No Nanny State - Molon Labe!

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

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

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.
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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...
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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.
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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.
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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

Fear has its use but cowardice has none.
--Mahatma Gandhi

We're learning to fight fire with fire.

There has been a very effective propaganda piece that has seen a lot of time on right- and libertarian-leaning websites and blogs. The Obama Socialism Joker -


This image has simultaneously brightened the days of liberty-loving folks, and seriously pissed off the socialists.

I call that a success by any standard!

What is great about the image is its simplicity. The insincere painted smile, coupled with the voodoo-like possessed eyes and the simple statement: socialism.

Fucking brilliant! It's disturbing to look at. It sells danger, deception, untrustworthiness and fear. Fear sells and it moves people to action.

It reminds me of the, "This is drugs. This is your brain on drugs." commercials of the 1980's (?). Simple. Straight-forward. Get's the point across: Do drugs, fry your brain.

The government got a big head, and took a good thing and screwed it up, IMO. The 10 second, "This is drugs" commercial was now a 30 second rub-your-nose-in-it morality play.

It lost the punch of the original.
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So what is propaganda?

information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.

It's really marketing of an idea or an ideal, and we're in the middle of a war of ideals.

Our side needs more of this. Stuff that can easily "go viral" and spread across the Internet and not be stopped. Stuff that gets so big, even the MSM has to take notice (and promptly disparage).

The poster, which bears a very superficial resemblance to Shepard Fairey’s famous Obama Hope illustration, has been pasted on freeway supports and other public surfaces. It has a bit of everything to appeal to the drunk tank of California conservatism: Obama is in white face, his mouth (like Ledger’s Joker’s) has been grotesquely slit wide open and the word “Socialism” appears below his face. The only thing missing is a noose.

WTF? You know you've hit the bullseye when the socialist pull the Race Card out of their asses on something that doesn't even brush up against race.
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We need to stay focused. Keep the message simple. Don't do what Nanny did and mess up a very effective anti-drug message.

Sell the fear you feel towards Barry's Vision Of America. This is a war we can't afford to lose.
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Want a lift in spirits and enthusiasm? A family member sent me this commercial that was made for a tax-day Tea Party that was held in Alabama -




Hell yeah...

Labels: American Spirit, communism, Constitution, Ethics, Fascism, Media Bias, nanny state, Thought Crimes

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...

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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.
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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.
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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

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...
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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

O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible and hence we can hold the enemy's fate in our hands.
--Sun Tzu

Hermit had a couple of posts today on the increasingly paranoid view of Nanny with regards to voicing your opinion online. He put it so perfectly, so succinctly -

In short, the bare fact of having expressed an opinion is given virtually the same weight as having carried out the act expressed in the opinion. You don't have to be a student of constitutional law or history to see where that is going.

The intent is clear: Stop public dissent. Play ball or be punished.

As an example, look what just happened with the Inspector General that was recently fired for investigating a friend of Barry's. To protect against political influence being brought against IG's, a law was passed (which Senator Barry co-sponsored) that requires the Prez to notify Congress 30 days before someone is fired, and he must give a reason for the firing.

Barry's reason? "Loss of confidence."

WTF? Try using that justification for firing a union worker at Government Motors. You'd be sued so fast, your head would spin.

Hmmmm. Do you think this will stick in the mind of every other IG in the country? Play nice or you'll be fired - and I can do it legally!
----------

When Nanny wants to track someone down that uses an anonymous posting name, they back-track the IP address of the computer that made the post. They see the Internet Service Provider, who keeps track of which specific address was assigned to which specific customer.

Knock, knock, Federal agents calling.

So, one way to keep your identity private is to falsify or hide your true IP address.

Last year, I did a post on Internet privacy. In it, I discuss TOR. It is a program that uses something called a 'proxy'. Your request to open, say, a Google page, actually comes from another IP address. Your request is routed through the proxy IP, masking its original source (you!).

Let me say right up front that TOR has some potential problems. READ ABOUT THEM BEFORE YOU INSTALL TOR. It started out as a Nanny tool for overseas embassies (I think), but was made a public, shareware-styled project a few years ago.

I use TOR on a fairly regular basis, but I NEVER send anything that is confidential or that requires that I put in a sensitive username/password (like online banking).

I trust it, but I ain't stupid. Anything that has to do with computers can be hacked, cracked and tracked. With TOR, you're being routed all over the world, so you have no idea who will "touch" your packets. I only use it when I am posting comments to newspapers or to websites where I figure there is a high degree of probability that they won't like what I'm saying, and try and have my IP traced.

TOR can also be very slow. It uses nodes that are literally all over the world. For instance, today I logged on, and checked my public IP address. It showed that I was in Amsterdam! When I went to Google, all of the text was in Dutch.

