More News From The Place Where England Used To Be

~or~ Whistling Past The Graveyard of Civlization, Until The Revolution Finally Comes.

The Nanny State has officially Run Amok.

Because it causes environmental harm, you may not idle your car's engine while you scrape the ice off your car's windscreen. No matter that some ice won't ever come off if you don't heat the bottom of it through the window. No matter that people die from having ice fly off on the roadway at speed. No, you might hurt precious Gaia.

The rules dealing with all things not-the-State's-business (child safety among other things) in UK are called OFSTED rules. The rules are based, apparently, in no small part on the emotions of children. Seriously. The OFSTED rules are what prohibit parents from babysitting each others' children on alternate days so the parents can go to work. The OFSTED rules prevent parents going in to parks and watching over their own children. But the subjects in UK have allowed the outrages to continue.

Now, they are going to run background checks on homeschooling parents. There are still some people with some sense over there. At least (for now) they still have the right to say things like this:

Norman Wells of the Family Education Trust said: "It is sheer madness for Ofsted to suggest that parents should be required to undergo CRB checks to be with their children between the hours of 9am and 3pm from Monday to Friday during term-time. If it is deemed unsafe for children to be with their parents during normal school hours, it is equally unsafe for them to be with their parents in the evenings, at weekends and during the school holidays. If Ofsted are calling for CRB checks for home-educating parents now, how long will it be before they are demanding that all parents are CRB-checked?"

Not that the government of UK would have a problem with background-checking all parents. I mean, why would they consider that a step too far, when families are already being broken up because they are Average American-sized too fat to properly care for children? I mean, fat people really should just be made to deliver babies at home anyway, because they might burden the NHS unduly.

What the hell have you allowed to happen to you, England? When will you wake up and start rattling the cage in which you sleep?

Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged!

"Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged! Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged!"

Tell a sinner they are a sinner, and here it comes, like clockwork: "Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged!" The one line from one verse of the bible they know by heart. This is the squeaking of a guilt conscience.

Don't let it get to you.

If they would read and obey the rest of the book, you wouldn't have occasion to call to their attention the error of their ways, and they wouldn't have to parrot this line back to you like it means something. When someone says "Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged!" it is usually about as weighty as "I'm OFFENDED!" and you should be about as strongly affected by it, if you are in the right (i.e., not at all).

Consider: The apostle (Saint) Paul wrote the following to the Christians at Corinth (1 Corinthians 5):

1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.
2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
10Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

This is for the Christian who is messing up. A fellow Christian should point out the error of his ways.

But VFD, that's not what we're talking about

Sure it's not. We're talking about "Judge not lest ye be judged" right? Okay, here's the context. The Lord Jesus was telling people how to be. Matthew 7 is part of a moderately lengthy discourse by God himself to what was described as "multitudes" of people in Chapter 5. There were probably all stripes of people on the hillside that day listening to Jesus speak. He knew that there would be hypocrites among them, when he said:

1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.
2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

Here is why you shouldn't be cowed by this bit of verbal judo: It does not apply to you. Jesus was talking to Hypocrites here, not the righteous. If you tell your co-worker who split his head on the floor because he was falling-down drunk last night, that he ought not to drink and he comes back with "judge not lest ye be judged" he is taking the verse out of context.

If you weren't drunk on the stool next to him, he is wrong. Not you. You knew that already. Now you know why.

Sympathetic Nausea, I Has It.

Those who poo-pooh the idea of all psychic phenomena are missing the boat, big time.

My wife and I are connected. When she was pregnant with #1 (a girl) she was nauseous, and I was nauseous, for months. She's pregnant again with #4, and we're thinking it's a girl maybe, because she's nauseous again . . . and so am I. During the work week, I'm distracted enough to not be brought down by it. During the week-end, sometimes it feels a couple steps shy of

Selling Blood (or Plasma) Revisited.

For the longest time, it has bothered me that people sell their blood, rather than donating it pro bono publico. This morning as I was shaving, a thought occurred to me I had never thought before:

Recipients of blood transfusions benefit greatly from them, sure. They also pay for them, along with the rest of the stuff required for their medical care, and probably they pay a good deal more than the price paid to the blood 'donor.' If it came right down to a choice between bleeding out and paying $150 or whatever, even a tightwad like yours truly is likely to fork up the money for a transfusion.

Blood is not a zero-sum game. What's more, it's an infinitely renewable resource. You are forever (assuming good health) making more blood. Why not give up some of it?

I had always thought it strange, that people are prohibited from selling (say) a kidney, but selling blood always got to me. I think, not anymore. I think I'll start "donating" blood again, even if I do have to get paid for it.

More News From The Place Where England Used To Be

Balloons outside your store? That's a health & safety hazard! It's like someone put Monty Python's crew to work as city code enforcement agents.

Snark is wasted when the actual story is so dumb.

Normalizing Open Carry

In Texas, we have some semblance of liberty still, and you can roll around your own property strapped with whatever basically.

So I was out in the front yard keeping an eye out for #1, who was climbing a tree, and sumdood walks across from talking to the neighbors. He tried to get me signed up for a free week of the Statesman. I have so much use for the paper, I have never bought a copy, ever, and didn't even sign up to get it free.

Anyhow, once at the beginning and once at the end of our brief conversation, he briefly looked down at the G22 on my hip. Didn't mention it, didn't stare, didn't freak out, and (surprisingly) it didn't jump out of the holster and kill him DRT.

No Surprise: Holdren Embroiled In ClimateGate

Raise your hand if it surprises you that Obama's "Science Czar" is neck-deep in a scandalous cover-up of the lack of global warming.

No hands up. Right.

IF (and that's a pretty big IF) Obama has half a lick of sense on this one, Holdren will very soon become very interested in "spending more time with his family" or "pursuing other career goals" or similar . . .

. . . after the news hits (what used to be referred to as) The News, and then the White House spends two weeks hoping the scandal will die down while stopping juuuust shy of outright denials.

I'm About To Blow A Frikken Gasket Over Here

Why The FUCK should I have to give you my name, address, and email address, so I can play a child's game on my computer? Why the FUCK do I have to be logged in as a user with full Administrator rights just so I can play a kids game on my computer? FUCK YOU JUMPSTART!

That is all.

Extra-Fun (Not) Way To Spend The Day: Busted Computer.

My secondary hard drive apparently took a dump. I was up late fooling with the (stupid) computer, and then spent a good deal of time today running a full backup while the computer is functional. Now I get to play musical cables and figure out how to connect the IDE bus so it doesn't give errors without the 2nd hard drive in there.

Yes, IDE. Feel free to buy me a machine with SATA2 and DDR3 or whatever they are up to now. I was looking in the black friday sale ads and they are selling complete systems *with* displays for under $300.

I remember reading PC World when computers were $1000 for a super-cheap one, and the commentators were wondering if we would ever break the $500 barrier for low-end computers.

I guess so, huh?

2nd Place Ain't Too Shabby . . .

My Darling Wife is very slightly insane, and took place in the 2009 Thundercloud Subs Turkey Trot. She put in a time-per-mile average of 9:23 over the five mile course.

She's also pregnant. 7 weeks, but still. I convinced her to sign up in the general female-by-age division instead of the Maternity division, to give any *really* pregnant women a better chance of a good result in-class. In her age and sex division she took 90th out of 212. With 14,500 participants, her overall finish at 1500-ish was a pretty-respectable 10% back from the leaders.

Had she gone with the Maternity division as she had originally intended, she would have placed. First was in high seven minute/mile range, and second was in the elevens. She would have DOMINATED the other four pregnant women behind her.

Oh well. At least she got a T-shirt for her $32 entry fee, and she spent some quality time with one of her girlfriends.

Still No Cure For . . . Oh, Wait!

This was all over the radio news the other day, and google tells me Yahoo! News has a story about it as well. Don't get your hopes up just yet, as it's still in the animal rights! What about the poor little fuzzy bunnies! trials stage of development right now.

This type of thing is the reason we want to keep having research into medical technology: an implantable device that appears to put the hurt on cancer cells. A cancer vaccine, if you will. One that works, this time.

If the communists in Washington D.C. get their way and pass Obamacare, you can kiss this sort of innovation goodbye as R&D gets crushed under the boot-heel of the bean counter trying to make an impossible budget work long enough to get his fellow communists re-elected one.more.time.

Anthropogenic Global Warming CHARTS. Actual Warming, Not So Much.

When you have a bunch of readers every day, you get tips from them. Tips like the one Moonbattery got about scientists completely falsifying the record to make the data graphs show a warming trend.

At least this is the first time scientists have been caught conspiring and outright fudging the climate numbers at a major national research lab!

. . . oh, wait . . .

