Tuesday, June 30, 2009
NION Updated
I pointed out, quite a while back about all of the things that were done to improve the life of the average Iraqi, none of which were done In Your Names.
Today, we transferred complete sovereignty and responsibility for internal security to the Iraqi government, and the populace is celebrating, partying in the streets.
But that was not done in your name, either. You get absolutely NO credit whatsoever.
Harry Reid, the current leader of the NION Congress, declared this war, and the cause behind it, “lost”. He was wrong then, and he doesn’t get to claim that he was right today.
Nancy Pelosi and her Code Pink collaborators were wrong then, and they are just as wrong now.
Every single person who willingly attended the numerous anti-Bush anti-America anti-war rallies and random destruction parades? You were wrong then, and you are just as wrong today, and you get NONE of the credit for this outcome, because you have specifically repudiated it.
However, I will be generous, and give you full and sole credit for all of the acts that WERE done in your name, and while it may not have been done at your specific direction, it WAS done with your gleeful connivance. Such as this one. And this little beauty. You may not have built or set off the bombs yourself (like any of you would actually expose yourself to real danger, rather than the protection of our civilian police force, hamstrung by courts and common human decency, unlike the despotic regimes you champion), but you are agitating against the forces that are trying to prevent such attacks, turning yourself into good little Useful Idiots, and for no other reason than because you either hate Bush or you hate America.
Or both.
But rejoice, because we are finally withdrawing from Iraq, and you get what you want. In a way. (Much like the Nazis could be said to have “won” WW2.)
The main problem you will have is that you LOST, because America won, and Iraqis are free for the first time in history. And, again, none of it was done in your name.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Remember all that music I was telling you about?
The depth and breadth of my collection was, despite its admittedly narrow focus, impressive, to say the least. I literally had more music than some of my favorite radio stations (I listen to “Classic Rock” stations, usually). Thousands of songs, including some very rare and hard-to-find oldies. I had hundreds of albums, including entire discographies of groups like Rush, Pink Floyd, Phil Collins, Meat Loaf, and many others (including some old Tom Lehrer and Yakov Smirnov). I had some classic radio interviews, including some from Raymond Chandler, Philip K Dick, Weird Al Yankovic and even one from Scream Queen-ette Misty Mundae. Classic Radio skits like the 2000 Year Old Man. All of William Shatner’s and Leonard Nimoy’s Greatest Hits (not to mention “Old Yellow Eyes” by Brent Spiner). Hundreds of Gigabytes worth.
However.
I use the past tense form of the verb ‘to have’ for a reason.
Two guesses why.
Dammit.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
How can Congress vote on a bill that hasn’t even been printed yet?
Seriously, there was an amendment to the latest Job-Killer Energy bill that was fully a fourth the size of the original bill, with lots of “Edit line 11 on page 237 to read” type crap involved, and the bill had not been sent to the various Legislative Leeches before they were required to vote on its final passage.
I think that might be a violation of the Constitution, but since the Supreme Court has long since ruled that simply being a taxpayer does not give one standing to challenge legislation on Constitutional grounds, even if it can be shown that the law under question would negatively impact the one challenging, there is absolutely no recourse we have.
Except one.
Our system is broken. Shattered beyond anything that the Founders could have conceived.
The Legislators no longer feel any affinity towards their constituents, either at the Federal, State or local levels. They are sources of income, not employers.
The Federal Executive Branch only has two positions that are up for any kind of election - POTUS and VPOTUS. They are not the lest bit interested in anything any one individual has to say, but are beholden to party and the various interest groups that are leading the parties around by their short-and-curlies.
The courts feel that their job is no longer to interpret laws according to the Constitution, but to enact social justice, based on extra-national sources. And with a lifetime appointment, there is not a damned thing anyone can do about any of them.
The Constitution has been interpreted to mean that free speech is no longer allowed in the period before elections when it is MOST needed; that private property is only permitted when the government is receiving enough in taxes from the owner; that gun ownership is only permitted to those who don’t bother obeying the laws in the first place; that freedom of religion means that you can never mention religion in public (except for the one religion that demands that its adherents kill the members of every other religion on the planet); and that “cruel and unusual punishment” includes not allowing sex-change operations on the taxpayer’s dime.
