Category Archives: Tyranny

The Rape Of American Democracy

So Mitt Romney is the Republican Candidate for President.
In my veiw He’s a Wolf in sheeps clothing… Dangerous and dishonest!

Many Republicans are talking up a storm, speak in Rapturous terms about How Morally Upstanding the Romney’s are, and about how Money savvy he is… how he’s gona get Americans jobs (where have we herd that line before??? Oh Yeah He stole that one from Obama!)
Yet from where I sit, these people must be deranged!
The reason I say this is because Romney did not win the Right to represent the Republican Party against Obama… He rigged it, and Robbed America of the Oppotunity of Choosing The Libertarian minded Ron Paul for President!

The scale of this deceit… the implications this fraud has regarding the well being of America and the global economy is Gargantuan!
And Yet Romney supporters have the audacity to call Ron Paul supporters vile names because after the betrayal of their Hero, some of them now think it would be better to vote for Obama!
The Romney supporter may be identified as a Rightwing socialist… someone who hated what Ron Paul represented… His Libertarian views in respect to Drugs, His Anti- military interventionalism, etc.
Even though personally I believe there has been a dire need for interventions, and that many other nations could use military support, Ron Paul’s argument that America simply cannot afford to be the Police force of the world is 100% true and irrefutable.
Yet his truthfulness has not endeared him to the Right.
They would’nt even allow Ron Paul to speak at the convention unless he endorsed Mitt Romney!
They changed the rules so that they could disqualify him!

And so they are Happy that they got Ron Paul out of the way.
It doesn’t matter by what means.
They don’t even want to think about it.
They hope their Rape of American Democracy goes unreported… or at least is quickly forgotten.
So Today they are busy waving their Romney Flags, and trying to get everyone to focus on what an evil lying bastard Obama is… how hopeless he is…
Yet I want to remind people of the sort of people The Romney’s are, and the sort of Party whom he fronts.

If the Romney camp had not defrauded the vote tallys leading up to Tampa.
If the Republican party had not already endorsed Romney before the delegate vote
And instead give Ron Paul Equal Air time etc…
Had Romney been Man enough to face off against Ron Paul in a fair and square showdown at Tampa and defeat him… Then You could call Romney the rightful and worthy candidate to face off against Obama… and Ron Paul supporters would probably have thrown their vote in with Romney too.
Yet because The Romney camp chose the Low Road at every opportunity… and defrauded and cheated… No Moral man can support Him! He is a scoundrel, backed up by a band of Scoundrels! He has No Legitimacy. He is a fraud. He defrauded the American People! He robbed Democracy! He’s a Devil. I guarantee you the only reason he chose Paul Ryan for his running mate was to capture the tea party vote. Ie It was a clever political move because many Tea partiers would prefer Ron Paul over Romney any day of the week! So by getting Ryan on his team he took some of the wind out of Ron Paul’s sails for himself. So I predict that once he gets elected he will marginalize Paul Ryan, and not implement Tea party policy at all. He will feign ‘emergency’ and expedience to continue expanding Socialist interventions/ bail outs… protectionism… subsidies …etc, raise taxes, and increase debts.
He wants to maintain the status quo… increase his wealth, and loves Power more than justice… more than freedom… We can know this because of the shameful way he achieved the Republican Nomination … Its as simple and as clear as that.

RON PAUL WON!
As a Shunned and reviled Kiwi Christian Libertarian whom has stood unsuccessfully for election many times I have had first hand experience, both of being marginalized by my Party because of my ‘unorthodox beliefs’, and having been Blacked out by the Media.
Thus watching Ron Paul’s campaign has been more personal to me than to many of my fellow Kiwis, because I have watched this good man suffer the very same evils.
I wrote a glowing article about the virtues of America’s democracy when Obama was elected, yet sadly today I must say that in many ways it is as Undemocratic as our own Mickey mouse electoral system here in New Zealand.

I believe America is doomed to economic collapse.
I think all the talk by economists that the worst of the global recession is over to be absolutely ridiculous!
I believe the real recession/ depression has only just begun!
The one Man whose policies were radical enough to stop the slide into the abyss has been betrayed and eliminated.
The Collapse is now virtually a certainty.

Satan Laughing Spreads his Wings.

If I was an American voter, I would give my Vote to the Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson

Tim Wikiriwhi
Christian Libertarian.

End Waitangi Apartheid! Reject Racist Constitution! Sign Petition!

Muriel Newman has a valuable petition running designed to thwart the Ambitions of the Racists whom have hijacked the Discussion Regarding a New Constitution for New Zealand.

The Objectives of the petition:
We, New Zealanders, having founded our society in the equality of comradeship, and living here at home in the land we have made, utterly oppose any laws which establish or promote racial distinction or division.

There shall be one law for all:

The Declaration…

We refuse to accept any reference to the Treaty of Waitangi or its principles in any constitutional document.
We require that such references be removed from all existing legislation.
We require that race-based Parliamentary seats be abolished.
We require that race-based representation on local bodies be abolished.
We require that the Waitangi Tribunal, which has outlived any usefulness it may have had, be abolished.
And we pledge ourselves to oppose and resist all those of whatever rank or degree who, whether by force or the devious processes of the law, attempt to impose the fetters of racial inequality on the free citizens of New Zealand.

