"Beware the leader who bangs the drums in war to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind.
And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, they will offer up all their rights unto the leader and gladly so.
How do I know ? For this is what I have done. And I am Ceasar."
2007/10/28
"We must make clear to the Germans that the wrong for which their fallen leaders are on trial is not that they lost the war, but that they started it. And we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into a trial of the causes of the war for our position is that no grievances or policies will justify resort to aggressive war. It is utterly renounced and condemned as an instrument of policy."
- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, U.S. representative to the International Conference on Military Trials, Aug. 12, 1945.
- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, U.S. representative to the International Conference on Military Trials, Aug. 12, 1945.
"Naturally the common people don't want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
~ Hermann Goering, President of the Reichstag, Nazi Party, and Luftwaffe Commander in Chief
~ Hermann Goering, President of the Reichstag, Nazi Party, and Luftwaffe Commander in Chief
The Bush Junta Unmasked
"This (9/11) was all planned. This was a government-ordered operation. Bush personally signed the order. He personally authorized the attacks. He is guilty of treason and mass murder." --Stanley Hilton
Students for an Orwellian Society
What is SOS?
Students for an Orwellian Society (SOS) is a nationwide student group. Although SOS has always been a nationwide student group, there is evidence to suggest that it first appeared at
As an Oceania-wide organization, SOS has a number of local chapters. For a partial listing, see our contact section.
Psy-Ops henchman for Hitler
"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the State." - Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels
Big Brother Controlling Your Head
Anyone who thinks someone isn't watching, listening to and constantly plotting to control the minds of the masses might be shocked to view the following list of patents by a string of inventors who apparently found a variety of ways to do it all.
The problem: which devices will be chosen, and when were they put in service. Notice that many of these patents are 20 to 30 years old.
The list was sent to me by a reader who noted that it was marked Top Secret, and the patent list was to be removed from public domain. Of course the list immediately ended up on the Internet.
In the chance that the list is bogus, I did a search on the patent names and numbers. They came up as legitimate invention ideas being hawked, sometimes by their inventors, on line. Most commonly they were in lists of mind control devices. Beyond that, I have no reason to verify or deny them as factual. Click on the highlighted search links and decide for yourself.
Do they work?
What other explanation do we have for the masses following George W. Bush into an attack on Iraq like they did, with few questions asked? What other reason do we have for the people taking the Bush Supreme Court appointment over Al Gore to the presidency, even though most voters chose Gore in 2000?
This list ought to alarm everybody. I am betting it doesn't.
Silent Subliminal Presentation System, US Patent #5,159,703, Oliver Lowery, October 27, 1992. A silent communications system in which non-aural carriers in the very low or very high audio-frequency range, or in the adjacent ultrasonic frequency spectrum, are amplitude-modulated with the desired intelligence and propagated acoustically or vibrationally for inducement into the brain.
Hearing System, US Patent #4,877,027, Wayne Brunkan, October 31, 1989. A method for directly inducing sound into the head of a person, using microwaves in the range of 100 MHz to 10,000 MHz, modulated with a waveform of frequency- modulated bursts.
Psycho-Acoustic Projector, US Patent #3,568,347, Andrew Flanders, February 23, 1971. A system for producing aural psychological disturbances and partial deafness in the enemy during combat situations.
Noise Generator and Transmitter, US Patent #4,034,741, Guy Adams and Jess Carden, Jr, July 12, 1977. An analgesic noise-generator.
Method and System for Altering Consciousness, US Patent #5,123,899, James Gall, June 23, 1992. A system for altering the states of human consciousness involving the use of simultaneous application of multiple stimuli, preferably sounds, having differing frequencies.
Subliminal Message Generator, US Patent #5,270,800, Robert Sweet, December 14, 1993. A combined subliminal and supraliminal message generator for use with a television receiver; permits complete control of subliminal messages and their presentation. Also applicable to cable television and computers.
Superimposing Method and Apparatus Useful for Subliminal Messages, US Patent #5,134,484, Joseph Wilson, July 28, 1992. Method of changing a person's behavior.
US Patent #4,717,343, Alan Densky, January 5, 1988. A method of conditioning a person's unconscious mind in order to effect desired change in the person's behavior, and which does not require the services of a trained therapist.
Auditory Subliminal Message System and Method, US Patent #4,395,600, Rene Lundy and David Tyler, July 26, 1983. An amplitude-controlled subliminal message may be mixed with background music.
Auditory Subliminal Programming System, US Patent #4,777,529, Richard Schultz and Raymond Dolejs, October 11, 1988.
Apparatus for Inducing Frequency Reduction in Brain Wave, US Patent #4,834,70l, Kazumi Masaki, May 30, 1989.
Ultrasonic Speech Translator and Communication System, US Patent #5,539,705, M. A. Akerman, Curtis Ayers, Howard Haynes, July 23, 1996. A wireless communication system, undetectable by radio-frequency methods, for converting audio signals, including human voice, to electronic signals in the ultrasonic frequency range, transmitting the ultrasonic signal by way of acoustic pressure waves across a carrier medium, including gases, liquids and solids, and reconverting the ultrasonic acoustic pressure waves back to the original audio signal. This invention was made with government support under Contract DE-ACO5-840R2l400, awarded by the US Department of Energy to Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc.
