Note To Young Girls

Never do anything you would be ashamed to tell your grandparents about. On your mother's side. At least until after you graduate from college. Even then, make sure it doesn't end up on any recordable media.

Keep in mind that, should you ignore the advice above, anything you do can and will end up on YouTube so your children will see it. Or worse yet, your child's nemesis in high school. (Think about how you would feel if your bitchy enemy found a video of your mother in a compromising situation.)

And yes, that boy that you think is so dreamy, the one that you Looooovvvveeee!!!!!!! really will sell that video for a million clams, or really will post it on the net (that's a not quite SFW Google search, BTW) to show all of his buds what a dirty whore you are after you dump him for being a complete pig.

Act accordingly.

UPDATE: And now it seems that there may be as few as eight and as many as 20 of these tapes. There's a phrase for this, ladies. It's called "Head Smashing Stupidity".

HT: Ace of Spades HQ and Pat Dollard.

Happy Veterans Day

From one vet to another.

The Latest from Beltway Bob

"Imagine just a few years ago had somebody walked around with images of Hitler."

Nope. Can't imagine it.

HT: Ace of Spades HQ, Weekly Standard article by MKH.

What Went Wrong

How could this have happened? An officer, a psychiatrist, at Fort Hood, has apparently gone off his nut and killed 13 soldiers, wounding 30 others.

The first clue might have been when the officer, a Muslim, compared suicide bombers to those who throw themselves on grenades to save the lives of their comrades.

Another clue might have been when he filled out a form seeking a spouse through a program at a mosque listing his birthplace as Arlington, Virginia, but his nationality as Palestinian.

The basic problem is that he saw himself as something else before he saw himself as American.

Theodore Roosevelt warned us of this over a hundred years ago, but we fell into the trap anyway. Why, you may ask?

Because we wanted to be nice.

We wanted to be nice, so instead of pointing out that "united we stand, divided we fall" we said nothing when once again people started identifying themselves as "whatever-Americans". We didn't want to be thought of as racist.

We said nothing when our language started to change, bending itself around political correctness. We didn't want to be thought of as intolerant.

We said nothing when our American beliefs and traditions came under assault from multiculturalism. We didn't want to be thought of as ethnocentric.

It happened when we pressed 1 for English. It happened when we let our public school administrators treat us as part of the problem instead of part of the solution. It happened when we allowed good people to be hung out to dry for BS reasons and didn't stand up for them.

Nidal Malik Hasan bore the weapon and squeezed the trigger that put 13 soldiers in their graves and 30 others in the hospital.

But we provided the bullets.

I Wish

That I could be surprised.

God bless the Fort Hood soldiers and their families. May He have mercy on the victims. May He have none for the perpetrator.

What's Happening

So once again I have committed the number 1 sin of the blogging world in that I haven't posted anything new lately. The only excuse I have is that I've been working like an idiot for the past couple of weeks. In fact, the photo in my previous post was taken while I was on my way to work.

In my copious off time, I've been working on a paper model of Serenity. It's my first cardstock model and it's surprisingly difficult. This is no "fold tab A into slot B" type of paper airplane, there are over eighty pieces printed out on twelve cardstock sheets. It's been a lot of fun.

My copy of "The Gathering Storm" has arrived, and I'm reading through it at the moment. Brandon Sanderson is an apt storyteller, but he isn't Robert Jordan. It's obvious that there is another voice speaking, but he is definitely telling Jordan's tale so I think it will end well.

On the political front, much is being made by the Democrats of Hoffman's failure to take NY-23, but they are strangely silent on the changes in the governorships of New Jersey and Virginia. Virginia may have not been much of a surprise, but New Jersey certainly was. I wish the new Governors well and hope they do good for their respective States.

The Hoffman saga is a horse of a different color, and although the established political parties don't want to make much of it I believe they do know what it's significance is. Time will tell if the RNC actually absorbs the lesson from NY-23 or not, if they do then they will see future success, and if not, they won't. It's as simple as that.

For me it's just a simple question, that being when does a moderate Republican cross the line into being a moderate Democrat? I've said there isn't an ounce worth of difference between the two parties and the NY-23 race certainly reflected that, at least initially. But then, a "moderate" Republican (who was more liberal than the moderate Democrat) got her head handed to her by the Conservative party candidate that wasn't supposed to be able to poll much beyond the normal 5 percent or so. Instead it was the Conservative party candidate that polled well, and the Republican candidate was at the 5% mark.

Party loyalists preach the party line, about how supporting the Party is paramount, that conservative Republicans can't win in "moderate" areas of the country, about how supporting third party candidates just split the vote and hand the race to the Democrat. This did certainly happen in this instance, but the major difference here is that the party candidate never really did have the full support of the party members. She was selected, not by a primary where the voters might have been able to voice an opinion, but by a panel of elites. The voters were understandably upset, and they broke for the candidate they might have supported had there been an actual primary.

The ironic thing here is that conservatives have never been very good at being party loyalists, they see themselves as independents and must be given a reason to vote for a particular candidate. They may hold their nose and vote for the R over the D because the Republican party more closely represents their values, but this is not always the case.

The plain truth is that the two parties must be different, they must have different platforms and their candidates must adhere to those platforms, otherwise there is no clear choice between them. If there is no clear choice, the ones that are left out in the cold (usually the conservatives) usually do choose the "lesser of two evils" and pull the lever with the "R" beside it. Lately, however, the conservatives have been choosing a third party, or they are choosing not to decide (and, like the song says, still making a choice). If the Republican party wants to remain the default choice of conservatives, they need to examine themselves and pull back to their conservative roots. Otherwise they will continue to shed members. This was the lesson that should have been learned during the McCain presidency bid (the only thing that saved it was the addition of Palin to the ticket) and clearly wasn't.

They have a chance again to learn this lesson from NY-23. We will see if they do so.

