see 'em trollin, and hatin...

Guy Cabot

So it turns out that JadeGold is Guy Kevin Cabot age 54 of Fort Washington, Maryland. Married to Janet Cabot.

Has a degree from the Merchant Marine Academy in "Nautical Engineering". As such he should know a thing or two about statistics. It hasn't been so long since I took engineering classes to know that JadeGold is being willfully ignorant about how to apply statistics to real world scenarios.

I also know that engineers don't do a whole lot of large scale population modeling. However, that was one of the things we had to do in both biology and pharmacology. So this arrogant over the hill troll really is a piece of crap.

Wonder if anyone in Maryland has time on their hands to deal with a troll? Makes you wonder, what is the ideal tool to deal with troll?

http://www.facebook.com/?sk=ff#!/guy.cabot?ref=search

Flatlander is as flatlander does

On Len Britton's Facebook page, I came across a native born Vermonter who like most are frustrated by the statist invasion of the 60's and 70's...

Glad to hear your a Vermont native I will vote for you. Go get them and stay with the old fashion Vermont values. We really need to get a grip on state government aswell. Let parents be parents and keep the state out of family affairs unless some one is getting hurt. Lower taxes in Vermont is needed

...To which I replied,

Let me tell you friend, if you just want to restrict things to those who's birth certificates say Vermont on them, welcome... to the forever minority.
What about all those hippie invasion kids born here? You think they are going to be Republicans? They one good thing about not having a lot of jobs here is that they will move away for work, sparing us a growing statist voter base.

I am a transplant, and I moved here cause I believe in Vermont. Many "Flatlanders" from those states are conservitive minded folks fleeing "Statist Quo". Being a flatlander these days is not where your from, it is how you act. Vermont is starting to swing back from the hippie invasion because of these people.

Flatlander is as flatlander does. Vermont fell to socialists because the native people here withdrew rather than fought back. Welcome the re-enforcements, not make the mistakes of the 60-70 again.

I was not born a Vermonter, but I will die one.


Karen Kerin Responded; Well stated, but I do not think Len has any prejudice regarding where we are born. I certainly don't and I am seven generations deep a Vermonter. And I am standing up to fight a renegade (That's putting it nicely...My comment) attorney general. (Please support Karen's fight against statist quo.)

I responded; I know Len does not. Nether does the man I was responding to. I like him 'cause unlike the cultural norms that are taught today, I realize that our elders hold hard won knowledge. This man and his family have watched and felt the effects of an invasion of an alien culture that targeted and took over his state. Looking around and seeing that only people who grew up around you reflect your values and siding with them against an outside group, aggressive and with values that you do not share is human. More over, these outsiders intend to FORCE their intent on you with the rule of law make for some raw feelings. The Vermont way was to live and let live. But to do that with an invasive parasite is to invite infection. View the body politic here in Vermont and tell me that is not the case.

I grew up on a family farm in western New York state, and watched the the statist wrecking ball destroy our and every other farm for miles. In '78 Dad burgered the cows and we move to the 'burbs for work. The western NY garden is now a ghost town, silent empty farms and rotting barns standing testament to past glory. Sound familiar?

I fell in Love with Vermont in the late 90's when I came here to do utility construction. My wife went to Castleton, and we decided to raise our family here. We have drawn that line in the sand. Here we STAND. Here the plans of the statist humps to turn us into thier personal ATM machines DIES. My Vermonter friend called me a flatlander with a clue, a nod to my farm back round and affinity for easy going living and hard work. To me, the flatlander these days is a state of mind. Flatlander is as flatlander does.
a Flatlander bitches that the fall festival train in Proctor does not run on on time like the long island rr. Right after gloating about screwing a customer out of a fair price. A flatlander buys a second house here, puts the land in conservancy at local tax payer expense, and puts a posted sign on every tree to keep those "locals" with their hunting and gasp, ATV's off of THEIR property. The ones the locals pay for the flatlander's tax break on. A flatlander lives in Florida, Texas, Or the mid-Atlantic states, comes here for a couple of weeks a year, expects red carpet treatment, and funnel money by the bucket loader to statist frauds that they do not have to live under. A flatlander expects a Vermont with no industry outside of service to customers, a Potemkin village where the locals are rarely seen, never heard, and carry the load.

A flatlander is a person who thinks that a Vermonter is a serf.

Today, we the people stand behind and support those who share Vermont values, where ever you where born. Just as flatlander is as flatlander does, Vermonter is as Vermonter does. Then, look at those in state government, and our "Representatives" in Washington, bought and paid for by elitist money and tell me they are Vermonters.

Winter wood

Well, another half cord of firewood has been added to the reserves.

Tomorrow I will split, stack, and cover it for heating the house this winter.

Last year we went through a cord and three quarters, but with the insulation upgrades this year I expect to use about a quarter cord less. But better to have and not need than need and not have...

The Most Taxed States in the U.S.

This hole is shallow compared to the one Montpelier is digging for us...

from Mainstreet.com

1. Vermont

$3,861 per capita
The second-least populated state in the country collected $91 million in property taxes — 38% of total state tax collected. There is both a school property tax and a municipal property tax for personal property and a statewide education tax imposed on all nonresidential property at a rate of $1.35 for every $100 of the assessed value. The state that pumps out more maple syrup than any other has a 6% sales tax, 9% on restaurant meals, and anyone earning more than $372,950 pays 8.9% of their personal income to the state.

...So, What are we going to do about this? Add a fraud of a state mandated welfare, Er health care plan?

I saw a farm up near Middlebury, that had a Clair Ayer sign on the front lawn. Must be owned by Con-Agra, cause any family owned farm supporting her or any demo-rat for that matter in this state is like the chickens putting a KFC sign out in front of their coop. Stupid, stupid, STUPID.

You people would do well to recall this wisdom

WHAT PLANET DO THE FRAUDS AND MOUNTEBANKS LIVING UNDER THE GOLDEN DOME LIVE ON??

...Welcome to Vermont. Please empty your wallet, and shut up...

Ethan Allen, where are you?

Says it all

From Stormbringer

Leahy, such a nice guy...

From Electronic Frontiers Foundation

The COICA Internet Censorship and Copyright Bill

The "Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act" (COICA) is an Internet censorship bill which is rapidly making its way through the Senate. Although it is ostensibly focused on copyright infringement, an enormous amount of noninfringing content, including political and other speech, could disappear off the Web if it passes.

The main mechanism of the bill is to interfere with the Internet's domain name system (DNS), which translates names like "www.eff.org" or "www.nytimes.com" into the IP addresses that computers use to communicate. The bill creates two blacklists of censored domains. The first is longer, and includes any sites where the DOJ decides that infringement is "central" to the purpose of the site. The bill gives ISPs and registrars strong legal incentives to censor the domains on that list. The Attorney General can also ask a court to put sites on a second, shorter blacklist; ISPs and registrars are required by law to censor those sites.

If this bill passes, the list of targets could conceivably include hosting websites such as Dropbox, MediaFire and Rapidshare; MP3 blogs and mashup/remix music sites like SoundCloud, MashupTown and Hype Machine ; and sites that discuss and make the controversial political and intellectual case for piracy, like pirate-party.us, p2pnet, InfoAnarchy, Slyck and ZeroPaid . Indeed, had this bill been passed five or ten years ago, YouTube might not exist today. In other words, the collateral damage from this legislation would be enormous. (Why would all these sites be targets?)

There are already laws and procedures in place for taking down sites that violate the law. This act would allow the Attorney General to censor sites even when no court has found they have infringed copyright or any other law.

