No Nanny State - Molon Labe!

The whole (global warming) thing is created to destroy America's free enterprise system and our economic stability.
--Jerry Falwell

We all know we're going to see a lot more crap like this -

On October 31, 2009, the once largest aluminum plant in the world will shut down. With it goes another American industry and more American jobs. The Columbia Falls Aluminum Company in Montana will shut down its aluminum production because it cannot purchase the necessary electrical power to continue its operations.

Hmm. I wonder what's the reason for not being able to get electrical power. Surely, a place this big has made arrangements to take care of things like this.

Columbia Falls Aluminum negotiated a contract with Bonneville Power Administration in 2006 for Bonneville to supply electrical power until September 30, 2011.

See? American industry taking care of business. What could have possibly happened?

But, responding to lawsuits, the 9th US Circuit Court ruled the contract was invalid because it was incompatible with the Northwest Power Act. Therefore, the combination of the Northwest Power Act and a US Circuit Court were the final villains that caused the shutdown of Columbia Falls Aluminum.

Oh. What kind of anti-business, anti-American asshole would bring such a suit?

We need to look no further than the many environmental groups like the Sierra Club and to America's elected officials who turned their backs on American citizens and in essence themselves, for they too are citizens of this country. These officials bought into the green agenda promoted by the heavily funded environmental groups. Caving to pressure, they passed laws and the environmental groups filed lawsuits that began turning off the lights in America. The dominos stated to fall.

Read the rest of the article. You'll see how as early as 1988, the EPA was laying the groundwork for the CO2 horseshit.

I was the first to raise my hand to ask a question, "How can you defend your global warming hypothesis when you have omitted the effects of clouds which affect heat balance far more than carbon dioxide, and when your hypothesis contradicts the paper by Lee in the Journal of Applied Meteorology in 1972 that shows the atmosphere does not behave like a greenhouse?"

He answered me by saying, "You do not know what you are talking about. I know more about how the atmosphere works than you do."

Not being one to drop out of a fight, I responded, "I know many of the atmospheric scientists in this room, and many others who are not present but I do not know you. What is your background and what makes you know so much more than me?"

He answered, "I know more than you because I am a lawyer and I work for the EPA."

I hope you all have a way of providing for your own power, heat, and probably food. In the very near future, getting any of them commercially is going to be increasingly difficult and costly.

But it's for your own good, you silly, stupid citizen. Be thankful for the people we have showing us The Way.

I'm sure the 200 workers at the Columbia Falls plan are very thankful, indeed.

Labels: American Spirit, communism, Corruption, Eco-fraud, Ethics, Fascism, Global Warming, nanny state, Propaganda, Self-Reliance, welfare state

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!).
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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.
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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...
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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

The headline:

Homebuilder Confidence in U.S. Unexpectedly Decreases

Huh? Unexpected by whom? US banks hold literally MILLIONS of foreclosed and other non-performing homes on their books, waiting for the market to turn, and new home builders are surprised no one wants their high-priced stuff? Really?!

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo confidence index declined to 18 from a reading of 19 in September that was the highest in more than a year, the Washington-based association said today. Figures less than 50 mean most respondents view conditions as poor.

Oh. So the home builders have a pretty damned pessimistic view of the market - a realistic view. Who, then, is fanning the Happy News flames?

The builder confidence index was forecast to rise to 20 this month, according to the median of 44 estimates of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Projections ranged from 18 to 21. The gauge, which was first published in January 1985, averaged 16 last year.

Ahhh. Green eyeshaded "intellectuals" in conjunction with a news organization are the ones who are surprised. Who would have ever guessed THAT?

Idiots and propagandists.
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Is the White House starting to believe its own propaganda? Who is the brain surgeon that decided it was a good idea to personalize their distaste of Fox News?

They're all using the Talking Points memo that told them to question whether or not Fox News was a news organization.

And White House political guru David Axelrod, who had coffee a few weeks ago in New York with Fox News founder Roger Ailes, told ABC that Fox News is "really not news. ... Other news organizations like yours ought not to treat them that way. We're not going to treat them that way."

You know you've seriously stepped on your own dick when even your stalwart propaganda outlets like the LA Times are questioning the sanity of your actions.

But some are wondering if this is smart politics. Given that Fox News boasts a far larger audience than cable competitors CNN and MSNBC, and given that most elections are decided by independents who might occasionally watch FNC, the strategy could backfire.

“It's a very risky strategy,” perennial presidential advisor David Gergen said recently on CNN. “It's not one I would advocate.”

Ya think? Me, I strongly recommend they continue. The more they injure themselves, the less we have to do.
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I've got an upcoming test of TVP - Textured Vegetable Protein. For some reason recently, I been seeing all kinds of articles on the stuff. My local grocery store sells it in bulk, so I'll play Lab Rat for (most of) you guys.

If it's even marginally tasty, I'll add some to my preps as it looks to be a great high-protein product that stores very well.

If I get ambitious, I'll make up some Wheat Meat (meat-like gluten from wheat) and compare the two. Go here to take a look at the test I already did with the wheat gluten.

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, criminal, Fascism, Media Bias, Propaganda

Email, received today -

Dear Friend of Liberty,

For far too long, the Republican Party has been controlled by the “neoconservatives,” those who readily abandon the free market at the drop of a hat if it means expanding government power and who think the United States should be the policeman of the world. They want us to support those who throw substance and principle to the wind in favor of political expediency.

Last Monday night, Senator Lindsey Graham reiterated his disdain for Ron Paul and limited government conservatives at a town hall when he said that he was not going to allow the Republican Party to be “hijacked by Ron Paul.”

Instead, he thinks we should get behind those who he tells us “can win,” even if it means abandoning every belief we hold dear in the process.

In addition to his afternoon appearance on Judge Napolitano’s Freedom Watch, Congressman Paul will be responding to the neoconservatives on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer tonight at 6 pm eastern and also on MSNBC’s The Ed Show at 6:30 pm eastern.

CNN has shared with my staff that they want to hear from you on this issue. Contact The Situation Room and let them know you think neoconservatism has had its day and it is time for our elected officials to stick to the Constitution.