Non-Audible Speech Generation Method and Apparatus, US Patent #4,821,326, Norman MacLeod, April 11, 1989.
Apparatus for Electrophysiological Stimulation, US Patent #4,227,516, Bruce Meland and Bernard Gindes, October 14, 1980.
Method and Recording for Producing Sounds and Messages to Achieve Alpha and Theta Brainwave States and Positive Emotional States in Humans, US Patent #5,352,181, Mark Davis, October 4, l994.
Method and Apparatus for Translating the EEG into Music to Induce and Control Various Psychological and Physiological States and to Control a Musical Instrument, US Patent #4,883,067, Knispel et. al., November 28, 1989.
Method of and Apparatus for Inducing Desired States of Consciousness, US Patent #5.356,368, Robert Monroe, October 18, 1994. Improved methods and apparatus for entraining human brain patterns, employing frequency-following-response (FFR) techniques and facilitating attainment of desired states of consciousness.
Method of Inducing Mental. Emotional and Physical States of Consciousness, including Specific Mental Activity, in Human Beings, US Patent #5,213,562, Robert Monroe, May 25, 1993.
Device for the Induction of Specific Brain Wave Patterns, US Patent #4,335,710, John Williamson, June 22, 1982. Brainwave patterns associated with relaxed and meditative states in a subject are gradually induced without deleterious chemical or neurologic side effects.
Method and Apparatus for Repetitively Producing a Noise-like Audible Signal, US Patent #4,191,175, William Nagle, March 4, 1980.
Apparatus for the Treatment of Neuropsychic and Somatic Diseases with Heat, Light, Sound and VHF Electromagnetic Radiation, US Patent #3,773,049, L. Y. Rabichev, V. F. Vasiliev, A. S. Putilin, T. G. Ilina, P. V. Raku and L. P. Kemitsky, November 20, 1973.
Non-Invasive Method and Apparatus for Modulating Brain Signals through an External Magnetic or Electric Field to Reduce Pain, US Patent #4,889,526, Elizabeth Rauscher and William Van Bise, December 26, 1989.
Nervous System Excitation Device, US Patent #3,393,279, Gillis Patrick Flanagan, July 16, 1968. A method of transmitting audio information via a radio frequency signal modulated with the audio info through electrodes placed on the subject's skin, causing the sensation of hearing the audio information in the brain.
Method and System for Simplifying Speech Waveforms, US Patent #3,647,970, G. Patrick Flanagan, March 7, 1972. A complex speech waveform is simplified so that it can be transmitted directly through earth or water as a waveform and understood directly or after amplification.
Means for Aiding Hearing, US Patent #2,995,633, Henry Puharich and Joseph Lawrence, August 8, 1961. Means for converting audible signals to electrical signals and conveying them to viable nerves of the facial system.
Means for Aiding Hearing by Electrical Stimulation of the Facial Nerve System, US Patent #3,170,993, Henry Puharich, February 23, 1965.
Hearing Device, US Patent #4,858,612, Philip Stocklin, August 22, 1989. A method and apparatus for simulation of hearing in mammals by introduction of a plurality of microwaves into the regions of the auditory cortex.
The problem: which devices will be chosen, and when were they put in service. Notice that many of these patents are 20 to 30 years old.
The list was sent to me by a reader who noted that it was marked Top Secret, and the patent list was to be removed from public domain. Of course the list immediately ended up on the Internet.
In the chance that the list is bogus, I did a search on the patent names and numbers. They came up as legitimate invention ideas being hawked, sometimes by their inventors, on line. Most commonly they were in lists of mind control devices. Beyond that, I have no reason to verify or deny them as factual. Click on the highlighted search links and decide for yourself.
Do they work?
What other explanation do we have for the masses following George W. Bush into an attack on Iraq like they did, with few questions asked? What other reason do we have for the people taking the Bush Supreme Court appointment over Al Gore to the presidency, even though most voters chose Gore in 2000?
This list ought to alarm everybody. I am betting it doesn't.
Silent Subliminal Presentation System, US Patent #5,159,703, Oliver Lowery, October 27, 1992. A silent communications system in which non-aural carriers in the very low or very high audio-frequency range, or in the adjacent ultrasonic frequency spectrum, are amplitude-modulated with the desired intelligence and propagated acoustically or vibrationally for inducement into the brain.
Hearing System, US Patent #4,877,027, Wayne Brunkan, October 31, 1989. A method for directly inducing sound into the head of a person, using microwaves in the range of 100 MHz to 10,000 MHz, modulated with a waveform of frequency- modulated bursts.
Psycho-Acoustic Projector, US Patent #3,568,347, Andrew Flanders, February 23, 1971. A system for producing aural psychological disturbances and partial deafness in the enemy during combat situations.
Noise Generator and Transmitter, US Patent #4,034,741, Guy Adams and Jess Carden, Jr, July 12, 1977. An analgesic noise-generator.
Method and System for Altering Consciousness, US Patent #5,123,899, James Gall, June 23, 1992. A system for altering the states of human consciousness involving the use of simultaneous application of multiple stimuli, preferably sounds, having differing frequencies.
