Charlie Hebdo and the Exposure of Hypocrisy

Posted on 2015-01-15 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Whatever else the Paris Massacre of the staff of Charlie Hebdo and the related killings at a kosher supermarket in Paris has done, it has again exposed the total hypocrisy of a whole lot of people.

Consider the response of Ami and Brit news networks (like CNN) who refuse to show the cover of the post-massacre edition of Charlie Hebdo, which has a caricature of the evil Prophet (peanut butter und honig) on it, going to great lengths to hide it.  They supposedly claim “I am Charlie” but don’t have the guts to do what the French satirical magazine did.  And it is guts, I’m sure: they don’t want to be a target of more “violent extremists.”

And consider the response of the French government, who while gloriously proclaiming their wonderful liberties, especially that of free speech for which these people supposedly died, are busy arresting people who have made comments that might, just might, be considered “Anti-Semitic.”  And at the same time trying to keep the Israeli prime minister from joining with other leaders from around the world in their great memorial and protest.  Liberty?  Fraternity? Equality?  Not in socialist, Tranzi, France. Continue reading →

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What Happened To Vanilla?

Posted on 2015-01-14 by MamaLiberty

By MamaLiberty

OK folks, I realize that this is totally unimportant, given the state of the country and all of the obvious evil and suffering in the world, but I’m having a hard time dealing with much of that this morning so I was thinking of other things…

My first cup of coffee is almost always just perfect, since I grind my own beans fresh, but since I’m frugal (yes, “scotch”), I make two cups at a time. The second cup tends to be old and cold after four hours, so I reheat it in the microwave. It has a funny taste black, so I add a little vanilla flavoring sometimes along with some half and half.  But it isn’t very satisfying these days.

What happened to the flavor of vanilla? I remember clearly the wonderful sweet, wholesome fragrance each time the bottle was opened in my mother’s kitchen. The taste was sweet and clean, exotically floral even, a real comfort flavor. I remember the same smell and taste as I baked and cooked for my little family in the early years.

I can’t remember when it changed….

Now there is little to indicate that “vanilla” is at all related to that ghostly memory. I find myself using less and less of it as the years go by. I’ve bought every kind imaginable, from the cheapest to the most expensive. I’ve purchased pure vanilla extract in a dozen forms, and even tried raw, whole vanilla bean.

Some time ago I realized that even commercial products that are supposedly “vanilla” flavored don’t taste like real vanilla now. They are sweet, probably much sweeter with sugar than they ever were, but the best of the “sweet” isn’t the vanilla flavor anymore. “Vanilla” cookies taste like sugared lard and cardboard. I don’t buy them, but stupidly tried one at the library open house last month.

None of it smells or tastes anything like I remember. So, is it the vanilla that has changed, or my perception of it? Oranges still taste like oranges, and even the imitation does a pretty good job of tasting like oranges. Same for coconut, chocolate and everything else I can think of. Taste imitation vanilla flavor, as well as those with real vanilla extract included, and even the pure vanilla extract for yourself… do they all taste more or less like motor oil smells to you?

At least the question might distract you a few moments from the blood and circus in NYC or France…

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #15-02C: More on wars and cops, fear and risk

Posted on 2015-01-14 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

A variety of news items today, starting with more on our Islamic wars, worldwide.

France and Israel mourned and honored heroes in last week’s murder of 17 people by French Islamist terrorists in the Paris area, as more and more people chimed that the attacks were NOT motivated by religion, using the fact that one of the victims and one of the heroes were apostate Muslims (How can a French cop NOT be apostate?  To say nothing of a clerk at a kosher supermarket?) Stateside, the big news was that the Fuehrer (or someone “high” in his administration) did not go to the services and the four-million-person (or 1.5-milion, depending on what you believe) protest in France, and ADMITTED that they may have made a mistake in not going. So Kerry is going to Paris on Thursday to no doubt do disgusting things and “win” the French back to be our friends.  (It might have been different if one of the victims had been black, I suppose. Or if the Jews hadn’t done it.) By the way, apparently the French president didn’t WANT the Israeli PM to come, and the Turkish Premier condemned Netanyahu for coming. Ah, isn’t it wonderful how people stand up against terrorism? Continue reading →

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Libertarian commentary on the news, #15-02B: Cop wars, Islamic wars, and more stupidity

Posted on 2015-01-13 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good morning! Welcome to the Cop wars:

