Tag Archives: Monty Python

May 11, 2025 · 22:32

Solemn Shady Sneaky Sinister Scoundrel (S5)

Yup, that is me and the S5 reference was the reference that NATO has when a person is unhinged (yea, lets call it that). This might be me, I would disagree, but there are plenty of others who would think that. So, at least four times I got to Melvin DARPA. It was a simple setting that I had the goods and seemingly DARPA does not. It was not a setting of pride, it was merely that my creativity brought me to this setting. In the first setting is was a simple approach to making (some of) the harbors of Iran useless. It was my response to the aggressive actions against Saudi Arabia using Houthi forces. The west was not doing anything, so I decided to something about it. As such I came up with a plan and an idea for a stealth submersible with a delivery system to make several Iranian harbors useless for some time like several months. Then there was the idea of making the Russian build nuclear reactors melt down (still a few kinks that need resolving as I am not a nuclear physicist, but there is no stopping creativity. This also enabled me to create two civil designs (piranha valve and hornet valve), so basically it is 6 times on DARPA (there was a painting solution as well). Now I basically get to Melvin the NSA. This is not a stance of pride these are not the people who are responsible for level 8 TCP/IP issues (user level problems). They know their stuff and they tend to be deep into the level 1 setting. But I just had an idea, which is set to layer one and it came about as I was setting a different issue (a script issue) and that was when this solution came to mind. Not sure if it could be done, but if so there is a larger setting that could enable mapping troll farms and even the tracks that they employ. Not sure about some of this, but if enabled a new mapping setting could be staged and that is where the fun begins. The people employing that solution could carpet the system and could optionally see where criminals and the media interact. I don’t think that is as simple as I state it to be, but as Jafar (from Aladdin) states ‘the idea has merit’ (or as I usually say, when in doubt stick to the classics). 

Would it work? Not sure, but the implications could be infested in mobiles, tablets, basically any system that has a camera. 

It might not be as much fun as melting down a nuclear reactor, but the results could be nearly as devastating, and we wouldn’t have to revert to explodable pagers (nicely done Mossad). This gets me to almost a second solution, lets first work out the first issue and then progress to the second one. 

This is a nice setting for me as it pushed my creativity to the top of mind issues and the is where I get to create in several directions. The intelligence part makes me shady, the melting down of reactors makes me sinister, the fact that I came to the aid of Saudi Arabia makes me solemn and the fact that it involves stealth makes me sneaky and the optional act against Russian hardware makes me a scoundrel. All 5 at the fingertip and does that make me unhinged? I will let you decide and that is where I am on this Sunday evening, a mere 10 hours from Monday morning breakfast. All in a days contemplation. As Monty Python would say: ‘And now for something completely different’ but I don’t want to do that. The Ukraine can use all the help they can get and as such the idea of melting down some of the Russian reactors has merit. I calculate a mere 3-4 reacts out of the 47 they allegedly have is enough to put Leningrad, Moscow and Vladivostok in darkness giving them a serious setting of problems their armies are already scattered over the winds (with a serious dent in their hardware and logistics) and as I see it, should their energy systems get the boot, then they are heading for one really cold winter. You see, not many lives lost, but the more alive, the quicker their energy systems will be completely depleted, which might be worse for them.

As such I remain humbly and sneaky (and deprived of coffee). Have a great day this weekend.

