Offend The Lobby, Lose Your Job

First Charles Percy, then Helen Thomas, now Octavia Nasr. One crosses The Lobby at one's own peril.

After the Fall

Orient Commercial Bank, Khanh Hoi Branch. Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam.

35 years after the fall of Saigon (30 April 1975), the Vietnamese, left to their own devices, are doing pretty well for themselves. And somehow, the dreaded Viet Cong conquest of the United States never materialized. There's a lesson here, if we care to learn it.

Socialized Medicine Horror Stories

Coming soon to an American hospital or doctor’s office near you.
(HT: Thomas DiLorenzo)

Obamanomics

OK, I think I have this whole Health Reform thing figured out now.

1. Congress passes massive new entitlement program;
2. Program is funded by increased taxes on interest and dividends;
3. Reduced incentive to save and invest leads to reduced capital formation;
4. Less capital leads to higher unemployment;
5. Lather, rinse, repeat, as increase in entitlement mentality and decrease in employment opportunities combine to drive more people into dependency on Big Government.

Now some people may view this prospect with trepidation. I confess I did, until I realized the true genius of The New Economy 2.0:

1. Under Obamanable economics, no one will need a job since the government will provide everything. The American economy will enter an era of unprecedented prosperity;
2. Money to fund the new Jobless Economy will come from China. As Paul Krugman recently explained, the Chinese will keep lending to the US, ad infinitum, even as the US Government launches a currency war against them.

How could I ever have doubted?

Media Blackout on Agent Orange

Coverage ignores effects on Vietnamese victims


War Remnants Museum, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Why so little interest in a genuine, man-made ecological disaster, as opposed to the global warming fraud?

SJMN: You have to be crazy not to love the government

The San Jose Mercury News thinks John Patrick Bedell's 2007 arrest for, "approaching a 6-year-old and his father at Mountain View's Bubb Elementary School and threatening them with a 6-foot-long stick when they wouldn't let him join their soccer practice" was a sign the guy was a bit off. For definitive proof, though, the SJMN reporters cite, "his rants against the government on YouTube, and his Internet postings, blasting marijuana laws and speaking out on the death of a Marine colonel and 'the September 11th demolitions.'"

Well, what do you expect from the Establishment organ that willingly destroyed its own reporter after he rocked that same Establishment by blowing the lid off the CIA-Contra crack cocaine connection?

Calif. analyst sees job losses under climate law

OK, I'll bite: what constitutes "modest job losses" in a state with double-digit unemployment?

The Economics of Ammunition

If you are a regular shooter, you already know that ammunition supplies are low relative to demand, resulting in scarcity and high prices. Over at the National Association for Gun Rights Blog, M.L. McPherson has written a piece on the economics of the current situation.

Unfortunately, Mr. McPherson places the blame entirely too much on the election of Barack Obama. It is true that His Peacefulness's elevation to the throne office of POTUS did send people scurrying to gun shops in record numbers: at the time, I worked part-time in a gun shop and witnessed the phenomenon at first hand. The coronation of Emperor Barack I actually began the third phase of our ammo woes.

Phase I was caused by increased industrialization, particularly in China and India, which increased demand for industrial commodities like lead, copper, and tin. I recommend Hot Commodities by Jim Rogers if you want the full picture of of the commodities shortage (BTW, food supplies also are at record lows). Ammo was readily available; we just had to pay more for it.

Phase II began with Dubya's Grand South Asian Conquest. Ammo disappeared from store shelves as the manufacturers switched over production to satisfy the feral federal government's demands. Police departments were forced to cancel firearms training and qualification due to uncertain ammo supply. Prices increased sharply.

Phase III, of course, began the day after the 2008 federal elections. Prices skyrocketed, and still stores and ranges had to resort to rationing ammunition sales.

The market has normalized a bit, with the reduction in industrial demand resulting from the global recession and the reduction in military demand resulting from the downsizing of military operations in Mesopotamia. I predict a new round of market disruption next spring, as O-BOMB-A! attempts to play Alexander to Dubya's Philip. "I am Yeswecanias, King of Kings! Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and tremble!" Stock up while you can.

Hustle the East

Now it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle the Aryan brown,
For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles and he weareth the Christian down;
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear: "A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East."

~ Rudyard Kipling, The Naulahka

What do you expect when you run a bridge through Oakland?

Officials: Crack may keep Bay Bridge closed past Tuesday

Obama and Congress want this type of medical care for everyone

Further evidence of the superiority of altruistic, government-provided medical care:

At least 1,200 veterans across the country have been mistakenly told by the Veterans Administration that they suffer from Lou Gehrig's disease.

More than 10,000 veterans exposed to possibly infectious bodily fluids while undergoing endoscopic procedures at three VA hospitals in the Southwest.

Nothing like this ever happened before guns were invented

New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica lays the blame for Steve McNair's death squarely where it belongs: with America's gun culture.

Meanwhile, the benighted sorts over at Taki's Magazine insist that McNair's death had something to do with his decision to carry on an extramarital affair with an emotionally unstable 20-year old woman. Someone needs to bring these people into the 21st century!

Mr. Lupica also wisely reminds us that America's gun collectors, hunters, target shooters, and self-defense practitioners collectively murdered Yetunde Price, the half-sister of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams. Pay no attention to the reprobates who would say that Ms. Price's death might have been the result of her decision to choose, as her new boyfriend, a known gang member just out of prison on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and illegal firearms possession, and of the boyfriend's decision not to get Ms. Price to a hospital promptly after she caught a bullet intended for him.

Mr. Lupica noted that the pistol used to kill Mr. McNair was a semiautomatic. Perhaps, in a future column, he will tell us the type and caliber of gun used to kill Julius Caesar.

Somehow, it's just not the same

Audie Murphy and 50 Cent share the distinction of having suffered more gunshot wounds than any other film actors.

Chump change you can believe in

Obama continues spending like a drunken Congressman. What depression recession?

Ahmadinejad: Neda's death is 'suspicious' - CNN.com

"CIA spokesman George Little responded, 'Any suggestion that the CIA was responsible for the death of this young woman is wrong, absurd and offensive.'"

Nah, they'd never do anything like that!

Stars and Stripes accuses U.S. military of censorship in Iraq - CNN.com

From the story:

CNN has been denied embed requests on occasion but never because of the past conduct of individual journalists.

Indeed. It is difficult to imagine an organization more servile to the regime than CNN.

Navy Vet Who Foiled Israeli Attack Honored

42 years later, the cover-up of the attempted massacre of USS Liberty continues. The truth is slowly leaking out.

Dulce et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen (18 March 1893 - 4 November 1918)

Rapper Dolla contracts lead poisoning, dies

Our cultural firmament is made darker by the extinguishing of this potty-mouthed idiot bright young star.

I'm too broken up to continue. Please excuse me.

Use a Gun, Go to College

Student who shot classmate to graduate, no jail time

Sadly, I don't believe we've heard the last of this sociopath.

Government-Run Health Care

Somehow, I'm supposed to be thrilled with the prospect of a similar system to this for me and my family.

