Bailing out the Banks, James Dean, and Freedom.

“In real life, James Dean was much like the character he played in Rebela psychologically troubled young man raised in a broken family. Known mostly for his attitude, Dean's life was marked by pain. Sullen and painfully vulnerable, he was tormented by an offensive world and his own internal desolation. I try so hard, Dean once wrote to a friend, to make people reject me. Why?

The above quote came from yet another article published this time by John W. Whitehead at Rutherford Institute. Again it mischaracterizes a man 53 years dead of whom the author knew nothing except self-serving comments from Dean acquaintances collated with his own projections.
What we think we know is too often mythology. This is true about individuals and it is true about our institutions.
John W. Whitehead claims to 'know' about James B. Dean from books written by individuals who in fact knew little about him. Jimmy died young. He lived his life from the time he returned to Los Angeles struggling to establish himself as an actor against the wishes of most of his friends and family.
Those struggling to make their way in the entertainment industry do what is necessary to succeed. Such individuals range from those without a serious thought in their heads to individuals, like James Dean, who were serious thinkers. Serious thinkers are normally reluctant to express ideas that mark them out as marching to the beat of a different drummer in Hollywood.
During his life time James Dean was not famous. At the moment he died only one of his three movies had been released. That was East of Eden; Rebel Without A Cause was not yet in the theaters. Giant was yet to be finished.
When he died no one had yet considered the tiny body of work Dean left behind as a potential legacy. No one expected him to die. But today James Dean's movies represent the only tangible statement of his skill and those movies in themselves have proved to be a monumental commentary. The three films illustrate ability and mastery that plumbs depths and exhibits an intelligence unusual in an actor only 24 years of age. The roles he created in those movies expand to dominate the screen against far more experienced actors. The intelligent portion of Hollywood understood that, but as with all professions only a few could see what was so clearly before their eyes. They felt, without understanding, his power, never able to comprehend its source. Most people who are fascinated by the magnetic appeal Dean was able to project ascribe that appeal to those causes that more define themselves than they do James Dean.

These are facts. The brilliance of Jimmy's performances in these three movies were a testament to a well-honed and practiced mastery of his craft. The characters portrayed are not Jimmy.

It is easy for strangers to ooze opinion about someone when that person has been six feet under for more than half a century. His family was reticent and had never really understood him. Dying when he was 24 years old, he could never speak for himself; but those movies burn with the intelligence and hard work James Dean brought to every facet of his life. Many young actors are the product of the need in Hollywood for fresh meat. They last only a season, until the next meat comes down the sidewalk. Not so with James Dean.

John W. Whitehead never knew Jimmy. He expresses opinions based on mythology, a common failing to people who rely more on books and opinion than on actual experience. Since much of American culture comes from the same doubtful process this is, perhaps, understandable. But allowing ourselves to see only the surface of things is costing us now. Today we are living with a bizarre collage of institutions that were either converted from their original purpose or made up out of whole cloth for purposes never publicly admitted. Because we are creatures of habit who value security, a survival strategy longer than human memory, we tolerate much. As Thomas Jefferson said, “mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”

Along with too much tolerance for forms we fail to discern the wizard behind the curtain, the truth garbed in illusions.

The Federal Reserve, the banks on the corner, the courts on which we depend for justice; All of these are very different than they appear on the surface. When Whitehead looks at James Dean he sees a petulant, angst-ridden boy caught in a morass of ideas not of his making or understanding. But the real Jimmy was an intellectual who delighted in ideas and understood their function in creating our world far better than does Whitehead. Jimmy would have seen behind the curtain to the Wizard; he would have known that the Emperor had no clothes.

James Dean was a man who thought deeply, intensely, and understood the power of ideas. He tested ideas for truth using a finely honed discernment that is rare in any individual. Rutherford positions himself as a man dedicated to the ideas of freedom. But Jimmy understood the inner reality that transforms us, using freedom to grow spiritually.

I know this for a fact because Jimmy discussed those ideas with me and lived by his own rules. Jimmy was free and he understood what freedom means in every sense.

I saw Jimmy when he visited us, usually at lunch time, from the time I was three until that last week in 1955. Jimmy came, I am sure, at least partly in hopes of a sandwich at first. Then, he was a starving student and want-to-be actor. His tastes in food were eclectic but he always helped clean up. He was one of the few people in the world who could dry the dishes in a way that satisfied my mother.

Jimmy's mother and my own mother had known each other; were cousins, according to Jimmy.

Every visit Jimmy made involved talking about ideas, not just philosophy, but about how the world worked. From Jimmy I learned the whys for such things as photosynthesis, “Trees breathe. They breathe in light and breathe out life,” he told me when I was four. Jimmy was always thinking, taking ideas apart and then reassembling them, in ways that made them new.

On that last visit Jimmy said this to me about freedom, something that, presumably, Mr. Whitehead understands himself.

We were sitting in the back yard watching butterflies. My little brother had exercised his own freedom by wandering off with his new lasso after our cat, Tiger Lady. Tiger had retreated slowly, keeping an eye on him. Jimmy and I watched. At age three Stephen's aim was not very good. My new lasso was sitting on my lap. Jimmy had brought them with him and shown us how to spin.

Later, I would continue to practice spinning. Jimmy had just finished telling me about the courage and perseverance of Howard Roark, the character from the Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. At age 6 I had yet to hear of Rand. Looking me right in the eye he said this, “Your freedom is not one thing. It is everything. Freedom is your life, how you spend it. As you grow it will become all the things you dream, wish and work for. Those things,” he said, “will be the record you take to God of how you spent the life He gave you. Freedom is God's gift to you.” Freedom is different for each of us, in each case unique. Freedom knows only the limits you, yourself, accept.

