Congratulations. Watch out, though! The tyranny will be after you.
I am too old, at 79, to join you. I hope that there will be other Americans willing to join an armed fight against the tyranny. I cannot imagine a better way to go than fighting for liberty. I spent a lifetime feeling guilt for being too young, six then, to fight Germans 73 years ago.

There are four lights (not five like you are being told).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjKQQpPVi...

I expect tyranny. In fact, I think we now officially have one. I have partially shrugged, taking a professor's position instead of being purely an inventor/businessowner like I had been prior to the end of 2008. I am helping plan Atlantis. In fact, another Gulcher and I are meeting to discuss Atlantis housing on Saturday.

Do you think that it will be rebirth or tyranny?

Agreed completely, Maritimus. Their goal is our enslavement via any means necessary, particularly through obfuscation and lying. According to their goals, they are acting in a logical, albeit highly unethical, manner, but to them, the ends justify the means. Machiavelli would have been proud of this bunch.

Hi, J,
Thank you. I guess we better define what progress means. I was naïve enough to think that progress could be objectively measured only by how much widespread is satisfaction and unencumbered advancement in exercising, by each individual, of their right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
Since your are right with the facts you list, it seems to me the all important question becomes: "After our compelling "progress" to the inevitable economic and social collapse, what will prevail: a new implementation of the constitution (or a modified and more explicit one) or tyranny?
As an aside, let me say that what Marxists call progress, all unbiased thinkers would call regression. Another way of obfuscating and lying.

That is a very succinct way to stating it. You could apply this though to all sorts of situations. Businesses might want to examine what kind of hierarchy they support to know whether their employees use honesty or lies to move up the corporate ladder.

Oh, I'll smirkingly disagree on this one, Maritimus. It all depends on your perspective.

The progressives have made much progress in their efforts to ruin this country, mostly with Obamacare, but also with the EPA, the IRS, etc. Tonight we shall see the progressives' great progress when Emperor Obama makes his executive order regarding illegal immigrants.
After tonight the progressives will have nailed the final nail into the American coffin. From their perspective, after tonight they have won the game.

Exactly right! In addition, calling themselves, nowadays, "liberals" and "progressives" is another form of lying. They ran out of misleading labels and went back to a century old one; "progressives". Can you point me to any significant progress made since the "progressive-in-chief" entered the imperial court?

Since all forms of Marxism can only exist at the point of a gun it is no surprise that to institute it, or survive under it, lying is prerequisite. Free markets and fair trade allow one to be truthful and maintain integrity. Mark Twain: 'If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything."

Agreed

K, the socioeconomic corollary is evident::: cheating
in personal interactions would be more likely among
those imbued with socialist mores. -- j

They are regressives

Robert Anton Wilson called it the SNAFU principle: when you're face to face with someone who has the power to ruin your life, you tell him only what he wants to hear. Therefore, the more powerful a bully someone is, the less he will know about what is really going on.

I won't call any leftist liberal or progressive. Those are the adjectives of liberty and progress, and they're dead set against both.

it is soo screwed up (so up is down)

Given the corruption that the model generates, corruption becomes the system itself. And if you cannot play under corruption rules, then you cannot make a living.

In fact in here (Venezuela) if you try to play honest, you are a "pendejo" (stupid).

When you exercise a muscle or practice a skill, it grows stronger and better. When you have spent your entire life lying to survive...

Jan
(but it is getting this way here too)

Why did I immediately think of Obama moving his lips? Yesterday I saw him move his lips about Conrade Liar Gruber.
Lie! Lie! Lie! Lie! Lie! Lie! Lie!

https://news.yahoo.com/video/gruber-whit...

His lies put most others to shame. And, he is soooo good at it. Could it be that nothing sticks to him because he's just downright slimy?

Exactly!

Good point.

I find this truly remarkable, coming from The Economist. I have never known them to acknowledge this entirely predictable consequence of socialism.

Maybe he misses his old home, and just wants to make us more like that...

It doesn't matter, because infallible Stasi records in East Berlin, provided by information from neighbors and family, say you have 7. If you do not give to state 7 cows, comrade, you shall go to Gulag.