Surprising....

As much as they can be considered MSM, which they really aren't, but kinda-sorta, AOL/HuffPost is carrying a Fast and Furious story today. 

I consider HuffPost a mouthpiece for Liberalism and for the current administration.  Whatever....

Let the spin begin.

I'll be working at a mountain bike race all day today.  I hope the skeeters stay wherever they've been this year, which isn't out biting me.  Behave yourselves....

Stay safe.

The Commercial That Never Was.

According to this article, the following commercial was turned down by major networks.

"Too controversial"...

It was produced by Citizens Against Government Waste, and shot down by "ABC, A&E, and The History Channel".




From the article:

   "The truth is that the ad does not even have anything in it that should be offensive. The commercial is set in the year 2030, and the main character is a Chinese professor that is seen lecturing his students on the fall of great empires. As images of the United States are shown on a screen behind him, the Chinese professor tells his students the following about the behavior of great empires: “They all make the same mistakes. Turning their backs on the principles that made them great. America tried to spend and tax itself out of a great recession. Enormous so-called “stimulus” spending, massive changes to health care, government takeover of private industries, and crushing debt.”

   Perhaps it is what the Chinese Professor says next that is alarming the big television networks: “Of course, we owned most of their debt, so now they work for us”."

Doesn't seem controversial to me, but what do I know?

Resist

"Thoughts Aloud..."

This little snippet was posted over at Dave's website.  A moment of clarity from someone on the outside looking in.  Excellent.

"Sometimes people from outside our country see us better than we see ourselves. The following statement was translated from a Czech Republic newspaper editorial."

“The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president.”
“The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.”

A lot of logic in that statement.

Stay safe.

This is My Surprised Face

Once again, the Dead Elephants have valiantly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

They accepted their opponents' presuppositions about the debt ceiling and the lies about a US default, and agreed to pass what will amount to (mark my words) yet another blank check for the Left.

All they had to do to "win", and force this nation back to fiscal sanity was to do nothing.

Sometimes doing nothing is the best option.

Sometimes, if you can tune in to what is going on, the best way to win is to let your opponent overextend and hang himself.

Aikido uses this principle.  It can be used in chess.  The Confederates did it to the US Army at Fredericksburg.

I mean, come on people, you Tea and Crumpets party "idealogues", elected in 2010 to stop the madness, it isn't that hard.  Come on, Dead Elephants, you could have won by doing nothing.  Yet many of you folded.

And now, guess what?  You're undeniably part of the problem.

The enemy.

Resist.

We are all Hobbits now...

from Wikipedia

"Kocher notes that Tolkien's literary techniques require us to increasingly view Hobbits as like us, especially when placed under moral pressure to survive a war that threatens to devastate their land.[14] Frodo becomes in some ways the symbolic representation of the conscience of Hobbits; a point made explicitly in the story "Leaf by Niggle" which Tolkien wrote at the same time as the first nine chapters of The Lord of the Rings.[15] Niggle is a painter struggling against the summons of death to complete his one great canvas, a picture of a tree with a background of forest and distant mountains. He dies with the work incomplete, undone by his imperfectly generous heart: "it made him uncomfortable more often than it made him do anything". After discipline in Purgatory, however, Niggle finds himself in the very landscape depicted by his painting which he is now able to finish with the assistance of a neighbour who obstructed him during life. The picture complete, Niggle is free to journey to the distant mountains which represent the highest stage of his spiritual development.[16] Thus, upon recovery from the wound inflicted by Angmar on Weathertop, Gandalf speculates that the Hobbit Frodo "may become like a glass filled with a clear light for eyes to see that can".[17] Similarly, as Frodo nears Mount Doom he casts aside weapons and refuses to fight others with physical force: "For him struggles for the right must hereafter be waged only on the moral plane."



