I find nothing to celebrate on the Fourth of July. It, like all nationalist holidays, is nothing more than the largest, loudest, and obnoxious propaganda program that has ever existed. Through all the parades, fireworks, and barbeques, people rarely ask what exactly are they so effulgently praising and whether or not the should be doing it. As a result, they reaffirm their loyalty to and love for one of the most violent, bloody, and dangerous regimes in the world, one responsible for murdering over 6 million civilians in the last 20 years. The great William Lloyd Garrison called such devotion, “the latest and the most terrible form of idolatry,” and he was correct. As this article explains, it is in direct opposition to the commandments of God and the direction of His prophets.
Category: Human Rights
The Government is the Enemy of Privacy, Safety, and Freedom
The government is the worst danger to human safety and liberty in every single nation on the planet. In this address, Glenn Greenwald cuts through the partisan propaganda and government lies to directly explain how the actions of those in political power directly threaten, violate, and destroy the basic human liberties and safety that we value so much.
Bioshock Infinite: Great Ideas, Faulty Storytelling
Herein I review the game Bioshock Infinite and its two DLC extensions, Burial At Sea Episodes 1 & 2. I mostly eschew gameplay (it is a typical first-person shooter with some small variety) in order to focus on the storytelling and character elements in the game. I look at the major characters of the game, important elements, and notable settings and evaluate what they tell us about one another/themselves and how they fit in the overall story. And while I find much to laud in specific memorable moments of the game, the overall storytelling in Infinite and its DLCs leave a lot to be desired. Much of it is contradictory, nonsensical, vague, ill-defined, caricaturistic, and out of character for those involved in the events taking place. The game is enjoyable and playable. It even flirts with some grand ideas. But ultimately it has plot holes big enough to drive a semi-truck through, which brings the entire experience down.
How Vladimir Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine Could Destroy Him
In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The outcome seemed inevitable. The Soviet Union was one of the most powerful nations on the planet with a military rivalled only by the United States. Yet, a decade later the Soviet Union was forced to retreat, its army broken and demoralized, defeated by a band of loosely confederated hill tribes. The cost of this humiliation was unbearable, and it shattered the foundation of the Soviet Union’s power. The Soviet Union dissolved as its subject people, seeing its army beaten and sent home with its tail between its legs by Afghani fights, decided now was the time to rebel and regain their independence. The Soviet Union collapsed forever.
These are all warnings that Putin did not heed when he invaded Ukraine. Just as Afghanistan became the graveyard of the Soviet Union, so could Ukraine become the graveyard of Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian regime. In an effort to prove Russia’s might, Putin may have just committed political suicide and doomed his entire power structure.
Socialism is Slavery In All But Name
George Fitzhugh was one of the most influential defenders of slavery in the United States before the Civil War. A severe critic of human liberty and a free society, Fitzhugh argued that wage labor was worse than slavery and that a capitalist society did nothing but lead to the suffering and death for the millions of laborers of lived in it. In his book, “Sociology for the South,” Fitzhugh addresses the similarities between slavery and Socialism/Communism. He explains all the ways that slavery fulfills the promises and goals of Socialism, how the Socialist rejection of a free society inevitably leads to slavery, and how Socialism is the form of slavery that free societies invent to solve the ills of capitalism while still pretending to be free. As shown herein, Fitzhugh clearly explains that Socialism isn’t merely like slavery. Socialism *is* slavery and slavery *is* Socialism in very form and deed, in every way but in the usage of the word itself.
Insights Into A Free Society From America’s First Great Novelist
In addition to be a novelist who managed to give form to the American identity in his tales, James Fenimore Cooper also had a keen insight into America’s social and political culture. His writings on politics, culture, society, and government also magnificently captured the early American ideals of liberty, humanity, and freedom, preserving the wisdom and insight into these concepts that so many of us so desperately need today, but have lost. Drawing from his work, “The American Democrat,” I explore Cooper’s insights into subjects such as social equality, liberty, the basis of good government, the limits of political power, and more. If more people understood these truths then the world would be a freer, safer, more prosperous place for all.
The Lies At The Heart of School Shooting Reports
It seems like every month we hear about a new school shooting somewhere in the United States. Terror inducing, these reports are often followed by calls for greater government gun control from politicians, news agencies, and people across social media. Every year it just seems to get worse. But, can we actually trust these reports?
No, I’m not talking conspiracy theories like the so-called “Sandy Hook Hoax.” I’m talking about actual studies, with verifiable sources, originating with trusted agencies such as NPR, USA Today, and the ACLU. I’m talking about the independent reports they have release that have shown that out of hundred of reported school shootings less than a dozen could be verified while the vast majority of them were outright proven false.
I’m talking about cutting through the lies and distortions of news agencies to get to the manipulation and deceit at the heart of the way school shooting are reported and how that information is presented to us.
The Catastrophic Dangers of the Attitude of Servitude
Have you ever wondered why so many submit to the obviously stupid, destructive, oppressive, and insane demands the government makes upon them? Why are people so willing to allow the ruling classes to do everything from rob them to steal their children away to be slaughtered in wars? Why do people believe what they’re told to believe and think what they’re told to think by politicos, corporate talking heads, and others who so clearly have every incentive to lie to everyone for their own gain? Why do people allow themselves to be abused constantly? And why do they lash out so violently at anyone who dares even question the ruling elites and their systems of power, nevermind those who actually challenge it?
This article is about why all these things happen and what can be done to change it.
President Biden’s Vaccine Mandates Have Been Smashed In The Courts
On Sept. 9, 2021, US President Joe Biden imperiously declared that his “patience is wearing thin” with those Americans who were not yet vaccinated. That same day he issued his first vaccine mandate with two others following in November of 2021. By December 2021 they would all be struck down by the courts, with judges ruling they were inept, nonsensical, unworkable, and – most importantly – deeply unconstitutional as they violated the separation of power and allowed the President sweeping illegal powers if allowed to continue. Here I explain these rulings and how they help us to truly understand exactly what the law is and how it functions, something too many are sadly ignorant about. These mandates are an attack on the basic ideals of individualism and democracy and a threat to the rule of law. Disobedience to them is not disobedience to the law, but preservation of it in the face of illegal power grabs by the US President.
Latter-day Saints Will Never Find Justice In The Legal System
The history of the Church of Christ is full of men and women imprisoned for putting the Kingdom of God before the kingdom of men. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abed-Nego, Peter James, John, Paul, Abinadi, the brothers Nephi and Lehi, the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum the Patriarch, even the Savior Jesus Christ – all of them were imprisoned because they loved God more than men and were loyal to His commandments no matter what the laws of men said. All of there examples, and many more, prove the truth that no follower of Christ can ever expect to find justice in the courts of men. This address from Apostle Lorenzo Snow, on the eve of his imprisonment by the U.S. government for obeying God’s commandments is one of these stories about how a true Christian acts when the demands of men contradict the commandments of Christ.