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NEWS AND VIEWS THAT IMPACT LIMITED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with
power to endanger the public liberty." - - - - John Adams

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Travel in the Ancient World - Book Review


Historic Great Roman Bath in the Town of Bath.
It was almost a requirement for tourists in the ancient world to stop at inns near the local public baths.

A Distant Mirror
The closer we look at life thousands of years
ago the more it looks like today.




By Gary;

Being sick of politics I have jumped back into books.

Forget all the BS in history about kings, queens and wars. The everyday life of ordinary people is perhaps the most interesting, and under reported, part of history.

The book Travel in the Ancient World by Lionel Casson brings alive an entire segment of society and history that has been totally ignored - the travel industry.

The poor in ancient times and today do not travel much. True vacations were and are the pastime of the middle and upper classes of society. What is interesting is how extensive the ancient vacation industry was.

The author goes back to ancient Egypt and Greece where some of the first travel is recorded.

A large part of travel involved business. Another part of travel was government and military. Bureaucrats then and now were always on the road doing public business.

The Mediterranean was one giant collection trade routes over three continents. Everyone who could would jump on an outbound ship and in a few days be vacationing in Alexandria or Athens to see the sights.

The author documents local inns for the traveler. For example, Greek inns offered little more than a roof over your head. In many cases if you wanted to eat at the inn you needed to bring your own food. Guests wanting to wash off the dust of the road would go to the nearest public bath.

In the section on inns it was noted that travelers looks to lodging near public baths that were the center of life. A few inns were located conveniently near the public baths, but they were not for guests seeking peace and quite.

The Roman philosopher Seneca once rented lodgings over a bath, and his description of the noise that came up from below is hair raising:

  • "I live right now over a public bath. Just imagine every kind of human sound to make us hate our ears! When the muscular types work out and toss their lead weights, when they strain (or make believe they're straining), I hear the grunting, and whenever they let out the breath they've been holding in, there's the whistling and wheezing at maximum pitch. If it's a lazy type I'm up against, someone satisfied with the cheap massage given here, I have to hear the crack of the hand as it hits the shoulders, one sound when it's the flat of the hand, another when it's the cupped hand. But if a ball-player arrives on the scene and begins to count shots, then I am done for. Add the toughs looking for a fight, the thieves caught in the act, and the people who enjoy hearing themselves sing in the bath-tub. Add also the people who dive into the pool with a deafening splash. On top of all these, who at least make ordinary sounds, don't forget the hair-removal expert forever forcing out that thin screech of his to advertise his services and only shutting up when he's plucking a customer's armpits and can make someone else do the yelping for him. Then there is the drink seller with his various cries, the sausage seller, the cake seller, and all the managers of the restaurants, each hawking his wares with his own special intonation.

The Parthenon or the Pyramids, seeing the sights was often the main reason for travel. The author gives accounts of tourists visiting these and many more locations.

Religious trips took many people on the road and they left their graffiti behind. A certain Demetrius visiting Egypt in 28 B.C. wrote in Greek:

I, Demetrius, having coursed the fruit-giving Nile,
Came to Isis, whose power knows no end,
To ask her blesses remembrance for my every
Child, brother, sister and friend.

If you are tired of re-reading and re-hashing the same old historical junk on WWII or the Civil War then this book is for you.  Break some new ground and see old world with new eyes.


Tourist Graffiti in Egypt
Ancient tourists would put their names and messages all over Egyptian monuments such as:  "Telephos of Ialysus wrote this" or "Krateros, son of Leukaros, elephant hunter". 
.
Travelers also visited religious sites and left their words:  "I, Lucius Funisulanus Charisius, mayor of Hermonthis and Latopolis, heard Memnon twice, before the first hour and at the first hour, along with my wife Fulvia."

Joy Behar should move to a Socialist country says Kevin Sorbo



Liberalism is a Mental Disorder
Kevin needs to run for something

(World Net Daily)  -  TV talk-show host Joy Behar is emphatically anti-President Trump.
She’s begged an Obama administration official to get Obama to attack Trump, suggested the president was out of line to nominate a judge to the Supreme Court and admitted she would like Alan Dershowitz more if he found “a legal argument to impeach” Trump.
She also has criticized the president’s free-market and America-first business policies while praising recently on “The View” rising democratic socialist congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her socialist policies.
A Hollywood star now is suggesting Behar should go and live in a true socialist nation and find out what it’s like.
CNS News reported Kevin Sorbo, known for his roles in “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” and family friendly movies such as “Let There Be Light,” commented after Behar suggested Norway, Sweden and Denmark are examples of successful socialist countries.
“Behar needs to move to all the countries she mentions here and jump in with the taxes they have to pay and see what socialism can do to her pocket book [sic],” stated Kevin Sorbo on Facebook.
“She makes millions every year working so hard 3 hours a day to spout the ‘Joy’ of socialism, marxism [sic] and communism. Look at what our government has done to public schools, post office, etc. She lives in such a bubble. She enjoys her wealth due to capitalism … not socialism.”
Read More . . . .