“When in the course of human events....”
Better practice your shooting skills, folks. It’s only going to get worse from here.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
OK…here’s the SITREP….
$800 billion in stimulus....all of which is deficit spending.
A federal budget that has spends $1.7 trillion more than it receives in taxes.
A government takeover of the largest US automaker, and a strong attempt to take over Chrysler as well.
The largest federal regulatory expansion for the tobacco industry....ever.
The attempt to ramrod federal-sponsored health care down the throats of an America that is shaking it’s head ‘No’.
The continuing push for ‘cap and trade’ taxes on energy.
Weak and wavering foreign policy, including the coddling of dictators and the cooling of relations with Israel and NATO nations.
All since the third week in January...of this year, nonetheless.
What is it all about?
I think that we can make a couple observations...not any high-and-mighty political nuggets of rich thought, but a few simple thoughts:
1. Obama is a statist, as Mark Levin and most of the conservative punditry claim. He backs autocratic states over democratic ones. He increases the size, scope, and influence (that’s important) of the central government. His first impulse where Iran was concerned was not to show support for the people that were opposing the mullahs.....that might ruin what he believes to be a chance to develop a political relationship with them. He respects them more, sad to say, then the democratic movement that burst over the dam in Iran. It was only after the inherent American support of those fighting for their own liberty against tyranny was displayed in polling data and in the words of both Republicans and Democrats in Washington that Obama changed his tune.
2. Obama doesn’t care about anything except making himself politically powerful. “I won” and “I’m the President” stick out in my mind, but this is a guy that cut his eye teeth in the bumper-car world of Chicago politics, and it’s all about getting ahead and on top of the other guy. Ask Rahm Emanuel and Hillary Clinton about that. He’s willing to bully the press, his opponents, talk show hosts, and anyone that might stand in the way of his political goals. He will vilify anyone that disagrees with him on his agenda items.
3. Obama knows that his agenda is not accepted by the majority of American people, and doesn’t care. From nationalizing health care to cap and trade to not drilling for oil in the United States to the obscene deficits he’s proposing, there are solid pluralities and majorities that do not want his agenda to go through. However, he has like minds in Nancy Pelosi (and, to a lesser extent, Harry Reid) that have drank from the red Kool-Aid, and they will happily go against the people in the nation to forward their socialistic impulses.
4. Obama believes he is the right man to repair America. He believes, in line with his actions, that America has done wrong, has been racist, has oppressed the Third World and the Arab/Muslim nations, and has wrongly established an evil, polluting, economic and military hegemony over the world. He is cutting the defense budget, pulling forces away from the War on Terror, ending next-generation programs (missile defense and the F-22) and forcing (yes, forcing) America to pay for what he believes she should, these higher taxes serving also to level out the world economic playing field. He said it in his press conference about health care.....he said that making the government health care and the private health care groups follow the government-created rules would make the playing field level. In his eyes, that is just.
5. Obama is a hypocrite. Read this:
”Dr. Orrin Devinsky, a neurologist and researcher at the New York University Langone Medical Center, said that elites often propose health care solutions that limit options for the general public, secure in the knowledge that if they or their loves ones get sick, they will be able to afford the best care available, even if it’s not provided by insurance.
Devinsky asked the president pointedly if he would be willing to promise that he wouldn’t seek such extraordinary help for his wife or daughters if they became sick and the public plan he’s proposing limited the tests or treatment they can get.
The president refused to make such a pledge, though he allowed that if “it’s my family member, if it’s my wife, if it’s my children, if it’s my grandmother, I always want them to get the very best care.”
The BEST care isn’t what we are being offered, but he still gets the option of ‘getting’ the very best. A little like Animal Farm, isn’t it? He orders the largest expansion of government oversight for tobacco, and smokes. He pushes cap and trade, but flies his wife and himself to New York...on our dime....for a date. And WHY does he flaunt this?
