Libertarian Commentary on the News #13-10D: Carrying on

Posted on 2013-03-08 by TPOL Nathan

More and more, we see the machinations of the “leaders” in DC (and the State capitals) revealed.  A lot of that this week:  perhaps the powers-that-be simply do not care if we know.

Stupid government – Theft by government
Salazar: 28% of ‘Recoverable Oil ‘ Now Off-Limits in National Petroleum Reserve
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: And proud he is of the fact.  Never mind the history that “petroleum reserves” are nothing but petri dishes for corruption.  Never mind that more and more oil is being found each year.  Never mind that the fedgov can’t seem to protect anything.  It isn’t about “reserves,” it is about control.  Salazar’s opinion of “fossil fuels” has been obvious for his entire career: they are evil and must be kept only for when the State is so desperate that they have no choice.

Nanny State
Government’s Next Round of Dietary Guidelines Will Reach Into the Cradle
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: One more excuse for seizing a newborn from its parents.  What joy to behold!  Governmental “guidelines” for diet have long been proven to be bogus, and this will be no different.

Europe’s collapse
Germany Will Fight EU Plan to Set Boardroom Quotas for Women at Private Companies
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Ah, still nuttin but a bunch of Nazis, huh?  Can’t STAND to see some women get promoted beyond their level of incompetency just to meet quotas.

Seriously, the EU is as great a tyrant as DC:  Germany often regrets allowing it to go this far, even if the end result may be total German domination of Europe.

Stupid Government – Congress in action
GOP House Approves CR That Funds All Obamacare–Including Regulation Attacking Religious Freedom
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Can you spell “betrayal” and append it to the GOP Representatives?  Just WHOM do they represent?  They talk about their principles – bah, humbug.  Their only principle is to get as much money and power for themselves as possible.

War on some drugs
UN: Colo., Wash. legal pot violates drug treaties
(Freedom’s Phoenix) A United Nations-based drug agency urged the United States government on Tuesday to challenge the legalization of marijuana for recreational use in Colorado and Washington, saying the state laws violate international drug treaties.

Nathan: Ah, another excuse for the FedGov (despite all the rhetoric by the current incumbent of 1600 Pennsylvania) to crack down on the citizens of these two states who exercise their God-given right to do as they will provided they do not harm others.

New religions: global warming
Global Warming Report: By End of Century, Sea Will Rise 0.66 Feet–Or 6.6 Feet
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Or maybe .66 meters or 6.6 meters?  Or is that centimeters?  Or millimeters?

Stupid government – Congress in action (2 stories)
After Protracted Questioning: Holder Admits It’s Unconstitutional for Gov’t to Kill U.S. Citizen Sitting Peacefully in U.S. in Cafe

Sen. Rand Paul Stands Up for the Constitution in 13-Hour Filibuster
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Paul’s stand seems to have gotten the administration (or at least ONE of the “messiah’s” minions) to have backed down – at least in words.  Do I believe them?  Hardly.  Still, I give Paul some credit for pushing this and representing his state in the way that Senators once did in the pre-War Between the States days.  But we know that Holder has lied before, and there is no reason to believe that his letter (self-serving as it was) is going to be considered binding or any guarantee that someone sitting on a hillside or in their pick-up in a rest area isn’t going to get targeted and zapped by a missile fired from a Predator drone with DHS – or USAF – markings.

Of course, in the end, Paul’s filibuster did NOT prevent Brennan from being appointed as Director of Central Intelligence: 81 voted for cloture: so ONCE AGAIN, the GOP wimps out and proves that they care no more for American liberty and freedom than their supposed Demo opponents.

Stupid government tricks
State Dept. Offers Special Two-Year Passports for Transgenders in Transition
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: What a WONDERFUL opportunity to promote and support fraud and identity theft.  And to trash the value of a passport.

Theft by government.
Blackburn: ‘Deeply Disturbing’ Napolitano Would Talk of Furloughing TSA Officers While Spending $50M on New Uniforms
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: The average TSA salary is $100,000; there are 50,000.  A furlough of one day per two weeks is 10%, or $10,000 x 50,000 – 500,000,000. $500 million!  A year!  PEANUTS.  But still ten times the uniform purchase.  I’m sure that they’d rather have the spiffy uniforms even if they lose $1,000 this year in salary (less when you consider how much tax withholding they have.  I found this at Political Outcast:

The TSA provides complete uniforms for each agent. Although they do not purchase replacement items, each agent initially receives:

  • 3 long sleeve shirts
  • 3 short sleeve shirts,
  • 2 pairs of trousers
  • 2 ties
  • one belt
  • sweater
  • socks
  • a jacket.

There are 50,000 TSA agents. That breaks down to a government outlay of $1,000 per agent.

Nathan: Now THAT is quite a list.  Really expensive shirts and trousers, especially.  Notice: no shoes, though.  Even if the jacket is a $100 item and the sweater is $50, I can’t see the shirts and pants running more than $30 each. I see about $500 at most – and they’ll dress better than most of us.  So why $1,000?  Graft or overhead is a possibility, but I wonder if it isn’t because of special items built in: maybe special “identification: friend or foe” (IFF) electronics?  Maybe the shirts are Kevlar?  Maybe surveillance devices?  Who knows – but we DO know that they only got new uniforms about three years ago, so this seems really stupid.

Political Outpost had some more info on government spending and theft:

Since Obama took office just over 4 years ago, the federal government has been hiring 101 new employees 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year for 4 years. Sequestration goes into effect and on the first day of humongous budget cuts and hundreds of thousands of lost jobs, the feds posted 400 new jobs, nearly 4 times the average number of new hires per day.

Nathan: What budget crisis?  What economic crisis?  The Congress AND the other branches are all fiddling while the nation is burning with spending fever.  Meanwhile, the lies continue.

Stupid government – Theft by government
CDC Director Can’t Back Up White House Claim That Sequester Will Halt 2,050 Vaccines for Kids in MD
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Of course they cannot.  I figure these White House “fact sheets” were prepared by someone programming grants to states and then picking a good-looking “must-have” program that would look good and put fear into the parents and those who are professionally “for the children” and “for the poor” and desperate for every federal dime.

Mama’s Note: Elimination of the vaccine program would be the very best thing that could happen for these children, of course. Children under the age of two do not really benefit at all from vaccination, and it is clearly a major reason for a lot of serious, even life threatening problems in that population. Government has no business dictating our medical care, including vaccinations, or anything else.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News #13-10C: Good news – just as a teaser

Posted on 2013-03-07 by TPOL Nathan

Medical news
15-year-old invents new test for early, reliable detection of pancreatic cancer
(Mercola.com VIA FND) “Yes, a 15-year-old boy named Jack Andraka has done what scientists with millions of dollars-worth of research grants at their disposal have failed to do. He invented a dipstick-type sensor to detect pancreatic, ovarian, and lung cancer that is: * 168 times faster * 26,000 times less expensive, and * 400 times more sensitive than the current standard of detection … And he did it using Google and Wikipedia as his primary research tools — online resources that are available to virtually anyone on the planet with an internet connection. What’s more, the test costs three cents, takes five minutes, and has a 90 percent accuracy rate. Compare that to the current standard, which employs 60-year-old technology, costs about $800, and misses 30 percent of all pancreatic cancers.” [hat tip — Christian Butterbach] (03/04/13)

Nathan: Anyone want to bet that some (or several) government agency will decide that this isn’t acceptable and must undergo years of “rigorous testing” so that it can be delayed and let million die prematurely?

Mama’s Note: Oh, I’m sure that the government will TRY to do that. But it won’t make any difference if this young man goes “open source” with it… publishes the particulars so people can make their own, just as with the 3D printing of gun parts and, soon, whole guns. You can’t unring a bell.

