Sunday, February 28, 2010
"A Little Know Medical Fact" and the 2nd Amendment
To wit: The most common cause of erectile disfunction (sic) in rapists is none other than a snub nosed 38 special in the hands of a female willing to use it.
From a Rachel Peepers post at Eternity Road titled Don’t leave home without it.
A Most Beautiful Expression of Love
Liu Xiaobo, was recently sentenced to eleven (11) years in prison, in China, for advocating freedom. The Guardian interviewed Liu’s wife, Liu Xia, and published this interview under the headline My dear husband Liu Xiaobo, the writer China has put behind bars. At the end of the interview, there is a note from Liu Xiaobo to his wife Liu Xia which is one of the most beautiful expressions of love I have ever read.
LIU XIAOBO’S MESSAGE TO HIS WIFE AS HE WAS JAILED FOR 11 YEARS
“She cannot be present today, but I still want to tell you, my sweetheart, that I’m confident that your love for me will be as always.
Your love is sunlight that transcends prison walls and bars, stroking every inch of my skin, warming my every cell, letting me maintain my inner calm, magnanimous and bright, so that every minute in prison is full of meaning… My love is hard, sharp, and can penetrate any obstacles. Even if I am crushed into powder, I will embrace you with the ashes."
That is love. Read the whole interview.
Linked via Tom Palmer.
Transforming or Already Transformed?
In a Saturday post at The Corner, under the heading Transformation, Andy McCarthy comments on the upcoming November elections and the alleged nervousness of Democrats subject to reelection by the whim of voters, with an emphasis on how the health care debacle plays into this.
McCarthy states that the Democrats are to the point where they will attempt to pass ObamaCare (DeathCare), regardless of how it may effect upcoming November elections, in order to move closer to the overall goal of the State, which is complete power/control over individuals lives, and McCarthy then makes this statement.
This is about power, and there is more to power than winning elections, especially if you’ve calculated that your opposition does not have the gumption to dismantle your ballooning welfare state. (bold by ed.)
The absolute truth of the portion of the above quote which I’ve highlighted can be illustrated by the following comment, taken from a Vodkapundit post titled The Brutal Truth About Californians, wherein an individual who attended a recent talk to a group of California conservatives, if there are actually conservatives in California, given by California’s State Controller of Currency, notes the response of conservatives to questions regarding the cutting of certain social programs.
Here’s the really scary thing: he asked the group how many people would be willing to cut spending in the following areas: Education, Health Care assistance, and Prisons? These areas comprise 92% of California’s budget, so any meaningful cuts would have to touch them. I was the ONLY person in the room that raised their hand for all three. And without naming names, this was one of the most conservative groups of people you could get into a room (at least in Cali).
If people don’t even have the guts to raise their hands in a room full of as like-minded a bunch as you’re going to find, how on earth do they expect their politicians to do anything? (bold by ed.)
As Billy Beck notes, after reading the above quote.
At this point of this disaster, there will be no voting our way out of it. The prevailing epistemology doesn’t permit it: there simply are not enough people out there who know how to think. The dominant ethics of the culture won’t have it: everybody wants to live at the expense of everyone else, and freedom is not a value in this country, anymore.
I say that you can count California as quite fairly representative of the United States at large, and you can take it from there.
America has been transformed. Unfortunately it has been transformed into a gutless, socialist wonder.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Hope or Individual Action to Fix What's Broken?
According to CNN poll numbers released Sunday, Americans overwhelmingly think that the U.S. government is broken - though the public overwhelmingly holds out hope that what’s broken can be fixed.
I recommend individual action to fix what’s broken, rather than holding out hope with which the government will further bind you.
CNN Poll: Majority says government a threat to citizens’ rights
Income Equality - It Just "Feels so Much Nicer"
Jenna Russell, writing for The Boston Globe, interviews Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson, who have written a book titled The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger.
Russell’s interview is posted under the headline It’s money that matters, and carries the subheadline A new book says economic inequality is the social division we should be worrying about.
Based on the title of the book, the headline for Russell’s piece, and the subheadline, it is not difficult to ascertain that Pickett and Wilkinson think the solution to differences in incomes amongest the individuals who make up society is wealth redistribution, though they do admit that they “are not advocating any particular way” this should, or could, be accomplished.
What I found particularly empty headed about the interview, which would I think reflect an emptyheadedness about Pickett and Wilkinson’s book, is the following question and answer from within Russell’s interview regarding alleged benefits of income/wealth equality.
