Weird And Pissed Off

Rock 'n' roll!

2012-02-15T16:42:00.001-07:00

Madison Rising has become my new top-volume, headbangin', keep-me-from-falling-asleep-on-the-way-home band. Here's my favorite track...

That's what I call attitude! And we need more of it on our side.

Interest: Why it's necessary...and good.

2012-02-15T08:11:00.004-07:00

No matter your faith, or lack thereof, you really need to read Ann's latest missive, posted in full below. Oppressives, go find a Conservative to explain the big words to you...I'm pretty sure your Bitter Wymmynz Studies degree didn't cover any of this.

Jesus Rejects ZIRP. It's In The Bible.
Posted by Ann Barnhardt - February 14, AD 2012 9:02 PM MST
ZIRP stands for "Zero Interest Rate Policy." There is a lot of misunderstanding out in the world about the charging of interest. The nutball anti-Semites would have you believe that ALL banking and finance is an immoral activity and construct of the JOOOOOOZ. Those people are also stupid, and many of them are genuinely psychiatrically ill. Have I ever mentioned how much insanity and evil lands in my email box? Yeah. Quite a bit. Thanks be to God that He made me the steely, obdurate battle-ax that I am, so that I can laugh at that garbage rather than get all squishy and sensitive about it.

Super-fun rockband church is too busy drooling on its shirt and watching the flashing lights to even consider such non-canine-level concepts.

The distinction that needs to be made here is between interest and usury. Usury, in the modern sense of the word, is the charging of obscenely high interest rates, and is often directed at those who are desperate - so not only is usury screwing people, it is screwing people who are, for whatever reason, exceptionally vulnerable. Yeah. That's evil. However, in the ancient origins of the word, “usury” referred to any interest, even fair interest rates. Keep that in mind for later.

The charging of interest is NOT evil or sinful. In fact, interest is utterly essential to a healthy, moral economy. Here's the deal. Money is the device that men use to give value to their capacity to produce - whether that production be the production of a clean toilet in a Burger King by getting down on one's knees and scrubbing the thing with a brush, or the production of a new life-saving drug or revolutionary device. From toilet scrubbing to cars or laptops, it is all production of a good, borne from human drive, energy, action and reason. Further, money is an inherently hopeful and socially unitive thing. Money requires that men trust in each other, and hope in each other's goodness and honesty not just in the present, but also into the future.

Why do you think the evil satanic Marxists who have now taken over this country are doing everything they can to debase and destroy the currency? Because they want to utterly destroy social cohesion. They want to literally break our spirits. They want to break us of any independent drive to action or productivity. They want to sap us of all of our creative energy. They want us to stop trusting in each other. Why? So that THEY will be the only thing anyone can turn to. THEY want to be the SOURCE of production, and thus THEY will be in control of all wages, earnings and, ultimately, all wealth. They want all creative energy to serve one end: THEM and THEIR PERSONAL WEALTH. They want everyone sniping and mistrustful of everyone else so that while we are busy fighting with each other we won't notice that THEY are raping us mercilessly and unceasingly. They want us to stop hoping and just give up.

I'm just paraphrasing Francisco d'Anconia's speech on money from "Atlas Shrugged." Here is a link to the excerpt. READ IT. And spare me the emails claiming that to quote Rand is to deny Christ. Yes, she was an atheist, but don’t you think that God is powerful enough to reveal Himself through atheists, too? If you don’t believe that is possible, then you need to give up pretty much everything in your life that has any origin in any mathematics or physics discoveries of the last 100+ years. Including all medical imaging and computers. To start. Don’t be obtuse.

Now back to interest rates. Now that we know what money actually is, namely an exchangeable, fungible representation of man's capacity to create and produce, we can easily understand what the TIME VALUE OF MONEY is.

If you are going to let someone else use your money for a period of time, you will, by definition, NOT get to use that money yourself. Thus, you are giving up something very real in loaning your money out, and you need to be reasonably compensated for what you are giving up. This is the TIME VALUE OF MONEY, or "interest".

Let's take some of my cattlemen clients. They know how to generate a consistent return on their money by trading cattle. For the sake of simplicity, let's call that rate of return 10% per year (my yound Jedi Padawan in Nebraska who has seen a triple-digit return over the last year is laughing his Jedi keister off right now). If they would loan their money to a bank in the form of a certificate of deposit, they would be losing a fortune. Why? Because the bank would only pay 1% on a one-year CD, and my guys could make 10%. They would be squandering the TIME VALUE of their money.

So, what ZIRP, or zero interest rate policy, which is what the evil Federal Reserve has done since 2008, is to effectively declare that our money is worthless – completely independent of the whole gold standard/fiat currency argument. That isn’t even what we’re talking about here. Money has no time value. Think about that. Your human capacity to produce has no time value. Loan someone all of the money that you earned working for the last year. Let them use that money for a year. When it is time to pay it back, you will get exactly what you started with back, MINUS ONE YEAR OF YOUR LIFE and all of the productivity and innovation that could have happened in that year. This is intentional. The objective of ZIRP is NOT to stimulate the economy. The objective of ZIRP is to grind the economy to a halt so that there is no private investment or entrepreneurship - only fascistic government raping of the public coffers and exponentially increasing public dependence on the government. Hello? What do you think all of this solar panel bee-ess is about? Do you think that has ANYTHING to do with energy production or "global warming?" Give me a break. It is looting – pure, unadulterated LOOTING.

What has been the byproduct of ZIRP coupled with the intense debasement of the currency itself via quantitative easing? INFLATING commodity prices with simultaneously DEFLATING wages. It’s a perfect storm – exactly what they want. News broke this week that gasoline, and really ALL energy consumption is tanking. We are using far less gas than we were four years ago, and yet prices are climbing. Why? Because we have given up. The time value of our money is zero according to the government, will stay at zero for years to come according to the government, and thus people have just . . . stopped. Why do anything now if what I do isn’t really worth anything? Why strive to produce when I know that the fruits of my production will generate no significant return if invested? In fact, why do anything if the only thing I can be sure of is that if I have any degree of success with my investments, I will be taxed and regulated back into breaking even at best and failing at worst? ZIRP essentially says: IT’S NOT WORTH IT. JUST SIT ON THE COUCH. IT'S THE SAME DIFFERENCE IN THE END.

Meanwhile, capital is flowing into physical commodities in order to provide a hedge against the inflation that is the inevitable consequence of printing trillions and trillions of dollars AND as a speculative investment vehicle for those people who are looking for any sort of reasonable return on their money over time, which they CAN’T get in the conventional money market. Thus, we have the price of gas going up while demand is tanking. The same goes for my market: beef. Why do you think the price of beef is skyrocketing? Do you think it is because people are beating down the doors at Morton’s of Chicago and other steakhouses? Hardly. Food prices are inflating while wages tank for exactly the same reasons outlined above.

Eventually, the government and the financial system will collapse. When that happens and the Federal Reserve is no longer able to synthetically hold interest rates at zero and people look around and realize that our money is worthless smoke and mirrors, the rubber band will snap and we will see the dollar finally die via hyperinflation like that seen in Weimar Germany. I heard a story about Weimar Germany last week that I have to share. A man had a wheelbarrow filled with cash that he took to the market. He stepped into a storefront to purchase something and left the wheelbarrow filled with cash just outside the door because it wouldn’t fit inside. He wasn’t inside but for a few seconds. When he stepped back out, the money was all lying on the ground – but the wheelbarrow was gone. True story. Think about that.

Now to the Jesus bit, and you financial people don’t bug out, because this is really quite interesting. Go to Matthew 25:14-30 and read the Parable of the Talents. A “talent” is a currency unit, FYI. In a nutshell, Jesus tells of three servants who are entrusted by their master with a sum of money. The first goes out, invests his five talents, and is able to return the principle plus five more – a 100% return on investment. The second likewise generates a 100% ROI in the two talents he was given. The third merely buried the one talent he was given and returned the principle with zero interest. Now listen to the words of Christ speaking to the third servant. It’s amazing:

Wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sow not, and gather where I have not strewed: Thou oughtest therefore to have committed my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received my own with usury. Take ye away therefore the talent from him, and give it to him that hath ten talents. For to every one that hath shall be given, and he shall abound: but from him that hath not, that also which he seemeth to have shall be taken away. And the unprofitable servant cast ye out into the exterior darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Dude. Now, what were you saying about the abolition of all interest? Here is where all of the idiot Marxist theologians will wail and moan and say that this passage is a metaphor for the spiritual gifts we have been given AND NOTHING MORE. Uh, wrong.

Of course it is a metaphor, that is the point of PARABLES, to convey deeper meaning using everyday examples. But here is the point that so many pridefully, and moronically, miss:

Our Lord would never, ever use an evil activity in order to illustrate a virtuous activity. He would never use a lie to illustrate TRUTH. If all usury (in the ancient sense of any charging and paying of interest) was truly evil, He would not, He COULD NOT use that evil activity as a metaphor for a virtue. Do you see this? Do you understand? If you’re fighting this obvious, glaring truth, then the reality is most likely that you are so completely consumed with anti-Semitism, and are so personally invested in Jew-hatred and blaming the Jews, via the banking industry, for EVERYTHING that you are literally mentally impaired by that hate, because this is stark black and white truth. Are there bad Jews? Of course. But there are bad Christians, too. Like . . . Jon Corzine, who is ethnically Christian. As is Hank Paulson. As is Timmy Geithner. As is Paul Volcker. Oh, we’re ALL responsible for this mess. Every one of us who have sat by and let it get this out of control. Every one of us who have gleefully leveraged ourselves into this debt, every one of us who have consumed the bread-and-circuses “entertainment”, every one of us who have sat passively while 56,000,000 children were slaughtered and said not a word, and obediently paid our taxes. Oh, yes, the guilt is most assuredly collective, so spare me your anti-Semitic filth.

Couple the glaring scriptural evidence with the Randian explanation of the essence of money, and how money is directly tied to the dignity of the individual human being, and finally cross-reference both of these points to the obvious damage that ZIRP is doing to the global economy, and there you have it. Jesus rejects ZIRP. It’s in the Bible.

You've just been logic-bombed. Let now the rebuilding of your thought processes commence.

The Evil 1%: Starbucks

2012-02-14T17:43:00.000-07:00

Some things you likely didn't know about the Evil Corporate Machine...

Yes, Starbucks coffee is more expensive than 7-11. That’s for a reason. See, if a part time worker averages over 40 hours per pay period, they are eligible for the Starbucks Health Insurance. (In fact, this is why I went to work for them once my treatment was finished). As you might imagine, this costs money, and that money has to come from somewhere. In addition, Starbucks has committed to paying their farmers and other people in the supply chain at least the minimum wage for their country, if not higher. In addition, in the past, Starbucks has invested in medical clinics, hospitals, clean water, and schools for the villages in which the coffee farmers live, as well as lines of credit and loans for farmers to smooth out the financing before and after harvest. This costs money, and it has to come from somewhere. Starbucks invests in these efforts because healthy farmers with stable finances and hope for the future of their children are less likely to get involved with business-destroying ventures like revolutions, thus keeping the supply lines open, and helping to ensure ongoing quality of product into the future.

So, every time you pay more for that cup of coffee at Starbucks, it’s because you’re paying for more. You’re paying for the healthcare for the part time workers, for the medical clinics and clean water projects and schools for the villages. Certainly, if you don’t wish to contribute to those efforts, no one is forcing you. Go ahead and get your coffee from 7-11. That’s the nice thing about a free market– you can choose who gets your hard earned money.

Lots more at the link, including Starbucks' common-sense gun policy. This is part of why the folks at the local 'bux know me by name. :)

Our Gun Culture:

2012-02-14T09:58:00.000-07:00

Making sure young mother and widow Sarah McKinley can continue to defend herself and her family. God bless all of you who stepped up.

Wow.

2012-02-13T11:06:00.001-07:00

This is just over the top. I'll be adding GFB to the blogroll as soon as Blogger fixes their ap, but you have to read about his frightening experience with Austin PD for "Babysitting While White."

Ty was angrier about this, even, than I was. "Why is it," she demanded a few steps down the path, stomping her feet and swinging her little arms as she said it, "that the police won't ever believe you're my Grandpa?" (Our earlier run in had clearly made an impression, though she hadn't mentioned it in ages.) "Why do you think it is?," I asked, hoping to fend her off with the Socratic method. She paused, then said sheepishly, "Because you're white?" I grinned at her and said, "That's part of it, for sure. But we don't care about that, do we?" "No," she said sternly as we walked across the bridge spanning Boggy Creek just south of 12th Street, "but the police should leave you alone. It's not right that they want to arrest you for being my Grandpa." More prescient words were never spoken.

Just as Ty uttered those words, I made her hold my hand so we could trot across 12th Street amidst the sporadic, Friday night traffic, waiting for a police car to pass before heading across just west of the railroad tracks. Literally my intentions were - the moment we made it safely across the street - to resume our conversation to explain to Ty that nobody wanted to arrest me for being her Grandpa, that that wasn't against the law, and that the deputy had only stopped us to make sure Ty was safe. But we never got a chance to have that conversation.

As soon as we crossed the street, just two blocks from my house as the crow flies, the police car that just passed us hit its lights and wheeled around, with five others appearing almost immediately, all with lights flashing. The officers got out with tasers drawn demanding I raise my hands and step away from the child. I complied, and they roughly cuffed me, jerking my arms up behind me needlessly. Meanwhile, Ty edged up the hill away from the officers, crying. One of them called out in a comforting tone that they weren't there to hurt her, but another officer blew up any good will that might have garnered by brusquely snatching her up and scuttling her off to the back seat of one of the police cars. (By this time more cars had joined them; they maxxed out at 9 or 10 police vehicles.)

...

After the cuffs were off, I said nothing to the APD cops as I carried the child away toward home. But I did pause when I passed the deputy constable - who still could barely look me in the eye - to say aloud to her, "You knew better. This is on you."

Ty was understandably shaken by the incident, and as we walked home she told me all about her interactions with the officers and peppered me with questions about why this, that, everything happened. She said she tried to be brave because she knew I'd get into trouble if the police didn't believe her (she was right about that!) and she was especially scared when she thought they weren't going to accept her word for it. Poor kid.

As we turned onto the last block home, two of the police cars that had detained us passed by and Ty visibly winced with fear, lunging toward me and wrapping her arms around my leg. I petted and tried to comfort her, but she was pretty disturbed and confused by the whole episode. Luckily, it also left her exhausted so she was out like a light soon after we got home, half an hour past her bedtime. This morning she stated bluntly that she had decided not to think about it - a practice my wife encourages when bad things happen - and it seems to be working. She's her normal happy self, though at the park this afternoon she wanted to pretend we were hiding from kidnappers. But I hated for a five-year old to be subjected to such an experience. I'd like her to view police as people she can trust instead of threats to her and her family, but it's possible I live in the wrong neighborhood for that.

Nine squads to handle an old man and a five-year-old? Really?

This whole thing is indicative of the "us-vs.-them" military mentality of too damn many police departments nowadays. Officers, when it comes down to it...we, the law-abiding public, are the "us." In our eyes, you are fast becoming the "them." And if...no, when the crap really hits the fan, you are going to need us a lot more than we're going to need you.

You might wish to contemplate that.

(HT BRM)

I said this over a year ago.

2012-02-12T18:30:00.000-07:00

And it still applies.

And still, nobody cares.

This is why I drink.

2012-02-12T17:00:00.001-07:00

Because no civilized human being could read this kind of thing sober. Not Safe For Sanity. RTWT if you dare.

On June 28, 2009, Taraneh Mousavi, a young Iranian woman, was literally scooped off the streets without any provocation on her part and with no arrest warrant. This young woman was taken to one of the Islamists torture chambers where she was repeatedly brutalized, raped, and sodomized by Ahmadinejad’s agents and with the consent of the “supreme leader” Ali Khamenei.

Near death from repeated beating, raping and sodomizing, the fragile young woman, bleeding profusely from her rectum and womb, was transferred to a hospital in Karaj near Tehran. Eventually, an anonymous person notified Taraneh’s family that she had had an “accident” and had to be taken to the hospital.

The devastated family rushed to the hospital only to find no trace of their beloved daughter because, the gang of Islamic thugs, the foot-soldiers of Allah’s “divine representative” Ali Khamenei, decided to eliminate all traces of their savagery. These beasts of Allah removed the dying woman from the hospital before the family’s arrival, burned it beyond recognition and dumped her charred remains on the side of the road.

How about that "Religion of Peace," folks? Let's give 'em a big hand!

Quote Of The Day: SF In Babylon

2012-02-12T16:25:00.001-07:00

He's talking about gaming, but I swear you could apply this to any Leftist enclave in America.

...[O]nce the shock of acid blood and brain eating wear off, the whole business becomes a rather numb affair of whirling claws, improbable drug cocktails and ichor stained sodomy.

Yeah, it's pretty much like that when all is said and done. Been there, done that.

Father Of The Year.

2012-02-10T10:56:00.000-07:00

No, really. No sarcasm, no BS. More fathers and mothers should take this tack. Maybe if they did, we could still save this country.

(HT Barracuda Brigade)

Phobia?

2012-02-10T09:32:00.005-07:00

What, exactly, is a 'phobia?' Let's ask the folks at the Mayo Clinic.

A phobia is an overwhelming and unreasonable fear of an object or situation that poses little real danger. Unlike the brief anxiety most people feel when they give a speech or take a test, a phobia is long-lasting, causes intense physical and psychological reactions, and can affect your ability to function normally at work or in social settings.