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May 4, 2025 · 03:24

The nature of things

It was about to weeks ago that I wrote ‘Regarding that joke’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/04/19/regarding-that-joke/). In that article I wrote “A setting we all saw coming (even though the media seems to ignore this and merely keeps on shouting tax the rich) and the interested parties who are supposed to keep the people informed are merely shouting that Haley Joel Osment was intoxicated instead of working on the news, the media is pretty much on the discarded bundle of wannabe news”, as well as “As one source told me (and others) “China could theoretically weaponise the US Treasury holdings – by dumping it – meaning that it would sell off treasury holdings for less than they are worth. By doing so, China would then, because of the amount it owns, devalue the US dollar” so what happens when the dollar gets devaluated to this degree?” That was two weeks ago. In the meantime “Trump had demanded of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba that Japan eliminate its $70 billion trade surplus with the US. He claimed it would be easy. He repeated the demand during April 16 negotiations in DC. In response to all this, Japan tried to placate Trump, refused to cooperate with other nations suffering similar abuse, and asked for special exemptions for Japan at the expense of others. In fact, one of the reasons Trump chose Japan for the first round of trade talks was his belief that Tokyo would cave within a few weeks, thereby inducing others to do likewise.” (Source: several). Yesterday I thought I saw water burn (which is pretty freaky to say the least). Axios (merely one source) gives us ‘Japanese finance minister says selling U.S. bonds a “card on the table”’ with the yowza response “Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato said Friday that the country’s $1.13 trillion in Treasury holdings were a “card on the table” in trade talks, The Associated Press reported.” Talking about the tiger that feeds himself with your hand, and the added text becomes “Japan is one of the five largest U.S. trading partners, as well as a rock-solid ally in the region, so there was some surprise when the U.S. hit the country with a 24% reciprocal tariff in early April.” And now Japan puts the US bonds they have on the table and with more than one trillion in hand they could flood the market and push the dollar straight over the edge. If that happens no run on the bank will save people and America cannot come up with that much money to feed the hungry vultures, as such America now has a massive problem and it is not China pushing the cart, it is Japan itself who will not go gently into that good night. So on one hand we see “As U.S. Treasuries sold off last month and yields spiked, there was speculation foreign governments might be dumping bonds”, as well as “J.P. Morgan Private Bank, in a research note last week, said there were signs of foreign selling pressure, but from private holders, as opposed to governments “weaponizing” their holdings” which is fun as my blog article preceded the two by one week, so its not merely a sign of the day time reference, the planet moved 89,292 kilometers in the time that lapsed between me writing the blog and J.P. Morgan Private Bank coming to that same conclusion (it’s actually nice to use NASA metrics to make a case). All that and AP News giving us (at https://apnews.com/article/japan-treasurys-trump-tariffs-44b9b37bf7a290701201322f69bade2e) yesterday ““It does exist as a card, but I think whether we choose to use it or not would be a separate decision,” Kato said during a news show on national broadcaster TV Tokyo. Kato did not elaborate and he did not say Japan would step up sales of its holdings of U.S. government bonds as part of its talks over President Donald Trump’s tariffs on exports from Japan.”” The words from Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato to live by I say and when you combine this with the article I wrote two days ago (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/05/02/saudi-arabia-goes-hiragana/) ‘Saudi Arabia goes Hiragana’ where we see that Japan basically has a way out to prevents its economy to become scuttled as well. As such the noose around its economical neck is diverted to a working solution. As I see it, America now gets that additional noose around its neck to double the efforts of the economy strangling itself (what a security measure). 

As the grand vizier of Agrabah (in Aladdin) states “The idea has merit”, get economical advice from a Disney character? Oh, kill me now (I is havening to be laughing out loud at present) or as Monty Python states: ‘Howls of deriving laughter’ are mine and the tears are falling over my cheeks. I haven’t laughed this hard since my fathers funeral.

So this must be the most original way that a politician ever shoot its own foot

Americans might not be laughing as this is actually is devastatingly serious. The (as some call it) bully tactics are now starting to bite back and the bigwigs in Wall Street will be seriously moving assets with an additional passports to zero tax nations, perhaps one that also doesn’t have an extradition treaty with America. So if any of those get plane tickets out of America (people like Jerome Powell or Alan Greenspan), you get the idea. When people take that move, the setting is all over for America, there will be no more moves to make. And these people have been ‘diversifying’ their income for decades. They moved small amounts around the planet and they could survive on their millions and they might vacate their consultancy firm from Davos in the Desert to Davos, Switzerland (a mere example). So they were ready from the get go and with this situation they might have larger consultancy jobs in several nations (including Switzerland, Monaco and the UAE). So these people will just vacate Idiotville as some call it (that place between Canada and Mexico) as quick as their Beechcraft Premier can carry them. No lines, no waiting.

