THE CONCEPT OF DOUBLETHINK MAY HAVE ORIGINATED WITH GEORGE ORWELL and his novel Nineteen Eighty Four, yet it's managed to make its way into the dictionary, where it's defined as "illogical or deliberately perverse thinking in terms that distort or reverse the truth to make it more acceptable."

Quite the contrast to the Orwellian concept, which saw same as holding (and accepting as correct) two simultaneous and yet conflicting viewpoints of the same argument.

Which, put simply, suggests that "both sides may be right."

The sort of illogic which psychiatrists in certain Community Mental Health Centres will sometimes like deploying on such cases of theirs likely to be "troublemakers" or otherwise "too outpsoken" as a way to keep them in line with the prevailing views of the community (more likely than no a conservative-leaning such), and to accept same without question or reservation--usually with medication as reinforcing agent.

And if meds don't quite work, threaten them with incompetency proceedings in the courts, with "employment" in the local sheltered workshop seen as an alternative to avoid that possibility.

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Having been victim myself to the warped delusions of psychiatrists who enjoy using doublethink as a means of order and control, Your Correspondent can consider himself qualified to spot likely signs of doublethink in conservative propaganda, and the arguments so contained.

In any case: With today being the Martin Luther King, Jnr., holiday in the United States--the sort that racists and white supremacists would not like to celebrate, as opposed to Columbus Day--I should like to bring up a likely specimen of doublethink which the racist and white-supremacist community is fond of pushing:

If civil rights, diversity, multiculturalism and tolerance are to be looked upon as "Communist" or otherwise "un-American" (and, hence, threats to the Antient and Pecuilar Soverignty and Soverign Identity of the United States of America), are we to assume, then, that the only "true" and "pure" Americanism is one which excuses racism, bigotry, intolerance, xenophobia and the defence of White Christian Supremacy as "necessary" to the defence of said soverignty and soverign identity, not to mention the stability of a free-market capitalist system "necessary to the maintenance of said soverign identity"?

(Methinks we have a clear-cut example of illogic, pure and simple, as above. Which, moving from the sublime to the ridiculous, could further be excused as being one with "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's G-d" justifying same.)

As if that weren't enough, let's not forget where the same Communists who were holding high the banner of "the Great Unity of the Peoples of the World" were themselves guilty of racism and contempt for National Minorities. Witness these remarks from Nikita Khruschev's infamous "secret speech" of how the Stalin regime being so deflated saw this "Great Unity," usw.:

Comrades, let us reach for some other facts. The Soviet Union justly is considered a model multinational state because we have assured in practice the equality and friendship of all [of the] peoples living in our great Fatherland.

All the more monstrous are those acts whose initiator was Stalin and which were rude violations of the basic Leninist principles [behind our] Soviet state's nationalities policies. We refer to the mass deportations of entire nations from their places of origin, together with all Communists and Komsomols without any exception. This deportation was not dictated by any military considerations.

Thus, at the end of 1943, when there already had been a permanent change of fortune at the front in favor of the Soviet Union, a decision concerning the deportation of all the Karachai from the lands on which they lived was taken and executed.

In the same period, at the end of December, 1943, the same lot befell the [Kalmyks] of the Kalmyk Autonomous Republic. In March, 1944, all the Chechens and Ingushi were deported and the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic was liquidated. In April, 1944, all Balkars were deported from the territory of the Kabardino-Balkar Autonomous Republic to faraway places and their Republic itself was renamed the Autonomous Kabardian Republic.

Ukrainians avoided meeting this fate only because there were too many of them and there was no place to which to deport them. Otherwise, [Stalin] would have deported them also.

[***]

Similarly instructive is the case of the Mingrelian nationalist organization which supposedly existed in Georgia. As is known, resolutions by the Central Committee, Communist Party of the Soviet Union, were made concerning this case in November 1951 and in March 1952. These resolutions were made without prior discussion with the Politbiuro. Stalin had personally dictated them. They made serious accusations against many loyal Communists. On the basis of falsified documents, it was proven that there existed in Georgia a supposedly nationalistic organization whose objective was the liquidation of the Soviet power in that republic with the help of imperialist powers.

In this connection, a number of responsible Party and Soviet workers were arrested in Georgia. As was later proven, this was a slander directed against the Georgian Party organization.

We know that there have been at times manifestations of local bourgeois nationalism in Georgia as in several other republics. The question arises: Could it be possible that, in the period during which the resolutions referred to above were made, nationalist tendencies grew so much that there was a danger of Georgia's leaving the Soviet Union and joining Turkey?