Stupid people – Stupid government
New York: Man gets summonses … for laughing out loud!
(Source: San Francisco Chronicle) “A New York man says he didn’t know it was a crime to laugh. Robert Schiavelli of Rockville Centre, on Long Island, was slapped with two summonses for ‘disturbing the peace.’ Police responded to his home on Feb. 12 and Feb. 13 after receiving complaints from his next-door neighbor that his loud laughs could be heard across the driveway. … At his arraignment Tuesday, a judge declined to dismiss the charges.” [editor’s note: The Onion will soon be out of business if crap like this continues to actually happen in “real life” – SAT] (03/06/13)

Nathan: We’ve all had neighbors like this, but the laughers are NOT as annoying as the Mrs. Grundy types who think we all should be in jail if we do anything to annoy them.  Sadly, the Mrs. Grundy types are also the ones who get elected to office and tell the cops to do this – or they are the cop’s parents who raised their stinking little brats to become jackbooted thugs.

Mama’s Note: Indeed. As they say, good fences make good neighbors. If you have to live in sardine cans, make sure they are well insulated. I can’t imagine living that close to other people myself – at least not on purpose.

Thuggish local tyranny
Minnesota: Family fights county’s abduction, torture of infant boy
(Austin Daily Herald) “Local family members have been pleading their case for more than a month to regain custody of their nearly 3-month-old baby. However, county officials and doctors are hesitant, given the potential circumstances: Tests show the child is HIV positive. But they clearly have other concerns, as well; specifically, an antiretroviral therapy (ART) the family spoke out against in the past. Mower County Human Services [abducted] the child, Rico Martinez Nagel, from Lindsey Nagel and John Martinez’s custody on Jan. 18 …. doctors maintain that the child must stay on ART, and that is listed in the request for [the child’s abduction].” (03/05/13)

Nathan: Can I find a more hypocritical action on the part of doctors and courts and county officials than this?  Three months ago, Lindsey could have paid a doctor (or have welfare pay a doctor) to suck Rico out of her womb, killing him – because it is “her choice” as a woman to get rid of a “parasite” – or a “lump of tissue.”  But now the county and courts claim that she is incompetent to make a decision regarding her child.  It isn’t about the child, it is about control.

Congress in action – GOP idiots-in-charge
GOP Leaders Break 72-Hr Pledge: Rush 269-Page $982B CR to Vote 47 Hrs After Posting
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Sorry, but can ANYONE tell me just ONE pledge since, oh, 1994 (the “Republican Revolution), that the GOP Congressional Leadership has NOT broken?  Why should THIS be any different.  They can’t stand OTHER people whinging.

The “messiah” – It’s fah the chilrun
White House Tours, Arranged by Congress, Closed; But White House Easter Egg Roll Is Still On
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Can’t let those little impressionable minds think that guvmint can’t give them all their hearts’ desires, now can we?

American front – Tranzi losses
Hugo Chavez Dies; Anointed Successor Already Polishing Anti-U.S. Credentials
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Oh, dear, another would be Bolivar or Napoleon.  Just what tired old Venezuela needs.  Of course, one commenter pointed out that it could be an opportunity to replay post-Tito Yugoslavia or post-Saddam Mesopotamia or not-so-post-Assad Syria: is it another opportunity for the US to mess with someone else?

Stupid government – Government-run, tax-funded schools
Chicago Will Require Kindergarteners to Take Sex Ed
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Well, considering what California pre-schools have happening, I guess that it is “easy” to see why they would do that.  More crudely, I suppose the mayor and his minions (including the cops) are wanting more servicing from their inferiors, and since so many Chicago teens never make it past their legal age of consent (all those smuggled guns, you know) they have to start them early?  What kind of SICK society teaches five-year-olds about sex?

Mama’s Note: Well, certainly not in “school.” My two boys learned about “sex” the old fashioned way, because we had farm animals. They managed to watch the whole cycle of reproduction from about the age of three. When it came time to explain human sexuality, it was no big deal.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News #13-10B: Venezuela, Russia, and Schools under tyranny

Posted on 2013-03-06 by TPOL Nathan

Well, well, five days in and the country still continues to hold together, though skating on the edge of disaster.  The violin continues to rest on the credenza by the windows of the Oval Office.  How sad.

Yesterday and today, lots of fun news stories to talk about.  Here are some thoughts on a few:

Hugo Chavez is dead.  And the Venezuelan government has admitted it.  A lot of people thought he might have been dead for quite a while – perhaps weeks – and that the photos of him with his daughters was of a corpse.  But they finally admitted that Cuban medicine was not what they hoped, and the people of Venezuela can mourn the loss of a man many of them loved, and most of them feared, and not enough disliked.  The replacement is Chavez’s handpicked successor, a former bus driver.  Oh, and the Venezuelan government blames the US for killing him: they say that DC gave him the cancer by chemicals or something: maybe black magic or Santeria or HAARP.

Mama’s Note: May he soon be joined by the Castro brothers and all their ilk. Good
riddance.

President Barack Obama has the legal authority to unleash deadly force—such as drone strikes—against Americans on U.S. soil without first putting them on trial, Attorney General Eric Holder wrote in a letter released Tuesday.

Nathan: Is it not wonderful and comforting that it would be in “extraordinary circumstances?”  We can, of course, trust Holder and his chief Soetero to not do anything that would trigger that, like all their predecessors.  After all, how often does a Ruby Ridge or a Branch Davidian incident happen?

Supposedly, the DHS have software for THEIR Predator drones (the ones that are “unarmed” that can tell if “civilians” are armed or not.  Says nothing about military (or I assume, “police”) – do we get a free ride if they pick up our badge or our ID card?  Also doesn’t say whether the drones (or their operators) will be able to tell the difference between a REAL gun and … say, a PopTart?

Stupid hoplophobes – Government-run, tax-funded schools
Baltimore student suspended for shaping Pop-Tart into gun
(WOKV-TV)

Nathan:  He said he was trying to make a mountain, but we all know how these psychotic seven-year-olds lie and lie.  Is there no end?  Get your children OUT of these places.

Florida high school gun case: Student suspended after disarming gunman
(KJRH TV)

Nathan: Okay to be dead, but if you get involved….  Get your children OUT of these places, people!

Russian stupid government
Russia Fears Its Troops Will Riot if Cigarette Rations End
(Technologyreview.com – via Freedom’s Phoenix) Russia’s new defense minister wants to extinguish one of the Russian military’s most endemic health problems and martial perks: giving free cigarettes to troops.

Well, even Putin’s Russia is getting politically correct.  Once upon a time, American troops got cigarettes in their C-rations, but that is no good for the nannies.

Stupid government – Crash of 2009
Raising the Minimum Wage Hurts Its Intended Beneficiaries
(Marketwatch) Raising the minimum wage would crowd out the lowest skilled workers and make it more challenging for our country’s youth to begin on the career ladder…

Nathan: As if this hadn’t been known for decades!  Of course, Marketwatch is generally left-leaning, so it takes them a while.

Energy – Home front
Gas Boom Projected to Grow for Decades
(Wall Street Journal) U.S. shale-rock formations will provide a growing source of moderately priced natural gas through 2040, and decline only slowly after that…

Nathan: Unless Cousin Soetoro (and his minions and masters) have government keep the boom from happening, by demonizing fracking and directional drillings and the other technologies.  Still, there is the fear that the “messiah” will use this to power his regime well beyond 2016 – a prospect which frightens a lot of people.  The recent rumors that the State Department will approve the Keystone XL pipeline is a good indication that these fears might prove to be correct.

Stupid government – theft by government
TSA Sealed $50-Million Sequester-Eve Deal to Buy New Uniforms
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Of course they need spiffy new uniforms to make them look still MORE like Barney (Fife, not the Dinosaur).

Stupid government – theft by government
$253.5B—Obama Borrowed Nearly 6x as Much in February as Sequester Cuts All Year
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Once more demonstrating the token nature of the cuts and their meaningless nature.  All the “sequester” does is try to make life on board the Titanic a little bit more miserable before it hits the iceberg.

