A fleeting truce among gentlemen.......

Could it ever happen again?

Brigade HQ cabled him: "It is thought possible that enemy may be contemplating an attack during Xmas or New Year. Special vigilance will be maintained during this period. 

Nonetheless, Col Laurie...gave orders not to fire on the enemy the following day, unless they fired first. At 8.30pm on Christmas Eve, he signalled brigade HQ: "Germans have illuminated their trenches, are singing songs and are wishing us a Happy Xmas" 

Compliments are being exchanged but am nevertheless taking all military precautions." No shots had been fired since 8pm, he added. 

Col Laurie went on to describe how soldiers from both sides were mingling. The Germans, he wrote, were "fine men, clean and well clothed. They gave us a cap and helmet badge and a box of cigars. One of them states the war would be over in three weeks as they had defeated Russia!"

Brigade HQ replied at 12.35am – Christmas Day – saying: "No communication of any sort is to be held with the enemy, nor is he to be allowed to approach our trenches under penalty of fire being opened."

Irish Times

Godwin's Law for Gun Control - UPDATED -

After reading the entire [and asinine] complaint against Bushmaster, regarding the Sandy Hook shootings....I think it's high time we develop a companion to Godwin's Law [if you mention Adolf Hitler or Nazis within a discussion, you’ve automatically lost, and ended whatever discussion you were taking part in] for the debate over gun control v. gun rights.


"If you mention the NRA-as-a-boogeyman within a discussion thread, you’ve automatically ended whatever discussion you were taking part in"


Just need a catchy name now.....

- UPDATED -

I had to share the absurd asininity [yes, that's a bit repetitive, but remember who we're dealing with...] that the gun control cabal is capable of:

Gun control advocate and independent filmmaker Rejina Sincic has created what she calls a PSA aimed at “reducing gun violence in schools and communities.” 

The video depicts a teenage boy sneaking into his mother’s room, taking a gun out of her dresser drawer (who knows if it’s loaded or unloaded), putting it in his backpack and then taking it to school. After class, he waits for the other students to leave then puts the gun on the teacher’s desk and says, “Can you take this away? I don’t feel safe with a gun in my house.” 

Certainly nothing could go wrong in that scenario, right? 

Bearing Arms points out: 

In the real world, such an act would result in the boy facing numerous felony charges (exact charges depend on state laws) possibly including weapons theft, unlawful possession of a weapon by a minor, illegal concealed carry of a weapon, carrying a weapon onto school property, assault, and brandishing. 

There’s also the very real chance that someone could be hurt or killed by an accidental discharge of the gun. 

Imagine if teenagers really did follow Sincic’s advice en masse? We would have hundreds of guns showing up, potentially loaded, on school property. The students would face expulsion from school. 

If your goal as an activist is to create a cultural shift, encouraging children to steal their parents’ property, endanger themselves and others, and break multiple laws is not the way to do it.

Link

Suddenly, since gun control loons are encouraging SS and STASI like behavior....Godwin's Law seems appropriate.

QOTD - Santa's Suveillance State?

My family never practiced the "Elf on the Shelf" thing...and frankly, I don't really understand the appeal...but a Washington Post article tackled an aspect of this recent tradition, that makes no small amount of sense, subversively.


For some, the Elf on the Shelf doll, with its doe-eyed gaze and cherubic face, has become a whimsical holiday tradition — one that helpfully reminds children to stay out of trouble in the lead-up to Christmas.


For others — like, say, digital technology professor Laura Pinto — the Elf on the Shelf is “a capillary form of power that normalizes the voluntary surrender of privacy, teaching young people to blindly accept panoptic surveillance and” [deep breath] “reify hegemonic power.”


If she’s right, in all likelihood she’s fighting a losing battle. The Elf on the Shelf book sold over 6 million copies and joined the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade last year, according to the Daily Mail.


“I don’t think the elf is a conspiracy and I realize we’re talking about a toy,” Pinto told The Post. “It sounds humorous, but we argue that if a kid is okay with this bureaucratic elf spying on them in their home, it normalizes the idea of surveillance and in the future restrictions on our privacy might be more easily accepted.”


And more thought provoking [for me anyway]:


Elf on the Shelf presents a unique (and prescriptive) form of play that blurs the distinction between play time and real life. Children who participate in play with The Elf on the Shelf doll have to contend with rules at all times during the day: they may not touch the doll, and they must accept that the doll watches them at all times with the purpose of reporting to Santa Claus. This is different from more conventional play with dolls, where children create play-worlds born of their imagination, moving dolls and determining interactions with other people and other dolls. Rather, the hands-off “play” demanded by the elf is limited to finding (but not touching!) The Elf on the Shelf every morning, and acquiescing to surveillance during waking hours under the elf’s watchful eye. The Elf on the Shelf controls all parameters of play, who can do and touch what, and ultimately attempts to dictate the child’s behavior outside of time used for play.


Does this Christmas gimmick dovetail with the enormous catalog of State intrusions that we've generally come to accept, if we even acknowledge them at all? Does this in any way help a larger effort to shape society in accepting constant surveillance, tracking and monitoring...or is the 'Elf' just good holiday fun?

Sandy Hook families sue Bushmaster - Updated -

The families of nine people murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012, plus a survivor of the massacre, are  suing Bushmaster, the North Carolina company that made the semiautomatic rifle Adam Lanza used in the attack. The lawsuit also names as defendants the weapon's distributor and the East Windsor, Connecticut, gun store that sold it to Nancy Lanza, the killer's mother. Although none of these businesses broke any laws, the plaintiffs argue that they are guilty of "negligent entrustment" because they made a gun with no legitimate civilian uses available to the general public. Joshua Koskoff, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, told The Wall Street Journal "there is so much ample evidence of the inability of the civilian world to control these weapons that [it] is no longer reasonable to entrust them to [civilians]."
Reason


And here we go. Demonization of the firearm. Never mind that this firearm in question was legal to purchase and own at the time of the shooting......never mind that this firearm in question functions no differently than any [generally speaking] other semi-automatic rifle. It looks scary so it must be banned. I don't blame the lawyers here...they're just looking to make money off of tragedy...it's what they do. I don't even blame the victims families, because they are seemingly simply ignorant of the basic functions of firearms and the lawful nature of the product.


I blame the gun control cabal, who instead of focusing their attention on the root causes of why one resorts to violence.....they pursue the lazy avenue of trying to demonize the tool used in said violence. They do this fully knowledgeable to the lawful nature of these tools and the Constitutional protections guaranteed for their ownership by the citizen. They rely on invented labels and rhetoric and the relative ignorance of the public at large. They preach "gun safety" only because the truthful term of "gun control" has not panned out in their favor...but don't actually support teaching gun safety. Education is not their goal, but rather a utopian vision that will ultimately leave more victims in it's wake...as well as the fundamental and Constitutional right to defend oneself with a tool commensurate with the median threat.


- Updated - Eugene Volokhs astute summation of the merits of this case here.

Mahalo Marcus

Vimeo

Apparently, only SOME lives matter.....

The president of prestigious Smith College is red-faced and apologetic Tuesday for telling students on the Northampton, Mass., campus that "all lives matter."

