California To Double Down On Gun Laws

Every time there is a killing using guns there always is the call for getting rid of weapons, now a new spate of bills has been introduced into the California Assembly which would essentially confiscate certain weapons (assault--whatever that might mean) and put other onerous burdens on legal gun ownership. 

Let no one be confused, the gun haters are after your guns. They will do everything in their power to make sure that you don't have any Second Amendment rights. 

  Also, don't expect any relief from the Supreme Court as it is now 5-4 against you. Justice Roberts has been usurped and will vote AGAINST your rights.

We have said this before but it needs to be repeated, the gun haters (including Obama) will not stop until you can no longer own a gun. They will keep changing the laws, making it harder to maintain your Second Amendment rights, until those rights are gone.

If there is another tragedy such as Sandy Hook, the efforts of gun control advocates will increase, not against those who commit the tragedies but against legal gun owners. If the gun was stolen by a crazied drug user, who shot the legal registered owner of the weapon and then committed the crime, it would be the gun on trial and not the shooter. Oh, that sounds just like Sandy Hook!

When you read the following article, please tell me that we are wrong. We would like to discuss it!

Conservative Tom

GUN CONFISCATION BILL PROPOSED IN CALIFORNIA: ‘WE CAN SAVE LIVES’

Feb. 8, 2013 3:35pm Jason Howerton

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Credit: Getty Images

Law abiding gun owners in California have to feel uneasy after Democrats rolled out a massive gun control package on Thursday, which includes strict ammunition regulations and even a bill that allows potential confiscation of the state’s 166,000 legally registered semi-automatic rifles.

Under the sweeping gun control bills introduced by state Senate Democrats, all semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines would be banned, all guns would be registered and gun owners would need a special permit just to buy ammunition.

The proposals appear to be even more draconian than New York’s recent gun control legislation, considered to be the toughest in the nation.

Mercury News has more details:

The 10-bill package constitutes the single largest gun control push in decades in the Golden State, which already boasts some of the nation’s strictest gun laws. It joins equally controversial proposals from Assembly Democrats that would regulate and tax ammunition sales and consider taking the state’s 166,000 registered assault weapons from their owners.

This first unified California plan comes less than a month after New York adopted its own sweeping package of new gun controls and President Barack Obama announced a package of executive actions, all in the wake of December’s Connecticut schoolhouse massacre. Even as this plan emerged Thursday, House Democrats’ gun violence task force was announcing 15 “policy principles,” including protecting Second Amendment rights but also instituting universal background checks and reinstating a federal assault weapons ban.

State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) on Thursday defended the huge gun control package, saying “California’s tough gun laws have been exploited long enough.” He also said he respects the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens to have firearms for hunting, sport and home defense.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, second from left, glances to a pair of semi-automatic rifles as he discusses a package of proposed gun control legislation at a Capitol news conference in Sacramento, Calif., Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013. Senate Democrats unveiled a package of 10 proposed laws designed to close loopholes in existing gun regulations, keep firearms and ammunition out of the hands of dangerous person and strengthen education relating to firearms and gun ownership. Also seen are Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, left, Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, third from left, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, second from right. Credit: AP

That being said, he believes the sweeping gun regulations will “save lives.”

“We can save lives by curbing the proliferation of guns designed to be fired and reloaded rapidly,” he said. “We can save lives by getting guns and ammunition out of the hands of the wrong people. We can save lives if every gun owner knows how to safely handle those guns. And if we can save lives, we must act to do so.”

However, pro-gun advocates argue that the bills are unconstitutional and infringe on the Second Amendment.

“[A]lmost every item in the proposal is wildly unconstitutional,” said Gene Hoffman of Redwood City, co-founder and chairman of the Calguns Foundation gun rights group. He also said the state’s overreach may “accelerate the speed at which the Supreme Court takes these ideas off the table.”

Mercury News reports other bills would also include the following regulations:

• Require anyone wishing to buy ammunition to first get a permit by passing a background check, as Los Angeles and Sacramento already do.

• Update the definition of a banned shotgun with a revolving cylinder to include the new technology of a shotgun-rifle combination.

• Prevent unregulated gun loans, with some exceptions, including hunting, in order to keep weapons from those who haven’t passed background checks.

• Require all handgun owners obtain a safety certificate every year, rather than the every-five-years requirement for purchases of new handguns.

• Prohibit anyone barred from owning a weapon from living in a home where weapons are kept and to expand the list of crimes for which convictions result in being barred from gun possession.

• Let the state Justice Department use money from the state’s Dealer’s Record of Sale system to eliminate the backlog of people identified as no longer allowed to own guns but not yet investigated and contacted by law enforcement.

Dr. Carson (Skewerer in Chief) Interesting Facts About Him

Many of you heard how Dr. Benjamin Carson skewered Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast. Most of us do not know much about the doctor, so we found this article at TheBlaze which gives us more information about him. Hopefully today he still has a job!

Conservative Tom

7 FASCINATING FACTS ABOUT DR. CARSON — THE PRAYER BREAKFAST SPEAKER WHOSE SPEECH IN FRONT OF OBAMA WENT VIRAL

Feb. 8, 2013 10:24am Billy Hallowell

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Editor’s Note: Following intense interest in Dr. Benjamin Carson’s life story after his speech at yesterday’s National Prayer Breakfast, TheBlaze prepared the following biographical article.