Emphases mine. Now, let's take a look at this new concept of "Anti-Government-Phobia," invented out of whole cloth by people who have obviously been educated far beyond their intelligence.

One tactic that big governments utilize to deflate the legitimacy of its opposition is the political use of mental health. A pioneer of this technique was the German National Socialist Workers’ Party. Over 300,000 “mental defectives” were sterilized, and over 100,000 executed in Germany alone. Dr. Joseph Mengele, who actually managed to escape justice, carried out cruel psychiatric experiments on Jewish people, including children. There was definitely something mentally dysfunctional with the Nazi Party elite, which executed over seven millions Jews, Roma, and Slavs for “racial purity” reasons; but there also had to be something wrong with a people that allowed it to come to power. Germany, lest people forget, was considered to be a highly civilized society; that is, before such schemes as socialized medicine began distorting people’s views of the value of human life.

The abuse of psychiatry to discredit dissidents in society was notorious in the Soviet Union. As a 2011 Moscow Times article put it, “In the Soviet Union, dissidents were labeled schizophrenics, thrown into psychiatric hospitals and drugged just for questioning the government. It wasn’t until the Soviet demise that officials grasped the difference between criticism and mental illness.” Indeed, we should take such warnings seriously in the present; the article goes on to explain how the practice is making a comeback in Russia.

One prominent Soviet dissident, Vladimir Bukovsky, who has published previously classified documents on the political abuse of psychiatry, wrote, [Soviet premier Nikita] Khrushchev reckoned that it was impossible for people in a socialist society to have anti-socialist consciousness, and whenever manifestations of dissidence could not be justified as a provocation of world imperialism or a legacy of the past, they were merely the product of mental disease...

The government IS force. They have more guns than you, and, generally, the support of the masses. They can take your property, incarcerate you, or beat you up or kill you without consequence...and they've been shown to do just that, all over the world, in every different culture and climate. On any pretext. On no pretext at all. And our current regime has made it clear that America's rule of law, meant to restrain government, means not one damn thing to them.

If you're an arachnophobe, you might run screaming from the room at the sight of a daddy longlegs--a spider that couldn't cause you the slightest harm if it tried. That's a phobia. Concerned about becoming yet another footnote in history, marked "Dissident," or "Queer," or "Jew," or "Capitalist?" That's as much of a "phobia" as worrying about falling to your death if you step off a 30-story building.

A rational reaction to the scientific analysis of historically-proven patterns is not a "phobia" any more than being tired when you work the night shift is a "disorder," you quacks. There is no such thing as "Shift Work Disorder." If you're up all night, you'll get tired. It's not a 'disorder,' it's how the human body works. And there is no such thing as "Anti-Government Phobia." It's not a 'phobia,' it's the natural instinct of self-preservation.

Why is it that a dumb truck driver knows more about how life works than a bunch of Ivy-League graduates? Oh, yeah--because I live in the real world. Must be nice up in that ivory tower, but I'll take reality any day of the week...

...because, in the end, I really have no choice. And you don't, either.

UPDATE 2.12.12: ROFL! We've been had...it's a brilliant bit of satire found here. Check out the author of this so-called study: "Ivor E. Tower."

I will say this, though--when this kind of stuff is so believeable, it points out exactly how whacked-out our country has become.

Lil' ol' me?

2012-02-09T07:18:00.000-07:00

Looks like the lovely and talented Sarah at Cranky Chicks With Guns hath bestowed upon me the Liebster Award! (And my mom said I'd never amount to anything.) Fear not, folks, I promise not to let my newfound fame consume me--I'll still remember all you little people when I'm jetting off to exotic lands and rolling with the big playas.

However, as we all know, with great power comes great responsibility, and it now falls to me to tag five more recipients, preferably in the small-time, low-following, who-the-hell-is-that corners of the blogosphere. A'ight, I can do that.

1. An Ex-Con's View. Repentance, responsibility, redemption. His subtitle aside, Paul Lemmen is far from a "worthless man," and his unique perspective is one well worth reading.

2. Mark America. The fact that he's a fellow Palinista is just icing on the cake. This guy is full of enough pure logic that I'm pretty sure he's an AI, yet he still gets his points across in easy-to-read layman's language.

3. The AnarchAngel. Musings on pretty much everything, interspersed with super-mega-Uberposts that leave no stone unturned or point unmade.

4. A Girl and Her Gun. From Gun-Fearing Wussy to Pistol-Packin' Mama, a woman's first steps into a wider world.

5. Home on the Range. Cold, hard mega-detail not your thing? Brigid can't seem to write a word without unleashing the poet in her soul. The only things done in scientific detail here are the recipes, which are a gift from Heaven to all people who eat.

(Some of these are listed as being on The Infinite Blogroll, yet they aren't. This is because Blogger's little gadget has taken a giant crap and won't save anything. Rest assured, I'm bending ears, kicking ass and working on the problem.)

Goodbye, Glenn.

2012-02-07T17:47:00.000-07:00

I can no longer excuse your increasingly destructive behavior toward the Conservative movement. My links to your site and to the Blaze are now gone.

I don't know what's going on with you lately, sir, but I do hope you come to your senses. Until I'm satisfied that this is the case, I cannot, in good concience, give you any publicity.

God be with you.

In Memoriam

2012-02-06T09:01:00.000-07:00

If a Christian or Jew leaves their faith, or marries someone their parents don't approve of, the reaction will vary. There might be mild disappointment, or furious argument. In the most extreme case, their family might disown them.

They won't be hunted down and killed. Unlike under Islam.

An honor killing is the killing of a person by other members of her/his family or community, due to the belief by the perpetrators that the victim (or an act the victim is perceived to have committed) has brought dishonor upon the family or community. Honor killings are seen across religious communities and are not limited to one group. Honor killings are directed primarily against women and girls and are most often premeditated murders intended to restore the family’s social position and ‘honor’ through ‘cleansing the shame’ which the woman or girl is said to have brought, by erasing her very existence.

These killings occur in societies where the men’s status is judged by their ability to control women’s behaviour, and by the level of which women are conforming to social norms. Expressions of independence by a member, particularly in seeking to make decisions around relationships and sexuality is perceived as effecting the family’s reputation becoming tarnished within the community. Women can become targets of honor based violence for choosing their own life partner, spending time without family supervision, leaving a marriage, for becoming the subject of gossip, becoming ‘Westernized’ and many other reasons.

The UN conservatively estimates that 5,000 women and girls are killed each year globally by members of their own family, often by fathers, brothers, uncles and male cousins – and also mothers and other female relatives. The primary purpose of ‘honour crimes’ is to maintain men’s power in families and communities by denying women basic fundamental rights to make their own decisions about their own lives.

"Not limited to one group?" Perhaps. But, of the three major religions in the world, I've only heard of one doing it. Even here in the USA. Even in Arizona. (Which begs the question, if you don't want your kids to be "Westernized," why did you move to America? You came here voluntarily, we do things differently here, and we will not conform our laws to the standards of 7th-century cavemen. Get with the program or get the hell out.)

May God bless and keep the souls of these women, who spent their lives in the shadow of an evil, twisted shell of a 'faith,' and were eventually consumed by it. Their stories should steel our resolve to eradicate every trace of this Satanic philosophy from the Western world, and eventually the Earth.

There is no more rule of law.

2012-02-05T18:31:00.002-07:00

Lock & load.

Our rule of law is no more. Our Constitution is no more. Obama, Soros, state media, activist judges and all the ‘powers that be’ of a New World Order sealed our fate. The United States is a land of liberty no more.

When Georgia State Judge Michael M. Malihi released his shocking ruling we were stunned. This couldn’t possibly be true. On the eve of the hearing Obama’s lawyers had written a thinly- veiled threat letter to Brian Kemp, GA Secretary of State, demanding that Kemp stop Judge Malahi from moving forward with the three lawsuits challenging Obama’s eligibility to be on the state ballot. This letter followed another sent days earlier by Obama’s Atlanta attorney Michael Jablonski to Judge Malihi demanding he stop the January 26th hearing and advised the GA judge that Obama would not be attending anyway citing it would interfere with the president’s duties. Malihi replied quickly to the first letter: the hearing would go on. SOS Kemp responded within 2 hours of receiving his letter stating, “…if you and your client choose to suspend your participation in the OSAH proceedings, please understand that you do so at your own peril.”

At the very least when Obama or his lawyers failed to show up in court a default judgement, earlier considered by the judge, should have denied Obama’s placement on the ballot. Not only did Malihi rule in favor of Obama he completely destroyed the credibility of the plaintiffs, their lawyers, witnesses and evidence that the judge found “unpersuasive.”

I knew it was too good to be true.

The Evil 1%: Madame C.J. Walker

2012-02-05T15:21:00.001-07:00

I'd like to introduce you to one of my heroes: Sarah Breedlove, later known as Madame C.J. Walker.

Like many women of her era, Sarah experienced hair loss. Because most Americans lacked indoor plumbing, central heating and electricity, they bathed and washed their hair infrequently. The result was scalp disease. Sarah experimented with home remedies and products already on the market until she finally developed her own shampoo and an ointment that contained sulfur to make her scalp healthier for hair growth.

Soon Sarah, now known as Madam C. J. Walker, was selling her products throughout the United States. While her daughter Lelia (later known as A'Lelia Walker) ran a mail order business from Denver, Madam Walker and her husband traveled throughout the southern and eastern states. They settled in Pittsburgh in 1908 and opened Lelia College to train "hair culturists." In 1910 Walker moved to Indianapolis, Indiana where she established her headquarters and built a factory.

She began to teach and train other black women in order to help them build their own businesses. She also gave other lectures on political, economic and social issues at conventions sponsored by powerful black institutions. After the East St. Louis Race Riot, she joined leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in their efforts to support legislation to make lynching a federal crime. In 1918 at the biennial convention of the National Association Of Colored Woman (NACW) she was acknowledged for making the largest contribution to save the Anacostia (Washington, DC) house of abolitionist Frederick Douglass. She continued to donate money throughout her career to the NAACP, the YMCA, and to black schools, organizations, individuals, orphanages, and retirement homes.

As the child of former slaves, Madame Walker had the right to complain about slavery. As a Black person in that era, Madame Walker had the right to complain about racism. Dying before women even had the right to vote, Madame Walker had the right to complain about "the Patriarchy."

But she apparently decided that sitting on her ass and complaining would have gotten in the way of her actually accomplishing something, and we can all see how her decision turned out. I urge my readers (especially you '99%ers' who obviously stumbled upon this blog through your favorite Lefitst website's "Asshole Of The Month" link) to study this fascinating woman in detail. Madame Walker is a quintessential personification of what America is all about.

God bless and keep your soul, Madame Walker. You are a true inspiration to us all.

One from the Memory Hole

2012-02-05T14:39:00.000-07:00

Orwell called it.

"Oceania is at war with ~~Eurasia~~ East Asia. Oceania has always been at war with ~~Eurasia~~ East Asia."

The fact that the media and popular culture and academia have veered from one panic-inducing disaster scenario to another one which completely contradicts the first one is funny enough in its own right. But reading The Weather Conspiracy: The Coming of the New Ice Age opened my eyes to an even more significant aspect of this serial crisis-mongering:
The “solutions” prescribed to solve both Global Warming and the looming Ice Age are exactly the same.
In both cases, proponents of the theory-du-jour say that in order to stave off disaster, we must reverse the march of civilization, stop our profligate use of carbon-based fuels, cede power and money from the First World to the Third World, and wherever possible revert to a Luddite pre-industrial lifestyle.

"The Earth is becoming ~~colder~~ warmer due to human activity. Human activity has been causing the Earth to get ~~colder~~ warmer for years..."

Muslim Brotherhood 101

2012-02-05T13:51:00.000-07:00

Pay attention. Odds are, there will be a test later...

(HT iOTW)

It's a VERY small world after all...

2012-02-03T17:29:00.000-07:00

...especially in comparison to the rest of the universe.

How awesome, and how humbling.

(From Brutally Honest via the Anchoress via iOTW)

"Hey, is that Freedom Rock?"

2012-02-02T17:36:00.000-07:00

Well, yes! But not the album of recycled hippie crap advertised on late-night cable. For those of you who want something a bit more hardcore than Krista Branch, let me introduce you to Madison Rising.

(HT Jennifer and Evyl Robot)

Hey...wait a minute...!

2012-02-01T08:43:00.000-07:00

We all know how big a threat Obummer is to liberty, America, and, in the long run, the world. But there's one thing that's puzzling one of our Conservative Treehouse friends--and me, too.

Here’s my question: If the guy is so freakin’ dangerous, why does Congress continue to let him do exactly as he pleases?

Why, indeed. Anyone have an answer?

Catholic Church to Obama Regime: "Nuts."

2012-01-30T16:25:00.001-07:00

Looks like the Catholic Church is finally realizing that this whole Obamacare thing is at odds with their core values.

What is happening is extraordinary and unprecedented. The Catholic Church is in open revolt against the Obama Administration, with Fr. Swink noting from the pulpit that priests across the archdiocese were joining the call on Sunday to rally Catholics to resistance against the U.S. Government. He said we are entering a time of religious persecution and that Catholics and others will have to make a final decision about which side they are on.

The issue is what the Catholic Bishops have called a “literally unconscionable” edict by the Obama Administration demanding that sterilization, abortifacients and contraception be included in virtually all health plans.

At a time when the media are full of reports about who is ahead and behind in the polls, and who will win the next Republican presidential primary, this incredible uprising in the Catholic Church is something that could not only overshadow the political campaign season, but also may have a major impact on the ultimate outcome—if Republicans know how to handle it. This matter goes beyond partisan politics to the growing perception of an unconstitutional Obama Administration assault on religious freedom. To hear the Catholic Bishops and Priests describe it, our constitutional republic and our freedoms hang in the balance.

I have a feeling that, somewhere in Colorado, a chick with an Evil Pink Rifle is doing a funky end zone dance.

(HT NewZeal)

Revelation 22:19

2012-01-29T18:54:00.000-07:00

If one studies different editions of the Holy Bible, one will notice that some translations of some verses differ from others. Sometimes this difference is minor, sometimes fairly distinct. But Revelation 22:19 is almost exactly the same in every known translation. There is no possible ambiguity:

And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from these things that are written in this book.

Folks, that's the long and the short of it. While we may translate the Bible to the best of our ability, in order to bring the word of the Lord to as many as have ears to hear, we are not to alter the meaning of Scripture in any way. It's one thing to make an honest error in translation, but this is far from an honest error:

"'Father' and 'Son' Ousted from the Trinity in New Bible Translations," by Hussein Hajj Wario for the Yahoo! Contributor Network, January 27 (thanks to CGW):
A controversy is brewing over three reputable Christian organizations, which are based in North America, whose efforts have ousted the words "Father" and "Son" from new Bibles. Wycliffe Bible Translators, Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) and Frontiers are under fire for "producing Bibles that remove "Father," "Son" and "Son of God" because these terms are offensive to Muslims." Concerned Christian missionaries, Bible translators, pastors, and national church leaders have come together with a public petition to stop these organizations. They claim a public petition is their last recourse because meetings with these organizations' leaders, staff resignations over this issue and criticism and appeals from native national Christians concerned about the translations "have failed to persuade these agencies to retain "Father" and "Son" in the text of all their translations."
Clearly, they fail to appreciate the far-reaching ramifications that Christians not only may dare, but are commanded to call on the Creator of the Universe as "Father." That fundamentally re-wires one's relationship with God and describes a unique intimacy and bond of love that ought not be squandered to score short-term points.

I am a new Christian. I'm not a hundredth of the Biblical scholar that many of my compatriots are. Deciding who's going to Heaven and who's going to Hell, is far above my pay grade. But I'm pretty sure that if these publishers value their immortal souls, they might want to think long and hard about what they're engaged in.

Just a suggestion.

Harrier, schmarrier.

2012-01-29T14:53:00.000-07:00

This is the future of military aircraft. The grace and maneuverability of the F-35B is simply unbelievable.

(HT Rage Against The Kakistocracy. Great find!)

A Cocktail Party reward

2012-01-29T13:31:00.000-07:00

Last July, I joined many others in posting my outraged disappointment concerning the decidedly non-Conservative actions of Col. Allen West, whom we'd considered one of the Conservative movement's rising stars. I don't claim to know the minds of my fellow man, but there didn't seem to be much of an alternative explanation other than Col. West's being co-opted by the Cocktail Party.

This is what cooperating with these people gets you.

As we have pointed out before, Freshman Congressman Allen West was manipulated by the Decepticon establishment into supporting various horrid legislative constructs; most damningly the raising of the debt ceiling. West joined with McCain and Boehner calling the Tea Party, hobbits, childish and damaging. Now the establishment is done with West and he’s about to find out what that means. He sold his soul (support) to them and now that he’s completed their bidding they will eliminate him.
So...what now, Colonel?

A scream that was heard in Georgia.

2012-01-27T09:34:00.000-07:00

March 31st of last year, I posted the following:

Who the hell IS Barack Hussein Obama, Jr...REALLY??

Looks like some folks in the Peach State heard it. (Well, OK...you know my blog didn't start this off, even if I have been raising my share of questions about the International Man Of Mystery. It's just a coincidence. (Not like this 'coincidence,' I mean a real one.)) All kidding aside, at least one State's courts are finally taking the question of Obummer's eligibility seriously.

