Opening The Overton Window

Donald Trump & The Overton Window --Resetting America's Political Debate | National Review Online:

Another thing I had never heard of, the Overton Window:

... the “Overton Window.” Developed by the late Joseph Overton, a former vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, the “window” refers to the range of acceptable political discourse on any given topic. As the Mackinac Center explains, “the ‘window’ of politically acceptable options is primarily defined not by what politicians prefer, but rather by what they believe they can support and still win re-election.” The key to shifting policy lies not so much in changing politicians but in changing the terms of the debate. In other words, “The window shifts to include different policy options not when ideas change among politicians, but when ideas change in the society that elects them.”

The column is a good one, it points out how well the left, with control of the media, the arts, the university and the government bureaucracies federal and state has been able to RAPIDLY move the window in areas like abortion, restricting Christianity, gay "marriage", nationalized healthcare and transgender. Eg.

The Overton Window moved even faster on transgender rights. Ten years ago the notion that a man with emotional problems and breast implants could be named “Woman of the Year” was unthinkable. Now, in some quarters it’s just as unthinkable to refer to Bruce Jenner — Bruce Jenner! — as a man.

Right now, they are pushing the window on gun confiscation, but along comes Trump and gives it a mighty shove in the direction of restricting immigration of Muslims.

While many of Trump’s actual proposals are misguided, nonsensical, or untenable, by smashing the window, he’s begun the process of freeing the American people from the artificial and destructive constraints of Left-defined discourse.

Well said! What has counted as "debate" in this country since at least the '60s and to some degree ever since Woodrow Wilson has been a discussion of "just how far left are we going on THIS issue".  The very THOUGHT of say, reducing the size of government, or (gasp!) unravelling parts of the "Great Society" directly responsible for the yearly 5-6K violent deaths of young black men have been "radical, reactionary, unthinkable". I mean, why would you reconsider programs just because they result in 50-60K untimely violent deaths over each decade??

the Left’s very success at defining the terms of discourse meant that the price of civility and unity was all too often an acceptance of liberal norms and manners. It meant swallowing liberal pieties and confining your discourse to Left-approved terms. In other words, it often meant surrender.

Surrender is FAR too high a price for "civility". While I am now, and I'm sure very few others were aware of the Overton Window concept, it shows one benefit of Trump. We MUST get out of having the left completely declare the shape of the battlefield and ever more consistently the terms of conservative surrender if there is to be ANY hope of recovering America, and indeed of "Making it great again".

I remain convinced that Trump is the WRONG fighter, but he IS a fighter -- and he HAS changed the terms of the battle. Without "outlandish positions" being declared on the right, there is no hope at all that some of those positions can slowly seep into the consciousness of the public and people running for office and eventually have a chance.

It's definitely time for our national "window" to be a LOT less open on the left and a lot MORE open on the right!
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XB-70

The Aviationist » Impressive video of an XB-70 Valkyrie Mach 3 bomber’s emergency landing:

Worthy read and an impressive video in linked article. The only remaining copy of this VERY impressive aircraft sits in The National Museum of the Air Force at Wright Patterson, Dayton OH.

I've been there and plan to go again. It is VERY impressive ... the XB-70 is off display right now, back on in June of '16 when they open a new building.

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In Praise of Leo Strauss

Leo Strauss' Political Philosophy: Reviled But Redeemed | RealClearPolitics:



I used one of my favorite Strauss quotes today ... "If all values are relative, then cannibalism is a matter of taste", so I did some looking on which of his many books and articles I really need to read. I haven't picked yet -- surprisingly my reading list remains very long, but this column is an EXCELLENT synopsis of why he is so important and so reviled in the modern left wing only academy.



He is mentioned a good deal in "Closing of the American Mind" and many other conservative works. Modern "liberalism" demands the ending of dialogue and fealty to power -- as in, they will demonize you, slur your good name, etc, but they generally will not engage in intellectual and reasonable debate with a man of Strauss stature because they deny that "truth" even exists.



A quote from the article, but it is short and WELL worth just reading.

In article after article and book after book, he argued that contemporary scholars were enthralled to “historicism” and “positivism.” Historicism holds that ideas and principles are nothing more than an expression of their time and cannot transcend the historical era in which they arose. Positivism decrees that the natural sciences offer the only legitimate form of knowledge and adds that since the natural sciences cannot distinguish between good and evil, all value judgments are subjective. (Postmodernism radicalized this sensibility by denying that science itself yielded objective knowledge.) 

In much of the academy, historicism and positivism came to be taken as self-evident truths. That both imply moral relativism, which means that there is no rational basis for judgments about right and wrong, was seen by many of Strauss’s colleagues in the university world as an important contribution to progress. 

Left-liberals regarded the supposed discovery of moral relativism as a blessing because they believed it bolstered pluralism and toleration. If there is no truth about the moral life, then custom and tradition lack authority, individuals are freer than ever to make their own choices, and society can dedicate itself to letting a thousand flowers bloom.

Indeed, and in a completely relative world with no objective truth, how does one identify "progress", or a blooming "flower" from a blooming "weed"?



As readers of this blog know, and is evident from the article, BY POWER! In this case academic power "97% of Political Scientists say Strauss is "wrong, dangerous, anti-intellectual, etc" and DEMAND that nobody read or teach his material!



The base "liberal" argument -- shut up!



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Sticks, Stones, and The State, Vikings Edition

My run-in with hate speech at a Minnesota Vikings game - StarTribune.com:

While I'm going to treat the tale in the linked article as completely true, I would much prefer that before the Red Star prints such a thing they would have at least found the security guard mentioned for corroboration.  As you will see, the "story" is just a BIT too pat for someone that has any shred of independent thought.  That said, let's take it as gospel.

The charge is that "some angry guy" demanded to know if the "attorney and director of the Advocates for Human Rights Refugee and Immigrant Program" was a refugee,  at a Vikings game. Nothing physical, just a question, but this attorney and director "felt threatened", got security involved, got an apology that he felt was not sincere enough, demanded the interlocutor be ejected and the Vikings failed to comply.

Asking if the attorney was a "refugee" is supposed to be clear and reprehensible "hate speech". Not "rude", not "bad manners" ...

I was raised with "Sticks and stones will break your bones but words will never hurt you", and "If you can't stand up for yourself, nobody else is going to". We don't live in that civilization today, but what IS the "civilization" we have wrought?

I remember the time in my adult life when I came the closest to being intimidated. An old candidate for Congress from our district, Mary Reider had 20-30 union folks marching in a circle in front of the entrance to the Kahler chanting and blocking people like me heading in to see Newt Gingrich speak. The more intelligent people were going around to another exit. Something in my nature compelled me to stride into the group -- which, probably since I'm slightly above average size (though clearly not intelligence) completely stopped and let me pass with a just few shouted nasty words.

Did they have a right to block the entrance? Were the words that they hurled at me "hate speech"?  -- we know the answer. "Hate speech" and "proper intimidation" are declared by "The Party" (D).

I'm reminded of Churchill, "Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without effect". Walking through demonstrators is tame by comparison, but I'm sure the feeling is related.

So how does tattling to the teacher or the security guard make one feel? I suppose it depends on the results that your tattling provides, but I can't imagine it makes one EVER feel "secure or good", because AT BEST you are in hopes that the watchful eye of the State in some form or another is ALWAYS going to be there to protect you.

It is a huge difference in worldview. Like the liberal woman's rape defense -- pee or soil yourself in hopes that the attacker will be turned off and leave you alone, vs the conservative woman's defense -- pull out your .45 and let the attacker pee or soil himself while he hopes you let him live.

But the "liberal" mind never stops at just making THEIR choice, they want to make YOUR choice as well! Gun control is just one example.

But what scared me the most was the silence surrounding me. As I looked around, I didn’t know who was an ally or an enemy. In those hushed whispers, I felt like I was alone, unsafe and surrounded. It was the type of silence that emboldens a man to play inquisitor.

I hate to tell him, but the real world is ALWAYS that way, at least until you make your play.

So we live in a society where males are feminized and individual responsibility is transferred to the State, while anyone that "gets involved" is very likely to be sued by lawyers just like the one complaining. He wants people to stand up and get involved, yet he apparently feels no personal backbone to simply say "none of your damned business"! <insert favorite emphasis here ... a*hole, d*head, would all be "appropriate">

The problem with the "liberal" world view is that the only way it can come close to being any sort of reality is "1984" -- EVERY action of EVERYONE is completely scripted and "Big Brother" ALWAYS has the video of EVERY incident so that those that fail to comply COMPLETELY with liberal dogma will be punished, and those who do comply will be rewarded. The State tells you exactly what to do, and you WILL do it!

