Peering out of the box - 17/6/13.

Great old clouds of smoke have been rolling in on the island from Sumatra - the usual slash-and-burn farmers in Indonesia are being blamed yet again. It hasn't been this bad for years, though. Since I'm sensitive to smoke, the only recourse is to stay indoors as much as possible, do my running inside on a treadmill, etc, etc.

Anyways, without further ado, the weekly peering out of the box.

Vox Popoli - Rejecting the lie.

A few people, both sympathetic and otherwise, have asked me why I am willing to hold and defend such controversial and upsetting opinions as I have done of late. And providing more evidence that rabbits simply do not have the capacity to understand not-rabbits, the SFWA is absolutely rife with various theories concerning my supposed mental instability. 

After all, who but a deranged lunatic would think to challenge the received wisdom of the warren's long-accepted consensus goodthink?
As it happens, the reason is fairly straightforward. If you will not stand up for the truth when pressed, you will not stand up for the Truth when persecuted.

The Economic Collapse - Rotting, Decaying And Bankrupt – If You Want To See The Future Of America Just Look At Detroit

In fact, Detroit is a perfect example of what the future of America is going to look like.  We live in a nation that is rotting, decaying, drowning in debt and racing toward insolvency.  Already there are dozens of other cities across the nation that are poverty-ridden, crime-infested hellholes just like Detroit is, and hundreds of other communities are rapidly heading in that direction.  So don't look down on Detroit.  They just got there before the rest of us.

Sultan Knish - The end of control.

A hammer exists to hammer. A hammer in the hands of a man is a tool, but a hammer that exists for its own sake is a destructive force. A bureaucracy exists to regulate to achieve a specific end, but a bureaucracy that exists for its own sake is tyranny. It seeks to control for the sake of control. It wields power for the sake of power. 

It insists that its ends are moral, but as they are not achieved, the true end of control is revealed. 

Socialism begins with control to achieve social ends only for control to become the end. And that leads to the end of freedom.

Zero Hedge - Entitlement America And The High Cost Of "Free"

 Almost three years ago we first highlighted the real math behind the surging entitlement class that America has become. So why does a large portion of the population choose not to work when there are many jobs available? The answer is simple. If you can receive 2-3 times as much money from unemployment, disability, and/or welfare benefits (subsidized housing, food stamps, free cellphones, etc.) as you can from a temporary or part-time job, and live a life of leisure, why work? This is the ugly reality we illustrated just six months ago and the situation - amid what is apparently called a 'recovery' remains a depressingly real sign of the times. The political allure of free is so strong that an alarming number of people choose to become wards of the entitlement/welfare state rather than captain their own destiny.

Vault-Co - Leftists, Marxists, Socialists, Communists and Statists Are Damaged Goods

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS "POLITICS." THERE NEVER WAS.
THERE IS ONLY BIOLOGY. THE LEFT ARE BIOLOGICALLY DAMAGED PEOPLE. They are the botched. The bungled. The busted. There is nothing to debate. Nothing left to prove on this subject with science.

Didact's Reach - Welcome to the Panopticon.

If you choose the latter course, then remember: the only logical outcome of pushing back against this country's government is eventual open armed revolution. Understand this well, and be ready for the day it happens.
Choose carefully, and choose well.