In our efforts over the past two years, we have made it clear we will no longer be silent while those who claim to believe in limited government and freedom behave exactly the opposite and help run our country into the ground.

The freedom movement is growing larger every day, and we will take our country back without abandoning our principles to do so.

In Liberty,

John Tate

President

Make your voices heard.

Labels: American Spirit, communism, Constitution, Ethics, Fascism, Media Bias, Propaganda, Self-Reliance

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

Mike, tell us how you REALLY feel.

The Democrat governor with a Republican business card - Arnold Schwarzenegger - has signed into law AB 962. It will require, among other things, that law abiding California citizens now be fingerprinted before they buy ammunition for their self-defense weapons. It will also prohibit the purchase of ammunition from online sources.

"The purchase records will provide our police officers with yet another tool to track down and apprehend armed and dangerous criminals," said Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

Really, Paul? How might that work? How in the fuck will this law result in the capture of one, single bad guy? They'll all know they will have to be finger printed to buy ammo. Do you REALLY think they'll do that? Really?

Bad guys will do one of three things: They will have their flunkies buy their ammo; They will steal the ammo from gun shops or homeowners, or; They'll do like I will be doing - taking my business to Nevada or Oregon.

The result? The bad guys will still get their ammo, crimes at businesses and home to get ammo will increase, and tax dollars will now be going - once again - to another state.

You God Damned mother fuckers have your heads so far up your asses, it is a wonder you can function without parental assistance. And you are 'God Damned', in the truest sense of the phrase. God looks negatively upon people who put other people in danger for no good reason. The 'mother fucker' part is supposition on my part.
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Arnold, you were finally showing some backbone by standing up to the unions and Democrats with the budget. You had spent all of your two terms acting as a member of the Kennedy family. You amazingly stood up for actual Constitutional principles in the last stretch of your term. I figured you were not worried about getting elected again, so you could actually LEAD and not cower.

Clearly, I was wrong. You're a Kennedy bitch. Heel, bitch. You clearly have already been trained to roll over.
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Some other bills The Kennedy Bitch approved:

-- Senate Bill 43 by Sen. Elaine Alquist, D-San Jose, allowing Santa Clara to award a contract to design and build a proposed 49ers stadium to a firm of the team's choice - rather than to the lowest bidder as normally required under city law.

Do you THINK there may have been some unmarked bills handed around to get this approved? Why would you want to allow for anything other than the lowest bidder? You write the proposal to include required safety, quality and materials standards, and get the lowest bidder.

--Senate Bill 572, by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, would declare May 22 as Harvey Milk Day in California. Schools and government offices would remain open, the day would not be a holiday, but schools would be encouraged to conduct commemorative exercises to remember the life of the former San Francisco county supervisor and gay-rights pioneer.

California school tax dollars at work. Do you think that crap like this might contribute to the fact that California has the highest per-student spending, but is number 47 in results. What might help change that? Learning more math, or learning about a gay guy in San Francisco?
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I need to have another SERIOUS chat with my wife. This state is simply too far gone, and continues to make incredibly poor decisions. Seriously, it is amazing to watch - how a group of people in Sacramento can so consistently make bad choices, despite the indisputable evidence that their choices are ruining our state.

Labels: Brady Bunch, communism, Constitution, Corruption, criminal, democrats, Ethics, Fascism, Gun Grabbers, nanny state, Propaganda, Self-Defense

Paranoia will get you through times of no enemies better than enemies will get you through times of no paranoia.
-- Pete Granger

I had this big post planned to slam Barry and the Peace Prize. Comparing it to T-ball for little kids. You're getting recognized for not doing anything special. Just show up, and you're rewarded.

But what are you gonna do? These idiots can give a Peace Prize to Al Gore for bald-faced lies on Global Warming, and Barry for his "aspirations", if they want to. It's their "prize". It's just too bad that it gets so much press. With some of their latest choices, I'm guessing the "blush is off the rose" - hell, Barry just came out and said he wasn't worthy!

The word, "mockery" comes to mind...
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Is it because I'm jittery, or does it seem like there are A LOT more incidents of over-bearing government actions?

The crap I watched happening in Pittsburgh during the G20 crap was truly frightening. I'm not talking about the anarchists that were purposely flaunting certain laws and trashing shit. I'm talking about people getting snatched up off the street and being shoved into cars - without being arrested or given their rights. I'm talking about college students being trapped in stairwells and being gassed. I'm talking about people just standing on the street and cops on bicycles hosing them down with pepper spray.

WTF?

We all saw the videos of old ladies in New Orleans being roughed up and having her guns confiscated - all while the cops were "bugging out". Thousands of other guns were confiscated, and the government lied, denying that any of them existed.

Look at this shit - these people were a part of a food co-op and back in December of 2008 had all of their goods confiscated by Nanny by a SWAT team.




It sounds like the cops justified the confiscations on the grounds of some bullshit Health And Safety crap, plus they wanted them to get a retail food license. Yep, always gotta have the cut for Nanny, don't ya know...

Thompson explained the genesis of the raid was a series of visits to the family by an undercover agent for the state agriculture agency.

"He showed up (at the Stowers' residence) unannounced one day," Thompson explained, and "pretended" to be interested in purchasing food.

The family explained the co-op was private and they couldn't provide service to the stranger.

The agent then returned another day, stayed for two hours, and explained how he thought his sick mother would be helped by eggs from range-fed chickens to which the Stowers had access.

The family responded that they didn't sell food and couldn't help. When he refused to leave, the family gave him a dozen eggs to hasten his departure, Thompson explained.

Despite protests from the family, the agent left some money on a counter and departed.

On the basis of that transaction, the Stowers were accused of engaging in the retail sale of food, Thompson said.

Can you say, "entrapment"?

Why would you need a SWAT team to serve papers on a house that is a member of a food co-op? Was there EVER any indication there might be violence?

It seems like every small town in America now has a SWAT team. They get all suited up like Star Wars Storm Troopers and go kick some ass!

