Relieved of the Pressure

As both of you have duly noted, postings on this blog recently have been "sparse" to say the least. Surprisingly enough there is a reason, and it goes something like this: I have been trying in my own retarded way to compose my thoughts on the descent of my native land into the abysmal conditions which now obtain here in the former "land of the free".

Last Tuesday we were visited by an agent of the imperial federal government identifying herself as a "census" inquisitor worker. Having previously received the "census" document, filling in the constitutionally required data and returning it, I was not, however completely surprised by the visit. You see, Article I, section 2 mandates an "enumeration" for purposes of apportioning legislators and collection of direct taxes. Those data are all that were answered. I advised the "census worker"  that the census form had been marked and returned late in March 2010. Her (lying) response: "we did not receive it." She asked how many lived at the address as of 1 April 2010 to which I replied "2". Her next question was: did I "wish to state my name" to which I replied: "no". Her next question was regarding the race of the residents, to which I replied: "human being". At this time she stated "I'm wasting my time." whereupon she turned and departed without asking any further questions. Somehow I suspect that we have not heard the last on this subject from the ruling clique. Stay tuned.

Returning to the subject of the first paragraph of this posting I will reproduce in full the entry today by my esteemed co-conspirator Fran Porretto at Eternity Road who says it ALL. Get thee hence and read the comments:

Making Amends: A Mini-Manifesto

By Francis W. Porretto

Fran here. This will be in first-person, as I have some hard things to say. Forgive me, Gentle Reader, but I don't think you'll like them much.
One caveat: When I use the pronoun we in what follows, I don't necessarily mean all of us alive today. I'm using we in its political application: to the polity we call today the United States, to the polity and society it has been in the century past, and to whatever emerges from the chaos I foresee.
Please read carefully, and with attention.


***

"When a man dies, he does not just die of the disease that he has; he dies of his whole life." -- Peguy

We stand, God willing, at the end of the Progressive Era in American politics and political thought. One way or another, the edifice will shortly come crashing down. The only questions that remain are whether a recognizable United States of America will rise from the rubble.
Many Americans, however, will not. That's guaranteed.
Our current political order does not resemble our Constitutional basis in any way. Every stricture of the Constitution has been abrogated. Most states treat their own constitutions as palimpsests, from which any clause may be deleted and to which any permission might be added, entirely at the will of the rulers. As for county and municipal charters...do I really need to go on?
The prevailing order compounds Corporatism^[1] with Social-Welfare Fascism.^[2] Under such a scheme, persons will flow steadily away from the "economic means"^[3] and toward the "political means,"^[4] in obedience to the established incentives. As the current state of affairs has obtained for nearly a century, a terrifying number of Americans and pseudo-Americans have made themselves utterly dependent on the State for their sustenance. They own no means of support -- no skills by which they could create value for others.
The key phrase in the paragraph above is "made themselves." Reflect on it.
When -- not "if" -- the Corporate Social-Fascist State exhales its bloody final breath, the economy that results will not have provisions for those dependents' support. As they will be unable to support themselves, their continued existence will depend wholly upon the kindness of others. But, given the immense damage that's been done to our economic foundations by Progressive policies, the crash is overwhelmingly likely to be massive. Many of us who can support ourselves on our own abilities will be hard pressed. Many others will disdain to succor of persons they deem complicit in their own fates.
There will be suffering. It will be massive. Some will die.
Yet the reckoning is at hand. It cannot be delayed much longer: even if the rising some foresee should fail to materialize, our current profligacy and laissez les bon temps roulez insouciance cannot last more than a year or so from here. No matter how well politically connected you are, you cannot consume what no one has produced.
Americans' charitable impulses and capacities, even if nominally quantitatively adequate to the demands that will be placed upon them, will fail to reach some persons in time. That, too, is guaranteed.
As one who holds notions of collective responsibility in low esteem, I dislike to proceed from here, but intellectual honesty requires it:
We brought this on ourselves.


***

America is a rich society because its people are nearly all nearly always honorable. -- Me

Honor is a necessity to a polity quite as much as to an individual. The honorable nation must stand its ground, abide by its given word, pay its debts, and answer for its responsibilities, just as must the honorable man. At this point in America's history, our nation fails the test on all four counts.
We have incurred a burden of atonement. We will face a harsh schedule of penance. If we wish to resume an estate of freedom, prosperity, and justice under objective laws, we will be required to pay.
No, we won't have to face a tribunal of some sort. What nation or nations, even in our current deteriorated state, possesses the power to enforce its will upon us? The laws of this Universe are self-enforcing, most particularly those that pertain to the ways of men:

• For having shown weakness to aggressors, we will be required to defend ourselves, against both invasion from without and predation from within.
• For having reneged on our promises, we will lose the credibility upon which we've become accustomed to rely.
• For having incurred the greatest mountain of debt in the history of the world, we will forfeit all credit, and will henceforward be unable to borrow.
• For having scamped our duties to those we promised protection, we will be denied the comfort of alliances and the protection of our extraterritorial assets.

And it will be just and proper that it be so.
Mind you, these things will come upon us whether or not we overthrow the Corporate Social-Fascist State. They cannot be averted. They can only be delayed a little longer -- and it's questionable whether it would be wiser to hold them off as long as possible, or to face the music as soon as we can.


***

Freedom is not free, free men are not equal, and equal men are not free! -- Richard Cotten

We are responsible for putting things right. The current situation is the fruit of our wishful thinking:

• We recoiled from the hard jobs of justice.
• We demurred from the maintenance of our borders and our defenses.
• We ate our seed corn, and staked our futures on a credit-based economy.
• Rather than whip aggressors back into their kennels, we paid them Dane-geld.
• We assumed that our freedom and prosperity had become a permanent state of grace. In other words, we believed in "something for nothing."

But our recent prosperity is the consequence of our prior freedom. Our freedom is the consequence of our forebears' willingness to fight for it. We cannot have either without the willingness to fight as fiercely as they did, whether on a battlefield, on a factory assembly line, or in an air-conditioned, fluorescent-lit office.
Economically, we overlooked the First Law of Wealth:


Men must be free because nothing else can be.Politically, we overlooked the Conservation Law of Freedom and Power:


Freedom and power can neither be created nor destroyed, but only exchanged for one another.
Therefore, every grant of power to the State reduces the freedom of individuals.These laws are not repealable nor modifiable by Congress. We cannot attach riders to them, to grant exemptions to favored persons or groups.
We will be required to make good on our debts and defaults, for it is certain that no other nation will step forward to pay them for us.


