The Right To Keep And Bear Arms Shall Not Be Infringed

SEE HERE Whenever I see stuff like this my blood boils. This has injustice written all over it all the way down and all the way up. Transporting two handguns in a trunk unloaded seems perfectly reasonable to me. This kind of thing is simply outrageous. The clowns that make up government are not protecting us, they are violating our rights all too often. I'll bet this guy's mother wished she'd never done what she did. What a nightmare!

Some States Bankrupt Already

We're not out of the woods yet. The rah-rah crowd is trumpeting the recent strength of the recovery. I'm not holding my breath. Since nothing even remotely responsible has been done to promote recovery, the question might be just what is going on? I'm not sure it isn't people spending their money while the still know it's worth something. Be careful, it's dangerous out there. I'm not really sure what to do. Gold's been continuing to go up but lots of voices are saying it's overpriced. Not too surprising if it is. The whole monetary system of the world looks shaky no matter where you look and if it crunches it will be the first time it crunched so convincingly in unison. That could lead to conditions never before seen. So I'm just sitting tight and worrying a good bit.

The Republicans Are Still Likely the Stupid Party

SEE HERE I'm a Republican, mostly because I can't possibly be a Democrat. I just have too much integrity for that. On the other hand it is often, almost always, difficult to be a Republican because while they have good principles, the folks advancing the Republican brand virtually never act on them. They act in recently deceased Joseph Sobran's words like "the stupid party." I don't know what will change that. I'm hoping a little infusion of Tea Party moxie might do the trick, but don't hold your break. Thomas Sowell gets it, always has. Smart guy! Offers a little sound advice as usual. Will the stupid party take it? Watch and see! As a betting man, I'd keep my money on the sidelines.

If You Don't Say What We Want, You Can't Come To Our Party

SEE HERE Honest peer reviewed science? Of course not. This is a propaganda fest and like all such things only true believers are allowed in. Can't have any of those pesky "deniers" you know like "holocaust deniers" 'cause we all know that whatever we say is the truth. We've been cherry picking our data so long we can't tell which end is up, but we can't handle the truth so you journalists that ask hard questions, that question our "science" — you can't come to the party. But we'll still announce that the world is on the brink of disaster. You couldn't make this stuff up.

You Can't Plug That In — vs. If I Pay For the Electricity I Can Do Anything I Want With It!

SEE HERE WTF—Over! It's time to consider shutting down the Department of Energy and all the other "full of themselves" departments that issue arbitrary regulations at the drop of a pen. Who gives them the right to tell me what I can do with the energy I buy and pay for? This is all the same kind of bogus stuff that the Green crowd has been trumpeting. The problem is that most of it just isn't even true and where there is some truth to it, it's out of all perspective. CO2 is not a pollutant for example. Recycling is mostly a fad. It's expensive and except for maybe aluminum not only doesn't pay for itself but in some cases like paper recycling is actually somewhat more damaging to the environment then just burning or burying the stuff. Trees? It doesn't save trees. The trees are being planted to yield paper in the first place. The nuts are loose in the asylum making baseless claims to seize control of your life. Tell them to buzz off!

Now I'm the first to support real stewardship of the environment. We should not pollute and we should make sure that when we do we clean up. But that's not an excuse to make things up to get regulations passed and impose controls. It's mostly just trendy BS that has been rattling around for decades.

Winston Always Had A Way With Words

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries!"

Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.

The effects are apparent in many countries, improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement, the next of its dignity and sanctity.

The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.

Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome."

Sir Winston Churchill; (The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50 London)

Some Things Have To Be Said: Words Matter!

SEE HERE If it is nowhere to be found in the Constitution then it should not become public law claiming the Constitution as a mandate. Scalia makes the obvious point that if you want it in the Constitution there is a procedure for putting it there. Meanwhile, it's not there and shouldn't be law.

An Obsession With Globalism and Tyranny

It won't work! When are we going to figure that out. It's time to reign in the irresponsibility. This guy gets it.

Who Likes to Blow Up Christmas Trees and Christians?

SEE HERE Sure "profiling" is a dirty word, made so by people who spend most of their life profiling. A "profile" is just the customary expectation about something. If I buy a steak I have the expectation that it will taste like steak and have the consistency of the cut I bought, sirloin, tenderloin, etc. I'm profiling that steak. When it comes to violence the customary expectations about violence are that criminals may be violent, especially armed robbers and muggers. When it comes to religions you just have to go to the recent statistics. Who's at the top of the list? Could it be Islam? So if you want to search for would-be bombers and terrorists a good starting point is young, male, Muslims and you can add a few additional qualifiers like Somali if you want to increase your hit percentage a little more. That was easy! MORE
and COMMENTARY

Is There Any Due Process Here?

SEE HERE The freedom of the Internet will be challenged by this precedent. What exactly were these guys doing wrong? What kind of due process did they receive? Where are lines to be drawn? Freedom of speech and exchange of information ought to be protected. This needs to be watched closely.

Is The Meltdown Coming?

SEE HERE The problem with fiat money is that it is only as good as the confidence that the people have that it will be honored. A check is a check and is only as good as the person who signed it. If the person that signs the check is a cheat and a liar, then the check isn't worth the paper it is written on. Increasingly the Federal government is looking like a liar and a cheat. When that perception becomes pervasive, the value of the money will quickly disappear. That can't be allowed to happen because that way lies chaos and disaster. So demand that the monetary system be stabilized.

