Dutch Engineer Flaps Wings & Flies for 60 Seconds

_The flying man (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If God had meant for man to fly, He’d've given them aeronautical engineers–and dreamers.

This is amazing.  It’s only 60 seconds long, but it could be every bit as significant as the Wright brothers first flight at Kitty Hawk.

video

00:01:50

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GYW5G2kbrKk

What man can dream, hmm?

P.S.  Oops.  I’ve had several comments that indicate this video has been admitted to be a hoax.

Damn.  Fooled me.

Well, if the saying “What man can dream, man can do” isn’t true (in this instance), then it’s at least true that “What man can dream, man can photoshop” (or something like it).

 

Currency Wars: The Final Battle?

Français : plusieurs billets de 5000, de différentes monnaies : franc, yen, lire, dollar (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) describes itself as, “a member-owned cooperative through which the financial world conducts its business operations with speed, certainty and confidence. More than 9,000 banking organisations, securities institutions and corporate customers in 209 countries trust us every day to exchange millions of standardised financial messages.”

SWIFT is the backbone of global free trade.  By means of SWIFT, businessmen in virtually any country can digitally buy or sell products to other businesses anywhere else on the globe.  Without access to SWIFT, global trade would be slow, uncertain and difficult.

The US gov-co has recently ordered Iranian banks be denied access to SWIFT until the Iranian government agrees to meet US demands concerning Iranian nuclear weapons.  Nations such as India (which are buying crude oil from Iran) are also threatened with restricted access to SWIFT unless they stop purchasing Iranian crude.

According to Bloomberg (“U.S. Wants Iran Oil Buyers to Pledge Cuts or Risk Sanctions”),

 

“If a country doesn’t prove it’s making the necessary reductions [in the purchase of Iranian crude oil] by the end of June, any institution in that nation that settles petroleum trades through Iran’s central bank will be cut off from the U.S. banking system.”

And conversely, the US banking system (and US dollar) will be “cut off” from any nation that continues to trade with Iran.

The question is:  Who needs who?

 

Ron Paul’s Stolen Election

Ron Paul taking questions in Manchester, NH (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

No Republican candidate draws a crowd like Ron Paul.

No Republican candidate inspires as much supporter loyalty as Ron Paul.

No Republican candidate is supported by as many grass roots activists as Ron Paul.

And yet, Ron Paul appears to be defeated time after time in the primary elections.

Here’s a video that makes offers a compelling explanation for Ron Paul’s seemingly inexplicable defeats: election fraud.

video

00:14:37

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtHiA7TJUV0&feature=youtu.be

 

Senator Harry Reid Insists the Income Tax is Voluntary (But also Mandatory)

Harry Reid (D-NV), United States Senator from Nevada and Majority Leader of the United States Senate (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The video below is interesting since Senator Harry Reid insists that “our income tax system is a voluntary system” but also that you must pay your income taxes.  The interviewer tries to force Sen. Reid to admit that: 1) our income tax system is voluntary and we don’t have to volunteer, or 2) we must pay income taxes and thus the system is not voluntary.  The interviewer’s inability to make Senator Reid that either the income tax is–or is not–voluntary is kinda funny.  The interviewer’s frustration is almost like an old Abbot and Costello comedy routine about “Who’s On First”.

Senator Reid sounds like an idiot as he tries to maintain his position that our income tax system both is–and is not–”voluntary”.

But you should bear in mind that Harry Reid is a U.S. Senator, and while he’s getting on in years, maybe he’s not the fool he appears to be in this interview.  You can bet that Sen. Reid is masterful in his use of language.  Maybe he knows something that the interviewer doesn’t know or even suspect.  Maybe the income tax both is, and is not, voluntary.  Maybe, as President Clinton once remarked, “it all depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is.”

I think Senator Reid may right: the income tax is both voluntary–and involuntary.

How could such ambiguity and contradiction be possible?  It all depends on the place or venue where the income tax is being considered.

 

Ignorance of the Law is No Excuse Part II: Creating Evidence

Notice (Photo credit: Squirmelia)

A couple of days ago, I posted Ignorance of the Law is No Excuse–EXCEPT When . . . . That article explored a Texas court case concerning the maxim “ignorance of the law is no excuse in the eyes of the law”.  Under that principle, a defendant can’t claim that he’s not subject to a law simply because he didn’t know about that law.  However, while his ignorance won’t protect him at law, if anyone with superior knowledge tries to take advantage of his ignorance, that person may be liable for deceit, misrepresentation and fraud in equity.

In essence, your ignorance is bad, but someone else’s attempt to exploit your ignorance is worse.