***

Mei Ling translated. Eddie Lee smiled again, one eye squinting as the smoke from his cigarette drifted past.
"You think be hard to kill you?"
"Yeah," I said. "Be hard." [Robert B. Parker, Walking Shadow]

"Once you know a man deserves to die, you have to kill him. If you don't, you're committing a crime against everyone who doesn't deserve to die. If you get him down but can't bring yourself to do it, and he gets up off the mat and kills you instead, you're only getting what you deserve yourself." -- On Broken Wings

Should we succeed in throwing off the yoke of the Corporate Social-Fascist State, part of our atonement, perhaps the most unpleasant part, will be this: we will be required to be hard.
We will never, ever, put an end to the dreams and machinations of the power-seekers unless we punish those among us with proper severity. Among our current officials are several overt traitors: men who took oaths to defend the Constitution, and have done the exact opposite. Of these, I count one president, four Supreme Court Justices, and hundreds of federal legislators. Unless these are dragged from their hidey-holes as was Saddam Hussein, and executed or incarcerated for life, there will be no respite from the pressure of closet totalitarians and social engineers against our polity. Men to whom power over others is the ultimate satisfaction will seek it relentlessly, until the price for doing so becomes both ultimate and inevitable.
That's merely what will be demanded of us to cleanse the federal government. Further severity will be required of us:

• Toward nations and "non-state actors" that seek to bend us to their wills;
• Toward religious and quasi-religious, racial, and ethnic groups that agitate for special treatment and exemptions from the laws;
• Toward special interests that seek subsidies, subventions, or to impose their views upon us through the political process;
• Toward individual predators who have, in the main, eluded the proper penalties for their deeds.

The underlying message is, of course, We mean it. But it can only be expressed in deeds. Our words have become untrustworthy. We will not regain our credibility until we've demonstrated that we deserve it.
That will be the hardest price of our restoration. It will be unpleasant at best, dreadful and massively bloody at worst.
We will be spared none of it.


***

"From those to whom much is given, much is expected." -- Richard Kinane

Don't think it pleases me to write this. It doesn't. I'm an old man whose fondest wish is to finish my life in peace. But I have a responsibility.
My responsibility flows from four things: my percipience, my knowledge of history, my intellect, and my conscience. If I were to withhold what I've set down here in service to my personal tranquility, I would be derelict in the duties that arise from those things.
You may elect to disregard the warning. That's at your discretion. But the words have been spoken. If history is to gainsay them, no one will be gladder than I.
I await the fusillades, both from the Left that's the principal source of our ills and from the comfortable defenders of the status quo, to whom "freedom and justice are all very well in theory, but..."
Where do you stand?

"Brace for impact." -- Captain Chesley L. Sullenberger

NOTES:
1. Corporatism is a scheme of political organization in which certain companies and institutions receive favorable treatment from the State, up to and including the making of public policy.
2. Social-Welfare Fascism is an approach to politics that emphasizes good intentions and the succoring of the worse off as the rationale for total government control over a nation's economy.
3. Franz Oppenheimer, The State, 1905.
4. Ibid.

Revenge

This is how one tormented pooch reacts to the African torture invention.

EMBED-Dog Vs Vuvuzuela - Watch more free videos

Reason versus the Hysteria of Big Government Sycophants

Recently I read a list of things that leftists whisper among themselves when no one else is within earshot. One of them was: "How did we manage to get Shepard Smith hired as a prime time anchor on the Fox News Channel"?

Unlikely Allies? Not so Fast

As a former resident of Humboldt County in Northern California the video (@ 3' 45") below caught the eye of this blogger who has a propensity toward the laconic e.g. "one reason video avoids several thousand spartan keystrokes".


ht: the OTHER Allen

Giveaway!

M.D. Creekmore at The Survivalist Blog – a survival blog dedicated to helping others prepare for and survive disaster – with articles on bug out bag contents, survival knife choices and a wealth of other survival information is giving away a 1,000 round case of 9mm – 124 Grain FMJ (a $200 value – donated by LuckyGunner)! To enter, you just have to post about it on your blog. This is my entry. Visit The Survivalist Blog for the details.

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ!!

Public Enemies?

The truth of a quotation attributed to Harry Truman: "If you want a friend in Washington DC, get a dog." can seldom be more clearly illustrated than the recent and ongoing demonization of British Petroleum (BP) by the political leeches in Congress and the Obamunist Administration. Until recently, the company logo, intended to evoke visions of an enviro friendly corporation along with the slogan "beyond petroleum" were presented ad nauseam in video advertising. This public relations campaign was also accompanied by an aggressive rent seeking effort:

[T]he Kerry-BP alliance for an energy bill that included a cap-and-trade scheme for greenhouse gases pokes a hole in a favorite claim of President Obama and his allies in the media — that BP’s lobbyists have fought fiercely to be left alone. Lobbying records show that BP is no free-market crusader, but instead a close friend of big government whenever it serves the company’s bottom line.

While BP has resisted some government interventions, it has lobbied for tax hikes, greenhouse gas restraints, the stimulus bill, the Wall Street bailout, and subsidies for oil pipelines, solar panels, natural gas and biofuels.

Now that BP’s oil rig has caused the biggest environmental disaster in American history, the Left is pulling the same bogus trick it did with Enron and AIG: Whenever a company earns universal ire, declare it the poster boy for the free market.

As Democrats fight to advance climate change policies, they are resorting to the misleading tactics they used in their health care and finance efforts: posing as the scourges of the special interests and tarring “reform” opponents as the stooges of big business.

Expect BP to be public enemy No. 1 in the climate debate.

Of course, in the current political climate few will note the parallels with the rent seeking  relationships of I.G. Farben and Friedrich Krupp AG with the German National Socialist government 1933 1945. Nevertheless, rent seekers are leading candidates for scapegoats by collectivist politicians as Mr. Hayworth has discovered to his dismay.

I would submit to you, dear reader, that the real public enemies in this tragic train of events are the environazis and the politicians at whose behest BP is forced into drilling in 5000' of ocean depth while petroleum reserves on dry land and shallow water are placed off limits.

The Blame Game

Gentle readers,

I don't know about yourselves (both of you know who you are) but I, for one, am about up to my eyeballs with the round-the-clock "news" coverage (including the finger pointing) of the crude oil being deposited into the Gulf of Mexico. Is there nothing else of note occurring in the world?

 It's as if a committee of political hacks meeting under Roberts Rules of Order could end the 53 day long crisis by issuing press releases blaming all the hapless producers of a product that fuels our global society instead of the actual authors of the tragedy.

Full disclosure time: This humble scribbler is the spawn of a family who earned its bread in what is known as the "oil patch". Indeed he entered employment in the "patch" at age 14 until being driven out by government regulations 20 years later. That first career included two major oil companies, (Texaco and Conoco) as well as drilling and oil well service companies in southern California both off shore and land side. During that interesting experience he witnessed two "blowouts" which are uncontrolled escapes of pressurized natural gas and crude oil as well as sand and other objectionable material. Make no mistake gentle reader, this event in the Gulf of Mexico is NOT a "spill". A spill is the escape of a previously contained material from a storage or transportation facility such as a pipe line or tank.

Interestingly enough, blowouts are usually controlled in a matter of hours or at most days, often by the application of heavy mud and/or cement deployed by the equipment of that EEEvil corporation, Halliburton.

As any sentient voter with two or more functioning brain cells is aware, the federal government as well as various state governments have placed off limits virtually all of the not inconsiderable proven petroleum reserves on government land as well as decreeing oppressive regulations discouraging production from private leases. These restrictions are the result of a decades long vilification program by well funded "environmentalist" groups such as the Tides Foundation, the Sierra Club and others.