Meanwhile On the Nuclear Front

SEE HERE Who cares about the START treaty or Russia? They at least seem sober enough not to start a nuclear conflagration. What about those nuts in North Korea and Iran, and maybe even China? We have a whole lot bigger problems on the nuclear scene than Russia. President Obama's dream of a nuclear free world is simply stupid. You can't put the genie back in the bottle. It would just be unilateral disarmament. Who would believe you anyway?

It's A Long Way To The Bottom, But It Might Be A Short Trip

SEE HERE The U.S. is leading the way to beggaring the world. If we, the custodians of the reserve currency, undermine our currency we lead the world into a potentially disastrous inflationary spiral. We need to stabilize not destabilize the currency.

Liberals Are Wedded To A Failed System Of Thought

SEE HERE It might not matter if anything they did actually worked. Americans are a pragmatic and utilitarian people wedded to freedom but willing to disregard principle on occasion for results (a flaw I might add, but one in keeping with the American spirit). But when something simply doesn't work ever then sooner or later they get the hint. "Doing what you've always done, means getting what you always get." In the case of Liberalism that is economic ruin and beggaring of all. It's time for a shift in philosophy to something a bit more, shall we say, effective.

I Hope You All Had a Very Happy Thanksgiving!

Some People Admit It When They're Wrong — Don't Hold Your Breath That the TSA Will!

SEE HERE This whole thing is starting to look more like a way to sell useless X-ray scanners than a serious attempt to improve security at airports and safeguard the flying public. CHECK THIS OUT
Follow the money ... then ask yourself of what use a body scanner is when it's so easy to defeat. Oh yeah, follow the money. HERE is what the Italians think— "slow and ineffective." Oh, but the pictures are great!

The Wonder of the Stars, The Music of the Spheres

Minnesota Night Sky Time-Lapse from Brian Peterson on Vimeo.

CHECK IT OUT AT THE SOURCE The lights of the city often obscure what is a wonder in every moment. Spend a couple of minutes with this time lapse and appreciate the cosmos of which you are a part. It is awesome, which means it ought to inspire awe. We are often too caught up in other things to see the beauty and, yes, awe that exists all around us, in the opening of a flower or the great symphony of the starry night.

Washington Post Setting Up ...

SEE HERE Allen West is not on the Washington Post's good guy list. He should be on yours I think. He's come to Washington because he's unhappy with the way Washington operates and in all likelihood he plans to take no captives and give no quarter. I'm sympathetic with that point of view. Washington needs a serious clean-up. The "good-old-boys" have run it long enough. We need not only fresh faces but a fresh perspective. Is Allen West the solution? Maybe not, but he's a good start on a tough problem. One of the things I've liked about him is that he says it like he thinks it is. Most of our representatives are long on telling you what they think you want to hear. The short name for that sort of behavior is dishonest. If you don't agree with me, let's hear what you have to say and your reasons, not some mealy mouthed spirit of compromise thing or the other. I want straight talkers and people of principle and honor. The rest should stay home.

Feel Up Nancy Pelosi Every Day — What A Concept! But Who Would Want To?

SEE HERE Ann Coulter has a real way of coming up with outrageous stuff. Here's another of her fun ideas inspired by the TSA "feel-up" scandal. Ann wants to know why we're not protecting Congress better?

Will Obama's Eligibility Finally Be Settled One Way Or The Other?

SEE HERE The disturbing thing to me about the whole "birther" Obama eligibility case is that it has not been taken seriously. I would have no problem one way or the other if evidence had been considered and a finding made. The Constitutional point is clearly in the Constitution, so why the reluctance to make a determination? That is what is disturbing.

In fact the most disturbing thing is probably that a candidate whose eligibility is still being questioned could be nominated at all without a clear determination. So this is encouraging. Let's have the matter seriously considered. The president needs to show that he is eligible for the post he holds and not just ridicule those who are in doubt. It's a serious Constitutional issue. Let's see it considered in a serious Constitutional way. Then we should be able to put the whole eligibility issue behind us.

This Is Where Liberalism Leads!

SEE HERE The bottom line is that the left agenda is an economy killer. Just look at California to see a state that has every possible advantage: rich natural resources, great scenic beauty, a nearly perfect climate, and an intelligent and diligent population. How can that be a loser? Well when you put idiots in charge they can screw up just about anything, even a sure thing like California. The list of stupidities goes on and on. Just their power policies should make them the laughingstock of the world. But it only gets worse. They're losing population and the famed Silicon Valley is losing its luster. If this goes on, California will just be an also ran state. How do you do this kind of thing? Well you adopt policies that kill initiative and punish growth. It works every time.

Protesting the Protesters — That's The Ticket!

SEE HERE The leftists often have it all their own way from the media coverage to the sympathy of people who don't really understand the issues except that people got off their duffs and came out to protest something. I ran into this bunch, the TFP (Tradition, Family, and Property) group when I could still walk far enough to make the March for Life. They are an impressive group of young people standing up for family and traditional values. They deserve everyone's support. I salute them!

We Know Better Than You Do! — Where Does It End? And Since When?

SEE HERE How dare you feed your children a diet not mandated by the nanny state! Are you crazy? Don't you know that the government, especially in California, has decided that only weeds are nutritious, or is that only weed? Hmmm.... Growing up we used to say that California was the land of fruits and nuts and we didn't mean food. The other saying was as California goes, so goes the nation. This was especially true of food fads that migrated from West to East. Trust me, alfalfa sprouts started in California. I remember the first time those things were put on my salad and it was on a trip to visit Lockheed Burbank. I didn't know then that soon enough the government would decide that my diet was their business. Now it seems that they will soon think that I'm their business from cradle to grave. Somehow I don't think that was what the Founders had in mind. The least they can do if they want to give me all the bureaucratic help is give me the bureaucrat directly. I've always wanted a butler. Oh but that would mean the government serving me. Right now I think a more accurate description would be "enslaving" me. I think it's about time to get mad.

Now They're Going To Tell You What To Eat

SEE HERE There is no end to intrusive government when once they get on a roll. I think this is over the top, way over the top! It's time to tell government that you can decide what you want to eat for yourself thank you very much. Where is food-control in the Constitution? This isn't about purity of foods and it's not about safety. It's about power and control. It's time to limit the power of the Federal Government definitively. If we don't do it soon, we'll never be able to.

Conservatives Are Happier Than Liberals

SEE HERE Of course ... is anyone surprised? Conservatives are also usually nicer than Liberals too. Liberals are like people looking at a glass of raspberry wine someone gave them that is half full and complaining that it's only half full. The Conservative given the same glass of raspberry wine will see it is half full, drink it, say "Wow that was good" and go out and get more if necessary. The Liberal will drink his too and look around to see if anyone is coming to give him more and then feel sorry for himself if they aren't. Liberals are never so happy as when they are spending other people's money.

Christmas Is Coming! Hallelujah!

Hallelujah! King of Kings and Lord of Lords ... This ought to put you in a spirit of Thanksgiving and find you beginning to anticipate the arrival of the Lord of the Universe in the form of an infant accompanied by a mighty star ... Hallelujah! indeed.

Utter Contempt for the People ... Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself

SEE HERE Thomas Sowell, the soul of brevity, says what has to be said, that this administration has utter contempt for the American people. It shows every time they open their mouths to respond to criticism. It must be hard for the narcissistic, self-absorbed, certain they are right, far-left liberals to realize that the American people reject their agenda by a large majority. Obviously they must be ignorant, bigoted, uninformed, misinformed, biased, stupid and not worth listening to. "Can you hear us now" was a mantra at one of the big Tea Party assemblies. The short answer is "No" because they are not listening, they are deaf and trapped as G.K. Chesterton might have said "... in the circle of one idea."

Some People Need to Get Out More Often

SEE HERE What is this editorial about except Richard Cohen's posturing as an arbiter of the truth. Quoting Michele Obama isn't necessary because she's on VIDEO and attacking Palin is just the current liberal mantra. So if you're a liberal and want to be part of the dialogue you reinvent the truth to suit yourself. It's what liberals do and then they scream at you if you beg to differ.

I think I can understand English and understand the tone of Michelle Obama's remarks without Richard Cohen's glosses. Sarah Palin unqualified? What qualifies Obama to be president? Being a community organizer in Chicago? Voting present well over a hundred times in the Illinois senate because he didn't want to be on record on any controversial issue? Writing two books before he'd ever done anything substantive? What qualifies Richard Cohen to make these judgments anyway? Being on the Washington Post since 1968? That's almost a sure sign that he's too liberal to be believed and too parochial to know how narrow he is, trapped in the Washington D.C. unreality zone too long to be objective. He needs to make an Iditarod. It'd make a man of him.

North Korean Provocations: North Shells South Korean Island

SEE HERE One has to wonder what the North Koreans think they are up to. Do they have Chinese backing for this provocation? What with the missile launch the other day one has to wonder if there is more to all this than meets the eye?

Bachmann Calls Out the Whitehouse

SEE HERE Red-State points out that Bachmann has the guts to say it like it is. The Whitehouse is un-American in the policies that it is pushing. Not news really for most of us, but having Bachmann say it to the BBC puts it up front and center.
I suppose it is a little strange to feel like any acknowledgment of the American spirit needs to be applauded. Frankly though, there is so little of it coming out of Washington these days that when some small shred emerges it needs to be trumpeted a little.

Which Tea Party Exactly?

SEE HERE The phonies are out in force as usual. Anything coming from a group that claims to be Tea Party related is starting to get some respect. So the mock Tea Party play is clearly a possible feint that the real Tea Party have to expect. If you CHECK OUT GOProud you'll find an organization that bills itself as representing "... gay conservatives and their allies." That's hardly the Tea Party which represents support for traditional morals and the vision of liberty set down by the founders. Gay pride (a rather odd idea in the first place) isn't on the Tea Party agenda. One has to wonder why it is on their agenda? Tolerance of deviance is one thing, but trumpeting it as a triumphal life style is altogether different. We live in "interesting times."

You Gotta Love Palin — She Makes the Left Go Nuts!

SEE HERE I get the biggest kick out of the left's crazy hot-button hate reaction to Alaska's former governor Sarah Palin. She's become a bigger hot button than Ann Coulter and doesn't even have to write columns to maintain her status as number one person on the Left's Hate-Parade. I think it must be the contrast between plastic imaginary people that the left is full of and someone like Palin who really is authentic. She is the person she seems to be. That makes the left go nuts! I love it!

Apparently there's little to be said for the middle class ...

SEE HERE I remember the phrase "You'll be on easy street when you get to $10,000 a year." Of course that was when that salary really was terrific money. Houses cost around $5000. This little piece shows that in terms of disposable income it really does make much sense to work hard. You might was well be on the dole for all the benefit you get. This is pretty troubling I think. I suppose I don't have anything against helping people, but I have a lot against this kind of income flattening. Where's the incentive to work at all for those who can do almost as well by sitting on their backsides and sucking at the government money spigot in all its multivariate forms?

The Last Refuge of Economic Empires

This is fun!

Kindle Has A Run For Its Money: NOOK Color!!

I'm a Kindle user, but I'm also a bit of a technological junkie, at least if the technology appeals to me as useful. I don't own a cell-phone (my wife has one) because I don't want to talk to people just because they have my cell-phone number and feel like interrupting me.

The idea of carrying a library around in a portable, digitally searchable form, now that's cool. So I got a Kindle, version two and love it. Then Apple introduced the iPad and as usual it's expensive and somewhat questionable as to exactly what use it is. Do I really need a browser that costs as much or more than a netbook.

NOOK Color looks to me like baby iPad, and much more affordable. So I'm officially an early adopter. It has WiFi and holds tons of books. My Kindle has battery life all over it. The Kindle goes for weeks, but its not color, it's browser capability is woeful and it doesn't flip from portrait to landscape like an iPad — but the NOOK Color does all of that. It also supports reading by gesture so the page advance is more natural. It has a memory expansion port. But battery life... not so hot. Maybe ten hours with the wireless off and less, a lot less, with it on.

Still I've loaded it up with all the classic works that I want to carry around and I can now web-browse too but I have to carry the cable to charge it up about once a day. So it's certainly not perfect. Now if it was just really easy to program. I've already loaded a bunch of StarTrek photos to grace my wallpaper and all the works of G.K. Chesterton, Aristotle, and Plato as well as some other folks like William James. I'm sure I'll be filling it up with more stuff as time goes on. Oh yeah, and it reads Microsoft document formats and pdfs. I loaded all my Pragmatic Programmer books into it too. Simply awesome!!

It's Time To End TSA. This Isn't Security, It's Sexual Abuse

I think we should start by profiling the TSA employees. Maybe we should check out the upper management too that thinks this is effective security procedure. It is no great trick to make bombs that won't be seen on the super x-ray scanners and little boys, old ladies, nuns and most passengers represent no threat especially with those awful nail files and toe nail clippers. If you wanted to show off government asininity it would be hard to think of anything more effective than this morality play that's been going on for a while now.

The Games People Play

SEE HERE Worth a look as we celebrate Climate Gate, the revelation of just how dishonest the whole climate alarmism movement is. Now the usual cast of characters pretends they are going to bite their noses off to spite their faces. Don't hold your breath. This is just the same cast of phonies that were pushing oil crises, population bombs, the end of all resources about forty years ago now one generation later. It would be nice if they would get real productive jobs and do something useful, but that would keep them from their true love, telling other people what to do.

This Send Up of Glenn Beck Is At Least Funny

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Manchurian Lunatic
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

I actually enjoy watching Glenn Beck when I happen to catch his show. Most of the time he's just asking questions and speculating, which seems to me to be fair enough. He does tend to push the conspiracy side of the envelop but that seems reasonable enough given the crazy politics we're seen in Washington since Obama ushered in the act of "printing money solves all problems." The antics in Washington have gone well beyond bizarre, so when you see really bizarre stuff going on it's quite natural to trot out conspiracy theories. Are they correct? Generally not exactly. If it were that easy we'd likely be able to fix things. The scary thing is that the alternative is that these nutjobs believe all this stuff they are doing is for the good of everyone. The lunatics are running the asylum and you have to say that that's because we elected them and are too lazy to actually find sensible people to send to Washington.

Instead we have congressmen that think that Guam will sink if we put too many people on one side of the island. No joke. It doesn't get too much crazier than that.

Why Aren't All Nations Equally Productive?

SEE HERE A thoughtful read for a Sunday morning. The source of the productivity of the West and indeed it's science and technology is a mystery to those who come at the question in a vacuum. I was fascinated some years ago to read the thoughts of Pierre Duhem on the subject as channeled to me by Stanley Jaki. SEE HERE Duhem's answer to why science emerged in the West is similar and in rather more depth than Marinov.

I remember having conversations with my father when I was a teenager about something close to this question. His answer was that to develop productivity you have to have time to think and a predilection to plan ahead and perhaps some austerity to point the need for such a program. He used those properties to suggest that the inhabitants of colder climates who had to struggle, plan ahead, store food for the Winter and then Winter over was perhaps explanation enough. Whatever the answer, the question is worth thinking about and recognizing that if you lose it, whatever 'it' is, then the prosperity you enjoy goes with it.

Plain Speaking Is A Refreshing Change

One gets very annoyed by the sheer hypocrisy of the left. Governor Christie is a real treat. Here he talks about an interesting situation when the president of the Teacher's Union called on him after one of her membership sent an email asking other teachers to pray for his death. Can you just imagine if some conservative had done something like that? Hypocrisy, plain and simple. SEE HERE

In Case You Didn't Understand the Corruption

One hand washes the other someone said about crooked deals among crooks. The financial industry certainly seems to qualify. Here's a fairly old video that puts some of the tricky dealing into some perspective in case you didn't understand.

Where I come from this is called corruption not a bailout or a stimulus. But you know words don't mean what they used to because then we might more easily figure out that they're all in this together. Thieves gather where the pickings are good and it certainly looks like that's in the government, especially in the financial sector. Now they want to give us a 1% transaction tax. Swiss bank accounts are looking better and better.

Missile Launch Likely A Provocative "Shot Across Our Bow"

ASW failure likely being covered up. The video is clearly a missile and it's origin so far off our coast clearly links it to a submarine launch. Experts suggest that the timing was such as to send a "signal" to the U.S. Welcome to the perils of the 21st century! SEE HERE

The Tipping Point?

SEE HERE The assassination of John F. Kennedy ushered in the tremendous changes of the 1960's from which we are still reeling. Will the nation's politics stabilize and a course going forward to greater freedom and independence develop, or instead will be continue the current decline and slop into the sewers of history, just one more failed human experiment? I'd like to think that our best days are ahead of us. But I've always been a cheerful sort. It's hard to make that case on the basis of objective evidence. So I guess we have to start working harder.

Flash Forward To the November 2010 Elections

SEE HERE What a difference two years makes. Now the Manchurian candidate is seen to have no substance. He is a hollow man, headpiece filled with straw but capable of wonderful readings if the teleprompter just keeps rolling. Properly prepped Barack Obama can give an amazingly smooth and faultless performance. That's almost always the sign of a con man I might add. I'll take rough and ready honesty any time. The November elections I hope are the beginning of the end of this nightmare of Narcissism that has so captured Washington. Hopefully we'll be able to recover from the damage already done. We need a serious and thorough reassessment of what we are about as a nation and a culture. If these policies represent the future then we are already doomed.

An Oldie But Goodie: Who Is Barack Obama?

SEE HERE
This is a blog post that has gotten misattributed to the Wall Street Journal on the Internet, but attribution aside, this is a thoughtful piece. I remember myself how surprised I was that someone with so little substantive experience and a totally undistinguished background would have the audacity (no doubt the audacity of hope or is it presumption?) to run for president as a junior Senator hardly even launched into his first term. I was sure he could not be nominated. Then I was astounded that he could be elected. All that alone has shaken my confidence in the judgment of the electorate, not that I had all that much to begin with. So this piece is worth at least some consideration.

The Future Of America: Moochers Trump Producers

SEE HERE The reality of the increasingly intrusive welfare state is played out in microcosm in Alaska's senatorial election. Armstrong Williams nails it. Once the blush is off the rose of rugged individualism and independence, that ole handout addiction comes to the forefront and the moochers vote their self-interest. We're on the fast track to the ultimate collapse because once the moochers rule the roost the producers quit. Then everyone gets to wallow in poverty together. Not the future I want to pass on to my grandchildren. In a one-man, one-vote system where the moochers outnumber the productive, that's what happens. We may forget easily, but the founders knew that which was why they didn't leave us a one-man, one-vote system. Maybe we should be more perceptive.

Welcome to Government Feel Ups

SEE HERE This continues to be a story because it is so outrageous. We send people to jail for doing this and then we hire goons to force people to submit to it at airports. The world has lost its mind, what little they ever had.

I Can't Be The Only One That Thinks This Is Sheer Insanity?

SEE HERE When the government gets into the "regulation" or "inspection" business, it isn't safety that is enhanced, it is sheer bureaucracy with nothing but mindlessness behind it. This is just a fairly typical example of the kind of nonsense that goes on. You really can't make up this stuff. It is too crazy to make up. I wonder if any of these TSA clowns have ever heard the term "short butt stroke sequence"? When I was in the service we were taught how to fix bayonets and fight hand to hand up close and personal with a weapon. The "short butt stroke sequence" was a move that took a split second to take a person down with an unloaded rifle. The idea that a finger nail clipper or a finger nail file is a weapon is only for the fevered imagination of the insane. A rifle, even unloaded, is a whole lot more effective.

Watch Out for the Nutjobs

SEE HERE The nature of the state is the free collaboration of the people to provide for the common good. It seems to me that people who don't want to honor the compact can be allowed and perhaps should be forced to leave ... oh yeah, that's the nature of illegal immigration. So these folks are saying they are not really citizens. That's fine. Let's export them to someplace that like lunatics.

File This Under Detached and Bizarre

SEE HERE Babies are little people. They differ from the rest of us only in terms of nutrition, maturity, and time. Abortion is the intentional killing of little people based on a prejudice about their size, stage of development, and place of residence. Now it's a spectator sport to vote on whether to conduct this murder on the one hand or bear the child on the other. Strikes me a little like the Roman Coliseum when the crowd gave the signal to kill or not to kill the fallen gladiator.

Why We Have to Take Back The Schools

SEE HERE The government indoctrination system has too long been churning out a dumbed down, propagandized student who thinks they are victims of the great evil [... fill in the blank ...] and that only government will save them by growing bigger and ever more protective. If we don't take back the schools then soon enough our own children will enslave us and be enslaved themselves in the warm (artificially warm) cocoon of government largesse which will disappear quickly enough when everyone is in chains. Maggie had it right when she opined that socialism is great until you run out of other people's money.

Supreme Court Declnes To Review ObamaCare

SEE HERE Well I hope this is not a harbinger of a tremendous expansion of Federal powers. Just what is it that the Federal government can not do if it can require you arbitrarily to use your personal resources to purchase items they dictate?

Welcome To The Land Of The Self-Absorbed

SEE HERE Now that everyone thinks they are news people it shouldn't surprise us that Twittering the "news" takes precedence over being human. Helping a fellow person in distress is a human obligation else we have increasingly become in-human. Even animals comfort one-another.

Ann Takes Aim At the Lunacy Of It All

SEE HERE Never a dull moment. The government is great at inventing ways to annoy airline passengers. It has yet to be demonstrated that they're very good at stopping terrorists. The fact of the matter is that they are beginning to look like the terrorists.

Moslem Women Are Exempt!!! What?

SEE HERE There's a great security plan. Exempt women from the terrorist demographic from the grope search while submitting non-demographic men and women to indignity. Has the government lost their minds? Don't answer that ... the answer is obvious and has been for some time.

Freedom Demands Eternal Vigilance

SEE HEREUnreasonable search and seizure ... I think that's about what this comes down to. Safety in the air is important, but it isn't the only important thing. Effective security is going to the source of the problem not making life miserable for the 99.99% of all the people flying. It's hard to meter out the amount of security each security measure contributes to the equation. Often in security perceptions are more important than reality. The whole process needs serious analysis and review.

Just Opt Out!

SEE HERE Since when should the government be maintaining a security force at the nation's airports anyway? Private security is more flexible and likely more effective.

TSA An American Gestapo?

SEE HERE So what the hell is this about. A citizen resists being manhandled and forced to be whole body X-ray'ed and the American Gestapo decides to investigate him? Yeah that's going to make us all more secure. Let's terrorize Americans with our own built in terrorism unit. These clowns are way out of bounds. How much freedom will you have to give up in the name of hypothetical safety? I sure don't feel safer. Why don't we investigate some of the folks that actually do the bad things? No, we have to terrorize nuns, and little children, and law abiding Americans because they're so much easier targets. These kind of officious numskulls make my blood boil. I see this kind of thing all the time. Don't solve the problems, punish the victims instead. It's the government way folks. If you haven't notice before you have not been paying attention. AMERICAN GESTAPO

Unreasonable Search and Seizure?

SEE HERE Is the TSA violating the law? New Jersey seems to think so. Since when is it legitimate security to grope young children and others? We have laws against this kind of behavior. How about finding other ways to provide security beside doing whole body xray scans with body cavity groping as an alternative? Is there any sign that this works or just the fevered imagination of the government that this is better than actually finding out who the bombers are and stopping them directly. LUNATICS RUNNING THE ASYLUM

Pat Buchanan Breaks the Code

SEE HERE The surest way to kill a country is to decimate its population. We've been doing that now for a long time. If we continue it will not be very much longer and the country will no longer be recognizable. It will be either Spanish or Muslim or maybe both. That's not a racist comment, it's a demographic one. We need to do more than just take the country back politically, we have to restore a respect for the sanctity of life. The lives and culture of our children depend on it.

Shutting Down the Government Is Stupid

Playing games with the budget like shutting down the government is just plain stupid. It sends entirely the wrong message to the American people. By the same token, submitting to Democrat blackmail isn't sensible either. It's going to be an interesting time in Washington. Stay tuned.

Feeding the Crocodile

SEE HERE Obama is compared in this piece to the great appeaser: England’s Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain. To hear Obama and see America through his eyes, one has to come to grips with a vision of America that is alien and foreign to the sensibilities of almost all Americans, certainly those in the political center or center-right. We see America as epitomizing hope in a world very devoid of hope. Sure we have problems, but we are a free people in the largest and most prolific society that the world has ever known. Hopefully our best days are still before us. That won't be true however, if we don't step back from policies which will make us just another socialist regime like so many in Europe. We can do better than that, but we have to have leaders that share the vision. Obama doesn't make the cut.

Deficit Reduction Is Easy — Political Will Is Hard

SEE HERE Deficit reduction isn't really the problem. The problem is the out of control spending that leads to the deficits in the first place. Providing cover by appointing commissions to study the problem ad infinitum is just prolonging the problem by pretending it's sort of environmental. It just happens. But it doesn't just happen. It happens because the government refuses to be accountable. That's what has to end.

Enhanced Security or Sanctioned Sexual Abuse?

SEE HERE This latest invasion of people's integrity and personal space in the name of alleged security is sheer horse hockey. It's dangerous and offensive and likely ineffective and expensive to boot. I remember some time ago a recommendation that everyone just strip naked and go on the plane. This is getting awfully close to that. It is sure not going to help aviation any and it's probably not going to enhance security. The numskulls will be too occupied with finding pretty girls to oogle than protecting anyone. Good looking girls are a lot more fun to look at then those pesky, ugly, Arabs with plastic explosive in their pants. See the EARLIER POST RED STATE ON THE ISSUE

Warfare Space Age Style

SEE HERE As space age weaponry proliferates it is hard to tell what the overall implications will be. It is bad enough, worse I suppose, that nuclear weapons pose such a threat of proliferation, but even less destructive but more precision weapons like drone and satellite surveillance platforms are changing the picture of warfare among second tier nations that do not have the technology yet. How to control and manage the threats this spread entails is an important challenge.

"Heads Up — I Have A Cutie For You!"

SEE HERE So much for airport security. They hire goons and then they're surprised that they act like goons.

Has There Ever Been A More Secretive President? Why?

Could you please help me find these things, Sir?

1. Occidental College records -- Not released
2. Columbia College records -- Not released
3. Columbia Thesis paper -- "Not available"
4. Harvard College records -- Not released
5. Selective Service Registration -- Not released
6. Medical records -- Not released
7. Illinois State Senate schedule -- Not available
8. Your Illinois State Senate records -- Not available
9. Law practice client list -- Not released
10. Certified Copy of original Birth certificate -- Not released
11. Embossed, signed paper Certification of Live Birth -- Not released
12. Record of your baptism -- Not available
13. Why your wife, Michelle, can no longer practice law as an attorney? (Insurance Fraud?_
14. Why your wife has 22 assistants, when other First Ladies had one?
15. Why were you getting "foreign student aid" as a college student?
16. Which country's "passport" did you have when you visited Pakistan in 1981?

Oh and one more thing Mr. President, I can't seem to find any articles you published as editor of the Harvard Law Review, or as a Professor at the University of Chicago. Can you explain that to me, Sir?
Oh, but hey -- listen! I know you're busy! If this is too much for you right now -- I mean -- tell you what. I'll come back tomorrow. Give you some time to get these things together, you know? I mean, I know you're busy. I'll just let myself out. I'll be back tomorrow. And the day after. . ...

Reality Disconnect? Not Obama ... Say It Isn't So ...

SEE HERE Well read this and more deeply appreciate the NIC (Narcissist In Charge). Reality disconnect is his middle name. Temper tantrums? At least he hasn't fallen to the floor and beaten his fists against it yet. That might be coming before too much longer. Out of touch with reality? Well I think that's been obvious from the get-go, but then most of the American people see to share that or we wouldn't be engaged in pretending we can spend our way to prosperity.

So Are The Libs Going to Apologize To Palin Now?

SEE HERE Gee, death panels! Wow! Who would have thought it. We can solve our problems by denying medical care to our seniors. Gee ... Golly willikers batman, weren't they just denying that and making fun of Palin for even suggesting such an outrageous thing? I am so fed up with the hypocrites that pretend to be our intellectual elite that I could just puke. Well there you have it. Better watch out seniors (oh yeah, I'm one of those). We're on the list for elimination. Don't you just love the nanny state now? FOLLOW-UP

The Poisening Of Science — Money for Agenda Driven Results

SEE HERE Here is a short excerpt of a paper by Brazilian Geologist Geraldo Luís Lino: (CHECK OUT PART 1)

---

... It is indeed regrettable that this sober advice has been deliberately overlooked by a good deal of the scientific community involved in the climate research and related themes (beginning with the Academy itself). Perhaps, in many cases this attitude has been motivated by the lure of the incentives offered by the AGW machine – plentiful research grants, mediatic exposition, prestige, the professional pride of making part of a branch of science elevated to stardom, business consulting opportunities and many others. On the other hand, besides the hundreds of billion dollars that have been wasted with the attempt of imposing a theory that is not supported by the physical world evidences, the “warmist” thrust is harming science in quite dangerous ways.

---

Science is always provisional. Science is not built on consensus but upon observation and conformance of observation with theory. The history of the AGW endeavor is one of cherry picking the data and agenda driven science in return for which generous grants have been forthcoming from the political arms of government bent on justifying all manner of regulations and taxes. It's not science. It's propaganda, and it's a damn shame. INTERESTED IN MORE?

How Does This Work Exactly?

SEE HERE There's an old saw of economics that if you tax something you get less of it and if you subsidize something you get more of it. It's just basic economics, but it seems that our liberal elite rarely think about it. They are locked into steady-state, zero-sum-game thinking which supposes that if you subsidize something the subsidized group benefits and everything else is the same and if you tax something that the tax money paid in appears magically and nothing adverse happens.

Neither of those assumptions is true. Giving people things for nothing disincentivizes them from working harder. So they work less. If they were barely working they may stop working altogether. This has been the weak link in all the welfare programs and has caused a permanent underclass to develop that is on the government dole. If you increase the programs you don't end poverty you actually increase it by spreading the welfare mentality further and create larger and larger dependency classes. The people paying for it are the shrinking class of self-starters who are working. However, they are not unaffected so they tend to work a little less and develop their own patterns of partial dependency.

The problems with this ought to be obvious to everyone. In the long run this produces a downward spiral in our economic health as a nation and at some point you've reached a tipping point from which there is no return. The remaining folks willing to work abandon the country and since they were paying for the whole thing the system collapses and since the whole system is dedicated to the proposition that all solutions come from a government that produces exactly nothing and pays by extracting wealth from the productive, the response is to try to squeeze blood from the remaining stone and this accelerates the process of collapse. Then the government tries to intervene by seizing the means of production but they no longer have the management class that organized things so that doesn't work, it just makes government to blame. Finally it either ends in revolution or a sort of steady-state universal poverty where everyone is poor.

Ok — that's the worst case scenario. What are you doing to stop it? If the answer is that you are part of the problem, then perhaps you should reconsider your assumptions.

Jihad!

SEE HERE Let's make one thing perfectly clear. Jihad is a religious obligation to a Muslim and it has only one operational meaning within Islam. The word means "to fight or strive" in its Arabic root and as it appears in the Qur'an it means the fight on the way to God. To a Muslim this is interpreted as "holy war" and despite the efforts of Western scholars to impose a spiritual meaning, such a meaning is not recognized by Muslims. "The Wanderer" in its November 11th issue, had an editorial which likened the current liberal political correctness ideology to a "Jihad on honesty." They cited the firing of Juan Williams as an example. That Jihad strikes at anyone who denies the "truth" of the current liberal elite. But at least they're not killing dissenters yet. But some of the intemperate demands against Global Warming skeptics certainly advocated it.

Civilization as we know it hangs in the balance today. Islam is fighting not only with violence but with that most silent of weapons, population. The West is committing cultural and literal suicide by killing their young and having very few children. It takes only a generation to kill a culture if it does not reproduce itself. We are on track to disappear if we don't figure it out soon. The liberal elite will disappear as well, but they seem too stupid to understand that.

Truth and the Media? Not Much Now'aDays!

SEE HERE Bill O'Reilly waxes bloviatingly (just to use his word) on the lack of standards of truth any longer in the media. Not only do many journalists seem to ignore the plain truth, but they show an active disdain for the truth, intentionally imposing narratives that are demonstrably untrue. This places the reader or listener in the unenviable position of having to evaluate the quality of the information being conveyed usually without an adequate basis of judgment.

When a journalist says thus and such and it isn't true and they're called on it and give a don't care response, then you know how dedicated they are to telling the truth. Today you can't count on any dedication to the truth so you just have to average the lies and see if you can make sense of things. Listen to all the spin and maybe you can see your way clear to a shadowy image of the truth that lies behind the lies.

Is It Really This Simple?

SEE HERE The data suggests that it is fairly simple. The cooling and heating patterns used to claim global warming are likely the result of a far more straightforward phenomenon having nothing to do with CO2. Surprise, surprise!

Tea Party License Plate — Good Idea!

SEE HERE Seem like a good idea. I like the Gadsden flag. It expresses in a single image the American ideals of rugged independence and freedom.

Obama's Trip to India

SEE HERE Thinking about the role of America in an increasingly competitive world is certainly worth a few minutes. Charles Krauthammer thinks Obama's trip to India sounded just the right note and that that was worth a few bucks. Hard to measure this sort of thing, but serious food for thought.

Another Reason to Get Out of the U.N.

SEE HERE Obama's puppet master is organizing a shakedown of the U.S. Let's see how that goes. George Soros is a piece of work. But he's getting old. I wonder who gets his billions when he dies?

Human Rights? and the UN? Give Me a Break

SEE HERE When are we going to defund the U.N. and get out of that squabbling bunch of hypocrites assembly. The League of Nations was useless and so is the U.N. The idea that that bunch of dictators, despots, and socialists is going to give us a report card on human rights and largely ignore the humanity of the unborn is nonsense in the extreme.

Stand By For Inflation! — A Special Form of Stealing

Somehow as I watch prices rise in the supermarket and elsewhere the Fed's mantra about being afraid of deflation just doesn't ring very true. The interest on the long bond is growing. The deficit is out of sight and we need to pump 600 billion more unbacked dollars into the economy for some reason? How about having the government stop spending so much money and giving people who actually do something productive a chance for a change. The government does nothing except give orders. They regulate, they control, they print money without any particular goal except vague and questionable things like "we're afraid of deflation" — and they sell bonds which takes money that could have gone for something productive off the table. We'll see how all this plays out, but I'm expecting more inflation than is helpful and maybe much more.

No Fly List — Government Intrusions Grow and Grow

SEE HERE Who is kidding who? This stuff doesn't enhance security. You want to enhance security then you do a better job of profiling and stop this kind of expensive and silly nonsense. I simply won't fly if I can possibly avoid it. If you want aircraft security use the resources you have to do a better job of identifying possible risks and stop most of the nonsense. They took a money clip away from me because it had a 1 1/2" little tiny knife in it (I didn't even know it was there) and it was a memento my father had owned engraved with his initials. I had an option, give it up or don't fly and five minutes to get on the plane. But it gets worse and worse and if you think it enhances security it doesn't. It's a great distraction to be screening all the people who aren't the risks and letting the risky folks, who know the drill, just waltz on through. It gets crazier and crazier!

Semper Fi!

The 235th anniversary of the founding of the Marine Corps is a good anniversary to commemorate. The Continental Congress called for the formation of the Marine Corps on November 10, 1775. Their long and honorable tradition continues. I am the proud father of a Marine who served in Desert Storm. "Always faithful. The few, the proud, the Marines."