To address this, TOR allows you to change the location of the node you're using. If you make it a US address, the speed increases considerably (assuming you're located in the US, of course).

I also only use TOR with the Firefox browser. It has a TOR button, so I can turn it on or off with the click of a button. Very handy.
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Another service I use is Secure Tunnel. They are a commercial site, but also have a free proxy where you can enter a website address, and it gives the IP address of Secure Tunnel's ISP.

I pay for their service. It includes a secure email service, as well as an upgraded proxy service called SecureBar.
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What's your IP address?

Go to www.DSLReports.com. Click the 'tools' link. Scroll down to 'Your IP Address'. Click it, and it will give you your address.

Write this down, then go to Secure Tunnel, and type DSLReports.com into the proxy box. Follow the same steps listed above to get your IP address. It should now be a different address.

Cool, huh?

But don't get cocky. If you make threats online, they will hunt you down and find you. Period.

At best, it will buy you some time if it is Nanny coming after you. If all you've done is pissed off some liberal idiot on Kos, you're probably in good shape.

Labels: American Ingenuity, American Spirit, Constitution, Corruption, Ethics, nanny state, Thought Crimes

Thanks for the American dream, to vulgarize and falsify until the bare lies shine through. Thanks for a country where nobody's allowed to mind their own business.
--William S. Burroughs

I'd like to see a show of hands, please. All of you out there with "stupid" stenciled on your forehead, please raise your hands. Come on, you in the back over there, get your paw up.

Clearly, the Barry administration thinks every single person in America has the aforementioned graffiti written on their noggin. Why else would they think that anyone with the life-force to steam up a mirror would not be able to see the release of a, "The World Is Going To Melt!!" report is simply their way of greasing the skids for a massive green/carbon/methane/oogy-boogy tax increase.

You know, to pay for Barry's health plan.

I tried to read the whole report (all 196 pages worth), but passed out from the unrelenting projectile vomiting. My tum-tum gets upset when I smell bullshit. What can I say?
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OK, the number one finding is MAN DID IT! [Please people, no pushing and shoving. Let's have an orderly evacuation]. Wow, I would have never guessed they'd try and pin their theory on humans.

1. Global warming is unequivocal and primarily human-induced.
Global temperature has increased over the past 50 years. This observed increase is due primarily to human-induced emissions of heat-trapping gases. (p. 13)

Just like they chose CO2 as the bad guy because they knew how stupid they'd look if they suggested banning the two biggest Green House Gasses - water vapor and clouds (90%+) - they have to pick humans as the culprit, because how in the hell are you going to tax the real cause - the burning orb in the sky?

Don't these idiots own a thermometer? The earth has been trending cooler for the past 8 years -

Based on the HadCRUT3 system of observed temperatures, global surface temperature anomalies have been trending down since 2001. January 2008 had the coldest anomaly since 1995.

What did Rohm Emanuel say? "Never let a good crisis go to waste." They need to update it to, "Never let a good LIE go to waste."
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Reading snippets of most of the MSM "news" sites, the fevered pleas for, "Someone PLEASE do something!" have begun in earnest.

We're going to get a massive basket of taxes shoved right up our asses. Cap and Trade, Carbon Taxes, Cow Fart Taxes, you name it.

They're doing everything in their power to turn our country into a third-world nation.

Great. Bring it on. As has been discussed here and on other sites, we're too far gone to be rescued. Let the shit hit the fan so we can then begin the clean up, and right our country again.

Just cover your ass and ride it out as best as you can. Maybe putting the stencil to our foreheads will help us blend in with the lemmings.

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, criminal, Ethics, Fascism, Global Warming, Media Bias, nanny state, Self-Reliance, Taxes, Thought Crimes

Commercials are not the only junk food in the speech market - indeed, when compared to shallow news reporting, vacuous television shows, or political doublespeak, commercials are not even the most harmful to mental health.
-- Rodney A. Smolla

It seems like there's been a lot of this forked-tongue stuff going on. Look at this article. It is commenting on a website called FireDavidLetterman.com and how there are a growing number of calls to get Letterman canned for making his jokes/remarks about Sarah Palin and her daughters.

If you're not aware of his comments, he joked about Palin's 14 year old daughter being raped by a NY Yankee's player, and that Palin herself looked like a, "slutty flight attendant."

The author of the article says that we all just need to chill, after all, it was just a joke.

Why doesn't someone tell this asshole about Don Imus. His "nappy headed ho's" comment got him fired.

If we're going to be politically correct, and never denigrate women - even in obvious jest - shouldn't jokesters of all political persuasions be held to the same standard? Or is it OK when the women are white? And conservative?

