Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Hollywood V. the Bible....or, the growing Cult of Victimhood

Not one to miss piling on the most recent outrage de jure, TownHall's Ben Shapiro makes his case for why we should feel sorry for him. The screed is absurd in toto, but one intellectually retarded sentence stands out above the rest.
But this is Hollywood unmasked: angry, vindictive, self-righteous, anti-Biblical. The case for same-sex marriage rests on an application of Biblical principle -- monogamy and commitment -- to actions condemned by Biblical text. For years, Hollywood was able to get away with perverting the Bible by ignoring it. But in its rush to congratulate itself for overthrowing Biblical values without a shot, Hollywood spiked the football and revealed its true agenda. And that agenda is not the agenda of tolerance for individuals, but an ugly agenda of unearned moral superiority via destruction of traditional values.
Link

Apparently those-looking-to-be-offended now think that besides denying equal access to a contract that has no legal basis in the Bible, ignoring said tome is tantamount to perverting it? That's a new low for those attending Our Lady of Perpetual Victimhood. It's now not enough to live your own life in accordance with the beliefs you personally hold....you must compel all other citizens to live by those beliefs....which you cannot prove and have no legal basis in our Founding documents....

Classy Ben, real classy......

The Increasing Irrelevancy of the SOTU

There's really nothing I can add, after enduring non-stop excerpts from last nights waste of airtime.

The most emotionally powerful moment in Barack Obama’s State of the Union address was also its most morally dubious. The nation’s commander in chief drew attention to a wounded warrior while eliding any responsibility for placing the young man in harm’s way.

A record number of Americans – 60 percent – think the government is too powerful, says Gallup, which also finds a near record low percentage trusts the government “to do what is right.” Who can blame us? The government under Republican and Democratic presidents has spent virtually the entire 21st century sending young men and women to fight in ill-defined and unsuccessful elective wars. That’s bad enough, but then to use them as props in political speeches? That’s positively obscene.

After a typical laundry list of empty boasts (unemployment is down largely because labor force participation is tanking), fantasy policy prescriptions (“a new savings bond that encourages people to build a nest egg”?), and outright falsehoods (economic mobility has not declined), President Obama introduced America to Cory Remsburg, “a proud Army Ranger,” who “on his tenth deployment … was nearly killed by a massive roadside bomb in Afghanistan.”

Even more than economic meltdown, America’s 21st century has been defined by unfocused and ill-considered elective wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. While both were initially prosecuted in the name of preventing another 9/11 attack, 53 percent  of Americans considered Iraq a mistake by the war’s 10th anniversary and just 17 percent support the Afghanistan war. None of that seems to resonate with Obama, who unilaterally (and unconstitutionally) committed the U.S. to NATO bombing raids in Libya despite no clear national interest and was just days away from bombing Syria before public outrage and a small handful of elected officials forced him to back down last fall.

“Patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings,” Bob Dylan once sang, updating Samuel Johnson’s dark maxim. Obama’s gesture in the State of the Union will only accelerate the cynicism that already understandably dominates public opinion. There is no more serious decision that a government makes than to send its citizens a war. And there is nothing more disturbing than a president using soldiers’ sacrifices as a way of selling a grab-bag of domestic policy agenda items.


Nick Gillespie

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Boycotting the SOTU

OK, I will actually be laying head upon pillow at the time it starts....4:00 am comes mighty early, and it's not like I'll be missing anything important, or newsworthy, or interesting, or relevant. But a column in today's National Review sums up the SOTU nicely: 
The annual State of the Union pageant is a hideous, dispiriting, ugly, monotonous, un-American, un-republican, anti-democratic, dreary, backward, monarchical, retch-inducing, depressing, shameful, crypto-imperial display of official self-aggrandizement and piteous toadying, a black Mass during which every unholy order of teacup totalitarian and cringing courtier gathers under the towering dome of a faux-Roman temple to listen to a speech with no content given by a man with no content, to rise and to be seated as is called for by the order of worship — it is a wonder they have not started genuflecting — with one wretched representative of their number squirreled away in some well-upholstered Washington hidey-hole in order to preserve the illusion that those gathered constitute a special class of humanity without whom we could not live.  
It’s the most nauseating display in American public life.......
I encourage you to read the rest, and read the excerpts of the speech tomorrow.

Monday, January 27, 2014

More guns, Less crime

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Remembering John Browning

 
January 23, 2014 marks the 159th anniversary of the birth of John Moses Browning in Ogden, Utah Territory.
 

