Toward a Rational US Strategy (Part 1)

Special Report: Current U.S. foreign policy is driven by neoconservative ideologues and tough-talking “liberal interventionists” who spread chaos and death around the world while failing to serve real American interests. It’s time for a fundamental rethinking, writes former U.S. diplomat William R. Polk. By William R. Polk Judaism, Christianity and Islam have proclaimed that humankind faces…

Game of Chicken with Iran

In lock-step with Israeli hardliners, U.S. neocons continue their campaign to block a nuclear deal with Iran even if the tight restrictions would serve broad American interests and avert another Mideast war. That has left Secretary of State Kerry in a dangerous game of chicken, writes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. By Paul R. Pillar…

Gay Marriage and Western Muslims

The evolution of thought on gay marriage shows how religions can adapt to humanistic trends of society, but religious fundamentalists refuse to budge from ancient prejudices, a challenge confronting not only Judaism and Christianity but Islam, as ex-CIA officer Graham E. Fuller describes. By Graham E. Fuller Human sexuality has always been a deeply controversial…

Yes, Gay Marriage Hurts Me Personally

As you know, the Supreme Court unilaterally legalized gay “marriage” across the country on Friday. I wrote something shortly after, responding generally to this illegal, disastrous, ridiculous move. Unlike many commentators who follow the news cycle like its dictated by God, I never intended on just dropping the matter and moving onto something else. There are issues that should be dropped quickly, and issues that shouldn’t. The institution of the family and the future of our civilization tends to fall in the latter category.

So rather than once again articulate all of the arguments opposed to the charade known as gay “marriage,” I’ve decided to address some on my side who agree intellectually with my position, but insist that it “doesn’t matter that much” and gay marriage “doesn’t affect us.” Of all the emails and comments I’ve read these past few days, vicious, vulgar, dumb insults from liberals have been the most common, but a close second have been these messages from self-proclaimed Christians and conservatives who have decided, perhaps out of fear or just plain apathy, that the redefinition of marriage doesn’t hurt us or affect us anyway.

I can’t quite describe my contempt for this position. I feel no contempt for the people who say it, just for how obtuse and oblivious they are. Our culture is collapsing around us, and still these people don’t understand why it matters. They want to talk instead about taxes or politics or something. But none of that makes a difference if our country effectively doesn’t exist anymore. So look around you: we have become the first civilization in history to pretend that two homosexuals living together are married, that a man in a dress is a woman, that a baby in the womb isn’t a person. You think this doesn’t hurt you? The foundation of civilized human culture has been pulled from underneath you and you think you aren’t personally impacted by it?

I can deal with progressives being deluded and ridiculous, but I can’t abide it if it’s coming from people who purport to be on my “side.” I’ll tell you this: if you don’t understand why the fight for marriage, family, and culture is important, then we really aren’t fighting for the same thing. I don’t frankly know what you’re fighting for, but it’s got nothing to do with the struggle the rest of us are engaged in.

So I want to explain now why the gay marriage issue is important, why it should matter to you, and why you were definitely hurt by what happened on Friday:

Click here to read.

The post Yes, Gay Marriage Hurts Me Personally appeared first on The Matt Walsh Blog.

Words No Longer Have Meaning-Abuse of Language-The Fertile Ground For Tyranny

Young Reporter Can’t Even Understand Scalia

Words convey reality-the overthrow of the accepted meanings of words inevitably results in the overthrow of the previous culture. Do you think I overstate this?

How about this one? When words have no meaning at all except what the ‘powers that be’, want them to mean, you have complete tyranny.

Justice Scalia bemoaned, in his recent Obama care dissent, “Words no longer have meaning if an Exchange that is not established by the State is “established by the State.”

Megan Gerber writing for the Atlantic, gently mocks; Scalia believes, “Words, root us collectively and epistemologically.” For him they are a declaration about the unchanging nature of old truths, whatever document may enshrine them.”

Her derision of Scalia can be clearly seen in her response to what evidently is for Megan an unrecognizable art form-the logical argument.

Scalia’s dissent on the gay marriage case includes the following riff on the majority opinion.

“The nature of marriage is that, through its enduring bond, two persons together can find other freedoms, such as expression, intimacy, and spirituality.” (Really? Who ever thought that intimacy and spirituality [whatever that means] were freedoms? And if intimacy is, one would think Freedom of Intimacy is abridged rather than expanded by marriage. Ask the nearest hippie.

Rather than respond intelligently, Megan contemptuously writes, “On the one hand, of course, this is just Scalia being Scalia (and the rest of us being Scalia’ed).” as if He were some eccentric Uncle who should be rejected out of hand and his words nothing more than insane ranting.

Megan is the prototype of the saucy young idiot whose sophistry is destructive and whose mental apparatus extends no deeper than the Orwellian-like summation, New=Better.

Thoughts From the Past Relevant For Today

Josef Pieper, a Thomas scholar wrote a small book entitled Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power  (1972) that was translated into English in 1992. Most people in America have been indoctrinated against classical Western thought, nay all ideas that could be considered “old”. Many even lack the logical framework to think and discuss such profound ideas, nonetheless I proceed forward because understanding this concept is a key to fighting back against the mountainous state of corruption and collapse presently being witnessed in this country

Broadly speaking Pieper states that,

“Human words and Language accomplish a twofold purpose, as Plato without doubt would have answered-in clear agreement with Western thought. Since this accomplishment is twofold, we may already here suspect that the word’s degeneration and corruption can also be twofold. First, words convey reality. We speak in order to name and identify something that is real, to identify it for someone, of course- and this points to the second aspect in question, the interpersonal character of human speech. “

Words Convey Reality

If you are unsure what the phrase “words convey reality’ means, here is an example. In the late 1800’s the rise of the social sciences reflected a growing ideology of Man. He was no longer created in the image of God but rather a creature of evolution. As this ideology took over, new terms were created to discuss the nature of man without reference to God; personality replaced the term character.