Adapted from Wikipedia

n the final volume of the story, the five travellers (Gandalf, the wizard, and Hobbits Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Meriadoc Brandybuck, and Peregrin Took) stay overnight at The Prancing Pony in Alexandria where they catch up on the last year's local events with proprietor Boston Tea Party. They learn that thuggish National Socialist strangers from Chicago have come to settle in and around Washington, much to the discomfort of the peace-loving Men and Hobbits indigenous to the region. The group is aghast to discover that Obama has been crowned King of Amerika.

Gandalf parts ways with the Hobbits on the way to the Mordor on the Potomac to have a long talk with the Gunwalking treasonous bastards at ATF and DOJ to find out who really gave the order to undermine the Bill of Rights. Gandalf assures the four Tea Partier's that their experiences in the Wars on Terrorism will be sufficient to settle the troubles.

When they discover that the evil they had fought in Germany, in the Soviet Union, Cambodia, and Afghanistan had like "Chickens having come home to roost" set up shop in Washington, they rouse the Shire and are able to capture or drive off the evil-doers that infested the Capital now turned Imperial city. With the assistance of Farmer Cotton, Merry and Pippin T. Party lead the Battle of Bywater, the last battle in the War of the Ring, in which 19 Hobbits die.

Ultimately, the returning Hobbits find that the thugs' ringleader is the fallen Senator, now Emperor, "Our Lord and Savior" the annointed one, peace be upon him little Barry Obama (Or who ever the hell he really is), who has taken up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., along with his servant Wormtongue Daily and his Klingon "wife" and mother in law... Though the Hobbits decide to allow them to leave the Shire unharmed, Obama meets his moment of truth shortly thereafter, when Wormtongue Daily avenges his abuse at the hands of his master by outting Obama as the First Kenyan; The Klingon's are in turn Given due process by the Hobbits, who then shoot down their transport with arrows as they try to flee back to Chicago with all the McRib's. An eerie column of smoke arises from the Crashed Bird of Prey space craft's corpse and the smoke is blown away in the wind, a scene reminiscent of the Liberty and Freedom's demise under the former tyranny...



...All in good fun...

Lets see...

The checking account is overdrawn, there is nothing in savings, and you're maxed out on all of your credit cards.

You owe more than you earn.  You can't afford groceries for your kids.  You're behind on your mortgage payments.  Your car is being reposessed.

What do you do?

Raise the limits on your credit cards?

Get more credit cards with higher limits?

How long can you do that?  At some point you have to become responsible and start paying what you owe.

But you still want to live high on the hog....

What do you do?  What do you do?

Tough question, huh?

Stay safe.

We are all Kulaks now...

Posted Verbatum from Barnhardt.biz

HELL NO. H.E.L.L. N.O. Do not comply with this.

Posted by Ann Barnhardt - July 28, AD 2011 10:47 AM MST

Feds want to require Commercial Drivers Licenses for all farm equipment operators.

From the article:

The time-honored initiation into working the family farm could one day be a thing of the past, with discussions underway in Washington to require operators of farm equipment to have a commercial driver's license, or CDL.



The requirements would subject farmers to the same rules governing truck drivers, requiring them to keep logs and limit their hours.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are now at the point of civil disobedience being a MORAL OBLIGATION. You CAN NOT, you MUST NOT comply with this under ANY circumstance whatsoever. This is a means of getting control of your land and production. They want to force you off the tractor and get their own "professional drivers" in, who will then have to power to control and/or sabotage your planting and harvest. Not to mention the fact that they want you paying their union thug $80 per hour while you are sitting in the house twiddling your thumbs. These professional drivers would most likely be unionized and illegal aliens. You know I'm right.

Hell no. Hell no. Hell no.

Send it viral.

...I grew up on a very small farm. That is until government regulations and apparatchiks put my folks out of business. I was driving a farm tractor when I was nine. This crap is just another lash out at the real American base out in flyover country.

...Add things like the Food "safety" act, deliberate flooding of farmland instead of slums filled with political base parasites, trying to kill off even growing small gardens, now this, You have to ask yourself;

In an age of expensive oil and increased costs of food, what is the end game?

