shock doctrine...

"Only a crisis actual or perceived produces real change"
-Milton Friedman

into the void...

-Chaos is all around us and within us.
Chaos destroys and creates.
Chaos is the spontaneous, unpredictable movement of the universe.
Chaos is change, the only constant. And Change is everywhere-

casualty

"All war is based on deception"
- Sun Tzu

Strategy

"Immature strategy is the cause of grief"
- Miyamoto Musashi

In the moment...

"Don't anticipate outcome," the man said. "Await the unfolding of events. Remain in the moment." - Konrad.

For Alexander "Sasha" Litvinenko...

"Gadfly" is a term for people who upset the status quo by posing upsetting or novel questions, or attempt to stimulate innovation by proving an irritant.

The term "gadfly" was used by Plato to describe Socrates' relationship of uncomfortable goad to the Athenian politician scene, which he compared to a slow and dimwitted horse.

During his defense when on trial for his life, Socrates, according to Plato's writings, pointed out that dissent, like the tiny (relative to the size of a horse) gadfly, was easy to swat, but the cost to society of silencing individuals who were irritating could be very high. "If you kill a man like me, you will injure yourselves more than you will injure me," because his role was that of a gadfly, "to sting people and whip them into a fury, all in the service of truth." --Wikipedia--

"The gadfly
For if you kill me you will not easily find a successor to me, who, if I may use such a ludicrous figure of speech, am a sort of gadfly, given to the state by God; and the state is a great and noble steed who is tardy in his motions owing to his very size, and requires to be stirred into life. I am that gadfly which God has attached to the state, and all day long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you. You will not easily find another like me, and therefore I would advise you to spare me. I dare say that you may feel out of temper (like a person who is suddenly awakened from sleep), and you think that you might easily strike me dead as Anytus advises, and then you would sleep on for the remainder of your lives, unless God in his care of you sent you another gadfly. When I say that I am given to you by God, the proof of my mission is this: Does it seem natural that I should not have neglected all my own affairs and endured the humiliation of allowing my family to be neglected all these years, while I busied myself all the time on your behalf, going like a father or elder brother to see each one of you privately, and urging you to set your thoughts on goodness? If I had gained anything, or if my exhortations had been paid, there would have been some sense in my doing so; but now, as you will perceive, not even the impudence of my accusers dares to say that I have ever exacted or sought pay of any one; of that they have no witness. And I have a sufficient witness to the truth of what I say--my poverty."--Socrates--

Corruption?

"Corruption is government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulations. That's Milton Friedman. He got a goddamn Nobel Prize. We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it. Corruption is our protection. Corruption keeps us safe and warm. Corruption is why you and I are prancing around in here instead of fighting over scraps of meat out in the streets. Corruption is why we win." --Danny Dalton (Syriana)

the light

Patience is the Light...

All I want...

You know what I want? I want it all. I want the house, the car, the wife, the kids. I want the picket fence and the pool -- the big kidney-shaped pool. I want a CD player. I want a Sony E.S. CDP 77 Multichanger System with wireless remote so I can dump seven CDs in it -- Sinatra, Nirvana, Latifah -- and listen all day. I want a Mitsubishi C.S. 76-inch Improved Definition Picture-In-Picture wall-mounted TV with the little box up in the corner of the screen so I can watch two shows at once.
I want a missile launcher. I want a Patriot missile launcher -- I pay my taxes -- why can't I have one? I want to launch missiles from my backyard. I want to sit in a fluorescent yellow raft in my official NFL Orange Starter swimming trunks in my kidney-shaped pool and attack Canada. I want to videotape it on my hand-held Sony Handicam and play it back on my Mitsubishi 76-inch while I'm watching the Super Bowl in the little box in the corner of the screen and listening to the Led Zeppelin Digitally Remastered CD Box Set.
I want Michael Jackson's nose. I want Michael Jackson's original nose mounted on a plaque and hung in my living room.
I want new sneakers. Not Air Jordans. Air Birds. I don't wanna jump high and run fast. I want Air Birds. I want shoes that actually have a gravity pull so I can only jump six inches off the ground -- sneakers that suck you back down to earth if you try to jump seven inches.
I want a helmet. A cheese helmet. A helmet full of cheese. You just pop it on your head and eat all day.
I want it all, folks. I want it all and I want it now and I'm gonna get it with or without your help. I think you know what I'm talking about. I think you hear me knocking and I think I'm coming in and you know what? I'm already wearing the cheese helmet.----Denis Leary

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The future is here. It's just not widely distributed yet. -- William Gibson