The Alex Jones and Piers Morgan was a controversial, great debate. It shows the truth as it seems. You know my views on this debate. Alex Jones is mostly right on this issue. He defeated Morgan badly in that debate. I have disagreements with him or Alex Jones from Trayvon Martin, economic views, and other issues. Yet, the federal government has made laws against the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, and other real laws in America for a while now. We have every right to have the Second Amendment period. I am not the type that believes in no government or denies that the government can do any good. Historically, the government can and has done a lot of good for humanity, but the government is made to serve the people progressively. It wasn't made to harm human rights or to violate our cherished human civil liberties at all. There is nothing wrong with showing real emotion, but not going overboard in that circumstance as Jones did. Morgan is slick in trying to play on sensitivity as a means to look like the victim. Yet, he or Piers Morgan was raising his voice at opponents of his views on his show before. Stats are stats. FBI Uniform Crime Reports document how violent crime offenses in America have been falling since 2007. Also, in the last 40 years, the amount of guns in America per 1,000 people has increased, whereas serious violent crimes have decreased. The biggest killers in America are not guns at all. The CDC and the FBI document the truth that 20 times more human beings die in the United States from medical errors than they do firearm homicides. Tobacco use, medical errors, alcohol abuse, motor vehicle accidents, unintentional poisoning, drug abuse, and unintentional falls have more deaths per year than the unfortunate 11,493 deaths from firearm homicides. The murders done with hammers and clubs in the USA routinely outpaces the number of homicides committed using a rifle. The massive gun bans in Chicago has not decreased crime in Chicago at all. The reality is that the violent crime rate in the UK is higher per capita than America. You are twice as likely to be a victim of knife crime in the UK as you being a victim of gun crime in America. Even Alan Dershowitz is wrong to support torture, so he is a fact liberal. He is a war hawk and wants a neo-con perspective on foreign policy. Alex Jones was too emotional at times, which is not my style. Alex Jones made documented facts on the antidepressant drug link to mass shooters, dictators having gun bans, and other facts of history. A man like Alan supporting torture like an authoritarian hypocrite shouldn't lecture anyone on violence at all. Democide alone has murdered almost 300 million human beings in the 20th century alone. I am not a libertarian and I believe in progressive government, but even government ought to exist with some checks and balances here. Michael Bloomberg is a hypocrite by claiming that he wants to stop gun violence, but he advocates the NYPD evil stop and frisk policy in that city of New York. Switzerland has strong gun rights laws. It has a very low crime right with 2 million publicly owned firearms. The Swiss has only a homicide rate of just 2.2 people per 100,000. The National Safety Council notes that guns are used some 2.5 million times a year in self defense against criminals, meaning that firearms are utilized to protect innocent lives in 80 times more cases than they are used to end lives. So Alex Jones did win the debate against Morgan for the most part. Morgan is right that we should have concerns for the victims of gun violence and Alex Jones is right that tyranny ought to be opposed at every turn. It is very hypocritical for the DHS to collect massive amounts of ammunition and for the White House to condone killing children via drone attacks (or assassinating even U.S. citizens without due process of law) and then lecture us on gun violence. Now, this does not mean we have to have the status quo. I don't agree with everything that the Founders did (from slave trading, domestic apartheid, to land theft of Native Americans' territories, etc.), but the right to bear arms is not a sin at all. We can continue to lower gun crime in America via gun safety policies including reasonable gun solutions, end the Drug War, create mental health reform programs, have a real war on poverty, protect the human rights of innocent citizens, end the war on terror, and massively redeveloping our national infrastructure via a national program. These actions are just common sense. We can do something now and the status quo is not right. I believe in gun rights and the Second Amendment, but we can do more if necessary to prevent lives from being lost from Chicago to the suburbs.


