Tyranny Unleashed

The Tide of Tyranny

2011-02-11T09:45:00.003-06:00

Artic Patriot posted his letter to CONgress today, and I felt the urge to reply in comments.

Since many of you may not follow AP, I'll also post my comments here:

In my opinion the tipping point has long passed.

Our current Lords have driven us into debt to the point that we owe more than 7 times what we take in in revenues each year. Paying that back will be near impossible, even were we to stop spending on everything tomorrow. The only way to get our financial heads above water would be to stop all spending on all entitlement programs, yet the politicians in CONgress know that to do so would result in the 48% of our zombie "citizens" who pay nothing into the system, yet receive the benefits of our labor, voting them out of office.

There is no way to vote ourselves out of this. There is no way we can fulfill our debt "obligations" to our creditors, and there is no way we could survive under the tax regime that would be required to become a solvent nation again.

The grand experiment has failed, and done so miserably. Not because the Founding Fathers erred in their drafting of our Constitution, but because we have allowed our so-called elected officials to violate that document repeatedly and capriciously, with no punishment for having done so. The tyrannic tide advances each year, and no amount of voting we do can reverse it. Our nation is like Venice - slowly and inexorably sinking beneath waves of over regulation and debt.

As a complete Nation, we have lost. Our only hope, in my opinion, is to break from the Nation as a free state or states (which has been demonstrated in the past to be a bloody affair which is difficult to "win"), or to sit by as our Nation self destructs, and hope that we can build a new, free society from the ashes.

Either way, Winter is coming, and it's going to be a bitch.

III

How to Handle Your Next TSA Groping

2010-11-16T22:45:00.011-06:00

Step 1: Opt out of stupid ineffectual pornographic radiation bath...I mean "full body scan".

Step 2: When receiving your Government Mandated Free Groping, perform the following maneuver. Man or woman, it doesn't matter, have fun with it - the louder and more over the top, (and men, if you can put on a lisp, go for it,) the better!

There is absolutely NOTHING a weak, ineffectual, impotent, loser Government Employee hates MORE than being made to look like the total trash heap that he/she is. NOTHING.

Disclaimer - I take NO responsibility for any reactions you may receive for trying this approach in a security line, to include (but not limited to):

Being beaten within an inch of your life by TSA thugs.
Being interrogated for hours by TSA losers for spurious reasons.
Being arrested.
Being fined $11,000 for refusing to be sexually assaulted
Being tea-bagged by those that profess to hate "teabaggers" (or Tea Partiers - see Sarah Palin and friends).
Actual attempted sexual contact by the TSA deviant that is feeling up you and your child.
Or any other repercussion visited upon you by the tyrannical leeches, degenerates, and powermongers that comprise the true underclass that is the Federal or local State Government these days.

The Federal Government Speaks

2010-11-16T22:26:00.002-06:00

Terrorists, Lions, and Bears, oh my!

Been looking for this clip for a while. Very apropos don't you think?

Is that you John Wayne? Or perhaps it's Pelosi, Reid and Obama....

Johnny Edge - Touch My Junk and Go To Jail

2010-11-13T23:19:00.004-06:00

Threatened with $10,000 in CIVIL FINES for refusing to submit to TSA groping at the airport.

Much like gun control, it's not about safety, it's about control.

Before I go on, I would like to remind you of what modern airport security actually is in places where the lovely naked body scanners are installed. You have a choice:

Submit to an XRay scan of your body that generates images that are detailed enough that a TSA Agent was fired for punching out his boss after repeated jokes about the size of his genitalia.
Submit to a TSA agent, who may or may not be of the same sex (not that that makes it any better), squeezing your breasts (ladies) and/or genetalia with their fingers.

The advertised point of TSA and airport security is to make sure that air travel is "safe". Despite the fact that most TSA screening is shutting the barn door after the horse is out, if you decide you don't want to be screened, you just leave the airport right?

WRONG.

The link above has an account from San Diego where, after the potential passenger decided he didn't need a pervert TSA agent squeezing his balls to make sure he hadn't packed C4 in his sack, he was told he could get a refund and leave the airport.

Except according to the TSA, he really couldn't. You see, once you start screening, the TSA has decided that they OWN YOU. You are not allowed to leave the screening checkpoint without being sexually assaulted or paying $10,000 in fines in a civil court. Even getting a refund on your ticket and trying to leave the airport is unacceptable - you lost your Constitutional Rights the minute you entered that security line.

So ask yourself, what does this make TSA Checkpoints?

Nothing more than an excuse to sexually molest men, women, and children for perverted Government paid sexual deviants.

You want an eye opener - Google TSA Abuses.

How can you help?
Join a We Won't Fly protest at the airport near you.

Farewell to the Wicked Witch of the West

2010-11-02T23:01:00.003-05:00

Bye bye Pelosi. You will "speak" for the House no more. May a House drop on you on your way off the podium.

Muslim Cleric Calls for Beheading of Dutch Politician

2010-09-03T17:00:00.000-05:00

Ahh yes, another glorious proclamation from the "Religion of Peace".

Muslim cleric calls for beheading of Dutch politician

The Sydney-born Muhammad has gained notoriety for, among other things, calling on young children to be radicalized and blaming rape victims for their own attacks.

The paper posted an English-language audio clip in which he refers to Wilders as "this Satan, this devil, this politician in Holland" and explains that anyone who talks about Islam like Wilders does should be executed by beheading.

Modern Islam is a scourge and a sore upon the face of this planet. While it originally probably was about peace and goodness, it has been hijacked by violent elements that use it for the subjugation of women and the complete control and oppression of hundreds of millions of people.

There is very little that is good about modern Islam as practiced by these radicals.

How Long Did YOU Work for the Federal Government This Year?

2010-09-03T16:45:00.001-05:00

Happy Friday - Now F*** You! (Love, the FedGov) - Part 2

This one snuck by me, however, it bears repeating.

August 21st.

What's important about that day? From January 1st, until August 21st of this year, EVERY penny YOU made went towards funding the Federal and State Governments. Every last dime. That's what it takes these days to fund the travesty that is Washington D.C.

See the methodology and a State by State breakdown here: August 19, 2010 - Cost of Government Day Has Arrived!

Do you realize that at the time of the founding of this Nation, you didn't pay income tax, you didn't pay property tax - you actually OWNED that which you made and purchased. Your land was yours, it wasn't to be taken away from you simply for refusing to pay the lease payments on it.

While I will cede the point that some amount of taxation is necessary, how can we possibly agree that we must work the majority of the year simply to settle with the various forms of Government??? This truly is tyranny. It's far past time to get the Government out of our lives.

The Largest Tax Hike in History

2010-09-03T16:30:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday - Now F*** You! (Love, the FedGov) - Part 1

120 Days to Go Until the Largest Tax Hikes in History

I'd just like to thank the idiot Democrats in Congress for making sure that the economy is stimulated by making sure that even more of what EVERY taxpayer makes goes not into their pockets, where it can support their family, but into Government, where it can be wasted by a bunch of chimpanzees with no impulse control.

From the article:

First Wave: Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief

In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families. These will all expire on January 1, 2011:

Personal income tax rates will rise. The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed). The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates. The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:

- The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%

- The 25% bracket rises to 28%

- The 28% bracket rises to 31%

- The 33% bracket rises to 36%

- The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%

Get that? If you pay any Federal Income tax AT ALL, your taxes are going up. Remember the Idiot in Chief while he was campaigning?

That's called a bald-faced lie, and every one of you who voted for him is complicit in this travesty.

Then there is Pelosi:

So how do you square that Pelosi? You're a traitor and a liar.

Read the entire article linked above. Between Obamacare, expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts, the complete failure of Congress to address inflation with the Alternative Minimum Tax, upping it's draconian application from 2mil to 28mil families this year, the Federal Government is an epic train wreck. Great job CONgress, now **** off.

Karl Denninger Takes on Education

2010-08-25T16:45:00.001-05:00

Two words Mr. Denninger. Right On.

Denninger takes on the Education establishment (racket?) with an excellently written and researched post.

If you're a teacher or other "educator" and tell me this can't be done, I'll take you on. You sign over to a company I set up the total amount you get from the state for each kid, I'll run the place as noted above, and I get to keep the excess funds (that's called "profit", which is my motive to do it.) I have only one condition - I get written into law protection against unionization, just as you have your unions, I'm going to be free from them. And I get to set my own school policies with regard to instruction, qualification to teach and discipline, consistent with state law (that is, the staff cannot assault the students, obviously.) This is part of the experiment - the place runs exactly as above with no interference - including interference by organized labor and other socialist bull****.

If, five years hence, I don't beat the pants off your school district's academic achievement on balance, as determined by nationalized standard testing (E.g. ACT or SAT scores for High Schoolers - not state-specific ones that a school can teach to) I'll give all the profit I earned doing it back to the state and you can declare victory. If I can't outperform you I don't deserve a nickel for my five years of labor, and I won't keep it. We'll write into the contract.

But if I do beat your academic achievement, you, and every one of the employees in your school, is fired, the district buildings and land are sold off to private interests, the money that is no longer going to be wasted is returned to the taxpayers in the county, and your pension funds and all other forms of deferred cost that you and your cronies stole from the taxpayers for your sub-standard and ridiculously overpriced underperformance are returned to the people as unearned plunder.

The entire article, including numbers and arguments to support his conclusion above, is available at this link. I'd support this approach in Texas in an instant. It's about time we started applying the scientific method to our Governance. It's obvious the current system is NOT working.

Social Security is 75, and it Needs to be Put Out of Its Misery

2010-08-17T16:30:00.000-05:00

Social Security turns (turned?) 75 this week! Let's see what we have to show for it:

$0

Yup, that's right. That program that was supposed to be optional, 1% of your income, with funds held aside to guarantee that you'd be repaid, is broke. CONgress spent all of it - every last dime. Much like Madoff, as new funds are coming in from current payers, they're being immediately sent to folks who are payees, because those folks' money was spent by the Government to keep up the wonderful utopian mirage of Progressive Socialism.

And here we sit. Each paycheck I get has 7% taken out of it, with jailtime or summary execution by Federal SWAT team awaiting me if I refuse to pay it, and I know with absolutely certainty that I'll likely never see a dime of the money I'm paying into it. That 7%, which could be used to invest in an account I CONTROL, which could be kept safe from the idiots in Washington that think that they're entitled to EVERYTHING you own, is sent to a group of people that piss it away on such high-minded activities as funding cocaine addiction studies on monkeys.

Need some fun analysis? Try this article from the Market Ticker: Revoke Krugman's PhD

That so-called "trust fund" is a fraud. It does not exist.

Here's what actually happens (and Krugman knows this, which makes him a damned liar besides):

Your tax dollars go to Treasury.

Treasury keeps them and issues "special" Treasury bonds to the Social Security "trust fund."

Treasury counts these tax receipts against the federal deficit, making it look (much, until the last year) smaller than it really is.

Note the slight-of-hand here. Social Security gets an alleged "bond" but they can't sell it to anyone but the Treasury. That is, legally it is an IOU, not a bond. A bond can be marketed in the open market to anyone who is willing to buy, for whatever they're willing to pay. These are unmarketable (intentionally) and thus can only be redeemed in one place - at Treasury.

The problem is that Treasury spent the money and thus doesn't have anything with which to redeem the IOUs!

So in order to redeem these alleged "bonds" Treasury will have to sell more bonds - this time to the general public (foreign governments, people, etc) who have actual capital surplus, because Treasury doesn't - it blew that surplus on social spending programs right here and now.

This is similar to you coming to me with $100,000 and I "promise" to hold on to it for you and keep it "safe." I give you a promissory note to this effect. But I never hold the funds - I immediately go blow them on hookers, coke and limousines. You now have a bunch of IOUs, and I have no money.

Now perhaps I can manage to sell someone else some bonds when you come to redeem those IOUs. Perhaps. But what is unmistakable and true is that the money you allegedly "deposited" with me was immediately dissipated, not invested, saved, held or secured.

This little scheme seems to work just fine provided that each year the Social Security system takes in more than it spends on benefits - that is, so long as the file cabinet full of IOUs continues to get bigger. Treasury gets the appearance of "Free Money", Social Security is able to pay benefits, nobody's the wiser.

But it's a scam, because in point of fact the so-called "Special Bonds" are nothing more than a bare promise to pay and the asset against which they were issued (tax receipts) was instantly dissipated!

The Baby Boomers are retiring, and there's nowhere near enough of us younger folks to keep this program solvent. "The Government will just cover the difference!" you say. Bull. We're currently spending $1.4 TRILLION MORE THAN WE MAKE. That is, the U.S. brings in around $2 trillion in revenues each year, and is currently spending $3.4 trillion. All of that money is coming in the form of a printing press from Treasury, or foreign investment - at the moment, Chinese funds.

"Well, the Government is aware of the problem and they're going to do something to fix it!" Wrong again. Check out this little gem (and it's a talking point for sure - I heard the exact same phrase from DemocRAT after DemocRAT on the news yesterday):

Social security at 75: don't mess with success (Rep. Sander Levin)

From that article:

Seventy-five years ago this month, President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act. By any yardstick, Social Security has been the most successful domestic program in our nation's history, lifting millions of seniors out of poverty. Through good times and bad, American workers and their families have been able to rely on Social Security to provide guaranteed protection against the loss of earnings due to retirement, disability, or death.

This mental midget then goes forward with his talking point arguments of "had we allowed people to privatize Social Security and invest it in the stock market, they'd be broke right now". What tripe. Yes, the market goes up and down. Yes, you can lose money. However, Social Security pays around 1%. That doesn't even cover the massive inflation we have seen over the last 75 years, no where close. Having money in Social Security means you've LOST a significant portion of your "investment". I can get a better rate of return with that money in a Savings Account at a local bank that is insured by the FDIC.

Privatization doesn't mean you HAVE to invest your Social Security in risky equities, but it gives you the option of managing your OWN money. Personal accountability. Oops, can't have that - just let your betters in Government handle that for you - you can't be trusted with your own assets. Just give them to us so we can spend every last penny on bull$!@#.

It's far past time to stop this madness. Do away with the system. Every day Americans dump in good money after bad, and most of us will never see a dime. Robbing us to pay for the actions of politicians we were too young to even vote for isn't the answer - especially when we're all pretty sure that we won't ever see a dime of what we put in come back to us. How are we supposed to secure our retirement if we're told that we must pay for yours?

Body Mass Index - Now Required by Federal Government

2010-07-16T21:47:00.002-05:00

Obesity Rating for Every American Must Be Included in Stimulus-Mandated Electronic Health Records, Says HHS

New federal regulations issued this week stipulate that the electronic health records--that all Americans are supposed to have by 2014 under the terms of the stimulus law that President Barack Obama signed last year--must record not only the traditional measures of height and weight, but also the Body Mass Index: a measure of obesity.

The obesity-rating regulation states that every American's electronic health record must: “Calculate body mass index. Automatically calculate and display body mass index (BMI) based on a patient’s height and weight.”

Lovely. Those of you who are serious about weight lifting take note - muscle weighs more than fat. It's possible that even though you are incredibly in shape, you'll be flagged as "obese". From a site with a BMI calculator:

Although BMI can be used for most men and women, it does have some limits:

* It may overestimate body fat in athletes and others who have a muscular build.
* It may underestimate body fat in older persons and others who have lost muscle.

The article also states that the health records will be available on the national exchange. Good luck getting insured (while there are still insurance companies other than the retards (and yes, I do mean retards Ms. Palin) in Washington.

Under the stimulus law, health care providers--including doctors and hospitals--must establish "meaningful use" of EHRs by 2014 in order to qualify for federal subsidies. After that, they will be subjected to penalties in the form of diminished Medicare and Medicaid payments for not establishing "meaningful use" of EHRs.

Doctors - this one is really simple. Stop accepting insurance. Stop accepting Medicare/Medicaid. Go back to directly seeing a local pool of patients who will pay you directly for your services. Drop your prices to something that will be in accordance with running a profitable and successful business, without being ripped off by the Feds and the Insurance Companies.

Screw the Washington Bureaucrats. Let them stew in the cesspool that is D.C, trying to get blood from the bankrupt stones that are many of the Liberal states, and lets get some 10th Amendment assertions and secessions going here folks. I'm tired of this crap.

I'm a racist, you're a racist, he's a racist, she's a racist...

2010-07-12T20:06:00.003-05:00

NAACP Considers Condemning Tea Party for 'Racism'

Considers it? Hah, Tea Partiers have been branded as racists since they emerged during the Healthcare "debate".

Whatever, go ahead. We're WAY past labels at this point.

Hey, by the way, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Who's the bigot now???

Governor Jan Brewer - Obama, Do Your Job

2010-05-21T11:50:00.004-05:00

A long watch, but worth it.

I'm liking Governor Brewer a lot more, with the various bills she's been signing, I *almost* regret leaving AZ.

Remember, the folks that are the most upset about this, other than the illegals of course, are the folks that don't believe in borders. Those folks that would like to invite anyone, regardless of criminal background, regardless of their ability to contribute to our country (and therefore help to pay for the entitlement programs they will enjoy), and most of all, people that actually WANT to become Americans, not Mexicans living in America.

You're an illegal? You don't want to get arrested in AZ? Don't do anything to draw the attention of the Police, such as speed, rob, burgle, etc. Don't like it? Get the **** out until you've gone through the time honored legal process of getting your citizenship.

Keep giving 'em hell Gov!

Make the Mojave Cross Permanent

2010-05-20T18:43:00.002-05:00

Authorities Say Mojave Desert Replacement Memorial Cross Must Come Down

Since apparently it's ok to settle a score after you lose the decision of the Supreme Court by removing that which offends you, I have a suggestion for the people that used to maintain the cross.

Get a large jackhammer and etch a cross into the rock. Make it as large as possible, and nice and deep. Make sure no matter what happens that it's always there.

Hey Obama, About Those "Tax Cuts" and "Bi-Partisanship"

2010-04-15T21:45:00.004-05:00

Obama Renews Call for Bipartisanship, Takes Jab at Tea Partiers

"I've been a little amused over the last couple of days where people have been having these rallies about taxes," the president said, noting the numerous tax cuts pushed by his administration. "You would think they'd be saying thank you."

Hey jackass, "cutting" my taxes just enough to buy a Whopper each month, all the while allowing for a monetary policy that is pushing commodities, including oil, higher, and passing a "Healthcare Reform" that in reality will COST me money (and possibly my job), and you want me to thank you??

I've got a different gesture for that:

You want Bi-Partisanship? You can start by resigning. Then, and only then, will we come to the table.

FBI Able to Read Emails Stored on Servers

2010-04-15T21:36:00.003-05:00

Yahoo, Feds Battle over E-Mail Privacy

The legal dust-up, unsealed late Tuesday, concerns a 1986 law that already allows the government to obtain a suspect’s e-mail from an ISP or webmail provider without a probable-cause warrant, once it’s been stored for 180 days or more. The government now contends it can get e-mail under 180-days old if that e-mail has been read by the owner, and the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment protections don’t apply.