Kathleen McCartney wrote the phrase in the subject line of an e-mail to students at the school, whose alumni include feminists Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan, former First Lady Nancy Reagan and celebrity chef Julia Child. McCartney was attempting to show support for students protesting racially charged grand jury decisions in which police in Missouri and New York were not charged in the deaths of unarmed black men.

Protesters have adopted several slogans in connection with the cases of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, including "Black Lives Matter." McCartney's more inclusive version of the refrain was seen as an affront that diminished the focus on black lives and racism, according to emails obtained by FoxNews.com.

“We are united in our insistence that all lives matter,” read the e-mail,in which she made clear she was strongly behind the protests, writing that the grand jury decisions had “led to a shared fury… We gather in vigil, we raise our voices in protest.”

But she soon received backlash from students for her phrasing. They were offended that she did not stick with the slogan “black lives matter.”

The Daily Hampshire Gazette, which first covered the story, quoted one Smith sophomore, Cecelia Lim, as saying, “it felt like she was invalidating the experience of black lives.”
FNC


I suppose we should be grateful that these special little snowflakes weren't so traumatized by a Grand Jury verdict they weren't a party to, that they petitioned to delay law examinations.


Prissy fricken pajama boys [and girls].......

Pearl Harbor Day

Remember the fallen.......

That time of year again....the invented "war on Christmas"

Earlier this week, Finntann, one of the astute bloggers at Western Hero, penned a piece based on an American Atheists billboard going up in several cities. The resulting discussion was constructive and civil.

On the other end of the pendulum swing, the Catholic League is apparently countering with a billboard of their own in Los Angeles.

I would proffer that calling religion a fairy tale isn't terribly productive....nor is labeling those who don't share your belief [and your quest for preferential treatment] 'haters'.

In the spirit of the holidays....or Christmas if you prefer.....it's important to remember the actual definitions of religious liberty and religious persecution. Rachel Held Evans, author, skeptic and Christian....offers a handy flowchart for the season, along with some sage words:

There is a pernicious rumor that resurfaces every Advent season and spreads across social media faster than a cold in a kindergarten class. 

It’s the rumor that God can be “kept out” of Christmas. 

You may have heard it from Kirk Cameron or an anchor at Fox News or an army of culture warriors who have once again worked themselves into a frenzy over the “War on Christmas.” Galvanized by fear, they storm checkout counters to demand that clerks issue them a “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays” and cry persecution when inflatable manger scenes are moved from public courthouses to private property. They pine after the good-old-days when Christians could force Jewish kids to sing Christmas carols at school and they demand that every gift purchased, every mall opened late, every credit card maxed out must be done so in Jesus’ name or else Christ will be “kept out” of Christmas. They do it because someone told them that God needs a nod from the Empire to show up, forgetting somehow that the story of Advent is the story of how God showed up as a Jew in the Roman Empire.

In a barn.  

As an oppressed minority. 

To the applause of a few poor shepherds.

The whole story of Advent is the story of how God can’t be kept out. God is present. God is with us. God shows up—not with a parade but with the whimper of a baby, not among the powerful but among the marginalized, not to the demanding but to the humble. From Advent to Easter, the story of Jesus should teach us that God doesn’t need a mention in our pledge or on our money or over the loudspeaker at the mall to be present, and when we fight like spoiled children to “keep” God in those things, we are fighting for idols. We’re chasing wind. 

Religious persecution is real. Suffering is real. But sharing the public square is not persecution and being wished “happy holidays” causes no one to suffer. 

Merry Christmas, Chanukah Sameach (Happy Chanukah) and Happy Holidays

This would have been almost as good as the Heisman.....

Prophetic?

Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota entered Saturday as the Heisman favorite, and he ended Saturday as the Heisman favorite.

That's what happens when you pile up six touchdowns and more than 400 yards and your team wins a rivalry game 47-19 on the road, as the second-ranked Ducks did against Oregon State.

During that stellar performance against the Beavers, Mariota made a move during a play that made it look like he was posing as a certain trophy. And Register-Guard photographer Brian Davies captured it perfectly.

ESPN PAC-12 Blog

Words matter...

“The biggest problems we’re facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all. And that’s what I intend to reverse when I am president of the United States of America.” — Senator Barak Obama, March 31, 2008

Acknowledge our invisible sky-God...or else

For years, PetSmart has refused to use the word Christmas on its website, in television commercials, newspaper ads and in-store promotions, despite tens of thousands of consumer requests to recognize Christmas and in spite of repeated requests from AFA to do the same.


Want proof? Go to www.PetSmart.com and type "Christmas" in the search bar. As of today, the website brings up zero results, although the company’s website is clearly marketing to "Christmas" shoppers.


At PetSmart, you'll find a "Holiday Shop," a "holiday" wish list and plenty of "holiday" items, but you won't find "Christmas."


Ironically, PetSmart had no problem with saying Halloween though. They promoted their "Halloween Shop" very heavily for weeks in October. So why are they so afraid of Christmas?


PetSmart is censoring the word Christmas, pure and simple. Yet the company wants all the people who celebrate Christmas to do their shopping at its stores.


Until PetSmart proves it recognizes Christmas by using it in their newspaper, radio and television advertising or in-store signage, the boycott will be promoted throughout this Christmas season.


AFA has successfully influenced (intimidated?) almost all of the nation's largest retailers to embrace the use of Christmas in their advertising. But at PetSmart, it's "Bah, Humbug!"


Link


Translation: Our personal faith is sustained by the politically correct buzz words and catch-phrases of the general public, inextricably linking the chosen day of celebration for the birth of our savior, with mass marketing and crass consumerism.


They should just rename it McChristmas.....

When I was a young Soldier in West Germany in the 1980's

This couldn't even be imagined. h/t SNAFU!

1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Soldiers dismount a M2/M3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle and advance on a target as dismounted Hungarian soldiers and soldiers in Hungarian BTR-80 Armored Personnel Carriers lay suppressive fire during a NATO demonstration at the closing ceremony of Iron Sword 2014 in Pabrade, Lithuania, Nov. 13.

The Conundrum of a Jihadi

Is it bacon? Is it a booty call? What to do...what to do.....

h/t Lonely Libertarian

Huge 2nd Amendment Win

In the 9th Circuit Court motion by the State of California to appeal the Peruta v. San Diego ruling:


The panel denied motions to intervene, which were filed after the panel’s opinion and judgment holding that a responsible, law-abiding citizen has a right under the Second Amendment to carry a firearm in public for self-defense. The panel held that the movants did not meet the heavy
burden of demonstrating imperative reasons in favor of intervention on appeal. Noting that the movants sought intervention more than four years after the case began, the panel stated that the stage of the proceedings, the length of the delay, and the reason for the delay all weighed against
timeliness. In the absence of a timely motion, intervention was unavailable.

The panel further concluded that 28 U.S.C. § 2403 and Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.1 did not provide a basis for intervention because the panel’s opinion never drew into question the Constitutionality of any California statute, but only questioned San Diego County’s exercise of regulatory authority under the relevant state statutes, specifically the County’s policy that an assertion of self-defense is insufficient to demonstrate “good cause” under the California statutory scheme.


