Starvin Larry

Liberty is never an accident. It requires a philosophical acceptance of an individual’s right to his or her own life, and a full understanding of the logical implications and consequences of that right. That acceptance must prevail among intellectuals and through their explanation and leadership, embraced and promoted by a substantial portion of the population. A set of governing institutions has to be devised that are subordinated to the protection of individual rights but strong enough to protect those rights. The difficulties are borne out by history, where attempts to establish political orders based on liberty are few, and their successful and lasting establishment nonexistent.

The argument is made that humanity is unfit for liberty—individuals are incapable of living their own lives peaceably with other individuals. This is true for some individuals, but it has been pronounced as an indictment of the entire species. Because humanity is unfit for freedom…

From Glenn Greenwald at informationclearinghouse.info:

Whistleblowers are always accused of helping America’s enemies (top Nixon aides accused Daniel Ellsberg of being a Soviet spy and causing the deaths of Americans with his leak); it’s just the tactical playbook that’s automatically used.So it’s of course unsurprising that ever since Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing enabled newspapers around the world to report on secretly implemented programs of mass surveillance, he has been accused by “officials” and their various media allies of Helping The Terrorists™.

Still, I was a bit surprised just by how quickly and blatantly — how shamelessly — some of them jumped to exploit the emotions prompted by the carnage in France to blame Snowden: doing so literally as the bodies still lay on the streets of Paris. At first, the tawdry exploiters were the likes of crazed ex-intelligence officials (former CIA chief James Woolsey, who once said Snowden “should be…

From Martin Armstrong on a guest post at theburningplatform.com:

Between 1989 and 2010, U.S. attorneys seized an estimated $12.6 billion in asset forfeiture cases. The growth rate during that time averaged +19.4% annually. In 2010 alone, the value of assets seized grew by +52.8% from 2009 and was six times greater than the total for 1989. Then by 2014, that number had ballooned to roughly $4.5 billion for the year, making this 35% of the entire number of assets collected from 1989 to 2010 in a single year. According to the FBI, the total amount of goods stolen by criminals in 2014 burglary offenses suffered an estimated $3.9 billion in property losses. This means that the police are now taking more assets than the criminals.

The police have been violating the laws to confiscate assets all over the country. A scathing report on California warns of pervasive abuse by police…

Once again, a major media voice who will remain nameless has demonstrated a dangerously arrogant ignorance of Islam.  This voice is all the more dangerous because of the size of their audience, and their best selling book claiming to explain what America needs to know about Islam.  But this voice proved beyond all doubt that they should not be listened to on matters of Islam.  In fact, this person should be ignored in any matter dealing with God and faith.  But, in regard to Islam, here is how this voice defines a ‘radical’ Muslim:

Every Leader worth his salt, from the military structure to a corporate structure, maintains an absolute critical skill- the ability not just to plan, but to reverse plan. The Mission Essential Task List (METL) is the structure by which we identify unit purpose, training requirements and qualifications, and how to plan to accomplish that goal.

Typically in any Platoon Office or Team Room will be three calendars- a Week broken down by day with large blocks to write each daily task, a Month, with essential training events and monthly benchmarks laid out, and a Six Month, or Long Range schedule, normally with exercises, annual qualifications, and unit goals laid out.

In order to create this, we must know exactly what we need. These tasks differ depending on the unit structure. Creating a METL is the simplest way to break this down. In the Army at the basic level, there’s requirements…