Yahoo is challenging the government’s position and defying a court order to turn over some customer e-mail to the feds. Google, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy & Technology and other groups late Tuesday told the federal judge presiding over the case that accessing e-mail under 180 days old requires a valid warrant under the Fourth Amendment, regardless of whether it has been read.

“The government says the Fourth Amendment does not protect these e-mails,” Kevin Bankston, an EFF lawyer, said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “What we’re talking about is archives of our personal correspondence that they would need a warrant to get from your computer but not from the server.”

I learn something new every day. Sometimes, I wish I didn't.

Quick note to my fellow Threepers - if you're in the habit of keeping communications on a server such as GMail or Yahoo, Hotmail, etc, be aware that someone without a warrant might be watching.

Of course, none of you would put anything that might incriminate you into email now would you? OpSec and CommSec friends.

My Stance on Healthcare

2010-03-30T23:02:00.003-05:00

Longtime lurker Cheddar (and you're welcome to lurk, I encourage it!), an always good questioner of my rants, asked on this post:

Would health care be so bad if it were provided to only citizens and immigrants (please don't confuse immigrants with aliens).

The short answer is "yes", because we *still* can't afford it.

This isn't about "pre-existing conditions". There are two issues with that:

If you as a person were able to get a tax deduction for paying your own healthcare, we wouldn't have the problem where you lose your coverage every time you changed jobs. The Government and its regulations CREATED pre-existing condition issues by only allowing businesses to receive credits for insuring employees' health.

You can't wreck your car, and call Allstate the next day and demand insurance can you? Why not? Because the premiums you DID NOT pay over the last 5 years CAN NOT ensure that Allstate can afford your coverage. You understand that what this idiotic law has done is ring the death knell for private health insurance? No one can be profitable in that situation - not without tripling, quadrupling, or MORE the premiums of anyone stupid enough to continue paying for healthcare.

This isn't about who gets it. Ultimately (and Mark Levin has proved a number of times), we're talking about less than 20mil people that "need" healthcare - the rest are foreigners, wealthy folks (making more than $75k a year) that choose not to carry coverage, and also younger folks who are generally healthy and don't feel they need insurance.

This IS about NOT reforming medical tort laws, where Doctors must still pay exorbitant amounts of money to cover frivolous malpractice lawsuits, and order all manner of extra and unnecessary tests to try and prevent same, increasing the costs to insurance companies.

This IS about a Nation that somehow believes that they deserve the latest, most expensive treatment that has a low success rate, even if they can't afford it. I'm sorry, but if you can't pay for a plan that can cover it, you don't deserve the latest in whizbang tests and surgeries.

This IS about not having to wait four or more months for cancer tests, MRIs, etc. This IS about not having to ration care because people overuse the system since...after all, it's free!
This IS about not losing many of your Doctors because, shock, they don't feel like putting up many thousands of dollars only to be told they make too much and should work for peanuts.

Here is basic human behavior as I channel Joe and Jane Everyman:

If my choice (after my company drops my insurance plan because the premiums just doubled - and THEY ALREADY ARE DOUBLING), is to pay $1k a month (or more!) for health insurance (and I have always kept myself covered up until now), or to save $12k up (12 months, $1k saved per month by not enrolling in Obamacare), pay the fine for not having coverage at the end of the year ($2k), and if anything happens in the mean time, fuck it, I'll go DEMAND coverage since they can't turn me down for pre-existing conditions, what do you think I (and 99.5% of the rest of the country) is going to go do?

And when we all drop our plans (after our employers drop them as well), and start showing up demanding coverage all of a sudden when we get cancer, break something, have a heart attack, etc, what's going to happen to Insurance Companies - right, out of business. That'll just leave Uncle Sam to take care of it. Just like they took care of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the Post Office, etc. etc. etc.

Please read the articles I've linked. They're not about politics, they're about simple economics, human behavior, and basic math.

Healthcare as it stood before this bill was DEFINITELY broken - no one disputes that. What this new law has done, though, is put Government in charge of the broken system because somehow (and they NEVER EVER EVER EVER HAVE IN THE PAST), they're going to lower costs, increase coverage, and improve services.

That'll be the day.

Obamacare - A Synopsis of Fail by Karl Denninger

2010-03-23T17:10:00.003-05:00

All of this is required reading. It passes the smell test (hell, it even passes the common sense test).

To put it succinctly, we're fucked.

Karl Denninger:

If Health Care Is A Human Right...

... then why is it that the Chinese who make all our cheap plastic trash that we allow to be imported here without tariffs don't get it?

And... shouldn't we impose tariffs that add up to the cost of said health care - a "Congressionally acceptable package" costing $15,000 a year per worker - to everything that is imported from China until they do?

After all, if it's a human right, it doesn't begin and end at our borders, right?

Just an inconvenient little question for Madame Pelosi....

Health Care: Arbitrage Obama And The Dems

It's Gonna Be Like Christmas! (Health Care)

That Didn't Take Long

Please read 'em all and understand just what the National Socialists have accomplished.

What Could Go Wrong? Hacker Disables 100 Vehicles

2010-03-18T22:29:00.003-05:00

Hacker Disables More Than 100 Cars Remotely

More than 100 drivers in Austin, Texas found their cars disabled or the horns honking out of control, after an intruder ran amok in a web-based vehicle-immobilization system normally used to get the attention of consumers delinquent in their auto payments.

Police with Austin’s High Tech Crime Unit on Wednesday arrested 20-year-old Omar Ramos-Lopez, a former Texas Auto Center employee who was laid off last month, and allegedly sought revenge by bricking the cars sold from the dealership’s four Austin-area lots.

Ahh, so often we hear the old "well, they'll only use [insert stupid people controlling device here] if you're doing something wrong!!"

Look, any system, whether it's a web cam in your kid's school issued laptop computer, the cell phone in their pocket, or a system such as OnStar being used to wiretap your car, systems such as this can be, and are, abused.

We seem to allow the Government and others to do things to us because technology allows them to. Little thought is given by the sheep as to how those systems might be abused, rather, they bleat about how it will make them safer and then go about their daily business.

The next time you hear about the latest and greatest convenience system, give a thought to how that system might be abused or exploited.

Denninger - A Very Serious Warning to Nancy Pelosi

2010-03-17T09:55:00.004-05:00

Every time I think I've managed to adequately convey my feelings on the latest travesty or tyranny to come out of our "betters" in Washington, Denninger goes and states the case in far more elegant, informed and dire terms.

I'll remind you, Karl Denninger is not a Threeper, a Truther, a Birther, or even a Tea Partier so far as I can tell, rather, he is someone who lives, breathes, and makes a living on the Economy (though I stop short of calling him an Economist). He doesn't spend his days stocking up on ammunition and weapons, or survival supplies, and his weekends aren't spent raiding surplus stores and gun shows for gear that we all hope we may not need. He simply sees the fraud in our system and wants to shine a light on it and stop it.

He's laid it out today, and he has done so with a certainty and completeness that should chill anyone reading it.

There is a bright white line for every person in this country who has taken an oath to uphold our Constitution. It is in different places for each of those individuals, but you had better believe it exists.

For some it will be crossed if you try to disarm Americans, as was attempted after Katrina.

For some it will be crossed if you try to occupy their homes.

And for some, it may be crossed if you attempt to "deem" this bill passed, when The House has not actually passed it.

I pray this evening I am wrong, and that for no material number of people - indeed, for no one person - that is where their personal line is.

But I am reasonably certain that this prayer will be offered in vain.

Please go and read the whole thing. When people who understand stock markets (and make a living from them) are noticing the powder keg that many of us in the Threeper world see as well, we can't be all that far from the precipice.

Social Security Ponzi Collapses

2010-03-14T22:44:00.005-05:00

Social Security to Start Cashing Uncle Sam's IOUs

For more than two decades, Social Security collected more money in payroll taxes than it paid out in benefits — billions more each year.

Not anymore. This year, for the first time since the 1980s, when Congress last overhauled Social Security, the retirement program is projected to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes — nearly $29 billion more.

Sounds like a good time to start tapping the nest egg. Too bad the federal government already spent that money over the years on other programs, preferring to borrow from Social Security rather than foreign creditors. In return, the Treasury Department issued a stack of IOUs — in the form of Treasury bonds — which are kept in a nondescript office building just down the street from Parkersburg's municipal offices. (emphasis mine)

The money that the Government put away for you (remember - you pay into a fund that is supposed to pay your money back to you when you retire) is gone. It doesn't exist. All of those funds they were collecting for all those years - YOUR FUNDS - has been pissed away on unneeded inferior widgets produced by inferior companies that just happen to have connections in Congress. It's official, it's ALL GONE.

The national debt — the amount of money the government owes its creditors — is about $12.5 trillion, or nearly $42,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. About $8 trillion has been borrowed in public debt markets, much of it from foreign creditors. The rest came from various government trust funds, including retirement funds for civil servants and the military. About $2.5 trillion is owed to Social Security.

The Government takes in about $2 trillion a year in taxes, payments, or what have you. That's the "salary" of the Federal Government, ALL of it each year. That's your money out of your paycheck, when you buy gas, food, alcohol, make a profit on stocks, etc. etc. etc. We owe SIX TIMES that much to various entities, much of it to foreign nations hostile to the United States. And yet Obanana and his useful idiots in Washington are spending $1.5 trillion MORE this year than they could even hope to take in. That's like a family making $50,000 a year spending $75,000 in a particular year when they ALREADY owe creditors over $300,000 (and we're not talking mortgage debt on a house here)! How can anyone POSSIBLY think that the Feds can EVER pay that back?

Look in your bank account and ask yourself the following:
Do you have $42,000 for EACH of your family members (yes, that includes 6-month old Trevor) to just give to the Government? Because that is what it's going to take to clear the books out RIGHT NOW. Give those bastards in Washington a few more years and it will be far more than that.

It's time for the States United to say "NO MORE" and cut the Federal Government loose. Repossess their properties among the States, including all of that land they just like to up and grab when they feel like it (National Parks anyone?), and see how long they last with the District of Columbia as their only source of material income.

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of our currency being treated as funny money, our children, childrens' children, and childrens' childrens' children reduce to nothing more than cows to be milked at will by corrupt and evil people, as well as slaughtered when those people get the urge to exert their "authority".

Screw 'em. Let their empire burn. It's time for the States to save themselves before things get really bad.

Unconstitutional - Pelosi's Plan to Ram Healthcare Through WITHOUT a Vote.

2010-03-11T22:37:00.007-06:00

I heard this on Mark Levin's show today, and couldn't quite believe my ears, so of course I went to his cited source and did some reading. I was entirely floored by what I read.

Can't quite make reconciliation fly? Public telling you they don't want it? I know, just pass a "rule" that states that the House of Representatives has approved a Bill that they HAVE NOT VOTED ON.

From the Washington Examiner:

Each bill that comes before the House for a vote on final passage must be given a rule that determines things like whether the minority would be able to offer amendments to it from the floor.

In the Slaughter Solution, the rule would declare that the House "deems" the Senate version of Obamacare to have been passed by the House. House members would still have to vote on whether to accept the rule, but they would then be able to say they only voted for a rule, not for the bill itself.

Hrm, let's take a look at the good old Constitution - you know, that little thing that's supposed to fracking limit the power of these jackasses. Article 1, Section 7:

Section 7 - Revenue Bills, Legislative Process, Presidential Veto

All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.

Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by Yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.

Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of Adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill. (emphasis mine - Bold was a little harder when this sucker was written)

So let's see, we're just going to make a rule that says "if we pass Bill A, then we've also automatically passed Bill B". It's ok that no vote was taken on the secondary Bill, it's ok that people are against it and we may not even have the votes to pass it, we're just going to play make-believe and pretend that there was a vote and it went the way we wanted to.

Does anyone else see a problem with this?

If this is the way we're going to conduct business, why have the Constitution and Rule of Law at all? Why not just let the people in power do whatever the fuck they want, when they want, and for whatever reason their pea-brains can come up with.

Do you feel powerless yet? Are you fingering the keys to your airplane?

Mike Vanderboegh put it quite well in August on his Sipsey Street Irregulars Blog:

Now, with people exercising their rights, going armed to public gatherings and town hall meetings, we see something we have not seen in a long time. I understand how liberals are astonished about it. I'm a little astonished myself. I didn't know if we still had it in us to ACT like free people. Now it seems we do. So our hope is that they will back off. But will they?

You are looking at, I tell them, the tip of the iceberg. The people that the administration will find most troublesome as they go farther down this lawless, tyrannical road are not those who blog, or go to town meetings or write letters to the editor. If these folks get angered by events, they reassure themselves of their skills to handle what will come by going to the range and making sure their rifle is still sighted in or by putting back some more ammo or by teaching their teenage sons (and daughters) how to shoot, move and communicate.

In the unlikely event that the government is successful enough to imprison, silence or kill the last demonstrator, blogger and radio talk show host, it will be these people who emerge from the crowd, put a bullet in some henchman's eye, and fade back again.

These people understand that having been "out-voted," they can still vote. They are the rest of the iceberg upon which the great ship Leviathan, like Titanic, will of its own forward movement, rip out her hull below the waterline and sink to the bottom of history.

So, I tell them, the anger you see is not one tenth of the anger that's out there. And that other none-tenths you will not see until it's too late. So back off, I say, leave us the hell alone, and we won't have to go down this bloody road. (emphasis mine)

We are watching the Rule of Law, the Constitution, and our Unalienable Rights be torn from us, one after the other, day after day. We're tired of it. We're tired of the games, we're tired of the condescending tone of those that style themselves our "betters", and we're tired of watching the last bits of our Savings be thrown down the maw of Entitlement Programs and Fraudulent Bailouts. The straws are piling upon the proverbial Camel's Back, and the old girl is showing the strain.

And so I say to those that style themselves Tyrant, to those in Congress that believe that they can do anything they want, BEWARE! The rattling has begun, and it grows louder every day. When the Rule of Law is finally gone, shredded, it's tatters falling free of the eyes of every Patriot, every Free Man who has exercised their rights within the ever failing system of our Republic, Politics ceases to be a function of going down to your local Library once in a while and punching holes in a paper with a stylus, instead, this becomes the extension of your will upon those that would oppress you:

When a wise man encounters a rattlesnake, her eyes fixed upon him, her tail vibrating with that distinct sound, he freezes, looks carefully around for a safe path out, and, ever so slowly, backs away. Only the truly stupid man who cares nothing for his life and well-being continues blithely upon the dangerous path, ignoring the warning, ignoring the danger to themselves.

The time has come, Congress, to choose which path you will take. There are only two true options. One, to listen to the people, to the Founding Fathers and the laws which are supposed to bind you. Or two, to continue upon this path to what is almost guaranteed to become bloodshed and ruination.

Which will it be?

McDonald 2A Trial - Privileges and Immunities, YOU CAN HAS!

2010-03-05T16:00:00.001-06:00

An excellent "layman's" interpretation of Wednesday's Supreme Court Hearing on the McDonald case, which, essentially challenged Chicago's Gun Ban under the 2nd Amendment of the United States.

In essence, does the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States actually bar States and localities from banning guns? The 14th might say it does, but apparently the Statists think it does not.

FELDMAN: Here’s my first argument.
SCALIA: That argument sucks.
FELDMAN: Ordered liberty?
SCALIA: We haven’t used that since 1937.
FELDMAN: Have too.
SCALIA: When?
FELDMAN: Uh, here’s my second argument.
SCALIA: You just argued against your first argument.
FELDMAN: Did not.
SCALIA: Did so.
FELDMAN: DID NOT!
SCALIA: …
FELDMAN: *cries*
SCALIA: …
ROBERTS: You just argued the losing Heller argument.

Go here for the complete text, now including pictures! Very adult language, but very funny as well.

Share and enjoy!

Hah! Forget "You Lie"

2010-03-04T21:31:00.002-06:00

Everyone was quite aghast when Joe Wilson yelled "You lie" to President Obama (way to go Joe).

That pales in comparison to this lovely diatribe delivered by Nigel Farage, representing Great Britain in the EU Parliament.

Keep at those bloody Statists Mr. Farage. You're right on the money. "Quiet assassin of Democracy" indeed!

Just Desserts

2010-02-23T17:03:00.001-06:00

I don't have anything to add to that. Thank you Mr. Poe. hehe

Australian Airport Staff Smuggling Drugs and Guns

2010-02-20T13:02:00.004-06:00

Australian Airport Staff Smuggled Drugs, Guns for Crime Syndicates

A new federal parliamentary inquiry, into the adequacy of aviation and maritime security measures to combat serious and organized crime, has been told less than 1 percent of air cargo is physically examined and catering trucks are never searched.

But hey, don't you feel safer that you're put through highly personal pat downs, shoe x-rays, and naked scans? After all, YOU can't be trusted.

And a quick question for those who say "I don't care if a TSA Agent sees me naked, I have nothing to hide!" - Do you feel the same way about some sweaty, low-life male TSA Agent seeing naked scans of your teenage daughter?

Citibank to Institute Rule to Prevent Cash Withdrawls - Your Money is no Longer Your Money

2010-02-20T10:28:00.003-06:00

Citi Warns of Withdrawal Gate

Seen on a recent Citibank (C) statement: "Effective April 1, 2010, we reserve the right to require (7) days advance notice before permitting a withdrawal from all checking accounts. While we do not currently exercise this right and have not exercised it in the past, we are required by law to notify you of this change."

This applies only to Texas at this time, but may be a concerning development in the Organized Criminals', I mean Banks' behavior with regard to Checking Accounts.

As Karl Denninger wrote yesterday on The Market Ticker:

Huh?

Folks, the formal name for a checking account is a demand account. It is called a demand account for the very reason that you have a right to all your money, on demand.

Now maybe there's some new law that applies only in Texas, or maybe there isn't. Who knows - or cares.

The fact of the matter is that any bank that reserves the right (whether they claim through some external cause or not) to throw up a gate on a demand account is no longer marketing demand accounts.

My checking account is such a demand account and I'll be damned if I'll have my checking money anywhere that doesn't fit that description.

In my opinion, you shouldn't either.

So who's money is it really? You earned it, you have entrusted an institution to hold on to it for you, and give it to you when you need it to purchase food, pay your mortgage, etc. IN RETURN, they are now saying that because they are holding it for you, they get to say WHEN you get to take it out?

Fine, they say that they have not exercised this rule (yet) and just want to put the rule in, but is that a rule you're really ready to live with? Are we really considered to be as children that can not be trusted with what we have earned??? If you're the Federal Government, of course your answer to that is "yes".