The column shows where "Hate Speech" starts to become thought control. One person decided to ask a question that the column author decided went beyond "rude or inappropriate", but he felt ZERO responsibility to personally stand up for his rights. HOWEVER, he believes that people otherwise conditioned by thousands of cues in their daily environment to "let the proper authorities handle it" ought to somehow "step in" when the "confrontation" had never even risen to the level of "words were exchanged".

The attorney failed to cross-examine -- but it is "society's fault".

The very people intent on producing a society of absolute sheep are now incensed when the sheep behave as sheep -- and they apparently actually believe (or at least claim to) that is possible to achieve their "utopia" without levels of State control and surveillance that so far have only been imagined in fictional books.

A people who can't stand on their own feet will eventually kneel before people that can.

America, Land of the Politically Correct and home of the kneelers.

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Iran Gives US the Missile Finger

US conducting 'serious review' of latest Iran missile test | Fox News:

When a nation is a has-been joke like the BO destroyed US, insult is a daily occurrence.

What are we going to do about it? Oh, "Seriously review it" ... seriously?

We are rapidly approaching the ending of the country that half of us voted for!

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Watch List Consistency

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/12/07/two-new-york-times-editorials-terror-watch-lists-run-amok-now-lets-ban-gun-purchases-by-people-who-are-on-them/

When there is no consistency there can be no truth or reason. Looking at the position of the NY Times on the use of the Watch List"in the past, and the Watch List now the "Watch List" now, we see that what matters in a NY Times position is "which party is in office".

How does a nation descend into chaos? When truth, meaning, reason, law and consistency are thrown away. The old standard used to be God, the new standard is man ... which is no standard at all. Even relativity needs SOMETHING to be "relative to"! (the speed of light in physics for example)

When there is no standard, might is right -- POWER becomes the standard!

Trump, Obama With Balls (The Meaning of "No Rules")

Testosterone is the hormone of human action, power, swagger, bluster, attack and dominance.

As readers of this blog should well know by now, when law, reason and revelation are abandoned, there is no god or rule but power, and might becomes right. The largest armies, the most votes, the most bombastic violent dictator, the government most willing to silence, imprison and finally kill it's opposition. Such becomes "the good".

In the past two days we have a crystal clear example that would be completely obvious to a people versed in "self governing". The fact that the discussion we see happening, IS happening, makes it clear we are not a self governing people. Again, if you read this blog, that is no surprise to you and you have known it for a long time.

To state the obvious:

Exhibit A: Sunday Night, The President goes on national TV and says; "That is insane. If you’re too dangerous to board a plane, you’re too dangerous, by definition, to buy a gun."

The "No Fly" list is a semi-secret list with no Due Process to get on it. To take away an enumerated Constitutional Right without Due Process as been declared unconstitutional over and over as I covered in detail here.

Exhibit B: Last night, Trump calls for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering our country until our officials can figure out what is going on". The media and many that should know better go berserk saying this is "clearly unconstitutional"? Really? We have restricted immigration over our history on the basis of damned near anything you can think of -- country of origin, mental health, criminal record, skills, age, disease, etc, etc.

The Constitution (the one we no longer follow) was for AMERICANS, not the whole world!! We may have been imperialist, however we were not THAT imperialist.  (note, I disagree with Trump's position, but it is NOT obviously unconstitutional like BO's)

When the rule of law is removed (and even knowledge of the law), removal of consistency is absolutely required (consistency relative to ??), which in turn makes reasoning and peaceful negotiation impossible, since THERE ARE NO RULES! This being illustrated extremely well by this movie clip:

Obama believes in the power of manipulating the masses through the media and buying votes -- he scolds, pontificates and whines, he is bored and disappointed that he has to school the stupid recalcitrant masses yet again,  but he gives off no sense of personal power.

Trump does.

I have always assumed that our destruction would just continue the long slow slide to being a single party socialist dystopia like the old USSR, China, Cuba, Venezuela, etc with a media yammering about "what a paradise it is" while most waited in line for toilet paper and traded recipes for rat.  Those of us who foolishly spoke out remembering what once was, either died slowly in Gulags or rapidly by the "Stazi", while the youth, brainwashed in the horrors of "nasty old America" prior to the forces of of our new "woke enlightenment" approved demise.

But Trump shows us another face of lawlessness -- the kind our founders dealt with in the King, and the kind that arose in Germany. The CORE of conservatism is the recognition that man is NOT the "measure of all things", and that ALL human nature is both flawed and fixed -- it can be directed, cajoled, influenced, dominated, manipulated, etc, but it remains.

Humans like "royalty, wealth, athletes, movie stars, big televangelists, demagogues, etc" ... we don't all react the same to each one, but on the mass scale, we DO have an innate "urge to be led", urge to look up to SOMEBODY -- like testosterone, it isn't really bad or good, it just **IS**. It is BOTH a strength and a weakness like all our humanness.

So, once you throw out the rules, and people no longer even know what the rules once were, they start "seeking" -- "safety in numbers" is the Democrat way -- buy all the votes, dumb down the masses, promise them what they want, rig the "elections" with open borders, no id voting, etc, and EVENTUALLY all the power is yours! (and power is ALL without law)

Another way is the Trump way -- to hell with "Political Parties", to hell with anything but POWER! Sure, make use the hulk of a minority party out of any real power for 20 years (W was a RINO) as a vehicle, but make it clear, THERE ARE NO LONGER ANY RULES AND I AM PROOF!

Side Note ... The "nice" thing about lawless chaos is that there are MANY ways it can go -- the bad thing is that like all disordered systems, the VAST bulk of those ways are BAD -- yet another way than the Trump or BO, a better way would be a "return to revelation, law, reason and consistency", but that is REALLY unlikely right now!]

Once the mass of the people no longer care or even know about laws, reason, consistency, truth, morality, etc, as has happened here, things go "fully chaotic", or if you prefer "insane", but in any case "Beyond Reason" (Nietzsche),  what piece of vacuous fallacious rhetoric conjured for the purposes of today will win out with the ever flowing emotional tide of the shallow and fickle masses? Nobody knows -- the center has been removed. THERE IS NO LAW! LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE!

"Give us Bread and Circuses!", "Give us Barabbas!", "Sig Heil!", "Hope and Change!"  ... "Make America Great Again ??"

At a fundamental level, they are all the same. A republic with the rule of law was pretty nice in retrospect -- certainly "flawed", but then once you accept human nature (as our founders did), what you are seeking is a "bad system that is better than all the other systems", to paraphrase Churchill.

Funding The Climate Church

Unearthing America's Deep Network of Climate Change Deniers - Bloomberg Business:

Here we have a lot of attention being paid to how scientists that look at climate and weather as an area of legitimate scientific research are funded. ( not accepting that climate is "settled" is labeled as being a "denier" by the Climate Church).

We already know how the high priests of the Climate Church are funded -- through the State, like the Church of England, Church of Norway, etc. ... we don't need to study that, we know how linkage of Church and State works. There used to be a country in N America that had stamped out having a State Church until the Climate Church came along, but I forget it's name. "Obamination" I think.

State Churches tend to have Inquisitions to hunt down and prosecute Heretics that refuse to submit to the authority of the State Church -- which is one in the same as the State, and enjoys the power and the funding of the State.

The State Religion and the State work together to hunt down and remove any opposition -- the purpose of the "research" cited in the linked column is just that. Pointing out that that there are still guys actng like Copernicus out there trying to claim that the Earth goes around the Sun -- rounding them up and maybe burning them at the stake is the sort of thing that State Churches are quite good at.

Money that comes from the State is holy ... money that comes from the private sector is SINFUL! Thus saith the State and it's Church!

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Due Process of Insanity, Convertibles

Obama: It's 'Insane' That People On A No-Fly List Can Legally Buy A Gun In The U.S.:

"That is insane. If you’re too dangerous to board a plane, you’re too dangerous, by definition, to buy a gun." 

So this is being said by the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, a man SWORN to uphold the Constitution of the United States. He even claims to be a "constitutional scholar"!!

Therefore, **HE** has got to be INSANE to utter those words!!!!!

There is ABSOLUTELY NO DUE PROCESS AT ALL to get on the "No Fly List" ... I had a friend on it that grew up in Austin MN, went to the UofM and worked at IBM for nearly 30 years. At the time he was on the list he didn't even own a gun. He didn't even know he was on it until they started delaying him at every flight!

