"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." ~~Thomas Jefferson

"Who will protect us from those who protect us?"

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. ~ Thomas Jefferson

"None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free." ~~Goethe

29 November 2011

WOW...

A group of 4th grade students has been arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a classmate. 
The 8-year-old boy was allegedly attacked in the bathroom of Bryant Elementary School in West Philadelphia at the end of October.

Earlier this month, the mother of the victim spoke to Action News.

"I felt helpless, it took him almost 7 hours to try to tell me what happened," the mother told Action News.
The advanced student is in the same grade and class as his alleged 10-year-old attackers.
The three juvenile suspects turned themselves into the Philadelphia Police Special Victims Unit today, accompanied by their parents.

Each of the youngsters is charged with attempted rape and indecent sexual assault.


 
WOW.  Where do kids learn this stuff?  Times have definitely changed.
 
Stay safe.

27 November 2011

To your health...

I did not know this...

When you drink vodka over ice, it can give you kidney failure.
When you drink rum over ice, it can give you liver failure.

When you drink whiskey over ice, it can give you heart
problems.
When you drink gin over ice, it can give you brain problems.

Apparently, ice is really bad for you.
Warn all your friends.



Stay safe.

24 November 2011

Reality...

The first reality of our situation is that we are much fewer in number than we’d like to believe.  The second reality is that we are getting old, those of us who care.

The communists had full control of our public schools by 1975 and we have one full generation of our children and at least part of another who have known no other education system.  They know no better than what they were taught, which isn’t much.  Our children weren’t taught the same things that we were taught.  The teachers of today were taught in this system since kindergarten.  They know no better.  They teach only what they were taught.  How many Conservative teachers do you know?

They were taught in a system where Political Correctness was the prime motivator.  No one gets his or her feelings hurt.  There are no winners and there are no losers.  The revisionist history that they learned left them believing that America is an evil nation.  All of our accomplishments were made in the name of personal greed.  The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.  They have been “primed” for the coming revolution.  They don’t want the same things that we want.

We, their parents and grandparents, allowed this to happen.

We are old and we are few. 

How many of you ever read the material that your children were being taught in school?  How many of you took your complaints to a School Board meeting?  How many of you tried to correct the “system” before it got out of control?  How many even knew what your children were doing or what they were learning?

The answer is self-evident.  It’s as obvious as the nose on our collective face.  We did nothing to prevent the disaster that we face today.  By our inaction, we can be blamed for encouraging it.

There were many material “things” to give to our children and we spoiled them rotten with these “things”.  Technology ran rampant and became inexpensive.  The children of today couldn’t care less about riding a bicycle or playing cowboys and Indians or cops and robbers.  They don’t go outside and play “army”.  They sit at their computers and “kill” each other electronically.  They are fat and they are lazy and sadly, they are stupid.  And we sit back and wonder why.

And the government uses that inexpensive technology to watch our every move.  And our children and grandchildren are fine with that.

“It doesn’t matter as long as you are doing nothing wrong.”

How many times have you heard that statement?  Too few of us understand the implications of what that statement means. 

They have no grasp of reality.  I give you OWS and all of the other “Occupy” movements as proof.  I’ll also give you our current ratings in the world regarding knowledge of math and science.  23rd and 25th.  That’s out of about 40 “modern” countries.  We used to be in the top 5.

Think back to when you were a kid in school.  How many kids had “behavior disorders”?  What happened to them when they misbehaved?  What happened to any kid who misbehaved in school?   What happened to them when they got home?

What happens to them today?

How many of your peers were diagnosed with ADD or ADHD when you were a kid?  (Hint: none)  Today you will find up to half of our kids have been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD.  It’s an excuse to not have to expect much from them.  It’s an excuse to make someone else in the “system” be responsible for them.  It brings the school districts a lot of money.  We just medicate them and hope for the best.

Public education is a failure.  Nothing is being done to correct it.  There is a reason for that.

We don’t discipline our kids.  We don’t want to hurt their feelings so we allow them to do whatever they want to.  We don’t want to be turned in to the government for “abusing” them.

Have you been to a mall lately, or to a supermarket?  Have you watched how they behave?  More importantly, have you watched how their parents behave?

Anyway, I kinda got off track there.  Must be the ADD.

Us older folks want a return to the Constitutional Republic that we knew as children and young adults.  We yearn for the old days when we were responsible for ourselves and when we knew that if we screwed up we would be held accountable for our actions.  We yearn for the lost times of civility and respect.  The days when our word was our bond.

Those times are gone.  I’m not sure they ever existed, really.