This was a tectonic shift-Character related terms laden with moral connotations such as patience, temperance, malice, greed, lascivious (driven by lust), gluttony, fornication, virtue were abandoned in favor of non-moral words to describe man without reference to God. Patience was replaced by low frustration tolerance; words like “greed”, “temperance”, “lasciviousness” and “malice” are barely acknowledged to exist and rarely used today. Gluttony has given way to the idea that obesity has genetic pre-determinants instead of being about personal self-control.

The first set of words convey a God-centered reality, the second set of words convey a man-centered reality. Both realities cannot be true at the same time. The loss of words to speak about reality results in the diminished force of that reality.

Newspeak-Altering the Language Changes The Way People Think About Reality

Just listen to Syme, the philologist, a specialist in Newspeak tasked with writing the new dictionary in the book 1984, by George Orwell

“Do you know that Newspeak is the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year?”…”Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thought crime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.”

Which brings us to the second of Piepers’ central ideas about human language, that the words are spoken “to someone” to describe and understand reality. Piper’s contention is that a lie is the opposite of communication. It means specifically to withhold the other’s share and portion of reality, to prevent his participation in reality.

So there are two possible corruptions of language

1) Words themselves are changed or corrupted and thereby cease to be accurate representations of reality

2) Words are used purposely to misrepresent reality to the other person and thereby corrupt the relationship

In case number two, the words and language used are not intended to communicate truth because there is an ulterior motive. The person spoken to ceases to be a partner rather “he becomes an object to be manipulated, or possibly dominated, to be handled and controlled.” “I concentrate on his weaknesses and on those areas that may appeal to him -all in order to manipulate him, to use him for my purposes.” We would normally call this person a con artist.

Sophists- The Great Manipulators of the Language

In Piepers’ short essay he references Plato’s disdain and criticism for the sophists of his time who were able to craft perfectly worded and brilliantly formulated speeches which were strikingly written, performed and staged but “in their essence were false; and not only false, but outright bad, inferior, contemptible, shameful, destructive, wretched- and still marvelously put together.”

And this brings us to the main argument that all speech in which the strict standard of truth or reality has been disregarded stands by its nature to “serve as an instrument in the hands of any ruler to pursue all kinds of power schemes…it creates an atmosphere of epidemic proneness and vulnerability to the reign of the tyrant.”

How Abuse of Language Leads To Tyranny

“Serving the tyranny, the corruption and abuse of language becomes better known as propaganda. The most perfect propaganda achieves just his: that the menace is not apparent but well concealed. Still, it must remain visible; it must remain recognizable. At the same time, those for whom the menace is intended must nevertheless be led and eased in to believing (and this is the true art!) that by acquiescing to the intimidation, they really do the reasonable thing, perhaps even what they would have wanted to do anyway

Plato asked himself this question continually over the course of a 50-year career. What is it that makes the sophists so dangerous?

“’The sophists’ he says, ‘fabricate a fictitious reality’ That the existential realm of man could be taken over by pseudo-realities whose fictitious nature threaten to become indiscernible is truly a depressing thought. And yet this Platonic nightmare, I hold, possesses an alarming contemporary relevance. For the general public is being reduced to a state where people not only are unable to find out truth but also become unable even to search for truth because they are satisfied with deception and trickery that have determined their convictions, satisfied with a fictitious reality created by design through the abuse of language.” This is incidentally what Aldous Huxley termed the final revolution in the book Brave New World Revisited.

Current Dilemma-Propaganda Everywhere

This, my friends is EXACTLY where we are right now in this country. Remember, truth has been summarily disregarded as the basis of communication since WWI; the great age of the new sophists- public relation firms whose sole purpose was to manipulate public attitudes to those desired by government or large corporations.

This is the urgent need of the moment…to wake up to the realization that abuse of language is endemic and that the purpose of those manipulating words is the absolute abuse of power manifested in global tyranny.

Without an awakening of truth and a new revolution of words and language, the real battle against the elites in banking, government and corporations who are colluding to defraud, disarm and enslave not only America but the world, will never be waged

I have quoted extensively from Josef Pieper in hopes that you will pick up his book, “Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power” and read if for yourself after which you will recognize abuse of language virtually everywhere. And as Josef Pieper predicted in 1972, massive tyranny is assuredly just around the corner.

My purpose in writing is to help wake up the remnant. Many are asking questions and beginning to be alarmed at the rapid destruction of American cohesion, law, and sovereignty.

We must go back to the truth dust off the old words and once again let our minds feed on that true reality.

Please consider sharing this article via email or twitter to others who are questioning. We each need to do our part in waking up our friends, family and acquaintances.

The post Words No Longer Have Meaning-Abuse of Language-The Fertile Ground For Tyranny appeared first on PropagandaGuard.

Confronting Southern ‘Victimhood’

Exclusive: Many white Southerners are getting their backs up again over demands that the Confederate flag and other symbols of slavery be removed. But the core problem is that the South never admitted that slavery and then segregation were wrong, instead offering endless excuses, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry Unlike the Germans after World War…

Finessing the Iran-Sanction Issue

Despite discouraging headlines about last-minute troubles facing the nuclear deal with Iran, negotiators have devised a clever way of sidestepping the touchy issue of when Iran would get sanctions relief — by delaying the actual signing until initial steps have been taken, reports Trita Parsi. By Trita Parsi Contrary to public posturing on the timing…

Turkish Voters Rebuke Erdogan

A surprise election setback for Turkish President Erdogan’s party reflected growing public resistance to his dictatorial style, his aggressive behavior toward Turkey’s neighbors and an economic downturn, as Alon Ben-Meir explains. By Alon Ben-Meir Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s May 2013 plan to raze Gezi Park in Central Istanbul and replace it with a replica…

Was Turkey Behind Syria Sarin Attack?

