Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-02B: Theft by government and killer cops

Posted on 2014-01-08 by TPOL Nathan

Theft by government
Census: D.C. Suburbs, With All Those Gov’t Workers, Have Highest Median Income
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: This is not new news, just a reminder.  My family, back when I was getting off active duty, could have been some of those government workers, but chose more freedom and less temptation. We must remember that government workers enjoy very high levels of security, and while they once, as a result, had lower incomes, that has changed.  Today, government workers still do not attain the rarified levels of the very successful entrepreneurs with their high-risk, high-income jobs and businesses, or of the top-of-the-pyramid corporate executives and managers, but are far and above the average American white-or blue-collar worker, and the total of the rest of the service sector (which is theoretically what “government” is supposed to be, right?).  Part of this is the Praetorian system:  keeping the people who keep the leaders/elite in power happy, as dating from Tiberius on.  Part of this is corruption and spoils.  And part of it is purely “we can get away with it, and we will,” like the thugs in Bell, California and Detroit and Chicago.

Stupid government – National Defense
Marines Delay Female Fitness Plan After Half of Women Fail
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Shucks, sounds like high school and college: if the students don’t pass the class, lower the standards.  How many Marines, male and female, will die because standards are lower?  And please do not tell me that machines and equipment can substitute for upper body strength.  That is garbage.  Now, tell me, if the government hires (recruits) people who are unable to do the jobs for which they hired them, and instead reduces the standards, is that not yet ANOTHER form of theft by government?  As well as fraud and corruption on the part of the officials?

Home front – Nazgul and their minions
Illegal Immigrant Hopes His New Law License Will Help Others Like Him
(CSNNews.com)

Nathan: An illegal lawyer, how fun! This kid in California is obviously more foreign than he claims (that he was brought illegally to the US as an infant, and didn’t know better, but became a poster child for letting illegal immigrants practice law in California).  Why do I say more foreign?  Even illegals know that becoming a lawyer isn’t going to make you more liked – indeed, it is normally the opposite.  Later stories say that even though the California Assembly passing this law gives him a license, he may still not be able to be hired to work as an attorney, due to OTHER federal and state laws.  Apparently he either refuses to apply for legal status or citizenship (can he be his own client?) or has been denied that.  I can picture him standing outside a Home Depot or Lowes in a three-piece suit with a sign “Looking for Legal Work” together with those looking for day jobs for other things, like digging ditches or cleaning out basements.

Stupid political commentators
Buchanan trashes potsmokers and AR-15 buyers/owners
(Political Outcast)

Nathan: Pat Buchanan (as always) exhibits a wide streak of insane paranoia and a hypocrisy that is astonishing.  The comments by the reporter are very interesting to read, and make a lot of sense.  For one thing, Buchanan is just plain wrong:  It was not some mythical majority of “potheads” in Colorado that voted to legalize recreational cannabis, but a LOT of people who are sick and tired of government trying to control their lives and those of everyone around them.  And who did not have a chance to vote on General Assembly gun laws and about 90 other stupid things.  To try to equate libertarians with all this garbage means that after all these years, he does not understand either minarchists OR anarchists.

Mama’s Note: It seems to me that many people are starting to accept the fact that if the “rulers” can dictate the use of a plant or any food, relationships with their doctors, steal whatever part of their productivity they please, threaten them with jail or death for defending themselves, or for owning inanimate objects of their choice… they’re starting to get the idea that these dictators will stop at nothing to control everything and everyone eventually. About darn time.

Stupid Political Tricks
Retired officers call for peaceful revolt against DC
(Freedom Outpost)

Nathan: I am of very mixed thoughts (and emotions) about this.  On the one hand, this is really disturbing:  they are trying to create a “Street Senate” – a mob that will attempt to force tyranny against ALL of us, starting with Congress.  Of course, I don’t think that they will get a million, much less multiple millions.  What they ARE likely to get is a bullet in the head, and an excuse for more cancellation of liberty and rights.  But on the other hand, I have to ask, what are the reasonable alternatives?  What alternatives will make sense?  Armed revolt is a very-low-probability success strategy.  I believe that a broad (say, 3-5 million participants) armed revolt against federal and state (and most local) governments COULD succeed with the right propaganda and reasonably moderate planning and coordination.  But only “succeed” in collapsing the current system.  I do NOT think that success would lead to more liberty, but rather could open the door for French/Russian/Iranian style successor dictatorships.  And waiting, for things to get worse, is nothing more than the boiling frog strategy:  we will slide into deeper and deeper tyranny.  Voting, letter and petition writing, and moaning to each other on the Internet is folly. Will efforts like this be the trigger for massive and brutal response that will require resistance and self-defense?

Mama’s Note: I suspect that the collapse of the economy and the final devaluation of the dollar to zero will accomplish the revolution, with no one group or entity either the victim or the villain, and no planned armed insurrection for the most part. The only mass action I can foresee is that of the suddenly bereft entitlement class, from the welfare/unemployment people to the “public servants” at all levels, who will suddenly find themselves without an income. Most will not have made any rational provisions for this eventuality, as proven by many natural disasters, and without a “bailout” of stolen money and bogus “credit,” the war will be on.  I suspect that once the paychecks and perks are gone, the government won’t have all that many actually working for it. Unfortunately, those parts of that parasite class who are now armed and deadly will simply become more so. The arms will be in the hands of the predators, and those who are prepared and willing to defend themselves from them.

Now, what will be built on the ashes of this collapse, nobody knows. I suspect that the key will be how many survive who actually accept self ownership and non-aggression. No guarantees, of course, and utopia is not an option. Going to be a long, long century, I fear.

Home front: killer cop
North Carolina: Cop executes disturbed teen in front of parents
(WECT via Political Outcast) WECT: Wilsey said his family called the police to help with his schizophrenic son Keith Vidal who had a small screwdriver in his hand. Officers used at Taser on Vidal and then shot him, according to Wilsey. Wilsey said officers came into their home after they called for backup help when Vidal was having a schizophrenic incident. Wilsey said officers had his son down on the ground after the teen was tased a few times and an officer said, “we don’t have time for this.” That’s when Wilsey says the officer shot in between the officers holding the teen down, killing his son.

Nathan: This is what North Carolina cops must refer to as “cleaning up the streets.”  Murder, pure and simple: 95-pound, 5’3″ kid: certainly no Trevon Martin.  Murder because this cop couldn’t be bothered after HE intervened illegally and unnecessarily.  Of course, the parents must take some of the blame because they so STUPIDLY called for law enforcement intervention in a situation that SHOULD have been handled among family and friends.  With all the news we have about cops killing and beating and maiming more and more people for virtually ANY reason, why would ANY parent do this?

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Answers to reader’s questions

Posted on 2014-01-07 by TPOL Nathan

Mama’s Note: This was left as a comment to your article ““Hostile to the United States” Part B: Internal countries, organizations, and individuals“

You seem to be very knowledgeable on the matter, so let me ask, why is the term “native American” disrespectful? At one time, in the ’60′s or ’70′s, it was demanded as the ONLY acceptable term by a number of vocal members of [that group]. It is of course true that their ancestors arrived only a few tens of thousands of years ago, the blink of an eye in geologic , or even human evolutionary terms, but they were in fact “native” when explorers and settlers arrived from Europe.