The sad fact is that we are greatly outnumbered.  The majority doesn’t care.  They believe that the path we are following today is the right path to take.  They believe in Marx’s maxim “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”.

Lenin has also been proven to be correct.  “Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted”.

Well, we will see if it is never uprooted.  Socialism has never succeeded anywhere in the past.  I doubt it can succeed anywhere in the future.  It forgets the fact that human beings are individuals with individual wants, needs, and desires.  It forgets that some people are stronger than others and will fill their wants, needs, and desires by force if necessary.  Law of the Jungle trumps the laws of man. 

We had our Utopia.  It is now gone.  We allowed it to slip away, silently into the night.  We trusted that our system of government was morally and ethically superior and that it would work properly forever without our input.

We were wrong.

Marx also said “The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to Socialism”.

Anyway…

We can talk for hours or days or weeks, months or years about the Constitution and what it means.  We can argue about whether it's good or bad.  We can yell and scream and posture all we want to about it but it doesn't change a thing.  We had it, we let it slip away, and there are too few left who care.  There will soon be no one left who remembers it.

"We can evade reality but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality" ~~ Ayn Rand

Stay safe.

The gathering will soon begin...

Little Miss and her Papa wish you all a happy Thanksgiving.


The gathering will soon begin in our house.  My middle son, Eric, is here.  His sons are in Indiana with their mother this year.  I know that they will enjoy the day there.

My oldest son, Carl, will soon be here with his wife Amy and Little Miss.

My youngest son, Adam, is in Arizona.  Perhaps he'll be home for Christmas?

The food is in the process of being prepared.  The entire house smells wonderful!  Soon we will have our small feast.  It will be good.

I'm hoping that each and every one of you has something to be thankful for and that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Stay safe.

23 November 2011

Occupy...

http://www.lookingattheleft.com/2011/11/zuccotti-utopia-portraits-of-revolutionaries/

Wow.

Stay safe.

A good idea...


A state Republican legislator has introduced a bill to the Illinois General Assembly to separate the Chicago's county from the state--effectively making the midwestern city the 51st state in the union.

The bill, filed by State Rep. Bill Mitchell of Decatur Tuesday, would "enact legislation dividing Illinois and Cook County into separate states" because county residents "hold different and firmly seated views" on "politics, society, and economics" from people in the rest of the state. The bill's supporters point to higher tax rates and strict gun laws in the Chicago area and contend that the northern county is out of step with its Illinois neighbors.

"These liberal policies are an insult to the traditional values of downstate families," Mitchell told the Decatur Tribune. "When I talk to constituents, one of the biggest things I hear is 'Chicago should be its own state . . . .Our voters' voices were drowned out by Chicago."

The measure would put the issue up to a vote by state residents through a referendum and then would require approval from the United States Congress and the president. As of this writing, the bill has just one other co-sponsor. 

Stay safe.

Occupy Alone...



Stay safe.

22 November 2011

Signs of maturity...

Vandalism, violence, burning and shutting down the nation’s fifth busiest port weren’t enough for Occupy Oakland. On Friday, the General Assembly for the group voted unanimously for “a coordinated shutdown of ports on the entire West Coast on December 12."
According to a statement from Occupy Oakland, this move is in “response to coordinated attacks on the occupations and attacks on workers across the nation.” “We call on each West Coast occupation to organize a mass mobilization to shut down its local port.”
Occupy Los Angeles had already called for action against one shipper at that port, stating, “occupation will take place at at least one facility owned by SSA Marine, a shipping company belonging to Goldman Sachs, (coordinated with a possible port shut down by the port truck drivers).”
The Occupy Oakland statement also complained about “continued union-busting and attacks on organized labor, in particular the rupture of Longshoremen jurisdiction in Longview Washington.”
Longview has been the site of some nasty union action already. According to the Sept. 8 New York Times, “About 500 longshoremen stormed the new $200 million terminal in Longview before sunrise Thursday, carrying baseball bats, smashing windows, damaging rail cars and dumping tons of grain from the cars, police and company officials said.”
The statement from Occupy Oakland also included multiple threats if their actions were opposed, including extending the shutdown past one day. “Should there be any retaliation against any workers as a result of their honoring pickets or supporting our port actions, additional solidarity actions should be prepared.” And this, “In the event of police repression of any of the mobilizations, shutdown actions may be extended to multiple days.”
The statement was signed “In Solidarity and Struggle.”

Actually, they're acting like a bunch of spoiled brats.

Stay safe.

20 November 2011

Sunday morning blog surfing...


While doing my Sunday morning blog surfing I came across this over at Wraith's blog.  He linked to the entire post, which is the link you see below.  Worth reading, in my opinion.

