THE PEREFECT CRIME? MEUM AND TUUM?

That which belongs to me and that which is another's: Meum is Latin for “what is mine,” and Tuum is Latin for “what is thine.” If a man is said not to know the difference between meum and tuum, it is a polite way of saying he is a thief.

It is such a pleasure to reread the articles published in the Social Credit journal “The Fig Tree” produced during the late 1930s. The one entitled “The Perfect Crime” by The Rev. G.R. Robertson was published in the September 1938 edition and yet is as new as tomorrow.
He referred to various crimes that appeared to be ‘perfect’ in the sense that the individual offender was not found out or escaped the punishment of the law in their lifetime.

Reverend Robertson saw the crimes of the bankers in that day as being ‘the perfect crime’ in the sense that they got away with criminal activities then, just as they do to this day.

He writes: “The title is borrowed, not from the film, but from a story which appeared in Chambers’ Journal: On an Indian plantation an Indian disappears without leaving any trace whatsoever. The two white men on the plantation discuss the possibility of a perfect crime, i.e., one where the criminal got completely away with it, leaving no clue of any description. In the story one of the white men disappears as the Indian has done, but finally the other white man solves the mystery by shooting a serpent when it comes to attack himself. Here really there is neither crime nor criminal: the serpent was merely seeking its prey.

Truth is stranger than fiction, and if we are seeking perfection in crime we can easily find a higher standard than this. Someone would need to know about it; it would need to be gross; it would need to deceive greatly; it would need to be a case of deceiving or bribing judges, or governments, or whole peoples. Crime implies the breaking of a law, or of some canon of right, and so, of course, "perfection" of crime is a contradiction in terms. But there have been crimes so enormous, so flagrant, so baffling, so elusive, that one may, in a sense, admire them, and call them magnificent!

The Bank Charter Act of 1844 was designed to prevent banks or the Bank from "creating credit," i.e., from issuing paper money which did not represent real money. Its intended effects are very ably described by Professor Courtney in the article on Banking in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (ninth edition)
.
There are many statements like these:
"The Gold in the Issue Department of the Bank was not purchased by the bank and does not belong to it. The bank is its keeper but not its owner. It belongs to the public, or to the holders of bank notes, with and under the express stipulation that on paying the latter into the bank they should receive back their gold. Any interference with these deposits would be an interference with property held in pledge for others, that is, it would be an act precisely of the same kind with that which exposes private bailees to penal servitude."

"Supposing the bank were in difficulties, is it to be allowed to right itself by setting aside the principle of meum and tuun, and seizing on what belongs to others? The directors would be the first to repudiate such a doctrine, which must be rejected by all men who have any sense of honour or regard for character."

These words, written more than fifty years ago, (now well over 100 years ago…ed) are the perfect commentary on the transaction of 1931, commonly known as "going off the Gold Standard." The words of supreme significance in that transaction are the request of the Bank of England to the British Government:
"It is in our opinion expedient in the national interest that we should be relieved of our obligation to sell gold." The bank does not sell gold; it only accepts gold for safe keeping and returns it to its owner on demand. When it fails to do so, what has it proved itself to be?

A certain weekly paper quoted as a wise and striking remark, "The entire economic structure of the world is founded upon four words on a Bank of England note, "I Promise To Pay";
I replied: Will you now inform your readers that the entire economic structure of the world is upon a false foundation, inasmuch as the Bank of England has been relieved of its obligation?"

This letter was, of course, not published, either. Apparently the entire Press as well as the British Government has been suborned to conceal the crime; is it not, therefore, the Perfect Crime?...”

Comment: And still, neither the mainline press, governments, nor judges will uphold the law when it comes to the banking/financial system - or the laws enacted by governments have been tailored to suit banks/financial systems to the detriment of the people whom they are ‘bound to serve’.   Further reading:"The Tragedy of Human Effort" by C.H. Douglas

THE GREAT AMERICAN (NOW WORLD-WIDE) BUBBLE MACHINE

Matt Taibbi has written before on the scandals of the banking system. “Orwellian – SEC May Have Been Hiding Wall Street Crimes” Taibbi is a contributing editor for the magazine Rolling Stone and author of five books, most recently The Great Derangement and Griftopia, plus a winner of the US National Magazine Award for commentary. He wrote:
“It's not always easy to accept the reality of what we now routinely allow these people to get away with; there's a kind of collective denial that kicks in when a country goes through what America has gone through lately, when a people lose as much prestige and status as we have in the past few years. You can't really register the fact that you're no longer a citizen of a thriving first-world democracy, that you're no longer above getting robbed in broad daylight, because like an amputee, you can still sort of feel things that are no longer there.

