The Man He Killed

It is difficult to struggle against Babylon. It is especially difficult to not participate in her wars. The following video is an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's anti-war poem "The Man He Killed." It is a fitting introduction to part 4 of Pam Dewey's series on Big Brother. Those who did not want to fight in the especially useless war WWI were rounded up with no regard for law. Big Brother, or Babylon as the Bible calls it, is not a modern phenomenon. It goes back millennia. 



Here is the full poem if you want to contemplate it more, it deserves contemplation. 

The Man He Killed
Thomas Hardy
Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn,
We should have set us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!
But ranged as infantry,
And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
And killed him in his place.
I shot him dead because—
Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
That's clear enough; although
He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,
Off-hand like—just as I—
Was out of work—had sold his traps—
No other reason why.
Yes; quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow down
You'd treat, if met where any bar is,
Or help to half a crown.

On The Audio

No, not on the radio, but on the audio. The final entry in my pre-review of David Stockman's new book the Great Deformation is an audio interview with Chris Martenson. Since Martenson mostly agrees with Stockman, this allows a full discussion of the issues addressed in the book. I hope to have the book and my review finished by next Wednesday, wish me luck as I still have many pages left!

Sex Crimes

One of my favorite groups was the Eurythmics. I especially like their videos. Back when they were popular I did not notice the various messages of many of their songs. Back then I did not watch many videos. In the videos it is more obvious, and the political content of their second tier songs was why they were not played much on the radio. Here is one video which uses clips from the movie 1984. (Yes, this is a reminder that the fabulous editor of the prophecy podcast is doing a series on her blog about 1984. Pam Dewey is on part 3. Here is a link to part 1 if you have not started the series yet.)

Where Is My Charmin?

There is an inevitable cost to government control of industry. From Associated Press: 

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — First milk, butter, coffee and cornmeal ran short. Now Venezuela is running out of the most basic of necessities — toilet paper.

Blaming political opponents for the shortfall, as it does for other shortages, the embattled socialist government says it will import 50 million rolls to boost supplies.

Blaming others for your own mistakes sounds vaguely familiar somehow. Why are there shortages? The AP article explains. 

Economists say Venezuela’s shortages stem from price controls meant to make basic goods available to the poorest parts of society and the government’s controls on foreign currency.

“State-controlled prices — prices that are set below market-clearing price — always result in shortages. The shortage problem will only get worse, as it did over the years in the Soviet Union,” said Steve Hanke, professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University.

President Nicolas Maduro, who was selected by the dying Hugo Chavez to carry on his “Bolivarian revolution,” claims that anti-government forces, including the private sector, are causing the shortages in an effort to destabilize the country.

This, of course, could not happen here! I have two blasts from my blogging past on this. Click here for “The Great Toilet Paper Shortage,” and click here for “The Great Toilet Shortage.” Both took place around the time of US price controls.  As the economist mentioned in the AP article, if a product's price is kept artificially low by government, a producer has to stop making it. They have no choice. The "president" of Venezuela's inability to understand this does not bode well for that country. 

In fact the crisis in health care in the US will probably lead to price controls, which always leads to shortages. This is one reason why I have been blogging about health recently. Get in the best health you can, while you can, as the crisis I am expecting may lead in unexpected directions and that might include rationing of health care. It is good to have a spare tire when you drive, it is not good to have a "spare tire" all the time. 

Fish Heads

The most demented song ever.