(Animation in the hall, laughter).

This is, of course, nonsense. It is impossible to imagine how such assumptions could enter anyone's mind. Everyone knows how Georgia has developed economically and culturally under Soviet rule. Industrial production in the Georgian Republic is 27 times greater than it was before the Revolution. Many new industries have arisen in Georgia which did not exist there before the Revolution: iron smelting, an oil industry, a machine-construction industry, etc. Illiteracy has long since been liquidated, which, in pre-Revolutionary Georgia, included 78 per cent of the population.

Could the Georgians, comparing the situation in their republic with the hard situation of the working masses in Turkey, be aspiring to join Turkey? In 1955, Georgia produced 18 times as much steel per person as Turkey. Georgia produces 9 times as much electrical energy per person as Turkey. According to the available 1950 census, 65 per cent of Turkey's total population is illiterate, and 80 per cent of its women. Georgia has 19 institutions of higher learning which have about 39,000 students; this is 8 times more than in Turkey (for each 1,000 inhabitants). The prosperity of the working people has grown tremendously in Georgia under Soviet rule.

It is clear that, as the economy and culture develop, and as the socialist consciousness of the working masses in Georgia grows, the source from which bourgeois nationalism draws its strength evaporates.

As it developed, there was no nationalistic organization in Georgia. Thousands of innocent people fell victim to willfulness and lawlessness. All of this happened under the "genius" leadership of Stalin, "the great son of the Georgian nation," as Georgians like to refer to him.

[***]

Let us also recall the "affair of the doctor-plotters."

(Animation in the hall.)

Actually there was no "affair" outside of the declaration of the woman doctor [Lidiya] Timashuk, who was probably influenced or ordered by someone (after all, she was an unofficial collaborator of the organs of state security) to write Stalin a letter in which she declared that doctors were applying supposedly improper methods of medical treatment.

Such a letter was sufficient for Stalin to reach an immediate conclusion that there are doctor-plotters in the Soviet Union. He issued orders to arrest a group of eminent Soviet medical specialists. He personally issued advice on the conduct of the investigation and the method of interrogation of the arrested persons. He said that academician [V. N.] Vinogradov should be put in chains, and that another one [of the alleged plotters] should be beaten. The former Minister of State Security, comrade [Semyen] Ignatiev, is present at this Congress as a delegate. Stalin told him curtly, "If you do not obtain confessions from the doctors we will shorten you by a head."

(Tumult in the hall.)

Stalin personally called the investigative judge, gave him instructions, and advised him on which investigative methods should be used. These methods were simple--beat, beat and, beat again.

Shortly after the doctors were arrested, we members of the Politbiuro received protocols with the doctors' confessions of guilt. After distributing these protocols, Stalin told us, "You are blind like young kittens. What will happen without me? The country will perish because you do not know how to recognize enemies."

The case was presented so that no one could verify the facts on which the investigation was based. There was no possibility of trying to verify facts by contacting those who had made the confessions of guilt.

We felt, however, that the case of the arrested doctors was questionable. We knew some of these people personally because they had once treated us. When we examined this "case" after Stalin's death, we found it to have been fabricated from beginning to end.

This ignominious "case" was set up by Stalin. He did not, however, have the time in which to bring it to an end (as he conceived that end), and for this reason the doctors are still alive. All of them have been rehabilitated. They are working in the same places they were working before. They are treating top individuals, not excluding members of the Government. They have our full confidence; and they execute their duties honestly, as they did before.

(The "doctors' plot," it turned out, was a ruse by which Stalin sought to launch all-out pogroms against the Jewish population of the then-Soviet Union as would have made the Holocaust of Nazi Germany look like a cheap bus excursion to Branson of the kind the Great Unwashed are fond of. Stalin's death in March 1953 essentially short-circuited its outright implementation.)

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Here's another case of "spot the doublethink" to ponder:

If conservative thought expects the Lower Classes to regard free-market capitalism with American characteristics--a so-called "pure" capitalism, as it were, "completely and finally released from undue and unnecessary regulatory burden [and] opening the magic doors of free choice, competition and lower prices to the poor heretofore enslaved to State welfare and its tendencies towards Socialism"--it turns out being rather ironic, and then some, to discover where these same conservatives see the same Lower Classes in "clear and compelling need [of] 'pure' capitalism" as being @ high or extreme risk of contracting Moral Hazard (i.e., they should be held solely responsible for their actions, however immoral or unwise they may be, and they should not expect any help or mercy from the State in case problems develop--in other words, "they knew what they were doing, and they should get what they deserve. No more, no less").