Ruling


From Reason: The upshot is that with both San Diego and the state government now out of the picture, there is no longer any party left with potential standing to challenge the 9th Circuit's decision. Peruta's holding that "the right to bear arms includes the right to carry an operable firearm outside the home for the lawful purpose of self-defense" is now the law of the land in both California and the rest of the territory covered by the 9th Circuit.

The Obamacare charade......from the horse's mouth

Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber said that lack of transparency was a major part of getting Obamacare passed because “the stupidity of the American voter” would have killed the law if more people knew what was in it. 

Gruber, the MIT professor who served as a technical consultant to the Obama administration during Obamacare’s design, also made clear during a panel quietly captured on video that the individual mandate, which was only upheld by the Supreme Court because it was a tax, was not actually a tax. 

“This bill was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO did not score the mandate as taxes. If CBO scored the mandate as taxes, the bill dies. Okay, so it’s written to do that.  In terms of risk rated subsidies, if you had a law which said that healthy people are going to pay in – you made explicit healthy people pay in and sick people get money, it would not have passed… Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really really critical for the thing to pass.”

Daily Caller

Of course, repeal efforts are doomed to failure, because it's already been implemented. Once pigs make it to the trough, its hell to convince them to back away......

Take a break from political theater...and remember what's important...

'Nuff said......

Instead of wasting time with mandatory "sensitivity" training.....

How about we institute mandatory 1st Amendment training?


Two high school students in Massachusetts were suspended and face possible expulsion after posting a homecoming photo online of themselves holding airsoft rifles.
Tito Velez, 15, and his girlfriend Jamie Pereira posed with the airsoft rifles inside his home before heading to the Bristol Plymouth Regional Technical School homecoming dance in Taunton, a local NBC affiliate reported.
“This isn’t dangerous. … You can’t kill someone with it,” Tito said. “We didn’t shoot anyone. We were pointing them at the floor. Everything was on safe, no batteries, they never left the house. We never took them to school. That’d be stupid.”
Airsoft rifles only shoot plastic pellets and are not intended to be lethal. Still, the two were suspended Monday morning after posting the photo on Facebook, and administrators are considering expulsion, the station said.
“They created a disruption, in our opinion, and that’s what they’re being punished for,” said superintendent Richard Gross.
The issue wasn’t the gun replicas themselves, but the “Homecoming 2014” caption attached to the photo, the superintendent said.
“These students know what is provocative,” Mr. Gross said, a local CBS affiliate reported. “To tie that to one of our school events kind of puts it over the top which brings us into it.”
He said a number of concerned parents saw the post and called the school to complain.
“Whether they had reason to be afraid or not, the fact is they were, and it was created by this,” Mr. Gross said.
He said police would have canceled the dance if they had known about the Facebook post on Friday.


Link


How does the school think that it has the authority to punish students for acting in a law abiding manner in the confines of their own home? And why do parents completely surrender their own authority to government schools?

Spoiler Alert?

"When you give [Democrats and Republicans] your vote, you're telling them 'Go ahead, keep on doing what you're doing,'" explains Libertarian National Committee Vice Chair Arvin Vohra. "And when you vote for the Libertarian candidate you are telling them, in no uncertain terms, 'You do not have either my approval or my permission to grow or sustain big government: shrink it now.'"


As the midterm elections approach, Democrats and Republicans are making their final pleas to win over undecided voters, with some casting Libertarian candidates as "spoilers" in a few key races. But Vorha, himself running as a Libertarian for Maryland's 4th congressional district against Democratic incumbent Donna Edwards, dismisses the charge. Despite his low poll numbers, Vohra sees the act of casting a vote for the Libertarian Party as a pathway to reform. He quotes a former Libertarian candidate: "Not all politicians are smart, but they can all count."


Link


It's a common refrain from the GOP, when having lost an election to the Democrat candidate, is anything but the ineffectiveness of the GOP campaign, candidate or position on the issues. When a Libertarian candidate is running, that candidate becomes the de facto scapegoat. But there's a few major problems with this tautology.


Libertarians are not Republicans. As such, the GOP has no claim of ownership over any Libertarian votes. Libertarian candidates are also not, as the two major parties and there media enablers would have you believe, "undecided voters" or "independents". Why the American people put up with the concerted effort by the establishment to shoehorn voters into a narrow ideological box with a paper divider....is beyond me. Both major parties exist to grow the size and scope of government and their party power [but I repeat myself].


Finally, if the GOP can't motivate it's base to come out and vote, why do they seek blame elsewhere? If the percentage of registered GOP voters who stay home next week is more than the percentage of Libertarian voters who cast a ballot....there's your problem.

We'll be holding our breath for Holder and Sharpton to apologize......

[Dr. Judy Melinek, a forensic pathologist in San Francisco] also said the autopsy did not support witnesses who have claimed Brown was shot while running away from Wilson, or with his hands up.

She said Brown was facing Wilson when Brown took a shot to the forehead, two shots to the chest and a shot to the upper right arm. The wound to the top of Brown’s head would indicate he was falling forward or in a lunging position toward the shooter; the shot was instantly fatal.

A sixth shot that hit the forearm traveled from the back of the arm to the inner arm, which means Brown’s palms could not have been facing Wilson, as some witnesses have said, Melinek said. That trajectory shows Brown probably was not taking a standard surrender position with arms above the shoulders and palms out when he was hit, she said.


Link


Not really. The race pimps and charlatans will quietly slink back into the woodwork, until the next opportunity arises for them to whore out there quest for relevance.

A clear case for civil disobedience

The city of Houston has issued subpoenas demanding a group of pastors turn over any sermons dealing with homosexuality, gender identity or Annise Parker, the city’s first openly lesbian mayor. And those ministers who fail to comply could be held in contempt of court. 

The subpoenas are just the latest twist in an ongoing saga over the Houston’s new non-discrimination ordinance. The law, among other things, would allow men to use the ladies room and vice versa.  The city council approved the law in June. 

The Houston Chronicle reported opponents of the ordinance launched a petition drive that generated more than 50,000 signatures – far more than the 17,269 needed to put a referendum on the ballot. 

However, the city threw out the petition in August over alleged irregularities.
After opponents of the bathroom bill filed a lawsuit the city’s attorneys responded by issuing the subpoenas against the pastors. 

The pastors were not part of the lawsuit. However, they were part of a coalition of some 400 Houston-area churches that opposed the ordinance. The churches represent a number of faith groups – from Southern Baptist to non-denominational.

Link

If the Mayor wants access to what a Preacher says to his flock, she should attend said Church. The State has no right, enumerated or implied, to dictate the surrender of transcripts from any entity, barring the investigation of a criminal act. Since this action is being undertaken by the State, this is a clear case of the violation of 1st Amendment rights....and the Pastors in question should rise up as one voice and refuse this edict. Or in an ironic twist, tell her that the sermons are all on a failed hard drive, sorry.

Now, there are reports that either initial reports may have been incorrectly attributed to the Mayor's Office, or there is a comprehensive effort to cover her ass.

Mayor Parker agrees with those who are concerned about the city legal department’s subpoenas for pastor’s sermons.  The subpoenas were issued by pro bono attorneys helping the city prepare for the trial regarding the petition to repeal the new Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) in January.  Neither the mayor nor City Attorney David Feldman were aware the subpoenas had been issued until yesterday.  Both agree the original documents were overly broad.  The city will move to narrow the scope during an upcoming court hearing.  Feldman says the focus should be only on communications related to the HERO petition process.

