No Nanny State - Molon Labe!

Whoever is detected in a shameful fraud is ever after not believed even if they speak the truth.
--Phaedrus (Roman fabulist, 15-50 B.C.)

Pond Scum is going to save the world! The eco-freaks are talking up algae as a way to suck up evil CO2 from the air AND provide a fuel source. It's a miracle!

Driven by fluctuations in oil prices, and seduced by the prospect of easing climate change, experts are ramping up efforts to squeeze fuel out of a promising new organism: pond scum.

Yeah. There are a couple of problems, though. First off, there's the whole "great CO2 suckers" thing. After the algae eats up the CO2, then what? If you burn it to produce heat, the CO2 is returned to the atmosphere. If you somehow squeeze the fat out of the algae, what do you do with the now CO2-riddled fat-less algae sludge? Bury it (like evil nuclear waste)? Feed it to cattle (only to be farted out as methane, and even scarier Green House Gas)?

And then there's the whole "cost" thing -

Even though algae grows like gangbusters, it currently costs up to 100 dollars to make a gallon of algal fuel-- hardly a savings.

Hey, price is no object when you're saving the world, right?

These pinheads need to do some significant research into the term, "unintended consequences". When you start dicking around trying to force-feed a solution, shit happens. Just off the top of my head, they'll need to figure out what land to set aside for this, where will they get the fresh water for the scum to live in, and how much will our taxes be increased to pay for this (see: Ethanol from corn for supporting documentation).

Hey, I'll help the cause. I nominate DC as the land mass to be used. Plenty of pond scum is already in place (sorry, that was too easy to pass up!).
----------

Talk about, "Passing The Buck" -

The Federal Reserve would police banks' pay policies to ensure they don't encourage employees to take reckless gambles like those that contributed to the financial crisis, according to a proposal unveiled Thursday.

So the government in general, and the Federal Reserve in particular were major, MAJOR drivers of the policies that put us in the current national financial crisis. What does any good political body do? It attempts to divert attention from its culpability, and blame someone else. In this case, it's the Evil Banks.

The Fed and their Bank Regulator bretheren were responsible for monitoring and REGULATING the business activities of the banking system. The system has gone to hell in a hand-basket, WHILE THEY WERE IN CHARGE, but they had nothing to do with the problems? Right.

It's like a parent who tells their kid not to smoke pot, but who gives them money to score some weed. As long as the kid brings mom and dad a little reefer for their troubles, things are good.

When the kid gets busted for selling the pot, the parents protest to the judge that they tried their best to raise good kids, but the little rascals just wouldn't listen. They're going to immediately add more house rules, and their weekly allowance is going to be cut in half.

A wise judge would throw the book at the parents for providing an environment that encouraged reckless behavior and lawlessness. Instead, the judge - the American people - will applaud the "decisive actions" of the parents. But the money will still flow and the drugs will still be bought, and after a time, things will be back to normal.

A nice, dysfunctional American family.
----------

Got Threat?

"The danger to progressive causes and the institution of journalism [ed. - Insert chortle] has become too significant to ignore," says the introduction to a memo by Media Matters founder David Brock. "At Media Matters, we believe it is of paramount importance that progressive leaders have the information necessary to understand exactly what Fox News has become. We hope this brief memorandum will assist you in reaching your own decision on how best to engage this threat."

Forget that whole, "First Amendment" thing. Forget media objectivity. Forget vigorous debate.

If you're not parading with the Obama Marching Band and Smothering Debt Society, you are an insect that must be crushed.

Tune up those instruments and play along! It feels sooooo good! Enjoy yourself now - we'll send you the bill later...
----------

Got Home?

Nationally, sales of existing homes jumped almost 8 percent from September last year, without adjusting for seasonal factors.

Woo Hoo! Life is good, things are peachy-keen and Viagra is no longer needed in America!

What? There's a sub-text?

Real estate agents and economists attributed the brisk sales to a temporary federal tax credit. First-time homebuyers can receive a credit of 10 percent of the sales price, up to $8,000.

Oh. Nanny, once again, was standing on the street corner handing out $100 bills and people actually accepted them?! Shocking.

It's funny, but as a taxpayer, I've now bought banks, car companies, insurance companies, private automobiles and private homes. I have yet to receive my stock certificates, car title or property title. I get the liabilities but not the assets.

What up wit dat?

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, Eco-fraud, Ethics, Fascism, Global Warming, Media Bias, nanny state, Political Correctness, Propaganda, Self-Reliance, Taxes, welfare state

We journalists make it a point to know very little about an extremely wide variety of topics; this is how we stay objective.
--Humorist Dave Barry

A buddy sent me this link. Whew! Sure am glad THAT'S all over....

Latest survey conducted by the National Association for Business Economics, which was released on Monday, explains that over 80% of economists hold a viewpoint that recession has ended and expansion has commenced.

I wonder if it's the same group of Nanny drones that believe the world's going to melt from Global Warming. A trustworthy and objective group if ever one existed...
----------

How disturbing is this? Not for what is says, but for what it doesn't say?

On both its news and opinion programming Monday, the Fox News Channel responded to the White House’s portrayal of the network as a part of the political opposition.

Fox is the ONLY network, newspaper or other media outlet being identified as confrontational. Isn't ALL of the press supposed to be that way? Isn't that their job?

Apparently, the White House views all other media outlets as compliant allies. That's the opposite of "the opposition," right?
----------

TOR motivated me to bake yesterday. He's been talking about making bread. Yesterday, I made a big pot of beans for dinner, and decided a loaf (or two) of bread would go nicely with them.

After kneeding and prior to the first rise -


After the first rise -


After forming and the third rise (there is a second one done in the bowl) -


Ready for butter, beans and my belly!


There are few things that smell better than a home filled with the aroma of beans and fresh-baked bread. Maybe turkey and stuffing roasting in the oven, but not many others.

There were no survivors..... ;-)
----------

A first for me with the beans: I made them in my pressure canner. I had forgotten to soak them the night before, and the morning had gotten away from me, so I couldn't do a mini-boil and rest.

On the package of Navy beans, they gave instructions for making them in a pressure canner.

One pound of dry beans, five cups of water and whatever spices you want are all dumped into the pot. I also added a jar of homemade canned beef. Cover it, set the canner to 15lbs of weight and let it go for an hour and a half.

They came out perfectly. I was actually kind of surprised they were so tender and fully cooked.
----------

I'm doing a major (for me) canning test today that I'll post tomorrow.
----------

We're getting HAMMERED by rain and wind. It is the tail-end of the typhoon that just hit Japan. We're supposed to get up to 5 inches of rain over the next 24 hours.

We really need the rain, but why all at the same time! I know our farmers will really like the downpour, though. It's the wind I hate so much...
----------

Good news: I was able to secure an agreement with one of the local gun shops - I'm now doing all of the training for them! We're working out the mechanics (scheduling students, whose credit card system will be used, etc) and should have the first classes scheduled near the end of the month or early November. Sweet!

Also, tomorrow I have an interview with a regional magazine to talk about personal safety, risk management and the like. If it goes well, my biz may be featured in an article in the magazine.

I'll take all the free publicity I can get!

Labels: Corruption, democrats, Ethics, Life and Times, Media Bias, Political Correctness, Propaganda

I started reading the 821 pages of the Kerry/Boxer Carbon Tax-Your-Ass bill.

Amazing.

I am going to be slammed for time the next couple of days, so I won't be able to give you my thoughts for a while. I'll do some quickee posts, but that's about it.
----------

Suffice it to say, I want the job of "The Administrator". This dude will hold the reins of power, BIG TIME. How they could vest this much economy-destroying power in the hands of a single individual in mind numbing. The Uber-Czar.

Would you expect anything less from the Nightmare Team (as opposed to Dream Team - get it?) of Kerry and Boxer?

Let me just say, if this version passes and is enacted as planned in 2012, every-day citizens will start shooting at politicians. I'm serious. This is going to push people over the edge. All of these mouth-breathers that want this shit are going to freak out when their utility bill hits $2000 a month and their boneless chicken breasts are $30 a pound.

The price of lumber will go through the roof, as Nanny will pay lumber companies to NOT harvest trees. Enjoy your mud hut, you stupid pukes.

My stomach kept getting butterflies with each new section or paragraph I read. The depth and breadth of this bill is stunning. There is not a single industry in America that won't be negatively affected.

Kerry and Boxer will be remembered as fondly as King George was to the colonists.