Consequently, the enormous demand for sources of petroleum has driven the industry further and further off shore. We now have oil companies forced to drill in 5000+ feet of water. Although the technology for such drilling exists, no one has been able to figure out how to economically deliver a functioning Halliburton cement wagon to the ocean floor at those depths.

As this disaster unfolds, few if any in the media are pointing a finger at the two chief culprits: the government and the environazis. On the up side, the bumbling incompetence of the huge bureaucracies of the government and the grandstanding politicians are being revealed for what they are: a black hole sucking away our wealth and liberties.

Update: 6/12/10 2147 EDT

Another Country Heard from

A recent post by the Curmudgeon Emeritus on the subject of Israel's ongoing struggle for its very survival speaks truths that sadly most of humanity is unaware of. The enemies of western culture have, by their seizure of the media and academia succeeded beyond even their own wildest expectations. As evidence of this postulate I herewith present the translation of a comment published on a popular (rated in the top 10) Swedish blog .
The commenter addresses his comment to "Zionistlover" an apparent reference to the blog poster. In this instance Mrs. ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ.

Zionistlover ...

Helen Thomas,  the journalist, is correct in saying:
"Jews out of Palestine".
It was a BIG mistake to create the Zionist state, this killer band that is thought to be above the law.

The increasing Islamisation of Europe is a problem, yes, but that is  partly a consequence of the world's having given the Zionists too much leeway.
I am sorry to say,  they do not play by the rules, for example, disclosing their nuclear weapons, and because of that there is unfortunately  only one solution. Just as in Iraq,  Israel should be invaded and Netanyahu as well as other Zionists brought to justice, destroying all Israeli weapons of mass destruction, appropriating their money and paying it back  to the people in Gaza, Jordan and Syria as their homes were expropierade without any compensation.
An international force should be organized in the same way as in Yugoslavia to keep the parties separated, with the right to shoot Zionists and others who do not respect the new division.

Port workers in Sweden are quite right, just as against apartheid in South Africa in it's time, a boycott is a possibility. Therefore, we must hope the rest of the world will follow and  ban zionist products and demand  special Zionist visa, it may well be a yellow star, on the document.

Proud anti-Semite, Peder Jensen.
PS. No Jews should not be eradicated, they only have to behave properly, it means they are not above any law.

Gentle reader, Peder Jensen expresses the views of a not inconsiderable segment of the European electorate. He appears to have little to no concept of the Anglo Saxon common law philosophy or for that matter natural law.  Tragically, his position is what is increasingly recognized as politically correct in today's academia.

The Considerable "Cheek" of Felipe Calderón

Just when one believes he has seen and heard it "all", along comes the reality of post modern political hackery to resurrect with all seriousness the ancient practice of betraying the gates of the city to the besieging enemy for the fleeting advantage of political gain.

On 20 May just passed, the president of Mexico addressed the US Congress.  The purpose of his speech appears to have been that of creating momentum for passage of "comprehensive" reform of US immigration law. Not content with the non enforcement of existing law, the operatives of the "lying" party  are complicit in the recruitment of lying heads of foreign states to assist them in augmenting the ranks of collectivist voters.

In his speech, Sr. Calderón refers to Mexico's "loss" due to the emigration from his country of the "brightest and hardest working" members of Mexican society. Apropos the subject, your humble corespondent has just returned from his most recent transcontinental road trip. During that trip he was regaled with considerable anecdotal evidence to the contrary. One member of Leonidas' extended family has been employed for several years as an on call emergency room nurse at a Phoenix area hospital. During those years her income has approached $250,000.00 per year as she is a highly trained and experienced professional called upon to work many hours per week. Since enactment and actual enforcement of the Arizona law which incidentally mirrors the wording of long existing federal legislation, she is only occasionally called to assist in the treatment of true traumas as opposed to the formerly routine incidents of sniffles, sore throats and bruises attributed to the minor domestic squabbles of the "bandilito" (wetback) population in the Phoenix area. Word has apparently spread through the bandilito community that after their "free" treatment at the local trauma center a bus ride to the Nogales port of entry awaits them.

Sr. Calderón's assertion that his government is seeking ways to retain the "brightest and best" members of his society is risible to anyone such as this blogster who has resided in Mexico and experienced the pervasive corruption at all levels of government.  On one occasion, Leonidas was required to not only perform the detective work for the local police in Acapulco to recover his property stolen by a local shopkeeper, but to supply cash to "purchase fuel" for the police vehicle that was used in the investigation. This is reported with all due respect to Fred Reed  who happens to be a LEGAL gringo resident of Mexico.

Interestingly enough, Leonidas' recent road trip included a fuel stop in Hollister, California. The entire visible population of that city appeared to consist of bandilitos. The only non bandilitos in evidence were SOME of the motorists entering and exiting the city. The clerk at the fuel stop spoke no understandable English and was so flustered by an obvious gringo addressing him in proper Spanish that he was rendered virtually speechless. This incident only lends credence to the aphorism that most of the bandilito population are "illiterate in two languages".

A Border Solution?

Where to begin?

The recent brouhaha over Arizona's enactment of legislation attempting to address the serious negative impacts of the porous border with Mexico continue, in the opinion of this humble writer to overlook some important factors.

The caterwauling raised by those feigning concern over the civil rights of the "bandalitos" (illegal aliens) is especially amusing and arises from either ignorance or cynical political motives. If any of those activists/politicians, from the obamunists to Marco Rubio, who states that: "I think aspects of the law, especially that dealing with ‘reasonable suspicion,’ are going to put our law enforcement officers in an incredibly difficult position." can cite a single police power conferred by the Arizona statutes that exceeds those assigned to federal officers, I for one am prepared to eat a crow sandwich.

Probably the most effective way to address the immigration portion of the border problem would include rigidly enforcing the following:
    1) All undocumented foreigners within the borders to be declared felons
    2) Foreign residents must prove they are not a burden on society
    3) Immigration authorities must have a record of each foreign visitor
    4) Visitors must not violate their visa status
    5) A ban on interfering with internal politics i.e. public protests and marches
    6) Imprisonment or deportation of those entering under false pretenses
    7) Those aiding illegal immigration shall be imprisoned
    8) Public transport companies that import undocumented foreigners will be fined
    9) Marrying a foreigner for the sole purpose of legalizing residence is prohibited

Such "draconian" measures would doubtless elicit a cacophony of protestations from not only apparatchiks of the  Democratic party but "civil rights" activists and the ACLU, not to mention president Calderón of México.

Oh, by the way; did I neglect to mention that the above 9 items and others were extracted and translated from México's  Ley General de Población? These sections are strictly enforced. Simply ask those citizens of Guatemala, El Salvador and NIcaragua who have run afoul of México's immigration law.

Additionally, a reconsideration of the US "War" on drugs would also go a long way in ameliorating the border difficulties.        

Test

Another "Undeclared" War

The following is an email that originated in southern Arizona.  I have been unable to determine its veracity via either Snopes or TruthOrFiction.com. It does however, have the ring of legitimacy from my own perspective in law enforcement as well as the current practice of the main stream media suppressing stories embarrassing to our current political regime.

Date: Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 6:28 PM
Subject: FW: Mexican Assassins - Life on the border

-----Forwarded Message-----

Forwarded to me by a friend who recently retired from border patrol.........