James Dean was no hormone-driven Hollywood wind up doll. He was insightful, intellectually alive, and very aware of the kind of people and motives that confronted him in the reality of Hollywood, 1955. To be successful in Hollywood you had to play the games Hollywood expected. Jimmy understood people; he understood their limitations and their prejudices. He had learned to project what was expected of him.

The Hollywood perception of James Dean is colored by the timing of when he died and by the limited access he allowed to those whose approval he needed to succeed in the career he was passionately pursuing. If he had died three years later he would have had time to let Hollywood know who he really was; if he had died ten years later he would have changed Hollywood. But that is not what happened.

There was only one James Dean. How much of him you saw depended on how much it was safe for him to show.

Jimmy had no obligation to share what was private and assuming you know about others can lead you astray. Jimmy, dead, remains who he was. The projections that made him an icon are irrelevant to that truth.

But how we see people does matter.

The truth about the world around us, about the people we have placed in positions of trust, the institutions they run, their motives, and their work, is today at the source of the melt down we face. Large, centralized organizations do not work; they break down for simple, human reasons.

Humans work best in small communities where they can assess those they choose to trust. The reason America worked in the time of the colonies through the Revolution was their communities were small and operated on the idea of cooperation, not profit. The system today has removed the ability for us to know each other through personal contact. The Federalization of government, carried out in contradiction of the Constitution, removed the check on greed and deceit that has mangled our history.

Today we confront the immediate need to see people and institutions for what they are and enact change. As long as we iconize people, removing the warts, we cannot know who to trust. As long as we persist in a form of government that is diametrically opposed to that envisioned by our Founders we will be vulnerable.

Systemic deceit promote a reliance on mythology as fact that is destroying us.

Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were very different from the myths they have become. Icons do not reflect truth but projection and spin. Both Lincoln and Roosevelt are examples of that process. Each promoted a centralized state that was useful to those who today are asking to be bailed out. The myths on which the Roosevelt and Lincoln reputations were constructed employed fictions that promoted a continuing agenda of Federal power and centralized control. They were not what we have been taught to see.

We need the simple truth and a return to what works.

At the beginning of this week a group of wealthy bankers whose predecessors set into motion the largest scam in the history of the world, came to the American people demanding their debts be underwritten by the same people they have been defrauding for generations. Instead of being jeered and stoned, as they deserve, the Bush Administration is doing all possible to accommodate them. This administration will continue to do that, buoyed up by the mythology that the Federal Reserve Bank and its partners are Constitutional entities working lawfully to ensure that the need of the American people for a means of exchange is fulfilled. The facts are nakedly contrary; the FED is private. Its business is emptying the pockets of Americans, converting their hard earned wealth into gold and other real property intended to profit only that same, small group of bankers and stock holders. That is the crème de la crème of Bush's 'core constituency.'

The mortgage meltdown was carefully orchestrated as just one means by which the theft of American wealth could take place. The price of homes rose; fractional reserve banking ensured that every hopeful home owner would pay many times what that home was worth many times over. First, Americans paid through their mortgage payments, each adding to the mindbogglingly enormous flood of real wealth flowing into those same banking pockets. In so doing they traded earned dollars, real money, for more fiat currency guaranteed only by their own credit. No one ultimately profits but the bankers.

By real law the lack of any exchange of values makes the whole invalid, unenforceable. The credit that backs the faux funds, resting on values never issued by those same bankers, is the credit of the homeowner, who then, to add even more insult to injury, is forced to pay taxes on a home and income whose value has been inflated through that process.

The bankers whine for Congress to keep the illusion going. Congress, nervous now, hesitates. The outcome will not be as anyone expects.

That is all it is, illusion, a mythology with no more real substance than the movies that have romanticized the world of finance from one rapacious gold merchant ripping off unwary customers in Frankfort, Germany in 1770 to one of monumental myth.

Americans are close to losing nearly everything they accepted as secured to them. The fact that many of us knew they were dancing on the thinest of edges does not change the shock waves now reverberating through all of our lives. Americans believed that banks could be trusted, that there would be food on the table, that their homes belonged to them and that there was hope for tomorrow.

Losing the myth, the illusion, is the first step towards real freedom and real hope. Be glad this is happening. There is no freedom until you have the truth. When you have the truth anything is possible, even justice.

James Dean understood the need for truth. He was an individual who saw clearly and who had values that were defined and honed through years of thought. If he had lived Jimmy would have transformed the entertainment industry; injecting the vibrant ideas and values that moved him originally into acting. Because that industry supplies the memes and cultural content of so much that we, as Americans, live and breathe every day of our lives, and because the world watches us as the edge of cultural change, it is fair to say that James Dean would have changed the world. That was his intention and his aim; to impact the world through the craft of acting.

He understood how it could be used. He intended to use it.

James Dean had confronted such issues and the life of the spirit, mortality, the profound differences between people, and the ideas that drive the world when he was very young. He began life as a Mama's boy, enveloped in maternal attention. He shared with his mother a world of make-believe that helped him understand the difference between reality and fantasy. They also talked about ideas. That world was shattered when his mother died and he was relocated to Indiana to live with his aunt and uncle, two people who were decent, kind, hard-working and very different. He was a sensitive child. He did not forget his mother, he continued to remember and to grieve, creating an intense internal life of ideas. Those ideas eventually took him into acting. People who are highly intelligent and creative make their own rules.

You know how little his family understood him by where they chose to bury him. If Jimmy could have chosen he would have been next to his mother, never his father.

Jimmy knew what Hollywood wanted him to be so that is what they saw. He was much more.

James Dean loved thinking about the processes of life. He loved books and the ideas that roil in the mind when that mind weaves the possibilities of what is now with what could be. He pounced on new facts with delight.