I Tig We Hab Duh Flew.

Either we got it from #3, who sucks on community-use toys in the church nursery, or from my work, where all manner of motley folk run amok.

Sinus congestion, fatigue, mild fever, then on to chest congestion and a fuzzy mind.

Good news: very mild symptoms. I might think it was a cold, but one of the guys who works in the same room with me, who had the symptoms also but never missed any work . . . his wife is down for the count with much-worse symptoms.

For last night and today, my initial response to anything anyone says to me (for which I apologize in advance) is as likely as not to be: "Buh?"

Happy Thanksgiving anyway. At least the weather here is nice.

********

In related news, the latest spin on the relative lack of Novel H1N1 cases being reported is that we have, after one partial flu season and 113 people getting immunized, developed "herd immunity." My take: you're all getting the new influenza, but since it's presenting like a moderately-bad rhinovirus you're not seeking professional help.

On This Day In History . . . They ALL (well, almost) Gave Thanks!

Because this nation was founded and first led by people, the strength of whose Christianity would put your preacher to shame by contrast, they understood that giving thanks was proper. The first President had this to say:

********

THANKSGIVING DAY 1789
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - A PROCLAMATION
"Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor - and Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."
"Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be – That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks – for his kind care and protection of the People of this country previous to their becoming a Nation – for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war –for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed – for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.
"And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions – to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually – to render our national government a blessing to all the People, by constantly being a government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed – to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord – To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and Us – and generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.
"Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789."
GO. WASHINGTON.

********

For the next 234 years, with rare exception, all of our Presidents have made proclamations establishing a national Day of Thanksgiving. So:

Thank you Jesus!

My New Favorite Nickname!

The New Yawkuh who is standing in for Sean Hannity today came out with one of the funniest, most-appropriate names I have heard for Vice President Joe Biden, EVAR!

"Crazy Uncle" Joe Biden

!!!

If I remember (an iffy proposition) I'll be using that appellation a lot.

Another Reason To Not Eat Splenda:

It kills you. Well, it kills the beneficial bacteria in your guts, which can't be good for you.

Ick.

If you think white sugar is better, you need to spend some quality time googling up "sugar is poison" or similar. If you have to sweeten something, use raw honey or fruit.

Quote of the Day:

I heard this with my own two ears, listening to a newsbreak on the radio.

"Protocol Is Critical"
-Michelle Obama (the woman who hugged the frikken QUEEN, and whose husband keeps "dropping his contact lenses" in front of foreign heads of state)

Give me a break.

RFID Credit and ID Cards: What Could POSSIBLY Go Wrong?

I have made a minor nuisance of myself at my local bank branch, repeatedly requesting plain-jane magnetic stripe-only credit cards whenever they send me a replacement card every few years.

Why?

Because anyone with a couple hundred bucks and some spare time can swipe your credit card right out of your wallet without picking your pocket, that's why. In related news, military ID cards in the USA have RFID technology embedded in them, as well as US passports.

So what?

So with a few hundred more dollars, a thief (money or identity) can make a brand-spanking new card with their name and photo on it, and be you for as long as it takes to break in to a military installation and blow it up, or as long as it takes to go to the store and buy a card-limit's worth of stuff. That's why.

What a stupid [deleted] idea.

What can I do about it?

You can revert to what you make fun of: aluminum foil. Make an aluminum foil sleeve for your credit and ID cards with RFID chips on them, and keep the cards in the sleeves until the actual point of use. An electronic pickpocket can read your card from across the street with the most powerful of readers on the market, but nobody can read it with an RF-blocking shield around it.

FYI.

More V8 CRX Action . . . Updated photos

I mentioned before a couple of Honda CRXs with V8 engines in them. Aside from being rolling death-traps, they're totally sweet. Well, the owner of one of them, Chris Van Den Elzen (VanDenElzen?) tripped over my blog and said hi in comments.

Turns out he has a build thread at www.wishoc.com, with more photos, as well as some videos of a VERY unnatural-sounding CRX. There is also a link to a short magazine article about the car.

For those who are wondering how it looks in half-decent light with better focus, here is Chris's V8 CRX. If you see this car on the street, you'd better have something special if you want to race it. Click to embiggen.



And if you want to see how a V8 should be fitted to the CRX's engine bay, I think this is as good an example as I have seen:



Now if only I can convince him to come convert my Elantra . . .

What A Day. Thanks Jesus!

The past day has been fairly eventful for me:

Yesterday, my Darling Wife reported a Blue Screen of Death on ye olde home PC. Last night, I was able to restore Windows without having to resort to a "Nuke-N-Pave" reinstallation.

Yesterday, there was a wreck on the way to get to my boss's house from work, which I overheard as I was going back in to the shop, to ask to borrow an impact gun from him. He let me borrow it, and when I got home, it was all I needed (along with my air compressor ;) ) to get the pulley nut off the alternator I am trying to rebuild.

Yesterday I finally found a way to trim the dogs' toenails without them freaking out (hint: no kids around) and got both their claws cut back. You would have to live with us to understand how rarely this happens, but now that I have found a less-unpleasant way to do it, it's going to be more frequent.

This morning, after #3 had kept me awake for 2 of the 7 hours I had for sleeping, I woke up feeling like poo. Low blood sugar, freezing cold, hungry, and tired. I prayed for some help with that, and 'by an amazing coincidence' I suddenly figured out why I felt so bad. Corrective action taken, I started feeling better in around a half-hour.

Shoot, I even remembered to take out the trash!

For all of the above: Thank you God!

Does He WANT To Lose?

. . . or is PresBHO just that incompetent? I still lean toward incompetence, but I may be going too easy on the guy.

86 days and 10 meetings after his commander in-theater says "more troops!" the Commander in Chief is still

dithering.

Welcome to Hippieland Austin

An example of the City Council's mindset (hate cars, love bikes):

They want to plant bollards on Nueces Street to discourage cars from using the (public, paid for by gas taxes) street, in favor of bicyclists.

ONE MILE of the street, in the busiest part of town. Because, you know, people are going to love paying to park, then ride their bikes with ZERO cargo capacity to the stores in Downtown Austin.

One more reason to live in one of the suburban cities around Austin.

forbidden Knowledge Is a crime Power!

I know certain things.
I possess certain objects.

If a persecutor prosecutor could prove (because I had an electronic or paper copy) that I knew the things, I would be an instant Federal Felon. Because it can't be proved (yet) that I know what I know due to the lack of a paper trail, I am scot-free.

Thought for the day:

Learn. Then delete!

Mammogram Recommendations = Health Care Rationing.

Sometimes I wish I could write faster while driving. Ingraham was playing sound on her show of some female Elected Heroine on one of the Sunday shows. She was read the text of one of the "healthcare" bills by the host, wherein it mentions the "Task Force recommendations" effectively become law and regulate the preventive health care of all women in the country.

You remember the brouhaha last week about the recommendation that women no longer get their mammograms starting at age 40, because it saves a bunch of money? Yeah, that sort of thing, under Obamacare, becomes law even when all the doctors and health insurance people come out and say it's bad for womens' being alive & healthy. Your Elected Heroine appeared to be completely unable to follow logic, or else she's pure evil, because even after hearing it for herself, she refused to admit that the bill says what it says.

Because they don't care about womens' health. They care about CONTROL over your life. Or else they shouldn't be there, you pick.

Meet The New Boss . . . .

Operation Cleansweep has a very good article for those of you who are confused about why Khalid Sheikh Mohammed should not be tried in American civil court.

They miss one point though. Obama would probably not mind too terribly much if the hairy yak were set free. He would also (and here's my main point) not mind too terribly much if he could just disappear his U.S. American political critics, and torture them into signing confessions that get them locked up for the rest of their lives.

You know who else liked torturing confessions out of people, before sentencing them to die in Gulag long prison terms?

********
Found while blogrollwandering through the Gunslinger's Journal.

One More Reason It's Good To Be A Man

The Good: Not wanting to take any drugs for anything, ever
The Bad: Being pregnant, with a cold, and not wanting to take any drugs, ever
The Ugly: While you have a 1 year-old with the same cold

:(

Climate Change: They Wouldn't Just Make This Stuff Up!

. . . Oh, wait. . . .

Here, We Have Peace.

. . . There, not so much.

NATO is taking over the effort to get a worthwhile indigenous police and military force in Afghanistan. Good luck with that.

An Iranian doctor who spoke out about political protesters being tortured has had a heart attack been in a car wreck committed suicide.

And, I guess, here not so much, either. I saw a clip on CNN's HLN of students just-shy-of-fighting with campus police at the University of California. Something about they don't like to pay 32% increases year-over-year in tuition. Now for fun, go ask the average barricaded-in-a-building student whether they think the rich should be taxed and/or police funding should be cut, so their tuition can be kept low.