Twitter Suspends Another Conservative Commentator



Nazi Twitter Attacks Free Speech

  • As usual the GOP "leadership" is stone cold silent as the free speech of Conservatives is abolished.


(Daily Signal)  -  Kathleen McKinley, a conservative blogger and political commentator for a local 
Fox station in Houston, was surprised Friday to find an email from Twitter announcing her account had been suspended.
Twitter listed two tweets that it claimed violated rules against “hateful conduct,” emails that McKinley shared with The Daily Caller News Foundation show.
In the first tweet, McKinley stated her opposition to an Obama-era rule allowing transgender troops serving in the military, which she felt the Obama-era “was normalizing a mental disorder (gender dysphoria) (called ‘distress’ now) which has no place in our military. Certainly not our $$ for surgery.”
The belief that biological males who believe they’re women shouldn’t be cleared for military 
service is well within the conservative mainstream.
McKinley’s second tweet referred to “extreme Muslim beliefs” — rather than mainstream Muslim beliefs — “that condone honor killings.”
That tweet had a specific context: McKinley’s friend Obianuju Ekeocha, an African pro-life activist, was in a Twitter debate about abortion with Bill Prady, a producer on CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory.
At issue was whether pro-lifers should support exemptions for someone who claimed a religious right to abortion. Ekeocha’s answer was no, for the same reason that she wouldn’t support a religious right to honor killings.
Prady’s response made him appear uncertain on whether he condemned religious honor killings 
(a fact he later acknowledged and called “inexcusable”).
It was in that context that McKinley replied, “Please do not pretend you know nothing about extreme Muslim beliefs that condone honor killings!!”
Ten months later Twitter ruled that tweet constituted “hateful conduct.” The company did not return TheDCNF’s request for comment.


Read More . . . .

Twitter Targeting White Christians for Censorship







Monday, July 30, 2018

1984 - TSA spies on people NOT on watch lists




(Boston Globe)  -  Federal air marshals have begun following ordinary US citizens not suspected of a crime or on any terrorist watch list and collecting extensive information about their movements and behavior under a new domestic surveillance program that is drawing criticism from within the agency.

The previously undisclosed program, called “Quiet Skies,” specifically targets travelers who “are not under investigation by any agency and are not in the Terrorist Screening Data Base,” according to a Transportation Security Administration bulletin in March.

The internal bulletin describes the program’s goal as thwarting threats to commercial aircraft “posed by unknown or partially known terrorists,” and gives the agency broad discretion over which air travelers to focus on and how closely they are tracked.


But some air marshals, in interviews and internal communications shared with the Globe, say the program has them tasked with shadowing travelers who appear to pose no real threat — a businesswoman who happened to have traveled through a Mideast hot spot, in one case; a Southwest Airlines flight attendant, in another; a fellow federal law enforcement officer, in a third.

It is a time-consuming and costly assignment, they say, which saps their ability to do more vital law enforcement work.

TSA officials, in a written statement to the Globe, broadly defended the agency’s efforts to deter potential acts of terror. But the agency declined to discuss whether Quiet Skies has intercepted any threats, or even to confirm that the program exists.

Release of such information “would make passengers less safe,” spokesman James Gregory said in the statement.

Already under Quiet Skies, thousands of unsuspecting Americans have been subjected to targeted airport and inflight surveillance, carried out by small teams of armed, undercover air marshals, government documents show. The teams document whether passengers fidget, use a computer, have a “jump” in their Adam’s apple or a “cold penetrating stare,” among other behaviors, according to the records.

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said Quiet Skies touches on several sensitive legal issues and appears to fall into a gray area of privacy law.

“If this was about foreign citizens, the government would have considerable power. But if it’s US citizens — US citizens don’t lose their rights simply because they are in an airplane at 30,000 feet,” Turley said. “There may be indeed constitutional issues here depending on how restrictive or intrusive these measures are.”

Read More . . . .