As you know, one of the local ranchers was murdered in Douglas two weeks ago. His funeral is tomorrow. I received three messages similar to the one below from different officers within the Rangers and law enforcement.

Yesterday afternoon I talked to another rancher near us who is a friend of ours and whose great grandfather started their ranch here in 1880. These are good people. He told me what really happened out at the Krentz ranch and what you won’t read in the papers. The Border Patrol is afraid of starting a small war between civilians here and the drug cartels in Mexico.

Bob Krentz was checking his water like he does every evening and came upon an illegal who was lying on the ground telling him he was sick. Bob called the Border Patrol and asked for a medical helicopter evac. As he turned to go back to his ATV he was shot in the side. The round came from down and angled up so they know the shooter was on the ground. Bob’s firearm was in the ATV so he had no chance. Wounded he called the Cochise County Sherriff and asked for help. Bleeding in the lungs he called his brother but the line was bad so he called his wife but again the line was bad.

Several ranchers heard the radio call and drove to his location. Bob was dead by this time. The ranchers tracked the shooter 8 miles back towards Mexico and cornered him in a brushy draw. This was all at night. The Sherriff and Border Patrol arrived and told them not to go down and engage the murderer. They went around to the back side and if you can believe it the assassin managed to get by a BP helicopter and a Sherriff’s posse and back to Mexico . So much for professional help when you need it.

One week before the murder Bob and his brother Phil (who I shoot with) hauled a huge quantity of drugs off the ranch that they found in trucks. One week before that a rancher near Naco did the same thing. Two nights later gangs broke into his ranch house and beat him and his wife and told them that if they touched any drugs they found they would come back and kill them. The ranchers here deal with cut fences and haul drug deliveries off their ranches all the time. What ranchers think is that the drug cartels beat the one rancher and shot Bob because they wanted to send a message. Bob always gave food and water to illegals and so they think they sent the assassin to pose as an illegal who was hungry and thirsty knowing it would catch Bob off guard.

What is going on down here is NOT being reported. You need to tell people how bad it is along the border. Texas is worse. Near El Paso it’s in a state of war. 5000 people were killed in Ciudad Juarez last year and it’s over 2000 so far this year. Gun sales down here are through the roof and I get emails from people wanting firearms training.

Something has to be done but I don’t hold out much hope. These gangs have groups in almost every city in the US . Please read below. This is serious business. The Barrio Azteca and their sub gangs are like Mexican Corporations and organized extremely well. If this doesn’t get dealt with down here you guys will deal with it on your streets.

It really is getting worse and worse down there Folks....."starting a small war between civilians here and the drug cartels in Mexico."

HT: Wollf

A Commemoration

Your humble blogster has recently learned that the organization dedicated to the preservation of vintage military aircraft formerly known as the Confederate Air Force has, in the name of political correctness i.e. cultural Marxism been renamed the Commemorative Air Force. We wonder how long the search for a suitable substitute for the word "Confederate" required in order to retain the acronym CAF.

In any event, apropos the subject of "commemorate" we note that today is "Earth Day" and therefore wish to call your attention to a presentation by the late George Carlin on the subject of "saving the planet".

Warning: those concerned with the PG 13 rating of this blog may wish to forgo viewing the video. For the rest of you (both of you know who you are) enjoy. 

Worth 1000 Words

 

A TSA worker pats down a traveler at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago on Sept. 22, the day the government introduced stricter security measures. 

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.

We now live in a society where the arrest of 9 "christian militia" nutcases who are most likely the hapless victims of a government agent provocateur garners above the fold front page media coverage while suicide bombers in Moscow who murder scores are relegated to a page 4 report that fails to even hint at their religious affiliation.
 
Outrage anyone?

I thought not. 

Census Protest

The following is a blog posting by Dr. Walter Block lifted from here. Obviously this message needs maximum exposure:

I pass this along [sic] letter on the census for your information, only. I do not counsel anyone to break the law. Of course, I’m not real sure of what the law is. A direct and literal reading of the U.S. Constitution it seems to me, a non lawyer, is clear as to what the law is: people are legally obligated, only, to cooperate in a head count for political representation purposes. But, my fear, my expectation, even, is that present courts will not interpret the law in that way, and may instead punish census rebels who refuse to furnish additional required (requested?) information. In any case, the following will undoubtedly be of interest to all people concerned with liberty; I offer it exactly as it was sent to me:

From: ronpaul-200@meetup.com on behalf of DarkLaw
Sent: Tue 3/9/2010 9:02 PM
To: ronpaul-200@meetup.com
Subject: Re: [ronpaul-200] Ron Paul CNN on Cafferty Files 2/27/10

My response to the Census

I compiled this letter and inserted it into the Census envelope, along with my 2010 census form.
I marked off that ‘02′ people reside at this address….and, well… read the rest!

Use this as a template! This is just another small step in which we can show the Feds we won’t take this nonsense lying down!
______________________

To Whom it May Concern,

Pursuant to Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution, the only information you are empowered to request is the total number of occupants at this address. My “name, sex, age, date of birth, race, ethnicity, telephone number, relationship and housing tenure” have absolutely nothing to do with apportioning direct taxes or determining the number of representatives in the House of Representatives. Therefore, neither Congress nor the Census Bureau have the constitutional authority to make that information request a component of the enumeration outlined in Article I, Section 2, Clause 3. In addition, I cannot be subject to a fine for basing my conduct on the Constitution because that document trumps laws passed by Congress.

Interstate Commerce Commission v. Brimson, 154 U.S. 447, 479 (May 26, 1894)

“Neither branch of the legislative department [House of Representatives or Senate], still less any merely administrative body [such as the Census Bureau], established by congress, possesses, or can be invested with, a general power of making inquiry into the private affairs of the citizen. Kilbourn v. Thompson, 103 U.S. 168, 190. We said in Boyd v. U.S., 116 U. S. 616, 630, 6 Sup. Ct. 524,―and it cannot be too often repeated,―that the principles that embody the essence of constitutional liberty and security forbid all invasions on the part of government and it’s employees of the sanctity of a man’s home and the privacies of his life. As said by Mr. Justice Field in Re Pacific Ry. Commission, 32 Fed. 241, 250, ‘of all the rights of the citizen, few are of greater importance or more essential to his peace and happiness than the right of personal security, and that involves, not merely protection of his person from assault, but exemption of his private affairs, books, and papers from inspection and scrutiny of others. Without the enjoyment of this right, all others would lose half their value.’”

Note: This United States Supreme Court case has never been overturned.

Respectfully,

A Citizen of the United States of America

cross posted at: Eternity Road

Judicial Outrage

Shamelessly stolen from Col B Bunny

A Turnaround?

Duh!

Your humble and semi fearless blogster just yesterday broke one of his most important and long standing self imposed rules. While surfing between the local news broadcast and the weather channel he paused on one of the Sunday "talk shows" and within one minute needed to hastily retreat to the closest water closet and be relieved of his breakfast. The author of the need to visit the vomitorium was a talking head that assured one and all that the latest "polling data" reveals that the American boobioiese is now welcoming  the arrival of Obamacare as blessed relief from "skyrocketing" health insurance premiums.