But this is it. This is the world we live in now. And in this world, some of us have to play by the rules, while others get a note from the principal excusing them from homework till the end of time, plus 10 billion free dollars in a paper bag to buy lunch. It's a gangster state, running on gangster economics, and even prices can't be trusted anymore; there are hidden taxes in every buck you pay. And maybe we can't stop it, but we should at least know where it's all going…” Read more:

PAYDAY LOANS: BISHOP HITS OUT AT ‘SINFUL’ INTEREST RATES

The Bishop of Durham says interest rate of 4,000%, as charged by Wonga, has been considered 'usurious' since the time of Moses, writes Jill Insley for the guardian.co.uk,
The bishop of Durham says payday loan repayments are a huge amount for people on benefits. The bishop of Durham has described the interest rates charged by payday lenders as sinful and usurious, but says they are the only resort for many families desperate for money.

Citing the 4,214% APR charged by the UK's highest profile short-term lender Wonga, the Rt Rev Justin Welby said his worry was people would get used to this "deeply shocking" level of interest and begin to think it was normal. "An interest rate of over 4,000% has been considered usurious since the time of Moses. It's no different now," he said.

The bishop said he was not describing the lenders as immoral or saying they were acting improperly, "but they have become the only resort for people in many parts of the country where traditional banks and credit unions are just not available". He said the surge in use of payday lenders – Wonga alone has extended 4m loans worth £1bn in little more than four years – reflected the increasing numbers of people being forced to collect food from church foodbanks each month. The bishop, who recently visited a food bank in Chester-le-Street, said: "I find it bizarre and horrifying in this day and age to see this happening. It shocked me that so many people were coming there for help after running out of money before the end of their financial month."

The Church of England has long expressed concern about the activities of short-term, high-cost lenders: in December 2011 the Church Commissioners extended the Church's ban on investing in doorstep lending to include the online payday loans industry, meaning none of its £8bn investment portfolio can be directed at such lenders and pawnbrokers. James Featherby, chair of the Church's Ethical Investment Advisory Group, said the revision of the policy acknowledged "the importance of access to credit for all members of society. But it is not prepared to sanction investment by the Church's investing bodies in companies charging triple-digit interest rates to some of the most vulnerable customers of the financial services industry".

Wonga refused to comment on the bishop's statement, but in a recent interview with the Guardian the company's co-founder Errol Damelin said critics were wrong to focus on cost. "We do, as a society, want access to credit delivered in a responsible way … There's real demand from people – and businesses – for help in spreading the costs that they incur. Without that ability, then you might not have the opportunity for anybody who isn't very wealthy to get access to things like education, fixing a car that breaks down, or entertainment."

The Consumer Finance Association (CFA), a trade association which represents payday lenders, has requested a meeting with Welby to discuss the matter in person. John Lamidey, chief executive of the CFA, said: "Only the bishop is in a position to say whether the interest rates on payday loans are immoral or sinful. However, we do understand his concerns because payday loans are misunderstood by many people, particularly those who do not use them. "The interest rates that the bishop refers to are APRs – annualised percentage rates – which completely misrepresent the true cost of a payday loan. It's similar to suggesting that the typical annual cost of a rental car might be close to £15,000, rather than a daily rate of £40. "Telling customers the total cost of credit in real terms to ensure they understand how much their loan will cost, rather than quoting confusing APRs, is clearly beneficial for the customer." Lamidey added that research shows the vast majority of customers use payday loans to smooth out peaks and troughs of their finances, rather than relying on them month to month.

