We’ve had some very unsavory fellows who are wearing military uniforms in this country try to organize groups of people who are nothing more than hate mongering criminals, and quite frankly I don’t want anyone like that trying to take over our country. But in doing so I don’t believe that they would gain the support of the American public as a whole.

I would caution that you be very careful about what you wish for David.

The groups are using what the CIA would call basic sabotage against their targets.

One way of combating this, I believe, is to get the general public more educated on laws of stalking and harassment and evidence gathering and getting them to the right people to turn in these useless pieces of….I will not say what I am thinking but I rest assured that you can very well guess many appropriate terms to finish that sentence.

Some of the numbers I believe may even refer back to their tenets. The ones that Uncle Jed wrote on the big oak tree in the back yard when he was teaching Sunday bigot school and church.

Mostly they are idiots and blind to laws that can be used against them and their fledglings. I don’t believe that any business or house of art should be completely void of minority solicitation and when I find a business that is racially hostile I believe it is our duties as citizens not to solicit them.

We may not have legislation that outlaws these cow pie mined people, but we do not have to entertain their stupidity nor are we required to financially back their endeavors.

If all of my fellow countrymen are not welcomed then it is my belief that they deserve to see nothing more from any of us other than our backsides turning away from them in disgust, because they are indeed disgusting human beings.

Somebody pass Ruslan the coffee pot and a couple of ibuprofen. Sorry, Ruslan.

Everyone knows that.

But expanding from the definition of “money” to include power (and since most people ultimately want power to obtain money) it seems that you are basically restating what it says in The Bible – “the love of money is the root of all evil.” And that is almost without a doubt true especially if you use money in its most broad sense to mean anything of value.

We frequently see terms like “evil” and “terror” thrown about and I think as some of the above comments show, these are terms which most intelligent observers do not automatically accept as valid, or at least, without qualification as to what is meant.

I am very concerned that the American people are increasingly unaware of how meaningless such terms are when spoken politically, and how, with political language, it is possible to hoodwink voters.

Rob Urie wrote a piece for CounterPunch that I think should be required reading for the American public. In the piece he points out the institutionalization of terror by our own country (prisons, Gitmo, drone attacks, etc) and the relative complacency of the American left over what should merit greater consideration. The right couldn’t care less about our national hypocrisy on terror, but at least some of us on the left might.

Take a peep at this on TruthDig:

“The practical problem with using imperial / state terror as a strategy of political repression is that random torture and murder don’t force compliance with imperial and / or state interests.”

So true, Rob. So true.

http://www.truthdig.com/eartot....._20130422/

And ultimately that is the flaw in the entire “they hate us because they are evil” approach. Al Queda thinks that the U.S. is evil. We say that Al Queda is evil. By adopting the attitude that we are fighting “evil” we are playing right into their hands.

Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union the “Evil Empire” but Allatoya Komeni called the U.S. “The Great Satan.” The similarities should be noted. Such language does nothing but demonizes and essentially dehumanizes your opposition. That is a common technique in propaganda and the media and is continuously seen especially among religious groups.

Essentially by declaring for yourself the right to declare people “evil” you are legitimizing the entire concept of demonizing people. Yes, i’m sure that if you polled people the vast majority of people would say that a mass murderer or a bomber is “evil.” Its “evil” to kill a bunch of people. A majority probably would also agree that rape, murder, and mayhem (in the common law sense) are “evil.” Some people would call the people who commit those crimes “evil” but it is a smaller percentage. Most people would also agree that robbery and theft are “evil.” But relatively few people would say that a thief is “evil.” However, society has decided that acts such as those are sufficiently “evil” to be criminal.

But then you get to more controversial subjects such as whether it is evil for women to wear pants or to have minds of their own. Or is it evil for a large corporation to shift jobs to places where they can pay people 10 cents an hour to work in dangerous conditions where they get killed and maimed. Many leftists would say that is evil – but right wingers would say that is not only not evil, but it is morally right (because the corporation’s only duty is to make as much money as possible for its shareholders). The right wingers further more would say that its evil for the leftists to oppose those noble corporations in their actions.

Ultimately far from promoting universalism for humans to claim the right to declare people “evil” is to promote relativism. The question always becomes who exactly is defining evil – and no matter who you are and what you do, ultimately there is someone someplace in the world that considers you to be “evil.” By calling them “evil” in return you ultimately do nothing but lower yourself to their level.

As a matter of principle then if I am going to use terms such as “evil” (which simply a name for fear) I prefer to use it not to describe the nature of people. So I might be more likely to say the bombing is an evil act, then to go the extra step and say the bombers are evil people. That doesn’t mean I think they are good. I just don’t think the term fits what it describes.

Again I would like to point out that all the evil in the world arises from the mind. And the only mind we can really do anything about is our own.

Tom

I chose to wait and see, because I was baffled and still remain baffled that nobody had modestly taken credit for this horror. In most of these incidents, there has been the follow-up video, manifesto, taped message, or phone call from someone saying they did it and why.