The first time I met Jimmy it was over Beanie sandwiches in the kitchen of the family home in West Los Angeles. He was a student; I was a kid. He was the kind of person who listened and responded thoughtfully; he was able to connect and engage in a real discourse, not talking down to me but exploring the ideas that found their way into our conversation, introducing ideas as part of the text. With Jimmy if there was conversation there were ideas to discuss.

It was on that very first visit that Jimmy and I discussed mortality. It was the first time anyone had mentioned the subject to me. I had been watching a tortoise dissolve back into dust, so to speak. I had discovered the tortoise already very dead behind a bush in the back yard of the house. I was fascinated by the process of its dissolution as ants carried it away and it shrank into itself. I had not told anyone else because I knew how they would react. The tortoise would evoke shrieks and Mom would remove it.

Given a chance I hauled Jimmy back to look, too. Jimmy was delighted. He proceeded to tell me about observing the same process with a cow on a farm back home. Then, squatting down for a closer look, he told me that the essence of the tortoise, the thing that had make it move and live, was gone. The same happened to all that lived, he told me.

If you only know the character Jimmy portrayed in his three movies you don't know Jimmy, only his undoubted ability to craft a performance. It is your loss, not mine.

But if you make the mistake of believing mythology over reality, about Jimmy or about banking, your brain still needs training wheels.

Protect yourself, your family and America

When your drug-sodden brother starts taking out loans and expects you to pay your remedy is to run a notice in the paper under LEGAL NOTICES. We have all seen them.

The time has come for all of us to do just that. Do it today. Protect yourself and let Congress, and the world, know we are not going to stand for it. Get on record.

LEGAL NOTICES

We, the Undersigned, hereby notice all that we are not responsible for the debts assumed by Congress by bailing out the banks.

(Your name here)

Click through from there to the Iconoclast Page!

A copy of your ad will go to every head of state and millions of others will read it and understand that Americans are fighting back. They will know that we, the people, still have a voice, still speak for America. The Iconoclast is ready. The world will hear us.

About the Iconoclast:

The Iconoclast is the local paper for Crawford, Texas, Bush's home town. In 2004 the editorial issued by the Iconoclast forged the format of the debates because their editorial, endorsing Kerry over Bush, was read by millions. They nailed the real issues, moving that campaign from irrelevancies to substance.

The NeoCon establishment immediately targeted them and nearly destroyed the small paper. We all know the NeoCons do not tolerate media who speak the truth. Those who work at the Iconoclast were physically threatened and harassed; they nearly went under. Their editor, W. Leon Smith persisted. He is a descendant of Erastus Smith, the man who relieved the survivors of the Alamo and first cried, “Remember the Alamo,' during the battle that made Texas a free nation. Smith never gives up. Freedom is in his blood.

Today the Iconoclast is a major source of news and whistle blower stories to the world. Whistle blowers know they can trust the Iconoclast to protect their anonymity; through this small paper the world hears the truth. Protect yourself, speak your mind, and unite Americans.

Go on record now, before the vote.

More here on what people are saying.

NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DEBTS BUT MY OWN

Time for Legal Notice to be served.

When you have someone in your life who has been totally, or even criminally, irresponsible, the usual practice is to write up a small ad and insert it in your paper informing everyone you cannot inform directly that you are not responsible for their debts. It is legally binding. This is your opportunity to let them know you are not having it, for yourself or for your children.

The US government, formally known as the Municipal Corporation of the District of Columbia, has decided to indenture our great-great grandchildren with a debt paid into the coffers of their friends and associates, banks in Europe that have been stealing us blind for generations already. The wrongness of it is so palpable that Congress was inundated with a rage of missives, calls and emails.

The outrage and frustration being felt by nearly all non-comatose Americans is unmeasurable.

The letters being written range from mild to vitriolic. One example said,

“It is unreasonable to vote for the financial services bail out. The alleged crisis has been in an ever accelerated burn for more than a year yet only now do we have an emergency? Please reject nationalizing institutional losses and the continued privatization of profits. I think a better use of our currency would be to provide immediate foreclosure protection and to allow the banks, finance firms and investment bankers, to utterly fail. What are we saving with this bail out anyway? Vote against it.”

Another American, the mother of three, wrote this:

“Dear Congressman XXXXXX

I was watching you do some questioning today regarding the banking MESS. You seem to be very intelligent in your questioning; however, it looks to be an answer of song and dance.

Here is my plan:

Cause of the mess: Banking ripping off homeowners with inflated rates, arms, etc. in addition forced placed insurance policies included in escrows and financed back into loans that ho one is referring to. In addition the taxes all across the country, inflated county taxes, and counties riding off these funds, but escrowed and financed into mortgages. Everything blown up.

Solution Part 1.

Give a boost to the homeowners, have applications sent into a regulatory agency that will use the billions Wall Street is asking for and save all of our homes (with set guidelines), i.e. Months behind in payments, why etc. limits on amounts and negotiate with mortgage firms just like the modification teams that are charging people 3 K or more. Save the people by extending this service to them, thereby the money saved can be well spent in other ways. Then, in this way, the homeowner will use additional funds to boost the banks and business naturally.

Gasoline is killing us all. Small business like mine for example, is dying. I had to layoff everyone in anticipation 1.5 years ago of the high prices. My debt is not being forgiven. Let it go to small business through the S BA and lift regulatory requirements so a business can walk in and apply for a loan. We are struggling to keep our heads above water. You are pushing us under.

The banks have gotten everyone into this mess. CEO's have been raping companies with large salaries, let them fall. Investors knew the risk going into Wall Street. They accepted the risk, let them absorb it now.

The counties will expenditures on silly items, for example 3 men to dig one hole and two to supervise. Fire them. Let them get honest jobs. Stop squandering our money.

Why should I or my children pay taxes to subsidize corporations with no more sense of thrift than kindergärtners?

