For this line alone...

...Baldilocks has achieved Internet Immortality.

Seen this way, Wickham's premise starts to look like chicken-fried nonsense wrapped in a flaky breaded crust of illogic and glazed with a zesty bullshit marinade.

And the rest of the post totally kicks ass, too.  Well done indeed, ma'am!!

Hell comes to Arizona

I had a surreal experience riding home tonight...rolling south on the I-17 with the smoke from wildfires filling the sky on both sides.  Yep, it's summer in Arizona and half the state's on fire.  One of them is close enough to be worrisome, so Mrs. Wraith and I are preparing to grab the cats and guns and bug out if we have to.

Prayers would be appreciated--not for us, but for those far braver than we--the firefighters.  These are our protectors, who run toward the danger while the rest of us flee.  These are the people we never think about until everything we have is endangered.  Words are not enough.

God bless them all.

It's all going according to plan...

...a plan that's been years in the execution.

We have recently seen a greater push toward socialism, though few realize it.

The government is assuming more and more responsibility for and authority over the economy, all under the guise of protecting the people from potentially unscrupulous free marketeers. We are being moved yet another step closer to the dream-society of the Fabians.

Of course, these are simply steps, essential parts to a much broader agenda, one that is authoritarian in nature and execution, even the centrally planned economy is a mere step, not the end product. It is all carefully crafted, manufactured to ensure the most popular support possible for “people-friendly” solutions while instituting a fraudulent system of central control over the unsuspecting public.

Once you read this, you will no longer be able to remain in ignorance.  No more can you say, "I didn't know."  There can no longer be any doubt--they mean to enslave us. 

And, in the minds and souls of many Americans, I fear they've already accomplished their goal.

Posted without comment...

The vicious circle of regulation.

It’s striking to me that the websites and institutions that complain about government involvement in our lives never mentioned this, at least not so far as I can tell. The only sites that seem to have discussed this are the boating forums and the lawn forums. These are the people who use these cans more than most. The level of anger and vitriol is amazing to read, and every bit of it is justified.

There is no possible rationale for these kinds of regulations. It can’t be about emissions really, since the new cans are more likely to result in spills. It’s as if some bureaucrat were sitting around thinking of ways to make life worse for everyone, and hit upon this new, cockamamie rule.

These days, government is always open to a misery-making suggestion. The notion that public policy would somehow make life better is a relic of days gone by. It’s as if government has decided to specialize in what it is best at and adopt a new principle: “Let’s leave social progress to the private sector; we in the government will concentrate on causing suffering and regress.”

Another moron heard from...

...and fisked eight ways from Sunday by the inimitable Larry Correia.  The smackdown, friends and neighbors, is EPIC.

Let me get this right… If we forcibly confiscate the assets of the wealthy, and build the statist machine necessary to do it, that all powerful state won’t turn totally evil like all of the other ones before it, and they’ll take those rich guys money to give to a bunch of lazy OWS douchebags to pay off their student loans, so automatically 10 million children in 3rd world hellholes run by statist thugs, who are currently backed by the lefty socialists in the UN, will suddenly be cured by magic unicorns…

Borgie, even if OWS got every single thing on their wish list, and every single rich dude in America got shaken down tomorrow, and the government confiscated all of their assets, and before the economy imploded (because all of our rich guys said why bother?), it still wouldn’t do dick to help dying children in 3rd world hellholes.

Because you apathetic little parasites would just gobble up the 1 percent’s stuff with your free houses, and your free education, and your free internet access, and your free health care, and your free bullshit… Briefly, but then the money would be gone, and you’d still be an apathetic little parasite. But now since you’ve installed a government amoral and powerful enough to truly not give a shit, this time when you take to the streets they will just kill your ass.

Oh yeah.  The sweet, sweet sound of an Oppressive's one remaining brain cell crying all alone in the night.

"But that could never happen here!"

Famous last words.

The mortal sin of presumption is a Roman Catholic doctrine which essentially holds that to arrogantly believe and trust in one’s own merits to the exclusion of any divine intercession can lead to salvation is the road to perdition.

Whether or not Americans accept that religious teaching, vainly presuming the United States will exist indefinitely, that we as a country are immune to forces which can effect our dissolution, that we are impervious to external and internal threats, is not only presumptuous but reflects a dangerous ignorance of the history of all great nations and empires.

Those nations and empires have had an average life-span of two centuries. As of 2012, the U.S.A. will be 223 years old.

Welcome Gene to TIPB.

She's way beyond correct.

Ann Barnhardt is putting our current situation in terms only an idiot could fail to grasp.  When you're done reading this, I'll translate for you idiots that didn't get it.  (language warning)

Another American hero

I'd only heard of Ms. Jada Williams in passing, buried among the hundreds of outrageous stories I read on a regular.  Most of you have likely never heard her name.  But this brave, intelligent girl of thirteen definitely merits applause from every corner of America:

In her essay, Ms. Williams drew a parallel between what she saw as a group of self-satisfied "white teachers" overseeing dysfunctional students (characterized by Ms. Williams as "so-called 'unteachable'" students) who were not being properly taught, illiterate and perpetually ignorant. This she considers a form of slavery. 
...
Suddenly Ms. Williams, a model student prior to the essay, began receiving low grades in her classes. In several meetings, these same teachers refused to show Ms. Williams' parents the papers and tests that garnered lower grades. During at least one such meeting, according to Mrs. Williams, a teacher union representative was present.
...
Sadly, not enough people know and celebrate her courage and thoughtfulness. No members of Congress, no former governors, and no professional basketball teams have taken the time, nor has the president, to publicly applaud Ms. Williams. Nobody dons a hoodie in support of a young black girl tossed aside like trash for daring to learn, daring to speak up, and being summarily punished for it.

God bless you, young lady.  I have a feeling you're not done shaking things up.  Not by far.

Censorship: The last desperate resort of cowards.

What do you believe?

Why do you believe this?

If you know the answer to these two questions, you should be able to defend your belief system through logical, rational discussion.  Most of those on the Left, however, couldn't answer these questions to save their lives.  They've simply been told what to think.  They're brainwashed and they don't even know it, the poor fools.

(Don't get me wrong--this happens on the Right as well, which leads to book-burnings, the Inquisition and Fred Phelps.  But it's become far more prevalent on the other side.)

So, when you can't defend your position, you attempt to silence your opponents.  Otherwise, you'd have to face the possibility that almost everything you know is wrong, that your entire worldview is based on lies and misinformation.  Far easier to simply make sure that the opposing view simply disappears.

The Treehouse is under attack.

Quick summary…

• Network connections and files of moderators have been hacked into today, including Twitter accounts, laptops, etc.

• Sequential virus attacks have hindered communication from moderators to the extent of having problems posting comments and replying to e-mails.

• The enemy is apparently swarming. We appreciate the affirmation.

You can try to silence us.  It's possible, though doubtful, that you will succeed.  But if you do, know this:  By abandoning reason in favor of blatant censorship, you have proven yourself a coward and a fraud, and shown every rational being that your entire existence is based upon intellectual and moral psychosis. 

And, somewhere in the back of your mind, you know it.

Think about it.

"Indeed, to demand that the government recognize and operate under these very ideals upon which it is based is considered a threat."

Did you catch that?  Repeat:

"Indeed, to demand that the government recognize and operate under these very ideals upon which it is based is considered a threat."

If you don't grasp what's very, very wrong here, just go back to the latest episode of Jersey Shore.  Your input is half past irrelevant at this point.