These people look like a couple of "old hippies" who just want to live a simple life. A group of like-minded people and farms got together to make their lives easier. That's a crime now?

They offended some bureaucrat and all hell broke loose.

These people were able to get legal representation and are suing the ass off the government, but at what cost? They had a year's worth of personal food stolen, plus the co-op has been in disarray in the interim. Nanny wins regardless of the outcome. Don't fuck with us.
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There are entire websites devoted to this topic, yet nothing seems to be changing. The MSM just rolls over and plays nice. Just off the top of my head, I can rattle off a bunch of Nanny-Run-Amuck crap -

Waco
Katrina
Ruby Ridge
The Mormon's in Texas
The BART cop shooting the kid in the back
Countless "No Knock" warrants gone bad
Asset Seizure Laws
The USA PATRIOT Act

Good Lord, what's going on here?
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Cache - food, guns, money, ammo, durable goods. Don't have "all your eggs in one basket". Stay off the ridge-line, but don't cower. Exercise your rights, but be prepared for "blow-back". They WILL hurt you if they desire, at least in the short-term. Have a plan. No, have multiple plans.

Document - your best chance for proving your innocence is by having proof of what is taking place. I was recently telling a friend about a "trick" we used in our bank branches.

We had big, obvious cameras in all of our lobbies so everyone knew we were filming everything that happened. In the back of the office was the recorder - right out in plain sight. It was recording everything that happened. What was not so obvious is that we also had a web feed to our central office.

If the office was robbed, we expected the crooks to take the tapes (or even the whole machine). It gave them a sense of assurance that they were going to get away with their crime, and it lowered the likelihood that one of our customers or employees would get hurt.

The fact that the entire incident was simultaneously recorded offsite never entered their heads...

Document what happens and make sure you have duplicates. Assume your primary source of evidence will be "lost". Paranoia isn't always a bad thing...
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[Rhetorical question...] In the past, how have the "repressive regimes" been dealt with?

Labels: American Ingenuity, American Spirit, communism, Constitution, Corruption, criminal, Ethics, Fascism, Media Bias, nanny state, Propaganda, Self-Reliance, Thought Crimes, welfare state

The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.
--Malcolm X

I had a great day with my biz yesterday, but it kept me from seeing what was going on in the world. Maybe that's not such a bad thing. I did a scan of the major news outlets this morning to get caught up, and here's what I found:

Michele Obama is descended from slaves.

What?! Stop The Presses! Can you believe it?! Slaves?! It must have been horrible living with that burden all these years. Didn't the slave masters know she was going to become the first-lady of the US? What WERE they thinking?!

OK, how could the New York Times spend more than 10 seconds on this? I'm surprised they didn't do a companion piece on some prominent Republican to show that he/she was a descendant from slave owners. Oh, the horror!

Maybe they could put in a half hour or so, and do a piece on something that actually matters outside of Obama's family.

Hey look! Here's something they could run with:

Beverly Gossage, Research Fellow for Show-Me Institute and founder of HSA Benefits Consulting wondered which insurance companies rejected the most claims. She found her answer in the AMA’s own 2008 National Health Insurer Report Card. The chart below appears on page 5 of the 16-page report.

Any guess which health care insurance provider had the highest claims rejection - both in terms of actual numbers and as a percentage of claims?

You got it - It's Nanny!


Click the image to see the chart. For those of you who are "click challenged" (a medical malady?) the biggest denier was Medicare. They rejected 6.85% of their claims for service, which equated to 475,000 claims.

Aetna was the only insurer that was even close, at 6.8%, but that only represented 43,000 claims.

The biggest "bitch" against the current system is that the insurance companies deny claims or don't give you insurance if you have a pre-existing condition. I'm assuming Medicare has some regulation that mandates it to accept everyone, but if you can't get care once you're on The Nanny Plan, what good is the insurance?

The White House and Congress want to put Nanny in charge of the whole shooting match? Are they insane?!

Why wouldn't the Times have this information plastered all over their front page? Yeah, yeah, we all know the answer. Michele Obama's family tree is much more important to the health and welfare of the nation...
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Having lived in the Land Of Fruit And Nuts (that'd be California) for my entire life, I've written a number of times that all the rest of the nation needs to do is look at us for what's going to happen to the country in the future.

We've long been trail blazers in socialism. Basically, all you need to do is ask for money from the state, and you'll get it. That goes double if you can insert, "for the children" or "under-privileged" into your proposal.

Well, it seems as though things aren't working out so well. For some reason, when you tax and abuse the Producers for the sole benefit of the Looters, the Producers tend to leave.

Big time -

Now, incredibly, California, which has been a natural target for immigration throughout its history, is losing people. Between 2004 and 2008, half a million residents upped sticks and headed elsewhere. By 2010, California could lose a congressman because its population will have fallen so much – an astonishing prospect for a state that is currently the biggest single political entity in America.

It's getting so bad, even the Looters are FINALLY getting cut off from the teat-sucking:

Outside the Forum in Inglewood, near downtown Los Angeles, California has already failed. The scene is reminiscent of the fallout from Hurricane Katrina, as crowds of impoverished citizens stand or lie aimlessly on the hot tarmac of the centre's car park. It is 10am, and most have already been here for hours. They have come for free healthcare: a travelling medical and dental clinic has set up shop in the Forum (which usually hosts rock concerts) and thousands of the poor, the uninsured and the down-on-their-luck have driven for miles to be here.

The bottom line is, it's bad here. It's failing because this state has bent over backwards to wipe the ass of anyone who asks. These policies have made it painfully clear that is can be more profitable to NOT work. Nanny will take care of all your needs, regardless of your education or skill - or most importantly, regardless of your motivation. You don't need to have any.

Why would the tax-paying Producers stick around?

Some other reasons this shit-hole of a state is failing?

At the start of summer the state government was so deeply in debt that it began to issue IOUs instead of wages. Its unemployment rate has soared to more than 12%, the highest figure in 70 years.
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California's schools are ranked 47th out of 50 in the nation. Its government-issued bonds have been ranked just above "junk".
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If it was an independent country it would be in the G8. And if it were a company, it would likely be declared bankrupt.
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California's attorney-general, Jerry Brown, recently sued one county government for not paying enough attention to global warming when it came to urban planning.