So, will Japan do this? I reckon it will depend on who controls President Trump, because as I see it, the man is basically a loose canon at present and with that level of knee jerks the financial world is pretty hesitant and frightened on what he might do next. That’s is basically what I personally see.

A setting that is a lot less nice than my weird personal dream I had on Friday involving a mall, a coffeeshop and me meeting Matt Damon and Ridley Scott (seeking a replacement voice for someone with a perfect Dutch accent), the weird snoozes and snores I tend to have.

The nature off things that we embrace, some will walk the path away from bully tactics, some are on the market for having financial independence and some are about getting out of the line of fire (or a location about to get carpet bombed). Whatever we do, we look out for number one (ourselves) and optionally (read: preferably)with improved comfort levels. What that is tends to differ from person to person and in the words of the great man Tony Curtis (Operation Petticoat) “In confusion, there is profit” a very acceptable stage for a lot of people with a calculating nature. 

So have a great day and enjoy your coffee today (I had mine with a cookie this morning).

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April 14, 2025 · 07:33

And now for a momentous occasion

Yes, it was a momentous occasion yesterday. For the people of my generation (that would be the generation that is old and decrepit), Yesterday it was the 50th anniversary of Monty Python. I got told this by the BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20250407-how-monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-became-a-comedy-legend). I completely forgot that it had been so long. I was there, in front of my TV when the birth of Monty Python was shown to us on a 4:3 screen and I saw it on a black and white TV. Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle and Michael Palin with additions from Terry Gilliam showed us a totally new concept in Television. They called it comedy and it was magnificent. 

OK, I have to make a slight adjustment. It was 50 years since their masterpiece Monty Python and the holy grail came out. The TV series are older. Still, we forget the larger picture. The movie made them globally funny, the TV was (in those days) often limited to Europe (mainly UK, Netherlands, Belgium) but the movie made them a global household name. These younger pups think that comedy comes from some guy named Steve Carell, what do they know? Apparently a marketeer from Dutch Barn disagrees, but I have no idea what that is about. And now that idea might never have worked, there is word that the youthful young Jim Halpert played by John Krasinsky was taken to a quiet place by his wife, so that’s that. And what do those people know? Monty Python was here first and it was magnificent. I remember those days. I was one year too young for the movie (14 years and older) but I became a knight who said ‘ni’ as well. I saw it a year later and it was magnificent. Of course I already knew Monty Python from TV and as such The TV characters were known to me but yesterday’s article brought it all back to the surface. Read it, it is a really good article. For one, I never knew that funding was a bit of a problem and the legendary band Led Zeppelin brought the bread to the table. We get from Michael Palin: “I say to people, ‘Led Zeppelin gave us £50,000 – and look where they are now.’” Apparently Pink Floyd also aided in the support of the movie. And it was money well spend. I still have the movie on DVD (I had the VHS tape as well) and it was the beginning of a great comedy movie franchise. And the setting of “the film’s budget was less than £300,000 ($393,000). This wasn’t much for a sweeping fantasy set in medieval Britain, so the team had to be inventive.” The realisation that that little money got a movie made that is still a character a timeless humor is to be revered. A movie that is hopefully still bringing in the pounds, shillings and dimes and it would have been doing that for 50 years. Today the average comedy like Evan Almighty is almost forgotten after 20 years, I enjoyed that movie and several other from him, he is a good actor, but the setting of 50 years is something completely different. It matters, and it brought a nice dish to the table. In the end the actor who played the Rabbit of Caerbannog was later served as Rabbit au vin and he was completely forgotten 2 days later, except for the eater, who caught indigestion for at least a week. Things happen.

Still, this milestone brings feelings to the surface, happy feelings and it was brought about by 7 youthful young individuals that went on shaping the stage of comedy. Later Terry Gilliam would blow my socks away with Time Bandits, Brazil, and later “12 monkeys” with Bruce Willis. 

Happy are feelings of those who bring is joy and the Monty Python team brought us a lot, including the thought that every sperm is sacred, so ladies don’t forget. 