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The epic speech that Dr. Benjamin Carson gave at Thursday’s Nation Prayer Breakfast has gone viral. His address, which was delivered just feet away from President Barack Obama, railed against political correctness, with the doctor subsequently taking overtly-conservative stances on key social and political issues. The respectful tone and boldness with which he spoke has created intense intrigue.

So, TheBlaze has assembled some key information about Carson in an effort to tell you more about his truly captivating life.

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DR. CARSON IS A FAMOUS PEDIATRIC SURGEON

Carson, 61, is the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital (he obtained this lead position at the age of 33). His career focus is on traumatic brain injury and brain and spinal cord tumors, among dire health issues.

According to his biography, he has written over 100 publications about neurosurgery and he has penned numerous books. On top of that, the renowned doctor has received more than 50 honorary doctorate degrees and President George W. Bush gave him the Presidential Medal of Honor (see other honors over at Bio.com). Read more about Carson’s professional backgroundhere.

Dr. Benjamin Carson speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton February 7, 2013 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Barack Obama reportedly used the occasion to call for unity and common ground Washington politics. Credit: Getty Images 

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HE’S A PIONEER IN THE SEPARATION OF CONJOINED TWINS

Among his many talents, Carson has made bold attempts to separate conjoined twins. His first surgery in 1987 ended up being a success, as he was able to separate two 7-month-old twins from Germany. While Patrick and Benjamin Binder walked away with some brain damage from the procedure, it was an encouraging move in the right direction for an extremely-dangerous procedure. Carson’s surgery paved the way for other attempts to help ease the pain and horror craniopagus (joined at the head) twins experience.

Bio.com has more about other similar surgeries that the doctor conducted over the years:

In 1994, Carson and his team went to South Africa to separate the Makwaeba twins. The operation was unsuccessful, as both girls died from complications of the surgery. Carson was devastated, but vowed to press on, as he knew such procedures could be successful. In 1997, Carson and team went to Zambia in South Central Africa to separate infant boys Luka and Joseph Banda. This operation was especially difficult because the boys were joined at the tops of their heads, making this the first time a surgery of this type had been performed. After a 28-hour operation, both boys survived and neither suffered brain damage.

It was these operations that brought a plethora of media attention to Carson, paving the way for popularity and a public profile that continues to expand in scope.

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CARSON’S EARLY LIFE WASN’T EASY

Judging from his career, one would never assume that the doctor’s early years were difficult. However, his story truly is a rags to riches tale, as his mother was instrumental in teaching him the values needed to succeed. He shared many of these struggles during Thursday’s address. He was raised by a single mom (named Sonya) who devoted herself to hard work in an effort to support her two children. Despite only having a third-grade education, she instilled educational values that forever resonated with her son.

Bio.com provides some snapshots into his early life:

There were occasions when [Sonya's] boys wouldn’t see her for days at a time, because she would go to work at 5:00 AM and come home around 11:00 PM, going from one job to the next. She was frugal with the family’s finances, cleaning and patching clothes from the Goodwill in order to dress the boys. The family would also go to local farmers and offer to pick corn or other vegetables in exchange for a portion of the yield. She would then can the produce for the kids’ meals. Her actions, and the way she managed the family, proved to be a tremendous influence on Ben and [his brother]. [...]

Determined to turn her sons’ [bad grades] around, Sonya limited their TV time to just a few select programs and refused to let them go outside to play until they’d finished their homework. She was criticized for this by her friends, who said her boys would grow up to hate her. But she was determined that her sons would have greater opportunities than she did. She required them to read two library books a week and give her written reports, even though with her poor education she could barely read them. She would take the papers and review them, scanning over the words and turning pages. Then she would place a checkmark at the top of the page showing her approval.

Considering his background, his push for hard work and responsibility was notable during yesterday’s prayer breakfast speech. While many utter such sentiments without experience to accompany them, Carson’s life shows that devotion to education really can pave the way to prosperity.

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THERE WAS A MOVIE MADE ABOUT HIS LIFE

Carson’s life and work are so coveted, in fact, that a feature film was made about the doctor. “Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story” was a made-for-television film that came out in 2009. Asynopsis provides more information about the movie, which has relatively high ratings on IMDB:

From Amazon.com: Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. (Actor in a Supporting Role, Jerry Maguire, 1996) stars in this true story about a renowned brain surgeon who overcame obstacles to change the course of medicine forever. Young Ben Carson didn’t have much of a chance. Growing up in a broken home amongst poverty and prejudice, his grades suffered and his temper flared. And yet, his mother never lost her faith in him. Insisting he follow the opportunities she never had, she helped to grow his imagination, intelligence and, most importantly, his belief in himself. That faith would be his gift – the thing that would drive him to follow his dream of becoming one of the world’s leading neurosurgeons.