...Between the "Patriot act", no fly list and it's evil twins waiting to be born, This and God knows what else, you have an "Attorney GENERAL" who powers make him a lot like a certain Reichsfuhrur SS.

...Do you think my critic of certain public persons would get my blog on that short list?

...You Betcha...

Fun with numbers

Illegal Mayors Against Guns has put a "Trace the Guns" report. I downloaded it and am running through the numbers and found some interesting facts...

California has 2187 FFL holders according to FFLgundealer.net, has the highest ranking (70 out of 100 points, the highest grade given) by the Brady Campaign (as of 2008) and still ends up number 9 on the top ten "gun exporting" states with 1772 guns.

Georgia has 1605 FFL holders, scored 8 out of 100 points on the Brady scorecard and came in number 1 as the "export" state with 2781 guns.

So from the BEST according to the Brady campaign and one of the absolute worst according to the Brady campaign, there is barely a 1000 gun difference in "exported crime guns".

Illegal Mayors Against Guns concluded the position that they want, that strict gun laws in some states cause states with lax gun laws to act as suppliers. Unfortunately they don't explain why the hell California showed up in the top ten exporting states. The answer is that their premise is flawed, the "null hypothesis" is that there will not be a statistically significant difference between states with draconian laws and permissive gun laws. Just so you know, Virginia shows up with 17 out of 100 Brady points, is the number 3 "exporter" with 2557 guns, and has 1556 FFL holders.

The numbers don't add up when you start looking at just the laws. When you start looking at geography they start making a lot more sense. Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida are all on the eastern seaboard and have major cities along well traveled routes. California, Texas and Arizona are boarder states and the "numba one source" of the "mexican gun canard" numbers.

Geography has a lot more to play with "export" than laws. Only Indiana and Ohio show up as heartland states, but their proximity to Illinois and specifically Chicago make sense along the Illinois New York corridor.

In fact when you look at it, Indiana touches Ohio which touches Pennsylvania. This forms a chain with Chicago at one end and New York at the other. Virginia borders North Carolina which borders Georgia which borders Florida. Why is it that Seven of our top "exporters" all border each other? California borders Arizona. That's another chain. Only Texas stands out as an island. Except for Texas every other "exporter" state borders another exporter state REGARDLESS of Brady Ranking.

Even more confusing, when you stop reading the .pdf report and go to the "interactive" tracetheguns.org sight and see where the guns are actually going, most "Exporting" states are exporting to OTHER "exporting" states. What the hell? Right?

Georgia exported more "crime guns" to Florida than any other state. While it is true that New York "imports" a lot of crime guns, it is in the realm of a few hundred each from a few "exporter" states. So the hypothesis that guns are statistically more likely to go to areas where they are banned is voided by the numbers that a "crime gun" is just as likely to go to another "exporter" state. Click on Florida and find out that it is a net importer of "crime guns".

Obviously if you are Illegal Mayor Bloomberg, you care about the few hundred guns coming in to New York from nearly EVERY OTHER STATE IN THE UNION, and can't stand that your little fiefdom isn't a secluded island like formerly Great Britain which has seen such a drastic reduction in violence since banning all handguns.....oh wait...

Bottom line is this, the conclusions listed by Illegal Mayors can not be supported by the data. By cherry picking data (limiting information) they build their case for progressively more restrictive gun laws. Unfortunately as the data set is expanded much more plausible explanations for the flow of firearms across state lines becomes apparent.

Says it all...

Wisdom from Oleg Volk



...A new feature; Says it all...

Simply Wrong?

So JadeGold told me

AM: I realize you're eager to show off your BA from Evergreen that you don't use--but you're simply wrong.

Evidently it was easier to declare "you're simply wrong" than to actually, you know, show how I was simply wrong... But what do you expect from someone who fails to grasp the application of statistics as a tool and not an authority?

Eh, maybe Stalin did say it best, "One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic."

So I figured, what the heck, maybe I should educate myself as to this world renowned scholar JadeGold. Unfortunately JadeGold's last blog update was in 2003, so I went to the shared blog and found another rabid anti gun sight that lists every anecdotal story of tragedy involving a firearm. After all, Alinsky rules you need to personalize the issue, make the stories a tragedy. Alinskr and Stalin would have been good friends.

So I looked at the "recent visitor" widget for the blog, and this is the readership:

Recent Readers

1. Unknown location
Direct View
2. Washington, DC, US Washington, DC, US
Direct view
3. Washington, DC, US Washington, DC, US
Direct view
4. Chicago, IL, US Chicago, IL, US
Direct view
5. Chicago, IL, US Chicago, IL, US
Direct view
6. Lewistown, PA, US Lewistown, PA, US
Search for jason walter priest
7. Chicago, IL, US Chicago, IL, US
Direct view
8. Washington, DC, US Washington, DC, US
Direct view
9. Chicago, IL, US Chicago, IL, US
Direct view
10. Chicago, IL, US Chicago, IL, US
Direct view


So why in the world would all those people from DC and Chicago be reading a rabid anti-gun blog? Well, like any good little liberal set they need to constantly surround themselves only with the data that supports their worldview. That way they can tell all of us who use our brains to make sense of the material world that they are "simply wrong".

I guess because my position is based in reality, as opposed to fantasy.

The Article that explains it all....

If you've ever wondered why hippies and liberals (but I repeat myself) protest the dumbest things, go read the whole thing: http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2009/12/06/government-by-wishful-thinking/

Banks "hoarding" gold

http://www.cnbc.com/id/39376353

Remember, actions speak louder than words. When banks are tucking in for a rough patch expect things to get worse.

"Working" with the enemy

There is a debate in a Liberty advocating group I belong to about supporting an anti-war rally in Brattleboro on October 2nd. Seems the Vermont statist quo are getting itchy that their God-King has not exited the war zone post haste, consequences be damned. Our group is a good one, and has people with beliefs all over the spectrum. Participation in events is never mandatory, But the debates can be lively. One person who I respect as level headed and brave, is supporting this event, and finished his arguement with, So I'll be there, with honey rather than vinegar.

...Well I decided to clarify why I do not support this, or any "event" that features leftists/ statists/ socialists/ Marxists/ communists of any stripe. These "people" constantly work against everything I hold dear. So my reply was...

...Me? I'll take the vinegar.

While honey has an unlimited shelf life if kept in the right conditions (They have found eatable honey in the Pharoh's tombs), and it has anti-bacterial properties, I'll stick with vinegar when dealing with those of the leftist/ statist/ Marxist bent. Why not reach out?

Leftists are all for tolerance, as long as you agree with them completely.
Statists are all for a big tent, and your going to get shoved inside it like it or not.
Leftist and statist have declared war on my principles, my moral foundations, my children, my God.
Leftist Statists have declared me to be a terrorist for my loyalty to the founding principles and ideas of my country.
Leftists have declared me to be greedy, racist, and a Nazi for protesting the looting of my child's future to reward parasites and corporate goons for political purposes.

Vinegar has disinfecting and preserving properties. It is bitter medicine for germs and parasites, and a preservative in saving sustenance.

When I am dealing with those who openly despise me for who am am, what I believe, and support maltreatment by the state of my person because of those things, you are my enemy. And I will treat them as such until they leave me and mine alone to enjoy the fruits of my labor and the freedom won dear by my forefathers.

Ad augusta per angusta - To high places by narrow roads

The kids next door are in full revolt

from Hillbuzz

Hat tip to Left Coast Rebel

There are several facts folks need to know about the Paladino phenomenon, and they are all very personal.

First, folks in New York State are sickened because our children move out of state to find jobs and careers. They are refugees. People’s families are torn apart because of the legalized corruption in New York. The insanely high taxes, the insanely intrusive regulatory atmosphere, the stranglehold of the government unions on our government and, more importantly, on our shoddy schools, drive young folks to places where human beings can live their lives in freedom and prosperity, and simply learn.

