2 + 2 = 4

• 20091205

  In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

  — George Orwell

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  The Complete Newspeak Dictionary: Altered Words

  Community OLD: Your neighbors. NEW: Your government.

  Education - OLD: The process of teaching a child all he will need to know so he may care for himself in adulthood. NEW: The process indoctrinating a child with the prevailing political philosophies, but neglecting to teach him how to care for himself in adulthood.

  Equality - OLD: Equal treatment under the law. The belief that no person should be treated differently from another. NEW: If any inequities are discovered in society, create laws which MAKE people equal.

  Liberty - OLD: Freedom FROM government oppression. NEW: No meaning. Most modern political movements are unable to acknowledge the true meaning of this word, since it would interfere with their obsession of using government programs to re-organize the thoughts and behaviors of society.

  Rights - OLD: The inalienable rights of man. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” NEW: Entitlements. The right to “Law & Order”, financial security, and the pursuit of lawsuits. Citizens expect to be protected by expanding the power of the  government.’

• 20091203

  Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

  — Albert Einstein

• 20091130

  The Money That Is Sold Abroad Is You!

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  It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

  — Upton Sinclair

• 20091129

  Ed Griffin on the Economic Crisis, the Monetary Elite and the Future of the Internet

  “The banks in the world today are a prime example of collectivism. They are in bed with the government. They couldn’t exist without government favoritism and government monopoly. The banks and the government are practically one in the same. That’s not capitalism, that’s not free enterprise competition. But the masses have been told that that is capitalism. So when the collectivist system goes belly up, as it periodically does, then those who are misled can get angry at capitalism, which is the wrong target. I worry about that kind of rising resentment and anger in the world because it is not based on facts.”

• 20091128

  

  HOW THE ECONOMY REALLY WORKS

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  Central Banking is a Big Lie

  “Central banking—and the subsequent mopping up efforts that occur cyclically—is a good example of one of the elite’s most important dominant social themes. Without money, other promotions are rendered moot. Why is central banking obviously a power elite promotion? Because it is unworkable, destructive, a contradiction in terms, and yet a program when implemented that creates enormous wealth for a handful of people along with bestowing tremendous control on the same players. You cannot put a few fairly elderly people in a room together, ask them to fix the price and quantity of paper money using unworkable econometric projects and have anything good come of it. It is what it is: price fixing. Central banking is a PROMOTION. It exists despite all its contradictions. It is taught in schools, despite the economic illiteracy of the concept, and commented on in the media. It is institutionalized in government. Central banking is a contradiction in terms. It is a Big Lie.”

• 20091125

  Dave The Engineer (17:35:46)

  “They are elitists. They are not to be questioned by YOU. And they enlist their elitist friends in helping them. Since they see themselves as THE elite scientists they believe themselves to be above the petty requirements of the FOI act, these acts don’t apply to THEM. We see this all the time in politics, in journalism, throughout academia, nothing special in it, it is as common as dirt. The really interesting part is that these idiots are frequently [2+2=5], they really want [2+2=5] to take over the world. And once it does it is these same elitists that quickly end up in the gulags as slaves or dead. It is quite logical actually, these elitists are insufferable to be around so once the Marxist thugs take over they quickly get rid of them. It is true, look at the old Soviet Union, Cuba, China, anywhere [2+2=5] took over, the elitists help them to power then get purged. They are not really that smart, they do this over and over again, history means nothing to them. Their ego tells them they are above history. If they are lucky they live somewhere that never goes [2+2=5] and never have their wish fulfilled, and they live a full life honored by their equally elitist friends, writing Marxist drivel, living in moderately well off surroundings; bitter, clinging to their ideology and their tenure. Keep pushing, these are brittle people, they’ll crack before they’ll bend.”

  Read the quote in context
  

• 20091122

  Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong.

  — H. L. Mencken

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  Narrative fallacy

  “The narrative fallacy addresses our limited ability to look at sequences of facts without weaving an explanation into them, or, equivalently, forcing a logical link, an arrow of relationship upon them. Explanations bind facts together. They make them all the more easily remembered; they help them make more sense. Where this propensity can go wrong is when it increases our impression of understanding.” — Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan

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  The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

  — Proverb

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  The Dog Ate Global Warming

  2 + 2 = 5

  ‘Warwick Hughes, an Australian scientist, wondered where that “+/–” came from, so he politely wrote Phil Jones in early 2005, asking for the original [surface temperature] data. Jones’s response to a fellow scientist attempting to replicate his work was, “We have 25 years or so invested in the work. Why should I make the data available to you, when your aim is to try and find something wrong with it?” Reread that statement, for it is breathtaking in its anti-scientific thrust. In fact, the entire purpose of replication is to “try and find something wrong.” The ultimate objective of science is to do things so well that, indeed, nothing is wrong.’

• 20091121

  Tyler Cowen at TEDxMidAtlantic ‘The Story Bias’ “We should be more suspicious of stories.”

• 20091120

  When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?

  — John Maynard Keynes