Typically, Obummer thinks he's above the law...

Big shocker: Obama did not even show up today. Guess he was too busy campaigning in Nevada and Colorado for his re-election bid. Heck, he didn’t even bother to send his attorney Mr. Michael Jablonski to deliver the necessary documents to the courthouse. But apparently, a lot of concerned Americans did show up, as the Atlanta courthouse was crowded.

To recap what has happened with this case during the past few weeks, Mr. Jablonski has tried very hard to stop this case one way or another. First he attempted to have the case dismissed, then he said it simply was not relevant to the president, then he argued that as the law stands the states do not actually have the power to determine who appears on their individual ballots (yeah, and the Pope is a Muslim), and finally said that his client was simply too preoccupied with his responsibilities as President to give a damn about the case. In short, he found himself continually having to change the story of his client.

However, the Georgia court rejected every one and all of these excuses. Just yesterday, Mr. Jablonski sent out a letter to the secretary of state in which he declared that the case was simply not to be heard and that he and his client would effectively boycott these proceedings. Hours later, Mr. Brian Kemp, Secretary of the Great State of Georgia, responded by saying that Obama and Jablonski were free to not show up at court but would nevertheless be doing so at their own peril.

I now have a total man-crush on Mr. Kemp. Resolve like this used to be a quintessential American trait. Nowadays, it's mostly limited to a handful of State officials and Ann Barnhardt. How the mighty have fallen.

"Liberal."

2012-01-27T08:16:00.000-07:00

Once a term denoting those who sought political and intellectual freedom, it has become an insult and an accusation. (If you're not insulted by being called a Liberal these days, you're Part Of The Problem.) James Lewis elaborates at American Thinker:

They are deeply troubled people, and they can only live with themselves by ranting at good and decent, normal people. Michael Moore has to think of a new and more vicious slander to throw at us, to keep down his own knowledge of irredeemable guilt.

There is no moral difference between the radical left and the Nazis, and they must know that elementary fact from Politics 101.

Which brings me back to my title. Liberalism used to mean the love of political freedom. Real liberals used to read Locke, Mill, Voltaire, the Founders, the political wisdom of the Western Enlightenment. Today self-labeled 'liberals' love mass murderers and those who justify mass murder: Karl Marx, the post-modern 'philosophers', the totalitarian left, Thomas Friedman, the New York Times and Islamic fascism. Like any utopian cult, these pseudo-liberals justify it all, not by the horrors of the past (which cannot be justified at all) but by some dream image of the future. The next time they'll get it right! Because they have good intentions, you see.

Yeah...I seem to remember hearing there's a road somewhere that's paved with good intentions. Wonder where it goes...?

RTWT. You can sputter, scream, hurl invectives or turn your head. But you cannot deny the truth: What constitutes 'Liberalism' today is ignorance, insanity or evil.

I love you, Jan.

2012-01-26T08:23:00.001-07:00

The realities of politics and diplomacy being what they are, we may not get the real story of what went down here for a good long while, if ever...but I just gotta say, THAT'S MY GOVERNOR getting right up in Obummer's face.

Hey, non-Arizonans...what's YOUR Governor shown lately as far as brass balls?

Geek Awesomeness

2012-01-25T18:02:00.000-07:00

Princess Leia meets Tank Girl!

James Hance is a mashup artist over in the UK who does lots of this type of thing. Go check out the rest of his stuff. Be warned, though--you'll likely want to add an addition to your house so you have more walls to hang his pictures!

(HT io9)

So, what's this "libertarian" thing, anyway?

2012-01-25T10:33:00.000-07:00

Isn't that another name for a Ronulan? Do we have to wear wookie suits? I don't wanna wear a wookie suit, they make me itch. Are we going to be compelled by law to carry guns, smoke pot and have abortions? I don't like pot. Do we have to hate cops? I have friends that are cops. I'm so confused...what the heck IS a "libertarian?"

OK, let's see if Mr. Karl "Market-Ticker" Denninger can explain it. Better you hear it from him than a dumb truck driver.

Either you, and only you, have the right of dominion (ownership) over your person and nobody else does, or you do not.

This does not mean you cannot cede that authority for a period of time and on a voluntary basis to some other entity (e.g. your idea of what God is, to military service, etc) but it does mean that nobody else can compel you to do so.

The difficulty with first principles is that they're inviolate. One either believes in them or one does not. Once you adopt one you are then forced to square all your other political principles against this first one, and if you cannot fit what you wish to adopt into that first principle then you must modify or abandon whatever it was that you intended to do.

...

Think about that for a minute.

On the one hand most people in this country claim to believe in a God that endowed us all with certain unalienable rights -- life, liberty, and the pursuit (ed. but not the guarantee!) of happiness.

But then, under the label of "Democrat" or "Republican" we vote for, support, and enable the enactment of laws that blaspheme what we claim to believe, in that we then intentionally violate those very same liberty interests we claim come from that God.

Seriously, RTWT. Now, when I call myself a libertarian, you'll know exactly what I mean. And no, I don't wear a wookie suit.

(At least, not as far as you know. ;) )

Oppressives=DeceptiCons.

2012-01-24T12:19:00.000-07:00

An Ordinary American speaks truth. Listen up, fools....and yes, that means you idiots on either side. This is where we stand.

This nation was founded upon individual relationships of our own deciding. The business I retired from was based upon "build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your doorstep." Small business is THE engine that drives our economy--not the Wall Street conglomerates.

I have nothing against the acquisition of wealth so long as it's done honestly and ethically. But when our top business people have done nothing more than politic their way to the top, then appointed board members who continue to inflate each others' salaries and benefits and all at the expense of the very people making those companies work who live in fear every single day as to how much longer they'll be employed, then we have a problem.

Likewise, when these crooked, greedy sons of bitches are threatened by individuals in Fish Bite Falls, USA who are selling their handmade quilts on craigslist, then we an even bigger problem.

It's EXACTLY like that.

Same thing I've been saying...

2012-01-24T11:05:00.000-07:00

...only with a lot more cussing. If you want the NSFW version of my attitude towards DeceptiCons, read it at Cold Fury:

Go piss up a rope, pal. You may be fine with continuing to vote for any old closet liberal the GOP establishment crams up your ass in hopes that he might somehow miraculously turn up in DC and govern like a conservative–which, why would he? And why would the GOP establishment ever bother to get behind a real conservative and push hard the way they have for Mittens? They already know they own your vote no matter what, so why should they do anything but keep trotting out their tired stable of Dole McRomneys for an easy-lay sucker like you?–but I’m all done voting for liberals myself, and I don’t give a good goddamn whether they have an “R” after their name or not.

It gets harsher. As it should.

Islam: up close and personal

2012-01-23T10:20:00.000-07:00

The latest addition to TIB, An Ex-Con's View, gives us the inside scoop on how Muslims relate to each other, what their real motivations are, and how allying himself too closely with them led to his own corruption and incarceration.

I am an idiot, a sinner and an ex-convict, having served my time for my participation and stupidity in these activities. I do not minimize my error and fault in this nor does the actual motives of those in the governments/Royal Families involved lessen my guilt one iota. However, it has enlightened me to their true motives by the very words from their mouths. They lie to us, they lie to each other, they lie to everyone. Sunnis hate Shiites and vice versa, Wahhabbists hate all other forms of Islam and ALL of Islam hates Christians and Jews, desiring the destruction of Israel and the conversion of all western nations to their specific version of Islam.

Do RTWT, and take a moment to ask for God's blessings upon Mr. Lemmen for eventually coming to his senses. Remember the word of the Lord: "I say to you, that so joy shall be in the heaven over one sinner reforming, rather than over ninety-nine righteous men, who have no need of reformation."

PC 101

2012-01-22T19:42:00.000-07:00

By Andrew Klavan via the resurrected BNI.

What we want:

2012-01-22T13:28:00.000-07:00

Summed up very nicely in this article at American Thinker. Here's the money quote:

...what the voters are craving in the debates and on the stump is someone who can look liberals squarely in the eye and tell them why we are right and they are wrong. The American conservative base has had to put up with being called stupid, racist, greedy and unfair for decades by not only the Democrats but the vast majority of the media. The pent up frustration of these decades is magnified by the fact that George H. W. Bush, Bob Dole, George W. Bush and John McCain would not or perhaps could not confront this.

In fact, rare is the Republican candidate at any level who refuses to put up with this and fights back. When they do, they become sensations. Even Chris Christie and Donald Trump -- neither one a real conservative -- earned the love of the Republican base by simply deigning to fight back. Marco Rubio and Allen West are far more popular and well known than they have any right to be simply because they refuse to accept the argument on liberals' terms. They fight. They elicit the roar.

(HT iOTW)

A Century of Unreality

2012-01-21T17:44:00.000-07:00

Mark America's best post EVER. Go read now.

Only a fool holds that one can live without effort, or exist interminably by the efforts of others, and yet this is precisely the stated object of the so-called “progressives,” and it is the unreality that they must peddle. We are now coming to it, in a time when unreality will crash into reality. We will be faced with many choices when this occurs, and the problem is that in crisis, mankind has a terrible history of reacting against reality’s bite with even more egregious unreality. What shall we do? Is this to be the last generation of Americans, as that term had come to mean barely more than a century ago, or is this the time when Americans will reach for reality, and demand a respect for it among men and governments? Time will tell, and yet I know it seems to run ever against us, but still I wonder in the end: Mustn’t we yield to reality, one way or the other? I think so, and I suspect this will be a rude awakening through which the fragile among us may not long endure.

This is the core of our decline, and we need to recognize it. To deny reality is to literally embrace madness. Any more of this insanity will destroy America completely, and with her, the last beacon of liberty on Earth. Yes, it IS that important.

Choose this moment whom you will serve: Good or Evil. Make your choice, for there is no other.

Thoughts on the GOP Final Four...

2012-01-20T09:25:00.000-07:00

...aka, "How the Wraith prefers his crow prepared."

Well, well. It's come down to four candidates for the GOP nomination. A guy I told to piss off, a dyed-in-the-wool DeceptiCon, someone I called a non-starter, and a guy I used to support until I started fully analyzing the consequences of some of his positions. Let's take a look at...

Newt Gingrich: Wow. This guy is kicking ass and taking names. Yes, he has a bit of baggage(and so does everyone, myself included), but much of that baggage seems to be the usual LSM smoke and mirrors. Upon further contemplation, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and hope he learned something from the collapse of the last Republican Revolution. He seems to have a sound position on finances, and he knows how (and to whom) to delegate authority.

Rick Santorum: OK, he's a bit too socially conservative for my taste. Dude really needs to learn the difference between 'morality' and 'government.' To attempt to legislate morality is to deny God's gift of free will, and will ultimately lead to stagnation and failure. Still, I'm willing to back him for two reasons. One, between Congress and public opinion, he won't be able to do very much in that regard. Two, I can trust him. He says what he means and means what he says, regardless of polls and popularity. I can work with a guy like that, far more than someone who tells me what I want to hear and goes back on it two minutes later.

Ron Paul: We shall, for the moment, leave aside his disastrous foreign policy and his 9/11 Trutherism. That old White guy supported by the White-Power group Stormfront, with a history of profiting from racist newsletters written in his name? Yeah, let's run him against The Historic And Unprecedented First ~~half-~~Black President and his lapdog "RAAAAACIST!!!" media. What could possibly go wrong??

Mitt Romney: DUDE. (facepalm)

So there you have it. I'll back Gingrich without a problem. I'll back Santorum with reservations.

Otherwise... #writeinSarah.

This is not good.

2012-01-20T08:13:00.000-07:00

On Banks Refusing Cash Withdrawals
Posted by Ann Barnhardt - January 19, AD 2012 12:35 PM MST

I have received enough calls and emails on this within the last few weeks to A.) cause concern and B.) merit a post.
People are having difficulty withdrawing cash from banks. I just received the SECOND call on this from California this week. The question is, do banks have the right to deny you cash withdrawals?

The answer is NO. They do not. And both of the men I have heard from in California were obviously being bee-essed by their bank. The bank couldn't cite statute, and then started haggling over the amount of cash withdrawals they would allow. That's your dead give-away. If there were ANY statute or actual rule, the bank wouldn't set up a conference call and then start haggling. You don't haggle over laws and rules.

What banks can do is ask for up to 7 days notice on a large cash withdrawal just so that they can order the cash in special and not completely drain their cash on hand. This is very logical and sensible. For transactions over $10,000 the bank also does have to file a transaction report. Again, this is standard. We may not like it, but that has been the law for a very long time.

Also, one chap in CA reported that his bank told him that if he took more than $20,000 out of the bank in cash that he would have to hire an armored vehicle and security. This is an abject lie. $100 bills are bundled in 1/2" stacks. a 1/2" stack contains 100 bills. Therefore $20,000 would be two standard 1/2" stacks of hundred dollar bills, which would fit in ANY purse or easily into the inside pocket of any men's sportcoat. We aren't talking bags and bags of cash. Cash is still shockingly compact.

For now, what I would recommend is setting up your new destination bank account FIRST, and then simply closing the old account with the mega-bank and taking the deposit in the form of a cashier's check. Then drive the cashier's check directly to the new bank and deposit it. BUT, if for whatever reason you want or need cash money, no, banks have no right to deny you cash provided you give them the sufficient 7 day notice.

Limiting cash withdrawals is a sign of an insolvent or failing banking system. These sorts of limits are happening in Italy as we speak. It is very telling that banks in the U.S. are now lying and dissimulating in order to avoid and thwart cash withdrawals by their customers.

If anyone has any more details, information or insight on this question, I would be interested to read it in an email.

CITATION HERE.

But don't worry, folks. Everything is OK. The government says so, and they've never lied to you before, have they?

Wow, something finally got your attention!

2012-01-20T07:40:00.000-07:00

I refer, of course, to SOPA, PIPA and all the other Threats To The Intert00bz that have everyone so up in arms lately. Now, there is a bit of a positive side to this whole affair, as it has been demonstrated that our voices still matter to some extent. Former sponsors and supporters of these monstrosities are now fleeing from them as if these happy little bills had suddenly morphed into radioactive mutant zombie pit bulls on crack. You netheads did that. Well played, y'all.

However, this begs the question, "Where the hell have you all been up to now?" Larry Correia, with a boost from Mike Kupari, spells out the real issues in no uncertain terms.

Each time you applauded their efforts. Mocked those that were concerned. Called them uncaring or racist or alarmist or stupid. Each time you asked for more. You begged them to take care of you, protect you, right wrongs, enforce equality.

But now that your Internet porn and bit torrents are threatened, NOW you care?

It’s too late for all that, kids. Turning off Wikipedia for a couple days isn’t going to win back the freedoms we’ve pissed away. It isn’t going to undo decades of expanding government power. They’ve already decided there’s nothing they can’t do, no law they can’t pass.

If America survives in any recognizable form, it'll be a miracle. If even one percent of the anti-SOPA forces truly come to understand the concept of liberty, it'll be an even bigger one.

Mitt Romney: The ULTIMATE "wasted vote."

2012-01-18T09:37:00.000-07:00

"If you're voting for Romney because you think he's a Conservative, you're wrong.

"If you're voting for Romney because you think he can beat Obama, you're wrong again."

And while we're at it, if you think a Romney Presidency will differ in any meaningful way from another four years of Obummer, you're way past wrong and headed for certifiably insane. Romney and Obummer are both hardcore statists. No matter which of them wins, we get more government intervention jammed up our asses without lube.

And as for the same old, tired nonsense about 'we have to get behind the most-electable candidate,' just forget about us falling for that bullcrap again. D00d. You're betting on the guy who got beat by the guy who got beat by Obummer the last time?* You call that 'electability?'

Here's a vivisection of Mittens that beats the LSM to the punch, starring our favorite spitfire. Get some food and beverages ready, because it's 52.5 minutes. Suck it up and watch it anyway--consider it an opportunity to give your attention span a workout. You'll need it.

The creators of this video have most definitely earned the 10th-ever W&PO Award For Extreme Cleverness. EPIC.

* And I maintain that only the addition of Governor Palin as VP kept Juan McSame from being stomped like a Klansman in Compton.

BREAKING NEWS!

2012-01-15T21:05:00.000-07:00

Some DeceptiCon we didn't know was even running drops out and endorses Mittens.

In other news, my cat just yawned. Further bulletins as events warrant.

Still alive!

2012-01-15T17:12:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not talking about me--I've just been absent due to trying to digest the constant barrage of evil from the Thug Regime, and it's making even my cynical head spin. And I don't matter much anyway, compared to Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who I first mentioned here. Well, guess what?

He's still alive...and notice how the resolve of his captors appears to be weakening!! It's gone from "renounce Christ and become Muslim" to "just say that Mohammed was a messenger sent by God."

And still, he refuses. Pastor Nadarkhani is fully prepared to stand with Christ--in body, mind and soul--even unto death. Seriously, when Muslims threaten to kill you, you can pretty much take it as read that they mean it. His courage is unfathomable to most, but it is a lesson to us all.

Please include this brave man and his family in your prayers. May God be with him.

The gun community--what it's all about.

2012-01-09T13:04:00.000-07:00

Welcome A Girl And Her Gun to the Infinite Blogroll. Because this.

In the past 10 months, I have gained so much more than the ability to line my front site on the target.

This group has welcomed me when I had absolutely nothing to offer them.

I was empty.

I was broken.

I need things I was too weak to even know I needed.

I came here desperate and searching.

