FAILURE OF IMAGINATION

ODO: 

He's telling The Truth, Commander --

He doesn't know why the Romulans 

would try to kill him. 

SISKO: 

What makes you so sure? 

ODO: 

Because if he did know, he'd already be spinning out an elaborate web of lies to cover up The Truth. 

GARAK: 

The Truth is usually just an excuse for 

A Lack of Imagination. 

On the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 men armed with boxcutters directed by a man on dialysis in a cave fortress halfway around the world using a satellite phone and a laptop directed the most sophisticated penetration of the most heavily-defended airspace in the world, overpowering the passengers and the military combat-trained pilots on 4 commercial aircraft before flying those planes wildly off course for over an hour without being molested by a single fighter interceptor.

These 19 hijackers, devout religious fundamentalists who liked to drink alcohol, snort cocaine, and live with pink-haired strippers, managed to knock down 3 buildings with 2 planes in New York, while in Washington a pilot who couldn’t handle a single engine Cessna was able to fly a 757 in an 8,000 foot descending 270 degree corskscrew turn to come exactly level with the ground, hitting the Pentagon in the budget analyst office where DoD staffers were working on the mystery of the 2.3 trillion dollars that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had announced “missing” from the Pentagon’s coffers in a press conference the day before, on September 10, 2001.

Luckily, the news anchors knew who did it within minutes, the pundits knew within hours, the Administration knew within the day, and the evidence literally fell into the FBI’s lap. But for some reason a bunch of crazy conspiracy theorists demanded an investigation into the greatest attack on American soil in history.

The investigation was delayed, underfunded, set up to fail, a conflict of interest and a cover upfrom start to finish. It was based on testimony extracted through torture, the records of which were destroyed. It failed to mention the existence of WTC7, Able Danger, Ptech, Sibel Edmonds,OBL and the CIA, and the drills of hijacked aircraft being flown into buildings that were being simulated at the precise same time that those events were actually happening. It was lied to by the Pentagon, the CIA, the Bush Administration and as for Bush and Cheney…well, no one knows what they told it because they testified in secret, off the record, not under oath and behind closed doors. It didn’t bother to look at who funded the attacks because that question is of “little practical significance“. Still, the 9/11 Commission did brilliantly, answering all of the questions the public had (except most of the victims’ family members’ questions) and pinned blame on all the people responsible (although no one so much as lost their job), determining the attacks were “a failure of imagination” because “I don’t think anyone could envision flying airplanes into buildings ” except the Pentagon and FEMA and NORAD and the NRO.

The DIA destroyed 2.5 TB of data on Able Danger, but that’s OK because it probably wasn’t important.

The SEC destroyed their records on the investigation into the insider trading before the attacks, but that’s OK because destroying the records of the largest investigation in SEC history is just part of routine record keeping.

NIST has classified the data that they used for their model of WTC7’s collapse, but that’s OK because knowing how they made their model of that collapse would “jeopardize public safety“.

The FBI has argued that all material related to their investigation of 9/11 should be kept secret from the public, but that’s OK because the FBI probably has nothing to hide.

This man never existed, nor is anything he had to say worthy of your attention, and if you say otherwise you are a paranoid conspiracy theorist and deserve to be shunned by all of humanity. Likewise him, him, him, and her. (and her and her and him).

Osama Bin Laden lived in a cave fortress in the hills of Afghanistan, but somehow got away. Then he was hiding out in Tora Bora but somehow got away. Then he lived in Abottabad for years, taunting the most comprehensive intelligence dragnet employing the most sophisticated technology in the history of the world for 10 years, releasing video after video with complete impunity (and getting younger and younger as he did so), before finally being found in a daring SEAL team raid which wasn’t recorded on video, in which he didn’t resist or use his wife as a human shield, and in which these crack special forces operatives panicked and killed this unarmed man, supposedly the best source of intelligence about those dastardly terrorists on the planet. Then they dumped his body in the ocean before telling anyone about it. Then a couple dozen of that team’s members died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

This is the story of 9/11, brought to you by the media which told you the hard truths about JFK and incubator babies and mobile production facilities and the rescue of Jessica Lynch.