6. Obama wants only the allegiance of the political elites. His goal is to use his speaking ability and the ability of the political elites to bring those groups who can be convinced they are ‘disenfranchised’ to the voting booth, or to your door, pushing his agenda. ACORN is a group founded by political elites to forward a progressive, socialistic political agenda. ANSWER is a group founded by political elites to forward a progressive agenda. Who is George Soros? Who are the people Obama has brought into the Washington universe? What about Oprah? Isn’t she a political elite? Obama attracts, then uses these people to forward his agenda. Watch for this where his health care supporters come from. And the climate change supporters.
If you all have more points, or things I missed, let me know.
The President Is An Idiot
I had a really long diatribe about how Obama doesn’t understand anything about:
1. what it takes to run a business
2. the economy, either in general or specific circumstances
3. climatology
4. pretty much everything else
but the sheer pithiness of the Title above says it all.
Look, Bammy, here’s a quick primer: when Government meddles with things, such as the economy, it will screw it up. Every time, without fail. That isn’t a rule of thumb, because those can be wrong every now and then. This is a fact of nature as inescapable as gravity and as predictable as the tides.
I can think of nothing - NOTHING - that Government can do to an economy that does not act either as a brake (taxes, tariffs, penalties, regulations, oversight, bureaucratic inertia, etc.) or positive feedback (which will cause ANY system to oscillate wildly and explosively out of control). I do not speak only of our type of Government, but of all types of government. It is true no matter the age, size or type, and is true regardless of the scope of the economy with which it is seeking to meddle.
I pointed out a story a while back (I’m not going to bother looking through the archives for it) about how the Government couldn’t run a brothel at a profit. They couldn’t sell ORGASMS and show a profit, folks. What makes you think they can sell health care and make a profit? A largish fraction of our economy (I’ve seen estimates ranging from one-fifth to one-twelfth), and with their only experience being the bankruptcy that is Medicare and the medical heaven-on-earth that is the VA medical system? Does this inspire confidence?
Moving on…
We also note with extreme sorrow the passing of Farrah Fawcett earlier this morning. She died after a long struggle with cancer, and I pray for peace for her family and her friends, because Farrah finally has her own. 
I will not grieve, because she is feeling better now than she has for a very long time, and I will remember her in her prime.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Sorry, I had to take a break
Things were - and still are - piling up, but the end is in sight for a lot of things.
Just a few thoughts about the past week…
1. Obama is a fucking coward. That stupid jackass is on TV every fucking day, talking up one project or another of his that will end up costing several hundred billions MORE dollars than the last time we had seen him (e.g., the day before), yet when the Iranians are getting slaughtered in the streets by their despotic regime, the best he can do is a written statement released by a press contact, fully a WEEK after the election that was so rigged that even Jimmeh the Rabbit-Killer would say, “Er, um, hey, uh, guys? I’m not so sure about this...”?
2. That having been said, unless there is a new revolution, the simple fact that Mousavi was allowed on the ballot in the first place shows that he had been cleared by the Supreme Council of Clerics. That makes the difference not that between Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan, but rather that between Barack Obama and John Kerry. Israel and America are still referred to as “Ground Zero” and “the Great Satan”, respectively. (Just like they are in Obama’s National Security Council meetings, coincidentally enough.)
3. I’ve been saying it for a while now, and I will remind you all of it: we will have a Second American Revolution before 2025. (Even Glenn Beck is openly calling for one.) But I need to make one amendment. Having Barry as our President does to the nation what it is said smoking does for the body - to wit, “every time you take five minutes to smoke a cigarette, you lose five minutes from the end of your life.” Every year that Barry spends as POTUS moves that 2025 deadline one year closer - at the end of his first term, it will be not later than 2021, and if he is re-elected in 2012, it will happen right about at the end of his administration, 2017, assuming it hasn’t happened earlier…
4. We need to get the fuck out of California. ‘Nuff said.
5. We REALLY need to get the fuck out of California.
6. Nana’s 87th birthday party was held last night, and much fun was had by all, with lots of food consumed, and Nana being so exhausted that she was in bed before everyone left (at around 9pm).
7. I will try to keep up the posting a bit better, but I needed to get a firmer grasp on day-to-day things. Bear with us, folks.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Where in the hell is Obama on Iran? (UPDATED)
The United States has said, continually and repeatedly, that we are friends with the Iranian people, and that we oppose the Islamofascist offal that runs that theocratic regime over there.