Link

Guess who wants us back?

After rebuking a continued [and legally protected] US presence via a renewal of the Status of Forces Agreement in 2011....and the statement by new Iraqi PM rejecting ground forces just last month...the Provisional Council of Anbar Province is apparently leading an effort to have more Americans die for Iraq.

Iraqi officials have issued a desperate plea for America to bring US ground troops back to the embattled country, as heavily armed Islamic State militants came within striking distance of Baghdad. 

The warning came from Sabah al-Karhout, president of the provisional council of Anbar Province, the vast desert province to the west of Baghdad that has now largely fallen under jihadist control.

Link

Thanks but no thanks. We took out an oppressive, yet stable Sunni counterweight to Iran...and enabled a Shari'a compliant Shia ally...and are surprised by the nine year disaster now being ground zero in the ever continuing war over Muhammad's ghost?

And so it begins......? Act II

Liberia said on Friday it was banning journalists from Ebola clinics, defying media rights campaigners who have warned panicked African governments against "muzzling" reporters. 

Government spokesman Isaac Jackson made the announcement as he was questioned on a radio phone-in show about reporters being barred from covering a strike at a Monrovia Ebola treatment unit (ETU). 

"Journalists are no longer allowed to enter ETUs. These journalists enter the ETUs and cross red lines," Jackson, the deputy information minister, told listeners to commercial station Sky FM.

Link

Act I is the CDC telling us all that we have nothing to fear, while they lay a smokescreen of ineffectual mitigation measures at US airports.

Act II is journalists being denied coverage of the situation, as noted above.

What does Act III bring? Not sure, but it doesn't bode well. Thus far, the events have seemed to be the opening chapters of every Apocalyptic book and movie.....

Luckily, I at least have a canary in a coal mine. I live not far from a Continuity of Government location. Serials of helicopters headed to that facility triggers the family action plan. I'll put my tin foil away for now....but I'm keeping it close by.

Megan Kelly is a hottie.....and a shill

Just compare her "fair and balanced" approaches to those who toe the right wing party line regarding the US withdrawal from Iraq, and that towards Jon Stolz from VoteVets, who offered a reasoned, yet dissenting voice.

Political theater for the bobble-heads.

But Megan is still hot.

Know Your Domestic Enemy: Hollywood Assclown Edition

Gwyneth Paltrow struggled to hold herself back as she stood next to President Obama on Thursday evening in her own Brentwood backyard. Mr. Obama, she told dozens of Democratic donors, has brought a “passion” to the presidency that would “be one of the most important and scrutinized and looked at.”

She rambled on about why she considers herself his biggest supporter, including his endorsement of equal pay for women, which the millionaire movie star said was “very important to me as a working mother.”

Then came what was apparently on her mind all along. “You’re so handsome that I can’t speak properly,” she said before handing the microphone over to Mr. Obama.

Other than her remarks about the president’s looks, Ms. Paltrow stayed on message. She said that the president needed a Congress controlled by Democrats to move the nation in the right direction.

“It would be wonderful if we are able to give this man all the power he needs to accomplish the things he needs to,” Ms. Paltrow said.

Link


Cult of personality, regardless of party......is a dangerous ingredient to an already broken system where the major parties are in an incestuous circle jerk with the compliant media.

And so it begins.......?

Africa Confirms 3rd Ebola Victims Rises From The Dead, Releases Picture of 1st “Ebola Zombie”

Fear and panic is spreading in Nimba County, an African community where dead Ebola patients have reportedly “resurrected” and roams around among the living. The victims were allegedly women in their 40s and 60s who was thought to have died from the virus in Liberia’s Nimba County.

OK, so the source isn't exactly the AP, and the story remains unconfirmed by any reputable source.

But remember this....the beginning of nearly every Zombie Apocalypse/Plague/SHTF book or movie....always has the CDC saying something like: "The bottom line here is that I have no doubt that we will control this importation, or this case of Ebola, so that it does not spread widely in this country. It is certainly possible that someone who had contact with this individual could develop Ebola in the coming weeks. But there is no doubt in my mind that we will stop it here."

On Religious Liberty and the Constitution

The separation of church and state doesn’t mean “the government cannot favor religion over non-religion,” Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia argued during a speech at Colorado Christian University on Wednesday, according to The Washington Times. 

Defending his strict adherence to the plain text of the Constitution, Scalia knocked secular qualms over the role of religion in the public sphere as “utterly absurd,” arguing that the Constitution is only obligated to protect freedom of religion -- not freedom from it. 

“I think the main fight is to dissuade Americans from what the secularists are trying to persuade them to be true: that the separation of church and state means that the government cannot favor religion over non-religion,” the Reagan-appointed jurist told the crowd of about 400 people. 

“We do Him [God] honor in our pledge of allegiance, in all our public ceremonies,” the conservative Catholic justice continued. “There’s nothing wrong with that. It is in the best of American traditions, and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. I think we have to fight that tendency of the secularists to impose it on all of us through the Constitution.”

Link

Wow. That piece of rank ignorance came from a Supreme Court Justice. Probably a good case for injecting the label "activist Judge". The Constitution is absolutely required to protect the religious liberty of the citizen; but nowhere in our founding documents is found the enumerated power of the government to either endorse or favor religious belief.

This latest missive ties in to what I've been saying for years.....the American people have the inherent right to worship the faith of their choosing, or none at all....and this natural right is protected by the Constitution. This is not to say that violations of religious liberty do not occasionally occur, and we must remain vigilant to ensure that these abuses do no occur, and are not condoned by government. But most of the current crusades are not directed at protecting liberty, but advocating for just what Scalia proposes......government endorsement of religious belief. Or more accurately, the religious belief of those conducting the aforementioned advocating.

Case in point...public school prayer. Some believe that removing organized prayer during school hours was a violation of their religious liberty. But this was not the case. Any student or teacher may pray to their chosen deity at anytime time during the school day, provided that it does not distract from the activities or curriculum. Those who believe they have been wronged aren't advocating for the ability to pray in school [as opposed to before or after]...they desire public and government acknowledgment of their beliefs. They desire an institutionalization of their belief in an omnipotent [and invisible] creator.

Government has no mandate, anywhere, to weigh in on the validity of any religious belief. Scalia argues that the Constitution does not prohibit government from acting on this vote of validity...but he is quite obviously confused [or promoting an agenda. i.e activism]. The Constitution, by definition, enumerates the powers of the government. The vaunted document does not comprise of a list of "don't's"....it is a list of "do's". Scalia in this regard, represents how this nation and society have fallen away from adherence to our guiding laws, and into the arms of political expediency and agendas.

An astute commenter at the linked piece puts it succinctly:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or restricting the free exercise thereof." 

Any public law or policy that "favors religion over non-religion" clearly violates the First Amendment.

The important point to note is in the wording of the 1st Amendment, where if it were to state "respecting the establishment of religion", then Scalia might have a point. In that case, favoring religious belief would not be the establishment of a government sponsored religion. But as it states "respecting an establishment of religion", this quite clearly refers to religious belief. This states that the government does not possess the power to create law that favors the religious over the secular.