If you have any questions about this story…you are a batshit, paranoid, tinfoil, dog-abusing baby-hater and will be reviled by everyone. If you love your country and/or freedom, happiness, rainbows, rock and roll, puppy dogs, apple pie and your grandma, you will never ever express doubts about any part of this story to anyone. Ever.

This has been a public service announcement by: the Friends of the FBI, CIA, NSA, DIA, SEC,MSM, White House, NIST, and the 9/11 Commission. 

Because Ignorance is Strength

THE WALL OF SILENCE

SPOCK: 

Curious. Very well. 

For twenty-four hours we'll agree this conversation did not take place.

VALERIS: 

A lie?

SPOCK: 

An Omission.

SPOCK: 

Ah! Mister Scott, I understand you're having difficulty with the warp drive. 

How much time do you require for repair?

SCOTT: 

There's nothing wrong with the bloody thing.

SPOCK: 

Mister Scott. If we return to Spacedock, the assassins would surely find away to dispose of their incriminating footwear

 and we will never see the Captain and Doctor McCoy alive again.

SCOTT: 

It could take weeks, sir.

SPOCK: 

Thank you, Mister Scott. 

Valeris, please inform Starfleet Command our warp drive is inoperative.

VALERIS: 

A lie?

SPOCK: 

An Error.

KIRK: 

Names, Lieutenant.

VALERIS: 

I do not remember.

SPOCK: 

A lie?

VALERIS: 

A Choice.

One of the great myths surrounding Vulcans was that the race was incapable of telling a lie. 

Doctor Leonard McCoy once stated that the simple fact of Spock being a Vulcan meant that he was incapable of lying. (TOS: "The Menagerie, Part I")

While generally believed to be accurate, Vulcans were, in fact, capable of telling lies, usually justifying this action as a logical course towards a means to an end. 

An example of this would be lying to carry out a secret mission or lying to protect the lives of others. 

Spock was in fact capable of lying, as was Valeris, although Valeris' motives were somewhat dubious. 

Tuvok admitted that Vulcans were capable of telling lies but added that he had never found it prudent or necessary to do so, after an inquiry by Seven of Nine into whether or not they were capable of lying. 

(TOS: "The Enterprise Incident"; TOS: "Errand of Mercy"; Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country; VOY: "Hunters"; Star Trek Into Darkness)

SPOCK: 

The destruction of Discovery was tragic 

but does not in and of itself resolve the issue.

Even more radical steps must be taken to ensure that type of scenario never repeats itself.

I'm eager to hear your recommendations, Lieutenant.

Regulation 157, Section Three, requires Starfleet officers to abstain from participating in historical events.

Any residual trace or knowledge of Discovery's data, or the time suit, offers a foothold for those who might not see how critical, 

how deeply critical, that directive is.

Therefore, to insure the Federation never finds itself facing the same danger, all officers remaining with knowledge of these events must be ordered never to speak of Discovery, its spore drive, or her crew again.

Under penalty of treason.

Thank you, Mr. Spock.

We'll take it under advisement.

“Those That Ran The Soviet Union

Believed that they could plan, and manage a new kind of Socialist Society.

They had discovered that it was impossible to control and predict everything — and The Plan had run out of control.

But rather than reveal that reveal this, The Technocrats decided to pretend that everything was still going according to The Plan.

And what emerged instead was a 

Fake Version of The Society.

The Soviet Union became a Society where everyone knew what their leaders said was   

Not-Real, because everyone could see with their own eyes that the economy was falling apart —

But Everybody Had to Play Along, 

and pretend that it was Real —

Because No-One Could Imagine an Alternative.

One Soviet called it 

HYPERNORMALISATION

You were so much a part of The System that it became impossible to see beyond it — 

The Fakeness was HyperNormal.”

FAILURE OF IMAGINATION

Some people like to dive right in

Can you imagine that?

And flap about in bathtub gin

Can you imagine that?

Don’t Forget Scrub Behind Your Ears.