Second, politics in New York has been refined to a not so sophisticated insider’s game. There is one party in New York, the Parasite Party, feeding off the ever-dwindling folks who work hard, obey the rules, and want only to raise a family knowing their children can get a good education and have prospects of a better life.

What makes this aspect of the Paladino phenomenon personal is the way the Parasite Party insults and disparages the very folks who pay the bills. The GZ mosque is the perfect example of this fact of New York life. We are talked down to by the Parasites, who call us bigots and intolerant.

Third, New York is colloquially divided into an Upstate v. Downstate perspective. This is off kilter. The real division is between Manhatten, Brooklyn, the Bronx and the rest of the state. Manhattan is the capitol of the world, a treasure chest of immense wealth and immense influence (not to mention, a beautiful, astonishing place, full of wonderful people). The wealth and the influence naturally lead to the domination of all New York State. There is no Columbus balancing Cleveland balancing Cincinnati, no Los Angeles in balance with San Francisco, or Houston with Dallas.

The interests of NYC are not the interests of the rest of the state. Outside NYC, the chief business is agriculture. Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Schenectady, Rome, Utica, are not the centers of manufacturing or technology they once were. They are now struggling populations, asphyxiated with mandates imposed – - but not adequately funded – - by the state. New Yorkers are nickled and dimed to feed the Parasite Party. We are bizarrely divided between those who resent the nickel and diming, and those who are not affected. High taxes and oppressive regulations are irrelevant to a powerful elite who transcend New York State, and to those who contribute little or nothing. The elite dominates, and is indifferent to, the rest of the state, and the rest of the state knows it.

Carl Paladino understands: this is personal, it is not business. The Parasite Party is not good for most New Yorkers. They are the Soviet, and he is Lech Walesa.

For folks in Buffalo, Paladino is primarily familiar because of a series of radio ads he ran over time, at his own expense, addressing the shoddiness of the government schools locally. Paladino took the shocking position that children were being inhumanely deprived of the education they needed to live their lives successfully. His commercials began with the signature word, “HELLO!” He then would state the obvious: failure rates and drop-out rates meant actual human beings were the victims of forces for whom the well-being of the students were a peripheral concern. The implicit premise of his advertisements was this: it is within the power of our community to prepare these human beings for success, but politics is getting in the way.

Hello! Charles Dickens!

I do not know Paladino personally, although I once got a thank you note from him for something I did, something I do not remember. It was a little thing. I remember because the note was nice and thoughtful and unnecessary. I am not, nor have ever been, in a position to affect his life in any manner (nor the opposite).

I do know folks who know Carl Paladino personally. For what it is worth, I trust these folks, trust their judgment, and have no doubt they are accurate. What they say is: Carl is genuine. He is a normal human, and he cares.

He is shrewd, a great organizer, compassionate and a force of nature. He loves liberty. Paladino resonates because he is himself, understands what is going on in New York, and is fearless in saying what others do not have the nerve to say.

Paladino made something of himself. No person fed him with a silver spoon and cleared the path.

This election for governor in New York represents the essence of the Tea Party. As much as it is about taxes and education policy and legal corruption, it is above all about our culture, here in New York and throughout America. Do we have the courage to shatter the mind-control “shut up!” politics of the Left?

Carl Paladino is unlike any other person running for office today. He is totally himself.

What makes him so fascinating, is the question he implicitly throws in the face of the Parasite Party. Is it possible to be yourself, to speak your mind, and run for office with any prospect to win?

Leftists rely upon intimidation and manipulation designed to have folks not be themselves. They rely on Shut Up.

It takes bravery and courage to confront Pravda and Patrice Lumumba University, the powerful would-be arbiters of our consciousness.

Sarah Palin is the only other person so ably demonstrating exactly what Paladino is doing (well, ok, Christie). The other Tea Party folks are wonderful, they are great, but they do not have the exact personality (like Sarah) – - a personality which is a gift of life – - the blunt ability to confront the Shut Up culture.

Here is the secret of Sarah and Paladino. They are William Buckley, folks who see things as they are, who are willing to sacrifice themselves, and who love their fellow human beings so much, they dare to be themselves.

This year, Paladino is the only one up for election who is absolutely Lech Walesa. His election is the symbol of whether we keep our republic.

...First, folks in New York State are sickened because our children move out of state to find jobs and careers.

...Sound familiar Vermont? We suffer from the same elitists, the same busy bodies that destroy and corrupt everything they touch. They same "people" who restrict all sorts of things for thee, but no rule for me, Mr. Bigshot.

The kids next door are in revolt, along with a good part of the country, against those who believe We the people are their serfs, their property, their slaves to be used as they wish.

Well Vermont, where is our Ethan Allen?

..."Message for you "sir". We have had a craw full of your shit, and we are NOT going to take it anymore...

Leave....

I took some time off of work because I really needed time off. Normally after a week at home I'm itching to head back to work, but not this time.

My first week was a series days getting worse and worse from a chest cold until my wife finally had me go to the ER to get it checked out. 'Tussin with codeine is very good medicine.

Anyways I put in the 'rain chain' today. Just a ten foot length of utility chain held up with a crossbar, but the afternoon shower we go proved it worked as well as the 120 dollar "designer rain chain" from the Home Despot.

Also reseeded the bare patches on the lawn. Hopefully everything will get sprouted and rooted before any hard frosts.

On a lighter note...

from Moonbattery



...It is so freakin' funny, because it SO could be true!

Back at you, Saul...

"Educational Reformers" Neglect Need for Vocational and Technical Education

Dr Mark Naison
Fordham, University

At a time when there is a huge need for technical/vocational education to train mechanics, vocational high schools are being shut down, to be replaced by small high schools, or charter schools which, when they work at all, train students for white collar occupations. To rebuild our infrastructure and shift to a Green Economy, we need engineers, electricians and construction workers, not clerks and brokers! But those with a 'one size fits all" approach to Educational Reform fail to see this

The irrationality of this hit home to me several months ago when I learend that Alfred E Smith Vocational and Technical High School in the
South Bronx was designated as one of 20 schools to be closed by the NYC Department of Education because of low test scores. I had visited Alfred E Smith last November to do a book event for Allen Jones Bronx memoir "The Rat That Got Away" and was tremendously impressed by the high morale of students and teachers as well as the huge auto repair shops the schools had. I remember thinking to myself how valuable an institution this was to have in the Bronx, where auto repair shops and body shops are among the most thriving of local businesses. When
I discovered the school was slated for closure, I was astonished. In a community where unemployment rates for Black and Latino youth approach 50 percent, you are closing the one school that actually trains them for decent paying jobs in their own community!

But the educational reformers, who seem to have "drunk their own kool aid" never let history, local conditions, or common sense affect the mechnical application of their test driven models. That other advanced nations, like Germany, have actually invested MORE in techichal education to help their society have the mechanical skills to adapt to a Green Economy never enters their calculations. That there will be millions of skilled mechanical jobs when ( if?) the US makes such a transition never crosses their mind either.

Someday, and I hope it is soon, people will challenge the union busting, test obsessed, charter school promoting lawyers and executives trying to remake American Education and develop a teacher centered, student centered, community centered approach that recognizes the wide variety of skills needed to have a vialble economy

Fortunatley this is happening in NY. Thanks to a lawsuit supported by the NAACP and others, Alfred E Smith High School has not yet been closed

Mark Naison
Sept 26, 2010

Perfection is a disease

http://www.danoah.com/2010/09/disease-called-perfection.html

Go read the whole thing.