Because We Say So.

I thought Michael Savage was being facetious when he said "It's not terrorism because we say so."

Then I heard Secretary Gates, when asked if Hasan's attack were "terrorism," say "I'm just not going to go there."

Alright then. It's not terrorism, because we say so.

********

(incidentally, it's not terrorism, it's jihad)

California's Budget $21 Billion In the Red. Still.

California's state budget is $21B in the hole (and counting) and all their rabbits have been pulled from their hats. The scarves are already out of the sleeves, and the smoke and mirrors bit has been done. There is now much hand-wringing about how there is nowhere left to cut the budget.

Here is the reason you should be getting your economic news from Michael Shedlock:

"Yet, there is still little talk about cutting pensions, fixing the prison system, privatizing services, or doing anything about illegal immigrants. Those are items that should be at the top of the discussion list."

Reality Slaps Obama Administration Again, Cap & Trade Edition.

Cap & Tax appears to be dead for this year, possibly until the mid-term elections.

Another Post Wherein I Tell You To Remember I Told You So.

A rising tide raises all ships. A falling tide lowers all ships. Hence the current Great Recession. Regular readers will remember that I have already told you to expect the unexpected.

Well here's a bit more "unexpected" news:

When people lose their jobs, they stop paying mortgage bills.

Surprising, well, nobody who was paying attention, FHA reports 14% of all their loans are delinquent, in addition to the 3.3% already in foreclosure. That would be the same FHA with the whopping 0.56% reserves against future losses. Standby for more "bailout" news shortly. That link to Naked Capitalism is about how, with these loans being foreclosed-upon, the values of the houses associated with them are falling . . . which leads us to:

Commercial real estate prices are off by 43% from their peak. Those who click the link will note well: the prices on both commercial and residential real estate are currently falling right back to where they were when the 'low-low interest rates will get the economy zooming again' madness at the Federal Reserve began.

To restate: real estate prices are currently adjusting back to what they were before the government interfered with the free market and fucked up values for everyone in the last decade

Which may go quite a ways toward explaining why nobody is building any new homes right now.

Give it a few years. I hope by the time we get our family out of debt, the price of land will have fallen to match the fall in the price of land with a house on it, and we will be able to get ourselves a few acres to disappear onto.

Wish me luck.

Nobody Reads The News On Saturday

That's why they are going to force a vote on the "healthcare" bill in the Senate, tomorrow.

Senator Coburn was threatening to have the Reading Clerks read the whole bill (all 2,000 pages of it) on the floor of the Senate. This would have taken DAYS, at least. The Senators are trying to take over 1/6 of the world's largest economy, sure, but they have a week off next week, and there are Tee times to make! We have to go HOME people!

The Democans knew they couldn't let the Senators go home and get harangued by the constituents for a week before a cloture vote, and they DAMN sure did not want to sit there and listen to the whole bill read, so they cut a deal with the Republicrats. The Republicrats get a whole DAY for debate. Saturday. At the end of the day, the "debate" (read: arm-twisting) will be voted on, and we'll see who will have spread promises of pork most liberally, as the Senate votes to start debating the worst. bill. EVAR. so they can go home for the holiday week.

Becuase YOU are asleep at the switch. Call them today.

Sean Hannity Masturbating On The Air

Sean Hannity is way up there in the ratings because he gives people what they want to see. Evidently, what they wanted to see last night was Governess Sarah Palin, speaking uncensored, for an hour, on his TV show.

Today, he and his callers are all patting him on the back about how great the TV show was last night. On the radio show.

More power to Sean Hannity, but could you do us all a favor and not spend an hour on your RADIO show, saying how great that hour on your TELEVISION show was last night? kthanks

Sucks: Teething AND A Cold

Trying to cut FOUR molars while you have a cold sucks. Just ask my 1.5-year-old son.

:(

Don't Forget! It's National Ammunition Day!

Today is National Ammunition Day.



Two boxes of .22LR will set you back all of $6.

Tut this is one of the fake, made-up holidays I actually LIKE, because it has the potential to put a little bit more fear of the citizenry in our Elected Heroes and it helps you remember to stock up while the stocking up is good.

This Is Where Zero Tolerance Gets You

A man is walking down the street alone in Portsmouth, NH.
He is followed by two men for long enough that he turns around 3 times to be sure they are following him
They are in street clothes with no overt identification
He turns around when they are 20 feet behind him and has a 2-inch bladed folding pocket knife out, pointed down, and asks why they are following him.

They say they are Only Ones Police and he puts the knife away and complies with their commands.

He is arrested and ends up convicted of "criminal threatening." Deferred jailtime and a fine of $500. His defense was that he feared for his safety (evincing some damn sense, unlike the Police). He plans to appeal to a higher court.

News flash: two men following you at night is an implicit threat of dealy force. Go learn something about that distance at this short article on the Tueller Drill.

What would you have done in his shoes, VFD?

I would have increased my walking pace slightly, and stopped in at the nearest storefront. If no stores were available, I would have made three right turns. If someone walks (or drives) behind you around a full circle, you are being followed. Then I would have made sure there was nothing in front of me and turned around, and kept walking backwards, with my hand on Little Brother in its holster, and asked them why they were following me. Note that Little Brother is carried in Condition Zero at all times, and I am fast as fuck with my hands. When someone with a gun in less-ready than Condition 1, who is slow, is being followed by two strange men, it has a high potential for ending up Very Badly.

I really hope this guy has a lawyer smart enough to at least try a civil rights case of some sort, so he can juice the Portsmouth PD for at least 10x his fine, in legal fees, even if his appeal fails.

********

This is what you get when people have been indoctrinated in government schools for 2 generations, where BOTH parties in a fight get suspended, and anyone who brings a butterknife to school is expelled. Congratulations to the people who first got government schools in America: it's working just like you hoped it would.

Hat tip to Uncle

Search Engines: They Don't Work If You Don't Use 'em.

For grins, I decided to go answer some questions at wiki.answers.com. I tripped across the Hyundai Elantra unanswered questions pages while trying to find some other information.

Apparently nobody ever heard of an owner's manual. You would think the concept of an online search engine was something from the distant future. On every page of questions you will probably find questions about ALL of the following . . . and there are hundreds of pages.

How to remove the door panel? (remove all the screws, and pull)

Where is the engine/transmission oil fill location (engine oil, there's a round cap on top of the engine that says OIL. Automatic transmission fills thru the dipstick, manual transmission has a bolt on the front of the transmission, you pour oil in the side of the case till oil runs back out)

How to remove/replace the alternator? (read my DIY, here)

How do you line up timing marks on the camshafts? (read my DIY, here)

How to replace the serpentine belt? (there isn't one)

How to replace the timing belt? Another DIY, here)

Where to the spark plug wires go? (wow fail. Take a picture next time, before you pull them all off. The valve cover has little arrows on it to show where the wires go)

How do you install a stereo (It's beyond you, leave it to the professionals)

What does check engine code XXXX mean? (full list here)

and (this one is my favorite)

Torque specs for head bolts? (Just F'ing NO. Torque, then rotate, then rotate. If you don't know where to find this information it means you should not be removing the cylinder head in the first place)

People, to get car information don't go to wiki.answers.com. In fact, don't go to wiki.answers.com for ANYTHING unless it pops up with the right answer at google or some other search engine. Go to CAR people for car information. For 1996-2000 Hyundai Elantra or 1997-2001 Hyundai Tiburon information, go to RD Tiburon.com and use the SEARCH.

There. Just had to get that off my chest.

(conditional) YES! Zelaya Gives Up?

Curt has both a decent background report, as well as insightful commentary on this one:

Ousted would-be communist tyrant Zelaya has said he won't be part of any US-negotiated deal that puts him back in power, because it would cover up the "coup" earlier this year.

The US has said we are going to recognize the results of the upcoming election in Honduras.

It *appears* right now, that the situation has been ideally resolved*.

Good.

*as long as the [deleted] communists don't rig the election. This might be an occasion for the Honduras where they would want international election monitoring, but I say leave that up to them.

Another Thing I'll Forget To Ask About: Teething.

When we get to see Jesus face-to-face, we'll be too caught up in the meeting to ask about all the things we wondered at down here.

One of the questions I'd like to ask God but will completely forget about: Why does it have to hurt when children are teething? Secondarily, why does it have to hurt when the parents would rather be sleeping? ;)

Oh well. As long as the teeth make it out alright.