Have a great day and if you haven’t seen Monty Python and the holy grail, try to see it this week, it will be the best thing you will have done all week.

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March 14, 2025 · 05:19

All wars are founded on deception

That is a truth that is over 2500 years old. The Chinese gave us the rule, but we were only made aware of this about 600 years ago (right around the time the game Marco Polo became common knowledge). Still the people are unaware of sides of this truth because it interferes with the media collecting on their digital dollars. So there are sides that are not illuminated. 

I have a inkling of standing there, because my premise is set on the sides I have been illuminated on for a few years and it is my understanding that it takes sides on what I believe to be true. You see, one element is that most polarized believes are set around the belief that “President Trump is a moronic idiot” and I do not believe that is true. He is perhaps a bully, he is a megalomaniac but he isn’t as I personally believe a stupid person. You see, as I see it, the exploitative people in New York would have eaten him alive. He was there long enough. And yesterday NPR gave us “The U.S. buys electricity from Canada. Now it’s a focus of the trade war”, this was to be expected. Our brother Canada (I am Australian) takes any opportunity it can get. And over the last few days we were given “Canadian brewery selling pack of 1,461 beers to cope with Trump’s presidency”, a funny sidestep. CBC informed us that they are selling crates of beer (with 1461 cans) so that one crate will last any Canadian with one beer a day until Trump is out of office in 3.84237 years time. The beer is Moosehead and the marketing director Karen Grigg told us that they sold 10 of such crates in 24 hours. The first one in 10 minutes of the announcement. A clever ploy to sell 14.6 thousands cans within a day. I have no idea if the beer is any good, like most American beer some Australian beers are like making love in a canoe (they are fucking close to water). Thank you for that Monty Python ;-).

So as we continue we get the BBC giving us “Trump halts plan for 50% steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada” with the supporting text “Canada has called Trump’s attacks unjustified and announced retaliation, including new tariffs on C$30bn ($22bn; £16bn) of US products.

Ford had announced he would tax electricity exports to the US in an effort to get those tariffs removed. He had also previously said he would “not hesitate to shut off electricity completely” if the US “escalates”.” And at this point President Trump has done a 180 degree turn on his decisions twice. And ABC (Australia) give us ‘Trump announces 50pc tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum in trade war escalation’ with the supporting text “Trump announces 50pc tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum in trade war escalation. He says this is in retaliation for a Canadian province placing a surcharge on its electricity exports into three US states. Tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the US are set to come into effect on Wednesday.” Some have the view that this is the economic downturn created to secure to annex Canada as the 51st state. That has the sound of likelihood, because the ‘easiest’ thing to do is to null the tariff the moment he gets Canada. The short sightedness of that is that Canada is part of a Commonwealth. What I don’t like is that (as far as I can tell) Australia and the United Kingdom haven’t outspokenly united behind Canada. Seemingly neither have New Zealand and India, so there is that. ABC reported ‘Anthony Albanese invokes ‘Team Australia’ in pitch to buy local after Trump tariffs’ with the supporting text “Anthony Albanese has suggested Australians should buy Australian goods instead of American ones, invoking “Team Australia” in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs. The PM yesterday accused Peter Dutton of taking the Trump administration’s side over Australia’s, after Mr Dutton said he was “hopeless” and that he could secure an exemption himself if elected.” Not one word of unity behind Canada. The setting becomes that the Commonwealth needs to unite. If I am correct that is essential and the UK needs to bo the same. The BBC reports ‘Starmer says ‘all options on table’ on US tariffs’ and here the subtext is different. “Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said the UK will “keep all options on the table” as US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum take effect. The UK exports hundreds of millions of pounds worth of steel to the US every year, which will be subject to the 25% levy. The EU, facing the same tariffs, said on Wednesday it would impose counter-tariffs on €26bn (£22bn) of US goods, and Canada also responded with countermeasures, in an escalation of the wider trade war.” This makes me believe that there is more going on and the lack of Canadian support is disgusting. If there are so many billions on the table, the idea that the Commonwealth isn’t talking to China is frowning to say the least. There is almost 100 billion on the table from Canada, the UK and Australia. These three countries need to secure infrastructure and a lot more for a little over 136,000,000 people. So is this the way it will be? Insecurity and inaction whilst (until recent) an Ally is attacking the economy of these nations? 

