1) Is there any means by which any number of individuals can delegate to someone else the moral right to do something which none of the individuals have the moral right to do themselves?
2) Do those who wield political power (presidents, legislators, etc.) have the moral right to do things which other people do not have the moral right to do? If so, from whom and how did they acquire such a right?
3) Is there any process (e.g., constitutions, elections, legislation) by which human beings can transform an immoral act into a moral act (without changing the act itself)?
4) When law-makers and law-enforcers use coercion and force in the name of law and government, do they bear the same responsibility for their actions that anyone else would who did the same thing on his own?
5) When there is a conflict between an individual’s own moral conscience, and the commands of a political authority, is the individual morally obligated to do what he personally views as wrong in order to “obey the law”?
During the recent Baltimore protests which reeked of George Soros‘ usual nefarious escapades, and which occasionally resulted in a number of businesses being looted and burned – and also cop cars being suspiciously burned – and which also sparked solidarity protests as far as Ferguson, Oakland, Denver, Minneapolis, Washington DC, New York City, and Seattle, twitter feeds were soaked with comments like “stores can be re-built but Freddie Gray’s spine can never be rebuilt”. Variations of this argument appeared to dominate the twitter-sphere.
In light of this, what can those who use this fallacious argument say when faced with this IJ Review videofeaturing an interview with a Baltimore pizza shop owner, Essam el Ghannam, who mentioned that a 14 year old girl tried to light him and his vehicle on fire in Baltimore amid the riots? That’s right, teenagers tried to murder an innocent man in one of the most torturous and brutal ways imaginable, by dousing him with lighter fluid and attempting to ignite the flame. The video shows his burnt and looted store, Papa Palace, which the man has owned and operated for 8 years. He said that at the time that this occured he was watching his 12-year old niece and had to rush her to safety.
What was this teenager thinking? Judging from Ghannam’s reaction, it’s likely she simply wasn’t thinking.
Leonard Peikoff defines “thinking” as identifying. He points out that when you ask yourself “where” an event is happening you are actually asking about the identity of the location – “what is the location”.
When you ask “when” an event is happening you aim to identify the time at which the event occured – “what is the time interval during which this event occured”, and so on.
Hence, thinking is the act of identifying. It’s all about the “what”, at the end of the day.
Objectivism holds that value is objective (not intrinsic or subjective); value is based on and derives from the facts of reality (it does not derive from mystic authority or from whim, personal or social). Reality, we hold — along with the decision to remain in it, i.e., to stay alive — dictates and demands an entire code of values. Unlike the lower species, man does not pursue the proper values automatically; he must discover and choose them; but this does not imply subjectivism. Every proper value-judgment is the identification of a fact: a given object or action advances man’s life (it is good): or it threatens man’s life (it is bad or an evil). The good, therefore, is a species of the true; it is a form of recognizing reality. The evil is a species of the false; it is a form of contradicting reality. Or: values are a type of facts; they are facts considered in relation to the choice to live.
[…]
Just as there can be no dichotomy between mind and body, so there can be none between the true and the good. Even in regard to metaphysically given facts, cognition and evaluation cannot be sundered. Cognition apart from evaluation is purposeless; it becomes the arbitrary desire for “pure knowledge” as an end in itself. Evaluation apart from cognition is non-objective; it becomes the whim of pursuing an “I wish” not based on any “It is.”
Many seem to mistakenly agree that 2 wrongs make a right. Unfortunately, reality is not merely a product of what we want. It’s not that convenient. Not for you, not for me, and not for those teenagers either. The fact is that one either understands and respects property rights or one does not. We can’t move the goalposts. We can’t have something be wrong one day and then suddenly be right the next.
On April 19, 2015, Freddie Gray, died as a result of injuries sustained while in the custody of the Baltimore Police Department. He was 25 years old. But the tragedies within this story began much much earlier – and continue, even after his early death.
As Baltimore burned in the background and protestors rioted – criminal charges were filed against the six police officers who were believed to be involved in his death.
Will the justice be served in a court of law – or are there more complicated elements involved in this tragic story which need to be addressed? What is the Truth About Freddie Gray?
While Baltimore burns, the city has proven itself to be yet another staging ground in a long line of scenes involving “violent protests,” riots, and racial violence following an incident concerning police brutality, real or otherwise.