Day by day this community, these gun people, bult me up.

They never once pretend to be anything other than exactly who they are.

They didn't try to wrap themselves up in a pretty little package to draw me in.

They didn't use smoke and mirrors and they never, not once, lied to me.

They told me things I didn't want to hear. They showed me things I didn't want to see. They made me face thing I didn't want to face.

All while holding my hand and guiding me and nurturing me and givng me a safe place to grow.

They wanted me to grow.

They wanted me to be stronger.

They wanted me to be able to depend on myself.

They gave me everything they had, so I wouldn't need them any more.

They gave me tools and guidance, so that I could soar and each and every time I took a step forward, they have been there, to say, good for you. Job well done.

They did this, not because of me.

Not because I am something special.

They did it because they are special.

No, ma'am. We're not special. We just do our best to bring out the often-hidden special qualities of humanity, because we have to. Because it's the right thing to do.

We know this. How come so many 'smart' people don't?

The "Conservative Hotties" label is back!

2012-01-09T12:16:00.000-07:00

We seem to have been swamped by yet another wave of ladies who are not only beautiful on the outside, but in their hearts and minds as well. One of them is running for Congress in UT4. Meet Mia Love:

HT iOTW and Big Breitbart. Seriously, Utah--vote for this woman. I'm right below your southern border; don't make me come up there and kick all your asses.

Sunny came home with a vengeance...

2012-01-09T09:28:00.000-07:00

Welcome to The Infinite Blogroll...House of Sunny. Be sure to check out her "Sunny TV" spots--they're a little unpolished, but girlfriend knows her way around snark!

Hey, you wanna see this hottie in her underwear? CLICK HERE.

On the issues of life and death

2012-01-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

Karl Denninger dissects the "Personhood Pledge" and finds more than a few problems with it.

This is list is not exhaustive, but it ought to make people sit down and think. The founders put forward the declaration of where rights vest ("all persons born or naturalized") under The Constitution not because they were ignorant Neanderthals (they certainly understood that a "quickened" fetus was alive!) but because there were serious and, for them, irresolvable conflicts between the various interests involved.

Nothing in this regard has changed over the intervening 225 years. If anything technology has made the questions more complex, in that we can now do things that were unthinkable in the times of Washington, Madison and Hamilton. We can intervene to save life that would otherwise perish, and we can intervene to make the creation of life possible where it formerly was not. In addition, we have learned to block the transmission of life where it would otherwise occur, and with that knowledge has come the ability to destroy life.

The United States Supreme Court, in Roe .v. Wade, did not, as many people claim, decide that "all abortion is ok." In point of fact The Court decided quite-narrowly -- that in the first three months, where separate and distinct existence apart from the mother is biologically impossible, the mother's privacy rights and the right to determination of her own body trump those of a fetus. But the Court's same ruling sets forth that in the second and third trimesters the question does not resolve as cleanly, and that in point of fact in the third trimester, where separate and distinct survival becomes possible, the presumption is exactly in the opposite direction as it is in the first.

RTWT. Sometimes, things aren't as simple as they're described.

Head vs. Heart

2012-01-09T08:47:00.000-07:00

Wild Bill does it again:

Why do we chafe at regulations?

2012-01-08T20:45:00.000-07:00

Because common sense is the American way, and regulating every single aspect of human behavior annihilates the whole concept. My homegirl NOOAI elaborates here:

These questions sound reasonable at first blush, but (aside from the whole running out of money to pay for it problem) we can glimpse the truth of the matter in situations like this one.

When we try to control the behavior of our fellow citizens (yes, even when they are corporation-y or bankish), right down to the smallest detail, we don’t get rid of abuses of power. We don’t get everyone the healthcare they need. We don’t get insert a well-meaning goal here.

We get lunacy. We get a guy who can’t benefit from the good luck of accidentally catching a giant tuna. We get an amazing charitable cooperative enterprise between individuals, governments, and businesses–stopped in its tracks.

RTWT. If this doesn't blow up your WTF-meter, you're definitely part of the problem.

How Glenn Beck got his groove back

2012-01-07T17:34:00.000-07:00

I Have To Link To This Beck Clip

Posted by Ann Barnhardt - January 6, AD 2012 5:59 PM MST

I was utterly disgusted when Beck accused anyone who would vote for Gingrich over Obama of being racist a few weeks ago. Utterly disgusted.

But, I have to post the link to this Beck video clip from today, because I agree with every single word. Every single syllable. Every single phoneme. Fair is fair.

CLICK HERE AND WATCH EVERY SECOND OF THIS VIDEO TWICE.

Many of you put signature footers at the bottom of your emails. I would recommend putting this Osama Bin Laden quote on your emails, on your websites, where ever. Post this quote on ANY thread that a RonPaulbot tries to hijack. Because at the end of the day, this quote from Bin Laden himself is the absolute simple quintessence of the totalitarian political system that is islam. Here it is:

"Our talks with the infidel West and our conflict with them ultimately revolve around one issue—one that demands our total support, with power and determination, with one voice—and it is: Does Islam, or does it not, force people by the power of the sword to submit to its authority corporeally if not spiritually? Yes. There are only three choices in Islam: [1] either willing submission [conversion]; or [2] payment of the jizya, through physical, though not spiritual, submission to the authority of Islam; or [3] the sword — for it is not right to let him [an infidel] live. The matter is summed up for every person alive: Either submit, or live under the suzerainty of Islam, or die."
--Osama Bin Laden
(The Al Qaeda Reader, p. 42)

Beck mis-read the word "suzerainty" as "scrutiny". Wrong. "Suzerainty" is a French-origin word ("suzerain") that means "overlordship". Google it and look it up for yourself. Bin Laden uses exactly the right word in this context.

Please note that Bin Laden confirms my premise that islam is NOT a religion, but a completely earthly totalitarian political system:

"force people by the power of the sword to submit to its authority corporeally if not spiritually"
"payment of the jizya, through physical, though not spiritual, submission to the authority of Islam"

Thank you. Musloids do not give a flying flip if you actually believe any of their pseudo-religious crap. Hell, only the inbred mentally retarded ones actually believe any of that nonsense themselves. Why don't they care if you actually believe any of it? Why are they satisfied with mere physical submission without any spiritual "submission"? Why are they satisfied with "infidels" merely paying a tax (jizya)?

BECAUSE IT ISN'T A RELIGION AT ALL. Islam isn't about "allah" or "paradise" or "prayer" or "spirituality" or how human beings should relate to one another or how human beings should relate to a "god" or the eternal fate of the human soul. THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT ANY OF THAT. Islam is about acquiring physical, earthly territory and installing a totalitarian government over the earth that provides a cadre of "elites" masquerading as some sort of "clergy" with massive decadent wealth and as much twisted perverted sex as they want, including homosexual and heterosexual pedohilia, ephebophilia, concubinage, incest, bestiality and necrophilia. There is nothing new under the sun. They want power, they want money and they want sex. The "religious" aspects are a stone-cold con, which Bin Laden himself declared in no uncertain terms.

Spread the word.

In case you missed it

2012-01-05T12:08:00.000-07:00

Don't even get me started on what we Commercial Drivers have to put up with. No ID, no vote. Period.

The LawDog Files: Hypocrisy, much?

A little bit of ramblin'

2012-01-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

One day, more than a decade ago, I awoke in agony. My guts were cramped and twisted up--not in the "I gotta go" kind of way, but like being impaled on a bunch of knives over and over again. I called in sick to work, hoping it would go away. When my wife got home and saw that I was still white-knuckled with suffering, she took me to the hospital. They pumped me full of insane amounts of morphine, which--thanks to my whacked-out, super-drug-tolerant system--did just about nothing.

By about the 14th hour of pain, I broke. I honestly, dispassionately, clinically, wanted to die. It wasn't depression, it wasn't me getting all emo.

I just simply wanted the pain to stop.

And now, a segue(how much does a seg weigh?):

For most of my 42 years on this Earth, I've been watching America destroy herself. From both the left and the right, those who wish to control others have been chipping away at our liberties for years and years. Every four years, we've been promised that this is the year we change course and get back to the founding principles of America.

Outside of Ronald Reagan, no one has even attempted to deliver on this promise. Once the votes are counted, it's back to business as usual, namely setting fire to the Constitution and voraciously gobbling up more and more power. Reagan was never supposed to win, and the Cocktail Party is determined that that kind of thing will never happen again. Throws all their plans out of kilter, ya know. So, they're determined to stick us with Barack the Communist or Mittens the Socialist. Those are going to be our only choices.

Except they're not, as far as I'm concerned. I won't abstain from voting, like Mark America plans on doing. I may write in Sarah Palin. I may vote third party, if a reasonably viable candidate(NOT Ron Paul)shows up. But if Governor Palin makes it clear that she won't accept a write-in campaign, and there's no one to vote for but Romney or Obama...

...I will vote for Barack Obama. Yes, you read that right. I can't stand this slow-motion suicide any more. If we're going to kill this country, then let's just get it the hell over with. Sorry, Lord--Your children created their greatest-ever achievement, and we managed to FUBAR the whole deal.

I do not, have not, and never shall harbor any ill will towards America, her people or her principles.

I just want the pain to stop.

UPDATE: I've made up my mind...if Romney's the nominee, I WILL write in Sarah Palin. No matter what.

Governor, you wanted an 'earthquake' to change your mind about running? I intend to shake my little piece of ground until it screams for mercy. It likely won't work, but if it does, I'm sorry for what you and your family will endure. If I were eligible to be President(and if anyone knew or cared who I was), I'd gladly take that cup from you.

Think there's no decent alternative for POTUS?

Ten letters: S-A-R-A-H P-A-L-I-N. So easy, even I can do it.

And I will.

Gold.

2012-01-02T19:14:00.000-07:00

Cold Fury strikes it.

Under the sanction of what right, divine or human, do you and those of your faction undertake to transform a free people into a herd of lowing cattle? By what law, constitutional or legislative, do you and your like-minded philosophes propose to turn a great nation into a vast ward for the feeble-witted, or a prison for three hundred millions of debtors? You join with hordes of warlike Musselmen to beset our Hebrew brethren with chimerical demands, your Department of Justice - Justice, sirrah! – has taken pride of place amongst the criminal caste, and everywhere your rapacious clerks and petit judges harass honest citizens with encroachments on their liberties from which even His Late Majesty, George the Third, would have recoiled in disgust.

Our Garden is become a tangled bed of weeds and thorns as those of your school have beggared the working man, and stood as highwayman to the banker and merchant. Our system of public education is like unto an academy for the teaching of treason, and a university for the manufacture of a large class of impertinent mendicants for whom the taxpayers must serve as unwilling almoners in perpetuity. And you strive, through cunning and secret stratagems, to disarm the people, thereby subjecting them to the caprice of an all-powerful central government, in one stroke imposing tyranny and depriving the citizenry of the capacity for resisting it.

RTWT, and welcome Paco Enterprises to The Infinite Blogroll.

You do WHAT at the grocery store?

2012-01-02T16:22:00.000-07:00

I say Grace. Really.

It never ceases to amaze me that I can walk into a building--one of many in my town--full of fresh produce, milk, cheese and foods from all around the world that wouldn't have been available at any price to anyone not so many years ago. Further, with a bit of coupon-clipping and smart shopping, I can buy enough groceries to fill the back seat of Mrs. Wraith's Rogue for less than a day's pay.

So, when we leave the store, we always pause a moment to give thanks to the Lord our God, for the blessings He has bestowed upon us. We live in the greatest country on Earth, with a standard of living never before enjoyed by anyone, at any time in all of human history. And too many people don't even know it.

Just a little perspective. Happy New Year, everyone.

Fight! Fight!

2012-01-01T09:58:00.000-07:00

I do enjoy the writings of both Mr. Williamson and Mr. Alger. I consider them both rational thinkers with plenty of great points to make. But, on the issue of the First Amendment vs. the others, I'm gonna have to agree that Michael Williamson swung and whiffed on his interpretation.

First off, the First Amendment is a limit placed on Congress, and no other entity. It is the only one of the Amendments making up the Bill of Rights that does so. All of the others assert absolute and universal proscriptions on behavior that limits or infringes individual rights. Universal. No actor may infringe -- public or private. A property owner may deny you access, but if he does so because you choose to go armed, he is violating your Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, and -- as the actual text says -- the right "shall not be infringed." Not by Congress, or the States, or your city government, or your neighbor.

RTWT at BabyTrollBlog...and make sure you're wearing your tactical undies.

Riffing on a meme

2011-12-31T08:20:00.000-07:00

The "What's in your iPod" question is making the rounds, and I am unable to answer. I don't own an iPod or anything like it. I'm still in awe that a 6-CD car stereo is now considered 'Old School,' but that's how I roll, yo.

So, I'm going to modify the question a bit, by listing the albums and my favorite track from each:

George Thorogood -- Greatest Hits: 30 Years of Rock. Favorite track: Gearjammer. I actually bought the album just for this.

Songs of Anarchy. Favorite track: Gimme Shelter. This is, without question, the best cover of that song I've ever heard.

Evanescence -- Fallen. Favorite track: Bring Me To Life. Amy Lee's phenomenal voice never fails to give me shivers.

Suzanne Vega -- 99.9 * F. Favorite Track: Bad Wisdom. Reminds me a lot of my younger days.

Sisters of Mercy -- A Slight Case of Overbombing. Favorite track: Temple of Love. I just have to watch my foot-to-floor distance when I crank this in my pickup. Tickets suck when you're a truck driver.

Kate Bush -- The Red Shoes. Favorite track: Rubberband Girl. Kate's an acquired taste, but highly varied and interesting. She appeals to those of us with slightly skewed thought processes.

So, that's what's in my stereo. If anyone wants to continue along this branch of internet weirdness, just post it in a comment here, or provide a link to wherever you did.

I stand in awe.

2011-12-29T09:36:00.000-07:00

Even in my hardcore, punk rock, screw-you days, I don't believe I have ever been quite as In Your Face as the guy I'm about to link. I warn you now, this is one definitely NSFW blog. Even its title contains profanity, and I'll have to edit it for TIB.

Regardless, watch the brother kick ass.

Q: "Why do you NEED high capacity magazines?"
A: "Because sometimes you have to kill a whole bunch of mother****ers."

Q: "Why do you NEED armor piercing rounds?"
A: "Because sometimes you have to kill some mother****er hiding on the other side of a wall."

Q: "Why do you NEED a fifty caliber sniper rifle?"
A: "Because sometimes you have to kill some mother****er from a kilometer away."

Q: "Why do you need a night vision scope?"
A: "Because sometimes you have to kill some mother****ers in the dark."

Oh, yeah. Common sense delivered with a howitzer. Sometimes, the offensive can truly be refreshing.

A REAL Christmas Story

2011-12-28T09:24:00.000-07:00

If you haven't seen this post at iOTW, you might want to have a barf bucket handy. I'm hoping against hope that it's a hoax, but I fear it isn't. This country, once the greatest on Earth, has somehow managed to shit out a steaming pile of the most spoiled, selfish, disgusting excuses for human beings ever to defile this planet with their meaningless whinging.

If any of you self-absorbed wastes of protoplasm happen to be reading this, you need a history lesson. Let's step back in time to a Christmas long past, in South Africa under apartheid(that's, like, super racism and it's real bad, mmkay). Let's enter the world of real heroes--the people who actually did the kinds of things you just know you'd be doing in that situation as long as it didn't involve giving up your six-latte-per-day habit...or your iWhatever, or your weed, or...aw, screw it. You straight-up wouldn't have the balls, and deep down, you know it. This, bitches, is how you really Make A Difference. RTWT, if you dare.

He wasn't joking about that. To have the wrong color of skin, or be a member of the wrong tribe, or have the wrong political sympathies, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, had been a death sentence for all too many South Africans of all races in the past few years.

I set the telephone chain in motion. We were a small group of people who cared. We didn't give a damn about the politics of those in need - although all of us were opposed to apartheid, and wanted to see South Africa a genuinely democratic nation. We were all believers in our particular faiths, and saw it as our duty to help the helpless, rather than shout political slogans. We went into townships where violence had erupted, tried to get the injured to safety, took in supplies for distribution through local churches, and generally tried to bring a little light into the darkness of the turmoil that was spreading throughout the country like a cancer.

We were of all races, and all religions: Christian, Muslim, Jewish, animist, Hindu . . . you name it, and the odds were we had at least one member of that faith in our loose network. It didn't matter to us. If you believed strongly enough in your faith that you were willing to put your life on the line to help those in need, that was all that counted. We were brothers and sisters from that moment. We would worry about the theology later.

...

David got out of the passenger seat next to me, getting in the back, and the boy took his place. We bumped into the back roads of the township, the familiar smells growing stronger by the yard. The stench of excrement overlaid every other odor - this township didn't have a sewage system, and relied on buckets to catch the 'night soil' deposited by its inhabitants. Acrid smoke mingled with the fecal smell, and if you had an active imagination, you could smell the fear too. You could certainly smell it in our vehicle - all of us knew what we were facing.

The dirt roads were dusty, except where runnels of sewage ran down the middle of some of them, adding a noisome mud to the scenery. Feral dogs cringed out of our path as we drove past. No-one was visible on the streets at all. They were either locked in their homes, hoping and praying that the violence didn't move in their direction, or they'd fled to a place where they imagined they'd be safer.

...

