to the Supreme Court’s infamous Kelo decision..
And since the related principles of Self-Ownership and Private Property are the bedrock core of the political perspective known as libertarianism, the Left’s ultimate target is individual liberty and it assiduously fights any significant movement in the direction toward true libertarianism. Libertarianism is the ultimate ideological opposite to Leftism and the Left’s anti-property, anti-individualist Orwellian agenda.
The Left often postures as being in favor of "tolerance" – but only in such superficial matters as skin color, not in the realm of ideas. The Left’s long-time and continuing ideological monopoly in America’s universities seethes with anti-conservative and anti-libertarian bigotry and intolerance much uglier and much more unrelenting than the personal prejudice of any stereotyped Southern racist.
Leftists also claim they are for freedom – but it is not the freedom from coercive interference with peaceful adults for which libertarians stand. No. The leftists clamor for freedom from want, freedom from deprivation, freedom from poverty, freedom from being disadvantaged, freedom from discrimination, freedom from having one’s feelings hurt, freedom from the real world, and other such bogus "freedoms" which, if they can be achieved at all, come only at the forced expense of productive peaceful adult citizens. They think people have a "right" to "free" medical care, food, schooling, retirement funding, disability assistance, housing subsidies, etc. – all to be paid for by the forced expropriation of other people. In other words, they believe that some people have a "right" to violate the rights of others.

In view of the fundamental divergencies in the stated philosophies of the two groups on the "super committee" this writer feels safe in predicting that a further attempt will be made at "kicking the can further down the road" which will be the case even should the minimum requirements of the committee be realized.
     

Save Us Obi Ron! You're our Only Hope

Your humble blogster found this video on LewRockwell.com who credits Paul Craig Roberts. Please steal it and make sure it goes viral.

Especially note the prolog and the credits.



ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

Worth a Thousand Words

...and an orange jumpsuit for Eric Holder?

Time is Running Out

The recent interview of Mr. Alessio Rastani on BBC and embedded below is jaw-dropping on many levels. Non Keynesian economists have been warning of the approaching storm for years and for their troubles have been soundly ridiculed. Here for the first time to my knowledge in the main stream media is spoken the unvarnished truth. The wonder is: how many will take him seriously?


"In wartime [and the run-up to revolution] truth is so precious that she should be attended by a bodyguard of lies." Winston Churchill