As mentioned in the article on StockWidget, it may be a tool they want to implement to prevent a bank run by people concerned about their money. But again, is it YOUR money or THEIRS?

The only proper response to this is to remove your money from Citibank. Period. Whether you're in Texas or not, you have to admit if they're willing to do this in one state, others will soon follow.

There is only one way to protest this action:
Nullify this rule by ensuring they don't have any money they can hold on to for seven days.

General Aviation Security After the Austin Crash

2010-02-19T23:00:00.005-06:00

It's asinine reporting and a total lack of common sense like this that drives me nuts:

Texas Plane Crash Exposes Gaps in Air Security

GEORGETOWN, Texas — After 9/11, cockpit doors were sealed, air marshals were added and airport searches became more aggressive, all to make sure an airliner could never again be used as a weapon. Yet little has been done to guard against attacks with smaller planes.

That point was driven home with chilling force on Thursday when a Texas man with a grudge against the IRS crashed his single-engine plane into an office building in a fiery suicide attack. One person inside the building was also killed.

"It's a big gap," said R. William Johnstone, an aviation security consultant and former staff member of the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks. "It wouldn't take much, even a minor incident involving two simultaneously attacking planes, to inflict enough damage to set off alarm bells and do some serious harm to the economy and national psyche."

What a moron. Joe Stack owned the airplane, the hanger, and was a licensed pilot. What are you going to do, put a Soviet Style Political Officer in each and every private airplane that flies so that they can hold a gun to the pilot's head and ensure correct behavior? What possible rules, short of the typical knee-jerk BAN IT response can you possibly implement to keep someone from crashing a 2 or 4 seater aircraft into anything?

Frankly, they're lucky he didn't decide to just shoot the place up. He probably would have done far greater damage to the IRS personnel in the building by grabbing a shotgun and going on a rampage. While two people dead and a handful injured isn't a good thing, a nice gun rampage could have resulted in scores dead and scores more wounded.

Ultimately, you can not stop people from killing other people. No law, no rule, no regulation is going to prevent it. What you can do is maybe address the issues that are at the core of these actions - an out of control Government populated with power hungry little egomaniacs that love nothing more than to ruin people's lives. These idiots in Government think that we're milk cows to be squeezed until we run dry, and then they run around waving their hands when one of the cows decides it has had enough and stomps a few heads in to show its displeasure.

Cause and effect. Squeeze tighter, take ever more power out of the hands of citizens, and you'll get more citizens that will decide that they have nothing else left to lose and take actions that will be highly detrimental to the nearest sets of Government thugs and, unfortunately, any innocent people that are unlucky enough to be nearby at the wrong time.

[Sarcasm]
To the total idiots at the FAA and DHS - you want to "really" stop this from EVER happening again? Ban all forms of aviation except for large Commercial Airlines.

It's for the children.
[/Sarcasm]

Man Bulldozes Home to Spite Bank - Moscow, ID

2010-02-19T17:37:00.003-06:00

It just warms the cockles to see folks finally waking up and fighting back doesn't it?

From the article at WLWT:

Hoskins said he's been in a struggle with RiverHills Bank over his Clermont County home for nearly a decade, a struggle that was coming to an end as the bank began foreclosure proceedings on his $350,000 home.

"When I see I owe $160,000 on a home valued at $350,000, and someone decides they want to take it – no, I wasn't going to stand for that, so I took it down," Hoskins said.

...

"The average homeowner that can't afford an attorney or can fight as long as we have, they don't stand a chance," he said.

Hoskins said he'd gotten a $170,000 offer from someone to pay off the house, but the bank refused, saying they could get more from selling it in foreclosure.

So, he went and got a bulldozer, and took care of the problem. He bloody well bulldozed his home, and he says he's considering doing the same to the business the bank is going after as well.

Even better, check out the Poll on the left side of the page....

Oops, 77% of almost 10,000 people say "Good for Him". That's not a good sign for the jackasses in power now is it? Even more interesting, 22% is approximately the number of people that currently believe that the Government is acting with Consent of the Governed. Uh oh.

From the link above:

The founding document of the United States, the Declaration of Independence, states that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Today, however, just 21% of voters nationwide believe that the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 61% disagree and say the government does not have the necessary consent. Eighteen percent (18%) of voters are not sure.

However, 63% of the Political Class think the government has the consent of the governed, but only six percent (6%) of those with Mainstream views agree.

Seventy-one percent (71%) of all voters now view the federal government as a special interest group, and 70% believe that the government and big business typically work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors.

That helps explain why 75% of voters are angry at the policies of the federal government, and 63% say it would be better for the country if most members of Congress are defeated this November. Just 27% believe their own representative in Congress is the best person for the job.

LISTEN UP FRAUDSTERS (formerly known as Congress, Banks and Wall Street), WE'RE MAD AS HELL AND WE'RE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANY MORE!

People know when they're getting screwed. They know more and more each day how it feels to be powerless as the "protected class" takes what they want from the people's hard earned savings.

And the people's response?

CAN YOU HEAR US NOW???

h/t to Keep it Simple Blog

A Bridge Too Far...Plane Crash Today in Austin

2010-02-18T13:49:00.006-06:00

Texas Small Plane Crash Might Be Intentional Act, Officials Say

A pilot furious with the Internal Revenue Service crashed his small plane into an office building in Austin, Texas, that houses federal tax employees, setting off a raging fire.

Officials are investigating whether the pilot, identified by authorities as Joseph Andrew Stack, a 53-year-old software engineer who lived in Texas, crashed the plane intentionally. Stack was confirmed dead.

An Internal Revenue Service office is located inside the building.

Just how furious? Karl Denninger at The Market Ticker took a very short time to come up with the following, copied off of Joe Stack's web site, EmbeddedArt.com (now taken offline by the Host at the request of the FBI):

I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand. It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants. I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after. But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change. I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.

I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are. Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

Karl has some very salient remarks on his blog post. I hope you'll take a moment to read over there as well. You can read Karl's post here: This Is How It Begins (Wanton Violence)

For now, this is an isolated event. I do not believe, however, that it is a feeling that is unique to Mr. Stack. Many of us are watching 30 or more percent of our hard won earnings being handed off to Wall Street Crooks, Politicians, foreign nations, and those lazy bastards down the street that do nothing but smoke pot and play Playstation on their big screen TV whilest collecting their welfare checks.

The anger is rising, but our leaders care nothing for us. After all, they don't need those of us that work hard and produce to keep them in office, they just need more of our money with which to pay off their constituencies.

How far will it go before something really breaks loose?? Will this be an isolated event or will more people decide enough is enough?

Update: The Statesman has what appears to be the more complete text of the letter at this link.

In Honor of the Vote to Increase Socialism Today - Greed

2009-12-24T13:54:00.004-06:00

This was forwarded to me in email, and I think Mr. Friedman's remarks are particularly pithy in light of today's vote on so-called healthcare reform, but really is designed to enslave millions of people to the Government.

Andrew Wilkow covered this very well today, and the idea is thus:
The difference between Government attempting to do something, such as provide lower cost healthcare, and private enterprise is simply self-interest, or "greed".

A businessman who sets out to perform a task for the public does so out of the want to earn money or prestige for themselves. Their want for better living conditions for themselves and their family drive them to take the risk of putting up their own money (and quite often that of other investors, who are also "greedy" to receive a return for their offering) to provide a good or service to people that need that good or service.

If the product is something that is actually needed by the public at large, and the businessperson can provide it at a cost that is below that which others are willing to pay, they receive income from that product. A successful product, with proper and careful management of the costs of manufacturing that product, results in success for that "greedy person". The greed actually provides a great incentive to improve the product, streamline the process it takes to manufacture that product, and even impetus to branch out and provide additional related products. The act of expanding that product's offering creates jobs and benefits many other people.

An additional pressure that requires better performance in the creation and provision of the product is competition. Attempting to charge a price above what the market will bear (e.g. what people will pay for that product) will either result in the public not buying the product, or a competitor seizing upon the opportunity to provide a similar product at a lower price. In both cases, subject to the limitations of technology and innovation, there is no way to provide a product (for an extended time) at a price below the total price of creating that product. Any attempt to do so requires additional investment by the person or other investors who, again, are motivated by a greedy want to receive a return on the money that they invest in that product.

Except in certain rare cases, it is very nearly impossible for a private entity to force the public at large to buy their product. Competition and public indifference are excellent motivators to stay as lean and mean as possible.

The Government, on the other hand, works thusly:

Like the private entity, the impetus for politicians to act is also greed. This greed is still defined as the urge to generate additional wealth and prestige for oneself, however, there are a number of key differences in the how a good or service is produced and provided to the public at large.

Unlike a private enterprise, a politician simply puts a gun in the face of a private citizen and demands the money it will take to provide that good or service. The politician (or bureaucrat) risks nothing themselves (except, perhaps, the risk of being voted out of office). This lack of risk also assumes that the pol is acting in a legal manner.

"Now hold on!" you might think, "nobody is robbing me at gunpoint for my tax dollars!" Think again, what happens if you do not pay whatever taxes the Government decides to levy on you this year? You get audited, and then fined. Don't pay the fine, guys with guns come to take you away. Resist being taken, and you can be shot.

So now, the Government is offering a product. Costs of creating that product are immaterial. If there's not enough money to create it, the pol just gets more to cover the overage. If the product isn't making any profit, that's ok, there's always more money available to ensure its longevity. In fact, because nobody in charge of creating that product has any real personal stake in its success/failure, there is absolutely no incentive to ensure that costs of provision and manufacture are kept streamlined and tight. What's better, since the cost of providing this product is "free" so far as the pol is concerned, the Government can even price competing products right out of the market. When you think your cost is effectively $0, and your competitors all have to pay for workers, facilities, equipment, etc. out of their own pockets (and consequently watch their own fortunes and bank accounts increase and decrease with success/failure), it's incredibly easy for a Government product to simply run everyone else out of business.

How about supply and demand? Recall that the private entity has to ensure that there is a need for their product. People must want to consume their product, and have enough money to purchase it at a price that exceeds the cost of creating it. What do you do as a Government in this situation? Simple, you require that people purchase it. After all, you're the Government, if they refuse you, you can simply fine them. If they don't pay the fine, well, then you get to arrest them. And if they don't want to be arrested, you simply shoot them and move on with life.

So what does this have to do with so-called Healthcare Reform?

Simply this:
A group of people who are totally unaccountable for their success/failure, grows ever closer to passing a law that says you must purchase a product - healthcare. This product's composition will be controlled by those politicians (it must be an "approved" plan), and you will at all times be enrolled in that approved plan or the IRS will fine you. If you persist in being uncovered, and do not pay your fine, you will go to prison for 5 years. If you refuse to go to prison, you will be shot. If this were China, they'd do all of the above just the same, except they'd send the bill for the bullet to your family afterwards.

Meanwhile, this group of unaccountable people will be effectively in charge of the insurance companies. Without any personal stake in the success/failure of of these companies, they will mandate how much profits those companies can make, how much they can pay their executives, how much profit goes to stock holders, and what plans they can offer. In effect, those politicians will be able to control whether an insurance company survives or not, on an unaccountable whim. Their irresponsible behavior, driven by bribes and lobbyists, will cause companies with "connections" to prosper, while companies that are looked upon less favorably (or whose superior product offering presents a threat to established, inferior companies) will rot on the vine and be driven out of business.

Ultimately, the consumers of Healthcare, "common" Americans, will be bankrupted and killed in droves whilest waiting to see a Doctor for serious ailments such as Cancer. There will be no market forces ensuring innovation, controlling the costs of provision, and ensuring wasteful actions are punished. Costs will rise sharply, premiums will rise sharply, and service will fall off as more and more money is dumped into increasingly bureaucratic management structures and unchecked spending.

So what is greed? When tempered by personal risk, greed is literally the engine of human innovation, the suppressor of costs, and the creator of jobs and opportunities. When a method of greed is found where a greedy person has no risk of failure, however, exploitation and ruination of everyone involved will surely follow.

As Friedman stated, in summary, greed is good, and the Government can, in and of itself, create nothing. Only Private Parties have the proper motivation to invent, create, and provide goods and services.

John Cornyn - Conservatives have to yield to reality. Bullshit.

2009-12-24T12:32:00.002-06:00

A letter sent to John Cornyn in response to this article in The Hill, brought to my attention by David Codrea at War on Guns.

"Conservative primary voters "have to yield" to reality, Senate Republicans' campaign chairman said Wednesday.

Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), suggested that conservatives need to have a more realistic sense of which races are winnable and with which candidates.

"Folks on the right, and frankly I'm one of them in terms of voting record, have to yield to the world as it is and not necessarily how they wish it would be," Cornyn told Reuters for a story about centrist Rep. Mike Castle's (R) bid for Senate next year in Delaware."

To which I replied:

Really? I wrote you earlier this year praising you for taking a more Conservative message. I voted for a Democrat for Senator last November for the first time ever based on your voting for the first Bailout. If you'll recall, I told you that only by acting like a Conservative did you have any hope of receiving my vote the next time you're up for election.

The reason, the ENTIRE reason the country is in the state it's in today, with Socialists and Leftists occupying the Whitehouse, House, and Senate (and soon the Supreme Court) is precisely because the Republican Party violated their Contract with America, and then swung hard left. Appeasement has not worked for the Israelis, and it sure as hell isn't going to work for the RNC.

New York found out recently what happens when you run a Republican that "can win", despite what their real non-Conservative past is - the so called Republican up and quits, sending their supporters to the Democrat.

If you are looking to lose yet more seats in November, I recommend you continue this idiotic course of running "moderates", also known as "people who are going to vote with the Leftists anyways". Conservatives are absolutely done voting for RINOs, we're done getting screwed by the people that are supposed to be on our side, and we're absolutely finished playing "the game" of voting for the lesser of two evils.

Go ahead, run RINOs, we'll be happy to put up our own candidates, and if that ends up losing the seat to a Democrat, at least we know for sure where they're going to stand on the issues we care about.

The jig is up, it's time to put your money with your mouth is and put up candidates with bold differences from the Democrats or we'll do it for you in the form of a third party. The continued relevance of the Republican Party is on the line, and you're playing house with the Democrats instead of coming up with a bold plan to regain the trust of your core constituencies.

Wake up and get in the game.

I've liked many of the things Cornyn has said (and done) recently, but an attitude such as this is what continues to play right into the Leftist's hands. I'm done voting for the Republican even though voting third party (or even voting Democrat) may put the Democrat in anyways. That little charade of a game has screwed us time and time again.

No more RINOs.
No more so called Republicans that vote with the Left.
No more "lesser of two evils".

No more, I'm done playing your game.

The Fall of the Republic - Portions of Health Bill Not Amendable/Repealable

2009-12-23T16:20:00.004-06:00

It came to the attention of many that there are apparently provisions of the Health Disaster that is about to be unleashed upon the failed experiment that was the States United that are, in fact, un-amendable and un-repealable. I can't think of any way to force the dissolution of the States than to start passing legislation for which there is no legislative remedy.

This is a relatively long video, but it is worth a watch as a demonstration of the farce that is the Senate under Reid.

Understand this. The section that Senator DeMint is quoting states specifically that it is amending the "Rules". The Parliamentarian (who is supposed to be a non-partisan interpreter of the law and rules) in return is ruling that in fact the section does not say what it says. There are ways to amend the Senate rules - those ways take a 3/4s vote (which these tyrants can not get). Like amending the Constitution, it is supposed to be very difficult to amend the Senate rules - those rules are, by their very nature, designed to prevent a majority from riding roughshod over the minority. Those rules, in fact, protect the people of the United States from a tyrannical group getting a majority control and turning dictatorial.

Harry Reid's Senate has finally publicly decided that the rules no longer apply to them. They are finally so drunk on power that they truly believe they can do whatever the hell they want, without regard for the consequences. If this is any idea what will be happening over the next year as we wait for the next set of elections, I have a great fear that the damage done will be completely irreversible. What better way to ensure secessions and possibly Civil War then to finish off the Rule of Law, which after the recent bailouts and shady goings on related to them, already was near-death.

Do you understand what this means?

I've got a better idea...

2009-12-21T17:31:00.002-06:00

Priest in Britain Advises Congregation to Shoplift

"My advice as a Christian priest is to shoplift," Jones reportedly told churchgoers during his Sunday sermon. "I do not offer such advice because I think that stealing is a good thing, or because I think it is harmless, for it is neither."

"I would ask that they do not steal from small family businesses, but from large national businesses — knowing that the costs are ultimately passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices," he continued.

Great idea, but I have a better one. His parishioners should start by keeping the money they're giving to the church, or even better, just taking what they need out of the offering plate as it goes by. They could also avail themselves of the bread/crackers and wine kept on premises for communion to feed themselves.

Yeesh.

These folks just love to villify corporations that have evolved to employ millions (thereby feeding the families of those millions), not to mention the millions more in charity those organizations give out each year.

Bunning "Gets It" and Blasts Bernanke

2009-12-03T16:56:00.002-06:00

About time someone in Congress seems to "Get It" about the economy and specifically the completely illegal actions of the Federal Reserve.

This came courtesy of Karl Denninger at the Market Ticker. Please take a read over there and call your Senator today.

It is far past time for "Extend and Pretend" to stop, and real fiscal reforms to be enacted.

Limited Government - Oxymoron?

2009-10-26T21:10:00.002-05:00

This clip is very long, however, it is also full of some very interesting analysis.

While I don't agree that anarchy is the way to go (the original intent of a limited Constitutional Republic - which we no longer have - suits me just fine), these two gentlemen have their crap together and have some very intelligent observations.

(Hattip to the Militant Libertarian for the heads up...)

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety...

2009-10-14T17:35:00.004-05:00

...deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Some words attributed to Benjamin Franklin that ring ever truer with each passing day in our once great Nation. If you've been reading at all, you've likely heard of the new scanner they want to use at airports. It bounces energy off of you to essentially form a relatively detailed image of your shape underneath your clothes. Yes, it can detect things that a metal detector can not, it can also show your 'junk' to an airport screener in a room. But don't worry, those "ultra professionals" in TSA will immediately delete the image. Promise.

'Naked' scanner in airport trial

If perchance you haven't heard of it, or you've seen the sanitized images in our media, perhaps this will better illustrate my point.

But remember, this is just a reduced for web, small image. Imagine this full sized, splashed across the screen.

All of this is older news, however, what rekindled my irritation is the absolute sheep responding to this article at the bottom. Yes, they're British, and therefore have been conditioned from birth to suckle at the tit of the nanny state, but still, you'd expect a little more spine from human beings.

Or perhaps not.

If it meant that as passengers we were more secure and also meant we didn't have to go through the added hassle of undressing then I can't see why people would complain, especially given the authorities assurances that the images are destroyed.
Steven Todd, Glasgow

Destroyed? Absoutely sir! We always destroy...err...what's that on YouTube? Is that Halley Barry?