Sound like the direction any country you know is heading?

So, where did this very extensively researched article come from? The LA Times? SF Chronicle? San Jose Mercury News? Oakland Tribune (OK, that was thrown in there for chuckles)?

No. It was The Observer/Guardian in England. For some reason, THEY have the time to do an article about what is likely to happen to the entire US unless we change our spending and taxing ways.

Apparently, no one in America wants to hear news like that.
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Buy gold and silver while you can still afford it. Seriously.

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, Ethics, Fascism, Global Warming, Health Care Fraud, Media Bias, nanny state, Propaganda, Self-Reliance, Taxes, welfare state

The magician and the politician have much in common: they both have to draw our attention away from what they are really doing.
-- Ben Okri

Follow-up: Firearms training question - In yesterday's post, I described a situation with a student that just could not get his shots on paint. Continually off target in the lower-left hand quadrant of the target.

As I noted, the problem was a two-part issue. When he had mentioned that he shot well with the rifle, but was off target with his pistol, my first guess was that he was left-eye dominant. It surprises me how many folks are this way (I'm one of them). We worked on a couple of techniques and brought his shots right to the edge of the target.

In hindsight, I want to kick myself for it taking another 30+ minutes to diagnose the remaining problem. The pieces I didn't connect:

1. Shoots rifle well - that's telling me that he most likely has a smooth trigger pull and is not startled by the report of the gun. Remember: Most California rifles do not have pistol grips.

2. When I saw he was tea-cupping, I figured he might be over-gripping. We did a couple of drills to keep the trigger finger loose. Historically, these will keep the entire right hand loose.

Overgripping was screaming out at me, but I figured it was the more typical jerking or pushing of the trigger finger. What I failed to do was to come over to his right side to watch him pull the trigger (I do most of the training from their left side). Once I did move over, I could clearly see the striations of his muscles and tendons in his forearm at trigger pull. He was "smooth as butter" in his trigger pull, but "nutted up" with just the lower 3 fingers on the grip just before the trigger dropped the hammer.

We did an over-grip drill and he was "fixed".

You folks were all touching on this, but Quiet Patriot was the first to call it correctly. Well done!
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Is the cheap veneer of our economy beginning to crack? Gold finished up yesterday just shy of a 10 year high, at $1017 an ounce. At 8:20am today, it is at $1041 an ounce, blowing through the previous all-time high record of $1036. Silver's up to $17.

It will be interesting to see if it holds through the day.

Have the magicians in DC lost their wands?
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Did you see that yesterday the stock market also had great gains? Weird, huh? Mostly financial sector stock gains. It seems that Goldman Sachs came out and sang the praises of the banking industry. And not just any banks, but BIG banks.

Wow. Who'd a-thunk it? A bailout recipient whoring for the rest of the bailout brethren. I'm sure that's just a coincidence...

Back at the end of August, I commented on the FDIC report on the health of the banking industry (What They're Not Telling You). It's bleak, but the compliant media continues to just take the Administration's word that 'everything is just fine'. Green Shoots for all!

In reality, the numbers are horrible, and only look like they're going to get worse. The FDIC is reporting this, but no one in the press is comprehending what they're saying.

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.

Banks are going to take an ass-whipping in the third- and fourth-quarters from commercial loan losses. They may be forced to start recognizing the MILLIONS of residential loans that have stopped paying, but the banks aren't showing them on their books because they will have to show the losses. They're playing a game of "prevent defense" - hoping that the real estate market will improve so they can unload the properties without taking a financial hit.

The precious metals market - manipulated or not - is beginning to reflect the disbelief of Nanny's "happy talk".

Place your tray tables in their upright and locked position, folks. We're headed for some choppy weather....

Labels: Corruption, Media Bias, Propaganda, Self-Reliance

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.
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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

There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs-partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.
--Booker T. Washington

Waa waa waaa! Dry your tears, beeoch.



Shockingly (not), the Virgina NAACP has its panties in a wad over a huge Barry Joker poster that's been unfurled in Richmond -

The Virginia NAACP called it an abomination and a sign of disrespect. The owner of a downtown Richmond strip club called it exercising his right to free speech.

In predictable fashion, the Executive Director is doing his damnedest to drag race into an economic issue.

"It is apparent that he and others are comfortable disrespecting the president," King Salim Khalfani, executive director of the Virginia NAACP, told the crowd.

Hold on to your hats, folks, but I agree with him there. The owner DOES feel comfortable disrespecting the president. So what? So do I when he's promoting a socialist agenda.

That's allowed in America. Just ask all of the leftists that painted Bush as a Nazi, an unintelligent dullard, and a puppet of Cheney.

Oh, look! He was portrayed as a joker, too...


So, uhm, King... why might this strip club owner feel comfortable disrespecting Barry?

"Why? The answer is simple: because the president has African blood."

Holy shit. Could you have pulled out that race card from deeper in your ass?

OK, fine. Let's say it was racist. Then just as clearly, you leftist fucktards disrespected Bush because of his Caucasian blood. That can be the only logical explanation, right?

You make me sick to my stomach, you race-baiting, woe-is-me, piece of shit.
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The press, not happy with just promoting the agenda of these racist bastards, feels the need to do the old ad hominem attack on the club owner.

Moore's club is awaiting a Nov. 9-10 state Alcoholic Beverage Control hearing on alleged violations. Last year, Moore was convicted of three misdemeanor charges related to having sex with a minor and another female at his apartment above the club, and filming it illegally.

Wow, a strip club owner who's a scumbag. That's about as shocking as there being a racist heading a 'civil rights' group.

Why would the "reporter" feel the need to bring up facts that are totally unrelated to the issue at hand? Of course, it's used to cast aspersions on the guy - to detract from the message he's trying to make.

Well, here's a little ad hominem back at ya, asshole.

You are a racist, and are proud of it. You proclaim it at the top of your voice.