Here’s the trailer:

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HE RUNS A NON-PROFIT AIMED AT HELPING YOUNG SCHOLARS

Education is clearly important to Carson. And considering his own path to success, his focus upon the need for a more knowledgeable and prepared populace is understandable. With his wife, Candy, he founded the Carson Scholars Fund in 1994, an organization devoted to helping solve America’s education crisis.

Recognizing that the public education system is in crisis, the Carsons decided to help motivate young people to take interest in learning at an early age. Here’s a description of what the Carson Scholars Fund does:

Carson Scholarships are awarded to students in grades 4-11 who exemplify academic excellence and humanitarian qualities. Winners receive a $1,000 scholarship to be invested toward their college education, along with a recognition package, and an invitation to attend an awards banquet. Carson Scholars become role models and leaders at their schools.

You can find out more about the organization on its official web site.

Dr. Benjamin Carson speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton February 7, 2013 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Barack Obama reportedly used the occasion to call for unity and common ground Washington politics. Credit: Getty Images 

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CARSON IS A CANCER SURVIVOR

Carson helps children who are battling brain cancer, but he is also a prostate cancer survivor. In 2002, while in the midst of his bustling medical career, the doctor found out that he had an aggressive form of the disease. He found out this shocking news while in the middle of performing a surgery on a child.

In an interview with “Good Morning America,” Carson later described putting the news out of his mind so that he could successfully finish the procedure. However, rather than focusing exclusively on himself in that terrible moment, he selflessly thought about the many patients he would be unable to help if the disease took his life.

“I have the ability to put things out of my mind, so I just put it out of my mind and finished the operation,” he said. “But certainly, you know, that evening it did weigh heavily upon me as I began to realize that wow, I have cancer. The thing that bothered me was the fact that I would be leaving so many people behind.”

Inevitably, he overcame the disease and is now healthy.

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HE’S ALSO A DEVOUT CHRISTIAN

In case you didn’t know, Carson is a Christian. Jesus Christ was a fixture in his National Prayer Breakfast speech (as was the Bible). He’s a Seventh-Day Adventist who believes that the United States has been uniquely blessed by God. In addition to caring deeply about his patients’ physical health, he has expressed a deep devotion to addressing the nation’s spiritual and political issues — something he did head-on during yesterday’s speech.

The Christian Broadcasting Network once profiled Carson, noting that his views about America are rooted in its history and founding:

Dr. Carson believes as a nation, America has been favored by God because we have acknowledged Him. The forefathers of our nation were clearly guided by Sovereign leadership when they knelt and prayed for wisdom at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. Together they stood up and assembled a seventeen page document known as the Constitution of the United States of America. Our nation was founded on principles revealed to us in the Bible by a righteous and just God. These teachings began in the home and continued at school. In early public schools reading from the Bible was not only common, it was expected.

In order for America to continue leading the world, Carson believes that it’s important to apply God’s standards to individuals’ lives. Rather than embracing partisan solutions, CBN notes that he wants the nation to “stop being political and start being logical” in addressing key issues.

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For more about Carson, read his Bio.com profile and visit the Carson Scholars Fund’s web site. Watch his original speech here.

Editor’s note: The Ben Carson speech post is one of most popular and viral in the two-year history of TheBlaze. On Friday’s BlazeCast (live from 12-1PM ET) we talked about how Blaze readers really helped drive momentum to this important story:

Why Do Most Americans Ignore What Is Happenning

If you are a consistent reader of this blog, you know that we are very concerned with the decline in this country. We see many things occurring and most people being either unwilling or unable to understand the issues facing America. Whether it is overburdening government, ObamaCrapCare, the upcoming gun grab, junk science masquerading as real science, politicians pocketing millions while doing nothing that is in the best interests of the country, the government buying billions of "killer" bullets without any rationale or a multitude of other issues, the United States is in trouble and most of our fellow citizens are  blind to it.

Many times  we have felt like screaming and shaking out fellow citizens. Why can't they see what we are seeing? They are not stupid. However, we have our answer in the following piece by Bob Livingston. The following paragraph really nails it for me. 

"One big reason for inaction among those who are beginning to wake up is that most people of privilege continue to live comfortably and would rather risk their own destruction than temporarily surrender any of their advantages. And many people believe that if they don’t see a lightning strike, there is no risk. This means that we should not expect a great tsunami of oppressive tyranny, but rather a slow seepage of oppressive laws and regulations from within that come by slow gradualism and imperceptible treason."

 Most Americans are comfortable and do not want to think about not being so. To do so would make them shake up their reality and since most people like the status quo, they do not want to focus on anything outside their personal "nine dots."  

So to you my awakened friends, do not expect to depend upon the vast majority of Americans. They will accept anything that the government rams down their throat, then smile and ask for more. When they awaken from their slumber, it will be too late. Our guns will have been taken, our savings plundered, our sovereignty stolen and the America the Founders created will have been lost.

Those of us who see the future through the mist need to take actions to protect ourselves from the upcoming decline. Whether that means that we stay and fight or we leave this country to fight another day. Those are personal choices. What is your decision?

Yes, that sounds selfish, thinking about ones self only. however, if we thought the country was lost, we would not take time to write each day.  Is it recoverable? As every moment passes, the chances are less and the potential of success less. So spread the word and do everything in your power to awaken friends and relatives of the danger facing America.

