“Hostile to the United States” Part B: Internal countries, organizations, and individuals

Posted on 2013-12-27 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

In my first segment, I discussed the 2013 NDAA and its language allowing gathering of information (spying) from external countries, organizations, and individual hostile to the United States now or in the past.  It seems to include a good 90 percent of the countries on the planet, and many tens of thousands of organizations and billions of individuals in those countries.  It includes virtually every nation now identified as an “Ally” by the United States, and most of the rest of the world. But what about internally?

The NDAA does not distinguish between external and internal “countries, organizations, and individuals” in its authority.  What, then, does that include? In the first segment, I talked about American Indian (AmerInd) nations  (sometimes, disrespectfully called “native American nations”).  These nations, legally called “dependent domestic nations” (an oxymoron) since 1831, have been largely hostile to the US government, whether accepting the “protection” and “guardianship” of the federal government or not.  (There are a few exceptions, of course, as I mentioned.  The Shoshone, the Crow, and a few others have not actually gone to war against the United States or one of the States, but certainly many of their actions can be considered “hostile” in the past and today. But internal hostility is far from limited to 310 AmerInd nations (and reservations) scattered from Point Barrow to the Everglades, and the two or three million enrolled (and non-enrolled) members of those nations.

Let us look at some others and get the magnitude.  Remember, the NDAA applies to “countries” and “organizations” and “individuals.” The easiest to deal with is the old Confederate States of America:  the eleven states which actually seceded and formed a new government.  Clearly today recognized as a “country” of four years duration, except possibly by the Courts of the United States.  Theoretically, those original states no longer exist: they were replaced by NEW entities which were readmitted to the Union during Reconstruction.  And obviously, almost 150 years later, there are no individuals which were part of or served that country still living.  Organizations?  Both the SCV (Sons of Confederate Veterans) and UDC (United Daughters of the Confederacy) as well as many other organizations, were established by and for the support of individuals who were hostile – and therefore, the organizations can be considered hostile.  Millions of Americans have been members or are now so. But there is more:  although the states were extinguished, there were and are many municipalities which existed in 1861 and supported secession and were NOT “dissolved.”  I do not count counties (pun intended) because counties are considered units of state government.

And we must remember that the movement of 1860-1861 was not the ONLY secession movement organized and hostile to the US government.  We know that in the early 19th century (1810s and 1820s) that several of the New England states were hostile to DC and proposed or planned secession, although they did not actually do so.  We know that during the War between the States, a planned “Northwest Rebellion” led by Democrats was very much hostile to the Lincoln government, planning to split off Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.  Successors of those states, or the actual states themselves, still exist. In more modern times, we have the Alaska Independence movement, we have the various attempts to reestablish a new Texas Republic, and we have similar attempts to separate Vermont, New Hampshire, Wyoming, and elsewhere.

None of these are actually the state governments themselves, but organizations within them, which are hostile.  But many of the states themselves ARE hostile, some on a continuing basis, or have BEEN hostile to the US government, ranging from anti-desegregation states (Arkansas and Louisiana come to mind) to anti-Spanish-American War, anti-Philippine Annexation, anti-Vietnam War, anti-seatbelt, anti-drinking age, and all sorts of other kinds of and reasons for opposition to the dictates and actions of Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court.  Indeed, maybe ANY states in which the people, legislature, or representatives in majority EVER were opposed (“hostile to”) ANY action of the US government can be on that list.  Hard to think of even one of the fifty which would not be in that category.

As for other organizations, well, internal organizations?  The list is even larger.  Let us start with the anti-ratification/anti-Federalist organizations of the 1780s and move forward, to include virtually every political group from the Republican Party and the Grand Old Army (Union veterans) to the Communist Party USA( and its hundreds of splinters) and Young Americans for Freedom to the SLA and Black Panthers (New and Old).  And let us not forget the religious groups, including the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints.  Even the League of Women Voters has been hostile to DC now and then.  And do not forget private business – even if in public ownership.  That leads us to individuals.

What constitutes “hostile?”  It appears, based on the way the government in DC – the “messiah” and his minions, and the raving of Congress and its staff, and the decisions of the Supreme Court and all its downstream courts, that any disagreement, including  minor ones, with the federal government, in which ANY action is threatened or encouraged,  can be considered “hostile” to the US government.

Did you question your tax bill?  Try to avoid or reduce or – gasp – evade taxes?  Did you disagree with the NPS closing your favorite restaurant or necking place? Did you cut off a US government plated vehicle?  Did you discourage someone from enlisting?  Did you argue with the extension agent on which crops to plant?  Did you complain because your school tried to follow federal guidelines and stopped serving french fries, or stopped singing “Here Comes Santa Claus” for the winter concert?

All of these actions are hostile: the NDAA apparently “gives” authority to the NSA, FBI, BATFE, DEA, USDA, FDA, PHS, IHS, FHWA, FCC, and two dozen additional agencies to be selected to read your e-mail, listen to your phone calls, record your television watching habits and browsing history, check your spelling on your documents on- or off-line, and use GPS to record your trips to the grocery store and the pawn shop and the church building.

If not now, then later.  How much later?  Did you hang around that seventeen-year-old girl too much when you were nineteen in college, thirty years ago?  Fair game: there is no statute of limitations for NSA to “investigate” and collect data.  Did you collect signatures to get Goldwater on the ballot in your home state in 1964?  Did you pick up a numbers ticket from Greasy Joe Luciano’s racket in Pittsfield, MA, in 1982?  (Talk about organizations hostile to the US government: the Mob, the Mafia, Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, and friends of George McGovern AND GG Liddy all fit in that group.)

I am SURE that somewhere, someplace, somehow in America’s fifty states and dozen territories there are people who were NEVER and are not NOW hostile to the United States – and also over the age of five.  But like Abraham in Sodom and Gomorrah, it might be difficult to find TEN really quickly.  Certainly no American sailor, airman, marine or soldier who ever looked at, and cussed their pay statement, can be considered to have never been hostile.  With this wording, even the “messiah’s” Consort herself, Queen-bee Michelle, might have been hostile, because she said “this is the first time I’ve been proud of my country” as an adult.

The bottom line is this:  Congress has constantly given and will and does continue to give the various secret police entities (“intelligence community”) a blank check to gather information on anyone, anywhere, anytime – essentially in the entire world.  That such power is clearly unconstitutional and in violation of every moral principle accepted by Americans for ten generations is a worthless argument against it.  They have the power, and they not only make the rules, but ignore the very rules they make.  When they write things like this, it is little more than arrogance on their part: see, we will do whatever we want to, and you can’t stop us.  It is force: not the open, brute force of the whip, the mailed fist, the pistol or Taser or shock baton, but still force:  intimidation and threats and constant pressure are the tools of violence, always backed up by sheer force.

Which brings us to the point of both parts of this article.  You and I and virtually everyone, every organization, and every country on this planet have been deemed hostile to the United States government.  It is already collecting information in every possible way and awaiting the right opportunity to take action on that information against you, your contact, your neighbors and friends and family.

So, what will you do about it?

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #13-50B: Stupid, corrupt government

Posted on 2013-12-25 by TPOL Nathan

Nathan: This may be my last posting for this week, but check back anyway!  Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Stupid (corrupt) government
‘Zero Dark Thirty’ leak investigators now target of leak probe
(McClatchy DC) More than two years after sensitive information about theOsama bin Laden raid was disclosed to Hollywood filmmakers, Pentagon and CIA investigations haven’t publicly held anyone accountable despite internal findings that the leakers were former CIA Director Leon Panetta and the Defense Department’s top intelligence official. Instead, the Pentagon Inspector General’s Office is working to root out who might have disclosed the findings on Panetta and Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Michael Vickers to a nonprofit watchdog group and to McClatchy.