I think it would be very embarrassing to go throughout the scanner. But if it is going to keep us safe from terrorists then it is worth it and essential. I'm sure the person seeing the images will see so many every day that they will not be in the least bit interested in our naked bodies.
Roy Woolnough, Watford

Sure Roy. They'll be happy to point and fall out of their chair laughing at your tiny...ahem.

I'd rather have this, than be fully searched. If it speeds up check in, and makes travelling less stressful, bring it on. I think because of the amount of unnecessary surveillance we appear to be subject to, good ideas get a little too much criticism when they arrive.
Eddie, Edinburgh

Sure Eddie, anything for the children, I mean air travelers eh? Hey, did you know that you can hide explosives in your rectum? Bend over and pass me the lube!

You know, why don't we just start putting one of these on every street corner and make people utilize them to pass by on the sidewalk. You want to be safe, don't you?

The Revolution

2009-09-18T22:51:00.005-05:00

I'd like to draw attention to a quote I've had at the bottom of the blog for a bit:

"But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations...This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution."

- John Adams (emphasis mine)

While I have to agree with Vanderboegh that events have progressed to what will very likely result in bloodshed, my thoughts have returned repeatedly to the quote above.

At what point did the Colonists, many of them "good" British subjects, suddenly realize that the Crown was truly no longer (if it ever had been) operating in their interests. How many years did it take for the reality to sink in that they truly were on their own. Their "betters" didn't give a shit about them, and in fact saw them only as pawns to be moved about the board and, in fact, sacrificed as the whim struck.

The recent marches show that the Revolution, as President Adams defined it, has already begun. It certainly has not progressed to an open shooting war....yet....however, the continued demonization and minimization of the complaints of MILLIONS of Americans is only pushing the country farther towards the abattoir. With each Democrat that screams RACISM!, and each Republican that chooses to pretend that their constituency will shut up and go away, those citizens that are taking to the streets to SCREAM their displeasure and defiance at the RANK TYRANNY of an out of control group of elitists are pushed further and further towards actions that go far beyond words. Actions that are completely irreversable.

And Ladies and Gentlemen (such as you are), there isn't much civility left past our current attempts at discourse. In the previous entry I have posted a video by a man who began blogging a couple of years ago when he saw the economy being fraudulently manipulated by the elite. Day after day, Karl Denninger has called for prosecution and reform to bring the economy to an honest and sustainable state. He has sent countless faxes to his representatives, he has sent countless signed petitions demanding redress of grievances. He has exhausted EVERY peaceful means available at his disposal to be heard. And yet, here we still sit. In the past, I've heard him get loud when truly evil acts were being perpetrated against investors and the American people, but I've never actually seen him lose it to this degree (and absolutely RIGHTFULLY so!). And frankly, he's not even apparently interested in flat out politics.

What does that tell you about other fellow Citizens who are beginning to awake from their slumber?

To those in our so-called Government who believe themselves to be in control of this flaming train wreck, proceed at your own risk. You serve, and even uttering that word with respect to your actions makes me nauseous, US. WE are the reason you sit in that cushy seat with your cushy pension on the way. WE allow YOU to be there. YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN THAT! The time for "polite" (you'd call it "racist", or "manufactured") gatherings in public squares across the Nation may be coming to a close. And I warn you, the end of discourse brings the rise of only one thing, and it will mean blood.

Fed Up

2009-09-18T22:45:00.003-05:00

Absolutely nothing I can add to this.

Backup for most of his assertions at: http://market-ticker.denninger.net
The rest of it is available on Fox News.

Wake up.

Guns on Amtrak?

2009-09-16T22:41:00.002-05:00

You know, I've always liked the thought of Amtrak, except when I travel I just about always do so with my concealed handgun (stowed as needed per Federal Regs). Amtrak has never been an option for me since they have a significant anti-gun rule....that would be no guns whatsoever.

Imagine my surprise when this gem from My Way News caught my eye:

The Senate voted Wednesday to permit passengers on the Amtrak passenger railroad to transport handguns in their checked baggage.

The proposal, approved by a 68-30 vote, seeks to give Amtrak riders rights comparable to those enjoyed by airline passengers, who are permitted to transport firearms provided that they declare they are doing so and that the arms are unloaded and in a securely locked container.

"Americans should not have their Second Amendment rights restricted for any reason, particularly if they choose to travel on America's federally subsidized rail line," said Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who made the proposal.

Wicker's amendment would deny the railroad its $1.6 billion taxpayer subsidy unless it changes the gun policy.

It still has to be included when they combine the House and Senate bills, but if it's not a worthless "hey House, we're gonna put this in to look pro-Gun but we'll just strike it when we combine the bills" then Amtrak may become an option again.

Idiots at Work

2009-09-16T22:32:00.003-05:00

Homeless use of motels still on rise

So, the State is paying for motel rooms for families. Here is what got me:

Tina Brooks, undersecretary of the department, said 1,010 families - including more than 1,400 children - are now living in motels, at a monthly cost of about $2.8 million for taxpayers.

Ok boys and girls, lets do the math:
$2.8mil per month, divided by 1,010 families equals....

$2772...PER MONTH

Lets see, I have a 3 bedroom home, in a state with low cost of living (I...shock...actually moved here because of low taxes, a good job market, and low cost of living...amazing I know). I pay around $1000 a month all-in without utilities.

Are you seriously saying that the state of Mass. can't find lodgings for these people that aren't three times as expensive as an average home loan? I know real estate might be more expensive there, but holy crap.

That's ok though, because they're expecting $44mil in stimulus funds (that would be OUR MONEY by the way) to continue to blow on their mess.

Pent Up Consumer Demand???

2009-09-16T22:19:00.003-05:00

Remember, if we can just free up the credit markets, the consumers will start spending, rainbows will appear, and, as Karl Denninger so aptly put it, Unicorns that shit Skittles will appear and shower us with "gifts".

Little problem though (other than the Unicorn)...

Americans say they plan to maintain their spending patterns as they are uncertain about the direction of the economy over the next six months.

Only 8 percent of U.S. adults plan to increase household spending, almost one-third will spend less, and 58 percent expect to “stay the course,” according to a Bloomberg News poll. More than 3 in 4 said they cut spending in the past year.

Bloomberg had an article on current consumer behavior today, which went on to say

Underscoring consumers’ austere attitudes, 77 percent of respondents say they have cut back on spending during the past year, 59 percent say they have made a bigger effort to pay off debts and 48 percent have put more money aside as savings.

Because consumer spending accounted for 70 percent of the economy since 2001, the speed and strength of a recovery may depend on how quickly Americans loosen their purse strings.

People aren't going to start spending again until they de-leverage themselves. They can't get a loan or a new credit card because they already are carrying too much debt, and have wrecked their credit scores. This is compounded by banks knowing that the crap they have on their books isn't worth what they say it is (hint: it's worth 30% or more less than they claim). This means they aren't solvent, and are doing everything they can to bank capital to reduce their leverage themselves.

Winter is coming, and it's looking colder by the second.

Stop "Recording Artist Caused" Global Warming!

2009-09-14T19:43:00.003-05:00

World celebrities sing to stop global warming

Hey guys, didn't anyone tell you that, apparently, CO2 causes Global Warming? If you really cared, you wouldn't all have started exhaling all that greenhouse gas while you were singing! Not to mention all the energy you were consuming getting to/from the recording studio and whilest recording!

Try a plastic bag over the head and cinch it tight...stop Global Warming today! No fair cheating and taking the bag off now!

Winter is Coming

2009-09-13T16:02:00.003-05:00

Karl Denninger continues his treatise on the current Economy, and I have a hint for you, it's not "Green Shoots".

We have been given a gift - a six month (up to now) to couple-of-year (maybe) time frame in which to recognize the truth, break up these behemoth organizations, force the bad debt into the open, default it, make depositors whole and in doing so shrink place our economy on a trajectory where debt-to-gdp will shrink to a sustainable level.

If we fail to do so before the rope runs out - and it will - our economy will collapse. The Federal Government will be forced to contract spending to what it can raise via taxes in the current economic climate - about half of what it spends now. Given our budget and where we spend money, this means a near-complete repudiation of Social Security and Medicare, a 50% or more cut to the military budget, and an elimination of all other federal programs. Unemployment will rocket to north of 25%. Our "just in time" economy will break down and there will be widespread, perhaps even critical, shortages of necessities - food and fuel.

Read the rest here, and while you're at it, take a look at what else he has to say.

Don't believe Karl? How about a Nobel Prize winning Economist.

Stiglitz, former chief economist at the World Bank and member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said the world economy is “far from being out of the woods” even if it has pulled back from the precipice it teetered on after the collapse of Lehman.

“We’re going into an extended period of weak economy, of economic malaise,” Stiglitz said. The U.S. will “grow but not enough to offset the increase in the population,” he said, adding that “if workers do not have income, it’s very hard to see how the U.S. will generate the demand that the world economy needs.”

The Federal Reserve faces a “quandary” in ending its monetary stimulus programs because doing so may drive up the cost of borrowing for the U.S. government, he said.

“The question then is who is going to finance the U.S. government,” Stiglitz said.

The Pump is On

2009-09-03T19:09:00.003-05:00

Denninger is continuing his crusade against "the pump", that is, the constant hyping of "green shoots" and "economic recovery" by the main stream media, while job losses keep climbing, companies continue to post 30% declines, and the Government continues to spend us into oblivion.

Listen at this link (sorry, things are loading really slow at the moment, it's worth the wait):
Denninger Lays Down the Law

When you're done with that, it's certainly worth reading his recent posts as well.
http://market-ticker.denninger.net

I know, it's heavily financial, and a little dry at times, but really take a look at what is going on in the markets - what is really going on.

The fix is on. Are you in or out?

Are all of our banks insolvent??

2009-08-18T16:45:00.001-05:00

Karl Denninger wrote what I feel to be one of his best pieces yet on the current state of our finances, and managed to even extend the idea to tie into the state of Liberty itself in the country. He even managed to work in mention of the gentleman carrying the AR-15 I wrote about last night.

Please read here: Will It All Come Tumbling Down?

Consider his words, and how they should affect your daily actions and mindset.

A "Disturbing" New Trend

2009-08-17T21:06:00.005-05:00

Last week, I posted "Remember...when *we* protest we're terrorists...", regarding the substantial difference between many anti-Bush left wing protests and the current folks out attempting to explain to the Statists that we don't appreciate their attempts to turn this once Great Nation into a cesspool of Marxism.

A comment was left by Cheddar, one of my longer standing readers, asking this:

How about the open carry folks in AZ at BHO's speech?

One thing I really like about Cheddar is their penchant for asking fair, well phrased questions that make me think. Great job by the way Cheddar, I always value your questions for kicking me up into the next level of thinking.

He was referencing this late breaking story today:

Ok, let's get past the anchor's idiocy calling it a "machine gun", and ignore the on-site reporter's eye rolling and not so subtle emphasis on certain words in order to attempt to denigrate the gentleman carrying the rifle. Honestly, I had actually made an attempt to seek out the Fox station in Phoenix for this embed in the hopes that some of that crap would be minimized.

Here, in my opinion, is what you have:

The Police made absolutely no arrests, not even for some lame trumped up trespassing or disturbing the peace charge.
The gentleman with the AR-15 has it slung, muzzle end down. He isn't holding it in hand, brandishing it, or otherwise acting "threatening.
He isn't trying to get into the event.
He has even taken the time to put on a tie and slacks, a very nice touch designed to prevent the "red-neck" sliming you just know these panty-wetting "journalists" want to slap on him.
He further is gifted with being able to conduct a coherent, thoughtful, reasonable conversation with the reporter interviewing him.

Take note of that last statement because I want no misunderstanding - I say that for no other reason than many folks of all walks of life, when they get on camera, can get a bit tongue tied or have affectations to their speech patterns that aren't the polished speeches and manicured accents you might be used to hearing on television. Take a quick listen to the people asking questions or making statements at any town hall and you'll quickly glom on to what I mean. This guy does a great job representing his view!

Is he there to make a statement? Yes. What statement is that? According to him, it is to exercise his rights under Arizona State Law (which I absolutely love being a former Arizonan myself) and the Constitution of the United States, while demonstrating his distaste for ObamaCare. In my opinion, what better way to call attention to the Bill of Rights than to exercise your First Amendment rights and your Second Amendment rights all at the same time?

You see, it's not about the fact that he was carrying weapons. In a recent article by Seattle Gun Rights Examiner Dave Workman, a Statist hoplophobe reader named Frank asked:

Would it be appropriate for black and hispanic people to be allowed to openly carry guns everywhere in public, as well as to Town Hall meetings with Republican Congressmen?

I responded:

I would *love* to see more people peaceably carrying legal firearms. Fortunately I, unlike Frank, understand that race does not play a role in one's Constitutionally guaranteed rights.

The key to my statement is "peacably". That is, not being threatening, not acting mad dog crazy, not making nasty gestures or innuendos that violence could result, just simply carrying a firearm for what it is - a metal tool. A metal tool that can launch projectiles very accurately and at high speed, something to be respected, but still a metal tool. You'll notice the camera showing him with it slung muzzle down, and secured by his arm, but otherwise just sitting there.

This is in stark contrast to this:

Notice the gentleman with the truncheon. He has it in hand, waving it back and forth, and gestures with it while asking questions. He's also doing so at a polling place, in a position where they are obstructing the entrance. Their stances are confrontational, challenging. Some of the challenge in their voice may be to what sounds like a slightly snarky college student who is a little antagonistic himself - admittedly.

So back to our protester at the Obama speech. He's acting friendly, relaxed, and in control. He knows why he is there - to protest peacefully, and instead of a Gadsden Flag or a sign, he has chosen a firearm to show as his symbol of defiance against the ever rising tyranny in our Government. Now ask yourself these questions:

If he had done anything more outlandish than stand there and probably chant and yell with the protesters, do you think that he would have been arrested?
Assuming he wasn't arrested after doing something outlandish, do you really think the media would have used different footage than him standing there talking quietly with the reporter or standing in the crowd?

We know how the media wanted this to happen. They wanted him rabidly yelling at the camera, maybe waving the rifle around Platoon style, etc. Ok, fine, I chose a Fox News related station. How about CNN?

That we don't see any of this footage, not even on CNN, tells us volumes about his good conduct. The CNN reporter even talks of ANOTHER man in the crowd with an "patrol rifle". Again, no arrests, nobody shot, everything nice and calm.

Ultimately, I think the best quote came from Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan (who actually seems to have his head screwed on reasonably straight to be sure), who said:

"In both cases, the subject was not entering our site or otherwise attempting to," Donovan said. "They were in a designated public viewing area. The main thing to know is that they would not have been allowed inside with a weapon."

And that's it right there. The folks showing up are legally carrying firearms under their local state laws, and certainly under the auspices of the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, while not actually intimating violence in any way, shape, or form, are likely those among us whom I feel are the most grounded in the true sense of Liberty that this Country was founded upon.

That some folks are hoplophobes and have bought into Helmke's sewage, leading them to wrongfully believe that the mere presence of a firearm turns anyone into a slavering ravening killer, are not in any position to lecture me on my rights. As I have posted in the past, those rights are granted simply by dint of my being on this planet, and can not be revoked or questioned by man.

I say that so long as these folks are not creating a situation in which the Secret Service feels that their job can not be performed adequately, and are remaining on the proper side of the law (and yes, to say that in light of my statement immediately above is a little contradictory, but face it - we don't need that kind of publicity - not yet at least), I wish that more people would show up peaceably exercising their rights like this. If nothing else, these folks remind the Statists in power of just how tenuous their hold is on those they would rule. These gentlemen now showing up armed to places where there are likely SS Snipers pointing large calibers at them are refreshing that little wedge of "oh shit" doubt in the Statists' heads. This idea is much better explained by Vanderboegh in recent his post entitled: Gambit: "Waco Jim" Cavanaugh and Gran Torino

As to what the Statist term is for these armed Patriots - it's likely:
Pencil-dicked Redneck Rightwing Teabaggers. Damned straight.

Time to Celebrate?

2009-08-17T16:47:00.004-05:00

Liberals complain over Obama concession

So it sounds like the Public Option might be gone from the ObamaCare bill. Time to celebrate???

HELL NO

What's still in there? Well, the Government will still be in charge of defining each and every plan - what's in 'em, how much they cost, who's eligible, etc. Those plans ARE STILL MANDATORY. Once anything changes in your contract with your current provider, you'll be forced to select one of the Government plans. Bye-bye health plan you like and have already - for good.

Even better, the IRS will DEMAND that you demonstrate that you are enrolled in an approved healthplan. Gone are the days where if you're young and decide to opt out of the whole thing. You can't prove to the IRS that you're in a plan? They fine the shit out of you and forcefully enroll you. Can't afford it? They don't care. Want the Liberty of choosing what you do with your healthcare? GONE

So what are the costs of these plans? Nobody can tell you. You'll find out 18 months after the bill becomes law. We do know that your taxes WILL go way up, Medicare will be cut to the bone (say good-bye to Grandma while you still can), and that the Government will do the same great job running it that they have with Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and the entire fucking country, which is now approaching $12 TRILLION in debt.

I wouldn't trust these idiots to mow my lawn, let alone tell me whom I may see and when if I get a serious illness.

Turn up the volume. I want to see ears bleed in Washington D.C. The only correct option is KILL THE BILL. ALL of it. Every last rotten, stinking, bleeding, oozing, liberty destroying Marxist line of it.

Thinking about getting the swine flu vaccine?

2009-08-16T07:48:00.004-05:00

Swine flu jab link to killer nerve disease: Leaked letter reveals concern of neurologists over 25 deaths in America

The Boomer lad has been posting about this topic over at Boomers and BS. I figured I'd add this little gem from the Daily Mail to the pot to keep it at a boil:

A warning that the new swine flu jab is linked to a deadly nerve disease has been sent by the Government to senior neurologists in a confidential letter.

The letter from the Health Protection Agency, the official body that oversees public health, has been leaked to The Mail on Sunday, leading to demands to know why the information has not been given to the public before the vaccination of millions of people, including children, begins.

It tells the neurologists that they must be alert for an increase in a brain disorder called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), which could be triggered by the vaccine.

The last time we tried vaccinations for Swine Flu was in 1976. The following happened:

More people died from the vaccination than from swine flu.(emphasis mine)
500 cases of GBS were detected.
The vaccine may have increased the risk of contracting GBS by eight times.
The vaccine was withdrawn after just ten weeks when the link with GBS became clear.
The US Government was forced to pay out millions of dollars to those affected.

The Government is going to ramp up a message that everyone should get this vaccination soon. In fact, I have seen a billboard that always has a request for medical testers for various products asking for people to test a new H1N1 (they didn't call it swine flu on the billboard...hmm) vaccine already. While I'm normally not against all vaccinations, you might want to give a little extra thought and do some research before blithely receiving this one. Be wary of any attempts to "require" this vaccination at your work or childrens' school.