The Huffington Post covered how easy / random / etc it is to get on the list. It's a bureaucratic CYA list, there is NO PROCESS ... "due" or otherwise.

Are we REALLY so Constitutionally illiterate as a people that we don't realize that "Due Process" as specified in the 5th and 14th has been stretched to include "rights" to busing, affirmative action, equal access for the handicapped, gay rights including "marriage", voting with no ID and through the vaunted "penumbra" (legal term for "made up"), abortion.

We have the President of the US asserting that an enumerated right, the 2nd Amendment, SHOULD be denied to people on a list that has no due process relative to one being added to it! Btw, not only no process to get ON it, but no process to GET OFF IT either!

Steve Hayes of the Weekly Standard is on the list, as are 72 DHS employees !!

We actually might be able fire anyone from DHS that is on the list, however, I suspect that THAT might well run afoul of some "due process right" relative to equal treatment as a Federal Employee.

How can a sitting president POSSIBLY make such a claim for restricting an actual Constitutional right?? If he is THAT incompetent, then he certainly can't fulfill the oath of his job. If he does understand what he just said, he must be IMPEACHED -- because he completely broke his oath of office on TV!

But we live in an insane world, and we as a people are clearly no longer capable of even having an IDEA of what America at least USED to be!

Naturally, in the real world, the San Bernardino shooters were not on the No Fly List.

So why is this being proffered as a solution after San Bernardino? Simple, because we no longer live a world that is real or sane.

I am reminded of a friend (a different one) who tends to buy cars without a lot of rational justification. Showing up with an expensive sports coupe, and being accused of "purchasing on a whim", he got a bit flustered and exclaimed; "But I've always wanted a convertible"!

To which the reply was, "But that's not a convertable".

It was however a "car", so we are talking rationality FAR greater than that used by BO on TV last night!

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Marco Rubio Drinks Water

Marco Rubio's 'water thing' - POLITICO:



It's a useless read, seriously, it's ALL about him drinking WATER while speaking!



Just to give one example of how important this rather longish column on DRINKING WATER is!

“Huckabee didn’t need water,” said an event organizer, who spoke on the condition that his name be withheld and the event not be made identifiable. “It was the first time that glassware entered into one of these events.”

This is a story? When the current occupant of the WH needs a teleprompter to get through a press conference?



If this is what it takes to come up with some "dirt" on Rubio, the guy is TOO clean!



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Vegans Mentally Impaired?

The Scary Mental Health Risks of Going Meatless | Women's Health:



My tongue is a bit in my cheek, but seriously it seems that there is a correlation -- and like all correlations, it may well not be that meat CAUSES the issues. It could be that folks that go vegan are more prone to the issues.

"Even the pros find the stats confounding in a chicken-or-egg way. "We don't know if a vegetarian diet causes depression and anxiety, or if people who are predisposed to those mental conditions gravitate toward vegetarianism," says Emily Deans, M.D., a Boston psychiatrist who studies the link between food and mood."

On the other hand ...

Without meat, we'd never have matured beyond the mental capacity of herbivores like gorillas

They didn't call them HUNTER gatherers for nothing.  The evolution people have lots of theories about how it was maybe to coordinate hunting in groups that was one of the major reasons for the  growth of the human brain, language, etc. ...



In any case, even the major "truth" that vegans are so ANXIOUS to tell you, that veganism is DEFINITELY a healthier diet, may only be true if you don't need your head for anything beyond a hat-rack



They maybe SO ANXIOUS to tell you BECAUSE they are vegan and their brain is impaired ... which is pretty much poetic irony.



HUMOR ... Question: How do you tell if someone is a vegan?



ANS: "They F**ing TELL YOU!!!"

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Hail Mary, Hail Christmas At Luther

Being on the positive side of a game ending like Thursday night in Detroit puts a smile on your face that tends to stay for awhile.

My smile  got a big boost last night as we were privileged and blessed to be gifted with amazing seats to participate in "Christmas At Luther: Saviour of the Nations Come!".  It was an experience like nothing I ever really imagined, and one which I know will stay with me the rest of my days.

Raised in a Baptist church in the day when elaborate musical programs were considered "worldly", and were done by Catholics (considered to be the "Whore of Babylon" in fundamentalist theology of the sixties at least), and Lutherans -- considered to be another of the apostate churches by that particular Baptist sect, my exposure to such worship was non-existent.

Add to this the fact that my musical talent would generously class as "minimal", and my background in any sort of classical music or understanding is woefully barren, and we have the proverbial beggar approaching the banquet. Oh, while we are at it, such a feast of spirit is properly preceded by a feast of a Norwegian buffet -- lefse, lutefisk, meatballs, brussels sprouts (which a like) and heavenly rutabaga mashed potatoes. It was definitely the best lutefisk which I have ever given a game try -- for some reason my Swedish blood apparently just can't quite get by the quiver though! We Swedes crushed the Norwegians potatoes and dumped lye on their fish, and the resourceful Norse consider them delicacies!

I'm not equipped to make intelligent comment on the program. Rapt amazement, awe and joy are the operative terms that come to me. SIX HUNDRED FIFTY young vocalists with symphony orchestra, handbell choir,  heavenly organ  in an incredible setting and really for the first time in my life I considered that angelic choirs and instruments praising God really could be something to look forward to in Heaven ... although I'm not giving up on shore lunch with Jesus.

I'm not sure two hours have ever passed faster! I was somewhat surprised, but very gratified to see that this was DEFINITELY an unabashed and unapologetic CHRISTIAN  CHRISTMAS celebration, . It included some of the manadary modern nods to "diversity", but they were not a distraction. I did reflect a bit on "why"? The crowd and the student body were certainly conspicuously caucasian with only sprinkling of others, but we were after all in Decorah IA, deep in the midwest.

In some ways the evening was coming "full circle". It was interaction with Luther graduates at IBM that provided the example that eventually led me to the Lutheran Church. I felt as if I was privileged to glimpse a special bit of that rich spiritual heritage that eventually drew me to the Lutheran Church. (a bit on that if interested)

What a miraculous complex creation we are gifted with. A little Norwegian-American school named after "Luther", a somewhat brooding German's German. Germany, where much later a madman idolized the Valkyries and a vision of "Aryan" that looked positively Norse, yet he himself looked nothing like the ideal. Enjoying the celebration of a Jewish child born in the mideast over 2,000 years ago with many aspects of the actual holiday translated by a Roman Church from pagan winter solstice rituals -- a Roman Church that the German Luther stood up to in The Reformation, 500 years ago in 2017.

Somehow though, when the candles are lit and the strains of the "First Noel" are coursing through the night and our gathered spirits, it is all simple.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Merry Christmas ... er wait, "Happy Advent" ... I'm a Lutheran now!

Thanks to the wonder of the internet, here it is https://vimeo.com/248192944.

No Right Is Safe, Or Real, "Privacy Clause"

The NY Times is all for extensive regulation of one enumerated right in the Constitution, the Second Amendment.

It is not necessary to debate the peculiar wording of the Second Amendment. No right is unlimited and immune from reasonable regulation.

A nation where there is such a thing as law must bow to reason if it is not to descend into violence, and reason requires CONSISTENCY, something certainly flown from our nation's discourse.  How would the NY Times react to their own statement if you put "abortion" rather than "guns" in as that "no right"?

Abortion is a "right" that is not found in any wording in the Constitution at all -- "peculiar" or otherwise. It is said to be based on "the privacy clause" of the 14th Amendment, but alas, "privacy" is not mentioned there either. You can link off to a few pages of legalese here  that define which batwing and eye of newt was thrown into the conjuring pot to find "privacy",  but it real base is in the "penumbra" of the Constitution -- meaning "rights that can be inferred".

To put it in common terms -- rights that are not present in the Constitution, so they were MADE UP to suit liberal justices!

If we were reasonably law-abiding people that understood the logical and rational requirements of freedom, we would have had a Constitutional Amendment to attempt to define ACTUAL RIGHTS -- like "privacy", or "abortion", or "gay "marriage"". If they passed, we could point to what those new rights included -- and did NOT include. But we are no longer that kind of people.

In fact, we are a people so supremely inconsistent that a paper like the NY Times can do a column like this relative to the 2nd Amendment, while at the same time holding the position that no state may regulate abortion in any manner at all, and in fact, it may not even restrict FUNDING of abortion! (The fact there is a 2nd Amendment would require that you pay for my guns if the 2nd was treated like abortion!)