Mama’s Note: The whole government has sprung so many leaks… maybe it will bleed to death pretty soon. Investigating each other at least diverts a little of their attention, I guess.

Nathan: Yes, once upon a time, Virginia, IGs were involved in rooting out corruption in military units and government organizations, not uncovering people who blew the whistle ABOUT corruption.  But times have changed, haven’t they?  The government must protect itself from those evil people who believe that government is to serve the people (and NOT for lunch) and that honesty in government is a valued quality and not a defect in the system.  There is always, of course, a real fear that the whistleblowers and leakers in government agencies are really double-agents, trying to create a situation that will discredit the watchdog groups and political opposition.  And it is also very difficult to draw the line between just blowing the whistle and actively attacking and destroying the ability of the agency to function.  Such attack and destruction is not necessarily offensive in nature, as it can be purely defensive.  But the stakes are raised significantly and the risks to all involved increase.  Such revelations can (or at least have, elsewhere in the past) lead to a complete collapse of the agencies – and even to open revolt.

Culture wars: “homosexual marriage”
Federal Judge: Right to Same-Sex Marriage Is ‘Deeply Rooted in Nation’s History and Implicit in The Concept of Ordered Liberty’
(CNSNews.com) Utah: The judge argued that the Fifth Amendment, ratified in 1791, and the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, are the two provisions of the Constitution that have guaranteed the “existing right” of a man to marry another man or a woman to marry another woman. – See more here.

Nathan: Another headline reads “Judge Strikes Down Traditional Utah Marriage Laws, Calls Them Irrational.”  This is just a week since a judge declared Anti-Polygamy laws in Utah (put there on demand of the US Congress 120 years ago) also unconstitutional. Are the lawyers for the LDS in Salt Lake kicking themselves for not claiming this argument way back then? The logic here for the most part escapes me. If this idea was applied across the board, then tens of thousands of laws at the state and federal level (and hundreds of thousands at the local level) would instantly have to go away.  But there is another more telling point overlooked. Can politicians OR judges at ANY level totally redefine a plain English word?  For centuries, “Marriage” has meant a man and a woman, and when you trace the word to its equivalent in Anglo-Saxon, German, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, that definition has been in existence for millennia: probably at least 5,000 years.  If what this judge is saying is that any two people have a right to contract for some sort of bond or partnership and call it “marriage,” then why do any two people not have a right to contract for ANYthing and have it deemed legal, whether it is a contract for medical services (regardless of “licensing”) or for sale/purchase of recreational drugs, or for procuring murder services, or whatever else.  And at the same time, this judge apparently says that Congress or a legislature has the power to define a tail as a leg so that all dogs are five-legged.  To define truth as lies, war as peace, and liberty as tyranny.  If this principle canNOT be applied across the board, then WHAT authority is there for limiting it just to marriage – or just to “homosexual marriage between two persons” – why can it not apply between three or four or eight or ten?  Looney-style gang marriages?  700-woman harems?  Two, three, four or more men sharing a single woman?  Islamic-style “temporary marriages of convenience” to “protect public morals?” (That is a hoot.)  And why does not a right to contract whatsoever we will (the “open liberty” clause) not trump laws about felons owning guns or requiring background checks or Jonestown style suicide pacts or selling organs?

Mama’s Note: Seems obvious that the real problem is government involvement in the private lives of individuals, across the board, for any reason. A person can define “marriage” any way they please, obviously, and it only becomes a problem in trying to communicate to others who define it otherwise. Not a government concern, if there even is such a thing. A person can have as many five legged dogs as he can feed without resorting to theft… Nobody else’s business as long as they don’t keep the neighbors up at night with their barking, I suppose.  But then, that would be a matter of negotiation with the neighbors and still no business of any government.

The “messiah” – African collapse
Obama Tells Congress He ‘May Take Further Action’ in Turbulent South Sudan
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Oh “HE” may take further action.  What about the (former) powers of Congress – look, not even Kim or Chavez could claim this kind of power.  South Sudan is a mess and US troops are making it more of a mess. We have already taken casualties (no KIA yet, or at least none reported) and all we are doing is meddling in the internal affairs of two supposedly sovereign nations.  If we really wanted to help, we’d buy and donate some of those Korean War M-1s and M-1 carbines and ammo to the families threatened by the thugs from all sides.  But of course, that would be EVIL because we are allowing civilians to be armed.

Mama’s Note: The more this evil, imperial want-to-be god talks, the worse it gets. What was that old phrase about pride going before a fall? The fall of this one should be epic.

Abominable Act (ObummerCare)
Krauthammer: ‘Huge Gov’t Bailout’ of Health Insurance Industry at End of 2014
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Is there going to be a US government by the end of 2014, anyway?  Of course, with a solid Democratic (and Tranzi) Congress “behind” him, perhaps “HE” might just go ahead and draft all of the medical personnel into the Public Health Service, issue them uniforms, and make them work for a “reasonable” pay scale.  And nationalize all the companies that run and operate medical facilities, especially those that are city and county and state government owned and operated.  Single payer, single provider: a government monopoly of health care, just like a government monopoly of force and delivery of first class mail.  There, wouldn’t life be simpler?  Congress could just delegate everything to “HIM” and “HE” could dictate everything: what drugs are allowed, what procedures are allowed for what people, what the costs are, how much they get paid, and all the rest!  Bailout?  No, TAKEOVER!

Mama’s Note: And as if that wouldn’t be bad enough, I fully expect a full out “war” on any kind of alternative medicine and a witch hunt for professionals who refuse to join the chain gangs. It won’t happen all at once, of course, but gradually as any actual care deteriorates and the entitled masses scream for government to “do something.” They have no idea how terrible it will be when the only “health care” available is performed by the same sort of people as they see at the DMV.

The “messiah”
Obamacare Problems Tighten Key Senate Races
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: One more reason for “HIM” to just take over.  Let us go back to traditional ways, and do it by decree (Executive Order).  By the power vested in me by God and Mother Earth, as President of the Americans, I hereby appoint the following individuals for the positions as indicated:

Senior Senator for Alabama, Marie Antoinette Carter, Junior Senator for Alabama, Louis Bourbon Wallace; Senior Senator for Arkansas, John Jay Rockefeller VIX, Junior Senator for Arkansas, Chelsea Clinton Mezvinsky; and so on.

Appoint them for life, of course, since that is a condition very easily changed when the government (read: POTA) has a monopoly on violence.  No need for “can no one rid me of this meddlesome priest” – just push a button and a drone, assassin, or local cop takes care of the problem.

The “Messiah”
Obama Took More Vacation on Average Than Private-Sector Workers 20 Yrs on Job
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Of course, “HE” is the anointed “President of the Americans” so he deserves it.  And (as I point out below) these media and political types believe that he must be judged as the unique, irreplaceable, superhuman and mythic hero that he is: not just above the law, but creating the law.

Mama’s Note: “Vacation,” my tush. Say, Mr. President, bet you can’t swim out to that little reef there. (What was that music for “Jaws” again?) Tee hee…

Abominable Act (ObummerCare) – Politics 2014
Schumer: ‘Number 1 Issue in 2014 Election Is Not Going to Be Obamacare…’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Hmm.  Does Schumer figure that there won’t be any elections, either?  Which echoes my thoughts about just getting rid of these foolish, wasteful, elections.