Nathan: Actually, the term became common in the late ’70s and ’80s, and was not used in the 1960s. Indeed the most radical and vocal “Native American” group in that period (2nd Wounded Knee, Alcatraz, etc.) Called themselves the American Indian Movement (AIM), not the “Native American Movement.”  Like many politically correct terms, “Native American” was invented by academic and political elites, to try and ingratiate themselves with the community, like “black” and “African-American” and “Afro-American” and so many others.  These terms are used, quite often, in the most asinine of ways – example, referring to a German of Namibian heritage as a “German African-American” or speaking of the large “Afro-American population” of Belgium (which is mostly black-skinned people from the Congo (Zaire) and nearby countries).  And of course, REFUSING to refer to an American whose parents were Afrikaaner as an African-American because he has “white skin.”

Why is “native American” disrespectful?  Let me first answer that from my own perspective, and then from that of a good many enrolled members of various tribes.  But I warn you, I am an engineer and a geologist, and I do not believe in either evolution nor the standard “historical geology” fantasies.

Native, as in “native-born” refers to someone who is born in a given land, usually of parents also born in that specific land: it is usually a legal term.  Native also has a negative connotation, as in primitive, local (hicks, yokels, etc.)  So the PC term itself has issues and is confusing.  I for example, am a “native” of Colorado because I was born in that state.  Although I lived outside that state, I was a state resident (“citizen”) from my age of majority (18) until I gave up my Colorado citizenship in 1990 to become a South Dakota resident or citizen.  However, my parents were NOT native Coloradoans; one was born in New Mexico and one in Texas.  Under the laws of those states, I can claim to be a “Native Texan” and a “Native New Mexican” because my parents were born and lived in both those states.  I can also claim to be a Native Texan AND a Native “Texican” or “Texian” because I have several Anglo ancestors who were citizens of the Republic of Texas, and were naturalized (back to being) Americans when Texas was admitted.  But I can also be called “Native American” by the PC crowd because some of my ancestors were Cherokee from the Carolinas, Chiricahua (one of  the Apache bands), and Quahadi Numu (Comanche). (The Comanche was originally “Texan” and the Chricuahua “Arizonan” but both tribes ended up in what is now Oklahoma. So the phrase is, at best, confusing and often misleading.

That, of course, is the problem with “native American” and “American Indian” and even the general term “AmerInd.”  It is like introducing a Lapp, a Basque, a Hellene, and a Manxman and telling them that they must be “Native Europeans” or “European Whiteskins” and that they all have to wear Greek kilts, eat Lapp-style Reindeer steak, and use the Suomi sauna, wear Phyrgian caps, and have Roman-style government!  Lumping everyone together IS demeaning and judgmental and certainly does not further liberty.

Closely related to this is the confusion of “Native American” versus “Native Canadian” and “Native Mexican” (and so on for every nation in the Americas – mainland and islands included.  I have seen Canadian tribal members called “Native American” when rather, they are “Native Canadians”  (where, by the way, the politically correct term is “First Nations.”)

Also, many enrolled members of tribes consider it demeaning because of the connotations of “native” (as made popular by the colonial powers of the 1700s, 1800s, and early 1900s) for people in Asia and Africa – backwards and primitive.  (There is a similar negative connotation to the term “Aboriginal.”)  And they do NOT consider themselves to be all mashed together in some mass, instead preferring (as do I) to be identified by their nation(s) (tribe(s)).  Even so, they do take more pride in being called “American Indians” because they ARE Americans, and overall, most tribal members I know are very patriotic, and usually (despite their votes for Democrats and Republicans) pretty conservative.

Continuing your question:
And how is the term “American Indian” appropriate or non-disrespectful? India is, as I’m sure you’re aware, an actual country far far away from America, which is not in any way connected to the people who settled in America. Why does Christopher Columbus’s brain fart carry so much weight, and the patina of legitimacy?

Nathan: First off, “American Indian” or just plain “Indian” is NOT a reference to the subcontinent (or nation) of India, but rather to the “Indies,” which was the Spanish name referring to all of southern Asia, including what has been for centuries known as the “East Indies” – which today is mostly the nation of Indonesia.  This was based on the miscalculation as to the diameter of the planet, which is why the islands of the Caribbean are now the “West Indies.”  Since these were the first long-term inhabitants to be encountered by Europeans (well, Spanish, though commanded by an “Italian” who was actually a Genoan), the name stuck, was NOT derogatory, and makes sense if you are dealing with multiple nations (tribes) and cultures.

This is similar to the fact that most Brits and Americans refer to the Low Lands (Nederland or Netherlands) as “Holland” even though that is just one small (if important) province of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Koninkrijk der Nederlanden).) Or referring to a Scot or Manxman as a “Brit” (short for British subject).  Or even referring to Britain as “England” as so many Americans do, including those who claim to be “PC.”

Second, the term American Indian was not originally derogatory, disrespectful, or non-appropriate.  It was simply descriptive.  And for that matter, the use of just the word “Indian”  when its meaning is clear in context should not be a problem.  It is simply a name, and not intended to be derogatory in any way. Do we have a problem with “titmouse” even though it is not a mouse and does not have teats?

As for Columbus himself, he didn’t establish any legitimacy; indeed, he was long dead before the term “American Indian” came into common use in English. But consider how the name America even came about: from a relatively unimportant explorer, who discovered (as known even in his day) pretty much nothing.  If we want to be so politically correct, then let us use the English translation of the most common term for the two continents used by the pre-Columbian inhabitants:  “Turtle.”  So it would be “these United States of Turtle,” and we would be “Turtleans?”

I don’t think disrespect has anything to do with the use of the term:  anymore than it would be disrespectful to call Johnny Cash’s “boy named Sue” by the name his parents gave him.  It is not the name, but how the name is used, that constitutes disrespect.

My own preference (which I normally use) in referring to people from several different tribes or culture groups is an anthropological term, “AmerInd.”  It is both simple, it removes at least some of the confusion and sting of the full terms, and can be neutral.  It has customarily been applied to ALL pre-1492 inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere.  And people understand it.  Still, whenever possible, I will use the common name or the people’s own name for themselves:  Navajo or Dineh, Inde or Apache, Comanche or Numu, and Sioux or L/D/Nakota.  (Actually, the best term in my opinion is Ahkota for the Seven Council Fires, since it includes (like “Sioux”) all three dialects.)  I know and work with many people who are mostly (by blood) and culturally Lakota, and while about 1 in 10 prefer “Native American,” more accept “American Indian”

Obviously, people’s personal attitude can vary.  But I do not think that refusing to use a term (or terms) that is clearly understood and accepted by most of the people so described makes sense.  Even the term “Redskin” falls into that category: it is nothing more than descriptive, just like “White” or “Black” unless it is used with the intent to demean.  Those are unlike words such as “squaw” or “buck” which were derogatory from the git-go.  (Which is why words like “brave” or “warrior” are, to me and many others are acceptable.)  The fact is, it is to the advantage of politicians and statists to denigrate the use of certain words.