"I think a big problem is that conservatives like us, and even more so the rest of “normal, non-socialist-rogue Americans”, have this thing about 1) Rule of Law (as we understand it) and therefore 2) Playing by the established rules (as commonly understood by reasonable folk) and 3) Not being the guy who fires the first shot."

Read it all here:
http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2011/11/16/zmalfoy-isnt-nearly-as-concise-as-her-friends-coyote-and-sharon/#more-24920
Good stuff.

Stay safe.

19 November 2011

Small batch bourbon...


Judy asked if I needed anything from the store.  I said "You could grab a gallon of milk".  Well, this doesn't look like a gallon of milk, but I'm not complaining.  :)

Stay safe.

Occupy...

 
 


Stay safe.
 

18 November 2011

What a difference 50 years makes...



Stay safe.

Long ago and far away...


Article posted here in its entirety.
 
http://www.forbes.com/sites/objectivist/2011/11/18/america-before-the-entitlement-state/?utm_source=alertsnewpost&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20111118
 
11/18/2011 @ 4:36PM |2,882 views

America Before The Entitlement State


Reacting to calls for cuts in entitlement programs, House Democrat Henry Waxman fumed: “The Republicans want us to repeal the twentieth century.” Sound bites don’t get much better than that. After all, the world before the twentieth century–before the New Deal, the New Frontier, the Great Society–was a dark, dangerous, heartless place where hordes of Americans starved in the streets.

Except it wasn’t and they didn’t. The actual history of America shows something else entirely: picking your neighbors’ pockets is not a necessity of survival. Before America’s entitlement state, free individuals planned for and coped with tough times, taking responsibility for their own lives.

In the 19th century, even though capitalism had only existed for a short time, and had just started putting a dent in pre-capitalism’s legacy of poverty, the vast, vast majority of Americans were already able to support their own lives through their own productive work. Only a tiny fraction of a sliver of a minority depended on assistance and aid–and there was no shortage of aid available to help that minority.

But in a culture that revered individual responsibility and regarded being “on the dole” as shameful, formal charity was almost always a last resort. Typically people who hit tough times would first dip into their savings. They might take out loans and get their hands on whatever commercial credit was available. If that wasn’t enough, they might insist that other family members enter the workforce. And that was just the start.

“Those in need,” historian Walter Trattner writes, “. . . looked first to family, kin, and neighbors for aid, including the landlord, who sometimes deferred the rent; the local butcher or grocer, who frequently carried them for a while by allowing bills to go unpaid; and the local saloonkeeper, who often came to their aid by providing loans and outright gifts, including free meals and, on occasion, temporary jobs. Next, the needy sought assistance from various agencies in the community–those of their own devising, such as churches or religious groups, social and fraternal associations, mutual aid societies, local ethnic groups, and trade unions.”

One of the most fascinating phenomena to arise during this time were mutual aid societies–organizations that let people insure against the very risks that entitlement programs would later claim to address. These societies were not charities, but private associations of individuals. Those who chose to join would voluntarily pay membership dues in return for a defined schedule of benefits, which, depending on the society, could include life insurance, permanent disability, sickness and accident, old-age, or funeral benefits.

Mutual aid societies weren’t private precursors to the entitlement state, with its one-size-fits-all schemes like Social Security and Medicare. Because the societies were private, they offered a wide range of options to fit a wide range of needs. And because they were voluntary, individuals joined only when the programs made financial sense to them. How many of us would throw dollar bills down the Social Security money pit if we had a choice?

Only when other options were exhausted would people turn to formal private charities. By the mid-nineteenth century, groups aiming to help widows, orphans, and other “worthy poor” were launched in every major city in America. There were some government welfare programs, but they were minuscule compared to private efforts.

In 1910, in New York State, for instance, 151 private benevolent groups provided care for children, and 216 provided care for adults or adults with children. If you were homeless in Chicago in 1933, for example, you could find shelter at one of the city’s 614 YMCAs, or one of its 89 Salvation Army barracks, or one of its 75 Goodwill Industries dormitories.

“In fact,” writes Trattner, “so rapidly did private agencies multiply that before long America’s larger cities had what to many people was an embarrassing number of them. Charity directories took as many as 100 pages to list and describe the numerous voluntary agencies that sought to alleviate misery, and combat every imaginable emergency.”

It all makes you wonder: If Americans could thrive without an entitlement state a century ago, how much easier would it be today, when Americans are so rich that 95 percent of our “poor” own color TVs? But we won’t get rid of the entitlement state until we get rid of today’s widespread entitlement mentality, and return to a society in which individual responsibility is the watchword.

Interesting debate going on in the comments.  Click the link at the top for the article plus comments.