From the Archive: Turkey’s history of “deep state” intelligence may have resurfaced in 2013, according to journalist Seymour Hersh, as Turkish-backed, Al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorists learned to make sarin and may have used it in Syria to trick the U.S. into joining that civil war, as Robert Parry reported in 2014. By Robert Parry (Originally published on April 6, 2014) In August 2013,…

On the Trail of Turkey’s Terrorist Grey Wolves

From the Archive: Turkey, as a NATO country near Russia’s border, developed a powerful “deep state” where intelligence operatives, terrorists and gangsters crossed paths and shared political alliances, a grim reality that author Martin A. Lee explored in 1997 and a dark legacy that reaches to the present. By Martin A. Lee (Originally published in…

Neocons Urge Embrace of Al Qaeda

Exclusive: The latest neocon gambit is to build support for “regime change” in Syria by downplaying the evils of Al Qaeda, rebranding it as some sort of “moderate” terrorist force whose Syrian affiliate is acceptable to Israel and supported by Saudi Arabia. But this audacious argument ignores reality, writes Daniel Lazare. By Daniel Lazare Just nine days after…

Selective Outrage on ‘Terrorism’

America’s view of “terrorism” is distorted by politics and bias, with intense hostility toward the Islamic variety but with much more tolerance of other forms, such as Cuban “anti-communist” violence and right-wing extremist murders, as underscored by a new study examined by ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. By Paul R. Pillar Many misconceptions about terrorism prevail…

Shaking Off the Symbols of Racism

A century and a half after the Civil War, many U.S. politicians still pander to Confederate sympathizers and hesitate to object to the South’s racist symbols, an attitude shaken by the murders of nine African-Americans in a Charleston church, as William Loren Katz describes. By William Loren Katz The Confederate flag represents a threat to citizens of…

Forgetting Reagan’s Worst Scandal

The mainstream U.S. media shies from direct criticism of conservative icon Ronald Reagan, so the history of the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages deal often gets forgotten even amid discussions about the U.S. policy against negotiating with terrorists, as Sam Husseini notes. By Sam Husseini Much of the media has been abuzz with President Barack Obama’s announcement that,…

Turkey’s Troubling War on Syria

In Syria, the war to overthrow the secular government in Damascus has attracted Islamic militants from around the world, but they have relied on funding and support from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and – perhaps most importantly – Turkey, where an election reflected growing popular resistance to this war policy, writes Rick Sterling. By Rick Sterling…

War on Whistleblowers, After Obama

The war on whistleblowers has injected fear of prosecution into all honest communications between national security officials and reporters, meaning that the public instead gets a steady diet of U.S. government lies, propaganda and self-serving rhetoric, a problem addressed by John Hanrahan. By John Hanrahan Here’s the thing about President Barack Obama’s war on whistleblowers:…

Was Race a Factor in Sterling Case?

President Obama’s war on whistleblowers grinds on with ex-CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling dispatched to a federal prison in Colorado, far from his home and family. In Sterling’s case, there’s also the disturbing issue of race, as Norman Solomon explains. By Norman Solomon Last week CIA whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling went to prison. If he were white,…

The Nitwits Are in Charge

Exclusive: Pundit Thomas Friedman laments that the new Cold War isn’t funny enough for him, but there really isn’t anything funny about the U.S. plunging into an unnecessary nuclear showdown with Russia over Ukraine while Friedman and his fellow VIPs misreport what’s happening, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry Sometimes I wonder if today’s crop of U.S. pundits and…

Why Turkey’s Erdogan Stumbled

In his rise to power, Turkish President Erdogan won popular support by showing independence in foreign affairs but then got caught up in his own grand ambitions, including support for violent “regime change” in Syria, setting the stage for an electoral rebuke, as ex-CIA official Graham E. Fuller explains. By Graham E. Fuller It was welcome…

NYT’s Orwellian View of Ukraine

Exclusive: In the up-is-down Orwellian world that is now The New York Times’ editorial page, there was no coup in Ukraine in 2014, no U.S.-driven “regime change,” no provocation on Russia’s border, just Moscow’s aggression — a sign of how propaganda has taken over mainstream U.S. media, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry In George Orwell’s…

Pravda Smacks Down US Media on Gun Control Propaganda In Aftermath of Charleston Shooting

Gun Control Propaganda

Yes you heard me correctly. Take off your blinders and listen up. Pravda…I said Pravda, a Russian newspaper got it absolutely right about the deceit and lies disseminated by the media and our elected politicians in the immediate aftermath of the Charleston shootings. There is no evidence to support some tsunami of violent behavior occurring in the US.

Twice as many people have been killed by drunk drivers in the last 30 years but you hear no one calling for liquor to be made illegal. This and many other such attempts are nothing less than the elites determined and relentless plan to disarm the american republic.

From the Russian article you will read the following quote- “The inconvenient reality regarding the true nature of violence and its relationship with guns is entirely sidestepped by the gun control agenda, primarily because the gun control agenda is about disarming the American public thus removing an obstacle toward totalitarianism, not to preserve innocent lives.”  How many people in America believe that a Russian newspaper could be a receptacle of truth when our own media has been co-opted by the powers that be to disseminate only that which agrees with their agenda; such is the upside down world we live in.

Chaos in the US: Mass Shootings vs Propaganda

Via english.pravda.ru In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, a familiar, shameful charade of exploitation unfolded yet again, seeking to reassert the “gun control” agenda amid both national public opinion and across America’s legislative bodies.

Yet the engineered, concerted, deceitful propaganda campaign launched by the corporate media and America’s political circles fails to put into perspective the recent shooting and the greater “gun control” debate.

Instead, a mad rush has ensued to exploit anger, sorrow, and fear to once again attempt to snatch from responsible Americans their right to bear arms based on the criminal actions of a single individual.

574 people have been killed in mass shootings for the last 30 years. However, 10,076 citizens are reported killed by drunk drivers. That is about 20 times more people killed in a single year due to drunk driving than in the past 30 years due to mass shootings.

When comparing two nations, the United Kingdom and Japan, whose populations are for all intents and purposes “disarmed,” we still find immense, seemingly inexplicable disparity in the number of homicides. Despite both nations being disarmed and having almost no “gun-related homicides,” according to UN statistics, Japan and the UK still have an astronomical gap in homicide rates. Why?