Subliminal Message Generator, US Patent #5,270,800, Robert Sweet, December 14, 1993. A combined subliminal and supraliminal message generator for use with a television receiver; permits complete control of subliminal messages and their presentation. Also applicable to cable television and computers.
Superimposing Method and Apparatus Useful for Subliminal Messages, US Patent #5,134,484, Joseph Wilson, July 28, 1992. Method of changing a person's behavior.
US Patent #4,717,343, Alan Densky, January 5, 1988. A method of conditioning a person's unconscious mind in order to effect desired change in the person's behavior, and which does not require the services of a trained therapist.
Auditory Subliminal Message System and Method, US Patent #4,395,600, Rene Lundy and David Tyler, July 26, 1983. An amplitude-controlled subliminal message may be mixed with background music.
Auditory Subliminal Programming System, US Patent #4,777,529, Richard Schultz and Raymond Dolejs, October 11, 1988.
Apparatus for Inducing Frequency Reduction in Brain Wave, US Patent #4,834,70l, Kazumi Masaki, May 30, 1989.
Ultrasonic Speech Translator and Communication System, US Patent #5,539,705, M. A. Akerman, Curtis Ayers, Howard Haynes, July 23, 1996. A wireless communication system, undetectable by radio-frequency methods, for converting audio signals, including human voice, to electronic signals in the ultrasonic frequency range, transmitting the ultrasonic signal by way of acoustic pressure waves across a carrier medium, including gases, liquids and solids, and reconverting the ultrasonic acoustic pressure waves back to the original audio signal. This invention was made with government support under Contract DE-ACO5-840R2l400, awarded by the US Department of Energy to Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc.
Non-Audible Speech Generation Method and Apparatus, US Patent #4,821,326, Norman MacLeod, April 11, 1989.
Apparatus for Electrophysiological Stimulation, US Patent #4,227,516, Bruce Meland and Bernard Gindes, October 14, 1980.
Method and Recording for Producing Sounds and Messages to Achieve Alpha and Theta Brainwave States and Positive Emotional States in Humans, US Patent #5,352,181, Mark Davis, October 4, l994.
Method and Apparatus for Translating the EEG into Music to Induce and Control Various Psychological and Physiological States and to Control a Musical Instrument, US Patent #4,883,067, Knispel et. al., November 28, 1989.
Method of and Apparatus for Inducing Desired States of Consciousness, US Patent #5.356,368, Robert Monroe, October 18, 1994. Improved methods and apparatus for entraining human brain patterns, employing frequency-following-response (FFR) techniques and facilitating attainment of desired states of consciousness.
Method of Inducing Mental. Emotional and Physical States of Consciousness, including Specific Mental Activity, in Human Beings, US Patent #5,213,562, Robert Monroe, May 25, 1993.
Device for the Induction of Specific Brain Wave Patterns, US Patent #4,335,710, John Williamson, June 22, 1982. Brainwave patterns associated with relaxed and meditative states in a subject are gradually induced without deleterious chemical or neurologic side effects.
Method and Apparatus for Repetitively Producing a Noise-like Audible Signal, US Patent #4,191,175, William Nagle, March 4, 1980.
Apparatus for the Treatment of Neuropsychic and Somatic Diseases with Heat, Light, Sound and VHF Electromagnetic Radiation, US Patent #3,773,049, L. Y. Rabichev, V. F. Vasiliev, A. S. Putilin, T. G. Ilina, P. V. Raku and L. P. Kemitsky, November 20, 1973.
Non-Invasive Method and Apparatus for Modulating Brain Signals through an External Magnetic or Electric Field to Reduce Pain, US Patent #4,889,526, Elizabeth Rauscher and William Van Bise, December 26, 1989.
Nervous System Excitation Device, US Patent #3,393,279, Gillis Patrick Flanagan, July 16, 1968. A method of transmitting audio information via a radio frequency signal modulated with the audio info through electrodes placed on the subject's skin, causing the sensation of hearing the audio information in the brain.
Method and System for Simplifying Speech Waveforms, US Patent #3,647,970, G. Patrick Flanagan, March 7, 1972. A complex speech waveform is simplified so that it can be transmitted directly through earth or water as a waveform and understood directly or after amplification.
Means for Aiding Hearing, US Patent #2,995,633, Henry Puharich and Joseph Lawrence, August 8, 1961. Means for converting audible signals to electrical signals and conveying them to viable nerves of the facial system.
Means for Aiding Hearing by Electrical Stimulation of the Facial Nerve System, US Patent #3,170,993, Henry Puharich, February 23, 1965.
Hearing Device, US Patent #4,858,612, Philip Stocklin, August 22, 1989. A method and apparatus for simulation of hearing in mammals by introduction of a plurality of microwaves into the regions of the auditory cortex.
Montana Supreme Court Justice Warns
Believe it or not, it's perfectly legal for police to rummage through your garbage for incriminating stuff on you -- even if they don't have a warrant or court approval.
The Supreme Court of Montana ruled last month that police could conduct a warrantless "trash dive" into the trash cans in the alley behind the home of a man named Darrell Pelvit. The cops discovered evidence of pseudoephedrine and Naptha--a solvent with uses including the manufacture of methamphetamine--and Pelvit eventually ended up in prison.