A Sign Of The Times?

It may not look like much, but if you take a careful look at the bumper sticker...or at least, just below the bumper sticker...you get the idea that maybe there's a little bit of buyer's remorse happening here.

Click on the photo for a bigger image.

It Would Be Funny

If it wasn't happening to us.

How pathetic is it that the organization that served as the mouthpiece of the Soviet Union does such a bang-up job documenting our folly, while our "legitimate (IE, White House approved) news organizations" are missing it completely?

HT to The Knight Shift.

We're All H8RZ Now, Part III

If you don't think Obama deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, you're just like the Taliban! So there!

HT: The Rott

What?!?

Tell me again what you have to do to win one of these things?

UPDATE: Well sure. Why not.

Mistaken Identity

Oops.

Egad

Mostly Cajun (see the link on the sidebar) had a piece up that I just read today concerning the march of time and the failure of some to learn, much less learn from, our history.

It put me in mind of this song.

Special Delivery

Well played, Sirs. Well played indeed.

HT to MrsM-ITT at the Rott and Wyatt Earp at Support Your Local Gunfighter (I saw it first at the Rott, sorry Wyatt).

You Are Not Alone

Even in California.

HT to AoSHQ commenter Michael in MI. Thanks for the tip.

"Not Yours To Give"

In comments at the Rott in a post about the generosity of FedEx, commenter AyUaxe linked a little gem from The Life of Colonel David Crockett (yes, that Davy Crockett), US Representative from the state of Tennessee.

A small excerpt:

"The people have delegated to Congress, by the Constitution, the power to do certain things. To do these, it is authorized to collect and pay moneys, and for nothing else. Everything beyond this is usurpation, and a violation of the Constitution."

This quotation is credited to one Horatio Bunce, a resident of Col. Crockett's district, as an explanation of why he, an influential member of that district, could not support Col. Crockett's re-election.

Col. Crockett took these words to heart, and was a valued member of the House of Representatives. We would be a very fortunate people indeed if our current crop of Congressmonkeys could understand the sentiment expressed in Mr. Bunce's words.

Go ye now to juntosociety.com and read these words in their fullest. You will not be disappointed in them, although you may be a bit discomfited with our current representation.

And in that vein, I add fellow North Carolinian The Knight Shift to the old blogroll for his entry here, in which he demonstrates that 1) he gets it, and 2) you don't have to be a lefty to miss the mark.

Good Riddance

to bad garbage.

HT: Ace of Spades HQ

Dirty Hippies

But there was no need to repeat myself.

Clicking on the title to this post will take you to Gateway Pundit, where you can see the difference between the conservatives having a gathering and the liberals having a gathering.

Or in other words, the difference between adults getting together and children having a play-date.

The adults clean up after themselves.

New Link

The Indentured Servant Girl has the Hannah Giles sex tape!

Because RSM shouldn't get to have all the fun.

Cash for Clunkers

FAIL!

In The End

There will be only smoke-free chaos.

By the by, who is it exactly that passes laws?

Constitutionalysis

Barack Obama campaigned on the promise that he would not raise taxes.

There is much discussion about the net that he is going to do exactly that, in the form of additional fees on a lot of things. During a 5 show whirlwind tour last weekend President Obama used the defense that since they weren't called "taxes" then they weren't, in fact, taxes. This is largely regarded as lipstick on a pig.

All of the legislation passed since his ascension, in addition to the bailout passed in the time of his predecessor, adds to the bill that will eventually come due, as all bills eventually do.

But, in his defense, he is absolutely right. He will not raise any taxes, in the same way that George W. Bush (and Ronald Reagan before him) never cut any taxes. He will only approve (or veto, fat chance) the legislation mandating those tax increases that passes over his desk.

So, who will it be that actually increases your taxes? For the answer, let me direct your attention to this document:

"The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States"
US Constitution, Article 1, Section 8

The main problem with the United States today lies with the fact that the American people are unaware of how their government is actually supposed to work. In large part they cannot number the branches of government, much less name them. Listing the responsibilities, duties and limitations of each branch is right out.

If you don't know how it's supposed to work, how can you tell if it is, in fact, working (or not working, as the case may be)?

If there is another person in the room as you read this, ask them the following questions. For that matter, answer them yourself. Chances are, unless they are a nerd like me or a naturalized citizen, they will not be able to answer them.

1. How many Senators represent each State?
2. What Congressional district do you live in?
3. How many Congressional Representatives are there for that district?
4. Name the people referred to in questions 1 and 3.

Not only can most Americans not answer the preceding questions, most of them cannot be bothered to care about the answers. All of them complain, and since everyone knows who the President is, for good or ill, he gets the blame (or credit).

If you don't know who is responsible for what, how can you be expected to vote intelligently? That is the underlying reason for all the problems the US now faces. And the inevitable result is this.

And yes, I can answer all four questions. Without looking it up.

Arrr.

Happy Talk Like A Pirate day, ye scurvy dogs.

I had a picture to put up here, so I did, but I thought t' would be a bit much for the kiddies.

Ye click it at yer own peril, so ye do. Ye have been warned.

Call It What You Want

Congressman Mike Rogers from Michigan calls it "government run health-care" and explains why it's wrong.

How To Feed The World

Iowahawk has a well deserved reputation for bringing on teh funneh. But, every once in the while he shows his serious journalistic roots.

He has done so here, with a report of the death of an Iowa farmer. Not just any Iowa farmer, but noted agronomist and Nobel Peace Prize winner (when such things actually meant something) Norman Borlaug. He was 95.

His greatest contribution to the world was showing us how to get more yield per acre for grain crops such as wheat. In this simple way, he fed more people than all the past, present or future Live Aid concerts ever given.