Oh goody! The Fed has inflated  the "money" supply by over 100% in the last 18 months and "costs" for goods and services including insurance premiums are beginning to rise. Who knew? According to the cretin spouting this "logic", the miraculous turnaround in the acceptance of socialized medical delivery is due to a clamoring for price controls and rationing. Who knew? Welcome to the Zimbabwe/Cuba system of "social progressivism".

Life Imitates Hollywood

Many of you may remember the 2002 Stephen Spielberg scifi production of Minority Report, portraying a future society in which the government assured its citizens that certain individuals were "about to commit" crimes and therefore justified "preventive" arrests and prosecutions.

Those of us who viewed the film experienced relief that "our" form of government would never engage in such outrageous practices. Think again gentle reader.


In the southern Oregon community of Medford, a furloughed Oregon Dept. of Transportation employee has been taken into "protective custody" for legally purchasing 3 firearms over a period of two days:

In two days, the man bought a Heckler & Koch .45-caliber universal self-loading handgun, a Walther .380-caliber handgun and an AK-47 assault rifle, Medford police Lt. Bob Hansen said. All of those firearms were purchased legally, with required record checks by the Oregon State Police.

Please note that the state mouthpiece media is dully identifying all of these semiautomatic firearms by their politically correct Pelosi/Feinstein nomenclature.


The identity of the person detained in this swat team operation has not been released. He is being held for a 72 hr. "psychiatric evaluation". At the end of the 72 hrs. a psychiatrist, psychologist or social worker may have him detained for an additional 90 days. The record of this detention will preclude him from "owning any firearm for the remainder of his life". So much for the protections of the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution.


If any of you yet entertain the fiction that we live under a government who respects the liberties earned during the unpleasantness of 1775-1783, I suggest you reconsider subscribing to such nonsense and proceed accordingly.


ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ!


cross posted at: Eternity Road

A Bit of Government "Comedy/Irony?"

Your semi fearless blogster had an amusing encounter this morning on the way to the gym and reasons for levity of  late being sparse he has decided to share it with both of his faithful followers.

Only last week the "first lady" Mrs. Michelle Obama/Soetoro appeared on one or more of the insipid morning boob tube venues to decry childhood "obesity". It is as yet unclear which of the 22 members of her White House staff  broached the idea of such a crusade (perhaps in view of recent trends the term should be jihad). This concept of nanny statism follows closely on the heels of trial balloons being floated over government controls of junk and fast food.

Where was I? Oh, yes; the narrow road near our residence necessitated us coming to a stop in front of a neighbor's residence in order to allow the boarding of a school bus by a rather portly pupil who attends the public elementary level indoctrination center located approximately 900 feet away. As the school bus paused with appropriate flashing red lights and obligatorily deployed octagonal stop sign as well as bumper barrier, the pupil of some 10 years of age huffed and puffed up the slightly inclined driveway and lumbered aboard the bus. Two more stops were required of the bus on its 900 foot journey in order to board pupils who live directly across the street from the school.

It appears that the school district prohibits pupils from arriving and departing its facilities by any means other than motor vehicles even though each and every roadway adjacent to any of the institutions displays flashing yellow lights indicating reduced speed limits often monitored by  revenuers minions of the law replete with electronic detection devices even on "snow days" when the schools are vacant.

Goodness, how times have changed since the old days when we young'uns were forced to trek "2 miles up hill (both ways) in blizzard conditions" to the little red school house. It must be the price we pay for our rulers keeping us safe, healthy and protecting the environment.

"Right" vs "Privilege"

In less than three weeks the US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of McDonald v City of Chicago.  The court will decide if the Second Amendment which states: "...the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." applies to the various states and local governments. In 2008 the court held that the plain language of the Second Amendment applies to the District of Columbia which like Chicago had ordinances effectively prohibiting the possession of firearms in its jurisdiction. The odds are that the Chicago law will be struck down as unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment.

The decision will doubtless impact many restrictive gun laws in multiple states. A case in point is the (idiotic?) law in California (section 12031 (a) (1) of the penal code)  which prohibits the carrying without a concealed carry permit of a loaded firearm in any incorporated city or designated area in the unincorporated area of any county. The law as interpreted by California courts allows the carrying of a concealable firearm in those prohibited areas if it is "unloaded". Of course All schools and public buildings are "gun free" zones.

One can imagine the confusing situation faced by a non permitted citizen who wishes to exercise his second Amendment "right" under these Byzantine laws, especially when sheriffs and police chiefs routinely refuse the issuance of concealed carry permits to all but a favored class of applicants.

Recently a group of California residents protesting this situation has begun to openly carry their hand guns in various venues such as Starbucks coffee shops in the Bay area. The response of some police personnel to these protests is about what one could expect of members of a class whose monopoly of certain "rights" is threatened as is illustrated by the following exchange discussing a legal instance of open carry on the face book threads of one officer Tauson:

"Haha, we had one guy last week try to do it!"...""He got proned out and reminded where he was at and that turds will jack him for his gun in a heartbeat!..."Sounds like you had someone practicing their 2nd amendment rights last night!" Tuason wrote. "Should've pulled the AR out and prone them all out! And if one of them makes a furtive movement ... 2 weeks off!!!"

The two weeks off (with pay of course) refers to the internal shooting investigation period.

I have a question for those who allege that law abiding citizens have certain "rights" guaranteed by the Constitution: does one need a permit to exercise a right? If you, dear reader, believe that a permit is only required for a privilege you would be in error.

The Supreme Court will hand down its ruling before the June adjournment. We are breathlessly awaiting the determination of at least 5 of our black robed demigods. Any bets on the voting alignment?

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

Bang for the Buck

click to enlarge images

  

 

How to avoid looking like a referee at a tennis match while giving a speech.

ht: Theo Spark

Transportation (Non) Security

In one of his previous lives (the law enforcement one) your humble blogster participated in several "covert" operations. That is the main reason that he finds the saga of the underwear bomber of Christmas day especially intriguing.

As "luck" would have it and much to the chagrin of our political masters, a material witness to the events concerning flight 253 happened to be an individual trained in both logic and evidence evaluation. Unless this witness can be either discredited or intimidated into silence, the entire bureaucratic farce designated "transportation security" and erected by the government will stand revealed for the sham that in fact it is.

The witness, an attorney by the name of Kurt Haskell who was a passenger aboard flight 253 avails himself of his legal training in opening his "case" by posing seven questions :

1. Who is the Man in Orange?


2. Did Mutallab know the Sharp Dressed Man?


3. Was it intended that the bomb explode?


4. Did the U.S. Government know that Mutallab had a bomb when it allowed him to board Flight 253?

5. Why is the U.S. Government seeking a plea deal for Mutallab?

6. Why did a fellow passenger call me to discuss changing my story?

7. Why are the important questions being ignored by the mainstream media?

I hope that you, dear reader, will follow Mr. Haskell's discussion of these seven questions at the link provided above and supply your reactions in the comments at the end of this post.