Pelvit's attorney argued that his client had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his trash, but the court rejected the argument and said the trash was, well, meant to be thrown away.
What's remarkable is the concurring opinion of Montana Supreme Court Justice James C. Nelson, who reluctantly went along with his colleagues but warned that George Orwell's 1984 had arrived. We reproduce his concurring opinion in full:
Justice James C. Nelson concurs.
I have signed our Opinion because we have correctly applied existing legal theory and constitutional jurisprudence to resolve this case on its facts.
I feel the pain of conflict, however. I fear that, eventually, we are all going to become collateral damage in the war on drugs, or terrorism, or whatever war is in vogue at the moment. I retain an abiding concern that our Declaration of Rights not be killed by friendly fire. And, in this day and age, the courts are the last, if not only, bulwark to prevent that from happening.
In truth, though, we area throw-away society. My garbage can contains the remains of what I eat and drink. It may contain discarded credit card receipts along with yesterday's newspaper and junk mail. It might hold some personal letters, bills, receipts, vouchers, medical records, photographs and stuff that is imprinted with the multitude of assigned numbers that allow me access to the global economy and vice versa.
My garbage can contains my DNA.
As our Opinion states, what we voluntarily throw away, what we discard--i.e., what we abandon--is fair game for roving animals, scavengers, busybodies, crooks and for those seeking evidence of criminal enterprise.
Yet, as I expect with most people, when I take the day's trash (neatly packaged in opaque plastic bags) to the garbage can each night, I give little consideration to what I am throwing away and less thought, still, to what might become of my refuse. I don't necessarily envision that someone or something is going to paw through it looking for a morsel of food, a discarded treasure, a stealable part of my identity or a piece of evidence. But, I've seen that happen enough times to understand--though not graciously accept--that there is nothing sacred in whatever privacy interest I think I have retained in my trash once it leaves my control--the Fourth Amendment and Article II, Sections 10 and 11, notwithstanding.
Like it or not, I live in a society that accepts virtual strip searches at airports; surveillance cameras; "discount" cards that record my buying habits; bar codes; "cookies" and spywear on my computer; on-line access to satellite technology that can image my back yard; and microchip radio frequency identification devices already implanted in the family dog and soon to be integrated into my groceries, my credit cards, my cash and my new underwear.
I know that the notes from the visit to my doctor's office may be transcribed in some overseas country under an out-sourcing contract by a person who couldn't care less about my privacy. I know that there are all sorts of businesses that have records of what medications I take and why. I know that information taken from my blood sample may wind up in databases and be put to uses that the boilerplate on the sheaf of papers I sign to get medical treatment doesn't even begin to disclose. I know that my insurance companies and employer know more about me than does my mother. I know that many aspects of my life are available on the Internet. Even a black box in my car--or event data recorder as they are called--is ready and willing to spill the beans on my driving habits, if I have an event--and I really trusted that car, too.
And, I also know that my most unwelcome and paternalistic relative, Uncle Sam, is with me from womb to tomb. Fueled by the paranoia of "ists" and "isms," Sam has the capability of spying on everything and everybody--and no doubt is. But, as Sam says: "It's for my own good."
In short, I know that my personal information is recorded in databases, servers, hard drives and file cabinets all over the world. I know that these portals to the most intimate details of my life are restricted only by the degree of sophistication and goodwill or malevolence of the person, institution, corporation or government that wants access to my data.
I also know that much of my life can be reconstructed from the contents of my garbage can.
I don't like living in Orwell's 1984; but I do. And, absent the next extinction event or civil libertarians taking charge of the government (the former being more likely than the latter), the best we can do is try to keep Sam and the sub-Sams on a short leash.
As our Opinion states, search and seizure jurisprudence is centered around privacy expectations and reasonableness considerations. That is true even under the extended protections afforded by Montana's Constitution, Article II, Sections 10. and 11. We have ruled within those parameters. And, as is often the case, we have had to draw a fine line in a gray area. Justice Cotter and those who have signed the Opinion worked hard at defining that line; and I am satisfied we've drawn it correctly on the facts of this case and under the conventional law of abandonment.
That said, if this Opinion is used to justify a sweep of the trash cans of a neighborhood or community; or if a trash dive for Sudafed boxes and matchbooks results in DNA or fingerprints being added to a forensic database or results in personal or business records, credit card receipts, personal correspondence or other property being archived for some future use unrelated to the case at hand, then, absent a search warrant, I may well reconsider my legal position and approach to these sorts of cases--even if I have to think outside the garbage can to get there.
I concur
/S/ JAMES C. NELSON
Posted by Declan McCullagh
The Supreme Court of Montana ruled last month that police could conduct a warrantless "trash dive" into the trash cans in the alley behind the home of a man named Darrell Pelvit. The cops discovered evidence of pseudoephedrine and Naptha--a solvent with uses including the manufacture of methamphetamine--and Pelvit eventually ended up in prison.
Pelvit's attorney argued that his client had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his trash, but the court rejected the argument and said the trash was, well, meant to be thrown away.