We know the answer to those questions. I just thought I'd ask anyway.
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Universal health care:

"The public option is not your enemy, it is your friend, I believe."
--Barry

[Shudder] Almost as scary as, "We're from the government, and we're here to help."

Oh wait - it's the same thing.
----------

Financial double-talking:

Aiming for greater limits and more clarity in the nation's financial system, the Obama administration on Monday proposed adding muscle to the Federal Reserve and new restrictions on complex securities whose collapse choked lending and hit millions of American households.

So Barry & Company wants to restrict salaries and spending, and wants to promote more disclosure of financial dealings of PRIVATE COMPANIES, but not of the federal government itself.

Pot, meet kettle.
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What's that joke about lawyers? How can you tell if a lawyer is lying? His lips are moving.

Barry and most of his cronies are lawyers, aren't they? Wow, imagine that...
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"I don't want to run auto companies, and I don't want to run banks."
--Barry

Then why don't you stop, big guy? Just Say No, Barry. Just Say No...

Labels: communism, Constitution, democrats, Fascism, Hate Crimes, Media Bias, nanny state, Political Correctness, presidential, Thought Crimes

Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts.
-- E. B. White

An abortion doctor is gunned down in his church. The story is all over the TV, radio, Internet and newspapers. The "vibe" in the press is that this was a broad attack on freedom of choice, and a not so subtle signal of violence towards women.

Two soldiers are gunned down in broad daylight in front of a recruiting center by a Muslim convert. One soldier is killed. Police have termed the murder a "political and religious" attack. This story gets a fraction of the coverage. The little bits that do emerge seems to bend over backwards to keep the Muslim angle out of the news.

No? Here are some Google news search strings, and the number of hits -

'abortion doctor murder' 6,421

'recruiting center murder' 872

The same string, with 'Muslim' added -

'recruiting center murder Muslim' 311

We don't want to upset the 'Religion of peace', now do we?

Why is the murderer of the doctor portrayed as a signal of an increasingly violent right-wing American ("anti-abortion crusader(s)"), but the murderer of the soldiers is a one-off anomaly ("...they stressed there was no evidence of a broader plot")?

Aren't they both dead? Weren't they both killed by someone motivated by personal morality and strong religious beliefs?
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As my morning radio show asked, what kind of coverage would the story get if two recruiting center soldiers had gunned down a Muslim?

Probably the same kind of coverage that a white male SCOTUS candidate would have received if he had said that he could always make a better legal decision simply because of his whiteness and his ability to pee standing up.
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They are holding a vigil for the slain doctor today in San Francisco. As the city's District Attorney notes,

"Turning to violence undermines the strength of our collective conviction in a nation that holds sacred the freedom to defend one's deepest held beliefs free from the threat of violence," said Harris.

I wonder if they've pulled the permits to hold a vigil for the soldiers to protest against the "political and religious" murder. Aren't political and religious freedoms deeply held beliefs as well?

Or is it only when they are the "correct" politics and religion?
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Not surprisingly, since the MSM won't touch the Muslim angle in the soldier murder, they're directing their attention to the guns he had. Virtually every article I've read has mentioned the 3 guns he had, including one "assault weapon". Yikes! I just wet myself!

Yeah, the guns are to blame. Not the Muslim extremist who chose to use them.

Labels: Life and Times, Media Bias, Political Correctness, Thought Crimes

You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free.
--Clarence Darrow

One of my brothers and I were talking about the Sotomayor SCOTUS deal. We were talking about her comments concerning how a Latina woman can make a better decision than a white male.

While not agreeing with her blatantly racist and sexist views, he said that he has no problem whatsoever with having a SCOTUS made up of many different races and gender. In fact, he thought it would be for the best.

His view was that regardless of the expectations of Blind Justice, the SCOTUS are very often given cases where things are not black-and-white. Most things in life are shades of gray. As such, it is in the interest of justice that the SCOTUS have different life experiences so that all Constitutional law is not found in favor of a specific race or gender.

After the paramedics revived me from my sudden onset heart attack/blown forehead vein, we continued our conversation. ;-)

My view is that the SCOTUS in particular, has a relatively easy job. They have a playbook - the Constitution - as their guide.

For instance, if a case is brought before them, they first need to see who has been given the "power" over the issue. Is this a state's rights, individual rights or federal rights issue? Were any of these groups given specific powers or prohibitions in the Constitution regarding the issue at hand?

If the answer is, "No", then according to the 9th and 10th amendments, the issue MUST become the domain of either the state or the individual, and NOT the federal government.

As such, the verdict of the state court becomes the official ruling for that case.
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Obviously, if the answer to the "powers" question is, "Yes", you follow whatever rules are set forth in the Constitution.

Here is where some of that, "grayness" can come into play. The job of the SCOTUS is to interpret what the writers of the constitution meant at the time, NOT what they want it to mean now.