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, Eco-fraud, Fascism, Global Warming, Media Bias, Political Correctness, Propaganda

The doctrine of blind obedience and unqualified submission to any human power, whether civil or ecclesiastical, is the doctrine of despotism...
-- Angelina Grimke

In a recent post (Propaganda and Indoctrination), commenter John B made reference to a movie about how easy it was to move kids towards totalitarianism. Fellow commenter Jimbo noted that it was called, The Wave.

In 1967, at the Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, California, World History teacher Ron Jones was asked about the Holocaust by a student. "Could it happen here?". According to the press release accompanying the latest retelling of the events that followed, "Jones came up with an unusual answer. He decided to have a two week experiment in dictatorship. His idea was to explain fascism to his class through a game, nothing more. He never intended what resulted, where his class would be turned into a Fascist environment. Where students gave up their freedom for the prospect of being superior to their neighbors.

Each day, the teacher added one more seemingly innocuous aspect to the experiment. Rousing music. Propaganda ("Power Through Discipline" written on the chalkboard) and physical manifestations of conformity (sitting bolt upright in your seat with your hands folded over the small of your back - try it). A Group salute (The Wave).

The first sign of concern came when some students had taken it upon themselves to report others who did not conform. After just four days, things got out of hand. Jones feared for the safety of a few students who refused to participate. To his dismay and alarm, the experiment was so blindly embraced by the students, that he cut the project short. "Initially I just wanted to show my students how powerful the pressure to belong can be, but the exercise got out of control. A momentum began to build that I couldn't slow, or even deter. I became frightened by the day-to-day happenings in class, and was forced to call it off," recalls Jones.

Don't tell me that I shouldn't be worried when the Dear Leader is the star attraction in an event where his minions (The Department of Education) provide the teachers with the tools to move everyone in the same direction - No "dissenters" allowed.

The Dear Leader apologists are saying, "What could possibly be wrong with the president talking about staying in school or doing "service"?

Nothing. Maybe. But that's not what this is about. If the sole purpose is the school/volunteer gig, then why is this STILL in the DOE "Menu of Classroom Activities" -

Teachers can build background knowledge about the President of the United States and his speech by reading books about presidents and Barack Obama. Teachers could motivate students by asking the following questions:

Who is the President of the United States?
What do you think it takes to be president?
To whom do you think the president is going to be speaking?
Why do you think he wants to speak to you?
What do you think he will say to you?

What does the office of the president of the US have to do with this subject? Nothing. It could be presented by an astronaut, or a pro ball player or a rock star. If some rock star were giving the pep talk, would the DOE have provided a list of questions as well?

Who is the most famous rock star in the US?
What does it take to snort a line of coke as thick as a number two pencil?
Do you think you'll be able to comprehend the thoughts of his alcohol-addled brain?
Do you think he'll share his drugs with YOU?

Is his talk about school and volunteerism, or is it about idol-ism of government? Is it about setting the framework that, Nanny Is Good - The Dear Leader Says So. Set the expectation that The Dear Leader is your friend - he's speaking directly to you.

This little Kiddie Fireside Chat is less about volunteering, and more about doing as you're told. Also from the "Menu" -

Why is it important that we listen to the president and other elected officials, like the mayor, senators, members of congress, or the governor? Why is what they say important?

WTF? Isn't the idea of America that THEY listen to US? HAVE THESE BASTARDS EVER READ ANY AMERICAN HISTORY!!
----------

Here is the two-part movie. Pay particular attention at the beginning of the movie (a dramatization of what happened in the classroom) with regards to the economic and social environment of the time.

Part 1



Part 2


----------

A question: In the schools that show the speech, but allow kids the option of not watching it, how will they be treated by their peers and teachers?

I think history has already given us that answer...

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, democrats, Ethics, Fascism, Media Bias, nanny state, Political Correctness, Propaganda, Thought Crimes, welfare state

It should be clear by now that my focus here is not freedom of speech or the press,” he said. “This freedom is all too often an exaggeration. At the very least, blind references to freedom of speech or the press serve as a distraction from the critical examination of other communications policies.
--Mark Lloyd, the nation's first, Chief Diversity Officer

Before I de-construct the recent FDIC report on the health of the US banking industry, I just wanted to kick around something that is very disturbing to me.

The socialists realize that the term, "Fairness Doctrine" is dead. Too many Americans understand that it is nothing but code for "censorship."

Not to be rebuffed in their efforts, they are using a backdoor approach to getting their plans employed. They simply installed the above-quoted Mark Lloyd at the FCC, and are letting him use the bureaucracy to get the job done.

To get their vision for America in place, Barry - or any politician running the joint - need to have a compliant press. They have it now with regards to TV, newspapers, and most magazines. The sole, glaring exception is talk-radio. It is the thorn in their side.

Here's what I wrote in September of last year -

Regardless of whether Barry O or Johnny Mac becomes president, I think conservative talk radio is in trouble. Barry will run right at it and push the Fairness Doctrine as new FCC policy. Conservative radio has called out enough powerful Republican politicians whom they no longer consider as conservative, that the days of this radio format may be numbered.

Again in January of this year, I made a similar prediction -

... I think one of the very first issues on Barry's agenda will be to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. It will silence the one significant threat to his ability to control the message in the media - Talk Radio.

Barry is seeing that talk radio is able to get unfettered information out to the masses. The masses (that would be us) are reacting - and not in a way that Barry is appreciating. It has (at least temporarily) killed the Cap and Trade bullshit. The Health Care boondoggle is on shaky legs. His administration's economic "reports" are roundly mocked as being nothing more than 'fluff' pieces.

He cannot let this continue.

Under the guise of 'diversity' - which only a racist would be against, right? - Lloyd is proposing to institute a teeny, weeny fee. A fee equal to the entire operating budget of a radio station to pay for government controlled radio -

Lloyd has written in at least 2 different sources that he believes all radio broadcast companies should pay to the government a fee equaling the company's entire operating expenses in order to fund public radio (NPR). The effect of this will, of course, drive most privately owned broadcast companies out of business.

And this is what Lloyd and Obama want. The 'diversity' of which they speak is not just about content but about ownership. They want minorities, which usually favor liberals, to own much of the broadcast entities doing business in the U.S. today.

I'm telling you, folks, if this isn't stopped, the next station on the Barry Express is the Internet. Blogs will be targeted for closure or regulation. We have a high-level federal employee in the nation's communications regulatory agency who thinks the First Amendment is a "distraction".

To call that 'chilling' would be an understatement.
----------

Why did Barry choose the FCC as the first federal agency to install a Chief Diversity Officer?

Why not Commerce Department, or the FDA, or the Interior Department? I know, I know, rhetorical question...
----------

The FDIC finally released their report on the State of Banking. It's not a pretty picture [gasp] -

The U.S. added 111 lenders to its list of “problem banks” in the second quarter, a 36 percent increase that pushed the group to a 15-year high.

A total of 416 banks with combined assets of $299.8 billion failed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s grading system for asset quality, liquidity and earnings, the most since June 1994, the Washington-based FDIC said in a report today. Regulators didn’t identify companies deemed “problem” banks.

What the "reporters" failed to report is that one year ago - 2Q 2008 - there were 117 banks IN TOTAL on the problem report. The current 416 banks represents an increase of 258% in one year (remember, a 100% increase means it doubled).

Banks are sucking wind, regardless of the 'green shoots' that Barry is planting in your butt. All of the Nanny accounting, "get out of jail free" cards have been played. They are having to report their actual earnings. The numbers of non-performing loans is still skyrocketing, and it's showing in the bank numbers -

FDIC-insured banks reported a net loss of $3.7 billion in the second quarter, compared with a $5.5 billion gain in the first quarter. The loss, the second quarterly one the industry has reported in 18 years, was driven by increased expenses for bad loans, the FDIC said.

So what? you say. Why should you care?

Because YOU'RE going to get to pay for the coming shit-storm.

I've written before that when a bank goes tits-up, it costs the FDIC fund about 25% of the bank's asset size to make things right (although that seems to have increased to about 35% recently). For instance, a $100 million in assets bank will cost the fund around $25 million.

They've just reported that nearly $300 BILLION of NEW crappy banks just hit the radar. That means it will likely cost $75 billion to make it right.