What has Obama said? I read a statement he made on the 20th of March. I invite you to hit the link and do so as well.
Then, go and read what George W. Bush said.
Did you read any condemnation of the Iranian government in the Obama letter to Iran? Did he delineate any difference between the people of Iran and their government?
And our State Department said that they “declined to ‘condemn’ the Iranian security forces for their crackdown on street protesters, saying analysts are still assessing the situation.”
And Biden, the Vice-President of the United States, and the supposed holder of foreign-policy gravitas, said that the United States would simply deal with the government that is formed in Iran, as opposed to the one they want.
No, you frakking idiot.
What’s missing? How about a message of support for the Iranian people, who have cast themselves in front of machine guns and thugs in the name of democracy. Where is the idealism we were told ol’ Hopenchange would bring to Washington? Where is the support of those thousands who are rising up against the dictators and fascists that have run Iran into the ground?
It’s nowhere in the Obama Administration. It’s more important to take over car companies, health care, and the tobacco industry. See, saving the lives of freedom-loving, liberty-yearning people in Iran doesn’t raise tax revenue, or expand government authority in the United States. It doesn’t forward a proto-socialist agenda. It doesn’t provide the Left a path to increased political power.
See, Obama is ready to force the Israelis out of settlements that they built from the mess and waste that the ‘Palestinians’ managed to produce, but he doesn’t have the moral fiber to simply come out and say that he supports freedom over fascism. That might scramble the rotten eggs that make up his foreign policy. He’s too busy doing what he has been taught is right his entire life....make peace and concessions to the Muslims, and quit favoring the Israelis. It’s the thread of understanding he’s been given by the people he has associated himself with....Wright, Ayers, etc....and he’d going to allow Persians to fight and die under the fascist boot instead of voicing his support for their liberty.
I am afraid our POTUS is lending support to Ahmadinejad’s crackdown by his inability to condemn it.
UPDATE: Finally, after catching seven types of hell, and being shamed by leftist Euro-leaders who spoke up in defense and support of the Iranian freedom fighters, Obama has spoken. Michelle Malkin covers it here.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
I’m fed up
I am a professional. A skilled professional with superlatively capable workers who perform difficult and oftentimes dangerous work in usually unpleasant environments. So why should people get to tell me that I am not worth getting paid for that skill set and those services?
Ever had to work on a tar and gravel roof in the middle of July? In the desert? Ever had a sewer drain line break on you in an 18” crawlspace under a home? Ever been surprised by a mountain lion looking for shelter when you are belly down in mud and clay under a mobile home on the Indian reservation, a mile from the paved road? Ever crawled through spider webs and ant hills in order to remove a dead fox from under a house?
I have. And my guys do. (Okay, the mountain lion wasn’t a routine situation.)
Our specialty is renovation, repair and retrofit, as opposed to new construction or public works projects (such as freeways, roads, dams and bridges). We fix what Mother Nature breaks, and replace what the customer doesn’t want any more.
But just as the worst patient for a doctor is another doctor, the worst client for a contractor is someone who is a long-since-retired contractor (or worse, the career construction laborer who thinks he knows as much as a contractor, yet never ran anything more complicated than a garage sale in his life). They think that because they helped build tract housing on Long Island back during the Korean War, they should be able to say how much I should charge for a modern day earthquake retrofit based on 2009 California Building Codes.
Or the person who has been flipping properties for several years during the recently-collapsed housing bubble, therefore they know how much I should charge for a complete renovation on a property they just bought, despite the fact that the property has never had a permit pulled on it in 52 years! (No, I’m not kidding.) They don’t appreciate how many strings I had to pull and how many hoops through which I have had to jump in order for them to keep the house on that property, rather than the pile of rubble the city could legally turn it into, with a simple red tag and a 30-day notice to demolish.