And that's what the debate really bills down to. Some of the faithful, are not seeking religious liberty, because they already possess that. They can already exercise their natural right to worship in accordance with their faith without regulation or restriction from the government [generally speaking, and I think there is too much of this regulation to begin with]. They desire for government to codify in law, their religious belief system, at the expense of or detriment to, those who do not follow their faith or any faith at all.

Given the corrupt and corruptible nature of government, I'm at a loss as to why they would desire their faith to be bedfellows with the State. Doing so only dilutes and degrades both. I'm also perplexed as to why [predominately] Christians would favor establishing legal precedence for other belief systems....giving the bedwetting and hand-wringing over Islam.

The Logical End-state of Gun Control.....and Fair Warning from Down-Under

In legal terms, Australians have a right of self-defence. While some states rely on the common law and others have it enshrined in statute, the right itself is never questioned. Moreover, juries consistently refuse to convict those charged with serious offences whenever self-defence is made out. 

What we don’t have is the practical ability to exercise that right. Possessing any object specifically for the purpose of self-defence, lethal or non-lethal, is a criminal offence. There are many women, raped and/or murdered, who would have been liable to prosecution had they been carrying anything that might have saved them. 

Those agile enough to retreat from an assailant can obviously do so if it is feasible, and it is lawful to use items at hand such as screwdrivers, kitchen knives and beer glasses. But for those unable to flee, insufficiently strong, or with no improvised weapon, there is no option for them but to rely on the police or — if they are lucky — bystanders, to protect them from ­assault or theft. 

Prohibited self-defence items include pepper sprays, mace, clubs and personal Tasers. In some States carrying a pocketknife is ­illegal and even wearing a bulletproof vest is banned. 

The Prime Minister is protected by armed guards at taxpayers’ expense, and the wealthy can hire armed security guards, but the safety of everyone else ­relies on the assumption that the police can keep us safe. And as the saying goes, when seconds count the police are minutes away. 

What this means is that self-defence is not a realistic option for most people, and especially not for the majority of women, elderly and disabled. We have become a nation of defenceless victims.

David Leyonhjelm is the Liberal Democrats’ senator for NSW

Link

Know Your Domestic Enemy: Beltway Edition

Not long ago, the District of Columbia was ordered by a Federal judge to become compliant with the 2nd Amendment: that the right extends beyond just the home. And the D.C. Council was forced to pass an emergency concealed carry law. Of course, like in many other locations where State control is worshipped, the D.C. bill is "May Issue", meaning the applicant must show "good reason" in which to be armed. And in like in those other locations, as we know all too well....the Statists don't consider self defense to be a "good reason" [though ironically safeguarding large amounts of cash and the protection of elitists is].

But the kleptocratic elitists aren't happy about protecting the natural right of a D.C. citizen to protect themselves. Not too happy ay all:

Councilmember David Grosso (I-At Large) introduced an amendment today to establish a public database of concealed carry permit holders, saying people have a right to know if their neighbor or date has a gun.

“We should at least give our neighbors and residents a chance to know who has the gun. Put it up there! Let people be proud if they want to carry a concealed weapon! But at least we’ll all know who it is, and we can treat them differently….”

Councilmember David Catania (I-At Large) supported the amendment, saying that, while there's a right to bear arms, there's "no commensurate right to privacy." Yvette Alexander (D-At Large) was also in favor of the amendment: "Who cares about the confidentiality of a gun owner? We don't want it, so expose yourself."

Link

That's the tactic we see from the gun control cabal time and again. They hate the right of self defense, because it doesn't rely upon the State, but rather, the citizen. They provably cannot argue on the merits, so they demonize and attempt to ostracize the citizen who accepts the responsibility of self and home defense. But they of course are targeting the law abiding citizen. The citizen who will go through burden of application, licensing, regulation and taxation....to exercise their natural and Constitutionally protected right. Will it be long before the Statists campaign to do likewise for our other Constitutional rights? Or will they remain hypocrites?

Great job Secret Service......*UPDATED*

your security and surveillance failed....and your solution is to further remove the citizen from seeing the 'People's House'?


UPDATED: And here we go:


Secret Service considers a larger buffer zone around the White House


After an unprecedented security breach Friday night at the White House, the U.S. Secret Service is weighing a series of measures that would move tourists and D.C. residents farther away from the complex to reduce the chances of intruders piercing its security perimeter and endangering the president.


One proposal is to keep people off the sidewalks around the White House fence and create several yards of additional barrier around the compound’s perimeter. Another is to screen visitors as far as a block away from the entrance gates.

Know your domestic enemy

New York City councilman and State Assembly shoo-in Charles Barron has reiterated his admiration of dictators and said he hopes to host one of them — Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe — in the states … again. 

“I would love for him to come to Albany. I would love for him to come anywhere in the United States, really,” Barron said in a recent interview with the New York Observer. “I think he’s a shining example of an African leader on the African continent.” 

Barron famously hosted Mugabe as city councilman in 2002. 

Mugabe took control of Zimbabwe in 1983 and instituted martial law in 1987. He rose to power after starting an ethnic cleansing in which tens of thousands of people were murdered, the Observer reports. Barron praised him because he seized land from white landowners and redistributed it to black Africans. 

“No one’s perfect,” Barron told the Observer. “I see him as a freedom fighter.”

Barron has expressed support for dictators around the world, including Libyan dictator Muammar el-Quaddafi and Cuba’s former president Fidel Castro. 

He told the Observer, “All my heroes were America’s enemies. 

Barron is expected to beat his Republican opponent for a New York Assembly seat handily. The Observer reports that he is running to replace his wife in the Assembly, who in turn is replacing him as city councilman.

Link

Can't really add to that. The asshattery is plain to see.

Ann Coulter and the Rovian elite don't much like Libertarians.....

Except when they want to use their votes like a cheap hooker.

The biggest current danger for Republicans is that idiots will vote for Libertarian candidates in do-or-die Senate elections, including Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina and Colorado. (That's in addition to the "Independent" in Kansas who's a Democrat.) Democratic candidates don't have to put up with this crap -- they're even trying to dump the official Democrat in Kansas to give the stealth Democrat a better shot. 

When we're all dying from lack of health care across the United States of Mexico, we'll be deeply impressed with your integrity, libertarians. 

Which brings me to my final assignment this week: If you are considering voting for the Libertarian candidate in any Senate election, please send me your name and address so I can track you down and drown you. 

Lair of the Harpy 

Well, Ann......"bring it on". Should I send you my address? You'll get your skinny ass capped.

The current meme from the GOP is: C'mon....vote GOP, we'll sort out all of these divisive issues later. This upcoming election is yet another notch in the "most important election of our lifetime!!!! cycle. It's amazing how each successive election is even more important than the last...yet they still don't support making Election Day a holiday, to bring out more voters.

Dear Ann and her party elite never seem to realize that Libertarians aren't merely disaffected Republicans. They are not a subset of the GOP. Some are to be sure, but not those who identify with the Libertarianism writ large. Libertarians have watched with interest, how the party elite trashed and sabotaged the tea party movement within it's ranks. And Libertarians are cognizant that the GOP wants only what the Democratic Party wants...gaining and/or maintaining party power.

