Sunday, November 22, 2009

Personal Responsibility

For those of you gentle readers who haven't noticed it, times are becoming a little "dicey". Law enforcement agencies around the nation are becoming a little, shall we say; "stretched?" With the economic downturn, governments at all levels are experiencing a decline in revenues. Among the methods utilized for addressing this problem are all too frequently the famous "Washington Monument" strategy 
It’s true that most local governments have some fat that can be cut from less visible programs and services. However, when the goal is to get constituents riled up and preserve popular programs at all costs (including possible tax increases), it’s much easier to target highly valued services: fire and emergency, trash and recycling, education, parks, and police.

At levels below the Federal government (which has control of the official counterfeiting system (printing presses), local governments, when unable to raise taxes, routinely cut back on emergency services such as fire fighting and police. Additionally, as is the case in the suburban area where this humble blogster resides, police are assigned to "revenue enhancement " duties such as speed traps and code enforcement, often to the neglect of public safety. We have witnessed  officers assigned to speed trap and seat belt enforcement neglect to enforce serious safety violations of careless and inattentive motorists.

Recent high profile events have tended to drive home the fact that "when seconds matter, the police are only minutes away"; or as in the case of many urban environments perhaps hours.

Ultimately, the citizen must rely on himself for his and his family's safety/defense against predatory criminals even though police personnel are experts at arriving on the scene and making chalk outlines of victims bodies and festooning yellow tape around crime scenes.

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ 

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Voilá, It's Solved

The Obama administration's efforts at addressing the "unemployment" problem have resurrected memories of observations of similar efforts by another Marxist regime that your host had "contact" (read arrested by) with, in January of 1980.

During our transport to Managua to be interrogated by the Sandinista officials as spies, we had conversations with several Sandinista revolutionaries. Being able to converse in the local tongue has many advantages.

One of our guards explained that since the exile of Anastacio Somoza, the problem of "unemployment" had been solved. The Sandinista Revolutionary government had simply inducted all of the unemployed Nicaraguans into the Revolutionary Army and voilá, the problem was solved. The local population including the "Army" were still short of food, clothing and basic necessities, and all private businesses had been seized or closed but the "unemployment problem" was solved. How wonderful.

During our journey to and from Managua we observed the appalling conditions at various towns and villages where there were intersections of the type we know here as the "4 way stop" variety. At these intersections we observed 4 "soldiers" posted at each approach to the intersection. As a vehicle approached the intersection the assigned "soldier" would monitor if the motorist stopped at the marked limit line, and if not, the soldier would force the motorist to back up and come to a stop short of the limit line painted on the roadway.

As you can imagine, this is an extremely inefficient use of human resources but rather ordinary in collectivist societies. Remember this when statistics are trotted out regarding the "creating and saving of jobs" by the messiah's collectivist minions.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

"Coming to a Community Near You?"

Item in Atlanta Journal & Constitution
Sunday 20 April 2014 Press Release Atlanta Field Office Federal Bureau of Investigation

Yesterday 4 Deputy US Marshals were detailed to serve an arrest warrant on Philip Gordon 63 of Carroll County in west Georgia. Mr Gordon refused to allow the Marshals entrance to his gated property whereupon the gate was breached using necessary force. During the process Mr Gordon's 2 Labrador retrievers charged the federal agents and were dispatched. Mr Gordon refused to submit to arrest and brandished an assault rifle accusing the Marshals of trespassing before retreating into his home. The Marshals summoned backup from the local Carroll County Sheriff's office and two of the 6 responding deputies refused to cooperate in serving the lawful warrant. They were immediately relieved of duty. Additional backup from agents in the Atlanta field offices of the FBI and BATFE surrounded the Gordon residence. Repeated demands for Gordon to surrender went unheeded and chemical agents were introduced into the structure. An hour later an unconscious  Gordon was taken into custody and booked into the Fulton county jail on the warrant charging refusal to pay the $15,000.00 penalty for failure to maintain a government approved medical insurance policy.

Something to ponder: What will be your reaction dear reader, when you read the above news item?

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

Sunday, November 08, 2009

None Dare Call it Treason

It is now the fourth day since the Ft. Hood shooting incident and additional data are released daily. Missing from the releases on the investigators' efforts is a "possible motive" for the rampage. Are we to consider (hyperbole alert) that a "possible motive" for Major Hasan's action was to collect on the life insurance policies of as many military personnel as possible? Or was it that this "officer and gentleman" concluded that he could avoid being deployed to a combat zone by utilizing his colleagues for target training?

Major Hasan is a first generation natural born citizen of the U.S. and a lifelong practitioner of the "peaceful religion" of Islam. Surviving witnesses of the shooting spree report hearing him shout "allahu akbar" before going about the business of fulfilling his duty to eliminate as many infidels enemy combatants as possible.

According to another source Hasan had attempted to locate (unsuccessfully) a suitable female muslim to marry. Perhaps due to that failure he opted to go for the 72 virgins. We can only speculate however, how long it will be until he is able to consummate those 72 liaisons.

We here in the West have become so inured to the routine viciousness of murderous jihadis that this outrage is mistakenly referred to as "terrorism". Nothing could be further from the truth. This event is a classic example of treason. The casualties were almost all sworn military personnel and on a military installation. Major Hasan is therefore guilty of waging war on the United States. The Constitution defines treason in Article III section 3: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only of levying war against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort...." Come to think of it; he will doubtless qualify as a one up candidate for membership in the Jane Fonda patriotic society.

Nevertheless we all know don't we, (wink wink) that the political doctrine masquerading as a religion had absolutely nothing to do with this outrage.  

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

cross posted at: Eternity Road