I put down my plate, to have it swiftly taken by a young child, who carefully washed the plastic utensils and put them in a bag. In a place where poverty was so rampant, there was no such thing as 'disposable' cutlery. Even the dirty paper plates, which couldn't be washed, would be kept after being scraped clean. When dried and torn into strips, they would serve as kindling to light fires. Nothing was wasted here.

It was full dark now. Fanyana and I stood silently together outside the hall, watching the skyline to the East. It glowed and flickered as burning buildings sent up the light of their flames. We could see them reflected from the smoke clouds . . . black, sooty smoke, from car tires. If those nearby were fortunate, the tires would be burning only as barricades across the street. If they weren't, some of those tires would be burning around the necks of anyone suspected of being an informer, or lacking sympathy for the 'revolution'. They'd scream their last as the gasoline-soaked 'necklaces' roasted their faces and heads into charred caricatures of a human being.

I almost lost my faith that night. I'd been on the brink for some time, furiously angry at Church leaders who preached politics instead of the Gospel, who supported political factions instead of standing for all believers, who talked a good fight instead of going into the streets and actively ministering to those who most needed their help. To me, the Gospel was deed rather than word - and all I was hearing from these leaders was words. It made me sick, and I was on the point of abandoning my membership of any organized Church. Looking at those flames in the distance, knowing that people were suffering and dying there, I cried out internally to God, asking Him, "Where are your bishops and priests and pastors and ministers now? Why aren't they here, with Fanyana and others who need them? Where is the love they proclaim so loudly, but never live out?"

Yeah...tell me again how much your Christmas sucked, you worthless, braindead idiots. Then get on your knees and thank Almighty God for what He's blessed you with, which you have spit upon, ignored and taken for granted...and then beg His forgiveness.

If you're surprised by this...

2011-12-27T11:40:00.000-07:00

...you haven't been paying much attention.

Why don’t they want you to know? What HAS been exposed publicly points directly to overt takeovers of the constitutional government via martial law, the use of troops on the street (in violation of Posse Comitatus) and a definitive takeover of all communications, including the establishment of secure emergency communications lines for the the Continuity of Government controllers. More to the point, it validates the worst of fears– that rhetoric issued from political leaders in America demonizing its people as potential terrorists relates to real plans, albeit obscured from popular public knowledge, to target and indefinitely detain dissidents and other ordinary citizens any during declared emergencies, or for any pretext of national security.

Just another tinfoil-hat post. Pay it no mind.

Food porn

2011-12-25T17:05:00.000-07:00

Via Uncle Jay, I've found a great place to visit if I ever find myself back in the DFW...the Cowtown Diner. Any place whose menu includes a breakfast called "That Boy Can Pack Some Groceries," and a side of bacon-wrapped, deep-fried deviled eggs, is definitely on my Bucket List.

And according to the health nazis, it might just be my Bucket Cause. But, damn, it'd be worth it!

When Christmas is a lonely time...

2011-12-24T14:12:00.000-07:00

If you feel desperately alone during the holiday season--even in the midst of a crowd--please take a moment to read this, and know that you are never alone, that our Lord and Savior is with you, now and forever.

Self-defense and barroom wisdom

2011-12-24T13:58:00.000-07:00

Some of the folks on The Infinite Blogroll are very infrequent posters, but sometimes, that's better than being Chatty Cathys. Usually, when folks like Angela or Matthew post up, it's some stuff you need to read. Every now and then, hit the "Show All" tag and look through the treasure trove of information that comprises TIB.

Anyway, Matthew has a great post here on the ethics of self-defense. Go RTWT, and when you're done, I have a story for you, brought to mind by this part:

Once years ago I was in a pub with some friends. I had just left protecting my Principal (client) and was carrying my pistol (a Kahr K9 if I remember correctly). One guy in our group (not a friend and high on the a-hole quotient) started talking trash with some other guys in the bar. A moment before it went bad he looked over and said to me "you got my back right?"

"Absolutely" then shook my head no to the other guys. He was a problematic personality and wasn't any friend of mine, and frankly not worthy of waiting next to him for bail. On that note he punches (attacks) a guy in the other group and a fight ensues...for him. We stayed out of it. And we were right to.

All you young folks reading this, should take some notes. Something very similar happened in my life, back in the summer of 1996. Fortunately, this didn't end in a barfight, at least partially because I didn't do what Matthew did(which was a bit of a dick move if you ask me, but I wasn't there, so I'll reserve judgement).

I had just started my truck driving career, and was still out with my trainer. We'd pulled into our terminal in southern Indiana, and found that there were no loads leaving until late the next morning. Someone said there was a bar within walking distance, so we accompanied four other guys to have a couple of beers. The bar in question was one of those little motel bars that are commonplace across most of America. I walked in, looked around and tried to pick up on the vibe of the place. It seemed like just a small-town motel bar where a lot of locals hung out, not some dive where they had to sweep up the eyeballs off the floor at closing time. OK, no problem.

The instant we sat down, one of the guys starts going on about how all truckers are brothers, and we all have to back each other up, and so on. I told him, "I'll back you if you're right. If you're being cool and someone wants a piece of you, I'll stand with you. But if you're being a dick to people, you can get your ass kicked on your own." Now, anyone who didn't intend trouble would have been OK with that. I know I would be, if the situation were reversed and I had a concern about the possibility of something going down.

Not this guy. He got all nasty and said, "Well, we're not gonna have your back, then." I looked him dead in the eye and told him, point blank, "I don't need your f*ckin' backup." Then I went back to my beer. The rest of the guys were busy finding other things to talk about, and this dude got the hint pretty quick. We didn't have any trouble all night, which would not have been the case if this guy thought he had us in his corner.

If someone's first concern is who has his back--especially when the situation seems benign--that's someone who's a coward on his own, but a jerk when he thinks he's got support. Those are the guys you have to shut down quick, or you'll find yourself stomped or in jail over some crap you had nothing to do with causing. Don't do it--they damn well wouldn't do it for you.

Thus endeth Wraith's Public Service Announcement for those young men who might need it. Back to all that Holiday Cheer and stuff.

Regarding the "elites"

2011-12-24T12:40:00.000-07:00

The Anarchangel explains why Oppressives can't seem to understand Americans' view of government...

Conservatives and libertarians aren't against smart well educated people; in fact many of us ARE smart, well educated people.

...We're against people who want to run things.

This idea is so utterly foreign to the leftist mind, that they literally cannot conceive it, or believe it.

RTWT. It's so simple, even a leftist can understand it. I think.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T11:08:00.000-07:00

From all of us at W&PO to all of you. God bless you and yours.

The end of G.O.P. Motors

2011-12-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

A story too good not to share...

Joe: Well Reg, thats neat and all but the color is not the issue. It’s the car. Actually it’s the fact that its a car and not a pickup truck like I need. I already have a McPrius in the driveway on cinderblocks that I bought from you a few years ago that doesn’t run anymore. What I need is a pickup truck.

Joe starts walking over to the white pick up. It is a Dodge Palin with the Alaska package. Big tires, lift kit, big shiny tool box in the back and a electric winch in the front. Just what Joe is looking for. Joe turns to Reb.

Joe: This is what I want. I can get to the job site no matter where it is. I got a safe place for my tools, a big bed for the materials, and even a winch I can put to good use. Lets go into the office and discuss the terms and...

Reg: Oh come on! You don’t want the Dodge Palin. The Romney Volt is what you need. I mean look at that beauty! Its even eco friendly! All the chicks dig it! That magic paint job! You gotta get this thing!

Joe: Naw Reg. I want the pick up truck. Lets go get this done. I don’t want to lose a chance at getting this job. Joe turns towards the office takes 3 steps and hears SMASH! Turning around Joe sees Reg with a sledgehammer, breaking the windows, caving in the fenders, knocking off the mirrors. Shocked Joe runs over to Reg who is smiling as he walks away from the Dodge Palin, drops the sledgehammer , and wipes his hands briskly together.

Joe: What the hell did you do that for!

Reg: I was saving you from yourself! Now that that’s settled, lets get you in that Romney Volt!

RTWT. All you libs out there, can you now understand that we despise the Cocktail Party GOP Establishment even more than you do?

Truth

2011-12-20T10:05:00.000-07:00

Just read it, and let it sink in.

On Vomiting and Crazy Eyes
Posted by Ann Barnhardt - December 19, AD 2011 9:17 PM MST

As expected, the “hiss out of hell”, to quote Chesterton, came streaming out of my inbox with regards to the Immaculate Conception piece. But, there were just as many lovely emails, too. Thanks to all. One that stood out in particular relates directly to vomiting. The writer, a man, tried to take the tack that I was some sort of a fascist for, well, ACTUALLY BELIEVING in a doctrine or premise. His take – and this is EXTREMELY COMMON across our culture today – is that I have “my truth” regarding Mary and he has “his truth” and in the end it is all the same and doesn’t really matter.

Oh, hells no. He is where I GO OFF.

That “your truth – my truth” bullshit is one of the single most evil concepts in the universe. It is satanic and it is exactly the tool that is being used to destroy civilization and humanity. Rustle up a cup of cocoa or a glass of port and settle in, because this is going to go in-depth.

First, to the actual vomiting itself. For that we go to the words of Our Lord in Revelation chapter 3 verses 15-16.
And to the angel of the church of Laodicea, write: These things saith THE AMEN, the faithful and true witness, who is the beginning of the creation of God: I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth.
In this context “THE AMEN” is used as a name of Christ Himself. “The Amen” means the Truth Itself, which is God Himself, specifically referring to the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, Christ. So Christ, who is Truth, says that He would rather people be either hot or cold, but lukewarmness He will VOMIT out of His mouth. That’s astounding at first read. In other words, He is saying, look, either believe something or don’t. Don’t come at me with this godforsaken “church of Oprah” bullshit about “your truth and my truth”. Christ would rather a person be an atheist than one of these wretched “hey, whatever” types, and I can actually see exactly what He means. If you asked me who I would rather have a conversation with: an atheist or a “my truth your truth bullshit” pseudo-Christian, I’d take the atheist, without hesitation every time. You can have a productive, informative conversation with an atheist. An atheist actually believes something. He has a premise, and he believes in his premise, and is probably able to defend his premise in a rational way. In other words, there’s some meat on those bones.

In contrast, the “my truth your truth bullshit” (MTYTB) pseudo-Christian is a vapid, inane empty shell. The lights are on, but Dude, NOBODY’S HOME. To wit, Oprah Winfrey. But more importantly, the MTYTB pseudo-Christian commits a blasphemy that even the atheist does not commit. The MTYTB person is actually denying that there is any such thing as Truth at all, and remember, the Truth isn’t just a mere intellectual or philosophical construct. Intellectual and philosophical constructs exist only in the mind of man. The Truth is completely external to all of us, and is not made by us or contingent upon us, our existence, or even our recognition of the objective reality of Truth. The Truth just IS. It EXISTS. IT IS WHAT IT IS, or to quote God Himself speaking to Moses in Exodus 3:14, I AM WHO AM. 1+1 equaled 2 from all eternity, and 1+1 equaled 2 before any human being had yet pondered the question, and 1+1 will continue to equal 2 forever. Even if every person falls into some mathematical stupor or heresy and collectively become convinced that 1+1=5, 1+1 will still equal 2. That will never, ever change.

The Truth is a PERSON, more personal and more real than you or me. His name is Jesus Christ. What the MTYTB pseudo-Christians are actually doing is denying the existence of God and instead setting themselves up as “god” because they cast themselves as the arbiter and standard of “truth”. Hence, “my truth”. What utter, abject evil. Even the atheist does not do this. The atheist still maintains that there is an exterior truth to himself, and that the truth is that there is no God. The atheist is WRONG, but at least he doesn’t deify himself and still acknowledges that there is an external, referential matrix. The supreme irony and joke about the atheist is that he unknowingly PROCLAIMS GOD’S EXISTENCE by insisting that there is no God as an absolute. Any absolute requires an external existential reality to serve as the supporting matrix of that absolute. Guess who that “external existential reality” is? Yep. If the atheist REALLY wanted to stick it to God, he would adopt the reciprocal of the very common pseudo-Christian super-fun rockband church position of, “Hey, there’s no God in my truth, but maybe there is a God in your truth.” That’s about as bad as it gets.

So back to our question of Mary’s sinlessness. Either she was or she wasn’t. This is a binary question. Either I am right and you are wrong, or I am wrong and you are right. Period. Mary was and is a real person. She isn’t a fiction or a philosophical construct. And neither is Christ. Either Christ is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity who died for the sins of man and rose from the dead, or He was just another insane person. Either Jesus Christ is the Truth, or He was the biggest liar in history. Either the Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ under the appearance of bread and wine, or it is a ridiculous, meaningless wine tasting, and in that case, to quote Flannery O’Connor, to hell with it. Pick your side, but spare me, and more particularly, spare Christ this “my truth your truth” pantheistic Oprah Winfrey slackjawed bullshit. Let the sifting of the wheat from the chaff commence. Ooh-rah.

Why does this matter? Because this satanic evil is what is being used to destroy civilization and humanity through the broad culture. We have been taught over the last 50 or so years that one of the worst cultural sins a person can commit is to ACTUALLY BELIEVE SOMETHING. What our culture says is, “Yeah, yeah, you can go to church and all that, but DON’T YOU DARE actually believe any of that shit.” I’m a great example of this. People see my videos and are REPULSED by the intensity of my delivery and by my “crazy eyes”. What the “crazy eyes” are is the physical manifestation of righteous anger rooted in a belief and recognition of objective truth, and the world’s ever-more severe incongruence with that objective truth. This culture has been so whipped by the satanic denial of objective truth, and the constant shaming and ridiculing of any belief in objective truth in the name of “tolerance” and “ecumenism”, that the mere sight of a person witnessing to the Truth without bracketing every sentence with an apology and qualifier is now repellant and rage-inducing to the average person.

Think about politicians. Obama, Clinton, the Kennedys, and most of the so-called “Republicans” too; these people pay LIP SERVICE to religious belief, but it is all done with a wink and a nod. “Yeah, we go to church once or twice a year, but we don’t actually BELIEVE any of that shit. You know how it is.” And sadly, it isn’t just the politicians anymore. That is the mindset of most people today. “Yeah, I’m Christian, but I don’t think Christianity is the only truth. It’s just MY TRUTH.”

Here is where this gets extremely problematic. If a culture subscribes to the “my truth your truth” line, then what inevitably happens is that the people who have the coercive power in a society begin to impose “their truth” upon everyone else. In other words, whoever has the guns and the power to imprison becomes “god” and sets the standard of “truth” in a society. We are watching this happen right now before our very eyes. The Obama regime is telling Catholics that they WILL provide contraceptives and abortions because these things are “rights” according to “their truth”. They are also telling Catholics that they WILL place adoptive children with homosexuals, and very soon they will also demand that Catholic priests marry homosexuals, because homosexuality is “normal” according to “their truth”, and they have the power to destroy people via the IRS and other governmental bureaucracies, so therefore “their truth” wins. They are telling the MF Global customers that the expectation of respect of property rights and the enforcement of contract law is unreasonable and that confiscation and theft of property by their cronies is now permitted according to “their truth”.

These psychopaths will go to any lengths, any extreme, to deny an external standard of truth, because as long as they can delude themselves and their followers into believing that lie, they set the rules, and the world and everything in it is theirs for the taking.

THIS is why Christ said that he would VOMIT the lukewarm out of His mouth, because the “my truth your truth” bullshit leads directly to hell, even though it promises to deliver a “tolerant, ecumenical utopia.” When a society falls to that evil philosophy and no one will stand and fight with “crazy eyes” for the Truth, then people will suffer and die by the millions. The ecumenical utopia you are waiting for can never and will never exist because, unlike you, the forces of evil actually believe in their satanic philosophy with a burning passion and thus will never, ever compromise or rest until they either fully infiltrate and take over or are utterly defeated. There is no third way.

Crazy eyes? You better know it. Hot, burning crazy.

And now, my own commentary...

Funny thing: I've never, ever been in support of anyone compelling any religion to operate against their beliefs, unless it's along the lines of, "No, you can't cut that person's heart out, I don't care if you're an Aztec." Not when I was an atheist, and not now that I'm a Christian. I'm still about the separation of church and state--both ways--because I believe a theocracy makes a mockery of God's gift of free will. Everybody get that? OK.

Now, check out this statement: "...and very soon they will also demand that Catholic priests marry homosexuals..." Five years ago, I'd have rolled my eyes. Two years ago, I'd have considered it possible, but unlikely.

Today, I have no doubt at all that this is coming. And the notion that this could--and may--become a reality, should frighten every American, whether you have faith or not. Whether the state dictates policy to the church, or the other way around...no good can come of this. We've seen the results throughout history.

Where is America going, and why are we in this handbasket?

(By the way: If you think truth is subjective, try disbelieving gravity. Let me know how that works out for ya.)

An in-depth look at Rick Perry

2011-12-19T17:28:00.000-07:00

Ace pens a monster treatise in support of the Texas governor which is highly thought-provoking. Excerpts below...

I can only say so often that the swing voters in the center of the country are among the least-informed voters on the planet. Every survey demonstrates that, despite their claims to be all about "the substance" and "the issues," they know less about the substance and the issues than partisans on either side of the aisle.

Being apolitical, they're not very interested in politics. Stands to reason. This means, then, that they don't read much about politics.

Their decision-making is very superficial. Although I do not think that Newt Gingrich's affairs/divorces history is a disqualifier, I think it cannot be entirely discounted.