The GOP doesn't want Libertarian ideals, they juts want Libertarian votes. They are a political party wedded to the increasing growth of the scope of government; as has been proven during every GOP Administration. Libertarian swag and rhetoric is the camouflage the GOP dons when they get called to the carpet for not governing in accordance with their campaign pledges.

Such is their folly, when their perfidy loses elections. They blame third parties, because they can't bring themselves to acknowledge that they cannot even mobilize their own ranks or registered voters.

Such is the folly of a Libertarian who gets conned by the snake-oil salesmen. Change will never occur if we continuously - and willfully - box ourselves into the narrow game, run by the party elites and the media.

Letting the GOP use you like a cheap hooker, will only give you shame and an STD.

After a long hiatus.....THIS is the U2 that I grew up with

Granted, the U2 I remember fondly, is this:

Scotland...Aye

Don't hate.....Celebrate....Go Ducks!

Dress a Duck

The Moral Bankruptcy of the GOP

The GOP has long opposed any and all actions of the Obama Administration...and sometimes for good reason. But the current bedwetting against the hypothetical threat ISIS poses to the homeland, exposes the party for what it is.

A morally bankrupt institution focused only on gaining and/or maintaining power.

They bitched and moaned against Obama's inaction while ISIS tore through the bleak, flat wasteland of NW Iraq. They called upon the Administration to bomb ISIS, and some [McCain, Graham, etc] denounced the Administration for not arming "moderate" Syrian forces. Now that the Administration has embarked upon an air campaign against ISIS, and is indeed looking to arm Syrian fighters [what could possibly go wrong?]....they continue to bitch and moan, as if their stated goals were not being realized.

Congress maintains the power To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water. [Article I, Section 8, Clause 11, US Constitution].

The House of Representatives could have conducted a roll call vote and called Obama's bluff, long ago. They declined. If the GOP is not going to pull up their big boy pants and act like Constitution-abiding adults, but rather whine and cry like Democrats...why should I ever lend them my vote? They play the same games regarding civil liberties as does the left. If they're going to play bullshit political games, enabled by their media allies...they are in the same camp as the left.

The party is corrupt, bankrupt....and leading the country to oblivion, arm in arm with the alleged 'other side'.

Think of the Children!

From Knuckledraggin My Life Away

Alba gu bràth

*Alba gu bràth = Scotland Forever

And the song remains the same.....

If you read enough news and watch enough cable television about the threat of the Islamic State, the radical Sunni Muslim militia group better known simply as ISIS, you will inevitably encounter a parade of retired generals demanding an increased US military presence in the region. They will say that our government should deploy, as retired General Anthony Zinni demanded, up to 10,000 American boots on the ground to battle ISIS. Or as in retired General Jack Keane’s case, they will make more vague demands, such as for “offensive” air strikes and the deployment of more military advisers to the region. 

But what you won’t learn from media coverage of ISIS is that many of these former Pentagon officials have skin in the game as paid directors and advisers to some of the largest military contractors in the world. Ramping up America’s military presence in Iraq and directly entering the war in Syria, along with greater military spending more broadly, is a debatable solution to a complex political and sectarian conflict. But those goals do unquestionably benefit one player in this saga: America’s defense industry.

HuffPo

Same as it ever was. Our media is utterly failing the nation. Party immaterial. While the average oxygen thief worries about Obama calling ISIS, ISIL.....or conjures contrived ire at their perception of media bias....they remain oblivious to the campaign by the major parties and the incestuous relationship with the American media, to keep the American public ignorant.

Bread and circuses. We deserve what befalls us.

ISIL/ISIS...real threat or overblown?

The airwaves have been filled with dire warnings of ISIL, ISIS or IS if you prefer, being a tangible threat to the security of these United States. And to be sure, they're well organized and have made what appears to be astounding gains over the last few months. But are they really the cat's meow?

The War Nerd, Gary Brecher, expalins some reality based facets of their so-called blitzkrieg through some parts of Iraq:

If you know the ethnic makeup of the turf they’ve taken, their “shocking gains” don’t seem so shocking, or impressive. After all, we’re talking about a mobile force–mounted on the beloved Toyota Hilux pickup truck, favorite vehicle of every male in the Middle East—advancing over totally flat, dry ground in pursuit of a totally demoralized opponent. In that situation, any force could take a lot of country very quickly. It’s just a matter of putting your foot on the accelerator, moving unopposed on the long stretches of flat desert, then dismounting at the next crossroads town for a small, quick firefight against a few defenders who didn’t get the memo to flee. Once they’re dead, you floor it again until the next little desert town.

So this isn’t the second coming of Erwin Rommel by any means. Everything has conspired to push the Sunni advance, from the lousy opponent they’re up against to the terrain, which is a light mechanized commander’s dream.

Flat and dry is how a mechanized force commander wants his ground—and believe me, you haven’t seen flat and dry until you get to Iraq. Once you’re south of the Kurdish mountains, you’re on a dried mudflat. Iraq is much flatter than the deserts of the US, most of which get much more rain than central Iraq. No rain means little erosion, with few wadis or ravines to slow those Toyotas down. This is, after all, Mesopotamia, a land literally built by the sediment of the Euphrates and Tigris. It’s river mud, but nice and dry because very little rain falls, especially in June (average rainfall in June is 5 mm, the size of the numbers printed on an ATM card).

On ground like that, any force with good morale and enough fuel could advance as quickly as the Sunni have. It’s the Bonneville Salt Flats of insurgency, the place you go to set new speed records.

Regardless, I do advocate raining steel from above, on every Hilux we can target...as well as assisting the Kurds in very concrete ways. I just wish our pathetic media would understand that sensationalism+ratings does not equal journalism.

"The idea that if you take religion out of the public square, if you take the Bible out of the classroom, that that’s neutral - well, no it’s not neutral! It’s a different worldview.“

I partially agree.  Schools should conduct a survey of religion(s) Nobody is taking your religion out of the public square. People are however, opposing the government endorsement of religion, writ large. And I'm really not sure how one teaches secularism in school.

“I think we should start calling secularism a religion.”

I think people should call you a dumbass. There, see how that works?

“Because if we did, then we could ban that too, because that’s what they’ve done.“

And, no. Religion cannot be banned. Religion is the faith and practice regarding supernatural [and naturally invisible] deity, by individuals.

“They’ve hidden behind the fact that the absence of a religion is not a religion of itself, which, in fact it is, because it has certain moral values and certain teachings that look like a type of moral worldview.”

Make up your mind…you just called the absence of a religion NOT a religion..and then contradicted yourself. A secular “worldview” professes a paradigm where the State [the government of ALL American citizens in this case] does not officially endorse the existence of a supernatural deity…much like our Constitution.

“So what we have to start doing as Christians is reassert ourselves and say, 'You know what? The freedom of religion is not the freedom from religion.”

Somewhere a bumper sticker has lost its catch-phrase. Freedom OF religion likewise does not mean a government endorsement thereof…it means that all citizens are free to practice a religion of their choice, or none.

“We should be in the public square. We should be taught in the schools. We should be an open marketplace of ideas instead of throttling one perspective out of the fear it being offensive to someone."