Please take some time to read the article linked to in the title, get some research done, and make your own informed decision.

Remember...when we protest we're terrorists...

2009-08-12T18:06:00.006-05:00

Analysis: Press Largely Ignored Incendiary Rhetoric at Bush Protest

Everyone repeat after me. Haranguing and assaulting people going to a fund raiser for President Bush is "Democracy in Action". Saying your peace at a Town Hall is "people committing political terrorism", or "paid operatives of the Health Insurance Industry".

Slashing tires and jumping on the hoods of cars is a spirited protest. Insisting that the doors remain open at a public Town Hall so that you can hear and being beaten by SEIU thugs for handing out Gadsden Flags is just desserts.

Stoning cars containing Government Staffers is "peaceable assembly". Explaining why you don't like the idea of Socializing Health Care is "racist".

Everyone got that?

Now shut up and get out of the way you bunch of worthless, badly dressed, no toothed, racist, rednecks. How dare you question the great and powerful Oz!

Next Stop - Civil Unrest?

2009-08-07T17:11:00.005-05:00

Western Rifle Shooters and Sipsey Street Irregulars, and heck, most other Threeper related blogs have been talking more and more about the potential for civil unrest over the last year.

The volume is being turned up at public events for Obamacare. And despite the claims of the elite Statists in Washington, it is not being orchestrated by anyone any more than any of the Liberal protests over the last eight years were. What truly scares the DemocRATs is that they think (rightly so) that they are losing the initiative and malaise from Conservatives that has allowed them a free pass at anything that they cared to pass for far too long.

What ultimately is being represented by these protests and scuffles is that folks, on the edges of both sides are finally coming to the ultimate realization that their wants and views are NOT compatible, and that no amount of "talk" is going to bridge that gulf.

Does this sound familiar? I'd posit that a similar situation began to evolve prior to the Revolutionary War. Then, as now, there was a small portion of the populace that vehemently disagreed with the Crown, and another small portion that sided with the Crown with just as much (or perhaps less - they did lose after all). Recall that only a small percentage of people actively fought that war - most folks were bystanders or tacitly helping one side or the other (or both).

Whether or not Obamacare passes, the Statists will not stop their drive to turn the United States into a failed Socialist Utopia - the same failed "utopias" that have seen the rest of the world plunged into obscurity, poverty, and tyranny. As these people strive to control everything down to the very air we breathe, more and more freedom loving people will wake up from their TV induced trance to take action against the insidious creep. At some point, a key event will take place that will snap both sides into action, and the country very likely will be plunged into open warfare.

The time has come to make sure your ducks are in a row, and that you are prepared to survive. There are any number of great articles on the various blogs on the left nav-bar here. While many of us obviously can't afford to go the full nine yards, or perhaps can not release our minds to come to grips with where we really are, taking any steps you can afford/rationalize is certainly better than taking none at all.

Be prepared and be ready. If things fall apart, they'll do so very rapidly and with little more in the way of warning than we're getting now.

Crop Duster Becomes Close Air Support

2009-08-06T21:20:00.005-05:00

I saw this on the news tonight, and luckily found an article on it.

Meet the Air Tractor AT-802U. Have some crop dusters filling up your airplane dealership? Can't sell them to farmers? Hey, uparmor them, add a gatling gun, some hard points for rocket pods and bombs, and sell them to various gub'mints around the world.

You have to admit, these suckers are built to carry large volumes of liquid, have excellent low speed handling characteristics, unimproved airfield operations capability, along with cockpits that provide the pilot with an excellent view. They'd likely make a pretty good close air support platform, as long as the other side doesn't have ground to air missile capabilities.

A fascinating idea and another example of great American ingenuity and entrepreneurship.

More information is available here.

Snow said the airplane is being marketed as a counter-insurgency craft.

He said the plane has a maximum airspeed of 210 miles per hour and it can stay aloft for more than 10 hours.

“It can be used for missions for intelligence gathering and surveillance. It would fly at about 160 miles per hour for patrolling,” he said.
(emphasis mine)

Gun Control...It works...really!!!!

2009-08-06T21:03:00.003-05:00

Obese Houston inmate found with gun after 5 searches

So let me get a handle on this. You hoplophobic gun grabbers want to make the entire United States a gun free zone. You really and honestly believe that somehow all the criminals will just stop using guns if you make them "illegal". And yet, you can't even keep your freaking prisons gun free?!?!

An obese Harris County jail inmate turned over a pistol that had been hidden in the folds of his skin after he went through at least five searches upon his arrest and was booked into two different local lockups, authorities said.

The stupidity of the gun hating elitists astounds me.

They're making a list, and checkin' it twice...

2009-08-05T18:58:00.006-05:00

...and they're going to send armed thugs to your door whether you're naughty or nice.

One thing I really like about being a Texan is having John Cornyn around. While I may not agree that the issue I'm about to talk about is a First Amendment issue, it certainly does smack of the Statists' need to suppress all dissent and information, to ensure their spin is the only message heard.

GOP Senator: White House Encroaching on First Amendment

“There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”

This, as the DNC releases this ad, which was featured on Hannity's radio show today:

Wow. First, we're terrorists in training. Now, we're "mobs" or people paid by deep pocket health insurers to unreasonably question those poor Statists. Talk about projection from the party of ACORN! These folks truly think that Obama "overwhelmingly won" the election! They honestly think that no sane person could possibly disagree with continuing down the road that will completely destroy the free market in this country. Folks, the margin of actual votes by which Obama won was pretty tight, and there is no "mandate" to wreck what's left of this once great Nation.

So while we're talking about making lists, like many folks on my blog list (and who have me listed on their lists), we've been noticing some rather fun visitor stats of late. After posting about holding Harry Reid accountable for his flat out lies regarding the August deadline set by Obama, Pelosi and the DemocRATs for passing "health insurance reform" (that's what they're calling it this week), I had a number of visits from Washington, including one from the Senate Sergeant at Arms. Frankly, I find it rather entertaining.

So, they're making a little list in Washington, and they're checking it twice. I'm sure it's just for their information though, so they can respond to those nasty lies being told by folks who want only to be LEFT ALONE. People who want simply to have an opportunity to keep their hard earned money, and to live their life in peace.

I'm sure that all those Chicago thugs that Obama has in his administration won't use those names for anything nefarious. Yeah right.

It's for the Children! Really!

2009-08-03T21:14:00.003-05:00

Sin Bins for Worst Families

I really thought this was a joke, but apparently it is not.

The Children’s Secretary set out £400million plans to put 20,000 problem families under 24-hour CCTV super-vision in their own homes.

They will be monitored to ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals.

Private security guards will also be sent round to carry out home checks, while parents will be given help to combat drug and alcohol addiction.

So that's about it for Britain then. Their lefty Statists have finally gone completely off of their rocker. However, in a sick parody of the merging we've had between Republicans and Democrats here, their "right wing" secretary states:

But Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling said: “This is all much too little, much too late.

Too little, too late. Installing CCTV cameras in people's homes is too little.

These are the same Statists that do not trust their ~~citizens~~ subjects with arms. Do you believe, even for a moment, that the Obamanoids here, or their Republican sympathizers, would hesitate at all to do the same thing in the United States?

I'm already hearing of hints of forced vaccinations in some of the versions of the Health Bill that are floating around. What's next?

Keep your powder dry.

Jury Tampering

2009-07-31T16:45:00.000-05:00

You're (Probably) a Federal Criminal

This article was featured on David Codrea's excellent "War on Guns" blog recently. While David had his normal excellent and witty thoughts on this piece, and I hope if you haven't you'll go take a look, something else in the article caught my eye.

According to the government, when Krister was in jail in Alaska due to the first unjust charges, he had "abandoned" his fuel-cell materials in Idaho. Unfortunately for Krister, federal lawmakers had included in the Resource Recovery and Conservation Act a provision making it a crime to abandon "hazardous waste." According to the trial judge, the law didn't require prosecutors to prove that Krister had intended to abandon the materials (he hadn't) or that they were waste at all -- in reality, they were quite valuable and properly stored away for future use.

With such a broad law, the second jury didn't have much of a choice, and it convicted him. He spent almost two years locked up with real criminals in a federal prison. After he testifies today, he will have to return to his halfway house in Idaho and serve another week before he is released.

The second jury didn't have much of a choice? Really?!? Folks, there's this little thing called "Jury Nullification". The entire point of being judged by a jury of your peers is not so some Judge, or hell the U.S. Government can railroad you into prison! The point of a trial by jury is so that your peers can sit in judgment of the law!!

If you've ever sat on a jury, you may have heard the Judge ask if you'll follow their instructions to the letter. They might have said that you must decide the case based only upon the evidence given and the law it stands on. This is entirely incorrect.

The jury has the power in our system to declare that in the particular situation they sit in judgment of, the law does not apply. They can decide this based on extenuating circumstances, or even because they DISAGREE with the law itself.

That second jury had the opportunity to tell the Government that when that poor man was initially arrested and railroaded into prison, he had NO CHOICE as to the disposition of the materials he uses in his research and business. This situation would be similar to a Police Officer handcuffing me to a pole in a mall, ordering me to leave the premises, and then arresting me for trespassing because I didn't leave.

Of course not every trial and every situation needs this treatment by the jury. There are obviously any number of crimes out there for which the perpetrator, if guilty, needs a good long stay in the pokey. However, before you get your next jury duty notice, please go to the Fully Informed Jury Association's web site and get familiar with the material there.

Know your rights as a jury member. Don't let some poor sap who has fallen afoul of any number of the thousands of unjust laws floating around out there go to prison simply because of circumstances beyond their control!

Personal Accountability

2009-07-30T20:40:00.006-05:00

Or the lack thereof.

From TheHill.com comes this:

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Democratic Conference Vice Chairman Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Conference Secretary Patty Murray (D-Wash.) also acknowledged that critics will "pour it on" during the coming August recess and they plan to respond in kind.

Reid said reporters created a fictitious deadline of a successful vote by the August recess, and downplayed the fact that the chamber won’t meet that mark.

“That is a deadline that you created,” Reid told a group of about 75 reporters. “It’s not like we don’t have a product. Significant progress has been made … The mere fact that this wasn't done by last Friday or by five o’clock doesn't mean we’re not going to get a quality product."
Emphasis mine

Really Mr. Reid? Obama and y'all didn't have anything to do with that so called "fictional" deadline?

Important statement at 7:15 if you don't want to listen to this bullshit for 9 minutes.

Your DemocRATs control the House, Senate, and White House Mr. Reid. Obama, Pelosi and yourself have been making public statements for weeks saying tripe to the effect of "it WILL pass". And yet it hasn't. Not yet. Your failure to live up to the deadline that you and your statist jackass friends set for yourselves is your failure and yours alone. At least be man enough to stand up and admit you blew it.

From Our "Rapidly Heating Earth" Comes This!

2009-07-27T17:06:00.004-05:00

"This is probably just a perception, but I just have the feeling that the glaciers are melting, the snow capping the mountains is less than it was 12 years ago when I saw it last time," [Canadian Astronaut] Thrisk was quoted as saying. "That saddens me a little bit."

Reminds me of Al Gore, I think he invented space flight.

Meanwhile, in "real science" land:
3,000 Low Temp Records Set This July!

Of course, the above article comes complete with a bunch of giant disclaimers and "well, these outliers certainly don't represent any evidence of "Climate Change" (remember, now that people are starting to notice the Earth isn't actually warming, they're changing the lexicon to something even harder to quantify and disprove). Get past all that and take a look at what the numbers really are. I'm already hearing people coining the phrase "year without a summer". And this wouldn't be the first time that happened.

I still think man has great hubris to think that, short of seriously massive events such as large scale nuclear weapons usage, they can have any great and meaningful effect on the overall climatology of this planet. After all, we're competing with the sun, and large volcanic events, which themselves can singularly affect global temperatures by one and two degrees C. Remember, in geological history Alaska has been a tropical paradise, and glaciers have covered large portions of the planet.

What a mess.

Further Rumblings of the 10th...

2009-07-24T18:27:00.004-05:00

I've said before that I firmly believe that the only way we're going to stem the tie of Statism in the Federal Government is by...well...Statism. Of the local kind of course.

Rick Perry has been making some fairly bold statements recently, including on the right of Texans to manufacture guns for use within its own borders without the BATFU having anything to say about it. That action, along with a 10th Amendment resolution (that likely had no teeth, yes, I know) unfortunately died in a filibuster at the end of the Texas session this year (along with a number of other bills I wasn't a fan of, so I'll call it par for the course). We are, however, still left with a potential wrecking shot from the cannon of ObamaCare.

Gov. Perry was interviewed by the Star Telegram today. Among other things, he said:

"I think you’ll hear states and governors standing up and saying 'no’ to this type of encroachment on the states with their healthcare," Perry said. "So my hope is that we never have to have that stand-up. But I’m certainly willing and ready for the fight if this administration continues to try to force their very expansive government philosophy down our collective throats." - Governor Rick Perry, TX

One of the problems with a strong Federalized system where the Rule of Law has been suspended is that a majority of looters can happily trample right over your Liberty, gleefully tearing the money out of your wallet, taking the roof from over your head, and the food out of your family's mouth on their way through. By keeping these types of programs managed locally, you can gain two immediate advantages:

It is far easier for the citizens of a State to affect how they are governed. Politicians are within driving distance, and deal with a smaller number of constituents, allowing them to be more responsive.

If you don't like the way your state is going, in a properly balanced system as envisioned by the Founders, you can always go to another state that is more in line with your beliefs.

All that aside, this is really a business opportunity. If one or more States were to secede and create an environment of Freedom and Opportunity such as envisioned by the Founders, I have a feeling we'd see an even more massive influx of businesses to this state. A lower tax environment, less oppressive regulations, and an already reasonable cost of living would make this a fine place to take up where The Republic of Texas left off so many years ago. Should the rest of the States United pass ObamaCare, Texas could become a haven for Doctors to continue providing the top notch care that currently brings people from all over the world to the US for treatment.

Allowing those Doctors to thrive by limiting their exposure due to tort abuses perpetrated in the current system, and therefore greatly lowering their costs could create a high-end health care haven that would bring millions in revenue to the state. Many higher-end Docs have already indicated they would move their practices to the Caribbean to flee the oppressive and draconian solution that is ObamaCare. Why not give them someplace closer and more stable to go instead?

This has the extra advantage of being reachable by a larger number of people who, while unable to go to the Caribbean for care due to costs, could easily load up the car and come down to Texas for top-notch treatment. The ability to actually get paid a reasonable wage would attract the talented Doctors and medical staff trapped in the USSA, and the ability to charge a rate that was dictated by the market rather than by a bunch of looter bureaucrats in Washington D.C. would attract medical research and development companies and their amazing new medical innovations - further increasing Texas' prestige as THE place to go for treatment.

I have come to the belief, as have many others in (or related to) the Threeper community, that the cause of Liberty and Freedom is lost to the entity known as the United States. Every year, rules are changed to allow more and more looters, those who don't pay taxes and therefore have no skin in the game (and no compunction against voting for people that will raise taxes), more and more agencies are created to enforce increasingly draconian regulations, and our "masters" become ever more violent in their attempt to cling to the "Authority" that those who should be our servants claim to hold over us. Illegal Immigrants will surely be given amnesty in the next year, resulting in an even further tip of the balances towards those who would loot rather than produce. The "minimum wage" will be raised ever higher, making it harder and harder for smaller businesses to pay their low-skill workers.

The only final recourse, short of "shooting the bastards" (is that Vanderboegh there?) is for one or more States to go their own way. This, unfortunately, will likely result in having to shoot the bastards anyways - we all saw how this type of activity went down in 1861.

Either way, secession or not, winter is coming. The darkness may fall when the final attempts to manipulate the economy fail epically, the "poor and oppressed masses" (read: looters) decide that it's not enough to slowly bleed the productive folks dry and decide to go after the golden egg with their own hands, or a foreign nation finally gets tired of buying our debt with an ever dwindling chance of ever getting their money back and demands payment in blood. Either way, something will break, it'll break big, and likely sooner rather than later.

Prepare and act accordingly.

Fed to Congress - We have no idea where that $500bil went...

2009-07-21T18:35:00.004-05:00

Denninger's Market Ticker blog has an excellent excerpt from Bernanke's testimony today.

I'm heartened (just a tiny bit), to see that at least some of our Con's in gress are starting to ask the correct questions:

Listen and read here:Where Did the Money Go?

Ted Nugent Does it Again

2009-07-09T17:56:00.002-05:00

For those of you that haven't been over to the LawDog Files, I'd like to direct you to a YouTube clip he posted earlier today. Yes, it's Ted on the 2nd again.

Take a trip over to LawDog's and see what's happening. He is an excellent storyteller and an upstanding Texan.

The LawDog Files

The Importance of Standard Capacity Magazines (and more than one of them)...

2009-07-09T17:32:00.003-05:00

Akron police investigate teen mob attack on family

Out of nowhere, the six were attacked by dozens of teenage boys, who shouted ''This is our world'' and ''This is a black world'' as they confronted Marshall and his family.

The Marshalls, who are white, say the crowd of teens who attacked them and two friends June 27 on Girard Street numbered close to 50. The teens were all black.

''This was almost like being a terrorist act,'' Marshall said. ''And we allow this to go on in our neighborhoods?''

They said it started when one teen, without any words or warning, blindsided and assaulted Marshall's friend as he stood outside with the others.

When Marshall, 39, jumped in, he found himself being attacked by the growing group of teens.

There is a term for this, it's called "disparity of force". Very likely, most of the perpetrators of this attack weren't armed (then again, you never know), but they were being ruled by a mob mentality - anything goes, and boy isn't it fun to go with the crowd?

Ultimately, the sheer number of these people meant that there was very likely an affirmative defense for the application of lethal force had someone decided to break up the melee by shooting at these scum. While I will freely admit that shooting into a crowd of youths is truly not something anyone wants to do, the gentleman who ended up in the hospital with a concussion is very lucky he didn't get worse from the kicking and stomping. Kicking someone who is down is well known to cause serious bodily injury, and if there are "dozens" of people taking turns kicking, serious bodily injury is a foregone conclusion.

Take a moment to think this situation through and determine what your actions might be to prevent the death of a loved one who had done nothing wrong and was now being assaulted by a crowd of cowards. Realize that ten shots very likely won't be enough. Do you have "standard capacity" magazines?

What is most unfortunate about this situation is the following:

The Marshalls say they fear retaliation at home or when they go outside. They are considering arming themselves, but they're concerned about the possible problems that come with guns.

For now, they are hoping police can bring them suspects. They believe they can identify several of the attackers.

''This makes you think about your freedom,'' Marshall said. ''In all reality, where is your freedom when you have this going on?''

