Making Gun "News" Via Fabrication

The real tragedy of America's gun violence – Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs:

No unusual shootings going on, SO, let's MAKE some negative gun "news" as a "public service" BANNER HEADLINE:

Naturally, since the facts don't fit the narrative of our anti gun story, let's make some up!

And we do have an actual experiment. In the aftermath of its own Newtown-like massacre, Australia changed its gun laws. The result? Homicides and suicides plummeted in the decade that followed. Of course, like all real world problems, the link between guns and violence is a complex issue. But one rarely has so much evidence pointing in the same direction.

Only a couple of tiny problems here:

1. One would have THOUGHT they would have stated "GUN homicides and suicides plummeted" ... because of course homicides and suicides were unaffected. People just used other means! 
2. However, they are STILL WRONG, not even GUN RELATED HOMICIDES and SUICIDES DROPPED! Here we have that from the noted right wing media outlet Time Magazine ... Stating in the headline "Australia's Gun Laws: Little Effect"

So in fact the entire article is nothing but a lie!! But there is MORE! We make the gratuitous snarky claim that "does ANYONE think that we have 12x the psychologically troubled people"?

America's per capita gun homicide rate in 2009 was 12 times higher than the average of Canada, Germany, Australia and Spain. Does anyone think that we have 12 times as many psychologically troubled people as they do in these countries?

Note the persistence of their use of GUN HOMICIDE as opposed to HOMICIDE. Unfortunately for the news MAKERS at CNN the Time article gives us an answer:

Firearm homicides in Australia were declining before 1996 and the decline has simply continued at the same rate since, McPhedran says. (In 2002-3, Australia's rate of 0.27 gun-related homicides per 100,000 people was one fifteenth that of the U.S. rate.)

So PRIOR to the great leap forward of Australia gun confiscation, the rate was 15X in the Aussies sane advantage, but AFTER it was only 12x!! So what is "anyone" to think? Rounding up the guns caused 3 points MORE psychosis relative to US?? It CERTAINLY wasn't guns, right?? They were confiscated! But the Aussies got WORSE by 3 pts relative to the US.

In a world where sane people held sane discussions, there are LOTS of "reasonable thoughts" here:

1. There may just not be enough statistical Australian data to provide accuracy at the level that comparisons are being made. (invalid statistical set)
2. It IS possible that mental health policy in Australia is different than the US. Prior to us deciding that being "free" was a "right" even if you were insane, and having the mental institutions patients released in droves to be the "Homeless" of the Reagan years, a lot of these shooters were in institutions. It IS actually very possible that the Aussies kept 3.38 more people per 100K institutionalized! (.27 person per 100K and 4.05 person per 100K ( 4.05 is .27x15) is 3.88 people per 100K)
3. While we are at it, is it REALLY "impossible" that there are 3.88 more crazy people per 100K WALKING AROUND in the US than in Australia? There are 33 obese people per 100 (ONE HUNDRED) people in Mississippi vs 21 per 100 in Colorado, or a difference in obesity of 12% between two states in the US. A difference of 3.88 out of 100K on the other hand is .00388 % !!! 

We know this answer folks. This BANNER HEADLINE ARTICLE is 100% false anti-gun PROPAGANDA foisted on unsuspecting people who largely buy it hook line and sinker by a media bent on removing their rights under the Constitution.

In case there is any doubt of that, they point that out at the end of the article ... the 2nd Amendment doesn't mean what it says! So there!

Why is it we can't all get along? Because given the elites and the MSM, there are a large set of people playing with their own "facts", and they want to use those fabricated facts to take away basic human rights like the right of self defense!

OZ (BO) Admits He Is Humbug!

Review & Outlook: The ObamaCare Buck Finally Stops - WSJ.com:

As a nation loses more and more of it's will to think independently, one of the BIG warning signs is the loss of irony. If you are confident you understand irony and why it is important to humans, you can just skip to the bold below.

Since our education today is so minimal and our meaningful social interactions even less (meaning CIVIL social discussion on critical issues), I'm including a link to this SHORT and I think well executed definition of irony.

The usage called out by the linked article is essentially BO stepping into the puddle that he just criticized others for falling into ... the criticism of government.

Why is loss of the ability to detect or use irony a warning sign?

1. The use of the Socratic method is indispensable to teaching the art of critical thought. Indoctrination can't work via that method because an intelligent and clear thinking student will often turn the tables on an arrogant and self important teacher trying to indoctrinate under the cloak of authority. So today, rote learning of the desired responses is the order of what we call "education". 
2. There is no computerized test for irony. It is HUMAN ... and therefore related to DIVINE since man is created in Gods image. As with all human activity that is not God directed, the outcome tends toward the opposite of the stated objective.
   
   In the case of "secular humanism", things like the Socratic Method, irony, theology, and true philosophy have to be replaced by rote learning, name calling, anger, exclusion and similar tactics. "Uncomfortable" (for humanists) viewpoints like Christianity have to be removed from education and the public square. Viewpoints other than those proffered by the humanist need to be marginalized and eventually named "hate speech".
   
   Other examples of "humanism" creating the opposite (See Orwell to better understand):
   
   "Freedom" -- Becomes "Democracy", then Mob Rule, then Tyranny
   
   "Welfare" -- Becomes Dependency, Destruction of family, complete spiritual and physical destruction of person.
   
   "Liberal" -- Becomes Political Correctness, Totalitarian control of all of life and thought from birth to death by "experts" blocking out all thought which disagrees with current Statist objectives. (See "Road to Serfdom") 

So BO comes out and says:

"The challenge, I think, that we have going forward is not so much my personal management style or particular issues around White House organization," he said. "It actually has to do with what I referred to earlier, which is we have these big agencies, some of which are outdated, some of which are not designed properly. . . . The White House is just a tiny part of what is a huge, widespread organization with increasingly complex tasks in a complex world."

GOT THAT????? Big government is the problem! The Government has gotten too big and too complex for the poor little White House, and by extension the Great and Powerful BO himself (Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!) to execute the socialization of 1/7th of the US economy!

Had our press and people not lost the ability to understand irony and what it means for our existence, this would be FRONT PAGE NEWS!!! ... and perhaps the Great and Powerful OZ (BO) would have to come out from behind the curtain and admit even more explicitly to poor little Dorothy and Toto (the American People) that he is indeed a Humbug, a traveling nostrum salesman with no great powers whatsoever.

But we are no longer enough of a nation to even understand how exposed that man behind the curtain is, so the huge smoking, belching and thundering of our MSM and Elites will keep mesmerizing the masses even after the curtain of BO's extreme smallness and incapacity being lifted by his own hand.

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Superpowers Return to Moon, Get Web Site Working

China launches its first moon rover mission:

While the declining US is busy trying to get a web site up to help deepen our multi-trillion deficits*  via a new health care "benefit",  China is attempting a soft landing on the moon with a rover this weekend.

China's plans include exploiting the moon for solar energy, mining and manufacturing.

They are spending 10's of billions on space including a manned program (they have their own manned space station). They seem to believe that there is some future beyond paying off debts and caring for a declining and dying elderly population.

Crazy fools. The intelligent folks are sitting around freezing here in the US worrying about Global Warming and anxiously awaiting new reports on our exciting new web site!

Ah, Irony. I used to love the US space program. Now I'm just bursting with pride that it looks like we my be making progress with an actual working web site!! ... at least BO says so, and if you like that, it must be true!  What a country!

*counting what the Fed is printing to buy bonds for nothing
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When Will the Wind Blow or Sun Shine?

Green Weenie of the Year: The Wind-Talkers | Power Line:

or what will the temperature be in a few days? A few days ago it was going to be in 20's tomorrow for a shooting event at the gun club. Now it says 18 degrees. Somehow it is shocking to nobody that our weather geniuses can predict the warming of our temperatures 100 years in the future to a half a degree, yet they often can't get within 5 degrees on the temp 3-5 days from now!