Leni Riefenstahl, Call Home

Flickr pretend photographic adoration of the Leader is something new.

From My Cold, Dead Hands

Obama, Calderón: Assault-gun ban could curb border violence





I don't own one of these and I don't know anyone who does, but drop me a line if you know where I can get one cheap before these two buffoons heads of state get their way and ban them. My wife and I will have to park both our cars on the street to get it in the carport, but if it saves one life, it's worth it.

Proposition 1D

I have no interest in California's Proposition 1D, a falling-out among thieves over shares of the loot. But Andrea Urton's letter (Proposition 1D bad for young children, San Jose Mercury News, April 12, 2009) struck a responsive chord with me.

California's budget is in deep, deep trouble. Proposition 1D would divert tobacco tax money from its "for the children" pretext commitment to the state's General Fund. California's off-highway vehicle (OHV) community will be familiar with this phenomenon, as their OHV registration (Green Sticker) fees have for years been used for every purpose but that for which they are legally and exclusively earmarked -- the construction and maintenance of OHV recreation areas.

Ms. Urton is Associate Director of EMQ FamiliesFirst in Campbell. No, I don't know why "FamiliesFirst" is run together like that; probably someone thought it was trendy. Her organization is 91% tax-funded, so she has a vested interest in the Prop. 1D squabble. I don't know if she has ever protested the persistent raiding of the Green Sticker fund.

Ms. Urton wants to know "What is wrong with our society that we would even consider disrupting... the values of investing in our children, keeping them safe and facilitating family strength come before anything else?"

Ms. Urton apparently hasn't noticed, but we've been doing just that for decades. Welfare, no-fault divorce, mandatory public "education", Section 8 housing subsidies, glorification of unwed maternity, a tax code that all but forces mothers into the workforce (for their own "liberation," of course), and a host of other intrusions into personal and family life, all work to undermine the very values Ms. Urton extols.

Of Pirates Large and Small

Of Pirates Large and Small

A discourse concerning Somali pirates, and their American, British, and Ethiopian counterparts.

The Audacity of Nope

NATO refuses Lyndon Baines Obama's request for combat troops.

Is it possible that someone finally checked a map and realized that the North Atlantic is some distance from South Asia? Or are the bureaucrats of this long-obsolete organization hoping to shake down the Avatar of Change™ for additional consideration somewhere down the line? I'd feel a lot more comfortable if NATO, on this their Historic™ 60th anniversary, had voted to disband.

A Few of My Favorite Things

A Few of My Favorite Things
Originally uploaded by Daryl Davis

A cheerful little, "Up Yours!" to all the self-righteous, meddlesome, Nanny State prigs out there. You know who you are.

I so need one of these

Ebony Wholeplate Camera

For those who think limiting guns to government employees will keep them out of the hands of criminals

Killer freed by jail guard

Anita Kay Vestal, a 32-year old married mother of four recently hired by the Swain County, NC, Sheriff's Office as a detention officer, decided to indulge her romantic fantasies by helping an accused killer of two escape from jail.

The futility of the government's wars

Fugitive U.S. marshal found dead in Mexico

Deputy U.S. Marshal Vincent Bustamante was found dead in Juarez. He was shot multiple times in the head, in what is being called an execution-style slaying. Bustamante was on administrative leave from the Marshal's Service following his arrest for stealing Marshal's Service firearms and other government property. A bench warrant was issued for Bustamante's arrest after he failed to appear for a court hearing last week. A 17-year veteran of the Marshal's Service, and a former El Paso Police officer, Bustamante leaves behind a wife and two children.

Prohibition corrupts. In 1924, corrupt Prohibition Agent Wiley Lynn murdered the Marshal of Cromwell, Oklahoma, the legendary Western lawman Bill Tilghman. In 1932, Lynn attempted to assassinate Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent Crockett Long. In the exchange of gunfire that followed, both men and an innocent boy were mortally wounded.

Prohibition breeds violence. The violence today in Juarez is the violence of Chicago in the 1920s.

While the gun-grabbers gleefully blame gun-rights advocates for the recent massacre in Oakland, they ignore the fact that Lovelle Mixon legally could not own or possess a firearm. They blame a non-existent "gun show loophole," while they ignore the fact that corrupt government employees with access to guns -- law enforcement officers and military personnel -- have always been prime sources of weapons for criminals, even in the unregulated time prior to the National Firearms Act of 1934 and the Gun Control Act of 1968.

The War on Poverty has brought us generations of dependent, entitlement-minded layabouts who supposedly don't have money for their own food, shelter, education, medical care, out-of-wedlock children, etc., but who (like the unemployed Lovelle Mixon) nonetheless have money for tattoos, bling, flashy chrome rims, and gazillion-watt car stereos to blare the latest profanity-laced, bass-driven rap opus into every home, school, church, and hospital they pass. The Vietnam War was, in a way, nearly as destructive to this country as it was to Vietnam, a country that never attacked or threatened the United States. Our wars of choice in Iraq and Afghanistan (yes, even Afghanistan is done on pretext) already have spent us into penury, yet no end is in sight.

No more war.

"Heckuva Job, Timmy!"

Geithner is on his way out at Treasury, as evidenced by Obama's vehement denials.

Next up: Larry Summers

Thought for the Day

"Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace." Benito Juarez (March 21, 1806 - July 18, 1872)

Trouble At Treasury

President Obama is having difficulty filling Assistant Secretary positions at the Treasury Department. I nominate a couple of candidates here.

Can you say, "Spousal Immunity?"

I knew you could.

Closing the Books on Another Communist Atrocity

DNA proves Bolsheviks killed all of Russian czar's children. DNA evidence confirms scientists' 2008 findings that skeletal remains unearthed in 2007 are those of the two missing children of Czar Nicholas II: 13-year-old Crown Prince Alexei, the emperor's only son and heir to the throne, and his sister Grand Duchess Maria, about 19.

The Black Book of Communism really does belong on every thinking person's bookshelf. Amazingly, even as we continue to track down the lowliest Nazi concentration camp guards, Communist butchers continue to get a free pass.

Astonishing New Discovery!

Saws cut!

A Maryland woman was seriously injured when her partner used a reciprocating saw as a sex toy.

Maybe I can get a federal grant to study this previously unknown phenomenon.

Candidate for Surgeon General

Celebrity doctor Sanjay Gupta has withdrawn from consideration for the post of Surgeon General. President Obama apparently hoped that the 39-year old neurosurgeon and CNN commentator would bring "star power" and "recognition" to the Cabinet post, which has gone largely unnoticed since the days of C. Everett Koop (the clownish Joycelyn Elders having been mercifully forgotten).

In keeping with the Administration's themes of Hope(TM), Change(TM), and Historicalness(TM), I nominate Keith Richards for Surgeon General:

• Historic -- the US has never had a British rock guitarist as Surgeon General. Another barrier would fall. Oprah would weep;
• Change -- after decades of relentless nagging about what we put in our bodies, we would have a Surgeon General who would (and has) put put anything and everything in his;
• Hope -- Richards is still alive; he must know something.