For example, there is a phrase in the Constitution that I believe is the root cause of the sorry state of our nation. It's right up front in the preamble -

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

...promote the general welfare...

More importantly, I think, it raises its ugly head in Article 1, Section 8 -

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

In this case, the founders actually had a great deal of disagreement on what, "general welfare" meant.

Madison asserted it amounted to no more than a reference to the other powers enumerated in the subsequent clauses of the same section; that, as the United States is a government of limited and enumerated powers, the grant of power to tax and spend for the general national welfare must be confined to the numerated legislative fields committed to the Congress. In this view the phrase is mere tautology, for taxation and appropriation are or may be necessary incidents of the exercise of any of the enumerated legislative powers.

Hamilton, on the other hand, maintained the clause confers a power separate and distinct from those later enumerated, is not restricted in meaning by the grant of them, and Congress consequently has a substantive power to tax and to appropriate, limited only by the requirement that it shall be exercised to provide for the general welfare of the United States.

In my eyes, the correct answer is clear as day - Madison is right - it meant providing for an environment conducive to liberty - not the "cut 'em a check" bastardization we've come to know as the definition.

Hamilton was a big-government socialist. The founders meant for Madison's views to prevail, and they included the 9th and 10th amendments to make that abundantly clear.

Just as clearly, the Hamilton view has been adopted.

Back on point: Did the race and gender of the past SCOTUS justices have anything to do with this? Obviously not. Our sprint towards socialism began in the early 1900's. The only folks on the bench were old white guys.

They were the great Constitutional scholars of their time. I fail to see how their race or gender enter the equation. They made their (poor) decisions based upon their education, the leanings of their instructors and the influences of past precedence. Since they were all white and all old, race and gender were irrelevant, as it should be.

A Supreme Court Justice is supposed to be a referee of the law, NOT an advocate for either side. By supporting a judge because you want variety of viewpoints based upon how they were raised, abused, neglected, nurtured, cared-for or chastised goes against the core principles of justice.

Justice MUST be blind.

I don't want Sotomayor to support the position of the white and Hispanic firefighters because I am white. I want her to support them because they played by the rules, succeeded in passing the test, yet were discriminated against strictly because of the hue of their skin. No other reason.

That is injustice.

In her subsequent comments, Sotomayor has made it clear that she believes race and gender MUST become a part of the law. How can you expect justice from her (or anyone that believes as she does) if you are of another race or gender?
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When I was having my go-around with my brother, we were trying to come up with an example of an issue that could be brought before the SCOTUS where race, gender or general up-bringing would be relevant.

Neither of us could come up with an example.

Does anyone have an example?
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Kinda related, in a Big Brother, "general welfare" way: I've mentioned in some comments that I am reading Ayn Rand's, Atlas Shrugged. For the first time.

As I read it, I keep running into circumstance where I think Rand is tossing red meat to the small government folks. Like many authors, she's just clipping examples from the newspaper and inserting them into the book to give it some relevance.

It then dawns on me that this book was written over 50 years ago in 1957!

It is quite amazing.

• The government passing laws to, "equalize opportunity" which are actually designed to equalize outcome.
  

• The government funding the purchase of businesses so that their control can be transferred to entities that think progressively.
  

• The government using a willing, compliant media to spread propaganda which labels capitalists as greedy leaches, with values against the common good.

Someone at "Nanny Central" is using Atlas Shrugged as a playbook. Can't wait to see how it turns out...
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The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
--Thomas Jefferson

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

I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.
--Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

The deeper you dig, the more shit you find.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday that Obama was "very comfortable with her interpretation of the Constitution being similar to that of his."

"Her," being Barry's SCOTUS nominee, Sotomayor.

Just what might be her interpretation of the Constitution?

A 2004 opinion she joined also cited as precedent that "the right to possess a gun is clearly not a fundamental right."

Oh.

At least we now know - publicly - where Barry stands on the issue.
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This poor fool has no idea what he's up against -

"Any investor in mortgage-backed securities has the right to insist that their contract be enforced," Frey, president of Greenwich Financial Services, told the Times.

Before the day was out, Frey received a letter from six members of the House Financial Services Committee who said they were "outraged" by what he'd said.

"Your decision is a serious threat to our efforts to respond to the current economic crisis," wrote Democrats Barney Frank of Massachusetts, Maxine Waters of California, Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania, Carolyn Maloney of New York, and Melvin Watt of North Carolina.

Rule of law? Contractual obligations? Common decency?

Irrelevant.
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What is wrong with these people? They are sooooo selfish. Come on, guys, give 'til it hurts!

The latest bond exchange offer from General Motors Corp "sends a chilling message to all individual bondholders," GM Bondholders Unite, a grass-roots organization representing individual GM creditors, said on Thursday.