...Holdolomor. Read it, learn about it, understand it's goals (destruction of the Ukrainian middle class, the Kulaks.) Then do the math and discover why to the security apparatus in place in THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, YOU ARE THE TERRORIST.

One more time....

I'm posting this picture again.

Why?

Because I can.

Besides,  she has pretty eyes.

And I really like those red doo-dads....

Stay safe

I want to....

I want to say something, to write something, but I think it's all been said before.

I think all of the debt ceiling crap going on in D.C. is a charade.  I doubt that anyone that comes here to this blog would disagree or be surprised by that statement.

I think that obama, Clinton, Holder, Newell, Janet II, et al are criminals and I hope they get their due.  I hope they end up in prison.  Not a fancy or special prison built just for the elite.  General population in some shithole.  With a bunch of illegals.  Each one gets to share a 6 x 10 cell with an illegal.

I sense that a lot of the "hope and change" crowd are becoming disillusioned.  obama's support base is shrinking.  I wonder how he's going to respond to that?  I suspect it will be childish.  I suspect it'll be dangerous.

I think the entire political class, with a few exceptions, needs to go away and that we need to start over.

I think that Liberals suck.  They have created an alternate reality in which to live.  The part that really chaps my ass is that they don't even like me yet they want to force me to live in their world.  They can piss up a rope.

Ah well.  I must be tired.  I'm obviously not thinking clearly.

Stay safe.

Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Obama...

from Sword at the Ready

Fascist Tyranny Alert: NY Times Demands News Agencies ‘Censor’ Conservative Views

Quote;

"Projection. That’s what I hear every time some Ruling Class Media Marxist/Fascist invokes the term ‘McCarthy’ when they refer to Conservatives.

As the Marxist Left become emboldened to put the boot of their much-desired tyranny upon our necks – the real truth comes out about what they are really all about.

The Ruling Class want a Fascist dictator, and they are happy to empower NerObama to that role, while at the same time they work furiously to silence any dissent from their anointed ones and their plans for us.

Today, two issues have come to the fore that showcase how close to the precipice we are to full blown and ugly fascist tyranny by the Ruling Class."

(Read More)

...Inch by inch, the mask slips off.

...National Socialism. It is not just for Germans anymore.

Says it all...

Courtesy of of the Green Mountain BOYS

Notorious Phd’s “Achievement Rap” A Tribute to Those Who Invented the Achievement Gap

While some people call “the achievement gap”

Inspired me to write an achievement rap

Exposing the hustlers who rule our nation

Who’ve hijacked the train and left us at the station

They’ve exported our jobs, treated us like fools

Now they are poised to take over our schools

And run them for profit, like they do our jails

So they make up some lies to say that we’ve failed

When the failure is theirs, cause they’ve stolen our wealth

Whatever is good, they’ve reserved for themselves

Now they’re saying that we hold the whole nation back

If we don’t pass the tests their companies fast track

When reality is they’re the ones who need testing

To see in whose pockets school profits are resting

From Murdoch to Klein, from Gates to Rhee

The achievement gap hustle is one big crime spree.

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! No, it's...

Alvie asks some searching questions in his latest, Super Congress...

He touches on righteousness, while he points out the villany that saturates our capital.

Does it saturate us as well?  Can we banish it from one without driving it from the other?

I'm reminded often of this Solzhenitsyn quote, which I throw out here often:

"If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Compare that with this quote from Alvie's linked piece...

"Once again, the MacRib test is this; How much will you tolerate?  Which way are you facing?  And are you willing to be "that guy", even if no one else goes with you?"

As I've said before,

"Someone's gotta be the idiot..."

Resist.

Bear Attack...

Never, never, ever go into Mr. Grizz's territory without a loaded weapon.

Ever. 

Mr. Grizz doesn't know "sorry", or "mercy".  Mr. Grizz just does his thing.  You can't blame him either.  It's the law of nature. 

I personally prefer calibers that start with a ".4", such as a .45-70 with heavy handloads or a .454 with maxed out loads.  Big, heavy bonecrushing bullets (with the corresponding bonecrushing recoil- I'm a recoil junkie) are the ticket, I think.