How much did the CEO of Goldman make before leaving his company? No one is going to forgive my business like that.

Will the government send me a healthy dividend check when these companies start showing a profit again? You know the answer. No one can keep the profit and cancel the debt, not even you.

I hope you and your associates take my comments to heart. I vote, as little as that seems to mean today.”

And another man laid it on the line to Congress. This was served this morning.

“Americans did not create the banking crisis. We should not be asked to bail out the banks. It is not in our interests. We are being asked to bail a strictly private bank, The Federal Reserve. It is not a United States Government Agency. This private corporation owned by its Federal Reserve Members who in turn are owned by private interests has failed its mission.

The Federal Reserve was created to stop banking panics like the one in 1907. The Federal Reserve Chairmen (multiple) have admitted in testimony to the Congress that it was at the controls of the Great Depression. Its actions exacerbated the Great Depression of the 1930s.

At present Americans are being asked not just to bail out our commercial banks and investment banks but we are being asked to bail out the Federal Reserve itself. The Federal Reserve has demonstrated that it is a failed institution. It has not served its intended purpose from outset of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. The Federal Reserve causes the U.S. Treasury Department to issue not United States Currency but Federal Reserve Paper also known as Federal Reserve notes.

Shall the Congress continue to in debt us to a private bank that is failed?

It is not in America’s interests to continuously prop-up, feed, repair and fuel an institution that is self immolating.. It must be allowed to consume itself and the debris removed. The Federal Reserve System collapse can be likened to Chernobyl. It is not repairable and by its nature hazardous to us all.

Thomas Jefferson states it best, "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

We should not be having hearings about a bailout; instead we should be having hearings on how we intend to replace the Federal Reserve with money created and issued by the Government of the United States.”

What will Congress do? Does it matter? They have let us know their intentions. We need to protect ourselves now.

The melt down of the mortgage market was carefully planned and orchestrated as a way to pump trillions out of our hands and into the coffers of central banks. Each step in the process was carefully manufactured. They stole our homes and changed the bankruptcy laws to make our serfdom inevitable.

Their plan has been in motion for a very long time.

1913 - The establishment of the Federal Reserve Bank obligating Americans with a currency that profited only a small clique of private bankers while all Americans paid.

1933 - The bankruptcy of the US government, MCDC, which resulted in each individual American being listed as a source of credit on those bank balance sheets through their birth certificate the moment it was filled out.

2008 – Overt Corporatization, “privatization” of America into the direct, obvious control of those same corporations.

Fractional reserve banking is the ultimate license to steal, allowing those same banks to write money into existence with no obligation to themselves. The obligations have all been ours.

It has always been a fraud, on which there is no statute of limitation. They use Congress in attempts to evade accountability. We can not let them get away with it.

Now is the time to notice them and everyone else. If it was your drug-soddened cousin, your irresponsible ex-spouse, your larcenous former business partner you would notice the world; we are noticing the whole world.

This notice will be sent out across the globe. It will tell everyone that we, those signing below, are not responsible and will not pay. Protect yourself and those you love.

We, the Undersigned, hereby notice all that we are not responsible for any debts but those owed to living persons who are not affiliated with corporations working with or benefiting by the unlawful actions of the Municipal Corporation of the District of Columbia.

Your ad will run in the Iconoclast, the news source for freedom. For $20.00 Go Here

If you want to send them your own personalized message it is $5.00 for ten words, $.20 for each additional word. . Call the Iconoclast to tell the world what you think 254-675-3336

And buy the Tee-Shirt. You want everyone to know.

Armageddon or Freedom. Never have we had more reason for optimism

No one has to tell you that America's economy is melting just like the Wicked Witch of the East. The stock market is slipping south; the currency market is volatile; more Americans every day face eviction; and naturally the government is grabbing food for its own use. Suppliers of food, intended to be used for long term storage, are being confiscated; the contracts signed with buyers, ignored.

To the chagrin of the US Senate laws intended to fight terrorism that provided common data bases for law enforcement at the county, state, and federal levels, are now being applied to all crime. Those data bases are being used as I write. And crime is what the Executive Branch says it is. Scary thought.

Many of those serving in the Senate, not known for their rectitude, are chagrined. Everyone, even those serving in Congress, have limits and the limits have been reached for most of us.

Questions are being raised. Let's consider for a moment what questions really need to be asked. Those questions frame the dialogue that creates world in which we live. This is why there was that almost physical shiver of fear among the power elite when Ron Paul was actively eviscerating that paradigm last year. “We just walked in, we can just come home!” said Paul of our presence in Iraq. Words and acts build the walls of our world; they also tear down one, building another.

The Paul response to our presence in Iraq powered a movement still redefining how we view nearly everything. And slowly the boundaries that kept us is the carefully constructed world where 'just wars' are directed against nations that have resources desired by major corporations, have stopped making sense. Ron Paul makes sense; his words spoke truth. He gave his supporters hope, real hope instead of hype.

Many people no longer think voting makes any difference. The revelations of such people as Bev Harris of Black Box Voting tells us she is right. We grow uneasy at the focus and expense of campaigning that means nothing. People continue to look for people who offer something they can believe in.

Many people are very positive about at least one part of the present Republican ticket. The Palin nomination for Vice President was an attempt to redirect the power of the Ron Paul Revolution to another focus. While her selection was the product of masterly stage managing, it is working.

Palin has not yet proven herself to be just another politician. Therefore people can hope. She is a woman; therefore many are eager to trust. She is a mother; therefore many want to love her.