You don't feed the hungry by confiscating wealth from the rich and giving that wealth to African dictators. You feed the hungry by showing African farmers how to get the most out of their cropland, and that's what Norman spent his life doing.

Rest in peace Mr. Borlaug. Well done.

Again?

Another US Army officer uses the birther movement to try to escape the terms of her contract.

Predictably, it also goes down in flames.

Once more, if an officer in the US Armed Forces does not want to deploy, or otherwise discovers or decides that they can no longer effectively fulfill the terms of their contracts, they can simply resign their commissions.

Of course, this one had just finished med school on the taxpayers dime, so she would have been expected to pay that money back.

On a related issue, her attorney Orly Taitz is batting 1.000 on these cases.

HT: This Ain't Hell

If You Have A Digital Camera

It might be a good idea to invest in a printer for it. Kodak makes one that takes photo cartridges, using photo paper you get as good an image as you would if you took your memory stick to Wal-Mart.

Without the added aggravation of being charged with sexual abuse and having your kids taken away from you for a month, I might add, so you can call that an extra bonus.

HT: Fark.com

75 Democrats Vote To Support Child Slavery

The House voted Thursday to cut off all Federal funding to ACORN.

Seventy five Democrats voted against the resolution.

The Gunslinger has the story on that.

A constituent of one of the 75 is not pleased.

Smitty at The Other McCain has more ACORN related goodness.

So True

Filed under the heading of "It sucks getting old" we find this entry.

Number three is too painfully true to be as funny as it should be.

Thanks for the reminder Bill. As if I really needed one.

Obama By Another Name

Franklin Delano X.

X-ellent!

Raaaaacists!!!!!

Since we're all H8RZ now, we might as well be.

Many places have posted something about it, so far this one is my favorite.

And if you haven't bought the book, what are you waiting for?

(By the way, I have it on very good authority that if someone ponies up a huge bag o' cash, there will be a film version of Monster Hunter's International. Are you listening Bill Whittle?)

Remember, there are five a's in raaaaacism!

Eh. I Got Nutt'n.

I was going to write a long insightful post about this, complete with an analysis of the world economy, maybe with a little bit about the causes of the Great Depression here, including about how the aforementioned Great Depression was also a world-wide event.

But then I didn't so it all flew out of my head, like all of the rest of my really great ideas that would have made me rich a long time ago and allowed me to buy genetically enhanced monkeys that had been crossed with bald eagles to be used in an attempt to take over the world.

Thanks to Tam for bringing it up anyway.

9/12 Rally

So there was a big rally in Washington DC over the weekend.

Beltway Bob didn't notice.

9/11

I remember.

And Happy Birthday to my niece Debbie.

Snark Attempt - FAIL!

Remember Baghdad Bob?

Robert Gibbs will now be referred to as Beltway Bob in all official Refuge posts.

HT: Ace of Spades HQ

Wine, Women and Song

Red hair and green eyes will be the death of me yet. One or the other will turn me into a stammering idiot (according to the wife that's my normal state anyway) but the two of them together means trainwreck for sure.

The first little girl I fell for, way back in the first grade, was a redhead that barely acknowledged my existence at all. She was my classmate all the way up through high school. I never told her.



My first serious girlfriend was also a redhead. She hated being called a redhead, she preferred "strawberry blond." She's gone now, taken from us way too soon at twenty eight years old. I wish I could talk to her just one more time.



The green eyes come in right after high school. My first wife was green eyed, she broke my heart around 1988. Suffice it to say that I was in the Navy, she didn't like it, she figured out before I did that I was going to do 20, she found a way out. It took a while, but twenty years later I can look at it objectively and without regret.



Soon after that I met a green-eyed goddess. She was the friend of a friend's girlfriend, and I first saw her a mere two weeks following my separation from the first wife. I didn't say anything, mostly due to the aforementioned stuttering idiot problem, but I did remark to my friend that the only thing she would have to do to be absolutely perfect would be to dye her hair red.

I put it right out of my mind after that, after all she was an honest to goodness beauty queen (well, runner up anyway) and I was just an ugly little spud. The next time I saw her, about a month later, she was sporting a mane of auburn locks.



I was still self-absorbed, wrapped in my own little cocoon of self-pity, and I wasn't as good to her as I should have been. Still, she lifted me back onto my feet and proved to me that life wasn't over, that there was still plenty of life to be found out there.

Then, as soon as she was there, she was gone. I still miss her sometimes, and I'm a better man for having known her. I just wish I could have told her so.



In the book "The Great Hunt" Thom Merrilin tells Rand Al'Thor that one of the women he meets at a party "would give you an education such as every young man should have at least once in his life, if he can live through it."

My education came about at the age of 24. She was in her early 40's, recently divorced, her husband had left her for a woman about my age and she was feeling alone, unloved and unlovely. It was my task to prove that even though she may be alone, she was not unlovely. In that, I did for her what my beauty queen had done for me, and the education I received was well worth any price of admission. Happily I lived through it, although at times it was certainly a close thing.

She later married a wonderful man who took proper care of her until the time of her death, once again too soon. She died surrounded by those who loved her, in the company of a man who thought her lovely, and her final days were filled with happiness. I will always remember the sparkle in her deep green eyes.



I met my current wife about sixteen years ago. Red of head, red of temper, she kicked holes in my sandcastle walls and took me completely by storm. Before I knew it I was completely overwhelmed, and life just hasn't been the same since.

TROUBLE - Travis Tritt


Tonight as I crack open a few beers and listen to Bob Seger sing "Those are the memories / that give me a wealthy soul" I remember them.

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Here we have another picture of The Anointed One, complete with the holy nimbus cloud around his head.

And where, pray tell, is this picture found?

Is it on the fawning media sites?

No.

Is it on the many "I Love Barack Obama" web pages?

Again, no.

Where then, may you find this picture?

Here you go.

Is that building even big enough for this guy's ego?