Conservative Tom

The Failing American Regime

February 4, 2013 by Bob Livingston 

PHOTOS.COM

As regimes collapse, they step up oppression of their subjects. Because the collapse is gradual, so is the increased oppression. Gradualism and stealth are key components to the success of the elites and their stepped up oppression of the people.

The coming collapse will reveal the fact that the illusion of government and so-called democracy is only organized crime run by the psychopathic politicians and bureaucrats. They have run and ruined the world with mass deception and manipulation with fiat currency.

How is it that not everyone knows about this? Many people see the chaos and feel the economic oppression, but they refuse to believe the cause. Yet it is laid bare for all to see. By refusing to look, we are sanctioning our own enslavement.

We are square in the middle of decadence masquerading as civilization. Social and economic oppression is closing in, but we accept it under all manner of rationalization and government propaganda.

We have horrible “security checks” at airports, train stations, sporting events and even at highway checkpoints. Every day there is reduced personal freedom; and increasing numbers of directives, executive orders and regulations are signed as if into law under the guise of “keeping us safe.”

Food and energy prices are rising, but government statisticians say they are not a part of the cost of living. Infrastructure is fast deteriorating. The standard of living for the middle class is declining. Regulations and high taxes are oppressive.

The late Haile Selassie, religious leader of Ethiopia, said: “Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”

One big reason for inaction among those who are beginning to wake up is that most people of privilege continue to live comfortably and would rather risk their own destruction than temporarily surrender any of their advantages. And many people believe that if they don’t see a lightning strike, there is no risk. This means that we should not expect a great tsunami of oppressive tyranny, but rather a slow seepage of oppressive laws and regulations from within that come by slow gradualism and imperceptible treason.

Today, 75 percent of government “finance” is pure credit expansion. With this chicanery, the government makes war on the market economy. It makes war on the American people and impoverishes the middle class. It has reduced seniors and pensioners to a very low standard of living, driving them toward eventually becoming beggars rummaging through garbage cans.

There was a 1.7 percent Social Security raise that began in January. The typical retiree will get between $12 and $24 more per month. At the same time, the banks are getting trillions of dollars from quantitative easing (QE3 to infinity) government printing presses.

When you read that the Federal Reserve is financing the U.S. government deficit, you are not seeing legitimate accounting. You are looking square at fiat witchcraft. It’s a total illusion. This means that we are seeing the collapse now.

There is no such thing as Federal Reserve financing. The Federal Reserve cannot produce substance as money or financing. But it can use the fiat system of “money creation” to transfer wealth from the people to the elite and the government. This is precisely why the elite are trying to keep their system going.

Fiat money creation is a monopoly of the government/banker alliance. As the system collapses, more and more fiat is created, which transfers more and more wealth to the government and the bankers/elite. They will continue until there is final collapse.

The elites know the collapse is coming (they have known this for some time), and they have been steadily and stealthily making preparations to handle it.

The USA Patriot Act of 2001 established in Section 364 of the Act the “Uniform Protection Authority For Federal Reserve.” This conferred domestic policing powers to the 12 privately owned Federal Reserve banks. This section reads:

Law enforcement officers designated or authorized by the Board or a reserve bank under paragraph (1) or (2) are authorized while on duty to carry firearms and make arrests without warrants for any offense against the United States committed in their presence…Such officers shall have access to law enforcement information that may be necessary for the protection of the property or personnel of the Board or a reserve bank.

The system has its own police academies for training, its own uniforms, patches, badges, uniforms, weapons, vehicles and ultraConstitutional arrest powers. Called FRLEOs (Federal Reserve Law Enforcement Officers), they are employed by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, D.C, and are considered by law to be Federal government employees. But the Federal Reserve banks, determined by settled law in the case of Lewis v. United States, are private corporations. The Federal Reserve banks consider FRLEOs to be their own private employees.

The chicanery of funny (phony) money funds a huge military machine mostly to protect government against the American people, who are heavily armed.

Beyond FRLEOs, the Department of Homeland Security has been ramping up its security forces. In recent months, it has purchased 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition — enough to shoot each American citizen four times and keep rounds in reserve. It has its own armored vehicles and heavily armed soldiers. The DHS propaganda machine tells us the 1.6 billion rounds are for target practice. But the rounds purchased are mostly the more expensive hollow points – and, therefore, it is irrational to purchase them for practice — that are banned from warfare by the Geneva Convention.

U.S. military are now partnering with DHS and local law enforcement in urban training drills over America’s cities large and small. These are occurring almost monthly now. One recent training exercise in Miami — the third one over that city in the last 18 months — frightened those leaving the Miami Heat game and those traveling on public transportation.

During the exercise, black helicopters streaked through the night sky firing “blank” rounds over the city.

Soldiers rappelled out of helicopters onto city streets. The “official” story is that military was training to “ensure that military personnel are able to operate in urban areas and to focus on preparations for overseas deployment. It also serves as a mandatory training certification requirement.”

It has now become almost routine for National Guard troops to conduct drills — often unannounced — in downtown areas of major and mid-sized cities, in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. Taken together, this is a police state in every sense of the word.