And conservatives will, no doubt, be quick to blame public education for the Great Unwashed being all the more @ risk for Moral Hazard, and tendencies towards.

Why, you may ask?

The conservatives' likely answer: Because public education "has done nothing to promote a healthy and proper moral compass and True Patriot Love expected of the people and nation," especially if required for the sake of National Unity and Identity. (For "True Patriot Love," expect such to be hypernationalistic, xenophobic and ignorant.)

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Now try and show me where the examples I have illustrated above are not doublethink. You know where to leave the comments.   

The Exaggerator continues its public-service mission of calling the Notice and Attention of certain Zealots and True Believers among the Pseudoreligiopolitical Right challenging the legality and constitutionality of provisions in the several State Constitutions as call for:

• establishing systems of free public education; and
• proscribing use of public funds for religiosectarian purposes and ends,

by calling attention to the specific clauses of the several State Constitutions relative to the preceding points.

We continue as thus:

NEBRASKA:

• The Legislature shall provide for the free instruction in the common schools of this state of all persons between the ages of five and twenty-one years. The Legislature may provide for the education of other persons in educational institutions owned and controlled by the state or a political subdivision thereof. (Article VII, section 1, Nebraska Constitution)
• Notwithstanding any other provision in the Constitution, appropriation of public funds shall not be made to any school or institution of learning not owned or exclusively controlled by the state or a political subdivision thereof; PROVIDED, that the Legislature may provide that the state or any political subdivision thereof may contract with institutions not wholly owned or controlled by the state or any political subdivision to provide for educational or other services for the benefit of children under the age of twenty-one years who are handicapped, as that term is from time to time defined by the Legislature, if such services are nonsectarian in nature.

All public schools shall be free of sectarian instruction.

The state shall not accept money or property to be used for sectarian purposes; PROVIDED, that the Legislature may provide that the state may receive money from the federal government and distribute it in accordance with the terms of any such federal grants, but no public funds of the state, any political subdivision, or any public corporation may be added thereto.

A religious test or qualification shall not be required of any teacher or student for admission or continuance in any school or institution supported in whole or in part by public funds or taxation. (Article VII, section 11, op. cit.)

NEVADA:

• The legislature shall provide for a uniform system of common schools, by which a school shall be established and maintained in each school district at least six months in every year, and any school district which shall allow instruction of a sectarian character therein may be deprived of its proportion of the interest of the public school fund during such neglect or infraction, and the legislature may pass such laws as will tend to secure a general attendance of the children in each school district upon said public schools. (Article 11, section 2, Nevada Constitution)
• No sectarian instruction shall be imparted or tolerated in any school or University that may be established under this Constitution.  (Article 11, section 9, op. cit.)

NEW HAMPSHIRE:

• Knowledge and learning, generally diffused through a community, being essential to the preservation of a free government; and spreading the opportunities and advantages of education through the various parts of the country, being highly conducive to promote this end; it shall be the duty of the legislators and magistrates, in all future periods of this government, to cherish the interest of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries and public schools, to encourage private and public institutions, rewards, and immunities for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, commerce, trades, manufactures, and natural history of the country; to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, industry and economy, honesty and punctuality, sincerity, sobriety, and all social affections, and generous sentiments, among the people: Provided, nevertheless, that no money raised by taxation shall ever be granted or applied for the use of the schools of institutions of any religious sect or denomination. (Article 83, New Hampshire Constitution; this particular article also includes proscriptions on monopoly power and devious business practices contrary to public interest, as are irrelevant to the subject @ hand and, ergo, not included here.) 

NEW JERSEY:

• The Legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of free public schools for the instruction of all the children in the State between the ages of five and eighteen years. (Article VIII, section 4, clause 1, New Jersey Constitution of 1947)
• The fund for the support of free public schools, and all money, stock and other property, which may hereafter be appropriated for that purpose, or received into the treasury under the provisions of any law heretofore passed to augment the said fund, shall be securely invested, and remain a perpetual fund; and the income thereof, except so much as it may be judged expedient to apply to an increase of the capital, shall be annually appropriated to the support of free public schools, and for the equal benefit of all the people of the State; and it shall not be competent, except as hereinafter provided, for the Legislature to borrow, appropriate or use the said fund or any part thereof for any other purpose, under any pretense whatever. The bonds of any school district of this State, issued according to law, shall be proper and secure investments for the said fund and, in addition, said fund, including the income therefrom and any other moneys duly appropriated to the support of free public schools may be used in such manner as the Legislature may provide by law to secure the payment of the principal of or interest on bonds or notes issued for school purposes by counties, municipalities or school districts or for the payment or purchase of any such bonds or notes or any claims for interest thereon. (Article VIII, section IV, clause 2, op. cit.)