A visit to either country reveals an entirely different culture, education system, infrastructure, and socioeconomic paradigm. This is why despite Japan having a much larger population, even total homicides are lower than the comparatively more violent but less populated United Kingdom – with homicide rates in the UK nearly 3 times higher than those in Japan.

According to the UN’s study, which includes the most recent annual data available, Japan, with a population of roughly 130 million, had a mere 506 homicides over the stretch of a single year. Conversely, the UK, with less than half of Japan’s population (53 million) had 722 homicides.

The United States suffers from more poverty, more disparity in income, more blight and stagnation across its economy and education system – particularly in the inner city and the south – than even the UK. This is why the United States is more violent than other industrialized nations, not because of the availability of weapons.

The inconvenient reality regarding the true nature of violence and its relationship with guns is entirely sidestepped by the gun control agenda, primarily because the gun control agenda is about disarming the American public thus removing an obstacle toward totalitarianism, not to preserve innocent lives.

More on the Presstitute US Media

Paul Craig Roberts has a lot to say about the corrupt US media. Despite sterling credentials he has been completely blackballed and silenced from any main stream media appearances quite literally because he is a truth teller. If you are an American who is interested in the truth, this should disturb you. In a recent article he laments the following,

“It is such an unequal fight that I wonder at my participation. My participation has reduced my income and my social acceptance in influential circles. Try to imagine a former Wall Street Journal editor and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury who cannot publish in the mainstream media or appear on a TV program, except to be denounced in absentia.”

Read his latest article entitled “To fight or Not To Fight” and let him know that Americans are waking up even if it is only a tenth.  Total control of the media has taken place in the last decade or so and it is wise to listen to those who have no compelling financial interest or have suffered financially for the sake of speaking the truth. Paul Craig Roberts and other like him have shipwrecked careers to preserve their own integrity. They stand in contrast to the sellouts who enrich themselves to supervise and preside over the the country’s demise while defrauding and bankrupting the little guys who make America.

The post Pravda Smacks Down US Media on Gun Control Propaganda In Aftermath of Charleston Shooting appeared first on PropagandaGuard.

America’s ‘Exceptional’ Negotiations

America has a strange idea about international negotiations: It makes demands and the other side must capitulate or face crushing penalties if not violent “regime change.” This strange attitude is threatening the Iran-nuclear talks and endangering real U.S. national interests, writes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. By Paul R. Pillar One of the unfortunate corollaries of…

The Dangers of Religious Primitivism

By stirring up the Middle East – from Western exploitation of oil to Zionist expulsion of Palestinians – Christians and Jews set in motion today’s “clash of civilizations” with Islam and launched all three religions on a path toward dangerous primitivism, a threat to humanity’s future, writes Lawrence Davidson. By Lawrence Davidson Prior to the Eighteenth…

Facing America’s Great Evils

Exclusive: A 21-year-old white supremacist is charged with entering an historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, and murdering nine black parishioners, merging two of America’s great evils – gun violence and racial injustice. But what can be done, asks Robert Parry. By Robert Parry The latest gun massacre – this time at a historic…

The Pentagon’s War Reluctance

Despite Republican pressure and State Department hawkishness, the Pentagon and the White House remain reluctant to dive deeper into the fight against the Islamic State, wishing to avoid U.S. combat casualties, writes Gareth Porter for Middle East Eye. By Gareth Porter The story published in the Washington Post on June 13 shows how the U.S. military service chiefs –…

Hillary Clinton’s Sincerity Question

As Hillary Clinton talks up her commitment to economic and social justice, the big question for Democrats is: Does she means what she says or is she just mouthing words to block challengers from her left, as Bill Moyers and Michael Winship explain. By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship “Perfect! Perfect!” exclaimed a woman looking…

Obama’s Libya Fiasco

Exclusive: With Libya’s bloody “regime change” in 2011, the Obama administration and its European allies opened the door to anarchy and now the emergence of another Islamic State terror affiliate, but chaos and indecision continue to dominate the West’s reaction to the crisis, says Andres Cala. By Andres Cala U.S. Marines are expanding the U.S.…

The Rush to a New Cold War

The U.S. government and news media have jumped back into Cold War attitudes since early 2014 when a U.S.-backed coup overthrew Ukraine’s elected president and prompted countermoves by Russia, setting the stage for a potential nuclear showdown, as journalist Robert Parry discussed with Dennis J. Bernstein. By Dennis J. Bernstein A new Cold War has taken…

The Pope’s Global Warming Warning

Jeb Bush and Rick Santorum are among the Catholic Republicans who have cited Church teachings on abortion as guiding their political positions, but now are objecting to Pope Francis issuing an encyclical on the dangers of global warming, notes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. By Paul R. Pillar Pope Francis’s encyclical On Care For Our…

Can US Stop Enabling Israel?

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is like the drunken friend demanding the car keys as he staggers toward his own destruction and that of others – a condition that requires the United States to intervene to stop his dangerous and reckless behavior, writes Alon Ben-Meir. By Alon Ben-Meir No one can deny the close, abiding and…

Belief In Unscientific Myth Result of Educational Indoctrination- American Style

New study reinforces what we already know…educational indoctrination works and is very powerful lasting for decades if it is paired with previous negative attitudes. Which should bring up questions about education here in the US, Why are we letting the state indoctrinate our children for 8 hours a day for years on end in the name of education? Nazi propaganda with its racist overtones is more directly unsettling but propaganda in the US school system is insidious, relentless and pervasive.  Consider the following poll results from Pew Research

“People with the most education are the most likely to say that gays and lesbians were born that way. Indeed, 58% of Americans with a postgraduate degree say that people are born gay or lesbian, compared with just 35% of those with a high school diploma or less.”, even though this statement lacks scientific proof despite years of being aggressively researched by the most militant activists.

