Beyond the Sidewalks

Considering the plethora of recent literature on the subject of "prepping" for survival as the socioeconomic meltdown inexorably approaches, it may be beneficial to hear the experiences of one who has "been there, done that".

We lived with various "sustainable" combinations of wind, hydro, solar and diesel generated power for 20 years both aboard our sail boat and our off-grid ranch. With both wind and hydro there are substantial costs (in addition to the initial capital investment) associated with bearing, brush/slipring and armature replacement not to mention impeller deterioriation. In considering all of these various forms of alternative energy the cost per kilowatt hour needs to be factored in.

We found that the average cost of grid supplied energy ranged between 12 and 15 cents per kilowatt hour as opposed to an estimated 40 cents plus per kilowatt hour for solar and hydro power when equipment replacement costs are factored in.  The special ambient conditions necessary for availing one's self of hydro and wind energy do not obtain for the vast majority of shore side locations.

So called fossil fueled sources of energy generation obviously make economic and logistic sense only for limited and emergent situations due to their need to be fed.

True stand alone applications where no grid source of power is available will require a means for the storage/regulation of the energy for utilization during windless and sunless periods. For heating purposes a mass consisting of water or other heat storage material such as metal or stone can suffice. For electrical energy storage, current technology forces us into the utilization of batteries and they are not cheap. This old sailor-cum-homesteader found the use of deep cycle lead acid 6 volt "golf cart" batteries to make economic sense. True, recent advances in battery technology have improved their efficiency to a limited extent but the initial capital investment remains high. Additionally, lead acid batteries do not thrive on neglect such as repeated extreme deep discharging or electrolyte starvation.

An example of this problem reared its head with one of our native American neighbors living on Yurok tribal land in Humboldt county, California. The tribe received a federal "grant" of substantial funds to erect stand alone photovoltaic power systems at individual single family Indian residences in the Klamath river valley.  The equipment, consisting of a 2 kilowatt solar array on fixed mounts, an appropriate charge controller, 1200 amp hour sealed gel battery bank and a 4500 watt 24 volt to 120 volt inverter with necessary wiring harnesses and separate housing shed were erected near his mobil home in an area SHADED during part of the day. The equipment alone cost in excess of $27,000.00. It was installed by "progressive" student "volunteers" from Humboldt State University who upon completion of the project advised our neighbor (whose only source of power previously had consisted of a succession of 600 watt gasoline generators obtained at Costco) that he could begin using his home "just as if he lived in town on the grid".

Needless to relate, our neighbor and his family proceeded to purchase appliances such as irons, toasters, heaters and television sets. Within a week he was knocking on our door requesting help with his non working electrical system.  The hippies volunteers were unavailable to assist him.  So much for the "turnkey" taxpayer government supplied "sustainable" systems provided to "disadvantaged" minorities.

A major consideration in view of the approaching societal disintegration as regards emergency or backup energy systems is security. "Law" (yes, those are scorn quotation marks) enforcement, should it continue to function, will inevitably have its hands full maintaining "order" in a population reduced to desperation and energy systems are especially vulnerable to theft and vandalism not to mention a confiscatory government itself. I have written elsewhere of our own experiences but will leave it to you dear reader to acquaint yourselves with various post apocalyptic scenarios ranging from Mad Max to mere Hobbesian squalor.

A New Litigiuous Industry?

I don't know how many of you dear readers are aware of the tempest that has recently exploded concerning the issue of "intellectual property" as it applies to the internet and specifically the "blogosphere". In any event, thus far over 91 lawsuits have been filed in the federal district court of Nevada. These suits generally claim "theft" of copyrighted material by mostly small mom and pop web sites and blogs. The suits have been filed by a firm called RightHaven  and the defendants for the most part have not received prior to the filings any cease and desist orders or demands to remove the objectionable material.