...

I would suggest that we should not get too hung up on fighting the last war, because the media will simply change the rules of engagement. It is true that Gingrich can go toe-to-toe with Obama on policy wonkery; it is also true that that is the very reason the media will lose all interest in intellect as a basis for comparison or qualifier for high office.

Should Gingrich be our nominee, be prepared to do a lot of double-takes as faithfulness and devotion to family suddenly becomes the key trait in a president.

The media will call Rick Perry stupid, of course. And Perry has armed them with weapons to use on this front. However, his gaffes are now several months old, and he hasn't repeated them.

...

Primary voters tend to be strongly ideological. We have very strongly held beliefs about abstract notions of government and "The Good."

But general election voters -- especially those swing voters -- do not have strong opinions about such matters. Otherwise they would be partisans for one camp or another. They tend to be pragmatic, rather than abstract, thinkers. They do not have any prevailing theory of governance, which is what gives them the flexibility to vote for George W. Bush in 2004 and then an all-but-declared socialist four years later.

They care almost entirely about results, because they have no underlying theory that might explain away failures (as Obama's endless theories explain away his failures, at least to his partisans).

...

Other candidates may have theories about their preferred economic system hypothetically producing postulated good outcomes. The ideologue Ron Paul, for example, will regale you with tales about what Austrian Economics might do, were they ever actually put into practice.

Rick Perry can say, "My policy is to have a low tax burden on wealth-creators and a fair and predictable regulatory scheme which does not seek to pick winners and losers, and here is how that has worked out in Texas."

Not theoretical. Not hypothetical. This is what actually happened.

RTWT. If Perry gets the nomination, I'll vote for him. Same with Santorum, Gingrich or even Bachmann. But if Romney or Huntsman wind up with it, then you can just say hello to four more years of Obummer, and goodbye to America.

Choose wisely.

More blogrollin'

2011-12-19T11:25:00.000-07:00

God Bless America, God Bless Texas, and God Bless An Ordinary American. Read his "Favorite Posts" section and you'll agree.

This is what "democracy" looks like.

2011-12-19T08:46:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the new Egypt, where a new era of ~~peace and understanding~~ ruthless government oppression has taken root. Follow the link to the story at TLR, but be warned: These are images of graphic violence. I bear no responsibility for your blood pressure levels or stomach condition.

This is what RADICAL LEFTISM looks like.

I notice that these cowardly bastards are mostly beating women. I thought that kind of stuff was supposed to be all bad and patriarchal or something. Oh, well, don't worry about it. The LSM hasn't covered it, so it's obviously not important that people are being assaulted, protest is being stifled and Coptic Christians are now heading the Endangered Species list in Egypt. No, it's far more important that your student loans be forgiven because your $100K degree in Bitter Womynz Studies turned out to be useless in getting you a job.

May God save the people of Egypt...and America too, while He's at it.

Posted without comment

2011-12-17T14:39:00.000-07:00

(HT iOTW)

Goodbye, Ron.

2011-12-17T14:04:00.000-07:00

Via The Last Refuge, the smoking gun of the Ron Paul Newsletters. Yep, he said it.

Even with his disatrous foreign policy outlook, I wasn't ready to completely disavow any support for the guy...until now. RTWT and judge for yourself, but remember...

Saying NU-UH, doesn’t make the facts above go away.

Shouting, “LIAR!” – doesn’t make the facts above go away.

Giving a link to a Ron Paul denial doesn’t make the facts go away.

Shouting neocon, shill, warmonger, hit piece, or any other word in your vocabulary, doesn’t make the above facts go away.

Saying this is old news, doesn’t make the above truth go away. If a candidate for president built wealth for two decades off of being racist, voters deserve to know.

Saying this was debunked years ago, doesn’t make the truth above go away. The above facts debunk any supposed debunking from Ron Paul.

Sitting there and spouting off any other rhetoric while you ignore the evidence, does not make the evidence go away.

Calling this a joke or an act of desperation does not make the above facts go away.

Spewing a quote about how racism is about collectivism doesn’t make the above facts untrue.

Calling the evidence bogus doesn’t make the newsletters go away. Plus if you say these are all bogus, then you’re calling Ron Paul’s denial bogus too! How could he blame a ghost writer for writing something that never happened?

Saying the first person language and the presence of Ron Paul’s name doesn’t prove a thing, shows you’re clearly biased. Ron Paul defended his newsletters in 1996. Showing that he was involved and did know about them. Combine that with his actual name and first person language in them, pretty much shows he did write them. Making the presence of his name and first person references inconsequential, is laughable at the least.

Sorry, Dr. Paul--you're a nonstarter. And frankly, I'm disappointed and disgusted. More so by your obvious lies than the commentary in these newsletters. Is anyone with principles and honesty left in American politics?

The Great Depression: At least seven years longer than necessary.

2011-12-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

OK, most of you Oppressives out there don't want to be bothered with all that reading stuff...I mean, it's like sooo 20th Century, isn't it? Fear not, for I have found video of some stuff you need to know, via TLR.

It's narrated by a lovely young lady, so all you Oppressive guys can pretend you respect her for her mind, and all you Oppressive chicks can scream and whine about 'patriarchal exploitation' or whatever. Masturbatory material for both sides--don't ever say we're not all about the equal opportunity here at W&PO!

Anyway, take five minutes and learn something.

Our Boys

2011-12-12T12:13:00.000-07:00

Sam

Spike

Merry Christmas to all our fellow cat-lovers. And someone please lend us a forklift so we can get Spike off the floor.

It's my money in theory...

2011-12-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

Given the precarious state of the world financial situation, I decided that the money in my 401k would be better used on food, ammo and other preparations than sitting around waiting to implode.

No dice. Apparently, I'm not allowed to take out what's supposedly my money until I leave my job. So, basically, that's x dollars that's just going to go up in smoke. Great.

I'll be honest...I'm a little scared. I'm nowhere near as prepared as I'd like to be, and the bills just keep making it impossible to improve that state. Truck payment, homeowners' insurance, water(the water softener recently got its backflow stuck open, unbeknownst to us--want to guess how much fifty-seven thousand gallons of water costs?), gas(oy vey), and it just goes on and on. About all I can do at this point is pray that the upcoming crapstorm waits until we can get it together.

Sorry for being a whiny punk, folks...life's just been a bit overwhelming of late. On the plus side, Mrs. Wraith and I managed to fill six angel tree cards, so at least some kids who are far worse off than us will have something this Christmas. And we still have each other, and our boys. And we're not homeless and starving, at least not yet. I just have to remember that God is good and just, and eventually, all will be set right.

May the Good Lord bless and keep all of my readers, and the rest of the world as well, through the times ahead. Meanwhile, here's yet another really cool addition to TIB: Hillbilly at Large. Recommended reading, indeed.

Truckin'

2011-12-06T11:30:00.000-07:00

I was putzing about in the details of some of my TIB members and found an interesting side to Cold Fury...he's a fellow gearjammer. I did not know this. But if you have a drivers' licence, you need to read and comprehend this post. NOW and FOREVER.

(NSFW--language)

4) If you’ve been cruising blithely along in the left (or center, on a three-lane highway) lane for a half-hour or so, please consider moving the fuck over, you selfish ass-pirate. “I pay taxes and I’ll drive wherever I want.” Well, fuck you, Einstein. This is illegal in most states, although many states don’t really enforce it much. Trucks usually can’t use the left lane on three-laners, which makes the center lane our passing lane, and the truck-lane restrictions ARE usually enforced – probably due to the fact that the fine for any ticket for a big rig is automatically double what it is for cars in most states. You’ll often see a truck jump over to the left lane in frustration after being trapped behind some semi-conscious droolcase doing the speed limit or below up and down hill after hill after hill. He’s risking a hefty fine, but he’s fed up enough to take the chance. Those “slower traffic keep right” signs were put there for more than just your reading enjoyment.
(Related Corollary: If you’re going down a hill in the left lane and a truck pulls up on your bumper, do not be shocked and surprised. Just get over. The truck driver is worried about smoking his brakes. You probably think, “Oh, he’s being a bully and an asshole – I’ll show him!” If so, you are very stupid. Most likely he’s standing on the brake pedal with both feet, watching his brake air pressure drop and smelling that awful telltale smell that means his brake shoes are heating up to unsafe levels, mouthing the trucker’s mantra when faced with yet another obstinate bad driver: “Please stop, please stop, pleeeaaase stop…” Just get the hell over, okay?)

5) Contrary to popular perception, trucks don’t regularly haul ass down the road at amazing speeds. Don’t argue, it’s true, and there’s a reason for it: almost every truck owned by a trucking company has a governor on it which limits the speed at which the truck will go. Some are set pretty low – JB Hunt trucks used to be set at 63 mph, although I hear they’ve bumped it up some recently. Swift sets theirs at 65, which makes for some ribbing on the CB radio (“Swift, huh? No you’re not”). Most seem to be set between 70 and 75, which must make life hell for drivers who run in Texas and Montana. Of course you do see some trucks blazing along at 80-plus – these guys are owner-operators and can go as fast as they want. But as it happens, owner-operators are also almost always the most experienced and all-around best drivers out there, so it shouldn’t worry you all that much. And of course there are exceptions to that, just like anything else. But if you get stuck behind a truck who just simply won’t do the posted limit, chances are he’s just as unhappy about it as you are. But hey, his boss is saving a few cents per mile on diesel.

6) When they see you coming down an on-ramp, truckers will usually jump over to the left to allow you to easily merge onto the highway. (If he can – quite often, car drivers will see this as an opportunity to get around the truck and will come up his left side, boxing him in and allowing him no room to maneuver, thereby making it difficult for you to merge. And he usually can’t just slow down and let you on, because it takes a great deal of time and fuel to get back up to speed again and chances are he’s already got another four-wheeler riding his ass anyway. Grit your teeth, slow down, merge behind the truck, and blame your fellow four-wheeler for this one.) This is no small courtesy, because moving a large, inherently unstable vehicle from lane to lane always carries with it an element of danger and risk. So when a trucker lets you on in this manner, don’t just get beside him and cruise along matching his speed. If you do, you’ve just trapped him in the left lane, and he really doesn’t want to be there at all. Most likely there’s an uphill grade coming up which is going to slow him down to well below the posted limit. Next thing you know there’s a line of cars stuck behind the hapless trucker, shaking their fists and muttering about “those damn truck drivers,” when all the guy did was show a little courtesy to merging traffic – and all he really wants is to be able to get over and out of the way. Return the favor, slow down a little and let the guy back over. Everybody will be happier for it.

Listen to this man. He's speaking for every professional driver on the road. The life you save may be your own.

Rules For Kickin' Ass

2011-12-05T12:52:00.000-07:00

I've been passing the time between FPSRussia's YT channel* and Craigslist. I like surfing CL in various parts of the country. Not because I expect to move ever again, but because it gives me the vibe of certain locales, and I find that interesting. Yes, I'm weird like that.

Anyway, I'm liking this comment by Old Southern Veteran in Mobile's R&R.

Rules for Kickin' Ass:

Rules for the Non-Military. Make sure you read #12

Dear Civilians, 'We know that the current state of affairs in our great nation has many civilians
up in arms and excited to join the military.

For those of you who can't join, you can still lend a hand. Here are a few of the areas where
we would like your assistance:

1. The next time you see any adults talking (or wearing a hat) during the playing of the National Anthem- kick their ass.

2. When you witness, firsthand, someone burning the American Flag in protest - kick their ass.

3. Regardless of the rank they held while they served, pay the highest amount of respect to all veterans. If you see anyone doing otherwise, quietly pull them aside and explain how these veterans fought for the very freedom they bask in every second. Enlighten them on the many sacrifices these veterans made to make this Nation great. Then hold them down while a disabled veteran kicks their ass.

4. If you were never in the military, DO NOT pretend that you were. Wearing battle dress uniforms (BDUs) or Jungle Fatigues, telling others that you used to be 'Special Forces', collecting GI Joe memorabilia, might have been okay when you were seven years old, now, it will only make you look stupid and get your ass kicked.

5. Next time you come across an *Air Force* member, do not ask them, 'Do you fly a jet?' Not everyone in the Air Force is a pilot. Such ignorance deserves an ass-kicking (children are exempt).

6. If you witness someone calling the Coast Guard 'non-military', inform them of their mistake -
and kick their ass.

7. Next time Old Glory (the US flag) prances by during a parade, get on your damn feet and pay homage to her by placing your hand over your heart. Quietly thank the military member or veteran lucky enough to be carrying her - of course, failure to do either of those could earn you a severe ass-kicking.

8. 'Your mama wears combat boots' never made sense to me - stop saying it! If she did, she would most likely be a vet and therefore would kick your ass!
9. 'Flyboy' (*Air Force*), 'Jarhead' (*Marines*), 'Grunt' (*Army*), 'Squid' (*Navy*), 'Puddle Jumpers'(*Coast Guard*) etc., are terms of endearment we use describing each other.
Unless you are a service member or vet, you have not earned the right to use them. Using them
could get your ass kicked.

10. Last, but not least, whether or not you become a member of the military, support our troops and their families. Every Thanksgiving and religious holiday that you enjoy with family and friends, please remember that there are literally thousands of soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen far from home wishing they could be with their families. Thank God for our military and the sacrifices they make every day. Without them, our country would get its ass kicked.

11. It's the Veteran, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press.
It's the Veteran, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech.
It's the Veteran, not the community organizer, who gives us the freedom to demonstrate.
It's the Military who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag.

AND ONE MORE:

12. If you ever see anyone singing the national anthem in Spanish - KICK THEIR ASS.

ONE LAST THING:
If you flag this - guess what - you deserve to get your ass kicked!

I'll back that.

* He blow sheet up. Is good. You like.

The continued destruction of the Northland...and America

2011-12-05T10:52:00.000-07:00

Regular readers will recall that I repeatedly focus on the apocalyptic city of Detroit as an example of what Leftist policies have done to a once-great nation. Now, let's look at the neighboring state of Wisconsin, courtesy of my newest TIB addition, Dr. Tim.

In the last decade alone we have lost 150,000 manufacturing jobs in this state – over 25%. And it’s not just jobs that have been lost; the companies that provided them are gone. Those jobs are not coming back, no matter how long we extend unemployment benefits pretending they are. The 450,000 people who still work in manufacturing in Wisconsin are damn good it at, but we are now outnumbered by people who work for government. A significant number of the latter are tasked with taxing, regulating, and generally harassing the former. While it is true that many manufacturers chased low-wage opportunities on their own, many more were driven out of the state by the increasing cost of doing business here.

It is a myth that unions improve wages. If you consider only the 1,000 jobs in a closed shop, you might think an average union wage is, say, $30/hr. But if you add in the zero wages of the 10,000 jobs lost in companies chased out by union harassment, the average of all 11,000 union workers is reduced to $2.72/hr. Do you know the average wage of union iron miners in this state? Zero. And the left is fighting hard to keep it that way in Northern Wisconsin - looking out for the working man, they call it.

It is also a myth that free trade causes job losses. Over the past three years, U.S. manufacturers sold $70 billion more goods to our Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partners than we bought from them. Conversely, we suffered a $1.3 trillion trade deficit with countries where no FTA’s exist. I doubt that kids are going to learn that in our government-union monopoly schools – it doesn’t fit the narrative.

Go thou forth and RTWT.

Educated in spite of the system...

2011-12-05T09:19:00.000-07:00

...that's me. I'm one of those whackos who thinks that the publik skool system should be dismantled with all due haste. Looks like I'm not alone.

As usual, no blog post is complete without the commentary. If the chart Mr. Allen posts isn't enough to raise your eyebrows, this comment from Mr. Art Welling ought to blow the top of your head off:

"All these teachers who bitch and moan that we’re wanting to cut the waste from the school system are willfully blind to their bosses’ stealing their lunches right under their collective noses"

I call bovine excrement on that line.

*I* am a teacher, and I know EXACTLY where the waste is in our system. I can walk into the Building I work at, walk straight into half a dozen offices, and point right at all the criminal waste it will take to make you sick to your stomach.

I can point at a Big $$$ director who spends as much time at his desk watching 'hobby' videos on the internet as he spends trying to trash instructors, and both together make a full work day for him.

I can point out a principals custom hand made desk that cost more than my car... and COULD have been had at 1/20th the cost from our own schools cabinetry program.

I can point out administration who swore they were taking a pay freeze, since they demanded we take one.... and then awarded themselves multi thousand dollar 'bonus' packages.... again each worth more than my car.

I can point out instructors who are selling scrap metal to buy shop supplies.... while the admin is billing the school for $500 meals.

I can point to a brand new state mandated 'administrator' who's job no instructor in three building can see the purpose of, but is so heavily work laden he requires a very pretty young assistant to... well.... assist him I suppose. So far, all he does is wander around the building.

Yes... we know EXACTLY where the waste is, and nobody who matters will listen to us. We are the teachers.... we are the bad guys of this weeks agenda, so nobody cares to listen to us.

We are the people who work 60-70 hour weeks while getting paid for 40, and take over the job of raising the kids everyone else has abandoned.... but we are the 'bad guys'.

We are the teachers, who spend ten extra hours a week writing paperwork that no one will ever read, just so some outrageously paid administrator can claim their job has purpose.

Yes... we damn well know where the waste is. We have to wade through it every single $%#@&%$ day just to do our jobs. We have to feel our noses shoved in it every morning, when we arrive at school an hour early to sweep the useless make work away before we can do our real job. We have to endure the stink of waste... watching administrators buy *themselves* new toys as we buy class supplies from our own pockets.