Keith Richards for Surgeon General. If not him, who? If not now, when?

FS: High-Rise Office Building, Close to Recreation

Former New York governor Eliot Spitzer has purchased a 13-story office complex in D.C., just one block from the Mayflower Hotel where he cavorted with a high-priced call girl.

Speaking of his time in public office, as New York's attorney general (where he made his name shutting down prostitution operations -- eliminating competition for the ones he patronized -- and blackmailing innocent businessmen into doing the "right" thing by threatening them with frivolous prosecutions) and governor, Spitzer said, "Obviously it brought great joy for a great period of time." Obviously.

Since Spitzer was a tax-funded parasite and a Democrat, there were no Congressional inquisitions into his executive salary and perks. Contrast the treatment given him by the ruling elite with their spleen vented on private sector CEOs.

Maybe Obama Can Find a Cabinet Post for Bernie Madoff

The reliably evil Senator Christopher Dodd (D - Hell) is pushing a bill to let the FDIC borrow up to $500 Billion from the US Treasury. Round up the usual suspects: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair are Dodd's co-conspirators.

Let's see if I have this straight:

• In the middle of a banking collapse, in order to encourage depositors to leave their money in insolvent institutions, the Congress votes to raise the FDIC deposit insurance limit from $100,000 to $250,000;
• The FDIC says it needs to borrow money from the Treasury because more banks are failing than FDIC's present assets can cover;
• The US Treasury, itself bankrupt (approx. $14 - $20 trillion in debt), loans one-half trillion dollars it doesn't have to FDIC;
• Everyone lives happily ever after.

Excuse me, but isn't this the sort of financial trickery we're sending Bernie Madoff to jail for?

Harvey Milk Day

So Sean Penn and Mark Leno think San Francisco should have a Harvey Milk Day. I think this is an excellent idea, but I would like to take it one step further.

San Francisco already has the Moscone Convention Center, named after the martyred mayor. Yet no one, to my knowledge, has proposed any official remembrance for the man who helped both men to power and whom they, in turn, rewarded with the money, prestige, and patronage that made his own grand project possible: the Reverend Jim Jones. I believe he merits, at the very least, a statue in front of City Hall. Justice demands it.

Daniel Flynn has concisely and elegantly recapped the S.F. Left's love affair with the evangelical Communist Jones. It's well worth a read. Don't miss the link to Harvey Milk's letter to then-President Carter, a mere nine months before the Jonestown Massacre, demanding that Jones's critics be silenced.

Heir or Parent?

President Barack Obama's Treasury secretary says the administration has inherited "the worst fiscal situation in American history."

Inherited? I'd say Obama & Co. were instrumental in bringing about the current mess.

The root of the economic disaster is the inflationary regime of fiat money brought about by the creation of the Federal Reserve and FDR's creation (by confiscating all of the monetary gold in private hands and nullifying all contracts, public and private, for payment in gold) of a federal monopoly over money. Geithner was head of the New York Federal Reserve for fifteen years, which means he has been wrong about everything for at least that long.

The Democrats, Obama included, did nothing to reign in Bush's mad imperial ambitions. Sure, they made the obligatory opposition noises but, in action, they gave Bush everything he wanted. Now, in the aftermath of this crime against humanity, the Democrats, including Obama and his oh-so-ethical Attorney General, say that no one will be brought to justice.

Ah, but what about the greedy banks that knowingly made loans to uncreditworthy people? Excuse me, but didn't Obama and ACORN, among others, use the Community Reinvestment Act to browbeat "racist" banks into making the very loans the "community organizers" are now denouncing the "greedy" banks for having made?

Obama didn't inherit this mess; it's his bastard child.

The Swiss Stand Up

The Swiss have been suffering from a huge case of Battered Woman Syndrome. Pilloried for years, for their refusal to participate in the two great slaughters of the last century, by "respectable" members of the international community, the Swiss lately have been seeking respectability by eroding many of their traditional liberties, including gun rights and financial privacy.

There are signs, though, that the sons of William Tell may have located their temporarily misplaced manhood. UBS is standing up to the Empire, telling D.C. that it is subject to Swiss, not American, law. Although UBS on Wednesday agreed to pay a $780 million fine and disclose the names of about 250 American clients, the bank is defying the Injustice Department's demand for the names of all the bank's American clients' -- a list which runs in the thousands.

Meanwhile, the Swiss People's Party is demanding that the government take punitive action against the U.S.

This is an encouraging trend.

The Empire Strikes Back

U.S. sues UBS seeking Swiss account customer names

Note the sanctimonious indignation of Acting Assistant Attorney General for Taxation John DiCicco, who plays the class warfare card (as any good commissar must) and tries to pretend that refusing to fund the government's aggressive wars and handouts to special interest groups is why, "millions of Americans are losing their jobs, their homes and their health care." Creeps like this make me want to puke!

Obama the Hypocrite

Obama talks Green. Obama chastises CEOs of bankrupt corporations for their lavish salaries, personal jets and other perks.

So Mr. Obama, CEO of a corporation presently $20 trillion in debt, does what? Why, he loads his entourage into his personal 747, flies to Denver, gets into heavily-armored (and therefore more-than-normally gas guzzling) SUVs delivered by his personal military transport aircraft, and drives to a photo op where he signs an inflationary "stimulus" bill that puts his corporation another $787 billion in debt. The bill was passed by the corporation's board of directors (Congress) whose offices are within walking distance of Mr. Obama's mansion in the District of Columbia.

As Monty Python pointed out: It's good to be King!

South Carolina gets Californicated

Law enforcement officials in SC have taken complete leave of their senses. First, the Michael Phelps witch-hunt; now this.

One of the two geniuses behind this is one of Mr. Phelps' inquisitors. The overpaid and underworked (judging by their priorities) bureaucrats claim to have received their inspiration from the open-air lunatic asylum known as the state of California.

Dont. Just... DON'T!

I won't be responsible for what happens to the next person who tells me how wonderful I must feel today.

It's not even a coherent excuse

Portland mayor admits past relationship with teen

"I lied at the time because I was afraid that people would believe untrue rumors being circulated by an undeclared mayoral opponent that I had broken a law involving sexual relations with a minor. But this is not a good excuse."

Translation: "I didn't tell you the truth because I didn't think you were smart enough to comprehend the number 18." Maybe he doesn't trust anyone who actually would vote for him.

The story notes that Adams, presently in Washington for the Obama coronation, will cut his trip short to issue a public apology in Portland this afternoon. Welcome to the New Age.

Change is coming

Eric Holder - Obama's totalitarian choice for Attorney General

With Bruce Springsteen leading the mass at the Lincoln Temple, expect more of the murderous, totalitarian policies pursued by Obama's hero, Abe the Mad. I'm sure Obama won't hesitate to rely on the Bush administration's legal arguments of untrammeled executive power, as well.

In Memoriam

January is Military Murders Month.