After-Action Report: 13 November 2009

Night Hunting

I set out at bedtime-thirty with poquito and my nifty LED flashlight that can be stood on end (for steady vertical illumination) and hit the driveway. SurpRISE surprise, right over a poo pile on the drive, I found a bird. I lit him up and searched for a clear shot. Twigs everywhere. Nobody has trimmed this tree in at least 6 years, and there are lots of little branches in between the big branches. This makes for frustrating shooting when the optical axis of my telescope sight is +1.5" over the center of the bore.

Ok, I see a clear-ish path. Shot!
Little pieces of twig fall down.
. . . I move around a bit . . . the bird is still asleep . . .
Another clear-ish view. Shot!
Little pieces of twig and a few leaves this time.
. . . I moved again, probably moved 50 feet laterally, forward, and back, in a four square-yard area. Lots of motion, but the bird still stays put.

Alright, trying again . . . Shot!
After a short pause, the bird fell like a stone to the driveway. Thud. No twitching, even. He panted out his last breaths for a minute, but that's only because birds are dead simple animals. This was a painless kill.

Come on VFD you're just saying that to make yourself feel better!

When I went to pick him up, his head was floppy. Shot straight through the spine, in the middle of his neck. Have you ever heard the expression "running around like a chicken with its head cut off?" Yeah, this was like that, except the head was still on. He was a dead bird breathing.

I looked around for a few more minutes, but I didn't see any more foul fowl, so I tossed my boy down the drain for the cats and went inside for the night.

Democrat Administration To Ban GUNS!!!!!

. . . or not

Once again it appears reality is gobsmacking the ivory tower idealists PresBHO picked to fill the highest positions in the US government.

Speaking of gun haters in government: It looks like the Long Gun Registry in Canada is on the way out officially, confirming rumors from last week. No word on whether or not Canadians will get their guns back, who had them taken because the only ones used the registry to see who needed to have some guns confiscated. . . .

Hat tip to Uncle

Obama Bows To Jap. Emperor!

Let's see here . . .

Bow to Saudi Prince who needs your country to buy his country's oil: Check
Bow to Emperor of Japan after your country kicks their country's ass: Check

Bow to Dalai Lama Give Dalai Lama an audience: Wouldn't want to be controversial.

Alrighty then.

Seriously? Who Dresses Like That?

On the way through Austin I saw a full-grown, adult man walking around in blue jeans and a suit coat. Button-down "dress shirt" and loafers.

Suit coat. Not a blazer. It looked like a bad case of "not having a wife to dress you" walking around in public.

The poor man.

Kay Bailey Hutchison for Private Citizen in 2010!

From News 8 Austin:

Kay Bailey Hutchison, U.S. Senatrix from Texas, has announced she is running for governess of Texas and oh yeah something about not quitting before her term in the Senate expires.

Let me tell you what, this is good news. She may be a wobbly on some issues, but on "healthcare" and Cap & Trade, Mrs. Hutchison is probably a pretty reliable party-line vote for the (R) side. We need as many of those as we can get *cough*CAO*cough*.

Further, it would have been an indelible stain upon her character if, while still serving a term as Senatrix, she had quit to try to run for Governess. She was going to do it anyhow, and you know Pretty Boy Rick Perry would have made sure to get a new Texas Senator who would vote the "right" way on "healthcare" and Cap & Tax . . .

But Kay must have seen her polling numbers and they were saying "Rick Perry for Governor, 2010," so for now she says she's staying until she can see how the primary goes try to convince you to vote for her from D.C. fight the good fight against "healthcare" in the Senate.

Well, as far as that goes, Good.

New Alternator Time. Again. Again.

The bearings in the alternator on my car are going out. They squeal sometimes, when the engine is revved. That would be, my <1year-old OEM rebuilt alternator. Which was a replacement for the Advance Auto Parts alternator that stopped putting out electricity. Which was a replacement for the OEM rebuilt alternator installed by a dealership under warranty, which had failing bearings. Which was the replacent for the OEM alternator that came on the car, which stopped putting out electricity at <1 year of car-age.

Just [deleted]. I never knew another car that wanted a fresh alternator every 2-3 years whether it needed one or not. It's better than a new ENGINE every few years, and this engine is pushing 150,000 miles without burning or leaking any appreciable amount of oil, thanks to God and good Korean engineering, but . . . can I get an alternator that lasts as long as a frikken BATTERY?

Oh well. At least I have a spare I can rebuild or use as a core for buying another one, sitting in my garage, pulled from the car I bought for parts when I converted my car from automatic to standard transmission.

After-Action Report: 11 November 2009

The other day I noted, when a loud noise was made in my front yard, at least 6 pigeons flew out of the tree over my driveway. I looked at the driveway, and sure 'nuff: huge patches of concrete covered in bird poo.

Time to go killin'.

I rolled out with my trusty poquito sometime after 21:00 and found the first bird without too much difficulty. After what I was sure had been a good shot, he flew off! Damnit. Okay, let's keep looking. . .

. . . and then, from two houses down, I hear as noise in the neighbors' trees: 'flapflapflapcrashflapflapflapcrashthunk'

I walked over and there was my boy, dead as a doornail. I collected him and went back to my yard and started looking again, and my next door neighbors pulled in to their driveway. The squeaking of their brakes spooked one bird out of the tree. The slamming of their car doors spooked another five or six. I exchanged pleasantries with the neighbors, and then spotted another bird the wife heard in their tree. I set my torch on the ground so they could see the bird lit up from underneath. The husband told me "shoot it" and they went inside. I took one shot, but it was offhand and the tree was being windblown (miss). As I was reloading, TWO cars passed each other going opposite directions in front of our house, and ANOTHER half-dozen birds flushed out of the trees, including my current quarry. Disgusted, I went inside after tossing the one dead guy into the storm drain for the cats.

Time to spend some quality time outside. I also need to do some surgery on the front sight on my pellet gun. The protective ring around the sight blade gives back a huge glare that mars the picture through the telescope sight when the flashlight hits it.

Bailout Money: Not Coming Back.

You mean, when a company is drowning in red ink and toxic assets, and you "loan" them a jillion dollars so they can keep doing the exact same things that got them bankrupt in the first place, they don't pay the money back?

Who would have guessed!

Gee, I guess it's a good thing we gave away that most-of-a-Trillion dollars last year. I mean, it's an investment after all. You know, like how your Social Security Withholding Tax dollars are an investment. Except last time I checked, my SS money was only shrinking by a -1.5% annual rate, vs. completely disappearing.

Great Success!

I was walking by an $18,000 pile of $100 things and a thought came to mind. These had just been listed for sale by one of our newer guys. I had previously listed some like them. I asked if they were all the same, and knelt for a closer look.

50/50 mix of T and V types. Same general idea, completely different approach when you get to the fine print. A little bit disturbed by his oversight, our man set out to re-sort and correct his error.

Thereby preventing (in theory) as many as 180 possible negative eBay feedbacks. Considering our record for the last 6 months is about 500-600 sales/month, with fewer than 1 negative per month, that right there is a BIG case of the ass prevented by one casual observation.

Great success!

It's Not A LIE, Exactly . . .

~or~ "Yet Another Reason Not To Wear The Rosy-colored Glasses the Government is Trying to Give You (aided by willing accomplices in the press)"

If it seems like prices are going down everywhere, but the CPI report keeps going up, it turns out that you might not be the one with the "fuzzy math."

Yet another from Calculated Risk

The Jobs Americans Just Won't Do:

Day Laborer

. . . oh, wait.

That's right folks. Kick enough people out of a job, let them not find a job for a year, and some of the (gasp) Americans with NO source of income (including government handouts) will show up in the Home Depot parking lot.

********

For the record, I have never hired a day laborer. I have, however, made use of volunteered/donated time given to me by people in my family and members of my church. If I ever decided to hire a day laborer, I could go downtown to 1st Labor and get a certified-legal laborer for a decent ("living") wage. If I just had to go get a hand at the Home Depot parking lot, I would require two things:

English fluency

American CITIZENship. Legal aliens with proof maybe. Illegals, no.

That's RACIST!

Go soak your head. Then go look up what a border is supposed to do for a nation.

Hat tip to Calculated Risk

Afghan Strategy: Continue Doing Nothing While Your Soldiers Die

From Yahoo! News:

Months after his commander in theater said "give me 40,000 troops or we may lose President Obama, having met now eight times with his "war cabinet" has come up with the final word:

"Let me get back to you on that."

The planned to leak to see how the People (especially the kook fringe on the left) would react, is that he doesn't like any of the proposed options. I know I'm not a PolySci major, but I am guessing the options are:

Increase troop levels

Leave troop levels the same

Decrease troop levels

Leave altogether

No, what he wants to do is make sure when, exactly, he can foist Afghanistan off on to the government of Afghanistan.

VFD, Isn't that the whole idea?

