7:58 PM -:- Posted by Allen    

Non-sequitur

Non-sequitur is one of the best indicators of subtle insanity.

By its harshest definition, non-sequitur is an irrational non-response.

Non + sequitus (not in a connected sequence) --it does not follow.

What the heck am I on about Now?!!!

Well, Doug Kenline had been audioblogging and photoblogging the Dick Simkanin trial live from the road in Ft. Worth, Texas. Check it out. I've gotten my news all day on this crucial trial, from Doug's blog.

All hail Doug, King of the Blog.

Tonight, from the lobby of the hotel where several of out WTP-type friends were hanging after a grueling day of protesting, banner-hanging on the sidewalk, and court-witnessing, Doug was shooting photos for his blog. He'd already filed his last report by phone. He was having fun and in my never-so-humble opinion, he was doing the absolutely correct thing for the absolutely correct reasons. Doug was reporting an event. Doug is our impromptu press.

Anyway, right in the middle of a "debriefing" by Charlie Beall (pronounced 'Bell'), Beall reportedly interrupted himself, leveled an evil eye toward Doug, and demanded to know what he was doing. Doug told him, "I'm blogging!"

Apparently, Beall came unglued. He demanded Doug stop taking photos, and ranted about not wanting his picture or anything he say put out there. Doug was shocked.

Of course, the first big question to come out of this is, "Who is Charlie Beall to be telling Doug what he can't and can't do?"

Before I answer, I should probably tell you who Charlie is. Charlie Beall is a semi-public money-man who is there for WTP with all the bux he wants to spend on it WHEN he likes the project, and overbearing control freak who vows, "Nobody's going to make a living on my dime," when he doesn't like the project.

You've already seen him if you've thoroughly explored the WTP givemeliberty.org site. Here he is in a video with Bob Schulz, the first of only two episodes of the Liberty Hour that actually got made.

Some of you will remember that this is the show that got inexplicably blanked out from a live webcast. Even so, it's out there, archived all over the world and available on video from WTP itself.

And there's Charlie Beall, right up front beginning at 3:30 into it, for a full 15 minutes. Hardly an unknown face.

Which begs the first question you should have been asking all along? What's the big deal if Doug puts Charlie's picture up? Or quotes him? It's not as though he's some secret agent man nobody ever identified, after all. He's put himself out there already. It's way too late to be bashful.

So what is this, really? Same-old-same-old: This is yet another of the top people in WTP failing to realize that they can't act in the same manner as does the government they're criticizing and yet expect to retain any credibility.

Doug kept me up to date all day on what was happening In Dick Simkanin's trial. Faux News isn't telling me shit. And I resent the hell out of Charlie Beall or anyone else trying to censor that in any way. If Charlie wants to have a private meeting he can make any rules he wants. But in a hotel lobby, in an event that is happening despite WTP's slow and negligent join-up, he's out of line.

Oh, and there IS that little detail. It's Dick Simkanin's trial. Not Charlie's, or Bob's, or anybody else's.

So who is Charlie Beall to tell Doug Kenline that he can't blog the news around the Simkanin trial from a public arena?

Absolutely nobody!

I'll tell you something else Charlie isn't. He's not the incredible on-a-pedestal true-congressman-quality icon that Doug thought he was. Not anymore, at least, for Doug.

More on the general subject: Note as you watch Bob's intro to the video, his use of words like "arrogant", "out-of-control" and "unaccountable" in describing government employees and officials.

I suggest that the next time Bob feels the urge to use those words, he first glance around at his own inner circle, lest he remain unaware that he's living in a glass house.

Again, I would love to see WTP succeed. Not just because I care about our common goals, but because Yes, Bob moves me, as he moves everyone who hears him speak.

I just have a realllllllly big problem with the however inadvertent subversions of his idea by those in positions of control within WTP who are, indisputably, second-rate.

Later in the video Bob Schulz says, "We are non-partisan, believing that all political parties are by their nature corruptive – they cause individual loyalties to flow first to the Party, rather than to the Constitution, leading away from the Rule of Law to the Rule of Man and the Rule of whim."

I suggest that Bob reconsider that statement, and realize that it's not just political parties, it's all organizations.

But it's not because of anything about organization itself, no matter the focus. The problem is in the mindset of the people. In the tendency of far too many to flow their loyalties to leaders rather than principles, and in the tendency of far too many leaders to make it all out to be about themselves rather than the principles.

WTP can prove me wrong very easily. All it has to do is rise above the cult of personality that it has become, and free itself of the tendency to obey "arrogant, out-of-control and unaccountable" tyrants, whether public or private.

I say to you, my friends, that you ARE free. But only to the extent that you ignore tyranny.

Again I say to you, Doug, Just ignore it: blog on!