Oh, BTW, that is NOT the same as saying you know I will die someday, you just don't know when. It is more akin to predicting my weight on Jan 1 and the day I die within a pound (although MUCH harder, since the planet is even bigger than me. EVEN on January 1!!!)

Here we have a quote on the obvious from the not very right wing LA Times:

 "Green energy is the least predictable kind. Nobody can say for certain when the wind will blow or the sun will shine. A field of solar panels might be cranking out huge amounts of energy one minute and a tiny amount the next if a thick cloud arrives. In many cases, renewable resources exist where transmission lines don’t."

So it isn't very reliable, it costs too much to build without subsidies, and it kills tons of birds, bats and even Eagles.

Show them an oil soaked duck and they cry big tears. Show them piles of dead birds and bats and even a few eagles, and they yawn and extend the killing permits for 30 years.

Environmental thinking reminds me of liberal thinking on military action. If we can likely be successful and it is good for our national interests, then it is a BAD idea. If the action is neutral to negative for American interests and our prospects for success are small, then the liberal is all set to dive in!

When we used to be a rich world power, this may have been OK. Now that we are a declining debtor nation, it is less humorous!

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Never Met, Lived With, Just Did Some Weed

Obama lived with Kenyan uncle prior to law school, White House says – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs:

It's only a minor detail ... previously they "never met". Now BO lived with him 3 weeks and saw him "occasionally". Nobody cares.

The lack of curiosity about BO is pretty amazing for the MSM considering how wonderful they find him to be! They certainly were VERY interested in any possible (or even manufactured) element of W's past that was less than "Presidential".

Here is an article from Huffpo that talks about his "Choom Gang" of pot smokers, how he would jump in, grab the joint at say "intercepted" so he got more than others (why does that sound like him?), etc.

Here is a nice picture that was apparently published in Time at one point that Snopes "doesn't care" on http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=61245 Apparently it IS Barry, but it may or may not be weed. Again, it is not what one would consider "flattering", so we never see it.

Finally we have this "don't care" http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/17/The-Vetting-Barack-Obama-Literary-Agent-1991-Born-in-Kenya-Raised-Indonesia-Hawaii 

While "Birthers" have been booed down almost as hard as Global Warming "Deniers", it is pretty well known that Barry used whatever means he could to "operate" from Hawaii to Occidental to Columbia ... if being a "foreign student" got some $$$ it seems pretty clear he was "from Indonesia" ... or Kenya. Whatever worked to get the aid, scholarship, stipend, book deal, etc.

Was he born in Hawaii? Sure, he probably was ... but he also had 5 or so Social Security cards under "Barry Soetoro", "Barack Soetoro", "Barry Obama", etc

It seems that he used being "Kenyan" in his biography as a way to generate more interest ... or the book company did. But whatever.

The point is, it isn't an issue! The MSM has immensely enjoyed bringing up Reagan's divorce, less than flattering movies,  the fact some of his children were estranged from him. W's supposedly checkered National Guard stint, his DWI, and other supposedly damning aspects of his past were also common fare.

I'm just observing that it is MUCH different with BO.

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Duck Dynasty vs Elites

Duck Dynasty baffles New York:

It really doesn't "baffle" NY, NY ****HATES*** DD!!

The fantasy would never happen. The DD guys would roll their eyes, go off to some other enjoyable pursuit, and wait for the PETA dweebs to get tired and bored. Certain to happen VERY soon.

BTW, were it to actually happen, Ellen would be road kill just like the other fools.

We are SUPPOSED to live in a "pluralistic society" ... you screw whatever sex (and no doubt soon "species" and "age") that you like, and we all leave one another alone. "Civilized"

Let's not be beholden to any tired old religious morals! (uh, "civilization" for a few thousand years was equal to religion, but never mind)

Oh wait! ANIMALS! Now THEY have RIGHTS .. that certainly exceed any unborn human babies so-called rights, and really any supposed "rights" that "non-native" humans think they have! (If you are "native",  kill at will)

In the perpetual "liberal" (fascist) view of "rights for me, none for thee", whatever gay pride marcher in naked regalia has pretty much UNLIMITED "rights", but the DD guy in cammo with a shotgun is supposed to kowtow to your random Hollywood Elite.

Ah, the fantasy universe that can only be reified by the VERY strong arm of the state.

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Canonization of the Mob Experts

Gaseous Anomalies, Or What Would We Do Without Expert Forecasts? | Power Line:

We were confidently told in the 70's that the "energy crisis" was ABSOLUTELY caused by the FACT that the planet was running out of oil. It was more certain than global warming is today.

In the '90s and early 2Ks we were even more confidently told that there were no oil reserves in the US that could POSSIBLY allow us to be energy independent.

Today we KNOW that the "experts" and the "Settled Wisdom" was completely wrong on both counts.

We are headed to sub-zero temps here in Rochester tonight and tomorrow night ... something that has not been an early December phenomenon for the past decade or so, but was certainly more common 30 - 40 years ago. We will no doubt hear that this is "weather" as opposed to "climate" ... something that I would whole heartedly agree with. I'd also say that anything less than 100 years is ALSO "weather".

My view from my lifetime, the reasonably accurate records since late 1800's, reasonably accurate documentation of things like the "little ice age" and "medieval warming period" in the last couple thousand years, plus the 450K years of records in the Vostok ice cores is that the "settled science" of human caused global warming is in the process of discovering the chilly effects of reality as "peak oil" already has.

"Progressivism" is highly dependent on the theory that "experts" can lead mankind to heaven on earth by "educating / conditioning / training / modifying" the "common man",  or "proletariat".

There are really only 3 major problems with this:

1. The "experts" are often wrong. 
2. The "experts" are no "better / intelligent / moral / etc" than the "common man" ... they just think they are. In fact, they are SURE of it!
3. Once corrupted by power, the mere mortal "experts" will go to ALL lengths to "prove" that they are "correct / superior / moral / etc". The "all" includes sanctions against those who would dare question their position up to and including death. Millions have been the victims of this in the USSR, Nazi Germany, China, Cambodia, North Korea and other egregious examples in the last 100 years or so. 

Right now our own 2nd place progressive Poobah, Slow Joe Biden, is arguing with the Chinese Poobahs over wether the Chinese should or should not expel some US journalists for pointing out that the Chinese Poobahs are "corrupt". 

Joe and BO prefer to keep a lapdog media, audit some tea party folks, keep close surveillance on everyone's communications, and just call their opposition names (so far). The BO admin meeting with the Chinese is like the Godfather mob getting together with the the Sopranos mob to discuss methods! 

One thing is certain, both sets of "experts" will be RIGHT! (or in this case, LEFT!) 

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Civilly Hoping for Scott Walker Death

Lib Editor Apologizes For 'Insensitive And Inappropriate Joke' Moments After Hollywood Actor's Death | Independent Journal Review:

Liberals are always so nice and conservatives so mean. How can we even blame them for wishing that conservatives would just DIE. We deserve it after all.

Perhaps they will eventually train us to be civil. It helps that they tend to not provide much general publicity of their actual feelings about nasty folks like Christians and Conservatives!

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The Self Made Billionaire Next Door : Menard

Meet The Best Hardware Store In the Nation, And The Midwestern Billionaire Who Built It: John Menard Jr. - Forbes:

Growing up in N WI in the '60s, the Menard's Shed was pretty ubiquitous. As I got to Eau Claire for college in the early 70's, the store/distribution center was growing like topsy on the NW side of town where I would drive in for school.

When I hit Rochester in '78, we had a good sized one well out of town to the SE on 14, today there are two ... a big one on the S side, a decent sized on across 52 from where I live, and a mega new one going up N of me on the W side of 52, which will replace the one on the E.

How do people become Billionaires? Lots of ways ... new innovative products that are transformed into monster businesses by guys like Gates and Jobs. Buying and owning quality businesses like Buffet. Being entertaining and savvy like Oprah.

