Thursday, March 24, 2011

The Dredd Philosophy Is The Dread Truth

"It's a bird, it's a seal, it's a lie"
Who wudda thunk it (Navy Seal evolves into Air Force Seal)?

One of the yada yada yada's of Dredd Blog, it is said, is "the bitching, moaning, and groaning" about the ever present MOMCOM propaganda machine deep within our reality.

Post upon post here hits upon many facets of the daily propaganda.

We hope that such reiteration can be tolerated by the good folks who read Dredd Blog regularly.

The rub, and the covering up of the ears, comes when Dredd Blog exclaims that this MOMCOM propaganda is doing severe, lasting, or even permanent damage to the population of these good United States.

Even though Dredd Blog may not have been exaggerating, we had no basis in law with which to refer readers to an official national acknowledgement of the effects of propaganda upon our national cognition and day-to-day behavior.

But that seems to have changed, following the decision in a major criminal case where a city official was prosecuted in a criminal trial for lying about his service record in the military, the muscle of MOMCOM (was he a real seal or was he just parroting The Good Housekeeping Seal?).

The law in the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, the largest federal judicial circuit in the USA, has now changed that by in effect acknowledging that the Dredd Blog mantra this post deals with is actually "spot on" as the British like to say.

An en banc rehearing request by the federal government, following the Ninth Circuit panel's reversing of the criminal conviction and even holding that the criminal statute which outlaws lying is unconstitutional, the court voted to deny rehearing of the three-judge panel's decision:
Saints may always tell the truth, but for mortals living means lying. We lie to protect our privacy (“No, I don’t live around here”); to avoid hurt feelings (“Friday is my study night”); to make others feel better (“Gee you’ve gotten skinny”); to avoid recriminations (“I only lost $10 at poker”); to prevent grief (“The doc says you’re getting better”); to maintain domestic tranquility (“She’s just a friend”); to avoid social stigma (“I just haven’t met the right woman”); for career advancement (“I’m sooo lucky to have a smart boss like you”); to avoid being lonely (“I love opera”); to eliminate a rival (“He has a boyfriend”); to achieve an objective (“But I love you so much”); to defeat an objective (“I’m allergic to latex”); to make an exit (“It’s not you, it’s me”); to delay the inevitable (“The check is in the mail”); to communicate displeasure (“There’s nothing wrong”); to get someone off your back (“I’ll call you about lunch”); to escape a nudnik (“My mother’s on the other line”); to namedrop (“We go way back”); to set up a surprise party (“I need help moving the piano”); to buy time (“I’m on my way”); to keep up appearances (“We’re not talking divorce”); to avoid taking out the trash (“My back hurts”); to duck an obligation (“I’ve got a headache”); to maintain a public image (“I go to church every Sunday”); to make a point (“Ich bin ein Berliner”); to save face (“I had too much to drink”); to humor (“Correct as usual, King Friday”); to avoid embarrassment (“That wasn’t me”); to curry favor (“I’ve read all your books”); to get a clerkship (“You’re the greatest living jurist”); to save a dollar (“I gave at the office”); or to maintain innocence (“There are eight tiny reindeer on the rooftop”).

And we don’t just talk the talk, we walk the walk, as reflected by the popularity of plastic surgery, elevator shoes, wood veneer paneling, cubic zirconia, toupees, artificial turf and cross-dressing. Last year, Americans spent $40 billion on cosmetics — an industry devoted almost entirely to helping people deceive each other about their appearance. It doesn’t matter whether we think that such lies are despicable or cause more harm than good. An important aspect of personal autonomy is the right to shape one’s public and private persona by choosing when to tell the truth about oneself, when to conceal and when to deceive. Of course, lies are often disbelieved or discovered, and that too is part of the pull and tug of social intercourse. But it’s critical to leave such interactions in private hands, so that we can make choices about who we are. How can you develop a reputation as a straight shooter if lying is not an option?
(US v Alvarez). It is almost like the court said to Dredd Blog: "you be knowin'"; ... well, except for torture monger, and now Ninth Circuit Judge Jay Bybee, who dissented from the decision.

Can you imagine the hubris required for Bybee to say lying is criminal following his professional lying on steroids when he said to Bush II's gang that waterboard torture is way cool?

He would send a citizen to prison for bloviating about a non-existent military record but would not send himself to prison for lying about torture, in the process destroying innocent lives, and ruining the reputation (a la Abu Ghraib) of these United States?

Dredd Blog fully agrees with the decision of the court, because it does not take much imagination to see what would happen if the government became the sole source of "truth".

Let it be known that Dredd Blog is vindicated, let it be known that the propaganda arm of MOMCOM does damage to these good United States, the Oilah Akbar portion of MOMCOM does damage to the entire earth, and the military portion of MOMCOM is robbing us blind.