Mama’s Note: Once again I have to insist that there is absolutely no danger of the “elections” being eliminated. The belief that ordinary people can direct, control or even influence the government by electing “representatives” and so forth is the main fiction that keeps government in power. Most people do believe that government at every level automatically has the legitimate authority to control their lives, and that voting is the way they participate in that control. Both are very powerful myths, and extremely useful to the “rulers.”

Obummercare itself may well not be an “issue” by then, but the meltdown of health care in reality will certainly be one of them. By then it ought to be very clear to most people that having “insurance” is meaningless all by itself, regardless of who pays for it.

The “messiah”
Sen. Manchin: ‘Just Not in the President’s Nature to Pal Around’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Well, we can hardly expect him to slum with inferiors, can we?  And we know that he just doesn’t get along with Elizabeth Windsor, because of her track record.  (After all, many people say he was born as her subject, 53 years ago, when she was still learning her job as queen.)  And he just isn’t worthy to hang out with REAL kings like those guys in Saudi Arabia, by his own admission.  Seriously, the “messiah” is already being treated like some superhuman demigod by these people; he can’t be judged on the same level as the rest of us.

Mama’s Note: Sure, but he’s not immune to flirting with well stacked Nordic blonds at funerals. Did you see those photos? If looks could kill, Moochelle would have wiped them both out right then and there. I wonder what the blond got out of the deal, actually. That could not have been popular with the folks back home.

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“Hostile to the United States” Part A: External countries, organizations, and individuals

Posted on 2013-12-25 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

The 2013 National Defense Authorization Act, as I write this, was hastily passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate so that they could go “home” for Christmas.  (It proves that those who question exactly what their REAL home is, and imply that it is the infernal regions, may be on the right track.)

In addition to reinforcing and expanding the powers “granted” unconstitutionally to the Department of Defense and other government agencies by recent NDAA, it has some interesting features.

One is this: “Key to the functioning of this information exchange will be the collection of “captured records.” Section 1071(g)(1), defines a captured record as “a document, audio file, video file, or other material captured during combat operations from countries, organizations, or individuals, now or once hostile to the United States.”

Nathan: This is a most interesting phrase, and is what triggers my question: just who are the enemies of the United States?  Especially when the phrase “now or once hostile” is examined?

We must understand that the “United States” here refers, I believe, NOT to the fifty united States of America, but rather to their former agent, the so-called Central or Federal Government, and all of its branches.

We must also understand that “hostile” does NOT limit itself to “taking violent action against the United States” but to ANY opposition, whether violent or not, to any part of the United States, including any persons employed by it, any property owned or controlled by it, any elected or unelected officials of it, and any organization or action supported or directed by it.

That said, notice that “countries, organizations, or individuals” are included.  This would obviously include “internal” and “external” – not just “foreign” but also those organizations and individuals “inside” (under the jurisdiction) of the United States.  And of course, since the Fifty United States are considered under most traditional and international law as “countries,” it could include some of them.

But who or what are included?  Let us look first at foreign (external) countries which actually HAVE conducted hostilities against the United States, at one time or another.

(1)  United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.  This is of course the very first one, since their hostile actions caused the establishment of the United States and tried to strangle it in the womb, or certainly the cradle.  Of course, their hostility has continued since.  Here in 2013, we are still remembering the bicentennial of the next “formal” war: commonly called “the War of 1812” by Americans and Canadians.  But we must not forget other conflicts, since then, including the War of Jenkin’s Ear, the Pig War, and many other events, including the massive Nuclear Disarmament and Anti-cruise missile protests carried out by Her Majesty’s Subjects in the 1970s and 1980s.  Although touted as one of our Allies, this law as passed by Congress makes its hostile nature a reason to gather information from the UK and all its organizations and individuals.

(2)  Canada is of course right in there: not only because the bulk of its pre-WW2 population are the descendants of “Loyalists” or “Tories” who refused to support the United States in the 1775-1783 war and remained loyal to King George, but have continued to exhibit hostility since:  the War of 1812 involved British colonial militia from Canada fighting against US forces; and as a member of the Empire and then Commonwealth, Canada continued to oppose the US in various forms.  More recently, Canada harbored refugees from the US’s draft system during the Indochina War, has refused to embargo Communist Cuba, and has made it clear that the country, and many organizations and individuals in it are hostile to the US.

(3)  Mexico comes next to mind, starting with the Mexican-American War of 1845-1848, and continuing through the various revolutionary periods, its alleged collusion with Imperial Germany in 1914-18, and other problems.

(4)  Of course, we cannot forget the several hundred American Indian (AmerInd) nations within the fifty states, which again, by both federal and international law, are “countries” as well as organizations and persons.  With VERY few exceptions (perhaps the Shoshone and maybe some of the Great Basin and California tribes like some of the Piute), these nations were once (and often still are) hostile to the United States.  Of course, this might be considered “internal,” so I will address them in more detail later.

(5)  France was, of course, “America’s First Ally”™ but only a few years AFTER the withdrawal of the British in 1783 from the thirteen former colonies, the so-called “Republican” French nation waged war against the United States on the oceans 1798-1800 (sometimes called the “Quasi-War”).  It also occupied Mexico for several years in direct hostile action to the United States’ “Monroe Doctrine.”  More recently, it disagreed with the way the Wilson government wanted American troops to fight in the Great War (1917-1918), the Vichy branch of the French Nation and its colonies in North Africa opposed US invasions in 1942 and 1943, and General, later President De Gaulle was constantly hostile to the United States from 1941 to his death decades later.  Obviously, while supposedly considered an Ally, it has clearly been hostile to the United States government in the past and in many ways still is.

(6)  Germany and Japan, again considered Allies today, nevertheless were hostile to the US government in the past, killing or wounding millions of Americans, and all sorts of other ugly, nasty things.  Perhaps they are just biding their time…  And do not forget all their allies:  Italy and Serbia and the secret allies like Franco’s Spain and Peron’s Argentina.

(7)  Of course, in modern times we have the Soviet Union and its successor state, the Russian Federation, clearly still hostile in many ways to the US.  And all the countries that were once Communist and allies or under the control of the USSR, China, and the rest:  a long list indeed.

(8)  We must not forget about the Muslims, either.  All of the Ummah, from Moroland in the Pacific clear around to Morocco on the Atlantic, starting from the Barbary Wars in the 1790s and 1800s right up to Mesopotamia, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Iran of today.

(9)  Time does not permit to list all the external countries, organizations, and individuals (by the billion!) hostile in the past or today.  Maybe it is easier to list those who might NOT be or have NOT been hostile.  Let’s see: San Marino?  Maybe.  Andorra, Monaco.  Iceland?  Denmark?  Norway?  Maybe the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg?  The Swiss Confederation?  (Nope, sorry, remember they were hostile to new US demands for ending bank secrecy: definitely lost their non-hostile standing over that.)  The Republic of Korea and the Republic of China (Taiwan)?  Probably, except that the ROC is the successor of the ROC after the overthrow of the Chinese empire about 100 years ago: Boxer Rebellion and all that nastiness along the Yellow River were definitely hostile actions.  Gee, there are not a lot of non-hostile external countries, organizations, or individuals, are there?

So, reluctantly (having a lot of fun) we must move to the internal front, in my next segment.