However, the bishop of Durham pointed out that as the former group treasurer of a major oil company, he was well accustomed to how the financial services industry and financial products functioned. "I am not buying the argument that it's only costing £40. We know that they are lending to people on benefits and that's a huge amount to pay for someone in those circumstances," he said…."

What about a ‘just price and a ‘just tax’?
Would to God the good bishop would do more than moralise on this issue. I recall the words of Geoffrey Dobbs in “The Just Tax” written in 1952 and updated in 1994 - originally based on articles which appeared in a theological journal:
"In my articles I made the mistake of supposing that the Anglican Church might be driven back "to the last ditch of her defence in poverty, celibacy and martyrdom". I never dreamt that she would regard vital elements of her faith and order as 'expendable', and weaken or even surrender them whenever expedient in following the world-wide 'trend' of society in the trail of the degenerating money-values which rule our personal and collective lives.

"There is surely no need to rehearse before the older reader the appalling sequence of degenerative changes which have degraded our society from one based upon the laws, customs, social mores and Constitution derived from our long Christian tradition (both for unbelievers as well as be1iever) to a multi-racial, multi-creedal and largely pagan or atheistic society with no common basis of belief (except in money) of morals or of law and order. But the young will have no direct experience to rely upon and no means of knowing that the corrupt and decaying society we have experienced since the 1960's was not always the norm, unless the Church boldly tells them so, and why.

"It is easy to shrug off this and much else in vague terms as due to the sinfulness of man, which indeed is what debt-money plays upon, but if we consider the extent to which money enters into almost every aspect of life, its universal standard of degenerating value cannot fail to lead the way. Credit, i.e. debt, is the monetary expression of 'take now, pay later'; it is a time-grab, and is now the basis of our whole civilisation. It is a huge and terrible nettle, but it has to be grasped…" (emphasis added…ed)

Editor's comment: I don’t believe words are enough from the good bishop. It has been my experience the ‘leaders’ of the church will not examine ‘the money question’. As to why, that is a question they must answer. But they need to know, more and more people are asking: Why not?  

WILL THE EXPERIMENT END WITH A WHIMPER?

by James Reed
China’s buying up of Australia’s food resources continues: (“Chinese Look to Take Beef by the Horns”, The Australian, 10 May 2012, p.4).
The Chinese beef companies were in Rockhampton recently to buy Australian cattle stations and meat processing abattoirs. They also wanted to acquire bulls, cows and genetic material to improve Chinese herds and eliminate the need to buy products from Australia.
Selling off the lifeblood of the industry is said by our Chinese puppet leaders to be participating in the “booming” Asian cattle industry.

The chatterers love the word “booming”, and in their stories always have a local who tells us “I don’t think we can afford to be “paranoid” enough. Our food future is being sold to a nation that could eat, many times over, the whole country. Let our chatterers be the first to starve.

ARE WE ALL SOON TO BE FUKUSHIMAED?

by Brian Simpson
Is Human Civilisation on the Precipice? The mainstream press are not covering this, but here is the grim reality about Japan’s Fukushima reactor No.4, about which Mitsuhai Murala, former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland and Senegal has said:
“It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of Japan and the whole world depends on No.4 reactor.”

No.4 reactor has a pool of 1,535 spent fuel rods stored 100 feet above ground which is in a damaged building open to the air. About 50 metres away is another pool containing 6,375 rods. This represents some of the earth’s highest concentrations of radioactivity. The amount of Cesium-137 is 85 times the amount released at Chernobyl !

Now the punch line. Another earthquake, in this earthquake-prone zone, and the world faces a nuclear catastrophe. The infrastructure needed to remove the fuel rods from reactor No.4 was destroyed and the Japanese are not moving to deal with the problem. Internet news sources point to a media cover-up, perhaps because the same defects may be present in many other reactors across the Earth. The conspiracy cover-up of the deaths and other health defects from the radioactivity already emitted from Fukushima is being called “Plum-gate”.