They can favor the killing of 60 million babies for mere convenience, yet claim that those that believe in law, reason and consistency, lack "decency" -- which after law, reason and consistency have been removed is merely "power", "popularity", or "mob rule".

Certain kinds of weapons, like the slightly modified combat rifles used in California, and certain kinds of ammunition, must be outlawed for civilian ownership. It is possible to define those guns in a clear and effective way and, yes, it would require Americans who own those kinds of weapons to give them up for the good of their fellow citizens.

What better time than during a presidential election to show, at long last, that our nation has retained its sense of decency?

As Nietzsche stated so well, once God is gone, "decency" is only a matter of WILL! Whomever can impose their will can define "decency".

The NY Times, BO and "The Party" DEFINITELY want to IMPOSE THEIR WILL, and the 2nd Amendment is an obstacle in their way.

As is covered extremely well in the video of this post, OUR MURDER PROBLEM IS CULTURAL, and it was created post 1960!!!

If you factor out our large violent cities, our murder rate is like SWITZERLAND! Our large cities have 3rd world murder rates, and our little Plano Texas like towns have murder rates like Switzerland. What is more, our crime rate precipitously went up, then down, now up again since the 1960s, and as the NY Times laments, our GUN POLICIES DIDN'T SIGNIFICANTLY CHANGE!

We broke the murder rate, we can fix it, but the big problem is that what broke it is "The Party", and they have no desire that people realize that, let alone that they change their policies to save lives -- if they did, we would never have had Roe v Wade, nor the government programs that encourage single female head of household, and consign young black males to shooting each other in the streets.

Good Buddy Weisser

Teen named Bud Weisser arrested at Budweiser Brewery:

Truth can be stranger than fiction.

NBC Nineteen-year-old Bud Weisser was arrested Thursday evening for trespassing at a brewery of uncanny similarity to his own name in downtown St. Louis, police said.

Made me think of George Thorogood "Just me and good buddy Weiser, That's all I ever need" , and a lyric that always brings a wry smirk to my face "You know when I drink alone, I prefer to be by myself ...".

Ah, the "wisdom" of rock with a really wise guy bad attitude!

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Prayer Goes The Way of "Merry Christmas"

Prayer-shaming isn’t about attacking prayer. It’s about calling out empty platitudes.:

Until now, “thoughts and prayers” has been a bipartisan cliché, and a harmless one. Going forward, it seems the phrase will become a politically inflected dog whistle in some quarters in the vein of Chik-fil-A and “Merry Christmas.” That’s a loss. But it’s nothing compared to the losses we endured this week, and last week, and the week before that, and the week before that, and the week before that.

They don't really mean it is a "loss" -- to them it is a GAIN. They also have no trouble with killing innocents -- see abortion. What they want is POWER and guns in the hands of people are a problem on that front, as is prayer, so they want them both gone! The god of government is a VERY jealous god, and it demands direct and ACTIVE control over ALL of life. Certainly including anything said, but to the extent possible, even "thoughts and prayers".

In the Totalitarian States of America (TSA ... good acronym), behavior formerly private, like sexual preferences, MUST now be public and celebrated! Behavior formerly public, and explicitly protected like religion, MUST be closeted "in the bedroom", and ANY use of language associated with religious belief must be suppressed ... with the current focus toward moving "prayer" into the same closet as "Merry Christmas".

The idea of ANY power beyond government, or even the idea of things beyond human power -- say life and death for example, is an idea that a jealous government god seeks to suppress and hopefully remove from the mind.  The State wants its minions to believe that through the State, ALL things are possible. It jealously seeks to remove all competition in the hearts and minds of those under its dominion.

Government can't give life, but it certainly can take it away, or allow it to be taken away by the many 100's of millions in the case of abortion and war. Leviathan however would like to hide the "little" secret that for all it's supposed power, it is unable to prevent the death of even a single human. It works constantly to focus the minds of all under its sway on temporal existence being "all there is" and seeks to promise as much earthly pleasure as it can to those that worship it.

Those that bow at the altar of government have a fervent belief that DOING **SOMETHING** ... ANYTHING! is certain to "help". Evidence of the fact of many past "actions" being counter productive, costing much more in lives and treasure than the original problem, having all sorts of negative side effects, etc does nothing to cool the fervor of the confirmed government congregant. MORE controls, more laws, more programs ... more, more more must be sacrificed on the altar of government, and the tentacles of the state must be extended to the very language we use!

For those still able to think independently. The 2nd amendment is not new, nor is broad gun ownership in the US. Our murder rate per 100K is also middling in the world, even very low if one factors out our lawless heavily gun controlled major cities. What has changed? Well, as the article happily points out we have become WAY more Pagan. We also have WAY more broken homes than we had prior to becoming way more Pagan, and the Pagan god of government has grown in intruded with ever more increasing vigor into every aspect of our lives. Naturally, to the government believer, government is ONLY good, and EVERYTHING can ONLY be solved by more government. Let those that can still think pay attention!

Controlling language is as close to thought control as the government can get, so it is completely unsurprising that government and its acolytes seek to control the words we use. Many of our most rational thoughts are in terms of words -- make the word "prayer" into a word that elicits "mental care" relative to its use, and a major beachhead in the installation of government as the "one true god" has been accomplished.

Our pagan nation is in severe need of fervent prayer!

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BO Just Doesn't Happen In Other Countries ... (From Paris)

Fact check: Obama claim that ‘I say this every time we’ve got one of these mass shootings; this just doesn’t happen in other countries.’ - The Washington Post:

Hmm ... well, he HAS been saying that a lot of times LATELY, but he didn't used to, so that part isn't true.

But the mass shootings DO happen in other countries ... including France / Paris where he said this from ... famously with Hebdo and 3 weeks ago, in the same city he making the statement from.

As the WaPo article linked calls out Mali, Kenya, Mexico, ... the US is like middle of the pack.

In THIS case, even BO **SAYING** this actually DOES happen in other countries! He was saying it from France, that is another country.

So the rating is just "Mostly False"? Is that like a BO golf handicap? He is ALWAYS LYING, so even when he is lying in MANY ways in one single statement he still avoids the "Liar Liar Pants on Fire" designation??

Is he insane? In some ways, that would be easier to understand.

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Hmm, Syed Farook? Move Along, NOT TERRORISM!

San Bernardino shooting - LA Times:



Crazy white guy that might have said "no more baby parts"? Yeah, that sounds like a shooting to focus on a good deal. Clear Domestic Terrorism ... probably "right wing"! Have all them angry Christian zealots that don't like PP making a decent living off "tissue" shut up yet? It's clearly their fault dammit!



Syed Farook? Hard to say what that dude was up to -- too bad about the collaterals, but "whatever" ... move along here. Not fitting the narrative ...  DEFINITELY NOT TERRORISM!



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Laughing At AIDs and Abortion

Reagan press secretary laughs about gay people dying of AIDS.:

The Reagan Derangement Syndrome at Slate is definitely clinical ... they need to get back on their meds! The headline is naturally completely wrong (as is pretty much everything at Slate) ... nobody is "laughing at people dying" of ANYTHING in that link!  They don't happen to know what AIDs is, and "Gay Plague" sounds almost Biblical. (and the guy asking is using that designation, not Speakes)

 It is hard for people to imagine today, but I was FAR from the only person that graduated from HS prior to '75 that thankfully didn't even know what "gay" was, and it is completely unsurprising that in '82 somebody bringing up "gay" and "plague" out of the blue at a press conference would elicit uncomfortable laughter. Most of the people laughing were THE PRESS, and in fact the guy that raised the issue in the first place started laughing as well.

And NOBODY laughed at anyone DYING!!

Contrast that with abortion. It isn't hard at all to find "Abortion Humor".  I can guarantee you that **ALL** the victims of abortion are totally innocent.

The victims of AIDs, other than the hemophiliacs or women that discovered too late that their sexual partner either had sex with men or was an intravenous drug user, all made lifestyle choices that turned out poorly. It happens, often tragically -- consider driving drunk.

Perhaps the editors of Salon could just SLIGHTLY understand how people that care about babies in their mother's womb and view life as a gift from God as opposed to a meaningless party in the flesh, feel about abortion ... let alone abortion "humor".  To the extent that the writers of Salon have any grasp of reality at all, EVERY abortion is intended to result in someone dying!  The TOTAL number of AIDs deaths in the US for the LIFE of the disease -- which counts everyone HIV positive that has died of AIDs for ALL CAUSES since it showed up is less than  ONE million.