NEW MEXICO:

• A uniform system of free public schools sufficent for the education of, and open to, all the children of school age in the state shall be established and maintained. (Article XII, section 1, New Mexico Constitution)
• No religious test shall ever be required as a condition of admission into the public schools or any educational institution of this state, and no teacher or student of such school or institution shall ever be required to attend or participate in any religious service whatsoever. (Article XII, section 9, op. cit.)

NEW YORK:

• The legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a system of free common schools, wherein all the children of this state may be educated. (Article XI, section 1, New York State Constitution of 1938)
• Neither the state nor any subdivision thereof, shall use its property or credit or any public money, or authorize or permit either to be used, directly or indirectly, in aid or maintenance, other than for examination  or inspection, of any school or institution of learning wholly or in part under the control or direction of any religious denomination, or in  which any denominational tenet or doctrine is taught, but the  legislature may provide for the transportation of children to and from any school or institution of learning. (Article XI, section 3, op. cit.)

WITH SOME SUGGESTING THAT MAJOR SOCIOECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY COULD BE FORTHCOMING, thanks all the more to His Fraudulency's Great Within and their flawed, ideologically-driven maths increasing the National Debt to some $9 trillion and change, Your Correspondent (and perhaps some of you reading this right now) are probably wondering if "cashflow gifting" schemes could start to make the rounds wholesale within measurable distance.

Especially so in lower-income or otherwise economically-challenged parts of the country, never mind the lies and distortions Fox News Channel wants you accepting about the socioeconomic climate of America being better than ever--not to mention the rather saccharine appeals to real or otherwise imminent socioeconomic dislocation adversely affecting the Great Unwashed all the more.

=============

GIFTING PROMOTIONS, FOR THEIR PART, MUST BE RATHER FOND THEMSELVES of using code and weasel words to further create the aura of "empowerment" through mutual self-help rather than "enslavement to State welfare" as could be all the more likely in such circles as are gifting's prime targets. Witness the following list of words and phrases which lawyers connected to a discredited "gifting" scam a few years back asked those involved in its operation not to use, according to MLM Watchdog:

• Investment
• Took In
• Paid out
• Paid Earnings
• Paid off
• Getting Paid
• Make
• Play the panel
• Sponsor
• Profits
• Play the house
• Recruit
• Dividends
• Guarantee
• Sign-up
• Player
• Assured Buy
• Buy-in
• Down-line
• Sure bet
• Purchase
• Up-line
• Earn
• Payout
• Return
• Multiply your money
• Net
• Pay Gift
• Gifter
• I gave
• Give
• Helping others
• Activity
• Right to give
• Senior
• I have received
• Receive
• Junior
• Participant
• I have gifted
• Giving
• Family
• Freshmen
• Nice people
• Sophomore
• Participation
• Register your gift
• Giving
• Golden Rule
• Associates
• Panel
• Invited by
• Fellow man
• Help your Church
• Money for Church
• Community
• Constitutional Rights
• Kindness
• Free association
• Sharing
• Caring
• Invitation
• Gifting is Legal
• Legal Gifting
• IRS approves Gifting
• Gifting Completely legal

Inevitably, though, "gifting" promotions will use one or more of these terms to create an aura of credibility. Hence, if you notice such phrases being used in "gifting" promotions, forget it.

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AS IF "MUTUAL SELF-HELP" WASN'T "FEEL-GOOD" ENOUGH IN THE GIFTING COMMUNITY, it's emerging that some online-based "gifting" schemes are using deliberately-flawed or otherwise manipulated programs which serve only to pervert the whole idea of "mutual self-help," using such solely for the personal enrichment of those involved. 