Obama’s EPA Nominee Vowed She Would Not ‘Sit Around and Wait for Congressional Action’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: There is no reason to expect any other attitude from the “messiah’s” appointees:  to them, even the confirmation process, much less ANY thing else that Congress does, is rote and ritual and Congress has no power that they cannot trump.

First citizen
White House: ‘There is No Price to Meet with the President’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: No doubt, the payment is required to be allowed to leave – to escape.

Government nanny-state.
DOJ: Children Do Not Need—and Have No Right to–Mothers
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Nor fathers – the State is our mother and/or our father and our God and gives us all we need and takes what it needs that we can provide to it!

Mama’s Note: Hmmm, but somebody’s got to change the diapers, and you better believe no politician is going to volunteer for that job.

Islamic wars: Arab Street revolt
Kerry: ‘No Guarantee’ That Weapons From U.S. Allies Won’t Go to Jihadists
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: This may be true, but that doesn’t mean that Kerry has to try and one-up Holder with a Jihadist “Fast and Furious.”

Islamic wars: Canaanite and Persian fronts
Netanyahu Says Iran Tops the Agenda When Obama Comes to Visit
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Well, I am sure that the “messiah” will pay close attention; after all, Uncle Joe says that Israel never had a better friend!

Culture wars: homosexual activists
Texas Lawmakers Urge Boy Scouts to Maintain Traditional Values
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Ha!  If the Legislators could teach themselves to maintain traditional values!

Local Nanny Statist
Bloomberg: ‘Somebody’s Got to be Blamed for Everything’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Glad that he volunteered!  He makes a nice scapegoat – although I suspect he has someone else in mind.  Will it be the Jews again, or perhaps some new minority group, like Anglos in NYC.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News #13-10A: Environist Tyranny

Posted on 2013-03-04 by TPOL Nathan

Well, last week went by too fast, and too much on my plate, so lets start out with some interesting news items.

The MAJOR story – to my mind, at least – is that Sequestration-Armageddon has not yet hit.  I just drove over about 800 miles of Federal highway on Friday and Saturday, and another 100 or so today – and they ALL worked!  No planes have fallen from the skies – that I know of (they might be keeping things like that hidden, of course).  The post office even delivered mail yesterday, a Saturday (for now, at least).  I have not heard of ANY classes canceled at local government-run, tax-funded schools because the teachers all got laid off.  And North Korea didn’t launch that dreaded doomsday strike with all the DoD civilian technicians out panhandling for food and rent money (and I went near several military bases on that 800 mile trip, and didn’t see a SINGLE panhandler – in civvies OR in uniform).  (Of course, now that I think about it, North Korea might have wanted to wait until Dennis Rodman was back so that he would be inside the blast radius.)

Face it, once more Chicken Little has gone screaming across the farm yard shouting out her warnings.  And once again, what do we have?  Nada – zip – nothing.  Obama-hysteria, maybe?  Or is he just lulling us into a sense of security and WHAM, everything shuts down all at once until we beg him to enslave us (more)?

Of course, all the other versions of tyranny are busy galloping towards us, swords drawn and eager for our blood.  Here are a few examples, all tied to the religion of Gaea (saving Mother Earth from us eeeevillll humans) and tyranny at various levels.

New religions: environism – Federal tyranny
Nineteen EPA Challenges for 2013- and How to Deal with Them
(Environmental Bulletin) Brace yourself for a flood of new EPA regulations in 2013 as President Obama enters his second term.

Nathan: Along with every other agency in the Executive Branch, as the REAL crackdown on liberty and free markets gets underway.  We will not recognize the world of 2013 when we look back at it from 2017 because so much of what we have now – whittled away though it has been by decades of ever-growing tyranny – will be gone.  We are indeed frogs boiling in water.

Mama’s Note: Or not… Those who survive to 2017 may just look back and marvel at how long humankind put up with the controllers. Either way, it’s not going to be a comfortable time.

New religions: environism – Local tyranny
Minneapolis requiring buildings to report water and energy use
(EC&M) A new city ordinance will require large commercial buildings to annually report water and energy usage. Minneapolis is now the seventh city to pass such a law.

Nathan: Think about this: it is the City itself that provides water (and sewer) service to these buildings, and frankly, Xcel Energy (electric power) and CenterPoint Energy (natural gas) are in effect city agencies anyway, managing inside a straightjacket of city and state rules that dictate everything they do.  The information is already available to the City – but THIS just rubs the fact of such control into the noses of commercial real estate owners and tenants and occupants.  “We can demand this information because WE are government” and of course, it makes it easier to control – even ration – these utilities.  “ABC Strip Mall is using too much energy as compared to Green Star Strip Mall, so we will FORCE ABC to cut back on heating and cooling and lighting.”  More power to local tyrants, more power for arrogant and officious bureaucrats.  Power to the government ‘rats!  As in the next story.

New religions: environism – World tyranny
Scientists urge plastics be classified as hazardous
(Waste Recycling News) A group of scientists believe they have a way to keep plastics from ending up in oceans or being littered across the countryside: classify plastics as hazardous waste. “We believe that if countries classified the most harmful plastics as hazardous, their environmental agencies would have the power to restore affected habitats and prevent more dangerous debris from accumulating,” a group of 10 scientists wrote in an article posted Feb. 13 on the journal Nature’s website. … “…if the most problematic plastics are classified as hazardous immediately and replaced with safer, reusable materials in the next decade,” the scientists wrote. “We feel that the physical dangers of plastic debris are well enough established, and the suggestions of chemical dangers sufficiently worrying, that the biggest producers of plastic waste – the United States, Europe and China – must act now.”

Nathan: It isn’t that they really THINK that that empty soda bottle or milk jug or Loaf-n-Jug drink cup or packing peanuts ARE hazardous, but they want them declared so for the sake of CONTROL.  Just like cannabis is a Schedule whatever substance: for control’s sake.  If you add PVC or HDPE to the list of “Extremely Hazardous Substances” (EHS), then leaving one in a empty hallway or having one blow out of the back of your pick-up becomes an environmental crime – a felony.  Having a bag of them (a plastic bag, itself now hazmat) in your back seat becomes another excuse for a cop to pull you over and taser you into a coma or shoot you as full of holes as Jesse James.  These so-called scientists are nothing but devoted disciples of some weird syncretic religion in which the State is God and “Science” is its willing toadie.

Meanwhile, we can still note some interesting things.

Theft by government – The “messiah”
President Obama’s Golf Trip Could Have Saved 341 Furloughed Jobs
(Townhall.com)

Nathan: Of course, “furloughed jobs” doesn’t mean these people go without a job:  it seems to be about a 10% cut:  one day in two work weeks – and presumably one or two paid holidays become UNpaid  holidays.  Still, would YOU give up a chance to play golf with that well-known sex-fiend and golf pro just so 341 federal workers don’t have to take a temporary pay cut?

Mama’s Note: Consider also how many small businesses might be able to create ongoing jobs and provide much needed goods and services if the Imperial president and his court actually paid for all their recreation and “vacations” like the rest of us do… with their own money. Unfortunately, most of the money they have has been stolen from taxpayers as well. But it would be a start.

Theft by government – The “messiah”
Obama: Sequester Won’t Be Apocalypse – ‘Just Dumb’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Still pretending it wasn’t his idea in the first place.  Well, we know what kind of guy we have there at 1600.  Sad, but looking at this nation as a whole, he PROBABLY IS the kind of guy we deserve. Uggh.

Mama’s Note: Don’t include me in your “we.” Those who voted for him – or any other such, yes, but I’m not taking any responsibility for this one.