Thus far the bulk of the allegedly stolen material has been copied, excerpted from or linked to publications in the daily Las Vegas (Nevada) Review Journal whose publisher is Mr. Sherman Frederick. His decision to assign copy rights to his newspaper's material to RightHaven in order that they, rather than his newspaper, pursue litigation is explained in a column/blog posting dated 28 May 2010. I will neither quote nor paraphrase Mr. Frederick here and indeed link to his screed with considerable trepidation.  If you, dear reader choose to follow the link I would advise you to read it carefully and pay special attention to the comments before drawing your own conclusions.  There are even those who connect (tenuously) the RightHaven staff to White House officials.  You decide.

Mr. Frederick, in his analogy to an auto displayed and "stolen" from his front yard seems to engage in what could be termed in the opinion of this humble blogster "tortured" logic.  He also links to a National Public Radio interview on the prior "scooping" of the McChrystal piece in Rolling Stone magazine  but does not allude to any instance in which his publication suffered any such outrage.

It would appear that the Review-Journal is a business enterprise. That is, they display paid advertising which is incidentally viewed by web surfers following links to their site. If bloggers and other web sites fail to attribute material lifted from the R-J they should by all means be placed on notice to cease and desist and sued if they fail to do so. However, it seems counter productive to prosecute in the federal courts those who avail themselves in good faith of the doctrine of "fair use"  with attribution and links. Unless of course such a strategy is your business model.     

A Quick Fix

According to our imperial federal ruling masters and their dog washers in the media the recent financial/economic "crisis" has ended and the "economy is in recovery". The government bureaucrats even trot out supporting data and statistics expecting boobus Americanus to buy into the fiction.  The most recent example is the official bureau of labor statistics citing a reduction in the "unemployment" rate from 9.7% to 9.5% while the economy underwent a net job loss of 20,000+. This simply does not pass the smell test. Another fiction is the "growth" measured by gross domestic product (GDP) which is simply a measure of the total cost of all goods and services produced by the nation. This would and DOES include the salaries earned by recently hired government regulatory aparatchiks who contribute nothing of value to the economy and are paid with funds extorted at gunpoint from taxpayers.

This humble blogster has a suggestion for boosting the statistics and jolting the economy into massive recovery. (Irony Alert): Assign every resident in the US to take in the laundry of their next door neighbor for the minimum wage of $7.75 per hour.  Not only would this proposal eliminate the unemployment problem, but consider the enormous uptick in the GDP statistics (Irony Alert Off).

How did we get Here?

Below is a guest posting by Scott Lazarowitz that appeared originally at ReasonAndJest.com. A few additional concepts should be born in mind while reading and digesting the essay.

"It may be hoped that in time anybody will be able to persuade anybody of anything if he can catch the patient young and is provided by the State with money and equipment."..."Where all children go to school, and all schools are controlled by the government, the authorities can close the minds of the young to everything contrary to official orthodoxy.” Bertrand Russell "Impact of Science on Society" 1952

Obama the Socialist Fascist Communist, by Scott Lazarowitz
July 15, 2010
Copyright © 2010 by LewRockwell.com.  Link to this article at LewRockwell.com

A recent poll showed that 55% of Americans believe that Barack Obama is a “socialist,” and many Americans believe that the nation is on the “road to socialism.”
The road to socialism? Where have these people been for the last 75 years? America has been a socialist – as well as fascist – nation for many decades, especially since FDR’s New Deal. Socialism primarily is public ownership of wealth, property and the means of production. So, of course Obama is a socialist. He has expressed that.
For some reason, many people mistakenly believe that Social Security, an important outcome of the New Deal, is a program in which some of Americans’ earnings are taken and put into some kind of “savings account,” to be available to them when they retire. In actuality, Social Security is a real-time redistribution of wealth scheme administered by the State, in which income is taken from producers and redistributed to non-producers, mainly retired persons and the elderly. LBJ’s Medicare program is an extension of this.
Further examples to show that Obama is a socialist include his vote as a U.S. Senator in favor of the Wall Street Bailout, often mistakenly seen as an example of “capitalism,” but which was actually an example of socialism: redistribution of wealth from the middle-class workers and producers to the already rich Wall Street bankers and financial executives.
Obama also clearly supports the ongoing military socialism through the wars he has been continuing and strengthening abroad: redistribution of wealth from American workers and producers to defense contractors, consultants and lobbyists, oil executives and Wall Street bankers, which really has been a main objective for American wars throughout the last century. As the late USMC Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler would say, “War is a Racket.”
And as the late economist Murray Rothbard put it, regarding World War I:

Woodrow Wilson’s decision to enter the war may have been the single most fateful action of the 20th century, causing untold and unending misery and destruction. But Morgan profits were expanded and assured.