Again from MLM Watchdog, we have the testimony of a participant in one such scam, "5-Star Gifting," which suggests such a possibility (emphasis supplied):

The person that runs this program who calls himself David Rosen which apparently not even his real name controls the software and has been manipulating the software such that gifts automatically go to him that should be gifted to others. He is basically using the software as an automated theft tool. Often people are not aware he is stealing from them because they either do not understand how the software is suppose to work or he just tells them that it wasnt working properly and it is fixed now after thousands of dollars have been gifted to him that should have gone to others. The software is routinely manipulated to route gifts to his position at the top. There are many people in this program that can verify what I  have written here. David whatever he calls himself is a thief that should be in jail. Right now he is making thousands of dollars a day off a program that is totally corrupt. 

So much for gifting as an ideal of "mutual self-help" in action.

Next time around, a suggestion.  

IN THE NAME OF STIMULATING THE ECONOMY BEING ONE WITH "NATIONAL UNITY AND IDENTITY," leave it to His Fraudulency's Great Within to come up with what may best be described as illogical and misguided ideas.

Especially when you stop and consider that the Great Within may have engaged in some of the worst fiscal mismanagement of any soverign state in world history since the German hyperflation following World War I (with only Zimbabwe becoming a serious rival right now, where Z$60 million buys a tube of toothpaste).

Mismanagement complicated by a misguided War on Terrorism as is all too quickly turning into ur-RAHOWA (though they're probably under lettres de cachet to not acknowledge it openly, For Obvious Reason), equally-misguided "ideological reasons" excusing the tacit endorsement of "new and innovative" mortgage-loan products for those with marginal or non-established credit (especially so welfare "basket cases") and an overzealous belief that keeping taxes as low as possible was necessary for the sake of National Unity and Identity.

The latest example of good concept, but no sense:

Offering advanced tax rebates of as much as $800/person by summer, hoping that the Lower Classes especially as qualify for the same blow the whole on misadventures in predatory consumerism @ the nearest Wally World, having no respect for practicality, utilitarian value or common sense. And quickly, too, they hope, they hope.

Not to mention persisting in their hard-wired belief that making tax cuts from the first term Complete, Final and Binding will actually translate into consistent streams of tax revenue and prompt employers "out of the goodness of their hearts" into hiring more from the Lower Classes especially.

Seems His Fraudulency has some serious maths errors to answer for, especially considering where the National Debt has ballooned to over $9 trillion throughout His Fraudulency's tenure in office and his Zealotry and True Belief in maintaining tax cuts only making matters worse.

No doubt explaining the attraction of some to GOP Presidential wannabe Mike Huckabee's support of the "FairTax" model--as in scrapping income taxes altogether in favour of a consumption-based tax; here again, you have to wonder just how much revenue consumption-based taxes would generate to sufficently supplant income taxes.

@ least until Huckabee makes that one fatal slip which could be the Waterloo for his designs.

*************

THE SAME SMALL-TOWN/RURAL AMERICAN ARCADIA beloved of certain specimens of conservative Zealotry and True Belief as the one which would save the Great Silent Majority from Themselves, unfortunately, has a Dark Side its supporters would rather you not know about.

As in a latent and inbred tolerance for racism, bigotry and xenophobia by and large.

Case in point: Chosen Valley High School in Chatfield, Minnesota is coming to terms with a Possible Hate Crime in the form of a noose being displayed with a black doll dangling from same after classes resumed following the holiday break; two students as were involved have received discipline, although some parents wonder if it was adequate enough, especially in light of a poster for a white-supremacist group being found in the locker of one of the disciplined.

Olmstead County sheriffs' officers are looking into possible hate crimes charges as a byproduct (never mind where the students' names were not disclosed as they are considered Juvenile Offenders).

Such is the state of affairs in a rather warped vision of Arcadia where support for anti-government movements (especially so "Wise Use" and other pro-business such) is rather notorious and Die Bransoner Muzikschaukultur is looked upon as the Acme and Perfection of American People's Culture, or what passes for it.

Seen, it turns out, through beer goggles rather than the rose-coloured glasses producerist types prefer.

*************

THE DIGITAL TRANSITION, THOUGH NEARLY A YEAR AWAY, is providing broadcasters on FreeVee channels what could be an unlikely opportunity they don't quite realise exists: Videlicet, selling what amounts to surplus time on their multicast channels to such broadcasters wanting to fill up otherwise wasted digital-TV bandwidth, not unlike such outfits buying air time on talkback radio stations on the weekends when not much else is available.

(Consideration, of course, having to be given to the FCC's public-service mandates of broadcasters, not to mention the Electronic Programme Guide, the V-chip and the TV Ratings Scheme.)