Or in the case of Menard, or Walton, just taking a plain old retail niche and doing it a better way and growing their business.

Is this still the land that can be done in? The fact that Menard's is PRIVATE may indicate something of the modern requirements to operate with less government supervision to make it big.

But it at least COULD be done. Let's hope it still can.

People or PC?

A Very Dangerous Game - Thomas Sowell - Page full:

In America today, that is an easy answer.

For those of you that don't read the alternative media, it is the "Knockout Game", and it is coming to a street near you if you have not heard of it already. If it is up to the BO administration and the MSM though, you won't be aware of it until the side of your face is caved in and you get a starring spot on a celebratory YouTube. Talk about your "15 min of fame".

As always, Sowell covers it so well I have little to add ... other than he is black, brilliant and totally fearless as always!

Read it and weep for the decent nation that was once America.

"Apparently political correctness trumps human lives. 

Providing cover for hoodlums is a disservice to everybody, including members of every race, and even the hoodlums themselves. Better that they should be suppressed and punished now, rather than continue on a path that is likely to lead to prison, or even to the execution chamber."

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Fake Turkey, Fake Life, Fake Nation

Media feasting on Bush 'fake' turkey claim; false story still repeated 10 years on - Washington Times:

I ran into this today after posting this yesterday.

“It’s a real theme in so many people’s minds, it’s almost got a religious aspect to it,” said Tim Blair, a columnist at The Daily Telegraph in Australia who has tracked the story over the past decade and said it has taken on a life of its own, playing on people’s perceptions of the former president. “If you’re of the anti-Bush faith, it’s a touchstone. It’s the book of turkey.”

Yes, and there is "the book" of "misunderestimated", "Mission Accomplished", "Bush Lied", and countless others. Back then, raising the debt ceiling was in the words of a certain BO "a failure of leadership" http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/debtlimit.asp ... today of course NOT raising it is "unpatriotic", "holding the people hostage", etc, etc.

... and the MSM fails to even point out the obvious hypocrisy as BO brays on. Not very likely they will be dwelling on any fake stories 10 years after the fact with BO!

I probably knew 10-20 people that were deep in the throes of "Bush Derangement Syndrome" during his time in office, and no doubt most of them still are. (the condition seems to be terminal).

The problem is that when politics is a religion, it isn't politics, as it generally is not on the conservative side because the majority of people on that side have REAL religion! ( eternally effective vs not even real at all, a wonderful trade)

The media and the left want to reduce this all to "both sides do it", but in point of fact, the whole education system, NPR, NBC, NYT, etc, etc are a lot different from a few Christian schools, NRO, a few Bloggers, Fox News and Talk Radio. More people maybe ought to treat NPR exactly like Fox News and "Harvard Studies" like "Liberty University Studies" (meaning ALL have their specific biases and axe to grind), but I really doubt that is happening anytime soon. So I keep hammering.

My thesis is that ALL people have religion, marriage and children -- and many other things, because they are wired into the species. The objects of those elements were also ordained ... God, Husband/Wife, real human children.

Modern America has so cut ties with reality that people replace God with Politics, Diet, Job, Status, Possessions, etc and claim they have no religion. Only they still do, it is just false.

And then they get Married ... to their "significant other", or their job, or their cause, or their house, and believe that they are "free of marriage". Only they are still married ,,, just not naturally so. ("Gay marriage" is just one tiny example of fake marriage.)

Then they have their pets, or their relatives kids, or their birds, or their social cause, or "the poor" on which they lavish the attention naturally intended for children.

While this all goes on the real country falls in ruin, families cease to exist, and the population of "Caucasians of European decent" falls below replacement level and withers away. Which is considered "good", and to not consider it good is "racist", since pride in your heritage is racist if your heritage is not Black, Hispanic, or American Indian. (Asian heritage seems to be OK as well ... possibly because they have seen fit to commit demographic suicide for their own reasons as well ... misery loves company).

Over half of America and greater percentages than that in Europe, China and Japan live in a Fake World. They have lost their connection with both the real and the spiritual universe -- a condition that I believe is unavoidable once the connection with the spiritual is lost. The Spiritual is more real than the material (seen by modern man as "real"), so once it is lost, the obviously UNreal material universe (see quantum mechanics) has no anchor.

America is especially vulnerable because it was founded on an idea. You remember, that ALL men are CREATED equal, endowed by their CREATOR ,,,"

Other nations are founded on race, ethnicity, religion or territory. If there is no Spirit and no Creator, then there is no America, because America WAS that fundamental idea,

Since we are a nation founded on an idea, the educational system and the MSM turning away from the fundamental basis of our existence as a nation is more than just "partisan" or "divided" or "progressive". It means that vast swaths of our population truly are no longer Americans, because they no longer believe in the idea on which we are founded.

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BO Bagger, Emmerson Stupid

Obama (Allegedly) Uses ‘Tea-Baggers’ in Handwritten Response to Texas Teacher; Only Center-Right Notices | NewsBusters:

I give this story about a 50/50 or maybe slightly less of being true. The nice thing about being loved by the MSM is that most likely, BO won't even have to deny it, true or not. Where W OTH had to put up with all sorts of CONSTANT rumors and innuendo from everything to 9-11 being a Conspiracy, to "God having told him to invade Iraq", etc.

There is such a double standard it defies belief. I ran across this relative to Tim Tebow the other day .. http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matt-vespa/2013/06/10/john-id-shoot-tim-tebow-oliver-begins-his-summer-tenure-tonight try to imagine if Tebow was Gay, or Muslim, or even Black, rather than Christian one could only imagine the outcry.

Of course, that would pale in comparison if a conservative commentator suggested that somebody defecate in Michelle Obama's mouth ... as a opposed to Sarah Palin's mouth. How civil can one get??

Oh, it is ALL OK since it is SO stupid to compare debt to slavery. Remember how stupid Emmerson was?

“A man in debt is so far a slave.”

Slavery / debt is a VERY common comparison and has been FOREVER! I'd bet dollars to donuts that if one did some looking they could find an utterance from his worshipfulness BO to that effect. Why not? When one is in debt, their treatment in the future is handed over to the one who owns the debt. Will the Chinese treat our offspring better or worse than Negro Slaves were treated in pre-Civil War America? 

One might want to look at current N Korea treatment, Japanese prisoner of war camps and current Chinese treatment of Tibetian prisoners before one started calling Emmerson stupid!

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Pushing You In Front of the Train

Good article. My title comes from its reference to the old "if you had to decide to push one person in front of a train to save 5 others, would you?" To most of us it seems obvious that the answer is "no", but to a number of people -- and I'd bet it is an increasing number, the answer is "yes".

Of course any Democrat would be happy to push "the rich, the responsible, the successful, the religious", or some other group that they dislike in front of the train in favor of some group they deem more "worthy".

The whole article is worth a read, but I really liked this paragraph:

The generation that voted in Barack Obama as president is new in American history. They were raised to mistake support of grievance-mongering for caring, special treatment for justice, and self-indulgence for sacred rights. They were taught to reject and be ashamed of our national values of freedom and responsibility. Freedom makes those who are irresponsible look bad, because they fail. Millennials mistake conservatives' love of freedom and responsibility for cruelty and racism. They have been taught people's problems are always society's fault, not that people learn from mistakes and grow strong by solving their own problems. They've bought the Big Lie that government can and should solve people's problems.

"

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We're All Democrats

“Remember boys, we’re all Democrats” | Power Line:

Or at least those in power are -- in both the executive branch and increasingly the judicial.

Why suddenly go for the "Nuclear Option" at this juncture?

Two reasons:

1). The one covered in the linked article. Because the DC Circuit Court hears the cases relative to the BO power grabs when law is made by executive fiat. As in "you can keep your health insurance for another year because **I The Supreme Ruler** have declared it!! You didn't know we had a Supreme Ruler? Well, you certainly wouldn't by listening to the MSM, but there is no other explanation for what BO did to delay the employer mandate and to suddenly declare invalid policies valid for ONE MORE YEAR!

