LBJ Orders Haggar Pants

LBJ Orders Haggar Pants—Presidential Recordings Program—Miller Center:

Gives one a little insight into this sophisticated man of the people. He pretty much only considered the common man and had a great deal of respect for the people he "served". I wonder who the "boy" was that was going to take the order??

Want to make any bets on how payment for this fine custom slacks was arranged??

'via Blog this'

Making the Case for the Moral Superiority of Freedom | Power Line

Making the Case for the Moral Superiority of Freedom | Power Line:

A good write-up on the true moral nature of people accepting responsibility for their own life rather than relying on the Federal Government to to the "Great Provider". I especially liked the following, but it is all good:

 " ... One worker was given an award for overcoming “mountain pride” and getting more people to sign up. Where I grew up in Alabama, all honest work, even the hardest, was honored. And pride, self-respect, and a desire to be independent was valued, not a thing to be overcome. 

Isn’t it a better goal to help more Americans find good-paying jobs, to have the pride and self-respect that comes from that? Isn’t this a superior form of compassion that has a more solid moral foundation?"

'via Blog this'

Tea Party Extremists Killing Federal Workers

Media Bias, Tea Party Extremists Killing Federal Workers Edition | Washington Free Beacon

I have a vague remembrance of this and I post it only so in case it ever comes up again in some context (as these apocryphal incidents often do), I have increased my chances of being able to reference the truth vs the myth.

I also found this paragraph to be pretty much a direct quote of my view ... with this correction "you ask to see a DEMOCRAT cabinet nominee's ..."

When it comes to media bias, I try not to get too worked up. It’s bound to happen in an industry so monolithically dominated by Democrats and liberals. But I couldn’t help but feel the rage boil up as I read Schapiro’s (excellent*) piece this morning. Just remember: If you ask to see a cabinet nominee’s speeches or financial records, you’re a McCarthyite. But if you accuse a political movement of inspiring murder based on no evidence whatsoever, well, no big deal.

Appointees "serve at the pleasure of the president" for Ds ... for R's, the confirmation process needs to be very thorough, and even "the appearance of impropriety" ought to be disqualifying!

BO Ready to Legally Murder Americans

A 'thought war' over drones – CNN Radio News - CNN.com Blogs:

Rand Paul and a number of other Republican Senators are trying to draw attention to this by a Filibuster on the Senate floor, but mostly it seems that the MSM is just trying to make that into "a bunch of flakey right wingers trying to cause trouble", or just "rank partisanship".

There’s a weird reality to it now. Today, the government needs court approval to wiretap a U.S. citizen suspected of terrorism overseas – but it doesn’t need one to kill him.

Have we become so distracted that we have lost the capacity to recall how incensed the MSM was with the idea of W listening in on cell calls to terrorists within the US even with FISA court approval?

Now BO has a "finding" that is is OK to KILL suspected terrorists that are US citizens on US soil and the level of media concern is a yawn?

So we know that BO is "their guy", and "they trust him", but isn't there SOME limit? These people wanted to extend the US Bill of Rights to FOREIGN combatants on FOREIGN soil, and they were ADAMANT about that!

How can this be? Apparently for a very large number of Americans, partisanship extends even to life and death. They may be against "the other side" wiretapping a phone, water-boarding a prisoner, or having a prison in Guantanamo, but for "their side",  even killing a US citizen on US soil with no charges being filed, no judge being involved, or no "surrender or we will shoot", is just peachy keen and not worth any level of concern at all!

Oh, and these are the folks that think that "nobody needs an Assault Weapon"?? I suppose if you trust the ideological purity and competence of your government enough that you are willing to let them terminate whomever they like via remote control under SUSPICION of guilt,  it might be just fine to terminate folks that disagree with you on the 2nd amendment as well.

The part I don't understand is how you can think that and actually say the Pledge of Allegiance with a straight face at all.