Making such all the more viable (especially for such who would still prefer to receive their TV programmes free-to-air, as opposed to cable or satellite services) would have to be the FCC's rejection of Sinclair Broadcasting Group's "Multicast Must-Carry" petition (which would have obligated cable systems to carry all multicast signals of TV broadcasters so transmitting) a few years back, citing where the multicast programmes were unlikely to carry enough programming to meet public-service obligations.

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AND THERE'S ALSO THE MIRACLES OF WARPED SCIENCE that certain deluded conservatives with nothing but fear, contempt and loathing for the Lower Classes would love to sneak upon same as part of the multicast opportunities made possible by the Digital Transition and plenty of bandwidth which broadcasters fear would otherwise go to waste from time to time:

Videlicet, perfecting an automatic tuner that would trigger nothing better than the finest exercises in sick humour @ the expense of the Great Unwashed in their want of sophistication, morals or decency (or so the conservatives must be thinking all along), otherwise known as switching the signals of certain multicast channels viewed among the Lower Classes (and in such sets so owned) when "inapproriate" programming is about to be broadcast--only to direct them to channels broadcasting, and deliberately, nothing but pornography lacking plot, story or morals, let alone production values.

No wonder conservatives must have this fetish for unleasing sick humour as a way of further loathing the vulnerable and marginalised of society, and excusing the whole all along as "pacification." 

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER GORDON BROWN WAS RECENTLY OVERHEARD calling for the development of initiatives by Her Majesty's Government to develop Internet-based instruction in English as a Second Language.

(This, Your Correspondent understands, would mean the British version, as is quite different from the American such.)

With that in mind, what exactly would prevent we "morally superior" Americans from competing in kind by developing a rival platform to teach English via the Information Stuporbahn? (In our own case, expect it to be based on "real life," as opposed to a more "polite," Noah Webster-model platform, emphasising the likes of colloquialisms, slang, cant/argot, similie and metaphor rooted largely in the likes of various subcultures--urban "hip-hop," beach/surf, rural, various regional colloquialisms, American football, baseball, gambling, xtreme sports, GLBTQ and even drugs--and with liberal doses of sexual, scatological and "white trash" argot.)

=============

COME TO THINK OF IT, perhaps such as are seeking to preserve the Jewish dialect known as Yiddish might want to consider looking into using the Information Stuporbahn as a way of teaching and promoting the use thereof.

Especially the written forms, as traditionally use the Hebrew alphabet.

*************

IT'S EMERGED THAT POOR, UNDEREDUCATED AND EASILY-INFLUENCED SPECIMENS OF BRITISH "WHITE TRASH" may have been led astray into the Evil Influences of International Terrorism (al-Qaeda in particular) thanks to the Information Stuporbahn, prompting appeals by British authorities to other nations to take "all reasonable measures" to prevent misuse and perversion of the Information Stuporbahn for purposes of recruiting and exploiting the vulnerable and marginalised of society.

And such should be applied equally against all enemies of the State and People, as much from within as from without.

And not just against International Terrorism: Neo-Nazis/Fascists, racists, White Christian Supremacists, militant homophobes, xenophobes, neo-Confederacists, apologists for Jim Crow/apartheid, "citizen militia" and other anti-government extremists (as in the likes of the Montana Freemen and "Wise Use Movement" types), even militant anti-abortionists, all having in common clear and present threats from within as could appeal all too easily to the vulnerable and others in close proximity to the Dregs of Society with Information Stuporbahn access.

Which, no doubt, will start out sugar-coated, with all manner of saccharine appeals to G-d, Country and Christian Values as the "set-up," gradually progressing all the lower into more militant rhetoric, including appeals to fear and violence, keeping a low profile as much as possible (the "lone wolf" approach, as it were), and even offering "guidance" on what to say in case of arrest or other police enquiries.

Too, you have the danger of "hate rock" bands offering an especially attractive message to vulnerable teenagers and youth in particular--for all the wrong reasons, it turns out, what with their glamourisation of the Nazi regime and its leaders, their "Aryan" racial ideal, their loathing of Jews, immigrants, Blacks, homosexuals and "chronic and habitual" welfare cases, and the justification for using violence towards their aims.