2). A diversion from the disaster that is BOcare. We can expect a constant stream of these ... Oh! Thus just in! We have capitulated to the Iranians on their Nuclear Program and called it a diplomatic coup! Why don't you all chatter on that for awhile and pay no attention to BOcare, website promises or otherwise!

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Don't Throw Me Into the Filibuster Brier Patch?

Filibuster Rope-a-Dope? | Power Line:

An interesting angle. Since the "Progressives" succeeded in changing election of Senators from being a function of the Governors and State Legislators as the founders intended, to being direct statewide election in each state, the Republicans have never had a 60+ advantage in the Senate.

The Senate is the chamber most likely to end up in Republican hands from time to time given "land power" vs population power of each state having two Senators ... BUT, it is likely their advantage will be by a NARROW MARGIN rather than the full 60 vote trump card.

So the Democrats may have just blasted their own foot! Those that don't bother to read a history book or think for a bit can hardly complain.

Oh, I can only imagine the weeping and gnashing of teeth if the Republicans repeal BOcare with 51 votes and do a rule change to appoint a conservative to the SCOTUS at some point!

So am I a hypocrite? YES, that is why doing the the power grab was a mistake of epic proportions as I covered here.  We are ALL hypocrites! Short sighted, limited in our appreciation of the complexities and subtleties of changes we make in law, society and institutions like the Senate.

The "Progressives" rip out the very cornerstones that were the common ground that allowed us to live civilly, and then lament the loss of civility!

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Free Speech For Me, Not for Thee

2013: Year of the Left-Wing Billionaire | Power Line:

Good article that covers some extra detail on the simple facts of money and politics.

1. The Democrats always have more total money and more rich people giving them money. 
2. The Democrats constantly complain about money in politics and try to make it illegal for any Republican Donors to make political contributions (eg. "Citizens United") 

In a nation of over 300 million people, it takes money to "speak". Democrats are STRONG believers in one party rule(theirs), and freedom of speech that espouses their position.

Other political parties and people who are not in agreement with them should follow a simple rule. 

SHUT UP! 

... and if they fail to do as they are told, the Democrats are perfectly willing to FORCE them to shut up! Via, auditing their taxes (their way, "wrong" political view = criminal!), prosecuting them on some odd law about "whatever" (maybe they have a toilet that uses too much water), releasing some embarrassing personal information that they either found or made up, or simply finding the disagreeing speech to be "offensive" or "hateful" (words that have come to mean "disagrees with Democrat position). 

We live in simple times, and they keep getting simple. Be a Democrat,  OR ELSE!

Losing Children to the Left

Conservative Parents, Left-Wing Children | RealClearPolitics:

This one is way way too close to home. The seminal paragraph to me is this:

As a father, my purpose is not to pass on my seed, but to pass on my values. Just about anyone can biologically produce a child. That ability we share with the animals. What renders us distinct from animals is that we can pass on values. As the Latin puts it, animals only have "genitors;" humans have "paters." Or as the Hebrew has it, parent (horeh) comes from the same root as teacher (moreh). That is why Judaism puts teachers (of religious/moral values) on the same plane as parents.

Typically for conservative parents, that goes double or triple. God, Church, Family, Personal Responsibility, Morals, Tradition -- all these are dear to conservative parents, and in fact, had they not believed that they were good enough parents to be able to transmit their values rather than just their genes, they would likely have never had children. Things like children tend to not "just happen" to conservatives -- they had very high hopes and took a tremendous amount of responsibility to do all they could for their kids to successfully receive the values that they believe to be crucial to a good life on earth and eternity to come.

The article covers the obvious leading cause. Caring parents pay thousands and tens of thousands of dollars to have their child indoctrinated by the left wing educational system at a time in their life when human nature demands they break away from home. The godless, humanist largely socialist educational system just gives them an extra large shove in areas that one would argue they have no business even touching.

The destruction of western civilization through the corrupting of the youth goes at least back to "The Abolition of Man" by C. S. Lewis, published in 1943. The rather short book does a very superb job of showing how modern education produces "men without chests" ... or to put it another way, "without a heart". No proper/beneficial sentiments ... those must be learned (and not removed by the schools and the culture). Things like honor, awe, humility, compassion, reverence, etc.

The proof of the heart removal is in the callous manner in which they trample on the faith, the values and the traditions that they know to be as dear as life itself to their parents -- in fact of eternal significance. As Christian Parents are faced with the heartbreak of godless children, they possibly experience a minuscule sliver of the loss Christ felt has he hung on the cross and was forsaken by God.

"God and Man at Yale" from Buckley in the '50s and "The Closing of the American Mind" in the 60's from Bloom further document the disease that is destroying all of value in Western civilization.

The article talks of the sadness, which is unavoidable and terrible.

For Christians though,  through a lot of tears and despair, it is yet another prod to realize that ultimately God is in charge and having done all that we were able to do as parents, it is time to "let go and let God" -- all be it with MUCH prayer for his intervention. 

Family is important, but God is to be TRULY FIRST. Our primary joy is not be from earthly things, and that sadly includes even our children. 

Martin Luther leaves us with "A Mighty Fortress is our God" 

The Word they still shall let remain
Nor any thanks have for it;
He's by our side upon the plain
With His good gifts and Spirit.
And take they our life,
Goods, fame, child and wife,
Let these all be gone,
They yet have nothing won;
The Kingdom ours remaineth.

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Nuclear Ratchet to Tyranny

The Most Comical Hypocrites of All, the New York Times | Power Line:

All people are hypocrites, that is why we once had the Bible, Classical History and the Constitution.

"Progressives" are required to be both liars and hypocrites ... since they ascribe to the obvious fantastical and known to be incorrect belief that "historical progress is always positive". They share this with Marx -- for whom the arc of history toward Communism was a "given". Even though the 20th century saw more human lives snuffed out by godless Socialist or Communist states than all the previous wars of history, "Hopeful Change" is still viewed as a guaranteed path to earthy nirvana by the brand of hypocrites that call themselves "progressive".

So now the Filibuster is dead in the Senate and we see what Democrats really think of "respect for the minority". Oh we are told it is "only for certain Presidential appointments". Oh really. BOcare was passed with < 60 votes in the Senate under the rubric that "it was a budget measure". No, the seal has been broken, America's headlong descent to mob rule as clicked another large tooth on the ratchet of doom as we slide farther into tyrannical rule by the mob, no doubt to be followed by "rule by THE PARTY".

On NPR yesterday the hosts were chortling with joy, and when they talked to a Republican Senator that was in disbelief that this had been done, they kicked their derision up another notch with, "well, if you don't like it, you can change it BACK if you are ever in the majority!" ... ha, ha, ha!!

There is the rub. Since all humans are hypocrites, non-totalitarian civilization demands that we all bow to SOME "higher power" that we ALL agree we will HONOR and hold SACRED. Formerly that was Judaeo-Christianity that allowed Western Civilization to be built. Then there were Constitutions -- largely based on the Bible and the Magna Carta, along with Greek and Roman knowledge about limiting the power of Leviathan (the government) and the proper relationship of all the classes of society. Yes, we once knew that there were just increments in the status and capability of people. We still do, we just claim we don't these days.

"Change it back". Indeed, the myth of Pandora, or the touching rendition of same in Disney's "Sorcerers Apprentice" is completely lost to the promethean narcissistic monsters that currently rule both our political and popular culture. Agreed to limits?? Ha!! Why don't you foolish "conservatives" follow your own foolish rules IF you ever gain power again!

Constitution? God? Rules? Tradition? To hell with all of them! Like Lucifer in the Garden, GIVE US POWER!!

And so it slips away, click by click, drip by drip, and when it is completely gone they will say "how could this have happened".