What's remarkable is the concurring opinion of Montana Supreme Court Justice James C. Nelson, who reluctantly went along with his colleagues but warned that George Orwell's 1984 had arrived. We reproduce his concurring opinion in full:
Justice James C. Nelson concurs.
I have signed our Opinion because we have correctly applied existing legal theory and constitutional jurisprudence to resolve this case on its facts.
I feel the pain of conflict, however. I fear that, eventually, we are all going to become collateral damage in the war on drugs, or terrorism, or whatever war is in vogue at the moment. I retain an abiding concern that our Declaration of Rights not be killed by friendly fire. And, in this day and age, the courts are the last, if not only, bulwark to prevent that from happening.
In truth, though, we area throw-away society. My garbage can contains the remains of what I eat and drink. It may contain discarded credit card receipts along with yesterday's newspaper and junk mail. It might hold some personal letters, bills, receipts, vouchers, medical records, photographs and stuff that is imprinted with the multitude of assigned numbers that allow me access to the global economy and vice versa.
My garbage can contains my DNA.
As our Opinion states, what we voluntarily throw away, what we discard--i.e., what we abandon--is fair game for roving animals, scavengers, busybodies, crooks and for those seeking evidence of criminal enterprise.
Yet, as I expect with most people, when I take the day's trash (neatly packaged in opaque plastic bags) to the garbage can each night, I give little consideration to what I am throwing away and less thought, still, to what might become of my refuse. I don't necessarily envision that someone or something is going to paw through it looking for a morsel of food, a discarded treasure, a stealable part of my identity or a piece of evidence. But, I've seen that happen enough times to understand--though not graciously accept--that there is nothing sacred in whatever privacy interest I think I have retained in my trash once it leaves my control--the Fourth Amendment and Article II, Sections 10 and 11, notwithstanding.
Like it or not, I live in a society that accepts virtual strip searches at airports; surveillance cameras; "discount" cards that record my buying habits; bar codes; "cookies" and spywear on my computer; on-line access to satellite technology that can image my back yard; and microchip radio frequency identification devices already implanted in the family dog and soon to be integrated into my groceries, my credit cards, my cash and my new underwear.
I know that the notes from the visit to my doctor's office may be transcribed in some overseas country under an out-sourcing contract by a person who couldn't care less about my privacy. I know that there are all sorts of businesses that have records of what medications I take and why. I know that information taken from my blood sample may wind up in databases and be put to uses that the boilerplate on the sheaf of papers I sign to get medical treatment doesn't even begin to disclose. I know that my insurance companies and employer know more about me than does my mother. I know that many aspects of my life are available on the Internet. Even a black box in my car--or event data recorder as they are called--is ready and willing to spill the beans on my driving habits, if I have an event--and I really trusted that car, too.
And, I also know that my most unwelcome and paternalistic relative, Uncle Sam, is with me from womb to tomb. Fueled by the paranoia of "ists" and "isms," Sam has the capability of spying on everything and everybody--and no doubt is. But, as Sam says: "It's for my own good."
In short, I know that my personal information is recorded in databases, servers, hard drives and file cabinets all over the world. I know that these portals to the most intimate details of my life are restricted only by the degree of sophistication and goodwill or malevolence of the person, institution, corporation or government that wants access to my data.
I also know that much of my life can be reconstructed from the contents of my garbage can.
I don't like living in Orwell's 1984; but I do. And, absent the next extinction event or civil libertarians taking charge of the government (the former being more likely than the latter), the best we can do is try to keep Sam and the sub-Sams on a short leash.
As our Opinion states, search and seizure jurisprudence is centered around privacy expectations and reasonableness considerations. That is true even under the extended protections afforded by Montana's Constitution, Article II, Sections 10. and 11. We have ruled within those parameters. And, as is often the case, we have had to draw a fine line in a gray area. Justice Cotter and those who have signed the Opinion worked hard at defining that line; and I am satisfied we've drawn it correctly on the facts of this case and under the conventional law of abandonment.
That said, if this Opinion is used to justify a sweep of the trash cans of a neighborhood or community; or if a trash dive for Sudafed boxes and matchbooks results in DNA or fingerprints being added to a forensic database or results in personal or business records, credit card receipts, personal correspondence or other property being archived for some future use unrelated to the case at hand, then, absent a search warrant, I may well reconsider my legal position and approach to these sorts of cases--even if I have to think outside the garbage can to get there.
I concur
/S/ JAMES C. NELSON
Posted by Declan McCullagh
OPEN LETTER TO PUBLIC SERVANTS
At the expense of the American people and with the blessings of unseen hands at high policy-making levels, you have created a subculture for yourselves we will call the bureaucratic class. There are millions of you now and, as of 2002, the bureaucratic class has near carte blanche authority to do anything it wants to the American people. It's as if you and your classmates are blessed with some magic shield that protects you from being held personally accountable for the damage you have inflicted upon the very people who have afforded your existence. You have been used by those unseen hands to morally, spiritually, economically and politically bankrupt the people of this nation.
The bureaucratic class in the United States has been growing steadily since “the New Deal.” From the humble beginnings of a few scattered overworked and underpaid public servants providing government services from impromptu field offices have sprung legions of high-paid bureaucrats with well-staffed offices centralized in government-owned complexes. The bureaucratic class has forgotten its service-based roots and has come to regard its protected-class status as a birthright.
