Politics 2013
Party Affiliation Taints Americans’ Views On Privacy, Civil Liberty
(Personal Liberty) A poll released Monday shows more than half of all Americans think it’s acceptable for the government to secretly track their phone calls, if doing so keeps them safe from terrorism. The poll also shows that nearly half believe it’s also acceptable for the National Security Administration to indiscriminately spy on citizens’ online activities.

Nathan: As always, take these polls with a large grain of salt.  Too many ways to word these kinds of questions to create a bias, and end up with this.  But even if this WERE accurate, so?  when you eliminate all the one-issue types, and count all the compromise artists and appeasers, two-thirds of the people have almost ALWAYS been willing to give up a lot of freedom for a little bit of security.

Let’s All Get Together Tonight And Jam Up The NSA!
(Personal Liberty) There is much buzz about an Internet initiative encouraging as many Americans as possible to produce electronic communications using certain terrorist-sounding words and phrases in unison this evening. The goal is to create a blip on the National Security Agency’s radar in hopes of overwhelming the Federal government’s surveillance apparatus.

Nathan: Sounds like fun to me, but you know the old saying, “Its just fun and games until somebody loses too much blood.”  Maybe if a couple million people could spend an hour so so doing this, though… (By the time I am writing this, the event had taken place but I’ve heard nothing and  can’t tell you how it turned out.)

Culture wars: homosexual “marriage” – War on religion
Colorado:  Baker Who Refused to Provide Cake for Homosexual Wedding [sic] Faces Jail
(The Blaze.com)

Nathan: We all understand that there is no “freedom of association” as a right any more: instead, it is illegal (to some degree, at least) to refuse business to someone for any reason.  Without a right to refuse to do business for any reason, the “freedom of association” does not exist.

Stupid government tricks – Theft by government
Federal agencies turning to UPS, Fed Ex instead of USPS for delivery needs
(The Washington Free Beacon) The United States Postal Service’s (USPS) bottom line has been hit by the federal government itself as numerous agencies have increased their contracts with publicly traded companies instead of the Postal Service for their mailing and distribution services, the Washington Free Beacon has found.

Mama’s Note: I do think this may spell the end…

Nathan: I’m surprised Congress has not already required the agencies to do this, and even make state governments do that, in order to get their funding.  Got to be pretty bad to not even ride for their own brand.

The “messiah” – Lies and tyranny
Obama Should Blame Bush, Thank Whistle-Blowers And Keep Up The Bad Work
(Personal Liberty) During his Senatorial career and the earlier parts of his Presidential tenure, Barack Obama was an outspoken advocate of government transparency and whistle-blower protections. Sometimes, he still makes feeble attempts to claim he holds the same views today. Yet Obama is at the helm of what is likely the least transparent Administration in history.

Nathan: This man has sometimes been likened to the fictious Manchurian Candidate, but it is far more accurate to call his the Schizophrenic Candidate.  It appears that he has (with a few notable exceptions) intentionally set out to do the opposite of what he said he would do:  transparency, whistleblowers, Gitmo, renditions, drone attacks, guns, and much MUCH more.  Either we must assume that his handlers and supporters are really in control and he is just a talking head for them, or he is really another Lincoln-Hitler-Mussolini-Lenin-Augustus type.  Dictatorship – and indeed ALL government of the state is built on lies, from the old “I am a god – or best friend of the gods” to the modern “we’re from the government and we are here to help you.”  Unless they mean help you into an early grave.

Local tyranny – Stupid cop tricks
New York: Vet has dogs killed by cops in wrong-address raid
(Personal Liberty)

Nathan: We KNOW this happens a lot.  The question is, why?  I believe that in part it is the result of our changing attitude from “Better let someone who  is guilty get away than to convict an innocent man” to “Get all the guilty ones we can, no matter how many innocent people we mistreat or kill.”  The war on drugs is far from the only reason for this, but certainly is a significant one.  This time it was only a man’s leashed dog in the kitchen of the wrong house.  In recent weeks it has been an elderly man in his own garage, a vet in his own living room defending his family, and many others.  Who is next?

Europe’s collapse – World wars
Netherlands: Ex-PM admits US nukes in country
(MailOnline)

Nathan: Yet again, another British daily publishes news of secrets that are not really secrets.  These sleek, beautiful, incredibly-deadly weapons have been at Volkel AB for a very long time, and it actually makes sense to do so – if you believe that it is right for the US to have ANY alliances.  It certainly isn’t a threat to the Netherlands.  It may be a threat to would be rebels and secessionists back in the States, of course – much harder to get control of these nukes than the ones in US bases.

Tyranny – IRS scandals
IRS Agent tells pro-life group to keep faith to themselves
(Vision to America) A pro-life legal group, Alliance Defending Freedom, released audio today of a 2012 phone call between an IRS agent and the head of a Texas pregnancy counseling group. During the phone call, IRS agent Sherry Wan is heard lecturing Ania Joseph about how she can’t have a tax exemption and also push her religious beliefs— a bit of advice that would be quite interesting to every church in America.

Nathan: Ah, the nanny state starts to get its stride.  Heaven forbid someone gets themselves all upset and uptight because a religious group mentions – gasp! religion.

Tyranny -NSA/PRIZM scandals – Lost liberty
USAF Personnel Warned Against Reading about Verizon and PRIZM Scandal
(World Net Daily)

Nathan: This NOTAM is about as nutty as they come: someone in USAF blue has their head screwed on too tightly, and the brain connection is loose.  What is next, being told that they can’t read Air Force Times because there is a letter of complaint from an airman (name withheld) that might be “prejudicial to good conduct?”  I think that someone is beginning to be frightened that even MORE military personnel are seeing this regime and its leaders for the tyrants that they are.