'via Blog this'

Free Ported "LandLine" Phone Project

I promised a number of folks that I would do a blog on this as soon as the port of my home phone # using OBi Phone  http://www.obihai.com/ and Google Voice http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html

When completed, the result is a FREE (no monthly charge) phone system in your home with your existing home phone number.

Here are the steps:

1. Since Google Voice will only  port from a cell number, you FIRST have to port your landline to a cell number. A cheap TracPhone is one way. I had an old Verizon Phone that I use in areas where AT&T reception is bad, and used that.
   
   THIS WAS THE HARDEST PART OF THE PROCESS!
   
   A  form has to be filled out and MAILED in for Verizon to do it. From what I understand, "your mileage will vary". In my case I mailed it in on Feb 8th, and on March 5th our charter provided land line just quit working in the AM. By the PM I had a message from Verizon indicating that the phone # had been ported. I believe they charged me $20 for this, but again, your mileage may vary ... check it out before you buy the "TracFone".
2. I then went out to my Google Voice account and requested that my home # (now on my Verizon cell phone) be ported to replace my Google Voice number. This was all online, easy and is a one time $20 charge.  They do the port in TWENTT FOUR (24) HOURS!!!
3. I had already purchased my OBi100 from Amazon for $40 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004LO098O/ref=oh_details_o07_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
   
   I proceeded to hook it up to my network as per instructions, and link it to my already existing Google Voice account and within like "15 min" had OUTGOING phone working just fine.
   
   I could have done this step as soon as the phone quit working and immediately had outgoing call capability.
4. Today 15min short of 24 hours later, I got the notice of "Port Complete" and was able to dial my home phone number and get Google Voice message service. It took me awhile to mess with some parameters to get the home phone to actually ring. In my case I had to add a forwarding option to a Google Chat rather than my Cell ... which seems wrong, but it worked. Based on the forums, it appears there may be some rough edges in getting the ring to work, but  then again, for many it just works. Nothing too deep and dark, just a bit "tweaky",  but no more so than many computer / cell / home cable - Satellite TV things. 

So there you have it. For a ONE TIME $60-$100 charge including hardware, you have a completely free home phone with your original home number + a whole bunch of fancy forwarding, messaging, international, etc free or very low cost options!

For $12 a year you can even have 911 support on the phone! https://www.anveo.com/e911obi.asp?sid=7a4cb8cccb15dd687c7e016bd01d995e

I  found the following article very helpful to get me started:

Google Voice: a step-by-step primer on ditching your land line while keeping your number | Page 4 | ZDNet:

Happy Porting!!

Rule of Partisanship

Poll: 41% of Dems think president should have power to kill suspected American terrorist on American soil « Hot Air:


We pledge allegiance " ... and to the REPUBLIC for which it stands". Why?? Because by having a written and very hard to change Constitution, we were able to be governed by the Rule of Law rather than the rule of the mob.

This meant that some things, maybe the most important things,  were BEYOND POLITICS, therefore BEYOND PARTISANSHIP -- being an AMERICAN meant that you believed in them, "party", "politics", "ideology", etc did not take part in the equation. 100% of Americans ought to be 100% against ANY President killing a "suspected terrorist" inside the US.

41% of Democrats now think that the President ALONE should have the power to KILL a "suspected terrorist" that is an AMERICAN CITIZEN with no due process, no trial by their peers, etc !!!  Remember, these are the same Democrats that claimed under W that FOREIGN terrorists  acting in foreign countries were  fully entitled to the protection Bill of Rights!! These are the same people that didn't want the President + the FISA court to be able to decide to LISTEN to an American citizen calling a suspected terrorist on the phone!!! They found that "chilling"!!! Now they are fine with "The One" just killing anyone he wants to declare "suspect"!!!

The Republican numbers in these polls are nothing to be proud of either, but is anyone seriously going to argue with me that were there a Republican in the WH the Democrat numbers in support of killing ANYONE on American soil by drone would be TINY???