We've had eight years of putative "conservatives" extolling the glories of war and Empire. Now the avatar of Change(TM) arrives, incessantly invoking Abraham Lincoln while his idolaters summon forth the memory of St. FDR.

Stalin accurately noted that the death of one person is a tragedy, the death of a million is a statistic. Remember, then, the names of these men murdered by Obama's role models:

• Sgt. William Walker (1864). Sgt. Walker was a member of the 3rd South Carolina Volunteers, a "colored" regiment. He was court-martialed and executed at Hilton Head, SC, for leading a mutiny of Black soldiers who refused to fight unless they were given equal pay to White soldiers. Walker was shot in front of the entire company, as an example to others.
• Pvt. Edward Donald "Eddie" Slovik (1945). Eddie Slovik was murdered by the US Government for being a runaway slave. FDR lied and manipulated the US into the Second World War, then conscripted vast numbers of men, including Slovik, to kill and be killed, maim and be maimed, in the service of those lies. Slovik didn't want to kill (he asked for hazardous non-combatant duty, such as medic) so he had to die, as an example to others.

Obama is calling for National Sacrifice(TM): it probably will be human sacrifice, if Obama's heroes are any indication.

Yo' Bama!

Barack Obama says I should "join with Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Michelle Obama" in advancing his agenda. Why not throw in Joe Stalin and Jack the Ripper while you're at it, Barack! Lets have a look:

• Nancy Pelosi -- Refused to impeach the war criminal Bush and fell all over herself pledging her loyalty to Israeli fascism;
• Joe Biden -- Wants to raise my taxes and take my guns;
• Michelle Obama -- You married her, bro'; you deal with her!

In his victory speech, Barack said he wanted to win my trust. So far, he's not off to a great start.

Defending Freedom, 24/7

The Transportation Security Administration is on the job, detaining and questioning people who discuss, uh, airline safety.

In addition to pulling Mr. Irfan and his family off the plane and causing them to miss their flight, the Feds also yanked the plane's crew and 95 passengers off and forced them yet again through the humiliating exercise in submission known as "passenger screening."

FBI agents cleared the family and asked the airline to put them on another flight. AirTran Airways issued a full refund and told the family they could fly on the carrier again, but refused to book them on a later flight so they could get on with their vacation. AirTran did rebook the family on another airline, but complained that one of the party "became irate and made inappropriate comments" when told they would not be allowed to complete their trip on AirTran (think several more days lost while your luggage gets re-routed). Maybe the airline thinks the family needs some time to think about whether or not they want to think about airline safety. The Feds, suddenly remembering the concept of "private property," say the airline acted within its rights in booking the family on another carrier.

Your tax dollars at work. I'd say I feel safer, but I don't want the FBI knocking at my door to ask why I'm discussing safety.

Do The Right Thing

I stumbled across Gov. Mike Huckabee's book on Christmas Eve, while grocery shopping in Costco. I thumbed through it a bit and I think it's fair to say, it sucks. I won't even link to it.

In one chapter, the Huckster conflates the pious Dr. Ron Paul with the anti-religious faction of the libertarian movement. In another chapter, Huckster goes ga-ga for militarism and imperialism. He hopes that American boys (and girls now, because we have no sense) will continue signing up in large numbers to get their arms and legs and faces and nuts blown off while doing the same to men, women and children in countries the world over that never attacked or threatened the United States. If they don't -- and who could resist such a proposition, really -- he plans to dragoon them into various, uneconomic "public works" projects, all for the greater glory of the State.

If the Reverend Huckster really wants Americans to do the right thing, he might begin by encouraging them to study the Christmas Truce of 1914, a brief, shining moment when men summoned the courage to heed the Prince of Peace rather than butcher each other in the service of the Father of Lies.

Banks: "We don't do accounting"

Banks can't or won't say how bailout billions are being spent

TASER death?

San Jose to pay $70,000 to settle TASER death

The author of the article, Mr. John Woolfolk, neglected to mention that the late Mr. Rios, in addition to being morbidly obese, had a 98% blockage of his coronary arteries due to cocaine abuse. The police became involved when Rios began beating his wife in public. Call me old-fashioned, but I see this as a lifestyle issue not a "TASER death."

So the widow Rios now gets $70,000 of the taxpayers' money, in addition to whatever other subsidies she soaked up over the years while living la vida loca with an unproductive, drug-abusing, violent fatass. Makes you proud to be an American.

Moonbeam gives me a reason to support Proposition 8

I opposed Prop. 8, though I am sure the gay lobby would disapprove of my reasons:

• I believe in rendering unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's; for that reason, I believe in strictly limiting the number of things that might arguably be said to belong to Caesar. This whole fight, on both sides, is not about marriage but about Caesar.
• The government can decree cats to be dogs. It doesn't change the facts or my thinking.
• If my experience in dealing with gay domestic violence is any indication, gay divorce should be hugely entertaining ("'No on 8. Bring popcorn' What does that mean?" "You'll see...").

Still, I am old enough to remember when the gay battle cry was to get government out of the bedroom; now they're saying their relationships are meaningless unless the State is a third party to them. And I have a long-enough memory to know that when the Left promises that a particular initiative is not the camel's nose under the tent, that we'll have the whole camel inside sooner rather than later. Fortunately, we have an Attorney-General of Jerry Brown's candor to let us know what's really up:

Jerry Brown urges court to void Prop. 8

The kicker comes in the penultimate paragraph of the article:

Brown compared his decision to oppose Proposition 8 to Attorney General Thomas C. Lynch's decision to oppose Proposition 14, a 1964 constitutional initiative that overturned a state law that prohibited housing discrimination based on race.

So Jerry Brown sees "gay marriage" as a means to further seize control of private property, and to ride roughshod over property owners' freedom to associate -- or not associate -- with whomever they choose. So much for "No on H8's" bland assertion that "gay marriage" is nothing to fear.

Surprise, Surprise!

US won't honor Iraq withdrawal commitment

Remember the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing? 19 American service members died because the US government reneged on its promise to leave Saudi Arabia at the end of the First Gulf War. The Empire's promises to Arabs carry no more weight than it's promises to American Indians did.

War is Peace

According to the outgoing Emperor, invading and occupying a country that never attacked or threatened the United States; killing and maiming its citizens; unleashing an orgy of nihilistic violence by extremists from within and without that country; and bankrupting our own country in the process, was an act of peace and benevolence.

I'm glad he cleared that one up for me.

More warrantless surveillance

First, financial privacy had to be eliminated to fight racketeering. Then it was to fight terrorism. Now it's under the guise of saving the housing market.

Buried deep in the bill's 700 pages is a provision requiring credit card companies to report all credit card transactions to the federal government. That's right, every single credit card transaction you make will be reported to the IRS.

As usual, the always heroic Dr. Ron Paul is the only one blowing the whistle on this provision. Click on the "Housing Bill" video for the gory details.

The Boy Emperor is expected to sign the bill soon.

The Smith and Wesson Model 41

I have a page on the Smith and Wesson Model 41 .22 pistol here. I explain why I believe it is the best buy in a .22 pistol for target and general use.

