Democracy is Not the Same as Freedom
You hear the word “democracy” thrown around quite a bit these days. “Democracy is being destroyed in the United States by Donald Trump!!” and “Democracy is being destroyed in the United States by Joe Biden!”
Every time we turn around we are being told that democracy is being destroyed by this or that—in the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, North Korea—oops, they don’t have any democracy to destroy, right? I forgot.
Not only is democracy being destroyed in all of our previously democratic countries, but it is being destroyed in countries that never had democracy, or…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/18/democracy-is-not-the-same-as-freedom/
You hear the word “democracy” thrown around quite a bit these days. “Democracy is being destroyed in the United States by Donald Trump!!” and “Democracy is being destroyed in the United States by Joe Biden!”
Every time we turn around we are being told that democracy is being destroyed by this or that—in the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, North Korea—oops, they don’t have any democracy to destroy, right? I forgot.
Not only is democracy being destroyed in all of our previously democratic countries, but it is being destroyed in countries that never had democracy, or…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/18/democracy-is-not-the-same-as-freedom/
The Killer Instinct
We went to Rat Island to kill, but it was not rats we were after. I was ten years old, as was my companion John. The island lay in the Bronx River just north of the Botanical Gardens in the vast and verdant Bronx Park. It was accessed by a fallen tree trunk and held a dangerous allure. How it got its name we did not know. It wasn’t an official name but was known to all the boys in the neighborhood, whispered like a ghost story in the night. Some said the rats were the size…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/19/the-killer-instinct/
We went to Rat Island to kill, but it was not rats we were after. I was ten years old, as was my companion John. The island lay in the Bronx River just north of the Botanical Gardens in the vast and verdant Bronx Park. It was accessed by a fallen tree trunk and held a dangerous allure. How it got its name we did not know. It wasn’t an official name but was known to all the boys in the neighborhood, whispered like a ghost story in the night. Some said the rats were the size…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/19/the-killer-instinct/
Screams for Billions – A Topical Fantasy
Recently, billionaire Sheryl Sandberg (ex-COO of Meta/Facebook) released a roughly 60-minute film purporting to explore “the sexual violence committed by Hamas on October 7, 2023.” Though denoted a “documentary,” the film (helmed by Israeli director Anat Stalinksy) is in fact a pastiche of falsehoods, debunked claims, slipshod interviewing and unverified Israeli propaganda.
A thorough dissection of the film’s dishonesty is available on Electronic Intifada for anyone who thinks Ms. Sandberg’s concoction worth the trouble. Naturally, Sandberg’s film is simultaneously being apotheosized by the likes of Bret Stephens.
Sandberg says she took the name of her production, Screams Before Silence,…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/19/screams-for-billions-a-topical-fantasy/
Recently, billionaire Sheryl Sandberg (ex-COO of Meta/Facebook) released a roughly 60-minute film purporting to explore “the sexual violence committed by Hamas on October 7, 2023.” Though denoted a “documentary,” the film (helmed by Israeli director Anat Stalinksy) is in fact a pastiche of falsehoods, debunked claims, slipshod interviewing and unverified Israeli propaganda.
A thorough dissection of the film’s dishonesty is available on Electronic Intifada for anyone who thinks Ms. Sandberg’s concoction worth the trouble. Naturally, Sandberg’s film is simultaneously being apotheosized by the likes of Bret Stephens.
Sandberg says she took the name of her production, Screams Before Silence,…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/19/screams-for-billions-a-topical-fantasy/
2024 & the Inevitable Rise of Biometrics
Have you noticed a lot of two-factor authentication prompts lately? Are you getting emailed verification codes that take forever to arrive, so you have to request another?
Perhaps you are asked to do captchas to “prove you’re human” and they seem to be getting more complex all the time or simply not working at all?
Why do you think that might be?
We’ll come back to that.
Did you know we’re in a “breakthrough year” for biometric payment systems?
According to this story from CNBC, JPMorgan and Mastercard are on board with the technology and intend a…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/21/2024-the-inevitable-rise-of-biometrics/
Have you noticed a lot of two-factor authentication prompts lately? Are you getting emailed verification codes that take forever to arrive, so you have to request another?
Perhaps you are asked to do captchas to “prove you’re human” and they seem to be getting more complex all the time or simply not working at all?
Why do you think that might be?
We’ll come back to that.
Did you know we’re in a “breakthrough year” for biometric payment systems?
According to this story from CNBC, JPMorgan and Mastercard are on board with the technology and intend a…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/21/2024-the-inevitable-rise-of-biometrics/
UK General Election Date Announced
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced that the UK’s next General Election will be held on July 4th.
