After Clicking Done

Admiration, n.: Our polite recognition of another's resemblance to ourselves.
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Ambrose Bierce (1842 - 1914), The Devil's Dictionary

To be positive: To be mistaken at the top of one's voice.
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Ambrose Bierce (1842 - 1914), The Devil's Dictionary

Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum (I think that I think, therefore I think that I am.)
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Ambrose Bierce (1842 - 1914), The Devil's Dictionary

Brain: an apparatus with which we think we think.
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Ambrose Bierce (1842 - 1914), The Devil's Dictionary
- More quotations on: [Brain]


There wasn't anyway through this, the nervous clasping, and he was in sympathy for lost causes, fervent but unfashionable beliefs. The damaged building loomed over them, familiar faces looked up and away, caught in wintry sunlight. He could see remotely familiar faces in the crowd who he knew were detectives. Everything was closing in. Indeed had closed in long ago. His viral count was up and he was on another batch of herbs. His new car whizzed through the streets, and gave him pleasure, briefly, before he was faced once more with the stark truth. They had come to this. They had surrendered. His dissenting voice had failed. They had, all of them, become automatums.

The decline of the country he had once loved so passionately, had been so proud to be part of, began innocuously enough. New anti-terror laws had seemed appropriate enough; in the post September 11 environment when the world was gripped in fear of Islamo-fascists. Long fought for freedoms were dispensed with; just like that. Legislation drafted and passed and the toiling masses barely noticed. Civil libertarians poked up their whingy voices and no one listened. He certainly hadn't listened. His preoccupations had been graver, more profound; he had been gripped by a far greater melancholy than they would ever know. That was a result of being born defective; he felt too much.

The backlash had been slow; scattered; unfashionable, stifled, closely monitored by the authorities. He should have known better, but didn't. Those meetings, so long ago, had seemed futile to him even then. There were no grave consequences. They didn't even really understand what they were fighting against. Before the implants. Before his intelligence had been augmented in what had once seemed dramatic and exciting ways. He was drifting away from Don now; in the crowd. Coffee, he shouted over the noise; more sirens in the distance; sheltering under the crumbling facade. Don shrugged; and slipped into the crowd, disappearing before his eyes.

It left him there, bewitched, uncertain; his thoughts echoing through the empty chamber of his head. And beyond the mop-up what was the story? Nothing he could grasp. Nothing that would satisfy his bosses. And he turned away from the grand marble entrance of the building he had learnt to hate more than any other building in the city; one foot before the other, his skeleton imprinted on the planet surface and his head in a thousand places. He looked back at the crowd which still stood behind the police tape, staring in awe, or disbelief, or perhaps even satisfaction; and this time recognised no one. It wasn't his city, his place, his time, any more. The doctor's warnings rang in his head, as he walked fearfully back to the office.



THE BIGGER STORY:


Lone voice of dissent censored by United Nations
Written By: Tom Swiss
Published In: News Releases
Publication Date: December 13, 2007
Publisher: The Heartland Institute


(CHICAGO, Illinois - December 13, 2007) -- For the second time this week, the International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC) was kicked off the press schedule for the United Nations' climate conference in Bali, Indonesia.

The ICSC is a group of scientists from Africa, Australia, Europe, India, New Zealand, and the U.S. who contend sound science does not support the outrageous claims and draconian regulations proposed in Bali.

The ICSC team leader, Bryan Leyland, an expert in carbon and energy trading, reported, "This morning I confirmed we had the main conference hall for 9:00 AM tomorrow. At 4:30 PM today, I found that Barbara Black bumped us off the schedule and closed further bookings. I'm fuming."

Black is NGO liaison officer for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali.

Earlier in the week, UN officials in Bali closed down the ICSC's first press conference there. Black interrupted the press conference and demanded the scientists immediately cease. She threatened to have the police physically remove them from the premises.

Black's efforts are part of the United Nations' ongoing censorship of dissenting voices at Bali. ICSC scientists have been prevented from participating in panel discussions, side events, and exhibits.

For further information:

Bryan Leyland
+64 21 978 996
bryanleyland@mac.com
Christopher Monckton
+44 7980 634784
monckton@mail.com

Posted by A Dog Named Kyoto