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Chicken Little is Alive and Well (Libertarian Commentary on the News, #13-50A)

Posted on 2013-12-23 by TPOL Nathan

Chicken Little News – Everyone’s going to die!!!!
Dramatic decline in industrial agriculture could herald ‘peak food’
(Raw Story)

Mama’s Note: Couldn’t scare anyone with “peak oil” anymore, so they’ve moved on.  Of course, people are not using something like 80% of the planet yet… wars and political crap prevent an awful lot of agriculture, and we’re still paying farmers not to farm…. notice none of that is mentioned.

Nathan: This is one of a series of news stories and commentaries that have been sent to me by several folks this week, that I am putting in my “Chicken Little” file.

Here are some other examples, triggered by a blog from a friend (permission to quote in part but not to name my source):… the disastrous results following the April, 2011 earthquakes that damaged the Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan.  Reports now indicate large areas of the Pacific Ocean are contaminated with radioactivity.   The water has not only poisoned U. S. Navy sailors on the USS Ronald Reagan who drank desalinated sea water before they knew it was radioactive but is also believed to be poisoning sea life, as well as waters along western U. S. and Canadian shores.

I have glanced at these stories, but they do not make sense.  The Reagan and other modern nuclear-powered warships use techniques such as reverse osmosis and flash desalination which do not allow radioactive particles larger than a water molecule (MW 18).  It is much more likely that their exposure (if indeed, it IS radiation exposure) was through some other route, especially since it was the Reagan that responded to Fukushima.  If the ship’s water supplies were contaminated as they claim, then it would be more than just 51 people who would be affected; but there are photos of these people (or so it is claimed) decontaminating the ship in makeshift protective gear.  Smells fishy to me. The stories in the Examiner and the Daily Mail just don’t add up.  The other reports sound equally exaggerated and hysterical in nature. The amount of fallout and radiation exposure from the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and from the massive nuclear tests conducted by the US and French in the Pacific over forty years, was far greater than these being reported.  To read these stories reminds me of the horror stories and predictions after Exxon Valdez,  the big spill in the Gulf, and others in the 1970s and 1980s.  None of their claims have proved out.  We need to encourage folks NOT to panic, and NOT to not trust what government or media says. At the same time, we need to also recognize that it is NOT just government and media that exaggerate and lie. The people filing the lawsuit seem to be as prone to exaggeration and lack of reasoning (assuming the articles are reporting them correctly) as the media sources are.  It just does not make sense that if the entire water supply of the ship was contaminated with radioactive particles, that only 51 of a crew of thousands would be showing the symptoms, especially when it is supposedly the same people as shown decontaminating the deck wearing what appears to be makeshift protective gear.  Yet the lawsuits are claiming that the USN was acting in good faith, and only the TEPCO and Japanese Government were acting in bad faith.

But what about contamination reaching the West Coast of the US from Japan, and the radioactive contamination reported in cans of tuna?

Nathan: As for the coasts, and the potential, Debby and I were stationed, and our older son was conceived, in northern Germany during the time that the fallout from Chernobyl was drifting across the area.  There were severe effects in and around Chernobyl, but the effect even 500 miles away, was never what was claimed would happen.  Again, radiation is normal – it has been part of earth since Creation, and has been a problem since the time of the Flood.  (One reason argued by many people for the significant reduction in lifespan.)  But sources of radiation like x-rays and TSA screening and things like that are much more of a concern than what is being seen from Chernobyl or Fukushima except on a local scale.  In reality, more radioactive materials are released by mining and burning of coal, on a daily basis, than was released at Chernobyl.  And probably Fukushima, although that is still to be seen.  Remember all the hideous panic over Three-mile Island?  The EPA estimates an added dose of 0.3 µSv per year for living within 50 miles (80 km) of a coal plant and 0.009 milli-rem for a nuclear plant for yearly radiation dose estimation. Nuclear power plants in normal operation emit less radioactivity than coal power plants.  It is difficult to compare dosages because of all the different measurement units used.

I figure the reports about canned tuna having “radioactive contamination” are true.  But what these stories do not point out is that there has always been a certain amount of radioactive material present in tuna (and ALL seafood), just like there has always been OTHER metals (gold, lead, etc.) present in seafood, because all those metals are present in seawater.  And they do not provide very good comparisons of what they claim is an increase, because they know how people panic over “radiation.”  Just as around Hanford, Washington, where people are warned to not eat the wild asparagus, which grows along the river banks.  Because asparagus draws heavy metals out of the soil, and the soil there is contaminated from the decades of uranium and plutonium processing.  But the increase, though significant as a percentage or original background radiation, is NOT significant when compared to normal exposures and dosages.  But every few years, somebody “discovers” the “awful truth” and “exposes” the horrors there, or at Los Alamos, or Savannah Plant in South Carolina. They “forget” this, from Scientific American.

Yellowstone’s Molten Magma Chamber Much Larger Than Previously Thought
(The Weather Channel)… article last week reporting that the magma chamber below Yellowstone National Park is much larger than originally believed.   According to a new study that measured seismic waves from numerous earthquakes in and around the park, scientists mapped the magma chamber underneath the caldera as 55 miles long, 18 miles wide and from three to nine miles deep, which is some 2 ½ times larger than expected.

Nathan: This story I in particular find hilarious.  Talk about “yesterday’s news” !!!  I took most of my courses in geology in the mid- to late- 1970s, at Colorado School of Mines (a minor little trade school “for the criminally bewildered” down in Golden, where the smell of beer from Coors drifts across the campus and kills brain cells)  I recall quite definitely that at least two of my professors (one in structural geology and one in environmental geology) quoted figures very similar to this – in 1977 or 1978.  And had maps, based on seismic investigations and mappings done in the 1960s and 1970s, that showed this 50-60 by 18-20 by 5-10 miles thick (not deep), and showed past and potential future impacts from a fresh eruption.  But the media wants to sensationalize everything (as do the political scientists) and cannot be bothered to go back in their own files, much less anyone else’s, to find the truth.

By the way, I was involved in a test well drilled not too far to the southwest of the magma chamber in 1978, near Star Valley, which went down to 115,000 feet below surface (that is nearly 22 miles deep).

Scientists believe a volcanic eruption from the site will take place, though they don’t know when.  However, predictions indicate it’ll be huge and will circle the Earth, causing massive destruction.

Like Tambora in 1815 and Krakatoa in 1883.  Funny, somehow, civilization survived.  Everything eventually circles the earth, from WW1 war gases to WW2 nuclear fallout to Cold War nuclear fallout to ash from Mount Saint Helens and Novarupta (1912) and Mount Pinatubo.  The world will end when God makes it so, in His own time.  This seems to be an attempt by media (ABC News and others) to sensationalize an already sensationalized National Geographic report by a self-serving, political-scientist type at the University of Utah, who is claiming things that were first measured about 40 years ago.

There are many other examples of Chicken Little (or Crying Wolf, if you prefer): especially those old bugaboos of global cooling and global warming, and the “we are going to blow ourselves up with all our nukes” and “the Russians/Muslims/Japanese/Germans/British are going to conquer us all” hysteria.  All seem to have similar motives:

(1)  To sell advertising and books and such:  We have such a fascination, and the media knows what sells.

(2)  To panic people into supporting one or another political or religious platform – usually the platforms that increase and centralize government/church control, provide for more power and wealth to an “elite,” and give more excuses for theft by government/priests/other con-artists.

(3)  To denigrate and isolate certain segments of the population, whether it be farmers or Jews or Gypsies or Christians or whomever.  This is, of course, closely related to #2.

