Thursday, April 08, 2010

What About Andersonville, Bob?

This whole Confderate History Month Proclamation brouhaha has generated mountains of copy.  A Google search utilizing the terms Confederate history returns over 1.1 million possible results for your reading pleasure, with the recent brouhaha at the top of the results list.

Governor Bob McDonnell has taken a lot of heat for omitting any reference to slavery in his initial Confederate History Month Proclamation, though feeling burned, he has amended said proclamation and added verbiage acknowledging slavery, specificially, as part of Confederate History Month.

If one actually and rationally thinks about Confederate history, though, does not one automatically think about slavery?  Has any school or history curriculum within America in the past one hundred (100) years taught some other manifestation of Confederate history which somehow neglects to mention that the issue of slavery did play a part in that recent unpleasantness?  When you hear the words Confederate history do you not recall that the issue of slavery played a significant part in the Civil War?

If Governor Bob McDonnell is going to amend his Confederate History Month Proclamation in order to please civil rights leaders, the NAACP and other individuals who desire to perpetuate the guilt of slavery and racism, what about amending the Confederate History Month Proclamation to include the evils of Andersonville, or the destruction wrought by Sherman’s march to the sea?

It is time America untied itself from the guilt of slavery whipping post.

Posted by John Venlet on 04/08 at 06:02 AM
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Wednesday, April 07, 2010

I Won’t and I Don’t

Wendy McElroy has posted a wonderful essay titled Why do good men do nothing? which begins this way.

In his book “Thoughts on the Cause of Present Discontents” (1770), the British philosopher Edmund Burke wrote, “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one…” This sentiment has survived as “All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing.”

Why do good men do nothing in the face of evil, especially when evil aggressively invades their lives?

The question has red-hot relevance to those who value the tradition of individual freedom into which America was born—a tradition that includes freedom of speech, the right to bear arms and to demand due process. These traditional freedoms are crumbling under the wheels of run-away government. Through dozens of ‘alphabet agencies’—the IRS, BATF, CPS, DHS, et al—government aggressively enters the lives of good men who do nothing to protect themselves or their families.

Wendy then ends her essay with these words.

Adults need to recapture the childlike joy and power of saying ‘no.’ The words most feared by those in authority are ‘I won’t.’ Individuals with the habit of obedience may need to start by saying ‘no’ on small matters like refusing to fill in racial information on application forms. They may be shocked by how difficult it is to say ‘I won’t’ even to petty demands. But the difficulty is a sign of how important it is. Only when a person is able to say ‘no’ can he say ‘yes’ and have the word mean more that the obedient response of a servant. ‘Yes’ is properly the affirmation of a free man.

I’ve calculated that the true dollar cost of my individual I won’t, and I don’t, stance for liberty and freedom would enrich the state to the tune of over $10,000.00, rob me of over fifteen (15) years of my life, and a good portion of my property, because I still have the courage to say “I won’t.”  Friends tell me to conform, and ask why I risk my liberty, my savings, and my property?  Why?  Because I am John Venlet and the State is not my master.

Posted by John Venlet on 04/07 at 03:31 PM
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Wallowing in Slavery as a Reminder of Freedom?

Reynolds links to a David Boaz piece posted at Reason.com titled Up from Slavery - There’s no such thing as a golden age of lost liberty, also linking to a Jay Nordlinger Corner post titled On Resilience (and Johnny Carson), with a friendly nod, as a support to Boaz’s piece, I guess.

Boaz begins his piece this way.

For many libertarians, “the road to serfdom” is not just the title of a great book but also the window through which they see the world. We’re losing our freedom, year after year, they think. They (we) quote Thomas Jefferson: “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.” We read books with titles like Freedom in Chains, Lost Rights, The Rise of Federal Control over the Lives of Ordinary Americans, and yes, The Road to Serfdom.

Further into his piece Boaz continues.

Has there ever been a golden age of liberty? No, and there never will be. There will always be people who want to live their lives in peace, and there will always be people who want to exploit them or impose their own ideas on others. If we look at the long term—from a past that includes despotism, feudalism, absolutism, fascism, and communism—we’re clearly better off. When we look at our own country’s history—contrasting 2010 with 1776 or 1910 or 1950 or whatever—the story is less clear. We suffer under a lot of regulations and restrictions that our ancestors didn’t face.

But in 1776 black Americans were held in chattel slavery, and married women had no legal existence except as agents of their husbands. In 1910 and even 1950, blacks still suffered under the legal bonds of Jim Crow—and we all faced confiscatory tax rates throughout the postwar period.

As you continue reading Boaz’s ode to how free we are, he continually comes back to slavery as justification for his stance that Americans are so free, today, that all the grumbling about the erosion of liberty and freedom in America is just so much hot air, and that certain individuals who eloquently and rationally lament the loss of freedom in America are actually pining to be slave owners.