I accepted years ago that perfect is the enemy of happy, and I would rather be happy than perfect.

Still I'm on Paxil for depression and anxiety. Sometimes we all need help dealing with the stress of life.

A Brit take on the Constitution

Mid-term Congressional elections in November will show how successful the Republicans' policy of no-holds-barred opposition to Obama and the Democrats has been. But the way Congress works – with almost all major legislation requiring a two-thirds majority in the Senate, and thus vulnerable to filibuster – means that a president in such circumstances is effectively stymied. His administration is severely circumscribed, if not paralysed; the power of the White House is compromised.

It is possible that the stalemate will turn out to be temporary; possible, too, that the Tea Party tendency will turn out to be the last gasp of a dying demographic group and that US politics will slot back to the more productive equilibrium of before. The sharp decline in social conservatism and the greater tolerance charted in surveys of younger voters – attitudes which helped Obama to the presidency – could eventually shift the centre of US politics to a different, more European, place. This, in turn, could bring all sorts of changes of its own.

But that is to jump ahead. In the meantime, the US Constitution and the way US politics functions are looking somewhat frayed around the edges. President Obama's inexperience may have made his first 18 months more difficult than they might have been, but his country's outdated institutions made things much, much worse.

From http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/mary-dejevsky/mary--dejevsky-has-the-us-constitution-had-its-day-2087932.html

Emphasis is mine.

I would like to point out that the above contains no reference at all to "checks and balances". Our system is designed to gridlock when the people are unhappy with the President. Our legislative body has the MOST power among the three branches of government. When the legislature gridlocks it is by design.

Britain may have "up to date and modern" institutions that have unfortunately denied its citizens the right of self defense. But then again, Brits have a long and ancient history of being subjects.

Papers Please

In the Army we refer to people who require you to produce your ID card and meal card at the mess hall "Chow Hall Nazis".

Kinda like the "no soup for you!" Soup Nazi of Seinfeld fame.

Should the police be able to arrest you for not providing identification?

Well, just how many civil rights would that violate? Off the top of my head at least two. Unlawful search and seizure (requiring the production of documents without a warrant) and freedom of assembly (because you are normally somewhere with a group of people when the "Papers Please" check happens).

Obviously the police have a responsibility to investigate a crime, arrest suspected criminals on probably cause, but it is not their job to try to turn citizens into subjects.

What Happens When Two Great Lyricists Meet

One of the great thrills of my trip to Berlin was watching an amazing young poet and free styler name Eleagel ( Ejar Ruiz) take over whatever
stage he was on, be in in a park, at a club, in the lobby of a Youth Hostel, or at a performance for the American Ambassador to Germany. His improvisational
skills were unparalled, but he also had the ability to piece together incredibly meaningful poetry on subjects ranging from gentrification to the the challenges
of love and romance

Today, I had the opportunity to bring together Eleagel with perhaps the most inspired lyricist I know, a poet and mc named Akua
Naru who spits fire about the plight of Black women in hip hop, and America generally drawing upon incredible images and producing effortless flow.

Today, I brought these two brilliant young people together in front of my Rock and Roll to Hip Hop and watched history being made. Eleagel and Akua
were amazed and inspired by one anothers talents and gave my class a set of performances, some practices, some improvised, that they will never forget

This was language stretched into an instrument of spiritual awakening, and acrobatics of the intellect. Two people from different cultural traditions(Mexican. African American) two different places ( Brooklyn, Colgne via New Haven), of two different genders, battling with total admiration and respect

It is so rare to see this, in hip hop these days, with a man and a woman, but here it was, for all to appreciate, right here in a classroom at Fordham University

It was a moment that I wanted frozen in time, but it is something that I hope to see repeated many times over. Both Eleagel and Akua will be coming
back to Fordham next Tuesday at 2;15 for a video shoot, but I would love to see them tour together, in Europe as well as the US

What happened today is something that many people all over should have the privilege of seeing

This is what hip hop his all about

Best,

Mark Notorious Phd Naison

Shelving

I turned some scrap lumber into shelving for my garage. Two shelves, each capable of holding a 200 pound man (me) and stackable. Once I have another two I will stack them and use two 2x4's to screw them all together for safety.

The secret to organizing a house is to organize the garage. Because once a man organizes his garage someone else in the house remembers something they need to store....

Insolvency

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=167032

It will take the collapse of the US Dollar and the bankruptcy of the FedGov to change our spending priorities.

Because neither the Dems nor Repubs have the moral backbone to do what is necessary.

Stock up on dried foods and get ready for your money to be worthless.

Gun Control

In Samuel 13 it is recorded that the Philistines denied the Israelites "weapons of war".

After the 1609 invasion of Okinawa by the Satsuma Clan the conquering Japanese passed the ordinance banning weapons and the practice of martial arts.

Let's not forget the Nazis...
"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty. So let's not have any native militia or native police. German troops alone will bear the sole responsibility for the maintenance of law and order throughout the occupied Russian territories, and a system of military strong-points must be evolved to cover the entire occupied country." --Adolf Hitler, dinner talk on April 11, 1942, quoted in Hitler's Table Talk 1941-44: His Private Conversations, Second Edition (1973), Pg. 425-426. Translated by Norman Cameron and R. H. Stevens. Introduced and with a new preface by H. R. Trevor-Roper. The original German papers were known as Bormann-Vermerke.

But enough with tyrants disarming the peasants....

Let's talk about countries that disarm themselves.

The UK. A nice little isolated island... Handgun violence up despite handgun ban

Well, I guess the UK isn't a very good example of successful gun control, how about Australia? Australia is another island, nice and isolated. The immediate impact of the gun buyback and ban was an increase across the board on violent crime. Since 2001 levels have started to fall back to the early 1990's levels. In short, Australia's firearms ban had no appreciable impact on violent crime. Reference the 2008 "Trends in Violent Crime" report authored by Samantha Bricknell.

But hey, let us see what the CDC has to say about gun control laws impact on violence.

During 2000--2002, the Task Force on Community Preventive Services (the Task Force), an independent nonfederal task force, conducted a systematic review of scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness of firearms laws in preventing violence, including violent crimes, suicide, and unintentional injury. The following laws were evaluated: bans on specified firearms or ammunition, restrictions on firearm acquisition, waiting periods for firearm acquisition, firearm registration and licensing of firearm owners, "shall issue" concealed weapon carry laws, child access prevention laws, zero tolerance laws for firearms in schools, and combinations of firearms laws. The Task Force found insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of any of the firearms laws or combinations of laws reviewed on violent outcomes.

So what is the point then?

Well, there is a place where gun laws have reduced crime. Kennesaw, Georgia. The town's gun control law? Required ownership.

Those who have the guns are in control. Kennesaw is a perfect example.

Willful Ignorance, and disinvited

Joan Peterson's answer to "Just One Question"

Joe-probably all of those domestic homicides, restricting gangs and criminals from guns would save lots of live; I could go on and on. What is your point? So you think that restricting felons, domestic abusers, dangerously mentally ill people, terrorist would not have or won't save lives? That's hard to believe.

No bragging, Joe. Gun laws in most other industrialized countries are more strict than ours. Gun deaths per 100,000 in these countries don't even come close to the number in this country. That is proof that some restrictions lead to lower percentages of gun deaths per population.

AM sent comments but said he had to edit them and I should read them on his post. He's got to be kidding. If he thinks I am going to read more of this junk: " Put on your big girl panties and deal with it.", he must think I'm really naive or crazy. This is like Christine O'Donnell telling Senator Mike Castle to put on his man pants. What is this anyway? Who needs it? Mike Castle is one of the few people in Congress brave enough to step forward to put his name on a bill to require background checks on gun sales at gun shows. That, to me, is a brave man. Word to AM- go comment on someone else's blog. You are not welcome on this one.