Please Sign this petition Here!

Please join John Ansells TreatyGate here:

Please Like the Treatygate Facebook page Here.

Please Like the Constitutional review Facbook page here.

Please join the One NZ Foundation Here:

The Great Waitangi Swindle…

Free Billy McKee!

Free Billy McKee

Billy McKee is in the Palmerston North District Court today.

Outside, supporters are holding a peaceful protest and an all-night vigil.

PEACEFUL PROTEST AND ALL NIGHT VIGIL.

We are traveling from around the country to support the court case of GreenCross director Billy McKee, who is a medical cannabis user and amputee.

Supporters from Invercargill to Auckland will be converging in Palmerston North on September 3, outside the court to stage a peaceful protest and all night vigil to support Mckee.

Billy lost a leg below the knee when a drunk driver deliberately rammed his motorbike over 30 years ago. The incident resulted in him being confined to a wheelchair and in constant pain from nerve damage to the stump as well as suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.

The pain medications he was prescribed by doctors caused intolerable side effects where even driving was considered unsafe. He found that the only thing that controlled his pain, depression, irritability and other symptoms, while still allowing him to function, was cannabis.

This led him to study the medical benefits of cannabis, become a counsellor and form GreenCross, an organisation devoted to helping sick people obtain relief through the medicinal use of cannabis.

McKee now faces jail time for running GreenCross and helping sick patients obtain their medicine.

He was entrapped by an undercover police officer posing as someone suffering from severe migraines. McKee said that migraines can indicate in the early stages of brain tumors and many people have found that cannabis relieves the symptoms of migraines and allows them to function normally.

McKee accepted the young man as being a genuine sufferer. The undercover cop appealed to his compassion in asking Billy to supply him with cannabis. Billy says, “I was really worried about him.”

As a result of trying to help someone, Billy is now facing charges that could see him sent to prison for up to eight years. Prison terms have also been imposed on other medical cannabis users due to a law that lacks compassion.

McKee, who is going to a jury trial, is calling for jury nullification of the charges of the grounds they breach his human rights.

Even if he has broken the law, the Jury has the moral authority to return a not-guilty verdict, sending a message to politicians that medical cannabis users should not be targeted for arrest.

I’m sorry I couldn’t be there. I know you’ll stand tall, Billy. I hope and pray that you walk free.

You have not done those things you thought you had, Dunne

A few weeks ago, the Associate Minister of Health issued a press release.

Dunne: drug law reversing onus of proof on way

Cabinet has agreed key details of new psychoactive substances drug legislation that will require distributors and producers of party pills and other legal highs to prove they are safe before they can sell them, Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne announced today.

“As promised, we are reversing the onus of proof. If they cannot prove that a product is safe, then it is not going anywhere near the marketplace,” Mr Dunne said.

“The legislation will be introduced to Parliament later this year and be in force by around the middle of next year.

‘In the meantime, the Temporary Class Drug Notices – the holding measure we have successfully put in place – will be rolled over as required so there is no window of opportunity for any banned substances to come back on the market before the permanent law comes in,” he said.

“The new law means the game of ‘catch up’ with the legal highs industry will be over once and for all.

“I have been driving this for a considerable time. …

The proposed legislation has been hailed as “revolutionary” and a “world first” in certain quarters.

‘Revolutionary’ legal high law means state regulated drug market

Kronic-style drugs are expected back on the shelves under the new legal high law being crafted by Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne.

Experts say the law will create one of the world’s first open and regulated recreational drug markets with synthetic cannabis making a return.

The first legal highs will be offered for sale in 2014, based on estimates in papers released by health officials.

Some even tout it as “a back-door way for prohibition to end,” ejaculating “The war on drugs ends here!” Even Peter Dunne says as much.

His office acknowledged it would create a legal drug market.

“That is the absolute intention behind this regime. The problem in the past has been that we had a totally unregulated market with who knows what substances in these products.

“I am quite unapologetic about leading changes that will make things safer for young New Zealanders.”

So Peter Dunne, the arch-Prohibitionist, is going to legalise drugs? If you’re thinking, “Yeah right,” you’re right. Something’s not quite right here. Can you smell a baboon’s backside?

I’m going to take a closer look at what Dunne’s up to soon. In this post, though, I’m going to take a look at Dunne’s track record over the past year or so.

A baboon's backside

Since August last year, Peter Dunne has banned 26 synthetic cannabinoids by issuing Temporary Class Drug Notices. These are published in the New Zealand Gazette, “the official newspaper of the Government of New Zealand.” Here’s an example.