I’m sorry, but utilizing slavery, which died almost one hundred and fifty (150) years ago, as an argument to remind Americans how free they are today is simply balderdash.  In fact, I think Boaz’s argument is nothing more than an attempt to further enslave Americans in guilt to the institution of slavery and charges of racism.

Posted by John Venlet on 04/07 at 10:05 AM
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Now That’s A Fish Tale

I’ve regaled friends with some fishing tales, but nothing like this fishing tale.

This has got to be the biggest ‘fish tale’ ever! I got a call today from a good friend, Jeff. He is an old hunting buddy and he also happens to enjoy fly fishing with his wife Mimi. This weekend he and his wife decided to head up to the White Mountains for a little trout fishing. As the day wore on, Mimi got cold in her fishing tube and decided to head out to the truck to warm up a bit. When she was leaving the lake the brush behind Jeff started crashing and creaking with the sounds of an animal coming to water in the afternoon. To Jeff’s surprise less than a hundred yards away a bull elk appeared and walked out into the water to cool off and drink. The bull had a nice rack but appeared emaciated. The farther the bull went in to the water the closer he got to Jeff in his tube. The bull would stick his head under water and surface again and didn’t seem to mind Jeff’s presence. Odd behavior for this time of year for sure! Jeff was enjoying this site and relishing the moment, until one of the bull’s dunks seemed to take too long. Curious, Jeff paddled over to the bull which had now been submerged for a very long time. He could see the bulls head and his eyes were open, but he was not moving. Jeff got close enough to hit it on the back several times with his fly rod Convinced that something had gone wrong Jeff grabbed the bull by the horns (no pun intended) and sure enough, the bull had drowned! Amazed at the whole ordeal Jeff grabbed an antler and paddled for the shore. After pulling the bull on to the shore, Jeff called the Game and Fish Dept. and waited for an officer to arrive. It turns out the bull had an old compound fracture between the right hock and knee. Infection had set in and was rampant throughout the bull’s body. The game officer said that under these conditions the animal runs a high fever and stays close to water all day to go in and cool off. Unfortunately during this last ‘cooling session’ he had finally run out of energy to swim, and drowned. Jeff was allowed to keep the rack and was issued a tag for it. The meat however was full of bacteria and was a loss. Although the bull has yet to be measured, I estimate it will be in the 320 - 330 range… just goes to show those big magnums are not always necessary!

Go check out the photos!

Linked via Moldy Chum.

Posted by John Venlet on 04/07 at 08:45 AM
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Obama Clubbed by Canuck

Not only can Canadians club seals, they can club Obama.

As a Canadian, I’ve been observing for some time now, with great concern and even greater disbelief, the political farce enacted day after day in your country. And I keep asking, what have you done? For it seems to me, and to many others as well, that you have embarked upon a truly destructive course that may eventually bring the United States to the brink of ruination.

What have you done? You have elected a president on the strength of an ellipsis, neglecting to fill in the three dots trailing after his every echoing jingle—“Yes we can”…what? You have credited a nimble spinner of tales, a pretty fellow with no significant experience of the real world of risk, hard work and the hazards of survival, a thug with a beguiling smile. You have elevated to the highest office in the land a man without discernible qualifications who is plunging the nation into unredeemable debt for generations to come. You have installed possibly the most consummate liar in POTUS history, who breaks campaign promises as if he were cracking eggs for the skillet and changes his mind almost daily like a weathervane on steroids. You have put your trust in an intellectual lightweight and geopolitical bungler who makes Jimmy Carter look like a paragon of acute intelligence, moral substance and rare diplomatic foresight.

From an open letter to Americans, written by David Solway, titled What Have you Done?  There’s more than just what is quoted above.

Linked via The Northern Muckraker.

Posted by John Venlet on 04/07 at 07:59 AM
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Marking Their Territory

The ever burgeoning size of the United States government undoubtedly brings abouot bureaucratic territorial disputes.  When one bureaucracy hasn’t adequately marked their territory by pissing on some other perceived lesser bureaucracy’s territory, hackles get raised, claws are extended, and arrests may result.

Case in point.  Officials in Leadville, CO and Lake Country, CO, having pissed on each others legs rather than their territorial boundaries, are scrapping like a pair of prairie dogs over the arrest of the Leadville, CO fire chief by the Lake Country sheriff.

Prosecutors in Colorado are deciding whether to file charges against a fire captain who was arrested and handcuffed during an emergency call.

It’s the latest twist in a dispute between city officials in Leadville and the Lake County sheriff.

City officials say Dailey went to the sheriff’s office to help after someone called an ambulance for a woman with a neck injury. They say deputies arrested Dailey after he refused their orders to leave.