Here is the mission statement of the NAACP:

The mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.

The vision of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights and there is no racial hatred or racial discrimination.

Equal rights for everyone. They state - at least publicly - that they are "color blind". You are the Executive Director of the NAACP for the entire state of Virginia. Here is your biographical information, taken directly from your website -

My greatest accomplishment is that I am by choice a revolutionary Afrikan Man. I am a Pan-Afrikanist. I am one who speaks truth to power unashamedly on behalf of Afrikan people. I have not cringed or cowered when faced with criticism, ostracism or threats of bodily harm. l have represented my people with Integrity.

Hmmm. That seems to run counter to the official mission of the NAACP. They specifically say they are for equal rights for everyone, and you specifically say you are ONLY for people of African (Afrikan?) descent.

Isn't promoting a specific race the very definition of racism?

Naw, it must be an oversight. Surely he is proud of some kind of non-race-based accomplishment -

He founded the Pan-African Resource Center. African Awareness Association, Sons or Africa, Operation STRIKE (Students Tackling Racial Issues with Knowledge and Enlightenment) and African Perspectives, a weekly live call-in television show ...

It appears as though this racist - this statewide executive of a national organization - doesn't have a single thing he's ever done for anyone other than blacks.

Where is the MSM in reporting THAT? Why wasn't that conveniently inserted into the article along with the information on the club owner?

[Insert chirping crickets]

And the newspapers wonder why they're losing circulation numbers.... At least they can look forward to some Barry Bailout Bucks.

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, Ethics, Media Bias, Propaganda

As the ostrich when pursued hideth his head, but forgetteth his body; so the fears of a coward expose him to danger.
-- Akhenaton, King of Egypt, 14th century BC

I purposefully didn't watch Barry and his PR machine running around to all the networks selling his snake oil. I hear his lies enough so that I don't need to hear them again on all stations.

I didn't even watch Fox, although I figured they'd at last ask him some real questions regarding the health care debacle-in-waiting.

I found out this morning that Barry purposefully snubbed Fox. They were the only major broadcast or cable network that was not given an interview with Barry. Univision got an interview, for goodness sake. I must say, I was shocked.

There isn't even a pretense that the Administration is doing something newsworthy. It's all about the propaganda -

The president's week-long media blitz has left no other network behind. The president has appeared on CBS's "60 Minutes," Bloomberg and CNBC and will appear on five public affairs talk shows on Sunday: ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," CBS's "Face the Nation," NBC's "Meet the Press," CNN's "State of the Union" and Univision's "Al Punto, con Jorge Ramos." And he's doing CBS' "Late Night with David Letterman" on Monday.

When Fox bitched about it, here was the White House's response -

"We figured Fox would rather show 'So You Think You Can Dance' than broadcast an honest discussion about health insurance reform," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told ABC News.

You gotta be shittin' me. What 'honest discussion'? They chose "news" outlets that would play nice. Aside from disgusting me, it sure says a lot about Barry. He doesn't have enough confidence in his ability to publicly justify ObamaCare - sans Teleprompters - and the associated costs. Why are none of the "news" outlets pointing THAT out?

Fucking coward.
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Don't shoot the messenger (that'd be me).

As much as it pains me to say, Congress needs to re-instate funding to ACORN - at least until they can follow the Constitution to stop sending them money.

Back in March, I railed against Congress when they were passing laws specifically targeting the employees of AIG. It's called a, "bill of attainder", and it's un-Constitutional.

A bill of attainder (also known as an act or writ of attainder) is an act of legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime and punishing them without benefit of a trial. Bills of attainder are forbidden by Article I, section 9, clause 3 of the United States Constitution.

The House overwhelmingly passed the Defund ACORN Act. Could there be a more obvious example of a law targeting a specific group of persons?

IMO, ACORN needs to be de-funded because of the apparent criminal and Un-American activity that is prevalent throughout the organization. But only after they have been proven to have broken the terms that are placed upon them as a condition of receiving federal funds.

The Constitution is sacrosanct. We cannot bypass it simply because we detest a person, place or organization. Even the left-wing, commie, America-hating groups are protected by it.
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OT: Before the start of the NFL season, I predicted that the Raider quarterback, Jamarcus Russell would only last 4 regular season games. He has all of the "tools" to be a great quarterback, except one: He has no heart.

This dude is 6'5", 260 pounds. At quarterback. But he plays like a frilly-pantie clad school girl (no offense meant to frilly-pantie clad school girls!).

He needs to go elsewhere if the Raiders want any chance of having a winning season this year.

My morning radio show had the best line: Al Davis needs to trade him for a 14th round draft choice and a bag of footballs.

Ouch.

Labels: communism, Constitution, Fascism, Health Care Fraud, Media Bias, nanny state, Propaganda, welfare state

I would never lie. I willfully participate in a campaign of misinformation.
--Fox Mulder

I read - slack-jawed - article after article yesterday that Uncle Ben Bernanke says the recession is over. WTF?

"I've seen some agreement among the forecasting community that we are in a recovery," Bernanke said, "But the general view of most forecasters is that the pace of growth in 2010 will be moderate."

This disingenuous SOB is playing it cutsie - he qualified his statements by saying that it may only be a "technical recovery". If we have one single quarter with growth, we are technically out of the recession.

Let's see, is there any chance we might have an "up" quarter? Maybe one artificially 'stimulated' by, oh, I don't know, handing out $3 billion to people to buy cars? Hmmmmm?

The problem is, this was an artificial 'blip' - the stimulus brought people that would have bought cars in 3, 6, 9 or twelve months down the road, and front-loaded them into this past quarter.

What's going to happen in 3 to 12 months with the auto industry? All of those people already have their cars, so the auto manufacturers are going to take a shot to the nuts.

Since it "technically" takes 3 consecutive quarters of contraction before the next recession officially begins, Barry and Company have bought themselves at least a year of respite from the financial press.
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Gold and Silver continue to climb (which actually surprised me, as I expected some profit-taking to temporarily drop prices).