HT: Ace of Spades HQ

Oh For Petes Sake

There's a lot of ire in the rightosphere about the leftosphere using the term "teabagger" to refer to those of us who attend tea party events.

Get over it!

Own that term! We are the tea BAGGERS, not the tea BAGGED. If they want to make fun of us for being teabaggers, then they are obviously missing the point...it is they who are being bagged!

Next time someone calls you a teabagger, point that out to them.

Some of the ire is that there are people in positions of power who are using this term and their constituents see them as being crude and boorish. My response to that is to let them appear crude and boorish, and see how they fare come next election time.

At any rate, the use of the word does not harm us unless we let it. Don't let it!

Winner Of Teh Internetz

"Justice is a gallows, built with contemplation and remorse.

Retribution is a lamp post, with spittle and curses, and dogs nipping at your heels."

Read more here.

The Velociworld is not recommended for those who have weak hearts or minds, or for those who are easily offended. If you are the type that looks for things to be offended about, you will likely find plenty of offensive things here. Secure all loose items and keep your arms inside the conveyance at all times. Management is not responsible for lost or stolen items, either of a material or non-material nature.

We're All H8RZ Now Part 2

Submitted without further comment.

HT to Robert Stacy McCain at The Other McCain.

Orb Spiders

This gentleman has taken up residence right outside my patio door. He weaves his web every night around sundown, and every morning he pulls it up out of the way again.

It's nice to have good neighbors.

According to the Pugh collection he is an orb weaver, one of the most common spiders in North Carolina. Although he is huge, he is harmless. Except if you are a bug, that is.

I think that he has attracted a mate, because now there are two of them.

Thoughts On The Second

I have a friend that open carries everywhere allowable by law that he goes. Usually he will chose not to go to those places where he is not allowed to carry, either by law or by the request of the place in question.

I have yet to hear anyone comment, either for or against, in our hearing.

There has been quite a stir lately in the MSM about people openly carrying weapons at townhall meetings and other public gatherings. What you don't usually hear is that the weapons are carried legally and that no one has been arrested for carrying them.

The MSM has even gone so far as to call the carry of weapons racist, and to illustrate this has used a picture of a rifle being carried. What they failed to mention is that the weapon in question was being carried by a black man.

Fifty years ago it would not have been an issue, this open carry of weapons. Since that time we have gotten away from the practice, mostly due to the whining of the Gun Fearing Wussies.

Unfortunately also since that time the open carry of weapons has become something viewed as somehow criminal or crazy. Carry laws are not known or understood, even by the LEO's that are supposed to be enforcing the laws.

Reading around the net it is possible to find blogs who's owners claim to be all for the free exercise of Second Amendment rights, and yet those very same blogs have opinion pieces written by said owners who frown on those who open carry at the events. Their reasoning is usually that the open carry makes the wussies cry, and that making the wussies cry generally isn't good for promoting the Second.

I disagree.

I think that if everyone who can open carry does, the general public will become accustomed to seeing it, and the cries of the wussies would decrease (or at least fade into the background). Additionally, as the criminal element sees more and more people open carry they will become more aware that there are a lot of firearms out there. This has been shown to cause them to find another line of work. Both of these are good things.

Eventually I would like to see the open carry of firearms in accordance with the Second Amendment to be just as commonplace, and as unremarkable, as open carry of books and newspapers in accordance with the First.

I don't know that it would ever happen, but one can dream.

Book Review

I just put down Stephen King's Cell.

The part where he wrote about a .45 caliber Colt revolver was enough to give me a moment's pause. There is such a thing, but most times one refers to a .45 it's an M1911 or a clone thereof.

When he wrote about the human brain only working at 2% capacity I was done with the book.

Most people will quote the ten percent figure, and I will admit that I believed it as well until I read the Snopes entry about it. Where two percent came from I don't know.

Anyway, I'm back to the opinion that Stephen King hasn't written anything since The Dark Tower.

Ted Kennedy Dies At 77

My mother always told me that if I couldn't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

Clicking the title of this post takes you to the BBC story.

Wizard's Second Rule

The greatest harm can result from the best intentions.

In Ouray Colorado a woman was killed and eaten by bears on the seventh of August. It turns out that she had been feeding the bears for at least ten years. This act of kindness resulted in the bears losing their natural fear of humans, and in fact made them very aggressive towards humans that were not feeding them.

A five year old bear was killed by sheriff's deputies at the scene after he aggressively approached the officers, and another was killed at the residence a week later by USDA officials working under the authority of the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

Because she was feeding them they stopped hunting for themselves. They just came to her house whenever they got hungry. The long standing effect is that more bears and humans are going to die, because the bears have forgotten how to hunt for themselves and they now equate humans with food. This woman's good intentions led directly to her death as well as the animals she was caring for, and will lead to more deaths before it's all done.

The old saying is that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Combine that with the story about giving a man a fish, and you can see where some of our current problems have come from.

RIP

Captain Scott Speicher, USN, has returned home.

Welcome home Captain. Rest in peace.

Linky!

Having just finished "Monster Hunter International" (and simultaneously becoming a huge fan), I have also just posted the link to Monster Hunter Nation.

Hurry fast and get yours, because according to the latest update on MHN there are only four copies left on Amazon.

Don't worry though, you can get a signed copy instead.

While you're there go make an entry into the "Hold The Pig Steady" lyrics writing contest.

And Now For Something Completely Different

I can haz flight crew?

Shamelessly stolen from Gnus at A&A.

Trust Us!

The whole "Palins are getting divorced!" lie.

Union thugs as "concerned citizens" and concerned citizens as paid shills for Big Insurance.

"Obama didn't have anything to do with (insert appropriate act here, their name is Legion)." (That one reminds me of "Carter was a good man with bad advisors.")

"I don't want people thinking I just have a bunch of plants in here."

