NYC Photography Ban? Cui Bono?

Current news reports from the New York Times state that the city of New York wishes to ban all public filming and photography done without a permit from the city. This is curious considering how ubiquitous camera devices are, including cellular phone cameras. This ban would obviously be tyrannical and would be an attempt to give the city control over all visual media recording in New York City. What do they wish to hide from the public? Since it would be unrealistic to enforce such a ban except in sporadic instances, it seems likely that the ban would be used to punish and intimidate independent journalists who gain footage of city corruption or anything the public is expected to be in the dark about.

If we look back to 9/11/2001 we can see how citizen filming puts the establishment control of information at risk. It could give us unadulterated footage to show what aircraft actually struck the WTC towers and the Pentagon, when and where there were explosions at those locations, and how public officials responded to the supposedly unforeseen tragedy. Remember the Booker Elementary video of George W. Bush sitting silently listening to children read while NYC & Washington D.C. were apparently under attack and the President was at an unsecured location? That footage set off warning lights in many minds about Bush Administration complicity in the events of 9/11. The media coverage of the 9/11 events as they happened was much more revealing than what was reported days later when anything not in line with the official lies was censored. All reports of bombs going off and the appearance of controlled demolition at the WTC were silenced while conflicting eyewitness accounts of the aircraft were soon filtered to ensure only statements supporting the official story were reported; so then the only question for the media to debate would be how soon should the USA attack Afghanistan.

It's amazing how governing bodies constantly seek to give themselves monopolies by taking rights away from citizens and reserving those rights for themselves. This includes restrictions on private arms possession, monetary instruments, surveillance, drugs, and education. Yes, you even need government approval to home school your children since they can't have you teaching your kids subversive ideas about subjects such as science and history. Governments now wish to place surveillance cameras all over the place but want to fine you and confiscate your camera if you are filming without their permission.

What are Americans celebrating this July 4th? Oh, Independence Day... it seems that many Americans don't really understand what independence means and will happily shoot off government approved Chinese-manufactured fireworks to express their mistaken belief that they are free. Perhaps government cameras won't catch them if it happens to be the case that the devices they detonate aren't authorized by the state.

Problem, Reaction, Solution... It's SiCKO!

Michael Moore has a new film being released called "Sicko" about the corruption present in America's health care system. His focus is on manage care companies and how they profit along with pharmaceutical companies while patients don't get adequate coverage and are often bankrupted or die as a result of the insurance system. Moore is promoting the idea of a universal health care system managed by the government as a way to repair the practice of health care. He even derisively airs clips of Ronald Reagan attacking socialist health care plans and criticizes Hillary Clinton for backing away from the socialist health care issue after being rewarded financially by the health insurance industry.

The situation in America has indeed gotten increasingly worse, but that may merely be pushing Americans more earnestly toward accepting a supposed solution that actually decreases their health care choices and ensures that harmful treatments are given to even more people than before, thus giving even greater profits to pharmaceutical corporations. If health care continues to promote toxic therapies that help foster illness then everyone is being forced to pay for their neighbors to be kept ill. If I know safe natural, inexpensive therapies to heal cancer why should I give tax dollars to have the government fund treatments that poison people? We need health freedom, not a unification of illness maintenance organization. Current coverage pays for toxic drugs but not safe, effective nutritional supplements. Why should intelligent people wish to make that system universal?

Once again, Michael Moore presents some useful information in a context designed to mislead us. Fahrenheit 911 promoted the fiction that Arabs were the perpetrators of 9/11, and SiCKO promotes the fiction that Universal Insurance coverage will lead to improved health and lowered costs. The corporate profiteering in health care he exposes is just one layer of the problem, not the core layer. The core is the allopathic medical monopoly which was created through government collusion with private business interests. If we don't address the core we are deluding ourselves and allowing the people planning power grabs an opportunity to centralize their management of yet another control system, health care. Michael Moore is a talented documentary maker, but his content is skewed so that the powers governing our society will allow his films to be promoted to the general public, unlike more informative films that are limited to an audience of select Internet viewers and select DVD purchasers.