Fire Capt. Dan Dailey was released about an hour after his March 27 arrest.

City officials defended Dailey’s decision to go to the scene. Sheriff Ed Holte (HOLT) was out of the office Friday and didn’t respond to a message.

The city and sheriff have been at odds over who should provide emergency protection outside Leadville.

Animals.

Colo. fire captain arrested during emergency call

Linked via The Northern Muckraker.

Posted by John Venlet on 04/07 at 07:40 AM
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Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Liberty and Freedom - “What Do They Mean?”

Are the ideas of liberty and freedom dead in America?

Liberty and freedom are not quite dead, in America, but I fear that many Americans no longer know what liberty and freedom actually mean.  But even more concering than many Americans no longer knowing what liberty and freedom mean, is when members of Congress no longer know what liberty and freedom mean.  Or if they (Congress) do know the meaning of American liberty and freedom, these individuals state that America will not be going back to times of liberty and freedom.  Individuals such as Harry Reid.

But he expressed confusion about what the Tea Party movement wants when its members call for more liberty and freedom and cite the Constitution in denouncing what they see as an expansion of the federal government, including with health care reform.

“The people who are really upset don’t really know why they’re upset,” Reid said.

“What do they mean?” Reid said he wonders when they call for more liberty and freedom. “I’m happy to talk about issues.”

“They want things to be the way they used to be,” Reid said. “They will never be the way they used to be.”

Liberty and freedom are evidently not an “issue,” and thus cannot be understood, discussed or returned to Americans’ for their individual pursuit of happiness.

Reid kicks off re-election campaign in Searchlight

Hat tip to Rand Simberg.

Posted by John Venlet on 04/06 at 02:15 PM
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On Joining with the Enemy

The familiar adage “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer” is often attributed to Sun Tzu, though according to WikiAnswers, no published sources can confirm that Sun Tzu actually first offered this advice.  The only attributable souce, according to WikiAnswers, is Michael Corleone in the movie The Godfather Part II.

Attributes aside, there is sound reasoning in keeping your friends close but your enemies closer, and I considered this advice this morning as I read a post by Mike Vanderboegh titled “We are everywhere.”—A call for all Sons of Liberty and Three Percenters who can to join the IRS plus a little task for those who can’t, wherein Vanderboegh states the following.

Nancy Pelosi has given us a great opportunity in the new “Health Care” Law. She’s hiring some 16,000 plus new Internal Revenue agents to enforce her tyranny. So, why can’t some of those be Three Percenters? I mean, there’s a bunch of us out of work, yet we have clean records and skills that would dovetail nicely with those required of an IRS agent. Hey, we would also have the advantage of actually meaning it when they swear us in—you know, that oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

Additionally, expanding on the “everywhere” theme, Vanderboegh states this.

It is time to remind them.

Send them the message: We are everywhere.

There is no need to explain further. The message is the message.

So send them the message.

By little notes left in their morning papers.

By email, fax and letter.

By phone call.

It is no threat. “We are everywhere.” Who is “we”? What do we mean “everywhere”? The message is the message. Nothing more is required. I suppose if you wanted to put a “III” on it, that would be okay, but keep it simple, keep it effective. The message is the message, and I can just see Eric Holder and his boys scratching their heads, trying to make a case out of three little words that by themselves threaten nobody.

Scrawl it in felt-tip pen on the restroom walls of federal buildings.

Leave it in the lockers at the athletic clubs they frequent.

Print it on stickers and slap them on the bumpers of their cars.

We are everywhere.

While I appreciate and encourage spreading the “we are everywhere” theme, I think the idea of freedom loving individuals joining with the IRS in order to “compromise” the system, or to thwart the IRS’ and the State’s intrusiveness in individual lives, would be about as effective as the advice Binkley gives to flush all 760 Pentagon toilets at the same time in order to create a state of higgledy piggledyness (see second strip down at link).

Posted by John Venlet on 04/06 at 09:48 AM
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Body Armor Dress for Success - T-Shirt Addition

Body armor is not cheap.  At the link provided, the least expensive body armor vest, slightly used, is $190.00.

Body armor has also been around for a long time.  Alexander the Great utilized body armor manufactured from laminated linen, and the “Man with No Name” utilized a variant of body armor, which today would receive the recycled green seal of approval, in the movie A Fistful of Dollars.

Today, when the need for body armor may be becoming more acute for the average individual, it’s interesting to read that the common cotton T-shirt may fill the need.

T-shirts available at Wal-Mart could be converted into wearable armor, according to scientists from South Carolina, Switzerland and China.

By combining the carbon in the cotton with boron, the scientists have created a tough, lightweight fabric of boron carbide, the same material used to protect tanks. The research could lead to more comfortable body armor for soldiers and police. It could even be used to produce lightweight, fuel efficient cars and aircraft.