(and along with that, "Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor not a shill!")

Dissent is patriotic (unless you're dissenting against Teh Won!).

Trust me! I'm from the government and I'm here to help!

Still want to play nice?

I think not.

Nice guys don't finish last. They get killed and eaten along the way.

Absolute Power

Next time some jackass, be they from the left or from the right, says "If you aren't doing anything wrong you don't have anything to be afraid of" punch them right in their monkey faces. If they spout some blather about the "common good" or some such dogsqueeze as that, punch them twice. It's for the chiiiildrennnn!!!! (who will ultimately have to foot the bill for all of our current nonsense.)

This, boys and girls, is why we don't give government - ANY government, no matter who's running it - any more authority than they absolutely need to do their Constitutionally mandated jobs. Sooner or later if it has the potential to be abused, it will be. That is quite simply the nature of power.

For what it's worth, I thought the Patriot Act was a knee jerk response that wasn't well thought out and shouldn't have been passed. It was passed under the "do something even if it's wrong" mindset, and it was wrong and (as we are now seeing) eventually dangerous.

The ironical thing here is that the "good Liberal" people who were up in arms about BOOOOSH and the ReTHUGlican Congress illegally seizing power were right about the potential for abuse, but now that Obama and a Democratic controlled Congress are actually doing the abusing they are strangely silent.

The porkulous bill was right up there with the Patriot Act, and cap n' tax and the healthcare bill is right there as well. The problem is that once they are passed they are almost impossible to un-pass.

Hat tip: Ace Of Spades HQ, your home for Valu-Rite swilling hobo hunters.

Dear 52 - An Update

Perhaps

you

have

forgotten

what

we

said

before.

Here

it

is

again.

Buy This Book

I woke up at 4:30 PM (get offa me, I work nights) and found my copy of "Monster Hunter International" waiting for me.

I just finished it.

I didn't know they stacked awesome this high.

Buy this book, make Larry Correia rich, and maybe he will write another one.

Speaking Of Birthdays

Happy Birthday Brigid.

Not older, just aged. Like a fine wine.

Here's to many more, lass.

Birthday Presents

For my birthday (which was yesterday) Kevin Baker at The Smallest Minority got me a Quote Of The Day!

Thanks Kevin, you shouldn't have!


For anyone following the link, have a look around and leave me a comment if you see something you like.

Thanks for dropping by!

On The Subject Of Heros

If you have not yet made the journey to E3 to see the three part series "A Soldier's Story" you need to do so now.

LT Cooper tells how it was to transport Marines from the safety of their transport ship via Higgins boats to the meatgrinder that was Tarawa, and later Iwo Jima.

He then tells the tragic tale of the KIA's of Tarawa being buried and forgotten amongst garbage, septic tanks and parking lots.

LT Cooper worries that we don't heed the lessons of history that were learned during the "ancient wars" that occurred before Viet Nam. The military remembers, and still applies the lessons learned so long ago in their operations today. Carrier operations and damage control methods learned the hard way under fire and kamikaze attacks are still being taught in today's Navy, and are still being used on ships like the USS Cole. Unfortunately, outside the military the nation has all but forgotten the lessons of these ancient wars.

These men deserve better. Please go watch the videos. Remember them.

Another Hero

SFC Jared Monti.

Rest in peace.

HT: Ace Of Spades HQ

It Never Stops

The rumors still fly, made up as usual. No links, I'm not going to feed the fire. Check at Ace's place if you want to know the details.

When is this family going to get a break?

She's resigned already. As in, not a public figure any more.

This means that all of you jackasses who attacked her and her family with impunity all this time can now be dragged into court, on your own dime this time.

And it looks like Darth Cheney has been teaching his young padawan apprentice some Sith mind control tricks. So you have been warned.

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

Soldier's Suffrage

From Neptunus Lex:

An American Thinker article on the military and voting.

I might have mentioned this problem once or twice myself.

The problem is, you see, that the military vote is mostly by absentee ballots, which for a variety of reasons are not counted. A lot of them are disqualified on technical issues, but for those who pass the gauntlet most of them are not even opened.

The reason they aren't opened is that there usually aren't enough of them to sway the election one way or another, so there really isn't a reason to count them. (Sometimes even if there might be enough of them to sway the election they aren't counted either, usually at the insistence of one of the political parties involved, particularly if it's a recount in Florida or Minnesota. One wonders why.)

The article gives a few more reasons, all of them things that need to be addressed. Thanks for bringing the article to light, Lex.

While you are there, sign the petition.

They That Govern Least, Govern Best

I was just strolling through my links and came upon two posts at Word Around The Net that sparked my interest.

First is the report that the President asked for a hundred million in cuts, and they found a hundred and two.

The cuts were realized by such things as using both sides of paper when copying documents, deleting unused email accounts, and not repainting white government vehicles.

As Chris points out, these are things that should have been done ages ago, but as a former member of the US Government I can point to just one thing that would realize immediate significant savings.

Every year we would go through the same old thing where we would fly a lot at the end of each quarter to burn up our fuel funds and everyone would get new furniture. The deal is that if you don't use all the money up your next year's budget is decreased by the amount that is left over. Obviously this does not lead to frugality, in fact we would usually run over and have to dip into the next quarter's money to make up the difference.

The clear answer, and also one that should have been implemented ages ago, is to not penalize frugality. Award the individual commands a percentage of the moneys not spent for their welfare and rec (party) fund, and continue to fund them at the same levels (adjusted for inflation) for the next fiscal year. That way if the money is needed it is there, and if not a majority of it is returned to the coffers to be used next year. This would encourage frugality, which is now not the case.

The next topic is the clunker buy-back program that the .gov was so proud of. Seems like it was so popular that the billion dollars allocated to the fund is about used up, and it's only been a week. Since the program requires the dealers to award and honor the certificates right away and be reimbursed later, many dealers are looking at some pretty serious losses.