New York City police officers have been told not to take any vacation or sick days until the number of low-level arrests and summonses return to normal levels, according to a published report. According to the New York Post, officers in individual precincts are being ordered to hand in “activity sheets” to borough commanders. The sheets describe the number of arrests and summonses made during each officer’s shift.  Mama Liberty: The floggings will continue until morale improves…  I wonder just how many of these people will simply quit and go elsewhere? Not enough, probably, but some. And I wonder how long they will hold out this way. It’s actually amazing to see such defiance by the police. Nathan: I suspect many WILL come down with “blue flu” – how can they legally tell someone NOT to take sick leave?  And what does it matter whether they fill out one more form or not? Continue reading →

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I am NOT Charlie

Posted on 2015-01-12 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

“I am NOT ‘Charlie'”

Really.  Within hours of the cold-blooded murder of a dozen people in the totally unarmed and virtually undefended offices of an “in your face” comic magazine in Paris, the signs started appearing: at first hand-made but quickly printed professionally.  “Je Suis Charlie” or “We Are Charlie” is a fad, a hash-tag, and an excuse for doing little or nothing else.

Fox News reported on this in a recent story “‘We are Charlie’: Tens of thousands march to honor victims of Paris attack.”  Mama Liberty pointed out: Not a word about any need to change the “gun free zones” to facilitate self defense. Not anything even close. No, I am NOT “Charlie.” I am armed. I don’t expect anyone else to defend my right to free speech, or anything else. Continue reading →

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Libertarian commentary on the news, #15-02A: Gas prices and more

Posted on 2015-01-12 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good morning, and I hope you have a good week.  Last week was fixated on the Islamic war, especially the European front.  But there is other news, and here are a few topics: oil and fuel being of great interest.

In a recent commentary, I discussed news that the incoming Senate Transportation Committee chair (a GOP member) was considering a gasoline and diesel fuel tax hike.  But now, Boehner promises ‘No New Gas Taxes’. Several are asking, “Is this John Boehner turning a corner? Or is it simply John Boehner playing politics and jerking conservatives around? In a surprise move today the newly reelected Speaker of the House told reporters that he did not believe that gas taxes should be raised. The Washington Examiner chimed in with some good discussion, and I note that the average tax paid on motor fuel is nearly 1/3 of the total cost: like having a sales tax of 33% on buying goods.  Yes, now fuel prices are dropping (see the next story), but that can and WILL change. Continue reading →

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Islamic Wars Continue to Boil (was: Libertarian commentary on the news, #15-01H)

Posted on 2015-01-10 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Once again, I seem to be devoting much of the commentary to the war on the rest of the world by Muslims (yes, “some” Muslims) and the latest manifestation in France. We must remember, though, that what France is suffering is nothing compared to the daily, even hourly, bloodbath and terror that stalks the streets and villages of a half-dozen Muslim nations and nations with much larger Muslim minorities.  And it is also important to remember that it is not just non-Muslim cartoonists and cops that are the victims: most of the deaths in the Islamic wars are of other Muslims: they gleefully kill each other far more than they kill and wound western soldiers or police or whomever.  But at the same time, they seek to make more and more of the world their own, part of the Ummah, the Dar al-Islam: the lands of submission to Allah in which the Koran, the Haditha, and Shari’a rule. Continue reading →

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Libertarian commentary on the news, #15-01G: More of France, More of Legislatures

Posted on 2015-01-09 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good morning.

In France (and elsewhere) the terrorist attack drama continues to expand and reverberate, as 88,000 French police and troops scour the country to try and find two of the three attackers, despite early reports that they had been captured or killed.  So far, the only killing and wounding seem to be of French Police. a policewoman was killed in a shoot-out in southern Paris on Thursday, triggering searches in the area as the manhunt widened for two brothers “suspected” of killing 12 people at a satirical magazine in an apparent Islamist militant strike. Police sources could not immediately confirm a link with the killings at Charlie Hebdo weekly newspaper which marked the worst attack on French soil for decades and which national leaders and allied states described as an assault on democracy. [But it turns out that the man and a woman ARE associates of the killers, and have now taken hostages in a kosher supermarket on Friday.]  And at least one French policeman has been wounded in a Paris suburb.  French Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that the officer had stopped to investigate a traffic accident in the suburb of Montrouge when gunfire rang out. Cazeneuve said that a street sweeper was also wounded, and  added that the gunman was still at large and cautioned against jumping to any conclusions about the attack. Sky News reported that the gunman had been wearing a bulletproof vest. Mama Liberty: I’d think the sight of such a vest would be unusual enough to be noted. Obviously, at least one witness did notice… so one wonders why this cop didn’t notice? Poor situational awareness? Probably long practiced complacency, in spite of the serious incentive provided by the Hebdo attack. Continue reading →

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The Unmentioned

Posted on 2015-01-09 by MamaLiberty

By MamaLiberty

Watching as much of the news and reading as many of the commentaries as I can manage, one thing stands out as a question not being asked, a topic not being mentioned almost anywhere.