Mr. Marshall, your freedom lies in your ability to protect yourself and your loved ones. The Police won't be there if these thugs come back, you're going to be right back into the same situation - you and yours vs. all comers. The only "problems" that come with guns are those you bring upon yourself.

I sincerely hope that someone knowledgeable in armed self defense can sit down with Mr. Marshall and help him and his family make an educated decision to ensure he is able to take action to prevent this kind of thing from happening to his family again.

I also hope that the youths that perpetrated this attack see the error of their ways before they choose the wrong person to beat up. I'd much rather they live a full and rich life in harmony with society than end up bleeding out in a gutter after attempting their little game on someone who doesn't tolerate that kind of crap.

Liberals in Conservative Clothing

2009-06-02T09:57:00.004-05:00

I had an unpleasant exchange with the person who asked me what my agenda on Social Security was yesterday. I now am reasonably convinced that they are either actually Liberals trying to stir the pot, or are people that call themselves Conservatives but really are of that breed that likes basic gun rights but thinks anything else is fair game as long as you "need it", and Liberty be damned.

You see, after stripping identifying information from their email, they told me it was private (alrighty, no problem) and they didn't want it on the blog. That's ok, I can understand that. However, they stepped out further, accusing me of "stoking my ego", threatened their support for sites that link to me, called me unethical, and then finished off by declaring I was un-American. When I pointed out to them it is kind of hard to sit on a high horse when you're chucking insults like that, they told me that they were done talking to me, demanded again I remove their email from the site, and threatened litigation if I did not.

I'll direct you back to my older post "The Art of Liberal Communication". If you'll recall, the typical Liberal's argument goes something like this:

1. Make an unfounded statement.
2. When challenged with facts on that statement, change the subject.
3. When the subject can't be changed, insult the person counter arguing.
4. If that fails, attempt to get the Police or Authorities involved, or stamp off in a huff.

Sound familiar? I think I actually erred by leaving off "or get lawyers involved" from #4.

In the end, this person chose to try and take a public discourse (or at least, I'd like this to be a public discourse - logically constructed arguments are more than welcome in the comments section, and you *can* post anonymously) privately for whatever reason, and I just don't operate that way. If you're going to question my agenda, great! Do so here, so that myself and others can learn. If everyone that had a problem with what I said demanded private attention by email, how are we supposed to have an open dialogue and learn from each other, let alone leave me the time to write what little I can on this blog?

Anyhow, whatever. The offending email is summarized, the world is back on its axis, and the Liberal in Conservative's clothing is (or should be) happy. And I suppose my ego is stoked, whatever the hell that means.

If you are so against Social Security, how do you propose we live in our old age?

2009-06-01T16:08:00.008-05:00

I received an email from a so-called "Conservative" and "Pro 2nd Amendment" person today. I'll hit the highlights here:

Having searched http://tyrannyunleashed.blogspot.com/search/label/social%20security, this person went on to say they had lost their retirement in the recent market crash, and that at 60, they needed Social Security to live on. They then asked me what my agenda was.

The post they are referencing is here. As to my "agenda", it is simply this: We can not pay for this stuff. We just simply can not mathematically pay for it.

Social Security was never meant to be your sole retirement income. It was meant to provide a partial pension to make things easier. Workers were expected to provide personal savings, income from children, and corporate pensions to supplement Social Security to allow themselves to stay under a roof and fed.

Over time, corporate pensions have gone away, and in this day and age of consumerism, easy credit, etc, one can not necessarily rely on their children any more either. Observe further that we've gone from a decent house being a postage stamp (by today's square footage estimates) to a 3000sqft luxury retirement home in AZ.

Finally, since we now don't really have a Social Security surplus, the plethora of retiring boomers is creating a situation where Social Security has turned into a ponzi scheme. The money I'm paying into it is going straight into another investor's pocket to keep the checks flowing. And since we're facing a declining population of people paying into the system, we're headed for a giant shipwreck.

The coffers got this way by Congress deciding that Social Security funds were fair game for them to spend (sound familiar???) So now, the funds that this person paid into the fund for their own retirement are long gone - again, it's my money that is going to allow them to retire.

So here is the question. Should I keep paying my money into a system that I know will very likely be completely bereft and bankrupt by the time it's "my turn" to collect? Should I starve down the line because somehow I bear responsibility for Government mismanagement, when all this time it has been people older than myself putting up with the looting and repeatedly voting for more looters? By 2050, the annual Social Security deficit, in 2001 inflation adjusted dollars, will reach $419bil - almost half of the entire Income Tax revenues collected for a year.

The answer? I don't think that people who are about to retire should be cut off and starved, but I also don't think my income taxes need to be raised by 81% (to almost 44% of my income), crippling my ability to live and prosper, let alone save money so that I don't starve when I'm 65 and there is little in the way of social programs left to serve me just so that a bunch of people who didn't save enough to retire can do so.

Furthering my issues with Social Security is the awful return I will get from the monies stolen from me (assuming that number isn't flat out $0). As a single male born around 1977, I'll earn less than .5% on the money I put in to the system when I it is finally returned to me at 65. I could do far better than that on safe Government Bonds alone. Again, I am punished for others' irresponsibility.

Why do I say my money is "stolen"? The Supreme Court ruled in 1960 (Flemming v. Nestor) that I have no ownership or right to the monies taken from me for Social Security benefits. This essentially means that the Government could capriciously tell me next week that I will never see that money again, and I have no recourse (short of going to the rifle).

So what you're basically saying by insisting that I give you my money so you can retire, and insisting that I pay nearly double my taxes so that you retire, with the full knowledge that the system very likely can't survive even long enough for me to get my money back out of it, is that you don't give a good *** damn about my ability to stay solvent, to save for my own future, or to live my life as I please. You'd rather raise my taxes, empty my bank accounts, foreclose on my home, remove the food from my mouth, and trample my Liberty so that you can retire in comfort.

Pardon me if I don't agree with that.

I would encourage you, dear friends, to read about Social Security over at the Heritage Foundation. If you are truly Conservative and Pro-Constitution, I want you to understand what it is you are really demanding when you command us to save Social Security at all costs.

My agenda? My agenda is to attempt to ensure that everyone has the best chance, under the restrictions set forth in the Constitution, to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness in this country - and raising taxes to support failed Socialist programs is not the way to do that.

Government to continue to meddle in market...

2009-05-19T19:35:00.003-05:00

GM bankruptcy plan eyes quick sale to gov't

Why do we even bother having a market any more? Why don't we just close all the businesses and let our new Overlords run the entire economy. They just keep ensuring that the Unions, with their unsecured debt, get a good crack at assets that should rightfully go to secured bond holders. It's outright theft.

A far better writeup than I can provide is at The Market Ticker.

Our Unfunded Obligations

2009-05-18T20:46:00.003-05:00

The 81% Tax Increase

From Forbes comes an excellent real idea of what I have been talking about in previous posts regarding our National Debt, and the unfunded obligations we have in the forms of Social Security and Medicare.

There is NO WAY we can afford either of these programs in their current form, without jacking taxes up 81%.

From the article:

To put it another way, Social Security's unfunded liability equals 1.3% of the gross domestic product. So if we were to fund its deficit with general revenues, income taxes would have to rise by 1.3% of GDP immediately and forever. With the personal income tax raising about 10% of GDP in coming years, according to the Congressional Budget Office, this means that every taxpayer would have to pay 13% more just to make sure that all Social Security benefits currently promised will be paid.

...

To summarize, we see that taxpayers are on the hook for Social Security and Medicare by these amounts: Social Security, 1.3% of GDP; Medicare part A, 2.8% of GDP; Medicare part B, 2.8% of GDP; and Medicare part D, 1.2% of GDP. This adds up to 8.1% of GDP. Thus federal income taxes for every taxpayer would have to rise by roughly 81% to pay all of the benefits promised by these programs under current law over and above the payroll tax.

Since many taxpayers have just paid their income taxes for 2008 they may have their federal returns close at hand. They all should look up the total amount they paid and multiply that figure by 1.81 to find out what they should be paying right now to finance Social Security and Medicare.

Go take a gander and see what the jackasses in Government are setting us up for.

Finally! Political Dissident Control!

2009-05-17T16:53:00.003-05:00

Saudi 'Killer Chip' Implant Would Track, Eliminate Undesirables

Are you having problems with Right Wing Extremists, Iraq/Afghanistan War Veterans, and annoying "teabaggers" protesting your right to take and destroy their hard-earned wealth? Dissidents throwing bricks through the windows of your party's headquarters with quaint references to that silly Constitution on them?

Worry no more! Now, with our new Sure-Kill Dissident Removers you too can ensure you know exactly where those patriotic scum are, and remove them with a simple push of a button!

And if you act now, we'll throw in the Rapid Inject chip application system for free! Just pay shipping and handling.

Supplies are going fast, call now! Obama would be a fool to pass this one up.

Law? Hah! I AM the Law!

2009-05-14T21:22:00.000-05:00

I'm from the Government, and I'm here for your money.

From the Washington Post comes this lovely little gem:

...the Obama administration, judging by its cavalier disregard of contracts between Chrysler and some of the lenders it sought money from, thinks contracts are written on water. The administration proposes that Chrysler's secured creditors get 28 cents per dollar on the $7 billion owed to them but that the United Auto Workers union get 43 cents per dollar on its $11 billion in claims -- and 55 percent of the company. This, even though the secured creditors' contracts supposedly guaranteed them better standing than the union.

Among Chrysler's lenders, some servile banks that are now dependent on the administration for capital infusions tugged their forelocks and agreed. Some hedge funds among Chrysler's lenders that are not dependent were vilified by the president because they dared to resist his demand that they violate their fiduciary duties to their investors, who include individuals and institutional pension funds.

The Economist says the administration has "ridden roughshod over [creditors'] legitimate claims over the [automobile companies'] assets. . . . Bankruptcies involve dividing a shrunken pie. But not all claims are equal: some lenders provide cheaper funds to firms in return for a more secure claim over the assets should things go wrong. They rank above other stakeholders, including shareholders and employees. This principle is now being trashed." Tom Lauria, a lawyer representing hedge fund people trashed by the president as the cause of Chrysler's bankruptcy, asked that his clients' names not be published for fear of violence threatened in e-mails to them.

emphasis mine

The rule of law is what this Declining Nation is supposed to operate on. No one is above the law, and the law is to be modified only in certain ways. Bankruptcy law clearly defines the precedence of each class of debtor. Some debtors are to be paid in full before any other debts are serviced. Look again at the emphasized text above. Our criminals in the Federal Government have decided that they are entirely above the law, and are able to wave a magic wand and nullify contractual obligations for no better reason than they want to make sure THEIR CONSTITUENCY profits - at the expense of EVERYONE else.

These brigands, thinly disguised as Agents and Administrators of the Federal Government, are denying investors and pension funds the money they were guaranteed by contract and law - money those funds and investors need to live their lives, retire, feed their children, pay their mortgage, etc. They are ensuring that the very people who had a direct hand in the failure of GM and Chrysler, the UAW, receives as much money as possible, despite the fact that it is not their money to give out.

To complicate matters, Judicial Watch successfully sued to get the notes from the meetings in which banks were allegedly forced to take TARP money, including:

"CEO Talking Points" used by former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson confirming that the nine bank CEOs present at the October 13 meeting had no choice but to accede to the government's demands for equity stakes and the resulting government control. The talking points emphasize that "if a capital infusion is not appealing, you should be aware your regulator will require it in any circumstance." Suggested edits of the "talking points" by Tim Geithner, then-New York Fed President, were withheld by the Obama Treasury Department.
"Major Financial Institution Participation Commitments" signed by the nine bankers on October 13. The CEOs not only hand wrote their institution's names but also hand wrote multi-billion dollar amounts of "preferred shares" to be issued to the government.
Email documenting that, on the very day of the meeting, the Chief of Staff to the Treasury Secretary and other top Treasury staff did not know the names of any of the banks that would be in attendance.
Email showing Treasury officials wanted to use the Secret Service to help keep the press away from the CEOs arriving at the meeting.
Email showing a public relations effort, run in part out of the Bush White House, to tamp down public concerns about "nationalizing the banks."
Email showing that Paulson was able to brief Barack Obama about the bankers meeting almost immediately, but could not reach Senator John McCain.

You can actually see the PDFs they received (with Geithner's notes redacted of course - probably because they're incriminating as hell).

Our Government has gone clean off the hinges here. They've completely lost their senses and the only outcome they'll countenance is the total subjugation of the country to their whims and will. And in my opinion, far too many people want them to do it.

The looters and moochers have finally taken over. In my opinion, it will take the secession of one or more states to provide any form of relief for those that still love Liberty, short of a full on Civil War.

A Tax on Both Your Houses

2009-05-14T18:39:00.000-05:00

Smokers, drinkers to carry tax burden?

First, they came for the smokers, but I didn't smoke, so I didn't say anything. Then they came for the drinkers, but I don't drink, so I cheered them on. Next they came for the folks who like red meat and potato chips, but I figured I could use a diet anyways. Finally, they came for me....

One thing the Leftist thrives on is class warfare. They find it easy to point to an oil company that is making money, and raise the hue and cry that making profits is bad, and we should tax their "windfall", taking what is considered "excessive" profits. This said, however, just how much profit as a percentage of revenues are these companies making? According to this article from CNN Money:

But there's a problem with that theory. Even though many oil companies are reporting record profits, many people forget just how expensive it is for energy companies to engage in the oil business.

The average net profit margin for the S&P Energy sector, according to figures from Thomson Baseline, is 9.7%. The average for the S&P 500 is 8.5%. So yes, energy companies are more profitable than many others...but not by an inordinate amount.

Google, for example, reported a net profit margin of 25% in its most recent quarter. Should we have an online advertising windfall profit tax?

So who else do you target? Well, what else is smelly and annoying to many people? Smokers of course! You can scream and yell about the health risks, and the extra cost. But while you're at it, why not tax folks that eat/drink unhealthy foods? Even better, why not make people take a body fat percentage once a month and tax them based on their percentage above the "norm"?

Heck, where do you stop?

Why Would You Need Your Gun There?!?!

2009-05-07T19:20:00.006-05:00

How often do we hear it? Someone is talking about the places they carry, and inevitably another person will chime in "what, do you think you're going to need it there?!?". Often, (and unfortunately) the person making that exclamation is even a fellow CCW'er.

One of those places you commonly have this discussion about is the gym. "What, you think you're going to get mugged in the parking lot?"

Well, unfortunately, that is exactly what happened to a friend of mine very recently. He, like many of us, is attempting to shed the detritus of a too-sedentary lifestyle, and has been going to a local national chain gym to exercise. He lives in a reasonably decent area of North Dallas, I've been in that area to visit him a number of times.

He was coming out after his workout and heading for the car. He is not a CCWer, however, he does have a number of years of martial arts training, and has had enough experiences that he knows how to handle himself in a hands on situation. Well, as he's heading to the car, a young person in too heavy of a jacket approached him and gave the classical "approach/disarm" statement, something to the effect of "can I borrow a couple of bucks". When my friend answered in the negative, the thug-in-training reached into a pocket and pulled a knife, demanding his wallet.

A few things went very right for my buddy. Firstly, the thug telegraphed his movement for his pocket pretty well, my friend understood the moment the guy went for his pocket that things were very wrong (he went condition red, though he doesn't know it by that name), and as he told me, "I knew something was coming out, I just didn't know what it was." Finally, the thug was in grappling distance - not good when the other guy knows martial arts. My friend was able to control the thug's knife hand the moment he saw a knife come out of that pocket, and commenced to, shall we say...rearrange the thug's face. Once again, action beats reaction.

Long story short, he pounded the thug for a short bit, and when two other folks coming out of the gym saw that and asked what was up, the thug unfortunately was able to get away. Police were called, standard after action stuff here.

Ultimately, this continues to prove what I have known since I saw a SWAT team start clearing the building I was working in one day - life and death situations can happen anywhere. There are a number of people I know that only carry once in a while, "when I'm going to a bad place". They consider myself, and those like me that choose to go armed whenever and wherever possible, paranoid and delusional. "You'll never need it, and if you do, you won't be able to use it 'cause the guy will have the drop on you."

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that thugs don't hang out in bad places, they go to good places where the pickings are much better. They don't care if you're on your way out to a nice dinner, or are on your way to work out, etc. They want money, and they want it now. Do not make the mistake of thinking these kinds of people are rational like you and me.

A while back, I posted my thoughts on this in a post called "Just Give Them What They Want". Feel free to take a gander if you have the time.

I'll leave you with a video I linked in that post below. Please, for the good of yourself and your family, watch this video and think about what it means to be sharing society with people that think this way. The story behind the video is here.
(The sound is a little odd at the beginning, but it gets audible pretty quickly into the interview.) (caution, there is uncensored language, don't blast it at work)

My friend ended up unharmed, other than a slightly sore hand. It could have been so much worse for him. Remember, it just takes a moment for someone that, when thinking about your family, can only say "f@#$ 'em" to truly ruin your life, and the lives of those around you.

Stay ready, and always be prepared to stop any threat that presents itself. Be safe out there folks.

(Lack of) Police Accountability

2009-04-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

Iowa DOT officers accused of overstepping authority

This was a followup story, with an additional charge brought against the Iowa DOT for abusive behavior. What struck me from the article was this:

Gray-Fisher said an investigation of the incident involving Weigand and Schneider is under way, but said the Iowa DOT would not make results of the investigation public.

Not making the results public?!?! So the taxpaying public, you know, the folks you are supposed to protect and serve, are just supposed to take your word for it that an investigation is being conducted? Further, once that investigation is complete, the people you serve aren't even going to find out what the results were?

This smacks of a department that is corrupt enough that they know if the public had access to their disciplinary records, there would be a lot of fired people, likely including the higher ups. Anyone in Iowa that wants to get involved (and doesn't mind possible retaliatory strikes from a potentially out of control group of petty thugs) should be talking to their representatives about getting this situation rectified ASAP.

After all, we know that cockroaches like the dark and quiet. Shining a bright light on their behavior, accompanied by loud protests from the "civilians" is what is needed to ensure the servants don't become the masters.

Fox Gets it Wrong....After They Got it Right???

2009-04-17T08:00:00.001-05:00

Obama Vows to Disarm Mexican Drug Cartels

So which is it Fox News? Is the 90% of guns used in Mexican crimes come from the US factoid being bandied about incorrect, as you claimed earlier, or is it correct?

I asked Fox News this myself today. Hopefully they'll take action to correct themselves.

To: Fox News
Your article today: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/16/obama-takes-drug-cartels-surging-violence-mexico/ claims:
The escalating drug war in Mexico is spilling into the United States, and confronting Obama with a foreign crisis much closer than North Korea or Afghanistan. Mexico is the main hub for cocaine and other drugs entering the U.S.; the United States is the primary source of guns used in Mexico's drug-related killings.