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The Sequester – Much ado about nothing

Posted on 2013-03-01 by TPOL Nathan

The horror stories have been dominating the front pages and the web sites for two weeks now: Friday, 3/01/13 is the Apocalypse as far as federal funding and spending and millions of jobs.  Border jumpers are already being released, DoD will furlough most of its people, gun background checks will be delayed indefinitely, FBI agents will go home and criminals will have a field day, teachers and aides will be laid off, people won’t get food stamps (and so start), children won’t go to Head Start (and grow up ignorant) and all the rest.  The GOP won’t cave, so the stories go, and the White House and Congressional Democrats are trying desperately to stop the disaster.  People won’t be able to find out if they have AIDS – 850 in South Dakota alone. Ships will not deploy on “vital” missions. The elderly will starve because federal subsidies to meals on wheels and food banks will end.

IT IS ALL GARBAGE.

“The first thing to note,” writes Reason’s Nick Gillespie, “is that the $85 billion figure that gets bandied about overstates this year’s cuts due to sequestration by about $40 billion.

“According to the Congressional Budget Office in its February 2013 report on the budget outlook, ‘Discretionary outlays will drop by $35 billion and mandatory spending will be reduced by $9 billion this year as a direct result of those procedures [sequestration]; additional reductions in outlays attributable to the cuts in 2013 funding will occur in later years.’

“You got that? When President Obama scaremongers about national parks closing and TSA lines getting longer — and when Republicans b**** [whinge] and moan about the military having to set up bake sales to buy bombers — they are already misstating basic facts. The sequester will slice $44 billion off this year’s budget, not $85 billion.”

The second thing?  If nothing is done by tomorrow and the sequester “cuts” kick in, the fedgov will spend a total of $3.553 trillion in fiscal 2013. You know what? That’s actually $15 billion more than in 2012.  Federal spending is going UP – again! Closely related to that, is that even if there WERE actually $85 billion being cut, the federal spending from March 1st on is STILL more than the Federal spending in 2010.

Third? At the same time as both parties are condemning each other, and the White House is whinging about how Congress isn’t playing the game, there is more and more evidence that BOTH parties are refusing to deal with each other, and insiders report that the word is down to the Democrats AND Republicans that there is to be no compromise – tomorrow is nearly here.  The occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania does not WANT a solution.

Fourth?  Remember that the White House originally drafted and urged passage of the sequester and urged the two-month extension in January.  Ask yourself why.  For months, nothing was done except to posture.

The entire thing is about as legit as that guy behind the curtain in the palace there in Oz.  Once more,  the American people and businesses are being lied to and taken for a ride.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News #13-09B: Bogus science and new religions

Posted on 2013-02-27 by TPOL Nathan

Bogus Science
Peak Oil Production Still Ahead
(The American via Daily Policy Digest)  Global crude oil extraction between 2001 and 2011 rose by 10.8 percent to just 5 million metric tons shy of the 4 billion metric mark…

Nathan: I cannot recall how many different articles I’ve read over the past five years decrying AT LAST the arrival of Peak Oil.  And lo and behold, it STILL isn’t here.  And I do not think (barring the collapse of Western Civilization) that we will see it for a long time.  Why?  First, petroleum is NOT a “fossil fuel” in the scientific definition of that term:  oil is of abiotic origins and continually being produced deep in the earth and rising.  Second, technology is advancing constantly, and if not for the vicious, government-inspired and -caused inflation, prices would be dropping constantly, even as the technology improves.  Third, if the government will leave us alone long enough, we’ll be producing “synthetic” oil in ever-increasing quantities that will drive solar (including corn- and soy-based petroleum substitutes) out of the market for mobile fuels, even while fusion and fission (including the “new” nickel-hydrate low-energy fusion) come on-line, probably in decentralized forms, to handle stationary power requirements.  If we do not destroy liberty AND civilization totally in the next few years, we will be generating and consuming 5-10 times as much energy per capita within a decade.

Public lies
U.S. Roads in Good Shape
(Reason Foundation) Between 1989 and 2008, all states lowered their highway fatality rates and 40 states reduced their percentages of deficient bridges…

Nathan: In other words, once more we’ve been fed a lie – a pack of lies – about how the infrastructure is deteriorating beyond repair and we MUST throw more and more money at the problem.  And those of us able to remember the 1950s and 1960s CAN (if we want to) think about how much worse the highways of those days were, and even into the 1970s, as compared to the luxury we enjoy today.  As with education and most other services, it is not HOW much money you spend, but HOW you spend the money and HOW you manage the resources.  Although it does not seem like it, we actually are moving the transportation system somewhat more into a private, not public, mode.

Government-run, tax-funded schools
Student not allowed to wear abstinence tee shirt
(Political Outcast)  [The tee shirt read:] “Don’t drink and park… accidents cause kids” Summer believed in what the shirt said and was proud to wear it to school the next day.  Everything was going well for her at Clearlake Middle School until just after lunch.  On her way back to class, the 8th grader was stopped by the vice principal who told her to go to the office and change her shirt because it was inappropriate.  She was given a t-shirt that read: TOMORROW I WILL DRESS FOR SUCCESS…

Nathan: As the student asked, “why can we talk about this in sex-ed but not read it on a shirt?”  (There were no pictures, just the words in a stop sign shape.)  One more example of how GRTF schools make their inmates – excuse me, students – miserable.

Stupid government
Homeless can’t eat deer meat in Louisiana
(Townhall.com) The Louisiana Dept. of Health and Hospitals would rather the homeless go hungry than let them eat deer steaks provided by generous hunters. That law has hunters across the Sportsman’s Paradise outraged after health officials ordered a rescue mission to destroy $8,000 worth of deer meat because venison is not allowed to be served in homeless shelters.

Nathan: Can’t eat Bambi – or his dad, either.  A lot of us grew up on venison and other game, but never mind that:  the Health department says even properly processed, it is wrong to feed that “junk” to the homeless and it MUST be destroyed lest animals eat it.

Mama’s Note: And did the several thousand (or however many) people who understand what BS this “ruling” truly is march down and beat the snot out of the “officials” making the rules? Did they offer to take the homeless to their own houses and feed them the venison? No? Oh, ok. Guess that means it’s not that big a deal to the protesters. They want government to do something about it, I suspect. Lots of luck.

Government attack on religion – Nazgul
DOJ attorney tells federal judge his wife can’t practice her religion
(CNSNews.com)  While presenting an oral argument in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia last fall, a lawyer for the U.S. Justice Department told a federal judge that the Obama administration believed it could force the judge’s own wife—a physician—to act against her religious faith in the conduct of her medical practice.

Nathan: Gee, the judge ruled against them.  And not out of spite – corporations are made up of people.  If we cannot exercise our freedoms as a group in a corporation, then why can we exercise them as a political party (often itself a corporation) or any other organization?

Commentary of the Week: Let’s replace the tax code with a national lottery
(Godfather Politics)  The United States has an all-voluntary military, so why not an all-voluntary taxing system? Aren’t liberals all about freedom of choice? Their sloganeering includes the operating premise “My body . . . My choice!”  So why not expand the notion of what’s mine you can’t touch to property. “My land . . . My choice.” My money . . . My choice.” … I propose that we start a national lottery. If you believe that big government is good for America, then you can show it by purchasing more lottery tickets. The people who really believe this nonsense that the spending is not the problem, then they can act on that belief by buying more lottery tickets and encouraging their friends to do the same.

Nathan: Gary DeMar is one of those people that you have to take carefully.  But here, he has a potential winner – a blast from the past that worked well for decades in early America.

Home front
Will Obama Confiscate Guns and Gold?
(Dollar Vigilante – by Wendy McElroy) Gold confiscation would likely begin with pension accounts because the state mechanisms to do so are already in place. Moreover, as with the gold in FDR-era bank vaults, the location and quantity is known; the organizations holding it would cooperate fully. (Again, more reason to make sure your IRA is self-directed and that you can internationalize the assets therein.) Direct confiscation from individuals would be more problematic, and not merely because of its comparative anonymity. Direct confiscation returns us to guns. Given the personality of the typical gold bug and the simmering state of society, Obama must know that gun confiscation is a political prerequisite of a direct gold grab. On February 13th, the UK Market Oracle predicted for 2013, “The collection programs for guns will be eclipsed by collection of private pension funds and perhaps gold itself.” Guns and gold are blurring.