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Saturday, January 11, 2014

RIP Arik

Ariel Sharon, one of the most influential figures in Israel’s history, a military commander and political leader who at the height of his power redrew the country’s electoral map, only to suffer a severe stroke from which he never recovered, died Saturday in a hospital near Tel Aviv. He was 85. 

In 1953, Mr. Sharon was asked to form and lead the first elite commando force for special operations behind enemy lines. It was named Unit 101, and although it operated as an independent unit for less than a year, it became legendary in Israel. The aim of the unit was to retaliate for cross-border raids, Arab violations of the 1949 armistice agreements and attacks against Israeli civilian targets.
Link
The Israeli badass.........

NCAA Adjusted QBR

One Quarterback had the highest Adjusted QBR for the season and wasn't invited to the Heisman selection.....and another Quarterback with the second best Adjusted QBR won the Heisman Trophy.

No bitterness here....just sayin'.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Yep, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee is still an idiot

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) hailed the war on poverty, endorsed government welfare programs, and said the “safety net has to be something for all of us.” 
“Maybe the word welfare should be changed to something of, ‘a transitional living fund.’ For that is what it is — for people to be able to live,” she said. 
She urged Congress to pass emergency unemployment insurance — “a transitional outreach to individuals who are chronically unemployed,” as she put it. 
“Quite frankly, of all the wealthy nations, we have the lowest safety net and the highest poverty, because we’re not willing to accept the fact that sometimes an American needs help. Even a veteran — even a soldier."
Link

So.....Rep. Jackson-Lee....you would then admit that public assistance should be "transitional", in other words, temporary? Sorry, but renaming socialism and redistribution of taxpayer earnings doesn't negate the fact that it's redistribution of taxpayer earnings.

Since the "war on poverty" is as effective as the "war on drugs", don't you think it's time to drop the charade and admit that the spending habits and ethical values of many of the "poor", merely exacerbate and propagate the voting machine that keeps you in office?

Of course, this is the Congresswoman who stated:
What I’m saying is that as we look to be informational we should include an analysis of how Christian militants or others might bring down the country. We need to look broadly, do we not? 
The issue is whether or not their intent is to undermine the laws of this nation, and I think it is clear that is the case.
I probably wouldn't be qualified to enter the Christian club, and I'm offended by this.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

The crazy is strong in Utah

First we have people starving themselves in order to deny liberty to others, now we have elected officials conveying a bizarrely opposite definition of freedom.

Billed as a call for an uprising, opponents of same-sex marriage gathered for a meeting in Highland on Saturday. 
Former Graham County, Ariz., Sheriff Richard Mack spoke about issues concerning the U.S. Constitution, including same-sex marriage. 
Mack says that since it appears that Herbert and other elected leaders have failed at their jobs, it’s up to law enforcement and everyday citizens to deny same-sex marriage. 
“The people of Utah have rights, too, not just the homosexuals. The homosexuals are shoving their agenda down our throats,” Mack said. 
Cherilyn Eager, who helped organize the event, says that it’s time for the citizens of Utah to speak up for their rights. 
“We need people to stand up and speak out. We need to get noisy. We need some outrage,” Eager said. ”It is about the sheriffs now coming out to protect the people. 
Mack says that the federal government’s ruling doesn’t overrule Utah’s laws.
“That’s a lie. That’s an absolute lie. We have a right to raise our kids without homosexuals being part of the Boy Scouts, the schools and teachers and doing everything. They can be all that, but don’t shove your agenda down my kid’s throat. We have a right to raise our kids how we want not how you want,” Mack said.
Link

How does someone, who might otherwise come across as moderately intelligent.....come to a conclusion that an action unrelated to their own life and livelihood, is both a threat to their liberty and and that their opposition is in the interest of freedom?

Friday, January 3, 2014

Man starves self to deny liberty to others

Trestin is fasting until Utah exercises its right of nullification and stops issuing marriage licenses and performing marriages of same sex couples. Link

"I cannot stand by and do nothing while this evil takes root in my home. Some things in life are worth sacrificing one's heath and even life if necessary. I am but a man, and do not have the money and power to make any noticeable influence in our corrupt system. Never the less, I can do something that people in power cannot ignore." Link

Apparently Trestin has some pretty extreme views of what constitutes evil, as well as what constitutes his home, and religious freedom [since gays marrying does not infringe an iota on his freedom of religion....only his heretofore freedom to deny liberty to others based on his religious belief].

Oh well......let him starve.


So, I REALLY don't like Rap...but....

this is full of WIN. Ranger win that is......