I hope this answers your questions.  Thanks for asking!

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-02A

Posted on 2014-01-07 by TPOL Nathan

Stupid government
IRS Seeks to Shut Down Free Speech Again
(One News Now)

Nathan: Fully in the spirit of the immoral and unconstitutional Johnson Amendment against churches. Once more we have to point out, the purpose of the IRS (like MOST government agencies) is NOT, say again, NOT to provide services, such as getting revenue – the primary purpose is CONTROL and POWER.  This proposal is unlikely to get issued in this form.

Mama’s Note: Of course, neither revenue NOR control are valid reasons for their existence.

Self-defense NOT
DC: Tow Truck Driver Kills Hold-up Artist
(Washington Post)

Nathan: This was NOT self-defense, people, say again after me, THIS WAS NOT SELF DEFENSE.  This was revenge.  The tow truck driver was no longer in danger, and killing the robber was STUPID.  If people cannot learn the difference, they will find themselves given the same lack of mercy, sooner or later.

Panic and Stupid People
36 Signs the Media is lying to you about Fukushima radiation and West Coast US
(TheTruthWins.com)

Nathan: Actually Godzilla is sign #37, but no one has spotted him yet.

Seriously, we know the media lies, but in this case the people that are telling you that the media is lying are lying just as much or more.  I found this story by Michael Snyder reprinted on several websites, including those which have been pretty good in the past about vetting stories.  And they clearly failed on this one, although there were comments (some, but not many) that pointed out that the 36 signs did NOT and do NOT make sense; that much of the information reported is exaggerated or is making claims that the data used to make claims are NOT supported.  This is scaremongering, and even a basic understanding of health physics and general physics, with careful reading and comparison, will help you see it for what it is: panic.  For example, the claim is that 300 tons of radioactive water per day is being dumped into the Pacific.  That sounds like a LOT, but that amounts to a grand total of 0.93 cubic feet per second – significantly less than needed to water a 60-acre field.  The Pacific Ocean is estimated at 714 million cubic kilometers, or 714,000,000,000 cubic meters, and a cubic meter is about 35 cubic feet, so 24,990,000,000,000 cubic feet.  So even almost three years of spilling water (1,000 days) means that 80,352,000 cubic feet of water in that time, which is 0.00000322 or less than one part per million.  The claims by sailors (now mysteriously up to 71 from 51 reported just two weeks ago) just don’t match the facts.  Other more supportable explanations of sealife and avian die-offs make much more sense.  In short, these people are countering the lies from government and government-supported big business (and what else is new) with more lies, and NOT the truth.  Let us not exchange one set of lying power-mad scumbags for another set of lying fanatic power-mad scumbags.

Mama’s Note: Amen, and the bold emphasis above is mine.

DHS Thuggery
‘JFK Customs destroyed 11 of my instruments’
December 31, 2013 by Norman Lebrecht 206 Comments
A Canadian citizen, based in New York and with a green card employment permit, Boujemaa was flying home from Marrakech, Morocco, when his baggage was opened by Customs at JFK. ‘I told them I had these instruments for many years and flew with them in and out,’ he said. ‘There were 11 instruments in all. They told me they were agricultural products and they had to be destroyed. There was nothing I could do. The ney flute can be made with bamboo. Is that agricultural?’

Nathan: Well, this guy may be a good musician, but a biologist he ain’t.  Sorry, Mr. Boujemaa, but bamboo IS an agricultural product.  Millions of tons of which are imported into the US each year. And NOT something that justifies this kind of insane, psychotic, power-mad behavior.  No doubt this is one reason that they are so hyped about keeping  air travelers unarmed.  These people are (literally, sometimes) the kind who pull milk out of babies’ mouths, steal their toys and their candy, and grope old women and underage children.  They are the kind of people who belong in “halfway” houses permanently, where they can’t molest good people.  The kind that give NAMBLA a “good name.”

Nazgul – Theft by government
Budget Cuts Imperil Federal Court System, Roberts Says
(New York Times) By ADAM LIPTAK
Budget cuts have imperiled the ability of the federal court system to deliver prompt justice and to protect the public, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote on Tuesday in his annual report on the state of the federal judiciary.

Nathan: Brings a laugh, huh?  Prompt justice?  Maybe for sequoias and turtles.  Protect the public?  From the benefits and pleasures of liberty, maybe.  Budget cuts?  Now I really am rolling around laughing:  they are only getting an increase in their budget of 8% instead of 10% (That is a “2%” cut for them), only getting a payroll increase of 2% instead of 4%?  Only getting 20 new, luxurious, marble-floored courthouses instead of 40?  Gee, they might have to buy robes that only cost $1000 instead of $1200?  And we let this man make legal decisions?

A couple of stories from last week, to comment on:

Home front
Chicago teen kills and beheads, mutilates boyfriend as “Christmas present” to aunt
(CBS Chicago)

Nathan: I know his crime: killing his victim with a hammer, cutting off the head, cutting off the nose and ears and gouging out the eyes, then calling 911 to boast about it, sounds like a standard Islamic honor killing or jihad against enemies of Islam.  But no, he apparently is NOT Muslim.  He is, after all, celebrating Christmas, and that is verboten in Islam.  And his victim/intended victim was not his daughter, his sister, or his mother.  And apparently he did not scream Allahuakbar!  No, this was apparently a normal, run-of-the-mill psychotic wannabe mass murderer, who is likely to always be a menace to others, and has the morals and point of view of a rabid pit bull who has been totally ruined.   This being Chicago, he had to obey the law and didn’t use a gun: he had to use a hammer. (I am sure the City Council will close that loophole in murder weapons soon enough.)  If there were a Coventry into which he could be dropped to swim or die, it would be a blessing.  But his public defender wanted to get him released on bond…

Mama’s Note: The most fitting and moral outcome for any lethal attack is the death or mortal injury of the perpetrator at the hands of his/her intended victim. The real tragedy in cases like this is that the victims are so incredibly helpless, both physically and otherwise.

Culture wars: Killing babies
Record 87 Surgical Abortion Clinics Close in 2013 – Total Drops 73% from 1991 High
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: But the ones that remain are bigger and “better” and RU-248 and other drugs are being used (and pushed) more and more for killing babies.

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Crude Oil and Common Sense (Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-01B)

Posted on 2014-01-03 by TPOL Nathan

Home front – Accidents and more
ND: Train collision sets oil cars ablaze
(Chicago Tribune) “A BNSF train carrying crude oil in North Dakota collided with another train on Monday, setting off a series of explosions that left at least 10 cars ablaze, the latest in a string of incidents that have raised alarms over growing oil-by-rail traffic. Local residents heard five powerful explosions just a mile outside of the small town of Casselton after a westbound train carrying soybeans derailed, and an eastbound 104-car train hauling crude oil ran into it just after 2 p.m. CST, local officials said. There were no reports of any injuries.” (12/30/13)

Nathan: This is the third “significant incident” within a short while.  I figure that it will trigger still more and more panic – because that is what the mainstream media love to do.  A friend (Tim) sent me the following editorial earlier this week, discussing the issue.