The deaths from Abortion in the US alone are over FIFTY MILLION, 1.2 million per year -- each year more than  the TOTAL  deaths from AIDs.  People are living with AIDs today, but other than a very few abortion survivors,  every abortion results in a dead victim.

No doubt the hatred of the Salon writers for an abortion survivor knows very few bounds -- the existence of survivors gives the lie to any mythology that it is "not a human life" that is being ended ... Gianna Jessen looks VERY human!

Why don't we get along in this country these days? Because of the kind of extreme dichotomy we see here. Prior to Roe V Wade in '73 (not that much before '82) people had freedom in states to protect the lives of the child in the womb, or to allow them to be slaughtered -- and those that approved of the slaughter could go to a state where it was allowed and kill their infant.

Those who believe that the right of slaughter is "basic" would likely be nearly as unhappy as those who believe in life today if Roe v Wade had declared that abortion was not allowed in ANY state. Perhaps they would have been angry enough and determined enough to get a Constitutional Amendment decreeing abortion as a basic right like the right to bear arms or to free speech -- but the evidence is otherwise.

We don't get along because we are lawless, and conflict is the state of lawless nature, trending life to become "poor, nasty, brutish and short" in the words of Hobbes. (the Constitution is the base of our law, ignoring it and failing to amend it in order to make change means we have no law at base)

For the aborted, it is VERY short, but it is certainly becoming poorer, nastier, etc for the rest of us, and increasingly short for broad groups of people like whites of high school education .

One might have a bit of a gallows chuckle at that last link. The article linked there says this is the worst "death bump" since AIDs (ha, ha, irony ...). So how much does the left enjoy laughing over "Red State Republicans", "Bitter Clingers", etc. ?? Certainly there were those that felt that gays and drug users "got what they deserved", but they were FAR from the dominant!  Does ANYONE on the TP side care AT ALL about high school educated whites dying earlier?

No, "The Party" (TP-D) has reached the level of power where laughter and derision of the poor rubes that are against abortion, or red state white voters is completely in the open and completely acceptable in media, entertainment, politics and even on campuses that are "safe spaces" for the left version of thought.

America aborted itself -- and most of the country fails to get the joke.

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Paris, Religion, Money and Temperature

Why Scientists Disagree about Global Warming | Watts Up With That?:

The linked article is to a new book by three PHDs that points out what the disagreement on AGW (Anthropogenic ("Human Caused") Global Warming) is and why. In summary:

The authors point to four reasons why scientists disagree about global warming: a conflict among scientists in different and often competing disciplines; fundamental scientific uncertainties concerning how the global climate responds to the human presence; failure of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to provide objective guidance to the complex science; and bias among researchers.

To a normal person, saddled with the burdens of reason and common sense, such conclusions appear obvious, inescapable even. To AGW believers however, the existence of such a book is immediate cause for anger, and quite possibly criminal proceedings to be taken up against the authors. AGW is a religion ... a very dogmatic and jealous one (thou shalt serve no god but government and AGW is it's holy word!).  It proves it's religious vs scientific credentials by falsely (and constantly) asserting the provably bogus religious claim that "97% of scientists agree". (science doesn't make "x% of people" claims, because it relies on experiment not opinion)

The main argument against the book from AGW will no doubt be that it is funded by "The Heartland Institute", a think tank dedicated to finding and implementing free market solutions to problems. Just their mission statement is enough for "The Party" (TP-D) and their media minions to break out the torches and pitchforks for a good witchhunt! Such groups are EVIL first because of the apostasy of claiming that a market might be better than central planning and control for achieving results!  Much like AGW, this has been PROVEN wrong! (see, N Korea is more successful than S Korea, and E Germany was WAY better than W Germany prior to the wall coming down -- oh, and the USSR was so darn successful that ... well, you have to BELIEVE to understand it! )

On top of this, Heartland is FUNDED BY CORPORATIONS! See The New York Times, CBS, NBC, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, etc, might actually BE corporations, have documents that claim they are corporations, etc, but they are just, moral, pure and most of all "Wholly Approved by TP!". They are "good guys" ... white hats, halos, etc.

Heartland is an evil NGO, meaning NON Government Organization! See, the billions of dollars that flow from GOVERNMENTS are like mothers milk ... pure, wholesome completely immune to causing any "bias" on the part of those that receive it! The taking of money by force from evil corporations, "the rich", or printing it on the holy government printing press (counterfeiting)  has the effect of sanctifying it (making it pure, or "laundering" it in coarser terms).

Once sanctified, this holy government money (Batman)! ... has no influence on those that receive it! So they remain completely pure in their "science", having no motivation whatsoever to arrive at conclusions that support increased government funding or adding power to the climate change industry! Note, there are many "corporations" in that industry (Solyndra comes to mind) as well, but just as the left wing media, they too have received the miracle of government sanctification!

This week, the college of climate cardinals is meeting in Paris to decree a new encyclical on temperature. As we know, his Stenchfulness BO has decreed that warming is "THE BIGGEST PROBLEM FACING THE PLANET!" ... yea verily, hubba hubba.

Choose ye which religion you follow, but know thee that no matter how much the oceans rise (or don't) in a century or millennium, the AGW religion will be of no import to you whatsoever when those days come to pass! Even the malodorousness of BO will no longer pollute this mortal plane in those days. Praise be to God!

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Nativists -- Strangers In A Strange Land

http://www.wsj.com/articles/stranger-than-fiction-1448303912

The linked article dissects this article, which attempts to make the case that Trump is "all about nativism", people that feel that they are "strangers in their own country", BECAUSE, they are racist Republicans.

The main linked article from "Best of the Web" at WSJ gives the lie to that right off, as any of us could using various people writing that "they felt like strangers in their own country" when Republicans took over the House in '94, when we invaded Iraq, when a mother that lost a son in Iraq is faced with someone who is against the war and thinks it is a "failure" to lose a son in Iraq. We could go on ... plenty of folks felt like this was no longer "their country" when  Reagan was elected and re-elected, same with W.

So,  it MIGHT be that Republicans feel more alienated because there is a hyper partisan far left wing guy in the White House that is CONSTANTLY maligning anyone who disagrees with him in as noxious a manner as he can ... the example from the article:

Inasmuch as such sentiments have political content, it’s hardly surprising that Republicans would feel them more keenly right now, when an especially partisan Democrat occupies the White House. Headline from the Hill yesterday: “Obama Says GOP Doing the Terrorists’ Work for Them.” When the president accuses you of being in league with America’s enemies, you might feel like a stranger in your own country for reasons having nothing to do with immigration.

Ya think?

The point here is that Trump is certainly appealing to the DISAFFECTED -- and there is no shortage of those. Sure, some of them may be racist, but the polling of the article BoW takes apart here certainly doesn't give any evidence of it!

Why do **I** feel I'm a stranger in this area of N America that used to be my country?

• No more "American Dream" or even any thought of what such a thing would even be. What is it that is "special" (let alone "exceptional")  about this area of N America today?
• America is no longer "#1" in anything (other than debt) ... and is sinking rapidly in everything. 
• No space program, can't put a man in space anymore ... big deal to me. 
• gay "marriage", BOcare, stagnant bad economy for 7 years
• "Black Lives Matter" ... but police lives, unborn lives, Christian Lives, White Lives, etc do NOT! 

We could keep going, but I'm not so sure there even is any "country" to believe that you are part of anymore. 

The Regensburg Lecture, Benedict / Schall, Book

http://www.amazon.com/The-Regensburg-Lecture-James-Schall/dp/1587316951

I first read this book in February of 2013 and read it again in the face of attempts by Muslims, media, Obama and others to claim that "Islamic terrorism is not Islamic" after Paris.

Such claims of course fly directly in the face of history, the Koran, Islamic tradition, and numerous events and discussions, including the response to Pope Benedict's Regensburg lecture covered in this book, which I consider to be extremely important for the trinity of faith, reason, and truth in our time -- both relative to Islam and secular attacks on that holy trinity of meaning.

The proximate reason that the political left and Islam reacted to the speech was Benedict's use of a QUOTE from a 14th century dialogue between Byzantine Christian emperor Manuel II Paleologus and a Persian scholar relative to violence in Islam which reads:

“Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached,”

That was a QUOTE, used to point out that violence being associated with Islam is very old -- as old as Islam actually, and that there are many verses in Islamic texts, especially LATER ones that indicate that use of violence against "infidels" is actually commanded by Islam in a number of cases. The "religion of peace" only becomes operative when the entire world is unified in an Islamic Caliphate under Sharia Law in the most recent Islamic texts .... some of the oldest ones are less violent, because at that time Mohammad was powerless to act militarily.