Speaking in the rain outside No 10 less than an hour ago, Sunak confirmed King Charles will dissolve Parliament on May 30th, with the vote coming five weeks later.
The campaigning has already begun, with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer launching into a rather dull speech about “the choice” facing the country.
What does this mean?
Potentially nothing. Potentially something.
The voting will be fixed obviously, that goes without saying these days, and it very much feels…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/22/uk-general-election-date-announced/
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced that the UK’s next General Election will be held on July 4th.
Speaking in the rain outside No 10 less than an hour ago, Sunak confirmed King Charles will dissolve Parliament on May 30th, with the vote coming five weeks later.
The campaigning has already begun, with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer launching into a rather dull speech about “the choice” facing the country.
What does this mean?
Potentially nothing. Potentially something.
The voting will be fixed obviously, that goes without saying these days, and it very much feels…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/22/uk-general-election-date-announced/
Asymmetric Idiocy
I miss the 1970s sometimes. Not just the music. And the sex. And the drugs. I miss the terrorists. The old-school terrorists. Or, OK, maybe not the terrorists, but the revolutionaries who cheered on the terrorists.
I miss the clarity, and the honesty, of that era.
Maybe you’re too young to remember, but, back in the day, you didn’t get all this hemming and hawing about murdering civilians. The terrorists, and the revolutionaries who supported them, were not ashamed of murdering civilians. The Revolution demanded that they murder civilians. Murdering civilians was one of the fundamental strategies of the…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/23/asymmetric-idiocy/
I miss the 1970s sometimes. Not just the music. And the sex. And the drugs. I miss the terrorists. The old-school terrorists. Or, OK, maybe not the terrorists, but the revolutionaries who cheered on the terrorists.
I miss the clarity, and the honesty, of that era.
Maybe you’re too young to remember, but, back in the day, you didn’t get all this hemming and hawing about murdering civilians. The terrorists, and the revolutionaries who supported them, were not ashamed of murdering civilians. The Revolution demanded that they murder civilians. Murdering civilians was one of the fundamental strategies of the…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/23/asymmetric-idiocy/
Maybe better than we did
Now, Godot the raccoon, now aptly named Myrtle-Godot arrived plump and tired and fuzzy at dawn for what would be her morning feed. She laid her cool fingers on my hand and touched me with her cold nose and then she sprawled on her side to eat which I had not seen her do before.
Languidly laying there she reached out and scooped up the kibble at leisure with her little paws. I soon realized why. She was exhausted. There, behind her, five little wee faces. And I thought… I’m in trouble now.
I had been plotting how I…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/24/maybe-better-than-we-did/
Now, Godot the raccoon, now aptly named Myrtle-Godot arrived plump and tired and fuzzy at dawn for what would be her morning feed. She laid her cool fingers on my hand and touched me with her cold nose and then she sprawled on her side to eat which I had not seen her do before.
Languidly laying there she reached out and scooped up the kibble at leisure with her little paws. I soon realized why. She was exhausted. There, behind her, five little wee faces. And I thought… I’m in trouble now.
I had been plotting how I…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/24/maybe-better-than-we-did/
Forwarded from Robin Monotti + Cory Morningstar
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The norm-deviation tolerance test for authoritarianism
If you think about it, you know perfectly well what you’re allowed to say.
You know what most people will nod in agreement with, and what, on the other hand, will amount to a social transgression if it’s spoken out loud.
Of course, in every society, there will be certain things that are not only part of the consensus, but that you just can’t say without committing some kind of faux pas.
All groups will have certain boundaries for acceptable discourse, and there will be fundamental positions, narratives or factual claims they for various reasons really don’t like having…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/25/the-norm-deviation-tolerance-test-for-authoritarianism/
If you think about it, you know perfectly well what you’re allowed to say.
You know what most people will nod in agreement with, and what, on the other hand, will amount to a social transgression if it’s spoken out loud.
Of course, in every society, there will be certain things that are not only part of the consensus, but that you just can’t say without committing some kind of faux pas.
All groups will have certain boundaries for acceptable discourse, and there will be fundamental positions, narratives or factual claims they for various reasons really don’t like having…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/25/the-norm-deviation-tolerance-test-for-authoritarianism/
Fire in the Soul: Nick Lyons
With lilacs in the dooryard blooming a week ago, I was struck by a sense of synchronicity so strong that I stood stone still and sniffed the air for its direction. I had just written a little essay about my youthful days and the first fish I caught at the age of ten and my subsequent basketball obsession. Now I was out for an early morning walk up the hill by the lake above the town across from the railroad tracks.