Uh-huh. The public square and marketplace of ideas occurs when like minded citizens form voluntary associations. When the State takes a stand on a controversial and utterly unprovable issue such as religion, it opens the gates for a majority oppression of certain ideas..as we’ve seen in the past.

An astute commenter at the link below noted: Secularism isn't the presence or absence of belief. It is the act of not taking a position on religion where one's personal views on religion are not at issue.
Mediate

Of course, Santorum travels in the same circles as Bryan Fischer:

Military service should rightly be reserved for those who believe in and are willing to die for what America stands for - and what America stands for is a belief in God as the source of our rights.

Keep it together man......

I couldn't.

Those who mourn our fallen warriors, aren't just the two-legged.

Voting for Fiat over Freedom

Many people want their religion imposed on the rest of us so badly that it's their only consideration. 

It's why they vote and how they vote. Everything else is secondary, and liberty gets swept aside because it would mean people making choices- voluntarily, consensually, and without coercion- which would be against the religion's rules for its followers. 

Of course, it doesn't matter at all whether the people whose liberty is being violated belong to that same religion or not. Everyone must obey "The One Way" regardless of anything else, and no matter whether "The One Way" respects liberty and rejects the initiation of force or embraces evil with the excuse that "it's what God demands".
It's Sharia Law, no matter which religion is pushing it. I find it rather vile and distasteful and think those pushing it should be ashamed and resisted in their attempts.

Kent's "Hooligan Libertarian" Blog

My only quibble would be the opening word. It's really difficult to determine how many Americans believe - and vote - this way. But not only do they exist, there are a myriad of activist and lobbying organizations, with deep pockets with which to make their case. Philosophically, I have no issue with a cities voting their conscience, even if it is comprised of the above. I just wish they'd educate themselves on the definitions of the liberty rhetoric they espouse in concert with the above.

They don't call it "World Nut Daily" for nothing.....

The "Ice Bucket Challenge"


Fuentes also addresses the matter of pouring water over ones head and how that act directly correlates with water baptism and syncs the IBC with the sacred Christian deed of cleansing and purification, albeit, in a sacrilegious manner. She also delves into deep issues of rituals stemming from dark, cultic practices that encompass the IBC and which symbolically place America and Americans in a satanic ritual – with or without their knowledge.

Satanic ritual? Yes. Rituals abound in “Christian” America. Whenever spectators watch singers like Beyonce, JayZ, Rihanna, Lady Gaga and especially Nicki Minaj, they are indoctrinated and involved with blatantly satanic rituals that stem from the deep abyss of the occult. Some of these very same artists have taken the ALS IBC. Gaga doesn’t utter a word as she baptizes herself, arrayed in a sexy black leotard, sporting black lips, perched in an ornate black chair. Gaga doesn’t use a bucket; she instead uses a large silver bowl associated with pagan worship. Do you think she would take the IBC if it didn’t meet her pagan criteria? Not a chance.

The ALS IBC is ritualistic in nature. People are chosen to undergo a form of water baptism with cultic god Oprah leading the charge “in the name of ALS.” The Bible is clear: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). Oprah is a god to millions of Americans, and those who follow her doctrine and antics have tossed Jesus off the throne of their hearts – perhaps not intentionally … or perhaps so. Yet by following her seemingly innocent IBC decree, knowingly or not, they have cast Jesus off symbolically.

WND

They keep losing...because "tradition" isn't a defense

Gay Marriage and the Limits of Tradition

None of this means Americans have no use for traditions. We have all sorts of favorites, from fireworks on the Fourth of July to football in autumn. But we feel entitled to alter and embellish them at our whim. The fireworks we see are bigger and better than the ones Americans saw a century ago. Football now starts in August and goes till February.

Marriage morphed repeatedly long before gays got it. Women acquired more rights, divorce became available to anyone who wanted it, and alimony grew less common. People of different races can now marry each other even in places where it was once cause for lynching.

Longstanding arrangements that make sense endure without controversy, and that's just the point: They make sense. Tradition and a good reason will win an argument, just as tradition and $2 will get you a ride on the bus. Americans don't keep doing things unless they serve our purposes, even if they suited our grandparents to a T.

The 20th-century Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. spoke for most of us: "It is revolting to have no better reason for a rule of law than that so it was laid down in the time of Henry IV. It is still more revolting if the grounds upon which it was laid down have vanished long since, and the rule simply persists from blind imitation of the past."

The prevailing ethos in this country is that we are the masters of tradition, not the servants. We treasure the customs and practices passed down from our ancestors. And we change them anytime we want.

After what seemed like an eternity......

The season begins today.

Hey GOP: If ISIL/ISIS is such a threat to the homeland......

Do something about it. Stop your bedwetting petulant tantrums and conduct a roll call vote to declare war. Use your Constitutional powers or just quit....just go the fuck home.

"Gunsense"

In line with my previous post wondering aloud as to why our public schools did not offer courses for a particular public good....lifesaving first aid...my perusing of the daily memes from the gun control cabal got me thinking.....

If the propaganda machine on the left wishes to insert a palatable "gun safety" into their narrative-framing to low information citizens, instead of the more appropriate gun control.....let's latch on to that and take it to a level that forces them to recant their rhetoric.

I'm all about gun safety. So let's require our public school system to institute a firearm handling and safety curriculum. This will surely reduce the number of accidental discharges and shootings by youths....as well as actually educate a generation that is being otherwise inculcated that guns are icky.

"When Assholes Collide" - A frank dissertation on Ferguson

I don't often comment on racially charged matters, especially after the buffoonish conduct of the media and certain camps during the Trayvon Martin circus...and won't really add anything today of the orgy of looting...I mean undocumented shopping.

But IvyMikeCafe over at the blog of the same name, takes this event and weaves it into the broader picture of progressivism, police misconduct, media malfeasance and race, in a way that I only wish I could. It's a pretty lengthy piece for a blog post, so here are a few choice excerpts:

First group of assholes: the media 

For the love of all that’s holy, the US media is full of brainwashed cultural-marxist, limp-wristed, sissy men and their “you-go-girl,” change-the-world sisters. They lack ability to think critically and they frame every issue within the bucket of rotting tripe the pampered communists in their J-schools filled their spongy young minds with.

Next group of assholes: Officer Safety and his merry band of stormtroopers

It’s raids like these, and raids over raw milk, poker games, guitar wood, and quite frankly, search warrants, that I find objectionable. The idea that we need to bring maximum violence to every situation in the name of “Officer Safety” is paradoxical and stupid. We are a country with 80 million gun owners, and we have enough stupid laws and regulations on the books that any of us could be committing three felonies a day without knowing it. 

Next group of assholes: ghetto black Americans, their enablers, and non-blacks who act like ghetto black Americans 

Celebrating looters and rioters who take their anger out on sneaker stores, liquor stores, rim stores, and various and sundry businesses that had nothing to do with the death of a young, ghetto black American feeds every stereotype about ghetto black American culture on a parabolic scale. While the media may lionize this conduct, the rest of the country looks on it with scorn. It sucks for the protestors that are doing civil disobedience right. 