We are the people who do the actual work... and who nobody will listen to.

We are the people who have read Atlas Shrugged, understand it, and will be the last ones out the door as the lights go out.

Homeschooling. Private schooling. Anything is preferable to what we have now. Even no schooling at all--at least then we won't have our pockets picked in order to pay for a custom desk or hottie 'assistant' for some parasite who does absolutely nothing for anyone.

God be with you and your students, Mr. Welling.

I like these guys.

2011-12-02T09:03:00.000-07:00

I'd never heard of USAammo.com before seeing this, but it's well worth four minutes of your time. Forward it to your liberal friends and watch their heads explode! ;)

Think God can't use you?

2011-12-02T08:38:00.000-07:00

Noah was a drunk.
Abraham was ancient.
Isaac was a daydreamer.
Jacob was a liar.
Leah was ugly.
Joseph was abused.
Moses stuttered.
Gideon was afraid.
Samson had long hair and was a womanizer.
Rahab was a prostitute.
Jeremiah and Tomithy were very young.
David had affairs and was a murderer.
Elijah was suicidal.
Isiah preached naked.
Jonah ran from God.
Naomi was a widow.
Job went bankrupt.
Peter denied Christ.
Martha worried too much.
Mary Magdelene was well…you know.
The Samaritan woman was divorced.
Paul was TOO religious...
and Lazarus was DEAD!

Besides; you aren’t the message, you are just the messenger…

Thanks to WhiteFalcon1 from the comments at iOTW, here.

I don't think I want a smartphone any more.

2011-12-01T11:04:00.000-07:00

I'm somewhat of a Luddite when it comes to phones. I'm still rockin' the G'zOne Boulder, a cell phone with a built-in compass, a battery that lasts over a week, and is dust, shock, and water-resistant enough that even I can't jack it up. I always derided the whole smartphone concept until my wife got one--and then, dammit, I had to admit that the Internet-in-your-pocket thing was actually pretty useful. Darn all this newfangled poppycock, anyway...I remember when we had to walk 10 miles through the snow and pay seven thousand dollars a minute to make a phone call, and we were grateful! And get off my lawn.

So I was considering the G'zOne Commando, since the Boulder's worked so well for me. Then Brian had to dig up this article that made me think twice...

A piece of keystroke-sniffing software called Carrier IQ has been embedded so deeply in millions of Nokia, Android, and RIM devices that it’s tough to spot and nearly impossible to remove, as 25-year old Connecticut systems administrator Trevor Eckhart revealed in a video Tuesday.

That’s not just creepy, says Paul Ohm, a former Justice Department prosecutor and law professor at the University of Colorado Law School. He thinks it’s also likely grounds for a class action lawsuit based on a federal wiretapping law.

“If CarrierIQ has gotten the handset manufactures to install secret software that records keystrokes intended for text messaging and the Internet and are sending some of that information back somewhere, this is very likely a federal wiretap.” he says. “And that gives the people wiretapped the right to sue and provides for significant monetary damages.”

Um, yeah...I think my Boulder will do just fine, thanks.

Another nail in the coffin...

2011-11-28T09:41:00.000-07:00

...of Anthropogenic Global Warming/Climate Change/We're All Gonna Die.

Via Cold Fury, a calling-out of the chief Luddites that must be read to be believed.

You and I have been interacting, albeit at a distance, since I first asked you for your data some five years ago. I asked for your data in part because I was astounded by your answer to Warwick Hughes when he asked for the same data. You replied to Warwick at that time, “Why should I make the data available to you, when your aim is to try and find something wrong with it?”

I couldn’t fathom that a leading climate scientist could actually believe that. Finding something wrong with other scientists’ data and ideas is an integral part of how science progresses. This requires transparency and access to the data. I also couldn’t believe that other climate scientists would let you get away with saying that, without some other scientist pointing out the anti-scientific nature of your denial.

Foolish me … d’ya think I might have been more than a bit naive back then about climate “science” realpolitik?

Anyone who cowers in terror of his pet hypothesis being disproven, has no right to call themselves a scientist. "The science is settled," my skinny white ass.

ROFL

2011-11-27T18:30:00.000-07:00

I have no idea whether this is a hipster parody, or a parody of hipsters...but it's damn funny either way.

(HT This Ain't Hell)

It's like that.

2011-11-27T16:08:00.000-07:00

Via iOTW, we are treated to a clear and concise explanation of the evil of Islam, and why it must not be tolerated if Western civilization is to survive.

Bravo, Rep. Womick!

A bit more to be thankful for...

2011-11-25T13:57:00.000-07:00

If you're reading this, chances are you're doing OK. Maybe your house will never be featured on Cribs, and maybe you're not in the position of deciding whether to take the Bentley or the Lamborghini to the exclusive restaurant tonight.

But at least you're not living in a freaking ghost town.

"WC facilities function only when it’s warm in the street. In winter they are covered with icicles. Wastes go to the local river."

"There is a fire hydrant in the basement. Citizens of the ghost town use it to get water which is impossible to drink. They buy water in bottles for nutritive purposes."

"Raining outside is accompanied by raining inside."

Count your blessings.

Regarding my recent slackage

2011-11-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

I'm just a bit overwhelmed, is all. Not so much with work(although I am putting in a bunch of extra hours), but the accelerating destruction of America. Seems like everywhere we turn lately, the Thug Regime is in our faces with yet another blatant "F.U." to the rule of law. And, of course, none dare call it treason.

It's just damn depressing.

But I'm not giving up. This Thanksgiving should remind everyone how lucky they are to live in this country, and how rare our freedoms are in the context of history. I had about ran out of hope that America would wake up, but it's begun. Though the odds may seem insurmountable, they aren't any more impossible than powered flight, men walking on the moon or computers in our pockets. This country has always shown its best when our backs are to the wall. We've done the impossible over and over again. If any country on Earth can pull itself back from the brink of collapse, it's the United States of America.

May the Good Lord bless and keep us all, and give us the strength we'll need in the days to come.

Ann Barnhardt goes viral again...

2011-11-20T17:46:00.000-07:00

...and this is making her Qur'an burning look like nothing. Never mind her mention on the Rush Limbaugh show...when you make the comics pages, you know you're the issue of the day!!

Here's the original post(2 into 1):

BCM Has Ceased Operations
Posted by Ann Barnhardt - November 17, AD 2011 10:27 AM MST
Dear Clients, Industry Colleagues and Friends of Barnhardt Capital Management, It is with regret and unflinching moral certainty that I announce that Barnhardt Capital Management has ceased operations. After six years of operating as an independent introducing brokerage, and eight years of employment as a broker before that, I found myself, this morning, for the first time since I was 20 years old, watching the futures and options markets open not as a participant, but as a mere spectator.

The reason for my decision to pull the plug was excruciatingly simple: I could no longer tell my clients that their monies and positions were safe in the futures and options markets – because they are not. And this goes not just for my clients, but for every futures and options account in the United States. The entire system has been utterly destroyed by the MF Global collapse. Given this sad reality, I could not in good conscience take one more step as a commodity broker, soliciting trades that I knew were unsafe or holding funds that I knew to be in jeopardy.

The futures markets are very highly-leveraged and thus require an exceptionally firm base upon which to function. That base was the sacrosanct segregation of customer funds from clearing firm capital, with additional emergency financial backing provided by the exchanges themselves. Up until a few weeks ago, that base existed, and had worked flawlessly. Firms came and went, with some imploding in spectacular fashion. Whenever a firm failure happened, the customer funds were intact and the exchanges would step in to backstop everything and keep customers 100% liquid – even as their clearing firm collapsed and was quickly replaced by another firm within the system.

Everything changed just a few short weeks ago. A firm, led by a crony of the Obama regime, stole all of the non-margined cash held by customers of his firm. Let’s not sugar-coat this or make this crime seem “complex” and “abstract” by drowning ourselves in six-dollar words and uber-technical jargon. Jon Corzine STOLE the customer cash at MF Global. Knowing Jon Corzine, and knowing the abject lawlessness and contempt for humanity of the Marxist Obama regime and its cronies, this is not really a surprise. What was a surprise was the reaction of the exchanges and regulators. Their reaction has been to take a bad situation and make it orders of magnitude worse. Specifically, they froze customers out of their accounts WHILE THE MARKETS CONTINUED TO TRADE, refusing to even allow them to liquidate. This is unfathomable. The risk exposure precedent that has been set is completely intolerable and has destroyed the entire industry paradigm. No informed person can continue to engage these markets, and no moral person can continue to broker or facilitate customer engagement in what is now a massive game of Russian Roulette.

I have learned over the last week that MF Global is almost certainly the mere tip of the iceberg. There is massive industry-wide exposure to European sovereign junk debt. While other firms may not be as heavily leveraged as Corzine had MFG leveraged, and it is now thought that MFG’s leverage may have been in excess of 100:1, they are still suicidally leveraged and will likely stand massive, unmeetable collateral calls in the coming days and weeks as Europe inevitably collapses. I now suspect that the reason the Chicago Mercantile Exchange did not immediately step in to backstop the MFG implosion was because they knew and know that if they backstopped MFG, they would then be expected to backstop all of the other firms in the system when the failures began to cascade – and there simply isn’t that much money in the entire system. In short, the problem is a SYSTEMIC problem, not merely isolated to one firm.

Perhaps the most ominous dynamic that I have yet heard of in regards to this mess is that of the risk of potential CLAWBACK actions. For those who do not know, “clawback” is the process by which a bankruptcy trustee is legally permitted to re-seize assets that left a bankrupt entity in the time period immediately preceding the entity’s collapse. So, using the MF Global customers as an example, any funds that were withdrawn from MFG accounts in the run-up to the collapse, either because of suspicions the customer may have had about MFG from, say, watching the company’s bond yields rise sharply, or from purely organic day-to-day withdrawls, the bankruptcy trustee COULD initiate action to “clawback” those funds. As a hedge broker, this makes my blood run cold. Generally, as the markets move in favor of a hedge position and equity builds in a client’s account, that excess equity is sent back to the customer who then uses that equity to offset cash market transactions OR to pay down a revolving line of credit. Even the possibility that a customer could be penalized and additionally raped AGAIN via a clawback action after already having their customer funds stolen is simply villainous. While there has been no open indication of clawback actions being initiated by the MF Global trustee, I have been told that it is a possibility.

And so, to the very unpleasant crux of the matter. The futures and options markets are no longer viable. It is my recommendation that ALL customers withdraw from all of the markets as soon as possible so that they have the best chance of protecting themselves and their equity. The system is no longer functioning with integrity and is suicidally risk-laden. The rule of law is non-existent, instead replaced with godless, criminal political cronyism.

Remember, derivatives contracts are NOT NECESSARY in the commodities markets. The cash commodity itself is the underlying reality and is not dependent on the futures or options markets. Many people seem to have gotten that backwards over the past decades. From Abel the animal husbandman up until the year 1964, there were no cattle futures contracts at all, and no options contracts until 1984, and yet the cash cattle markets got along just fine.

Finally, I will not, under any circumstance, consider reforming and re-opening Barnhardt Capital Management, or any other iteration of a brokerage business, until Barack Obama has been removed from office AND the government of the United States has been sufficiently reformed and repopulated so as to engender my total and complete confidence in the government, its adherence to and enforcement of the rule of law, and in its competent and just regulatory oversight of any commodities markets that may reform. So long as the government remains criminal, it would serve no purpose whatsoever to attempt to rebuild the futures industry or my firm, because in a lawless environment, the same thievery and fraud would simply happen again, and the criminals would go unpunished, sheltered by the criminal oligarchy.

To my clients, who literally TO THE MAN agreed with my assessment of the situation, and were relieved to be exiting the markets, and many whom I now suspect stayed in the markets as long as they did only out of personal loyalty to me, I can only say thank you for the honor and pleasure of serving you over these last years, with some of my clients having been with me for over twelve years. I will continue to blog at Barnhardt.biz, which will be subtly re-skinned soon, and will continue my cattle marketing consultation business. I will still be here in the office, answering my phones, with the same phone numbers. Alas, my retirement came a few years earlier than I had anticipated, but there was no possible way to continue given the inevitability of the collapse of the global financial markets, the overthrow of our government, and the resulting collapse in the rule of law.

As for me, I can only echo the words of David:
“This is the Lord’s doing; and it is wonderful in our eyes.”

With Best Regards-
Ann Barnhardt

This, friends and neighbors, is integrity. Make a note of it, since there may well be a test later...!!

"To be free, means to keep the law, and insist upon it."

2011-11-17T08:23:00.000-07:00

WOW.

But, we also won’t be the ones to fire the first literal shot. We can’t be, for such a thing is against our live and let live nature. What is between what we have done, what we continue to do, and civil war? The only hope we’re clinging to, right now (aside from God working some long-term, Deep Miracles), is that we can hold out just long enough, that we can stretch what little is left until our efforts to take back our culture and our government start reversing the damage that has been inflicted.

This is not about the next election. This is about every single election we have left in this country, whether it’s this next one, or the one after that, or the one after that. . . Not a single person reading this comment will ever have the luxury of not having a life-or-death election ever again. It has taken generations to reach this point– it will take even more generations to get to where we need to be. Ladies, we know that it takes at least twice as long to lose ten pounds as it does to gain. Likewise, getting America back in shape will take longer than it took to get this far gone.

Whether our future holds bloodshed our not, and no matter who the victors in such a conflict might me, there is not a one of us who will live to see the day when America is where she ought to be (barring of course the End of Days up and happening, which naturally changes everything). Why did the Israelites have to wander 40 years in the desert before reaching the Promised Land? Because the generation of slaves had to die off first. Even though they’d been freed, their minds and culture had been warped by their upbringing, and therefore they had to pass on before Israel could be found. This is why even Moses could not enter the Promised Land—the best he got was seeing it from a distance.

...

Stew on that a bit, please. The law keepers, as we know them, are an artificial construct. When they fail, the responsibility to keep and enforce the law reverts to those who have always held the right, but rarely exercised it—all of us.

This is one of those things that I think we’ve always thought we knew, but maybe got just a little bit wrong. Yes, the police are supposed to be our friends, and the soldier keeps us safe. But these distinctions are distinctions of luxury. People can specialize to be a cop, or a fighter, because others prefer to specialize as a farmer or businessman. Vigilantism has been looked down upon with “Who are you to take the law into your own hands?!” Well, actually, it is our Right and Duty to Keep the Law in Our Hands. We may delegate to cops, but the right and duty is still ours. Only slaves are free of that duty. To be free, means to keep the law, and insist upon it.

RTWT. Then read it again. This, my fellow Americans, is the long and the short of it.

Where America Went Wrong: Publik Skool

2011-11-14T12:24:00.000-07:00

The themes:

School is where our friends are (bullies included) and its institutional character prepares us for the grim "real world."
Home is an isolating, lonely place.
Friends are vastly more important than family.
"Socialization" is a necessity and can only take place in school.
"Socialization" is more important than learning.
Conformity is more important than learning.
Learning shouldn't be too pleasant an experience.
Herding us into groups is what we deserve.
Outside the institution of government school, personal advancement is not possible.

Here we have young people who can barely imagine what life would be like without school, or how they could possibly learn or make friends apart from this government institution. Their obsession with "socialization" attests to the breadth and depth of the peer-attachment epidemic.

I'm not sure what the poor things mean by "the real world," but I get the feeling they think it's going to be even bleaker than the current conveyor belt they're riding. Passivity and conformity have been bred into them from day one and all they can do is praise the system that is crushing them. It's not their fault; they never had a chance.

Page two features comments from homeschooling kids and parents trying to explain what it's all about. But it's like trying to describe daylight to the blind. In addition to the obvious leap in literacy, and at least as important as that, is the vitality evident in the homeschoolers' testimonials. They aren't blindered drones repeating what they've been fed since kindergarten.

Y'all MUST read this. It's what I've been trying to tell people all my life.

How did I miss this guy?

2011-11-14T09:24:00.000-07:00

Via Tam, please welcome Mike-Istan to the Infinite Blogroll. Because this:

You could call it the freedom lover's side, but that is a little imprecise - everyone, including drunks, addicts, perverts, and thieves loves freedom, so that won't do at all. As a flag of convenience, let’s call our side the written word side. We believe the rules by which the government must abide are written down in words; the words have meaning; the rules may be changed by consent, but words can never be arbitrarily made to mean their opposite. It is the side which believes the good of having the government prohibited from doing harm far outweighs the harm of having it obstructed from doing good. It is the side which believes in putting the government on a tight leash and never letting it loose.

...

The constitution was originally conceived to act as an impediment on the ambitions of neo-monarchists. The founders understood it was the natural tendency for some people to look for kings, and the natural tendency for others to cast themselves in that role. But freedom is a mechanism which requires constant vigilance, and those who wished to be kings encouraged those who feared living without rulers to attack the very idea of that vigilance.

...
The conflict then, is between one side which must... MUST rule over others, and another which cannot understand why anyone would want to.

That's the long and the short of it. Welcome to my blogroll, Mike!

More on GunGate

2011-11-11T08:59:00.000-07:00

Some chick on Facebook has a great perspective on the role of Eric Holder in this whole deal.