“The percentage of all Americans who believe that people are born gay or lesbian has roughly doubled(from 20% to 41%) since 1985, when the question was asked in a Los Angeles Times survey.”

I will certainly concede that this may be an effect of the positive portrayals in the media, but as the poll shows, the more education one has consumed the more likely that person is to agree to a completely unscientific myth. Check out N.A.R.T.H for the latest research on the origins of gay behavior. While Ben Carson was laughed off air with his comment that being gay is a choice, he was actually correct. Heritability is only 11% in men and 14% in women that are identical twins.

The  problem with these anti-science trends is that are likely to last for decades as the German study reflects and impact other issues.

Take for example the issue of gay marriage. During an oral argument March 26, 2013 Justice Scalia asked this question.

Justice Scalia:  “When did it become unconstitutional to prohibit gays from marrying?…  Was it always unconstitutional?”

Ted Olson:  “It was [un]constitutional when we — as a culture determined that sexual orientation is a characteristic of individuals that they cannot control…”

Justice Scalia:  “I see. When did that happen?…”

Ted Olson:  “There’s no specific date in time.  This is an evolutionary cycle.”

As Ted Olson counsel for the government correctly states, sexual orientation has never been definitively determined to be outside the control of the individual (i.e. genetically determined like blue eye color)

H.L Mencken said this back in April 1924 in The American Mercury, ” That erroneous assumption is … that the aim of public education is to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence…Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals  as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to  put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States, whatever the pretensions of politicians, pedagogues, and other such mountebanks, and that is its aim everywhere else. ”  So what was the foolish reason that your children are still in public school?

Racist legacy: Nazi propaganda had lifetime effect on German children, scientists find RT News

Germans who attended school during the Nazi era are likely to be far more anti-Semitic than those who grew up before or after that period, a new study by US and Swiss scientists says.

Scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the University of Zurich studied the long-lasting impact of Nazi propaganda on children who grew up during the Third Reich, and found that this propaganda had a life-long influence on their views and beliefs.

“Nazi indoctrination – in school, through propaganda, and in youth organizations – successfully instilled strongly anti-Semitic attitudes in the cohorts that grew up under the Nazi regime, and that the differential effect is still visible today, more than half a century after the fall of the Third Reich,” Voigtlaender and Voth said.

“It’s not just that Nazi schooling worked, that if you subject people to a totalitarian regime during their formative years it will influence the way their mind works. The striking thing is that it doesn’t go away afterward,” Voth added.

“The extent to which Nazi schooling worked depended crucially on whether the overall environment where children grew up was already a bit anti-Semitic,” said Voth. “It tells you that indoctrination can work, it can last to a surprising extent, but the way it works has to be compatible to something people already believe.” Via rt.com

The post Belief In Unscientific Myth Result of Educational Indoctrination- American Style appeared first on PropagandaGuard.

Here’s how to contact me for speaking requests

There have been an influx of people requesting me for speaking engagements recently. I’m excited for the opportunity to come and be apart of so many different sorts of events, but I want to remind everyone about the process so that you don’t get lost in the shuffle.

Please follow THIS link and fill out the form. Provide as much information as possible. I’m just one guy, so sometimes it takes me a few days to respond, but I will get back to you.

I look forward to hearing from you.

The post Here’s how to contact me for speaking requests appeared first on The Matt Walsh Blog.

Fiddling While the World Burns

In the mid-to-late 1970s, the U.S. began grappling with the energy crisis as Jimmy Carter pushed investments in alternative energies and called for conservation, but then Ronald Reagan arrived on the scene. Now, the world faces a much greater crisis, says David William Pear. By David William Pear The United States has no limit on the…

Stumbling into a New Cold War

U.S. expansion of NATO up to Russia’s borders and last year’s U.S.-backed coup in Ukraine have drawn reactions from Moscow and now counter-reactions from Washington, including a plan to preposition U.S. military hardware in the Baltic States. But is that the best option, asks ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. By Paul R. Pillar The U.S. Department…

Explaining Myself

Exclusive: U.S. government propagandists know that the best way to get Americans to support a war is to get them despising and laughing at some “designated villain,” though the technique applies to more mundane cases, too. That’s when journalists should step in but often they just pile on, says Robert Parry. By Robert Parry In my four…

Explaining the Ukraine Crisis

Spurred on by neocons and liberal war hawks, the Obama administration lurches toward a dangerous escalation of tensions with nuclear-armed Russia, while the American people are again fed a steady diet of propaganda – that is challenged by a new book on the Ukraine crisis, reviewed by David Swanson. By David Swanson I’m not sure…

The Hollow ‘Free-Trade’ Promises

Official Washington has long embraced “free-market” mantras, whether bank deregulation or fast-track trade bills promising prosperity for all. But the promises have been hollow, hollowing out the Middle Class and now causing problems for President Obama’s Pacific trade deal, write Bill Moyers and Bernard Weisberger. By Bill Moyers and Bernard Weisberger Pro-democracy forces won a big victory Friday when they stalled…

Samantha Power: Liberal War Hawk

Exclusive: Liberal interventionist Samantha Power – along with neocon allies – appears to have prevailed in the struggle over how President Obama will conduct his foreign policy in his last months in office, promoting aggressive strategies that will lead to more death and destruction, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry Propaganda and genocide almost always go hand…

The Bush Dynasty’s Back Story

From Editor Robert Parry: With Jeb Bush’s hat in the ring, one could say the Bush Family doesn’t want all the U.S. presidencies, just the odd-numbered ones, with Jeb shooting for “45” to go with his dad’s “41” and his brother’s “43.” But there is a hidden back story to the Bush Dynasty that must be told. The trilogy of…

In Case You Missed…

Some of our special stories from May focused on powerful institutions abusing their authority by making exaggerated, dubious or false allegations to justify punitive actions – from the U.S. government to the mainstream media to the NFL – while often covering up their own offenses and hypocrisies. “The Lasting Pain from Vietnam Silence” by Ray McGovern,…