We're bringing it here so we don't have to fight it over there

Under the guise of fighting AIDS in Africa, Senators John Kerry (D - Mass.) and Gordon Smith (R - Ore.) have introduced a bill to lift the ban on HIV-positive immigration.

Putting aside the question of what Constitutional authority Congress has to forcibly expropriate money from Americans and give it to Africans, the bill's supporters offer some real howlers in its defense. Here are a few:

"There's no excuse for a law that stigmatizes a particular disease," Kerry said Tuesday at a speech to the Center for Strategic & International Studies HIV/AIDS Task Force. Even people with avian flu or the Ebola virus have an easier time than those with HIV when it come to applying for visas, he said.

Well, Senator, what is the excuse for an immigration policy that imports contagious, deadly and sometimes incurable diseases? I'm old enough to remember when tuberculosis was virtually eradicated in the US; now it's back, with a vengeance, thanks to mass immigration from the Third World.

Under current law, HIV is the only medical condition explicitly listed under immigration law. The Kerry-Smith provision would make HIV equivalent to other communicable diseases where medical and public health experts at the Health and Human Services Department — not consular officials at U.S. embassies — determine eligibility for admission.

If they're doing such a good job of it now, why are we worrying about drug-resistant TB in the US?

Those with HIV seeking legal permanent residency would still have to demonstrate they have the resources to live in this country and would not become a "public charge."

What a joke! I work at a public hospital. I see all the new immigrants, who signed the very same promise not to become public charges, pitching up with Medi-Cal cards before the ink is dry on their entry stamps. Sometimes they come into the emergency room in crisis, because their families told them not to refill their medications (heart, blood pressure, diabetes, etc. -- not HIV) until they got here and qualified for Medi-Cal. There's no enforcement of this provision, which is one reason why immigrants -- legal and illegal -- drain about $30 billion more annually from the Treasury than they contribute.

I'm not anti-immigrant; my wife is an immigrant. But clearly this bill is intended to create a new, rent-seeking class that the politicians can exploit for their own ends and the taxpayer be damned!

Fannie and Freddie Must Die!

Michael S. Rozeff explains why.

The mainstream media, of course, are gushing over the prospects of a federal takeover and new regulations.

Fighting Small Scams To Protect The Big One

The August, 2008, issue of Kiplinger's Personal Finance features the following article at page 61:

Taking Aim At Military Scams: The men and women who protect our country are getting ripped off.

The unquestioned assumption, and the scam it promotes and protects, is that being in the military involves protecting the United States. Unless you truly believe that the United States is or ever has been threatened by Iraqis, Serbs, Somalis, Haitians, Vietnamese, Koreans, Panamanians, Grenadans, Dominicans, Filipinos, Spaniards, etc., then you must admit that the military is a tool of imperial force projection, not self-defense.

I'll give the final word on this to Marine Major General and two-time Medal of Honor recipient Smedley D. Butler:

War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

Here we go again

Butler Shaffer on the death of another Big Government shill.

Shoot! The Day

The gang at Photoshelter are on a mission to revitalize stock photography. One day, five categories, prizes. So, register for the event and, wherever you are on 20 July, Shoot! The Day.

Ammo Prices

Like everything else, ammo prices are dramatically up. They've doubled in the last two years.

Some reasons are obvious. Ammunition is heavy and expensive to ship. Transportation costs are up due to high oil prices.

Copper, used to make bullet jackets and brass cartridge cases, is also high due to increased global demand.

Less obvious is the market distortion introduced by the ultimate Big Government program (and that's all it is): War. The Boy Emperor's legions are burning through an incredible amount of the stuff in the Global War For A Legacy: about 5.5 million rounds per month, according to this House Armed Services Committee report.

Thanks, Dubya, and God Bless America!

AB 2062 Idiocy

The reliably anti-gun San Jose Mercury News today editorialized in favor of California Assembly Bill 2062, by Kevin De Leon (D - Los Angeles).

AB 2062 would introduce a complex, cumbersome, expensive and needless series of restrictions on vendors and buyers of ammunition in California, as well as prohibit Internet sales of ammunition.

There is nothing new in De Leon's bill. We had almost 20 years of this very thing, nationwide, between the Gun Control Act of 1968 and the McClure-Volkmer reforms of 1986. It was repealed because everyone -- law enforcement, ATF, everyone -- admitted what the "gun lobby" said all along: it was an expensive, intrusive waste of time.

18 years of ammo dealer licensing, record-keeping, warrantless surveillance, no mail-order sales, etc., could not produce a single crime either solved or prevented. Yet, the advocates of "reasonable regulation" screamed like babies when it was repealed. Now they want to bring it back. Isn't it time the SJMN editors come clean and tell us what they really want?

Squidoo

I've just discovered Squidoo. It looks interesting. I've already created my first lens, on the subject of photography.

Unfortunately, the site is having major problems this weekend. I hope this isn't normal.

Edit: Site is back up. I'm working now on a lens about disaster preparedness and recovery.

iCasualties.org is back online

Cyber-vandals launched cowardly attack on truth-telling website.

A Triumph For The Culture Of Death

The pro-abortion team hit the trifecta on this one: Artist hanged herself after aborting her twins.

Wake up, people! It is not "a woman's right to choose" (the verb, "to choose," requires a direct object). It is murder, every bit as much as "waterboarding" is torture. Only a society bent on descending into barbarism and tyranny pretends otherwise, in either case.

The Gray Lady makes a mess

NYT Public Editor condemns McCain/lobbyist story

This would be the same NYT that continues defending its first Pulitzer, won by Walter Duranty for covering up Stalin's Ukrainian genocide. And if they've ever condemned Senator Arthur Vandenberg for helping sell the US into a foreign war after British Intelligence placed at least two high-born sluts in his bed, I've never seen it.

NYT's Executive Editor, Bill Keller, defends the article. The April 11, 1999, Style section of the Times announced the wedding of then-Managing Editor Keller and author/journalist Emma Gilbey. That article concluded:

The bridegroom's first wedding ended in divorce.

Well, yes it did. Bill had his own adulterous relationship with Emma. Emma got pregnant; Bill divorced his wife and abandoned his two kids; Bill and Emma married; Bill got promoted to Executive Editor. But Emma, well-known for her "power dating," was John Kerry's ex-girlfriend. Did she unduly influence the Times' endorsement of Kerry for President?

I'm no fan of McCainiac. Or Barack Star. Or Satan-In-Heels. If Ron Paul is not on the ballot, I'll write him in. But the timing of this hit piece is most strange. McCainiac has plenty of ethical lapses, past and present, to be hammered with. Why a sex-for-favors scandal, especially such a thin one, and why now?

Bush: "Criminal idiocy toward Cuba will continue"

US Embargo Of Cuba To Continue Despite Castro Resignation

Excuse me, where's the adult supervision here? The US embargo of Cuba, now in its 49th year, is an abject failure on its own terms. Sane people, faced with such a record of failure, long ago would have re-evaluated their actions.