IDEAS: So the people at the top would benefit from change as well?
WILKINSON: The quality of social relations seems to deteriorate in more unequal societies. People trust each other much less....In Sweden, people don’t bother to check your tickets on the train or bus. And it just feels so much nicer. (bold by ed.)
It just feels so much nicer. How vacuous.
Throughout mankind’s history I can recall no time when income/wealth equality existed. This would also be true within the animal kingdom, though animals typically do not accumulate wealth, indeed not every animal receives the same share of the income (the kill or the best fruits hanging from the tree.)
Inequality in incomes and wealth will always exist. That is the way the world functions. Some individual will always make more money than you or I. Some individual will always have a nicer car, home, or toy than you or I. Get over it, and if you desire a nicer car, home, toy, or more money, get out there and earn it yourself, and keep your mitts off of my earnings.
$450 Dollar Handgun for Sale - Just $819 Dollars
So, you live in Washington D.C. and you would like to purchase a handgun. Excellent. Have I got a deal for you.
The registration process adds substantially to the cost of the firearm. If a firearm is purchased for $450, the new owner must thereafter contend with the following expenses:
$22.50 Virginia sales tax
$25 shipment fee
$125 gun class fee (may be more depending on the instructor)
$125 gun dealer transfer fee
$12 passport photos
$13 application fee
$12 ballistics test fee
$35 fingerprinting / FBI background check feeThe total fees and taxes are $369.50, nearly doubling the actual cost of a $450 firearm to $819.50.
From an examiner.com piece titled How to buy and register a handgun in the District of Columbia: a survival guide linked via Reynolds.
"President Obama is Quite Clearly a Socialist"
Evidently Bill O’Reilly thinks that individuals labeling Obama as a socialist are crossing some type of rhetorical line in labeling Obama as a socialist, no matter how far left Obama veers.
Adam Shaw, writing at the American Thinker, noted O’Reilly’s hesitation in calling Obama a socialist, and comments on O’Reilly’s hesitation in a piece titled Obama’s Socialism, from which I will quote a few salient lines.
Here in Britain we look at the continuing battle as to whether Obama is a socialist or not as a rather odd American quibble. In Britain we have no problem defining people as socialists, nor do people on the left have a problem calling themselves socialists. It is not that those of us on the conservative right do not believe that socialism is a bad doctrine. We do, and we see evidence of its continual destruction of the country on a day-to-day basis, but we have always had socialism living quite openly amongst us. We are therefore able to see and recognize it quite calmly as a day-to-day occurrence in politics, just as one recognizes the flu. We wish it didn’t exist, but it does, and so we get on with our lives, trying to avoid catching it in the process.
And this.
I have a lot of respect for Bill O’Reilly, but to a Brit who has seen his fair share of socialists and lives in a socialist country run by a self-described socialist party by a self-described socialist prime minister who has taken over for another self-described socialist prime minister, it is puzzling why self-described independents like Mr O’Reilly are doing backflips in an attempt to avoid the obvious fact—President Obama is quite clearly a socialist.
President Obama is quite clearly a socialist, and as Shaw states in his piece, Americans should quit deluding themselves in regards to this fact.
Linked via Bill at Free In Idaho!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Mammoth Iceberg, Ice Cube Concern
Reading the following headline, Mammoth iceberg could alter ocean circulation: study, one may think that the impact of this “mammoth iceberg” may call for drastic actions, say bombing it into little icebergs, or what have you. The second paragraph should ease any concerns.
While the impact would not be felt for decades or longer, a slowdown in the production of colder, dense water could result in less temperate winters in the north Atlantic, they said.
I’ll stay on top of it and get back to you in 2040 or so.
So Much for the Sanctity of Your Home, and the Fourth Amendment
I’m surprised I have not seen the following in my travels through the world wide web the past couple of days, as the relevance this has to the privacy each and every American individual has a right to in their home, is, in effect, dead.
Last week the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied an en banc rehearing of the case United States v. Lemus, which dealt with a warrantless police search of a suspect’s home after he was arrested outside of it. As a result of the 9th Circuit’s denial, the search will stand,...
Chief Judge of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, Alex Kozinski, dissenting and none to happy, welcomes Americans to the “fishbowl."