There is now in the United States an army of law enforcers, and it comes in layer upon layer. This can mean only that criminal politics is afraid of the American people.

The global economy is a train wreck waiting to happen. Leading politicians, economists and journalists, all without exception, fail to see (or choose to deny and hide) the coming crash, which will be far worse than the one in 2008. The one coming just ahead is far more calamitous. This time, the crash will have serious political ramifications.

The very important thing about the coming crash is the direct link between what we use as money and liberty, honesty and morality. It’s in the money — the blood of the economy.

Government itself is the source and cause of the collapse of the system. After all, it is government that creates fiat and then devalues it to zero.

The political order is self-destructing. Are we as individuals ready to survive as we go through the great collapse just ahead?

One thing more: Don’t miss the connection that government is all about funding and saving the banks, not the American people, as evidenced by the paltry 1.7 percent Social Security raise.

The government is stimulating the banks, not the economy. Money and capital are going into hiding.

America has been neutered into conformity. Some of us have warned — for years, we have warned — of what is coming. Yet, like Noah warning of the coming flood, our warnings have been and are being rebuffed with catcalls and ad hominems. We now see our predictions coming to fruition. Yet there are still many with eyes tightly shut.

We await the deluge.

Are You a Sheeple?

Have you ever been frustrated by someone who will argue with you and have no facts to back up their opinions? So it is with Sheeple. In the accompanying article, Brandon Smith does a super job of defining a member of this group and getting behind their motivations for "going with the crowd."   

Last year, we were discussing the election with a lady who told us "I don't want to discuss this anymore with you as you have so much more information than I do." She is a Sheeple. She did not want to learn, she knew what she knew and any more information would confuse her. Have you had similar situations.

After reading this piece, you won't find yourself scratching your head as we did after our conversation. You will understand and accept the fact that they cannot be taught.

Let us know what  you thought as we are sure that most, if not all, of you are not Sheeple. If you have had a conversation like ours, please relay it to us (tom.conservativemusings1@gmail.com) and we will post or become a "follower" and comment on this article.

Conservative Tom

Sheeple: Another Look At A Sad Breed

February 5, 2013 by Brandon Smith 

PHOTOS.COM

Some phrases are steeped in immediately recognizable symbolism. When we hear them, we instantly know to whom and to what the phrases refer; we can even gain a greater depth of understanding to a particular situation because of them. They cause us to step outside our environment and look at it in an entirely different way. They might make us laugh. They might make us cry. But we are not indifferent to these affecting words.

The term “sheeple” has quickly become a word that defines an era. It is not just a tool for ridicule, though it does indeed seem to hurt the feelings of the ignorant and unaware (which, to my mind, is a good thing; if they can feel shame about their factual inadequacies, then perhaps one day they can be redeemed). No, there is much more going on here.

When one is surrounded by blatant absurdity and total loss of freedom, compassion and humanity, he needs a way to describe the horror, to shed light on the dark insanity of it, to remove the barriers of confusion and to build a clear path to reason. He needs to quantify the threat so that he can move beyond it and toward understanding.

In our modern age, we are absolutely stricken with an epidemic of willful idiocy that bears no rational excuse. A century ago, such behavior in a culture could have been chocked up to a bottleneck in the flow of concrete information. But today, mankind has a veritable buffet of data at his fingertips at any given moment. Facts and truth can be found with a mere modicum of effort and a remedial passion for learning. We can plead “lack of access” no longer.

Yes, our government and our society have become corrupt to the core. Yes, the traditional sources of information in the mainstream media are utterly useless and dishonest. Yes, our public educational system is completely Federalized, and our schools have been warped into lemming factories where young minds are bled dry of all creative power and individuality. Yes, the system we are born into is designed to make us stupid. However, the establishment has not yet been able to extinguish our ability to walk away. We all have a choice: to be taught by others or to learn for ourselves.

At the end of the day, sheeple are sheeple not because they have to be, but because they want to be.

It is the greatest and most exploitable weakness of man: our willingness to sacrifice anything in order to avoid admitting we know nothing. This is the philosophical slum of the common “sheeple.” It is pathetic and ugly, and it is a rampant plague upon the world.

The time is coming (very soon, I believe) when the subpopulation of sheeple will be used as cannon fodder to institute change in America on an unprecedented scale. It has happened many times throughout history. The establishment, seeking unlimited power, brandishes the dimmer subsections of the populous like a political baseball bat, swinging them about wildly in an attempt to smash the ideological enemies of the state. Often, the sheeple are oblivious to the fact that they are being used as a weapon against liberty and truth. They know only that they must participate to survive, even if that survival ends up being a hollow and meaningless life.

Now more than ever it is important for the liberty movement to understand and identify who these people are and what makes them tick. Time grows short, and it is easy for us to become mired in the haze of a glassy-eyed herd. Sheeple can be saved from themselves, but only if they can be made to recognize these particular behaviors as part and parcel of their own folly.