The point to remember is: predictions of doom rarely prove true except in small numbers.  Usually they are lies or falsehoods triggered by irrational fears and emotions in general.  We are NOT going to get rid of them: these have existed throughout human history.  But we can keep them from harming us (and our liberty, lives, living, and community) if we understand and recognize them, and don’t get railroaded into jumping on the bandwagon.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #13-49C: Home front attacks

Posted on 2013-12-23 by TPOL Nathan

Self defense – Home front
Fake Delivery Men Rob, Pistol Whip Elderly Couple In Dorchester
(CBS Boston)

Mama’s Note: Hard to understand why people would open the door to strangers, especially in a city. Of course, I’m armed when I go to the door, but I still don’t open up for strangers without careful consideration.

Nathan: Especially in the large urban areas in the east, people seem very naive at times, assuming that nothing bad will happen to THEM, despite how everyone around them has been attacked, beaten, and robbed.  And they seem to have very poor situational awareness.  In our rural areas, unless it is a neighbor or a friend, someone trying to deliver a package better be wearing a recognizable uniform and have a matching truck;  AND look like a typical UPS or FedEx guy or gal, not some hopped-up homeboy with his pants dragging around his knees.  And even then, if it isn’t the regular route man, most people will at least be aware that something is possibly wrong.  But apparently big city residents don’t think like that.

Thug “cops” – Home front
Drug Warriors Kidnap and Sexually Assault a Woman After Getting Permission From a Dog
(Reason) In a case eerily similar to David Eckert’s humiliating ordeal at the hands of cops in Deming, New Mexico, a federal lawsuit charges U.S.Border Patrol agents with subjecting a U.S. citizen to six hours of degrading and fruitless body cavity searches based on an alleged alert by a drug-sniffing dog.

Mama’s Note: I hope she wins her lawsuit, but that’s not going to stop this insanity, unfortunately.

Nathan: I don’t know if ANY court action will, even if it is a murder trial when someone kills a BP officer in self-defense and is acquitted by the jury.  The “shoot, shovel, and shut up” scenario is of course a possibility.  And direct action (in the dirty sense of the word) might be one solution.  It is only when you can hold these people personally and immediately responsible for their actions that they will change:  otherwise, they will continue to justify their actions as “good” and take the Nuremburg defense.

This story lists two specific “doctors” by name involved with this sick little routine:  Dr. Michael D. Parsa, MD, age 42, specializes in “emergency medicine” at the Texas Tech University Health Center in El Paso, and he joined them in 2012 after working on the Central California Coast (what, Monterrey?) and in New Guinea.  You can see a glowing report about what a great man he is, and his picture, here. (pdf)

His address is 4801 Alberta Avenue, El Paso, TX 79905: Thompson General Hospital.

Christopher Cabanillas is a surgeon, also specializing in emergency medicine at Thompson General, and graduated from the University of Arizona; he likes El Paso better than Arizona. Less seems to be available about him.  It seems that evil DOES have a face, though.

When you get right down to it, what is the difference between these two “doctors” and the BP thugs, and the two men who attacked and robbed the elders in Boston?  Morally, these are more guilty: what they did was conspire with several government organizations to rape a woman.  Simple beating and robbing, free-lance, does not compare.

Meanwhile, we find that government agencies (schools, in particular) are doing their best to turn children (and adults) into mind-numbed, obedient robots who would not DARE take up arms to defend themselves or anyone else, except with the proper government uniform and license and training – if that.  But heaven help you if you LIKE playing soldier before you get that government-issued stuff officially.

Government-run, Theft-funded schools – Attack on families and children
More Zero Tolerance: 5 Year Old Issued Suspension for ‘Playing Army’ at Recess
(Conbustible.com) A five-year-old elementary student in Gaston County, North Carolina was issued a suspension for making a gun-like gesture with his hand although such an offense is found nowhere in the school handbook. The boy’s father, David Hendrix, said the one-day suspension was a punishment “too severe” for simply “playing army on the playground” and immediately called a meeting. Rather than go through with the meeting, principal and school board at Pinewood Elementary dropped the punishment.

Nathan: the bad stories keep coming more and more quickly.  A summary of several can be found at Conservative Action Alerts which includes a discussion of how the police state is destroying childhood in many places.  This morning, I listened to a school “winter” concert on Long Island, where they sang the old carol Silent Night, but in a version which expunged any mention of God, Jesus, or even Mary.  Parents and others complained and the school “apologized” but the deed was done: those children will have learned the censored song, and will have a hard time learning the real one.  I am not a fan of Christmas: it is NOT the birthday of Jesus but a pagan holiday used in a bait-and-switch by the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches centuries ago; but this is still not right.  It is as wrong to forbid children to sing a religious song as it is to force them to do so: and it is a way of destroying childhood, together with frequent police arrests, terrorism through “emergency drills,” creating irrational fears of guns or fire or nuclear radiation, and of course, the sick excuse for “sex education” implemented in more and more places.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #13-49B: Free Trade, Tranzis, and Culture Wars

Posted on 2013-12-21 by TPOL Nathan

Trade is the most basic of human activities outside the family:  I have something that you want, and you have something that I want.  We each know how MUCH we want, so voluntarily, and without any real coercion (unless the scent of that fried okra is overwhelming us and we haven’t eaten all day!) on the part of either party, we trade amount X of Item A for amount Y of item B, and both walk away, if not “happy” then satisfied that we got the best.  The world can (and did) go around with this sort of thing happening millions of times a day.  Then, we allowed princes and patriarchs and police and priests and pimps to get involved, and suddenly there was no “free trade” except as an ideal.  We had rules and regulations and licenses and permits and taxes and fees and (Lord love a duck) mandatory standards and inspections and law suits and prosecutions and arbitrators and mediators and mitigators…  What a mess!  Here are a couple of stories to show just how messed up it has become, in the last days of 2013.

The “messiah” – International Trade (2 stories)
Obama Allows Great Lakes Water To Be Sold To China As Half The U.S. Faces Extreme Water Crisis
Read More : (Conservative Action Alerts)

Nathan Allows?  ALLOWS?  This is derided as something evil, as if the man who claims to be the President of the United States has ANY power granted by ANYONE to prohibit China (or anyone else)  from buying water from the Great Lakes or anyplace else. Who makes these sorts of calls?  it is NOT legitimately government: it is a decision made by a voluntary seller and a voluntary buyer.  Which brings us to the NEXT story:

Obama Is Allowing Chicken From China
Read More (Conbustible/Constituent News) At the end of August, the Obama administration quietly decided to start allowing Chinese poultry processors to ship processed chicken into the United States.

Nathan: Hmm. Does this have ANYTHING to do with the new FDA report that states that (GASP!!) 78% of processed chicken in this country has BACTERIA?  You mean, bacteria like on our sink tops and on our hands and on the floor and the ground and everything else in the Country???  I am surprised that this story can even be published – after all, relating the “messiah” to CHICKEN must be racist.  And what about Congress?  Do they have any reason to be cited for this?

Mama’s Note: As usual, these things make no sense at all. First, I can’t see why China would buy water from the Great Lakes. It’s been polluted for decades, to start with, and the transport costs would be insane. I can’t imagine them wanting it even if it were given to them. As for the chicken, and so much else in the food news, this is just stupid fear mongering. The real problem is two fold: Far too many people have allowed their immune systems to languish or nearly die, antibiotic use and poor diet/lifestyle being the major causes. Second, far too few people have any common sense and can’t seem to bother to learn how to properly handle and cook much of anything. The bacteria on chicken, or in ground beef, is not any more a problem than it ever was, and in many cases far less. It’s just that nobody understands the situation and they are sure that “big brother” can and must rescue them from their ignorance and sloth.