Public perception of the workings of covert government operations have been severely distorted by the entertainment media. In other words: what one views on the entertaining episodes of "24" is so far from reality as to enter the realm of the absurd. In the real world and almost universally, those charged with supervising these operations have little to no hands on experience working "under cover". The skills required of successful operatives are not necessarily congruent with supervisory abilities. The "bosses" have been promoted/appointed/elected into their supervisory positions on the basis of a variation of the Peter Principal  which rewards those skilled in sycophancy and bureaucratic political maneuvering. The "supervisors" almost invariably experience difficulty in managing the often complicated operations. These difficulties arise chiefly from an inability to resist tendencies toward micro management. Political corruption is also an occasional factor. First hand examples of this theory will doubtless supply subject matter for future posts.

In classic Platonic fashion, Mr. Haskell discusses the implications of the possible answers  to his seven questions and invites us to; (using an overworked cliche) "connect the dots". Suddenly, Ms Napolitano's apparently nonsensical statement that "the system worked" acquires the ring of perverse if partial truth.

In any event, the concept that ultimate transportation security can be achieved if only we surrender more liberty is revealed for the nonsensical fairy tale it has always been.

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

Oliver Stone and Danny Glover, Call Your Offices

Try wrapping your mind around these concepts:

1. According to the Castro regime in Cuba, the United States government, using recently developed technology caused the recent disastrous 7.0 magnitude earthquake in the southwest corner of the island of Hispaniola. Several days prior to that event a test of the technology was conducted 10 miles offshore of the extreme northern California town of Ferndale near Eureka. The latter temblor registered a 6.5 on the Richter scale. The Cubans warn that the new weapon is next to be used against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

2. Venezuela's "elected" caudillo, señor Chávez explains (with a straight face) that the US military has invaded Haiti:

  "I read that 3,000 soldiers are arriving, Marines armed as if they were going to war. There is not a shortage of guns there, my God. Doctors, medicine, fuel, field hospitals, that's what the United States should send," Chavez said on his weekly television show. "They are occupying Haiti undercover."

He would doubtless prefer that volunteers attempting to deliver humanitarian aid should deal with events such as this and this and be unencumbered by adequate means to accomplish their objective or even to defend themselves.

Meanwhile, the rolling blackouts in Venezuela (except in certain districts of the capital) are blamed on the el niño induced drought rather than the socialist power suppliers' neglected maintenance of the hydroelectric infrastructure as seen in this slide show. Strangely enough, the "drought" has not effected the power generation in neighboring Colombia. This odd situation is doubtless also to be the fault of the "imperialist yanquis" who have developed a "drought machine" to augment the new "earthquake machine".

It appears that the teleprompter jesus will be required to make a new and improved apology tour of our southern neighbors as soon as all the newly imported Democratic voters from Haiti are added to the rolls here in the US.

Hello UN!

Who 'da thunk it?

Why, you may ask would this happen?
Answer: Power over YOUR life.

Your (Tire Inflation) Papers Please

The enactment in 2006 of AB-32 (The Global Warming Solutions Act ) in California and establishing the California Air Resources Board  to enforce it will soon begin to bearing bitter fruit for residents as well as motor vehicle operators in that hapless state. Regulations proposed  by the CARB will require that all auto repair shops in the state "check the inflation of every tire during auto repair in their shops to improve mpg for all vehicles."

The vehicle owners cannot refuse this "service" unless the shop charges extra for it and only if they can "prove with documentation that they’ve had their tires checked and inflated in the last 30 days, or if they WILL do so within the next week". In other words, you can no longer inflate your own tires, but must have it done by a "technician" who provides "documentation". The penalty for "violation" of the regulation is up to $1,000.00 per violation and 6 months imprisonment. You simply cannot make this stuff up.

The following likely conversation between two inmates in the "overcrowded" Kalifornia GULAG system can no longer be considered hyperbole:

 jailbird 1: So what's your rap for being here?

jailbird 2: I inflated the tires on my '72 Chevy, what's yours?

jailbird 1: Cited twice for driving my '66 Mustang without wearing seat belts.

jailbird 2: But '66 Mustangs didn't have seat belts.

jailbird 1: Tell it to the KHG! (Kalifornia Highway Gestapo)

"Hope and Change"?

Readers of this blog are obviously capable of noting the discernable and increasing interval between recent postings. I should probably apologize to both of you but in lieu of such an apology I will merely offer an explanation. Simply put, the old Spartan's outrage meter has required several recalibrations. Should either of you choose to reject such a lame "excuse" I invite you to suspend contributing to the lucre that these efforts have directed to the House of ΑΓΙΣ.


As a clue to the main concern of this formerly fearless blogster he will offer up the following laconic quote from a sadly anonymous but eloquent source:

“The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the presidency. It will be easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails us. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.” -- Author Unknown

For additional insight I invite the curious reader/scholar to consider the Cloward-Piven Strategy  as it relates to recent developments in the "western" world.

ht/: Washington Rebel

Government Assisted Misery

click to enlarge

The ongoing graphic and poignant images broadcast in the media of the devastation wreaked  by the earthquake in Haiti fail to convey the depth of the tragedy.

The island of Hispaniola is shared by two nations: The Dominican Republic and Haiti, both of which are poor by North American standards. In the course of several voyages in his smallish sailing vessel between South Florida and the Eastern Caribbean this writer has made calls at various ports and anchorages along the coasts of both nations. The process of clearing in and out of ports necessarily involves contact with various bureaucracies including port authorities, customs officials and immigration officers. After engaging in the process several dozen times one gets a sense of the frequent bureaucratic pettiness which affects virtually all governments.

On one of these voyages Northwest from the Virgin Islands to Ft. Lauderdale I suffered a re-injury to my lower back while provisioning in Puerto Rico. The pain was aggravated by piloting and shortening sail while navigating the Mona Passage. Upon reaching port in the Dominican Republic your fearless author was unable to make the rounds of the various offices in order to clear into the country and delegated the task to his first officer/cook. This situation persisted during the voyage along the north coast and at the Haitian port of entry, Cap Haitiene.

I was flat on my back in the shade of the cockpit awning at the dock when the blackest and most wizened peddler I had ever encountered hailed me attempting to hawk a hand carved mahogany walking stick for US $25.00. He had obviously bribed the port captain in order to obtain permission to enter the dock area and refused to take no for an answer. I explained that I had no need for such an item and could barely rise from my supine position. My continued refusal resulted in a steady reduction in his asking price until ultimately I made the purchase for one US dollar in order to obtain surcease from his insistence.

It was not until later that I examined the walking stick (pictured above) and found it to be meticulously and ornately carved. The old man (or someone) had obviously spent hours carving the decorations on it. Additionally, as virtually all of the trees in Haiti have been cut down to be converted to charcoal for cooking, where had he obtained the stick? The implications of the depth of poverty this anecdote illustrates finally dawned on me with a deep sadness.

On a previous visit to the interior of Haiti I saw people occupying (as in living in) corrugated tin huts with thatched roofs. Some of the huts were situated on flat ground and recent rains had resulted in all of the rooms being ankle deep in filthy water in which was floating garbage and raw sewage. As bad as the photos of earthquake devastation in Port Au Prince are, one must realize that they depict the most affluent area of the nation. Until my Haitian visits I had found communist Nicaragua to be the poorest of societies.

As an aside, we note that Israel has sent rescue aid to the disaster area of Haiti. Can the worker's paradises of Cuba and Venezuela spare aid as well?