Wow, if she can't talk to me how the heck is she ever going to talk to a threeper?

TEOTWAWKI?

I found an interesting thread googling M37. http://www.shtfblog.com/shtf-blogs-top-ten-best-guns-for-survival/

Having been on the other side of the world, and done some time in a combat zone, I like to think that I have a somewhat educated opinion of what "anarchy" would look like.

My guess is that "TEOTWAWKI" is going to be more Iraq and less Somalia.

First you will have the event that causes the fall, man made or natural doesn't matter.

Then you will have people who start organizing things. In Iraq it was tribal leaders and clerics, in Somalia it was "warlords".

In Iraq you had an intentional stabilizing force (the Coalition) and intentional destabilizing forces (terrorist factions of at least three major flavors). In the end it was the people themselves who decided whether the nation of Iraq would descend into Somalia or start on the road to joining the civilized world. I figure that we will have the same options.

What Iraq (and the US) have going for it is a very high literacy rate. What the US has going for it more than Iraq is a lack of tribal or religious loyalties amongst the population. Sure here we have the Amish and the Mormons, but all in all neither the Amish nor the Mormons (or Mennonites, Hudderites, Catholics or Baptists) are going to shoot you for not going to church with them. Elsewhere in the world that is not the case.

Americans have this amazing ability to pull together in times of crisis. Our literacy rate means we don't lose laws, they stay on the books and we have our tradition of rule of law (not rule of force). If a nuclear warhead took out Washington DC and eliminated both houses of Congress, Pres, VP, and all members of the Supreme Court, the rest of us would shed a few tears and go about setting up elections to reform our government.

A disaster doesn't destroy the rule of law if the people respect the rule of law. Heck, when the Polish president went down Poland didn't have generals pulling a coup to fill the power vacuum.

It would take something very very serious, like multiple nukes or virulent bioweapon to shake this country.

Open Carry in Wisconsin

In Madison WI, five open carry guys were harassed by police and two who refuse (as is their right) to provide ID to a police officer were arrested and charged with obstruction of justice. Unfortunately the cops realized that they couldn't make that stick, so they charged all five with "disorderly conduct".

I found some comments at a news site to be downright dripping with bigotry;

This is why I'm against open carry. Now men who are overly enamored with wheapons think they need to be armed to go shopping or out to dinner. If they truely wanted to educate the public on responsible gun ownership, then they shouldn't have shown such disrespect to the police. Was it really such a big deal to show your ID, accept a few appologies for the interruption and go back to your meal?

and the ever present "guns as a phallic symbol" argument....

So 5 guys walk into a crowded restaurant displaying guns and hoping to cause a stir. They got what they wanted and now they're crying foul. This is aside from the practical fact that any firing of guns in crowded public spaces is likely to kill people that the gunner isn't actually aiming at, so called "stray" bullets. So it's intentional threatening and intimidating behavior and definitly disorderly. This is not common behavior, bringing weapons into busy public spaces.
I WANT groups of armed men checked out by the police and am thankful that such outrageous behavior is rare.

Aside from the disorderly issue, one has to wonder about these guys confidence in their masculinity. Just like the dolts driving Hummers, there's probably something lacking if you know what I mean. As for judgement, there is a reason some are called "gun nuts".

Bottom line, folks like you didn't like black people eating at their lunch counters, and it's ok to step on other peoples Constitutionally protected rights (both State and Federal) as long as it keeps "those uppity gun niggers" out of sight.

So even though it isn't my fight, if you have a few dollars to spare, consider tossing them to the guys who are taking the fight to the courts. http://www.wisconsincarry.org/default.html#

Norinco M37

I'm a lefty, but right eyed, my wife is normal handed, but left eyed.

So when shopping for a shotgun for home defense, the Ithaca style of bottom feed, bottom eject made a lot of sense.

I was lucky that my brother found a Norinco M37 clone at a gunshow for a good price (only missing the rear ghost ring sight).

I took it out skeet shooting and didn't get through a box before the shotgun FUBARd on me. The pump grip handle came loose of the connecting rods and the top extractor broke. For a shotgun rated to handle 3" shells I was a tad disappointed.

Luckily I was shooting with my senior armorer, and he was able to take the shotgun apart and reconnect all the sliding bits, unfortunately it took an order to Brownells to get the top extractor ordered. While I was at it I ordered a 10 dollar ghost ring rear sight.

Today I put the top extractor in (extraction and ejection is now back to normal) and the ghost ring sight. The Chinese sight base was not a standard width (smaller than standard) so I used a piece of bobby pin to fill the gap and allow the Williams ring to grip the groove.

I'll need to take it to the range and run a box or two of cheap birdshot through it to make sure it doesn't break again.

Brady Dialogue

Joan Peterson asked "20 Questions" and here are my answers. I had to edit my comment on her blog to get below the 4096 character requirement.

1. Do you believe that criminals and domestic abusers should be able to buy guns without background checks?

Criminals and DV abusers already buy firearms on the black market from someone who stole them, or steal firearms themselves.


2. What is your proposal for keeping guns away from criminals, domestic abusers, terrorists and dangerously mentally ill people?

Someone is not a criminal until convicted of a crime. So until someone is convicted of a crime,there is no legal standing to deny rights. DV and terrorists are also criminals. As far as the "dangerously mentally ill" I hope you are referring to the Virginia Tech shooter, who passed his background checks because of failures to enforce the laws already on the books.

3. Do you believe that a background check infringes on your constitutional right to "keep and bear arms"?

Yes. Why don't you have to fill out a background check every time you vote? Or publish a blog post?

4. Do you believe that I and people with whom I work intend to ban your guns?

Yes.

5. If yes to #4, how do you think that could happen ( I mean the physical action)?

First step is a ban on new weapons.
Second step is a requirement to register weapons in the name of public safety.
Third step is to continually increase the requirements on lawful gun owners to the point that they commit a "regulatory crime" and therefore become criminals.
Fourth step: Once you've turned lawful gun owners into criminals, issue a warrant and send the police to arrest the criminal and confiscate the firearms.
Fifth step; repeat 80 million times.

It happened in Germany, Cuba, Canada (although the Canadians are starting to fight back), and even New Orleans after Katrina.

6. What do you think are the "second amendment remedies" that the tea party GOP candidate for Senate in Nevada( Sharron Angle) has proposed?

The second amendment allows for an armed citizenry to deal with all manners of social problems, from crime to tyranny. It means we have the right of self defense, not only of our lives but also of our freedoms.

7. Do you believe in the notion that if you don't like what someone is doing or saying, second amendment remedies should be applied?

It depends on whether that person is like Charles Manson or Pol Pot, who is only "saying things" to get other people to kill on his behalf. Words have power.

8. Do you believe it is O.K. to call people with whom you disagree liars and demeaning names?

Liar yes, if someone is a liar they are a liar.

However name calling happens on both sides. This is coming from a "bitter clinger" and a "red state neanderthal" and even a "cold blooded baby killer". I've been called a lot of names by your side. Put on your big girl panties and deal with it.

9. If yes to #8, would you do it in a public place to the person's face?

Yes. If someone is a liar I will say it to their face. I don't use demeaning terms like "nazi" or "pinko commie". It isn't productive.

10. Do you believe that any gun law will take away your constitutional rights?

If you live in Chicago, New York, or Washington DC gun laws ALREADY HAVE.

11. Do you believe in current gun laws? Do you think they are being enforced? If not, explain.

No, gun laws have no demonstrable effect on violent crime. I know current gun laws aren't being enforced, see reference to VA Tech shooter.