Although the issues that have set off the spark in most of these protests were entirely legitimate, government agencies, foundations, organizations, and NGOs immediately swooped in to divert the protests into racially charged fit throwing and often violent riots.
With a carefully orchestrated network that was capable of organizing large numbers of individuals on a moment’s notice, and a simultaneous media campaign that cleverly showed violence and riots but ignored peaceful or appropriately-directed violent acts, these organizations were able to turn what could and should have been a national movement into a racially-oriented hate-filled display of unrestrained destruction.
With this in mind, one might justifiably ask how these organizations might have such an effective network that operates in concert with a national corporate media apparatus in order to wreck legitimate movements and, out of those movements, create a counter-productive act of mindless fit-throwing?
The answer is the same as it has often been in Europe – the color revolution apparatus and George Soros.
Indeed, George Soros has been heavily involved in the social unrest and movement-wrecking activity that has taken place all across the United States in recent months. From Florida to Ferguson and now to Baltimore, George Soros’ Foundations have been involved in making sure that not only are American citizens unable to overcome racial divisions with mutual cooperation but that even the racially isolated participants are unable to accomplish anything of substance.
Why did the Baltimore riots seem like they were perfectly staged to be a television event? Images of police vehicles burning made for great television all over the planet, but why were there abandoned police vehicles sitting right in the middle of the riot zones without any police officers around them in the first place? Why was the decision made ahead of time to set a curfew for Tuesday night and not for Monday night? And why are Baltimore police officers claiming that they were ordered to “stand down” and not intervene as dozens of shops, businesses and homes went up in flames? Yes, the anger over the death of Freddie Gray is very real. Police brutality has been a major problem in Baltimore and much of the rest of the nation for many years. But could it be possible that the anger that the people of Baltimore are feeling is being channeled and manipulated for other purposes? The following are 12 unanswered questions about the Baltimore riots that they don’t want us to ask…
#1 Why are dozens of social media accounts that were linked to violence in Ferguson now trying to stir up violence in Baltimore?…
The data mining firm that found between 20 and 50 social media accounts in Baltimore linked to the violence in Ferguson, Mo. is now reporting a spike in message traffic in Washington D.C., Philadelphia and New York City, with “protesters” trying to get rides to Baltimore for Tuesday night.
The firm, which asked to remain anonymous because it does government work, said some of the suspect social media accounts in Baltimore are sending messages to incite violence. While it is possible to spoof an account, to make it look like someone is one place and really is in another, that does not fully explain the high numbers.
#2 Who was behind the aggressive social media campaign to organize a “purge” that would start at the Mondawmin Mall at precisely 3 PM on Monday afternoon?…
The spark that ignited Monday’s pandemonium probably started with high school students on social media, who were discussing a “purge” — a reference to a film in which laws are suspended.
Many people knew “very early on” that there was “a lot of energy behind this purge movement,” Baltimore City Councilman Nick Mosby told CNN on Tuesday. “It was a metaphor for, ‘Let’s go out and make trouble.’”
#3 Even though authorities had “credible intelligence” that gangs would be specifically targeting police officers on Monday, why weren’t they more prepared? On Tuesday, the captain of the Baltimore police tried to make us believe that they weren’t prepared because they were only anticipating a confrontation with “high schoolers”…
Police Capt. John Kowalczyk said the relatively light initial police presence was because authorities were preparing for a protest of high schoolers. A heavy police presence and automatic weapons would not have been appropriate, he said. Kowalczyk said police made more than 200 arrests — only 34 of them juveniles.
#4 Where were the Baltimore police on Monday afternoon when the riots exploded? During the rioting, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said that the “disappearance of the police for hours this afternoon is something that is going to haunt this city for decades”.
#5 Why are police officers in Baltimore claiming that they were instructed to “stand down” during the rioting on Monday afternoon?…
Police officers in Baltimore reportedly told journalists that they were ordered by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake not to stop looters during yesterday’s riots.
Rawlings-Blake, who waited 5 hours before even making a statement on the unrest, was already under intense critcism for saying that violent mobs were provided with “space” to “destroy” during riots which took place on Saturday.
One Baltimore shopkeeper said that he actually called the police 50 times asking for help and never got any assistance at all. Other business owners reported similar results. This is so similar to what we saw back during the Ferguson riots.