Sound of crickets chirping.

The poverty of virtually all nations is generally proportional to the degree of government corruption.

cross posted at: Eternity Road

A Comparison

'Tis once again the season when we gaze back on the previous annum and ponder the changes for good or ill that have overtaken both the republic and ourselves. Your humble blogster confesses to never having been a huge fan of the previous occupant of the White House but simply considering him to be the less objectionable of both of the likely alternatives offered by the Democratic party. However, a survey of the occurances of 2009 forces me to admit to a degree of nostalgia for the comparatively "not so bad" old days of GWB. The following is a short list of contrasts of a year ago courtesy of Blackiswhite, Imperial Consigliere:

A year ago, the government wasn’t the owner of two previously privately held auto companies, the largest insurer in the nation, or a large mortgage bank.
A year ago, our President wasn’t buddy-buddy with Chavez or Castro.
A year ago, we didn’t have a tax-cheat as Treasury Secretary.
A year ago, we didn’t have an Executive Order authorizing the immigration and placement of thousands of Palestinians in the U.S.
A year ago, U.S. taxpayers weren’t funding and facilitating abortions in other countries.
A year ago, five percent fewer federal employees made over $100,000.00 a year.  It must be nice to get a raise in the worst recession in my memory…especially when you already have the job security of a federal employee.
A year ago, we had a President who wasn’t on record as thinking that the Constitution is “fundamentally flawed”.
A year ago, we had a President who did not bow deeply to the Saudi King and the Japanese Emperor.
A year ago, we had a President who did not avoid the Senate’s advise and consent role by appointing czars in places where they had never been before.
A year ago, we had a President who did not go out of his way to insult average Americans by casting aspersions on their values and the values of their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents.
A year ago, we did not have a Supreme Court Justice who completely and utterly disqualified themselves before appointment with repeated statements calling their integrity and impartiality into question.
A year ago, we did not have government officials threatening private investors who were trying to protect their legal rights in bankruptcy.
A year ago, we did not have a presidentially appointed self-admitted Communist in government.
A year ago, a government official would not have dreamt of quoting Mao in public as a favorite philosopher.
A year ago, our elected representatives would not have dared to ask constituents for ID before answering their questions, or used union goons and police to silence and remove constituents from public meetings.
A year ago, the conventional wisdom would have laughed at the notion that we need hundreds of billions of dollars in stimulus spending that stimulates nothing in order to turn the rising tide of unemployment.
A year ago, the government did not deign to set compensation levels for employees of privately held companies.
A year ago, the idea of government health care for all was the punchline of a Hillary Clinton joke.
A year ago, we didn’t have a President who has informed a whole sector of the energy industry that he wants to put them out of business.
A year ago, the EPA was not threatening to regulate carbon dioxide emissions if Congress doesn’t.
A year ago, INTERPOL could not operate on American soil without regard to the American Constitution and American due process.
A year ago, we didn’t have an attorney general who believed it was appropriate or necessary to try foreign terrorists in Article III courts.
A year ago, we had a President and administration that recognized that we were already in a war on terrorism, because the terrorists had already declared war on us.
A year ago, a statement to the nation about a terrorist act committed against Americans by the President was a duty, and not an annoyance.
A year ago, carbon dioxide was good because it helps plants grow, and not a pollutant requiring taxes by Congress that will be paid by energy consumers.
A year ago, in was understood that the government cannot force me to buy a government-approved health care plan with the threat of exorbitant fines and/or jail time.
A year ago, it wasn’t the priority of one political party to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to a group of community activists that have engaged in voter fraud and other criminal enterprises…time and again.
A year ago, the government didn’t fire watchdogs who caught influential friends of the government with their sticky fingers in the government till.
A year ago, we had a President and Leader of the Free World who didn’t sit on his hands and “bear witness” to the brutal repression and murder of people resisting a totalitarian regime that is determined to destabilize the region it is in.
A year ago, we had a President who did not support a leader attempting a coup by vilifying the people who lawfully prevented it.
A year ago, we did not face a government that grows fat and belligerent on our tax dollar, while constantly threatening to take more of our money and freedom from us.
A year ago, we [did not have] a President that accused our soldiers of perpetrating war crimes for political gain, or declared police guilty of acting stupidly while admitting in the same breath that he didn’t have all the facts.
A year ago, dissent was the highest form of patriotism; now it’s racist!

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

The End Times for Liberty?

Those readers who have been following the scribblings of this fearless blogster (both of you know who you are) have noted a somewhat tapering off of his screeds recently. He is tempted to attribute the lack of cogent production to "burnout" but that would be less than candid of him. The truth of the matter is more mundane. He is much less "fearless" than heretofore.

Included among the blessings of youth is the assumption that one is invincible, immortal; bulletproof as it were. This and forced conscription I believe, are two of the contributing factors toward the ability of rulers to mobilize cannon fodder in order to achieve this or that political objective.

As youth fades and the sum of worldly experience increases, the reverse of the coin of life begins to manifest itself to wit, the observance of long term trends. The most depressing trend that Leonidas has witnessed over yea these threescore and thirteen years is the inexorable advance of collectivism to the detriment of individual liberty.

Intervening between the current progress toward collectivism and the re emergence of the value of individual liberty appears to be a descent into what many would characterize as a "dark age" similar to the conditions obtaining subsequent to the collapse of the western Roman Empire in the sixth century AD.

Indeed, as western/Roman civilization disintegrated due to corruption of the political/economic system your humble blogster sees similar forces at work today.

This past week yields on [Greece's] 10-year bonds surged in the wake of downgrades by the bond rating agencies, which finally recognized that Greece does not have the financial resources needed to repay its debts, which now stand near junk levels.  Not far behind are Latvia, Spain, Ireland, the United Kingdom and almost every other country in Europe, even though they may still flog paper rated as “investment grade.”  The reality is that the rating agencies just have not yet come to grips with the breadth and depth of widespread government insolvency, or have willingly turned a blind-eye to it.  And don’t forget Iceland which of course has already collapsed.
How did we sink to this state of affairs?  Nobel Laureate Friedrich von Hayek provides the answer in his brilliantly insightful and prescient book, The Road to Serfdom, penned during the waning years of the Second World War.
Hayek’s central theme is that wars expand the power of the modern state because the national planning to fight the war continues even during times of peace.  This perennial government planning then expands the social-welfare state over time, with harmful results.  Most importantly, economic activity is impeded by the growing state as people and resources become less productive.  In other words, because the government does not create consumable goods and services, it is an economic burden to the productive sector of the economy.

The insolvency of socialist governments invariably results in rioting and chaos in the streets as the proletariat demands the fulfilling of promises made by collectivist politicians who have assured them that there is in fact a "free lunch".

"More people depend on the state than those who provide it with the money the state needs to meet its promises.  Most of Europe long ago passed the 50% threshold with more people depending on government than the private sector, but even in the United States – long reigning as the bastion of capitalism, free-markets and limited government – 58% of the population derives their income from government at some level. "

The precise details of how the train wreck is to be played out remain to be seen. This old Spartan is not sanguine as to the medium term outcome and is carefully husbanding his last cartridge.

