Posts in "tyranny"

By Rachel Kania at 11:14AM

Mar 23, 2010

George Orwell's 1984

Last night I watched George Orwell's 1984 come to life on my computer screen. I have never read the book but in the interest of time and entertainment I decided to watch the movie.

The movie demonstrates the powerful psychology behind collectivist thought and the nonexistent big brother who controls the minds of the proletariat. In this lifeless world, people become afraid to step outside of their daily routine in fear of embarrassment, torture, and death. No one is allowed to think or feel, the proles exists solely to work for the omnipotent and omnipresent government. If you haven't yet seen this grim warning against future totalitarianism, I strongly suggest you watch it.

1984

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By Shaun Bowen at 6:12PM

Nov 11, 2009

Cui Bono

Unless you have had you head buried in the sand for the last decade, I'm sure you've noticed evironmentalist calls for government regulations to slow "climate change." Since the failure of the Kyoto Treaty, environmentalists have tried to drastically reshape American law to combat those "evil corporations" and "needless consumers" who seek to eat the planet from the inside out. The most recent scheme to attempt to regress us back to a pastoral/agrarian lifestyle is the Waxman-Markey Cap and Trade bill. This dangerous piece of legislation has already passed the House and will soon be voted on in the Senate.

As always the bill is being expanded and changed in the Senate, yet sadly not for the better. In the new version of the bill that has been passed by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s Democrats (with Republicans protesting the vote), there is an extremely scary new provision. According to the Washington Examiner, the bill will contain a "climate emergency" provision. This provision will be triggered when global concentrations of greenhouse gases reach 450 ppm, which is set to happen within a few months. Once triggered it requires that the president to “direct all Federal agencies to use existing statutory authority to take appropriate actions...to address shortfalls."

The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions

As I sat back Saturday night and watched, vote after vote, my liberties just being brushed away, I couldn't help but think of 1984. While the Patriot Act has been my measuring stick for the Big Brother state up until this point, should the House health care bill pass the Senate I think I'll have a new guide of despotism.

But, as Adam Murdok mentions as well as Tom Mullen, there is the mandate provision in the legislation and I feel that it hasn't recieved enough attention (at least in general).

Where, on God's green Earth could anyone, in any way, construe the words of the Constitution to say that they have the authority to force me to buy anything? Have we really lost that much sight of our federal government's purpose that we can have usurpations and advancements of despotism APPLAUDED!?!?!

Tyranny, Democracy, or Neither?

Political satire is one of the wonderful aspects of a society that believes in freedom of expression. I am a big fan of this type of humor in general, and Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on their respective shows in particular. As much as I enjoy his show, however, Stewart occasionally departs from satire and attempts to teach his impressionable audience lessons in how the American political system works. Take this particularly egregious clip, for example: <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="360" height="301" codebase="http://download.macromedia.co
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By Caleb Kinley at 7:16AM

Dec 30, 2008

Czar Wars

Slates Ben Zimmer writes; "On the American scene, czar was first bestowed on one of Andrew Jackson's foes: Nicholas Biddle, president of the Bank of the United States. [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="151" caption="Czar Nicholas I of Russia"]