For all intents and purposes, the FDIC is insolvent, and will need to borrow from its line of credit (I forget if it's with the Federal Reserve or the Treasury Department). That means more bonds will need to be sold. Bonds with interest that our tax dollars will be paying.
----------

Alright. So what was in the full FDIC report that the compliant (or ignorant) media didn't tell you about?

From the very first paragraph in the report -

Quarterly earnings were also adversely affected by writedowns of asset-backed commercial paper, and by higher assessments for deposit insurance.

Commercial paper means business loans. It can be lines of credit, real estate loans, or term financing for things like equipment and vehicles. Seeing as they called them 'asset-backed' loans, the reasons for the writedowns could be because the business stopped making payments OR the value of the assets securing the loans has decreased in value. Neither of these bodes well for us. American business is in trouble.

From the same paragraph -

Almost two out of every three institutions (64.4 percent) reported lower quarterly earnings than a year ago, and more than one in four (28.3 percent) reported a net loss for the quarter.

Two out of three banks are doing worse than a year ago (hey, I thought things were looking up!) and a quarter of them posted losses. Why isn't this reported as top-of-fold, headline blaring information?

From the very next paragraph -

These negative factors [commercial paper and other writedowns] were partially offset by higher noninterest income (up $6.5 billion, or 10.6 percent), increased net interest income (up $3.4 billion, or 3.5 percent), and a $1.5-billion reduction in realized losses on securities and other assets. Gains on asset sales (up $4.5 billion), increased trading revenue (up $4.5 billion), and higher servicing fees (up $3.6 billion) were the largest contributors to the year-over-year improvement in noninterest income.

Higher noninterest income. Gains on asset sales. Increased trading revenue. Higher servicing fees.

What dat mean?

Banks are not making their money by lending out money and earning Interest Income. They're selling stuff off. They're earning income on the stock market (trading revenue). And they're charging YOU higher fees for the pleasure of them holding your money (or charging you for formerly free services). They look more like investment houses than like banks.

Glad to see the bailout money is going back into the economy where it is stimulating like crazy.

So, where are all of these net charge offs coming from (loan balance minus asset sales income equals net charge off) ?

Net charge-offs continued to rise, propelling the quarterly net charge-off rate to a record high. Insured institutions charged-off $48.9 billion in the second quarter, compared to $26.4 billion a year earlier. The annualized net charge-off rate in the second quarter was 2.55 percent, eclipsing the previous quarterly record of 1.95 percent reached in the fourth quarter of 2008.

The sources of these charge-offs? Commercial loans (up 85.3%), credit cards (up 84.5%), real estate construction (up 117%) and single family residences (up 41.1%).

Well, we're out of the woods now, right? All of the bad times are behind us. The shit has been identified and things are ship-shape.

Not so much -

The amount of loans and leases that were noncurrent (90 days or more past due or in nonaccrual status) increased for a 13th consecutive quarter, and the percentage of total loans and leases that were noncurrent reached a new record. Noncurrent loans and leases increased by $41.4 billion (14.3 percent) during the second quarter,

That means we have AT LEAST another $41 billion in hits to absorb.
----------

There is lots, lots more, but you get the picture.

You need to think of banks as the canary in the mine. If they're making money, America is making money. The reverse is true, as well.

The Cancer is now plainly visible on the business side of the economy. The commercial loans are going tits-up. That means they don't have enough customers. We knew that because we see how the unemployment rates - even the massaged number from Nanny - continue to climb.

People have maxed out their credit cards, and stopped making payments. They've stopped making their house payments. Term loans to consumers - car loans and the like - will be next to show a beating. They let the credit cards go to hell because they don't lose anything - other than their credit rating. Car loans will be paid up to the bitter end if at all possible.

Someone tell me how we get out of this. If Nanny keeps taxing and maxing out the national credit line, we may get a short-term buzz, but nothing more. The bill will have to be paid eventually.

I don't even want to think about it any more...

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, Ethics, Fascism, Media Bias, nanny state, Political Correctness, Self-Reliance, Taxes, Thought Crimes, welfare state

The freedom to share one’s insights and judgments verbally or in writing is, just like the freedom to think, a holy and inalienable right of humanity that, as a universal human right, is above all the rights of princes.
--Carl Friedrich Bahrdt

Like so many bloggers I frequent, we're getting discouraged by what we see happening to our country. So many bad things are happening so quickly, it gets a bit overwhelming.

I have considered, "hanging up my spikes" and just taking what comes. It all seems so futile.

But that is exactly what they want. They want us to be so overwhelmed with the insanity that we just roll over.

What gets me back into the game is when I read comments like those made by the Speaker Of The House, portraying people who disagree with her socialist agenda as Nazi's -

"They're carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on healthcare."

I just can't let that lie go unchallenged. Not just about the ad hominen attacks, but about this unprecedented desire to expand government.

I have a senator that follows a similar vein of thought by saying that this must all be staged, because the protesters are too well dressed. WTF?




Apparently, your opinion is only valid if you're wearing rags, are in a purple SEIU t-shirt, or are carrying a red ACORN sign.

So I do what I still can. I try to keep people informed, and I make my voice heard with my federal representatives -

Jerry McNerney
11th Congressional District

Since it appears from your site that you will not be doing any public appearances during your congressional recess, I want to make sure you are aware of my feelings on the health care bill.

At it's most basic level, it is unconstitutional at the federal level. Since it is not specifically enumerated in the constitution or an amendment, the 10th amendment disallows it.

Aside from that paramount point, there is the following: (1) There is not a single person in this country that cannot get health care if they so choose. Just walk into any hospital. (2) If this plan is so wonderful, why don't YOU MEMBERS OF CONGRESS have to accept it as YOUR health plan? (3) Haven't we seen enough destruction of the "dependent class" in our country? - Don't you in congress understand that handing out goodies makes people helpless? (4) We can't even come close to paying for what has been proposed. It would be criminal to place this financial burden on our future generations.

Your vote on this issue is my personal "line in the sand." If you vote for this, you will have turned me into a political activist, and whomever you are running against will get all of my political financial contributions and volunteer services.

Do what is right, not what is politically correct.

----------

Don't quit.
----------

Something I need to verify: I read that for a congressman to get the full federal pension (for life), they need to have served for 5 years. My guy is in year 3 right now. If he is not re-elected in the next election, he'll be SOL.

This might be a great hammer to use against this pinhead, PLUS it might be a motivator to other folks in my district to get this bum out.

We need to hurt these bastards where they're hurting us - in the pocketbook.

Labels: American Spirit, communism, Constitution, Corruption, democrats, Ethics, Fascism, McNerney, nanny state, Political Correctness, Self-Reliance, Taxes, welfare state

I am unable to understand how a man of honor could take a newspaper in his hands without a shudder of disgust.
--Charles Baudelaire

Look at this crap they pass as news -

Oh, guess what? The economy sucks. Who'd a-thunk it?

The first 12 months of the U.S. recession saw the economy shrink more than twice as much as previously estimated, reflecting even bigger declines in consumer spending and housing, revised figures showed.

What happened to the "green shoots," Barry? They look more like brown turds.

I fully expect the stock markets to continue to defy logic, and soar on the news. Seriously.
----------

What is this "teachable moment" crap?

The White House billed the meeting, the culmination of days of national debate, as a "teachable moment" occasioned by the July 16 arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. by Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James Crowley after a confrontation between the two men.

Here's what I learned from this tender moment:

• A black man who makes his living by promoting the victim status of an entire race, and who clearly has racist tendencies - particularly against whites - is painted as a victim by the press.
• A white police officer, who had no prior knowledge of the race of a reported burglar - yet was smeared as a "race profiler" - is painted as a racist because the man who makes his living as a racist, says he's one.
• Our president made the presumption that the black person "crying wolf" was telling the truth, simply because the "victim" was black. Sounds like The One is just like Jesse, Al and Jeremiah.
  
• I don't need any more of these "teachable moments" - I'm already able to identify racism when I see it. I just don't see it the same way as the enlightened press.
  

----------

Shockingly, if the government offers over-market payment for goods or services, people will take advantage of it:

Less than four days after launching a popular cash-for-clunkers program, the Obama administration warned Congress the plan already had burned through its $950-million budget, setting off a rush for more money while leaving thousands of dealers and consumers in the lurch.

So, let's game-plan what the Administration is going to do with this: This will be touted as a raging success, and they'll move to expand the program.

That's like saying, "We were standing on the street corner handing out $100 bills - which we had to borrow - and we gave them all away! Our plan was successful beyond all projections. Aren't we smart? Aren't you glad we're in charge of your finances?"