The songs "tell me sweet little lies" and "when the truth is found to be lies", the saying "don't believe anything you hear, and only half of what you see", the epidemic of disrespect for the USA around the world, the book "On Bullshit", and the epidemic of dementia here at home, all point to a culture of falsehood.

It's the way MOMCOM raises the kids don't you know.

Roll over Beethoven and tell Tchaikovsky the news about the book "On Bullshit".

UPDATE: The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument on the case next Wednesday. Will try to update this post or do another post about it.

UPDATE 2: The Supreme Court upheld the 9th Circuit's decision (6/28/12).

12 comments:

  1. It would be just as real to have the government prosecute someone for the crime of saying "she is beautiful" when in the government's mind she is not.

    Defining "beauty" and "truth" are not areas where the government has shown competence.

    Link

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  2. Perhaps this post at Washington's Blog has some insight as to how a false reality can be established by not standing up to untruth such that untruth becomes the character of a nation.

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  3. The ubiquitous pose of the sitting Buddha, with his right hand extebded down and touching (mother) earth, is the genuine visual of the Bible's "bearing witness" mantra.

    Most folks celebrate the Da Lie Lama for his acclaimed stance for "peace." (justice never mentioned) But few would ever acclaim him for all his false witness.

    Both the Bible of the one God, and the Buddha's teaching prohibits killing equally with bearing false witness, yet most folks ignor the latter.
    ........................
    http://www.questionsquestions.net/docs0209/0920_response.html
    Even the so called "Alternative media" cannot escape the mind stealiong activities of PR.
    The most logical starting point is not to ask, "are these media figures being controlled and censored by an outside agency?" but instead to ask "are these media figures controlling and censoring themselves?" John Moyers of TomPaine.com could not have said it better:

    "If they don't like what we're doing, we don't get paid next year."
    .................

    The sad fact is we can accuse China of doing this, while we overdose.

    "Nothing is sacred." Bob Dylan.

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  4. Kathy,

    I can't find where Dylan wrote "nothing is sacred" in lyrics ... what song?

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  5. @Randy,

    http://cigarettesandludes.com/2009/02/13/interview-bob-dylan-questions-in-a-hotel-room/

    :)

    (as for lyrics, check out Subterraniem Homesick Blues.)

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  6. Kathy,

    Thanks, it was not in a song.

    It was an interview.

    "I don't believe in anything" he also said.

    In context IOW, he has no faith, he is scientific.

    "Faith is the substance of things not seen" (Apostle Paul).

    That is the dividing line between religion and science, in theory, faith and proof.

    Faith in government is a religion in that sense.

    Nothing should be sacred when it comes to untruth.

    The government deserves no faith whatsoever.

    There is nothing sacred in politics, which is the foundation of government in the USA.

    I say make the government prove it, fuck faith, nothing is sacred.

    Here is the full quote, honestly:

    "Dylan: No, I’m not cynical. I just don’t-you know. I can’t see anything anybody’s offered me to believe-that I’m going to believe, put all my trust and faith in, and everything. Nothing is sacred, man."

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  7. Kathy,

    Subtereannean Homesick Blues does not even contain the word "sacred", and therefore the quote you made is not in that song.

    Care to try again on a song lyric?.

    Don't try too hard, we realize that fibbin' is legal culcha baby.

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  8. Truth telling is not a matter of morals / morality, it is for the most part a matter of ability.

    An ability to grasp a vast knowledge of facts, which requires a lot of sweat, that is, hard work.

    Especially when the opponent, the gummit, exerts a lot of the sweat of its minions to obscure the facts.

    Hard work is anathema to a "service culcha" man.

    Therefore we have the religion, the faith, the realm of opinion, which is the replacement word for faith, which is the vicar of the sacred.

    Praise opinion, the god of virgin modernity, the god of MOMCOM, because, opinion is subservient to power in the end.

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  9. Guys, I posted the link to the interview! Check it out! Bob Dylan is famous for that quote..."Nothing is sacred."

    Now, we can all debate what he meant, or where he was coming from, but it is one of my very favorite quotes of all time. second only to the Chinese saying...

    "The distance will tell the horse, time will reveal the human heart."

    You would all agree, I believe, that Dylan is an enigma, but for those of us that grew up with him, he was our voice in a world gone wack.

    The point I was making, is Buddha stated that things are as they are, nothing is sacred, and believing in something means you are bedide yourself, you are divided. There is only one mind, and it does not cling.

    No more crows.

    Nothing is sacred.

    Therefore, as Buddha teaches, he reaches down to touch (mother) earth, to bear witness.

    :)

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