The Police State vs. The Muslim Brotherhood

Thomas Secrest
15 Aug 2013
Prague, CZ

The Police State vs. The Muslim Brotherhood

It's not very often that we really have to acknowledge that you don't know who to support in a dispute. We may talk about this kind of thing happening on a theoretical basis, but it just doesn't happen very often.

Egyptians came a long way to get rid of Mubarak and to a certain degree they were lucky that the military had allowed a vote to go forward. The military had little to gain and a lot to lose by sitting quietly while the country experimented with democracy.

At least in the near-term I'm sure the military was planning to retain much of their power, while letting citizens enjoy a fair amount of increases personal freedom and liberty. This wouldn't have been a perfect solution and in time the tyranny at the heart of every police state would have had to be thrown off. Whether it could have been done in a more or less peaceful way is anyone's guess. We'll never know.

Unfortunately the Egyptians never got a chance to experience the freedoms and liberties they came so close to having. Instead, through the use of smoke, mirrors and the ballot box, a group of men calling themselves the Muslim Brotherhood took power.

Through ignorance and arrogance they started to create their Islamic state. A state which, if it had gone unchecked, would have been at least as bad and perhaps worse than the Mubarak government. An Islamic state cannot be a democracy and it is regrettable that the world watched and endorsed elections of people who by their nature and religion are anti-democratic. When it comes to what GOD wants, there are usually no options and voting is out of the question.

When Christopher Hitchens wrote "How Religion Poisons Everything" he had no idea how completely Egypt was going to prove his point. In recent history there may be no more glaring example of a situation in which religion grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory.

Those who thought that god spoke to them and had told them how all people should live, rushed in and dashed the precious ember of liberty with the bitter fluid that drips from documents such as the Koran; all while those too childish, too cowardly or too stupid to know better, stood by and cheered. The Islamic sheep of Egypt voted in huge numbers for those who would lead them, by the nose as slaves, into to the promise land.

The military will think twice before experimenting with liberty and democracy again and the Egyptian people, who had fought so hard for liberty and won so much, will once again live with boots on their necks.

Which boots are better? If I had to pick, and I'm glad I don't, I guess I would go with military boots.

Perhaps the meek will inherit the earth, however, it is fairly clear that the sheep shall not.

Doing The Wrong Thing

Prague, CZ
3 Aug. 2013
Thomas Secrest

Doing The Wrong Thing

I was listening to the BBC today. The subject was the trial of Bradley Manning. I listened to a similar program on the BBC a few days ago as well. In total, 6 guests, (who I call the Manning 6) with a variety of political leanings discussed the verdict in the trial. Some were supporters, some not, but they all agreed that the judge did the right thing is dismissing the treason charge. In fact that were almost giddy in their support of the judge, who won high praise from all.

It was both sad and disappointing.

Since I don't know these people, I am going to give them all the benefit of the doubt. I am going to assume that they failed to realize they were being led around by the nose, all the while saying "thank you."

Consider this example:

Suppose you decide to risk jay-walking. You look both ways and when you think it is safe you dart across the street. To your surprise, you are spotted by a police officer who rushes towards you. Oh well, you think; I guess I'm going to get a ticket.  You are about to offer a friendly greeting when the officer shoots you with a Taser gun, ZAP!, which drops you to the pavement. The officer immediately begins kicking you and hitting you with a baton -- all while yelling at you to stop resisting and comply.

You are arrested and charged with jay-walking, attempted suicide and resisting arrest.

At your trial the judge finds you guilty of jay-walking and resisting arrest and fines you $2000. The judges dismisses the more serious crime of attempted suicide, which could have landed you in the nut house for an unspecified period (i.e. until you were no longer suicidal).

You thank the judge for her/his wisdom, pay your $2000 fine and take your broken nose, broken wrist and broken ribs and exit the court room as quickly as possible.

This is what happened to Manning. Now, the Manning 6, and all the rest of the sheep will have to wait and see if he is treated unfairly and given 130 years in prison, or if he is treat fairly and only given a life sentence.

One Nation Behind Bars

Prague, CZ
1 Aug. 2013
Thomas Secrest

One Nation Behind Bars

It wasn't that long ago that I wrote a piece on arrest rates in America. I wasn't completely surprised that America topped the list, although it was a little disturbing. I looked into it a little further and found that nearly 1 in 3 people are arrested before turning 23. These number make you stop and think -- what kind of society is America, if so many people are arrested each year?

I just didn't want to believe that America was some kind of hell-hole full of degenerate people who do nothing by seek out and break laws, as though it were some kind of national past-time. Part of me assumed that America's famously fair criminal justice system would prevail over, what seemed like mindless, indiscriminate arrests.

So I dug around and found a list of incarceration rates for countries of the world. I had visions of countries like Russia, China, South Africa, Columbia and Mexico being the top five, even it I didn't know the order. However, once again, I was a little surprised. Once again, America topped the list.

The countries in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th positions were a little strange and I can only assume they are there because of some statistical anomaly. In 5th position was Cuba, Russia was 8th, South Africa was 37th, Columbia was 52nd, Mexico was 67th, the Czech Republic was 94th and China was number 124!

Since almost everyone is aware that South Africa and Mexico have a few problems in this area, let me use them as a comparison. America has 2.5 times more prisoners than South Africa and 3.5 times more than Mexico.

This leads me to conclude that America is not a nation of degenerate law breakers, but instead a nation of degenerate law makers and a broken criminal justice system that profits from having people constantly entering and existing America's, extensive, prison system.

The American justice system can make ANYTHING illegal. Right or wrong is not an issue. Once something is illegal, the legislative system determines that penalty and punishment and the criminal justice system finds you guilty. Claiming the law is unconstitutional is a laugh. Even if you could pursue that pathway, you will still spend part of your life in prison as your case slowly works its way through the system.

I put to you these questions:

How much is your freedom worth?
How many years are you willing to spend in prison, for the right to be an American?

If you're not ready to start cutting off heads, then I suggest you tread likely, for you walk among snakes.