Institutionalized Laziness

Some sheeple are not ignorant because they are unintelligent. Rather, they are ignorant because they refuse to expend any energy in discovering the facts of their world. They have become used to the idea of being taught, rather than going out to learn for themselves. It is easier to be told what to think than it is to develop one’s own worldview. Sheeple often state that they “just want to be left alone” and “don’t want to think about the troubles of the world,” yet nearly all of them at the same time want to feel as though they have an effect on the future. They want the benefits of a sound and balanced society, but they don’t want to put in the work to make such a society possible. They want “other people” to make the system work, and “other people” are certainly willing to take advantage of sheeple inaction.

Arrogance Without Merit 

I have met many people in my life who are not fully aware of how their world works or why terrible things happen to them. This by itself is not necessarily bad. If one is able to accept that he needs to learn more, then he has far surpassed most of society in the strength of his character. Unfortunately, sheeple do not share this attitude. They not only lack remedial knowledge on most issues, but they are also unwilling to admit it. They even viciously attack those who do have substantial information.

Is this due to an inferiority complex? Possibly. They are so invested in the mainstream worldview as presented by media entities and government that they take it as gospel. They live the mainstream ideal; but, secretly, they harbor doubts. They know that they do not have the capacity to defend the system if confronted by an intelligent and well-versed opponent, so they develop a demeanor of arrogance and contempt for those who question it. This uppity manner is a defense mechanism meant to hide the weakness of their arguments. Combined with ad hominem attacks and physical threats, sheeple try to ward off critics so they do not have to engage in a legitimate debate they know they will lose.

Always Worried What The ‘Majority’ Thinks 

Sheeple are steeped in the realm of the mainstream, so much so that they have become nothing but a cog in the machine of the collective mind. Their entire existence is predicated on blind faith in the system. If the system is proven to be flawed, then they are proven to be flawed by extension. They will ignore all reason and defend the system wildly, as if trapped by some cult, because their fragile identity is dependent upon the continued prosperity of the establishment.

In most cases, sheeple are motivated by nothing but fear. In their early years, they likely either caved to the force of peer pressure and learned to diminish their personal pain by constantly conforming to the majority view or sought inclusion in the majority very early on and became addicted to the power that the collective is able to wield over others. In either case, they never actually questioned whether or not the “majority” was right in its behavior. Instead, they decided at some point in their life that the majority is always right simply because it is the majority.

Never Questions The Professional Class

Sheeple are easily impressed by anyone with a nice suit, uniform, lab coat or an embossed diploma or title. They see and revere the costume, regardless of the man inside it. For sheeple, titles and positions of arbitrary authority make the opinions of a man more than opinion; his opinions suddenly become law.

While a liberty movement activist looks for the legitimacy within the individual professional, the sheeple place all faith within the institution that professional represents.  His personal character is of no consequence to them, and the idea that he may have no clue what he is talking about does not occur to them.

Obsession With The State

Because the average sheeple hasn’t the slightest inkling of how to be independent or self-sufficient, they attach their survival to the success of the state. They see the word of the state as sacrosanct, and they have no concept of government by the people. They will sing the praises of democratic elections and the will of the public in general participation; but when the state goes against that will and does what it pleases, they will seek to rationalize this criminality.

For them, government might be fallible (or not), but this fallibility does not change the finality of state authority. The government is not to be interfered with and certainly not to be opposed. To stand against the state is to stand against law; and the law, in their minds, is god. Questions of morality are irrelevant. They have become so far detached from their consciences that there is nothing left but a pitch-black void, waiting to be filled with the demands of oligarchy.

When confronted by men who are willing to fight and die to interfere with the abuse of state authority, they respond with shock and revulsion. How could anyone possibly stand against the will of the mainstream and its government champions? How dare they defy the establishment?

Predictable Responses

Sheeple are highly predictable, two-dimensional creatures. When confronted with their own failings, they will follow a pre-programmed list of responses meant to divert and confuse discussion.

They will claim that “everyone thinks they are smarter than everyone else” and that the “truth is relative.” History does not support this twisted view, however. There are always moments in which some people are morally and intellectually correct, while many others are dangerously misguided. Some people make decisions that lead to chaos and destruction while others make decisions that lead to prosperity and creation. The truth — the cold, hard truth — is notrelative. It is unyielding, uncompromising and final. To be successful as human beings requires us to be on the right side of truth more often than we are not. To assume that the truth is malleable to our particular desires of the moment is to always be on the wrong side.

Sheeple rely primarily on character assassination and belligerent disregard for logic in order to derail debate. They do not attack your position so much as they attack you personally. They scoff, giggle and taunt like children; but when it’s all over, they usually say very little of any substance.

Finally, they will use the weapon of majority opinion as a get-out-of-jail-free card; and, in most cases, this is not a ploy. They really do believe that if the larger percentage of the public accepts a conviction, then that conviction automatically becomes fact. Their goal, therefore, is to constantly ride the wave of majority opinion so that they will always be in a position of righteousness. Of course, this way of thinking has in the past led to some of the worst atrocities in history. The collective mind has no concern for individual freedom, including the freedom to live in peace. Violence in the name of conformity is very common in such cultures.