We USED to "hold these truths to be self-evident". The list if those truths certainly included LIFE and LIBERTY!!! We codified a number of them in the Bill of Rights:

1. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
2. A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed
3. No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
4. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
5. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
6. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
7. In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
8. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
9. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
10. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

What happened?? 

• For starters, the Civil War. We radically broke our own Constitution to force the South to bend to the will of the North. Perhaps that could have been survived had we been VERY clear that it was the moral equivalent of "surgery" to heal a grave illness called Slavery.  We didn't do that however, and the seeds were cast. 
• Then we started to inflict grave injury to the Rule of Law with "Progressivism" ... the idea that "experts", were certainly smarter than some dowdy old "Founding Fathers" should be able to run roughshod over a tired old document like the Constitution. 

I could go on and do a bunch of Googling and call out specific cases -- Wilson, FDR, LBJ, specific SCOTUS cases like Roe v Wade, etc, but is it not clear to everyone that we have decided to abandon the rule of law, so now there is NO LAW AT ALL except the "power of the mob". When people see that "their side" is in power, they want it to have TOTAL POWER -- clearly up to and including the power to unilaterally remove both Life and Liberty with no due process whatsoever. 

Apparently I and a few others are voices crying in the wilderness on this. How sad to be alive at the time when a great nation falls. 

'via Blog this'

Ice Age '70s

The 1970′s Global Cooling Compilation – looks much like today | Watts Up With That?:

Every once in awhile I mention that in the '70's, scientists and academics where CERTAIN that we were moving into a new Ice Age. Of course they were equally certain that the USSR would be around forever, we were running out of oil and the price would NEVER go down again, huge portions of the world would be starving by '90, and a few other equally incorrect items. (well, apparently incorrect.  It may well be cooling in the big picture, and of course EVENTUALLY, every prediction of "running out" is probably true).

Humans are often certain, it is just that we are VERY frequently wrong. The biggest element one might think we would learn from that is humility, but of course we can never learn that, since it isn't our nature! .The leaders, the youth, the recent PHDs, the media folks, the technologists of the day, etc are nearly all certain that "the latest data shows",  "new technology / information points out", etc.

It is true that we do "advance" ... we figured out we live on a ball in space, we can build a lot of really cool vehicles and gadgets, and yes, we have the internet, but mostly, all of this is merely chasing our tails. We live about the same length lives with some version of the same problems that mankind has always dealt with. Is it better too be too fat than to be hungry? Dunno, never really been hungry, but one would have to talk pretty hard to a hungry person to make the case that they are better off than the fat person.

Our very gadgets consume our lives while we believe that we are enjoying them. But then our forebears spent more time trying to survive, where we spend more time watching the History Channel and posting on Facebook.

We all like to believe that we live "at the most pivotal point in history" ... well, maybe we just need to be happy with the "latest point in history". However, if you dig into the Theory of Relativity a bit, that isn't true either. Everything that has ever happend or will happen is ALWAYS and forever happening -- it is just in the perspective of our consciousness that  it is happening "now".

Somehow, remembering that science was just as certain in the '70s as they are now makes Relativity seem even more correct!


'via Blog this'

Biggest Income Drop in 20 Years

Americans see biggest one-month decline in income in 20 years - Mar. 1, 2013:

The BO "recovery" rolls on.

So 20 years ago, Slick Willie had not yet been kneecapped by the '94 selection and was in the midst of trying to do SlickCare (a kinder, gentler BOcare), raising taxes, regulating business and causing uncertainty. Just like BO and the Dems in '09.

The world is actually pretty boring -- the same simple stuff just keeps on operating and always has, technology just makes the same stuff work a little easier and faster, which is great if you do the right stuff, but really sucks if you do the wrong stuff. A drunk in a Vette is way more dangerous than a drunk walking.

Tax it if you want less of it, subsidize it if you want more of it.