As I personally see it America is beyond broke. They need Canada for resources, Electricity and water. They are running out of these matters and that is as I personally see the larger issue. And the media isn’t reporting on these parts for at least 5 years. You see one source gives us “The federal government currently has $36.22 trillion in federal debt” and another source gives us “As of February 2025, of the total public debt outstanding ($28.91 trillion)” these two messages are not three months apart, as such how can ANYONE make a somewhat clear oversight of more than 7 trillion ($7,000,000,000,000)? That is a lot more than several nations have as a national budget. But I digress. A debt of $36,220,000,000,000 has interest, Australia has currently a 4.1% interest setting. America will have less, but I reckon that 3% is an acceptable amount, this means that America needs to pay $1,448,800,000,000 in interest on an annual base that is crippling America. In 2023 they collected $2.18 trillion, that means that almost 50% of all collected tax goes to the payment of interest. That is almost 50% of all revenue collected. I warned of this well before I wrote ‘Is it that bad?’ On October 15th 2023 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/10/15/is-it-that-bad/). So for over 2 years the media was kept quiet by media stake holders, are you even troubled in the least over this?

When the media has to report all income from stakeholders the bough breaks (I assume), because the media doesn’t do this service for free and it is likely hidden in ad revenue piles. As such I believe my view to be a decent one and as I started this story, all wars are set to deception and America doesn’t like to be seen as weak, so they started a media tariff war. I am not dismissing the 51st state ploy and the silence from Australia and the United Kingdom give rise to that. But in all honesty, do you really want Australia and England to be your ally when that part is proven to be correct? As I see it the Commonwealth needs a stronger ally and that is where China comes in. As I see it America cannot be seen as an ally when it resorts to these tactics against an ally and in the second place there is a sneaky kind of joy when these tactics result in having their ‘arch-enemy’ China a few miles away for about 5,525 miles. The fun part is that America only needs to build a second Chinese wall a mere 42% of the first one. How much will that cost? And that also implies that three states will have to burn the woods they have left to keep warm, fortunately they are entering summer so they have a few months to build two nuclear reactors and that, oh wait a minute, that takes years. So no luck for America there either.

The tariff wars was as I personally see it the dumbest thing they could entertain, but according to the Beijing Daily, President Xi Jinping has been heard howling with laughter the last few days. Could there be correlation with the acts of President Trump? 

So tune in next week when you will hear Nurse Piggy say: “Kermit where is your credit card?” And the answering silence was deafening. Have a great day or as they say in China “祝你有美好的一天，傻兔子”, or as other say “Whatever makes you happy” (paraphrased)

Have a great day.

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December 1, 2021 · 13:07

Ego versus tax dollars

Yes, that is the setting. It is not a new setting, we have seen it before and it comes with a surprise, just like the Ferrero kinder surprise.

It is a chocolate egg, but in the middle there is a toy, a surprise. And ego versus tax dollars also have a surprise for the people. Yet in this case it is a little less nice, in this case the people, the tax payers pay either way and optionally they get to pay both ends of the equation. This is seen in BBC article ‘Multi-billion EU bid to challenge Chinese influence’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59473071). Here we are given “It’s regarded as part of the West’s efforts to counter Chinese influence in Africa and elsewhere. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will present the “Global Gateway” initiative on Wednesday. The EU is looking at how it can leverage billions of euros, drawn from member states, financial institutions and the private sector”, now consider the setting:

  • member states
  • financial institutions
  • the private sector

And here is the rub, here we see how the tax payer gets that bill twice. Or a speculated once for the duration of twice the timeline. The member states sounds nice, yet the credit cards of France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy are severely overdrawn. So who will pay? Poland? Austria? Hungary? Estonia? Gimme a break please.

Then we get the second setting the ‘financial institutions’. Yet they will BORROW you the money for an interesting percentage, which means that a load with up to 15% interest is still payable by the tax payers. 