Sheeple are puppets in the game of political reconstruction, and it’s their job to cheerlead the establishment and to drown out all honest voices. They are generally remorseless as long as they never have to face tangible consequences for their blind support of the system. They seek to strengthen the bars of the prison because the outside world of free thought and expression intimidates and paralyzes them. In an environment where survival is dependent on individual merit and principle, sheeple hold no currency, no capital. This might explain their overt hatred of individualists. When we in the liberty movement seek to unchain and decentralize the world, we indirectly cut the umbilical cord to them. They see our fight for freedom as a threat to their very lives. Sadly, their comfort is derived entirely from our enslavement.

–Brandon Smith

Israel Bashing Brings About The Bashers Own Destruction

Painting Israel as the bad guy has become the world's latest game. The blame game has been seen in the Arab press for years, however, we now see it in British and Swedish papers and other media. What does it mean?  Only one thing, antisemitism is on the rise again. However, this time the target is Israel rather than individual Jews.

 If Israel was wiped off the map last night, the Arabs would still be fighting, Islam still would be on the march, American would still have a debt and leadership problem and the world would have 6 million less Jews. Nothing would have been made better, in fact, things might have gotten significantly worse. The world would be missing out on medicines, inventions in multiple fields and a country that produces fruit, flowers  and vegetables out of desert soil.

The lies and misrepresentations of the anti-Israel hate mongers show they are jealous, petty people who desire the death of the "Chosen People" and disposing them from their ancestral land.  This has always been the goal of the ignorant.

Israel WILL NOT disappear, however, its enemies ALWAYS have. So next time you read anti-Israeli diatribes, remember, those who sow those seeds will soon find themselves harvesting the fruit of their own destruction.

Conservative Tom

Not a Mistake, Misunderstanding, or Well-Intended Criticism But a Deliberate Campaign to Bash Israel

Barry Rubin - Israpundit,  February 7th, 2013

The first, most important thing to understand about the Western and especially American debate on Israel is this:

Never before in history has there been such a concerted, systematic, and vicious campaign to discredit and demonize Israel, especially seeking to undermine its support in the Jewish community.

Without comprehending this fact, the massive attacks from academia, mass media, groups, and even in mainstream political and intellectual debate cannot be understood. We aren’t dealing with lots of mistakes but with the mass production of hate speech.

Obviously, one should always judge based on the specific people and places involved. Yet a good point to keep in mind is this:

Don’t believe that they may have gotten it right this particular time. Many of them aren’t trying to get it right; most of them are incapable of getting it right.

These assaults cannot be taken in isolation and with naivete as if this time a wild accusation is accurate. Some are obviously outrageous—the British politician accusing Israel of genocide; a cartoon showing Ariel Sharon eating Palestinian children; Egypt’s president calling Jews sub-humans; the Swedish newspaper claiming Israel murders Palestinians to steal their organs—but even better-constructed items are equally fallacious.

The craziest stuff is just the most incautious end of far more apparently credible lies and distortions. And the key “mistake” made is to use the word “Jews,” unacceptable, rather “Israel,” “Israelis,” or “Zionists.”

In other words, “The Jews want to take over the world.” No. “Israel wants to take over the Middle East.” Okay. “The Jews use children’s blood in Passover matzoh.” No. “Israel deliberately murders Palestinian children.” Okay.

Not all are aware, of course, of what they are doing, especially those originating or spreading the more “moderate” hate speech. There are dupes as well as demonizers, though dupes often seem all too credulous to be wholly innocent.

Here are two more aspects:

Once having been defined as the “bad guy,” Israel can be accused of anything, as in a film narrative in which the villain is, well, always villainous.

Second, Israel is one of the few categories that can be attacked with unbridled vituperation, though some limits still apply in American political life at least. You cannot say the slightest thing against other nations or nationalities, as well as races, religions, or genders. One wrong word, even if uttered carelessly, and the person’s career is finished. With Israel, the bile can flow unbridled.

Equally, there are so many lies—new ones appear each day–and so many facts to counter them with that it is partly a waste of time to counter each offensive in itself. What’s necessary is to understand that this is all based on lies, ignorance, and conscious bad faith.

The categories include, but are not limited to, falsification of photographs and fabrication of events; distortion of history; making up of quotes; publishing disproportionate numbers of anti-Israel books and articles; indoctrination in schools; refusal to mainstream Israeli views and overwhelming emphasis of radical, critical ones; excessive credibility to hostile sources for outlandish tales (a worldwide story on an alleged, since proven false massacre in Jenin based on a single mysterious informant is just one example).

There is also the creation of new categories of sin designed specifically as part of the anti-Israel campaign and applied only to Israel, i.e., “pinkwashing” (talking about the good treatment of gays as a cover for other crimes!) or the idea of “disproportionate force” in wartime or the idea that causing any civilian casualties at all is a war crime (in sharp contrast to the previous and current wars of every other country in the world).

Aside from obsessions and double standards is the eagerness, uncontrollable hatred, self-righteousness, unconcern for fairness or balance, and passion that shows the hidden agenda of those involved. They are indifferent to real war crimes, intolerance, and oppression by others in the world. Their behavior should have destroyed their credibility but they are protected instead.

Some details of interest:

–This campaign’s intensity and one-sidedness has relatively little effect on the actual Middle East situation or on Western government policies.