The question there is whether the politically not so naïve Palin, who has very willingly abandoned positions that proved to be unpopular before, will remain controllable. Palin is already placing herself at the top of the ticket; reflecting that she knows what she brings to the table. Appearing with McCain in Iowa, attendees began walking out 5 minutes into the McCain speech. And the poll associated with my article, “Sarah Palin, Ron Paul and Perception versus Reality” showed indications that support for Palin, increases if she sheds McCain. Knowing she has the traction this may well be more a Palin Presidency than anyone, especially McCain, imagined. The other picks provide no potential surprises. Would anyone care if Biden announced he was a transsexual? Probably not, even if anyone could remember who he is.

The present Wag the Dog Extravaganza, put on to distract and provide desperately needed framing for the same old bunch of political and media subcontractors to the Prime Powers is really irrelevant in the long term but it certainly provides color and insight.

Over and over again, people are looking for answers and hope. They found that in Dr. Paul; they are finding that in Sarah Palin, and they are finding new meaning in old words, understanding that may well bring new hope from a very unexpected direction. As America retreats into third world status Americans are finding new meaning in old words.

What is now unfolding has an amazing similarity to the scenario laid out in Revelations. If you understand the Beast in Revelations not as a living thing but as a human invention many things make sense, strangely enough. The Beast is a creature like no man had ever seen.

Revelations 4

[6] And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.
[7] And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.
[8] And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

What was John seeing? Was it spoiled fish or something yet to come? Among the visions of death and disaster came a warning.

Revelations 7

[3] Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

John of Patmos warned against outrages against the Earth. Very environmentally appropriate and remarkably relevant for today.

Revelations 9

[20] And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
[21] Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

It sounds as if John could have been seeing the impact of corporate greed on the Earth. Today corporations are using the power of money to own the water we drink, control the air we breath, and the food we need to survive. It would explain a lot if the curious amalgamation of corporations, private and corporate, were the many headed Beast. Corporations on the multinational level and the 'governments' that are, in fact, themselves corporations, have blended to the point where you cannot define where one stops and another begins.

Revelations 17

[8] The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

“..and it is not, and yet is?” Sounds like what a corporation would look like to someone used to real people. Corporations are made up entities, existing only through our suspension of disbelief.

Revelations 21

[5] And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

[6] And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

And that sounds like we will come through this to a new world. Hope is a wonderful thing to have now as we experience the final logic of corporate greed in all its forms. Remember that as the meltdown continues.

As our economy melts we watch dollars issued by a private corporation, the Federal Reserve Bank, used to bail out other corporations, for instance AIG, Fanny Mae and their friends. The corporation that is authorizing those bailouts is yet another corporation, the one we think of, incorrectly, as a government. That is the Municipal Corporation of the District of Columbia. In case you did not know its charter was issued from the State of Delaware in 1871. You probably know that the Federal Reserve Bank is a private corporation owned, mostly, by European banks.

I bet you did not know that your town, county, and state are also.....corporations. You can check this out by looking up their Dunn and Bradstreet EIN numbers and then inquiring where their incorporating papers were filed.

Corporations, are not people in the sense St. John knew them, but defined by statute as persons against all reason to avoid accountability. All of these artificial entities are joined at the hip. We see them as Halliburton, Koch Industries, your local county, the State of California, the Federal Government on ad nauseum. But they are all corporations hiding behind a fiction. They pretend to be people; they are not. We are the people.

The world is about to change and Revelations makes it clear who is going to get it in the neck.

September 11th, Ron Paul, Bob Barr and James Dean

Today, September 11^th, is a day to remember the dead, and renew our hope. On this, the 7^th anniversary of the attacks on the Pentagon and the Twin Towers, we have much to consider. Never in our history have we needed more wisdom; never have we so needed hope. Now cast your mind back in time. In those days after 9/11 you should remember that the world reached out to us with compassion. We were poised for peace, not war. No contrast could be greater. Today we understand how we were manipulated.

Today, finally, Americans are coming together, slowly erasing the chasms that have divided us. In so doing we are finding hope that, despite the deterioration in our economy, did not exist 7 years ago. Sometimes what you need to lose is your illusions.

We have moved through shock to confront truths that are unpalatable. We have found wisdom, gaining understanding and appreciation for what we have so nearly lost. What you come close to losing, you truly value.

In September 11^th my daughter should have been in one of those towers. An argument with her fiancé kept her home. Small things change our lives.

Now, so close to losing freedom, we need to see the world clearly and find wisdom.

In 1955 a wise man shared with me his vision of freedom. His words remain with me today. Those words changed me and my life. For a million different reasons today each of us sees ourselves, our nation, and freedom differently having learned it from many wise men and women over time.

While this is true for all, for those who work politically this takes on a special meaning now.

Over the last week events have taken place, refocusing us on what must be done if America is to turn back towards freedom. The two major parties have announced their candidates. John McCain found coat tails, lifting his faltering campaign out of the coffin.

That is politics as it has been.

Political parties are like all other human organizations; tools for our use and convenience. Human organizations are constituted for specific purposes. That may be civil, for business, or worship. They may be political. Any political party, like any organization, must be judged on its usefulness as a tool to enact our will. It matters not if you are a Republican, Democrat or member of a third party or refuse to participate. It matters mightily that you understand that in America the power was to remain always directly in the hands of the people.

Read the Declaration of Independence if you doubt the clarity of that intention. Every American should read it, every child should hear it and understand what it means to them personally.

The two party system has come close to destroying America . It has become the tool of those who steal our power. This week a coming together took place that was to send a profound message to all Americans. That message was muted by discord but still rings true.

Ron Paul held a news conference in Washington DC, calling on Americans to support third party candidates, refusing to endorse John McCain, who had begged him to do so. Paul was joined on the podium for the event by presidential candidates Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party, Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party, and Ralph Nader of the Reform Party. Conspicuously absent was the Libertarian candidate for president, Bob Barr. Those gathered were making the point that the two party system has stifled our choices politically and our freedoms. It was a point that needed making; a coming together that spoke loudly, joining action to rhetoric. Left to Right in American politics is disappearing. More and more every day, we are coming to see that our issues have one solution.