There is the scandal at Freedom Works. The Tea Party once viewed themselves as a rejection of the corruption in Washington, D.C. Now, some in that movement are bickering with each other over the direction of the GOP. In early December of 2012, David Corn and Andy Kroll of Mother Jones magazine wrote that former Rep. Dick Armey resigned as chairman of Freedom Works. Freedom Works was one of the main political outfits of the conservative movement and it was an instrumental force within the Tea Party. Armey was the man who helped to develop and promote the GOP's Contract with America in the 1990's. He tendered his resignation in a memo sent to Matt Kibbe or the President and CEO of Freedom Works on November 30. Armey's note or memo to Kibbe was amicable. Armey wanted Freedom Works to remove his name, image, or signature from all of its letters, print media, postings, web sites, videos, testimonials, endorsements, fund raising materials, and social media like Facebook and Twitter. He wanted to be paid until his contract ended on December 31. He left, because he believed that Freedom Works went into a direction that he thought was unproductive and he wanted to move on with his life. The Associated Press reported, “A confidential contract obtained by The Associated Press shows that Armey agreed in September to resign from his role as chairman of Washington-based Freedom Works in exchange for $8 million in consulting fees paid in annual $400,000 installments…” The contract says that Armey's consulting fees will be paid by Richard J. Stephenson or a prominent fundraiser and founder and chairman of the Cancer Treatment Centers of America. This is a national cancer treatment network that legitimately helps human beings. Stephenson is on the board of directors of Freedom Works. There has been William Rose or an attorney in Knoxville, TN who recently created 2 companies that funneled more than 12 million dollars in contributions to Freedom Works. As USA Today noted, “Under U.S. law, corporations can give unlimited sums of money to outside groups supporting candidates, but not if their sole purpose is to make campaign contributions.” But where the money really came from remained uncertain, and both Dick Armey and Freedom Works CEO Matt Kibbe initially denied knowledge of the donations. Armey then told Mother Jones, “This kind of secrecy is why I left. I have never seen anything like this before.” Kibbe accused Armey and his 2 boardroom allies of being shills for the Republican establishment and undercutting the group's standing as an independent, nonpartisan conservative organization. Mainline Republicans didn't like it when Freedom Works has at times endorsed Tea Party candidates in primary elections against mainstream or incumbent Republicans. There was a report about Armey walked into the group's Capitol Hill offices with his wife Susan and an aide holstering a handgun at his waist. He wanted to seize control of the group and expel Armey's enemies. The gun-wielding assistant escorted Freedom Works’ top two employees off the premises, while Armey suspended several others who broke down in sobs at the news.” Now, this proves that Objectivism doesn't work. Compassion works and humanity works. It is not good to do evil at all. I believe in spirituality and self-sacrifice not egoism or selfishness. In the final analysis, the rich can't use usury, and act as robber barons via monopolies as a means to fleece the poor under the guise of so-called economic "freedom." The growth of local business, the right of self-determination, the development of the Third World, and the ending of the private or 1 percent control of our money supply are actions that are needed in the world.



The White House picks a lying, torture endorsing human being as a CIA head. Brennan ironically worked under the previous President George W. Bush. This is an unfortunate portion of the Obama legacy indeed. This is not looking forward at all. Even the ACLU is opposed to this nomination completely. Even a real liberal like Glenn Greenwald have talked about this issue or how some so-called liberals are silent on the current administration's actions on foreign policy while condemning to the heaven the bad foreign policy of the previous administration. Brennan blatantly endorsed the Bush torture programs. Brennan agrees with rendition as well. There has been very little opposition to the man except from real activists. Brennan was involved in the illegal NSA eavesdropping program that blatantly violated the Fourth Amendment. Brennan even called for the offending communication companies to be immunized from punishment. In 2008, he was forced to withdraw from the nomination as CIA head because of fierce opposition stemming from his actions as a Bush era CIA official. Now, these things don't mean anything to the establishment and if Brennan wins the nomination as CIA head, he will do some things. He will probably continue to continue the evil, secret drone attack strikes. Brennan last year outright lied when he claimed that Obama's drone program caused no civilian deaths in Pakistan over the prior year. He made other falsehoods to the world in the immediate aftermath of the Obama bin Laden killing in claiming that bin Laden engaged in a firefight with Navy SEALS (and used his wife as a human shield). Brennan was in charge of signature strikes in Yemen in targeting human beings without known who they are. The CIA could be run by a man like Brennan. Laura W. Murphy or the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office said that: "...The Senate should not move forward with his nomination until all senators can assess the role of the CIA — and any role by Brennan himself — in torture, abuse, secret prisons, and extraordinary rendition during his past tenure at the CIA, as well as can review the legal authorities for the targeted killing program that he has overseen in his current position...This nomination is too important to proceed without the Senate first knowing what happened during Brennan's tenures at the CIA and the White House, and whether all of his conduct was within the law.” The CIA is known to participate in evil fighting all over the world. Even the reactionaries are opposing Chuck Hagel when he voted against sanctions against Iran and suggested that Israel should negotiate with Hamas directly. We have other battles as well. We should fight to make the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act permanent without it being expired in 2014. A majority of households in several of the most populous cities are protected under this law. Trista Bauman of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty is legitimately fighting for renters to be protected from foreclosure evictions. The redcoat tyrants are just as evil as Uncle Sam tyrants. Also, we should fight for liberties. It is a fact that mass shooters have been on dangerous prescription antidepressants. The antidepressants or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (or SSRIs) have been linked to many of the mass shootings that have occurred here in the U.S. for the past decade. The Aurora's shooter's home and even the suspected shooter Adam Lanza has been suffering mental illness. Even in 2011, a Canadian judge even ruled that SSRIs can cause children to commit murder. Big Pharma is a very powerful interest that has been supportive of GMOs and other controversial aspects of life. There is some tyranny in the USA from warrantless wiretapping, TSA molesting innocent human beings even young folks, and to other anti-liberty laws, but there is hope. We can make a different in the world via constructive actions.