#6 Why was the decision made ahead of time to set a curfew on Tuesday night but not on Monday night?
#7 Why were so many police vehicles conveniently parked along the street in areas where the worst violence happened? After the destruction of a number of police vehicles on Saturday night, the Baltimore police had to know that they were prime targets. So why were there even more police vehicles available for rioters to destroy on Monday? And where were the cops that should have been protecting those vehicles?
#8 Why is an organization funded by George Soros stirring up emotions against the police in Baltimore?
#9 Why is CNN bringing on “commentators” that are promoting violence in Baltimore?…
Marc Lamont Hill, a Morehouse College professor and regular CNN commentator, embraced radical violence in the streets during an interview Monday on CNN.
“There shouldn’t be calm tonight,” Hill told CNN host Don Lemon as riots raged in the streets of Baltimore.
“Black people are dying in the streets. We’ve been dying in the streets for months, years, decades, centuries. I think there can be resistance to oppression.”
#11 Why were rioters given hours to cause mayhem before a state of emergency was finally declared on Monday? Maryland Governor Larry Hogan seems to think that Mayor Rawlings-Blake waited far too long to declare a state of emergency. Just check out what he told one reporter…
I‘ve been in daily communication with the mayor and others in the city and our entire team has been involved from day one. Frankly, this was a Baltimore city situation. Baltimore city was in charge. When the mayor called me, which quite frankly we were glad that she finally did, instantly we signed the executive order. We already had our entire team prepared.
We were all in a command center and second floor of the state house in constant communication and we were trying to get in touch with the mayor for quite some time. She finally made that call and we immediately took action.
#12 Does the fact that the mayor of Baltimore has very close ties to the Obama administration have anything to do with how events unfolded during the riots? The following is from Infowars.com…
Rawlings-Blake was one of three mayors who provided broad input into President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, which advocates the federalization of police departments across the country by forcing them to adhere to stricter federal requirements when they receive funding.
“The federal government can be a strong partner in our efforts in build better relationships between the police and community,” she said in written testimony before the task force.
That would explain her inaction to stop the rioting when it began: by allowing it to spiral out of control, the mayor and her friends at the Justice Dept. could use the unrest to justify the expansion of federal power into local law enforcement, which would also allow her to receive more funding.
And why did it take Barack Obama several days to publicly condemn the violence in Baltimore? Why didn’t he stand up and say something on Monday when the riots were at their peak?
Something doesn’t smell right about all of this. Much of the violence could have been prevented if things had been handled differently.
In the end, who is going to get hurt the most by all of this? It will be the African-American communities in the heart of Baltimore that are already suffering with extremely high levels of unemployment and poverty.
I wish that we could all just learn to come together and love one another. Over the past few days, I have seen a whole lot of “us vs. them” talk coming from all quarters. This kind of talk is only going to reinforce the cycle of mistrust and violence.
Sadly, I believe that this is just the beginning of what is coming to America. The following are some tweets that show the mayhem and destruction that we have been witnessing in Baltimore the past few days…
Over the past ten years, more than 100 000 people in the United States and in Europe have complained about a strange and devastating skin disease known as Morgellons. The medical community is divided between those who dismiss it as a psychological disorder and those who regard Morgellons as an emerging disease deserving further study. This issue would normally be confined to scientific medical journals if the Pentagon and federal “law-enforcement” agencies were not so actively engaged in hiding it from the public. In the first part of his investigation, Hank Albarelli reports on a controversy which leads straight to new weapons experiments of the most secret order.
Three weeks ago, we wrote about a “disease” known as Morgellons that very few people in the world know anything about. We placed the word disease above in quotation marks only because a large number of physicians refuse to recognize Morgellons as a medical affliction, with some even refusing to treat patients who suffer from it.
We have listened to a long litany of accounts about doctors who have literally laughed in the faces of Morgellons sufferers, male and female, young and old, with many attempting to make referrals to psychologists. Remarkably, other physicians have mounted web sites mocking and attacking people who report they have Morgellons and those who write about it. Some physicians have dubbed the disease Delusions of Parasitosis, meaning it’s all in the patient’s head. Additionally, there is a website entitled morgellonswatch.com “dedicated to examining the claims made regarding what is termed ‘Morgellons Disease’” and to preventing “sick people into thinking they may have a terrible disease.” Oddly, there are no formal individual or institutional sponsoring names identified on this site.