NFL’s ‘Deflategate’ Findings ‘Unreliable’

Exclusive: The widespread hatred of the New England Patriots and quarterback Tom Brady explains the public support for the NFL’s harsh penalties in “Deflategate,” but independent statistical experts have found the NFL’s findings in the case to be “deeply flawed” and “unreliable,” writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry A new report on the NFL’s “Deflategate” controversy – by statistical experts…

The Saga of Cesar Chavez

Exclusive: The teaming up of United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez and Sen. Robert Kennedy marked an important moment in the fight for the rights of Latinos in America, a time in history brought to life by a film biography of Chavez’s life, says James DiEugenio. By James DiEugenio In 1996, with great fanfare – and…

Standing Up for Truth and Ben Franklin

Because of the excessive secrecy exercised by the U.S. government, whistleblowing has become a necessity for American democracy, a reality that struck home to former FBI official Coleen Rowley and other whistleblowers as they encountered Benjamin Franklin’s words in Germany. By Coleen Rowley Our recent “Stand Up for Truth” whirlwind speaking tour through London, Oslo…

A Rare Defeat for the Israel Lobby

In a rare rebuke to the powerful Israel Lobby, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a congressional encroachment on presidential powers regarding the official status of Jerusalem. Even some right-wing justices turned on each other, as ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar explains. By Paul R. Pillar The Supreme Court’s decision this month in Zivotofsky v.…

U.S. House Admits Nazi Role in Ukraine

Exclusive: The U.S. House of Representatives has admitted an ugly truth that the U.S. mainstream media has tried to hide from the American people – that the post-coup regime in Ukraine has relied heavily on Nazi storm troopers to carry out its bloody war against ethnic Russians, reports Robert Parry. By Robert Parry Last February, when ethnic Russian…

Hiding Facts to Thwart Democracy

Over-classification of U.S. government information is a grave threat to the Republic, giving politicians and bureaucrats the power to hide facts that aren’t really sensitive but are vital to a meaningful public debate, such as the IG report on President Bush’s surveillance program, says ex-NSA analyst Kirk Wiebe. By Kirk Wiebe A few weeks ago, as the result of a…

Jeb Bush’s Tangled Past

Special Report: As Jeb Bush prepares to announce his presidential candidacy, he’s mostly viewed as the smarter and less dangerous Bush brother, but he has his own tangled history of dubious business deals and unsavory associates, writes Chelsea Gilmour. By Chelsea Gilmour Making lots of money was very important to Jeb Bush. In 1983, he…

The Bush Family ‘Oiligarchy’

From the Archive: The past often is prologue — making it especially important to know how a politician built his career and who helped him. In 2000, too little attention was paid to George W. Bush’s personal history and how it might shape his disastrous presidency, a void that Sam Parry tried to fill. By Sam Parry…

WPost Plays Ukraine’s Lapdog

Exclusive: Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yatsenyuk and Finance Minister Jaresko are on a U.S. trip to drum up weapons and money to crush the ethnic Russian resistance in the east – and they are finding a lapdog U.S. press that won’t ask them tough questions, reports Robert Parry. By Robert Parry There once was a time when the…

Dear Gawker, Jesus hates it when you lie about him

Yesterday I shared the hit piece Gawker published about me, titled: “Jesus would hate this Christian blogger just as much as you do.” It seems to have gone pretty viral, with some 1500 comments and over 270 thousand visitors to the page. Good for them. Glad I could be of service. If I stopped to think about it I might be insulted that a post about why I’m a horrible person would become so instantly popular, but I remind myself that Jesus told us we would be hated by the world. I guess, considering the platform and audience I’ve been blessed with, it would be a troubling sign if I wasn’t hated by a large number of people.

Anyway, I decided to write a response to their article. There are two reasons why I made this decision, despite the fact that I rarely respond to these kinds of posts:

1) Debating these issues is basically what I do for a living. If a prominent website calls me to the mat, I’m not going to run away from the challenge.

2) More importantly, this wasn’t just a diatribe insulting me. This was a lengthy and vicious assault on Jesus, starting with the claim that he “hates” people, and continuing throughout the piece by insisting that Jesus was, among other things, a radical feminist who supported gay marriage and “transgenderism.”

The writer, Jennifer, is using Jesus to attack me, and in so doing, she has committed a number of vile heresies. Worst of all, these are heresies that are gaining popularity in America’s various apostate churches. You and I might read her assertion that Jesus overturned the tables in the temple to protest “income inequality,” or that Jesus endorsed Bruce Jenner’s “transition” when he mentioned eunuchs, but others — sheep in the flock who are not so theologically equipped — are often taken in by these lies and, if they never see the light, ultimately doomed to Hell by them.

So here is my response. Make sure you stick through until the end. That’s where I get to the primary heresy in this piece — which is also the primary and most dangerous heresy in our culture — that God wants us to “live the way we want.”

That is, in the end, the first, last and only progressive commandment, and it stands entirely at odds with literally every single thing Jesus ever said. It’s a lie, and although Jesus doesn’t hate people, even dumb bloggers like myself, he does hate lies:

Click here.

The post Dear Gawker, Jesus hates it when you lie about him appeared first on The Matt Walsh Blog.