1984 is Here
kk
"Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire."
 - - - Robert A. Heinlein


Read more on the march to 1984:








Twitter Censorship is Here to Stay



Twitter - The New Nazis
Democrats are becoming what they fought against


(Daily Caller)  -  Twitter’s censorship problem looks like it’s here to stay.

The company faced a sharp backlash last week after a Vice News investigation revealed that Twitter was hiding several prominent Republicans from its search bar.

Those affected included four House Republicans: Rep. Devin Nunes of California, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Mark Meadows of North Carolina. All four are members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. Democrats weren’t affected in the same way, Vice found.

Nunes is looking at taking legal steps against Twitter, he said in a Fox News interview on Sunday. “It sure looks to me like they are censoring people and they ought to stop it,” the California Republican said. “We are looking at any legal remedies to go through.”

Gaetz announced on Friday that he is bringing a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint against Twitter, accusing the company of making an illegal in-kind donation to his opponents by suppressing his account.

At the center of the company’s censorship problem is its decision to penalize “bad-faith actors,” who aren’t actually in violation of any rules but still threaten “healthy conversation.”

Much the sorting between good and bad actors on Twitter is done by an algorithm which takes into account criteria like whom you follow and tweet at, and who follows and tweets at you.

Twitter didn’t penalize the congressmen because of anything they said, but because the “wrong” accounts were engaging with their tweets, two Twitter executives conceded in a blog post Thursday. 

The Republicans were guilty of being followed by the wrong people.

Read More . . .

Twitter Censorship Continues

Twitter has blocked me from seeing any posts from anyone I follow that's conservative.







Woman gets fined for criticizing "refugees" on Facebook




(Voice of Europe)  -  A German cleaning lady received a fine of 1,650 euros for criticising refugees and the country’s asylum policy, news outlet Wochenblick reports.
The woman commit her ‘Orwellian thought crime’ on Facebook, as she said this about refugees:
“Sh*t on the state, steal from people, rape, swirling the eggs, demand money from us and sue the state. That’s what they can. They’re more valuable than gold, our super-skilled people.”
The cleaning lady’s plea for help to the German judiciary was not heard. On the contrary, the district court of Dachau fined the cleaning woman because of “sedition” (§ 130 StGB).
She was given a 1,650 euro fine, as the court’s opinion was that her comment against refugees “scared people”.
Germany’s ‘thought police’ uncovered the case after receiving a message from the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Read More . . . .

Add caption
“The term "political correctness" has always appalled me, reminding me of Orwell's "Thought Police" and fascist regimes.” 
― Helmut Newton

Sunday, July 29, 2018

Sunday Comics









China Celebrates Status As Number One Polluter





















Ted Cruz attacks censorship of Conservatives



Speaking Out For Freedom

  • I have a lot of problems with Ted Cruz.  But Cruz is speaking out against the censorship of Conservatives by the corrupt Internet Oligarchs while the GOP leadership is silent.


Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) came out swinging against Facebook for censoring Infowars videos, asserting that free speech protects controversial points of view.
“Am no fan of Jones — among other things he has a habit of repeatedly slandering my Dad by falsely and absurdly accusing him of killing JFK — but who the hell made Facebook the arbiter of political speech? Free speech includes views you disagree with. #1A,” Cruz tweeted on Saturday.



“This is troubling,” he added. “Social media shouldn’t be in the business of political censorship.”



Read More . . . .


The YouTube PURGE | Hundreds of Accounts And Videos BANNED







"White Privilege" causes Blacks to fear for their lives



Retard Alert
  • Most murdered Blacks are killed by other Blacks, but total retard Anne Hathaway plays the Leftist Race Card and blames whites.


Actress Anne Hathaway has urged white people to ask “how decent are we really” after a black teenager was killed in California.
Nia Wilson, 18, died after being stabbed in the neck in Oakland on Sunday night.
A suspect, John Lee Cowell, was arrested in connection with the attack. Officials said it was unclear if the incident was racially motivated.
Hathaway wrote on Instagram: “[Wilson’s death] is unspeakable and must not be met with silence … She was a black woman and she was murdered in cold blood by a white man.
White people – including me, including you – must take into the marrow of our privileged bones the truth that all black people fear for their lives daily in America and have done so for generations.
“We must ask our (white)selves - how ‘decent’ are we really? Not in our intent, but in our actions? In our lack of action?”
Read More . . .







Saturday, July 28, 2018

Saturday Sultress - Magga Braco




Professional dancer and fitness instructor from Venezuela who rose to fame through her use of the social media platform Instagram. She has also published a wildly popular series of dance videos and tutorials on her YouTube channel.