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Incorrect Promises

The Obamacare Ten-Step Self-Help Program | National Review Online:

As we watch 1/6th of the economy implode under the malfeasance and incompetence that is BO, it is worthy to do a bit of slow-mo on the sleight of hand of the this combination 3-card monty swindle and healthcare demolition derby.

One thing this article, and nearly all I have read.completely leave out is that "if you like it you can keep it for ONE YEAR LONGER"!!! Although I see it before my eyes, I'm unable to really accept that Americans have gotten so short sighted that the new promise from a proven liar is even considered.

But BO has assistance in his subterfuge. In the tradition of "Fake but True" previously applied to the memos "proving" that W wasn't a great fighter pilot 30 years ago, and "White Hispanic" a new racial class containing only George Zimmerman, the NYTs has created  "incorrect promise"!

The split between lawmakers and the White House reflects the dilemma the president finds himself in as he seeks to follow through on last week’s acknowledgment about his incorrect promise on health care coverage. Hundreds of thousands of people have received cancellation notices from health insurance companies because their plans do not conform with minimum standards set by the new law.

Lie. How easy it was for the press to ascribe that word to W, Nixon and even Reagan, yet when BO is totally exposed, we get a new linguistic creation as opposed to the facts. 

The entire linked article is well worth the read, but item #1 is the clincher. When future generations marvel at the rapid decline, this is what killed the American experiment. On retirement, healthcare, and increasingly all aspects of life, responsible behavior is punished, irresponsible behavior is rewarded.

One is the idea of fairness, or rather everyone’s indebtedness to the state: those who budgeted for health care, either through individual plans, or obtained at work, got some sort of silent automatic benefit from the state, an advantage usually without much credit due to themselves. In contrast, those without insurance are all assumed to be victims of the system, who either were long ago dropped, or could not afford formal coverage, and were both without recourse to health care (such as walk-in clinics, emergency rooms, federal and state clinics), and were in that position due to someone else or nefarious forces beyond their control. Whiners who complain that their premiums go up are really the selfish who do not wish to pay “a little more” for their less fortunate brethren.

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Reality Bites, Early BOcare Edition

Obama in Bind Trying to Keep Health Law Vow - NYTimes.com:

Much like the only thing wrong with incest is the relatives part, the only thing wrong with Liberalism is reality.

Sure, it would be great if everyone could sit at home, get stoned, watch Oprah and live off a government check while the Chinese and future generations of immigrant and single mom raised kids covered the tab, but then reality intrudes.

So BO and the Democrats promised;  "We will force evil insurance companies to cover you even if you only show up AFTER you have been diagnosed with cancer ... and oh, yeah, will get the same rate as a Mormon marathon runner your age. Hell, EVERYONE, the chain smoking alcoholic single mother of 6 of the same age included will get the same rate, and it will be LOWER THAN TODAY!!! "

One would think that after listening to inane sales pitches of "$19.99 today only! Guaranteed not to rust, bust, collect dust, chip, crack or peel, or your money back" for year after year, there might be some skepticizm.

But no, the nation fell for the equivalent of the Nigerian Bank 10's of million dollar check and all you have to send is a few thousand!



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Tall People Reach Higher Shelves

Jumbo mortgages now carry cheaper rates than traditional loans - Nov. 12, 2013:

Wine costs less by the case. Government services cost less than private services ... eg Space Shuttle $450M per launch, Spaceship2 $150K.

And now this breathtaking article ... oh, and the little kicker

Jumbo loans have also gotten comparatively cheaper. As the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which regulates Fannie and Freddie, seeks to boost the two agencies' reserves against losses from mortgage defaults, it has raised fees and other costs for borrowers, according to Terry Francisco, a Bank of America spokesman.
Since Fannie and Freddie don't back jumbo mortgages, those fees don't apply and therefore aren't passed on to borrowers.

Things that make you go "duh".

From "Is" to "Period", Parsing With Democrats

Parsing Obama’s Promise | Power Line:

The last Democrat showed us the definition of "is". BO is showing us new nuance in the parsing of the english language relative to "period".

Remember when we heard "Bush lied" over and over? (and over and over and ...)

So W not finding WMD in Iraq when every western government and the UN was convinced he had it was a "lie", but it is very hard for the press label BO claiming not to know that 10's to over 100 million will lose their health insurance because of his signature program as even "misleading"??

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Penalizing Marriage Again

Decoding the Obamacare 'marriage penalty' - Nov. 7, 2013:

The particulars of this column are just a tiny example. State control and redistribution ALWAYS has to penalize marriage! It has been  known for thousands of years that marriage is the best way for men and women to live their lives and raise families. If you are a Christian, you know this because God said it. If you are an atheist, you could learn it through observation of income, both physical and mental health, wealth creation, etc.

Marriage is an adaptive positive behavior, so under the laws of liberalism/statism/collectivism it MUST be penalized in order to achieve "equality". Since marriage is a net benefit, in order to "equalize" the married with the unmarried, you MUST penalize the married. That is the essence of "redistribution" -- penalize successful / adaptive behavior, reward behavior that is not successful.

When a liberal/statist/collectivist sees "success" they immediately think "redistribute" ... which is implemented as penalize, tax, prohibit, regulate, etc. It is a knee-jerk non-negotiable reaction. The effect of redistribution is like spreading out a fire ... the fire goes out. Redistribution is PRECISELY penalizing success! Whatever behaviors are successful MUST be penalized in order to achieve equality of result! How else would you do it?

Why do they think this way? Because they have a vision of the world as perfect, but it requires the removal of most all the behaviors that have proved adaptive to build the western civilization we see today. Religion, truth, morality, self-control, liberty ... all must go. To attempt to thwart their actions is evil in their eyes because it denies their perfect world -- heaven on earth.

At their core they believe in a way even stronger than an Arab flying a plane into the WTC that man is good and that left to his "natural state", each short human life can be "heaven on earth", and there is NOTHING else of worth than that short life of sensual enjoyment! While the specifics of their view of this utopia are very foggy, they KNOW that it is good, and they KNOW that it requires the removal of all of the things that can be tied back to God / religion / existing civilization /tradition/ etc.

This dichotomy is as old as Adam. Is there a "better way" outside of the law and gospel given in the Bible?  Liberals believe that there certainly is, and so things like marriage have to be penalized, re-defined, weakened and finally destroyed so that all may be finally "equal". We will not reach their state of perfection until all are "equal" in our corporeal  existence.

I too believe there is an ultimate state in the physical world of equality -- death. Death of people, death of nations, death of civilizations and eventual death of the entire physical universe. I however believe there is an ultimate spiritual reality that is greater.

Mat 24:35 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." 



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In Praise of Income Inequality

Opinion: The most unequal place in America - CNN.com:

I grew up "lower middle class" and ended up "high middle or lower "rich"".  I've seen friends and relatives make the same transition and I've seen some go the other way. It is pretty easy to go from up to down ... I would not be at all surprised to see it happen to me. A bit of government confiscation, a stock market crash, sickness, etc. It always has and always be a lot easier to lose it than to make it.

The only perfectly "equal" place is one where everyone by law has ZERO. The old USSR came close. Of course the top 5% or so were MUCH more equal than the rest -- the Politburo the party chiefs, etc. ... but heh, they were "servants of the people" wink wink.

The other option is where America is fast heading ... and most third world nations already are. The vast bulk of the people lose their will to work and lose any sense that they could ever "get ahead" ... as what is encouraged by this article and the BO administration and my family as a youth. "The system is rigged, you don't have a chance, you have to have connections, it is all the big guys, etc".

Once the idea of upward mobility is destroyed, the culture becomes one of envy. "We need to take more of what the other guy has". So those that have been successful and those that have not given up on work hide out ... their assets are in metals, guns, land, equipment, offshore, etc. The net productivity of the financial and capability assets of the people drops precipitously and even worse, because the successful are hiding out, the models that prove that success is possible are at least nearly invisible.