Theft by government
Lessons from Dutch Welfare Reform
Read More (Conservative Action Alerts)

Nathan: In a nutshell:  Do NOT DO IT.  Welfare, I mean, not “reform.”  Evil cannot be reformed, it can only be ended. The Dutch are trying more than Americans are, to limit the evil, but are still not successful in making it a hand-up instead of a hand-out.  Emergency assistance instead of “entitlement?”  Why, because a national bureaucracy cannot successfully determine who really is in need and not just lazy, and is using STOLEN money to care for them – needy AND lazy.  Sadly, “conservatives” just do not get it: government cannot take care of the needy without creating bureaucracies, corruption, and welfare dependence which destroys families and communities.  Benevolence MUST be done voluntarily by individuals and SMALL local organizations (churches, community chest, etc.) – even national organizations (Red Cross, Church Aid, etc.) are likely to fail in the same way as government.

Tyranny – Big Brother International (2 stories)
NSA Spying Declared Unconstitutional
Read More (Conservative Action Alerts)
Second Federal Judge ‘Skeptical’ About Legal Case for NSA Phone-Record Collection
Read More (Conservative Action Alerts)

Nathan: I did not comment on the first judge who declared the NSA program unconstitutional, because of all the fawning that I saw libertarian and conservative AND liberal commentators do.  We rightfully condemn the judicial black robes for most of their decisions, based on the most ridiculous of reasons.  Should we fall over ourselves patting them on the back when once in a great while they make a decision which (on the surface) seems to be right?  The old saying is that “a stopped clock is right twice a day,” but we know that defective clocks are virtually never right, and having the right time on a purely random basis is far far worse than being stopped.  It is not much different than applauding those rare times when the electorate is willing to (and allowed) to chose a worthy man or woman for public office:  it does not mean that reform has been or will be done, or that we can trust the new government officials a gram more than the old ones: government is still broken and not going to change.  The solution for NSA and all the other alphabet soup agencies is NOT “reform” and NOT “court orders” – it is to drive a stake into the heart, followed by smashing each individual little piece until there is nothing but slime for the rain to wash away.

Mama’s Note: Ooooh, I really like that mental image. I’ll take a garden hose and help the rain wash the slime away.

Culture wars – Islamic war
Leader: Christianity Threatened in Middle East
(Vision to America) “I have for some time now been deeply troubled by the growing difficulties faced by Christian communities in various parts of the Middle East. It seems to me that we cannot ignore the fact that Christians in the Middle East are increasingly being deliberately targeted by fundamentalist Islamist militants. Christianity was literally born in the Middle East and we must not forget our Middle Eastern brothers and sisters in Christ.”

Nathan: I am positive that Scotland Yard must be on this, and are just trying to keep it a secret before panic sets in.  And I’m sure Interpol is cooperating, although the FBI is surely NOT aiding them any.  But I want to know HOW they put this ringer in for Charles Windsor!  I suppose it could be brainwashing, because admittedly those ears have got to be hard to replicate, but there is no way at all that the Tranzi Prince of Wales we so well know and dearly hate could say anything like this except tongue-in-cheek.  They obviously kidnapped the real one and substituted some poorly-trained Lorenzo Smythe for him.

“The greatest Glory of a free-born People, Is to transmit that Freedom to their Children.” — William Havard

Amen!  While I think that a number of us have succeeded in this as individuals, we have clearly, as a nation and as the Anglo-American people, FAILED.  May God have mercy on us.

Mama’s Note: While not perfectly freedom oriented, “The Tragedy of American Compassion” is a good overview of the history of charity and “welfare” in America, and has some good ideas for returning charity to its original form and purpose.

[I have changed formatting some what in this column, please let me know if this is better or worse than the standard way.]

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #13-49A: Islamic evil, Islamic wars

Posted on 2013-12-19 by TPOL Nathan

In today’s world, there are many evil things.  Some evils are primarily damaging to those who practice them: gambling, fornication, homosexuality, and similar vices.  We can and must leave those alone and let them do their own thing.  Some are damaging to some around them: adultery, spousal and child abuse, theft, even sometimes murder.  Those are things that must be dealt with, but by the people around them: family and community (including church).  But some evil is practiced in a way which is a massive threat to hundreds of thousands, millions, or even billions of people around the world.  National Socialism (in its many forms) was such an evil.  Communism was (and is) such an evil.   Islam, the subject of this commentary on two recent news items, is such an evil.  Even when isolated and contained, these evils are such horrors, such threats, that at a minimum people have a strong reason to band together to defend against them, to contain them, and … often, to seek to negate and even destroy them.

Islamic wars – South Asian front
Pakistan: Female suicide bombers killed December 18, 2013
(Zee News [India]) “Alert security guards at an imambargah [in Karachi] on Tuesday foiled an attempt by two burqa-clad woman suicide bombers by killing one and injuring another. One of the women was shot dead whereas the other was critically injured as the guards at the imambargah or Shia prayer hall, opened fire on them. Security and rescue teams reached the site of incident and cordoned off the area as a probe into the incident went underway. Police officials later confirmed that both the women were equipped with explosives, media reports said.” (12/18/13)

Mama’s Note: This sort of thing is so completely incomprehensible. The more I see of it, the closer I get to considering the “lake of glass” idea. If the non crazies could be warned to move out of the area first…

Nathan: Incomprehensible to those of us who cannot understand the depth of evil that can exist, and the way in which people can be indoctrinated to accept that evil as normal and necessary.  Islam’s roots are deep into that vast sea of sewage that rejects the Creator for the lusts and evils of the flesh and the greed for power and control.  In the ancient Middle East were the worshipers of Moloch and similar evil false gods, whose priests demanded (and received) the sacrifice of human children in the fires of worship, and of adults in battle and on the sands of the arenas.  There were also those of Hatti (part of modern Anatolia) and elsewhere, who “honored” the death of their “god-kings” by burying the dead elite together with slain servants and soldiers to serve the elite in the afterlife.  In the depths of Northern Europe, we had druids and similar “faiths” who would also offer sacrifice to the soil, the forests, and their pantheon of gods by choosing men and women of high birth (or “promoted” to such) to garrote and bury in the fens and bogs.  In the Pacific, we had those who chose by lot whose bodies would be used to literally grease the skids to launch great war-canoes.  In Meso-America, we had the captives and docile underclasses of the Azteca and other empires who submitted in long lines to walking to the tops of pyramids where squads of blood-clothed priests cut out their living hearts and raised them to the glory of the sun and serpent gods.  In Southeast Asia, there were the fanatics and college professors who drove people out into the jungles to die and be killed for the glory of the proletariat, repeating the fate of Ukranian and Byelorussian kulaks starved to death in the midst of some of the most productive farmland on the planet.  Centuries before, and centuries before that, we had Hun and Mongol conquerors who stacked the chopped-off heads of the population of entire cities to mark their conquests, while half the globe to the south, we had fanatics who punished insufficient zeal for the cause by pouring gasoline into a tire, placing the tire around the neck or head of the victim, and lighting it on fire, only decades after an entire “civilized” nation went mad and processed millions of their own countrymen and neighboring countries through delousing chambers (which did, apparently, also kill the lice and bedbugs) before mining their bodies and converting them to human leather and more.  All in the name of some bogus deity, some warped philosophy, or just plain greed for power and wealth.  Once shut off from the light, evil thrives in darkness and grows into nightmarish consequences.  Notice, these women were NOT trying to kill “infidels” or “colonialists” or “occupiers” or the like: they were trying to kill their own kind.  AND themselves.  At least one of them partially succeeded.

