“If you can mandate or ban words, you can control thought. If you can control thought, you can control behavior. If you can control behavior, you have created a self-sustaining tyranny.” – Michael Masterson

“It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.” – Mark Twain

On America’s Intelligence Capabilities 

In 1957, following an attempt to assassinate Indonesia’s president, James Burnham wrote this in the National Review:

“Last week’s attempted assassination of Indonesia President Sukhano had all the hallmarks of a CIA operation: Everyone in the room was killed except Sukhano.”

And in the Feb. 20 issue of Taki’s Magazine, Daniel Oliver wrote this:

“If ever there was a gang that couldn’t shoot straight – or spy usefully – it’s America’s intelligence agencies.”

As he pointed out:

“They vastly overestimated the strength of the Soviet Union, missed 9/11 plotting, claimed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, failed to predict North Korea’s progress on intercontinental ballistic missiles, and predicted Russia would quickly subdue Ukraine and on and on and on.”

But now we are supposed to believe the CIA’s reports on China and Russia and the Ukraine. And those are international issues. Should we also trust them when it comes to domestic spying? What kind of data are the CIA collecting and using to spy on Americans?

“‘We don’t know,’ writes the left-wing Brennan Center for Justice, ‘because the Biden administration is refusing to declassify a single word about the nature of the program.’ Americans desiring to stay free have hope the agencies’ incompetence extends to their domestic spying.”

A lot of very smart people believe some very stupid things. Why? 

“While unintelligent people are more easily misled by other people, intelligent people are more easily misled by themselves. (Intelligent people) are better at convincing themselves of things they want to believe rather than things that are actually true. This is why intelligent people tend to have stronger ideological biases; being better at reasoning makes them better at rationalizing.” – Gurwinder

Click here for more on this from Gurwinder.

Bill Bonner on the Nord Stream Pipeline Attack 

“It’s not every day that the US commits an act of war – against two of the most powerful nations in the world. It’s not every day that the US attacks its own allies, either… blowing up the Baltic pipeline was directed, not only against Russia, but against Germany too. Germany got its energy from Russia. It’s what fueled the German economy. Germany is also a US ally… and a member of NATO.

“What a bold move! What audacity!… What a coup… With one swing of the saber, [the Biden administration] cut Germany off from Russia… making it dependent on US sources of fuel, and they cut Russia off from its export revenue, effectively hobbling and humiliating them both.” (Bonner Private Research, Feb. 14)

COVID Can Trigger Tinnitus. Can Vaccines Do the Same? 

After Dr. Gregory Poland, who directs the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group, got his second COVID shot in Feb. 2021, he developed such severe and sudden ringing in his ears that he nearly veered into the next lane of traffic while driving home.

“It sounded like somebody took a whistle and out of nowhere started blowing it in my ear,” Poland said, “and it has never gone away.”

Tinnitus is a known consequence of a COVID infection. And Poland, one of the foremost researchers in the world, is one of thousands of people who believe that ringing in the ears developed after a COVID vaccination could be linked to the vaccine.

Read more here.

Bill Bonner on Biden’s State of the Union Speech 

An excerpt from the Feb. 8 issue of Bonner Private Research…

“The tattered coat managed to stand up and deliver a long, pointless speech. It was another triumph of politics… over common sense. And a triumph for old age and treachery over youth and skill. His speech was vaguely about leading the country into a glorious future. But old men do not lead the way into the future. They get out of the way… tell tales… sing songs… and let the future happen. Not since Philippe Petain – a far abler leader – took over France in 1940 has an octogenarian been cast in such a leading role. We doubt the results will be any better.”

“When you police words, you regulate language. When you regulate language, you control thought. When you control thought, you rule behavior. When you rule behavior, you destroy freedom. When you destroy freedom, you destroy the future and the dignity of life.” – Michael Masterson

“You only grow when you are alone.” – Paul Newman

“Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus” 

In 1897, eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s now-defunct newsletter, The Sun.

Photo of Virginia O’Hanlon from the 1890s 

“Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus,” she wrote. “Papa says ‘If you see it in the Sun it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?”

The answer, written by Francis P. Church in the form of an editorial, produced one of journalism’s most famous lines, and became the most reprinted English language editorial of all time:

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank GOD! He lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

(Source: Letters of Note)