So we keep taxing genius, productivity and wealth creation and get less of them. We subsidize stupidity, sloth, and wasting money, and indeed, we get lots more of them. But hey, hard working successful people are kind of boring dorks, and the dumber ones know how to relax and throw a heck of a party. Maybe if we just ignore all the bad news the party can roll on??

Twenty years ago, we got smart and elected the first Republicam Congress in 50 years after Slick fouled the pool. Slick "triangulated" indicating "The era of big government wss over", did NAFTA, did Welfare Reform, let business make money. So, after just a brief lefty induced pause, America grew on and Slick even got re-elected and got a bunch of credit for being drug kicking and screaming to a balanced budget. It was a beautiful thing, and made the '95-'08 nearly as good as the '80s.

This time we failed the stupid test. We did the rebound election fine in '10, but BO is a tougher case than the Slickster. Slick was fine with big hair ladies and "special  personal services", with no big ideas about the destruction of the old fashioned America that burned a lot of fuel, made a lot of money, and had a lot of wealthy folks. That was all OK with Slick as long has he "got some" too ... in more ways than one. He is worth like $300M now, and back then he was penniless and had been living in government housing his whole life.

BO is operating on "Dreams from his Father" -- the "Colonialists / Imperialists" (UK and US) have to be destroyed. They have to lie buried next to Daddy and Grandaddy in the yellow earth of Kenya -- well figuratively at least. I'm sure it is OK as long as the "Yellow Power" of China consigns that white mans "Western Civilization" to the "Dustbin of History".  BO let Daddy and Grandaddy get all the ladies and booze -- he is one focused SOB, and in the very best ever position to "Git er Dun"!

So we bought the false promise of "Give us our STUFF!!", and the 4Q of '12 was negative growth, now January is the biggest income drop since Slick Willie was in power. Only this is a drop from "sucketh already", that was a drop from "Happy Days".  Old Ben is still right, "Those that trade liberty for security get neither"!!

Well America, stupid is STILL as stupid does ...

'via Blog this'

The Results of Gun Control in the US

The nation’s toughest gun-control law made Massachusetts less safe - Opinion - The Boston Globe

Perhaps you are a believer in Gun Control, and you dismiss Chicago, DC and NYC because "the guns must come in from outside".

Relative to the rest of the country, or to just the states on its borders, Massachusetts since 1998 has become a more dangerous state. Economist John Lott, using FBI crime data since 1980, shows how dramatic the contrast has been. In 1998, Massachusetts’s murder rate equaled about 70 percent of the rate for Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York. Now it equals 125 percent of that rate.

How can you "blame the neighbors", when they have less gun control but are doing BETTER than you are??

Much like Doctors and Engineers, it would be wise to "first do no harm". Had crime dropped after the last AR / magazine ban in '94, then rocketed up upon it expiring  in '04, or upon the passage of Concealed Carry in 40+ states, is there any doubt whatsoever that those damning statistics would be streaming from every news outlet and politicians mouth in the land? I think not -- since those statistics show clearly that the ban going on and off had no effect, nor did Concealed Carry (unless it reduced violence, but I prefer to believe in both cases that the trend was down and neither action had significant effect).

How many have to die in Chicago, DC, Boston, NYC, etc before we look at the facts and leave behind the wishful thinking that criminals are going to respect gun laws?? If you are willing to murder, why would you be bothered by illegally obtaining a gun?

The American Spectator : Sequester Hysterics

The American Spectator : Sequester Hysterics:

Just read it, it is all good. Essentially, if BO says something, the best plan is to assume the opposite is at least more in the same galaxy as something marginally truthful.

'via Blog this'

Sequester Insanity

Obama, Republicans clash on forced spending cuts - CNN.com:


Nearly every day now there is another news story so unbelievable that any sane person has to wonder how this nation can be operating at all and how little time we must have left. The "sequester" madness is just the flavor of the day.

If you read WAY down in the article, a small piece of truth slips in.

However, such a deal has proved impossible, leading to the imminent application of $85 billion in spending cuts for 2013 and almost $1 trillion over 10 years.