As is often the case -- as in the Charlie Hebdo killings, the Danish Cartoon killings, etc, ... after the Pope's lecture, churches in the West Bank were attacked, an Italian nun was killed in Somalia and a priest was beheaded in Iraq. "Moderate Muslims" claimed to be terribly offended (with the Pope, not the violence), and many on the left were offended as well -- as Kerry intimated after Paris, even he -- and Obama who declared that "the future does not belong to those who slander the prophet", find such attacks and certainly "outrage" to be as Kerry put it "legitimate".

The alignment of the left and Islam is not accidental from the point of view of the book.

Moreover it is a difficult thing to understand, state, and accept the truth, however much these efforts constitute the real purpose of our minds. We can see both in our revelational and in our philosophic traditions that truth is not always or even often accepted and kept. But truth is never rejected without proposing a counter-theory or proof that would justify this rejection. That is, we can ironically not be "unreasonable" without, at the same time, being reasonable, without giving reasons for our deviation from reason. Such counter theories in the form of ideologies or myths, become themselves aspects of understanding the whole truth about something. To understand truth, it is necessary to understand the plausible errors surrounding it and arguments against it. 

As Benedict pointed out in the lecture, Islam teaches that God is not bound by rationality ... unlike the Christian God, the God of Islam is NOT a "God of order". So Islam, like much modern thought rejects reason in favor of "other means" -- whatever those may be!

“God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality.”

This is much the same as modern leftist liberal thought -- "post modern", "deconstructivist" which find the idea of "truth" to be no longer operative -- the truth is VERY relative, and in fact can be pretty much whatever the left decides it to be. Clearly, without truth, there is no reason -- and there is no consistency, and THAT is exactly the kind of universe that the Islamic god rules over -- and strangely, where the modern US left lives in as well!

The lecture points out, what Socrates said to Phaedo on the loss of truth --  "It would be easily understandable if someone became so annoyed at all these false notions that for the rest of his life he despised and mocked all talk about being -- but in this way he would be deprived of the truth of existence and suffer great loss".

The lecture itself is not very long, but it is very deep. The essence of the Catholic Faith the synthesis of the Greek Mind with Christian Revelation, through Augustine and Aquinas.  The assertion is that has been happening since the Enlightenment and Reformation is the "de-Hellenization" of faith -- which Benedict argues is destroying the university and civilization with it. This de-Hellenization  is in danger of converting Protestant Christianity to being "irrational", as the secular and Islamic worlds are forced to be since they lack the "logos" (Christ ... logic, reason).

We are vulnerable to the illogic of Islam because we have lost our spiritual Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), and our intellectual trinity "Faith (revelation/insight), Reason and Truth".

It is a VERY worthy read -- and re-read a few times. The whole book is only 160 pages, and the lecture itself is only SIXTEEN! They are however "a bit high octane" -- maybe like trading in your glass of beer for a glass of 190 proof Everclear!

Minneapolis -- Met All Demands, Still Demanding

Hodges, Ellison call for an end to 4th Precinct protests:

Used to do a lot of phone calls with a woman that quieted down here little dog by giving it a treat when it started barking when she was on the phone. Guess what. The dog started barking every time she was on the phone! Imagine that

So Mayor Betsy Hodges up in Minneapolis has met all the Black Lives Matter protesters demands -- but guess what, they still have more demands and continue to occupy the 4th Precinct! Imagine that! Give them everything they want and they want more.

She went on to say the city has met all the demands the group has made -- even as they continue to be posed. 

A federal investigation was launched into the death of 24-year-old Jamar Clark, who was shot and killed by police, the identities of the officers involved in the shooting were released, grief counseling was made available to witnesses of the shooting and an investigation has been called into any civil rights issues that may have occurred. 

"Many people have done a great deal to be responsive to the requests and the demands that are on the table," she said. "Even so, we know there's more to be done."
Hodges said she does not have a deadline for protesters to leave.

Met all the demands ... would really like the protesters to stop occupying the 4th Precinct, but doesn't have a deadline. Must be leadership school from BO ... doesn't like ISIS but has no strategy to deal with them, wants Assad to leave, but has no deadline or strategy there either. Met all Iran's demands, not sure why they seem to keep arming terrorists and saying "Death to America".

I may just be unlucky, but every time I've put MPR on the last couple weeks it is all Minneapolis shooting / protesters / NAACP all the time.

Wow, we gave them everything they wanted and they just want more and don't want to do anything we want them to do!

For the liberal brain, this is all so confusing!
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Fauxahontis Brave Squaw Warrior

The very bitter debate over Planned Parenthood, in 6 moments - The Washington Post:

Pronounced "Fo-ca-hontis"!

The Colorado shooting is just the latest excuse from the left to use their main argument on killing babies at whatever age they see fit ... SHUT UP (the polite version), more generally SHUT THE F**K UP!

Why oh why is it that conservatives just can't get that "argument" through their heads?

The legislation was "just one more piece of a deliberate, methodical, orchestrated, right-wing attack on women's rights. And I'm sick and tired of it," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) says after the vote, according to Reuters. "... I want to say to my Republican colleagues, the year is 2015, not 1955 and not 1895."

Fauxahontis heap pissed off! She brave squaw warrior ... gettum white male baby scalp! Sell parts, get much wampum!

Anyone not wanting to have their tax dollars fund the mass murder of 50+ million babies is stuck in "1895".  Why not "1941?" That was the peak year of the German Holocaust ... they did a mere 6 million, we are headed quickly to 10x that number! Who says "progressives" don't make "progress"!

Not even the most ardent gun rights supporter really expects the government to buy them their gun (like they do in Switzerland), but abortion supporters have the moral certainty that demands that their opponents provide them FREE ABORTIONS! ... if not via Federal funding of Planned Parenthood, then via BOcare or some other means. (and they demand they be QUIET while they fund them!)

You WILL agree with their position and you WILL assist them in carrying out their murder, parts selling, or whatever they want! What part of POWER do you fail to understand?  If they happen to have the wine and salad covered in the "cost" of the baby parts (wink, wink, nod, nod) ... well, they might "apologize" if they are videotaped! ... because they are really nice, and anyone that opposes them is ..., well, in their own words.

"The folks behind this are part of the most militant wing of the antiabortion movement that has been behind the bombing of clinics, the murder of doctors in their homes and in their churches."

Damn, abortionists and parts sellers are such nice folks, and they never argue with any "bitterness" ... they just want to save that baby from a painful life! (being born will make you cry, so we are kind and rather you die ...) Oh, and do I need to remind you, you **WILL** SHUT UP! Because you not shutting up makes this SETTLED ISSUE "bitter". Why are "liberals" forced to resort to totalitarian suppression measures when people are too stupid and obstinate to bow to what the "liberals" have decided is SETTLED AND RIGHT?

Because the stupid and obstinate people that want a child to be safe in it's mother's womb just refuse to SHUT UP! Some of them even claim it is for "religious reasons" ... how quaint! Don't they realize we have STRICT separation of church and state? The fools! They WILL send their tax dollars to pay for abortions, and they WILL shut up! Doesn't the taking of their taxes by force clue them in that we MUST use force to shut them up if they continue to refuse to "listen to reason"?

I can see the "hate speech" cummin,
It's cummin round the bend, ...

Oh ... Black Lives matter chanting about killing cops and then cops being killed? Why do you ask? Completely different issue ... did you get the mistaken idea that the left cared about consistency?

Silly conservatives! They need to get it through their thick skulls that once consistency is removed, "reason" is SO much more "reasonable"! ... can I pour you some more cabernet?

Oh so civil ...

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Reflections On Starr, Favre, Loss To Bears

http://www.startribune.com/green-bay-packers-fans-not-taking-thanksgiving-loss-to-bears-well/355900641/

For 90% of WI the only other team that matters is the hated Bears! GB has been playing them since Ft Snelling was the biggest thing at the confluence of MN and Mississippi rivers. Lots of Packer Fans had high hopes to even the million game series ... but not to be. The Strib article is like the girl the guy never noticed feeling all puffed up because he got dumped by the class vixen for most WI fans ... I'm different, I live here and have for nearly 40 years.

Seeing the two SB winning HOF QBs on the field at the half and the other on the field in a losing effort was less than perfect, and fortunately and unfortunately, GB fans have had so much success that many are definitely spoiled. Even storied Chicago only has one Lombardi ... and McMahon doesn't' really have the stature of Favre or Starr in the QB ranks.