Yet you just showed video a few days ago claiming this "fact" is entirely untrue:
http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html?playerId=videolandingpage&streamingFormat=FLASH&referralObject=4137802&referralPlaylistId=playlist

accompanied by this article:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2009/04/02/myth-percent-guns-mexico-fraction-number-claimed/

So, which is it? If 17% is more realistically the number, and from other sources I believe that's more towards the truth, why do you let crap such as I have bolded above get into your article?

You guys are doing such a decent job, it's sad to see this kind of stuff get through. I'd hope if you stand by your earlier reporting that you'd get that sentence removed from it asap (or prominently redacted with a reason given).

Garry
http://tyrannyunleashed.blogspot.com

Montana Fires First Shot in 2nd Amendment Battle

2009-04-16T18:08:00.004-05:00

Amendment 9 - Construction of Constitution. Ratified 12/15/1791.

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment 10 - Powers of the States and People. Ratified 12/15/1791.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

These two important Amendments are about local control. Specifically, if the Constitution doesn't specifically allow the Federal Government to do something, they do not have the power to do so.

I wrote a little while back about the myriad of states that are passing various resolutions (and bills) related to telling the Government to back off, Montana has just raised the bar...quite high.

Text of Montana House Bill 246

Gov. Brian Schweitzer has now signed into law Montana House Bill 246. This bill, in essence, calls the Feds on their Interstate Commerce Clause bluff regarding regulating the sale and possession of firearms. To wit, any firearms or ammunition manufactured in Montana, and stamped to indicate so, that are not:

(1) a firearm that cannot be carried and used by one person;

(2) a firearm that has a bore diameter greater than 1 1/2 inches and that uses smokeless powder, not black powder, as a propellant;

(3) ammunition with a projectile that explodes using an explosion of chemical energy after the projectile leaves the firearm; or

(4) a firearm that discharges two or more projectiles with one activation of the trigger or other firing device.

will be legal to own within the State of Montana once this law takes effect. Much like the high capacity magazine ban in some states, entering into another state possessing a Montana made firearm that violates Federal Law might not be a great idea, but this bill essentially attempts to neuter the ATF within the boundaries of Montana.

Want your rifle to have a 12 (or even 10) inch barrel? A pistol grip? A bayonet lug? Feds say you can't? If it's made in Montana, and you're a resident of the state and stay there, you can have it (assuming no Montana state laws to the contrary).

What will the result be? There lies the rub. Much like the Feds like to raid medical marijuana growers in states where it is legal for medicinal purposes, I expect some people are going to get harassed and arrested by Federal agents over this. The Feds just can't grasp the idea of State Sovereignty.

The key will lie in how Montana responds.

According to the bill:

Section 2. Legislative declarations of authority. The legislature declares that the authority for [sections 1 through 6] is the following:

(1) The 10th amendment to the United States constitution guarantees to the states and their people all powers not granted to the federal government elsewhere in the constitution and reserves to the state and people of Montana certain powers as they were understood at the time that Montana was admitted to statehood in 1889. The guaranty of those powers is a matter of contract between the state and people of Montana and the United States as of the time that the compact with the United States was agreed upon and adopted by Montana and the United States in 1889.

(2) The ninth amendment to the United States constitution guarantees to the people rights not granted in the constitution and reserves to the people of Montana certain rights as they were understood at the time that Montana was admitted to statehood in 1889. The guaranty of those rights is a matter of contract between the state and people of Montana and the United States as of the time that the compact with the United States was agreed upon and adopted by Montana and the United States in 1889.

(3) The regulation of intrastate commerce is vested in the states under the 9th and 10th amendments to the United States constitution, particularly if not expressly preempted by federal law. Congress has not expressly preempted state regulation of intrastate commerce pertaining to the manufacture on an intrastate basis of firearms, firearms accessories, and ammunition.

(4) The second amendment to the United States constitution reserves to the people the right to keep and bear arms as that right was understood at the time that Montana was admitted to statehood in 1889, and the guaranty of the right is a matter of contract between the state and people of Montana and the United States as of the time that the compact with the United States was agreed upon and adopted by Montana and the United States in 1889.

(5) Article II, section 12, of the Montana constitution clearly secures to Montana citizens, and prohibits government interference with, the right of individual Montana citizens to keep and bear arms. This constitutional protection is unchanged from the 1889 Montana constitution, which was approved by congress and the people of Montana, and the right exists as it was understood at the time that the compact with the United States was agreed upon and adopted by Montana and the United States in 1889.

Montana has been rumbling about the possibility of secession in the face of Federal Tyranny now for a few months. Their basic premise is that their compact with the Federal Government of the United States is in jeopardy due to the ever encroaching un-Constitutional authority being wielded by an out of control Washington D.C.

What will Montana's response be if Congress moves to "expressly preempt state regulation of intrastate commerce pertaining to the manufacture on an intrastate basis of firearms, firearms accessories, and ammunition"???

Just how far will they take it?

The UN, or "Blame America and Iraq for the World's Problems"

2009-04-15T17:29:00.001-05:00

U.N. President Calls G-20 Failure, Criticizes Wealthy Countries for Failing to Help Developing World

[U.N. General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann] said that the members of the G-20 have neglected to allocate $2 trillion to $3 trillion needed in the developing world, and many countries have lost their trust in the U.S. dollar as the international reserve currency.

Yes, it's far more important that we throw money at corrupt dictatorships, warlords, and Communist/Socialist jackasses that couldn't find the toilet to relieve themselves (if they even have running water after the recent coup d'etat) rather than using that money to attempt to ensure we still have a country left for them to fleece. How dare we not give every penny we possibly have so that their leaders can live in mansions and ride around in limousines while their people starve.

It gets better...

Such claims of progress were dismissed Tuesday by D’Escoto, who linked the global economic crisis to the war in Iraq and said that the whole world is now paying for the reckless decision of the United States to finance the war.

Everyone repeat after me.

The U.S, and other countries who have adopted Governmental systems that have proven superior to other systems, and that have worked to keep as much corruption and abuse out of their systems as possible (though we are starting to fail at that miserably), are at fault for the rest of the world not being as affluent as we are.

Remember, we're scum and villains for spending our money on ourselves, in an attempt to maintain the lifestyle that actually feeds and clothes 90% of the rest of the world.

Oops, I mean, really it's the war in Iraq that has caused the global meltdown.

There, now we just hit the two main Liberal talking points.
1. The US is bad and must be punished for its success.
2. The war in Iraq is the root of all that is evil (except for the US that is...err...I think).

I've said this before, and I'll say it again. D'Escoto, I have a much better idea you pompous jackass:
How does ZERO, as in NO money sound to you? Sound good? Great, now rot in hell.

Get US out of the UN.

It's About Farking Time

2009-04-14T22:59:00.003-05:00

If you're a Texan, write your State Critter now in support of this. And make sure you tell them you want it to have some teeth.

I still feel the first front in the war against Federal Tyranny will come from the States United.

Those Damned American Gun Shows (Again)

2009-04-14T22:21:00.006-05:00

(Photo courtesy Fox News/AP)
Mexican Woman Arrested While Guarding Elaborate Arsenal

I mean really, you'd think I'd be lucky enough to head on down to the gun store and get an anti-aircraft gun.

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has traced many guns seized at scenes of drug violence in Mexico to U.S. commercial sources. But determining the source of military-grade weapons such as grenades and fully automatic machine guns is more complicated.

The ATF says the grenades are mostly smuggled in through Central America, and have been traced back to the militaries of many countries, from South Korea to Spain and Israel. Some may be leftovers from the Central American civil wars.

Just another one of those 90%, err...95%, I mean...99%? of guns that come from the U.S.

Right?

Oops

2009-04-02T11:53:00.005-05:00

David Codrea over at the National Gun Rights Examiner has been slowly tearing down the lie that "90% of firearms recovered in Mexico's drug wars originate in the U.S."

Well, David's hard work is borne out today by this Fox News Article:

There's just one problem with the 90 percent "statistic" and it's a big one:

It's just not true.

In fact, it's not even close. By all accounts, it's probably around 17 percent.

What's true, an ATF spokeswoman told FOXNews.com, in a clarification of the statistic used by her own agency's assistant director, "is that over 90 percent of the traced firearms originate from the U.S."

But a large percentage of the guns recovered in Mexico do not get sent back to the U.S. for tracing, because it is obvious from their markings that they do not come from the U.S.

"Not every weapon seized in Mexico has a serial number on it that would make it traceable, and the U.S. effort to trace weapons really only extends to weapons that have been in the U.S. market," Matt Allen, special agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told FOX News.

Oops.

So, if not from the U.S., where do they come from? There are a variety of sources:

-- The Black Market. Mexico is a virtual arms bazaar, with fragmentation grenades from South Korea, AK-47s from China, and shoulder-fired rocket launchers from Spain, Israel and former Soviet bloc manufacturers.

-- Russian crime organizations. Interpol says Russian Mafia groups such as Poldolskaya and Moscow-based Solntsevskaya are actively trafficking drugs and arms in Mexico.

- South America. During the late 1990s, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) established a clandestine arms smuggling and drug trafficking partnership with the Tijuana cartel, according to the Federal Research Division report from the Library of Congress.

-- Asia. According to a 2006 Amnesty International Report, China has provided arms to countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Chinese assault weapons and Korean explosives have been recovered in Mexico.

-- The Mexican Army. More than 150,000 soldiers deserted in the last six years, according to Mexican Congressman Robert Badillo. Many took their weapons with them, including the standard issue M-16 assault rifle made in Belgium.

-- Guatemala. U.S. intelligence agencies say traffickers move immigrants, stolen cars, guns and drugs, including most of America's cocaine, along the porous Mexican-Guatemalan border. On March 27, La Hora, a Guatemalan newspaper, reported that police seized 500 grenades and a load of AK-47s on the border. Police say the cache was transported by a Mexican drug cartel operating out of Ixcan, a border town.

So, the next person that says something about "those damned American Gun Shows", you can wave those little factoids in their face.

Besides, if it were actually true that the drug cartels were using American Gun Shops and Shows to arm up, I guarantee I'd be at the next one filling a sack full of grenades and full-autos. Definitely.

Two Faced Lying Buggers

2009-03-18T20:10:00.006-05:00

Your typical CONgress critters at work.

Those screaming loudest about the bonuses recently granted by AIG are those WHO ALLOWED IT TO HAPPEN!

A thanks to Mark Levin for pointing this out yesterday on his show. At least some of the media is being honest about what's really going on.

Congratulations America! Another Nail in the Coffin!

2009-03-18T19:31:00.004-05:00

When I first put the National Debt Ticker on my side nav, we owed $4k less than we do now. I put that ticker up sometime in November. Your Government has spent $4k PER PERSON (not per taxpayer, but per man, woman, child, baby) in the country in just four months.

A day or two ago, we crested a new major number in our National Debt. The number 11 now shows for the first time ever.

Bear in mind, as I mentioned in an earlier blog, the $11tr listed there is not actually being recorded as it would in a real business. The true current cost of all of our entitlement programs, backstops, and concerns is actually somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 trillion (with a T). As I mentioned in that post, that is more than the GDP of the ENTIRE PLANET.

Our Lords and Ladies must be very proud.

Those Damned Gun Shows Again

2009-03-18T06:30:00.000-05:00

New findings from FBI about cop attackers and their weapons

So many great and excellent numbers in here! So many Brady Bunch Bull Shit (BBBS) removers. Where to start?!?!

Some quick highlights:

From a pool of more than 800 incidents, the researchers selected 40, involving 43 offenders (13 of them admitted gangbangers-drug traffickers) and 50 officers, for in-depth exploration. They visited crime scenes and extensively interviewed surviving officers and attackers alike, most of the latter in prison.

Predominately handguns were used in the assaults on officers and all but one were obtained illegally, usually in street transactions or in thefts. In contrast to media myth, none of the firearms in the study was obtained from gun shows. What was available “was the overriding factor in weapon choice,” the report says. Only 1 offender hand-picked a particular gun “because he felt it would do the most damage to a human being.”

Researcher Davis, in a presentation and discussion for the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police, noted that none of the attackers interviewed was “hindered by any law--federal, state or local--that has ever been established to prevent gun ownership. They just laughed at gun laws.”

WHAT!?! They didn't go down to their local gun show and buy an assault weapon??? Sacrilege! You mean they didn't get a Glock Fowty because it's featured on TV?? No way!

Almost all carried when on the move and strong majorities did so when socializing, committing crimes or being at home. About one-third brought weapons with them to work. Interestingly, the offenders in this study more commonly admitted having guns under all these circumstances than did offenders interviewed in the researchers’ earlier 2 surveys, conducted in the 1980s and ’90s.

Ok folks, lets get more sober and serious. Private Property Owners! Listen Up! Your rules against carrying in the car or at work did not work for these folks. Laws against having or carrying the guns didn't stop these folks. They do...not....care to follow your rules and laws. What does that mean when you pompously exclaim "I don't want people carrying guns at my business, so I'm going to put a rule in my little handbook here that says they can't! That'll fix it!" Really, think about it.

These guys aren't taking a night off. They don't leave their gun at home when they go to the bar for a drink. Laws preventing legal gun owners from carrying guns in these places aren't stopping these people.

More seriously:

Nearly 40% of the offenders had some type of formal firearms training, primarily from the military. More than 80% “regularly practiced with handguns, averaging 23 practice sessions a year,” the study reports, usually in informal settings like trash dumps, rural woods, back yards and “street corners in known drug-trafficking areas.”

One spoke of being motivated to improve his gun skills by his belief that officers “go to the range two, three times a week [and] practice arms so they can hit anything.”

In reality, victim officers in the study averaged just 14 hours of sidearm training and 2.5 qualifications per year. Only 6 of the 50 officers reported practicing regularly with handguns apart from what their department required, and that was mostly in competitive shooting. Overall, the offenders practiced more often than the officers they assaulted, and this “may have helped increase [their] marksmanship skills,” the study says.

The offender quoted above about his practice motivation, for example, fired 12 rounds at an officer, striking him 3 times. The officer fired 7 rounds, all misses.

More than 40% of the offenders had been involved in actual shooting confrontations before they feloniously assaulted an officer. Ten of these “street combat veterans,” all from “inner-city, drug-trafficking environments,” had taken part in 5 or more “criminal firefight experiences” in their lifetime.

Now pay attention CCW folks! How often have you caught yourself thinking "those gangstas can't shoot for crap, I'm good just plinking at a target once in a while!" DEAD WRONG. And I mean DEAD. These guys are out practicing because, shock of shocks, they EXPECT to get into a gunfight. They KNOW they'll get into a gunfight, and by God, they want to make sure they SURVIVE the gunfight.

What about you? Do you want to survive the gunfight? Are you practicing as often and as well as you should?

Think through the ramifications of this study very carefully and re-evaluate your training priorities. Find someone skilled to work with you on instinct shooting, on fast target acquisition, on movement. Turn up your situational awareness when out and about.

Read the entire article at that link and take a good, hard look at yourself.

Obama Continues His Support for the 2nd Amendment

2009-03-17T20:06:00.005-05:00

Obama Quietly Ends the Federal Flight Desk Program (Armed Pilots)

Ahh! The anointed one continues his support of the 2nd Amendment by defunding the program that allows Pilots the tools they need to prevent a cockpit intrusion.

Way to go! That'll make sure our flights are safe.

Judging from the information in the Editorial, it sounds like these armed and responsible Pilots were subject to excessive harassment by the TSA, which is a total disgrace.

Remember, all you who would fight for "National Concealed Carry", what the Government grants, the Government can totally screw up and subsequently deny on a whim.

Are We Done Here?

2009-03-17T19:07:00.004-05:00

U.N. Official Accuses U.S. of Demonizing Ahmadinejad

You know, I'll just bet that if, back in 1941, we asked Mr. Hitler nicely to stop, he would have gladly and peacefully retreated back within his original borders and he would have been happy to not kill all those Jews. I'm sure he was just misunderstood.

Same here with Mr. "The Holocaust Was a Good Idea" Ahmadinejad. He's really just developing weapons grade radioactives for an energy program, and he's not really helping to destabilize the entire region by supplying arms and munitions to militants.

And those poor Palestinians, they're only firing rockets because they're misunderstood. Giving them the rest of the land in the region would surely evoke peace and harmony.

The outspoken U.N. General Assembly president on Tuesday accused the United States of demonizing Iran's president and criticized the International Criminal Court for issuing an arrest warrant for Sudan's leader on war crimes charges in Darfur.

Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, a Roman Catholic priest from Nicaragua with openly leftist views, also reiterated that the more he thinks about the conditions that Israel imposes on the Palestinians, the more he tends "to think about apartheid."

Are we about done funding 22% of these people's budget with money we don't have to spend anyways?

There's only so much I can take....

It's all a Matter of Control

2009-03-16T20:08:00.002-05:00

Free Market Meltdown? Economists Fret Over Return to Price Controls

We all remember how free markets are supposed to work right? With a few regulations geared towards preventing sellers from controlling the supply to an extreme degree, the market sets the price of goods and services based on the amount people are willing to pay to consume the supply of the item that is available for purchase.

The cost of an item can also be affected by outside forces, such as taxes or regulations placed on the manufacturers or suppliers of a product. As I've mentioned before, higher taxes on a corporation are, for the most part, not borne by that corporation. The corporation passes the added business costs on to the people buying their products.

One controversial solution being considered is a move back to price controls. The New York Legislature and the San Francisco City Council are considering expanding rent controls. Some politicians in Vermont are trying to limit the price of milk. And in Alaska, a bill to cap oil prices is pending in the state legislature.

Proponents say the government has an obligation to provide relief for consumers during these trying economic times. But many economists say controlling prices and rents has failed in the past, and it often has bad consequences.

"Economists widely agree that price controls often lead to shortages. There are many examples throughout history, and we have seen more recent demonstrations of this principle of economics in Venezuela and Zimbabwe," said Dr. N. Gregory Mankiw, a Harvard University economics professor and former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush.

What do you do when you are making a widget, and someone strolls in and without even looking at your balance sheet tells you that you're charging too much for your widget and that you will have the price you can sell the widget for reduced and regulated by an authority? In a capitalist market, given adequate competition, the price is what it is for a very specific reason. That price is rarely capriciously high, for if it is too high, and everyone is playing fairly, it is inevitable that a competitor will slash their price, or a new player will enter the market with a lower price and steal customers away. So when someone tells you "your product is now worth this and that is what you will sell it for", you very often will just stop selling that product to the affected market. You may even leave the country you're operating in and, after firing all of your local workers, make and sell your product outside the country.

So what happens when you own a building and you get told that you must rent it for an unsustainable price? You certainly can't sell it - nobody in their right mind would buy a losing proposition. In defeat, you either let the bank have the worthless place, or you torch it for the insurance.

