“I’d Pretend I Was One Of Those Deaf-Mutes.”

We have a new national recovery emblem.? And it looks like the The Laughing Man to me, but I suppose I may be a little psychotic.? There is potentially a deeper message buried under the surface for those of us familiar with the origin of the image on the right.? The symbology will probably be apparent to that party.? To others,? I’ll do my best to explain a very complicated character in a short space.

The Laughing Man was a major character in the popular distant future anime series Ghost in the Shell.? The Laughing Man hated “phonies” much like Holden Caulfield of Catcher in the Rye fame, a work by J.D. Salinger (Laughing Man was also the name of a short story by Salinger).? In this case “phonies” were politicians.? The Laughing Man was irritated by their actions and carried out rogue crimes to act revenge on the “phonies”.? He used an image/icon to cover his face on various video transmissions, and even going into individuals bionically controlled minds and erasing memories of his ever being seen.? He did this to cover his criminal actions.? He had little sympathy toward the public because he believed they, at-large, had allowed the government to slowly restrict freedom, and remove liberty.? A 1984 Big Brother times 10 scenerio.? His message to those that would not defend their rights encircles his graffic quoting Salinger, “I thought what I’d do was, I’d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.”

There’s an interesting post on Econarchy.? I suggest you read it.? But the jest of it goes something like, Bernie Maddof and Allen Stanford are in trouble because they mislead individuals by raising money to pay off former investors, and then they would need to raise more money to pay off the other investors, and this continues in a never ending cycle.? Econarchy’s main punchline is that what we are doing with the stimulus is no different than what these men will indefinitely go to jail over.

The tax system itself is financial fraud by constantly forcing 50% of the country to pay 97% of the taxes.? And now we will increase the process by implementing the Recovery Act.? The government taking money from one group to pay off another group.? A never ending cycle as the recipients will undoubtedly grow more deserving striving less to increase their personal wealth creation and prosperity since they are already entitled to someone elses.

Shanea Watkins, a brilliant treasure of the Heritage Foundation, claims that the bill will cost every American family with children roughly $22,445.? But one certainly has to wonder what the true cost will be for that top 50%, or top 10% of the tax bracket?? $40k? $50k? More?

I thought what I’d do was, I’d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.? That way I wouldn’t have to have any goddam stupid useless conversations with anybody.? If anybody wanted to tell me something they’d have to write it on a piece of paper and shove it over to me.? They’d get bored as hell doing that after a while, and then I’d be through with having conversations for the rest of my life.? -Holden Caulfield, The Catcher in the Rye; J.D. Salinger

So we’ll slap a recovery stamp on everything, including your mind and your mouth, and the Obama Administration will start pretending you’re “one of those deaf-mutes”.? But we can’t stop trying to talk, or reading the evidence shoved in front of our faces.? We can’t give up on getting their attention.? I certainly won’t.? This place exists for the conversations.