Islamic wars – West African front
Nigeria: “More than 1,200 killed” December 17, 2013
(BBC News [UK state media]) “The UN says more than 1,200 people have been killed in Islamist-related violence in northeast Nigeria since a state of emergency was declared in May. The UN said the figure related to killings of civilians and the military by the Islamist group Boko Haram in the states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe. It also includes insurgents killed by security forces repelling attacks. This is the first time independent casualty figures have been issued since emergency rule was declared.” (12/17/13)

Mama’s Note: Perhaps the world could stand two glass lakes…

Nathan: According to friends (preachers) in Nigeria, this is a vast under-reporting – possibly one-tenth of who has actually been killed, just as far as civilians go.  There are DAILY multiple killings, and Sundays are especially bad, since people are gathering for worship, and concentrated while the Muslims of course have already met on Friday.  The media harps far more on the people who claim to be “christian” and do revenge attacks against Muslims.  Unlike the Pakistani women, the killers in this case are MOSTLY killing infidels, even though they have the same nationality and skin color and heritage as the ones doing the killing.  But evil is evil, and this evil stems from the same source as the evil in Pakistan.

As for glass lakes, it seems to me that the logical targets are Mecca and Medina: because these are the sources of this infection called Islam. Certainly there will be innocents (children, many women raised as (in essence if not legally) slaves, and of course slaves.  (Yes, Saudi Arabia still has actual slaves, no matter what they call them.  Many are black, some are East Asian, and some are Euro-American.) Horrible as it is to contemplate, is it worse than centuries more of this evil religion?  Islam is so much a geographically-based religion that destruction of these two sacred cities might cause a collapse of it overall, in part because they could not imagine that Allah would allow it.  It may be necessary to sanitize other places: Cairo and Tehran and Kabul and Islamabad all come to mind.  As Abraham tried to do, regarding two other sources of unspeakable evil, Sodom and Gomorrah, we need to get the “non-crazies” out first, if we can.   But as awful and terrible as making a decision to spare the world such hideous evil, versus saving innocents who are being abused and corrupted in the “name of Allah,” is a decision I am grateful to God I do not have to make.

Mama’s Note: Amen to that last. The only consolation is that great evil has historically been its own destruction, eventually. The toll of human suffering is, however, very hard to accept.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #13-48D: Self defense and cops and teachers

Posted on 2013-12-19 by TPOL Nathan

Self-defense – Cops
Armed suspect shot while attempting to rob off-duty D.C. cop
(Guns.com)

Mama’s Note: But of course, if the intended victim had not been a cop “only one,” they would probably be dead or at least robbed because they could NOT carry a gun. The aggressor is a lovely specimen of humanity, for sure – that pouty look of outraged entitlement. What I want to know is why it makes any difference at all if the cop used his “service pistol,” or if the criminal got  his gun “legally.”  The latter certainly doesn’t seem likely.

Nathan: True, some animals are more equal than other animals.

Until police are recognized either for what they are (a military occupation force) or forced to become what they should be (armed civilians like the rest of us, whose job is to investigate and solve crimes and in some circumstances provide limited security), they will be treated as if they are above the law, or have some special sort of limited submission to it.

In the eyes of the media, the status of the cop’s gun and the robber’s gun is important, because they can imply that most all other guns are gotten “illegally.”  And even hint that cops themselves shouldn’t have anything but their “service pistol” (as they publish more stories about magic devices that keep anyone but the registered owner from firing the weapon and which NEVER fail to work).  For Guns.com, this is probably important because (a)it again lets them point out the wrongful special status of cops, and (b) that limits on gun purchases do not prevent robbers from getting weapons, any more than they prohibit the first-time killer from getting a gun.

Indeed, it is this aspect that demonstrates the foolishness of limits on buying guns, and is seldom discussed.  Supposedly, waiting periods for buying guns (you have to wait 48 or 72 hours after buying the gun to get possession) is supposed to reduce the likelihood that the gun will be used in a “crime of passion.”  This is based on some very dubious psychology and there are many ways around it.  But the idea that we can prevent crimes by preventing people who have criminal records or have been determined (however dubiously) to be a risk is crazy on the face of it.  It is based on two false assumptions: one, that a person who will commit a crime with a gun has already not just committed a crime, and two, has been tried and convicted of that crime.  Of course, it also assumes that a person who committed any sort of crime (there are some restrictions) will use a gun to commit a crime: again, an assumption that has been proven false time and time again.  And of course, it also takes away the God-given right of self-defense (or certainly limits it significantly).  We do not steal their rights of free speech, or religious freedom, or right to trial and counsel and all the rest; how can we justify taking away the right of self-defense?  The answer is that we cannot.  We do so only at peril to our souls.

One final thought: given the extremely high quality of police officers these days, how do we know this guy actually tried to rob the cop?

Mama’s Note: I hadn’t thought of that last, but I suspect if the cop did the attacking that the “perp” would be very dead. Why in the world leave him alive to tell a different story?

Self defense NOT – Government-run, tax-funded schools
Missouri: Senator Says Teachers Should Defend Against Shooters With Pepper Spray
(Fox 4 News, Kansas City) “Teachers are human beings, there’s a chance that a loaded firearm could end up in the hands of a student and then you have catastrophic consequences,” Senator Holsman told Fox 4 News. Holsman, whose wife teaches at a local elementary school, argued that teachers can protect children from a shooter by spraying multiple cans of bear mace into school hallways simultaneously, creating a hazardous barrier outside classrooms. “These six-ounce canisters of bear spray shoot 30-feet in a ten-foot wide radius. It is conceivable that you could blast the hallway, if it was on lockdown and if the perpetrator was to run into that mist, it would disable him,” Holsman said.

Nathan: This man either has an effective IQ approaching single digits, or is laughing up his sleeve.  As the story and other commenters point out, the “bear mace” can be as easily stolen and used to harm (or even kill) students, there is no consideration of the impact of filling rooms and corridors with the nasty stuff on the health of students, much less the impact on first responders.  I suspect that training the teachers would be a real bear, and that it is relatively easy to defend yourself against the spray if you know what to expect.  This is even more stupid than Biden’s shotgun remark.

And I am reminded by the old hoary story about rangers advising hikers to wear bells and carry pepper spray to protect against bears, and to be able to recognize bear scat, to distinguish between relatively safe brown bears and grizzly bears.  When asked how to tell the difference, the rangers tell them that the grizzly scat contains bells and smells like pepper spray.

Mama’s Note: I always get a laugh out of that story, but the people who think bear “spray” is effective have never encountered a real bear, as I have. And those who think nobody needs a gun has never actually encountered someone who intended to kill them… as I have.

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My Perfect Christmas

Posted on 2013-12-18 by MamaLiberty

By Susan Callaway (AKA MamaLiberty)

1950 was a hard year. My father died and my mother was left with two small children. She was a “housewife” and had no particular marketable skills. She also didn’t have any family who could help her much. She was a recovering alcoholic and suffered from severe depression. Not a pretty picture.

This, of course, was long before the social workers, welfare, food stamps, WIC, or any of the alphabet soup government offices and “programs.” All she had was her faith in God and her children, the few friends who stood with her, and the understanding that it was her responsibility to raise her children and get on with life the best she could.