A 12 gauge (Saiga, anyone?) loaded to the gills with slugs works, too.  I like these the best... 

I do hope the injured kids fully recover.  I can't imagine being on the receiving end of a grizzly's rage.

The Top Ten Things to Do in the Bronx That You Probably Won't Read About in New York Magazine

The Top Ten Things to Do in the Bronx That You Probably Won't Read About in New York Magazine

Mark Naison

Fordham University

10. Hit tennis balls in Heffen Park in "The Valley" section of the Northeast Bronx, one of the real hidden jewels in the NYC Park System

9. Walk up White Plains Road from 219th Street to 241Street and experience one of the great Caribbean business strips in New York City

8. Play golf at the Pelham/Split Rock Golf courses and see the largest herd of wild turkeys in New York City ( but watch out for the poison ivy!)

7. Go to the "Bronx Classic" a professional tennis tournament in Crotona Park in late to mid-August whose winners get a wild card into the US Open Qualifiying Tournament

6. Go to "First Friday" at the Bronx Museum of the Arts on 165the Street and Grand Concourse which features great music and films that reflect the cultural diversity of the Bronx

5. Check out the Sunday Brunch at Giovanni's on 150th Street and Grand Concourse, where you will be served huge amounts of excellent food.

4. Visit the Rebel Diaz Arts Collective at 478 Austin Place near 149th Street and meet the hippest group of rappers, poets, music producers and political activists on the East Coast

3. Eat lunch at the Crab Shanty on City Island which has the best and most affordable seafood lunch specials in New York City

2. Go to the Thursday Night Old School Hip Hop James in Crotona Park during the summer, which feature some of the artists who created Hip Hop Culture in the middle and late 1970's

1. Starve yourself for a day and visit Johnson's BBQ at 163rd Street between Union and Tinton Avenues, where you will get the best BBQ and largest portions in New York City. Say "the professor sent you" and your portion may double!

Oslo...Are Most Missing the Point?

There are so many comments on the Oslo shootings, I hesitate to add my thoughts.  In fact, for the most part, I won't add them here, although I am working on a post on the subject.

The incident disturbs me.  Not because I wrongly assumed it was a jihadi attack, not because it was done by a who it was done by, but because I think, on the whole, we're missing the whole point.

I can't help but thinking that we're missing something here collectively in all the politicizing, arguing, finger pointing, denouncing, and distancing going on.  Conspiracies theories abound, and there are many unanswered questions.  I won't debate this point or that one, or try to prove / disprove any theories.

Folks, I just think most people are missing the point here.

To merely dismiss the shooter as crazy is a dangerous mistake, in my opinion.  It is an over-simplification, and a denial of reality, in my opinion.  It's like insisting that Obama is an incompetent fool.  He's not.  He's a dangerous, Marxist enemy of liberty.

We distort and deny reality at our own peril in times of shock and trouble.  It's easier that way, in the short run, to think that anyone who could do this is "nothing like me".  It's easier to think of them as "crazy", or "weirdos", or "insane".  I'm not saying that the shooter was or was not insane, I am saying that dismissing this incident purely as the work of a madman, without any logic or reason, is naive and dangerous.

I'll save the rest of my thoughts for a near-future post that I hope many people read, as (I think) it's important.

Welcome to the new reality, folks.  It's here. 

In full force.

"If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" ~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

How about you?  Are you willing to destroy a piece of your own heart?

Posting may be slow until I get this piece off my chest.

Resist.

Hey POTUS...

9:14 EST-
The job of government is not to make Americans' lives better...

9:15-
"Economic Justice" means leave me the hell alone, government...

9:16-
We can meet our obligations.  Saying we cannot is a lie.  We can choose to pay extraneous crap and default, or we can meet our obligations and scale back government.

Your choice.

As usual, a lousy, partisan speech.  Thanks.