Yeah, give more away, faster. Great plan.
----------

Most likely from the same great minds that brought us the wildly successful, "Let's turn food into fuel" ethanol program, all of those cars that you and I are paying for with the Cash For Clunkers program, MUST be destroyed.

Dealers must replace the oil in the “clunker” with two quarts of sodium silicate solution and run the engine for up to seven minutes, permanently disabling it, according to rules released today by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in Washington.

Let's recap: When they decided to subsidize the price of corn so ethanol producers could buy it more cheaply, it resulted in massive corn shortages in the food chain. Riots, particularly in Mexico and central America, ensued. Then someone did some math, and determined that it actually takes more energy to produce ethanol than it provides.

Undeterred by fact or reason, the subsidy still exists.

Continuing down this path of Unintended Consequences, with this requirement to ruin these cars, we are taking affordable vehicles away from poor people, we are ruining the businesses of used auto parts dealers, and are being pretty damned "un-green" by discouraging recycling.

So the poor people will not be able to get to their jobs, losing them and going on the public dole. The auto parts dealers will go out of business, going on the public dole.

Their plan to make us all dependent upon Nanny is proceeding nicely.
----------

Breaking News -

U.S. Economy Shrank Less Than Expected in Quarter

How long before this "report", too, will be adjusted? Will it take another year, like in the first part of this post?

Again, I expect this news to also result in a soaring stock market.
----------

Another Atlas Shrugged Moment of Zen -

The newspapers did not mention the outbreaks of violence that had begun to burst across the country - but she watched them through the reports of train conductors about bullet-riddled cars, dismantled tracks, attacked trains, besieged stations, in Nebraska, in Oregon, in Texas, in Montana - the futile, doomed outbreaks, prompted by nothing but despair, ending in nothing but destruction. Some were the explosions of local gangs; some spread wider.

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, criminal, democrats, Eco-fraud, Ethics, Fascism, Media Bias, nanny state, Political Correctness, Race-baiters, Taxes, welfare state

I'm all over the board today -

For those of you that like to think of Californians as simpering dolts with no more than organic turnips between our ears, have fun with this -



Ahhh, a shining example of our public education system. Yeah, let's dump more money into THAT sinkhole...

----------

OK, the last entry about the IDPA stuff (at least until my next match!) -

Woohoo! I did pretty well. As I noted, there were 41 shooters. My division, SSP (Stock Service Pistol) was the biggest division with 22 shooters.

I came in 7th! I was the top scorer of the newbees.

In analyzing the scoring, I'm clearly taking too much time in making my shots. The top guys had significantly lower times, and seemed willing to somewhat sacrifice accuracy for time.

It seems as though the strategy is to shoot fast, and just make sure you hit the target somewhere. Of the 22 shooters, I had the second best accuracy numbers, but was number 11 in regards to speed.

Where you get killed (pun intended) is if you have a procedural error (+3 seconds), hit a good guy (+5 seconds) or miss the target all together (+5 seconds). If you get an accuracy "ding", it only adds a 1/2 second penalty for each point. I was one of only 3 shooters not to have any of the big errors.

So, practice, practice, practice. I think I can shave a second - at least - off of each stage just by getting better with my draw, and as DAL357 suggested, using more point shooting for the closer targets.
-------

Have you seen this story on the 7 guys from North Carolina? They were arrested because they were planning on some "violent jihad" overseas.

Am I missing something here? What law did they break?

Although the indictment provided few details, it outlined a plan among four of the suspects "to meet up" in Israel, as well as other overseas forays. The conspiracy, according to the government, included other suspects "known and unknown," and its aim was to provide money, training, transportation and personnel to those wanting to fight a holy war against countries friendly to the United States.

Nanny makes a big, splashy, very damning press release, but the indictment provids few details. Still, the government makes this pronouncement -

"These arrests today show there are people living among us, in our communities in North Carolina and around the U.S., that are honing their skills to carry out acts of murder and mayhem," said Owen D. Harris, special agent in charge of the FBI's Charlotte, N.C., division, which led the investigation.

These arrest show no such thing. They show that the FBI THINKS these guys did something wrong. None of the evidence they've provided so far seems damning.

If these guys are such stone-cold killers, why this?

A year later, the indictment said, Boyd -- who called himself Saifullah, or Sword of God -- his son Zakariya Boyd and two other suspects went to Israel to wage jihad but returned without success.

Defendant Ziyad Yaghi, according to the indictment, traveled to Jordan in 2006 to "engage in violent jihad." And Hysen Sherifi, a 24-year-old U.S. legal permanent resident, traveled to his native Kosovo in July 2008 to "wage violent jihad," then returned to North Carolina to raise support for Islamic militants, the indictment said.

Did the second and third guys, Yaghi and Sherifi, actually engage in violent jihad, or were they unsuccessful as well? At worse, it sounds like these guys are all bark and no bite.

That's illegal?!

How are these guys supposed to prove that they were NOT there to wage jihad? The FBI says they were, so they're probably toast in a court of law.

How easy would it be for the FBI or ATF to say that a group that gets together to shoot shit up on weekends, are actually terrorists - overseas OR domestic?

We don't have enough information to know if these guys are terrorists or not. I just don't like the way this has been presented, and how they are making it very easy to paint people who go off into the hills to train with "high-powered weapons " as terrorists.

And of course, rags like the LA Times will do everything in their power to paint anyone with guns as a potential terrorist. They sure don't seem too hesitant to use the words "terrorist" and "Muslim" when it has to do with guns in America.

It makes me very uncomfortable.
----------

Kind of a follow up to trying to ban sugar 'cause it's bad stuff -

The medical costs of treating obesity-related diseases may have soared as high as $147 billion in 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday, as its new director set a fresh tone in favor of more aggressively attacking obesity.

Shouldn't this be an issue left to the person and their insurance company? Stop smoking, or we'll raise your rates. Lose some weight, or we'll raise your rates.

Right -

The numbers underscore the urgent need for deeper interventions in society and the environment that will make it easier for people to maintain normal weight, Thomas Frieden, the CDC’s new director, told conference attendees.

I guess if Nanny is your insurance carrier, telling you how to live your life would make perfect sense.

Labels: Brady Bunch, communism, Constitution, criminal, Fascism, Gun Grabbers, Media Bias, nanny state, Political Correctness, Self-Defense, Self-Reliance, Terrorism, Thought Crimes, welfare state

No matter how noble the original intentions, the seductions of power can turn any movement from one seeking equal rights to one that would deny them to others.
--Tammy Bruce

I was listening to a radio show called, "God Talk" while I was in the car yesterday morning. It's a kind of non-denominational religious show where people call in and talk about, well, God.

Since California is many times the potting soil where liberal control freaks often plant ideas which bloom into full-fledged Nanny laws, I thought I'd give you folks a heads-up.

The show was about how alcoholism is a horrible thing, and people's lives are just ruined, blah, blah, blah. The typical modus operandi of these folks is they set the stage for removing the personal responsibility aspect of a situation by banning something for everyone.

For instance, take cigarettes. I don't think that many people think that cigarettes are good for you. In fact, most of us smokers acknowledge smoking probably harms us, or at least increases the chances we're harming ourselves.

Still, we smoke. Most people will come to the conclusion that if someone wants to kill themselves, go ahead, and nothing will change.

Not to be slowed in their fascist march, the liberal control freaks realize they must expand the pool of people that are harmed, so they publish "second hand smoke" studies that show it is actually more harmful to the surrounding people than it is to the guy actually sucking on the cigarette itself.

No matter that the study gets torn to shreds - it still gets used as Example One in the war on smoking, and we end up with all of the prohibitions we've got.
----------

So, I'm listening to the radio show and person after person is preaching the evils of alcohol. They take the last call for the hour, and the guy speaking is very articulate and well spoken. He's telling his story of victimhood and ties it to getting sweet treats as a kid.

Like most of us, candy or cakes or something sweet was given as a reward. You finished all of your dinner. You cleaned you room. You fed the dog all week. Whatever.

Sugar equals good.

He then continued his "sugar = good" premise by associating the sugar in alcohol with "good". My ears perked up. WTF?

They continued their chit chat and story of sorrow for a couple of minutes. Right before the break at the hour, the host asked, "So. Do you see sugar as the gateway drug to alcoholism?" Sad story boy answered, "Yes, of course. It's very clear."