Right: get the hell out of there and let the locals deal with their own problems. Only one problem: We didn't "win" yet. Oh wait, that's three problems: We have NO DEFINED GOAL in Afghanistan, and our President has already stated he's "not interested in victory."*

If we had a definite goal then we would be able to tell when we had won and then we could talk about turning the country over to Afghan rule. We have no goal. There is no winning.

If we're not going to win, what are we doing there? Is it a grist mill? Are we interested in supplying the local dung beetles with American flesh to feast on? Why do you still have men in-theater if you don't know what you want them to do? Give them an objective, give them the support they need to meet it, and they will win. Otherwise, GTFO and cut our losses, and we'll say "I FUCKING TOLD YOU SO!" when we get struck in the USA by a jihadist attack from Afghanistan, or when the Tangos finally take over Pakistan and send us a Pakistani nuke on a cargo ship.

********
dith·er: (dĭth'ər)
n. A state of indecisive agitation.
intr.v. dith·ered, dith·er·ing, dith·ers
To be nervously irresolute in acting or doing.

[Alteration of didder, from Middle English didderen, to tremble.]
(The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language)
********
Obama is DITHERING, whether the giggler behind the Press Secretary's microphone likes the term or not.
********

Officer Jones: Dispatch, 535 here, I need backup and I need backup right now.
Dispatcher: Roger 535, I'll talk to the Chief about it.
. . .
Officer Jones: Hey Dispatch, 535 I need my backup or I'm going to get greased!
Dispatcher: Roger 535 the Chief says he'll get back to you on that tomorrow. You just keep doing what you're doing.

********

*sure he was talking about Iran. You know what Ronaldus Maximus said when asked about the global threat to American security in his day? "We win, they lose." That was leadership. What we have now, isn't.

Blame The Ex-President. Clinton, This Time.

I have heard from time to time about the victim-disarmament zones on military bases, where personal arms are required to be registered, and you can't have a gun even in your military-issue house.

I didn't realize it was brought to us by the same President who brought us the ineffectual 1994 Assault Weapons Ban.

NOW I have the information I need to call my elected heroes. Hat tip to Uncle.

Do Bears Shit In The Woods?

Yes. And Francisco the horse shits in the custom-made extra-extra-large toilet in his mistress's house. He is her pet horse. A Potty-trained pet horse.

How do you know about Francisco, VFD?

Because he was on television. No, not on television with his mistress saying how she had potty-trained him. On television SHITTING in the pot. At least, I gather that's what he was about to do. I left the room in disgust as he was lifting the toilet seat with his muzzle.

I know I shouldn't be surprised at the low humor and general lack of content on TV these days, but sometimes I run across an example odd enough to give me pause.

I remember the day when you could count the number of TV stations on both hands, and we used to make jokes that eventually there would be 500 channels of "nothin'" on cable. I'm not that old, but I guess I'm old-fashioned enough to think that watching a horse shit is not the highest and best use of my time.

Somebody had to pony up (sorry) a hundred thousand dollars to produce this show. Somebody had to buy advertising on it. WTFPPL?

Thanks, But . . .

It's Armistice Day. The feel-good weenies who wanted to be incluuuusive can soak their heads, and I'll stick with the original meaning of the day, based on an actual historical event, rather than a warm-fuzzy feeling we get, recognizing everyone who ever put on a reservist's uniform.

"On the eleventh hour
Of the eleventh day
Of the eleventh month
The guns fell silent . . . ."

I'll say you're welcome when you thank me for my service. But if you're wondering what I'm doing for Veterans Day it's about the same thing as I do for Valentine's Day.

So.

Happy Armistice Day. Many happy returns. Maybe next year, we will be at peace. My understanding, however -enlightened by the Bible- is that we will next have worldwide peace under a world dictator, shortly before Jesus comes back to prevent us from blowing the whole thing up when the peace fails.

Communications vs. The Obama Administration:

A blatant communist Presidential Communications Advisor(ess) finally resigns, after sound clips of her saying one of her BFFs is Chairman Mao. She said she liked the way the Communists in China controlled the press.

And

The Obama Justice Department wants to know who saw what, and when they saw it. That is, they want to know who was reading indymedia last Friday. They want to gain this knowledge by intentionally NOT following the law, circumventing legal procedures that would make it permissible to obtain the information. Also, they wanted indymedia to not tell anyone the logs were requested. A big tip of the hat to indymedia for pushing back just a teeny weeny little bit. The request was quietly withdrawn.

Note to the Obama administration: this is the USA in 2009, and we have the Internet. You can't do this shit and keep it on the down-low. And we hate what it says about you all that you are trying.

Why Not Give Each Nation Their Turn On The Human Rights Council Chair?

Oh, no reason really. All nations are about the same. I mean, no nation sitting in the chair of the human rights council of the United Nations would ever do anything like, oh, I don't know, block investigations of its own malfeasance.

. . . Oh, wait.

This is one of the reasons not to belong to the UN.

This is also one of the reasons the USA, as one of (if not the) most morally-upright nations in the world, should interject itself boldly into leadership positions.

Because the other guys have their hand in the cookie jar.

Try telling that to Professor Obama. . .

Well I'M Not Sorry!

President Obama said, at the memorial today for the Ft. Hood 13:

"We come together, filled with sorrow . . . ."

Speak for yourself, jerk.

I'm not sorry, I'm actually pretty pissed-off, and it doesn't help things that you are refusing to jump to conclusions about a dude who was closely linked to Al-Quaeda, spoke openly about muslim soldiers killing fellow soldiers, and was generally recognized to be a security risk but ignored due to 'political correctness' in the Army AND the FBI.

Sorry? No. We lose men in wars. How about prosecuting the war we're fighting, instead of trying to play footsie with the enemy? No? Okay, see you at the ballot box, pal.

No Hurricanes, No Warming, No Worries!

The radio news this morning said it would be the first hurricane to make landfall this year, and that it is late in the 2009 hurricane season. It's been downgraded. Now it's a tropical storm and Ida is making things generally moist for the coast-dwellers.

Those who have been paying close attention will recall that the GLOBAL WARNING EVERYBODY PANIC!!! crowd was saying that Global Warming (man-caused, no less) would be causing increasing numbers of hurricanes, and they would be increasingly bad, in the short-term (read: this year and last year) future.*

Weeeeeeell, last year was the coolest in recent history, and we're looking at 11 years of cooling now. That would be, in the face of rising CO₂ levels in the atmosphere, which was supposed to make it hotter (according to climate modeling software designed to make it look like the world would heat up no matter what). Also, how's that whole "whole lotta hurricanes" prediction working out for you?

Still believe in the glowbull wormening?

Why?

********

*Al Gore, et. al., were capitalizing on the Katrina/Rita fears which were fresh in our national memory. Because he makes MONEY off your fears of global warming.

It's Not Like We Ever Had To Fight A War There . . .

Korean ships fire on Korean ships. Korean ships fire back.

North vs. South. Again.

Except this time, it's after the North broke the 1953 armistice.

What's the worst that could happen?

D.C. Area Should Be Cheering Right Now, Not Cowering.

Yahoo! News reports that people are getting antsy again, thinking about what happened when one guy decided to have his own little jihad in the D.C. metro area.

They should be celebrating the fact that he is being killed by the State tomorrow.

Then this jerk will find out just how fake his fake religion is, too late. You might pray for him, but once that third injection goes in, I seriously doubt anything but torments will be coming his way.

********

Threepers, note well: this guy taught you a series of lessons, if you are bright enough to learn them.

On This Day In History . . .

" . . . tear down this wall . . . "

And they did. It was a series of comic blunders (by people as competent and well-communicating as the current Obama white house) that got people started crossing over, but eventually the wall came down.


Note: I give good odds that Chairman Zero disdains to commemorate the occasion because he wishes it hadn't happened, and doesn't care too much for that whole "liberty" thing.

"Healthcare Bill Huge Blow to Reproductive Rights"

So saith the Huffpo. That wasn't the actual headline, but it was the teaser to get you to click on this link.

The Stupak amendment. It prevents the "healthcare" bill just passed (barely passed) by the Congress of the United States from paying for abortions, except when medically necessary to save the life of the mother (wink). This somehow is supposed to be an infringement on the "reproductive rights" of women. If you are stupid or intellectually lazy, or went to government schools (but I repeat myself) then you might agree that it IS an infringement on womens' rights.

Rights are something enforceable against someone else; enforceable by the government, against someone else on the behalf of a person with a right. For example, I have a RIGHT to have you not steal my car, and the Police will enforce that right for me, if you want to violate it.