Members of the bureaucratic class make comparatively high-end wages that come with comparatively elaborate benefits packages and the ability to charge many of life's expenses to the American people. Over and above all holidays off with pay, you accumulate sick time, vacation time and are allowed to take x number of personal days off each year -- with pay. No such largesse exists in the private sector as we must work almost half the year just to pay for you. While we have grudgingly afforded you these things with only moderate protest, you have been enforcing upon us increasingly invasive, injurious and absurdist policies.
If we complain and attempt to seek a redress of our grievances for your abusive conduct through agency superiors, congresspersons or the courts, we are denied. You are immune from prosecution while functioning in your official capacity -- even if you act abusively or beyond the scope of your authority. With increased wages, increased benefits, increased authority has come prosecutorial immunity so airtight you may wrongfully imprison and murder ordinary people without fear of repercussion. You have all of these things going for you and the law on your side so you must be doing the right thing, you rationalize. How else could you be allowed to steal the property, the children, the freedom and the life from people you must know in your heart do not deserve your bureaucratic wrath? The ends must justify the means, you assuredly tell yourselves while drowning your conscience in alcohol or medicating it with Prozac.
Look around you. As bureaucrats who enforce policies that tie ordinary people up into frustrated statutory knots, how many of them appreciate you? How many ordinary people are happy to see you compared to the ones who are barely able to contain the contempt your mere presence in their lives causes them to feel? How many lives have been improved through the functions of your office compared to the lives that have been destroyed by it? Would you say that over the last several years angry and destroyed people are beginning to drastically outnumber happy and improved people? Is that why many of you now address the public from behind bullet-proof glass and metal detectors?
There is an undercurrent of frustration in this country. Things are not going well for ordinary people because their lives are being taxed and regulated out of existence. Right now most people must content themselves to burden their friends and family members with their frustration because there is no other outlet for their emotions. But, what would happen if the magic shield that has protected you and your classmates is removed? Your protection is not divine. It is the construct of men. As easily as it has been given to you it can be taken away. Have you read the news lately? Enron, the lynx hair fraud, no scientific foundation for cutting off irrigation water to protect Klamath Basin suckerfish last year: Your protection is being removed.
The bureaucratic class has been set up to take the fall for a failed society. And, in apparent anticipation of imminent chaos, the Bush administration announced Feb. 3, 2002, that soon it will appoint a four-star general to command the American theater of operations for the Homeland Security Agency. Here is the scenario to which you must take heed: The hand that provided immunity to the bureaucratic class while it bankrupted the people of a nation is lifted. Media-triggered events expose the abusive actions of the bureaucratic class to the masses. The masses identify those in the bureaucratic class as the real cause of their misery and frustration and stop beating their children and spouses. Thousands of government offices are suddenly vacated as bureaucrats flee them in fear of their lives or are otherwise prevented from performing their duties. The structure of government begins to collapse. A power vacuum is created. Homeland Security steps in to administrate our socio/political unraveling as a nation. The general is commissioned to call out the armed forces and take military control of our domestic affairs. Think about it.
The description of the bureaucratic class and what it has done to the American people with murderous immunity cannot be disputed. The scenario above is not unprecedented in recent world history. It also cannot be disputed that, by enjoying the benefits of your class in trade for willingly and knowingly damaging innocent people, you have betrayed them. While worthy adversaries may respect one another, no one respects a traitor. ***
The purpose of this letter is to inform members of the bureaucratic class that it was created to perform a task that has been accomplished; you are now as expendable as us ordinary folks whose ranks you are about to rejoin. You have been used to destroy the people of this nation. Immunity for your lifestyle is evaporating. You have been positioned as an outlet for the prodigious anger and frustration that enforcement of increasingly injurious and absurd policies has generated in the people who have paid your wages. The only question remaining is, “what are you going to do about it?”
Don Harkins
The Idaho Observer
The bureaucratic class in the United States has been growing steadily since “the New Deal.” From the humble beginnings of a few scattered overworked and underpaid public servants providing government services from impromptu field offices have sprung legions of high-paid bureaucrats with well-staffed offices centralized in government-owned complexes. The bureaucratic class has forgotten its service-based roots and has come to regard its protected-class status as a birthright.
Members of the bureaucratic class make comparatively high-end wages that come with comparatively elaborate benefits packages and the ability to charge many of life's expenses to the American people. Over and above all holidays off with pay, you accumulate sick time, vacation time and are allowed to take x number of personal days off each year -- with pay. No such largesse exists in the private sector as we must work almost half the year just to pay for you. While we have grudgingly afforded you these things with only moderate protest, you have been enforcing upon us increasingly invasive, injurious and absurdist policies.
If we complain and attempt to seek a redress of our grievances for your abusive conduct through agency superiors, congresspersons or the courts, we are denied. You are immune from prosecution while functioning in your official capacity -- even if you act abusively or beyond the scope of your authority. With increased wages, increased benefits, increased authority has come prosecutorial immunity so airtight you may wrongfully imprison and murder ordinary people without fear of repercussion. You have all of these things going for you and the law on your side so you must be doing the right thing, you rationalize. How else could you be allowed to steal the property, the children, the freedom and the life from people you must know in your heart do not deserve your bureaucratic wrath? The ends must justify the means, you assuredly tell yourselves while drowning your conscience in alcohol or medicating it with Prozac.