Tribune editorial: Transporting Bakken crude needs review
(Bismarck Tribune) Is Bakken sweet crude more volatile than typical crude oil? If so, do additional precautions need to be taken in transporting Bakken crude from well head to refinery?  The questions need answering.  Certainly, no one wants to be responsible for a derailment, explosion and fireball like the one in July in Lac Megantic, Quebec, in which 42 people were killed. Apparently, the tanker cars in the train were carrying mislabeled Bakken crude. Another oil train derailment in Alabama in November also resulted in a powerful explosion, again the cargo was Bakken crude. Fortunately, no one was killed in the Alabama incident.  The investigator for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada working on the Lac Megantic explosion describes the Bakken crude tested from the tankers there to be closer to gasoline than typical crude. It’s a finding that Beach Fire Chief Dan Buchholz agrees with in general.

Nathan: To me, this seems like nothing but yet another attempt to provide excuses for not developing the Bakken play, and extract the trillions of barrels of oil and gas which seem to be located there in North and South Dakota, Montana, and up into Saskatchewan and Manitoba.  As I pointed out previously, this “difference” is NOT something new.

Apparently, the people who are dealing with this issue are not familiar with the history of oil production in the United States, based on their “surprise” about Bakken sweet.  For decades, crude oil produced in the Permian Basin – the famous “West Texas Intermediate” was a very light, sweet oil which COULD be burned in the gasoline-powered engines of the 1930s – 1960s, with the possible need to add lead the the “white gasoline” which came directly from the well-head with a very simple filter.  It was “highly volatile” and additional precautions had to be taken with the handling and transport – techniques which apparently have been lost in the last two generations.

Labeling is always a problem, but it is impossible to come up with fifty different labels for fifty different types of crude oil.  Oil flowing from wells in the Permian Basin (West Texas) is DIFFERENT than oil flowing from fields in central Kansas, or Pennsylvania, or the Powder River Basin in Wyoming or the Overthrust Belt in Utah.  You cannot provide sufficient information to tell firefighters and first responders ALL the information some board or commission or armchair expert in DC or Ottawa thinks that they need, or even what the firefighters themselves might want to have.  It is no different than dealing with the various concentrations of another common chemical, like hydrochloric or nitric acid, or for that matter, the difference in various “grades” or blends of wheat flour!  But when you want an excuse to get more power, or to increase fees, or to prevent something from being done, this is perfect.  It is, indeed, the same tactic that got the Keystone XL Pipeline put on hold, because they could come up with some small differences, invent or lie about things (like the temperature to which certain types of crude oil must be heated to be pumped in pipelines) and then went hogwild.  We’ve seen it happen with manmade global warming, we’ve seen it happen with asbestos and lead paint and gun control.  And it will keep happening until people demand that it stop and take action to deny power to the idiots who do these kinds of things.

It is interesting, and perhaps important to point out that this sort of nonsense, this “Chicken Little” or “Cry Wolf” sort of behavior has been going on a VERY long time (I think that the “Boy Who Cried Wolf” was originally a fable from about the time of Plato.) and so we will always have it with us.  It existed when people invented the railroad, nearly 200 years ago (Oh, people will die if they travel that fast; the noisy contraptions will make all the farm animals die or spoil their milk or become maddened; the train will set the forests on fire!).  It happened 130 or so years ago, when the automobile was being developed and deployed (Oh, people will die if they travel that fast, the noisy contraptions will destroy city life and kill crops, people can’t control them well enough, they are unsafe).  And SOME of these claims were true, but people – voluntarily, privately (for the most part), and intelligently worked around or solved the problems.

It is easier today than ever before in history to check out the facts as claimed by the hysterical news media and spouted by the people who want nothing to change and fear change.  Sadly, it seems that it is very difficult to get most people to look things up on-line or in the library or by talking to people who really ARE expert because they work with and solve problems in that field every day.  Yes, there is a lot out on the Worldwide Web that is bogus – especially found on the websites of the mainstream media, special-interest groups, and government.  But the truth is also available, and cross-checks much better than the lies, exaggerations, and distortions.

But knowing it is NOT the real problem.  The real problem is that we have surrendered so much of our lives and society and economy to the “elites” whether it is the celebrities (particularly those in the media and other entertainment industries) or to the fanatics (whether sports or religious or social or environist or peace or war), or to the governments. The only way that common sense can again be followed in these United States, and the world, is when we take away the power we have so foolishly given to every institution from a Home Owners Association and a Township Board clean to Congress, the White House, the Supreme Court, and the UN General Assembly, and everything in between.  When we stop living our lives for and at the whim of other humans.

Enough is enough.

Mama’s Note: Amen!

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Computer Privacy – Warning: Danger (Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-01A)

Posted on 2014-01-02 by TPOL Nathan

Nathan: We have long accepted that NSA, like TSA, DEA, FBI, ATF, and other alphabet Federal agencies have gone rogue, not just ignoring but denying the Constitution and (long before Congress explicitly stated it in the latest NDAA) treating virtually ALL Americans (individuals, organizations, and countries) as hostile (“enemies”) to the United States government.  It seems that every week, we have more revelations of EXACTLY how deep their claws are into us.  We have much to thank people like Snowden and Assange and their organizations, and allies, for this.  Events like the Chaos Computer Congress this week in Hamburg allow communications and coordination (mostly in the form of sharing data) between those and tens of thousands of unknown people who are waging a deep and secret war against the tyranny which is growing ever stronger, and the powers that be who think that victory is near, thanks to the very technologies and tactics we are discovering.

Free speech/Privacy – Tyranny and NSA Thuggery
Snowden disclosure: NSA uses Windows error messages to spy
(Daily Mail [UK]) “Error messages that pop up on Windows computers could enable the National Security Agency to spy on PC users, according to a report. The error messages appear when a Windows programme stops working or ‘freezes’ and a computer user can choose to send an error report to Microsoft to highlight the problem, which is designed to help Microsoft engineers improve their products and fix bugs. However, conscientious computer users might be sending reports to the NSA as well as the tech giant, a report by German magazine Der Spiegel suggests. News that the reports are being sent to the controversial organisation’s top hacking unit, the Tailored Access Operations (TAO) division, come from the latest leaked documents from Edward Snowden …” (12/31/13)

Nathan: Fun, huh?  Just read on!