Gold ended yesterday at $1,008 and silver ended OVER $17.
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A buddy of mine sent me a link to a recent interview with Gerald Celente. He's the top dog over at Trends Research. He's one of the few folks out there that have been screaming that we're going to take it in the shorts unless we stop artificially messing with the markets.

This interview is a bit long but is well worth the time.



This thing isn't over until jobs steadily rise - not just end up being better than the number of job losses the government predicts. Until people are working, economic growth will be hampered since they have no money to spend. It's really a vicious circle.
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OT: My wife had made a comment about the ObamaCare scam - she didn't understand why a law being passed in 2009 would not start until 2013. You understand why that date was picked, right?

Barry and Company can claim a victory for getting it going, but nothing will happen to our economy as a result of the law. Barry can restore his reputation, get re-elected, etc. No one that voted for it has to be burdened at election time - in 2010 and 2012 - by what happens to the country when it goes into place.

By the time the shit starts hitting the health care fan in 2013, they'll all be comfortably re-elected. It's a great plan.

If the Repubs were smart, they'd throw a fit saying that if it's so good, it should start right NOW. Get right on it to keep poor babies from dying. Barry's a man of action!

At least they would then have a couple of years of this thing killing the country and seeing it reflected at the polls.

But they're NOT smart, so they'll just play along...

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, Ethics, Fascism, Health Care Fraud, Media Bias, nanny state, Propaganda

Bouncing around a bit...
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Astroturf? Headline on CNN online:

Tea party movement has anger, no dominant leaders

Shockingly, the headline hits the Tea Party movement squarely on the head. It is buckets of people, from widely differing backgrounds, from every state in the nation, that are pissed off. Pissed off enough to get off their butts to protest what is happening to our country.

And they're doing it all on their own. No conservative equivalent of ACORN or SEIU or any other major organization are coordinating this. It is the epitome of grassroots.

Isn't that a story in and of itself? Of course it is, but since the story runs counter to the MSM agenda, it is denigrated and marginalized.
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Have you folks heard of Scribd.com? Holy crap, what a great resource. They have zillions of documents available online. If you sign up for a free account, you can download most documents in PDF or Word format. Again, for free.

They sure seem to have a lot of stuff that says "copyright" all over it. I was looking for some information on knife making, and they have a number of books that I have purchased in bookstores available for the taking.

Seriously, pick a topic and see what they have. It's quite impressive.
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Tonight is either the start of a new era, or the continuation of a steady decline.

Am I talking about American freedom? Socialism and fascism creeping into our way of life? Taxes crushing the very soul of citizens for generations to come?

No. I'm talking about tonight being the season opener for the Raiders.

I'm off in a while to try and find parking for our tailgater. I'm bringing a 5-gallon keg of Amber Ale to help numb the expected pain after we play San Diego in front of the nation (although I'm guessing those of you on the east coast will be tucked in bed when the game starts at 7pm here on the left(ist) coast).

We'll try and set up camp in our usual place (the BART parking lot across the street from the Oakland Coliseum). We'll be eating brats and tri-tip while we watch the early game on rabbit ears. I just picked up one of the digital converter boxes, so this should be interesting.

It will be very difficult for anyone to explain why the Raiders don't win a butt-load of games this season. We have some incredible talent. Serious talent.

But we also have Al Davis. 'Nuff said (plus, I don't want to get sued by the leader of Walking Dead).
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ACORN popped again?

First Baltimore, then DC, now NYC.

I swear - I thought I heard the ACORN scum emphatically state that the Baltimore incident was isolated. Two bad employees that were dealt with quickly.

Hmmmm..... seems to be a bit deeper than that, huh?

Not surprisingly, the MSM is barely covering this. No questions of a massive, rotten organization - just excuses and (not so) subtle hints of prosecuting the reporters for doing their job.

Whistle-blower laws protect conservatives too, right?

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, Ethics, Fascism, Health Care Fraud, Life and Times, Media Bias, Propaganda, Taxes

If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.
--Mark Twain

Quite busy of late - sorry for the light posting.

I swear, you could make millions of dollars if you launched a news source that just reported the news. Leave out the left wing and the right wing, and just give us the facts. The Joe Friday Gazette, perhaps?
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I'm taking a break, watching some TV. I clicked on Fox News, and they're showing images of somewhere between 60,000 and 100,000 people who have marched on Washington DC.

Out of curiosity, I flipped to MSNBC, CNN and Headline News (HLN).

MSNBC - Images of a gathering in Minnesota for Barry to continue with his con job on health care. They are showing the place filling up. They actually had a headline on the screen describing the images they were showing as, "Awaiting Obama At Healthcare Rally In Minneapolis".

They're not covering the news-making event that is ACTUALLY HAPPENING in DC - they're showing people taking their seats at one that will start in a few hours. I guess they don't have enough cameras to cover both events.

HLN - Running a piece on the Kennedy brain cancer - and how he was a 'champion' of health care. They followed that up with a stint about Larry Gelbart - the guy who produced MASH - and how he just croaked. They then showed a hard-hitting piece on a website that CNN has just developed where you can speak your voice if you're a veteran. Wow! A blog - who'd a-thunk it? Apparently, they ran out of cameras as well.

CNN - Doing a piece on boxer George Foreman - "Rolling with the punches" - about how to weather the bad economy. Oooooo, George shadow-boxing. Gripping stuff. Hey, maybe we could reduce taxes! They then went to some guy that makes hot pepper sauce - with prisoner labor. OK.....

On all three networks, I watched the rolling ticker of breaking news. Not a single one mentioned what's going on in DC. Not one.
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Cindy Sheehan and a half-dozen protesters sit outside the president's personal residence, and they get world-wide press attention. Upwards of 100,000 people gather in the nation's capital, and a single network covers this? Amazing.
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Did you see that another ACORN video has turned up? This time it was the DC office that was working to set up a whore house with our tax dollars.

Hmmm. I thought ACORN said the Baltimore incident was an "isolated incident". Apparently not.

The Census bureau has shockingly dumped ACORN to do the census next year. Really, I'm shocked. Call me cynical, but I'd bet a good number of dollars that they'll be involved when the actual census starts. Any takers?