"The 'offer' to individual GM bond investors is ridiculously lopsided because it arbitrarily favors other groups, at the expense of the legal rights, under the U.S. Constitution, of hundreds of thousands of individual GM bond investors," the group said in a statement on its website.

You rich bastards are just trying to take advantage of the poor auto workers. It doesn't matter that you risked your own money. What matters is the good of The Hive.

Barry sez so.
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Who is John Galt?

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

Where there are too many policemen, there is no liberty. Where there are too many soldiers, there is no peace. Where there are too many lawyers, there is no justice.
-- Lyn Yutang

Flabbergasted being an understatement about Barry's new SCOTUS nominee.

Stunned. Shocked. WTF!?, maybe.

Apparently, she didn't get the, "Justice Is Blind" handout while attending law school.

At a 2001 U.C. Berkeley symposium marking the 40th anniversary of the first Latino named to the federal district court, Sotomayor said that the gender and ethnicity of judges does and should affect their judicial decision-making. From her speech:

"I wonder whether by ignoring our differences as women or men of color we do a disservice both to the law and society....

So, bitch your honor, does the race and gender thing only work if you're any color other than white? Or is it OK for whites (which, BTW, is a color, too) to interject their personal racial prejudices into legal precedent?

Tell me what kind of shit-storm would blow in if a white male made this statement, with the important parts switched around -

...I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.

On what topic? Puerto Rican female nail care?

Good Lord! Simply because you're a "wise" Latina, you've lived a richer life than a white guy? Could she make a more racist AND sexist statement?
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Perhaps this unapologetic sexist/racist is Barry's, Harriet Miers - a feign to give him the ability to say, "Hey! I tried!"

I certainly hope so. I PRAY so.
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Oh, and did you see who first placed her on the federal bench? Daddy Bush.

Any guesses who gave her a "raise" to the Appellate Court? Billy Jeff Clinton.

Could these two families fuck this country any harder?
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Back to digging the bunker, caching guns and food, adjusting my tin-foil beenie and preparing for my upcoming visit to Barry's Re-education Camps.

I hope they have S'mores...

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, criminal, democrats, Fascism, Thought Crimes

In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently.
---Supreme Court Associate Justice Harry Blackmun

Let that quote sink in. It is at the very core of the liberal view on race: Give special, unequal treatment to promote equality. This makes my head hurt.

It has worked out wonderfully, hasn't it?
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Down in the LA area, Mexican gangs are specifically targeting blacks for murder. I found a handful of articles on the internet, and have seen nothing about this on TV. If this were a white, skin-head gang targeting blacks, this would be world-wide news.

Al Sharpton would have already walked through 3 or 4 pairs of Gucci loafers from his numerous protest walks. We would have every broadcast and cable station down in LA with reporters sporting furrowed brows asking questions like, "Why do whites hate so much?" and "Why do whites need their guns?".

20/20 and Dateline would already be showing two-hour long specials on, "White Hate In America". Diane Sawyer would be in tears.

If whites were doing it, there'd be Senate investigations and calls for money to be sent to "under-served" black neighborhoods around the nation. TARP funds would be allocated for this disaster.

Think I'm exaggerating? Do this: Go to Google, and key in this search query: Mexican gangs targeting blacks.

Then select the "News" tab (to show you how many news articles are out there right now). I got 103 hits.

Now, key in, White gangs targeting blacks. Click "News". I got 143 hits.

Why is that? There have been 150 Hispanic gang members arrested for specifically targeting blacks in their town. This is huge news. There is NOTHING "newsworthy" going on with whites doing anything even remotely horrific, yet there are more stories about evil whites?!

If you think "media bias" is a myth, you need to pull your head out of your ass.
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I have a friend that inspects public housing. He makes sure the physical building and "plant" are in working order. Most of this property is owned or managed by HUD - The Department of Housing and Urban Development.

He just received the following instructions about the inspection reports he prepares:

We have received a directive from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) instructing that the term “graffiti” be omitted from all of our reports. It should be replaced with the term “urban art”.

and

From this point in time forward, photos for inspection purposes cannot include a person’s image. Photos with people may be perceived as racial or a display of the socioeconomic status of a community which may project the wrong impression of an area.

Why the new requirements? Well, the short answer is, this is a glaring example of what happens when government gets into the charity business. People that are down economically, STAY down.

Pictures or "hateful" words that accurately describe a situation have the real chance to destroy the fantasy, socialist image Nanny attempts to portray.

Is this what Barry meant with, "Change We Can Believe In"? All sizzle, no steak?

Graffiti is defacing the property of another person without their permission. Art is done with permission or payment.