Barack Obama: No Jack Kennedy

Exclusive: A half century ago – at the peak of the Cold War – President Kennedy appealed to humankind’s better nature in a daring overture to Soviet leaders, a gamble that brought bans on nuclear testing and a safer world, a bravery that President Obama can’t seem to muster, says ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern. By…

The Saudi Finger-pointing at Iran

Parroting Israel and Saudi Arabia, much of Official Washington blames Iran for the current instability across the Mideast, but that may rank as one of the most inside-out explanations imaginable, as Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett explain. By Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett Riyadh’s increasingly destructive war in Yemen has sparked overripe discussion in…

Israel Seeks to Criminalize Criticism

Facing growing condemnation for anti-Palestinian racism, Israel has gone from accusing its critics of anti-Semitism to exploring ways to criminalize a boycott movement intended to create a real democracy for Jews and Arabs, writes Lawrence Davidson. By Lawrence Davidson From the 1920s on into the 1990s, the Zionists controlled the storyline in the West on the Israel-Palestine…

Obama’s Stupid Propaganda Stuff

Exclusive: Just last month, President Obama dispatched Secretary of State Kerry to secure Russian President Putin’s help in addressing the Syrian crisis and other world hotspots – but despite Putin’s agreement, Obama has reversed himself and is back hurling insults at the Russians, a troubling development, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry President Barack Obama…

The Demonization of Iran

Ever since Iran made it on to the neocon “regime change” list, its actions have been put through the special prism of demonization that is reserved for U.S. “enemies.” Now, those exaggerations and distortions are obstructing an agreement to constrain Iran’s nuclear program, writes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. By Paul R. Pillar As the…

Cold War II to McCarthyism II

Exclusive: With Cold War II in full swing, the New York Times is dusting off what might be called McCarthyism II, the suggestion that anyone who doesn’t get in line with U.S. propaganda must be working for Moscow, reports Robert Parry. By Robert Parry Perhaps it’s no surprise that the U.S. government’s plunge into Cold…

Israel’s ‘Legitimacy’ War

There are legitimate questions about the legitimacy of Israel’s endless repression of the Palestinian people, but Israel and its backers have now declared such questions illegitimate as they mount a new a propaganda war against Israel’s “delegitimization,” says John V. Whitbeck. By John V. Whitbeck June 5 marked the 48th anniversary of the “preemptive” attack on Egypt…

Right-Wing Assault on the Constitution

The right-wing majority on the U.S. Supreme Court claims to believe in “originalism,” what the Constitution’s Framers intended. Yet, partisanship often trumps this supposed principle, including a case that could redefine “representation” to apply only to “voters,” as William John Cox explains. By William John Cox The U.S. Supreme Court’s acceptance of a case about…

Obama’s ‘G-1-plus-6′

Exclusive: As much as President Obama needs President Putin’s help on Syria, Iran and other global hotspots, he has fallen in line behind U.S. hardliners in seeking to ratchet up the confrontation over Ukraine and now is trying to bring the Europeans along at the G-7, writes ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern. By Ray McGovern The “G-7…

On TV, the Enemy We’ve Met

Exclusive: Popular TV shows can reflect the public mood, especially when they address existing fears like the “War on Terror.” Attitudes evolved from the post-9/11 revenge fantasies of “24” to the more ambivalent narratives of “Homeland” and even historical spy series like “The Americans,” says Patrick Cribben. By Patrick Cribben Trends in spy narratives that gain traction in…

Killing the Black Panthers

In the 1960s, the U.S. government – as well as state and local authorities – waged a war against the Black Panthers and other militants who were challenging white racism. The repression included sabotage and outright murder, a grim reality recalled in a new documentary, writes David Finkelstein. By David Finkelstein As someone who in…

NFL and The Pentagon: Shameless Testimonial Propaganda Or Harmless Advertising?

Shameless testimonial propaganda or harmless advertising?  Testimonial propaganda is using the endorsement or testimony of an individual or organization to enhance or influence the credibility of the thing being endorsed. In this case the Pentagon is using the credibility of the the NFL to endorse military service and service people through what looks to be an authentic act of appreciation.

The recently exposed news that this act was purchased by the Pentagon and teams paid millions of dollars to conduct this carefully constructed stagecraft is particularly disconcerting. Authentic acts of heart-felt tribute have meaning to the all the participants involved. Paid advertisements made to look like heart-felt gestures of appreciation and endorsement are nothing less than shameless propaganda.

As the title of a Salon article suggests, the military is buying patriotism; spending extravagantly on propaganda during the very time period that they were exposed as drastically short-changing veterans in need of medical care at the VA.

Propaganda that is needed, by the way, to prop up an institution whose goal is no longer to defend America but to engage in countless unconstitutional conflicts in the service of global corporate masters whose true agendas are hidden. Our military has become a mercenary fighting force paid for by the American taxpayer. Ceremonious half-time celebrations by the NFL help support the illusion of patriotism and the America we once knew.

 

The military is buying patriotism: A Memorial Day nightmare about Pentagon budgets and veterans used as a sideshow

The New Jersey Star-Ledger reports that from 2011 to 2014, the Department of Defense paid 14 NFL teams a total $5.4 million, while the National Guard paid 11 teams $5.3 million, to “honor America’s heroes” before football games, and during halftime shows. Not every NFL ceremony was part of the pay to play scam, but many of those maudlin, red, white and blue salutes to the soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors, complete with jet plane fly overs, marching bands and giant banners were no different than the advertisements for Coca-Cola or Viagra.

Regardless of how one feels about lionizing the military, it is distasteful, and indicative of America’s cultural collapse that the NFL jumps at the opportunity to take millions of taxpayer dollars to exploit a genuine affection and gratitude many Americans feel for veterans to rehabilitate its own image, present itself as not a money printing machine destroying the brains of its players, but a company of patriotic virtue. Sincerity and authenticity no longer exist in America, because everything from the cheaply vulgar to the seemingly sacred, wears a price tag. Capitalism triumphs over culture when it sublimates everything into commerce, and when it morphs every interaction into a transaction.

When the Pentagon enlists the NFL in a propaganda campaign to transform America into Sparta, it equivocates war with football.

Gore Vidal once taught a political science course in a single sentence: “The only subject that a mature people in a so-called republic should be interested in is who collects what money, to spend on what, for whom.”

America is no longer a republic in political procedure nor is it truly democratic in cultural practice. It is a militarized economy and a garrison state. Fifty five percent of discretionary spending from the federal government goes to the military.  Read more…

The post NFL and The Pentagon: Shameless Testimonial Propaganda Or Harmless Advertising? appeared first on PropagandaGuard.