Yet More on the Bitcoin

I’ve had the opportunity, thanks mainly to generous readers and friends, to explore a tiny portion of the possibilities of the Bitcoin.

Any currency has its share of risks, hazards, and pitfalls.  As anyone who shops for food with the US dollar can attest, the “safe haven” dollar is no exception.  I have been using the Bitcoin on a limited basis for a currency when possible, and I see absolutely no risk over that of the dollar when used in the very short term.

I have for a while seen the Bitcoin as a hedge against the fall of the dollar.  This article, linked by John Robb here, does an excellent job of explaining one line of thought towards that end.  John’s post also links this piece, a CNBC article that’s actually more or less positive on the BC.  (Off topic, there’s some interesting pieces linked therein concerning drones, a future hobby of mine when cash flow improves…)

I know there’s a lot of resistance to the BC out there, for many reasons and on many levels.  In my opinion, the BC is something that will grow in acceptance and usage as more and more people "take the plunge".  Sort of like electronic banking, direct deposit, etc.  At some point, it’s virtually guaranteed that the .gov will attempt to crush or render it impotent by taxing it.

We’ll fight that fight when we get there, I suppose.

One way or the other, I doubt I can be convinced that the Bitcoin is more risky than our dollar.

In the meantime, with all the talk of debt, doom, Bitcoins, terrorism, and politics, let’s not forget the basics that will see us through anything. 

A healthy mind in a healthy body, living a life worth dying for.

Resist.

Impeach!

Steve King on default: Obama could be impeached

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/59836.html#ixzz1T9wRPMOg

Short article, worth reading.  I say let's stop talking about it and do it!  There are so many legitimate reasons to do it, even discounting the fact that he's ineligible to be President.  In the words of a wise man: "Git 'r done!"

Stay safe.

Lucky Us

Sounds like we're going to get a lecture tonight at 9 PM EST from the POTUS.

Lucky us.

I bet it turns into a presidential tantrum and scolding because he isn't getting his way.  The Dead Elephants will be blamed for obstructing progress (although the Senate made the decision to not move forward on cut, cap, and balance), the nation's children and elderly will be threatened, and all sorts of psychological terror will likely be used.

I wish I had a nationwide, taxpayer-funded television platform from which to advance my idea of "progress" and scold my opponents.

I don't know if I'll bother watching.  I can't stand to hear the man speak.  Maybe I will though.

Any takers on whether or not he floats some sort of extra-constitutional ideas on how to "solve" the "problem" (You know, the problem of having people demanding fiscal sanity...)?

Any takers on whether or not he brings up the violence in Oslo and tries in some way to link it to his opponents?

A Primer for Children on Bonds and Slavery

A new video on bonds and slavery from Tom Baugh and Starve Monkey Press.



I absolutely agree with the differentiation between government and corporate bonds.  Corporate bond holders are unable (at the present time) to collect on their bonds with guns (unless the corporation is "bailed out").

Tom's essay, Bonds?  What Bonds? covers the same material.

It might be a bit hypocritical to complain about government debt while at the same time enabling it by purchasing its bonds.  Sort of like the politician who crusades about family values and later runs off with his girlfriend (or boyfriend).  Or the ones who wail about "fat cats" and "bankers" while accepting campaign donations from them and providing them with billions in bailouts.

In my international finance class, we covered the subject of expropriation as a business risk for multinational companies.  Expropriation is when a government seizes assets of a company operating in its nation.  Hugo Chavez did this in 2009, using the military to steal the property of over sixty oil services companies, and a large amount of private farmland.  Chavez's quote was something along the lines of "Private property?  There's no such thing as steenking private property..."

I wrote at length about "expropriation" and the fact that it and other "redistributive" measures are nothing short of outright theft.  Bailouts are sort of like reverse expropriation, where the nation's people are stolen from and the money is given to companies.  And government bonds?  Well, that's like the proverbial two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.  The difference is that our children don't even get to vote.