Stay safe.

Emit...


Traveling back in time.

(I think they spelled his last name wrong.  Should be LEVART.  The stonecarver was probably a union guy.  Or a Democrat.  Oh well, at least they got all of the appropriate letters on there.  We all know that it's the effort more than the result that counts in these modern, progressive times.  Well, the self-perceived effort, anyway)

Stay safe.

12 November 2011

Just a shotgun...

I received this via email from the gal who cuts my hair.  Yes, she's a gun owner and CCW holder.   Is it true?  I dunno.  Believe what you will.
 
 
 
Just a Shotgun                     

You're sound asleep when you hear a thump outside your bedroom door.

Half-awake, and nearly paralyzed with fear,You hear muffled whispers.       

At least two people have broken into your House and are moving your way.  With your heart pumping, you reach down beside your bed and pick up your shotgun.

You rack a shell into the chamber, then inch toward the door and open it.  In the darkness, you make out two shadows.       

One holds something that looks like a crowbar.   When the intruder brandishes it as if to strike, you raise the shotgun and fire.       

The blast knocks both thugs to the floor.
One writhes and screams while the second man crawls to the front door and lurches outside.  

As you pick up the telephone to call police, you know you're in trouble.

In your country, most guns were outlawed years before, and the few that are privately owned are so stringently regulated as to make them useless..       

Yours was never registered.  Police arrive and inform you that the second burglar has died.

They arrest you for First Degree Murder and Illegal possession of a firearm.

When you talk to  your attorney, he tells you not to worry: authorities will probably plead the case down to manslaughter.

"What kind of sentence will I get?" you ask.  "Only ten-to-twelve years,"   He replies, as if that's nothing.

"Behave yourself, and you'll be out in seven."  The next day, the shooting is the lead story in the local newspaper.  Somehow, you're portrayed as an eccentric vigilante while the two men you shot are represented as choirboys.

Their friends and relatives can't find an unkind word to say about them.  Buried deep down in the article, authorities acknowledge that both  "victims" have been arrested numerous  times. but the next day's headline says it all: "Lovable Rogue Son Didn't Deserve to Die."

The thieves have been transformed from career criminals into Robin Hood-type pranksters. As the days wear on, the story takes wings.  The national media picks it up, Then the international media.  The surviving burglar has become a folk hero.

Your attorney says the thief is preparing  to sue you, and he'll probably win.

The media publishes reports that your home has been burglarized several times in the past and that you've been critical  of local police for their lack of effort in apprehending the suspects.

After the last break-in, you told your neighbor that you would be prepared next time.

The District Attorney uses this to allege that you were lying in wait for the burglars.

A few months later, you go to trial.  The charges haven't been reduced as your lawyer had so confidently predicted.

When you take the stand, your anger at the injustice of it all works against you.

Prosecutors paint a picture of you as a mean, vengeful man.  It doesn't take long for the jury to convict  you of all charges.

The judge sentences you to life in prison.

This case really happened.

On August 22, 1999, Tony Martin of Emneth, Norfolk, England, killed one burglar and wounded a second.

In April, 2000, he was convicted and is now serving a life term.  How did it become a crime to defend one's own life in the once great British Empire ?

It started with the Pistols Act of 1903.  This seemingly reasonable law forbade selling pistols to minors or felons and established that handgun sales were to be made only to those who had a license.

The Firearms Act of 1920 expanded licensing to include not only handguns but all firearms except shotguns.

Later laws passed in 1953 and 1967 outlawed the carrying of any weapon by private citizens and mandated the registration of all shotguns.

Momentum for total handgun confiscation began in earnest after the Hungerford mass shooting in 1987.   Michael Ryan, a mentally disturbed man with a Kalashnikov rifle, walked down the streets shooting everyone he  saw.

When the smoke cleared, 17 people were dead.

The British public, already de-sensitized by eighty years of "gun  control", demanded even tougher restrictions.

(The seizure of all privately owned handguns was the  objective even though Ryan used a  rifle.)

Nine years later, at Dunblane, Scotland,Thomas Hamilton used a semi-automatic weapon to murder 16  children and a teacher at a public school.

For many years, the media had portrayed all gun owners as mentally unstable, or worse, criminals.

Now the press had a real kook with which to beat up law-abiding gun owners.

Day after day, week after week, the media gave up all pretense of objectivity and demanded a total ban on all handguns.

The Dunblane Inquiry, a few months later, sealed the fate of the few sidearms still owned by private citizens.

During the years in which the British government incrementally took away most gun rights, the notion that a citizen had the right to armed self-defense came to be seen as vigilantism.