The "can't score in the red-zone" goes back to the end of last year -- had we been able to do so, there would nearly certainly have been another trophy in GB. Had Seattle been able to do so after they beat us, it would be in Seattle.

I thought the issue was Rogers mobility at end of last year. Now, as an old O lineman, I blame the O-line losing the battle frequently, and almost never moving the opposing D back down the field -- but there is no doubt there is also a receiver - Rodgers issue or issues.

IMHO, fans need to appreciate how high the level of competition is in the NFL and how truly impressive it is to win ANY Superbowls, let alone back to back or numbers over a lot of years. If you have ANY weakness in the NFL, it WILL be exploited -- and that is how it should be. One might THINK that Vikings fans and their newspapers would get that REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY well ( note the FOUR REALLYS) ... but apparently not!

The Lombardi / Starr Pack was one of the historical great dominant teams -- and because they were the first in the SB era, they hold a special place and always will. Dallas, SF, Steelers and now the Patriots are certainly in that class and likely better (more dominance in tougher era). Neither the Favre Pack nor the Rodgers Pack has reached that level -- but naturally, fans can always hope -- and struggles like the last 5 weeks show that it will take a MIRACLE at this point for this team to make it to the top this year. 

Naturally, the pure fan part of me really hopes for a miracle -- maybe it is named Jeff Janis? He has had a couple of major runbacks and a few routes that looked good. Being a Packer Fan means never giving up! 

My memory is too good to get way carried away with wistfulness for Favre. Yeah, I loved the "gunslinger" ... but part of it is was that I expected that as he aged, he would mature and force in a low percentage pass ONLY on downs where it made sense -- 3rd downs when not in FG range, rather than first play from scrimmage in OT in a divisional playoff! 

Had Favre been able to tame the interception demon, GB would likely have beaten Denver in the 2nd SB ( he threw one that put Denver in position to go ahead, which they did), and who knows what else ... the Eagles game in 2002 was nearly as bad as last years Seattle game. **ALL** they needed to do was stop THE 4TH AND 26! ... a play so infamous it has it's own Wikipedia page! ... stop that and Favre never has to go out and throw the infamous 1st down duck in OT! 

That is the past. What the heck they need to do in the PRESENT is the greatest mystery of my football fandom. Ever since Favre, the Pack has always had a potent pass attack ... heck, they put up massive numbers against Detroit in 2012 with Matt Flynn playing rather than Rodgers -- in fact, he holds the single game passing record for the team with 480! It seemed that you could plug darned near any receiver into the Green Bay system and passing yards were pretty much a GIVEN! 

Until now ... broken routes, worst number of dropped passes in the league, INCREDIBLE ... "looked good in practice" seems to be the mantra since the first 3 games of the year. The O went bad in SF, and they have been basically bad (compared to normal FOR THEM) since. 

I suppose I could keep writing, but I doubt I'm shedding any light on anything even in my own mind. 

It is STILL great to be a Packer Fan ... there are really no other teams with anything like the history of the Pack, and the last nearly quarter century since Favre arrived has been pretty darned good as well. It is a DAMNED SHAME that GB couldn't punch it in from the 8 yard line and win that game with Starr and Favre in attendance, but it is what it is. Being grateful for what **IS** an often difficult but very worthy lesson! 

Abortionist Lives Matter, Colorado

GOP candidates condemn Planned Parenthood shooting but dismiss link to antiabortion rhetoric - The Washington Post:

Look into the eyes of the Colorado Planned Parenthood shooter and the predominant thing you see is the same thing you see in most of the mass shooters eyes of this day and age -- insanity. It is unsurprising because insanity is really the only consistent element in the modern Statist directed narrative.

Abortion may well be the root of at least a major part of the loss of sanity and it's close friends reason and consistency. We certainly know that the lives of the most innocent of all -- babes, that used to be "safe in their mother's womb",  DON'T MATTER to the tune of 50+ million of them, with their body parts being sold over wine and salad.

The abortionists lives however DO MATTER -- so much that videos of babies that might live outside the womb being dismembered alive for their parts need to be suppressed, because they may "set someone off".

In Roseburg Oregon we have a shooter as black as Obama (Obama's mother was white, father was black. Shooter's father was white, mother was black). Strangely, the race of the shooter was barely mentioned -- neither was the fact that the shooter singled out Christians.  Very little was said of this at all, and in many cases it was "softened" to being "he was against organized religion", or "he was troubled".  Indeed, and the PP Colorado shooter was not?

How frequently do we hear about how "hateful, hypocritical, etc" Christians are for not supporting gay "marriage", maybe in some cases not supporting Syrian refugees (although that case is pretty much just an extrapolation from the stereotype of "Red States being Christian", etc.

We see that many cases of anti-Christian rhetoric from all sorts of groups in the US is not linked in the least to a shooter in Oregon that EXPLICITLY selected Christians -- therefore we know that Christian lives DON'T MATTER.

We have covered the Black Lives before -- the ONLY case when they matter is when they are shot by police. There are big demonstrations in Chicago over a police shooting now -- not so much over gang bangers killing a 9 year old boy. Innocent lives tend to matter less and less -- the more innocent, the less they matter.

If you are high on PCP, breaking into trucks and carrying a knife and resisting arrest, you are NOT "innocent" -- it may not deserve to be shot and killed, but you are a LONG way from "innocent". Same thing up in the cities -- if you beat your girlfriend bloody, decide to interfere with the paramedics so they call the cops and then resist arrest, you are NOT INNOCENT ... again, you being shot may not be what you "deserve", but you deserved it much more than a 9 year old boy or a baby in it's mother's womb.  Making innocence murky is a consistent part of evil.

Besides, I'm guessing they don't make deals to sell the body parts of young black men shot by the police over salad and wine -- I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

Just to be clear -- if the insane guy in Colorado really was targeting people because of abortion, he was wrong to do so. To a Christian, ALL LIVES MATTER -- eternally!

The insanity is that a culture can start explicitly deciding that some lives matter not in the least -- as in babies in the womb. They may be killed for convenience and their parts sold, and anyone that questions that is going to be called out as almost an accessory to murder if some nut happens to kill an abortionist. The babies lives matter so little that protecting them can't even be DISCUSSED, lest some abortionist be injured or killed.

Meanwhile, people can be marching down streets saying "What do we want, DEAD COPS!" or "Pigs in a blanket, Fry-em like bacon!" and there is no connection whatsoever according to the media and the left when a cop gets killed in cold blood. It drops off the news in a day.

When it comes to life, the gross inconsistency of the left wing ideology is corrosively corruptive. It eats through morality and reason like acid through metal -- leaving behind the putrid sludge of evil insanity.

We live in the land of consistent unreasoning insanity.

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Keeping US Comforatble At End

Experts Say Best Option Now Is Keeping Nation As Comfortable As Possible Till End:



OK, it is the Onion ... but it is worth reflecting on a bit.

WASHINGTON—Saying there were no other options remaining and that continued intervention would only prolong the nation’s suffering, experts concluded Tuesday that the best course of action is to keep the United States as comfortable as possible until the end.

That is what America is about these days, right? Comfort, ease, security, entertainment, feeling good about ourselves ...



Since I'm a broken record on the Moon Landing, I really liked this section:

“We just need to remember all the good times we had,” Fischer continued. “Like the moon landing—that was really nice, wasn’t it?” 

Many of those with close ties to the United States said they were having difficulty coming to terms with the country’s imminent passing, but that letting it go peacefully was ultimately for the best. 

“At one point, I would’ve done anything if it meant having America around for just a little longer, but I can’t watch it slowly waste away like this anymore,” said Tampa, FL resident Kathy Muniz, adding that it “breaks [her] heart” when she sees how hard the U.S. struggles to put on a brave face and pretend that everything is fine. “The kindest thing now is to just do what we can to keep the nation’s spirits up while nature takes its course.”

“Really, I think any country in America’s position would want the same,” Muniz added.

It seems like this may be the best theme for elections in 2016 ... Trump vs Sanders, get this over in a hurry!



One way or another!



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Spying On Iowa Shed

My set of readers is small enough that I'm trying an experiment. If you go to ip address 69.66.197.8:81 and use ID "guest" and PASSWORD "xyz", you may be able to bring up something like the following. It's a Dlink DCS-5010L if that helps.