Despite this seemingly general stance from the “medical community” there are clear exceptions. Nearly every state across the US, and country in Europe, has at least several medical professionals who regard Morgellons as “a serious emerging infectious disease deserving study and research.” Dr. Ahmed Kilani, Laboratory Director of Clongen Laboratories, Germantown, Maryland, says, “I have personally listened to detailed descriptions of the symptoms of this disease and something has got to be done.”
At present, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia is conducting a study of Morgellons in partnership with Kaiser Permanente’s Northern California Division of Research. The study was formally announced and launched in January 2008. The stated objective of the study was “to learn about an unexplained skin condition known as Morgellons.” The study, said a CDC spokesperson, was expected to “Take up to 12 months or longer to complete.” Said the CDC’s Dr. Michele Pearson, the principle investigator on the study, “We earnestly want to learn more about this unexplained illness which impacts the lives of those who suffer from it. Those who suffer have questions, and we want to help them.”
Over two years past the CDC’s announcement it appears unknown as to when the study will be completed or be released. About a month ago there were unconfirmed reports that the study had been handed off entirely to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C., an identified partner in the study as explained by the CDC in 2008.
[Potent News editor’s note: As of this date, the CDC study results have long been released and valid criticism of this study is found HERE.]
Morgellons Symptoms
The initial symptoms of Morgellons involve patients experiencing the discomforting sensation of insects crawling on and biting or stinging their skin. This sensation results in skin lesions that can appear much like mild to severe cases of acne. The lesions can appear anywhere on a patient’s body and quite often contain fiber-like strands or fibrous material. The fibers are the most perplexing visible feature of Morgellons. Often when an attempt is made to remove or extract the fibers the material will resist and act to withdraw or move away from whatever instrument is being employed.
Skeptics have put forth various explanations for the presence of the fibers that plague sufferers of Morgellons disease. Some have suggested that the fibers are merely clothing fibers, and other common everyday material, that become attached to scabbed lesions accidentally; the sufferers, skeptics claim, are falsely convinced that the fibers are being produced by their bodies.
Other explanations are less kind; many ascribe to the idea that the lesions themselves are a product of “neurotic excoriation,” a psychological condition wherein the patient scratches the skin compulsively to the point of creating wounds, or even that they are created deliberately by the sufferer in an effort to convince others that he is suffering from a disease. The fibers, these skeptics explain, are then collected by the sufferer from non-bodily sources, as a means of providing “evidence” that the disease condition exists. The psychiatric community has long associated the collection of body specimens with delusional parasitosis and other psychiatric or fictitious conditions. In fact, the act of collecting these specimens is, itself, considered a psychiatric symptom, referred to as “the matchbox sign.” The name is a reference to the fact that fibers and other material are often presented in small containers such as matchboxes. As a result, the collected specimens are often disregarded completely by healthcare providers, and a psychiatric cause is assumed rather than a physical condition considered.
These arguments fall apart quickly, however, when the fibers — and the patients — are actually examined. Morgellons fibers, when examined closely, consistently appear as autoflourescent, meaning that they exhibit a glow under ultraviolet light. Certain marine organisms, such as particular types of jellyfish, also have autofluorescent properties. One fluorescent protein, known as “green flourescent protein,” has been studied extensively in recent years as a marker in the study of gene expression; it has been successfully introduced into many bacteria and fungi, as well as into fish, plant, insect, and even human cells. Fluorescent markers, in the form of genetic modifications or dyes, are also often used to track the presence of microbes in the environment. Oil consuming microbes, for example, are often marked with the use of a fluorescent stain for monitoring purposes.
A privately funded study conducted by Dr. Hildegarde Staninger, Industrial Toxicologist & Doctor of Integrative Medicine, revealed that the fibers are able to withstand temperatures of up to 1700 degrees Fahrenheit [= 927º C] before burning, and that they do not melt. Her results indicated that the fiber’s outer casing appears to consist of high-density polyethylene fiber, an industrial material commonly used in the production of fiber optic cables. Interestingly, this material is also used in the emerging field of bionanotechnology as a compound to encapsulate a viral protein envelope. Furthermore, Staninger reported finding blue fibers that exhibited a golden tip; she believes these to be a form of nano-machinery, able to be programmed to perform specific functions.
by Michael Snyder
PN 