21A027 Headlines by Jim Davies, 7/20/2021

The masthead above promises that the ZGBlog offers "Rational, Refreshing Reflections on What's Happening Now." We do our best; but one obstacle is that "what's happening now" is news that's filtered through a net of censors wickedly biased against impartial reporting.

Nontheless, here's an example of rational comment on what the biased media says is happening now; and (at random) I've picked the four top stories put out by the PBS News Hour on June 21st 2021. Let's take each apart.

1. "Maryland reckons with a violent, racist past." This reverts to one of the archist media's favorite themes: racism. Government and its parrots love to set one ethnic group off against others, so we'll imagine our enemy is other than itself. Divide, distract, and rule; a well-proven principle.

It tells of the obscenity of lynching. Between 1865 and 1950, 6,500 blacks were lynched; murdered by white mobs who bypassed the justice system. Prior to 1865 slaves were systematically denied access to that monopoly; afterwards little effort was spared to protect access. The government "justice" monopoly therefore excluded blacks and later took no trouble to provide "protection of the law."

No question; enraged mobs bear the primary blame for that savagery, but the monopoly comes in a close second. But guess what: the PBS report does not even mention the latter, nor does it offer any suggestion that the justice function ought to be removed from government control. We do.

2. "12 Dead in Alabama due to Charlotte, including 10 children." Charlotte was a tropical storm, and most of the victims were involved in one fiery traffic pile-up, brought about by hydroplaning. Tragic. Quote: "Garlock [the coroner] said the location of the wreck is 'notorious' for hydroplaning..." If so, why had not the road owner fixed the problem long ago, and so saved all those lives? Yet PBS failed to point out that government also monopolizes road ownership. Were a for-profit real owner in charge, he'd have ample motive to keep his property safe; see Roads to Serfdom.

Further: tires can lose traction in heavy rain, but 8 of the children killed were traveling in "a van belonging to a youth ranch for abused or neglected children operated by the Alabama Sheriffs Association." Sounds like a fine venture; but if an ordinary driver had slipped on rain puddles I fear sheriffs might have come down on him rather hard. Are not cops supposed to be paragons of driving excellence? Yet this anomaly too escaped the probing of PBS' reporters.

3. "Libyan guards accused of sexually assaulting minors." This is a sad story of young women being raped by government "guards" who supposedly "rescued" them from "traffickers" who had in some way kidnapped them while trying to reach Europe from Somalia. It will resonate with any prisoner, in a "correctional" facility in the US or elsewhere; the cruelty may not be as overt, but once an agent is given power over a person, trouble follows. One of the first and nastiest things to be done to Irwin Schiff after he was imprisoned was that he was issued boots of the wrong size. Eventual result: the amputation of a toe.

The Libyans had control over the migrants because of a rats' nest of laws about immigration. If borders were abolished (as they certainly will be when all governments have evaporated) people will go to live and work wherever they wish. But the AP authors didn't point that out, either; surprise, surprise. (Incidentally, whatever possessed these folk to leave Somalia for the EU anyway?)

4. "US sends Taiwan 2.5 million vaccine doses, tripling pledge." This story tells of a "surge" in Corona deaths in that island, though admits in its closing paragraph that it's now eased off; in any case all reports of numbers in this huge swindle are or may be plain fiction.

Taiwan however has one of the lowest reported death rates in the world (24/M, compared with 1,854/M in the US) so it's odd indeed that the flow of experimental vaccines should from here to there, not the other way round. That anomaly too escaped the attention of the AP author. The shipment looks very much like a political act, designed to portray the US as a global benefactor.

The "vaccines" are not safe, so the "gift" is less than benevolent; and they were not a gift, since US taxpayers were forced to finance them. Two other factors that ever made it into the published story.

It's no bad idea to read a newspaper piece, or view a TV report, twice. See how often you can spot what they are twisting or leaving out!