Pursuant to section 4C of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, I give notice that the following substances are classified as temporary class drugs:
CB-13
1-naphthalen-1-yl-(4-pentyloxynaphthalen-1-yl)methanone
MAM-2201
(1-(5-fluoropentyl)-1H-indol-3-yl)(4-methyl-1-naphthalenyl)-methanone
AKB48
N-(1-adamantyl)-1-pentyl-1H-indazole-3-carboxamide
XLR11
(1-(5-fluoropentyl)-1H-indol-3-yl)(2,2,3,3-tetramethylcyclopropyl)methanone
This notice will take effect on 13 July 2012 and will expire on 13 July 2013, unless cancelled or renewed as specified in section 4E of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975.
Dated at Wellington this 2nd day of July 2012.
HON PETER DUNNE, Associate Minister of Health.

The legislation enabling the issuance of Temporary Class Drug Notices was the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Act (No 2) 2011, which became law on 9 August 2011. Let’s take a look at what it says.

4C Temporary class drug notice
(1) The Minister may, by notice in the Gazette, specify any substance, preparation, mixture, or article as a temporary class drug.
(2) The Minister must not give notice under subsection (1) if the substance, preparation, mixture, or article is a Class A controlled drug, a Class B controlled drug, a Class C controlled drug, a precursor substance, or a restricted substance (as defined in section 31 of the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Act 2005).
(3) The Minister must not give notice under subsection (1) unless he or she is satisfied that the substance, preparation, mixture, or article that is to be specified in the notice poses, or may pose, a risk of harm to individuals, or to society.
(4) A notice under subsection (1) may describe the substance, preparation, mixture, or article by any 1 or more of the following:
(a) its chemical name, or 1 of its chemical names:
(b) its product name:
(c) a description of the substance, preparation, mixture, or article, in the form that the Minister considers appropriate for the purposes of the notice.
(5) A notice under subsection (1) must state the date on which the notice comes into force.
(6) The date specified under subsection (5) must not be earlier than 7 days after the date of the publication of the notice in the Gazette.

Oops! … Section 4C of the MODA says that the Minister may specify a substance as a temporary class drug. Not the Associate Minister. Just to make sure, let’s take a look at Section 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975.

Minister means the Minister of Health

So there you have it. Peter Dunne is NOT the Minister of Health, he’s the Associate Minister of Health. Section 4C does NOT authorise Peter Dunne to ban synthetic cannabinoids! Tony Ryall is the Minister of Health, and he’s banned ONLY one synthetic cannabinoid, viz. AM-2233.

ALL the other synthetic cannabinoids listed here are still legal!

EPIC FAIL!

Peter Dunne

[Cross-posted to SOLO.]

What have you been smoking?

This is a list of synthetic cannabinoids banned by Peter Dunne. (Temporary Class Drug Notices.)

Banned as from 16 August 2011

JWH-018 1-pentyl-3-(1-naphthoyl)indole or naphthalen-1-yl-(1-pentylindol-3-yl)methanone
JWH-022 1-[(4-pent-ene)-1H-indol-3-yl]-(naphthalen-1-yl)methanone
JWH-073 1-butyl-3-(1-naphthoyl)indole or naphthalen-1-yl-(1-butylindol-3-yl)methanone)
JWH-081 1-pentyl-3-[1-(4-methoxynaphthoyl)]indole or 4-methoxynaphthalen-1-yl-(1-pentylindol-3-yl)methanone
JWH-122 1-pentyl-3-(4-methyl-1-naphthoyl)indole or 4-methylnaphthalen-1-yl-(1-pentylindol-3-yl)methanone
JWH-201 1-pentyl-3-(4-methoxyphenylacetyl)indole or 2-(4-methoxyphenyl)-1-(1-pentyl-1H-indol-3-yl)ethanone
JWH-203 1-pentyl-3-(2-chlorophenylacetyl)indole or 2-(2-chlorophenyl)-1-(1-pentylindol-3-yl)ethanone
JWH-210 1-pentyl-3-[1-(4-ethylnaphthoyl)]indole or 4-ethylnaphthalen-1-yl-(1-pentylindol-3-yl)methanone
JWH-250 1-pentyl-3-(2-methoxyphenylacetyl)indole or 2-(2-methoxyphenyl)-1-(1-pentylindol-3-yl)ethanone
JWH-302 1-pentyl-3-(3-methoxyphenylacetyl)indole or 2-(3-methoxyphenyl)-1-(1-pentylindol-3-yl)ethanone
AM-694 1-(5-fluoropentyl)-3-(2-iodobenzoyl)indole or 1-[(5-fluoropentyl)-1H-indol-3-yl]-(2-iodophenyl)methanone
AM-2201 1-(5-fluoropentyl)-3-(naphthalen-1-oyl)indole or 1-[(5-fluoropentyl)-1H-indol-3-yl]-(naphthalen-1-yl)methanone
RCS-4 1-pentyl-3-(4-methoxybenzoyl)indole or 2-(4-methoxyphenyl)-1-(1-pentyl-indol-3-yl)methanone
* 1-butyl-3-(4-methoxybenzoyl)indole or 2-(4-methoxyphenyl)-1-(1-butyl-indol-3-yl)methanone
* 1-pentyl-3-(2-methoxybenzoyl)indole or 2-(2-methoxyphenyl)-1-(1-pentyl-indol-3-yl)methanone
* 1-butyl-3-(2-methoxybenzoyl)indole or 2-(2-methoxyphenyl)-1-(1-butyl-indol-3-yl)methanone

Banned as from 14 October 2011

JWH-019 1-hexyl-3-(1-naphthalen-1-oyl)indole
JWH-200 (1-(2-(morpholin-4-yl)ethyl)indol-3-yl)-naphthalen-1-ylmethanone
AM-1220 (1-((1-methylpiperidin-2-yl)methyl)-1H-indol-3-yl)(naphathen-1-yl)methanone

Banned (by Tony Ryall) as from 29 December 2011

AM-2233 1-[(N-methylpiperidin-2-yl)methyl]-3-(2-iodobenzoyl)indole

Banned as from 6 April 2012

AM-1248 1-[(N-methylpiperidin-2-yl)methyl]-3-(adamant-1-oyl)indole
AM-2232 5-(3-(1-naphthoyl)-1H-indol-1-yl)pentanenitrile
UR-144 (1-pentylindol-3-yl)-(2,2,3,3-tetramethylcyclopropyl)methanone

Banned as from 13 July 2012

CB-13 1-naphthalen-1-yl-(4-pentyloxynaphthalen-1-yl)methanone
MAM-2201 (1-(5-fluoropentyl)-1H-indol-3-yl)(4-methyl-1-naphthalenyl)-methanone
AKB48 N-(1-adamantyl)-1-pentyl-1H-indazole-3-carboxamide
XLR11 (1-(5-fluoropentyl)-1H-indol-3-yl)(2,2,3,3-tetramethylcyclopropyl)methanone

What next for NASA?

A manned Mars mission? A lunar base? Asteroid mining?

Nope.

NASA Chief: Next Frontier Better Relations With Muslim World

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his “foremost” mission as the head of America’s space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world.

Though international diplomacy would seem well outside NASA’s orbit, Bolden said in an interview with Al Jazeera that strengthening those ties was among the top tasks President Obama assigned him. He said better interaction with the Muslim world would ultimately advance space travel.

“When I became the NASA administrator — or before I became the NASA administrator — he charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science … and math and engineering,” Bolden said in the interview.

As Bosch Fawstin says, “No, this is not a story from The Onion.” And, no, it’s not April Fools Day, either.

The end isn’t nigh. It’s been and gone. (This actually happened in July 2010.)

[Hat tip: Joe Maurone]

Free Pussy Riot!

I once had some free, unsolicited and well-intentioned advice for the Prime Minister published in the Timaru Herald. My advice was to fuck off.

Thank God, eventually she did.

Thank God, too, that I live in New Zealand, not Russia.

Essentially, it is not three singers from Pussy Riot who are on trial here. If that were the case, what’s happening would be totally insignificant. It is the entire state system of the Russian Federation which is on trial and which, unfortunately for itself, thoroughly enjoys quoting its cruelty towards human beings, its indifference to their honour and dignity, the very worst that has happened in Russian history to date. To my deepest regret, this mock trial is close to the standards of the Stalinist troikas. Thus, we have our investigator, lawyer and judge. And then, what’s more, what all three of them do and say and decide is determined by a political demand for repression. Who is to blame for the performance at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and for our being put on trial after the concert? The authoritarian political system is to blame. What Pussy Riot does is oppositional art or politics that draws upon the forms art has established. In any event, it is a form of civil action in circumstances where basic human rights, civil and political freedoms are suppressed by the corporate state system.

Many people, relentlessly and methodically flayed alive by the destruction of liberties since the turn of the century, have rebelled.

We were looking for authentic genuineness and simplicity and we found them in our punk performances. Passion, openness and naivety are superior to hypocrisy, cunning and a contrived decency that conceals crimes. The state’s leaders stand with saintly expressions in church, but their sins are far greater than ours. We’ve put on our political punk concerts because the Russian state system is dominated by rigidity, closedness and caste. Аnd the policies pursued serve only narrow corporate interests to the extent that even the air of Russia makes us ill.

We are absolutely not happy with—and have been forced into living politically—by the use of coercive, strong-arm measures to handle social processes, a situation in which the most important political institutions are the disciplinary structures of the state – the security agencies, the army, the police, the special forces and the accompanying means of ensuring political stability: prisons, preventive detention and mechanisms to closely control public behaviour. Nor are we happy with the enforced civic passivity of the bulk of the population or the complete domination of executive structures over the legislature and judiciary. Moreover, we are genuinely angered by the fear-based and scandalously low standard of political culture, which is constantly and knowingly maintained by the state system and its accomplices. Look at what Patriarch Kirill has to say: “The Orthodox don’t go to rallies.” We are angered by the appalling weakness of horizontal relationships within society. We don’t like the way in which the state system easily manipulates public opinion through its tight control of the overwhelming majority of media outlets. A perfect example is the unprecedentedly shameless campaign against Pussy Riot, based on distorting facts and words, which has appeared in nearly all the Russian media, apart from the few independent media there are in this political system.

Even so, I can now state—despite the fact that we currently have an authoritarian political situation—that I am seeing this political system collapse to a certain extent when it comes to the three members of Pussy Riot, because what the system was counting on, unfortunately for that system, has not come to pass. Russia as a whole does not condemn us. Every day more and more people believe us and believe in us, and think we should be free rather than behind bars. I can see this from the people I meet. I meet people who represent the system, who work for the relevant agencies. I see people who are in prison. And every day there are more and more people who support us, who hope for our success and especially for our release, who say our political act was justified. People tell us, “To start with, we weren’t sure you could have done this,” but every day there are more and more people who say, “Time is proving to us that your political gesture was correct. You have exposed the cancer in this political system and dealt a blow to a nest of vipers, which then turned on you.” These people are trying to make life easier for us in whatever way they can and we are very grateful to them for that …

We are grateful to all those who, free themselves, speak out in our support. There are a vast number, I know. I know that a huge number of Orthodox people are standing up for us. They are praying for us outside the courtroom, for the members of Pussy Riot who are incarcerated. We’ve seen the little booklets Orthodox people are handing out with prayers for those in prison. This shows that there isn’t a unified social group of Orthodox believers as the prosecution is endeavouring to say. No such thing exists. More and more believers are starting to defend Pussy Riot. They don’t think what we did deserves even five months in detention, much less the three years in prison the prosecutor would like. And every day, more and more people realize that if this political system has ganged up to this extent against three girls for a 30-second performance in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, it means the system is afraid of the truth and afraid of our sincerity and directness. We haven’t dissembled, not for a second, not for a minute during this trial, but the other side is dissembling too much and people can sense it. People can sense the truth. Truth really does have some kind of ontological, existential superiority over lies and this is written in the Bible, in the Old Testament in particular. In the end, the ways of truth always triumph over the ways of wickedness, guile and lies. And with each day that passes, the ways of truth are more and more triumphant even though we are still behind bars and are likely to be here a lot longer yet.

Madonna performed yesterday (7 August). She appeared with Pussy Riot written on her back. More and more people can see that we are being held here unlawfully and on a completely false charge – I’m overwhelmed by this. I am overwhelmed that truth really does triumph over lies even though physically we are here in a cage. We are freer than the people sitting opposite us for the prosecution because we can say everything we like, and we do, but those people sitting there say only what political censorship allows them to say. They can’t speak words like “punk prayer” or “Virgin Mary, Banish Putin!” They can’t say the lines from our punk prayer that have to do with the political system. Perhaps they think it wouldn’t be a bad thing to send us to jail because we are rising up against Putin and his system as well but they can’t say so because that’s not allowed either. Their mouths are sewn shut. Unfortunately, they are mere puppets. I hope they realize this and also take the road to freedom, truth and sincerity because these are superior to stasis, contrived decency and hypocrisy. Stasis and the search for truth are always in opposition to one another and, in this case, at this trial, we can see people who are trying to find the truth and people who are trying to enslave those who want to find the truth.

Humans are beings who always make mistakes. They are not perfect. They strive for wisdom but never actually have it. That’s precisely why philosophy came into being, precisely because philosophers are people who love wisdom and strive for it, but never actually possess it and it is what makes them act and think and, ultimately, to live the way they do. This is what made us go into the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, and I think that Christianity, as I’ve understood it from studying the Old and New Testaments, supports the search for truth and a constant overcoming of the self, overcoming what you used to be. Christ didn’t associate with prostitutes for nothing. He said, ‘I help those who have gone astray and forgive them’ but for some reason I can’t see any of that at our trial, which is taking place under the banner of Christianity. I think the prosecutor is defying Christianity. The lawyer wants nothing to do with the injured parties. Here’s how I understand this: Two days ago, Lawyer Taratukhin made a speech in which he wanted everyone to understand that he had no sympathy with the people he is representing. This means he’s not ethically comfortable representing people who want to send the three members of Pussy Riot to jail. Why they want to do this, I don’t know. Perhaps it is their right. The lawyer was embarrassed, the shouts of “Shame! Executioners!” had got to him, which goes to show that truth and goodness always triumph over lies and evil.

I think some higher powers are guiding the speeches of the lawyers for the other side when, time after time, they make mistakes in what they say and call us the “injured parties”. Almost all the lawyers are doing it, including Lawyer Pavlova who is very negatively disposed towards us. Nevertheless, some higher powers are causing her to say “the injured parties” about us rather than the people she’s defending, us. I wouldn’t give people labels. I don’t think there are winners or losers here, injured parties or accused. We just need to make contact, to establish a dialogue and a joint search for truth, to seek wisdom together, to be philosophers together, rather than stigmatizing and labelling people. This is one of the worst things people can do and Christ condemned it.

We have been subjected to abuse during this trial. Who would have thought that a person and the state system he controls would be repeatedly capable of entirely wanton evil? Who would have thought that history and Stalin’s Great Terror, in particular, not so very long ago, would not be taught at all? It makes you want to weep to see how the methods of the medieval inquisition are brought out by the law-enforcement and judicial system of the Russian Federation, which is our country. Since the time of our arrest, however, we can no longer weep. We’ve forgotten how to cry. At our punk concerts we used to shout as best we could about the iniquities of the authorities and now we’ve been robbed of our voice.

This whole trial refuses to hear us and I mean hear us, which involves understanding and, moreover, thinking. I think every individual wants to attain wisdom, to be a philosopher, not just people who happen to have studied philosophy. That’s nothing. Formal education is nothing in itself and Lawyer Pavlova is constantly accusing us of not being sufficiently well-educated. I think though that the most important thing is the desire to know and to understand, and that’s something people can do for themselves outside of educational establishments, and the trappings of academic degrees don’t mean anything in this instance. Someone can have a vast fund of knowledge and for all that not be human. Pythagoras said that ‘the learning of many things does not teach understanding’. Unfortunately, that’s something we are forced to observe here. It’s just a stage setting and bits of the natural world, bodies brought into the courtroom. If, after many days of asking, talking and doing battle our petitions are examined, they are inevitably rejected.

The court, on the other hand—and unfortunately for us and for our country—listens to the prosecutor who repeatedly distorts our comments and statements with impunity in a bid to neutralize them. There is no attempt to conceal this breach in an adversarial system. It even appears to be for show. On 30th July, the first day of the trial, we presented our response to the accusations. Prior to that we were in prison, in confinement. We can’t do anything there. We can’t make statements. We can’t make films. We don’t have the internet in there. We can’t even give our lawyer a bit of paper because that’s banned too. Our first chance to speak came on 30th July. The document we’d written was read out by defence lawyer Volkov because the court refused outright to let the defendants speak. We called for contact and dialogue rather than conflict and opposition. We reached out a hand to those who, for some reason, assume we are their enemies. In response they laughed at us and spat in our outstretched hands. “You’re disingenuous,” they told us. But they needn’t have bothered. Don’t judge others by your own standards. We were always sincere in what we said, saying exactly what we thought, out of childish naïvety, sure, but we don’t regret anything we said, even on that day. We are reviled but we do not intend to speak evil in return. We are in desperate straits but do not despair. We are persecuted but not forsaken. It’s easy to humiliate and crush people who are open, but when I am weak, then I am strong.

Listen to us rather than to Arkady Mamontov talking about us. Don’t twist and distort everything we say. Let us enter into dialogue and contact with the country, which is ours too, not just Putin’s and the Patriarch’s. Like Solzhenitsyn, I believe that in the end, words will crush concrete. Solzhenitsyn wrote, “the word is more sincere than concrete, so words are not trifles. Once noble people mobilize, their words will crush concrete.”

Katya, Masha and I are in jail but I don’t consider that we’ve been defeated. Just as the dissidents weren’t defeated. When they disappeared into psychiatric hospitals and prisons, they passed judgement on the country. The era’s art of creating an image knew no winners or losers. The Oberiu poets remained artists to the very end, something impossible to explain or understand since they were purged in 1937. Vvedensky wrote: “We like what can’t be understood, What can’t be explained is our friend.” According to the official report, Aleksandr Vvedensky died on 20 December 1941. We don’t know the cause, whether it was dysentery in the train after his arrest or a bullet from a guard. It was somewhere on the railway line between Voronezh and Kazan. Pussy Riot are Vvedensky’s disciples and his heirs. His principle of ‘bad rhythm’ is our own. He wrote: “It happens that two rhythms will come into your head, a good one and a bad one and I choose the bad one. It will be the right one.” What can’t be explained is our friend. The elitist, sophisticated occupations of the Oberiu poets, their search for meaning on the edge of sense was ultimately realized at the cost of their lives, swept away in the senseless Great Terror that’s impossible to explain. At the cost of their own lives, the Oberiu poets unintentionally demonstrated that the feeling of meaninglessness and analogy, like a pain in the backside, was correct, but at the same time led art into the realm of history. The cost of taking part in creating history is always staggeringly high for people. But that taking part is the very spice of human life. Being poor while bestowing riches on many, having nothing but possessing everything. It is believed that the OBERIU dissidents are dead, but they live on. They are persecuted but they do not die.

Do you remember why the young Dostoyevsky was given the death sentence? All he had done was to spend all his time with Socialists—and at the Friday meetings of a friendly circle of free thinkers at Petrushevsky’s, he became acquainted with Charles Fourier and George Sand. At one of the last meetings, he read out Gogol’s letter to Belinsky, which was packed, according to the court, and I note, with childish expressions against the Orthodox Church and the supreme authorities. After all his preparations for the death penalty and ten dreadful, impossibly frightening minutes waiting to die, as Dostoyevsky himself put it, the announcement came that his sentence had been commuted to four years hard labour followed by military service.

Socrates was accused of corrupting youth through his philosophical discourses and of not recognizing the gods of Athens. Socrates had a connection to a divine inner voice and was by no means a theomachist, something he often said himself. What did that matter, however, when he had angered the city with his critical, dialectical and unprejudiced thinking? Socrates was sentenced to death and, refusing to run away, although he was given that option, he drank down a cup of poison in cold blood, hemlock.

Have you forgotten the circumstances under which Stephen, follower of the Apostles, ended his earthly life? “Then they secretly induced men to say, ‘We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.’ And they stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and dragged him away, and brought him before the Council. And they put forward false witnesses who said, ‘This man incessantly speaks against this holy place, and the Law.’” He was found guilty and stoned to death.

And I hope everyone remembers what the Jews said to Jesus: “We’re stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy.” And finally it would be well worth remembering this description of Christ: “He is possessed of a demon and out of his mind.”

I believe that if leaders, tsars, elders, presidents and prime ministers, the people and the judges really understood what “I desire mercy not sacrifice” meant, they would not condemn the innocent. Our leaders are currently in a hurry only to condemn and not at all to show mercy. Incidentally, we thank Dmitry Anatolievich Medvedev for his latest wonderful aphorism. If Medvedev gave his presidency the slogan: “Freedom is better than non-freedom”, then, thanks to Medvedev’s felicitous saying, Putin’s third term has a good chance of being known by a new aphorism: “Prison is better than stoning.”

I would like you to think carefully about the following reflection by Montaigne from his Essays written in the 16th century. He wrote: “You are holding your opinions in too high a regard if you burn people alive for them.” Is it worth accusing people and putting them in jail on the basis of totally unfounded conjectures by the prosecution?

Since in actual fact we never were, and are not, motivated by religious hatred and hostility, there is nothing left for our accusers other than to draw on the aid of false witnesses. One of them, Motilda Ivashchenko, was ashamed and didn’t show up in court. That left the false witness of the expert examination by [Vsevolod] Troitsky, [Igor] Ponkin and Mrs [Vera] Abramenkova. And there is no evidence of any hatred or enmity on our part other than this expert examination. For this reason, if it is honourable and just, the court must rule the evidence inadmissible because it is not a strictly scientific or objective text but a filthy, lying bit of paper from the medieval days of the inquisition. There is no other evidence that remotely hints at a motive.

The prosecution is reluctant to produce excerpts from the text of Pussy Riot interviews because they are primary evidence of this lack of motive. For the umpteenth time, I will quote this excerpt. I think it’s important. It was from an interview with “Russky Reporter”, given the day after the concert at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour: “Our attitude toward religion, and toward Orthodoxy in particular, is one of respect, and for this very reason we are distressed that the great and luminous Christian philosophy is being used so shabbily. We are very angry that something beautiful is being spoiled.” It still makes us angry and we find it very painful to watch.

The lack on our part of any show of hatred or enmity has been attested by all the witnesses examined by the defence. And by the evidence of our characters. In addition to all the other character statements, I’d like you to consider the findings of the psychiatric and psychological tests the investigator ordered me to undergo in detention. The expert’s findings were as follows: the values to which I am committed in my life are justice, mutual respect, humanity, equality and freedom. That’s what the expert said, someone who doesn’t know me and Investigator Ranchenko would probably have very much liked him to write something different. It would appear, however, that there are more people who live and value the truth, and the Bible’s right about that.

Finally, I’d like to quote a Pussy Riot song because, strange as it may seem, all our songs have turned out to be prophetic, including the one that says: “The KGB chief, their number one saint, will escort protestors off to jail” – that’s us. What I’d like to quote now, however, is the next line: “Open the doors, off with the shoulder-straps, join us in a taste of freedom.”

Translation via http://eng-pussy-riot.livejournal.com/ — (Project team: Agnes Parker: translation/Eja Werner: coordination)

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/pussy-riot-trial-nadezhda-tolokonnikovas-closing-statement-2012-8#ixzz23w4LjZnM

Suicide Machine

Tony Nicklinson

Controlling their lives
Deciding when and how they will die
A victim of someone else’s choice
The ones who suffer have no voice

Manipulating destiny

When it comes to living, no one seems to care
But when it comes to wanting out
Those with power will be there

Prolong the pain
How long will it last?
Suicide machine
A request to die with dignity
Is that too much to ask?
Suicide machine

How easy it is to deny the pain
Of someone else’s suffering

Robbed of natural abilities
In death they now seek tranquility
In a confused state of mind
Extending agony, they must be blind

Manipulating destiny

When it comes to living, no one seems to care
But when it comes to wanting out
Those with power will be there

Prolong the pain
How long will it last?
Suicide machine
A request to die with dignity
Is that too much to ask?
Suicide machine

Te Tari Tāke

I meant to vent spleen today re Peter Dunne in his capacity as Associate Minister of Health, but I didn’t get around to it. So let’s have atheist Mark Hubbard venting spleen re Peter Dunne in his capacity as Minister of Revenue instead.

I particularly liked Mark’s post below. He’s since written a couple more on the same theme here and here. Be sure to visit his blog.

Taxing Language: A Question for the Politicians – Fair: What Do You Mean?

Liberty and freedom are two proud words that have been executed – as in ‘taken out’ – from the political lexicon: they were frog marched and stood before a wall of blank minds, then forcibly blindfolded, and shot, with the whimpering staccato of ‘inequality’ and ‘fairness’ resounding over and over. And not only did this atrocity go unreported by journalists in the mainstream media, they were in the firing squad.

Statists of all hues have taken to the word ‘fairness’ with the glee Chris The Fist Trotter has to the use of state violence, in order to make the theft that is compulsory taxation seem a little, well, fairer.

The slanderous union economist, for example, Bill (unfortunately named) Rosenberg, not letting facts get in the way of persecuting a minority, yet again, interrupted his Chardon-day, yesterday, to emote:

“… How many of the rich list pay a fair tax?”

And if Messrs Dunne and English had a blog label cloud pinned to their foreheads, ‘fairness’ would be in a huge font, over-clouding everything else. Just Google ‘fairness’, ‘tax’, and either of their names and you’ll get pages of quotes.

And so my point. I have a simple question for these three men: what does fairness, in relation to taxation, mean? Plus what is a fair amount of tax, please? How do you derive it, both in terms of the amount taken, and morally? Explain it to me, because I truly don’t understand. There is nothing in any of our taxing acts to give any guidance on this, and yet going on your constant utterances, taxpayers are, daily, being crucified on it.

In the first instance I want a generic principle, clear enough to write into tax law, which shouldn’t be too hard, given you write so much law in the fortress of legislation. And secondly, or rather, ‘but’ secondly, to test this law, for once, before foisting it on us, please interpret it, here, in relation to the below three scenarios.

Taxpayer 1:

Single man, twenty three years old, lower order contract worker putting in seventy hour weeks, earned $186,000 last year. He’s doing it hard, on himself, because with cow prices reaching $2,500 his ability to be able to buy his first herd, and so be in a financial position to propose to his girlfriend, and start a family, is looking more and more remote.

Taxpayer 2:

Family, three children at state school, both parents working to bring in a total of $60,000 per annum, only, to the household. They can’t afford a house in the current market, and with the rental squeeze due to government making it unattractive to be a private landlord, they’re having to pay $750 a week rent for a sub-standard house in Auckland, after which, when they pay for the essentials they have no pay left: indeed, all their credit cards are maxed out.

Taxpayer 3:

Family, two children, dad’s a banker, earning $200,000 per annum, mum stays home to look after their new baby, plus their first child has genetic disease meaning he’ll never be able to look after himself, so mum has taken on that job, for life. The couple have paid over half a million dollars over the last two years traveling around the world to see specialists, for operations, and so forth, and have had to re-mortgage their Fendalton home, twice, to the maximum amount possible. Husband is having to put huge hours in to make it all work financially, and with so much stress and little time together, the marriage is floundering.

So, for the statists, surely this should be easy: please write in the comments the interpretation of the tax fairness law you write for us, in relation to these individuals?

Finding it hard? Well, assuming intelligence on your behalf, you should find this impossible. And that’s even before I move to my position on tax which is not to use the word fair, but unjust. I wonder if we should ring Her Majesty for some input, given, in a story as stunning as it was alarming, the UK’s IR, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, expect school children not only to be able to define what is a fair amount of tax, but, taking their state to its Orwellian conclusion, expect them to dob in adults who don’t play fair on a playground where the biggest bully is the state itself. Politicians should at least admit there is nothing ‘fair’ about tax in any of the above instances, or period: tax is an arbitrary imposition of the state, enforced with the full draconian powers of the police state. That’s the truth. Let’s at least acknowledge the implied violence and immoral act on which our society is based, because from that, we may ultimately find a kinder way to live our lives, which would be a society that constitutionally protects the smallest of its minorities: the individual, and particularly from what is now the biggest abuser of an individual’s right to be left alone – the state.

As always, thanks, Mark, for giving your blessing to copying your content here at Eternal Vigilance.

John Ansell’s Challange To End Racist Government In New Zealand.

John Ansell has laid down a Challenge to Achiever Maori… Here. … and includes All New Zealanders ‘with a Spine’.

I endorse this challenge.

To My Maori Family and Friends. Understand that Political equality takes nothing away from Maori except Racism and Hatred. Under Liberty and equality you can still embrace who you are to the fullest extent. Stop allowing the deluded and hypocritical Racist Radicals to poison your souls with hate mongering lies. Liberate Yourselves from being used as pawns by those Political Fat cat Maori Racists whom have Got money and Power by turning you, your families, and your friends into The brown equivalents of White supremacists… heads filled with the same kinds of distorted history and Racist delusions.
And to my Pakeha Family, and friends I ask you to snap out of your wooly headed acceptance of Waitangi Racism, and the separatist system of Government.
You are just as Bad as the Racist Maori radicals because you sanction their lies and embrace their corruption. I call upon you to stop voting for politicians and political parties which support Racist Laws and Government. Liberate yourselves and your children from being treated as second class Subjects in your own country!
Please everyone support John Ansell’s movement to End Waitangi Apartheid!
Tim Wikiriwhi.
Christian Libertarian.