They took the evils of alcoholism and turned it into your mom being a pusher when she gave you a slice of pie for being a good kid.
----------

Twenty five years ago, I would have just blown this off as some crackpot to be chided and mocked. Nowadays, I tend to take it a bit more seriously.

When the whack-jobs in San Francisco start talking in earnest about banning something, you need to pay attention. They have the needed experience to get something that they deem as "evil" taken from your life.

Oh look, an article on this subject. Another part of the laying the groundwork for an "opening salvo?"

ARTICLE: Does a Sweet Tooth Mean Alcoholism?

An affinity for sweets appears to be a marker for those at risk of developing alcoholism. This could be because both sugar and alcohol affect the same pleasure area of the brain.
By:Colin Allen

Sugar-addicts beware; an affinity for sweets appears to be a marker for those at risk of developing alcoholism. While previous studies have found a sugar-alcohol link in both humans and animals, this study finds that sugar addiction may predict alcoholism.

Lead author Alexei Kampov-Polevoy, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, recruited 163 college-age social drinkers. Half of the participants had a paternal history of alcoholism while the other half did not.

Kampov and colleagues asked each participant to rate a series of sugar solutions that increased in concentration. They judged each for sweetness and palatability. Our hedonic reaction -- how much we enjoy sugar -- is something we are born with, not something we learn later in life, notes Kampov.

Participants with a paternal history of alcoholism were 2.5 times more likely to enjoy sweets. Also, they were more likely to dislike the most diluted sugar solutions. Kampov suggests that the opioid system -- the part of the brain impacted by both sugar and alcohol -- is oversensitive in these subjects.

Researchers say in the future a simple test may help identify who is at risk for developing alcoholism long before one takes his first drink. The study was published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

See how they frame the issue as something outside of your personal control?

Our hedonic reaction -- how much we enjoy sugar -- is something we are born with, not something we learn later in life, notes Kampov.

Their logic goes, "Since it is something these poor folks can't control, we must ban the evil substance from everyone. It will make our world a better place to live."

If BarryCare comes to be, expect sugar, salt, red meat, tobacco - anything that has the possibility of harming any person, anywhere - to be banned, "for the greater good." The fact that all of these things do not negatively affect the vast majority of people is irrelevant.

I hope you enjoy your soy burger seasoned with organic herbs. Every single day.
----------

Totally OT: I forgot to mention yesterday about the gun blowing up.

On Saturday during our last live-fire exercise, some guy's Glock went "boom". As it turns out, he was a novice re-loader and they're guessing he over-loaded the powder.

The barrel was split right down the middle - in duck bill fashion. He was basically unharmed. He got some blast and a cut on his right hand, but nothing much more than that.

I had already left when this happened, so I didn't get any pictures. They're supposed to post some that were taken, either on the gun club or action pistol website. If they do, I'll post them here.

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, Fascism, Life and Times, nanny state, Political Correctness, Self-Reliance, welfare state

A lawn is nature under totalitarian rule.
--Michael Pollan

[Note: Be sure to get to the very bottom of the post, as we have a new feature - "Sing Along With Mike".]


The "Control Every Aspect Of The Lives Of The Unenlightened" crowd is at it again. Your wieners ("ha ha, he said 'wiener'!") may soon carry this warning:

"Warning: Consuming hot dogs and other processed meats increases the risk of cancer."

What is the source of this dire warning? The non-profit group, The Cancer Project.

Wow, sounds legit, huh? Uhm, not so much.

The Cancer Project is a branch of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a group that lobbies against animal research and pitches the adoption of meat-free diets.

Oh.

You see, when one of these left-wing, crack-pot, "tell us how to run our lives" groups wants to lend some legitimacy to their whacko ideas, they open up a LegalZoom account, create a non-profit organization and start filing lawsuits.

The nonprofit Cancer Project filed a lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of three New Jersey plaintiffs asking the Essex County Superior Court to compel the companies to place cancer-risk warning labels on hot dog packages sold in New Jersey.

"Just as tobacco causes lung cancer, processed meats are linked to colon cancer," said Neal Barnard, president of the Cancer Project and an adjunct professor at the George Washington University medical school in Washington, D.C. "Companies that sell hot dogs are well aware of the danger, and their customers deserve the same information."

That's right - hotdogs = tobacco = cancer = death, therefore hotdogs = death.

I'm surprised they haven't some how tied hot dogs to global warming. Someone in the Propaganda Ministry dropped the ball on that one...
----------

These guys understand that with the majority of our puddin' head citizenry, all you need to do is say something on TV or have it published online, and people will believe it.

"Hey, some cancer center dude said hot dogs will kill you quicker than giving a cockroach a high-colonic with Raid. No more tube steak for me, duuuuuuude!"

Barry and his ilk know this. Last night, he stood in front of the nation, and lied his ass off. He didn't stretch the truth. He looked us in the eye and lied.

If the press had even tried to question his "facts" (LOL!), he would have said that some guy from The Center For Economic Perfection - or some other such impressively-named organization - gave him the numbers.

He would have failed to mention that "The Center" was a non-profit arm of someone like ACORN, who just so happened to be in line to get a pile of money from whatever legislation Barry was trying to get passed.

So, I want to fight back.

Most of the people who unquestioningly accept what these bastards say, enjoy a catchy little tune. They get an "ear worm", and can't get the song out of their head. It's like brain-washing without the pesky water-drops on the forehead.

With that in mind, I present you with the first Sing Along With Mike. In honor of the Ban On Wieners Movement ("ha, ha, he said 'wieners' again!"), it is sung to the Oscar Mayer theme song. If you must, click here to hear the tune, then Sing Along With Mike!

Our Con Man has a first name
It's B-A-R-R-Y
He will tell you what you need to think
It's all a big damned lie.
Ooooh, I don't believe a word he sez,
The guy the soft-heads made our Prez,
'Cuz Barry 'Bama is, you see
A M-A-R-X-I-S-T

Labels: American Spirit, communism, Constitution, Corruption, democrats, Fascism, Media Bias, nanny state, Political Correctness, Self-Reliance, Thought Crimes, welfare state

Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others.
-- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I see headlines like this, and they no longer even surprise me -

Summers Says Stimulus Plan on Track Despite Job Losses

OK, so we all know that the stimulus packages haven't done anything of import. A couple of jobs may have been saved here and there - sure to be highlighted on the TV with old Jug Ears grinnin' and takin' bows.

But in general, for every one job "saved," the real economy loses 10 or 15 or 100. Who knows? Since unemployment numbers are so tweaked and massaged, it's tough to tell what's real any more.

So anyways, I was reading the article with the headline above. Now, when you read the headline, it implies that everything is chugging along, good as can be.

Since I'm not 6 years old, I know it will be at least a slight exaggeration. Maybe even what could be considered a stretching of the truth. At the very minimum, though, the compliant media and Barry's Boys will be able to parade SOME actual accomplishment for ONE thing that's working.

So, what have they accomplished? What does BarryCo consider, "on track"?

The speed with which they are spending our money. I shit you not.

The White House adviser [chief economic adviser, Lawrence Summers] said the two-year stimulus plan of tax cuts and new spending was timed to peak during 2010, with 70 percent of its benefits to be distributed to local governments, businesses and families in the first 18 months. “We are on track to meet that timeline,” he said.

They aren't even trying to lie about good things happening. They realize that most of the mouth-breathers that voted for them only need to see a Happy Headline, and they're good for the day.

Apparently, Larry got an actual question from someone in the crowd as he was gently blowing smoke up the asses of the assembled media.

Mr. Summers, in what the White House billed as “a progress report” on rescuing the economy, pointed out that other independent forecasters also underestimated job losses.

Huh? Larry considers people on the government payroll as being included in the, "other independent forecasters" group? The numbers produced by HIS group are what are used to build budgets and spend our money. They aren't independent by any stretch of the imagination - they are on the front-lines of partisan economic programs.

So how did this little rat bastard actually explain to the assembled press corps why his employees so wildly missed the job loss numbers.

"Geez, fellas, this stuff is hard."

OK, I made that up. Probably.

I have to hand it to this guy for one thing, though. He is a pro - perhaps even a Jedi Master - when it comes to spin. Man, this guy is good.

In an attempt to offer perspective, Mr. Summers said, “It’s easy to forget how far we have traveled” in six months, when there was talk of a second Great Depression. “We were at the brink of catastrophe at the beginning of the year but we have walked some substantial distance back from the abyss.”