The higher the standard of living possible the greater the income inequality! Guys worth 10's of billions really skew it, as do many people in the 10's of millions range.

It is interesting to note the "dream" of the person in this column. Not a newer trailer that didn't leak, not a car newer than her Taurus, but a giant home with servant quarters where she did no work at all! Unrealistic dreams are just one more way to fail to face reality and make better decisions day by day.

The article is founded on the absolute lie that somehow the folks that are wealthier are causing her to be poorer. The OPPOSITE is true ... go to other nations with far less wealthy, and the Taurus, the trailer with the leak goes away and she lives without power, toilet and clean water.

BUT they have lower income inequality!!!

Lovely, income equality or inequality is NOT a "basic good" ... in fact, it is essentially NOISE ... their are great countries with more income equality and there are great countries with less! By and large, more liberty means a higher standard of overall living, greater wealth of the nation AND greater income inequality.

Less liberty, lower general standard of living (compared to what would have been had with more liberty), less wealthy, and less inequality.

Give me Liberty and Income Inequality!

I loved the joke that went around about running a Democrat Home on Halloween ... take 1/2 the candy from the kids that came to the door and take it to kids that were too lazy to go out and trick or treat!


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I'm Adopted

Lutheran Hour Ministries :: Daily Devotions:

One can sign up to get these every day. For some of us geeky modern Christians, it is a good way to make sure that there is at least a tiny bit of something spiritual in our day, even sitting on a loading tractor in IA.

In the eternal sense, being adopted is far better than being a naturally born child of earthy parents!

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The GLOBAL Wealth Confiscation Plan!, MUST READ!!

The International Monetary Fund Lays The Groundwork For Global Wealth Confiscation - Forbes:

That this is not front page news in nearly every global media outlet should be a VERY strong lesson of exactly how Russia, Germany and China slipped into tyranny.

Note three takeaways. First, IMF economists know there are not enough rich people to fund today’s governments even if 100 percent of the assets of the 1 percent were expropriated. That means that all households with positive net wealth—everyone with retirement savings or home equity—would have their assets plundered under the IMF’s formulation.

Second, such a repudiation of private property will not pay off Western governments’ debts or fund budgets going forward. It will merely “restore debt sustainability,” allowing free-spending sovereigns to keep tapping the bond markets until the next crisis comes along—for which stronger measures will be required, of course.

Third, should politicians fail to muster the courage to engage in this kind of wholesale robbery, the only alternative scenario the IMF posits is public debt repudiation and hyperinflation. Structural reform proposals for the Ponzi-scheme entitlement programs that are bankrupting us are nowhere to be seen.

Got that??? The ONLY listed alternatives were confiscation of assets from EVERYONE with positive net worth, AND the ONLY alternatives where hyperinflation and debt repudiation!!! (so much for the "safety" of holding government bonds!!

This is the IMF being reported on in Forbes folks. This is not some gold bug newsletter.

BTW, it you did or can make it to 55 prior to leaving the employer that you built your 401K with, it strongly appears that it is completely open withdrawal at current tax rates right off the bat ... no penalties, no "5 substantially equal payments".

http://www.forbes.com/sites/advisor/2012/05/09/did-you-know-you-can-access-your-401k-penalty-free-at-age-55/

The last quote from the report in the linked article is very much worth reading to the bottom for!

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But I Thought They Hated Us BEFORE BO?

Merkel: US spying has shattered allies' trust - Businessweek:

I could have SWORN that it was W that the Europeans hated, and that when BO was elected they were ECSTATIC! In fact, I seem to remember he won a NOBEL PEACE PRIZE just for getting elected!

Wazup wid dis? Did they forget that he is THE ONE??? I mean, God is omnipresent and can hear their calls. I thought they felt that his Supreme Odiferousness, BO was similar in nature???

In my view he is The ZERO ... but then being "off by one" is a common programmer problem, and it appears that B ZEROCARE may well be a good example of A LOT of programming errors!

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Rudeness, Progressive, Authoritarian

Sources: Word of alleged rude GOP comment came from WH deputy chief of staff – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs:

Wow, someone in Washington was RUDE! oops ... guess really not, false alarm! If someone was imagined to have ween "rude" to W? The nice thing is that we don't really have to wonder do we? While I was out looking a bit for specific quotes, I ran into this.

From Salon no less!

As this post demonstrates, long before Barack Obama achieved any significance on the political scene, I considered blind leader loyalty one of the worst toxins in our political culture: it’s the very antithesis of what a healthy political system requires (and what a healthy mind would produce). One of the reasons I’ve written so much about the complete reversal of progressives on these issues (from pretending to be horrified by them when done under Bush to tolerating them or even supporting them when done by Obama) is precisely because it’s so remarkable to see these authoritarian follower traits manifest so vibrantly in the very same political movement — sophisticated, independent-minded, reality-based progressives — that believes it is above that, and that only primitive conservatives are plagued by such follower-mindlessness.

The problem here is that "progressives" believe they are "smarter" because they belong to the dominant elite political party / class. "Authoritarian follower traits". Note how insidious ... the pour soul writing that column sees the danger, but doesn't understand that left is CONTROL and right is CHAOS. He still buys the formulation that the left created at WWII with "grand theft label" as they usurped "liberal" for their own use and labelled the far left control National Socialist (Nazi) Hitler government "right wing". A travesty of Orwellian naming!

When our labels no longer attach to the concepts that formed them ... eg. "liberal" root "LIBerty!" becomes detached from it's root and used in place of "statism, totalitarianism, authoritarian", is it any wonder that the Sheeple become confused? 

The quote from Thomas Paine that was added to that column is right on: 

UPDATE II [Thurs.]: Here is what Thomas Paine, in The Age of Reason, had to say about all of this: 

[I]t is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.
It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.
As is true for so many things, Paine grasped the crux of the matter and expressed it as well as it can be expressed.

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23 down, 13 Up Verizon Tether

$30 a month Verizon 2GB data plan, Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0, Acer Chromebook sitting out 5mi W of Humbolt IA in a tractor ... 23MB down, 13MB up. Not too shabby!

The Reality of Hopelessness

Barack Obama’s Era of Hopelessness | Power Line:

BO's 2nd autobiography was titled "The Audacity of Hope". Only certifiable narcissists write TWO autobiographies prior to age 50, but maybe our next potentate will have written even more than that ... Stalin, Mao and Hitler all had extremely high opinions of themselves as well.

So the Age of Obama has brought the percentage who think America’s best days are still ahead down from 45% to 31%, while the number who think our best days are gone has risen from 37% to 52%. Great work, Barry. This is your true legacy: hopelessness.

The MSM is WILD about negative polls when a Republican is in the WH ... when W was in we seemed to get the "right track / wrong track" and "W's poll numbers fall", etc with great regularity.

So people think that the US has very little future. Duh! We are over 17T in debt, have over 60T in unfunded liabilities. Our economy is anemic, our people have no sense that productive work is positive, and our population is just a bunch of drug addled aging geezers.

Bend over and kiss your "B(ack) Orifice" goodbye!


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The Illusion of No Limits

There's no actual debt ceiling right now | The Daily Caller:

There is no debt limit between now and February. BO can borrow and send money to his cronies with abandon.

The idea of "no limits" is a fundamental difference in human thinking. The conservative / constrained / "tragic" vision / world view is that man dies, man is limited and not perfectible, "progress" often isn't, and "new and improved" often isn't.

The liberal / unconstrained / utopian vision / world view is that man is infinitely perfectible. All problems, even death will be solved as time moves on through infinite "progress".

If you read this blog regularly, you are very likely "constrained". All Christians are constrained, because they believe that man is fallen and needs a savior as well as that God's laws are eternal so are "curbs" to mans greed, sloth, lust, covetousness, hubris, etc

 I cover the EXCELLENT book "A Conflict of Visions" on this subject by Sowell here.

It is also covered in significant scientific detail in "The Righteous Mind".