And what of those who were living in it? They're out on the street.

Rent control represents a collectivist fantasy. The People deserve your units at a price that is not sustainable in reality. If you don't let The People live there at the price we demand of you, we will put you in jail.

This is not what our ancestors came across oceans for. These kinds of controls are not good for America. This is just one more attempt by our "betters" to put us more under their control, impoverish us, and make us more reliant on their handouts.

Government Incompetence

2009-03-16T19:59:00.003-05:00

Union Wage Rule Means Fewer Projects Completed With Stimulus Cash

Our Government is a real piece of work. They just can't leave well enough alone - even in an "emergency", they are happily pandering away to their interest groups - in this case, the Unions.

We already have a number of Governors turning down stimulus money because of the strings attached, and now this mess. You must pay for projects at Union Rates, even though the project may have originally been bid and budgeted at a lower rate. There is absolutely no point to this nonsense other than to make more expensive Union Labor more attractive, and to continue to suborn the last vestiges of the free market in this country.

This, folks, is how these jackasses are behaving in an "emergency". Can you imagine what would happen if, say, an occurrence such as an asteroid inbound to strike the Earth were to take place? These morons would sit and dicker and run the prices up, legislate, restrict, send in OSHA, and generally make a mess of things.

They'd likely still be arguing, wheeling and dealing when the damned thing hit.

This is exactly why we DO NOT need people such as this ruling the Country. It's time for the States to take their Constitutionally granted powers back and tell these shysters to go crawl back into the cess pool they crawled out of.

Malicious Blogging

2009-03-16T19:57:00.000-05:00

Salisbury mayor: Malicious blogs endangering city

What I find interesting about articles like this is what they do not mention.

As most folks that write in the public domain know, there are a number of laws in place to prevent Libel and Slander (unless, of course, you're a Politician, in which case you seem to be allowed to say whatever the hell you want).

So in my opinion, here is what this mayor is actually saying:

We have a number of corrupt S.O.B's who would love to gain office to fleece the public for as much as possible before they're caught, but they're too concerned that there is an information channel they do not control that will point out their corruption and make them look just like the fools they are. Therefore, they are choosing to find other, less obvious ways to commit their scams.

Blog on folks, blog on.

Ungrateful

2009-03-13T06:45:00.001-05:00

White House objects to UN calling US 'deadbeat'

Lets see, we fund 22% of the U.N's budget. We show up in force every time a tsunami or other natural disaster hits. We send food to starving nations. We send our troops to stabilize regions. And we're deadbeats.

I've got a great idea.

Get us the HELL out of the U.N. Kick them out of their cushy tax/rent free building in NYC, stop funding their budget, and tell them to go to hell the next time they need us.

Ungrateful pieces of garbage. Let 'em rot.

Embarrassed at Your Own Incompetence? Investigate!!!

2009-03-12T22:42:00.003-05:00

Justice Dept. Investigates Arizona Sheriff for Enforcing Immigration Law

Oh for f$#% sake.

...pursuant to the prohibitions against national origin discrimination...

I'm sure Sheriff Joe's really upset that he "discriminated" against 16,000 people based on the fact that THEY WEREN'T IN THIS COUNTRY LEGALLY.

National Origin Discrimination? Does Joe really have to go round up an equal amount of people from each country that are here illegally? Or is the mere fact that they don't originate in this country (illegal ALIEN...duh!) illegal to enforce?

It gets better....

[A press release by the Sheriff] continues: "Despite the growing criticism of the Sheriff’s illegal immigration fight by some valley politicians and activists, Sheriff Arpaio says 60 detention officers trained by ICE officials have conducted over 106,000 interviews and investigations of inmates booked into jail since April of 2007.

"In those 18 months, 16,000 inmates were determined to be illegal aliens. Either they have already been deported or will be deported after being tried and/or serving their sentences for crimes committed in the valley. The work being done be Arpaio’s detention staff is a likely contributor to the recent reduction in crime in the valley,” the press release added.

Get this straight. Not only are they violating our laws by being here illegally, they're also just flat out violating our laws!!!!

How ANYONE can take themselves seriously while spouting the copious bullshit Loretta Smith is trying to sell us is proof positive that to be a Government Drone...err....employee, one must check their brains (if these jackasses ever had one to start with) at the door.

Get this:

"That number of 16,000 represents a full one-third (1/3) of all inmates in the United States who have had holds placed on them after being identified by jail or prison officials as illegal aliens."

The press release goes on to say that 20 percent of inmates in the Maricopa County Jail are illegal aliens and that of those, 2,000 illegal aliens - 70 percent - were arrested for felony crimes.

So, one man and his team, is managing to single handedly take care of 33%!!! of the crime committing illegals in our entire country?!?!

Give him a freaking medal and a higher salary. You see, this is why most law abiding folks in AZ love Sheriff Joe to death.

Kudoes Joe! Keep it up! Enforce the law sir, for that is what we are - a nation of laws, not feelings. While our own Government runs around flagrantly disregarding the rule of law, Joe is upholding his oath to Defend the Constitution of the United States against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic.

Naturally, this was funded by ACORN, you know, those guys that are now eligible for more of our money.

What a damned joke.

The Fallacy of Rising Taxes

2009-03-12T22:17:00.000-05:00

Corporate Oil Booms in Low Tax Switzerland

Obama talks frequently about raising taxes, but only on the wealthy. "The Wealthy", however, includes small and large businesses which employ people, and spend money in the economy as they buy equipment and patronize other businesses in the area (or Nation) to buy raw materials and other needed equipment/services.

One fallacy of the Left's thinking is this: they assume they are taxing a captive crowd. Unfortunately, many of our lucrative, high dollar employers, such as the Energy Sector, are much happier to leave the country for better tax environments. According to The Tax Foundation, the US ranked number two in the world for highest corporate tax rates, at 39%. Now Obama would have us raise taxes on those corporations further, out of some sense of punishing them for making too much money.

Then we have Ireland at 12.5% and Switzerland at 21%:

Swiss cantons are free to set their own tax rates. For example in Zug, corporate tax is about 16 percent but can fall as low as 9.5 percent for companies that do most of their business outside Switzerland. That compares with an average global corporate tax rate of 25.9 percent, according to consultancy KPMG.

"One trend that we see is that particularly Bermuda-based companies are now moving to Switzerland," said Martin Frey, a partner at law company Baker & McKenzie. "That may only partly be obviously for tax reasons, but also for security reasons and the fact that the Obama administration may go after them."

Many of our larger companies are able to do business anywhere. And you can be sure they'll do it where they can save massive amounts of money. The more our Gov. tightens its tax fist, the more jobs will flee overseas. The more jobs flee overseas, the higher taxes must be raised to handle Government spending, and a vicious loop begins. The result, less jobs for Americans to take advantage of, and less economic growth, as those companies that are left pass on their higher tax costs directly to their customers.

That's right, you raise a company's costs, and it will, in turn, pass on those costs to its customers in the form of higher prices. A tax increase on "the rich" is really a tax increase on EVERY AMERICAN.

It's definitely amateur hour in our Government.

The Unwashed Masses Strike

2009-03-06T11:21:00.004-06:00

Taxpayers Furious With Budget Cuts Take Frustration To Streets Of NYC

Now you see, this is the problem with allowing the looters to loot for decades and then trying to make budget cuts. Once you start giving these idiots things for free, they expect that it will be free forever. And when you have to cut those free services because you can no longer afford to give that cash away, well, the looters do what they do best, riot.

These folks are not in it for the good of the country, they don't understand, nor do they care that the state can no longer afford to give them free stuff, they want their handout, and they want it now.

So when you hear Liberals say they just want to give people a little extra to get ahead, think down the road when our economy collapses under the burden of these pigs and leeches and realize the consequences - likely class warfare. The have-nots have been getting their loot from the haves long enough to have expectations that they're entitled to receive that ill-gotten wealth, and if you try to take it from them, they're going to riot and then likely kill you for it.

They don't care that the country can not afford to keep them in food and clothes and home, they would rather take what they need from you than work for it themselves, and they're happy with that arrangement. The question is, are you?

Obama Will Buy Me McNuggets

2009-03-05T12:15:00.000-06:00

A McNuggets "Emergency"

Sound like an Obama supporter to you?

The Government is in charge of getting me my McNuggets after all.

Obama's Global New Deal

2009-03-02T18:07:00.002-06:00

Brown woos Obama on global deal

Boy, that Liberal stone just don't stop rollin' does it?

Let's see if I have all of this figured out. A $3tr budget, $400b worth of "keep the Gov running until September", what the hell...let's just throw money at the entire stinking planet!!!!

These people have truly lost their minds. By the time they get done, there isn't going to be a dollar left that they don't need to save the children.

I'm entirely sickened. I can't even believe that people that style themselves adults could, for a moment, actually take this rampant bullshit seriously.

If Government spending actually could create more wealth, why the hell hasn't all this rampant spending, by both the Republicans and the Spendocrats over the last 60 years actually done it????

I've said it before. You can't fool the markets. There is nobody who knows anything in the market that is fooled by the complete and utter bullshit coming out of our joke of a Government. This is readily apparent by the plunge we've taken since the mouthbreathers in this country elected that jackass. Don't give me that "it takes time" crap. If the markets actually believed these guys, we'd at least be holding relatively flat, or possibly seeing a small decline while the joke of a pork plan goes into effect. Instead, those with money continue to vote with their feet, by selling the crap out of anything they have, so as to avoid the final plunge when our leaders finally reach the tipping point and auger the economy into the ground at high speed.

Lets just keep letting the children run the candy store and see how long it takes for all of us to end up in the street, destitute and starving. At this rate, it won't be long.

No Taxes? No problem!!!

2009-03-02T17:50:00.004-06:00

Do any of these idiots pay their taxes???

Once again, it's ok for these guys not to pay their taxes properly. I'm sure the Ron Kirk defense will work just fine the next time the IRS comes after you. Surely they won't assess massive fines, garnish your wages, or go after your assets. After all, we're all entitled to equal protection under the law....right?

Just one more reason to ditch a tax system that is so complex, nobody seems to be able to (or wants to) pay their taxes correctly.

Kick this guy to the curb too. I don't see how it's reasonable to kick out Daschle while waving Kirk on by.

Supplies!

2009-03-02T17:36:00.000-06:00

Surprise Asteroids

One more reason to have a few supplies lying about. Supplies!

The Art of Liberal Communication

2009-02-28T14:37:00.008-06:00

We have all seen the steps a Liberal uses to communicate a point:

1. Make an unfounded statement.
2. When challenged with facts on that statement, change the subject.
3. When the subject can't be changed, insult the person counter arguing.
4. If that fails, attempt to get the Police or Authorities involved, or stamp off in a huff.

I had wondered where all of these people were getting their playbook from. Now I know.

Paula Anderson teaches "Communications" at Central Connecticut State University. Recently, when she assigned her class to make a reasoned argument regarding current events, John Wahlberg, one of her students, used that platform to make a reasoned argument for Licensed Concealed Carry (of Firearms) on Campus. I'm sure he didn't say he wanted to shoot students on campus, I know he didn't say he wanted to commit violence on anyone, he just stated that he wanted to be able to defend himself on campus, just like he can everywhere else in town.

Paula's response? Lodge a complaint with the Campus Police. Great Communications eh? David Codrea over at War on Guns has given us an assignment of our own. Let the Stasi calling Ms. Anderson know what we think about her little Marxist tendencies. I'll post her University contact information below. Feel free to drop her a line, I ask that you keep your discourse with her reasoned and civil.

Name: Anderson, Paula
Phone Number: 8322690
Job Title: Lecturer
Department: Communication
Location: R C Vance Acad Ctr 317
Email: andersonpau@ccsu.edu

My email to her is copied below:

I read with great dismay the harassment and degradation you visited upon John Wahlberg, simply because he was making a reasoned argument on current events, as assigned, in your classroom.

While we are all entitled to our own views, this country was founded upon tenets including personal freedom and accountability. That you would feign to teach "communications", and then call the authorities upon students with whom you had a disagreement of principles speaks volumes about your personal cowardice and complete lack of abilities in the subject you are supposed to teach.

What you have now demonstrated to your students is that they must submit to the status quo; that to believe differently than those with authority over you should be a crime. You have ensured that students who would think for themselves, that would speak up and ask simply "why" when they are in disagreement with what is being presented to them, will now fear the midnight call from the Stasi, that soft knock upon the door (or in this case, that evening phonecall from the Police); the harbinger of oppression.

I have sincere hopes that for your abuse of authority, you will see sanctions in some form. With any luck, the student you wrong will see fit to file suit for harassment. At best, I hope you lose your job over this.

While I have never subscribed to the statement "those who can't, teach", in this case, I believe it very apt.

Congratulations on successfully bullying someone with whom you disagreed, simply because you were unable to stand up and openly and logically refute their arguments.

I will be posting this at http://tyrannyunleashed.blogspot.com along with your University contact information. You are welcome to respond there, or by replying to this email address, that is, if you actually want to attempt to defend your craven actions.

--
Garry Morris
Tyranny Unleashed

As you can see, I have invited her over here to discuss her actions. I doubt she'll show.

While you're at it, head on over to the Campus Newspaper and dive into the fray in the comments section on their article.

To Mr. Wahlberg, I recommend you seek legal counsel and see what your options are to ensure other students won't be harrassed the way that you were. Thank you for your attempts to educate the Marxists at your school about what true Liberty involves, and I hope that you won't be dissuaded from continued efforts along this line. That they called the Police on you is the highest form of compliment - it means they didn't have any other way to refute your arguments or shut you down except to call for Daddy to come save them.

Congratulations Sir. If there is anything the pro-rights community can do for you, please let us know.

H/T to David and JD

Our Future Beckons

2009-02-27T11:55:00.000-06:00

The [British] government’s appetite to maintain detailed files on its citizens is growing

Folks may notice that I pay attention to Britain quite a bit, and often post the goings on over on the Isle. There is, quite frankly, a reason. Without the Constitution such as we have, their government is happily moving more and more to the left, removing their rights like falling dominoes. It has gotten so bad, that even defending one's self from a home invader is considered a felonious offense. CCTV cameras stud every light pole and subway wall. You are always on camera, and you have very few actual rights when the Police decide you have offended the Gov's Politically Correct sensibilities.

Now, thanks to a slavishly Bush-poodling Labour government with a startlingly authoritarian bent, Britons are beginning to recognise that this sceptred isle, this earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, this other Eden is about to become this surveillance state, this database depot, this green and pleasant centre of preventive detention, this precious home of biometrically-keyed national identification cards set in a sea of CCTV cameras.

The Brits are holding Civil Rights rallies now. They are fighting to get back their right to bear arms, to defend their property from rampant thieves, to be able to go about their lives as they see fit.

So why pay attention? With our Government scoffing at the Constitution more and more each day, while our Supreme Court cheers them on, we are headed down this path. I'm worried that we will soon see these same rampant offenses upon our Liberty. I guarantee the Socialists in our country are cheering Europe's fall into Marxism and are working hard every day to ensure we're next.

The Voice of God is Government

2009-02-27T05:45:00.000-06:00

Obama to Set 2010 Date for Ending Iraq War

And the anointed one did raise his voice in command, and so it will be.

Reality has left the building.

A Quick Clarification

2009-02-26T21:47:00.003-06:00

Cheddar said...

"good only for stuffing into cattle cars to go take a shower"

WOW.

I should probably clarify that statement a touch lest I raise the ire of good folks.

The point of the statement that Cheddar has highlighted from tonight's post , titled Unbelievable, was intended to communicate the total disdain with which I believe the ruling elite regard the little bugs (that would be us) running around at their feet.

The god-like complex that infuses most of our politicians and public officials (to include the Police) results in their belief that ourselves, and by dint our lives, are lived at their pleasure. Theirs to order about, theirs to mandate how we must live, what we breathe, consume, possess, where we go (and when we can go there), even what we can believe. They even believe themselves entitled to the fruits of our labor, and deign to let us keep a little for ourselves.

When you live your life at someone's pleasure, they can, if they choose, terminate that life at any time. After all, they own you.

So down the road, when power is secured, and all conceived avenues of resistance have been crushed, a hue and cry will arise that will result in massive exterminations.

As the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership has rightly pointed out many times, totalitarianism and intolerance in government always ends in mass exterminations of undesirables. I don't think it takes too much of a stretch for that list of undesirables to include the list of destitute, ignorant, unwashed masses that you brainwashed, used and abused to obtain your power.

After all, they're just bugs right? Roll up the limo windows and drive faster so you don't have to look at them. And if they defy you...

Well, there's very little difference now is there?

What the Budget Will Cost You

2009-02-26T18:03:00.002-06:00

A thanks to Toby at the UK Telegraph (funny how it always takes Fox, Drudge, or a foreign news agency to get reasonable analysis these days) for the following number:

$25k - per taxpayer.

That is what the new budget for '09 amounts to.

Do you have that much to throw into a bottomless pit this year? I know I certainly don't.

Unbelievable

2009-02-26T17:01:00.001-06:00

Pork, pork, lies, damned lies, and more pork.
9,000 earmarks, and a 10% rise in spending from last year. They're not even pretending to tell the truth any more. These idiots will say anything because many in this country either believe it, or don't give a fig either way as long as American Idol will be on the TV tonight.

The new Domestic Agenda
Plenty of tax increases for the "rich". Of course, that includes most small businesses, which, along with the corporations will have to lay off people and pass the rest of the increases on to anyone who consumes their goods - oops, that would be you and me.

$1.3tr Budgets that rely on hope and change, as well as cap and trade (which will grossly raise your energy costs, including gasoline and power for your home) will ensure that this Nation will plunge into the depths of Socialism and misery.

Capped off by...of course...a new Assault Weapons Ban that Holder has announced is a priority for this Administration. Of course, I've been yelling about that since September, not that that matters. Naturally, you have the progression of mouth breathers in the comments for that article hyperventilating about how you "don't need hand grenades to hunt". I don't even know where to start on that one. We've really reached a point where a majority of Americans, by all appearances, are good only for stuffing into cattle cars to go take a shower - at least as soon as their usefulness as idiots has passed.

I'm losing all hope. I hate to say it, but I'm truly reaching a point where I just don't know what to make of it all. This is no longer a Government by, for and of the people, it is an Oligarchy. Stuffed with lawyers and appointees that could give a flying f*** about us. They simply want more power and more money for them and their cronies.

Has Montana seceded yet? I'm ready for some "change" myself.

Edit: I have clarified the cattlecar statement. Please read that statement before you respond.

Ever Rising Police State

2009-02-25T20:58:00.000-06:00

Remote-controlled planes could spy on British homes

Ahh yes. I'm sure they'll use it "wisely" though. And they'd never abuse it to effect raids on innocent citizens would they?

Never allow your oppressors to acquire more tools to use against you without a fight.