This is an extraordinary case: Our court approves, without blinking, a police sweep of a person’s home without a warrant, without probable cause, without reasonable suspicion and without exigency—in other words, with nothing at all to support the entry except the curiosity police always have about what they might find if they go rummaging around a suspect’s home. Once inside, the police managed to turn up a gun “in plain view”—stuck between two cushions of the living room couch—and we reward them by upholding the search.
Did I mention that this was an entry into somebody’s home, the place where the protections of the Fourth Amendment are supposedly at their zenith?...
The opinion misapplies Supreme Court precedent, conflicts with our own case law and is contrary to the great weight of authority in the other circuits. It is also the only case I know of, in any jurisdiction covered by the Fourth Amendment, where invasion of the home has been approved based on no showing whatsoever. Nada. Gar nichts. Rien du tout. Bupkes.
Whatever may have been left of the Fourth Amendment after [United States v. Black] is now gone. The evisceration of this crucial constitutional protector of the sanctity and privacy of what Americans consider their castles is pretty much complete. Welcome to the fish bowl.
The above was gleaned from a Reason Hit & Run post titled Judge Alex Kozinski: The Fourth Amendment is Gone. “Welcome to the fish bowl.”, which I linked after visiting J. Orlin Grabbe’s website.
Pitt the Elder, though in the grave, speaks to this tyranny.
The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail, its roof may shake; the wind may blow through it; the storm may enter, the rain may enter—but the King of England cannot enter; all his force dares not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement!
Submarine News - Women
I suppose it was inevitable, but I’m happy that my time in the submarine service is long past.
Women to Serve on Subs, Gates Tells Congress
Via The Stupid Shall Be Punished, which has a long comment thread on the subject.
Joe Stack Conspiracy Theorists?
It seems that every major event which strikes society’s psyche brings forth some sort of conspiracy theory, involving secrets not known, alleged governmental relationships and other whisperings overhead in the hall. I guess it isn’t unusual, then, that the recent Joe Stack incident should bring forth its own conspiracy theory.
The blog also highlights transponder flight tracking records of Stack’s plane which show that its last journey took place on August 6, 2009, and not on February 18 last week when the aircraft was slammed into the Echelon building.
One poster on the Prison Planet forum speculates, “This plane may still be in a hanger at GTU.”
Could Stack’s lightweight Piper Cherokee really have caused such drastic damage to the facade of the Echelon building when compared with other small planes that have crashed into buildings like that of New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle?...
Another startling contradiction comes in the form of Stack’s last words, which were reported by the media and apparently confirmed by audio from air traffic control tapes to be, “Thanks for your help, have a good day.”
However, audio taken from radio scanners who also recorded Stack’s last words is slightly different from that being forwarded as the official version. The second version of the audio, Stack’s final words are, “I’m definitely checking out, have a good day.”
The entire theory can be read at PrisonPlanet.com in a piece titled Joe Stack’s Intriguing Connections With Defense Contractors, Intelligence Agencies.
Via Fred Lapides GoodShit.
A Nation of Unearned Entitlement Dependents
Don Peck, a deputy managing editor for The Atlantic, has a piece posted online titled How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America, which is a bit of a longish read on a subject which is actually self evident, though Peck’s article does articulate various postulations why a new jobless era will transform America.
In reading the article, I was struck by a particular passage which I think goes to the root of the problem, and which is the prime cause for a majority of issues affecting America today, politically and socially. The relevant passage from page 2 of Peck’s piece..
Many of today’s young adults seem temperamentally unprepared for the circumstances in which they now find themselves. Jean Twenge, an associate professor of psychology at San Diego State University, has carefully compared the attitudes of today’s young adults to those of previous generations when they were the same age. Using national survey data, she’s found that to an unprecedented degree, people who graduated from high school in the 2000s dislike the idea of work for work’s sake, and expect jobs and career to be tailored to their interests and lifestyle. Yet they also have much higher material expectations than previous generations, and believe financial success is extremely important. “There’s this idea that, ‘Yeah, I don’t want to work, but I’m still going to get all the stuff I want,’” Twenge told me. “It’s a generation in which every kid has been told, ‘You can be anything you want. You’re special.’”
In her 2006 book, Generation Me, Twenge notes that self-esteem in children began rising sharply around 1980, and hasn’t stopped since. By 1999, according to one survey, 91 percent of teens described themselves as responsible, 74 percent as physically attractive, and 79 percent as very intelligent. (More than 40 percent of teens also expected that they would be earning $75,000 a year or more by age 30; the median salary made by a 30-year-old was $27,000 that year.) Twenge attributes the shift to broad changes in parenting styles and teaching methods, in response to the growing belief that children should always feel good about themselves, no matter what. As the years have passed, efforts to boost self-esteem—and to decouple it from performance—have become widespread.
These efforts have succeeded in making today’s youth more confident and individualistic. But that may not benefit them in adulthood, particularly in this economic environment. Twenge writes that “self-esteem without basis encourages laziness rather than hard work,” and that “the ability to persevere and keep going” is “a much better predictor of life outcomes than self-esteem.” She worries that many young people might be inclined to simply give up in this job market. “You’d think if people are more individualistic, they’d be more independent,” she told me. “But it’s not really true. There’s an element of entitlement—they expect people to figure things out for them.” (all bold by ed.)
The portions of the above passage which I have highlighted, I think, provide us with the answer as to why America is in the state it is in. This false sense of self-esteem in individuals, decoupled from performance, and which was and is fully supported by parents and teachers, is encapsulated in AYSO’s Six Philosophies, particularly AYSO’s “Everyone Plays®” squishy reasoning.
Our program’s goal is for kids to play soccer so we mandate that every player on every team must play at least 50% of every game...
Which leads to this statement regarding “Balanced Teams” from AYSO’s Six Philosophies.
Each year we form new teams as evenly balanced as possible because it’s more fun and a better learning experience when teams of similar ability play...
And which is followed by this AYSO philosophical musing on “Open Registration."
Our program is open to all children between 4 and 19 years of age who want to register and play soccer. Interest and enthusiasm are the only criteria for playing. There are no elimination try-outs and nobody gets cut.
The American political, educational, and social system has been grooming it “citizens,” from a tender age, to be dependent upon the State and to be in possession of a false sense of self-esteem, resulting in a nation of unearned entitlement dependents. And the children who have grown up during these past decades are adhering to these squishy dependent, false self-esteem and unearned entitlement lessons like automatons, chillingly fulfilling the words we can read from Proverbs 22:6.
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
U.S. Doesn't Have a Pot to Piss In
Want to see just how broke America is? Take a look at this chart, courtesy of the CIA’s The World Factbook, which records the following.
This entry records a country’s net trade in goods and services, plus net earnings from rents, interest, profits, and dividends, and net transfer payments (such as pension funds and worker remittances) to and from the rest of the world during the period specified. These figures are calculated on an exchange rate basis, i.e., not in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms.
Go ahead, take a look, and then you’ll understand why Jeff Quick states “We are scrod."
Census 2010
I have advocated individuals, as a peaceful means of civil disobedience in our increasingly State regulated society, to refuse to participate in Census 2010. Here, here, here, here, and most recently here, and I will continue to do so on these pages, and when I am in groups of people socially.
Wendy McElroy has penned a well written column, posted at The Freeman, enumerating reasons why individuals should refuse to participate in Census 2010, providing some history of the census, how the data collected by the census has been abused, and then ends her column with a personal anecdote. The op-ed is titled The Census: Vehicle for Social Engineering, and it ends this way.
Several years ago I discussed the Canadian census with a neighbor after she had signed up to be a census taker. Like many rural women, she is proudly independent and openly suspicious of authority, especially of government “suits” and bean-counters. I asked what she would do if a neighbor refused to answer her questions. “I’d report them to my boss,” she replied without hesitation. When I frowned in disapproval, she indignantly protested against people who refused to pull their weight in the community by answering “some simple questions.”
Note the political sleight-of-hand. My neighbor would never trespass on my property or steal vegetables from my garden. But she would turn me in to the authorities for not answering questions. Instead of the “natural harmony of interests” that comes from all people minding their own business, the census establishes a situation in which everyone is encouraged to police everyone else at the behest of the State; indeed, many are paid to do so.
The census in a welfare state, then, creates a dynamic in which the exercise of one person’s rights ostensibly damages the interests others. It thus has become a powerful symbol of social control over civil society.
Segway Funnies
I don’t think much of Segways, and haven’t since they were first hyped back in 2003 as a revolutionary means of transportation. Additionally, I’ve commented on Segway on multiple other occasions, none of which enabled me to state anything positive about Segways, or its inventor Dean Kamen.
Today, though, I can at least link to a funny Segway incident, reminiscent of a Keystone Kops episode, headlined this way.
About
The author is an ex-submariner, questioner of authority, cigar smoking fly-fishing fanatic who wants to live to be 103
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