What is it going to take to get Congress to start an investigation on these scumbags? Do they actually have to be filmed as they RUN a whore house? It's not enough they're using our tax dollars (with $8.5 billion MORE in the pipeline) to fund a whore house?
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Wow, gold ended the week over $1,005 an ounce. Silver was at a bit below $17 an ounce.

Squirrel some away while you still can...

Three more banks bit the bullet yesterday, bringing the total this year to 92 failures. These three will cost us a cool $2 billion.

Those green shoots just keep poppin' up all over the place...
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LOL! Fox is now showing Barry's health care con job in Minnesota. He's in the middle of a story about getting, "fired up". It's the exact same story he told the union members in Ohio on Labor Day!!

C'mon, Barry - get your speech writers to give you some new folksy, aw-shucks stories. We enjoy being treated as mouth-breathing, drooling idiots.

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, criminal, Ethics, Health Care Fraud, Media Bias, Propaganda, Taxes

You lie!
-- SC Representative Joe Wilson to Barack Obama

Barry did his health care speech last night. I could not listen to it live. I had the same problem when Dubya would talk. I knew that if his lips were moving, he was lying to me, one way or the other. I knew that it would cost me either money or freedom, or both.

It's the same with Barry.

The TV and radio were both playing clips of the speech, and I had it in my head to discuss his comment that marginalized Americans who are exercising their right to petition the government for a redress of grievances as "bickering".

I spent a part of this morning reading the transcripts of the health care speech. I wanted to see what he said, not be influenced by how he said it.

The transcripts took me down another path.
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What is a 'right'? I found a definition that most matches with my beliefs on FreeRepublic.com -

A right is the sovereignty to act without the permission of others. The concept of a right carries with it an implicit, unstated footnote: you may exercise your rights as long as you do not violate the same rights of another—within this context, rights are an absolute.

I like that. You can do as you wish as long as it doesn't stop another person from exercising the same right. For example, I don't get to exercise my right to keep and bear arms, then use my guns to stop someone else from doing the same.

This concept of exercising rights while not infringing on the rights of another goes deeper, though. Your ability to exercise your rights cannot place a burden on another individual.

Simply because you want to exercise your first amendment right to free speech, does not give you the right to require a newspaper to spend their money on paper, ink, presses and manpower to print your words.

If you want your words in print, you must bear the burden of getting them printed.

Again, FreeRepublic said it very well -

A right must be exercised through your own initiative and action. It is not a claim on others. A right is not actualized and implemented by the actions of others. This means you do not have the right to the time in another person’s life. You do not have a right to other people’s money. You do not have the right to another person’s property. If you wish to acquire some money from another person, you must earn it—then you have a right to it. If you wish to gain some benefit from the time of another person’s life, you must gain it through the voluntary cooperation of that individual—not through coercion. If you wish to possess some item of property of another individual, you must buy it on terms acceptable to the owner—not gain it through theft.

The only legitimate claim or burden placed upon another is through taxes paid to the government to enforce your rights. Using the example from above, the government is not in place to provide you with printing presses. They are there to ensure you can operate your presses.
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fascism - a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.

So, I read through Barry's speech, and I was horrified. Plain as day - with no qualification or excuse - he is conferring a right to a select few individuals, and requiring that I pay for it.

Now, even if we provide these affordable options, there may be those -- especially the young and the healthy -- who still want to take the risk and go without coverage. There may still be companies that refuse to do right by their workers by giving them coverage. The problem is, such irresponsible behavior costs all the rest of us money. If there are affordable options and people still don't sign up for health insurance, it means we pay for these people's expensive emergency room visits. If some businesses don't provide workers health care, it forces the rest of us to pick up the tab when their workers get sick, and gives those businesses an unfair advantage over their competitors. And unless everybody does their part, many of the insurance reforms we seek -- especially requiring insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions -- just can't be achieved.

In one fell swoop, he is granting a right to health care. It's actually more than that - he's requiring you have health care insurance if you live in the United States. Most importantly, it will be a crime if you don't have health care insurance.

In the good old days, before a new right could be granted, the congress and the states had to agree to it. It used to be called the 'amendment process' as detailed in Article 5 of the Constitution.

Now, we just pass a law, and it's called, 'progress'.

Suppressing dissent. Regimenting industry and commerce. Aggressive nationalization.

Sounds like fascism to me. What else could it be called?
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Look at what he's saying, and the implications -

If there are affordable options and people still don't sign up for health insurance, it means we pay for these people's expensive emergency room visits.

He's using a federal law that prohibits a hospital from refusing treatment to anyone that shows up on their doorstep, as rationale for requiring we all continue to pay for this treatment, but in a different way, and somehow it will be less expensive.

How about you allow private hospitals to turn people away, or to at least transfer them to the county hospitals that were established for the indigent?

But far and away, this was the single most frightening aspect of his 'vision' -

If some businesses don't provide workers health care, it forces the rest of us to pick up the tab when their workers get sick, and gives those businesses an unfair advantage over their competitors.

I thought he was all about 'competition'. Why not just be right out front and say you are nationalizing all business in America?

There are a million things that go into a company business plan. Price, product, quality, location. A huge component is employees.

A business makes a decision on how to least expensively produce its product or service. It may decide that it doesn't give a damn who fills the jobs it has. Quality and customer service are irrelevant - it just wants to produce the most products for the lowest cost and charge the highest prices it can get. The market will decide if their business plan is correct - they'll either buy the product or not.

Another business may wish to pay a salary of 150% of the market, offer flexible scheduling, a great 401k plan, but no other fringe benefits. They may believe they can retain the best employees for their particular business with that model. Their employees can decide to spend the higher wages on health care insurance or on crack cocaine. Or leave and take a job with a company that DOES offer benefits. It's their choice. Again, the market will decide if their business plan is correct.

Barry's plan takes those options away. If a business is mandated to offer benefits, IT is now placed at a competitive disadvantage. It will either have to cut salaries, cut employees, cut retirement benefits or cut quality to stay competitive. Or go out of business.