For you to have a RIGHT to an abortion paid for by the government means that all of the following are true:

You have the right to the procedure.
You have the right to have the government pay for the procedure.
The government has no money, so they must take it from the citizenry.
The government has the legal ability to put people in JAIL for not paying taxes.
The government has in the past KILLED people for failure to comply with tax laws.
You therefore have the RIGHT to have an agent of the government go KILL SOMEBODY for not paying for the procedure.
Furthermore:
You have the right to the procedure.
Someone must provide the procedure, if you are to have it.
If that someone does not want to provide the procedure, the government may compel them to do it for you.
The abortion 'doctor' has NO right to decline you the procedure.
The 'doctor' must agree to take whatever the government is willing to pay for the procedure.
The abortion doctor must comply and give you the procedure, or be fined, imprisoned, or KILLED by the government.
For not providing you with the procedure which it is your RIGHT to have.

therefore, because all of the foregoing is NOT true, you have NO RIGHT to abortion paid for by the government. Reproductive Rights is a code phrase for forcing ME the taxpayer, to fund YOUR abortion.

This is the exact same argument applied to socialized "nationalized" health care, single-payer health care, etc. You have no RIGHT to health care. You do have the right to have a legitimate medical procedure performed, provided you are willing to pay an agreeable amount of money to a doctor who willingly does it for that amount. You do not have the right to put a government-run machine gun to Mr. Rich Man's head and force him to pay your medical bills.

. . . leaving aside entirely, the argument that health care is - if it is a government concern at all - a city, county, or at most a State concern, and the Federal government has no legitimate part to play in an individual citizen's health care, except to try to prevent a national enemy from blowing you up.

. . . also leaving aside the fact that you are wanting to force your fellow citizens to pay a doctor to murder your child for you.

Bipartisan = All of Us + 1 of Them.

Lovely. Just lovely. Now we get to hear about the BIPARTISAN SUPPORT for the "healthcare" bill, since CAO broke ranks and voted with the National Socialist Democrat party.

ONE Republican makes it "bipartisan." Not that Cao was in on the negotiations, but with a last-minute vote from ONE Republican, you get SHAZAM now it's BIpartisan.

Take careful note: The health care system destruction and patient murder act of 2009 "healthcare" bill barely passed. Barely, as in, THREE votes the other way would have killed the bill. THREE votes.

So now it falls on the (thankfully) less-reactionary Senate to kill this measure. That means it is once again time to melt the phone lines at the Capitol Switchboard and make sure all the fence-shitting Democrat Senators know you will be donating to their opponent next November, regardless of who that opponent is. If YOUR Senator is a wobbly, be sure to tell them you will be working in their district specifically to defeat them, for voting for "healthcare."

NOTHING else will stop this bill. Nothing. They don't give a damn about all the patients who will die waiting for a petty tyrant bureaucrat to sign off on their medical care. They don't care that you don't want the USA to force you (at gunpoint) to buy shitty health care insurance from them. ALL THEY CARE ABOUT IS THEIR POWER. MAKE SURE YOUR ELECTED HEROES KNOW THEY WILL LOSE THEIR POSITION IN THE SENATE IF THE SENATE PASSES THIS BILL!

********

Congratulations to Stupak for writing abortion funding out of the 'healthcare' bill. You have enabled the abortofascists (as Neal Boortz calls us) in Congress to vote for the bill. In so doing, if it passes in the Senate, you have destroyed the finest health care system in the world, on fraudulent grounds, for the sake of political power, by encouraging votes for an unconstitutional measure. I hope you're happy. I know Queen Pelosi is ecstatic. Congressman Stupak, your political future is secure, as long as the Democrats can continue to have dead people and illegal aliens cast votes, or until the revolution comes. You ass.

Canada = USA ca. 2007?

Our largest trading partner, partner in crime, and BFF since WWII, Canada, is in deep shit. And they don't care.

Just like we were, and didn't, in 2007-2008. Then OUR real estate bubble started to burst and look what happened.

Canada is just waiting for the final straw, and the people who buy more of our junk than anyone else in the world (contributing more to our economy) will be pulling their spare dollars out of circulation, just like we have done.

VFD, What will it do to OUR industry, when THEIR consumer stops spending on our stuff?

Hint: the same thing that happened when YOU stopped spending on our stuff. This is going to be messy, people. Don't say nobody told you it was coming.

That link, by the way, goes to Michael Shedlock's Global Economic Analysis blog. "Mish" called the current state of affairs in the USA in 2007, when everyone else was still wearing rose-colored glasses, and those of us who read his writing are shaking our heads when we keep hearing "unexpectedly" associated with the stuff we saw coming, when it finally makes the headlines.

Rain Dance

I put in a request chit for rain tomorrow . . .

. . . I washed both our cars today.

Waiting Has Good And Bad Points

Looking at refinancing when rates are at 4.5% instead of 5%: Good!

Waiting to caulk some joints around the house for several years, until the caulk in a sealed/new tube cures: Bad.

Oh well.

At least I found one tube of silicone I could use to seal around the toilet. You know, the one I had to replace the wax ring underneath? No? Oh, well I did. Ah, the joys of home ownership.

CAIR Denounces Muslim Attack At Fort Hood.

The Council on American-Islamic Relationships, on their homepage, has an official statement against the actions of Major Hasan last night.

Well there you go, VFD! The Muslims are speaking out against the violent extremists in the USA!

Right. Have you ever heard of the great Islamic tradition of Al-taqiyya? Go ahead and read that link. I'll wait.

Ok, so now you're up to speed right?

These people may be evil, but the faithful muslims in America are not entirely stupid. They can see the writing on the wall as well as anyone. It was pretty obvious that, if they had not denounced the mass murder last night, the Teleprompter reader would have called on them to do it. They get bonus points on both sides!

In related news, in case you were wondering, this is not a terrorist attack. I quite agree with the official pronouncement on that point. Terrorism is designed to change how a society reacts toward the terrorists, through violence or the threat of violence. Nobody expects Americans to cow before the muslim threat. This was just an attack.

NOT Terrorism.

JIHAD

It's time we answer their holy war.

And We Needed A Civilian Policewoman There . . . Why?

A great big tip of the hat to the civilian police woman who got four hits on the mujaheddun at Fort Hood last night. While wounded.

The question I (and apparently many others) have is: Why the hell, on a base with 50,000 of America's finest volunteer FIGHTING men on station, did we need to have a civilian cop stop this mess after (assuming perfect accuracy) at least 34 shots were fired?

These were men in the frikking ARMY about to GO FIGHT against the jihad. And none of them had so much as a sidearm about him? Whiskey Tango Fox, over?

I'm writing my Elected Heroes about this. This is just stupid. In related news, apparently ZERO was too many civilians killed by our military men back in the day (say, WWII) when each man was issued a rifle and a pistol, and he kept it with him when he transferred duty stations. That is, when going from one place to another, our men had their killing tools right there with 'em, when they got on civilian airliners, buses, and trains. Can't have icky GUNS out there in the hands of TRAINED KILLERS now can we?

No, we should leave the mass murder to amateurs, and make sure they have plenty of disarmed victims on which to prey!

One is reminded of the Israeli militiaman/student who shot a school-shooting mujaheddin right in the [deleted] HEAD (twice) with his issued service rifle. Which, of course, like all the other militiamen in Israel, he had with him at school.

I also recall Hartmann, a true warrior, who faced down frikken HITLER and got permission to wear his sidearm in the presence of the Leader of the People while being awarded a medal.

Why are our men disarmed on US military installations during a WAR?

It's an overseas war, VFD.

Really?

You mean the following MUSLIM murderers are not connected, because they were not card-carrying members of Al Quaeda? Funny, it seems to me like there is a certain commonality between them . . .

D.C. Snipers
Little Rock Recruiting Station murders
Salt Lake City mall shootings
Seattle Jewish Center shootings
along with a few (dozen) others

Rising Unemployment: A Sure Sign Of RECOVERY?!

I was a bit surprised. I know, I should not be surprised at anything after a Socialist was elected to the Presidency of the United States, but this caught me off guard.

The unemployment rate hit 10.2%. No, that isn't the surprising bit. Everyone who reads Michael Shedlock saw that coming a mile away. What surprised me was the extreme spin they tried to put on it. I'm pretty sure somebody at the White House thinks this is sheer genius. You be the judge.

The line goes like this: The unemployment rate was rising less quickly, and that was in line with the (completely made-up) 3.5% GDP growth rate, both of which were signs of a recovering US economy. In fact, what happened, you see, was that more people thought they could get a job, so more people joined the unemployment roles by looking for jobs. That's right, the economy is soooo GOOD that the formerly-discouraged unemployed workers are out there looking for jobs again. THAT'S why the unemployment number jumped.

Specifically, it is NOT A CONTINUATION of the DETERIORATING state of the US economy!