My major complaint with the cash for clunkers program is that one of the program requirements is that the motors on the old cars have to be deliberately destroyed. No part of the motor or drivetrain can be sold, according to the program rules (this link goes to cars.gov but does not require you to log into the system).

That means that if you have one of the same models of car that you decided to keep (because for instance you figured out that you wouldn't be able to afford the payments even with the buy-back cash, or you haven't seen a car that you want to own worse than your old one, or maybe just that your old car is a pretty good one and you still have need of it) the used parts market for it outside of body panels or interior pieces is effectively dried up. If you were hoping to score some motor parts or a complete motor or transmission, well let's just say there's an acronym that describes your position. SOL.

The only entities that profit from this boondoggle is the scrap metals market. China should be pleased, since they are the largest buyer of scrap metal. Auto salvage yards, on the other hand, not so much.

Good thing for me that none of my cars qualify. They are either too old or they get good enough mileage that they don't fall under the 18 MPG rule. That means that I should be able to get parts far into the foreseeable future.

That's a good thing, too, because the way things are going it looks like I might want to hold on to the old cars for a while. And who knows, maybe one day one of them will be a classic and be worth more than I paid for all of them. Look at what happened to the Edsel, for instance.

A guy can dream, anyway.

UPDATE: This made me cringe:

"Nick Clites, who is in charge of used cars for the dealership, was prepping a 1988 BMW 535IS, with 214,000 miles on the odometer, for its death. He drained the oil, then donned a silky blue protective suit, goggles and gloves and poured a sodium silicate solution into the engine. He revved the car, and within a few seconds, the solution hardened into a glass-like substance, the engine seized up and the car was dead."

Let's look at that again. 1988 BMW 535 IS, that the dealer had to fork over 4500 clams for, engine totally destroyed. If you even have a passing appreciation for fine German automobiles you should be at least wincing right now. Kelley Blue Book has the base model 535 priced at $3650 for an 89 model, so not only is the used car market going to be taking a hit but now you can't even get parts. It's enough to make a car guy scream.

No, I didn't miss the point of the article, which was to warn those who log in to the cars.gov system that "all ur computurz r belong to us."

UPDATE II: Velociman adds his two shekels as only the Velociman can. Yeah, what he said.

This Time The Union Can Keep The Slaves

Since the election of Barack Hussein Obama there seems to have been a misapprehension in this great nation that the “discussion” on race is over.

Recent events in Cambridge Mass. have proven this assumption to be in error.

Also since the election of BHO there seems to have been a great misapprehension in certain quarters that America is now ready to embrace full on socialism.

There are cracks in that facade as well.

I was reading over at The Gunslinger's Journal about Oklahoma being the latest state to sign into law a resolution affirming the Tenth Amendment, and a line that she wrote prompted a cascade of thoughts.

Her post was concerning the individual States who are now beginning to stand up in opposition to the monster that our Federal Government has become, and opined that the end result may be another round of secession.

"This time" she writes, "the Union can keep the slaves."

Oklahoma, Alaska, Idaho, both Dakotas, and Tennessee have so far passed resolutions supporting the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, with several more considering such moves.

Texas Governor Rick Perry has made statements that could be construed as secessionist, a question that had been thought rather thoroughly settled since 1865. There are rumblings all throughout the right leaning blogosphere concerning the three boxes (soap box, ballot box, cartridge box).

As expected, these things are being used by opponents to demonstrate how rabid crazy those gun-toting bible-thumping bitter racists clingers on the right are. The supporters simply repeat their call to arms. I don't know if violence is eminent or not, but I have always been an optimist. I think this country can still be saved through judicious use of the first two boxes without having to resort to the third.

With that being said, however, I have been more than a little discouraged and disgusted with those who purport to be my fellow countrymen. Everywhere you turn it seems that there is another street-corner evangelist preaching the gospel of government control, and they always seem to have a crowd around them.

It is human nature to seek the most gain from minimum effort, and nothing can be more minimum than having someone else do it for you. These are the people who turn to Mommy Government to solve all of their ills.

In 1865 the country climbed out from under a civil war. Freed slaves reveled in new found freedom.

They soon found out, however, that freedom has it's cost. Slavery is safe, because someone takes care of you. It may be only a minimum level of care, barely enough for sustenance, but it is provided to you. Food, clothing and shelter, the first three items on the hierarchy of needs, are given free of monetary cost. The only thing you pay for these things is your soul.

Freedom, however, means that you are left to fend for yourself. Being responsible for yourself means that you must provide for your own food, clothing and shelter. No one is waiting to pick you up when you fall, you live or die by your own actions and decisions. You own yourself, body and soul.

Freedom is scary.

This is why so many people opt for any kind of soft slavery rather than hard freedom. This is the reason the serfs in the former Soviet Union bemoaned the loss of their masters. This is the reason that so many in this country are willing to sell themselves for the promise of free health care and social security for all. This is why so many will be the willing slaves of whatever master will have them.

They are willing to sell all that they are for the cost of a few coins dribbled their way. What happens to them when the coins finally dry up, as they must?

The flip side of this coin, so to speak, is the people who go out and exert maximum effort in a bid to capture maximum gain. These are the people who lead, who innovate, who move the economy; these are the people who control the world. Let us speak of them for a moment.

It has not escaped my notice how popular Ayn Rand's classic "Atlas Shrugged" has gotten to be in recent times. It's a hard read in many spots, Rand has an unfortunate tendency to beat her readers to death to make a point sometimes (as an example, John Galt's radio address). The points are well made, however, and ominously prescient.

I am of the opinion that we don't need a John Galt, at least not yet. What we need is more Hank Reardens, men and women who will stand up and say "I see what you are doing, and I'm not going to play along." (For the record, I am more of an Eddie Willers type myself.)

