Nemesis Computing

90 percent of science fiction is crap. But then, 90 percent of everything is crap.
Sturgeon's Law

I registered the domain nemesis.com many years ago with the idea that it would contain information concerning events, people and technology that were not available elsewhere. Since that time the world wide web portion of the Internet has grown by leaps and bounds, but Sturgeon's Law remains in force (if somewhat optimistic). This page now documents much of the falsity and absurdity that passes for public discourse.

Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, asks us to "Please Do Not Feed the Animals." Their stated reason for the policy is because the animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves.

The financial industry as it exists today is entirely a creation of the state. The state permits a private cartel to produce currency for a supposedly sovereign nation. The state does not lift a finger to punish those in the financial industry who openly commit fraud. The state forced you to bail out the financial system. It will do so again. One can hardly find a better example of garbage in, garbage out.

"Don't believe them, don't fear them, don't ask anything of them."

    --Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago

RT: It seems that the public is divided between those, who think that the government surveillance program violates their civil liberties, and those, who say: "I've nothing to hide. So, why should I care?" What do you say to those, who think that it shouldn't concern them.

WB: The problem is if they think they are not doing anything that's wrong, they don't get to define that. The central government does, the central government defines what is right and wrong and whether or not they target you. So, it's not up to the individuals. Even if they think they are doing something wrong, if their position on something is against what the administration has, then they could easily become a target.

    --Interview with former NSA employee William Binney

Regarding the deeper reasons for shooting massacres:

We breed a culture that celebrates violence and then we are shocked when that violence happens at home. That's not irony...it's willful ignorance.

Twenty some-odd children are killed in America and it's a national tragedy. A half a million are killed in Iraq by America and it's "collateral damage."

These massacres are not merely about mentally disturbed loners or lax gun control laws. They are the logical outcome of an increasingly militarized culture that glorifies violence -- whose leaders publicly tout their "kill lists" and readiness to use armed force to further the "national interest." We are a gangster nation -- we should expect the occasional drive-by massacre.

When I saw the picture of Barack Obama, the mass murderer of Muslim children [via unmanned drone strikes in Africa and the Middle East], weeping a bitter [crocodile] tear over the deaths of these children I could not believe the cognitive dissonance.

We as a country practice moral disengagement, like concentration camp commanders who could kill thousands in the day and come home to a loving family in the evening.

    --Comment on a financial blog

The Soviet Union had a single, entrenched, systemically corrupt political party, which held a monopoly on power. The United States has two entrenched, systemically corrupt political parties, whose positions are often indistinguishable, and which together hold a monopoly on power. In either case, there is, or was, a single governing elite, but in the United States it organized itself into opposing teams to make its stranglehold on power seem more sportsmanlike.

[...] Although people often bemoan political apathy as if it were a grave social ill, it seems to me that this is just as it should be. Why should essentially powerless people want to engage in a humiliating farce designed to demonstrate the legitimacy of those who wield the power? In Soviet-era Russia, intelligent people did their best to ignore the Communists: paying attention to them, whether through criticism or praise, would only serve to give them comfort and encouragement, making them feel as if they mattered. Why should Americans want to act any differently with regard to the Republicans and the Democrats? For love of donkeys and elephants?

    --Dmitry Orlov

I don't vote. Two reasons. First of all it's meaningless; this country was bought and sold a long time ago. The shit they shovel around every 4 years doesn't mean a fucking thing. Secondly, I believe if you vote, you have no right to complain. People like to twist that around - they say, 'If you don't vote, you have no right to complain', but where's the logic in that? If you vote and you elect dishonest, incompetent people into office who screw everything up, you are responsible for what they have done. You caused the problem; you voted them in; you have no right to complain. I, on the other hand, who did not vote, who in fact did not even leave the house on election day, am in no way responsible for what these people have done and have every right to complain about the mess you created that I had nothing to do with.

    --George Carlin

The modern control matrix of prohibiting something is to leave it technically legal, thereby diffusing anti-tyranny opposition, but bury the actual activity in so many regulations, fees, and licenses, as to make it virtually impossible for a person of average means, knowledge, motivation, and connections, to conduct it with any level of enjoyment, profit margin, or benefits.