Look around you. As bureaucrats who enforce policies that tie ordinary people up into frustrated statutory knots, how many of them appreciate you? How many ordinary people are happy to see you compared to the ones who are barely able to contain the contempt your mere presence in their lives causes them to feel? How many lives have been improved through the functions of your office compared to the lives that have been destroyed by it? Would you say that over the last several years angry and destroyed people are beginning to drastically outnumber happy and improved people? Is that why many of you now address the public from behind bullet-proof glass and metal detectors?
There is an undercurrent of frustration in this country. Things are not going well for ordinary people because their lives are being taxed and regulated out of existence. Right now most people must content themselves to burden their friends and family members with their frustration because there is no other outlet for their emotions. But, what would happen if the magic shield that has protected you and your classmates is removed? Your protection is not divine. It is the construct of men. As easily as it has been given to you it can be taken away. Have you read the news lately? Enron, the lynx hair fraud, no scientific foundation for cutting off irrigation water to protect Klamath Basin suckerfish last year: Your protection is being removed.
The bureaucratic class has been set up to take the fall for a failed society. And, in apparent anticipation of imminent chaos, the Bush administration announced Feb. 3, 2002, that soon it will appoint a four-star general to command the American theater of operations for the Homeland Security Agency. Here is the scenario to which you must take heed: The hand that provided immunity to the bureaucratic class while it bankrupted the people of a nation is lifted. Media-triggered events expose the abusive actions of the bureaucratic class to the masses. The masses identify those in the bureaucratic class as the real cause of their misery and frustration and stop beating their children and spouses. Thousands of government offices are suddenly vacated as bureaucrats flee them in fear of their lives or are otherwise prevented from performing their duties. The structure of government begins to collapse. A power vacuum is created. Homeland Security steps in to administrate our socio/political unraveling as a nation. The general is commissioned to call out the armed forces and take military control of our domestic affairs. Think about it.
The description of the bureaucratic class and what it has done to the American people with murderous immunity cannot be disputed. The scenario above is not unprecedented in recent world history. It also cannot be disputed that, by enjoying the benefits of your class in trade for willingly and knowingly damaging innocent people, you have betrayed them. While worthy adversaries may respect one another, no one respects a traitor. ***
The purpose of this letter is to inform members of the bureaucratic class that it was created to perform a task that has been accomplished; you are now as expendable as us ordinary folks whose ranks you are about to rejoin. You have been used to destroy the people of this nation. Immunity for your lifestyle is evaporating. You have been positioned as an outlet for the prodigious anger and frustration that enforcement of increasingly injurious and absurd policies has generated in the people who have paid your wages. The only question remaining is, “what are you going to do about it?”
Don Harkins
The Idaho Observer
2007/10/25
Vatican beatifying 498 from Spain's war
By DANIEL WOOLLS, Associated Press Writer
Thu Oct 25, 12:06 PM ET
CUENCA, Spain - First the militia fighters thought of hacking the bishop to death with an ax. In the end, they showed pity and shot him — one of hundreds of executions of Roman Catholic clergy as civil war erupted in Spain.
The bishop and 497 other people will be beatified Sunday by the Catholic Church, the last step before possible sainthood. The ceremony — the largest mass beatification in Vatican history — comes as Spain is taking a closer look at its painful past.
Bishop Cruz Laplana y Laguna was taken prisoner by leftist militiamen two days after the war broke out on July 17, 1936. The mayor of this town in central Spain offered to free him with a ruse: send police into the seminary where he was being held, have the bishop dress as a cop and sneak out.
Laplana y Laguna declined — he would not shed his vestments. Two weeks later, the bishop blessed his killers as they took aim and opened fire. "May God forgive you, as I forgive and bless you," he said, according to a book published by the Spanish Bishops Conference.
He will be beatified along with 497 other people the Catholic Church has declared victims of religious persecution just before or during the Spanish civil war.
The 1936-39 war pitted an elected, leftist government against right-wing forces that rose up under Gen. Francisco Franco, who went on to win and preside over a nearly 40-year dictatorship that was staunchly supported by the Catholic Church.
Violence against the clergy had been simmering since 1931, when a republic was declared in Spain. Leftist forces targeted the church as an institution they saw as a symbol of wealth, repression and inequality.
The violence was one of Franco's pretexts for launching his rebellion, and it intensified after the war started, with churches in government-held areas burned and more and more clergy attacked.
The Catholic Church says there is no official death figure, but estimates nearly 7,000 clergy were killed in Spain from 1931 to 1939.
Except for seven lay people, all of those being beatified Sunday were clergy — priests, deacons, seminarians, monks and nuns, ranging in age from 16 to 78.
Some in Spain question the beatification's timing — three days before Parliament is to pass a Socialist-sponsored law seeking to make symbolic amends to victims of the war and the Franco dictatorship.
The bill mentions people persecuted for their religious beliefs, but for the most part it is an unprecedented formal condemnation of the Franco regime, the executions of civilians by pro-Franco militia and summary postwar trials of people accused of opposing his regime.