Death by Science - Scientific Suicide
Mike Adams (“Human Race Being Terminated by ‘Scientific Suicide’”, NaturalNews.com 7 May, 2012) has reflected on the philosophical significance of this crisis and other scientific nightmares such as genetic engineering, toxic pesticides, medicines and “foods”. The human race is being destroyed by a Frankenstein science that bows to psychopathic greed-based corporations. Much science today, just to exist must be “relevant” to be funded and funding is largely from corporations. Adams concisely sums it up:

“Scientists” – the people who practise such science – are death engineers whose innovations may deliver hyped-up short term benefits, but they often ultimately lead to long-term death and destruction… Science is killing us. As a race, we are committing suicide by allowing science to dominate our medicine, agriculture and military industries. To the degree that we allow scientists to unleash their dangerous experiments on to the world without any legitimate testing – and no, flu shot vaccines are never scientifically tested for long-term safety – we only accelerate the diggings of our own graves.

If we don’t learn to restrain the blind ambitions of arrogant scientists who are all too easily enticed by the chance to roll the dice in their “let’s play God” games, the blind pursuit of science without wisdom will only lead to our total destruction.”  

THE GREAT VACCINE DEBATE

by Brian Simpson
A concise summary of the case against vaccines has recently been published by NaturalNews.com ("Vaccines have been Based on Medical Fraud for over a Hundred Years", 29 April, 2012). The article states that the 1796 first vaccinations by Edward Jenner who injected cowpox pus into an 8 years old boy, was not based on any scientific evidence. Jenner had heard of a rumour that people who had experienced cowpox would be immune to smallpox, but it was known that cases of smallpox had been experienced by people who had had cowpox.

In England incidents of smallpox after vaccination rose from five per cent in the beginning of vaccinations to 95 per cent by 1895, and a serious epidemic occurred in 1872, even after mandatory smallpox vaccinations.
According to the article, today whooping cough occurs more among vaccinated children than children not vaccinated. A mumps outbreak occurred in 2010 in upper New Jersey and lower New York and almost 80 per cent of the cases involved children vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella. There are also many cases of adverse events occurring after vaccinations.

In conclusion there seems to be a prima facie case against vaccinations made by the article but we do not make any medical recommendations here. Obviously one would need to also evaluate the case for vaccines made by the medical establishment, and make up your own mind in the light of the total evidence. Government websites will give the pro case. You may also care to consider the following we carry on the subject.

DVDs :
• “Investigate Before You Vaccinate” Kathy Scarborough $10.00
• “Vaccination : The Truth” Various speakers $10.00
BOOKS:
• “Vaccination It’s Your Informed Choice” Dr Peter Baratozy $20.00
• “ Vaccination” Vera Shreibner $30.00 (1 only in stock)
• “Vaccination: The Right Choice” $30.00 Maureen Hickman
BOOKLETS:
• “Investigate Before You Vaccinate” Kathy Scarborough (VISA) $4.00
• “Exploding the Myth of Vaccinations” Robert Anderson $4.00  

THE WAR MACHINE: PROTESTS AT THE NATO SUMMIT IN CHICAGO

What was recently going on in Chicago? As the war machine visited Chicago recently, American war veterans renounced the wars they fought in and threw their medals in the direction of the summit.

Protesters, including the children of Afghan refugees, came from all over the world to voice their opposition to the death and destruction that NATO forces bring. "We don't believe it anymore," one protester said regarding the lies justifying NATO's continued presence in occupied nations, "the only answer we'll take is an immediate exit and troops home now." Watch:

GERMAN TROOPS ASKED MERKEL WHY THEY’RE AT WAR

Remember this report in April? German troops in Afghanistan called on Angela Merkel to explain why they're at war, by Mail Foreign Service, Daily Mail 21 April 2010.

Under pressure: German troops are calling on Chancellor Angela Merkel to tell them why they're at war in Afghanistan. German soldiers are wearing their hearts on their sleeves - in the form of a badge that protests their country's involvement in the war in Afghanistan. Some troops have taken to wearing the cloth accessory that states - ironically - 'I fight for Merkel' in a bid to persuade the German Chancellor Angela Merkel to explain exactly what they are fighting and dying for.