    --Comment on a financial blog

A political system controlled by an ignorant electorate that is manipulated by a dishonest and controlled media that dispenses propaganda on behalf of a corrupt political establishment can hardly be the path to lasting prosperity.

    --Dr. Marc Faber for The Daily Reckoning

I ask statists of various stripes what they think of the following statements:

    (1) I voted for Barack Obama because he is black
    (2) I did not vote for Barack Obama because he is black

It probably comes as no surprise that the overwhelming majority of people are okay with statement (1) but pretend to be offended by statement (2).

    --Comment on a financial blog

"My daddy has voted Republican his whole life. Since he died he votes Democrat!"
(Welcome to Chicago)

1. TARP (bailout for "too big to fail" banks)
2. Health Care "reform"
3. Illegal immigration

1. has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)
2. is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
3. believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
4. requires excessive admiration
5. has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
6. is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
7. lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others
8. is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her
9. shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may appoint teachers in every State, county and parish and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision of the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, every thing, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress... Were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited Government established by the people of America.

    --James Madison

A quick tip:

The way to kill a zombie is to starve it to death by hiding its EBT card under its work boots.

From a financial blog:

The only way wealth is actually created is by mining, extracting or growing things. And by taking the goods that are mined, extracted or grown and manufacturing them into usable products. Everything else, including the entire service industry, including government (in theory a service), is just redistribution. If I pay a guy to shine my shoes I'm redistributing a small chunk of my wealth to him.

Unfortunately, the ruling elites have figured out how to create fraudulent tokens of wealth out of thin air. These are distributed to insiders and then mingled in with actual wealth. This distorts the entire economic structure. But it makes powerful people fabulously wealthy and, at this point, all the powerful will fight tooth and nail to hold on to their source of free wealth and power.

I disagree about Romney being clearly intelligent. Both he and Obama have a high degree of what my old Uncle used to call "superior rat-like cunning." This is the trait that is required to climb to the top of power structures. True intelligence is a detriment to a politician, a lawyer or a corporate executive.

• A speech given on July 2, 2008 in Colorado Springs that included this:

  We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.

• From the change.gov web site, prior to November 10, 2008:

  President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in under served schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps.

  Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year.

And now, with that in mind, consider this bit of history:

The organization dates back to 1890 as the Wandervogel and progressed by leaps and bounds, gaining strength between 1900 and 1914 preceding the First World War. It lost favor after WWI when it first became known as the Youth League of the National Socialist Worker's Party (NSDAP) and was renamed "Greater German Youth Movement" - a less ominous and less political-sounding name. It became more militant over time and on Sunday, July 4, 1926 the Greater German Youth Movement was renamed as the Hitler Jugend, Bund der Deutschen Arbeiterjugend and thus the Hitler Jugend (HJ) or Hitler Youth was born.

Every year the organization was given a new, innocent, and high-minded theme. Beginning in 1933, every year thereafter was to be given a special theme by the leadership of the Hitler Youth. 1933 was aptly named the "Jahr der Organization" or "the year of organization." 1934 was "the year of training." 1935 was "the year of physical training."

On December 1, 1936, Hitler decreed "The Law concerning the Hitler Youth," which mandated that all young male and female Germans (excluding Jews) would be educated physically, intellectually and morally in the spirit of National Socialism though the Hitler Youth from the age of ten onward. This law also effectively ended the Catholic Youth Organization, Boy Scouts and all other non-Nazi youth organizations. This was called the Reichsjugenddienstpflicht (mandatory youth service).

• The only way to fight off massive debt is with more debt.
• The only way to fight off the poison seeping up from the ocean is with more poison.
• The only way to fight crime is to criminalize more behavior.

If a conservative doesn't like guns, he doesn`t buy one.
If a liberal doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.

If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn`t eat meat.
If a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.

If a conservative doesn't like a talk show host, he switches channels.
If a liberal doesn't like a talk show host, he demands that they be shut down.

If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn't go to church.
If a liberal is a non-believer, he wants any mention of God and religion silenced.

If a conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it.
If a liberal decides he needs health care, he demands that the rest of us pay for it.