Therefore, if you can establish that: 1) out of ignorance, you relied on someone else’s “fairness and honesty” to decide your course of action; and 2) that person had betrayed your trust by advising you to act in a way that was contrary to your own rights and interests; then 3) that person’s lawsuit or prosecution against you might be stopped for fraud.

 

Debt Limit–A Guide to American Federal Debt Made Easy

US National Debt Clock, NYC (2011-03-04). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

video

00:03:09

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Li0no7O9zmE

 

“We Love You–Iran and Israel!”

At the UN, Colin Powell holds a model vial of anthrax, while arguing that Iraq is likely to possess WMDs. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Public support is vital to all governments.  Governments presume to control public sentiment.

For example, in order to invade Iraq in A.D. 2003, the gov-co first had to convince Americans that the “evil” Iraqis had the dreaded “Weapons of Mass Destruction” (WMDs).  There were no such WMDs, of course, but that didn’t matter.  Once Whee Duh Pee-Pul, had been persuaded that the fictional WMDs actually existed, we supported a war in Iraq that lasted for over eight years.

Today, our government is on the verge of attacking Iran.  Why?  Because Iran has (or could soon have) Nuclear Weapons of Mass Destruction (NWMDs).  Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta admitted in January that Iran doesn’t have nuclear weapons and doesn’t have any plans to acquire NWMDs–but, again, that doesn’t matter.  Once Whee Duh Pee-Pul have been persuaded that “evil” Iran may soon have fictional NWMDs, we will presumably support another war, attack, invasion . . . something . . . against Iran.

My point is that our gov-co needs popular support to initiate and sustain a war.  Therefore, our gov-co will go to considerable lengths to secure, manufacture or manipulate popular support before and during any proposed war.

 

Ignorance of the Law is No Excuse–EXCEPT When . . .

Dunce (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Virtually everyone who’s studied the legal system has heard the maxim that “ignorance of the law is no excuse”.  In other words, you can’t claim to be exempt from liability under a law just because you didn’t know there was such a law.

For example, just because you didn’t know that the speed limit was 45 MPH at a particular stretch in the road will not excuse you from being ticketed for driving 60.  Similarly, you can’t claim to be exempt from being charged with someone’s murder by arguing that you had no idea that murder was a crime.

In fact, presuming that “ignorance of the law is no excuse” makes perfect sense—at least in a legal system that has only a relatively few laws.

For example, under the Ten Commandments, if you’re caught fornicating with your boss’s wife, you can’t argue that—“Gee, I’d never heard that ‘Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery’—I had no idea that sleeping with my boss’s wife was wrong.”  No one will accept the argument that you were ignorant of one of the only ten laws you’re subject to.

Similarly, there are reportedly 613 “commandments” in the Torah.  It’s harder to know 613 laws, but it’s doable.  Therefore, every Jew is presumed to know those 613 laws and can’t duck liability for breaking any of them on a claim of “ignorance”.

Today, however, we live in a society that is probably generating 613 new laws, rule and regulations (local, state and federal) almost every day (surely, every month).  Our Congress passes laws every day that they don’t bother to read.  Thus, even Congress is truly ignorant of the very laws that it enacts.

 

The Curse of Crude

Oil fire at the Rumaila Oilfield, Iraq (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The political and economic “equations” that define the Middle East are too complex to be understood, let alone solved.  The number of competing forces and variables are innumerable.   Rates of change are too quick to comprehend or predict.  I doubt that there’s any cohesive order or even pattern in the Middle East.

We send ambassadors or armies to negotiate or impose commercial agreements or peace treaties.  When the negotiations (or invasions) are finished, what’s changed?  What’s been accomplished?  Nothing.  As soon as we turn away, chaos returns.

Look at Iraq.  After receiving over 8 years of tutelage (invasion, actually) in the fine art of democracy, as soon as Americans leave, the Iraqis are back to bombing and killing each other.

 

Right of Publicity

John Hancock's signature. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yesterday, I watched an episode from a TV program that followed the exploits of a fictional law firm.  In that episode, the “young-hero attorneys” represented a client who had been defamed by a movie that was made about him.  Unfortunately, because the client had a public persona he could not hope to successfully sue for defamation, unless he could prove that the movie producers had acted maliciously when they depicted him in a false light.  Because malice is extremely difficult to prove, it’s virtually impossible for anyone who is even a little bit famous (has a public persona) to sue for defamation.

But, as always–the young-hero attorneys had another trick up their sleeve–they’d sue the movie producers under their client’s “right of publicity“.

“Right of publicity”?  What th’ heck is that?  I’d never heard of it before.  But the “bells” went off instantly and I felt compelled to research that subject.  I didn’t know what “right of publicity” meant, but I was instantly compelled by the Good LORD or intuition to do more research.