Four more troops were killed, and five badly injured, in Afghanistan last week. Seven soldiers have died there so far this month, bringing the total to 43 in all since they were first deployed eight years ago. Unable to engage the Taliban directly on the ground, frustrated by their government’s inability to acknowledge they are even engaged in a war and angered by the lack of popular support for their mission, the badges are a low-key mutiny that has sent shock waves through the top brass of the Bundeswehr.
Soldiers were warned that it is illegal to sew the cloth patches on to their uniforms. But that hasn’t stopped them from buying the badges in the hundreds, in desert beige or NATO green, at the ISAF camp at Mazar-e-Sharif. 'They want the Chancellor, their ultimate boss, to finally find the clear words to put the war against the Taliban into black and white,' Bild Zeitung, said Germany’s biggest daily paper.

Chancellor Merkel is to make a statement to parliament tomorrow. Her spokesman said she wants to make clear her 'high-esteem' for the work of the German soldiers in Afghanistan in the light of the recent casualties. But she will be speaking in the Reichstag after being put under pressure from U.S. General Stanley McChrystal, who arrived in Germany today with a brief from the White House to get the Germans to do more in Afghanistan. Germany has the third largest presence in Afghanistan after the U.S. and Britain.
The German parliament approved the dispatch of a further 850 soldiers in February when it extended the mandate for the military mission. Yet the political will for German troops to engage the enemy head-on remains lacking. Cracks are growing in the parties that supported their engagement there up until now. Ottmar Schreiner, a left-wing member of the opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD), said his party has 'growing doubts' about German involvement in Afghanistan. He said: 'If things haven't improved in Afghanistan by next year then I don't see where a majority for a new extension of the mandate is going to come from.'

The trouble for Mrs Merkel is that German involvement is deeply unpopular with some 80 per cent of the public, who want the troops to come home. Germany’s disastrous wars of the last century have left its public with a deep pacifistic streak. The German press has been swift to condemn the government for its indecisiveness.

The Financial Times Deutschland said: 'With every dead German soldier in Afghanistan, the calls for an immediate withdrawal grow louder. This reflex shows that the German public is still not clear about the character of the mission. The politicians are largely to blame. Since the beginning of the mission eight years ago they suppressed a realistic description of the situation... Deaths, injuries, battles and heavy weaponry -- none of these suit the picture that was painted back then.'

The left-wing Berliner Zeitung said: 'Why are German soldiers in Afghanistan at all? As the chancellor and her government are still sticking to the military mission there it is their duty to explain it. But she has failed to do so. 'This can be explained by her basic attitude - it is only worth talking about problems when they become virulent.
'In the case of Afghanistan this is particularly catastrophic. Because the government has failed to make its case in what is the biggest foreign policy and security policy challenge in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany.'  

LETTER TO THE PRESS

Weekly Times. Dear Editor,
With every week that passes we have another announcement of a huge tract of land falling into foreign ownership. The latest potential sale of rich land suitable for irrigation from the mighty Ord River Scheme will surely waken the most sleepy among us.
Some elements are stirring including the Victorian Nationals and farmer groups like the Victorian Farmers' Federation. However they are only 'punching the air' with weak policies like having a $2m threshold before a deal would be scrutinised.
What is wrong with setting it at $500k?
The call for a "Register" of foreign owned properties will be useless because it would only record transferred land AFTER it has been sold.
A bit like counting how many horses have bolted from the stable door rather than fixing the latch to prevent the escape!
What is wrong with keeping our land for Australians? I hope Senator Bill Heffernan has a practical solution but we desperately need immediate action to stem these land sales. This should be the top agenda item for the Government rather than the recent twoddle.

- - Sincerely, Ken Grundy Naracoorte SA.  

LETTER IN THE PRESS

Letter to the Editor, Herald Sun, 21 May, 2012:
Will all the socialists flagellating the Baillieu Government for not funding your favourite project please answer the most important question, “Why is the Greek nation in so much hot water?” Will all the conservatives knocking the Gillard Government ask the same question. The simple answer is that Keynesian economics is failing the demands of the 21st century. Greek governments for decades have run up unrepayable debts responding to requests for funding and social services that could not be met out of current revenue. Until Keynes is repudiated and a new economic system that takes into account the increment that machinery and technology offer us there is only a rocky road ahead.

- - Ron Fischer, Sebastopol Victoria