Nathan: Wendy’s conclusions are startling to many people, but her logic seems sound to me.  Both of these events are moving closer to being executed.  Ladies (Lady Susan, Claire, Wendy), do you not think that it IS TIME?

Mama’s Note: Claire and I have had some interesting discussions on this, both privately and with the other commenters on her blog. Depends on what you think it is time FOR.

We pretty much agree that it is long past TIME to stop pretending that there is any political solution to the problems we face. And, in that same light, it is long, long past time for the people who claim to want liberty and prosperity to give up the notion that they can, in any way, live at the expense of others or at peace with “the system.” In other words, it is past TIME for people to take full responsibility for their own lives and safety and seek solutions to life’s normal problems that involve voluntary association and cooperation instead of any kind of government coercion.

It is TIME to resist each and every act of aggression, theft and fraud with integrity and sober judgment. Just exactly when it will be TIME to shoot the bastards is something that each of us will have to decide for ourselves when facing the need to resist. We’ll be double fools if we wait for someone else to tell us.

Claire says she sometimes regrets making that statement, and now says, “Don’t ask me!”

Local tyranny – Hoplophobes and hoploclasts
Washington State: Dems back off from police search and seizure
(By Kurt Nimmo | Infowars) Democrats in Washington State are in full retreat after it was reported they are working on legislation that would nullify the Fourth Amendment rights of citizens who own firearms designated as “assault weapons” by the state. “In order to continue to possess an assault weapon that was legally possessed on […]

Nathan: They may have back off for now… but expect the legislature (and NOT just Demons) to try again, soon.  And sooner or later, bar the counter-counter-revolution, they WILL negate ALL of the Fourth Amendment rights.

Stupid government – the “messiah”
Obama’s Paycheck Exempted from ‘Sequester’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: A life-long Democrat talked to me about this:  he is still more angry at the Republicans but his anger at the “messiah” and the Democrats is growing;  He figures (as do many people) that he and his wife already gave 2% and more at the beginning of the year, and so this sequester is just insult to injury, and wants to know when the denizens of DC will pay their part.

Mama’s Note: Obama’s paycheck is a drop in the bucket compared to the other costs of this imperial presidency. His monthly (or more often) “vacations” cost many millions EACH. The secret service guards for him and his family, specialized “health care,” and all the special perks of living in the White House – probably many more millions we’re not aware of. This is MONTHLY and ongoing. And a lot of that will continue after he leaves office, of course.

Theft by government – World wars
Real Defense Department Spending Up 54 Percent in 10 Years
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Say it ain’t so!  Most of this is pass-through money: to contractors and suppliers and foreign nations where the soldiers etc. get sent, and despite all the hoopla about troops and DoD civilians getting so much (and believe me, they do), the vast majority of the money comes right back into the hands and pockets of the buddies of DC.

Islamic wars: Afghan front – Theft by government
U.N.: 50.1 Percent of Afghans Bribed a Government Official in 2012

Nathan: Bad as we are here, this is an incredible record – but I am SURE that OUR bureaucrats will figure out a way to beat it.  Of course, we don’t call them “bribes” here, at least not when the official is an elected one:  they are campaign contributions.  And of course, there is the REVERSE flow: usually called “fraud.”  As the next story touches on.

New religions: environism – Theft by government
EPA Discovers Its ‘Renewable Fuels’ Program Is Vulnerable to Fraud

Nathan: Sure they “discovered” this – most of the EPA types directly involved have known this fraud was there for years.  Indeed, go back to the Clinton era and even past that and you will find the program was essentially CREATED to facilitate fraud on a massive scale.  Like most other government programs, the sticky fingers are on both sides of the bargaining table and the counter.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News #13-09A: Hackers and Sequestrations and Other Stupid Ideas

Posted on 2013-02-27 by TPOL Nathan

American front – Border jumpers
Former Mexican Official: Recession, Traffickers, Better Mexican Economy Account for Drop in Migration
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: To say nothing of the fact that the American side of the border is collapsing around our ears with the federal-state war on guns, the continuing war on some drugs, the upcoming ObummerCare mandates, the screams about Financial Armageddon with the sequestration cuts, and people talking about secession.  Who wants to go to the trouble of finding a coyote to help them sneak into Arizona or California only to find Arizona or California seceding and applying for statehood in the United Mexican States?

Islamic wars: Persian front
More Evidence Emerges of Worldwide Iranian-Backed Terror Plotting
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: You know, once upon a time it was Americans who went around the world plotting revolutions against despotic regimes and preaching the Gospel to the poor benighted locals and doing all this stuff labeled as “terrorism.” Today, there isn’t enough evidence around to convict any American of trying to subvert evil regimes to free the oppressed – but indeed the opposite.  If we really believed in liberty and in God, we’d have the Iranian and Pakistani and Iraqi and Saudi and Syrian jails filled with American “terrorists” teaching the truth about liberty and freedom and justice and mercy.  Instead, we have the Muslims doing what we should be doing: plotting to overthrow what they believe is evil.

Theft by government
Federal Gov’t. Spends Over $2 Million on Bike Trails in Colorado
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: This is, of course, just a drop in the bucket.  When you are trying to cut $85 billion or $100 billion from the government spending, THIS is what you start with, but no… pork like this is sacrosanct and the worshipers of the state must be given this sort of sop to their whinging.

World wars: Business and tax (government theft) front
U.S. Tire CEO to French Gov’t: ‘How Stupid Do You Think We Are?’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Sorry, the French KNOW how stupid we are.  As several Russians have remarked, we voted the communists [Tranzis] in, and we stupidly voted for bread and circuses instead of freedom.  France and other socialist governments figure our businesses and individuals have rolled over and played dead for the “messiah” so why not for them?

Theft by government – Corruption
Issa Investigating: IRS Funneled Nearly $500M in Contracts to One IT Firm in 2012; IRS Staffer Had Personal Relationship With Owner
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Yeah, the staffer is claiming “no personal relationship”  and that they just happened to be in the same picture in the same bed without any clothes because there was this horrendous mix-up about motel reservations and lost luggage and a bellhop who was way too slow.

Seriously, when we are looking for things to cut, it seems like IRS IT contracts is a GREAT place to start – and an across-the-board pay cut for every IRS employee above GS-5.

Stupid government tricks
Kerry: ‘Be Ready to Join Us’ in Fight against Climate Change
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Never mind the “long war” (the war on terrorism), never mind fighting for liberty, never mind Hilary’s pet “war on AIDS” and “war for Feminist privilege,” this is now top priority  And remember, if you are not with us, you are against us.  Expect the USAF to get new target lists any day now:  all those evil coal-fired power stations and oil refineries are such perfect targets.  Every one taken out reduces carbon emissions by millions of tons a year!

Mama’s Note: I’ll bet none of these “green” folks ever has, or ever WILL spend a moment without all the light, heat, cooling, transportation, electronic information/entertainment and refrigeration their little hearts desire. Austerity, and a return to the 1900s is only for the “little people.”

Theft by government – Nazgul
For-Profit Businesses Have Right to Religious Liberty Too, Lawmakers Tell Court in Hobby Lobby Case
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: What, you expect the Nazgul to listen?  Next thing you know, you’ll be telling the courts that ordinary human-type people have a right to life, liberty, and property.  And then what will happen?  Seriously, how can a corporation have a right to free speech (protected by the First Amendment) and NOT have a right to religious liberty protected by the First Amendment?  Of course, the right of COMMERCIAL free speech disappeared long ago – when did you last hear or see a cigarette commercial?