Free speech/Privacy – Tyranny and NSA Thuggery
New malware roosting place: Inside your SD Card?
(CNet News)  “Security researchers have found a way to hack SD Cards, the most common form of flash-memory cards used to store data mobile phones and digital cameras, and run software that intercepts data. Andrew ‘bunnie’ Huang and Sean ‘xobs’ Cross disclosed the approach Sunday in a blog post and talk at the Chaos Computer Congress (30C3). With the attack, a person could run malicious software on the memory card itself. That’s because the cards have tiny built-in computers called microcontrollers that are used to oversee the details of data storage.” (12/30/13)

Nathan: These two stories MUST warn hundreds of millions of us that the communications we depend on DAILY, and the equipment that we use DAILY, is perverted to the use of evil men and women who consider us nothing but dirt, who treat us as slaves and animals, and who believe that we exist only to serve them and their kind.  They, of course, do not depend on themselves to gather and use this knowledge, but instead have trusted people, still dirt and slaves, but elevated to trustee status to interface and rule over us and punish or kill us, whether for the reason that the elite have or because they have been told otherwise and have bought into fairy tales and myths.  Data, knowledge, is power:  the more they know about us, the easier it is to control us.  But the same is true in the opposite directly.  The more this hidden war is revealed, the more we can fight it, the deeper we must dig.  And the more we must protect ourselves.

Of course, this is critical because of stupidity like this:

Nazgul – NSA Thuggery
Federal judge: Constitution irrelevant, NSA spying legal because TERRORISTS!
(USA Today)”A federal judge ruled on Friday that the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of millions of Americans’ telephone and Internet records is legal and a critical component of the country’s effort to combat the threat of terrorism. The decision by U.S. District Judge William Pauley contrasts with a ruling earlier this month by U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon and increases the likelihood that the issue will go before the U.S. Supreme Court.” (12/27/13)

Nathan: This is “old news” but we need to look at it in the light of what else has been revealed this week.  “War is the health of the state,” is clearly something this judge agrees with. Another may not, and so two unelected Nazgul (why two, and not eight? because it is likely to be a 5-4 decision, or maybe a 6-3 decision in the Supreme Court) will get to decided whether to again ignore the dead letter called the Constitution in exchange for accepting a false-front hologram that people pretend to be “in force.”  NSA spying on 99.9% of the world (including the US) is NOT a matter of “survival” of the Union (if it were still alive) or of the nation.  The nation will survive without that – and frankly, is unlikely to survive WITH it.  None of these things, if forbidden, will turn the Constitution into a ‘suicide pact,’ because of the power of the state – and even if we rolled it back all the way to the Articles of Confederation, with only the State Constitutions identifying and protecting our God-given freedoms and liberties as free people, the wisdom of cooperation and “mind your own business” would allow us to live free and prosper.  Americans – Americans who are really free – do NOT need the nanny state or an all-powerful Federal government to live well, to enjoy the freedoms we once did enjoy, or to have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Mama’s Note: The myth that any “state,” at any level, however formed, can ever actually protect free people is the first problem. Such a state might choose to “protect” the subjects, as a shepherd protects his sheep… but it will always be for the benefit of the shepherd, not necessarily the sheep. The wool and meat will continue to be gathered into his barns.

Until individuals accept the truth that no “state” has, nor can be given, any legitimate power to protect them… that they must govern and protect themselves in all things, they will continue to have overlords and masters of one kind or another. No person, nor group of persons, for ANY reason, has legitimate authority to govern or control the life or property of another person.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #13-52A: Ending the year #1

Posted on 2014-01-02 by TPOL Nathan

Culture wars: Religion and the media
Republicans growing more skeptical about evolution
(Washington Post) When it comes to increasing partisanship in the United States, it seems no issue is immune. And that includes evolution.  A new Pew Research Center poll shows a widening political gap over theories about how humans came to be, with Republicans growing increasingly skeptical about the idea that humans evolved over time. Read full article >>

Nathan: IF, of course, government was (a) not involved in education, and (b) not pushing their agenda of humanism, de-facto atheism (except of course, State = God), and a general attack on religion, there would not be a “political” gap.  And there ARE a few Democrats who do not believe in evolution.  Of course, another important aspect is that people can look around and see people and society DEVOLVING – breaking down – and they ask, “and we supposedly evolved to more intelligence, more civilization?  Give me a break!” Of course, the WaPo sees this as just one more way to demonize the GOP: to present anyone who does not agree with them as hicks and ignoramuses, anti-science, anti-human, and just mean.

Mama’s Note: One of the problems in such screeds is the idea that large groups of people with SOME similar ideas, beliefs or goals must necessarily share all of them. It’s an easy trap to fall into. Many individuals and their voluntary associates are “devolving,” absolutely. Other individuals, however, are learning and growing, evolving toward their best potential. And some people seem to have died already, just not having the courtesy to fall down so they can be properly buried. They wear all sorts of labels, and sometimes more than one.

Theft by government – Crash of 2009
Americans Still Driving Less Than They Did In 2000
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Gas locally is selling for about $3.12 (near the national average), Diesel about $3.85 a gallon – in January of 2007 it was $2.12 for gasoline (gasbuddy.com; no Diesel info available).  Gee, I wonder why we are still driving less than before the Crash of 2009?  Actually, demand for gas dropped so quickly in 2008 (after HE “won” the election) that price dropped to almost $1.65 a gallon, or about HALF of what it is today.  Meanwhile, although Federal tax on gasoline did not go up, most state taxes and many local taxes DID go up.  Thousands of stations have closed, car prices have jumped, other travel costs have jumped, and individual American’s income has stagnated – not counting the millions of unemployed (estimated at as high as 30%).  Gee, you figure that we can’t afford to just go for a drive any more?  Just run into town for a single item?  But no, they are typically government-stupid.

World Wars – Stupid government
And The Country Posing The Greatest Threat to Peace as 2013 Ends is …
(CNSNews.com) … as 2013 ends a global poll finds that the country seen as representing the greatest threat to peace today is … the United States. Not only did the U.S. top the list with an aggregate of 24 percent, but the runner-up threat country, Pakistan, was way behind at eight percent. China was third at six percent, followed by North Korea, Iran and Israel at five percent each. The survey of opinions across 65 countries by pollster Win/Gallup International … Paradoxically, just because people view the U.S. as the biggest threat doesn’t necessarily mean they wouldn’t like to move there if they could.  The pollsters also asked, “If there were no barriers to living in any country of the world, which country would you like to live in?” Some countries where the U.S.-as-greatest-threat view holds strong are also those where America would be a prized destination as a new home country. .. American respondents named Iran as the greatest threat to peace (20 percent), followed by Afghanistan (14 percent). North Korea (13 percent) – and the U.S. itself (13 percent). – See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/and-country-posing-greatest-threat-peace-2013-ends#sthash.MVqXmwLt.dpuf

Nathan: They DID ask Americans: one in seven of us see the truth that the US has become little more than a bully, a corrupt and sadistic cop on the world beat!  And apparently a lot of people don’t like us, but want to BE us.  Not too much a shock: who wants to be threatened, but how many people are willing to be able to make the threats!  Also, they know that in more than six decades, the one place that doesn’t really get torn up in one of America’s (or anyone else’s wars) is America itself.  Two big attacks in 2001 still are not much compared to business as usual.  So it really isn’t that much a paradox.  And all of us who see the FedGov as a threat to peace (internally and externally) have very good reason to believe that is the case, the way the nation has behaved in the last fourteen years (and more) is a very strong argument.