Is Barry going to tell them what to cut as well - or allow them to make any cuts at all?
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I'm telling you, if this passes, there will be one way, and one way only to survive: Get out of the tax paying business.

The 'public option' will destroy the private insurers. Despite Barry's assurances that not a single tax dollar will be spent on the plan, do even the most parched Koolaid drinkers believe that?

Pretty soon, Nanny HealthCo will be the only game in town, and your tax dollars will be paying for it.

The end result will be crappy, rationed health care for all. If you're going to get the same care whether you pay for it or not, why pay?
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An Atlas Shrugged Moment of Zen -

"Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it...

There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.

Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt.

Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."

Labels: American Spirit, communism, Constitution, Corruption, criminal, debate, Ethics, Fascism, Health Care Fraud, Media Bias, nanny state, Propaganda, Self-Reliance, Taxes, welfare state

If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all—except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.
--John Fitzgerald Kennedy

I need some input and some ideas.

I'm working on a project that includes information on emergency communications. I've got the basics covered on how a family can communicate by having a pre-selected location to leave messages during a disaster.

You can generally use a cell phone to call outside of a disaster area - the circuits are jammed coming in, but going out of the area, they are generally available. You select a family member that is sufficiently geographically removed, and they act as a clearing house of sorts to pass along messages.

You can get a ham radio license. You can have CB radios. Standard land-line phones (NOT wireless models) will typically work even when there is a power outage.

For one-way communications, you can have battery-, solar- or dynamo-powered radios so you know what's going on in the outside world.

I've got this covered. But what do you do when communications are purposely disabled?
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I was watching the traveling chef, Anthony Bourdain, on the Travel Channel last night. He was in Thailand when a state of emergency was put into effect. It got me thinking about how you would communicate with others if the government effectively shut down all communications.

Let's say that Barry or one of his successors decides that we're under some sort of dangerous situation, and enacted any of the martial law-like powers they've granted themselves, and they restrict communication only to government entities.

They shut down cell towers, land lines and the Internet. They jam all CB and ham radio frequencies. No phone calls, emails, blog postings, Tweets or MySpace posts unless they go through government censors first.

Waddaya do?

What if the restrictions are only focused on you? What if you're a Randy Weaver or Branch Dividian? A situation where the "free media" - newspapers, TV, Internet - is still intact, but you are shut down?

How do you make sure people know what's going on with your situation?
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For the first instance - total shut-down of all communications - I guess it would be through word-of-mouth, and some sort of underground newspaper would emerge. Communications would be made via more "primitive" means - analogue versus digital. Fliers, rogue newspapers, graffiti, etc.

I'm at a loss for the second situation - where you or your group are the target. Do you set up some sort of message that is published in the event that X, Y or Z happens? A YouTube video journal or post-dated blog entry?

I'd love to hear some ideas for either of these situations. OK, I'm begging for some ideas!
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You know about steganography, right? It's the practice of using one digital object to hide another object inside the first.

A few years ago, I did a demonstration of steganography for our board of directors. I showed them a picture of our bank's logo - a JPG image.

I told them that I could hide any information about the bank that I wished right under their noses. They laughed, literally out loud.

I told them that I could hide our business plans, individual compensation information, confidential federal regulator reports or anything else I wished, and no one would be the wiser.

I ran the image through a program, and magically, out popped a Word document. The document said -

Mike just saved your asses. Give him a raise.

That got a nice chuckle from the board, but showed them how vulnerable we were to information leaks. Leaks that would be virtually impossible to protect against (at least at the time).

Steganography works by using the un-used "space" inside of every type of file. It fills that space with whatever data you wish without affecting the quality of the original file (usually an image file). The only way you can tell the file has been altered is if you know the exact size (in bytes) of the original file, and compare that with the new file.

You, too, can use steganography to hide information that you might want to pass along to someone else, but don't want an electronic trail that leads back to you.

There are a number of free programs out there (i.e. Invisible Secrets) free for the taking. You just take your image and whatever information you want and mash them together, and post the image somewhere on the Internet.

Let's say you have a bunch of photos of your latest outing to the beach that you upload to Picasa or one of the other free photo sites. You add the information to one of the images that is uploaded. The person that needs the information downloads that image to their computer, runs it through the program, and bang-zoom! there is the information.
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Wanna pretend you're a spy?

This image file has a super-secret, rarely used document hidden inside of it. Click it to enlarge, then save it to your desktop. I used Invisible Secrets (free) to hide the message. The password to gain access to the secret document is 'nanny' (all lower case - without the apostrophes). The encryption algorithm used was Blowfish (if it's not the default, just select it from the drop-down menu). Select the destination of the super-secret document (like your Desktop) and read away.


FYI - it's a simple TXT document that contains no other junk.
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Hey, spymaster! Don't forget to leave some comments on communications during tough times...

Labels: American Ingenuity, American Spirit, Constitution, Fascism, Propaganda, Thought Crimes

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!!
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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


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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

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Quiz time, boys and girls!



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Here's the Public Option at work. It's probably best not to get old and bust a hip in America...

They’re not criminals. They’ve broken no laws. But they’re being held against their will by the State of Texas. Why? It’s a tragic story about what can happen when you are alone in the world and lose control of your rights, your money, and your ability to complain.

Well, I'm sure this is just a simple misunderstanding -

A judge determined the Kidds were incapacitated and unable to care for themselves. The state took over the Kidds lives, sent them to the Countryside Nursing Home in Pilot Point, and is now burning through their money to pay for their care.

Oh. Seems kinda harsh. Of course, I'm sure the state is taking the proper fiduciary care with regards to the couple's money, right?

The state appointed a financial guardian in Greenville to manage the Kidds money and pay their bills. When they asked for an accounting, the state refused. Representatives for the state stated the Kidds did not have the mental capacity to even ask for their own financial or medical records.

Yet somehow, the Kidds still managed to ask.

Crazy old fools! Don't worry - the state will take goooooood care of you. Yesiree...

Labels: American Ingenuity, communism, Fascism, Propaganda