From Moonbattery, I stole this graph and modified it to make my point. Click it to see the full size version.



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This announcement has not been approved by the Ministry of Propaganda. Please do not take it seriously. This story was not promulgated by a serious news organization. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep.

YOU Guess The Motive.

I was listening to breaking news of the shooting at Ft. Hood, and I was saying to myself: "Even odds this guy has a muslim-sounding name." Just then, they called out Malik Nadil Hasan. Major Malik Nadil Hasan. Let's see how widely that name is reported.

If he was called Bob Ralph Smith, the speculation might tend toward a right-wing hate motive, or else just revenge, or crazy white guy.

I'm going to go ahead and call the motive right now. I give 5% chance of y'all seeing this on the network news tonight. The additional security at Ft. Hood is a waste. This dude went on his own little piece of jihad, and it's over.

I would be happy to be proven wrong.

I would also be happy if we trusted our fighting men with fighting arms while on base, INCONUS. If we did, we wouldn't have had to wait for the Police to go kill this asshole. The body count, you could count on one hand, including the killer.

The Devil says: "Welcom to Hell, Major Hasan. LOL Joke's on you, no virgins!"

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Yahoo! News: No direct mention of Hasan's religion.

Honda VFR1200T "Safe" Motorcycle: B. S.!

Honda are announcing a new motorcycle with all sorts of whiz-bang features to keep riders safe. There's just one problem: A safer motorcycle is like a safer fall off the side of a cliff. I've said it repeatedly before:

"Motorcycles are so dangerous as to be ill-conceived as a mode of transportation."

(and really fun to ride)

Safety innovation is fine as far as it goes, and more power (and sales) to Honda, but let's not pretend you can ever be safe on a motorcycle. Have a look again at what happens to a couple of tons of steel in a crash, and then take away all but 400lbs of that steel, and don't strap the rider inside a safety cage and repeat the test.

Motorcycle Safety? HA!

Prosthetic Hand, From The Bottom, With Feeling This Time!

That's a music joke AND a headline.

This is a robot hand that touches AND feels.

Wow.

Sucks to lose your hand, but if you need a prosthesis, this looks like a step in the right direction.

Unconstitutional? I Dunno.

Senator Hatch has openly questioned the constitutionality of Obamacare. Apparently it has gone un-noticed, or else the scrambling is all behind the scenes.

Spokesmouth Gibbs is correct in saying (video at the link, above) you won't mistake him for a constitutional scholar; one might at least expect that the White House Press Secretary would be up to date on the most controversial hot topic of the moment. But then, that would be if the administration didn't have its collective head up its ass. These people do.

Here's the money transcript:

Gibbs was asked by a reporter on Monday: “Have White House lawyers looked at this issue? Has this been examined in any way?”

Gibbs responded: “Not that I know of. I don’t think it has gotten to the point where anybody questions the legitimacy of it.”

The reporter followed up: “Well, Orrin Hatch questions the legitimacy of it.” Gibbs quipped, “Well, you should ask him.”

The reporter asked, “Do you not feel there is any concern at all about whether it is constitutional for Congress to impose a mandate?”

“No,” Gibbs said.

I mean, really, why bother looking at the legality of pending legislation BEFORE it's passed into law? Why not just wait until AFTER 1/6th of the largest economy in the world is a complete mess and spend a few million dollars losing in the courts? Wouldn't it just be easier to wait?

Come on VFD, cut them some slack! Maybe they never thought of it!

You're right, you're right. After all, this is the first time anyone has asked about the constitutionality of the 'healthcare' bill. . . Oh, wait.

Republicans Have No Ideas on Healthcare.

At least, not any that you would hear on the mainstream network newscasts.

THERE ARE NO ALTERNATIVES TO THE WAY PROPOSED BY THE DEAR LEADER!!!!!

Specifically, not this one that the CBO just scored as nearly $1.4 Trillion cheaper than Chairman Obama's $1.4 Trillion 'healthcare' bill, while reducing insurance premiums (vs. increasing them by a factor of at least 4x)

Another one from Moonbattery

More News From The Place Where England Used To Be

UK Judge rules that environmentalist whackos are entitled to protection on the basis of their beliefs just like Christians.

How long have we been saying the whacko environmentalists have made a religion out of their faith? Well apparently some judge has seen the light. Now if only we could get this in the USA . . . can you imaging the flood of lawsuits?

The greens sue to get the sanity out of environmental policy
The people with *real* religions sue to get sanity INTO environmental policy.
The greens who thought they believed in a real religion head asplode!

What fun! Let's go get some popcorn and see what happens in the UK courts next!

Hat tip to Moonbattery

Low Voter Turnout In Texas Constitutional Amendment Election

I got to the polling place for my district a half-hour before they were going to close. There was one other person voting at one of the three voting machines. There were 4 volunteer/observers working the polling place. As I was getting my login code from one poll worker, two of the others were saying how they thought it was likely they would see two more voters come and cast ballots. In half an hour.

I voted and left. It took about 5 minutes (compared to what, an hour, when I voted against PresBO?) between door openings going in and going out.

When I signed in, on a sheet with maybe 15-20 names, I saw that my name was the only one with a signature by it. Pretty much NOBODY cared to turn out to vote on a proposed ELEVEN changes to the supreme law of our State. Stated another way, I was voting for maybe fifteen or twenty other people in my district. County-wide we had about 8% turnout. Uncle reports Knoxville saw 5% turnout. Knoxville's voters were voting for 20 people also.

So do you still think your vote doesn't count for anything?

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In related news, it looks like all you have to do to change the State Constitution is get it on the ballot. All the measures proposed, passed. This is in keeping with the brainless results from prior elections: all you have to do to get a bond issue is get it on the ballot here. Sigh

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"The only problem with a democracy is that I get the government They deserve!"

"It's More Than What It Is."

Yesterday the local radio news started talking up a story about a woman who killed a man. While she was 8 months pregnant. While she was in her apartment. With a 12 gauge. She shot him in the head. While he was in the parking lot. DRT. No charges have been filed, but the police have relocated her, for her own protection.

Wait, what?

He was stealing her car. In Texas (Houston). After dark. The State of Texas understands some things other places *cough*England*cough* don't. Things like, if you're stealing somebody else's stuff at night, you might have just earned yourself a shootin'. There's no reportage on it, but that car might have been her only way to get to her job, possibly the only source of income for her family of unspecified size. Taking the car might have meant an irreplaceable loss and subsequent destitution for that family. For the thief, it was a joyride or a quick few bucks. For the woman, that car might very well have been the only thing keeping her from sleeping on the streets with her kids. How much is THAT worth?

I thought it was pretty ironic that this came the day after a 'car-vs.-actions to protect' it story came up in my own life. One of the guys at work had, over the course of a few months 1) written on a bumper sticker on my car, 2) put a "do not use" tag on the tiedown hook under the trunk, and last week 3) Put a 5"x7" green "PUSH HERE" with a pair of hand icons on it, on the trunk. After each of these incidents, I jokingly tried to tell him to knock off. Friday I told him to take off the sticker (the writing had faded and the tag I can cut myself) and he didn't. I reminded him on Monday, and he again left the stuff on my car. I found a 10" x 10" DO NOT (picture of hands with circle/slash NO sign) PUSH HERE sticker and crossed out the HERE and wrote YOUR LUCK on the sticker (DO NOT PUSH YOUR LUCK). At lunch, I pasted the sticker on the windscreen of his car and used a corner of the sticker to attach the following note:

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(his name here),

I've tried to be nice about it but you are not getting the fact that I am serious.

My car is not much too look at, but it is mine. It looked the way I had it, because that's the way I want it to look. It is not your car. It is not a park bench. It is mine.

It may not be too hip now, but it cost me the labor of a full half-a-year of my working life. That is what it represents to me. For you to go putting your idea of a joke on it, is a message to me of how little you respect my very LIFE.

I do not appreciate such an extreme level of disrespect. Heretofore, I have refrained from doing anything to your car because *I* do respect other peoples' property, and I am not a big fan of practical jokes even as payback.

Consider this your final warning. The next step for me is either to apply most of a roll of 3" packing tape to all the exterior surfaces of your car and maybe let the air out of all the tires, or to complain to the managmement and owners of our company, in writing, that you are vandalizing my car on company property.

Take the sticker off my trunk, and cut the tag off the tie down hook under the trunk. Don't do anything else to my car.

Or else.
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The next time I saw my car, his decorations were gone. Being men, we didn't say anything about it on Tuesday, except that he told a joke about how did I like the banana in the tailpipe, and I said I thought I saw somebody put something on his car. Unspoken truce.