Congress in action – Islamic wars: North African front
Intelligence Committee Members Dispute NYT Assertion That al-Qaeda Had No Role in Benghazi Attack
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Uh-oh!  They are in deep doodoo: the NYT will come out against them, reveal all their sordid little secrets, and tell people to stop making campaign contributions to them.  Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch, of course, but doesn’t make it right.  And of course, for once this committee seems to have the right of it: and are right in rejecting another attempt to rewrite history.

Islamic wars: Afghan Front – Politics 2013
Afghanistan war more unpopular than Vietnam
(Washington Post)  Public opposition to the war in Afghanistan has hit a new high and is now well above even opposition to the war in Vietnam, according to a new poll.  The CNN/Opinion Research poll shows just 17 percent of Americans support the effort, while 82 percent oppose it.

Nathan: One big difference between 1975 and 2013 is that “democracy” (or a republic) doesn’t matter anymore.  Congress and the White House have no reason to listen, really, to the voters and whether they oppose or support the nasty things the government does.  So they can keep sending Americans to kill and be killed for worthless (or nonexistent) objectives, while refusing to do the things that NEED to be done, in Afghanistan or Mesopotamia or Detroit or Denver or Delta.  (And refusing to allow anyone ELSE to do them.)  Just as the first thing the Allies did after conquering Germany in 1945 was eliminate National Socialism (Nazi-ism) (and not just the “radical” or “extreme” elements like the SS or the Gestapo), so should have been done in Afghanistan and Iraq: eliminate the root and trunk of the evil: Islam.  Not just the radical Taliban or Al Quada, but the whole evil mess and system: the imams and the other clerics should have been treated just like the Gauleiters and the party secretaries: given a choice of repudiating the religion, imprisonment, or death.  Of course, that was not done.  Not even what was done to the Ost Zone, post Reunification in 1993 was done.  Instead, the source of the evil continues to exist.  And America becomes evil in basically square-dancing with Islam there.

Mama’s Note: What in the world makes such destruction the prerogative of the US government? How can anyone grant the US government the power and “authority” to destroy anything in Iraq or Afghanistan, then object when that same government destroys whatever it pleases anywhere else – including in the US. Can’t have it both ways.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #13-51C: Islamic Evil (still with us)

Posted on 2014-01-01 by TPOL Nathan

Islamic war: Central African Front – Evil
Nigeria:  Islamists justify killings
(680 News, via Freedom Outpost) An Islamic extremist leader in northeastern Nigeria says the bloody insurgency will continue because Allah says they must decapitate and mutilate. In a video newly released Saturday, Abubakar Shekau claims responsibility for the Dec. 20 attack on a tank battalion barracks and says his men would have eaten their enemies, but Allah forbids cannibalism. Witnesses said insurgents put soldiers to flight and set the complex ablaze before they were driven off by a jetfighter.

Nathan: The Boko Haram use the following passages from the Koran to justify their murderous activities, which were finally condemned last month as ‘terrorism” by the US Administration, after several years of vicious attacks.

Qur’an (5:33) – “The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides…”

Qur’an (8:12) – “Remember thy Lord inspired the angels (with the message): “I am with you: give firmness to the Believers: I will instill terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their fingertips off them.”

Nathan: Contrast this with the Bible, especially the New Testament.  But even when God ordered the destruction of nations and the death of the people, it was not specified HOW this was to be done – and even stoning was done only after specific legal proceedings (for those who care, the New Testament removed those powers and punishments:  as christians, we are not given any power of punishment of unbelievers or even those who “wage war against us” except the power of self-defense against attack.  I suppose the Boko Haram are at least “somewhat” civilized: they do not eat the bodies of their enemies.  Unlike their fellow Islamists in wartorn Syria (next story):

Islamic wars: Syrian front – Evil
Syria: Disease associated with Cannabalism appears
(Shoebat.com) It’s called Kuru, an extremely rare disease which virtually became extinct after extinguishing cannibalism in Papua New Guinea. Amazingly Kuru has now been found in 8 to 20 people, out of all places, in war-torn Syria, and the only way it could have come about, doctors confirmed, is through cannibalism and the consumption of human brain, as first reported by Arabian news source Zaman al-Wasal and substantiated by Orient News Television.Two of the infected were sent from Syria to a hosptial in Ghazi Antab in Turkey for further examination to only be transferred to another hospital in Germany. One of the two already died, since Kuru is 100% fatal. Kuru is contagious and has symptoms of skin ulcers and worms, and according to a piece on the New York Times, Kuru is a very rare disease. It is caused by an infectious protein (prion) found in contaminated human brain tissue.

Nathan: Sick enough yet?  Enough reason that I (and many others) refer to Islam as a death cult, as evil as any Moloch worshippers burning babies (or abortionists killing babies) or Azteca priests carving the hearts out of their victims on the pyramids?  HOW many Islamic voices have you heard condemning this?  How many apologists for Islam have you heard saying, “this is evil, this is wrong, this is not Islam?”  Except the one guy in Nigeria (previous story) who says Allah does not permit cannibalism?  And even he did not speak out about Syrian evils.  Of course, there is at least SOME evidence of cannibalism, as well as child sacrifice and the killing of slaves to accompany their dead masters to paradise in ancient Syria’s various civilizations.  Are these “rebels” just reverting to ancestral practices?  Apparently, Islamic authorities and their fellows are not opposing it.  Which makes even modern people, so condemning of God’s instructions to Israel during the conquest of Canaan, a bit more understanding about why whole peoples and nations were to be wiped out.  But governments and people tend to be rather stupid about such things.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #13-51B: Crash of 2009 still with us

Posted on 2014-01-01 by TPOL Nathan

Crash of 2009-Congress in Action – Theft by government
Democrats Say Pass Extension of Unemployment Benefits First; Pay Later
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Of course, many (most?) GOP types have this attitude as well: why worry about paying for something until you absolutely have to?  Meanwhile, stick it to the “wealthy” and “corporations” and future generations.  Meanwhile, extension of unemployment benefits might be “compassionate” but it will continue to drag on the economy: people have less incentive to do something when someone else is paying the bills.  Of course, the illogic of Congress – its inability to reason – is well-known.  But even some usually reasoning (and reasonable) conservative-bordering-on-minarchist commentators can’t seem to wrap their heads around this, as the next stories and their scary headlines show.

Mama’s Note: I doubt many of the truly wealthy, or large corporations are footing much of the bill. Instead, they are lined up to take as much subsidy as possible, no different than the old “welfare queens.” The problem is that almost everyone, at every economic level, has lived a long time with credit, subsidies and seriously distorted tax incentives as normal business practice, rather than savings, wealth creation and anything close to a free market. Government, and the skewed economy, destroyed millions of jobs and business opportunities over the last fifty years, and most of those now unemployed see little or no chance to find any sort of job. Electronics and automation will very soon replace all of the “burger flipper” jobs, and the noose will tighten. So, it is perfectly understandable why so many are in a panic at the end of the “unemployment benefit.” They don’t see any other real options.