House of Representatives
  Democrats: 152 for, 96 against
  Republicans: 138 for, 34 against

Senate
  Democrats: 46 for, 21 against
  Republicans: 27 for, 6 against

All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.

"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense."

Back in the 1980s, Yosemite National Park was having a serious problem with bears: They would wander into campgrounds and break into the garbage bins. This put both bears and people at risk. So the Park Service started installing armored garbage cans that were tricky to open -- you had to swing a latch, align two bits of handle, that sort of thing. But it turns out it's actually quite tricky to get the design of these cans just right. Make it too complex and people can't get them open to put away their garbage in the first place. Said one park ranger, "There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists."

In the English language, the word "racist" has come to describe anyone who opposes the Democrat Party. It serves to shut down discussion rather than resolve differences and has destroyed the original meaning of the word.

The Political Correctness Police has issued an all points bulletin for the following people of interest. If you know of any racists who fit this updated definition and description, notify the proper authorities immediately.

• You might be a racist if you think our Liberal leaders are wasting too much of our your hard-earned money.
• You may be a racist if you think our Government is out of touch with the average American.
• You may be a racist if you want the people in Washington to just leave you alone.
• You may be a racist if you think people should quit expecting handouts from Washington.
• You may be a racist if you want lower taxes.
• You may be a racist if you want our borders secured.
• You may be a racist if you don't like cap-in-trade legislation.
• You may be a racist if you don't want socialized medicine.
• You may be a racist if you like your current health care plan.
• You may be a racist if you don't trust the Government.
• You may be a racist if you didn't vote for Barack Obama.
• You may be a racist if you think the Cambridge police acted intelligently.
• You may be a racist if you don't believe the Government should have bailed out Wall Street, Detroit, and the banks.
• You may be a racist if you believe that 40 million people added to a Government-run health plan with the same amount of doctors is going to lead to rationing of health care.
• You may be a racist if you think our country is already too deeply in debt.
• You may be a racist if you think you can work hard to get ahead so you can keep your own money.
• You may be a racist if you watch Fox News.
• You may be a racist if you think it should be your choice whether you share your money with the poor or not.
• You may be a racist if you feel we need less Government in our lives.
• You may be a racist if you think ACORN is a corrupt organization.
• You may be a racist if you think Reverend Wright's sermons were hateful
• You may be a racist if you think people from minorities can be racists.
• You may be a racist if you think America is a Christian Nation.
• You may be a racist if you think we should not be apologizing to the Middle East for anything.
• You may be a racist if you are in the Tea Party.
• You may be a racist if you can think for yourself.
• You may be a racist if you believe in the American Dream.
• You may be a racist if you believe in working for a living.
• You may be a racist if you believe In God We Trust.

The media in the United States, while able to provide excruciating detail on nearly every celebrity scandal, has thus far failed to provide even basic information on President Obama. The press has been unable to locate any of his childhood friends or neighbors. They cannot locate any of Obama's college papers, or grades, or how his Harvard tuition was paid. They have not been able to determine who issued his visa for travel to Pakistan in the 1980s, nor have they been able to ascertain why he is using a Social Security Number originally issued in Connecticut to a now-deceased man.

They have also been unable to locate a copy of Michelle Obama's thesis at Princeton on racism.

Ideas are more powerful than guns.
We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas?

The audience will always look where the magician looks. The magician must never look at what he wants to conceal. The audience will treat as important what the magician treats as important, and as unimportant what the magician treats as unimportant.

On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.

But scientists, who ought to know
Assure us that it must be so.
Oh, let us never, never doubt
What nobody is sure about.
Hilaire Belloc

You can look up local gas prices across the United States here.

...so let's recap.

The financial institutions manipulate LIBOR.

The energy sector manipulates gas pricing.

The oil sector is known for being heavily manipulated.

The Fed manipulates the FX, treasury, and bond markets, and props up equities.

But yet, you're a conspiracy theorist if you believe anything untoward is going on in the precious metals markets.

Click here for U.S. Census information lookup based on place name or zip code.