John Galt was an organizer, if you will. But in order for a John Galt to be effective, he must have people who are of like mind to organize with. Such a man is not truly a leader as such, he is merely chief among equals. Those who would be willing to be led are plentiful, those who must be convinced are the ones we need right now.

We need an Ellis Wyatt to point out the facts that the US Government makes more money from a gallon of gasoline than the oil companies do and that the US Government has blocked domestic energy production, thereby forcing us to go overseas for our oil. This puts us at the mercy of foreign nations.

We need a Midas Mulligan to point out that Government interference in the real estate market led to the housing bubble, which led to our present ills, and that the supposed stimulus packages that were foisted on us without benefit of being read have only widened and deepened the problems. Other governmental interferences in other areas of the economy and financial markets have produced similar ills.

We need a Lawrence Hammond to point out that the same Government that could not profitably run a brothel (last link NSFW) * with an established reputation and clientele cannot possibly run an auto company, much less two. This Government had neither the Constitutional authority nor the wisdom to involve themselves with the day to day running of businesses, much less their bankruptcy proceedings. The President certainly did not have the authority to call for the firing of GM's head exec. It can only end in disaster, for GM, for Chrysler, and for the American taxpayer.

We need a Doctor Hendricks who will make the same case for health care. We need a Judge Narragansett who will bang the gavel in support of freedom and individual responsibility. We need a Quentin Daniels who will counter the James Hansons with facts, and do so with as much vigor and volume as they do.

We need men and women in positions of influence and authority who will not blindly bow down to the authoritarian state.

Then, and only then, will a John Galt do any good.

And if the cartridge box becomes the only option, then the Union can keep the slaves.

*It comes to my attention that, although the IRS did indeed intend to continue to operate the brothel, they were so incompetent that they could not persuade a federal judge to allow them to assume the business license. In other words, they failed to run a brothel. So, while the story is actually an urban legend, the lesson still remains.

Micheal Weston, Please Call The Office

Having traveled overseas at the insistence of the US Navy I have seen first-hand the conditions in many foreign countries.

The countries I traveled to were considered stable and civilized for the most part, but even in these countries there are reminders that things were not always so.

In France, for instance, one can still find the burned out buildings and shelled walls from two world wars.

In Sigonella, Sicily there is an American air base. Just outside that base is a building that bears the pockmarks from artillery.

If one traverses the Suez Canal one can see the burned carcasses of trucks and other vehicles stranded on the Sinai side where Israeli air forces turned this area into a slaughterhouse as Egyptian forces attempted to cross the canal back into Egypt.

Wherever you are, the situations can turn from peaceful to not-so-peaceful in the blink of an eye.

This website gives you some pointers on how to deal with it.

Enjoy.

HT: The Smallest Minority

Government Health Care

For those of you who still wonder what it would be like to enjoy free Government supplied health care, wonder no more.

Yes, this is an extreme case. So what.

Pay particular attention to the part that says "But because of an old federal law called the Feres Doctrine, Read, his wife, and his family members can't sue the military over what happened to him."

Count on that doctrine to be part and parcel of Government paid health care.

You have been warned.

HT: The Smallest Minority

UPDATE: Apparently the Republicans have been told not to call it "government run healthcare" in correspondence to their constituents if they want to use their franking privileges. They must instead call it a "public option health care plan." Because socialism is such an ugly word.

HT: Ace Of Spades HQ

PSA from Cato Institute

HT: The Other McCain

Why?

"Students of anthropology, however, might ponder the question, “Why?” What is it about red hair and large breasts that stimulates such interest? And why, particularly, does this interest so often involve an obsessive curiosity as to whether the aforesaid traits are the product of heredity?

(The part in bold italics means, do the curtains match the carpet?)

The answer is simple. Because all men are pigs, that's why.

Oink!

Free Ice Cream And Sandwiches

The place where I work has weathered the economic meltdown storms a little better than most. They have had to resort to some scheduling trickery and other things, but they managed not to lay any of their permanent employees off. Temps, however, weren't so lucky.

They were up front with us over the scheduling things, and we grumbled about it but since they were honest it was easier to take. This round they aren't playing things so straight.

We get annual raises and also quarterly and annual bonuses depending on how production has gone. We have gotten bonuses for the last 2 years that I have worked here. Now they are cutting the annual raises.

They tried to sell this as a positive thing, saying they were going to put the money they would have spent on raises into the bonus pool, so the bonuses will roughly double. For someone who got an $800 bonus last year, the bonuses will be $1600 instead.

This sounds good on the surface, but for someone making $11.00 an hour (their mythical figure) the expected raise would equal $1500 over the course of the year. They point out that this hypothetical employee will end up netting an extra Benjamin out of the deal.

What they conveniently leave out (and what they expect the employee base to be too stupid to figure out on their own, apparently) is that this hypothetical employee could have figured on an extra $2300.00 in their paychecks over the course of the year when you add the pay hike plus the old bonus figure of $800. Instead of netting an extra hundred, this poor hypothetical sap is getting played to the tune of 7 bills or more (considering that bonuses are tied to production goals, which the average working stiff has little to do with).

What bothers me is the fact they are trying to sell this crap as chocolate ice cream. If they had just said "Here's a crap sandwich, everyone gets to take a bite" it may have been easier to take. They played straight with us at first, and they should have kept on that line. They chose not to do that this time.

This mirrors the current situation with legislative actions such as cap and tax, health care, and the proposed second stimulus. The Congress and the President is hoping that we are too stupid to figure out these things will end up costing us all dearly in the end.

At least the Congress and the current administration never tried playing it straight first.

Winter Is Coming

HBO is all set to bring another epic novel series to the screen.

A Game of Thrones, a novel by George RR Martin, is set to begin filming in October. The first season will encompass the first of seven planned novels.