World wars: Hacker front and East Asian front
China Says U.S. Is Making Hacking Claims to Lobby for More Money, Legislation
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: You know, they may have put their finger on it.  I’m not saying that China isn’t trying to breach cyberspace defenses, but the screams of anguish sound so very like previous attempts to create an excuse for more spending and more control that you have to wonder.

Mama’s Note: Who knows? I think this is one of the cases where it is wisest to “fence them out.” People who want privacy have the obligation (and the best chances) of providing it for themselves instead of counting on someone else to guarantee it.

Theft by government
White House State-by-State List of Sequestration Impacts
(Washington Post)  This is taken directly from the White House documents: “press-release journalism” at its best.  Someone spent a lot of time summarizing the claimed deadly effects of the “automatic” sequestration on 1 March.

Nathan: As several people pointed out, there isn’t much scary about this – in large part because they are trying to make it sound so scary: children will go hungry and grow up illiterate, and without vaccines.  People with HIV will go undetected (South Dakota will not be able to give 800 HIV tests).  Then hundreds of thousands of DoD employees (civilians) will not have jobs or pay for a short time, and on and on and on.  There is not a DIRECT threat of violence, but a strong hint that criminals will go on a rampage, cops and teachers won’t get paid (and presumably, not be able to get unemployment benefits and I guess, go on a crime spree to get money to live on).  I’m not buying the horror stories.  The next story explains one of the reasons.

Theft by government
Real Federal Spending Up $822.90 Per American Since 2008
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: As one sardonic commentator pointed out, these sequestrations will roll fedgov spending back to 2010 or 2011 levels, or (assuming a steady growth) about half of this or $412 per American.  Everyone remembers (as the commentator pointed out) how desperately short of money government agencies were then (and in 2008 under the evil Bush):  we had cabinet secretaries out panhandling in front of Subway shops and on street corners claiming that they needed gas money to go visit their dying mother, and taking the money and instead using it to pay bureaucrats’ salaries and buy more cruise missiles.  The cruelty of Americans – especially the Tea Party movement types and those awful libertarians – knows no limit: they would again revel in the spectacle of Eric Holder begging for money to keep his FBI agents off the streets (and their families, too).

Mama’s Note: Unfortunately, any paychecks not issued during this fake “crisis” will be made up for once the congress allows more money to be printed and more borrowing to go on. Not a penny will be cut in actual spending. They will manipulate their double set of books for a little while, and entrench themselves even more in their own perks and powers, and economy will continue to rot as before.

Our right to self-defense – Stupid government tyranny
Frederick Douglass Society President: ‘Direct Correlation Between Gun Control and Black People Control’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: And how long has JPFO and SAS and SAF been preaching this truth?  How many black Americans died for lack of ability to defend themselves?  How much of the current black-on-black violence developed because the black sub-culture was damaged and corrupted by a simple lack of ability to defend themselves against parasitic aggressors?

Stupid government – Theft by government (2 stories)
LaHood Seeks to Convince ‘People in My Own Party’ to Avoid Air Travel ‘Calamity’

Transportation Secretary on Budget Cuts: Over 100 Air Traffic Control Towers May Be Closed
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: The second of these stories actually was published several days ago, but got fresh life because of LaHood’s begging.  We have yet another example of fearmongering by high administration officials (they are so high they are almost at curb height!). LaHood may once have been less than an outright socialist, but I doubt it.

Stupid people – Hoploclasts and hoplophobes
Russell Simmons: ‘Guns Are Not for People to Have in Their Houses’
(CNSNews.com) The hiphop artist claims that we don’t need to worry about the Redcoats, so let us all get rid of guns.

Nathan: Once more example of an idiot trying to prove that his brain and knowledge are even more miniscule than we thought they were.  How many people believe him?  Even one is too many.  But in some places, they think this guy is not just stupid, but nuts: as we see in the next story.

Self defense
Texas home/gun-owners take toll on evildoers
(Godfather Politics)

Nathan: a series of short stories about people defending themselves, worth sharing with others.  Will the other folks listen?  Probably not, but try anyway.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News #13-08E: Culture wars, otters, and VA letters

Posted on 2013-02-25 by TPOL Nathan

Stupid government tricks – Culture war: women in combat
Females in Combat Can Use Birth Control to ‘Regulate or Eliminate Their Periods,’ Advocate Says
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Of course, THAT will solve ALL the problems of women in combat – and in combat units.  No worries about hygiene, privacy, rapes, casual sex and jealousy, upper body strength, male response to female in danger or anything else.  Better yet, why not just neuter them – emmasca can do just fine.

Home Front – No Defense
Four people, including gunman, dead in California shooting spree
(Digital Journal)  Tustin police told reporters that Syed, who was unemployed and attending Saddleback College, did not have any criminal history. It is currently unclear what, if any, motive he had.

Mama’s Note: What, no background check to stop him?

Nathan: There HAS to be a motive for someone to do this. It may be a stupid motive, it may have been increased in motivation by drugs or psychological damage, but there is never an action without some motive.  I suspect that he MAY have had a background check to identify him as a suitable pawn in this game of kill and be killed, outlaw and be outlawed.  But NONE of the victims were armed or had anyone armed protecting them, as near as I can tell.  Something tripped a switch in his brain.

Mama’s Note: Of course, which is my point. Background checks are pointless if the goal is to prevent people from killing others.

Stupid government
Chemicals linked to problems with otters’ penis bones
(BBC) “Experts studying the reproductive health of the mammals in England and Wales were concerned to find a decrease in the weight of otters’ penis bones.” … “In order to prove the link, scientists will now need to measure theEDCs present in the otters and their habitat.”

Mama’s Note: Oh, oh… the supposed “link” isn’t proven yet at all. But that’s not what the headline says.  Another earth shattering problem for the busy scientists to solve… and another excuse for the luddites to further corrupt science, of course.

Nathan: Gross and disgusting, as well.  If they have time to measure the weight of these things – and enough of them to develop a trend, frankly, someone is paying these “experts” too much and they have too much time on their hands.  Beyond that, is there ANYTHING to indicate that a reduction in weight has ANY impact on the health or sustainability of the species?  Maybe it is a natural adaptation (microevolutionary) to some new element of the environment?  And the BBC is not reporting – they are advocating.

The “messiah” – Politics 2012
Obama: Republicans’ Refusal to Raise Taxes on the Wealthy Is What ‘Binds Their Party Together’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Maybe he is right – but I think it is more their progressive ideals, inherited from Fremont and Lincoln and the ’48ers.

The first minion – Hoploclasts
Gun Rights Advocate: Biden’s ‘Buy a Shotgun’ Remark Shows VP’s ‘Complete Ignorance’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: And the complete ignorance of the mainstream media and too many others who take this man’s mouthings as gospel.

Mama’s Note: Willful ignorance, actually. Most of us call that STUPIDITY, the deliberate refusal to learn. This is something that affects more than just politicians, of course. It’s not that people are dumber, it’s that stupidity used to be more painful.

Government-run, tax-funded schools
HHS: Head Start Students Do Worse in Math Than Non-Head Start Students
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: I hope no one is shocked or offended by this little tidbit.  What I’ve seen of Headstart places it a distant second to 8 hours a day of Sesame Street in the 80s.  It is a babysitting service and not much more.  Of course, since it IS a government program, and we know that high government officials, including most of Congress, cannot do math, should we be surprised?

Theft by government – Stupid government (spending)
U.S. Taxpayer Money to Be Spent on New Website ‘Offering Messages of Hope’ for Afghanistan
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: How about offering legitimate messages of hope for the un-United States of America?  How about letting the Afghanis do what they want, as long as they leave the rest of the world alone?  And finally, how about WE leave the rest of the world alone as long as they don’t bother us?

Mama’s Note: Well, there is part of the problem, Nathan. It depends entirely on the definition of “bother.” The US government is “bothered” by anything it can’t control.