Renaming it does nothing other than encouraging more of the same behavior. You're an "Urban Artist", not a "Graffiti Punk". It's kinda like renaming our welfare social assistance programs.

Great plan.
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Head scratcher from jimmycrackcorn in the comments section of a past post: How many of the dealerships shut down by GM and Chrysler were owned by minorities?

I'd like to also know: If any minority owned dealerships WERE shut down, what percentage are they of the ones shut down, and what percentage of all dealerships do they represent?

What I'm getting at is, were they shut down in the same percentages as they were represented in the original "universe" of dealerships, or were some dealerships deemed "special" and spared the axe simply because they were minority-owned?
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Constitution Check: Which article or amendment authorizes HUD? Which article or amendment authorizes TARP?

Just askin'...

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, Ethics, Fascism, Media Bias, nanny state, Political Correctness, Race-baiters, Thought Crimes, welfare state

That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in the next.
-- John Stuart Mill

Here's a shocking headline:

Study blames over-eating, not poor exercise for US obesity

Eat too much, you get fat. Who'd a thunk it?

I wonder how much THAT study cost us....
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It is stories like this next one why I have a problem with so-called Hate Crimes. You are not punished for your acts, but for your thoughts.

Great Brittan has taken it to new level -

On Tuesday, British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith published the names of 16 of 22 people banned from the country since October for allegedly fostering extremism or hatred. Along with [conservative radio host Michael] Savage, who has called the Quran, the Muslim holy book, "a book of hate," Muslim extremists, jailed Russian gang members and a militant Israeli settler were banned.

What is even more amazing about this is that, since 2005, Britain has only banned 101 people. Savage is one of the top 101 most dangerous people in the world?

Good Lord, has England become pussified.

Not that it was in my future plans anyways, but if travel to England were a possibility, I'd pass. It's turned from a great nation into a Muslim Extremist love-fest.

When you have already officially turned over a portion of your laws to a segment of your society - Muslims getting Sharia law - you've lost your, uhm bollocks.

BTW, I hear that Savage is suing...
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Hear that sucking sound? It's Fannie, on her knees again.

Fannie Mae, the troubled mortgage finance company, reported a first-quarter loss of $23.2 billion on Friday.

The mortgage giant also reported that it submitted a request for $19 billion from the Treasury Department to cover its losses. That followed a request earlier this year for $15.2 billion to cover 2008 losses.

And what is this pretense of this being an arms-length transaction - ..submitted a request for..?

The Federal Government bought Freddie and Fannie back in September 2008, plain and simple. They are no longer Government Sponsored Entities - they are Government OWNED Entities.
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Hey, since we all now own these banks, I guess we could all put "banker" on our resumes.

Uhm, a word of advice.... it doesn't help ;-)

Labels: communism, Corruption, Ethics, Fascism, Life and Times, nanny state, Self-Reliance, Taxes, Thought Crimes, welfare state

“I believe this legislation has the moral significance equivalent to that of the civil rights legislation of the 1960s and the Marshall Plan of the late 1940s,”
--Al Gore

He's good. Very good.

Al is talking about legislation on global warming. Equating global warming legislation with the civil rights movement (use guilt to fix past wrongs) and the Marshall Plan (fixing something that we broke) is brilliant, and will play right into every liberal's view of the world. It might even snag some soft-headed "moderates" as well.

Never mind that the civil rights movement has resulted in huge parts of the recipients of our largess - black Americans - now being helpless wards of the state. Or, that the reason we "broke" Europe was because we were busy saving their asses, AT THEIR REQUEST.

Facts and empirical evidence are irrelevant. Do what feels right. Who wouldn't want to save the planet except big, bad businesses.

The only problem is, well, there's no problem. At least not with carbon dioxide. Or with global warming either. We've been cooling for years.

"The sun is very cold right now and when there are no sunspots, the sun is cold, and that is one of the reasons we haven't seen warming for the past 12 years or so," said former Virginia state climatologist Patrick Michaels.

"We haven't seen any net change in temperature for about 12 years now," Michaels added. "We had a warming that began in 1977 and ended somewhere in late1997, and it hasn't been seen since."

Unless the eco-freaks can come up with a way to influence the actions of the sun, there ain't diddly-squat we can do to affect our global temperature in a major way.

But that doesn't fit into the meddling ways of the Gore-ites, so here comes the legislation. BOHICA, baby...
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GuyK had a piece about how he was an environmentalist, but would never accept that moniker or join the national organizations. It's been bastardized by the eco-freaks.

I commented that I'll very often go fishing and bring a garbage bag and pack out more than I brought in. Most folks want to protect our environment.

In my eyes, there is a huge difference between pollution, conserving natural resources and this global warming tripe. I'm all for strict particulate standards for automobiles, smoke coming from coal plants and chemicals being dumped into rivers.