The private sector? Who has that kind of cash? I reckon that Webuild SpA (formerly Salini Impregilo SpA) will take the job, as long as they get the job with a few long term tax benefits, optionally at cost + 3% + tax benefits. And who do you think pays for it in the end? Yup you got it, the poor poor taxpayer (you). 

As such when I see “It has been criticised as a means of providing “predatory loans” in what is labelled “debt-trap diplomacy”” I am not opposing this (as I never looked at that data), yet the wording is almost exactly like the big tomato of MI6 (you say potato, I say tomato). Isn’t that a nice coincidence. Almost orchestrated. Now, I accept that it might be true, but in that same way Iran has been doing all over the Middle East and the same parties were eager to avoid shining the limelight there, and now that Huawei has a much stronger case (made in Saudi Arabia) and their 5G is 700% faster then anything the US has. The link here us that both Huawei and Saudi Arabia have a larger case for Egypt and that matters. With Neom city smack in the middle, they are likely have an operating 5G network long before the US figures out that marketed speed is not the same as real speed, but they will and they will see the cost involved. In that same light the BS approach to the arms deals with Saudi Arabia, China has a larger stage now, a stage that will cost the US well over 9 billion with a nominal maximum of $23,000,000,000 over the next 5 years, revenue handed to China and we see European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen getting ready for a presentation that is as I personally see a joke the EU cannot afford. Not with the US handing business over to China as they did over the last 12 months alone. 

So when we consider “Mrs von der Leyen said in her State of the Union speech in September: “We want investments in quality infrastructure, connecting goods, people and services around the world.”” We need to see the word ‘investments’, which is nice, but does that not imply that you have the funds? If not (which is the case) it ends up being a mere ego loan and that is not what is supposed to happen. I am not against it, as long as CORPORATIONS are properly taxed and that has been a horse no show for over two decades. I wonder what happens if Huawei and not Amazon decided to buy my 5G (and a few other matters). We then get a setting that shows that the European ego race was over before it even began, it was over when the ego driven tailored to stop the innovations because it did not give them a nice percentage, that is the larger stage we need to see and that is merely one of 4 elements stopping this ego driven presentation that is coming in hours. So even as we are given “Wednesday’s 14-page document isn’t likely to explicitly pitch itself as a rival to China’s strategy.” A setting that gives us the not explicit, it is relying on implied settings, a stage that can be revamped any given stage and there is the second rub, if you cannot go out and say what you mean, you can never mean what you say. That has been a truth for a lot longer than we had the internet. The EU relying on nudge-nudge-wink-wink settings (sorry Monty Python). When was the last time time you saw that going well? And now it involves multi billion euro plans that they cannot even afford. So in the end you the tax payer (if you are in the EU) get to pay that bill too. So hows that going against the rising prices of energy, Gas and petrol? Oh and how about the food prices, inflation of food which was 0.1% in April 2021, which is 2.3% in October 2021. Which is nothing to what I saw at the supermarket. I saw minced meat go up almost 20% in the last few months. So enjoy that extra tax bill with all the expenses you have in Europe. You elected what is there, so you get what is coming. 

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May 9, 2021 · 19:22

Ketchup with the past

Yup, a wordplay and I am always happy to make wordplays. I think it was the Monty Python team who instilled that part in me. I reckon they came at the right time. One might say that it was a ‘Papers having been a place for the Great Charter’, the latin joke gains perspective once you add ‘great’ to the equation of a ‘shitty place’, but that is merely me trying to find the joke in all the wrong places. It brought me back to a situation I thought of before. It is added with the thought that when you decide to steal a billion dollars YOU WILL BE FOUND! Unless everyone realises you are dead, the loot is gone or if the theft was never detected in the first place and it is that last part that matters. 