Embargoes traditionally are considered acts of war. So the US, in five decades of war, has failed to unseat the blowhard dictator of a tiny, impoverished island 90 miles from our own shores. It's worth pondering, especially in light of the 2 - 3 billion dollars per week we're burning in Mesopotamia, and the McCaniac's promise of a new Hundred Years War.

No doubt, the Bu'ushists will tell us that the embargo is necessary to "defend our freedom." As if the old Commie, or his slightly younger and less windy brother, could muster an invasion force that wouldn't be repulsed by the local gun club. We wouldn't have to call the military back from their garrisons in 126 foreign countries, where they attend to such vital American interests as killing and maiming innocent civilians, humiliating men in front of their wives and children, and raping schoolgirls.

Meanwhile, Ana Belen Montes rots in a Federal women's prison for spying for Cuba. Allegedly, her skewing of intelligence reports kept the Clinton Administration from accurately assessing the threat Cuba posed to the US. The court should have looked up "paranoia" in a dictionary. Other Americans have had their lives ruined by Federal stormtroopers, for the heinous crime of bringing Cuban cigars into the US.

Dubya says he wants to bring "the blessings of Liberty to the Cuban people." Someone should tell him that voluntary, mutually-beneficial exchange, unfettered by government interference, is one of those blessings.

Condoleeza Rice still a liar

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice heatedly denied knowingly making 56 false statements, to bolster support for an American attack on Iraq, in the run up to Operation Iraqi Conquest. In doing so, she made False Statement # 57:

No one wants to go to war.

Now read that last sentence again, without laughing.

If "no one wants to go to war," then why have those who cautioned against the current debacle been forced from office, slandered, had details of their personal lives leaked to the press, and their very lives jeopardized? Why have those who were so wrong about this episode received honors and promotions? Why is Paul Wolfowitz, so wrong about Iraq's weapons program and whose ethical lapses as head of the World Bank lead to his firing, now back at State as head of a -- wait for it -- arms control project?

Clearly, the Bu'ushists wanted war with Iraq. Dubya himself admitted as much, when he said that, even knowing that all the "reasons" he provided the American public were wrong, he would have invaded anyway. So, what was his real reason and why won't he tell us?

LBJ clearly wanted war when he lied about an attack on American warships in international waters off the Gulf of Tonkin, and lied to Congress that the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was only an authorization for a limited, one-time retaliation: "We seek no wider war."

FDR clearly wanted war prior to December 7, 1941. Woodrow Wilson clearly wanted war prior to 1917. Both men got themselves re-elected by lying to the American people, that they were doing everything possible to keep our country out of Europe's conflicts. Both men understood the value of war in expanding the size and scope of federal power.

The political and economic elites, who lied about the explosion on the USS Maine, clearly wanted war.

The military-industrial-Congressional complex clearly want war. They have very little bottom line without it.

But maybe Condi is right: maybe no one wants to go to war.

Maybe they just want to send others.

Bush: "Another 9/11 fine with me"

OK, he didn't really say that. But he did say that he "won't accept any temporary extension" of FISA. Bush, of course, wants FISA made permanent, with immunities against their customers' wrath for telecoms that play ball with the government.

But Bush says he needs FISA to protect the US from another 9/11. Does this mean he's willing to accept another 9/11, rather than a temporary political expedient? Or is he admitting that FISA is about increasing the governments ability to spy on and intimidate its subjects?

"The great error of nearly all studies of war... has been to consider war as an episode in foreign policies, when it is an act of interior politics..." ~Simone Weil

Free Roger Clemens!

Baseball great Roger Clemens has been dragged, like the serf we all are under our current regime, before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The jurisdiction of the Committee, from its own webpage, is as follows:

Committee Jurisdiction

Legislative Responsibilities
The legislative jurisdiction of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform includes the following areas, as set forth in House Rule X, clause 1:

• Federal civil service, including intergovernmental personnel; and the status of officers and employees of the United States, including their compensation, classification, and retirement;
• Municipal affairs of the District of Columbia in general (other than appropriations);
• Federal paperwork reduction;
• Government management and accounting measures generally;
• Holidays and celebrations;
• Overall economy, efficiency, and management of government operations and activities, including federal procurement;
• National archives;
• Population and demography generally, including the Census;
• Postal service generally, including transportation of the mails;
• Public information and records;
• Relationship of the federal government to the states and municipalities generally; and
• Reorganizations in the executive branch of the government.

I don't see baseball anywhere in there. Free Roger Clemens!

They just hate us because we're free

U.S. working to ease tensions in Japan rape case

Once again, we witness the insanity of foreigners who fail to appreciate the glories of American military occupation, and who refuse to give our brave men in uniform the respect they deserve as morally and intellectually superior beings.

Apparently, they've forgotten the lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Sending diplomats, instead of another Tibbets, is the wrong way to go.

The "Little Saigon" flap

While I must confess to a certain schadenfreude at seeing San Jose City Councilwoman Madison Nguyen hoist with her own petard of identity politics and tawdry, emotional pandering, I nonetheless believe the "Little Saigon" militants bode more ill than good for the cause of liberty in this country.

Nguyen began her political career because, "What we [Vietnamese] were missing was a political voice." Why do Vietnamese, or any other ethnic group, need a "political voice?" To get "their share" of special privileges and stolen goods handed out by that vast system of coercion and fraud known as "government," of course! And what of those who don't hear the same voices Nguyen does?

"But 2003 was the year Nguyen cemented her name in the political landscape. A San Jose police officer shot and killed a 25-year-old Vietnamese woman he thought was brandishing a cleaver. It turned out to be a large-bladed, Asian-style vegetable peeler. Nguyen rallied the Vietnamese community together in defense of the slain woman, leading vigils and protests." Night of the dao bao, by Massad Ayoob, gives a more complete and accurate picture of the tragic events of 13 July 2003. The facts -- that the slain woman, Cau Thi Tran, was a violent psychotic; that she had quit taking her medications; that she was beyond the ability of her own friends and family to control; that police had been called to the scene because she was endangering her own children -- mattered not at all to Nguyen. By this time an elected officeholder and veteran political organizer, Nguyen saw a chance to make political hay and she jumped on it. Did she have to libel a good and decent man in the process? No matter. Did she have to spread misunderstanding and sow divisions between the police and the "Vietnamese community?" So much the better, when it comes to identity politics!

So, no tears here for the plight of Madison Nguyen. But the insistence on "official names" is more an artifact of socialism, communism, fascism, and other forms of groupthink, than it is a characteristic of a free people. The same could be said of the anti-self defense crowd (Don't like guns? Don't buy one!); both sides of the "gay marriage" divide (The State consecrates nothing, though it profanes much); the various controversies over the Pledge of Allegiance (Its author, Francis Bellamy, was a proto-fascist who dreamed of a militarized, imperial, socialist America); and a host of other controversies ginned up to keep our eyes off the hands of the political three-card monte artists who con us out of our lives, liberty and property. Are our lives and values really meaningless unless they're validated by the State?

Chuck Reed Is A Pansy

Citing "security" concerns, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed has announced that he will not attend this year's Vietnamese New Year parade.