Crash of 2009 – Stupid people (2 stories)
Breaking Point?  Anger grows as Unemployment Benefits Cut
(Bloomberg, via Freedom Outpost) And now extended unemployment benefits have been cut off for1.3 million unemployed Americans, and it is being projected that a total of 5 million unemployed Americans will lose their benefits by the end of 2014. In addition … 47 million Americans recently had their food stamp benefits reduced. The conditions for a “perfect storm” are certainly being created. So how much longer will it be until we see all of this anger and frustration boil over in the streets of our major cities? Is America about to reach a breaking point?

1.3 Million Americans lose unemployment benefits
(CNN via Freedom Outpost) Long-term unemployment benefits for 1.3 million Americans expired Saturday after Congress failed to pass an extension. Reinstating those benefits is expected to be one of the first priorities for congressional Democrats in the new year. “Extending unemployment insurance is the right thing to do for millions of Americans who are trying to support their families,” Democratic National Committee chairwoman and Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in a statement Saturday. “What makes matters worse, the loss of benefits comes just a few days after the holidays.” CNN

Nathan: Both stories are as much commentary as news, because the reporters/commentators are fearful that this anger (or what is supposed to be anger) is going to boil over into flash mob attacks on WalMart and KMart and riots in the streets.  One does at least point out the futility of the three-month extension.  IF their visions (nightmares) of street riots and looting were real, I suppose an extension to the end of March would mean less fighting in really bad weather conditions in much of the country.  And less reason for mortgage companies (the “banksters”) and utilities (mostly owned “by the people,” that is, government) to evict people or turn off their services.  At this point, it is probably futile to point out that a lot of people know that this sort of thing is NOT sustainable for very long, and if it crashes (instead of ending with an upswing in a hag-ridden economy), the consequences would be far worse than not extending the benefits.

Crash of 2009 – Government lies
6 million Americans Unemployed; 15% of Youth
(ABC News/Daily News) Right now, there are approximately 6 million Americans in the 16 to 24-year-old age group that are not in school and that are not working either. What that means is that we have an alarmingly high number of very frustrated young people that do not have anything better to do than to cause trouble. In some of our largest cities this has become a massive problem. In fact, quite a few major U.S. cities actually have more than 100,000 “idle youth” living in them… Just look at some of the nation’s largest cities. Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Miami, Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Riverside, Calif., all have more than 100,000 idle youth, the Opportunity Nation report found.

Nathan: As people look at the potential for society to collapse, and for canceling or reducing welfare benefits as an excuse, these numbers loom large in their mind.  A LOT of young people: easily riled and easily led into stupid actions, are roaming the big cities.  Even 1-2% of them can create massive problems.  Some point to recent disturbances (600 people in a movie parking lot, 400 people around a mall) as the beginning of the end.  In winter?  At the same time, it shows that government is not solving the problems, just lying about them.  And government CANNOT solve the problems; only people can, working together voluntarily to produce, sell, and buy.

Hoplophobes and hoploclasts – Stupid people tricks
Pennsylvania – State Trooper has gun on-duty but not allowed off-duty
(Penn Live via Freedom Outpost) Pennsylvania State Trooper Michael L. Keyes is in an odd situation. When on duty, he can carry a gun. Yet while off duty, he is barred by law from possessing any firearms, because seven years ago he suffered from deep depression, repeatedly tried to kill himself by taking drugs and was involuntarily committed for mental health treatment. Keyes’ latest attempt to be allowed to have a gun all the time was rejected this week by the state Superior Court. That court upheld an earlier ruling by Perry County Senior Judge Keith B. Quigley that Keyes’ involuntary mental health commitment constitutes an unsurmountable legal barrier to his ability to possess a gun while off duty.

Nathan: So wrong in so many ways.  The reason given is federal law, yet it seems the Commonwealth is violating federal law to let him carry on duty.  But since he is “cured” it would seem that it makes no sense to keep him from having a weapon! (Of course, we already knew the federal law is stupid.)  Even a Jack-booted Thug (and PA state troopers are literally jackbooted!) has God-given rights to defend himself and others – and yes, a God-given right to be stupid and kill himself. But gun control isn’t about guns, it is about control.  So these courts “uphold” the law and do stupid things.  It is a God-given right for the judge and the Congress to be stupid, but NOT on our dime.  And we wonder why people are frustrated and disturbed!

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #13-51A: Abominations at year end

Posted on 2013-12-30 by TPOL Nathan

Abominable Act (ObummerCare) – The “messiah”
President Enrolls in Cheapest ‘Bronze’ Plan But Won’t Use It; No Subsidy
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Seems that since HE has enrolled in his own program, that the White House should be forced to cut millions a year from the budget by dismantling the entire White House medical office.  Space for wounded soldiers can be made available by having HIM go to Washington’s general hospitals (there is one in the old “Barbeque Zone” north of the White House, as I recall) instead of using Walter Reed, which surely is not in this Bronze Plan.  Of course, the “Bronze Plan” with its huge out-of-pocket costs and maximum limits on coverage is a joke, according to most people.  I suppose that the government will pay this guy’s out-of-pocket costs.  What a joke – and the joke’s on us!

Politics 2013, 2014, 2016 – Culture wars
Huckabee: Most Christians Would Rather Be ‘For Something’ Than ‘Against Something’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Another of Huckabee’s slaps against the Duck Dynasty people, apparently.  According to other stories, he is definitely seeking the 2016 presidential nomination to win the White House, but his actions right now show he will be no different in the most important ways from what we have now and have had in the past.  He wants to avoid “offending” Log Cabin Republicans and other homosexual “moderates” and “conservatives,” but he also is showing the long-term (400+ years) Baptist antipathy towards churches of Christ such as the Robertson’s White’s Ferry Road Church of Christ in West Monroe, Louisiana.  I am surprised he has not used some of the old slurs, like calling them Campbellites and members of a cult.  Hukabee, like many GOP “moderates” who claim to be “conservative” does not like people who are independent, value their liberty, and are willing to speak their mind regardless of financial or social consequences.  In particular, he will not support them in 2014 campaigns.

As to his “theology” – if you are FOR SOMETHING, then that means, inevitably, that you are against a WHOLE lot of “SOMETHINGS.”  There is no way around it.  You can tap dance all you want, but if you claim to be a “Christian” and therefore “for Christ,” then you must be AGAINST Islam and Judaism, and people who have morality that is not the standard which the Christ taught.  But politicians pretend to be stupid, and his status as a preacher is a whole lot less important to him than his status as a politician.

Congress in Action – Abominable Act (ObummerCare)
Pelosi on Obamacare: ‘It’s a Glorious Thing’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: No doubt it is, from her point of view: a whole sixth of the world’s largest economy, and millions of people under micro-control by governments at all levels. Merely the fact that Nancy Pelosi is going overboard about it is a strong indicator that it is worse than ever.

New religions: Environists – Economy 2013 and beyond
Transporting Bakken crude needs reviewTribune editorial
(Bismarck Tribune editorial) Is Bakken sweet crude more volatile than typical crude oil? If so, do additional precautions need to be taken in transporting Bakken crude from well head to refinery?  The questions need answering.