For a while, I wondered if the attack was not political or religious terrorism at all, but someone extracting personal revenge against someone else — a spurned lover, a business rival, a jealous boyfriend — and was covering their personal anger by making it a general atrocity to throw the cops off the trail. Looks like I was wrong, too. But I didn’t make a public statement about it.

We still don’t know what seems to have motivated these two idiots. Hopefully, we soon will. Either way, the conspiracy theorists will have something interesting for them (and amusing for us) to do for the rest of the next 10 years.

(I have promised to be good. I won’t tell that Georgia joke.)

It is so nice to have you commenting here! I really hope you decide to grace us with your presence more often.

And happy birthday, Princess Erika!

I’m sure you can find some data on PACER or simple search engine queries about the 1997 whistleblowing case where two investigative reporters (Steve Wilson and Jane Akre) were fired for refusing to alter the facts of a story regarding the human health hazards of the use of Monsanto Corporation’s bovine growth hormones rBST and rBGH. They sued and won, but were countersued by News Corp’s considerable legal machine.

The court decided that falsifications by broadcast news media are against FCC policy, but apparently not against the law, even when public health is at risk. So I am not surprised they feel perfectly comfortable distorting your comments with impunity.

Previously you posted about harassment/stalking of minorities by groups of related individuals in an area.
You also asked/mentioned the effective means of identifying individuals/groups/behavior of this nature for others.
This might be preaching to the choir, but here’s a good couple of links.
They have helped me recognize a dozen of these types on various chats and pages, E-mails and IMs.
There is drop-down on the ADL site on the top left on their menu called “Combating Hate” and has a good list of acronyms/tattoos/numeric codes that has helped me recognize and stay away from IMs, sites, people with certain bumper stickers in my area, etc..

http://www.adl.org/hate_symbols/default.asp

W.A.R., O.R.I.O.N, “Fear This” with Confederate battle flags (a solid sticker, not two different ones), etc. are all over this area (mine) when you know what to look for.
Confederate Flags abound in this Northern State.
So are the palm tree and crescent: with the palm tree leaves and crescent colored with the Confederate Battle flag.
You know, if someone is actually making these stickers and selling them (obvious), and they are showing up in an area… it’s a symptom, an indicator of a serious problem.
Often Klukkkers and White Supremacists also mark their on-line pages on the bottom (usually left) with a sideways “tyr” rune.
I have found several of these on various chats/pages: one of them even dealing with “CIA” stalking and harassment techniques.
A page set up to teach their members on how to stalk minorities: apparently taken down after visiting/reporting.
Another one that I personally feel should be listed is 32.
Don’t know if it means Christian Brotherhood or some such, or if it is just 23 backwards, but quite a few times I have seen 32 followed by 88 or other: coupled with a racist or anti-Obama statement.
You really can’t tell me that someone posting under, say, 3288, etc. isn’t WS or Dominionist.
They also use various House Resolutions to identify themselves, ie: a “biker” chick (ABATE member: A Brotherhood Against Totalitarian Enactments: now changed to a less “controversial” statement: but the intent is the same), the “go to” person for placement in alll of the art galleries in this area, whose screen name was “XXx615″.
The “XX” being her initials: the x615 being HR 615: The so labeled “Obamacare”… and her FB page full of anti-Fed, anti-”entitlement”/hate Obama, “Take Our Country Back”, GOOOH rhetoric, etc. (Gee! And you wonder why there are absolutely No African Americans in any local galleries… or represented in venues during major art festivals in the area)… and more of the 88s, 32s, etc. in local gallery mailing lists… WS in the Arts. After all, to completely abuse the heritage and histories, or the pride of any minority people anywhere, you have to take away their arts and music, or freedom of free expression, Right?
It was nice to see the articles by the ADL on extremists in biker groups after a while: that whole “live free or die” fits nicely with certain mind sets about any protective laws and personal borders and responsibility for actions: GORK.
God Only Really Knows.
What do ER personnel call bikers without helmets?
Organ Donors.

Here is another good one that has a more extensive list of numeric “codes” and slang, tats, etc..

http://www.strhatetalk.com/Home_Page.php

On this one go to the “intel” drop-down.
Most of it has to do with skinheads: when on an “artists chat” on Aol once I was repeatedly asked if I was an “alien” before I knew what it meant.
At the time (2008) I had no idea what it was supposed to mean, why this guy kept asking me this inane question.
Certain places on-line are also rife with these, and some going there were completely unaware of what the numbers meant: like the NAC (Native American Chat) on Aol. Often there were more Klukkers there than Natives.
Dozens of times 88s, 311s (or cutsie variations: 3to1), 23s, 28s, etc..
Certain locals (this area) spent serious time there under various aliases causing all kinds of problems.
Another that might be of mention (although it really is the easy way to put numbers in a screen name): 123.
Coupled with racist or anti-Fed or Obama sentiments could mean Aryan White, or other such: could be an interesting study for someone.

@concernedcitizen:
The more that you can do to forward these images and “codes”, the faster friends and family members might know what to watch for on-line (screen names with 311, 28, 18, 88, 1488, 5, 514, 14, 419, 420, 818 (whiterabit818 on Huffington Post), etc….) and be safer in their “friends” lists or on chats on-line.