12. Do you believe that all law-abiding citizens are careful with their guns and would never shoot anybody?

There are around 80 million of us. OF COURSE most of us never shoot anyone. We work VERY HARD to preach the four rules so that WE DON'T shoot people.

However, there are plenty of us who WILL shoot if it comes down to self defense. Having the ability to defend yourself doesn't mean you go looking for opportunities to defend yourself. And 80 million of us just want to be left alone.

13. Do you believe that people who commit suicide with a gun should be included in the gun statistics?

No. Suicide isn't against the law, so no crime has been committed.

14. Do you believe that accidental gun deaths should "count" in the total numbers?

No, if someone dies from a hunting accident it doesn't have any resemblance to a gang fight and is not useful in talking about crime.

15. Do you believe that sometimes guns, in careless use or an accident, can shoot a bullet without the owner or holder of the gun pulling the trigger?

Something has to "pull the trigger". Guns don't load themselves. If a weapons discharges by being dropped that is the same as if the person who dropped the gun pulled the trigger. Firearms always shoot because of a human activity.

16. Do you believe that 30,000 gun deaths a year is too many?

No. Ten out of ten people die. It's just a matter of when. Also you are "lying with statistics". If you said "8,000 murders by guns" that would be a more interesting question. But since murder is a crime that predates firearms it is ultimately a stupid question. Countries with draconian gun laws still have murder.

17. How will you help to prevent more shootings in this country?

By being armed and ready to defend my family and myself from violence. The best way to stop violence is with overwhelming violence. It is why police carry pistols and patrol rifles.

18. Do you believe the articles that I have posted about actual shootings or do you think I am making them up or that human interest stories about events that have happened should not count when I blog about gun injuries and deaths?

This is America, 11 people (on average) die each year from screwdrivers. Joseph Stalin said it this way "One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic". Your use of individual anecdotes is simply your way to turn individual random events into tragedy. The NRA does the same thing with it's "armed citizen" postings of those who defend themselves with firearms.


19. There has been some discussion of the role of the ATF here. Do you believe the ATF wants your guns and wants to harass you personally? If so, provide examples ( some have written a few that need to be further examined).

Do you remember the contract the ATF put out for multi-tools that were etched "Always Think Forfeiture"? Or how about the ATF agent who insisted that "any firearm that discharges more than one bullet with a single pull of the trigger is a machine gun" when asked about a double barreled shotgun? Anecdotes are not facts, but the ATF is no friend of gun owners.

20. Will you continue a reasonable discussion towards an end that might lead somewhere or is this an exercise in futility?

You want to restrict a Constitutionally protected individual right. The only productive outcome would be for you to realize that guns aren't the problem. People are the problem. People make mistakes, people drive drunk or too fast or drowsy. People kill other people every day by little mistakes. Why do you think we have the FDA, OSHA, and the DOT?

A child is more likely to die from a fall down the stairs or drowning in the backyard pool than from a firearm. Because people make mistakes, not because guns are a problem.

So now I will ask you ONE QUESTION:

Can you demonstrate one time or place, throughout all history, where the average person was made safer by restricting access to handheld weapons?

Staist fraud is as statist fraud does

Why Are We Paying Pat Leahy?

from Len Britton for Senate facebook page

Caledonian-Record, September 22, 2010

Say what you want about Vermont senior U.S. Senator Pat Leahy, but he's got staying power. Leahy, age 70, has been holding onto his Senate job since 1974.

He's the only Democrat Vermont ever elected to the U.S. Senate. He graduated from law school in 1964 and immediately began his political career running for Chittenden County State's Attorney. Straight out of law school, Leahy found the allure of a government job irresistible and was re-elected state's attorney until he made it to the big time, getting elected to the U.S. Senate. He now has three Senate offices, all paid for by the taxpayers: Washington, D.C., Burlington and Montpelier.

Leahy's got a pretty good pay plan. He earns an annual salary of $174,000 and gets an automatic cost of living pay increase every year. Congress can choose to vote down a pay raise, but unless a vote is held, the pay raise is automatic. With Senate terms of six years and automatic vesting after five years, Leahy was vested in a pension plan before his first term was up. His contribution to his retirement plan is 1.3 percent of his salary. He contributes 6.2 percent of his salary to his Social Security plan. He's got a health-care plan that's the envy of everyone.

Leahy doesn't want to retire just yet, and we can't blame him. He's got a pretty good life on the taxpayer dole. As the second-most senior U.S. senator, he can raise millions of dollars to finance a re-election campaign with no heavy lifting. The last serious challenge he had was the retired farmer Fred Tuttle and his "Spread Fred" campaign. Tuttle ended up endorsing Leahy.

Leahy has a lot of fun and his rank as the second-most senior senator gets him some fun walk-on roles every time somebody in Hollywood casts a new Batman movie. In fact, his fondness for Batman is such a gas it even shows up on his Web site.

Early this year, Dan Freillich, a medical doctor and Navy officer, announced he was challenging Leahy in the Democratic primary. Freillich and his supporters were shunned whenever he appeared at a state Democratic Party event. Freillich really angered the party loyalists when he suggested perhaps a viable democracy should include a series of debates between the incumbent senator and his challengers. The five Democratic candidates for governor had a couple of dozen debates this summer and fall, but apparently Leahy doesn't owe that to the voters. He called in by telephone once for a debate with Freillich on a radio program. Freillich is now running as an Independent. The Republican Party has an extremely viable candidate in Len Britton, the owner of a building supply company who recently sold his business so he could run full time. Britton would like to have Leahy show up and face the voters and maybe even debate his positions in person instead of by a telephone link to his Washington, D.C., office.

Why should Vermonters vote for Leahy? We can't think of a good reason. This week, he'd have you believe he somehow made Vermont's 99,000-pound weight limit on Vermont interstates happen. The truth is he did everything in his power to block the weight change for years and years. He's got a pretty good wind gauge attached to one of his hands and finally realized the public overwhelmingly supported the weight increase. Now all of a sudden Leahy invented it. Pat Leahy's other single greatest contribution in the Senate is the creation of the country's $13 trillion deficit. Leahy has tirelessly voted for every tax-and-spend bill ever to go before him.

Let's hold a nice retirement party for Leahy. We can hold it in voting booths all throughout the state this November. Please help Pat Leahy begin a nice, long retirement on his Vermont farm. Together we can guarantee Leahy the best retirement our tax dollars can buy.

...With the stated goal of packing SCOTUS with Marxists and anti-Americans, He should be retired to Leavenworth, but I digress...

Alar controversy....

I googled "Alar Controversy" after Tam noted Meryl Streep's attempt at playing a biochemist testifying before congress...

So I do what anyone would do, I went to pubmed and read as much research as I could this evening.

First, multiple studies have been done with multiple results. Bacteria experiments came back negative for "genotoxic" activity. Rat and mice experiments were much more common, and they all followed roughly the same approach, overdose a population of rodents with Alar and then perform autopsies to look for cancer. What was significant was the amount of time involved in the various rodent experiments.

Anything less than a year came back negative for carcinogenic activity. A study lasting two years found an increase in uterian cancer in female rats.

Now what does this mean? It means rats overdosed on Alar throughout the vast majority of their lives had a slight increase in the rates of cancers of the female reproductive system.

There was an interesting study that showed an increase in rat liver DNA methylation dose dependent with Alar, but I didn't get a good feel for their methodology. Since the other rat studies found no statistically significant increase in liver cancers I question the significance of the correlation.

So, the real question is this, was Alar a threat to children (and supposedly apple eating adults as well)? No, it was not.

How interesting....