Since it is unoccupied most of the time, in general you should see nothing too interesting, but if you have the proper technical inclination, camera viewer software, or are just handy with browsers and such, you can even move the camera around. It is IR, so things show up ghostly at night. The main purpose is to be able to read the big thermometer on the wall pretty must usually "dead ahead" of the camera to make sure that the place isn't freezing up ... but I like playing with internet cameras. I have a couple around the house here as well so I can look in on my kitties, get e-mail if there is motion around my gun safe, etc. 

My plan is to remember to kill the "guest" connection when we are down there as a public service -- seeing me running around in my undies would be hard to unsee! 

The connection down there is DSL, so I'm pretty sure the IP will stay fixed ... I did set up a remote Dynamic DNS URL ... "lakeplace.from-ia.com", that ought to work as well, but it has failed me a couple times -- might be propogation.  I'm pretty sure the IP is static on DSL anyway. 

Naturally, if you see like masked men, water running across the floor, are looking in the daytime and are able to see that the thermometer is pointing "straight up or trending leftward", an email to bilber@mac.com would be really nice! 

A small tech note for anyone trying to set up on at least Windstream or possibly any DSL, ** APPARENTLY ** ... my experience, and I've seen a couple posts to this effect, UNLIKE cable modem, if you try to access your internet IP from INSIDE your local modem firewall, you just get the modem / router no matter what you do! I wasted A LOT of time on that! 

My inside IP for the camera was a static 192.168.254.8 using port 81, and the modem/router was 192.168.254.254 usign port 80, and NO MATTER WHAT I DID, I could not get to the camera using the outside IP adress that I listed. 

FORTUNATELY I have a Verizon 4G data account, and thought "what the heck" and just gave it a try .. WALA, instant picture! ... we DON'T really want to talk about how much time I wasted trying to get at it using the Windstream DSL account at the shed ... yet another case where "the way it has always worked" on cable modems DID NOT work on at least the Windstream DSL connect. 

Our speed SUCKS ... like 384K up and 1.2 Mbits down, but "it works" ... hopefully speeds will be improving. "The plan" is to get two outside cameras ... one pointing at the lake, one pointing at the road in front ... those ought to be more interesting at least sometimes.  Is the lake frozen? Is the lake stormy? Is there snow? Is the farmer doing field work across the road? etc ... 

Anyway, that is the future ... for now, be a spy if you like! 

The Liberal T-Day Fight Plans

Dreams From My Uncle - WSJ:

Amazingly, the D's and the left at least CLAIM to think it is a "good idea" to attack known conservatives at the T-day table, and as liberals are wont to do, they figure that just a few "talking points" will utterly amaze the targeting conservative with their trenchant brilliance.  Their people all need "talking points" -- unfortunately for them, so do the people that write the talking points!

If all it took to convince everyone was reading talking points off a teleprompter, ISIS would have surrendered by now, BOcare insurance providers wouldn't be dropping like MN flies in November, the economy would be humming not sputtering, and gas would be at $10 a gallon where BO wanted it -- oh, and "Climate Change" would be solved -- whatever THAT might mean!

As it is we have this quote from the article to keep in mind ...

" Liberals have no monopoly on truculence, but the need to be told what to think does seem to set them apart. The left today is both doctrinaire and capricious; political correctness is unsparing in its demand for conformity to an ever-changing set of dogmas that frequently contradict each other, not to mention reality. "

The smart idea is to deflect the weasels as much as possible and treat them as the crazy or drug addled relative that has no grasp on reality --  hmm, maybe I repeat myself there! When you have to be told what you are supposed to say/think and what that is consists of a self-inconsistent set of beliefs that fail to match with reality, then what are you?

A liberal! ... but at least those that are crazy, drug addled or senile have an EXCUSE!

Ever since the older lefties had to deal with the death of the USSR, I've tried to be gentler with them -- it is pretty much similar to my view of Vikings fans after the Atlanta Metrodome debacle in the NFC Championship in '99 ... they have just never really been the same since then. Some pieces of reality just impinge on even the foggiest for outlooks.

It is tough when you can't think for yourself and reality doesn't match with your contradictory beliefs -- but to a true lefty, to learn and change is just WAY too painful to their shallow follow the crowd psyche.

So if attacked, smile warmly and treat the onslaught in the same manner as the 80+ year old relative telling you of their health issues or musty tales from the faded files of their memory. Humor them!

.... "How sweet! You are all grown up and have all sorts of new political thoughts.  I just agree with Monica in wishing Hillary luck this year -- "Don't blow it!".  "

Please pass the cranberry sauce.

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BO Has Just Begun

Obama's Most Dangerous Year | National Review Online:

The most damaging figure in American and quite possibly world history so far is just getting warmed up. A worthy read as the potential for Russia and Turkey to square off rises with the downing of the Russian fighter, and here close to home, "Black Lives Matter" fills at least the MPR airwaves 24x7 here in good old MN.

The times, they stinketh of BO. Read it and weep,

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Government In Action, The Criminal Neglect of Heather Curtis

Child's 'worst case of neglect' prompts $27M claim against DSHS:

Read it all if you have a strong stomach.

"I saw a young girl, thought she was a child, so small, skeletal like. And she was in nothing but a very, very soiled diaper," said Paredes-Garrett. "And she was wailing and moaning a sound I've never ever heard and the only thing I could compare it to would be a wounded animal."

Want to have the government in charge? Well, "Heather" could be an elderly you or someone that you love.

Break up families, churches and communities and then put a unionized government bureaucracy in charge, and Heather is what you get! We KNOW this ... USSR, National Socialist Germany, N Korea, Cuba, Venezuela ... don't avert your eyes! THIS is where we have descended to already, and we are hitting the accelerator for MORE!

Yes, socialists really really "care" ... about removing money from earners and transferring it to "whatever" to  increases their power. Anything else? Just imagine all the Heathers that aren't lucky enough to have someone call the cops and just die in filth and pain waiting for DSHS.

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Vote Sanders -- But Stockpile Toilet Paper

Laughing in the Face of Despair - WSJ:

PJ O'Rourke has a new book out ... no doubt I'll need to read it, but the column is worth the read for a little entertaining wisdom. The paragraph that led me to the title:

... His fellow travelers, on the other hand, were fans of the Soviet state, then under the enlightened leadership of longtime KGB thug Yuri Andropov. Yet Mr. O’Rourke, exercising profound investigative skill, spotted the chink in their ideological armor. These “were people who believed everything about the Soviet Union was perfect, but they were bringing their own toilet paper.” Small details reveal large truths.

Here is a little bit of insight as to why Socialism fails ...

... Then, one day, I found myself beached on the shore of jobs and responsibilities and I was a Republican again.” His hippie friends, he adds, had become parasitical. “They continued to be convinced that everything was going to be shared soon, so they hadn’t gotten jobs.”

Humans are very adaptive -- give them an environment where being the best deadbeat allows them to flourish the best, and you get a lot of excellent deadbeats! It's adaptive! I'll close with the wisdom the column closes with -- a small item that is often forgotten by many!

“Jesus said ‘love your enemies.’ He didn’t say not to have any.”

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The Stab In The Back

Putin calls plane's downing by Turkey 'stab in the back' - CNN.com:

That particular phrase used today by Putin should sound familiar -- it was a common phrase used by Hitler as explaining Germany's loss in WWI, and figured significantly in the rise to WWII.

There is nothing surprising here -- WWI and WWII came about because the "Hegemon" of the 19th century, Great Britain, was fading and losing the ability to be the dominant world power. The greatest navy was no longer the trump card, both the British elites and the people were "tired of leading", or at least more interested in enjoying the fruits of their spoils and "security" than they were in bringing order and peace to the planet.

While the historical understanding of most Americans has sunk so low that even identifying the conditions under which WWI and WWII happened is beyond the education of well over half, even a tiny bit of historical insight shows that "The Age of BO" is likely the culmination of a similar period in the declining of the US and that "changing of the guard" on the world stage. Forbes charitably ranked his odiferousness third behind Putin and Merkel ... I'd put him well down the list, behind at least the leader of ISIS, the Chinese leader, and frankly a number of others -- the leader of Iran, leader of Turkey, for example have more impact on the current world stage which the US has purposely retreated from in disarray. We really no longer even rank as a "decent JV team", and deservedly so --  he was certainly elected by what is left of our tattered and corrupt election system. Remember, you need a photo ID to get a phone installed!

So we wait and see on the sidelines if another world war starts -- we richly deserve it. The last 7 years of the American decline have been beyond stupid -- slipping into the ranks of criminal self indulgence and insanity.

It increasingly looks like BO either already has, or will fully achieve his stated goal of "destroying the colonial powers" before he leaves office -- assuming there is an office left to leave.

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