It is STILL a Henny Youngman world/ (when asked "How is your wife?", he responded "Compared to what?) 

Compared to what indeed. Well, to understand $85B in "cuts", one has to look at total spending which is $3.8 TRILLION!!!!

So, if the spending was $850B, then $85B would be a 10% cut. 

If the spending was $1.7T, then it would be a 5% cut

If it was $3.4T, it would be a 2.5% cut 

So we are discussing a LESS THAN 2.5% "cut" ... which REALLY isn't a "cut" at all, since when you count all the "Quantitative Easing", off budget, + other gimmicks, we ALWAYS spend significantly more than the year before no matter what the supposed budget says! 

On top of that, BO has the gall to say that we need a "balanced approach" after he snookered the Republicans at the end of 2012 for a "millionaire tax increase" with ZERO SPENDING CUTS!!  (oh well, $250K income, but what is a $750K "rounding error" when you are "the one") 

As his actions have pointed out over and over, his "balanced approach" is raising taxes on everyone that works (BOcare for example) and continuing to transfer more money from them and future earners  to the nonworking!

Oh well, the Takers voted him in, so he really is just paying off his supporters like all politicians do!

'via Blog this'

Narrative vs Fact

A CIA veteran on what ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ gets wrong about the bin Laden manhunt - Washington Post

Solid and concise  little explanation of what "enhanced interrogation" really was, how it was used, and how the story foisted on the American people is wrong by someone that knows the details.

First, as I've said many times in this Blog, if water boarding is torture, then we have tortured every one of our Navy Seals. They are water boarded as part of their training.

It is part of the human condition that life involves pain. In some cases, lots of it -- childbirth, accidents, surgeries, back injuries, burns, dental procedures, etc. Medicine is a case where pain is often inflicted with a higher purpose -- in that case, some improvement of the condition of the patient. In the case of water boarding, the pain is inflicted in hopes of saving other lives.

The main focus of the narrative of water boarding was the vast media effort to demonize W and his administration. We know there was absolutely no bounds to their efforts on that front; Abu Grab was pined directly on W, ("the fish rots from the head")  where anything under BO from  Benghazi to soldiers massacring civilians in Afghanistan is simply "something that happened". The stated and bragged about policy of "Terror Tuesday" where BO decides who lives and who dies at the hands of remote controlled drones is either applauded or not discussed. Gitmo has moved from being a horrible stain on the nation and western civilization to being a US base in Cuba.

As is common in the human condition, the narrative has won. We are fact based creatures only with significant effort and a good deal of luck.Facts may be stubborn, but humans tend to be even more stubborn.

Atheists, Autism, Empathy

Epiphenom: Atheists lack empathy and understanding

I had the opportunity to have a rather long discussion with an atheist heading up to St Paul to support 2nd amendment rights this week. Although wide ranging, that discussion focused on the potential for having a written constitution that is held sacred as the basis for a republican vs mob based government when much of the population is non-religious, agnostic or atheist. My view is no, it hasn't been done and it can't be done with human beings at the level of development we will be at for 100's of K of years. The atheist would of course love it to be possible, but understood that it hasn't been done in history, so we are on completely new ground in attempting it -- and as evidenced by the attack on the 2nd amendment in MN, we are losing at present.

Having a history in technology, I am very familiar from a personal POV of both the systemizing strength and the interpersonal / empathy weakness of computer geeks. It is a stereotype, but like all stereotypes, it is not without a good deal of truth. "People die, get over it" is very close to the actual felt sentiment of many high tech computer people when faced with the reality of death -- death is real, but they can't see any "logical way" that it can be dealt with other than just "getting through it". They are generally smart enough to intellectually know that they need to "hide out" and try to at least act like they understand the feelings when in the presence of the recently deceased and loved ones, but generally, it is even harder for them than for most folks to find any words to relate to the other living and grieving -- they often "feel fake". Not that everyone doesn't, it is just on that range of feeling they are on the "very fake" side of the curve.