Gainseville, Florida, authorities recognize the potential threat from Muslims caused by the koran burning that didn't happen.

"We wanted a lot of high visibility and very preventative patrolling," said Hanna, who was in charge of the operation for Gainesville Police. "You have to weigh it — you don't want to create an atmosphere of hysteria, but we took it real serious."

The sheriff had 242 deputies on duty Sept. 11, 160 of whom were working specifically because of the planned protest, the Sun said.

Total costs for security actually were higher when adding participation by other agencies including the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and several sheriff's offices that provided support such as bomb sniffing dogs and detection devices, officials told the Sun.

Blackburn said he isn't sure how realistic it is to expect the church to pay or how much legal authority the city has to compel the church to pay.

I guess that kinda puts the perspective of Muslim terrorism in perspective doesn't it? If Muslims were peaceful then the city of Gainseville wouldn't have needed more security.

Actions always speak louder than words.

Akwasidae Festival Celebrates Fordham's Developing Relationship to The Bronx’s African Immigrant Communities


On Saturday, September 18, a historic event took place in the McGinley Center Ballroom on Fordham’s Rose Hill Campus. A cultural festival of the Ashanti people of Ghana called Akwasidae, held at 40 day intervals throughout the year, was brought to the Fordham Campus, to honor the University’s decision to offer a course on the Ghanaian language Twi during its 2010 Summer Session. More than two hundred people came to this event, from as far away as Ghana and Florida, most in traditional Ashanti dress, to celebrate the coming of age of the Bronx Ghanaian community- the nation’s largest- and to affirm Fordham’s ties to the growing African immigrant population living in the neighborhoods adjacent to the school.

This event, which included traditional rulers of the Ashanti people from New York State and Washington , a representative of the Asantafuohene ( Ashanti king) in Ghana, an extraordinary group of drummers and dancers, and an inspiring speech by a Ghanaian presidential aspirant, brought African culture, political discourse and the arts to the Fordham campus with a majesty and force that this writer has never witnessed during his 40 years at the school.

This event is the culmination of four years of work by the faculty of Fordham’s Department of African and African American Studies and the Bronx African American History Project to build ties with the African immigrant population of the Bronx, which comes from more than twenty countries and very likely consists of over 100,000 people if you count children of these immigrants born in the US. When our faculty realized, as a result of our research and community outreach, we hired Dr Jani Kani Edward, a sociologist and ethnographer who wrote a book on Sudanese women in exile, to coordinate oral histories with this population, culminating in a grant from the Carnegie Corportion of New York to fund this research. In the course of our research, we met a Ghanaian scholar, Dr Ben Hayford, who we quickly incorporated into a research team as a consultant. Through Dr Hayford’s contacts we began developing strong ties with Bronx Ghanaian religious leaders, educators,professionals. and business owners, resulting in a number of ground breaking interviews that gave us invaluable information about this highly skilled and energetic component of the Bronx’s population

Then, a little more than a year ago, a Ghanaian radio personality and cultural organizer named Kojo Ampah showed up on the Fordham campus as a student and immediately spawned plans to increase the African presence on the Fordham campus. He joined the Bronx African American History project research team as an interviewer and community liason and organized a new student group on campus called the African Cultural Exchange. All of a sudden, African musicians, artists and political leaders began appearing on the Fordham campus, some to be interviewed by the BAAHP, others to speak or make presentations to the larger campus community

The enthusiastic response of Fordham students and faculty to these events, along with the University’s decision to offer Dr Hayford a position teaching Twi, led Kojo Ampah and his associates, Mike Mohigh and Nana Anabel Brenyah, to try to bring the largest and most important Ashanti Cultural Festival to the Fordham campus.

After months of hard work, they managed to find a space for the event, locate community sponors who would help fund it, and gain valuable support from Fordham’s Office of Student Leadership.

But the most gratifying aspect of their work was the incredible response from Ghanaians in the New York Metropolitan area and indeed, up and down the East Coast. The fact that a major university was willing to open doors to this community, to recognize its language, to celebrate its culture, and affirm how important its role was in revitalizing communities in the borough of the Bronx had a powerful effect, both on ordinary Ghanaians and leaders of Ghanaian organizations.

The result was there for all to see in McGinley ballroom Saturday. Rarely has Fordham seen a more innovative and powerful display of traditional drumming and dance, more interesting ceremonies which honored heroes and ancestors, and more powerful speeches on the future of Ghana and other African nations. This was a moment when the power of and potentiality of the Bronx’s African immigrant communities was there to see for anyone lucky enough to be present

It was also a moment when this great Jesuit institution, where a social conscience is still honored, was recognized for reaching out in friendship and respect to an immigrant population which, for understandable reasons, is still fearful of how Americans will treat them in a post 9/11 world.

This was a great day to be Ghanaian, it was a great day to be African, and it was a great day to be at Fordham University in the heart of the Bronx

May there be many more occasions like this at Fordham in coming years.

Mark D Naison
September 19, 2010

.

I have a right to Wolfwood's productivity

So over at Joe Huffman's place Lyle made a post about the flat tax idea (an idea that I firmly endorse). Found in the comments...

How is it anyone's business but mine how much money I need?

It can be. If you have a situation where one person feels that he doesn't have enough, that you have more than enough, and that he "deserves" that more than you do (such as by working just as hard, or harder, than you but having started off with more disadvantages) then it's not obvious that you should have more than he does. As much as individualists like talking about the benefits of merit, it's simply the way of the world that there's not a perfect correlation between success and merit, and sometimes that correlation is very week indeed.

I argue that our social contract does allow for certain amounts of asset redistribution. The purpose behind the social contract is to provide a society that is better for its citizens than would be had otherwise. By removing so many of the barriers that would otherwise exist, it allows everyone to be better-off. However, there are costs as well, since TANSTAAFL. We delegate much of our right of defense to the military and the police. We delegate much our right to governance to our local, state, and national governments. One of the things we get in return is a certain degree of protection. Just as the government can seize property through eminent domain (we can argue the limits, but let's say they want to build an ABM site on your land), they can also levy taxes and spend for the general welfare. That general welfare might include life-saving medicines, food stamps, and even make-work jobs. As with eminent domain, the question is what things aren't reasonably within the "general welfare."

Most of us, I suspect, would be willing to either pay whatever rate in taxes is genuinely needed to pay the government enough to fulfill its constitutional duties, or to leave. IIRC, Lincoln fought the Civil War on a 3% income tax for most people. It's just that there's been so much waste that we're unwilling to support anything we don't absolutely need to, even if it's something we might be willing to do were we to be paying a 5% rate and running a budget surplus.

So, as before, it comes down to your business not necessarily being your own in times of crisis. This is a time of economic crisis. It doesn't mean that we need to go all socialist, but it does mean that it behooves us to be able to explain the benefits of capitalism to society and not to simply have our argument be "none of your business."

Wolfwood, let me break this down for you....

17% of 100,000 is 17,000. That's a lot of taxes. 17% of ONE MILLION DOLLARS is 170,000. The great beauty of the flat tax is, and here is the beautiful part, THE MORE YOU MAKE THE MORE YOU PAY!!!

And your argument that someone "needs" to pay less in taxes in order to maintain their standard of living, wasn't it Obama who called for "shared sacrifice"? That means giving up a cell phone, a cable bill, the boat or motorcycle....

I'm just saying.

I herefore declare that I NEED all of Wolfwoods extra money. But it's ok, because he believes that asset redistribution is part of the "social contract". Nothing wrong with because he says it's ok as long as I FEEL that I need it.

Wolfwood, use your damn brain. Americans are the top two percentage points of wealth earners in the world. We are ALL rich. If you don't believe me go travel the world and get back to me in six months.