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

cross posted at: Eternity Road

It's A Religion; Stupid

If there were ever ever any doubts that the AGW movement is a religion, the below video dispels them. Is it only a matter of time before the imams of the religion of "peace™" commission their own "scientific" hacks (as the warmistas have) to create computer models proving that the prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven from the Dome of the Rock aboard a huge white horse?

The Joys of Government "Health" Care

The below video was shot at Havana's Hijas de Galicia maternity hospital in June of 2009. It seems to have escaped the final cut of Michael Moore's production of "Sicko". Guess he just couldn't work it in.



ht: The Real Cuba

Follow the Money

In the words of "Deep Throat" during the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s, in order to determine the depth and breadth of corruption and locate its sources one is well advised to "follow the money". It is not always the case that the ultimate motives of the real corruptors are pecuniary but lucre is the most convenient tool for achieving the true objective which is power.

The revelations of the recent "climategate" scandal teach us that virtually any human endeavor dependent on the species homo sapiens can be directed toward the achievement of power by the prudent application of cash. Evidence of the practice of the government commissioning scientific studies with a pre determined outcome surfaced in the fallout from a 1992 report by Dr. Edward C. Krug.

Krug had been been commissioned as part of the National Acid Rain Precipitation Assessment Project (NAPAP) to determine the causes of acidic lakes and watercourses in the Northeastern US. The findings did not support the assertions of the environmental movement and (redundancy alert) the EPA, assigning the cause of these conditions to pollution by power generation facilities' use of high sulfur fuel. Instead, the real cause of these conditions was found to be runoff from acidic soil in the applicable watersheds.

During the late 1980s, acid rain was a hot topic. Environmentalists said that it was an ecological catastrophe. George Bush made an acid-rain policy an important part of his "kinder, gentler agenda". Together, the president and environmentalists helped push through Congress the Clean Air Act of 1990, the most sweeping regulatory law in history. Some important people had their reputations staked on this legislation, and they didn't need Ed Krug telling taxpayers acid rain is no big deal.

As a result, Dr. Krug ceased to be able to find employment in his field.

The recently published "purloined" emails reveal the continued machinations of scientists corrupted by the application of copious amounts of government directed taxpayer cash toward the end of massive accretions of political power. The long term effects of this massive program by political players assisted by the mass media have resulted in the emergence of what amounts to a religious movement which this writer choses to designate "the warmistas". To summarize the resources directed toward the goal of total political control of the planet's economic engine:

• The US government has provided over $79 billion since 1989 on policies related to climate change, including science and technology research, foreign aid, and tax breaks.
• Despite the billions: “audits” of the science are left to unpaid volunteers. A dedicated but largely uncoordinated grassroots movement of scientists has sprung up around the globe to test the integrity of the theory and compete with a well funded highly organized climate monopoly. They have exposed major errors.
• Carbon trading worldwide reached $126 billion in 2008. Banks are calling for more carbon-trading. And experts are predicting the carbon market will reach $2 – $10 trillion making carbon the largest single commodity traded.
• Meanwhile in a distracting sideshow, Exxon-Mobil Corp is repeatedly attacked for paying a grand total of $23 million to skeptics—less than a thousandth of what the US government has put in, and less than one five-thousandth of the value of carbon trading in just the single year of 2008.
• The large expenditure in search of a connection between carbon and climate creates enormous momentum and a powerful set of vested interests. By pouring so much money into one theory, have we inadvertently created a self-fulfilling prophesy instead of an unbiased investigation?

To ask the question, is to answer it and the above figures of course do not include the funding of other Western governments.

Today the Obama Administration's EPA Director Lisa Jackson announced the administration's final determination that greenhouse gases are a hazard to human health – a widely expected move whose less-than-expected timing came on the first day of climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark. This is an end run around the legislative function of the Congress. The politicos have chosen to direct their warmista jihad against carbon dioxide for strategic reasons of taxing/regulation. What will happen when these tyrants decide to address the real greenhouse gas H2O? Stay tuned.

Not Michael Moore's Cuba!

Hospital Patient at Marina Azcuy, Cuba

Lost in the debate on "Health Care Reform" here in the US is one of the most important reasons to reject government collectivized  delivery of medical care. Yoani Sánchez, the Cuban blogger who lives in Havana eloquently describes the circumstances obtaining in a society where health care is collectivized:

It delights us to cure ourselves of that stage of life we call adolescence and, in particular, to become independent. Finding an answer to that question we have asked ourselves so often: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Able to leave home without explaining ourselves, being responsible for our own destiny, and, above all, not having to listen to any parental admonition: “As long as I am supporting you, you must do what I tell you.”

Nations that develop under the guidance of a paternalistic state run the risk of leaving their people in a kind of stagnated adolescence. The case of Cuba is one of the paradigmatic examples. We live under the national authority of a government characterized by the continuity of the people in power, who have tried to subsidize a portion of our basic necessities. With great pride, the official media touts that medical care and all levels of education are free, as well as the existence of rationing which supposedly guarantees a basic market basket.

It is understood that public funds defray this maintenance, funds generated by workers who produce what they themselves cannot touch and who are not compensated for doing so. Obviously work is not stimulating and what is earned barely stretches to cover what is subsidized. Papa State does not allow the expression of divergent opinions, much less that people organize themselves around these ideas or reach economic independence; what is worse is that he demands infinite gratitude. Fortunately, as the familiar paternalistic model has taught us, everything tends to change with the passage of time. The children grow, turn into adults, and nothing can stop what the youngest will do with the keys to the house.

As Yoani points out so cogently, when the government controls the system by which health care is delivered it can will control every facet of its subject's lives.  We here in the US have already experienced the camel's nose under the edge of the tent. You must wear a seatbelt while traveling in a motor vehicle and wear a helmet while riding on a motorcycle even though the person likely to be harmed by omitting these practices is only yourself. The rationale for these ukases is that the public at large is likely to bear the expense of the treatment for your injuries. In some communities this philosophy has extended to the ingestion of food substances which are believed to place the consumer at risk of obesity or circulatory diseases.

Yoani lives in a society in which every facet of one's life is controlled by the reigning political regime and the lifestyle of members of the ruling class occupy a strata far above ordinary citizens. This control extends to even access to the internet which we take for granted. The government prohibits home internet connections for all except its ruling elite and resident foreigners. In order to post on her blog Generación Y  Yoani must buy computer time at a tourist hotel. The hourly fee for such service is equal to one third of a month's salary for the average Cuban worker. Only in the last two years has the regime even allowed access to tourist hotels by citizens not employed in them.

This humble blogster has heard interviews and reports by visitors to Cuba who have returned to sing the praises of the "worker's paradise" in the Caribbean. For the most part these "visitors", be they celebrities or members of the Congressional "Black Caucus" are known as "useful idiots" by ordinary Cubans as well as those of us blessed by  having viewed the "Real Cuba" as described here , here,  here and especially here.

I urge all readers to visit Yoani's blog and especially to click on the tab in the tool bar entitled "how to help".

cross posted at: Eternity Road

New Green Al Gore Cultivator

Don't Laugh (cry?). These plough pullers have been bred to refrain from farting.