Nathan: Thanks to Tim for this one! This may be the start of yet ANOTHER campaign against the production (“exploitation”) of the huge Bakkan play of the Dakotas and Montana..  “This stuff is too dangerous to transport; we must leave it in the ground.”  And pretend that “Peak Oil” really does exist, along with Global Warming and Evolution and presidents who don’t lie.

The story goes on to talk about how the Bakken oil is more like gasoline than “normal” crude and how it may have caused two big railroad fires – never mind that the CAUSE of the railroad accidents, which led to fires burning crude oil being transported – was human error, as is usually the case. Apparently, the people who are dealing with this issue are not familiar with the history of oil production in the United States, based on their “surprise” about Bakken sweet.  For decades, crude oil produced in the Permian Basin – the famous “West Texas Intermediate” was a very light, sweet oil which COULD be burned in the gasoline-powered engines of the 1930s – 1960s, with the possible need to add lead the the “white gasoline” which came directly from the well-head with a very simple filter.  It was “highly volatile” and additional precautions had to be taken with the handling and transport – techniques which apparently have been lost in the last two generations.  If we could haul that stuff from Wink and Odessa and Andrews and Crane back in the 30’s and 40’s, surely we can haul the stuff from Williston and Newtown and Plentywood to the coasts as well.  IF we aren’t hampered by stupid government facilitating the problem would not be anything but a minor bump.

TSA thuggery – Home front
Airport Security in US is Joke
(AOL/Huffington Post) “Checking luggage is very nice, it looks great, taking away the breast milk of the mother of a one month old baby, that looks great,” said Rafi Sela, the president of A.R. Challenges, a transportation consulting firm based in Israel. “It does nothing for security. It’s just a show.”

Nathan: TSA of course, has excuses for why the Israeli (or other systems) won’t work and why they HAVE to do it in as degrading a way as possible, because Sela and others do not understand (or at least don’t say it out loud) – it is not about security of the plane flights, it is all about the control and the domination that TSA thugs and others can have.  The problem is, there is a limit to the stupidity of the terrorists.  Sela says “two seconds” even for stupid terrorists.  So five seconds for the even more stupid false-flag attackers?  That is the second point that Sela misses: they WANT there to be more successful attacks to justify MORE power and control and money for TSA and the other official-pirate agencies, or so it seems.

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Food Stamp Lies

Posted on 2013-12-27 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Once more, I read news about how the SNAP (Food Stamps) cuts which started in November are nothing but a Congressional War on the Poor, and will cause millions of Americans to – if not starve – lose food security and go hungry.

A Reuters blog stated this:’ Congressional Republicans seem hell-bent on denying the most disadvantaged among us healthcare, unemployment benefits and, perhaps worst of all, food stamps, from which the House of Representatives slashed $40 billion last month. Elizabeth Drew, writing in Rolling Stone, calls it “The Republicans’ War on the Poor.”’

Wow!  That is a lot?  How much is SNAP costing the US government, and therefore, US taxpayers?  Well, a little searching on-line found the official US government website that told me how much: in FY2013 (last Oct to this October) $76.0703 billion was spent providing assistance to 47,636,000 people; an average of $133.08 per person per month.  Wow Again!  40 billion cut would drop that to only $36 billion: less than HALF!

Then I started looking.  That would mean that the SNAP/Food Stamp Program would STILL spend more than it cost the last year of George W Bush’s administration: in FY 2008 (which ended the month before the election), $34.6 billion was spent.  In just FIVE years, the amount of FEDERAL food assistance (well, direct assistance: this doesn’t include school breakfasts or lunches, doesn’t include state or local or church or food bank or other charitable spending, and doesn’t include the money my wife and I use to buy food for my elderly, senile relative); in just FIVE years, it more than doubled.  Still, the Congress (blame the GOP of course) is Scrooge-squared to do this.  How evil!

This sounds horrific!  Then I ran across some OTHER articles – and no, not published by those purveyors of pornographic pro-capitalist propaganda like the Cato Institute and Washington Times and Independence Institute and LewRockwell.org.  Published by that great, pro-government, pro-liberal, pro-welfare USA Today newspaper, which said: The actual cut was 39.5 billion OVER TEN YEARS, with about 4.5 billion the first year and declining each year after that!  So!  That means (go back to that government website and calculate: The 76 billion in 2013 gets cut to 71.5 billion in 2014.  That means that the program is cut DRASTICALLY to 2011 levels (71.8 billion).  Insane!  Hideous!  Horrific!  Skeletons of the starved will be found in the streets and in their cardboard shacks under railroad bridges!

This “drastic cut” will mean that a family of four on SNAP will get only $632 a month, instead of $668, a drop of $36 per month, or about $1.16 per day.  Imagine ONLY $632 per month for food for a family of four.  Even with inflation, that seems to be a WHOLE LOT of money to me: a whole lot more than MY family of four spends for groceries each month.  But that website explains “The cuts are especially painful in light of the inadequacy of existing benefit levels.”  Huh?

Let us look at it another way:  Aluminum now sells at the local metal place for about 60 cents a pound.  There are 25 cans to the pound, so to get 60 pounds ($36) of aluminum, you need to collect 1500 cans.  Sounds like a lot, until you realize just how many cans people buy and throw away, and how many you can find today on the roadside ditches and public trashcans of a typical American city.  That is an average of 50 cans – just over 4 12-packs, a day.  Hard work?  Yeah, unless you really need that additional 36 bucks for food.

OR you could learn to cook something as simple as beans – a 15-ounce can of precooked pinto beans (Kuners) runs about a buck; a 10-pound bag of pinto (or anasazi) beans (from Dove Creek, CO Adobe Milling) costs five bucks, and makes the equivalent of 30-40 cans of beans:  a cut in costs of 6:1. (30 cans at a buck each divided by 5).  A 10-ounce can of processed chicken runs three bucks (on sale), a five-pound  package of already-disassembled chicken costs about ten bucks, but makes the equivalent of 8 cans, a cut in costs of about 2.4:1. (80 oz at $10 versus 80 oz at $24).  Similar savings on dozens of home-cooked versus store-bought foods, and you don’t need to go out and collect aluminum cans.

OR you could decide that your family only needs TWO cell phones (for the adults) and NOT for all four of you, at $50/month/cell phone (Denver rates with tax).  $100/month.  (Unless you are getting “commod” or “Obama” phones, of course.)  Or you might have to – gasp! give up cable TV.  Or NOT get that 50-inch television.  Americans are the most incredibly wealthy poor people on the planet, and in history.

$36 lost might be a hardship, but hardly an insurmountable one.  Even at half minimum wage, that is all of eight hours of work.  Grunt work, under the table work, but WORK.

Excuse me, people, but WHAT gives?!?  Why do we let these people get away with these lies?  Why do we let them shame us into accepting that we are greedy Scrooges who OBVIOUSLY hate poor people?

Posted in Nathan's Rants | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments