Friday, November 23, 2012

Mohamed Atta and the Venice Flying Circus


The video here goes into the heroin smuggling connection. Osama was well known as a heroin smuggler.
The al Qaeda terror group has embraced heroin trafficking to such an extent that its leader, Osama bin Laden, is now a "narco-terrorist," says a U.S. congressman just back from a fact-finding mission in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"It seems clear to me heroin is the No. 1 financial asset of Osama bin Laden," Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, Illinois Republican, told The Washington Times. "There is a need to update our view of how terrorism is financed.

"And the view of Osama bin Laden relying on Wahhabi donations from abroad is outdated. And the view of him as one of the world's largest heroin dealers is the more accurate, up-to-date view."
Well this is interesting.
Dekkers, the owner of Huffman Aviation, purchased the flight school at just about the time the terrorist pilots moved into town and began their lessons. Atta and al-Shehhi paid $28,000 each for flight instruction that was available nearby for a fraction of the price. Yeslam bin Laden also provided several students for training at Huffman, though he claims to be estranged from his step-brother.224

Dekkers had reportedly been indicted in his native Holland on charges that included fraud and money laundering. More might have been known about Dekkers’ dubious history, but following 9/11, the FBI removed the files at Huffman, and loaded them onto a C-130 military cargo plane at the Sarasota airport, which took off for Washington with governor Jeb Bush on board.225

Wally Hilliard, Dekkers’ financier, entered the aviation business in Florida with an assortment of criminal and covert intelligence elements. Less than three months before the two terrorists began flight training, a Learjet owned by Hilliard, carrying 43 pounds of heroin, was seized by the DEA. Charges were dropped for “lack of evidence”, but the DEA refused to return Hilliard his plane. Hilliard had gotten his Learjet from World Jet Inc, owned by drug smuggling brothers Don and Bill Whittington, who had supplied Barry Seal his plane.226

Hilliard was then loaned a plane, a Beechcraft King Air 200, worth over $2 million, by Truman Arnold, for only one dollar. The plane was conveyed from Arnold to a Hilliard company, Oryx, founded by Sheikh Kamal Adham, former director of Saudi intelligence, and BCCI front-man, and Adnan Khashoggi.227
Is any of this true? Who knows? But as I said above. It is interesting.

Update: If you tuned in earlier I have changed the videos and some of the links to give a more complete picture. For instance the video on this page is a longer version of the original.

Eric in the comments reminds me of this post: Financing our enemies.

And if you want to follow more of Daniel Hopsicker's work go here.

Cross Posted at Classical Values.

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Bringing A Little Light To The World™

Eric has a post up about a flashlight I'm developing. I'm not going to tell you everything about it in a public forum - yet. Let me just say that it is quite small and uses ordinary batteries. The prototype pictured below uses a standard 6 volt lantern battery case because they are low cost and have lots of room inside for doing different variations. Here is a picture Eric took of the prototype.

What I want to do next is to develop a version much closer to the final design. I also need to do more extensive testing including a more exact determination of battery life and operational temperature range. For that I'm going to need the help of a mechanical engineer and some cash. At this point I'm looking for Angels rather than investors because I have no vehicle that people can legally put money into in the hopes of a return. In fact that is one of the things that needs to be developed to make the light a commercial success. Eric and one of our commenters have been my Angels so far, so they are definitely in on the ground floor as is the First Mate who has helped me considerably by being a personal supporter of my efforts and doing a bunch of grunt work including pulling money out of her food budget when needed to make things happen.

Interested parties can leave a comment here or contact me by e-mail.

And if you are concerned about my engineering ability you can read my columns at ECN Magazine. I have done everything from commercial work to aerospace engineering with a focus on Research and Development.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Forgetting The Jewish Tradition

Commenter Joseph Hertzlinger comes up with the standard social conservative objection to my position on abortion. He thinks that the understanding that the fetus is a person is a brand new idea. Well brand new in terms of human history. Read the comments at the "Joseph Hertzlinger" link to get up to date on the Jewish position on abortion. Or read this: The Jewish Position On Abortion.

In any case, the claim that a child is not a person a moment before birth and is a person a moment after birth should be taken no more seriously than the claim that the universe is six thousand years old. If we can squeeze 19th-century paleontology into Judaism, we can squeeze 19th-century embryology into Judaism.
My reply to Joseph (revised and extended):

Joseph,

The idea that embryology creates a new fact contradicts what Hippocrates knew 2,500 years ago. And the long interaction between the Jews and the Greeks would indicate that the Jews got the message no more than 100 years after Hippocrates proclaimed it.

The Jewish idea stems from the fact that until the baby starts exiting from the mother that it is her property. The alternative is that the mother is the property of the State when she is pregnant. The Jews have a long libertarian tradition (mostly forgotten in practice) but you can read about it in Samuel.

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In fact Jesus was in part a reaffirmation of Jewish libertarianism. Which was corrupted by the Council of Nicaea. Clever those Romans.

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The Christians don't even know their own tradition. I think it is because they are ignorant of the Jewish tradition. It is why I often not so jokingly say. "Time to get back to the old time religion. If it was good enough for Jesus it is good enough for me."

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There is no doubt that Jesus as a learned man knew of the Hippocratic Oath. And yet in the New Testament there is not one mention of abortion. You might want to ask yourself why. Might it be that he agreed with the Jewish position?

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Friday, July 27, 2012

Why Do Conservatives Misunderstand Libertarians

A gang of us over at Talk Polywell were discussing my recent post Emotional Decision Making.

One commenter left a link to Why Liberals Misunderstand Conservatives. Well that got me thinking, "Why do conservatives misunderstand libertarians?" Naturally I added a few words on the subject to the discussion.

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For example, one of the leading approaches to the study of political attitudes states that political conservatism is a form of motivated social cognition: people embrace conservatism in part "because it serves to reduce fear, anxiety, and uncertainty;...

From: http://sentimentsofrationality.blogspot.com/2006/04/why-liberals-misunderstand.html

If you have been following along some of the other threads that is exactly the point I have been making about some of our conservative friends.

They hate that.

Politics is in the main a fear driven activity. To get meta to it you have to be mostly free of fears. i.e. you can't let your gut drive your thought. It leaves you without reason.

Carl Sagan looked at that in his "The Dragons of Eden" book.

When we live in fear we are little better than animals.

Which is why conservatives hate libertarians. "What? You are not afraid of X? What is wrong with you?" In fact just telling them they should be free of fear (it was at one time referred to as "Trust In God") drives them into a frenzy. Which gives a fine object lesson to the lurkers.

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Then I added a comment to the "Why Liberals Misunderstand Conservatives" site. Reprized at Talk Polywell with a few prefatory remarks:

My attitude is: what ever comes up I will deal with it. What is the point of being afraid?

Here is a comment I left there:

You don't get libertarians. They are not morally impoverished. They are free of fear (mostly).

Which makes them a whole other animal compared to the left or the right.

In a different age it would have been said "They Trust in God". So important it is even printed on our money.

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Which is to say we live in a godless age. An age full of fear. Which may be why the founders said that without God liberty can't survive. Those who printed "In God We Trust" on our money were trying to send us a message. It was not about Talmudic like scholarship and the "shalls" and "shall nots" - which vary according to place and time. It was being confident that what ever came up you would deal with it to the best of your ability. No nanny state required to prevent some things from coming up.

So let me repeat here something from some of my favorite girls. The Bene Gesserit Sisters.

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

 

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Government’s Greatest Trick


 

Making you a slave to your fears.


 

 
Cross Posted at Classical Values

Friday, July 13, 2012

Crime And Vice


 

When you make vice a crime, crime becomes merely a vice.


 

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Saturday, June 30, 2012

The Official Beer Of The Revolution

This is the official beer of the Revolution.

Print out the following (you can get 7 or so on a sheet) and pass it out every time you order a beer in public.


"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude than the animating contest of freedom—go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!" Samuel Adams

Cross posted at Classical Values

Friday, June 29, 2012

Slavery

The central issue of our times:

The power to tax is the power to enslave.

For what are you willing to be a slave?

For what are you willing to enslave others?

Pass it on. Claim it as your own.

Also posted at Classical Values where I do most of my posting these days.

Nice one at: The Future Of The World Is Slavery.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Gunners Look At Drugs

In an effort to enlist the gun rights community in the anti-prohibition effort I have written a piece for Gun Values Board.

Cross Posted at Classical Values