Every single economic indicator has gotten worse since BarryCo took over. The administration gets to publish those numbers, so we all know they are actual worse than how they're being reported. Yet somehow he has the balls to say that things have gotten better? Dude...

But he saved the best for last. It must be part of the Lawrence Summers Theory Of Economic Subterfuge.

The Company Line is that by spending MORE money on something - in this case, health care - you will actually be saving money. Let that sink in.

Responding to a comment from David Walker, the former head of the Government Accountability Office, that “You can’t cut by expanding coverage” to the nearly 50 million uninsured, Mr. Summers said, “We’ve rejected that view.”

Apparently, Larry, you've also rejected the view that sanity is a good thing. We're not talking about spending money on capital improvements such as machinery which could improve productivity. We're talking about operating expenses.

Spend more money and you'll be spending less money. It hurts my head.

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, democrats, Ethics, Fascism, Media Bias, nanny state, Political Correctness, Taxes, welfare state

A simple, straightforward carbon tax would have made much more sense than this Rube Goldberg contraption. It is pathetic that we couldn’t do better. It is appalling that so much had to be given away to polluters. It stinks. It’s a mess. I detest it.

Now let’s get it passed in the Senate and make it law.
--Thomas Friedman

No, this isn't a post about raising chickens. It's about a whole other breed of chicken...

Sometimes, when I'm in "a mood," I'll go over to TerraPass.com to mess with the lemmings. I was in such a mood yesterday.

They had a blog entry about how upset they were that the Cap-and-Trade bill passed by the House wasn't tough enough. They were whining and moaning about how long it would take to make any real change, but somehow, they'd tough it out. Somehow, they'd survive.

I wanted to projectile vomit.

Instead, I left a comment.

Now, having posted on this site before, I'm well aware of their ways. You make a post that sounds inquisitive about how you can do more - but you DO have a couple of doubts - will get you published just fine. The hivists swarm to you to inject their reasonable, One World, socialist dogma.

But, if you post something totally contrary to their thinking - something that actually questions the very foundations of their beliefs - you get censored.

Guess which kind of post I made?

As I said, I'm on to their game, so I fully expected them to either delete or edit my post. Luckily, I kept a copy of the original. Apparently, these dolts must think that doing a Copy-and-Paste releases CO2 into the atmosphere, so NO ONE does them. They thought wrongly.

A couple of questions:

Why have CO2 levels increased, yet global temperatures have decreased?

Why have over 30,000 scientists called man-made climate change a lie? Follow-up: Why isn't the press reporting on this? Follow-up to the follow-up: Wouldn't we want to really confirm the CO2 angle before we saddle ONLY Americans with another onerous tax?

If the Green House affect really exists, why are we targeting one of the smallest components? Wouldn't it be better to go after the biggest contributors - 90%+ - clouds and water vapor? Or would it look too silly to try and ban clouds?

Just askin'

The Chicken Littles decided to edit my post - deleting it and superimposing their response. I guess they're too scared that if some of their hivists actually hear a dissenting view, or question the entire premise of their scam, they might start losing followers.

A business that makes its money off of the Carbon Footprint scam can't let that happen!

Here's what they did with my post -

6. By The Other Mike S on July 10, 2009 11:02 AM

A couple of questions:

[Answers:

1. They haven't.
2. They haven't.
3. Because it's not true.
4. We would, and we have.
5. We are targeting the component driven by humankind's actions.
6. No, because water vapor is not the driver of the warming trend.
7. It would be silly, and fortunately we're smarter than that.

And a bonus answer: no one -- and I include even the most pig-ignorant climate change deniers here -- doubts the existence of the greenhouse effect. Without the greenhouse effect, our planet would be an iceball. You need to get your denialist talking points right if you want to play this game. You're supposed to deny the existence of climate change, not the greenhouse effect. Just a word to the wise.]

Just askin'

[No prob. Happy to provide answers.]

Ooooh, I like that - denialist talking points. Obviously, this pinhead knows what I'm talking about with regards to the Green House Effect - mouth-breathers like him are the ones that changed its popular meaning. But that's the way these hivists work - they attempt to use ad hominen attacks to pick away at the edges of what you've said. But the core remains.

Funny, how for all of the tough questions - the 30,000 scientists, the temperature drop, the media complicity and the US-Only tax for a supposed world-wide problem - were answered with terse, one sentence answers.

No supporting diatribe for those items, boys and girls? Why not just reply, "Nuh uh!" or "Says You!".

I posted this shortly after my post was altered -

7. By The Other Mike S on July 10, 2009 3:14 PM

Why would you guys delete my questions? Don't you trust your fellow believers to stay the course? Or might they question the very premise upon which your entire company is based?

Still, just askin'

It was almost immediately censored with this -

7. By The Other Mike S on July 10, 2009 3:14 PM

[I deleted your questions because they were incredibly dumb.

I'm not saying you're dumb. Maybe you're just scientifically unaware. Or maybe you're motivated by ideological reasons to reject prevailing scientific opinion. Or maybe you are, you know, not the academic type.

But in any case, we did in fact answer your questions. Every one of them.]

Not satisfied to discontinue beating this puddin'-head into the ground, I responded with -

LOL, you provided answers, but no one knows the questions!

If my questions were so "incredibly dumb," then why not allow your readers to see them and comment on them themselves?

Why not let THEM do a Google search about the 30,000 scientists and come to their own conclusions?

Why not let THEM look up the censored EPA report that uses facts to tear apart the IPCC findings and projections?

Why not let THEM consider why global temperatures have dropped since 2001?

It's because you know that the truth about this hoax might make your whole Climate Change house of cards come tumbling down.

Censor away.

They promptly deleted ALL of my posts!

A little too hot in the hen house, girls? Cluck, cluck, cluck!
----------

Oh, yeah, Precious - you were right about there not being 30,000 scientists signing a petition questioning the man-made global warming scam. It is currently 31,478 - with over 9,000 of them holding Ph.D's.

Nothing but a bunch of, "pig-ignorant climate change deniers", I guess...

Global cooling. I hate it when actual facts and figures get in the way of a good doomsday computer projection, don't you?

CO2 up, temps down, IPCC estimates WAY off (oooh, and it's from someone working at the EPA, but Barry wouldn't allow it to be released. Why dat?)

Look the rest up yourself. I have to go release my quota of HUMP - Humanly Unbearable Methane Production.

Destroying The World, One Broccoli Fart At A Time...
----------

If you want to have some BIG fun, go read this post, from way back in March 2007, where I recount a run-in with one of the TerraPass founders. I'm guessing he was the same pinhead that edited my most recent post.

Hi, Cupcake! Thanks for the grins. Again.

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, Eco-fraud, Ethics, Fascism, Global Warming, Media Bias, nanny state, Political Correctness, Taxes

I hope that people will finally come to realize that there is only one 'race' - the human race - and that we are all members of it.
--Margaret Atwood

Thanks to GunRights4Us for the heads-up on this story -

From the Akron Beacon Journal -

Out of nowhere, the six were attacked by dozens of teenage boys, who shouted ''This is our world'' and ''This is a white world'' as they confronted Marshall and his family.

The Marshalls, who are black, say the crowd of teens who attacked them and two friends June 27 on Girard Street numbered close to 50. The teens were all white.

This attack occurred in late June as a family and two adult friends were finishing up some sort of Independence Day celebration.

The father took the worst of the beating -

Marshall was the most seriously injured. He suffered a concussion and multiple bruises to his head and eye. He said he spent five nights in the critical care unit at Akron General Medical Center.

The construction worker said he now fears for his family's safety, and the thousands of dollars in medical bills he faces without insurance.

''I knew I was going to get beat, but not as bad as I did,'' Marshall said. ''But I did it to protect my family. I didn't have a choice. There was no need for this. We should be all getting along. But to me, it seems to be racist.''

As a result of the beating, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and the Revered Jeremiah Wright have organized a Hate Crimes march for this weekend. The Akron police are investigating it as a blatant Hate Crime. The FBI has initiated a federal Hate Crimes investigation.

There were approximately 50 white teenagers that participated in the beating. ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC have all started work on "Race Relations In America" and "Why Does Whitey Hate?" multi-part investigative series.
----------

By now, you've probably figured out that this was a fabrication. Kind of. Everything here was true, except whenever the word 'white' was used in my re-creation, 'black' was used in the original story, and vice versa.