The whole affair, of course, is wrapped up in the ridiculous controversy over officially designating a section of Story Road the "Saigon Business District." The local Vietnamese community, as fractious now as they were in their homeland (one of the reasons the North won) couldn't agree on an "official" name. Councilwoman Madison Nguyen, the first Vietnamese to be elected to the City Council, proposed the "Saigon Business District" name as a compromise. Mayor Chuck Reed supported Nguyen's compromise proposal, and the City Council approved it. The supporters of "Little Saigon" remain unmollified, denouncing Nguyen as a Communist, demanding she resign, calling for her recall, picketing City Hall weekly, etc.

So, here we are. When he was running for mayor, Chuck Reed's campaign literature made much of the fact that he and his daughter were the first father-daughter cadet wing commanders in the history of the US Air Force Academy. Reed served in Thailand during the Vietnam War, while his daughter flew A-10s in combat in Iraq. Apparently it's fine to fly over people's countries dropping bombs on them when they've never harmed or threatened your country, another thing entirely to confront them face-to-face.

What a wuss.

Somewhere, Heinrich Himmler Is Smiling

Deputy Director of National Intelligence Donald Kerr says Americans need to redefine privacy.

Perhaps Mr. Kerr believes that War, Freedom, and Ignorance are worth rethinking, as well.

Note to Mr. Kerr: my Glock holds eighteen reasons to respect my privacy. I'd be happy to share them with you.

She Just Hates Us Because We're Free

BBC: Supermodel "rejects dollar pay"

And from Bloomberg: Supermodel Bundchen Joins Hedge Funds Dumping Dollars

New Revelations on Israeli attack on the USS Liberty

A number of accounts document that Israeli pilots identified the USS Liberty before attacking it. Israel disputes this account, but to a man all of the sailors on board and a number of senior intelligence officials privy to the intercepts of the pilots say Israel knew it was attacking an American ship. [READ THIS ARTICLE!]

read more | digg story

This is what happens...

Lesbian couple who wanted baby sue over twins - Yahoo! News

Now We Know It's Time To Panic!

White House says to traders - don't panic

Time For A New Declaration

Still Rebels, Still Tories

Scroll down for a particularly enjoyable thought by William of Orange County.

It's Not Terrorism When We Do It

From today's Los Angeles Times:

Moreover, the suspected plan to use consecutive car-bomb explosions last week in London, targeting police and rescue personnel as they arrive at the scene of the first explosion, evokes the tactics of insurgents in Iraq.

Or perhaps it evokes the tactics of the governments of Great Britain and the United States in the WWII firebombing of Dresden, in which the second wave of bombers (RAF) and the third wave (USAAF) timed their attacks to catch rescue workers in the open.

It's Not A War Crime When We Do It

67 years ago today, Winston Churchill launched an unprovoked attack on the naval fleet of an Allied country. 1,300 French sailors died in the attack.

Attack on Mers-el-Kébir - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For a further debunking of this horrid tyrant, see Ralph Raico's excellent and thought-provoking Rethinking Churchill.

technorati tags:Churchill, World_War_Two, France, War_Crimes

Blogged with Flock

Lew Rockwell Watches The Democratic Debate...

...so you don't have to.

On the other hand, a Ron Paul/Mike Gravel independent ticket would be much more interesting (and better for the country) than the run being coyly suggested at by Mike Bloomberg, statist creep and political opportunist extraordinaire.

Army Wants To Enlist Illegal Aliens Quickly As Recruitment Falls

DefenseLink News Article: Officials Hope to Rekindle Interest in Immigration Bill Provision

The obvious argument in favor of this proposal is that the immigrants will have earned the right to citizenship by their willingness to Put On The Uniform And Serve Their Country(TM). I have two issues with this:

1. They will most likely not be serving "their country," i.e., the land and the people. They will be serving the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex, which profits handsomely, in both money and power, from provoking and continuing quarrels between nations.
2. As they will have learned to closely associate Big Government (public assistance, public schools, public hospitals, G.I. Bill, etc.) with their own economic self-interest, they will not be reluctant to turn their guns on American citizens if ordered to do so.
   

The historic precedents are there. The Whiskey Rebellion affected the entire Western United States, but only in Western Pennsylvania did the Federal government have a cadre of wealthy bureaucrats willing to collect taxes. Similarly, when Abraham Lincoln went to war against the South, on behalf of his agenda of  subsidies to politically-favored industries, high protective tariffs, and  Federal control of the money supply, he recruited foreigners as mercenaries, with promises of citizenship and wealth if they would just shoot some of the native-born.

Once again, freedom will be squeezed between welfare and warfare. Will we ever learn? Do we even care?

technorati tags:Immigration, Army, War, Taxes, Welfare, Freedom, Lincoln, Whiskey_Rebellion

Blogged with Flock

Feds

ChroniclesMagazine.org » Feds

Professor Clyde Wilson, pithy and eloquent as usual.

technorati tags:Government, Freedom, Corruption, Incompetence, Tyranny

Blogged with Flock

Here are two excellent articles on the current "immigration reform" fiasco:

Dobbs: Give it a rest, Mr. President - CNN.com

Chain of Fools: Nepotism as Immigration Policy

Unfortunately, both authors overlook the considerable role of welfare in the current pattern of immigration. On net, today's immigrants -- legal and illegal -- are tax consumers, not tax producers. Their families receive tax-funded education, health care, food, housing and general assistance subsidies. They have become a powerful voting and lobbying bloc for increased subsidies, which translates (in any language) into higher taxes and bigger government.

"But we need them to do the jobs Americans refuse to do." Well, if starvation were the alternative to working, I'll bet more Americans would be interested in those jobs. But we provide another way out for the indolent and the self-indulgent, at the expense of the industrious and the thrifty, and we call it "progressive" and "compassionate." And it's not just "menial" jobs that Americans are turning down in favor of life on the dole.

Ending the Welfare State, including that great, sacred cow known as "public education," would go a long way toward making open borders a feasible proposition. It also would put Americans back to work, restore the family to its proper place in society, return decency and civility to our communities, free up private funds to provide meaningful assistance to the truly needy, and restore the value of education. As an added bonus, ending the Welfare State would choke the life out of its symbiote, the Warfare State.

End Welfare. Do it now, for the children.

technorati tags:Immigration, Welfare, Taxes, Government, War, Employment

Blogged with Flock

Perfidious Albion

Yesterday, I marked the 40th anniversary of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty.

To be fair to the Israelis, this war crime had its precedent, as so many others did, in a war crime perpetrated by America's other Great Ally, Winston Churchill. I refer to his attack on the fleet of an allied nation (France) at Oran, 3 July 1940, that resulted in the deaths of 1,300 French sailors.