It was a profound moment.

Ron had built found common ground and urged all of us to stand together with one common agenda for peace, privacy, financial sanity, and the end of the Federal Reserve. Not a complete agenda, but a real beginning. Then Bob Barr was heard.

Barr did not attend the Coming Together News Conference. Claiming it conflicted with his own news conference, scheduled to take place just a short later in the same location, Barr thought his was more significant.

Barr has decided to offer Ron Paul the slot of vice-president. Anyone who has been a Libertarian longer than a day knew that Ron was the LP candidate in 1988 and could have had the LP presidential nomination at any time for the asking. Mary Ruwart, the candidate for the nomination this year who nearly defeated Barr, would have stepped aside to give it to him - if he would have taken it - in a heart beat. So why would Ron Paul want to accept a second slot to Barr? Clearly, he would not. His own agenda transcended party affiliation, which is completely in line with the founding vision of those who founded the Libertarian Party and makes a move away from partisan politics entirely.

If you listen they always tell you what they really mean. By announcing the 'offer' Barr proclaimed his desperation. Having promised to raise millions he is left with a rate of fundraising running at $25,000 a week. He has raised in total less than a million dollars. He has only 8,000 donors to the nearly 100,000 now donating to Ron Paul, who is not a candidate. Barr needed a Palin and the original was not available so he made a bid for Ron Paul, who declined.

The body with the power to change candidates is not Barr but the Libertarian National Committee. This fact obviously escaped Barr giving the onlookers another insight into how his mind works.

Libertarians govern their own organization. The LNC decides who will run if a replacement becomes necessary after the nominating convention. They have considered seriously removing candidates before. That might happen again.

Barr's clever strategy fell flat on its face, embarrassingly so. But Barr provides a useful example of a politician who persists in believing that his nomination was in effect an anointing. He has made his living selling the rhetoric of freedom in place of reality for his entire career. But he believes that politicians rule. He probably sees no difference between the words used to control and pacify you and the elemental truths affirmed by the words of Thomas Jefferson. Those likely confuse him.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. “

This latest revelation on what Bob Barr really thinks should therefore give all Libertarians pause, not just to consider why they nominated him in the first place but the deeper issue of why they allowed themselves to buy the lie of words intended only to deceive in place of the real thing.

Through the last more than 200 years, the hunger for freedom has endured despite the persistence of such lies. Over and over again Americans have believed the words, losing the reality of freedom. That same hunger founded the LP in 1971. Moved by the vision of America's founders, the original libertarians were determined to return government to the people.

Everyone makes mistakes and Libertarians are no different. But the mission remains. If the LP has a mission it is to awaken that truth in the minds of Americans. Never accept words in place of the reality of freedom. It is time to remember what freedom means.

Efficiency it is not freedom. Freedom is simpler and more profound; its nature lies in its universal truth, speaking to each of us and through each of us.

When I was very young the wise man I mentioned earlier told me what freedom was to him. We were sitting in the back yard watching butterflies. My little brother had exercised his own freedom by wandering off with his new lasso after our cat, Tiger Lady. Tiger had retreated slowly, keeping an eye on him. We watched. At age three Stephen's aim was not very good. My new lasso was sitting on my lap. Later, I would continue to practice spinning. This very wise man had just finished telling me about the courage and perseverance of Howard Roark the character from the Fountainhead. At age 6 I had yet to hear of Ayn Rand. Looking me right in the eye he said this, “Your freedom is is not one thing. It is everything. Freedom is your life, how you spend it. As you grow it will become all the things you dream, wish and work for. Those things,” he continued, “will be the record you take to God of how you spent the life He gave you. Freedom is God's gift to you.” Freedom is different for each of us, in each case unique. Freedom knows only the limits you accept.

Later this month, on September 30^th, the man who spoke those words to me, James Byron Dean, will have been dead 53 years. He lived his life a free man, as each of us should. Life and freedom, Jimmy knew, comes with no guarantees.

Freedom is personal. Government is the human tool we use to order our lives, reduce conflict, and secure justice. If it works it is a good tool. If it doesn't work we are free to change it.

Today, September 11^th, remember what freedom is for you and renew your determination to be someone who, working peacefully with others, governs yourself.

Next time you see Barr let him know.

Support the Heritage Association and Constitution Your County. And bid on these Ron Paul coins, donated for the purpose by a great guy.

Sarah Palin, Ron Paul and Perception versus Reality

The corporates find the coat tails that McCain desperately needs.

Chuck and Sally Heath are proud of their daughter; they also have a bumper sticker on their truck that reads, “Vegetarian – Old Indian term for Bad Hunter.”

Sarah Palin, their daughter and, if the present nomination stays put, the next Vice President of the United States, was a pick that shocked and thrilled people who have long been indifferent to politics.

Have no doubt, the election results have been decided. The reforms needed to make it otherwise have not taken place. That said, the Palin phenomena is now changing the playing field, introducing new elements into an old game which just days ago, was so tired and obviously scripted that few cared.

Despite the undoubted charisma of Barack Obama, picked to ensure that the Democratic Party loses another bid for the White House, no doubt remains. A clear corporatist with no substantial experience or credentials and many doubts, his pick for VP brought with it no surge of support.

McCain was smarter. Only a vanishingly small number of those people know anything about Palin, but they are experiencing a rush of enthusiasm and, dare we say it? Hope.

Palin is the mother of five children. As the governor of Alaska and before that the mayor of her home town, Wasilla, where in 1984 she won the title of Miss Wasilla, she ran to enact reform each time. Charges she asked for federal assistance should alarm fiscal conservatives, perhaps, but why would Democrats, committed to the federalization of funding, be attacking her on that issue?