As I dawdled in the intoxicating fragrance of the lilacs, it transported me to other springs when my…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/26/fire-in-the-soul-nick-lyons/
With lilacs in the dooryard blooming a week ago, I was struck by a sense of synchronicity so strong that I stood stone still and sniffed the air for its direction. I had just written a little essay about my youthful days and the first fish I caught at the age of ten and my subsequent basketball obsession. Now I was out for an early morning walk up the hill by the lake above the town across from the railroad tracks.
As I dawdled in the intoxicating fragrance of the lilacs, it transported me to other springs when my…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/26/fire-in-the-soul-nick-lyons/
And the Bird Flu just keeps on coming…
The bird flu narrative is constantly developing, so I figured it was time for an update.
You know…to keep you all abreast of the chicken situation. Ba dum tss!
Back in April the scare stories were about Bird Flu jumping from birds to cattle and from cattle to people, and how – as a result – we should stop eating red meat.
Things have moved on since then. May has been a busy month for bird flu watchers.
Back on May 9th it was reported that 70 people in Colorado were being…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/28/and-the-bird-flu-just-keeps-on-coming/
The bird flu narrative is constantly developing, so I figured it was time for an update.
You know…to keep you all abreast of the chicken situation. Ba dum tss!
Back in April the scare stories were about Bird Flu jumping from birds to cattle and from cattle to people, and how – as a result – we should stop eating red meat.
Things have moved on since then. May has been a busy month for bird flu watchers.
Back on May 9th it was reported that 70 people in Colorado were being…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/28/and-the-bird-flu-just-keeps-on-coming/
Are the powers-that-be preparing to cut Israel loose?
For decades, Israel has been “one of the club”, a proud member of the “good-guy countries”. A handful of regimes protected by a bubble that makes them almost immune to criticism or consequence, whatever crimes and evils they might commit.
No matter how many ships they bombed or children they shot or open air prison camps they ran, the general tone of Western media was the same – Israel are good guys.
Now, there are signs that could change, that the next step in the Gaza narrative will be a heel-turn that makes Israel an official “bad guy”.
The…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/30/are-the-powers-that-be-preparing-to-cut-israel-loose/
For decades, Israel has been “one of the club”, a proud member of the “good-guy countries”. A handful of regimes protected by a bubble that makes them almost immune to criticism or consequence, whatever crimes and evils they might commit.
No matter how many ships they bombed or children they shot or open air prison camps they ran, the general tone of Western media was the same – Israel are good guys.
Now, there are signs that could change, that the next step in the Gaza narrative will be a heel-turn that makes Israel an official “bad guy”.
The…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/30/are-the-powers-that-be-preparing-to-cut-israel-loose/
“Nothing About Us Without Us” – An Open Letter
World Health Organization
WHO Headquarters in Geneva
Avenue Appia 20
1211 Geneva, Switzerland
Attention: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General, WHO
Dear Sir,
This is a citizens’ sign-on, on the “outcome products” of the Working Group of the International Health Regulations (WGIHR) and the INB (international Negotiating Body), that are still being finalised, but which nevertheless, are finally to be submitted in May of this year to the 77th WHA (World Health Assembly). We respond as follows:
1. Lack of Public Scrutiny
The Final Documents are not available for public scrutiny, They are still fluid, under secretive discussion, and therefore,…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/31/nothing-about-us-without-us-an-open-letter/
World Health Organization
WHO Headquarters in Geneva
Avenue Appia 20
1211 Geneva, Switzerland
Attention: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General, WHO
Dear Sir,
This is a citizens’ sign-on, on the “outcome products” of the Working Group of the International Health Regulations (WGIHR) and the INB (international Negotiating Body), that are still being finalised, but which nevertheless, are finally to be submitted in May of this year to the 77th WHA (World Health Assembly). We respond as follows:
1. Lack of Public Scrutiny
The Final Documents are not available for public scrutiny, They are still fluid, under secretive discussion, and therefore,…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/31/nothing-about-us-without-us-an-open-letter/
Better Than…
It seems that the concept of “better than . . .” has completely left the human experience. And wow, what a big deal that is! I mean the entire foundation of human, as well as animal, evolution is based on “survival of the fittest.” Even if you do not believe in the Darwinian concept of natural selection (I don’t, not entirely) you have to see the positive results of attaining a level of personal excellence in one’s own lifetime.
Isn’t working to be “better than . . .” the whole drive behind living? We are always working toward behavioural…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/06/01/better-than/
It seems that the concept of “better than . . .” has completely left the human experience. And wow, what a big deal that is! I mean the entire foundation of human, as well as animal, evolution is based on “survival of the fittest.” Even if you do not believe in the Darwinian concept of natural selection (I don’t, not entirely) you have to see the positive results of attaining a level of personal excellence in one’s own lifetime.
Isn’t working to be “better than . . .” the whole drive behind living? We are always working toward behavioural…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/06/01/better-than/