*************

AND YOU'VE PROBABLY ENCOUNTERED ALL MANNER OF SPAM FROM SO-CALLED "CHRISTIAN" BUSINESSES in your e-mail Inbox (or, in some cases, a Junk Mail folder) offering all manner of products and services "based on Christian Principles," among them:

• home mortgage loans and refinancing;
• debt consolidation/factoring;
• dating and matchmaking websites;
• travel and tourism;
• remodelling and renovation services; and
• satellite-TV services.

Which, to reinforce the "Christian" angle, will incorporate various displays of Christian iconography such as the dove, the cross, the fish symbol and even the Greek letters Chi and Rho intertwined.

Christian symbolism alone does not make a business "Christian" automatically, mein friend: Your Correspondent is one to wonder if the "Christian" angle is really cover for Affinity Fraud targeting especially the vulnerable and marginalised seeking cover in the guise of faith, and especially so the Fundamentalist/Primitive stream of Protestant Christian thought.

That, and the prospect of such "Christian" businesses being Christian In Name Only (ChINO's), if Truth be known.

As if that weren't awful enough, there's also the likelihood for such "spamming" in the name of "Christian" business interests, CAN-SPAM notwithstanding, likely to be excused as "Christian Witness," "evangelistic" or "mission" work when no such evangelistic intentions came about in the first place. In other words, an attempt to buy an alibi and avoid possible "martyrdom" in the courts by invoking His Name for what may really be blasphemous ends.

So much for operating on "Christian principles" by what are really nothing short of disreputable purposes these same ChINO's would blame on Jews, as if the irony wasn't obvious....    

THE REGIONS OF SOUTHEASTERN MINNESOTA WHERE YOUR CORRESPONDENT RESIDETH are under a Wind Chill Advisory through much of today, forcing him to remain, by and large, in his flat.

Where, among other things, he prepared the essay you are now reading.

And, in the process, is trying to stay sane (he has a history of mental disorders complicated by episodes of emotional abuse and cruelty in his adolescence) all the while.

*************

"All you have to do is look at me, and know
that everything I say is true...."

--"Don't Cry for Me, Argentina," from Evita

AS IF GOP PRESIDENTIAL WANNABE MIKE HUCKABEE'S designs on remodelling the Presidential role into one of "Prophet, Seer and Revelator" endowed with superhuman powers and superdivinity wasn't anathema enow to Right-Thinking Americans (not the perversions Fox News wants you and me to think exist in this repsect), it's now emerging that Governor Huckabee has been speaking to neo-Confederacist causes whose articles of faith are, for the most part, racist and xenophobic (per the Southern Poverty Law Centre) heading into today's South Carolina GOP Primary.

Not to mention said causes seeing in the Confederate battle flag, essentially a travesty of the Scots saltaire, an icon of National and Racial Identity somehow endowed with superdivine powers.

Care to explain yourself, Governor Huckabee, for such associations weird and/or unwholesome?

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NOW WILL BILL "NO-SPIN ZONE" O'REILLY ACKNOWLEDGE HE HAS NO SHAME, or will he keep on being a wind-up toy in the pay of "the Dirty Digger"?

I say this in light of the following fresh-released video from Brave New Films disproving Bill O'Reilly's contention that homeless veterans in the United States do not exist, nor should his "right-thinking Americans" as fall for this pablum have "any worthwhile interest" in the same:

Now many of our Christians have what I call the goo-goo syndrome -- good government. They want everybody to vote. I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.

Continuing this informative public service of The Exaggerator designed to challenge certain specimens of illogic on the part of the Pseudoreligiopolitical Right challenging the right of the several States to:

• establish systems of free public education; and
• proscribe use of public funds for religiosectarian instruction,

by way of the actual relevant clauses in the several State Constitutions:

MARYLAND:

• The General Assembly, at its First Session after the adoption of this Constitution, shall by Law establish throughout the State a thorough and efficient System of Free Public Schools; and shall provide by taxation, or otherwise, for their maintenance. (Article VIII, section 1, Maryland Constitution)
• The School Fund of the State shall be kept inviolate, and appropriated only to the purposes of Education. (Article VIII, section 3, op. cit.)