Once every other explanation for the crime has been eliminated, the one that remains is likely correct.

from Oathkeepers

Hat tip to Free North Carolina

Edwin Vieira Visits With Anthony Wile of The Daily Bell

Quote;

"As for “great men”, surely there have been individuals who have stood out as “leaders”, for good or ill, throughout history. But no Hitler, Stalin, or Mao, to cite the worst modern examples, could have succeeded without dozens of lieutenants, and tens if not hundreds of thousands of lower-level helpers and hangers-on who had to be just as bad as they were, because the lower-level operatives were the ones who actually performed the arrests, actually confined people in concentration camps (gulag, laogai), and actually pulled the triggers in the execution-cellars. I am not aware of any evidence that Hitler, Stalin, or Mao ever shot some political enemy in the back of the head; but hundreds of thousands of supposed “enemies” were shot by their lackeys. “Great men” of that stamp are apparently “great” because they can convince large numbers of “little men” to behave in the most bestial ways towards even larger numbers of their completely innocent and harmless fellow men. The questions that need answers, then, are: Why do the “lesser men” follow the Hitlers, Stalin's, and Mao's into the labyrinth of evil? And why do the masses allow
themselves to be herded, and even slaughtered, by these thugs as so many sheep?"

(Read More)

...Look over at your children and ask yourself if kicking the can down the road is still an option. Well, is it punk?

BTW, This is post 700 for Green Mountains Homesteading. I want to thank my readers old and new for their support, and shared concern for what is happening to our country and society. Your sharing of information is what will save those things from further corrosion in the future. God Bless and I'll see you in the trenches...

The commies are coming, the commies are coming!!

...Oh wait, they are not only here, they are running the place...

Via Holger Awakens



The following is the list of Communist goals contained in The Naked Communist:

U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

Develop the illusion that total disarmament by the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces.

Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

Do away with all loyalty oaths.

Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

Gain control of all student newspapers.

Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. Skousen claimed that an American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

Control art critics and directors of art museums.

Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy." Skousen claimed Communists sought to encourage the practice of masturbation.


Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion.
Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture—education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand or treat.

Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity, masturbation and easy divorce.

Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use "united force" to solve economic, political or social problems.

Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

Internationalize the Panama Canal.

Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.



Here is the first in a series of videos on the book. follow the links at the end of each for the next chapter.


...Do you understand yet??

Welcome to the modern world....

"I'm not sure that we can believe anything anymore, as everything can be manipulated to be whatever anyone wants it to be."   ~~Paul Buchanan

Stay safe.

Wrong Again

It appears I was wrong about the Oslo attacks, now that everything's shaking out.

 On the Facebook page attributed to him, Mr Breivik describes himself as a Christian and a conservative. It listed his interests as hunting, body building and freemasonry. His profile also listed him as single. The page has since been taken down.

To the anonymous commenter on this post...

I feel foolish, yes.  Or, at least, wrong.  ;-)

Now if only the NY Times article I posted about the muslim group claiming responsibility would be clarified...

That's asking too much though, I suppose.

It'll be interesting to see the reaction to this event versus a typical reaction to a "normal" jihadi attack. 

Leather dress....

When a woman wears a leather dress, a man's heart beats quicker, and his throat gets dry, he goes weak in the knees, and he begins to think irrationally... Ever wonder why?   It's because she smells like a new truck. :)

Stay safe. 

And how a restoration of Liberty and Freedom?

...We will have to tear one from the Russian history book...

Hat tip to American Mercenary

from Foreign Policy

Everything You Think You Know About the Collapse of the Soviet Union Is Wrong

*And why it matters today in a new age of revolution.

"...a moral resurrection was essential. This meant not merely an overhaul of the Soviet political and economic systems, not merely an upending of social norms, but a revolution on the individual level: a change in the personal character of the Russian subject. As Mikhail Antonov declared in a seminal 1987 essay, "So What Is Happening to Us?" in the magazine Oktyabr, the people had to be "saved" -- not from external dangers but "most of all from themselves, from the consequences of those demoralizing processes that kill the noblest human qualities." Saved how? By making the nascent liberalization fateful, irreversible -- not Khrushchev's short-lived "thaw," but a climate change. And what would guarantee this irreversibility? Above all, the appearance of a free man who would be "immune to the recurrences of spiritual slavery." The weekly magazine Ogoniok, a key publication of glasnost, wrote in February 1989 that only "man incapable of being a police informer, of betraying, and of lies, no matter in whose or what name, can save us from the re-emergence of a totalitarian state."