Critics say the Vatican, which since the late 1980s has beatified nearly 500 other clergy killed in the war, is now hitting back at the government by choosing to beatify so many more all at once.
Christian Networks, a grouping of lay Catholic organizations, said the church should apologize for supporting Franco. "As the church has not asked forgiveness for what happened, this beatification is inopportune," it said.
The church insists research has been under way for decades, and the ceremony is being held now because Pope Benedict XVI finished signing the decrees only two months ago.
"The church works on this very slowly and with its own calendar, which is not shaped by any other calendar, much less the political calendars of any government," said Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, secretary-general of the Spanish Bishops Conference.
The government has clashed with the church by legalizing gay marriage and instituting other social reforms, but has taken care not to pick a fight this time.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero says he respects the beatification as much as he respects the civil war atonement bill.
Jose Andres Torres Mora, a Socialist lawmaker who sponsored the war amends bill, will be among those at the beatification ceremony in St. Peter's Square.
Torres Mora's great-uncle, Juan Duarte Martin, is being beatified. He was a 24-year-old deacon when the militia tortured and killed him. "I am honoring him both ways," the lawmaker said.
Oh My Fucking GOD!!!! What the fuck is up with this? religious persecution???? What about all the people the church has had killed? What the fuck do they get???? Inquisition??? Ring a fucking bell with anyone? Do they get a fucking sorry we tortured and killed u from anyone?? I bet there are some Templars that would like a hug and a little sorry from someone.
Thu Oct 25, 12:06 PM ET
CUENCA, Spain - First the militia fighters thought of hacking the bishop to death with an ax. In the end, they showed pity and shot him — one of hundreds of executions of Roman Catholic clergy as civil war erupted in Spain.
The bishop and 497 other people will be beatified Sunday by the Catholic Church, the last step before possible sainthood. The ceremony — the largest mass beatification in Vatican history — comes as Spain is taking a closer look at its painful past.
Bishop Cruz Laplana y Laguna was taken prisoner by leftist militiamen two days after the war broke out on July 17, 1936. The mayor of this town in central Spain offered to free him with a ruse: send police into the seminary where he was being held, have the bishop dress as a cop and sneak out.
Laplana y Laguna declined — he would not shed his vestments. Two weeks later, the bishop blessed his killers as they took aim and opened fire. "May God forgive you, as I forgive and bless you," he said, according to a book published by the Spanish Bishops Conference.
He will be beatified along with 497 other people the Catholic Church has declared victims of religious persecution just before or during the Spanish civil war.
The 1936-39 war pitted an elected, leftist government against right-wing forces that rose up under Gen. Francisco Franco, who went on to win and preside over a nearly 40-year dictatorship that was staunchly supported by the Catholic Church.
Violence against the clergy had been simmering since 1931, when a republic was declared in Spain. Leftist forces targeted the church as an institution they saw as a symbol of wealth, repression and inequality.
The violence was one of Franco's pretexts for launching his rebellion, and it intensified after the war started, with churches in government-held areas burned and more and more clergy attacked.
The Catholic Church says there is no official death figure, but estimates nearly 7,000 clergy were killed in Spain from 1931 to 1939.
Except for seven lay people, all of those being beatified Sunday were clergy — priests, deacons, seminarians, monks and nuns, ranging in age from 16 to 78.
Some in Spain question the beatification's timing — three days before Parliament is to pass a Socialist-sponsored law seeking to make symbolic amends to victims of the war and the Franco dictatorship.
The bill mentions people persecuted for their religious beliefs, but for the most part it is an unprecedented formal condemnation of the Franco regime, the executions of civilians by pro-Franco militia and summary postwar trials of people accused of opposing his regime.
Critics say the Vatican, which since the late 1980s has beatified nearly 500 other clergy killed in the war, is now hitting back at the government by choosing to beatify so many more all at once.
Christian Networks, a grouping of lay Catholic organizations, said the church should apologize for supporting Franco. "As the church has not asked forgiveness for what happened, this beatification is inopportune," it said.
The church insists research has been under way for decades, and the ceremony is being held now because Pope Benedict XVI finished signing the decrees only two months ago.
"The church works on this very slowly and with its own calendar, which is not shaped by any other calendar, much less the political calendars of any government," said Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, secretary-general of the Spanish Bishops Conference.
The government has clashed with the church by legalizing gay marriage and instituting other social reforms, but has taken care not to pick a fight this time.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero says he respects the beatification as much as he respects the civil war atonement bill.
Jose Andres Torres Mora, a Socialist lawmaker who sponsored the war amends bill, will be among those at the beatification ceremony in St. Peter's Square.
Torres Mora's great-uncle, Juan Duarte Martin, is being beatified. He was a 24-year-old deacon when the militia tortured and killed him. "I am honoring him both ways," the lawmaker said.
Oh My Fucking GOD!!!! What the fuck is up with this? religious persecution???? What about all the people the church has had killed? What the fuck do they get???? Inquisition??? Ring a fucking bell with anyone? Do they get a fucking sorry we tortured and killed u from anyone?? I bet there are some Templars that would like a hug and a little sorry from someone.
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