So, the winter of 1950 found us all staying with a friend’s family in a small Southern California desert town. Not the rich and beautiful part, but the dirt road, snowed in, wood stove outback of the Morongo Valley. There was no telephone or reliable transportation.

I was only four years old, so I have no idea why Mother moved there with no jobs available within fifty miles, any direction – and she never told us. The people we stayed with were living on a small pension and he was dying of lung cancer. Mother had $138. a month in Social Security Survivor’s benefit. Everybody had big troubles, make no mistake.

Some of this I remember myself, and much is remembered because we talked about this period so often, but I didn’t really understand any of it at the time, of course. I knew we were cold much of the time and seldom had enough to eat, but I don’t feel “damaged” or “traumatized” by any of it. Much the opposite is true. I know what it is to be cold, hungry and homeless. I remember that sometimes and thank God for all my blessings. We had each other and lots of love. We didn’t know poverty was supposed to scar us for life.

Christmas Eve came and we put up what decorations we had. (People didn’t ordinarily start to decorate for Christmas after Thanksgiving dinner in those days.) We had a branch of creosote bush for a “tree,” and there was one, small, handmade gift for each child under it. Soon wonderful smells came from the kitchen, and when we gathered for supper we were all surprised to learn that the only thing on the table was a large bowl of bread pudding.

In later years my mother often told us how she and Virginia mixed together the last remaining bread, milk, eggs and sugar with a few raisins and some cinnamon. They put it into the oven with a prayer, and we said our usual prayer of thanks before we ate it. Only the adults knew that those were the last morsels of food left in the house and that none of them had any idea when or how they would be able to get anything else until the next pension check came in on the first. I can only imagine their agony – and their faith.

Christmas morning broke clear and very cold. The snow wasn’t deep, but it stretched unbroken for many miles in every direction. We certainly didn’t anticipate company, but up the road came the county snowplow with a lone blue car behind it. The county never plowed the road by our house, so it was a mystery until the car pulled into our driveway.

Out popped Virginia’s mother! She had shamed the plowman into making a path for her, and he helped her unload boxes of groceries and other things. The children were too busy to notice, however, because we each had a wonderful felt stocking full of nuts, candy and a few small toys. Then, at the very bottom in the toe, was a huge shining orange! Those were worth their weight in gold then and had been very rare in our lives to that point. I can’t begin to tell you what it meant to us as we jealously watched our orange peeled and then savored each drop of the golden fruit.

From that date, Christmas has been a most blessed day. Mother went on to work hard, earning a living for her family. She made sure, by what magic I’ll never know, to have at least one big and beautiful orange in our stockings each year from then on. She told us it was to remind us of the past so that we would appreciate our lives and all the blessings we had. She made sure we never forgot to plan our Holy Day with others in mind.

There was always another place at our table, a few warm clothes to “spare,” a bed on the couch, or just the human touch of hugs and clasped hands for someone in need. She remained active in AA, and sponsored many a man and woman to health and life. Nobody ever left our home hungry, unclothed, uncomforted or unloved unless they wanted it that way.

I have spent my adult life trying to walk in that path. No Christmas passes without oranges, though it’s been years since I made bread pudding. I thank God there was no welfare, food stamps, etc. I would never have had the privilege of that “perfect Christmas.”

God bless and keep you all.

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Crony Capitalism, the State, and Environists: Blowing in the Wind

Posted on 2013-12-17 by TPOL Nathan

Nathan: Behind a large resort complex on the South Dakota side of the Nebraska border, ten miles from the pretty town of Valentine and twenty-five miles from its namesake town and capital of the Burnt Thigh People (better known by their Lakota name, Sicangu, or their location: Rosebud), on a small mound, there rests a giant tower with the now-familiar three huge blades of a power turbine.  Rests is the correct word, for this turbine, unlike its thousands of sisters from the waters of Long Island sound to the top of Tehachapi Pass between Middle and Southern California, does not kill hundreds of birds a year.  Because, no matter how long you wait, those blades do not turn.  Why?  Because the transmission which converts the spinning of the great blades into the whirring of an electrical generator is shoddy: it wore out long before it was supposed to, and can be replaced only at great cost, not affordable by a tribe, a nation, that is in essence bankrupt.  The crony capitalists, aided by environists (environmentalists is what they call themselves, but they are all too often brainless – thus, take out “mental” and you have environists), have their profit and don’t care:  the people who wrote and administered the grants which funded the construction have made their salaries and gone on to other grants and schemes.  But no one gets an erg of power, no one gets a dime of payment for power produced.  It is not uncommon.

This story by Ms. Noon is what my wife and I have been telling many people for many years.  Now, it seems that SOME of the environists are understanding, and the crony capitalists are once more demonstrating that the environists are, at best, their cats-paw and  convenient cover for the plutocrats to continue to dominate the rest of society.

Death by Renewables
Marita Noon

“Even green projects have an impact on their surrounding environment.” Green energy, specifically so-called renewables, has been sold to the American public as the answer to a host of crimes against the planet. But, as Lex Berko points out in her post on Motherboard, “even green” has its downside. Biomass may be “renewable,” but burning it releases CO2. Then, it’s expensive: “A 100% renewable-energy mix from in-state sources could cost up to five times more,” reports the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). And, energy from wind and solar sources kills birds.

Wind turbines chop up bald and golden eagles, and other endangered species, like a Cuisinart–the taller turbines with longer blades (which produce more energy, and, therefore, is where the trend is heading) have a predicted annual ten-fold mortality increase. The authors of  a new study on bird collision mortality at wind facilities concludes: “Given that we found evidence for increased bird mortality with increasing height of monopole turbines along with a move toward increasing turbine size, we argue that wildlife collision risk should be incorporated with energy efficiency considerations when evaluating the ‘greenness’ of alternative wind energy development options.” If the Department of Energy were to meet its 2030 goal of having 20 percent of the nation’s electricity generated from wind, they project: “a mean annual mortality estimate of roughly 1.4 million birds.
[Read the rest of this excellent article here, and bookmark the site for other great articles.]

Nathan: This article shows both the vision and the blindness of the writer, and shows that both the Democratic Party and the GOP have collaborated with  the environists AND their buddies, the crony-capitalists, to once more profit, in terms of power and money, while claiming to do one thing (“protect the environment”) when in reality doing just the opposite.

These two groups: the politicians and the crony-capitalists – the industrial complex – are parasitic on each other AND especially on the body politic: individuals and families and the rest of the businesses and producers in the community and society.  These companies use the power of government to steal money paid to them to buy products that the government defines and accepts, plus enough skimmed off the top (and sides) to fund government from DC to Pierre to Rosebud to Antelope Community (in the case of the wind turbine I started talking about at the beginning).  Probably, if the equipment were NOT shoddy in the first place, it would not have been purchased and used.

Government buying is so complex because it is trying to ride a very fine line between maximizing profits by making shoddy products and NOT making shoddy products SO shoddy that they rile enough people to anger and the entire process blows up in everyone’s face.  It has been that way since the Mexican War and the War Between the States (on BOTH sides) and the Indian Ring days.  And it continues today, just fine-tuned and vastly larger. These people, these groups, are parasitic on each other AND on society not because they HAVE to be, but because they WANT to be.  It is not a symbiotic relationship between the State, the Environists, and the Crony Capitalists, because each of them would actually do BETTER in their STATED purposes and objectives if they were not being gnawed on by the others.  But is their NATURE to do so.  So we all suffer, but some suffer more than others.

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