As with many things, economics are important. We know about Peter Thiel. He runs Pay Pal and he is an elected member of the Bilderberg steering committee. He funds mainline libertarian candidates. Thiel rather overtly calls for the total deregulation of the markets, which is very similar to the feudalism archetype. The wealthy has no right to dominate all lands and extract rents unfairly from the working class at all. We reject usury. Some want all human beings to have the right to dominate and own land value. I have no issue with a flat citizen dividend to all citizens either. I reject the philosophy of the gold bugs and I accept economic populism. We know about all of the imperfections and inadequacies of the reactionaries' agenda. We have refuted them badly. Yet, we ought to know about the more slick neoliberal agenda as well. President Barack Obama is in league with that agenda indeed. Parts of the Bush tax cuts are in place forever. There is a new defense spending bill that will secure cash flow for the military industrial complex. There is the secretive Trans Pacific Partnership, which is like NAFTA on steroids. This partnership will make international trade negotiators the rulers of the free world in terms of trading resources in the globe. This policies and much more are favored by big banking and corporate interests. Even the fiscal deal will have more than a dozen tax loopholes in them. Some of them will benefit Wall Street financial firms and some of the nation's biggest corporations. The fiscal deal has been a mixed bag of legitimate portions and evil portions in it. Congressional approval ratings have been extremely low as well. It is only so long that the fake left can pretend. We know that the two party system has been compromised. We know that Rahm Emanuel claims to be a liberal, but he is in league with the agenda of the Likudniks. We understand that even Rand Paul supported Mitt Romney and John Boehner is having trouble with controlling even his own GOP party. The oligarchs have a handle on both parties. The New Democrats or the neoliberals railroaded even sincere progressives out of office like Dennis Kucinich.


One of the most interesting aspects of the history of the Vikings was their interactions with the Native Americans. This occurred long before the time of Christopher Columbus. The archaeologist Patricia Sutherland researched this issue for a long time. The Vikings were famous explorers. The Scandinavian Vikings wanted to find land, gold, treasure, and resources throughout the world. They traveled heavily in the eighth century in Scotland, England, and Ireland. The Viking colonists made farming settlements and filled storehouses with Arctic luxuries inside of Greenland. They traded in walrus ivory, and narwhal tusks in Europe. Between 989 and 1020 A.D., Viking seafarers in the numbers of 90 men and women in all landed on a Newfoundland shore and raised 3 sturdy halls and an assortment of sod huts for weaving, ironworking, and ship repair. In the 1960s a Norwegian adventurer, Helge Ingstad, and his archaeologist wife, Anne Stine Ingstad, discovered and excavated the overgrown ruins of this ancient base camp at a place called L’Anse aux Meadows. Later, Canadian archaeologists found iron ship rivets and other artifacts from what appeared to be a Viking shipwreck off the coast of Ellesmere Island. But in the years that followed, few other traces of the Vikings’ legendary exploration of the New World came to light—that is, until Patricia Sutherland came along. Sutherland and her field crew can into Tanfield Valley. She found areas of Viking settlement in North America. There were no permanent colonies in the North American continent by the Vikings. They wanted to exploit natural resources like furs and lumber since these resources were in short supply in Greenland. A lot of times, the Vikings had a hostile relationship with the Native Americans. The Norse called the Native Americans Skraelings. The Native Americans the Vikings probably encountered were the Eskimos. The Native Americans back then wore clothing which was made up of animal skin. The Inuit Native Americans made stories about the Norse Vikings. They called them Kavdlunait or foreigner or European. Their interactions mostly were about conflict and violence. This hindered peaceful cohabitation and successful colonization by the Norse explorers.

 

By Timothy