Yes, I know that the economy is in the shitter right now. I know that most retired persons are on a fixed income. If they don’t want to pay my prices, then they should learn to live with the problem. Don’t hire me to fix it under a written contract, and then demand more than half of the money back because they think they might have gotten a better deal somewhere else. (If that were true, then why didn’t they?) And then threaten to turn me into the Better Business Bureau if I don’t comply! Trust me, I have a pristine rating with the BBB and the CSLB, and my record in small claims court is eight wins and zero losses.
So be warned - the next SOB who threatens to haul me into court for something like this is going to have a full-sized can of extra-stinky worms dumped right on their pointy little heads. They will remember the phrase “punitive damages” for the rest of their days.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
I have a question for your discussion
Given the speeches given by President Obama and the other people on the Left, do they simply fail to understand history and the reality of Islamofascist Jihadism, or are they trying to put the United States in a position of reduced global power and prestige?
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
The Constitutional Tripwire
One of my best friends served in the Air Force at about the same time that I was in the Navy, and one of the places he served was in South Korea. He explained to me about how few military members they have along the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) relative to the estimated threat, and why that is - it is the concept of the Tripwire. For those of you who have seen it in the movies (either military movies or the ones where they have lots of zombies), you will immediately recognize the utility of such a thing.
It is a simple concept - a string or wire stretched across a putatively open gap, with some kind of noisemaker attached (such as a few pebbles in an empty can), so that when the line is crossed, the noise will alert the defenders as to both the breach and the location. It can be as simple as a string, a can and a few pebbles to scare away the neighbor’s goat or as complicated as infrared and motion detectors with low-light level cameras and armed security responders with STK authorization.
The tripwire is not a defense, it is a deterrent - it is supposed to warn the encroaching forces that they have gone far enough and that any further advance will be met with much larger - and much deadlier - forces.
We have the same thing in our Constitution, and it is the Second Amendment.
Our Founders had just spent years of their lives and much of their personal fortunes getting rid of an oppressive government, and they recognized that the results of their efforts would not last forever, so they wanted to make sure that their descendants would be able to make the same decision, so they included a means for the People to take back control of their country from the men who thought that their elections were actually coronations.
Not only is the Second Amendment the one that protects all of the others, it is also the tripwire that warns of a much larger encroachment, requiring the response of those willing to defend that particular hilltop.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
People make much of the part about the Militia, ignoring two important things, one a flaw in logic, the other a flaw in definition.
The first is a flaw in logic, because they are ignoring some basic parts of sentence diagramming. That first clause - “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State...” - is what is known as a ”dependent clause”, and it cannot stand alone, but is intended to eatablish the basis for the independent clause of the sentence.
An example would be “Because Jimmy’s favorite flavor of ice cream is strawberry...”. It establishes a likely reason for the action described in the independent clause ("… his mother made sure she had some ready for his birthday party."), but not necessarily the only reason. Another reason is that perhaps everyone in the family also likes strawberry, or that it had been on sale, or other reasons, any one of which might be sufficient to explain the motive behind the action (buying strawberry ice cream). The independent clause “...the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” can and should stand alone.
The second error lies in that of not being able to describe exactly what defines a member of a Militia. According to Federal Law, every able-bodied male between the ages of 18 and 45 is considered a member of the Militia, and the word has never been defined anywhere else that I can find, so that is the definition used in American Law.
The need for the States to be able to defend themselves via their various Militias is more than enough reason to make sure that everyone had the right to own and carry whatever weapons may be necessary to defend themselves against the various threats that the average citizen might come into contact with during his day (or night). There were highwaymen (seeking to redistribute the wealth), hostile natives (especially along the frontier), angry fauna or whatever. Just because the threat has shifted slightly with the times doesn’t mean that people don’t still run into muggers (seeking to redistribute the wealth), hostile natives (especially along La Frontera), angry former employees seeking their 15 minutes by shooting up someplace where guns are forbidden, or whatever.
The attempt by the government to take that power away is nothing more than an attempt to take away that tripwire. The police not only cannot protect you, they are under precisely ZERO legal responsibility to do so.
To answer the burning question….
..my mother shared this story with me today:
“The day before you were born, I realized I was in labor. You were due in July, so you were a month early, and that was not good. So, the doctor called -me in, took a look at me, and since my water hadn’t broke, he told me to go home and ‘...have a few strong drinks.’ This was supposed to stop my contractions. So, I went home and had about 5 ounces of whiskey.