–The main single issue is to try to portray Israel as responsible for the lack of peace, just as Jews were historically blamed by those hostile to them for antisemitism. Since the experience of the 1993-2000 “peace process” era, the fact that the conflict continues because of the intransigence of Israel’s enemies should have been obvious. Yet this history has been forgotten and its impact on Israeli thinking buried or censored.

–Much of the new antagonism stems from Western intelligentsias’ sharp turn to the left. The question, of course, is why Israel is such a prominent issue among the many causes available to them.

–What is important is not so much to define specific things as “antisemitic”—which generates distracting debates—but to explicate the creation of a situation equivalent in effect to pre-1945 antisemitism. Since about 40 percent of the world’s Jews live in Israel and most of the rest support Israel, the resulting slander and demonization is also a slur and hatred against the vast majority of Jews. The irrationality, obsession, intimidation, and slander is quite equivalent to what Jews suffered under historic antisemitism.

–Israel, Israelis, and their supporters are portrayed—as in classical antisemitism–as irrational creatures involved in incomprehensible behavior. Removing from public consciousness their experiences, attitudes, and sufferings leaves the conclusion that their behavior is evil, racist, bloodthirsty and seeking total power.

For example, as a country under assault, Israel has to act militarily at times. The army and government have no interest in wasting credibility and resources by injuring Palestinians for fun or out of pure meanness. Yet this is how Israeli behavior is often portrayed.

Similarly, Israel has lots to gain from peace since, if secure and lasting, it would provide such benefits as fewer deaths, less time and money spent in the military, beneficial trade with neighbors and higher living standards, etc. To believe Israel doesn’t want peace is to believe it is aggressive and has devious ends.

And again, if Israel really doesn’t face an existential threat—or only an easily defused one—then its acting otherwise is psychotic behavior.

A major and new theme of this campaign is to convince American Jews that either Israel has become illegitimate or must be bashed for its own good. Undeniably, this campaign has enjoyed success on that front. Others are temporarily taken in by nonsense like the Western expert/media spin on the last Israeli elections as headed toward fascism or some individual event.

What exists here on the surface as disproportional insanity is actually ideologically determined and politically intentional. The result is an environment in which the virulently antisemitic, genocidal, anti-Christian, anti-American, and pro-terrorist Muslim Brotherhood is the beneficiary of apologetics while Israel is “bad.”

A nut from an extremist cult spit on a teenaged Jewish girl in a small town in Israel and the next thing you know there is a serious Western debate over Israel losing its soul. A few fans from Israel’s most nationalist football team don’t want Muslim players—Arabs already play for all the other teams and are never harassed—and the next thing you know the New York Times compares Israel to Nazi Germany.

Or the Israeli election was widely presented as the impending triumph of neo-fascist forces even though the far-right party received less than 10 percent of the vote, what that category usually receives. The New Yorker gave us a hitherto unknown professor at a university in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip as its expert on Israeli politics. Or the New York Times article claiming that many Israelis were complaining that the Iron Dome system shot down Hamas missiles because it would be better–the reporter lied–if more Israelis were killed or wounded since that would impel the country to change its evil, hard-line ways and seek peace.

One thing comforting about this campaign is that its activists so often have to resort to lies and exaggerations, showing how little genuine material they possess.

How much effect is this all having in the real world? Ironically, it is less damaging to Israel itself (attempts at economic boycotts, for example, have yielded no real damage) but on Western Jews who live in the societies so affected. The growing pressure will result in some running for cover—or even joining the assailants—but far more will ultimately wake up.

Yet again this situation can no longer be dealt with as an ordinary, though rather spirited and emotional, debate. It is a massive, often conscious and deliberate, campaign of defamation. No longer on the margins, this campaign has penetrated into using the commanding heights of the Western mass media, intellectual, and academic institutions.

The reason for pointing this all out is that there are millions of well-intentioned, honest people who would be shocked if they had the paradigm shift between taking a good portion of this material as honest and well-intentioned and understood that they are being subjected to a concerted propaganda campaign of lies. If they comprehend that, they are far more likely to reject these lies as well as having their eyes opened to wider disinformation campaigns going on today.

Update: The New York Times editorial claims (as its lead no less!), in what is starting to look like an antisemitic pattern (I’m not accusing the paper of antisemitism but merely of using such a theme) that Hagel’s only problem is that he isn’t sufficiently servile to Israeli interests: “One dispiriting lesson from Chuck Hagel’s nomination for defense secretary is the extent to which the political space for discussing Israel forthrightly is shrinking.” The man showed himself to be an embarrassing fool and this is their claim–that it’s the Jews’ fault? Let’s be clear here. If Hagel said everything he ever said about Israel and had no other problemmatic statements or if Hagel said everything he ever said about Israel and had done a mediocre to minimal job at the confirmation hearings, no one would be talking about his not getting an overwhelming majority in the Senate. A sign of antisemitism: Blame the Jews first. By the way, Obama, Kerry, and Brennan don’t have a sterling record on Israel but they had no problem getting elected, appointed, and confirmed.

Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest book, Israel: An Introduction, has just been published by Yale University Press. Other recent books include The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). The website of the GLORIA Center and of his blog, Rubin Reports. His original articles are published at PJMedia.