The people targeted by the terrorists were not armed… none of them. They had zero effective ways to participate in their own defense. They were sitting ducks, conditioned to believe that the police would or could protect them and that they would be wrong to even wish for other options.

The question of the motives of the attackers, their religion or any of the rest of it seems distinctly secondary to this vital issue. Why couldn’t these people at least have some chance of self defense? How does that learned and beloved helplessness contribute to world peace or safety?

I’m not saying that the attack could have been thwarted by a man or woman – or two or three – who happened to be carrying handguns at the moment. That’s not the point, though many have tried to excuse the situation with that silly idea.

The point is that the French people, as a whole and as individuals, do not have any effective self defense options in any situation. Their culture accepts and often glorifies unarmed, helpless victimhood. As does most of the rest of Europe and all too much of the rest of the world. It is this acceptance of victimhood, the idea that helplessness -relative or complete – is somehow safer and better that is the problem. And it is a problem in far too many places in America as well.

Changing that, building a society based on individual sovereignty and responsibility for one’s life and safety, is the only long range cure for terrorists of any sort.  And that includes having and using the most effective self defense weapons that can be devised, both as individuals and within voluntary association communities.

UPDATE:

Armed self defense related to the Paris jihad murders is finally getting noticed, both in the MSM and among freedom bloggers.

Debate erupts over armed journalists after Paris attack

Something of an Internet snit has erupted over the idea of journalists carrying guns in the wake of the bloody attack in Paris, and a story in Wednesday’s Washington Examiner quoting author Emily Miller and opinion columnist Jed Babbin seemed to spark the debate.

WashPost Asks, With Straight Face: Why Didn’t Strict Gun Laws Stop Charlie Hebdo Massacre?

Very good question….

[Additional update 01-13-15]

Finally, this subject is starting to show up in at least some publications.

That’s not to say that France’s laws had no impact. It’s impossible to know whether anybody at Charlie Hebdo or at the market could have successfully taken advantage of an opportunity to defend against murderers who didn’t care about statutes and penalties. What we do know is that, under the law, the victims had no chance to find out. They had to settle for being legally disarmed when their assailants were not so encumbered.

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Libertarian commentary on the news, #15-01F: Warped senses of reality

Posted on 2015-01-08 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good morning!  Irrational and warped senses of reality are around us everywhere, especially in government circles.  Today, there are several examples of that in recent news.

How long will this continue?  France has suffered its worst terrorist attack in decades, as Islamists attacked a magazine office.  At least 12 are dead in a shooting at the office of a satirical French publication.  Masked gunmen shouting “Allahu akbar!” stormed the Paris offices of a satirical newspaperWednesday, killing 12 people, including the paper’s editor and a cartoonist, before escaping in a getaway car. “Three policemen arrived by push bike, but they left naturally as the attackers were armed.” Mama Liberty: And absolutely nobody prepared in any way to defend themselves, even the police, it would seem. And what the heck is a “push bike?” “France raised its alert to the highest level, and reinforced security at houses of worship, stores, media offices and transportation. Top government officials were holding an emergency meeting.” Mama Liberty: A MEETING! Of course. That ought to take care of it. I wonder what they plan to do… issue signs for the police and population saying: “Stop! Or I’ll yell STOP again!!!” They could show their signs to the nasty terrorists. That ought to take make them think twice. Nathan: I suspect this will not be the last attack: these Muslim terrorists are smarter than the usual run, and did NOT commit suicide: they also used standard getaway tactics.  And the French police have definitely demonstrated that they are unable to cope with this.  France has (for France) taken a reasonably hard stand against Islamists, but now we will see if they buckle under the way Spain did after the terror attacks there. Will the French people OR the French government wake up to reality?  Stay tuned. Continue reading →

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