Her husband, Todd, reported to be an employee of BP is actually a blue collar worker and half native Alaskan. In one fell swoop, a real minority is a heart beat away from power. Amazing. The family yearly takes advantage of Todd's right to fish for part of the food they eat, something Palin herself loves doing.

In the wake of the announcement several things happened that increased her support. The first of these was the ugly reaction of Democrats generally. Palin was sneered at and vilified for being a hunter and having a bear skin in her gubernatorial office. In fact, Palin was raised in a family that depended on hunting as part of their livelihood, as traditional as apple pie and motherhood. Palin made the point that choosing to kill your own wild game is arguably less cruel that eating animals raised in the agonizing conditions common to feed lots.

Americans love a plucky underdog; this only burnished her appeal.

The attacks on Palin point up the chasm in values and culture that persists between right and left in America today. Palin's 18 year old son has enlisted in the army. Palin bemoans the energy policies that make America dependent on foreign oil. The birth of her most recent child, four months ago, was ogled by the left because the baby was born with Down's Syndrome. The family expressed nothing but joy at the birth. Within just a day Palin was denounced for running with a child so young while at the same time the values of those on the left affirm the right of women to do just that. When Palin announced that her 17 year old daughter is pregnant and will marry her baby's father and take responsibility for her choices many Democrats attacked her for not keeping her daughter from getting pregnant. Those of us who are parents might ask how you do that today. Americans are hungry for parents who do the right thing. Palin gave it to them.

This may well be a campaign that elicits a real dialogue on issues, something that would be good for all of us, an unexpected benefit coming out of a pick by McCain clearly made for reasons that were entirely political. He desperately needs the support of at least some part of the Conservative wing of the Republican Party. With Palin he gets more; he gets coat-tails that may well come with unexpected consequences. Voters who are excited by Palin personally, despite politics will have impact.

Why McCain picked Palin as a running mate illustrates the need to bolster the impression that the Republican Party has not stopped twitching. Their pick has been ratified by a rush of enthusiasm that holds an almost Princess Diana-like vibrancy. That enthusiasm flowed spontaneously at the recent Republican Convention, saving that gathering from a wake-like tenor.

The Rally for the Republican Conference, recently finished in St. Paul for Ron Paul, had more attendance; tens of thousands of Ron Paul supporters camped in and camped out around St. Paul to attend the event, listening to Dr. Paul speak about the need to renew freedom and the rights of individuals as the essential tenet in what he called, “The Freedom Philosophy” in his speech given on September 2^nd. The speech included this quote, “Individual liberty must be our goal. Prosperity and peace will follow. Without liberty, peace and prosperity are unachievable.”

Palin has also expressed liking and support for Ron Paul. Another plus this year.

Insiders whisper that Palin was picked because, among other reasons, she can be expected to fracture the support Ron Paul supporters would otherwise give to Chuck Baldwin, the candidate of the Constitutional Party and Bob Barr, former Congressman, who is now the candidate of the Libertarian Party. This may be well founded. While writing this article three prominent Ron Paul supporters were interviewed on the Palin nomination with interesting results.

Sheriff Richard Mack, the man who first filed against the Brady Bill in the early 90s affirmed his delight and support for Palin, saying she is, 'one great lady.” Mack was an early endorser of Ron Paul.

Connie Ruffley, the co-chairman of United Republicans of California and a Ron Paul supporter as well, was more moderate, expressing concern over some of the positions held by Palin, especially on her support of the War in Iraq.

But the most interesting response came from California's Mr. Conservative, former State Senator Don Rogers who said that if Palin was at the top of the ticket he would vote for her over all other candidates, even if she insisted on keeping McCain in the second slot. Rogers went on to point out the dangers McCain, who he characterizes as a RHINO, Republican In Name Only, corporatist who is, according to him, “A gun grabber who wants to give amnesty to illegal aliens.” Rogers then outlined the McCain history of having just last year partnered with Ted Kennedy on a bill that would have given amnesty to 20 million illegal aliens in our country. Further, Rogers continued, McCain would try to close gun shows, stop the private sale of guns, expand the Patriot Act, take away more of our freedoms, continue the destruction of the Constitution, and put the Security and Prosperity Partnership on fast forward. That plan, still in stealth mode in most parts of the country, would chop America in half, with a two football field wide corridor for global trade running through Texas to the Canadian border. That system is already in motion; something that surprises Americans who do not live in the area. Using her to trick conservatives to accept him and his one world government candidacy was nasty, but what can you expect?

The present presidential campaign is now decided. What remains in question is what if, as suggested by Senator Rogers, Palin was at the top of the GOP ticket. This goes along with other fantasies, for instance what if we had an honest election, but it makes the point.

Now let's find out.

If you like Palin and would support her for president let us know. If you loath McCain and would vote for Palin for President only if she dumps him, let us know that, too. I am sure McCain will be delighted to know. You can vote in this poll (which is honest) or you can actually send her a flower, which indicates even more enthusiasm. Then tell us why. In any case, check here next week and we will let you know what happened.

Americans, the Common Law, and Freedom – What you need to know.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —“

When you read the preamble to the Declaration of Independence remember what the world looked like to the men who wrote it. Then look at our world through their eyes; understanding their world and the institutions they used routinely brings understanding of what has gone so wrong with our world today.

Their world was the same and different. The agreement to go to war came after a long process of discourse over the issues, not by leaders, but by ordinary people. The Committees of Correspondence drove a dialogue on why the people should govern themselves, enacting formally what they had been doing for two centuries. They were a people who expected to cooperate, looking across into each other's eyes, never up to anyone in government.