You can easily connect the dots between chemical X being dumped into a river and finding tons of it in the fish in the river - or the dead fish floating in the river.

If the eco-freaks could show actual evidence that CO2 was causing global warming, I'd be right on board. The problem is, CO2 is the RESULT of global warming, not the cause.

I've used this example before: Take two bottles of beer, and open both of them. Place one in the sun and one in the fridge. Twenty minutes later, pour each of them into a glass. The warm one will be flat, the cold one will be fizzy.

Why? Science. CO2 stays in solution when cool, it comes out when heated.

In An Inconventient Lie Truth, Gore was in front of his big PowerPoint presentation and talked about, "the complex relationship with temperature and CO2 levels". His graph showed CO2 going up, and temps following shortly thereafter.

The problem was, "the complex relationship" was misrepresented. His own numbers showed the correct relationship, but his graph was tweaked to show what he wanted it to show.

No need to let facts get in the way of Acadamy Awards and Nobel Peace Prizes...
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Still, we're screwed.

So many Americas have swallowed this crap - hook, line and sinker. Our legislators don't have the stones to stand up against this public opinion.

So we'll get Cap and Trade, Carbon Taxes and a slew of other "incentives" to fix this manufactured problem. It will end up just like the Civil Rights movement, except it will bring all of us closer to being destitude and dependent.

What a wonderful country in which we live.....

Labels: communism, Constitution, Corruption, Eco-fraud, Fascism, Global Warming, Media Bias, nanny state, Political Correctness, Self-Reliance, Thought Crimes

There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.
--Henry David Thoreau

The "Nanny-est" of the Nanny States, California, is hard at work making sure that those of us who support freedom and the Second Amendment are kept at bay. I received this very disappointing email from the NRA yesterday:

Yesterday, the Assembly Committee on Public Safety considered two bills of great concern to California’s law-abiding gun owners.

Assembly Bill 962 was passed and now heads to the Assembly Committee on Appropriations where it awaits a hearing.Sponsored by Assembly Member Kevin De Leon (D-45), AB962 would make it a crime to privately transfer more than 50 rounds of ammunition per month, even between family and friends, unless you are registered as a “handgun ammunition vendor” in the Department of Justice’s database. Ammunition retailers would have to be licensed and store ammunition in such a manner that it would be inaccessible to purchasers. The bill would also require purchasers submit to fingerprinting, which would be submitted to the Department of Justice. Lastly, mail order ammunition sales would be prohibited.

Assembly Bill 357, sponsored by Assembly Member Steve Knight (R-36), was defeated.This bill would have created a “shall issue” concealed handgun permit system in California. Under current law, an applicant must show cause as to why they should be issued a permit to carry a concealed handgun for self-defense. AB357 would have removed that stipulation and required sheriffs to issue the license if all other mandated criteria were satisfied.

I guess they figure that with that first bill, if we can't get any ammo, we can't use our guns and all gun violence will magically melt away. What these pinheads continually forget is that the criminals don't follow the law. They'll continue stealing ammo, or going out-of-state to get it.

Once again, they have recommended a piece of legislation that has a negative impact on law-abiding citizens, and does nothing to prevent gun violence. Nothing.

The second bill hurts even worse, although it fared precisely as I expected. It didn't even make it out of committee to get voted upon by the full legislature.
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Today, I received a bit of good news. The idiotic 'smart gun' legislation was withdrawn by its sponsor:

Senate Bill 697 was scheduled to be heard on Tuesday, April 28 in the Senate Public Safety Committee.Yesterday, SB697 was pulled from the committee schedule at the request of the sponsor, State Senator Mark DeSaulnier (D-7).

SB697 would prohibit the sale of handguns other than "owner-authorized (or ‘smart’) handguns" -- that is, handguns with a permanent, programmable biometric feature that renders the firearm useless unless activated by the authorized user. No proven, viable handgun of this type has ever been developed. The bill would require the California Attorney General to report to the Governor and Legislature on the availability of owner-authorized handguns; once the Attorney General finds that these guns are available, only “owner-authorized” handguns could be approved for sale in California.

This bastard DeSaulnier is my state senator. He's not a socialist or communist, he's a dyed-in-the-wool totalitarian. He was my county supervisor before being promoted to state office. I actually had my disgust of a past proposal of his, entered into the official supervisor minutes a couple of years ago.

I guarantee you, this bill is not dead...
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A bit of a follow-up on my Caching post (pure coincidence that it follows a post about the government restricting our gun rights... I promise!):

Stephen suggested trying to locate a site that you believe won't be disturbed for 20+ years.

Western mass man reminded us to consider where you live. If during the winter, your ground is frozen solid, you ain't gonna get your stuff out quick and easy like.