In 1495 Girolamo Savonarola started something that would later be known as the bonfire of the vanities. In that event works by Albrecht Dürer, Giovanni Bellini, Luca Pacioli, Michele Giambono and at least a dozen others, from these makers some works made it to today, but not all. A lot was burned by the people adhering to the words of Girolamo Savonarola. Books and pantings that would now value at a billion plus. So what would happen if (massively sci-fi and fantasy) we could step through in the minute before it happens and replace these works with forgeries? The forgeries would be burned, the originals saved. It is not the only moment that this happened. There was Kristalnacht (9–10 November 1938) and more importantly the Library of Alexandria that had in excess of 200,000 scrolls holding the works of Plato, Homer, Aristotle, Apollonius of Rhodes, Aristarchus of Samothrace and many more. Some survived but a lot were lost to the flames, what do you think that a scroll, a first edition to a work by Didymus Chalcenterus, the man that inspired Cicero would fetch? I reckon you are millions short in your estimate to the value of such works. Parts were burned (allegedly accidentally) in 48 BC? After that there was another issue where Caliph Omar had another go at the same library, now in 642 AD. How much was lost? So there is no foundation in reality, but in fantasy? Three jobs in two places with a loot amounting to that could fetch well over $4,000,000,000 and no one is the wiser, history was written and 2,000 year later that loot is no longer hot and wanted, so what could be gotten? History is filled with events where we see that fires and natural events caused havoc, and what stops the inquisitive minds to seek out those ‘forgotten’ treasures? 

So, this has no bearing on reality and its setting, and as far as I am concerned, the creative mind merely needs to dream, realistic or not, we tend to dream (sorry Scarlett Johansson). For me it all started with Tom Hanks and Melanie Griffith in ‘Bonfires of the Vanities’, it was an entertaining movie, but it was there (1990) when I learned of the origins of that name and some Italian prophet who enticed people to burn art, the lowest form of censorship. That day I learned (again) that Adolf Hitler wasn’t even original, he got the idea from an Italian. It also intersected with the thoughts that censorship burning  have no positive outcome, it never does, what existed was lost, we could never see the ‘feigned’ negativity of the works and learn for ourselves. It is perhaps the only reason I opposed the banning of ‘Mein Reich’ not because of the work, I never saw or read it. We can never make up our minds if we do not see the negativity of the work. All these so called ‘wise people’ stating that it is better for us, we have learned that these people are all about forwarding their own positions at the expense of EVERYONE else. And we lose the option to learn.

We can search the red book of Mao and wonder in that same way what some were trying to hide from us. We saw the posters, the presented imagery by the Chinese in those days, but we never got to learn what was wrong and why things were wrong. I reckon that the what and why are connected, but from me that would be speculation. You see, we should have learned something from the trial of Socrates in 399 BC. We are told (from primary school onwards) that he was given the “death sentence of Socrates was the seemingly legal consequence of asking politico-philosophic questions of his students, which resulted in the two accusations of moral corruption and impiety”, yet in that we were never told what these politico-philosophic questions were in the first place, we were too young? It was too complex? We didn’t learn, merely that some questions get you the death penalty and there is a larger failing there. If we cannot learn, how can we move forward? In that same setting in school we were never made aware of ‘Apology of Socrates to the Jury’ by Xenophon of Athens, if so would we have learned anything more? 

We need to catch up with the past at times, although it was a snow globe that gave me the idea how to push a meltdown to nuclear reactors, actual positive inventions are clouded by censorship. And the times is filled with those examples, so what were we not allowed to learn then and have we learned now? Do not take the work from power players proclaiming to know, learn it for yourself. You might pick up a few ideas on the side and that might give you your first big break. It is up to YOU to decide what to do, and as long as you have peace with whatever path you take, that will be all that should matter to you. 

In the past we were inspired by books and music, then we got records and electronics, then there was the internet, but it will be limited to what you are allowed to see, I reckon that the really nice parts are hidden in what you were not allowed to see because people decided what was good for us. I do accept there are premises where censorship is a given (read: a must) and essential to protect the vulnerable groups and I do not oppose that, I merely wonder who gets to make certain calls, especially in the case of political censorship. Yet overall I spend a nice day day dreaming of a situation and it passes the day. Optionally I came up with a new movie, not bad for a simple Sunday in May. 

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