Also, the Feds and the Akron police are NOT investigating this as a hate crime. And of course, there is no national outrage at the clearly racial underpinnings of this attack - there will be no Race Rallies, no national news stories, no broadcast investigative reports.
----------

I hate "Hate Crimes" laws (does that make me a 'hater'?). In my eyes, the motivation of the attacker is irrelevant. You are just as beaten, robbed or dead if they assault you for money or for race. Hate Crimes is the same as Thought Crimes, and I don't want to go down that road.

It's the old 'slippery slope' - when Nanny can start criminalizing your thoughts instead of your actions, there is no end to what can be prosecuted.

Still, until the laws are overturned, they MUST be equally applied (see Fourteenth Amendment for clarification). This idea - and general practice - that only whites can be racist, is patently absurd.

I know, I know, I'm tilting at windmills. It is what it is, and the race baiters and compliant media have an agenda.

That doesn't mean I have to drink their Kool-Aid. You don't have to, either.
----------

Maybe the Akron PD and the FBI aren't investigating this as a Hate Crime because they think this was staged in some way. I don't know.

But that is irrelevant. If the family were black, I absolutely guarantee you the first words out of their collective mouths would have been "Hate Crime Investigation". Why doesn't that happen when the victims - real or staged - are white?

Labels: Corruption, criminal, Ethics, Media Bias, Political Correctness, Race-baiters

History proves that all dictatorships, all authoritarian forms of government are transient. Only democratic systems are not transient. Whatever the shortcomings, mankind has not devised anything superior.
--Vladimir Putin

I heard about this on my morning radio show. Who needs coffee when you get stuff like this early in the morning to get the ol' ticker running?


There is this little shack of a restaurant in Sacramento - The Squeeze Inn. It seats 12. It is has been judged to have the best burgers in the Sacto area on many an occasion. It was featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. It is a success.

And must be stopped.

Aficionados say the burger sold at the Squeeze Inn is perfection, the consummate marriage of bun, ground meat and melted cheddar cheese.

But a disabled woman has filed suit, saying the one-time coffeehouse with 450 square feet of space at 7918 Fruitridge Road (left) is anything but perfect. She says the kitschy confines where photos of fishermen, fighters and racers abound break federal law and violate her civil rights.

These bastards and their lawyers are the puss oozing from an infected sore on the ass of America. They don't want equal rights, they want superior rights. Because of the asinine ADA laws in this country, this business will either have to fork out huge sums of money to fix the place, or move elsewhere.

Oh, and the ADA-Nazis want some payment for their pain and suffering as well.

I've mentioned here before about a bank I worked for in San Francisco. Some crippled guy - whose sole source of income was suing companies for ADA compliance violations - targeted our bank.

Thankfully, we didn't own the property, so the landlord had to fork out big bucks for some super-fancy door opening gizmo. We got away with only having to pay $50,000 in Looter Payouts.

I hate these bastards. The ADA, like so many laws, might have been conceived with good intentions. Yet they always seem to morph into a huge, business-hating, economy-stifling morass.

ADA, Affirmative Action, Welfare, Social Security, Medicaid - tell me when to stop...

If you want to require new buildings to be ADA compliant, fine, I can almost live with that. Almost.

No one has a right to shop at Macy's or Home Depot or The Squeeze Inn. If those businesses don't want to cater to people in wheelchairs, that is a business decision on their part. It creates a market niche for one of their competitors to fill.

But no, we have to make the world full of fluffy white clouds, cute kittens and fluttering butterflies.

The reality is businesses shutting down, people being put out of work, and society as a whole being degraded. Communism at its finest.
----------

The host on the radio this morning really went off. They were naming some other scumbag lawyer in the Sacto area that has been doing a lot of this crap. To paraphrase one of his comments, "I hope Karma kicks in and makes you unable to use your legs sometime in the future. NO, I hope it takes away your ability to use your mind!"

Bitter.
----------

Yesterday was tough on me. I didn't get my Michael Jackson tickets.



Click it to feel my pain. I had to mourn all by myself. I figured I'd make a mint on CraigsList if I got some, but I guess they put the brakes on that as well.

How's an opportunistic, pedophile-hating capitalist supposed to make a living?
----------

Another Atlas Shrugged Moment of Zen -

I know that if we succeed, they will be only too eager to expropriate the motor. And for the sake of that prospect, we have to accept the position of criminals, you and I, and live under the threat of being arrested at any moment at their whim. And this is the thing that I cannot take, even were I able to take all the rest: that in order to give them an inestimable benefit, we should be made martyrs to the men who, but for us, could not have conceived of it. I might have forgiven the rest, but when I think of this, I say: May they be damned, I will see them all die of starvation, myself included, rather than forgive them for this or permit it!

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, criminal, Ethics, Fascism, nanny state, Political Correctness, Self-Reliance, Taxes, welfare state

Is it ignorance or apathy? Hey, I don't know and I don't care.
--Jimmy Buffett

Ughhh. I know that I shouldn't get my hopes up that the media will actually do the right thing, but this is just getting ridiculous. It reminded me why I don't listen to, or read any of the local media. They are nothing more than the local propaganda outlets for Barry and Company.

I went to a TEA Party yesterday. There were a couple hundred people there. Three hours of kids, families, seniors, blacks, whites, Asians and Hispanics all gathering in the same place for the same cause. There was the Pledge of Allegiance, the singing of the National Anthem, and people speaking with the strangers standing next to them about what brought them to the event.

There were 7 of these held in our county alone. In the local newspaper sites, I could find no mention of any TEA parties in my state, county or city.

Apparently, for the April tax day TEA parties, the talking points memo encouraged the media to denigrate the participants ("It's not grass roots - it's Astroturf", or "Did you go to a tea BAGGING party?" yuk, yuk, yuk). The media drones complied.

With these parties, it appears as though the memo was, "Ignore at all costs." Again, they were compliant.

I watched the local Fox affiliate at 10pm last night. It's a full hour show. They had enough air time to talk about a BRITISH gay pride parade, hot dog eating contests, and the hysteria over Michael Jackson tickets.

Not a single peep about TEA parties.

The irony is so thick you could cut it with a knife. American's protesting about the very subject which eventually brought us our independence from an oppressive government, is not considered news worthy. But a gay pride parade across the ocean makes the cut.
----------

After the Fox broadcast, I switched to the NBC affiliate. It's only a half hour broadcast, but I hoped they could squeeze in something about it. I jotted down the stories - in the order in which they appeared - that they deem worthy of their precious air time:

Oakland illegal fireworks
SF illegal fireworks
San Jose fireworks
DC fireworks
Oakland mass shooting (A shooting?! In Oakland?!?!?)
Vallejo grass fire
Jackson memorial
Sarah Palin (negative)
Housing closing costs
Statue of Liberty re-opening
Weather
Steve McNair killing
Sports
Hot dog eating championship
Fireworks recap

I felt so in touch with my world after that brain scrub. Not.
----------

I made and posted my first ever YouTube video. Cut me some slack, I'm new at this.

I made several notes to myself: Bring the tripod, you dope (it's a bit jiggly - OK, lots jiggly). Get an external mic when taping outside events. Editing videos is a pain in the ass.

So here is my video on a guy that did a talk on consumers versus contributors.




There was a guy walking around interviewing people about why they were there. I think this guy summed up my feelings pretty well.



----------

I'm going to write an email to each of the stations, and to our county and city newspapers. I know the emails will probably do nothing, but if I don't speak up, I have no right to ask others to do the same.

Maybe YouTube, blogs and the like really are the only way to get unfiltered news. Good Lord, that's sad.

Or maybe not. Instead of just taking what the MSM wants to feed us, we decide to look around a bit and find some information with a bit of substance and substantiation. We give a damn and will look for the truth.

Maybe it's OK that they ignore events such as these TEA parties. They'll be quite unprepared when TSHTF. Ignore us? OK. Have us go away? Never.

Labels: American Spirit, Constitution, Life and Times, Media Bias, nanny state, Political Correctness, Self-Reliance, Taxes, welfare state

There's a whiff of the lynch mob or the lemming migration about any overlarge concentration of like-thinking individuals, no matter how virtuous their cause.
--Unknown

I think I need to start getting some kind of kickback from Glenn Beck. Two days, two plugs.

Anyways, I was watching him last night, and he had a piece that mentioned an organization named USCAP - the United States Climate Action Partnership.

Great. Another group looking to save the world.

Not wanting to prejudge (really!), I went to the site to sniff around a bit. Not surprisingly, they advocate big government actions to fix this supposed problem.