Over that time they had built a vibrant and robust society that was stretching out in all directions. The people governed themselves, using of a system of organizing tools, proven over time. Those tools were town government operating with transparency, ensuring that real control remained directly in the hands of the people. For justice, they used the Common Law, brought with them from England.

Control of the functions of government through the town ensured that government would never eat up the seed corn. Direct scrutiny by the people on what was spent, the authority always with them to approve or deny, kept government small and honest. Delving back in time you see these people assumed that no one went into government to make money or secure their retirement because the pay was terrible and there were no benefits. Those serving in government were assumed to have enough money to be able to donate their time. That model still persists in some parts of New England. The same principles were in use for the justice system through the Common Law Courts. Judges performed a service to the community, drawing from their own time to do so.

In use by the people for centuries, the common law was not something apart from the people but like the air they breathed. School children saw it operating and were prepared to use it themselves when they became adults. Going to court was serious, a process treated with respect, but instead of dividing them they entered into that process knowing that, ultimately, there would be justice. Contrast that to how the system of courts looks to us today.

The Common Law is a system for justice that is handled directly by the people. That is the system our Founders assumed would continue; it was one of those tools, used sparingly, that allowed a free people to govern themselves directly. Town government, with its absolute transparency and resulting low costs, along with the Common Law, were the foundation for freedom that the Founders assumed would continue.

Elections handled directly by the people; the votes totaled openly and transparently.

Spending by government overseen directly by the people.

Common law courts that possessed the right to judge both the facts and the law.

The system worked. It remains the system intended by our Founders. It can still work today.

How do we become, again, a people who govern themselves? That we can do so is inherent in our mission statement. The Declaration of Independence says,

“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

The first Amendment of the Bill of Rights owes its existence to a common law case heard in New York in 1735. In 1735 the Royal Governor of New York attempted to suborn the right of jury to decide fact and law. It had begun with the publication of the New-York Weekly Journal in 1633 with Zenger as the editor. The paper began because Crosby, the Royal Governor, was corrupt and the people needed the truth. Zenger was arrested and incarcerated for telling the truth on November 17, 1734. The bail set made his release impossible.

The Zenger Case was heard on August 4^th of that year saw a jury of twelve men render the verdict of not guilty, thus overthrowing the law and setting a course that lead to the principle that the truth is its own defense. It was this case that remained in the minds of our Founders when they wrote the Bill of Rights, addendum to the Constitution, which was intended to limit government, never us.

The verdict of Not Guilty affirmed the right of anyone to break a law that violated the conscience of the community and the right of an individual to speak the truth.

The Zenger Case is with you any time you serve on a jury.

The Common Law is the muscle behind our rights.

Many today think of the Common Law as antiquated and impractical; nothing could be further from the truth. The disused understanding of these tools are waiting for us to pick up. They are easy to use and bring with them amazing benefits, also forgotten, that created the American people as different from any nation on the face of the Earth.

When you are empaneled as a juror on a Common Law Court you already understand that this is a grave responsibility. You take up the charge to become, with those others serving, the conscience of your community. You leave behind you any prejudices. Those who serve understand they must see the matter at hand dispassionately, demand the facts, scrutinize the evidence, see beyond evasion to the root of the issues. Then, the juror must reflect on each other point, listening as if the life of their community depended on it.

America itself owes its existence, in part, to another case where the jury refused to violate the conscience of the community and the right of the individual. That jury heard its case in England in 1670. King Charles II demanded the prosecution of William Penn for the crime of preaching his Quaker faith. The jury foreman, Edward Bushel, along with the rest of the jury, found the law unjust, in violation of the people's right to worship. The case was heard at the Old-Bailey from the 1^st to the and 5^th of Sept.

Afterwards, the jury was incarcerated for returning a verdict that outraged the judge. He directed that the jury reconsider their verdict. They retired and returned with the same verdict, Not Guilty. The judge then confined the jury in Newgate Prison to remain without food or water until the desired verdict was rendered. They continued to hold that William Penn was not guilty. Eventually they were fined and released.

William Penn, then 26 immigrated to Pennsylvania. The lesson of the right of the jury to decide is the birth right of all Americans and the midwife of our freedom.

The Common Law and its principles remain in use, though those now in power try to disguise their existence. A pivotal example of the same kind of courage shown in the Zenger and Penn cases took place in the township of Credit River, Minnesota on 12^th December 1968. The issue was the fraud being perpetrated by banks across the world. It is known as the Credit River Case.

Jerome Daly faced eviction from his home. Daly had sued the bank, his house in foreclosure; while reviewing the papers and practices he had noticed that the mortgage was issued with no legal consideration. The verdict rendered hinged on the admission by the president of the First National Bank of Montgomary that there was no legal consideration with the loan written for Jerome Daly's mortgage. The bank president testified, ‘this was standard banking practice exercised by their bank in combination with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, another private bank, further that he knew of no United States Statute or law that gave the plaintiff the authority to do this.”

Daly kept his home. Two weeks later the judge in the case, Mahoney, was murdered. No one ever said that freedom and justice would come without costs.

Courts that follow the common law accept the tenet that the jury decides on all issues, both fact and law; they can demand more information. Nothing is hidden from them. The judge is only there to be called on by the jury. They must understand that the rights of individuals trump statute, and, most importantly, they are acting as the incarnation of the conscience of the community.

Arguably, the most important check and balance to power in government is the power of the informed jury to decide on the issues of both of law and fact. Today, we as Americans face the need to restore to use the tools that connect us to our own power, granted not by government, but by God.

Start with your local county, establish your own Heritage Association on the common law and the Constitution.

Let your local law enforcement know what their obligations are under the Constitution.

Celebrate Jury Rights Day, September 5^th . Get to know the Fully Informed Jury Association.

A free people will govern themselves; a people who will be free do it themselves.