The circuitous nature of this reasoning -- to save the people one had to save perestroika, but perestroika could be saved only if it was capable of changing man "from within" -- did not seem to trouble anyone. Those who thought out loud about these matters seemed to assume that the country's salvation through perestroika and the extrication of its people from the spiritual morass were tightly -- perhaps, inextricably -- interwoven, and left it at that. What mattered was reclaiming the people to citizenship from "serfdom" and "slavery." "Enough!" declared Boris Vasiliev, the author of a popular novella of the period about World War II, which was made into an equally well-received film. "Enough lies, enough servility, enough cowardice. Let's remember, finally, that we are all citizens. Proud citizens of a proud nation!"

...AND,

DELVING INTO THE causes of the French Revolution, de Tocqueville famously noted that regimes overthrown in revolutions tend to be less repressive than the ones preceding them. Why? Because, de Tocqueville surmised, though people "may suffer less," their "sensibility is exacerbated."

As usual, Tocqueville was onto something hugely important. From the Founding Fathers to the Jacobins and Bolsheviks, revolutionaries have fought under essentially the same banner: advancement of human dignity. It is in the search for dignity through liberty and citizenship that glasnost's subversive sensibility lives -- and will continue to live. Just as the pages of Ogoniok and Moskovskie Novosti must take pride of place next to Boris Yeltsin on the tank as symbols of the latest Russian revolution, so should Internet pages in Arabic stand as emblems of the present revolution next to the images of rebellious multitudes in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the Casbah plaza in Tunis, the streets of Benghazi, and the blasted towns of Syria. Languages and political cultures aside, their messages and the feelings they inspired were remarkably similar.

The fruit-seller Mohamed Bouazizi, whose self-immolation set off the Tunisian uprising that began the Arab Spring of 2011, did so "not because he was jobless," a demonstrator in Tunis told an American reporter, but "because he … went to talk to the [local authorities] responsible for his problem and he was beaten -- it was about the government." In Benghazi, the Libyan revolt started with the crowd chanting, "The people want an end to corruption!" In Egypt, the crowds were "all about the self-empowerment of a long-repressed people no longer willing to be afraid, no longer willing to be deprived of their freedom, and no longer willing to be humiliated by their own leaders."


(Read More)

...Now do you understand why DHSS, TSA and the rest of the thugocracy considers the white, middle class American male to be the "terrorist"? Because, THAT IS EXACTLY WHO HAS THE POWER TO AFFECT CHANGE FOR THE MORAL, SPIRITUAL AND BETTERMENT OF THE CITIZENS IN THIS COUNTRY.


....A revelation write large in the Russian revolution of 1991.

...Do you understand yet??

Electronic Warfare

This is a small portion of electronic warfare, but it represents and enduring capability that insurgents in Afghanistan have had to learn to deal with.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/iraqs-invisible-war/all/1

A lot about capabilities, a little about the how, and very little about successful insurgent tactics.  Still worth reading about twice over if you aren't familiar with the emerging realm of land based electronic warfare.

A thought....

They won't admit that they were wrong until the entire country has been completely destroyed by their saviour and his disciples.  Perhaps they are too arrogant to admit it even then.  After all, it's not like them to accept any form of responsibility.

I will get pleasure from their looks of surprise as they are shackled and enslaved on the orders of the one they elected to give them all that they wanted.  I will laugh at them when they realize that they betrayed their country, their humanity, their children, for him, and when he, in turn, betrays them.  Only then will they perhaps realize that everything has a price, and that price can be very high.

he doesn't care about you.   

