Watch some of these if you are a political person. Real good stuff.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1656880303867390173&q=america+freedom+to+fascism&hl=en
http://bullnotbull.blogspot.com/2007/01/secret-government-bill-moyers.html
http://bullnotbull.blogspot.com/2007/02/why-we-fight.html
http://bullnotbull.blogspot.com/2007/02/fiat-money-system-dr-bill-veith-with.html

and http://www.moviesfoundonline.com/

The arguments that the 16th amendment wasn't properly ratified don't hold. It's always a good idea to check the factual accuracy of what such videos present. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_protester_constitutional_arguments#Sixteenth_Amendment_ratification_arguments

I'm watching the second video now (I'd seen the first one before).

Anyway, it's a shame that so few Americans seem to be aware of the true status quo. When you look at the facts, both past and present, you find many blatant contradictions, lies, betrayals of purported values etc. Although I'm sure that many individuals in government and the upper echelons of corporate America truly believe in the founding principles of the nation and the things for which America claims to stand, many more do not. History shows that America has been audaciously hypocritical in many matters.

That said, only the people at the top are in a position to see the way the world really works. Moral principles etc can often be directly antagonistic to the best interests of the nation etc. Sometimes someone has to do the dirty work to protect what others value, even if they have to betray it themselves. Still though, I truly believe that a lot of what goes on behind the scenes serves no other purpose than the interests of a select few.

The problem with democracy is that people are, in general, too indifferent and/or ignorant to ensure that it works.

I was blown away from the fact that the federal reserve is a private bank. It has no right to be there. I feel that going back to a gold standard would fix 99.9% of the economic problems we have here. Someday the dollar is going to collapse. It is because we are borrowing so much money from China.

The deeper you dig, the more you realize that the system envisioned by the founding fathers is in complete decline. The system of checks and balances, the values of republicanism, the prevention of "factions" (i.e. special interest groups, as they were referred to in the Federalist Papers) from gaining disproportionate representation, etc... these things are all being eroded.

The thing that really pisses me off is that history is full of examples of great nations and empires that have followed the same path to decline and fall. The short-term ambitions and greed of each generation of the ones in power is what keeps the nation on that path... and there is nothing to indicate that it will ever change before it's too late.

Ivan wrote:I feel that going back to a gold standard would fix 99.9% of the economic problems we have here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1893

torus wrote:

Ivan wrote:I feel that going back to a gold standard would fix 99.9% of the economic problems we have here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1893

http://www.moviesfoundonline.com/zeitgeist.php

Jump to part 3 - 1:09:17

I would really like everybody to share this video with someone. The entire thing is an amazing video.

BTW: Xeno, your a really cool guy

Ugh... couldn't help noticing the mention of the Zeigeist movie. I'm not a big fan, honestly. Relies too much on just throwing tons of information in your face: first attacks Christianity, then America (9/11), then pretty much the whole world. I actually do think the movie brings up some good points, but I don't like how it just packages everything together as one nice ideology, as if there were no flaws or holes. I believe that there is corruption in government yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean I subscribe to this whole crazy jumbled mess of beliefs that they throw at me. But anyway...

Whenever I watch a documentary or propaganda or any video such as this one, I always keep in mind the fact that with just a little research, I could find people who themselves have a video which supposedly refutes this whole video. So basically don't believe everything you read (watch.)

Yeah, I know. Lots of it is conspiracy theory-type stuff. When I said it was a great movie I was actually referring to the way it was presented. It is a very beautifully orchestrated movie. The only part of the movie, that I know for certain is true, is the illegality of the federal reserve bank. That why I said to just skip ahead to the third part. It is a good explanation as to why none of our politicians are listen to us. Some of the things in that section are not thought through, like the Iraq war being used as a means to gain profit. If you already have the federal reserve bank you don't need to organize a war to make money. I don't believe anybody who says the Iraq war was fought because of greed. No, this is an ideological war.

Gold!

<irony>
Who is John Galt?
</irony>

I have always wondered... how could the US link a terrorist group with a country [Afghanistan] then start a war and get away with it ? That would be like linking ETA with Spain and starting a war against Spain, like linking IRA to Ireland and starting a war against Ireland. They only did so BECAUSE they could start a war then. How do you fight an organization that has spread around the world ? You can't, so you link them to one individual country that nobody else in the world liked very much and pretty much destroy everything that was left of it.

About Iraq, I don't buy the Ideology thing at all. I would sooner think that they feared that Saddam was gonna pop off the earth soon leaving a gap in power in a very volatile region that could very well endanger their grasp on the oil production there. When they fought the first Gulf War they pretty much stopped short of their target when they could already see it. Why did they do that ? Because they only wanted to restore the balance in the region then get the hell out again [a balance that Saddam was shifting in his favor when he started invading other countries]. They only went all the way this time because they had no trust in a stabilized region without long term US presence [or international presence by US agenda].

And whether or not 9/11 was an 'inside job' or not is besides the point that it is now being used to justify a whole range of military actions/wars around the globe. Any western government [including my own] only needs to throw the terrorism card to get away with a lot of crap these days. US foreign agents are arresting and deporting Dutch citizens and my government is too afraid to be the next country on the hit list to even lift a finger. That is world domination my friends, no matter how you try to make nice stories about how much better the world is becoming.

Everybody already knows about Guantanamno Bay, torture practices, etc so I won't bore you anymore with that. But on a smaller scale, did you know that the US made a new law a couple of years ago, that even pretty much went unnoticed here, that in the case of US military personel being tried at The Hague international war crime tribunal that they could legally [well, legal under US law] invade my country, release the accused and transport them to the US. I guess that pretty much sums up how they were planning to fight the wars as well huh.