Home front – Stupid government tricks – Hoploclasts
Veterans Receiving Letters Prohibiting The Purchase, Possession, Receipt, Or Transport Of A Firearm Or Ammunition…
(RedFlagNews.com) (Michael Conelly) …I have a copy of such a letter right in front of me. It is being sent by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of America’s heroes. In my capacity as Executive Director of the United States Justice Foundation (USJF) I have been contacted by some of these veterans and the stories I am getting are appalling. The letter provides no specifics on the reasons for the proposed finding of incompetency; just that is based on a determination by someone in the VA. In every state in the United States no one can be declared incompetent to administer their own affairs without due process of law and that usually requires a judicial hearing with evidence being offered to prove to a judge that the person is indeed incompetent. This is a requirement of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that states that no person shall “… be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law…”.

Nathan: One more step in the disarming of America, and in further slavery.  We’ve seen the start of this months ago with the veteran in Virginia; now tens of thousands can be expected to have their liberty to defend themselves stolen by nameless bureaucrats – if not simple computer programs.

Mama’s Note: Only if they allow it. Only if WE – the rest of us – allow it.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News #13-08D: Guns on campus, more

Posted on 2013-02-24 by TPOL Nathan

Home front – Alternatives to Self Defense???
Public Schools Installing ‘Panic Buttons’
WGCL-TV reports that these “panic buttons” will immediately place a call to 911 when pushed by school officials.“Once that happens, we send everybody we have to that school until wecan determine what the exact cause of the threat is,” Marietta Police Officer David Baldwin told WGCL.

Mama’s Note: Will be interesting to see how many innocents are shot by cops in the ensuing confusion – whether the call is real or the result of an accidental activation.

Nathan: Panic buttons, even without false alarms, are pretty worthless, because all too often no one can get to them.  Just read a story of an interview with University of Nevada student as a follow-up to that idiot Joe Salazar’s claim that women would panic and think that they were being raped and pop off at anyone on campus.  She was raped at gunpoint in a parking garage about 50 feet from a campus police station (closed for the night) with those “call boxes” (blue-light poles with the panic buttons) there in the garage.  She was attacked from behind by a hidden rapist who later raped three more women, killing the last one.  She had a CCW card in her wallet but not a weapon because they are banned on Nevada campuses (just as Salazar is trying to do in Colorado as related in the next story).  The rapist, of course, ignored the rule.

Mama’s Note: (regarding the panic buttons): Well, they fixed that, don’t you know! They’re going to wear the panic button around their necks. That ought take care of it…

Nathan: Of course: technology to the rescue.  Far better to carry a small derringer or even a dagger around your neck.

Mama’s Note: All you say is so true… and yet, I can’t help but think that women have far more choices than it might seem. Just why would any self respecting woman, willing and able to defend herself, actually allow herself to be disarmed that way? Why would they go to such a place to start with? As much as I hate the “gun free zone” idea, people must take responsibility for themselves and simply NOT GO THERE!!! Or if they do, they must go armed regardless of the “law.” We can cry about the “law” and the restrictions all we like, but until people take charge of their own lives and actually DO SOMETHING about it, it’s all noise.

Nathan: They allow if for the same reason men also allow themselves to be put into positions where they cannot defend a woman – or themselves.  And of course, the same reason that more and more men are predators who go out and rape and kill:  They have been taught to be dependent and to give up their strengths for the weakness of being permanent children if not outright slaves.  They have been taught a false morality that says “obeying the law” is more important than life or anything else, and they have not broken the conditioning that enforces that evil belief.  And because they believe that “obeying the law” is the number-one priority, most of those who break the law do so furtively and on their own.  I suspect that if, on one of the mega-state-u campuses there were a hundred or two hundred students who openly carried, all at the same time, all together, that the powers-that-be would NOT be able to go and individually charge them and arrest them.  It might be wise to wear V masks or something like that, but even the largest university could not deal with that – not a mass protest, but simply walking and going to class and study and library and student union and such wearing weapons openly.  Not one or five or ten people – those could be dealt with.  But a hundred or two hundred or five hundred might be the crack in the system.

Salazar has apologized for his comments
(Daily Caller) Democratic Colorado state Rep. Joe Salazar apologized Monday for suggesting some women are so unjustifiably afraid of being raped that they are liable to start shooting wildly. Salazar, arguing in favor of disarming college students, said Friday on the Colorado House floor that women fearing rape may suddenly and haphazardly ”pop a round at somebody.”

Nathan: Salazar, whom I believe is part of the big political-gangster family from southern Colorado, knows better – he is not an idiot.  But he knows that he can persuade a lot of idiots to support his cause of outlawing effective self-defense on campuses.  Forty years ago, a LOT of us carried weapons openly on Colorado campuses, and rapes were a lot less frequent – to say nothing of other violent crime.  Meanwhile, do we see a change?

Police Advocating Resistance to Shooters
(Political Outcast) …U.S. Capitol Police… advocate taking out the shooter with “whatever means you can”:  ”You must be committed to the actions you will take, and your attack must be explosive and violent. You must do whatever it takes to survive and not worry about the consequences. You want to disable the offender with whatever means you can. This could involve throwing items or using objects to strike, stab or slash the subject.”  … USA Today reported that “police officials said they were not advocating arming teachers, students, office workers or others to prepare for such attacks.” DHS recently made a parody of itself by advising office workers to use a pair of scissors to confront a mass shooter, but again, only as a last resort, because scissors are very deadly, and you wouldn’t want any unnecessary carnage. Law enforcement agents across the country are actually calling this change in advice “extreme.”

To quote Political Outpost: Well, it sure is “extremely” stupid. Advising people to confront a mass murderer with a pair of scissors or a metal folding chair is ridiculous. You might as well confront the shooter with a piece of paper in hopes of “slashing” him with a paper cut and then pouring lemon juice on it (but only as a last resort). At least that would give you a chance of survival.

Nathan: It is not a change, then, just a way to keep them from losing ALL credibility, and to provide “alternatives” that the Tranzi-brainwashed can cling to.  Oleg Volk has several good photos to illustrate this point:  people who do not have the size and physical strength to defend themselves against evil monsters (like Biden and Salazar) and nutcases who are drunk or drugged to the eyelids DO have a simple way to defend themselves and others: the very item that Biden, Salazar, and the “messiah” and their minions in DHS, police forces, and Tranzi groups around the nation want to steal from them: firearms.  Little strength, easy to carry, easy to learn to use, and relatively inexpensive, guns save lives.

From the Oleg Volk blog.

Politics 2012 – Stupid government
U.S. Gov’t ‘Cancer’ Research: Tobacco Industry Helped Create Tea Party
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Desperate to be “relevant” I guess, or paying off grants “in-kind.”  The reasoning on this is just plain bizarre, but it is obvious it is a way of trying to demonize the tea party movement.

Tyranny – Unlawful search and seizure
13,753 Gov’t Requests for Google E-Mail Data in 2012, Most Without a Warrant
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: How many ways do we have to find to show that the Bill of Rights is a dead letter?

Stupid government – private business
MA: New England fishermen protest federal regulations
(Fox News) “New England fishermen facing a dire future for their industry asked Congress in a letter Tuesday for immediate help surviving deep and impending cuts to their catch limits. The letter, signed by 173 fishermen in ports from Connecticut to Maine, came as the industry prepares for May 1 catch reductions that fishermen warn could finish off the fleet. A 77 percent cut in the catch limit for cod in the Gulf of Maine and a 61 percent decrease in the cod limit in Georges Bank, off southeastern New England, are the most significant in an array of 2013 catch reductions on bottom-dwelling groundfish.” [editor’s note: Hooray! For once, an industry asks, not for a subsidy, just a removal of an oppressive mandate! – SAT] (02/20/13)

Mama’s Note: A new trend?  (Asking for removal of a mandate, not a subsidy.)

Nathan: If it is, it is unlikely to be considered a good trend by government. Governments have been dictating more and more cutbacks in fisheries for years, always citing studies and such that are created by other government agencies – and which seem to be increasingly suspect.

