By Nathan Barton

Good morning: a short workweek for some people, but not us – holidays used to be much more important, when they meant something worth celebrating.

For anyone who is interested, I treated myself by NOT listening to the “State of the Union” advert for the Fuehrer’s next year squatting in the White House.  I did note that his “success rating” of 40% is better only than Gerald Ford’s in the past fifty years.  So it probably isn’t going to matter much anyway – and that is a good thing.  I expect to enjoy the political cartoons about this “grand event” today, though.

Speaking of cartoons, the Israeli and Brit governments are both upset with a political cartoon in the London Sunday Times, and while Israel is only demanding an apology, someone in Whitehall is seeking “retaliation,” as apparently free speech is only a very limited right.  While not as gross or poorly drawn as the typical Charlie Hebdo cartoon, it is still pretty bad.  I’d be embarrassed to admit I drew OR read the thing, if I were in office.  But (of course) once more, hypocrisy rules.

An Arkansas homeschooling family has seven children kidnapped by the state because a mineral supplement NOT approved by the FDA was kept in their home, last Monday.  The fate of the children, in Garland County (west of Little Rock, county seat Hot Springs) is unknown.  More evidence that the corruption and tyranny of the police state extends even to relatively small counties in states normally considered to be more caring for personal liberty. But Arkansas isn’t the only place: this next one hits closer to home.

A 53-year-old newspaper editor in rural Polson, Montana, has been arrested, indicted, reprieved, and fired from his job thanks to the Montana State Patrol and the local county jail, for the evil crime of taking a picture of an accident while the patrolman was “investigating.”  One more example of the way that even conservative/ “libertarian” states are now basically under occupation by their own police forces.

Even as traditional religions are forced by government and attacks to reduce their impact on and even visibility to society, we find a plethora of false religions getting more attention and growing more visible and demanding.  Consider the worship of sports: NBC plans 11 hours, get that, ELEVEN hours of Super Bowl cultic worship activities.  This will be offered free on-line, to woo more people to this event (and of course, NBC). I once found it disgusting that some churches would cancel their Sunday evening services so that their members could watch the actual game: apparently more devotion is required today.

Mama’s Note: Why would it matter to anyone not already affiliated with such a “church?” Nobody is forced to belong to such, and nobody is forced to attend regardless of what they are worshiping. No skin off my nose.

Rationing of health care both in the UK and by the FedGov’s ObummerCare system show that “death panels” are alive and well.  No matter what is said: rationing is what governments do to mess with the free market.

Mama’s Note: Yes indeed, that’s what governments do. But people don’t have to accept it either. Many folks are actually looking at alternatives seriously these days, and the gray/black market is booming. That has always been the response to government attempts to control and ration desirable goods. One of the unintended consequences of Obummercare may just be a healthier population over all.

In a Texas town THREE school employees have been charged with improper relationships with female students at the high school.  TWO of those three are actually both school staff AND police officers. “Improper relationships” means having sex with the underage students, and in at least one of the cases, no action was taken until the parents filed formal criminal charges.  Texas reportedly has more of this sort of thing (with both male and female staff) than any other state: I don’t know how many school staff are also law enforcement, but this seems unhealthy, to say the least. Parents, GET YOUR CHILDREN OUT OF THESE PLACES!

Can we save the middle class?  A business journal article fears that may not be possible, at least not without a major cataclysm in government and society.  All the indicators are way down, over both the period since the Crash of 2009 AND for almost a decade before that.  If we leave it up to government, there will be NO middle class except the bureaucrats.

Yes, we know, Ms. Arriaga.  It has been that way for decades: “I find it abhorrent that the institution that is supposed to protect our religious liberty has become one of the main sources of the violation of our religious liberty,” Becket Fund for Religious Liberty Executive Director Kristina Arriaga told CNSNews.com on Friday.

Self defense?  When I first saw the video, I thought it was a fictional video, but apparently it really happened: the guy breaking in the door with the machete was sentenced to ten years in prison for attempted murder.  In most cases, guns trump swords and machetes, although I do admit that many people get far more squeamish about cold steel than about a pistol or even a rifle (though shotguns also bring out the coward in people).

Mama’s Note: “Coward?” I’d call it downright sensible to be terrified of someone holding either a machete or a shotgun! Mighty little you can do if anyone gets the drop on you with either, if they are serious. The key is not to allow anyone to get the advantage, of position or surprise. Good, reinforced doors, locks and lights go a long way to discouraging this kind of attack. And well trained use of one’s own firearm is certainly a rational response. I’d quit my cowardly shaking and sweating once the smoke cleared… well, eventually.

A report claims that there are 22 jihadi training camps in 16 of the Fifty States, providing paramilitary training from an “Islamic” point of view.  Now, I assume that includes such important subjects as how to rig a suicide bomb vest, make improvised explosive devices (IED) that look like toys, how to persuade (or force) little girls and boys to carry and set off suicide bombs, how to behead someone with a dull kitchen knife, how to crucify people, and how to convert plumber’s trucks into anti-aircraft cannon carriers, as well as usual things: how to scream Allahu Akbar and shoot bullets into the air to celebrate things.  It is interesting that when pushed, the typical Muslim spokesman/cleric response is, that there are “christian” camps and “Jewish” camps – not that there are “patriot” and “militia” paramilitary camps.

I think I agree. Billy Crystal stepped in it: “Stop shoving gay sex scenes in my face.” A lot of folks are upset with him, but a WHOLE lot more seem to agree.  Those of us who are willing to live and let live still think that there is a limit to what is public and what is private.  But it appears that a very small minority (perhaps as few as 1.5% of the population) can force guys like this to back water: he now says he meant “ALL” sex scenes: homo as well as hetero.

Mama’s Note: Whatever… I just don’t understand the excitement over this… why so many people seem to be hysterical over the need to control what others do and see. I have not seen ANY “sex scenes” since I can’t remember when. I know where they are, and I avoid them. Don’t like them? Don’t go to movies or watch TV/videos that contain them.

Sick indeed.  It seems that this bizarre issue will not die: the Hawaiian “tribe” issue comes back again. People want to turn “native Hawaiians” into an ersatz tribe, even though there are no treaty obligations, and “native Hawaiians” were already (I understand) a minority in the Kingdom of Hawaii even before it voted (however fraudulently) to become an American possession.