Authorities refused to grant gun licenses to people who were threatened, claiming that self-defense was no longer considered a reason to own a gun.

Citizens who shot burglars or robbers or rapists were charged while the real criminals were released.

Indeed, after the Martin shooting, a police spokesman was quoted as saying, "We cannot have people take the law into their own hands.

"All of Martin's neighbors had been robbed numerous times,and several elderly people were severely injured in beatings by young thugs who had no fear of the consequences.

Martin himself, a collector of antiques,had seen most of his collection trashed or stolen by burglars.

When the Dunblane Inquiry ended, citizens who owned handguns were given three months to turn them over to local authorities.  Being good British subjects, most people obeyed the law.

The few who didn't were visited by police and threatened with ten-year prison sentences if they didn't comply.

Police later bragged that they'd taken nearly 200,000 handguns from private citizens.

How did the authorities know who had handguns?

The guns had been registered and licensed.
Kind of like cars.
Sound familiar?

WAKE UP AMERICA!
THIS  IS WHY OUR FOUNDING FATHERS PUT THE SECOND AMENDMENT IN OUR CONSTITUTION."

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.."--Samuel Adams

There are stupid people in congress and on the street that will go right along with him.

Stay safe.

Always a day late...

Yes, yesterday was Veterans Day.  I was on the road all day and missed the "activities".

I was watching telvision one day last week and saw a commercial for Macy's Department Store advertising their Veterans Day Sale.  It had several young people dancing to a catchy tune and carrying Macy's shopping bags.  The only thing about the commercial that had anything to do with Veterans or Veterans Day was the fact that Macy's is using the day to sell their product and make more money.  Absolutely nothing to do with Veterans.  Fuck you, Macy's.  Fuck you to all of the companies out there that use the day and the name to sell product rather than to reflect upon the price that has been paid by others so that you might abuse the day for your gain.  Clueless, classless fuckers.



And when I got home late last night and checked my email for the first time in a week, I had this from my younger brother, Brian:

"Happy Veterans Day. Thank you for your service. The free world is a much
better place because of you. God Bless."


Brian is an Army Vet, too.  A Cobra pilot.  Crazy bastard.  The boy ain't right :)

My father and all of his brothers were in the Military.  My grandfathers were in the Military.  Members of my family fought on both sides during the War Between the States.  2 of my three brothers were in the Army. 

So, a day late, I want to share Brian's sentiments with all of you, my brother and sister Veterans ...

"Happy Veterans Day. Thank you for your service. The free world is a much
better place because of you. God Bless."


As usual, I'm a day late and a dollar short.  I hope you don't mind.

Stay safe.

11 November 2011

While I was gone...

I wonder what The Library of Congress was looking for?  Weird.  Looks like they visited Kenny first.


Referring URL:
Host Name:Browser:Firefox 3.6
IP Address:140.147.236.205 — [Label IP Address]Operating System:Win7
Location:Washington, District Of Columbia, United StatesResolution:1680x1050
Returning Visits:0Javascript:Enabled
Visit Length:1 min 3 secsISP:Library Of Congress, Information Technology Servic




Tightwad, Missouri.  Interesting.


True dat.

ho, ho,ho...

Survived a week in extreme southern Missouri.  Did a little fishing.  Drank a little bourbon.  Had lots of time to think and to talk with the missus.  It was good.

Pooped.

More later.

Stay safe.

05 November 2011

Trout fishing....

Will be incommunicado for the next several days.  Trout fishing.  No internet unless I drive to town and find wifi, no cell phone reception.

Stay safe.

03 November 2011

I'm out of touch....

Referring URL:
(No referring link)
Host Name:pos.ncis.navy.milBrowser:Firefox 3.6
IP Address:207.132.184.130 — [Label IP Address]Operating System:WinXP
Location:Apo, Armed Forces Europ, United StatesResolution:Unknown
Returning Visits:1Javascript:Disabled
Visit Length:7 mins 4 secsISP:Dod Network Information Center



More interesting visitors.  I always thought that the Navy used FPO rather than APO for their addresses.  (Fleet Post Office vs. Army Post Office)  Must be interservice cooperation.  Oh well.

I had one IP address hit every single page I've ever published.  That was last Friday.  I thought that was a bit strange too.  Nothing that interesting on this blog.

Stay safe.

I find it interesting...

I find it extremely interesting that they are all talking about Hermain Cain's alleged sexual harrassment but no one is mentioning Gunwalker.  Not much news-speak at all about any of the current corrupt administration's criminal corruption.

obama is still worried about Iran.  I wonder what that means?  A pre-emptive strike, perhaps?

Weird, eh?

Stay safe.

Did I...?


Stay safe.