What is surprising is who is a part of this group. It's got some big companies putting their name on the letterhead (more on that later).
----------

Now, their name is partly a give-away for their stance. USCAP. They are big Cap-and-Trade proponents.

They immediately move to my, "Dumbasses that must be stopped" list. From their Call For Action report -

Right off the bat, they show me their hive mentality. Don't think for yourself. Do what everyone else is doing. Be one of the Cool Kids.

We Know Enough to Act on Climate Change

In June 2005, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences joined with the scientific academies of ten other countries in stating that “the scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt actions.”

Uhhh, that was 4 years ago. Things have changed, more data has been presented. Doubts are being raised. None of this matters to you?

Each year we delay action to control emissions increases the risk of unavoidable consequences that could necessitate even steeper reductions in the future, at potentially greater economic cost and social disruption. Action sooner rather than later preserves valuable response options, narrows the uncertainties associated
with changes to the climate, and should lower the costs of mitigation and adaptation.

It should lower the cost? You're not sure? You're proposing we fundamentally change the way we use and pay for energy, but you're not sure of the impact from the proposed actions?

Why would any rational person or organization suggest such an unstable (as in 'insane') plan?

Before long, they get into their main agenda -

Cap and Trade is Essential

Our environmental goal and economic objectives can best be accomplished through an economy-wide, market-driven approach that includes a cap and trade program that places specified limits on GHG emissions. This approach will ensure emission reduction targets will be met while simultaneously generating a price signal resulting in market incentives that stimulate investment and innovation in the technologies that will be necessary to achieve our environmental goal.

Translation: Some Nanny bureaucrat will set some arbitrary limit on CO2 emissions. Since you can pay to exceed these limits, it will have no effect on actual CO2 released into the atmosphere. It WILL increase the amount money going into the US treasury and into the pockets of private market traders.
----------

Who are some of the biggest emitters? Power companies. You know, those companies that have a local monopoly on supplying your power? So, if they have to pay to buy some credits, that cost will be passed along to YOU, and you don't have the ability to buy your power from another lower-cost provider.

Thanks for costing me money to fix a problem that doesn't exist.

Are there any other ways for a company to get green? You betchum! You can invest in companies that trade in Carbon Offsets.

Emission Offsets

Legislation should permit entities subject to the cap to meet part of their obligations through the purchase of verified emission offsets from a range of domestic sinks, domestic sources of emissions that are not subject to the cap, and projects outside the US. The offset must be environmentally additional, verifiable, permanent, and enforceable.

Hey! Isn't that the kind of business that Our Savior Al Gore owns? Wow, funny how THAT worked out, huh? He's such a Visionary...
----------

So, who is a part of USCAP? Lots of big companies.

First, a couple of companies recently nationalized by Nanny:

AIG
General Motors Corp
Chrysler Corp

Some other big, well known companies:

Alcoa
BP America
Caterpillar
ConocoPhilips
Deere and Company
Dow Chemical
DuPont
Ford Motor Corp
General Electric
Johnson and Johnson
PepsiCo
Shell
Siemens Corp
Xerox Corp

Surprisingly, to me, there were a number of regional power companies, including mine, Pacific Gas and Electric.

Are they insane? Either the political pressure is so high (VERY likely here in CA) or they have purchased ownership in one of the Gore-like scams. Either way, they're not looking out for my best interests. They bend to the will of the eco-freaks, just like our politicians.

I will be going over the list and seeing which companies with which I possibly do business. I'll be emailing them to let them know that their competitors will be getting my business strictly because of their stance on Cap and Trade.

Pepsi no, Coke yes. GM/Chrysler/Ford no, Toyota/Nissan/VW yes. Johnson & Johnson no, Procter and Gamble yes.

If we don't hold them responsible for their actions - through the withholding of our discretionary spending - they will continue with their politically correct, ill-advised actions. Make them hurt.

Someone like PepsiCo is huge. Just read over this list and try to make note of the products you currently purchase. Associate the brand with something distasteful - a kick to the groin, a tooth extraction, Barney Franks - so you have a subliminal revulsion when you're in the grocery store.

No more Gatorade, Quaker Oats, Cheetos or Cracker Jacks.

Same thing with Johnson and Johnson. They are absolutely massive.

No more Listerine, Tylenol, Band-Aids, Splenda or Visine.

There are competing products for every single item for each company. They will only pay attention when the cash register stops ringing.
----------

A little perspective: Do you have any idea how much CO2 is in our atmosphere? Thirty eight one thousands of one percent (0.038%).

I heard some radio host explain that, if there were 10,000 people sitting in a stadium or listening to a concert, 4 of them would represent all of the CO2 in our atmosphere.

Scary, huh?
----------

OT: I'm twittering (is that the correct word?) now. @theothermikes is my user name or whatever they call it.

I'm doing this more as a secondary means of communication than anything else. One of the biggest problems with an emergency is being able to communicate with family. I set my account up so I can do updates either online or via my cell phone.

It's still dependent upon their being Internet availability and cell service, but I figure having some redundancy is not a bad thing.

Plus, it will give me another place to scream at the top of my lungs - just in short bursts!

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, criminal, Eco-fraud, Fascism, Global Warming, Media Bias, nanny state, Political Correctness, Taxes, welfare state

Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.
-- Potter Stewart, former US Supreme Court justice

I was watching Glenn Beck last night, and he had this guy on from the EPA. This guy is an economist. He works in the EPA's National Center for Environmental Economics. He was working on a project looking at the validity of the "science" behind CO2 and global warming.

It seems that his boss wasn't keeping close enough tabs on his work, and he came to the conclusion that much of the data, techniques and assumptions used by the UN's IPCC - and thus the Obama Administration - are based on crap.

Before Barry and Company could clamp down on the report and its conclusions, a copy was scanned and posted on the Internet [Barry: Note to self - shut that puppy down]. I scanned through it, and clipped a screen image of one of the charts shown on TV last night.

Sorry, but the scanned copy of the report was in black and white, so it's a bit more difficult to understand. Basically, the lines on the left are the actually recorded temperature since 1990.

Around the middle of the graph, the lines break into three basic groups: Group one has three lines that jut up to the top of the graph, Group 2 has one line that is very difficult to see, that stays basically flat (it was in yellow on the chart I saw last night, didn't transfer well to B & W). The last Group two has two lines that jut downwards.

Any guess what the three groups represent? The ones that jut upwards (indicating temperature increases) are the IPCC projected global temperatures. The one in the middle is the projection of what would happen to temperatures if CO2 were controlled. And the bottom group is ACTUAL GLOBAL TEMPERATURES! Notice any difference between the IPCC projections from 2000 and what actually happened?

Click the image to see it better (it's on the 18th page of the 98 page report if you want to read the accompanying text and supporting data).

As the report notes, all of this happened while, "atmospheric CO2 levels have continued to increase and CO2 emissions have accelerated."

What? CO2 creation and concentrations went UP, but global temperatures went DOWN?

[Sarcasm alert] How could this be? It's almost as if someone were lying to us. But why? Why would they do this? [/Sarcasm alert]
----------

Well, at least the information is now in the hands of the EPA and the Obama Administration. Now they can make policy based on fact, or at least step back for a second and review all information before acting.

How did this guy's boss react?

In exchanges between March 12 and March 17, Carlin [the researcher] asked McGartland [his boss] to forward his comments to the office responsible for managing the endangerment finding's development. McGartland declined. "The [EPA] administrator and the [Obama] administration has decided to move forward on endangerment, and your comments do not help the legal or policy case for this decision," he wrote (E&E Daily, June 25).

Oh.

I guess we'd never want to let facts get in the way of a good tax bill. The information is being dismissed out-of-hand because it doesn't fit in with the Obama/Pelosi/Reid Global Warming Climate Change Crisis and Taxing Opportunity (tm).
----------

We've got a very small window of time to stop the climate change bill in the Senate. The House already approved it.

Write a letter to your Senators with a link to the report, especially if they are Democrat Senators. Ask them to explain how they could vote for the bill knowing that the underlying data is false.

My two mouth-breathing senators - Feinstein and Boxer - are lost causes, but will still get the email. I may call their offices as well.

If you happen to have a Republican senator, let him/her know that, should they vote for this bill, you will do everything in your power to have them removed from office. This is your line-in-the-sand issue.

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, Eco-fraud, Fascism, Global Warming, Political Correctness