This means old George had best get off of his ass and finish the last three novels.

More details here.

DBD Fundraiser, Part 2

If you haven't been there, you are missing out.

Painted women.

Go there now.

A Sailor's Story

These young men threw themselves into the dragon's mouth again and again.

Now those that are left are going, one by one, into that long sleep.

Remember them.

Day By Day

Day By Day is having a fund drive.

Unlike many other fund drives, you get stuff when you donate to DBD, so it's more of a sale than a drive.

The more you donate, the more stuff you get. All cashy money is used to support DBD and, incidentally, keep us all in teh funneh.

You go there now.

Stupid Useless Vehicles

I've always said that the term "SUV" was coined by the advertising department to get women and girly-men to drive trucks.

Now MSN wants to get into the act. They decry the fad of large Stupid Useless Vehicles driven by women and girly-men sucking down large amounts of carbon-based fuel poisoning Mother Gaia.

I know of several industries that have need of these large trucks, the construction and farming industries to name two. Other than that, the ownership of these (actually very useful) vehicles doesn't make much sense, especially the four-wheel drive varieties that very rarely, if ever, saw any time off-road, or even in rough weather. Their road presence greatly expanded when Federal mandates on fuel economy made cars smaller and less safe, and since the station wagon was so last-century the "SUV" was born.

Interesting side story, one winter during a snowstorm I was driving doctors back and forth from home to hospital in my little Chevy Cavalier. One doc had two of these SUVs, one a BMW and the other an H2, both 4WD. He looked disdainfully at my beat up Chevy and declared we would never make it to the hospital. I told him either drive one of his own vehicles or STFU. We made it, of course.

In other words, the SUV "fad" only stopped making sense when Yuppies got involved, as is usually the case. The Chevy Suburban has been on the market since 1935, the GMC version only slightly less longer (it showed up around 1937), so the ownership of these vehicles are by no means new, trendy, or faddish.

The only difference is that now women and girly-men drive them, and car-makers like Cadillac and BMW have their names on them.

PS: I feel as if I must clarify the above. My issue is not with the vehicles themselves, which are actually quite useful and much safer than the econoboxes that presently occupy most of the road space in the US today. My issue is with the term "SUV".

If you drive an "SUV" you are either a woman or a girly man. Real men drive trucks, and we're not ashamed of it.

Worse now is the new term on the block, XUV, which apparently means "Station wagon all jacked up on a tall frame to look like a real truck."

My apologies to any girly men who are offended. Please submit the complaint form found here to the appropriate authorities. The complaint officer here at the Last Refuge of a Scoundrel is Helen Waite. Please take all of your problems to Helen Waite.

Isn't That Interesting

President Barack Obama at the G8 summit said that the world has apparently escaped full economic meltdown but that recovery is still a long ways off.

The CBO said in February that the economic porkulus bill would harm more than it would help.

They said in January that the economy would recover by the end of 2009, providing the government did nothing at all to "help."

From the report: "In preparing its economic forecast, CBO assumes that current laws and policies governing federal spending and taxes do not change. This forecast, therefore, does not include the effects of a possible fiscal stimulus package."

Snort'n Coke

Ur doing it rong

Note to El Capitan

Envy this!

He is king of all he surveys.

Half a dog tall and a dog and a half long.

Master of cats, snack of larger dogs.

And, my personal alarm clock.

This Is The Difference

between writer and wordsmith.

We're All H8RZ Now

From comments on Ace O' Spades HQ, impeached Florida judge and current Democratic Congresscritter Alcee Hastings has introduced legislation to allow the Attorney General to have discretion over who is called a terrorist and what groups will be treated as terrorist groups.

This does not bode well for those of us designated as extremists by the DHS. From the report entitled "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," the following groups were determined to be "extremists:"

"Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration."

Another piece of legislation introduced by Rep. Hastings is HR 645, National Emergency Centers Establishment Act. This bill directs DHS to establish emergency centers on military installations for the following purposes:

(1) to provide temporary housing, medical, and humanitarian assistance to individuals and families dislocated due to an emergency or major disaster;

(2) to provide centralized locations for the purposes of training and ensuring the coordination of Federal, State, and local first responders;

(3) to provide centralized locations to improve the coordination of preparedness, response, and recovery efforts of government, private, and not-for-profit entities and faith-based organizations; and

(4) to meet other appropriate needs, as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security.

Purposes 1-3 seem benign enough, but 4 leaves a lot of wiggle room. Political strategist Mike Baker likens them to concentration camps, and asks "Why aren't the news media covering this story? Could it be because they fear being the first occupants of these so-called emergency installations? Where is the outrage by our nation's Fourth Estate?"

Hastings was removed from the bench by the US House of Representatives for bribery and perjury, was subsequently elected to the same US House of Representatives, and currently serves as a ranking member on the Homeland Security Subcommittee.

HT to Momma, an Ace Of Spades HQ commenter.

UPDATE: More here and here.

Happy 4th

I hope everyone had a good one.

Questions

So Sarah Palin is hanging it up after a half term as Alaska's Governor.

What does it mean exactly?

I don't know.

Maybe she's just sick of the BS. Lord knows she's had her share.

Maybe she's sick of being attacked.

Maybe she's tired of having her family, her children, in the crosshairs.

Maybe she wants to concentrate on bigger and better things.

I don't know.

One thing I do know is that she galvanizes the base.

Her political opponents know that she's not the type to do the expected.

Whatever is in store for her future, I wish her the best. I don't think we have seen the last of her.

I'll be watching, and supporting.

UPDATE: It looks like I'm not alone in my analysis and conclusions.

Russ from Winterset at Ace O' Spades HQ has this to say, followed by this.

More here from Manly Rash and here from Conservatives4Palin.

And of course, no wrap-up would be complete without the skinny from He Whom Allah Hateth.