How long is too long?

After spend forty something years in his home town of Washington, Leahy is the grand old man OF the political class. Instead of a normal grandfather, his passion and only reason for re-election has nothing to do with serving the citizens of... Vermont. I has everything to do with his desire to pack the supreme court with un-Americans, frauds and Marxists...

If Obama is elected to another term in 2012, Leahy said he would have the opportunity to help confirm 3-4 more Supreme Court judges.

“I certainly want to be there for that,” he said with a grin, reflecting the impact that a liberal Democrat could potentially have on the direction of the Supreme Court.

Instead of enjoying his Grandchildren, he has decided to threaten the freedom and liberty of mine.

You selfish, greedy, stupid people. Vote this fraud out. Before your children pay dearly for it...

Security

One of the tricks for "anonymous web surfing" is to use proxy servers to mask your IP address.

This can work, but it can also raise red flags to network administrators. If you are on a commercial network it doesn't matter so much, but if you are on a .gov network proxy servers are a "no no".

The good news is that you can combine techniques to increase your chances of avoiding monitoring by big brother.

Your laptop came with a built in wireless network adapter right? Disable it and use a USB wireless adapter (or rotate through several). This USB wireless adapter is your "burner", an easily disposed of piece of hardware that you can dump any time. This technique will keep your Media Access Control (MAC) number from tagging you. There are software options to do this as well if you want, however it's easier to unplug a USB adapter and smash it than reconfigure software. Another bonus to using Linux is the ability to randomize your DHCP and MAC address through the command line.

Using "free wifi" sites can be a mixed bag. It doesn't do you any good to go to a place that has security cameras watching you. Remember that being anonymous in cyberspace doesn't do you any good if you aren't also anonymous in meatspace.

You need to know how configure your browser for maximum privacy. Assume that your laptop will in fact fall into Big Brother's hands at some point. http://www.proxyswitcher.com/firefox-privacy-settings.html

Another good way to increase your security is to use a Linux "Live CD" or USB/FLASH memory to do your dirty work, and your installed OS for everything else. Just remember that you need to use the USB device as your HDD instead of your actual disk. Anything written to disk can be read. Much easier to crush a USB drive under your boot heel than a hard drive when you are in a time crunch.

Remember, you don't have to be a 1337 hacker to value your privacy. Remember there are a lot of techniques to keep you out from under the watchful eye of Big Brother, and it isn't illegal to get into the habit of using them.

Appeal to the Mayor of Berlin to Support the Worldwide Anti-Gentrification Struggle by Saving Tacheles

September 18,2010

Dear Mayor of Berlin

As a scholar in Urban Studies and as an admirer of the tradition of political activism and urban revitalization in your great
city of Berlin, I am urging you to use all the powers at your disposal to prevent the sale of Tacheles to developers and the
destruction of this great community arts center that attracts more than 400,000 visitors a year

At a time when the world financial crisis is creating in cities around the world what Berlin faced after reunification- a landscape
of thousands of abandoned factories, stores, apartment building and shopping centers- the last thing we need now is the
destruction of perhaps the world's best known example of the transformation of abandoned property into a creative arts center.
Not only should Tacheles be preserved and protected, but to paraphrase Che Guevara, we need "one, two, three many Tacheles" all
around the world, in New York, in Miami, in Madrid, in Rome, in Detroit and in Johannesburg!!

Tacheles is the front lines of a global anti-gentrification struggle. If you, in your position as Berlin's most important leader, can
lead a community movement to preserve this powerful people's institution, complete with marches, rallies, and legal and legislative
action, than people around the world will follow your example and began occupying the abandoned properties in their cities!
In so doing, not only will you prreserve a precious economic resource for the city of Berlin- which attracts hundreds of thousands
of tourists and creates hundreds of jobs- you will give people all over the world- including my home city of New York- the courage to
take abandoned properties and turn them into community arts centers, youth recreation space, and housing for the homeless
simultaneously meeting community needs and revitalizing local economies

Make no mistake about it, "the whole world is watching" when it comes to the fate of Tacheles. What the people of Berlin did
after reunification, with the support of progressive elected leaders such as yourself, is what activists around the world need to
do to repair the damage done by a financial system out of control that left immense wreckage in its wake

Please, Honorable Mayor, use your office as a "bully pulpit" to lead the people of your city to resist the banks and developers
who are trying to turn one of Berlin's most important community institutions into a hotel or shopping center

If you lead, people will follow, not only in Berlin, but around the world


Respectfully


Mark D Naison

Professor of AFrican American Studies and History
Fordham University
Founder, Bronx African American History Project
New York, USA

How to win

Make the other guy do something stupid.

Whenever there is any sort of ambiguity in the rules of engagement you can exploit that by making the "occupying force" act like idiots.

Carlos Miller has been "banned for life" from the Miami-Dade Metrorail by security guards who have no authority to do so. He exploited their ignorance of law to make his point. He won that engagement.

When I was playing OPFOR (opposing force) a few years back I was given the role of "undecided insurgent". My job was to not do any overt hostilities to the BLUFOR (blue force, or the good guys). So I simply started taking pictures of the BLUFOR with my cell phone camera. One guy went apeshit, abandoned his security position, and followed me into a "mosque" to confiscate my camera. I didn't do anything wrong, and he ended up with a valuable lesson in priorities as he forced his PL to backpeddle like mad trying to save face as to why one of his soldiers violated the sanctity of the holy sight.

This ability to make the "good guys" do stupid things is based on some universal human nature. First is arrogance, the belief that because you are armed and charged with doing a job that you have the latitude to as you see fit. The second is the classic "Nuremberg Defense" that "I was just doing my job" is somehow an acceptable and reasonable excuse for your actions.

Fortunately this is not the case, if you can force someone into doing something stupid you can usually exploit that to your advantage. Unfortunately the police in the US have been making themselves look bad all on their own.

This day in history...September 17, 1787

...The US Constitution and in the hands of free citizen's, it's guardian.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Article. I.

Section. 1.

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

Section. 2.

The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.

When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies.

The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.

Section. 3.

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.

Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may be chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies.

No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.

The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the Absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States.

The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.

Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.

Section. 4.

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, and such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day.

Section. 5.

Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller Number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide.

Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.

Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal.

Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.

Section. 6.

The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.

No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.

Section. 7.

All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.

Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States: If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.

Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of Adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill.

Section. 8.

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;--And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Section. 9.

The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.

The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.

No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.

No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.

No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another; nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.

No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.

No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

Section. 10.

No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.

No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress.

No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.

Article. II.

Section. 1.

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President.

The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.

The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Section. 2.

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.

Section. 3.

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.

Section. 4.

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Article III.

Section. 1.

The judicial Power of the United States shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.

Section. 2.

The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;--to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;--to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;--to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party;--to Controversies between two or more States;-- between a State and Citizens of another State,--between Citizens of different States,--between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects.

In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.

The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed.

Section. 3.

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.

Article. IV.

Section. 1.

Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.

Section. 2.

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.

A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.

No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.

Section. 3.

New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.

The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.

Section. 4.

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic Violence.

Article. V.

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.

Article. VI.

All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

Article. VII.

The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same.

The Word, "the," being interlined between the seventh and eighth Lines of the first Page, the Word "Thirty" being partly written on an Erazure in the fifteenth Line of the first Page, The Words "is tried" being interlined between the thirty second and thirty third Lines of the first Page and the Word "the" being interlined between the forty third and forty fourth Lines of the second Page.

Attest William Jackson Secretary

done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independance of the United States of America the Twelfth In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names...

...Learn it, Live it, Love it...