And where is President Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder in all of this? When did he first know about the operation? In his testimony to the House Oversight Committee on May 3, 2011, Holder stated, “I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.” But the DOJ’s own documents prove that Holder had been receiving briefings on Fast and Furious for nearly a year before that date. In other words, our government’s top law enforcement official, Eric Holder, lied to the American public. He finally admitted this week to the Senate Judiciary Committee, “In my testimony before the House committee [on May 3], I did say a few weeks. I probably could have said a couple of months. What I said about a few weeks was inaccurate based on what happened.”

When the nation’s highest law enforcement official lies to the American people, he must go.

And if he claims that he didn’t lie, then how else do we explain this situation? He’s either lying or he’s so grossly incompetent and lazy that he didn’t read important life and death briefings from his deputy attorney general and didn’t know about this deadly operation run by people under him. So, which is it? Incompetent, lazy, or lying? No matter which explanation fits, he needs to go.

Who is this woman, and why isn't she running for President? ;)

11.11.11

2011-11-11T08:31:00.000-07:00

The next time this many ones come around on the calendar, we'll all be gone. That'll be 11.11.2111, and I don't think anyone who's old enough to read is going to be alive.

Now that you're all awestruck by a bunch of numbers, rmember what day this is: Veterans' Day. Never forget the sacrifices others made so that you might enjoy the blessings of liberty. Then resolve to fight ever harder, on the home front, to wrest that liberty back from the statist scum who want to snuff it out forever. Our warriors deserve no less from us.

In other news, I've found another addition to TIB, via Bubba. Please welcome the...er, 'colorful' literary stylings of This Ain't Hell. Anyone who digs the late Mike Royko is OK by me.

Take a moment.

2011-11-10T11:27:00.000-07:00

Think about all the comforts you enjoy...and then think of what it takes to bring them to you.

On this day, in 1975, the Edmund Fitzgerald went down with all hands. She carried iron ore, which may seem a boring commodity to some of you. But without the people who earn their living with seemingly mundane things, a civilized first-world lifestyle would be impossible.

For some reason, no matter how many people rag on it, I've always loved this song:

Occupy this.

2011-11-07T01:45:00.000-07:00

He's right, ya know.

2011-11-07T01:18:00.000-07:00

Posted without comment. RTWT.

In 1775, we literally went to war against terrible odds to kick out a government that was less intrusive and more well loved than this one. Today, we have people demonstrating in the streets to give the Congress they hate more power.

Good to live in a more enlightened age, huh?

Yeah. It's like that.

DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT!!!

2011-11-07T00:17:00.000-07:00

As regular readers know, I'm a truck driver. Public Citizen is one of the many groups dedicated to screwing over the trucking industry, which means I hate them. I also despise Reps. Louise Slaughter and Raul Grijalva; Grijalva for being a racebaiting punk and Slaughter for being a general-purpose Leftist.

And now, I have to stand in their corner. F*******CK!! <---beats head against wall

While the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) routinely scrutinizes market transactions and traders for insider deals, no such oversight exists for members of Congress, congressional staffs or most other federal employees.

That's because the SEC defines insider trading as a breach of confidentiality – an obligation that most federal employees do not have.

They obtain confidential financial information as a function of their work, and how they use that knowledge outside of work to benefit themselves or their friends has never been addressed. But it is a matter of serious ethical and legal concern.

...

For that reason, Public Citizen supports the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (the STOCK Act, H.R. 682), a measure sponsored by Reps. Brian Baird (D-Wash.), Louise McIntosh Slaughter (D-N.Y.), Tim Walz (D-Minn.) and Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.).

Public Citizen's legislative lobbyist, Craig Holman, has coordinated support for the bill with other public interest groups. Together, they sent a letter to the bill's co-sponsors on March 4, stating their belief that the reform measure restores balance to how insider trading laws are applied to the public and private sectors.

This law will likely be ignored by our current lawless thug administration, just like they ignore every other law they find inconvenient. Still, it's a step in the right direction. And unless Congressional Republicans know something about this bill that I don't, they'd best explain why they're not signing on to this.

W.R.O.L.

2011-11-03T10:04:00.000-07:00

Memorize this acronym: Without Rule Of Law. Then wrap your head around it. Because that's where we're at. (Actually, we've been there for some time now...they're just growing increasingly blatant about it.)

W.R.O.L.
Posted by Ann Barnhardt - November 2, AD 2011 9:40 PM MST
New acronym for those of you who don't know it already: W.R.O.L. = Without Rule of Law.
Sadly, the MF Global clients are learning first-hand what WROL is and what it feels like. This is just the very, very beginning of WROL in (what once was) the United States.

I have talked to several cattle industry contacts who had accounts with MF Global. They have been calling me looking for guidance and assurance that everything is going to be okay and that they are going to be made whole. Sadly, for me to tell them any such thing would be boldfaced lying on my part. And so I tell them the truth.

As of this writing, the amount of customer segregated funds that are missing and have been stolen from MF Global customers stands at a staggering $1.5 Billion, more than double the initial estimate from Monday of $700 million. I will not be the least bit surprised if the $1.5 Billion figure is ultimately revised up even more.

As I laid out earlier, MF was charging very, very high margin requirements relative to the rest of the industry. I suspect that MF (Corzine) was doing this as a means of raising additional interest-free capital.

Quick story. I decided to start my IB in the fall of 2005, and traveled to Chicago to interview FCMs. To my shock, I learned on that trip that the majority of the money made by IBs and FCMs (at that time) was not commissions, but rather the INTEREST on the customer segregated funds. All of the free cash in client accounts, meaning that money not tied up in margin requirements, was invested by the FCM in US Treasury paper. Every month the FCM and the IB would then split the interest income. The FCM I eventually went with offered me a 50-50 split on my office's free cash at the 90 day T-Bill rate. I was very surprised by this dynamic. Having worked in a branch office up until that point, I had always been told that paying interest on customer free cash balances was IMPOSSIBLE, and the only way for customers to earn interest on their funds was to buy T-Bills themselves as initial margin "collateral", if you will. Since T-Bill purchases were in large denomination blocks, all but the largest clients were effectively shut-out of this option. I thought that was just the way it was.

No, no. The reason I was told that interest payments were impossible is because the interest income was a MAJOR income stream for the branch manager. Immediately I was very, very uncomfortable with the idea of clandestinely profiting off of my customers' opportunity interest expense. So, here is what I did. I offered the FCM a 60-40 split, with the FCM getting 60 percent IF and ONLY IF they would calculate and credit my customers' accounts with the remaining 40% every month. I felt it right to pay the FCM more than their usual take for having to go through the extra step and labor of doing these interest credits for each account every month. And, my customers recaptured 40% of their opportunity interest expense (at 90-day T-Bill rates), which effectively cheapened up their commission rate, and in some cases eliminated it completely. It also set me apart, because at that time I was one of the only, if not THE only IB in the United States that paid interest to all of my clients as a built-in matter of policy, and I was able to advertise that fact. And finally, I made exactly the same amount of money that I had initially assumed I would make - namely my commission payout. Win-Win-Win. That, along with a genuine and unique knowledge of my business and field thanks to training I received from an old-timer cattleman, is how a 29 year old girl became a fairly good-sized livestock and grain brokerage firm.

Ever since the last meltdown, the Fed has synthetically suppressed interest rates. T-Bill rates dropped from around 5% to just epsilon above zero and have been that way for years now. I haven't paid any interest to anyone in years because there is no interest income whatsoever from T-Bills.

People are honestly trying to justify MF Global and Corzine's theft by stating that FCMs have sure had it rough these past two years because they have made no money on interest. Uh, like that is some sort of an excuse for STEALING CUSTOMER FUNDS?

As I laid out earlier this week, MF had some seriously inflated margin requirements. It appears that Corzine did this because he viewed the excess cash in the customer segregated accounts as "interest-free capital". Why borrow money from a bank at interest when you can use your customers' money interest free? Who cares if it is illegal? You're Jon Effing Corzine. You are Barry Obama's top Wall Street fundraiser. The laws don't apply to YOU.

And now back to the concept of WROL. I have told the MF Global customers that I have spoken to this week that they should spiritually accept the fact that all of their money is gone. IF there is any reparation, it will take a very long time, and it will be far less than what was stolen from them. This way, if they do get any money back, they will be pleasantly surprised and won't let this consume their spirits and blacken their hearts. And yeah, I'm completely serious. HEAR ME OUT.

Granted, at this, every single person has become upset and said, "There should be a law to keep this from happening! The government should be able to recover our money!"

And here is where the conversation gets really, really unpleasant.

There WAS a law. There WAS a very, very strict law. WAS. Past tense. What we are seeing right now is what every single culture that has been conquered by Marxists has experienced: the elimination of the Rule of Law. This nation is no longer a nation of laws. It is a nation of men. The law no longer matters. All that matters is who you are and who you know. Jon Corzine is part of the Marxist-Obamaist cabal, and therefore laws do not apply to him.

Further, the government that you, up until now, have turned to in order to enforce the Rule of Law is now itself the entity that is stealing from you. In other words, there is absolutely NO ONE to turn to for law enforcement because the is no Rule of Law. Technically, your County Sheriff chould have jurisdiction over this, but in reality if your County Sheriff made any move toward enforcing the law and holding Jon Corzine or any of the rest to account, your County Sheriff would himself be removed, arrested or killed by the lawless Marxist-Obamaist regime.

Do you understand now? Do you understand the gravity of what is happening? Let me tell you about the Ukraine in the early 1930s. Stalin was ruling the Soviet Union with an iron fist, and wanted to get rid of the Ukrainian population which he deemed a threat to his power. Beginning in 1931, local Soviet administrators began refusing to provide the Ukrainian farmers with seed wheat. The farmers, watching the planting window close rapidly, were eventually BEGGING the Soviet administrators and central planners for seed. None was ever provided. When the next harvest came around, the Soviet administrators demanded full-quota harvest production from the Ukrainian farmers. The stunned and livid farmers reminded the Soviets that they had refused to give them any seed at planting time, and thus there was no crop. The Soviets then accused the farmers of hiding and hoarding the wheat harvest from them. The men and working-aged boys were summarily executed on the spot as "counterrevolutionaries". The women and children were left to starve. Cannibalism set in, and many mothers, driven insane with hunger, killed and ate their children. By the end of 1933, millions of Ukranians, both urban and peasant farmers, were dead of a manufactured and completely unnecessary mass starvation, with estimates ranging from 3-5 million dead.

"How can they do this to us? How can they get away with this? Surely there must be someone we can report them to. Surely there is someone who will help us."

Not in a Marxist state. Marxists will rape you and rob you blind and then kill you when you don't display your undying gratitude to them for doing it, and beg them for more. The MF Global victims are learning this lesson right now. Sadly, I fear that what happened to MF is going to eventually become systemic via outright theft and confiscation, and via inflation, which will render all assets held in U.S. dollars essentially worthless. And because this is all being done willfully and consciously by your own Federal Government, there will be no one to turn to to "make it right" or to enforce the Rule of Law.

Welcome to WROL. You MUST keep your wits about you. You MUST accept the reality of what is happening, and prepare and react accordingly. We have one hell of a fight on our hands, and in order to fight effectively we must not be consumed with rage. We must be clear-headed and be able to think rationally and tactically. Consuming rage is extremely detrimental. Righteous anger? Oh, hell yes. Consuming, blinding rage? Absolutely not.

If you haven't purchased long guns and ammunition, freeze dried food, water and fuel, you better be getting about that with a quickness.

I'm going to say it once again: This is a thug administration. The only effect the law has on them is that they can count on you expecting the law to protect you, so you'll be taken by complete surprise when they assrape you with impunity. Pay particular attention to Ann's last two paragraphs, as they may be vital to your survival. Literally.

I have an advantage, though I never used to consider it such. You see, I've been politically aware from a very young age. I've observed the slow-motion suicide of America for the vast majority of my life, and I often--frequently--succumbed to that blinding rage. But, with the passage of time and a bit of help from the Lord, it's finally burned itself out. Now I can think clearly and channel that righteous anger into constructive venues. I went through years of anguish, but the end result is that I know that I can handle what's coming, one way or the other. If you don't have that mindset--not just "I'll figure it out," but a concrete knowledge of what you're prepared to face--you need to engage in some heavy-duty introspection post haste. (And having a Bible on hand wouldn't hurt.)

As regards the last paragraph, I recommend .308 and 12-gauge for your long guns, Mountain House and MRE's for your preserves, and lots of books on pioneer living. If nothing else, get yourself a .22 rifle and a few bricks of ammo--you can get yourself set up with a rifle and about 1000 rounds for <= $150. You might have to hunt more often, but small game is plentiful and easier to get than that 20-point buck.

Islam and Sadism

2011-10-30T17:46:00.000-07:00

Amil Imani is still out there, continuing to expose Islam for what it is:

In free democracies, governments are accountable to the people and serve at the people’s pleasure. In Islamic theocracy, governments are accountable only to Allah and the people must serve at the pleasure of the government. And one can see the result of Islamic total or partial rule in fifty-six or so countries which rank among the highest nations of the world on every index of misery.

Other problems arise. Liberty, deeply cherished by democracies, is replaced by submission—unquestioning obedience and adherence to the dictates and precepts of the all-knowing and all-wise Allah. The individual becomes little more than a passive obedient vessel of Allah and his perspective of himself and life drastically changes. Once he submits to the all-powerful, all-knowing, then he is absolved of the responsibility of having to chart his own way in life.

It is this total form of submission that, among other things, prompted the Muslims to systematically burn libraries of the lands they invaded. They justified their actions by contending that the Quran, the comprehensive unerring book of Allah, contained all perfect knowledge that humanity needs. To this day, in places where Islam rules, many books are banned, newspapers and magazines are systematically either censored or shut down, and other non-print media are methodically blocked.

This, folks, is why Islam is incompatible with freedom and civilization. Period.

A Market Ticker blast from the past

2011-10-29T18:30:00.000-07:00

Mr. Denninger recommends you read this old post. As do I.

There are approximately 150,000 federally-attached law enforcement personnel. Another 750,000, roughly, state and local cops are employed by our various government arms. Of those various officers well more than half sit behind a desk and haven't left one gram of shoe leather on a street or in a cruiser in the last year. The majority of you fire your weapons for periodic qualification and they have never been warm or dirty besides. You've never faced death, you've never had a weapon pointed at you in anger, and you've never drawn your service weapon in the line of duty. Those are facts.

Now consider the "bad side" of America. The Justice Department estimates there are at least one million gang members - active gang members - in America. These people, mostly young males, have nearly all drawn or fired weapons in anger. They are responsible for more than three quarters of all crime in this country, and some eight out of ten violent crimes. Those gang members have families - younger males who are "coming up", "friends" (if you can call a murderous thug a friend) and others. Between all of those "loosely attached" folks and the hard-core inner circle itself we probably have somewhere between 5 and 10 million people in this nation who, given the wrong sort of provocation, might decide that "Zombieland" wasn't just a movie.

...

To the politicians who are reading this, your Thorazine dosage needs adjustment as well. The math is irrefutable. If, in point of fact, AIG has entangled itself with the European Continent there is no escape from what is to come. There is only destruction, and our only two choices are to cause as much of it as we can to occur there, by pulling the plug on these clowns now, or risk a literal World War. We may get one anyway, but if we bring the bulk of the damage here we'll be dealing with a civil collapse at the same time, and have no chance of being able to deal with the geopolitical implications. We must not allow that to happen. You must not allow that to happen.

We understand you give the orders to the people I've been talking to (mostly) up above. But you have less excuse than they, when it comes to oaths. You all took an oath to uphold The Constitution as well. You've used it as toilet paper, and that's on a good day. The rest of the time we see you gleefully burning it in the Wells of the House and Senate, dancing around the smoke and fire like some odd pagan ritual.

It's time to stop. Not because you want to, not because you fear us (even though you should - after all, we're your employers and can fire you) but because if you don't there won't be a nation worth governing left. You know who the crooks are - including those among you.

Much, MUCH more here. Points worth pondering by all.

Yet more on JustiaGate

2011-10-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

We're going to continue beating you over the head with it until it reaches the level of Fast & Furious. Because sedition is a criminal act.

Since Obama’s father was never even a permanent resident of the United States, much less a U.S. citizen, Obama is not a natural born citizen. Obama was born a British subject, which he admits. He later became a Kenyan citizen, which he admits. Even later, he became an Indonesian citizen, according to his Indonesian public school records.

The man was BORN with divided allegiance. A “foreigner”, per the SCOTUS definition. Therefore, he is not a natural born citizen. While he is at present a citizen of the USA (one would hope), he is not a natural born citizen, as required by the Constitution. At best, he is a naturalized citizen. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger, who similarly is ineligible for the presidency.

...

It’s important to note that not only citations but also text from decisions was changed, so obviously something was up that cannot be explained by a simple coding error. The game is afoot!

Please RTWT. Barack Hussein Obama II/Barry Soetero is not our President. Literally.

A Cursor-y Examination

2011-10-28T07:09:00.000-07:00

Via the good people at The Last Refuge, I present McNaughton Fine Art. Be warned, once you start mousing-over his paintings, you'll be sucked in for quite a while...!

This is just part of the story--you have to hit the linked site and find all the educational Easter Eggs. This makes it as much fun to learn as Schoolhouse Rock did for my generation!

"You dumbasses can't even spell G.E.D!"

2011-10-27T09:23:00.000-07:00

The language is harsh. The point is important.

Sir, I've found that 'new race' you're searching for. It's called "American," and you're a prime example of it. Here's to ya.

(HT iOTW)