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Settled Politics

A Teachable Moment - NYTimes.com:

 "This means that the still-ongoing intra-conservative debate over the shutdown’s wisdom is not, I’m sorry, the kind of case where reasonable people can differ on the merits and have good-faith arguments and ultimately agree to disagree. There was no argument for the shutdown itself that a person unblindered by political fantasies should be obliged to respect, no plausible alternative world in which it could have led to any outcome besides self-inflicted political damage followed by legislative defeat, and no epitaph that should be written for its instigators’ planning and execution except: “These guys deserved to lose.”"

Got that? Since this is NOT the kind of thing where "reasonable people" can have another viewpoint, it is like Global Warming. You MUST agree with our position or you are by definition INSANE (the more direct statement of "not reasonable")! It is only because of the current good graces of our ever benevolent left wing that even though we are 100% surveilled, they don't in fact lock up the insane opposition?

Having a budget worked though both houses and signed by the president? Insane!

Having checks and balances where people that vote in the opposite party into the House assuming that the House has "the power of the purse"? INSANE ... bring the King a clean resolution so he can spend as he sees fit. He need not deign to negotiate with the lowly House!

Running trillion plus deficits as far as the eye can see? REASONABLE ... why anyone would have to be insane to think otherwise!

Converting 1/4 of the US economy to a government directed system that is cronyized in the true "Chicago Way" with graft, exceptions, subsidies, etc for political friends, and mandates, penalties and fees for political enemies on a purely executive whim basis. VERY REASONABLE! Why this law passed by one vote in the Senate because it was part of the "budget" ... which was never passed. Get over it, it is INSANE to question the power of his supreme odiferousness BO!

Ah yes, the one must get their mind right!


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Your Spirit or Your Body?

Finally! The Republican Fever Is Broken - The Daily Beast:

There’s a scene in The Dark Knight Rises—the final film in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy—in which the villain, Bane, taunts the Caped Crusader before crippling him. “I was wondering what would break first,” he says, “your spirit, or your body!”

The left is feeling really good, they are identifying with Bane from "The Dark Knight Rises". Short of Lucifer himself, a pretty good pick for those intent on gaining all power and destroying those that dare to think for themselves.

"It's a complete capitulation by the Republicans". Oh joy of joys.

We don't need no stinkin budget, we can spend spend spend with impunity forever! They are fools to ever challenge our great BO! Let him reign as potentate forever. Let us grind the idiocy of "checks and balances" under our boots!

The parallel with "The Dark Knight Rises" is a little eerie ... Bane complains that nobody respected him until he put on a mask and became violent. Similarly, the Democrat party slow march to total control and wiping out those with other views really kicked into high gear when BO decided to ignore the constitution on budgets, use  IRS to do his bidding and put everyone under surveillance "just in case".

Will  the "Dark Knight" of the spirit of conservatism rise again? My view is that it is not likely until at least a couple generations of destruction have passed.

She is right, the forces of Bane are triumphant! Maybe I've got the "B" in BO wrong? Excuse me while I fail to cheer. It is kind of cool, BO being "the spirit" of the body.

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Conservatism Needs to Give Up

Fareed Zakaria: Conservatism needs to lighten up - The Washington Post:

I think this column covers the current dominant party/cultural view really well ... except a number of them would add "or else" at least under their breaths.

Things have been gong GREAT ... look at all the "progress" we have made! All these stupid conservatives have been trying to slow us down since William Buckley, but we keep winning everything and things are FINE! What is more they are going to STAY FINE ... we are like ... well, er, "Switzerland".

It is great to see him call out Reagan as some sort of an idiot for opposing Medicare, which is a major element in our 60+ TRILLION in unfunded liabilities along with FICA, but REALLY ironic to see him include the end of the USSR as one of the accomplishments of the left. Somehow I suspect he would have been just as quick to point out what an idiot Reagan was at the point of the "ash heap of history" speech. Being a "Party Member" allows one to think that way.

In the current US you can go to jail for an ever increasing pile of "hate speech" or have the IRS or NSA investigate you because you are on the "wrong list".  Remember, the maker of the anti Islam video that was the BO administrations original lie about the Benghazi attack is still in prison. Lefties will of course say "oh, that is on OTHER charges". Remember, TOTALITARIANISM is called that because ALL aspects of your life are under government control ... your health, your work, your income, your retirement, your speech, etc Breaking "laws" in any of those areas is enough to incarcerate you ... even installing a toilet that flushes too much water is crime in today's US.

But to Fareed, all of this is fine. I wonder when the last person was jailed in the US for anti-Christian hate speech? There is no problem losing your job in the US today for being too open about being against gay "marriage". You can be jailed in a number of US cites (DC, New York, Chicago), for even carrying ammunition, or as a legal firearm owner passing though with your weapon "not properly secured" (often meaning unloaded gun in locked case. Unloaded magazines in locked case, and ammunition in yet another locked case. This is in a country where "The right to keep and bear arms will not be infringed" is supposedly the law if the land.

I could keep going on and on, but what we have here is a fundamentally different view of what America is and was. There is a great book on the topic of Tipping Points ("The Tipping Point") but other than provide more detail, we all know about "the straw that broke the camels back".

There is no bold red line between liberty and tyranny that will be recognizable to all ... or even most. There were a great many defenders of the Soviet way of operation in the US at least right up to the day that the wall fell. College students ran around with Mao's "Little Red Book" in the 60's and 70's while millions were being slaughtered. Hitler was loved by the bulk of the German people.

Reading Fareed makes it clear that for significant parts of our society, we are not "near a tipping point", we are OVER it ... badly.

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Go Ahead, Make My Day

Memo to GOP: If Obama Won’t Compromise, Don’t Raise the Debt Ceiling | Power Line:

In one of my favorite Dirty Harry scenes, the bad guy has his gun pointed at the temple of the innocent waitress and is staring at the business end of a .44 mag with a very relaxed but focused looking Harry Callahan on the trigger. In 5 short words Harry makes it clear that the only question here is 2 deaths or none, but Harry is completely fine with 2.

The linked column makes a good case for the Republicans making BO the same offer as Harry makes relative to the Debt Ceiling. It is long, as things must be in more complicated world, but I'll do the very short summary here and it is worth the read especially if you don't believe me.

No doubt you have heard that not raising the Debt Ceiling is UNTHINKABLE! Remember when Sequestration was unthinkable ... irresponsible, economy killing, etc, etc? Well we have been living under the horror of Sequestration since March 1! In the tradition of Democrat chutzpah very similar to Slick Willie crowing about "a balanced budget" after getting full political hay out of evil Republican cuts IN THE RATE OF GROWTH in federal spending, BO has been shamelessly crowing about the deficit being "under 4% of GDP" ... which it would not be without the "unthinkable" sequestration "cuts" in the rate of spending growth.

1. "Default" is an absolute LIE! The US still takes in plenty of money to service the debt! If BO is petulant enough to graduate from putting up "Barrycades" on uncontrolled monuments to purposely engineering a US government default, then there is no real reason to believe he would not start nuking US cities for "spite" ... give those "bitterly clinging" red state yahoos what BO sees as "justice". 
2. We have no budget. We haven't had one for 4 years. This is al, immoral, stupid and a whole lot of other negative adjectives. The fact that less than 20% of American people (likely FAR less) have a clue about this whole mess shows that we can no longer self-govern. We have completely lost any semblance of truth based mass media, and the bulk of the population is so brainwashed by the combination of left leaning education and swimming in the MSM sewer that they are unable to function as citizens. 
3.  Given the above, a "Cap" is the best that can be achieved. We are hemorrhaging red ink at a rate that were the other party in the WH would be a national scandal / outcry if the level that would be make Watergate, Vietnam and the OJ trial seems like small stories!

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"Dumb" Americans

Opinion: America's problem -- we're too dumb - CNN.com:

Since "dumb" really means "unable to speak",  my rule is that anyone calling anyone else dumb (unless they can't speak) should probably not be speaking themselves.