The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances. No doctrine, involving more pernicious consequences, was ever invented by the wit of man than that any of its provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
71 U.S. 2; 18 L. Ed. 281; 1866 U.S. LEXIS 861; 4 Wall. 2
DECEMBER, 1866, Term

Regulation is for today's socialists what public ownership of the means of production and central planning were for them half a century ago. No one has to nationalize industries anymore, because the extraordinary growth of regulation has given effective control to the government without its having to assume the hassle of ownership. Socialism has effectively re-invented itself.

Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything.

Nothing in the Constitution compels us to listen to or view any unwanted communication, whatever its merit;
We therefore categorically reject the argument that a vendor has a right under the Constitution or otherwise to send unwanted material into the home of another. If this prohibition operates to impede the flow of even valid ideas, the answer is that no one has a right to press even ``good'' ideas on an unwilling recipient.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger
U.S. Supreme Court Appeal 397 U. S. 728, 1970
Rowan, DBA American Book Service, et al. V. United States Post Office Department et al.

All of that is moot since June 11, 2001, when the Supreme Court of the United States voted 5-4 that the use of a thermal scanner, or any other "sense-enhancing device", constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment. Justice Scalia, writing for the majority:

We think that obtaining by sense-enhancing technology any information regarding the interior of the home that could not otherwise have been obtained without physical intrusion into a constitutionally protected area constitutes a search - at least where (as here) the technology in question is not in general public use.

The full ruling, in Adobe Acrobat format, is available here.

Twenty-five years later a slim majority of the Supremes now believe that you must identify yourself whenever a law enforcement officer asks. Failure to identify yourself is now sufficient in and of itself to trigger an arrest, regardless of your guilt or innocence.

You can read the full travesty in Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial District Court, Nevada, 03-5554.

The cluelessness of these Justices is evident in the following excerpt from the majority opinion:

One's identity is, by definition, unique; yet it is, in another sense, a universal characteristic. Answering a request to disclose a name is likely to be so insignificant in the scheme of things as to be incriminating only in unusual circumstances...

Continuation of the National Emergency With Respect to Persons Who Commit, Threaten to Commit, or Support Terrorism

On September 23, 2001, by Executive Order 13224, I declared a national emergency with respect to persons who commit, threaten to commit, or support terrorism, pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701-1706). I took this action to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States constituted by the grave acts of terrorism and threats of terrorism committed by foreign terrorists, including the terrorist attacks in New York, in Pennsylvania, and against the Pentagon committed on September 11, 2001, and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks against United States nationals or the United States. Because the actions of these persons who commit, threaten to commit, or support terrorism continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the United States, the national emergency declared on September 23, 2001, and the measures adopted on that date to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond September 23, 2008. Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency with respect to persons who commit, threaten to commit, or support terrorism.

This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.

(Presidential Sig.)

THE WHITE HOUSE,

Washington, September 18, 2008

This is a continuation of the original declaration after the attacks of September 11, 2001:

Proclamation 7463 of September 14, 2001

Declaration of National Emergency by Reason of Certain Terrorist Attacks

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

A national emergency exists by reason of the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, New York, New York, and the Pentagon, and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, I hereby declare that the national emergency has existed since September 11, 2001, and, pursuant to the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), I intend to utilize the following statutes: sections 123, 123a, 527, 2201(c), 12006, and 12302 of title 10, United States Code, and sections 331, 359, and 367 of title 14, United States Code.

Click here to see an effective way to deal with terrorists.

Thanks to our friends at the Public Broadcasting System, you can pick your target and detonate a nuclear bomb!
Click here to see a map of the destruction after a 1 megaton or 25 megaton nuclear weapon goes off.

You can check out a Java-based nuclear weapon effects calculator here, and a fallout calculator here.

A set of Frequently Asked Questions about nuclear weapons is available here.

A little closer to home, an enterprising Boy Scout managed to build his own radioactive stockpile. You can read the story here.

Safety precautions and the chemcial composition of the nerve gas VX can be found here.

Martin Libicki's The Mesh and the Net: Speculations on Armed Conflict in an Age of Free Silicon is available here.

Information on remote viewing is available from SAIC's Cognitive Science Laboratory.

A variety of information concerning ancient Egypt is available at Guardian's Egypt.