The protests will get the results that most protests do (except those that are planned and coordinated as part of a justification for government actions): no results at all.  And will probably put all these fishermen on a no-fly-list and other fun lists.  For six hundred years, the Grand Banks, George’s Banks and other prime fisheries were essentially private fishing areas, kept so by the secrecy of the fishermen from the British Isles and Brittany who harvested them: year after year, century after century.  But when discovered and subjected to the law of the sea – that they were commons, it took a fairly short time to over fish them, and they’ve now gone through cycle after cycle of collapse and recovery.  This is the latest:  government has firm control and will give them to their buddies and supporters (cash, please).  Everyone else can die.

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Nathan’s rant – Guns and other rights

Posted on 2013-02-23 by TPOL Nathan

Liberty is a precious gift, and of course it doesn’t come from government – ever!

The reason that the American colonists formed a government (under the Articles of Confederation) was because their EXISTING governments had taken away many of their liberties “as Englishmen” and as the old song goes, “United we stand, divided we fall” – or to quote Mr. Franklin (a canny old monster) “We must all hang together or we shall surely hang separately.”  But by the mere formation of even as loose a government as the Confederation, they lost some liberty.  Joining in the Constitution, not just the states but the people themselves, they lost even more.

After that, it was a steady downward progression: the Whiskey Rebellion, the Sedition Act, and on and on, leading to the Indian Wars, the persecution of the Latter-day Saints and other religious groups, the discrimination against the Irish (and others).  As little as thirty years later, Americans were seeking new homes and more freedom in exotic places like Texas, and in less than three decades, places like California and Deseret.  It was liberty, and the seeking of MORE liberty (or restoration of that which was lost) which led to such things as the Colt revolving pistol, steam-powered machinery, and Conestoga wagons. But of them all, weapons trace that liberty, and the attitude towards weapons  shows the attitude towards liberty.

In all of Europe, only four places seem to have developed an understanding and culture in which weapons were seen not as the sole right of the nobility, the equites of Ancient Rome, but as the right of every free man – and indeed evidence of that very freedom.  Sadly, in two of those places, that lamp of liberty was extinguished.  Those places were the Iberian Peninsula, where a conquered population sought religious and personal liberty from their Moorish conquerers; the Alps – the mountainous birthplace of the Swiss who developed a national identity fighting against a serious of “noble” and “imperial” families and a feudal system; Scandinavia, where liberty at home was ultimately extinguished by ever more powerful warlords and the mass of free people sailing for better and brighter horizons; and finally, the British Isles.

It was there, through multiple “accidents” of history amid a clash of cultures and peoples that lasted nearly two millennia, that a logical understanding and theory of liberty developed for the first time since the days of Ancient Israel and Ancient Greece.  “Native” Britons and Romans and Celts and Saxons and Angles and Danes and all the rest stealing land and trying to gain dominance and trying to live peaceful lives and live free and all the rest created a harsh and insanely demanding environment in which the lessons of liberty could be learned and tested and relearned.  Especially the lessons of arms.

And to a very large degree, it was the lessons of arms – and the development of small arms – that found its greatest expression in the England and Scotland and Ireland and Wales of the 1200-1600s: just prior to the settlement of most of North America by the descendants of these people.  The number one lesson:  free people are ARMED.  Slaves don’t have arms (except under the control and with the permission of their owners and masters).  Free people arm themselves and carry and USE those arms to defend themselves, their families, their homes and property, their livelihood, community, county and – if the rulers deserved it – to defend those that they accepted as their rulers and leaders.

It was also in the British Isles that other lessons of liberty were learned.  In most of Europe, the decadence of the Roman Catholic Church led to the Protestant Reformation, but it was a conflict determined by, and settled by, the ruling class.  If the ruler in one principality was a Lutheran (Evangelische), then EVERYone in the principality was a Lutheran.  When he died and his heir (or the conquerors) were Reformers (Calvinists), then everyone was supposed to become Reformers.  If the heir was Catholic, then everyone went back to being Catholic.  Top-down religion.  It did not work out that way in Great Britain, or even in Ireland.  People wouldn’t change unless THEY saw a reason to change (other than the king or queen doing it).  The king or queen was not all-powerful: it wasn’t just the nobles who could resist and refuse: the common people could as well.  And did.  And weapons were used in the midst of it.

Lesson number two:  liberty must be defended in order to survive, just as with all the other things.  And lesson number three:  Liberty comes from God.  It is not something that someone human “gives” to anyone, and it is not something that any human has any authority (or right) to deny to other humans.  To do so, like murdering someone (taking their life) or stealing someone’s property, is a violation of God’s law – or if you are not a believer, natural law.

Even the fight for freedom of religion quickly became an actual fight involving arms.  If the availability of firearms to the general population – especially in England and Wales and Scotland – had not existed, it is unlikely that religious liberty would ultimately have survived in the past 400 years.

But is it the case today?  Are we too civilized to need firearms to defend our liberties?  The evidence says that we are not.  Government has been busy for decades stealing away our freedoms, and the pace has picked up in the last two decades.

The Thursday headline on USA Today touts that “Americans” favor the “messiah” over his GOP opponents in regards to gun control and the budget, claiming a Pew poll shows declining support for “gun rights” and increased worry about the impacts of what is now proclaimed as a drastic and arbitrary 2.4% cut in Federal spending.

Of course, there is no doubt that this poll (if we are to even trust its numbers, for I have my suspicions about whether the questions were fairly worded, much less that the sample was accurate) was heavily influenced by the tsunami of stories on the pages of USA Today and most mainstream media outlets.  Headline stories talking about the cataclysm to hit next week on March 1st:  hundreds of thousands of DoD civilians to be laid off, the FBI to let criminals go as agents and clerks are furloughed, tens of thousands of children denied the benefits of Head Start and other federal programs, and -gasp- delays in gun background checks keeping us from buying weapons before the new gun bans are passed and go into effect in state after state.  What an example of opportunism.

But FINALLY, more and more people are waking up to the fact that Congress cannot take away what it did not grant.  The right to keep and bear arms was NOT invented in a drafty old building in Philadelphia in 1787 or in the Bill of Rights drafted in Congress and ratified by the states a few years later.  It has existed since we were created, since Cain killed Abel, since Noah and his sons no doubt had to defend their work on the Ark against angry neighbors and code enforcement agents, since innocent and peaceful people had to defend their liberty against Nimrod, since Abram rescued the captives (including his nephew) from Amorite raiders, since Moses struck down an Egyptian overseer abusing Hebrew slaves, and on and on.

Let Congress and the various legislatures pass what gun control “laws” that they will, let the “messiah” and evil (even if elected) governors sign those:  they are patently immoral, and constitutionally wrong.  WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO DEFEND OURSELVES, OUR FAMILIES, OUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS, OUR COMMUNITIES, OUR FREEDOM, and OUR PROPERTY as WE see fit, provided we do not aggress against others in doing so, and GOVERNMENT IS NOT GOD TO TAKE OUR LIBERTY AWAY.  (Not that God would do so.)

The problem is, all the so-called “defenders” of our rights: these puffed-up GOP politicos, the NRA, too many columnists and the rest, seem to be perfectly willing to negotiate and compromise as if the right to defend ourselves WAS a privilege granted by the government.  As discussed above, history shows otherwise.

When will we resist the constant compromise?  The rights of the people to have the means to defend themselves against threats to life, liberty, and property have been bargained away again and again, a slice here and a slice there:  the bare bones have been gnawed at and finally, we come to little or nothing left.  This isn’t just about arms, but about protections against government tyranny in every aspect of life: self-incrimination, search and seizure, detention, double-jeopardy, and virtually EVERY identified and general right.

Isn’t it time to “reset” and restore ALL our liberties?  And how is that to be done if the people – you and me and our families and friends and neighbors – do not use weapons of war to defend ourselves against those who would be our owners, our masters, and… indeed, our gods?

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