MASSACHUSETTS:

• Wisdom, and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties; and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in the various parts of the country, and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of legislatures and magistrates, in all future periods of this commonwealth, to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of them; especially the university at Cambridge, public schools and grammar schools in the towns; to encourage private societies and public institutions, rewards and immunities, for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, commerce, trades, manufactures, and a natural history of the country; to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in their dealings; sincerity, good humor, and all social affections, and generous sentiments among the people. (Chapter V, Section II, Massachusetts Constitution)
• All moneys raised by taxation in the towns and cities for the support of public schools, and all moneys which may be appropriated by the commonwealth for the support of common schools shall be applied to, and expended in, no other schools than those which are conducted according to law, under the order and superintendence of the authorities of the town or city in which the money is expended; and no grant, appropriation or use of public money or property or loan of public credit shall be made or authorized by the commonwealth or any political division thereof for the purpose of founding, maintaining or aiding any other school or institution of learning, whether under public control or otherwise, wherein any denominational doctrine is inculcated, or any other school, or any college, infirmary, hospital, institution, or educational, charitable or religious undertaking which is not publicly owned and under the exclusive control, order and superintendence of public officers or public agents authorized by the commonwealth or federal authority or both, except that appropriations may be made for the maintenance and support of the Soldiers' Home in Massachusetts and for free public libraries in any city or town, and to carry out legal obligations, if any, already entered into; and no such grant, appropriation or use of public money or property or loan of public credit shall be made or authorized for the purpose of founding, maintaining or aiding any church, religious denomination or society. (Article XLVII of Amendment, section 2, Massachusetts Constitution)

MICHIGAN:

• The legislature shall maintain and support a system of free public elementary and secondary schools as defined by law. Every school district shall provide for the education of its pupils without discrimination as to religion, creed, race, color or national origin.

  Nonpublic schools, prohibited aid.

  No public monies or property shall be appropriated or paid or any public credit utilized, by the legislature or any other political subdivision or agency of the state directly or indirectly to aid or maintain any private, denominational or other nonpublic, pre-elementary, elementary, or secondary school. No payment, credit, tax benefit, exemption or deductions, tuition voucher, subsidy, grant or loan of public monies or property shall be provided, directly or indirectly, to support the attendance of any student or the employment of any person at any such nonpublic school or at any location or institution where instruction is offered in whole or in part to such nonpublic school students. The legislature may provide for the transportation of students to and from any school. (Article VIII, section 2, Michigan Constitution of 1963)

MISSISSIPPI:

• The Legislature shall, by general law, provide for the establishment, maintenance and support of free public schools upon such conditions and limitations as the Legislature may prescribe. (Article VIII, section 201, Mississippi Constitution of 1890)
• No religious or other sect or sects shall ever control any part of the school or other educational funds of this state; nor shall any funds be appropriated toward the support of any sectarian school, or to any school that at the time of receiving such appropriation is not conducted as a free school. (Article VIII, section 208, op. cit.)

MISSOURI:

• A general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, the general assembly shall establish and maintain free public schools for the gratuitous instruction of all persons in this state within ages not in excess of twenty-one years as prescribed by law. (Article IX, section 1(a), Missouri Constitution of 1875)
• Neither the general assembly, nor any county, city, town, township, school district or other municipal corporation, shall ever make an appropriation or pay from any public fund whatever, anything in aid of any religious creed, church or sectarian purpose, or to help to support or sustain any private or public school, academy, seminary, college, university, or other institution of learning controlled by any religious creed, church or sectarian denomination whatever; nor shall any grant or donation of personal property or real estate ever be made by the state, or any county, city, town, or other municipal corporation, for any religious creed, church, or sectarian purpose whatever. (Article IX, section 8, op. cit.)

MONTANA:

• (1) It is the goal of the people to establish a system of education which will develop the full educational potential of each person. Equality of educational opportunity is guaranteed to each person of the state.
  
  (2) The state recognizes the distinct and unique cultural heritage of the American Indians and is committed in its educational goals to the preservation of their cultural integrity.
  
  (3) The legislature shall provide a basic system of free quality public elementary and secondary schools. The legislature may provide such other educational institutions, public libraries, and educational programs as it deems desirable. It shall fund and distribute in an equitable manner to the school districts the state's share of the cost of the basic elementary and secondary school system. (Article X, section 1, Montana Constitution of 1972)
• (1) The legislature, counties, cities, towns, school districts, and public corporations shall not make any direct or indirect appropriation or payment from any public fund or monies, or any grant of lands or other property for any sectarian purpose or to aid any church, school, academy, seminary, college, university, or other literary or scientific institution, controlled in whole or in part by any church, sect, or denomination.
  
  (2) This section shall not apply to funds from federal sources provided to the state for the express purpose of distribution to non-public education. (Article X, section 6, op. cit.)

***TO BE CONTINUED***