Attack on Mers-el-Kébir - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

technorati tags:Mers-el-Kebir, Churchill, France, war_crimes

Blogged with Flock

In Memoriam: USS Liberty, 8 June 1967

USS LIBERTY Memorial

Remember the Liberty!- by Justin Raimondo

Jeffrey St. Clair: When Israel Attacked the USS Liberty

technorati tags:USS, Liberty, Six-Days, War, Middle, East, Israel

Blogged with Flock

Do As We Say, Not As We Do

2 Charged In Laotian Overthrow Plot

We're looking at conspiracy to murder thousands and thousands of people at one time. -- Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob Twiss

Shock And Awe, anyone?

The United States cannot and will not provide safe harbor to those plotting to overthrow foreign governments of countries with whom we are at peace. -- McGregor Scott, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California

ROFLMAO! Where has this guy been? Hawaii, Iran, South Vietnam, Guatemala -- what happened to those coup plotters?

For a more extensive discussion, see Stephen Kinzer's book, Overthrow.

RON PAUL UPDATE

Congressman Ron Paul will be a guest on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" tonight at 11:00 pm ET.

http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/index.jhtml

The third GOP presidential debate will be held tomorrow night at 7:00 pm ET in New Hampshire. CNN will broadcast the debate with Wolf Blitzer as the moderator.

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/

Did you never notice how people no longer say, "We're a free country?" Instead, they merely say, "We're the freest country in the world," as if favorable comparisons with Cuba, Zimbabwe, Iran, and North Korea were good enough. If you care at all about restoring freedom in this country, go to Ron Paul's Campaign Website now and sign up.

Camera Notes

I've posted some photo equipment on eBay, as a result of my recent experience shooting daily in Vietnam. Here's what I've found:

The Pentax K100D is a great camera, no doubt. The K10D, however, motivates me to move up for several reasons. First, as an old film-and-darkroom guy, I value post- processing and prefer to shoot in RAW format whenever possible. The small buffer of the K100D forces me into JPEG mode more often than I would like. Second, the K10D has more of its manual overrides on buttons; the K100D buries them in menus. Third, the K10D dispenses with the "idiot" modes and replaces them with truly innovative and useful shooting modes. Other nice upgrades include the K10D's weathersealing and sensor dust removal functions.

The Tamron 70-300mm Di zoom (effective length 105-450mm) is a decent lens, especially at the price. Nits to pick (for me) were:

• Autofocus slow - tends to hunt
• Lack of clutch in focusing mechanism - risk of damage to lens if you forget to switch to manual focus when attaching or removing lens hood
• Weight and bulk - I didn't really find much use for the 200 - 300mm range, or the macro. The 50-200mm would be a better choice for my use

That said, I probably would not be selling it if I weren't scraping together the money to buy a K10D. It's a good lens to have in your bag

The Metz Mecablitz 36 C-2 is a non-dedicated unit. It will not interface with the camera manufacturers' various TTL flash modes. Used properly, however, it delivers very consistent results at a fraction of the cost of a dedicated unit. It also is less likely to be fooled by highly reflective backgrounds. The trade-off is a bit of a learning curve (the instruction manual is excellent) and a certain amount more manual adjusting. I did learn to use it fairly efficiently, but I still think I could work faster with a dedicated unit. Trade-offs to everything, as I said. I'll buy the Pentax AF540FGZ.

So, now you know.

Do You Use FLONASE Nasal Spray?

If so, have I got a tip (pun intended, as you'll see) for you!

FLOVENT is the same corticosteroid, but in a pressurized aerosol for asthma sufferers. If you've ever squirted FLONASE up your beak, only to have most of it run out because your nasal passages were so inflamed, you'll appreciate the value of a better delivery system. So, here's the tip:

1) Call your doctor and have him/her change your prescription from FLONASE to FLOVENT;

2) Cut the tip off a baby bottle nipple;

3) Pull the wide end of the nipple over the mouthpiece of the FLOVENT inhaler;

4) Shove the small end of the nipple up your nose and fire; I usually do two shots up each nostril, so I alternate right - left to give the first shot some time, usually about one minute, to work.

I wish I could take credit for this discovery but I got it from my allergist, who wishes he could take credit! I've been doing this for about a month now, and am having the best results ever. My nose now actually works!

The Real Global Warming Threat

Having dismissed with the trivial stuff, such as giving Incurious George a blank check for his illegal and immoral war on Iraq, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi jetted off to Greenland and Germany to deal with the really important stuff -- aggrandizing the state (and herself) by flogging the "climate change" scare.

If she really wanted to do something about the effects of hot air on the environment, Pelosi would fasten a strip of duct tape securely across her mouth and never take it off!

The K10D Book

I made the switch to digital single-lens reflex (D-SLR) last year, with the purchase of a Pentax K100D. Prior to that, I had 25 years with a Nikon FE 35mm SLR.

I used the K100D daily in the course of a five-week family vacation in Vietnam. There's a lot to like about this camera, as this image shows, including size, weight, image quality and in-body shake reduction.

However, the lack of readily-accessible manual controls and the small RAW buffer got me thinking about upgrading to the newer K10D.

I began researching the K10D in earnest upon my return. After lurking a bit and posting a few questions at PentaxWorld, PentaxForums, and Digital Photography Review, I was pretty convinced I was on the right track.

Along now comes Yvon Bourque and his self-published PENTAX K10D - Everything you need to know... and then some. This little gem of a book goes beyond the instruction manual and gives a practical photographer's perspective on the camera and its use. Besides his own, lifelong experience in photography, Yvon actively mines the discussion forums for other users' ideas, experience and suggestions. Oh yes, and he's a heck of a nice guy to deal with, too.

The book is bigger than the manual and is coil bound so it lies flat for easy reference, especially useful when you're holding the camera in your hands and walking through the controls and settings.

If you have a K10D, you need this book. I ordered mine in advance of the camera (still getting the $$ together as I write this) and I'm glad I did. I'm not affiliated with the publishers and don't get a commission; I just like the book. Big thanks to Yvon and his wife for producing it.

As for my K100D? You'll find it on eBay until June 10.

The Welfare-Warfare State Thrives

Those who still delude themselves that there is some fundamental difference between the Welfare Party and the Warfare Party, should consider the following:

Bush Wins War Money, Dems Win Pork

War is the health of the State.

Randolph Bourne

More Orbitz Grief

I called Orbitz again today, to get the funds released that they encumbered for a flight they cannot provide. They assured me that they faxed the release to my bank yesterday, but they would send another one today.

Well, the funds still are encumbered. My bank says they've never received anything from Orbitz. I still can't book a flight.

Orbitz Suckz

I tried to book a flight on Orbitz yesterday. In a classic bait-and-switch, the lowest priced flight was rejected: "Not a valid flight. Please choose another."

I selected the next flight, about $4.00 more. "Your bank refused the charge." What the heck?

I logged onto my bank account. Sure enough, Orbitz had placed a hold on the account in the amount of the first, "invalid flight" fare total. Since I was attempting to book an overseas flight for the family, my second attempt exceeded my daily limit on my debit card.

I called Orbitz to obtain an immediate release of the funds. They promised me they would do it today. Do I need to tell you that the funds are still encumbered?

So, here I am: no flight, no funds, and a lot of time wasted. Thankz, Orbitz.