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The point is, as one caller to the radio talk show this morning (still talking about that woman in Houston on the call-in shows) said: "It's More Than What It Is." The lefty host of the show was crying about how a car wasn't worth killing someone over, and the righty host was saying right: it's not worth YOU (i.e., the thief) dieing over. Longtime readers of Vote For David will be getting flashbacks at this point. You are vaguely remembering my First Principles post about the Rights to Life and Property. Go read that too, for more thoughts about the relationship between property and life, and to see how they can be the same thing.

Socialist is the new N-Word

The newscasters in the hip pocket of the white house are trying a new tactic: They want people to be ashamed to speak the truth, so they are saying the truth is a code word.

That is, they say: if you call Barack Obama a Socialist, you really mean Barack Obama is a NIGGER. Ergo, you are a racist and nobody has to pay any attention to anything else you say.

Let's be clear on this:
1)Nigger or not, he's the President and WAY better, in every sense, than anyone who would use the word "nigger" about anybody, in any context.
2)He's only half-black anyway. I guess if you're prone to calling black folks niggers, then he's still one regardless of the "white trash! blood" in him.
3)When we refer to the President as a Socialist, we mean Socialist, not Racist. By socialist, we do not mean we think our skin color makes us superior to him, we mean someone who thinks the State should own and run everything. We call him a Socialist because he obviously IS one, by any of a handful of definitions.

Nice try, dinosaur media! Hey, how are your ratings numbers looking these days? Hmm? Hey I have an idea! Maybe you should parrot the white house's talking points a little more . . .

Oh, We Almost Forgot . . . .

You remember how they slipped in a 300-page amendment to the Stimulus bill and gave everyone 3 hours to debate it, in the middle of night, before the vote was forced?

Yeah, the Democrats thought that worked out so well, there are rumors of an 800-page amendment to the 1,990-page 'healthcare' bill standing by in the wings.

That would be, 2,790 pages of special interest group handouts and liberty-crushing by the DEMOCRATS who are still trying to claim to have your interests at heart.

The ripples (shockwaves) following the upcoming elections should be interesting to watch. . . .

Oh, Well That Won't Cause ANY Trouble

Austin wants you to give bicyclists and wheelchair drivers a wide berth on the street. Never you mind that wheelchairs aren't supposed to go on the street, they're included. The new rule is that a motorist must give a 3-foot 'buffer zone' when passing a cyclist, but heavy and commercial trucks must give cyclists a 6-foot buffer.

What's wrong with that, VFD? You don't like bicycle safety?

Of course I do. When I rode my bicycle every day to get to work or school or wherever I had to go, I wore a helmet and generally drove like I was invisible. I went to great efforts to drive as close to the edge of the pavement as possible. When my family goes on a ride together, we crowd the little'uns to within a foot of the curb, and don't ride on anything narrower than a 4-lane road, and NEVER on a road with heavy traffic. If it's just my Darling Wife and me, we're in single-file (don't tell her I don't mind the view).

There are a certain number of jerks around here who think that, because they have the legal right to ride on the public streets, they should be able to use the lanes as they please, without negative consequences. 5MPH, two riders side-by-side, on a two-lane road with oncoming traffic in the other lane? Sure, why not? I mean, nevermind that we are holding up commerce and generally making assholes of ourselves, WE have a RIGHT! Who cares that you have to wait or risk your life in oncoming traffic to pass? WE HAVE A RIGHT!

Shades of Critical Mass. I wonder how well that would go down here. I wonder how the cyclists would like being run over by Texans, or actually brought up on charges by a District Attorney not afraid of the Spandex Lobby.

You have a right to do what you want, when it does not interfere with my right to do what I want. If you make a delivery driver 15 minutes late delivering a cake to a wedding and he gets fired, YOU are wrong, regardless of how technically legally entitled you are to occupy a lane of traffic.

The law also says a driver can't cut off a cyclist, when making a right turn. That's all fine and dandy when you have cyclists with a lick of damn sense, but when you are driving your car 5MPH around a turn, with your turn signal going, and cream a bicyclist who slips in front of you going 30MPH, that was their fault. Especially if they were doing 30MPH coming off the sidewalk. To cross against a red light. While talking on a cell phone. Yes it happens.

This is what happens when you let leftists make the rules. This is yet another reason why a) I don't live in Austin proper and b) Austin needs single-member city council districts.

Islam And Christianity Are NOT The Same.

Boortz was talking about the (true) comment made on the floor of the House by Virginia Fox that we have more to fear from the "healthcare" bill than from islamic terrorists. Then he went off on a tangent and once again proved beyond doubt that he has it dead wrong. He thinks the radical muslims are the exceptions. They are following the rule. He also falls into the trap of calling up the memory of wrongs done by Christians in the name of Christ. Here is the difference, once again, for those who have been under a rock:

Christ was a peaceful man, with few exceptions. Those exceptions were when people were violating the only temple in the world dedicated to his Father, the one true God. He taught us to love our neighbors and spread Christianity by word of mouth. It was said of the early disciples that they had turned the world upside-down, but it was their doctrine and the life-changing relationship with Christ that changed the world.

Those who perpetrated violence in the name of Christ were mostly not acting in accordance with the stated wishes of Christ, or were acting in response to muslim aggression, or (let's be honest) were in it for the cash. At the time of the crusades, by the way, if you had a single Bible in your city, that was pretty rare. If it was in a language you could understand, and you could read, and had access to it, you were a dramatic exception to the norm. The people were largely only led to believe what they were told by the (often corrupt) Catholic priests.

Mohammed was NOT a peaceful man, unless you mean when he was not on a raid. He led and personally participated in DOZENS of bloody attacks on neighboring cities, for the sole purposes of plunder, rapine, and gain of status. He advocated spreading islam at the point of a sword. The muslim (ottoman) empire spread through BLOODSHED, not word of mouth.

Those who are currently perpetrating violence in the name of allah are doing so in accordance with the stated wishes and example of mohammed. The koran is widely available and the literacy rate is, while low, still much higher than in the eauropean middle ages. Nevermind that, when they to school as children, they were made to learn the koran by heart whether they can read or not.

These religions are not worshipping the same God. Their goals are not the same. They are opposites.

Do not be fooled.

Go Here. Read The Whole Thing.

No new posts here until tuesday so you all will have a chance to see this. You will go to this page and read the whole thing.

Unless you think paying $26,000 for shitty health insurance for a family of four sounds reasonable. Make that, paying AT GUNPOINT $26,000 for shitty health insurance.

It's like the worst programmers who worked on the worst version of Microsoft Windows got together and wrote a health insurance bill. Literally.

Let's Be "Clear:" Scientology is a FAKE Religion.

Yahoo! News reports that France has fined the 'church' of scientology $900,000 for being fake, and a handful of very high-level members of the organization have defected and become the newest critics of scientology.

Then the article tries an even-handed approach to pretending this is a regular thing that happens to all religions. They mention that the Internet is now a source of information about the 'church' that members have to pay for. They even mention that Italy and Russia did not ban the 'church' from operating in those countries, and equate scientology with the Roman Catholic Church.

Not mentioned were things like, some of that information is: the source of the residual stress on your soul. L. Ron Hubbard (founder of the cult) said that the dictator of the "Galactic Confederacy" 75 million years ago, brought billions of his people to Earth in a DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes and killed them using hydrogen bombs.

No, seriously. Borrowing from the wikipedia entry on Xenu:

"Official Scientology dogma holds that the essences of these many people remained, and that they form around people in modern times, causing them spiritual harm. Members of the Church of Scientology widely deny or try to hide the Xenu story." This is what they mean, if you have ever heard a scientologist talk about The Wall of Fire or the "R6 implant".

This is what they teach. That is what your soul needs to be made "clear" from. Being blown up by a hydrogen bomb by a space alien. You would have to be a scientologist for a good long time and pay a bunch of cash, or spend 2 minutes searching on the Internet, to find out stuff like that. By the way, the 'church' of scientology has sued people to keep tidbits like that under wraps. Go clicking around the web some more and you'll find more "confidential material" (quoting the Yahoo! article) about the Cult of Scientology.

Also not mentioned in the Yahoo! article: Scientology's somewhat more limited successes in Germany. Also not mentioned is that Anonymous declared war on Scientology, and Scientology is fighting back (good luck with that!). Also not mentioned is the way scientology tends to send in the lawyers whenever somebody calls them a cult (which they are), or that scientology is both a cult and a profitable 'non-profit'business.

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Let me be quite clear about this: The Church of Scientology is a cult as well as a for-profit business enterprise. Anyone seeking spiritual enlightenment would do much better cracking open a Bible than a copy of Dianetics. If you want to know the way to Heaven, you can find it free at any genuine Christian's house.