“You came anyways.”
The day my mother got sauced was June 8th, 1969, and I was born the next day.
6-9-69. Easy to remember, huh? And Mom told me that she never had more than five cigarettes a day when she was pregnant with me, and never more than on e drink a night.
So there.
Raising The Bar
I’m building a mini bar at my house. If I survive this ordeal, and more importantly, if I stock my bar well and drink a lot of alcohol, I will post some pics.
Wish me luck!
Having been recently reminded
of the date, let me be the first non-family member to wish John Cross a Happy Birthday. Salud! 
However, if you want to know which one, you’ll have to ask him.
Monday, June 08, 2009
The luckiest citizens on the planet
You wanna know why? Because I can say things like “Obama sucks dead donkey dicks for an occasional afternoon snack!"* and not have broken any laws. I can worship a chicken with a sunburst on its breast (and some here in California have done exactly that) and the only penalty I will receive is some odd looks. I can choose to belong to The Flat Earth Society (or, more explicitly, the National Association of Marlon Brando Look-Alikes) and the only punishment I am eligible for is a few sidelong glances.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
(* - I have no evidence that this is the case, but neither can he find any way to deny it.)
There are literally hundreds of denominations across the country. The Roman Catholic church has calved off several major denominations - Lutheran, Methodist, Anglicans, etc. - and there are more than 100 sub-denominations of Protestantism, such as Baptist, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Pentecostal, you name it. There are Jews and Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists, Satanists and atheists, and America welcomes them all.
Politically speaking, our citizens range from one end of the spectrum to the other, no matter whether the spectrum is for ‘Economics’, ‘Governmental Control’, ‘Social Standards’ or ‘Freedom’, and we can switch from one to another in the space of a single election cycle (such as the 1980 Presidential or 1994 Congressional elections). Yet, even the most vociferous Soap-box Cicero can speak his piece free of any kind of interference from the government. (Protestors are never arrested for their opinions, but for trespassing or assault or destruction of private property or some such.) America welcomes challenges in the Marketplace of Ideas.
Imagine any of those anti-war protests going on in (say) Communist China or North Korea. Or Cuba.
I was born here, so I didn’t do anything to become a citizen, but I have been (and still am) doing everything I can to earn those additional benefits ever since. (Kind of like winning the lottery as a baby, then working your whole life to pay it back.) Military, jury duty, elections, and evangelism of the Ideals of Citizenship.
If you can’t think of any ways to make your country a better place to live, just ask, and I’ll come up with something.
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Enabling The Criminals
We make it possible.
I meant to blog about this the other day, but all I had for about a ten day period was my PDA, and blogging on it is difficult at best. I finally remembered to talk about it today.
I had to go to a parole hearing last week for a juvenile we arrested. The kid robbed a liquor store with a semi-auto, ran from us, jumped a fence, and finally barricaded himself inside a nice little South Central shack with a few kids on the inside. So in turn, he was armed with hostages. Our special weapons team finally got him out using the appropriate techniques, and due to the fact that he was on juvenile parole (courtesy of the infamous California Department of Juvenile Justice, formally known as the CYA, or “Youth Authority"), he is entitled to a parole hearing.
Here is the long and the short of parole hearings. Social workers and bleeding-heart ex-parole agents are turned into Deputy Commissioners and decide the fate of the parolees. The maximum amount of time they can get is a year in prison, and this will run concurrent with the time they received in court---if they get any. Once upon a time, the parolees feared their parole hearings because tough-as-nails commissioners were appointed, and the parolee was guaranteed to go back to prison. These days it is different.
Here is what the commissioner said as I sat there in the hearing, after laying out in detail what it was like to chase someone with a gun, setup a containment, and wait for a special weapons team to come and save the poor hostages: “… well it looks like he’s been doing well on parole except for this little speed bump. He’s been in county jail for a little over a month now. Time served! Agent, process his release. Deputy, you can go.”
As soon as I heard “Deputy, you can go,” I knew it was going to be one of those nights where a six pack of Coors was well deserved.