Some thoughts:

• American's INTELLIGENCE is AVERAGE ... just like every other nation. 
• Our problem is that we don't really do "education" anymore ... we do childcare, indoctrination, self esteem improvement and stifle independent thought (as you can guess, 90% of my teachers hated me!) 
• Our founders, nor any actual student of humanity would ever suggest anything like a real democracy, which we keep slouching toward. Half if the population us BELOW average, and by following the kind of excuse for education that we have been for 60+ years ... left wing liberal union non-competitive democrat indoctrination, rather than actual LIBERAL education ... meaning multiple sided, grounded in REAL history rather than "victim oriented" history ... that "average" is dropping all the time. 
• A REPUBLIC is supposed to let some proper "elite" rise to the top and run the country as "statesmen" rather than "special interest organizers". Sure, the "elite" get elected, but the assumption is that they would be oriented to STEWARDSHIP of the culture, society and history of the people and nation. Our "elite" are those that do an especially good job of soaking up the propaganda ... of which the column author clearly qualifies. We need a TRUE LIBERAL elite ... which means strong education in classics, history, religion, philosophy, business ... essentially Western Culture with a major in American culture. 
• I thought we DIDN'T want to be "exceptional" in the old positive sense? In order to be at the top in these kinds of rankings we would have to have people motivated to think that competition and working hard were GOOD things, not "exploitation". We are totally reaping what we have sowed and now this columnist is complaining? Why, I'd bet dollars to donuts that he is NOT in favor of "exceptionalism". Try to be mediocre, and you usually end up lousy. 
• His solution is to start the indoctrination earlier??? Hello?? This is the old blood letting logic ... if things are looking bad with the amount we are doing, let's do more!

Americans may well now be poorly educated and confused, but it is mostly BECAUSE of our education and media system, and the LAST thing we need is to double down on that disaster!

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Donkeys Hate RINOs?

George Will: Susan Collins’s fiscal compromise leaves Democrats exposed - The Washington Post:

Usually RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) like Susan Collins are the toast of Democrat and MSM Washington. "How reasonable", "How moderate" ... oh, if ONLY the evil Neanderthal  "Tea Party" sorts could be so brilliant and urbane.

Oops ... the Democrat extremism seems to be showing !

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Lies, Truth, Shutdown, Sowell

Thomas Sowell: Who Shut Down the Government?:

I just love and respect this guy to the max!

He does a GREAT job of stating what is FACT and what is OPINION. This exactly what we need if we are ever going to return to the greatness that was once America!

Just read it!

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Barry's Brownshirts

From the Vietnam Memorial | Power Line:

It is hard to believe the combination of arrogance and petulance that brings the leader of what was once the greatest nation on earth to such overt and self defeating measures. If we had a Free Press ... meaning one whose brains could see sides of stories other than left, these kinds of actions would bring the ire of the nation down on BO.

As it is, we have to rely on getting the news from a few bloggers that have left the left reservation.

At the Vietnam Memorial two park ranger goons stood at the entrance to the wall, near the requisite barricades. The intention clearly was to intimidate people from entering the memorial area. Fortunately, many people simply ignored Barry’s Brownshirts and walked down to the wall. My wife Thuy, who was born in Vietnam, accompanied me (photo above left).
These people in DC are dangerous, and we the people need to stand up to these attempts to intimidate and abuse us.

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Cooler Surrealism

Obama "Happy That Cooler Heads at Least Seem To Be Prevailing in the House" - Reason 24/7 : Reason.com:

This "cooler heads" comment was up at the top of CNN yesterday. It just seems completely surreal to me that a president whose position is "I won't negotiate", then says "I'll negotiate AFTER I get an extension with nothing attached", comes out with this "cooler heads" thing relative to the people he would actually be negotiating with.

The House is the origin of all budget bills. Budgets required negotiation, and we are required to have one by law. Only we DON'T!  So the Republican majority in the House that was just as "duly elected" as BO has only the lever of the Budget to use, and BO and the Democrats refuse to have one, so we have shutdowns!

The ONLY choice Republicans have is to be completely irrelevant, or use these few levers!

Would somebody that was actually going to negotiate come out with the "cooler heads" comment against the very people he is supposedly now going to negotiate with?

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The Creation of Pseudo Meaning

When liberals became scolds:

Good column by George Will. Without Religion and the "Chain of Life and Being" that says that the created universe is meaningful because God has a purpose for it, meaning is extremely hard to impossible to come by.

So what we have is human manufactured pseudo meaning, such as the assassination of JFK was meaningful in that it showed how horrible the "Right Wing" in America had become.

Got that? Lee Harvey Oswald had emigrated to the USSR and just a few months prior to the assassination, he had met with the KGB in Mexico City volunteering to be a spy. He was so hapless that they didn't even want to deal with him. He was as much a communist as any ideology, but he was primarily just a kook.

JFK may as well as fallen down in the bathtub, but of course that was unacceptable to the left, so they manufactured a very false meaning, but that is pretty much the standard for leftward thinking.

No God, no truth, no meaning, no peace, no morality. Nietzsche was right about the result if God is gone, WILL is all that remains, and the strongest WILL to create, dominate, propagandize, etc are what remains. For what purpose? To serve those with the strongest will.

Right now, in the age of BO, God seems to be losing and The Will of BO seems to be winning, but my allegiance is still to God. It looked a lot more grim at Calvary, but he won that one.

I disagree that liberals BECAME scolds at the point of JFK, that is one "another fine example". FDR was a huge scold, Wilson and Teddy were at least just as bad. "Progressivism" may as well be called "scoldism", because they are ALWAYS sure that they know better! I mean, don't the laws of physics and evolution guarantee that things will always get better?


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Force, Syria, Negotiation, Debt Ceiling

Politics, Power, and Preventive Action » Would the Syria Deal Be a Coercive Diplomacy Success?:

Ok, which is it? Do deadlines and threats bring about negotiation or do they not??

Here is Jay Carney:

It was the credible threat of U.S. military action that led to the opening of this diplomatic avenue. There is no other explanation behind this rather remarkable change of position by the Syrians and no other explanation behind the decision of the Russians to seek a diplomatic resolution to the problem of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile…I think there’s no question based on what the Russians have said, and the Syrians said, and what we know that the credible threat of U.S. military action precipitated this. And I’m not sure what other source you ascribe it to or it could possibly be.  I don’t think there any doubt that this credible threat of force has produced this change in dynamic.

Seems pretty straightforward ... yet there we have Liar in Chief BO asserting the exact opposite in negotiations with congress. It sounds like they don't have a clue, or their lies have become so common that they can't keep them straight.  

I'd argue that COMPETENCE tends to bring about negotiation. If the administration had thought of brokering a deal through Putin without the abortive "Red Line" debacle, then that would likely have happened and BO and Clown Kerry might even have stumbled into looking like "statesmen". 

We haven't had a budget for 4 years, for the past 3, since losing the House, BO has completely failed to negotiate. Much in the same vein as "red line", the "No talks under threat" line has put BO in a spot that were he not a media favorite it would be impossible to save face from. Congress didn't threaten to bomb the WH, they said that after YEARS of not negotiating, you have to do it prior to this deadline. 

I believe every human knows that "deadlines, being under the gun, etc" DO push individuals and organizations to get busy, especially with hard things. Is that not completely obvious? 

The Debt Ceiling is a DEADLINE, not a "threat" ... of Congress taking some action. It is completely INSANE that CNN even prints such drivel and some percentage of people believe that not raising a debt ceiling is a "threat". 

BO is a "Community Organizer", NOT a politician. These two elements make that obvious. In order to understand what a Community Organizer is you need to read Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals", or at least my summary of same. Here and Here ... 

Alinsky dedicated "Rules" to Lucifer, and our current president venerates Alinsky. Need more really be said??

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