Jim recommended something called B 1/2 Sealant. It's a sealant used on aircraft fuel tanks. I can't vouch for it, but something able to keep fuel tanks sealed can't be all bad!

Dave made note that hiding a cache on government lands (national parks, state parks, etc.) might work. You could be pretty sure that it would never end up with a Walmart on top of it, but as he noted, it might be like hiding your chickens in a fox den. I like it, though...

TOR suggested using precise compass degrees in the instructions. I should have said that.

Finally, jimmycrackcorn, gave a link to a great Backwoods Home Magazine article about a guy who buried a rifle for 15 years. He was worried he was going to lose it during the Billy Jeff Clinton administration.

It's a great read of an actual start-to-finish caching.
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I say this every time it shows up in my mailbox, but you're nuts if you don't subscribe to Backwoods Home Magazine. I literally read it from cover-to-cover each time it arrives. It is always full of practical things you can do to make yourself more self-sufficient and/or save money.

I wonder how long it will take before the self-sufficiency publications are publicly heckled like talk-radio, or simply shut down as, "subversive".

Labels: American Spirit, Brady Bunch, communism, Concealed Carry, Constitution, Corruption, criminal, democrats, Fascism, Gun Grabbers, nanny state, Self-Defense, Self-Reliance, Thought Crimes

Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one.
--George Orwell

Remember back in late 2008 when a bunch of Bay Area schools actually encouraged their students to cut school to join in protests over ICE raids? The supposed justification was something like, "living the Constitution" by exercising their First Amendment rights to free speech and petitioning the government.

Where was all of the pantie-wetting to teach kids with the Tea Party protests? No schools here in the People's Republic of California busing their kids to the big events, at least not here in Northern Ca....
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Oh, never mind. Will someone please just pull the chain and flush this crap down the tube?
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I had a couple of choices for a local Tea Party. In Sacramento, they were holding a huge one, but that drive was a bit much. There was another one a bit more local (Pleasanton) where one of the larger conservative radio stations was going to have a couple of their hosts at the rally. That drive was a bit far as well.

My day got away from me, so I decided to go to another one about 15 minutes away. When I got there (around 3pm) apparently the party had already ended (if it ever started). I was pissed.

I'm guessing that both the Sacramento and Pleasanton parties will get a decent amount of press, so I'll be able to see what happened. The Pleasanton one probably pulled off the attendance from my local one, but I'm still bummed.
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Weird ammo happenings: I just got my order of 9mm ammo for which I paid $21.79 a box. In the same order, I bought 4 boxes of 5.56 NATO. It was a great price at $11.97 a box. This is Lake City ammo, and is supposedly the exact ammo used over in the Sand Pit. It's got a 62 grain "Penetrator" bullet. It was available and on sale because of a printing error on the box.

I went to CheaperThanDirt.com to see if there had been any price movement. The 9mm had actually dropped in price by $2 a box. The 5.56 had almost doubled in price to $21.59 a box - in less than a week!

Go figure.
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A couple of questions:

1. Can you carry concealed at a gun show? This will be my first gun show in a state where I can carry. The show website doesn't say anything either way.

There will be guns and ammo available literally right next to each other, so if someone wants to go off, they can easily do it. Or are these typically "gun free zones" - at least for the attendees?

2. Business help: I'm putting together a newsletter for my biz, and I need ideas for some more target markets - for the personal safety classes in particular. I want people that might have a higher than normal chance of getting into trouble.

So far, I'm compiling lists of real estate agents (out on their own a lot) and health clubs/gyms (personal responsibility types). I'll also be targeting men's/women's clubs, trade groups (local chambers of commerce, etc.), unions, churches and groups like that.

Who else? What broad demographic groups/professions might be interested in this type of thing?

No. You don't get a commission on each sale... ;-)
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My favorite rendition of the National Anthem. No, the best rendition. Ever.



It actually made me kind of melancholy to listen to it. I normally listen, and it pumps me up and gets me feeling all patriotic.

As I was listening to it, I just kept thinking, "How did we get to this place in our history?" It was partly due to reading the DHS report on right-wing terrorists. It's like Jeff Foxworthy's, "You might be a redneck if...", only it was put out by our own government.

The "Thought Police" are out in full force.

How can it be possible that to believe in smaller government, tough immigration laws, or are a "disgruntled" veteran, you are now under suspicion, or at least need to be watched? And these idiots wonder out loud why there are runs on guns and ammo?

Holy shit, we're doing a belly-flop into a pool that's been drained of all reason.
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I wonder if loving the National Anthem buys you any more "domestic terrorist" points?

Labels: American Spirit, communism, Concealed Carry, Constitution, Corruption, Fascism, Media Bias, nanny state, presidential, Self-Defense, Self-Reliance, Terrorism, Thought Crimes