How to Make a Bulletproof T-shirt

Posted by John Venlet on 04/06 at 09:00 AM
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Humanitarian Deadly Force

A few weeks ago, I noted Oregon’s Proactive Rubber Room Imprisonment Policy, a story which informed Americans that a laidoff Oregon DOT employee, who was allegedly disgruntled and ratted out as being disgruntled to Oregon law enforcement personnel by his former fellow employees, and who legally owned firearms, was forcibly detained, the cops called it taken into “protective custody,” and ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation, even though the individual had committed no crime.

Though this precrime detention ended well, as Radley Balko notes, William N. Grigg notes another precrime arrest attempt, of one Susan L. Stuckey, which did not end well, in a post titled We’re From the Government; We’re Here to “Help” You to Death.

Susan L. Stuckey was suicidal when the police arrived at her apartment in Prairie Village, Kansas on March 31. When the police arrived to conduct what they dishonestly called a “welfare check,” Stuckey refused their offer to “help.”...

Any day that begins with the arrival of armed strangers on one’s doorstep is going to end badly. Despite her afflictions, Stuckey was lucid enough to understand that principle, and she did the entirely rational thing: She bluntly invited the police to direct their unwanted attention elsewhere. Since she wasn’t suspected of a crime, that should have ended the matter.

But the police weren’t investigating a crime. They were carrying out a much more dangerous function: They were there to “help” Stuckey, whether or not this would be appropriate, and her desires were irrelevant to the matter.

So when Stuckey rebuffed their offer, the police decided to “help” her a little bit harder by calling in a posse of uniformed knuckle-draggers called the Tactical Squad. Oddly enough, the arrival of yet another contingent of armed strangers—this one decked out in military garb and carrying high-caliber firearms—did nothing to ease Stuckey’s troubled mind. She had already refused to grant police access to her apartment, and the arrival of the local goon squad prompted her to throw up additional barricades…

Sometime around 9:45 a.m., Stuckey was heard to exclaim to the police, “Somebody please kill me.”

So they did.

Humanitarian deadly force is simply a natural extension of ObamaCare (DeathCare) and the Socialist mindset afflicting America.

Posted by John Venlet on 04/06 at 07:54 AM
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Flint is Burning and No One Cares

So, Flint, Michigan is burning, and no one cares, I guess.  I know I don’t care.

There have been over fifty (50) fires in Flint in the past week, and some fire departments have quit responding to fire calls.

One should pay attention to these kindling “fires,” as they often may be harbingers of rather larger fires.  No word on who is fiddling while Flint burns.

Linked via Paxtonland, via Fred Lapides.

Posted by John Venlet on 04/06 at 06:30 AM
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Thursday, April 01, 2010

Flying Fish, Falling Penguins, Striking Snakes

A photographic interlude via Fred Lapides.

Posted by John Venlet on 04/01 at 10:53 AM
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Tasering Ten Year Olds

When I read copy such as this,

Two Martinsville police officers have been suspended after they were accused of using a Taser to subdue a 10-year-old…

The release said that the officers, trying to prevent the child from hurting other children, staff members and himself, slapped the boy and then used a Taser to subdue him.

I can only imagine that this ten (10) year old boy is either the German Superboy, or the American Terminator.

Judas priest, it is a sorry state of affairs when neither day care center operators, or two (2) cops, cannot handle a ten (10) year old boy without resorting to use of bludgeons, whether those bludgeons are bastinadoes or tasers.

Evidently the ten (10) year old boy was unaware of the “10 Rules for Dealing with Police.”

Officers Accused Of Using Taser On 10-Year-Old.

Posted by John Venlet on 04/01 at 10:38 AM
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Census 2010 - “Always Offer Them Freebies”

Today, April 1st, was the day the Census Bureau was hoping to have their mitts on all the census forms which had been mailed out for completion.  So far, according to the Census Bureau website, fifty-two percent (52%) of households have complacently completed and returned the forms.  So much for the success of mass, peaceful civil disobedience by refusing to participate in Census 2010.

For those individuals who have not completed their census forms, prepare for a knock on your GPS marked front door, as the army of census takers hits the streets to hound the non-compliant.  If you live in New York, you may even be offered “freebies” as an incentive to comply.

“One important thing to remember is to always offer them the freebies,” Mr. Choi said before the volunteers headed out on Monday night, their bags stacked with can openers and pens bearing the 2010 census logo.

Can openers and pens with the Census 2010 logo.  How special, they’ll be signing them up in droves.

Door to Door, City Volunteers Try to Break Down Resistance to the Census

UPDATE: Repaired broken link.

Posted by John Venlet on 04/01 at 06:32 AM
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