Next group of assholes: Big government progressives from all spectra 

Ferguson is a town where 50 years of the welfare state and 50 years of the warfare state have come to clash. It is the legacies of Johnson’s War on Poverty and Nixon’s War on Drugs mixing into a toxic brew of hopelessness, dysfunction, and oppression. Their tragedy is magnified by the recalcitrance of the central planners in the imperial capital of DC to cop to the fact that by all metrics, these “Wars on” have failed on every level except to grow the size and power of the central state over the lives of the citizenry.

This is the message our media should be conveying...after all, if they're going to editorialize instead of practicing investigative journalism, they might as well serve as a check on the power of the State, right? Sadly, all they have been reduced to is a platform for the talking points of the two major parties.

A question of common sense

Work is wearing me down....sucking much of the life force out of me....and causing my synapses to misfire. So blogging has been light. But I do occasionally have the odd spark of a question that really makes me wonder.

Why isn't basic first aid and CPR taught as part of the curriculum in our public schools across the nation?

We as a society are utterly failing our youth in most aspects of the hierarchy of needs: they tend to know only that food comes packaged from the market with little to no knowledge of hunting or farming. The tend to know only that fire comes from a Bic or if they're lucky, a Zippo.  And for life saving measures, they tend to know only 'call 911'.

We have created a society of utter dependency on an utterly fragile infrastructure of convenience and sloth.

A Case for Libertarianism

A WaTimes OpEd from last month, that I just stumbled across, making a very cogent case for the ideology I subscribe to. Excerpts below.

Misleading or one-sided characterizations notwithstanding, libertarianism is precisely the “third way” that many Americans desire. 

Libertarianism is not the claim that individuals are always rational, or that markets are always efficient, or that the distribution of income under laissez-faire capitalism is always “fair.” Rather, it is the claim that, despite the imperfections of private arrangements, government interventions usually make things worse. Thus, non-intervention is the better policy. 

A crucial feature of libertarianism is consistency: It applies a skeptical lens to all aspects of government, whether economic, social or foreign. In every case, libertarianism asks calmly but rigorously whether intervention actually yields better outcomes, regardless of whether that implies a “conservative” or “liberal” policy conclusion. Libertarianism sticks to its principles. 

This consistency does not, by itself, make libertarianism “right,” but it shows libertarianism’s unique perspective on government. Libertarianism holds that government causes many current problems, so more government is unlikely to reduce these problems. The best approach is to remove the existing government that causes or exacerbates the problem in the first place.

Finally. Women explained mathematically

The "Universal Hot/Crazy Matrix"

"...or anyone named Tiffany"!

A Soldiers Kit

On a winter’s day in 1915 the family of one Capt Charles Sorley – athlete, soldier and poet – received a package. It was his kit bag, sent home by his regiment from the Western Front, where Sorley had been killed, aged 20, at the Battle of Loos. Out of this bag came a life abridged: personal effects, items of uniform and a bundle of papers, from which emerged his now famous sonnet When You See Millions of the Mouthless Dead. A new photographic survey of military kits now illustrates that curious combination. The photographer Thom Atkinson has recorded 13 military kits for his ‘Soldiers Inventories’ series.

Link

Well...crap.

 

 

And on top of that........4.5-magnitude quake rattles Hawaii as hurricanes near

What's next...Sharknado?

It's tough being a prepper and being 6,000 miles away from your family and supplies. At least I'm stocked on Scotch.

We Sabotage Ourselves

The midterm election season is upon us, and it’s a tossup whether the Republicans will win the Senate, or if President Obama, seemingly oblivious as conflict flares up around the world, will, through his continuous campaigning, keep Harry Reid in his majority leader seat. 

The only thing we know for sure is that sociopaths will be elected. 

The electorate must by now recognize they are electing incompetents at best, and at worst, crooks, but the constant, naïve, pro-democracy mantra is, “We just need to elect the right people.” 

But, the “right people” aren’t (and won’t be) running for office. Instead, we will continue to have “the average American legislator [who] is not only an ass,” as H.L. Mencken wrote, “but also an oblique, sinister, depraved, and knavish fellow.” 

The Sage of Baltimore had it correct that to be elected and stay elected in American politics to any full-time position requires the suspension of any ethics or good sense a person may possess. Even those who begin political careers with the best intentions and have measurable abilities that would make them successful in any field soon realize that the skills required to succeed in politics are not those required outside politics.

Much longer article at Casey Research 

This article illustrates why the incessant squabbling over Team A versus Team B, is a self serving exercise in futility.

DC takes a step toward civil liberty

A federal judge has declared that one of the District’s principal gun control laws is unconstitutional and ordered that its enforcement be halted. 

The ruling by Judge Frederick J. Scullin Jr., made public Saturday, orders the city to end its prohibition against carrying a pistol in public. 

It was not clear what immediate effect the order would have. 

The order was addressed to the District of Columbia and Police Chief Cathy Lanier, as well as their employees and officers and others “who receive actual notice” of the ruling. But it could not be determined Sunday who had received notice. Also unclear was whether the city would appeal and what effect that would have on the enforcement ban.

WaPo

The District has a loooong way to go of course....but at least now, I can carry in the one place I regularly travel to....where I have wanted to carry. It will be interesting to see if the rate of violent crime decreases once this takes effect.......and how the gun control cabal will spin it.

I predict dead air and distraction by appealing to emotion. That's been their modus operandi thus far.

Ted Nugent is too big of a douche...

....to understand why people think he's a big ol' douche.

Conservative rocker Ted Nugent on Tuesday responded to the news that an Idaho Native American tribe had canceled one of his upcoming concerts by lashing out at the “unclean vermin” who made it happen. 

“The Motor City Madman” had been schedule to perform for Couer D’Alene Casino in Worley, Idaho on Aug. 4 until the Southern Poverty Law Center caught tribal officials by asking for a comment on Monday. Later that day, the performance had been canceled. 

“I take it as a badge of honor that such unclean vermin are upset by me and my positive energy,” Nugent told Gannett Wisconsin Media on Tuesday. Put your heart and soul into everything you do and nobody can stop you. Sometimes you give the world the best you got and you get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you got anyway.” 

“By all indicators, I don’t think they actually qualify as people, but there has always been a lunatic fringe of hateful, rotten, dishonest people that hate happy, successful people,” he continued. “I believe raising hell and demanding accountability from our elected employees is Job One for every American. I am simply doing my job.”

Raw Story

The bankruptcy of political rhetoric

The bobble heads in the right wing media are still banging the drum that "Obama withdrew US forces from Iraq" and that this event foretold the rise of ISIS. They regurgitate this pablum for the masses even though the previous Administration agreed to the 2008 SOFA that not only stipulated US forces withdraw NLT 31 December 2011....but also decreed that any future SOFA agreements would have to be ratified by the Iraqi Council of Representatives [CoR]. As we well know.....the CoR was not about to ratify any renegotiation of the SOFA in 2011, at least not with legal immunity for US forces from the Iraqi judicial system. So either these bobble heads are stupid...or they think that their audience is stupid. Or, they would sacrifice the immunity of US forces to a corrupt and Iranian-backed regime in Baghdad.

These same bobble heads attempt to castigate the current Administration for announcing a withdrawal date for US forces in Afghanistan....when the previous Administration did exactly the same for US force in Iraq.

It makes me feel icky any time I have to speak up for the current regime at 1600 Penn....but when the opposition is just as shallow and bereft of reason.......I see any hope for our future dim.