Obama’s Big Lie on Syria

Exclusive: Despite the risk that Syria’s Christians, Alawites and Shiites will be slaughtered by Sunni extremists, the Obama administration is backing the Saudi-Israeli demand for “regime change” in Damascus, including tweeting bogus accusations linking Syria’s secular regime to ISIS, writes Daniel Lazare. By Daniel Lazare Although its doors have been closed since 2012, the U.S. embassy in Damascus has…

More Wrenches into Iran-Nuke Deal

Even as the Saudi-Israeli alliance against Iran fuels Sunni jihadist gains in Syria and elsewhere, neocon operatives are pressing on another front, continuing to hurl wrenches into the final Iran-nuclear negotiations, as Gareth Porter explains at Middle East Eye. By Gareth Porter In the final phase of the negotiations with Iran, the U.S.-led international coalition…

The Oversold ‘USA Freedom Act’

Some civil liberties groups praised the USA Freedom Act for its modest nips at the Surveillance State, but whistleblowers from inside the U.S. government were more skeptical about the law’s very slight accomplishments, writes Norman Solomon. By Norman Solomon The morning after final passage of the USA Freedom Act, while some foes of mass surveillance…

PBS Gets in Line on Syrian War

PBS’s “Frontline” has long sought to position itself within the elite conventional wisdom – following the lead of liberal interventionists at the New Yorker and the New York Times – while also careful not to provoke the wrath of powerful politicians. So it marched in lockstep on Syria, as Rick Sterling explains. By Rick Sterling Frontline is an…

Sleepwalking to Another Mideast Disaster

Exclusive: Denied crucial information about Syria, the American people are being led toward the precipice of another Middle East war, guided by neocons and liberal hawks who are set on “regime change” even if that means a likely victory for Sunni terrorists, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry If sanity ruled U.S. foreign policy, American…

How Reagan’s Propaganda Succeeded

From the Archive: The U.S. political/media system is awash in propaganda drowning any rational debate about crucial foreign policy issues. But how did that happen? A key turning point was the Reagan administration’s pushback against public skepticism over Vietnam and CIA scandals of the 1970s, Robert Parry wrote in 2010. By Robert Parry (Originally published on March 8, 2010)…

Dolores Huerta and the Struggle

The struggle for social justice is never easy, as United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta knows full well. Many of the problems – from lack of independent media to policy brutality – remain the same as communities seek solutions to the challenges that they face, Huerta told Dennis J. Bernstein. By Dennis J. Bernstein Dolores Huerta,…

NYT’s New Propaganda on Syria

Exclusive: The New York Times’ new conspiracy theory about Syria is that the Assad regime is in cahoots with the Islamic State, calling those two bitter foes only “nominal enemies” and using this new story to implicitly push for another U.S.-imposed “regime change,” writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry As the New York Times continues its descent…

Swimming Left, into the Mainstream

Despite pundits dismissing Sen. Bernie Sanders’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, he is drawing big and enthusiastic crowds who seem eager for ideas about rebuilding the middle class and ending plutocracy, as Bill Moyers and Michael Winship note. By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship Congressman John K. Delaney, what the hell are you talking…

An Urgent Reassessment of Jesus

Many Christian churches opt for comforting their parishioners – with reassuring ceremonies, banal sermons and even appeals to popular nationalistic sentiments – rather than challenging them with the tough calls from Jesus for social justice, a grave failure, says Rev. Howard Bess. By the Rev. Howard Bess Our knowledge of the Jesus of history is growing rapidly…

Neocon Fugitive Given Ukraine Province

Exclusive: Ukraine’s President Poroshenko has tapped another international “carpetbagger” to rule his people, ex-Georgian President Saakashvili, a neocon hero wanted in his homeland for embezzlement and human rights abuses who now governs Odessa, reports Robert Parry. By Robert Parry The latest political move by the U.S.-backed “pro-democracy” regime in Ukraine was to foist on the people of Odessa the…

Calling Bruce Jenner a woman is an insult to women

I mean every word of what I’m about to say: that Vanity Fair picture of Bruce Jenner dressed like a woman is a monstrosity.

And before you lecture me for using that word, read what I have to say. Keep in mind, the picture isn’t real. It’s part digital, part makeup, part silicone, part camera trick, and part cosmetic surgery. It’s not an authentic image of anything or anyone. It’s a fiction, and the fiction is horrifying.

We’re told this is Bruce’s “new self,” but he can’t have a new self. He has only one self, and the self he has is a he, no matter how much plastic surgery he gets or how many trashy lingerie outfits he parades around, but our society seems to have lost sight of this fact.

Indeed, everyone is treating a disturbing Photoshopped picture of a mentally disordered grandfather dressed up as a college girl like it’s mankind’s greatest achievement since spaceflight. Once again, there is a virtually unanimous public agreement that “transgender” people like Bruce Jenner are heroes and saints and and messiahs, and should be worshiped.

The truth is, I get so sickened and infuriated by this kind of madness that I’d prefer, for my own mental health, to ignore it and write about something else. But there is a war for reality happening right now, and from what I can tell, conservatives have almost entirely abandoned the battlefield. They don’t want to touch this issue. They claim it isn’t important, but really they’re just terrified of the backlash.

There are many different points that need to be made, and I try to cover them all here. One that I particularly concentrate on is the fact that it is, without a doubt, incredibly insulting and demeaning to women to call this mockery of femininity “female.” Being a woman is about more than having a pointy chin and wearing a corset. If I were a woman (which I’m not and never could be), I would be especially angry at the notion that a wealthy celebrity man can essentially buy his way into my sex.

That’s one part of this equation, but there’s plenty more to be said. Read and, if you can take the heat, share:

Click here.

The post Calling Bruce Jenner a woman is an insult to women appeared first on The Matt Walsh Blog.

Israel and the Water Card

The New York Times hailed Israel’s ingenuity in addressing its water needs, but played down how Israel exploits its military domination to divert water away from Palestinians and to Israelis, as ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar explains. By Paul R. Pillar Israel is the object of widespread admiration for its economic and technical accomplishments and the…