Things have not changed in 100 years.
Obama’s stated intention has been for redistribution of wealth as a means to help the poor, the underprivileged and so on. But his unstated intention is the same as all politicians of his ilk: to reach into as much private wealth as possible as a means towards expanding State power and control.
Many people also mistakenly believe that Obama’s medical takeover is “socialized medicine,” but we already have socialized medicine in Medicare as mentioned, and other similar programs. ObamaCare is actually a fascist program.
Fascism is another major aspect of FDR’s New Deal, which gave us an untold number of regulations, mandates and enmeshments between business and government. Fascism primarily is State control over privately owned property, wealth and industry. All government mandates and regulation of private economies are examples of fascism. ObamaCare consists of one mandate and regulation after another of private doctor-patient relationships, patient/doctor-insurance company relationships, and a laundry list of medical related industries.
In addition to ObamaCare fascism and Obama’s strengthening of his own executive dictatorial powers as president, some other examples of Obama’s fascism include his new financial regulations, and the environmental regulations that he used as a means of interfering with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s duty to protect the people of Louisiana from the oil spill that threatens their livelihoods.
While allowing doctors’ practices, HMOs, and insurance companies to continue to be privately owned, the federal government will nevertheless dictate to them how their contracts and associations will be run. However, given a variety of factors, this dictatorial control over the medical industry will most likely lead these still privately owned interests into bankruptcy, much like what the federal government has done to the financial and mortgage lending industries, and the federal government will most probably take upon ownership, as well as control, of much of these industries.
That is where Obama’s communism comes in. The “road to socialism”? No, already there. Fascism? Already there. But are we on the road to communism? You betchya!
Communism is, by and large, complete State ownership and control of all industry, wealth and property, and the means of production. So far, we have seen this from Obama in his leading the charge of confiscation of much of the automobile industry, as well as the federal government’s ownership of much of the mortgage and finance industries. And eventually, most likely, the entire medical industry.
Whether Obama is intentionally implementing a communist America by way of long-planned “stealth,” as some people have suggested he is doing, or whether he has a communist agenda by way of his long-time partnership with admitted terrorist bomber and “small-c communist” Bill Ayers, or whether Obama follows the teachings of “radical community organizer” (or “communizer”) Saul Alinsky, is actually not as important as Obama’s actual actions as president.
So far, we have noted that Barack Obama is:

• A Socialist. He supports public ownership of the means of production, redistribution of wealth from some segments of society to others.
• A Fascist. He supports State control over private industries and the means of production, and just about every aspect of citizens’ daily lives.
• A Communist. He supports State ownership as well as control of industry and the means of production.

But what isn’t Obama?

• A Capitalist.

Barack Obama is not a capitalist because he opposes voluntary exchange, private property rights, voluntary contracts, associations and markets free of State intrusions, and under the Rule of Law. The true capitalist, voluntary exchange-private property system that coexists with individual liberty is exactly what the American Founders believed in, for which they fought a Revolution to have and preserve for their posterity. This capitalist system is the only system that exists under the Rule of Law that protects all individuals in such a society from the theft and trespass of others including agents of the State.
In contrast, socialism, fascism and communism all institutionalize the violation of the Rule of Law as they institutionalize the violation of all individuals’ inherent rights to life, liberty and justly acquired property.
In those totalitarian systems, the individual is a sacrificial animal for the collective, and a serf for the State.
Alas, America has not actually experienced true capitalism, at least not since the U.S. Constitution was written and ratified, and especially not since the presidency of hardcore banking and monetary fascist and warmonger-business protectionist Abraham Lincoln.
The choice for America is whether to continue on the road to communism, or to turn back, dismantle all of it, and restore our freedom and prosperity.

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