Well, well, five days in and the country still continues to hold together, though skating on the edge of disaster.  The violin continues to rest on the credenza by the windows of the Oval Office.  How sad.

Yesterday and today, lots of fun news stories to talk about.  Here are some thoughts on a few:

Hugo Chavez is dead.  And the Venezuelan government has admitted it.  A lot of people thought he might have been dead for quite a while – perhaps weeks – and that the photos of him with his daughters was of a corpse.  But they finally admitted that Cuban medicine was not what they hoped, and the people of Venezuela can mourn the loss of a man many of them loved, and most of them feared, and not enough disliked.  The replacement is Chavez’s handpicked successor, a former bus driver.  Oh, and the Venezuelan government blames the US for killing him: they say that DC gave him the cancer by chemicals or something: maybe black magic or Santeria or HAARP.

Mama’s Note: May he soon be joined by the Castro brothers and all their ilk. Good
riddance.

President Barack Obama has the legal authority to unleash deadly force—such as drone strikes—against Americans on U.S. soil without first putting them on trial, Attorney General Eric Holder wrote in a letter released Tuesday.

Nathan: Is it not wonderful and comforting that it would be in “extraordinary circumstances?”  We can, of course, trust Holder and his chief Soetero to not do anything that would trigger that, like all their predecessors.  After all, how often does a Ruby Ridge or a Branch Davidian incident happen?

Supposedly, the DHS have software for THEIR Predator drones (the ones that are “unarmed” that can tell if “civilians” are armed or not.  Says nothing about military (or I assume, “police”) – do we get a free ride if they pick up our badge or our ID card?  Also doesn’t say whether the drones (or their operators) will be able to tell the difference between a REAL gun and … say, a PopTart?

Stupid hoplophobes – Government-run, tax-funded schools
Baltimore student suspended for shaping Pop-Tart into gun
(WOKV-TV)

Nathan:  He said he was trying to make a mountain, but we all know how these psychotic seven-year-olds lie and lie.  Is there no end?  Get your children OUT of these places.

Florida high school gun case: Student suspended after disarming gunman
(KJRH TV)

Nathan: Okay to be dead, but if you get involved….  Get your children OUT of these places, people!

Russian stupid government
Russia Fears Its Troops Will Riot if Cigarette Rations End
(Technologyreview.com – via Freedom’s Phoenix) Russia’s new defense minister wants to extinguish one of the Russian military’s most endemic health problems and martial perks: giving free cigarettes to troops.

Well, even Putin’s Russia is getting politically correct.  Once upon a time, American troops got cigarettes in their C-rations, but that is no good for the nannies.

Stupid government – Crash of 2009
Raising the Minimum Wage Hurts Its Intended Beneficiaries
(Marketwatch) Raising the minimum wage would crowd out the lowest skilled workers and make it more challenging for our country’s youth to begin on the career ladder…

Nathan: As if this hadn’t been known for decades!  Of course, Marketwatch is generally left-leaning, so it takes them a while.

Energy – Home front
Gas Boom Projected to Grow for Decades
(Wall Street Journal) U.S. shale-rock formations will provide a growing source of moderately priced natural gas through 2040, and decline only slowly after that…

Nathan: Unless Cousin Soetoro (and his minions and masters) have government keep the boom from happening, by demonizing fracking and directional drillings and the other technologies.  Still, there is the fear that the “messiah” will use this to power his regime well beyond 2016 – a prospect which frightens a lot of people.  The recent rumors that the State Department will approve the Keystone XL pipeline is a good indication that these fears might prove to be correct.

Stupid government – theft by government
TSA Sealed $50-Million Sequester-Eve Deal to Buy New Uniforms
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Of course they need spiffy new uniforms to make them look still MORE like Barney (Fife, not the Dinosaur).

Stupid government – theft by government
$253.5B—Obama Borrowed Nearly 6x as Much in February as Sequester Cuts All Year
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Once more demonstrating the token nature of the cuts and their meaningless nature.  All the “sequester” does is try to make life on board the Titanic a little bit more miserable before it hits the iceberg.

Obama’s EPA Nominee Vowed She Would Not ‘Sit Around and Wait for Congressional Action’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: There is no reason to expect any other attitude from the “messiah’s” appointees:  to them, even the confirmation process, much less ANY thing else that Congress does, is rote and ritual and Congress has no power that they cannot trump.

First citizen
White House: ‘There is No Price to Meet with the President’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: No doubt, the payment is required to be allowed to leave – to escape.

Government nanny-state.
DOJ: Children Do Not Need—and Have No Right to–Mothers
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Nor fathers – the State is our mother and/or our father and our God and gives us all we need and takes what it needs that we can provide to it!

Mama’s Note: Hmmm, but somebody’s got to change the diapers, and you better believe no politician is going to volunteer for that job.

Islamic wars: Arab Street revolt
Kerry: ‘No Guarantee’ That Weapons From U.S. Allies Won’t Go to Jihadists
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: This may be true, but that doesn’t mean that Kerry has to try and one-up Holder with a Jihadist “Fast and Furious.”

Islamic wars: Canaanite and Persian fronts
Netanyahu Says Iran Tops the Agenda When Obama Comes to Visit
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Well, I am sure that the “messiah” will pay close attention; after all, Uncle Joe says that Israel never had a better friend!

Culture wars: homosexual activists
Texas Lawmakers Urge Boy Scouts to Maintain Traditional Values
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Ha!  If the Legislators could teach themselves to maintain traditional values!

Local Nanny Statist
Bloomberg: ‘Somebody’s Got to be Blamed for Everything’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Glad that he volunteered!  He makes a nice scapegoat – although I suspect he has someone else in mind.  Will it be the Jews again, or perhaps some new minority group, like Anglos in NYC.