So atheism makes sense to them. Maybe THAT is why they are different -- they are just smarter than other people, have a better intellectual grasp of the REAL world, so being an atheist allows them a framework in which to explain their difference in what they see as a positive way. It does at least sound more intellectually appealing than "unfeeling lost geek".

My background is that the "road to Damascus" experience for a tech geek is likely to be a slowly dawning realization that all human understanding, especially the arid tech science geek "if I can't measure it, it doesn't exist" brand, is very and extremely sadly limited. Having gone through that conversion, I can also say that it is painful -- it is so much easier for a technically oriented brain to reduce all discussions to "just the facts ma'am" and seem to often "win" on materialist points, while sadly losing big on the interpersonal and I believe eternal tally. Hell is probably loaded with really super smart technicians.

So I'm a passable technician, a lousy human, and an extremely needy likely to be bare last on St Peter's list at heaven's gate at best. But a tiny ray of hope is WAY better than being without hope!

Justifiable Homicide?

Liberal Shooter Planned Mass Murder | Power Line

The MSM is actually covering this a bit, but I'll bet that PL is right, it will be VERY quiet!!

The wisdom of publishing a "hate map"?? Ho hum, as long as it is "hate" for folks that don't happen to agree with gay marriage, no biggie.

Man, those right wing crazies are SCARY!!!! Lefty crazies? Not so much.

Welcome to the Fascist Sate of MN

I wasted the better part of yesterday and today up in St Paul trying to show support for maintaining the rule of law over the rule of man in this teetering republic. 

We have a 2nd amendment to a written constitution. We pledge allegiance TO THE REPUBLIC, which means that the written law trumps mob rule.  If the mob wants to change the written law, they have a process -- 2/3 in both federal houses, 3/4 of the states ratify. That is that ... we have WAY to many folks up there saying "I don't care what gun owners think".  If you talked to a good many of them, they would care no more for what is in the constitution.

That is exactly why there is a 2nd amendment!  It is the only part of our rights  that has teeth, and it appears that the last tiny ember of freedom on the planet is yet again in danger of being snuffed out.  Freedom never was free, but it seems that every generation or so it ends up coming to blood. 

Having rule of law vs rule of mob is explicitly to prevent just what is going on up in St Paul. Endless discussion back and forth that ought to have no place in a country where people understood how their government was built to work and why. When there is no rule of law, then the only recourse is violence, and that is now the precipice we teeter on. If it comes to confiscation -- which is where they want to go with this, then the only answer a free man can make is "fight or flight". 

One of the ways that you know you are living in a totalitarian police state is if you are subject to the knock on the door, the stop on the street, and find that you have violated some item that the rules decided to foist on you. In America, formerly not a police state, you were  able to live your life without having to pay much attention to politics. You could focus on being productive. Being happy. Being free. 

Two guns are shown below. They are IDENTICAL in mechanism and function. They are both Ruger 10/22 firearms, one of the most popular of guns on the market. They are semi-auto guns that fire one bullet per trigger pull, and have detachable magazines that carry 10, 25, and other popular numbers of rounds. 

The top gun is legal under the proposed MN statute HF021 which states" (1) semi-automatic rifle that has the capacity to accept a detachable magazine and 

2.31has one or more of the following:
2.32(i) a pistol grip or thumbhole stock;"

If you violate this law you are:

"guilty of a felony and may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more 

9.11than 20 years or to payment of a fine of not more than $100,000, or both."

Got that?? You currently own, or are just visting the state of MN and you get caught with a standard Ruger 10/22 that happens of have a thumbhole stock and you can end up with 20 years in the slammer!! 

For a .22!!! The kids squirrel hunting gun. The first gun I ever had. Put a stock on it with a hole in it and it is an "Assault Weapon"!!!! 

Welcome to the Fascist state of MN Comrade!!!