You can't fix stupid.

Stupid fuckers.

Sad.

Stay safe.

John Robb: The Resilient Home

This is a good resource on "The Resilient Home" by John Robb.

It's a work-in progress, as I understand it.  There's some value to be gained there, I believe.

Here is a GG post on Resilient Production.  I've been looking into this, but the winter, combined with the lack of space in my eight-person-family-house makes it challenging, to say the least.

Resist.

The "Do Nothing" Option

The Debt Ceiling game continues.

The House says the next move is the Senate's.

The Senate says the next move is the House.

The President says the next move is to give him his way.  All that's standing in the way is the House Republicans (who were elected as a backlash to his policies, btw).

Who is right?

This is what I think.

In any given decision making framework, the most obvious choice is often the most overlooked.  The first and sometimes most important option to evaluate is the "do nothing" option.  When people say "We have to do something", they automatically assume "doing nothing" is unacceptable.

Evaluating "do nothing" can be a valuable tool to help better define the situation.  Sometimes doing nothing to change or affect a situation is better than doing something.

So, what does "doing nothing" on the House's part look like, in short?

Doing nothing, and letting the deadline come and go will legally force the government to drastically cut spending.  This will lead to dramatic hardship, unrest, and a lot of pain. 

Dramatically cutting spending is the only viable option remaining.  It must be done.  It does not mean have to mean a default on the part of the US government.

The people in the House who passed cut, cap, and balance must realize that any compromise whatsoever at this point will involve raising taxes now, and empty promises to cut spending later.  The taxes will stay, the cuts will not as they are not legally binding on future sessions of Congress.

The games will continue, however, as politicians use terror and threats against kids, the elderly, the sick, soldiers, unions, and government employees to further their causes.  They did this last time, and Senator Son-of-Vomit-and Cholesterol Schumer is doing it now, threatening that Medicare will be cut because of the evil Republicans and thie unconscionable plan to force fiscal sanity on this nation.  Wait though, didn't Schumer vote for Obamacare?  Anyone remember what that did to Medicare?

Hey Schumer, you piece of refuse, crew off.  You and your Jackass party/Dead Elephant party buddies are stealing the fruits of my five year old son's labor, before he even has the chance to earn it.

I would treat a burglar stealing my son's toys fairly harshly.  Quit stealing his toys.  Quit stealing his children's toys.  Now.

So, my take? 

It's the House's move.

Choose to do nothing.

GoV, the Mohammed Coefficient, and Oslo

Update:  Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami, or the "Helpers of the Global Jihad", has claimed responsibility.

Gates of Vienna offers updates and info on the recent Oslo attacks.

Disciple of Night offers one powerful word on the subject, here at Oblivion Sphere.  More here, at Random Acts of Patriotism.

I wonder what the Mohammed Coefficient in these attacks works out to be...

I know, I know, I'm assuming and being hateful and all that.

I bet I'm right, though.

I like Disciple's one word.

Here's mine, which can be used in conjunction with his:

Resist.

(Edited to add links)

My Problem With Charter Schools-Too Many Are"Bad Neighborhood Citizens"

I am not in principle against charter schools. Experimenting with new models of school organization can be a good thing, and giving parents more options within the public school system can promote an atmosphere conducive to better teaching and learning

But in a society dominated by trickle down economics,where there is little commitment to improve public education as a whole, charter schools have not fulfilled their original promise. With rare exceptions, they have functioned as though their success requires the failure of neighboring institutions, refusing to work cooperatively with traditional public schools when they share a building, pushing out or excluding special needs, elll children, and those marked as "behavior problems" and embracing what amounts to a two tier styemm in inner city schools- one favored and amply funded- the other looked on with suspcion and contempt

Charter schools can lead to improvements in the quality of education, but only if they embrae all children and try to work with and support public schools they share space and neighborhoods with,not quarantine them as if they were carriers of a contagious disease

Right now, based on what I have seen in the Bronx, and other parts of New YorkCity, charter schools have not improved the quality of education in inner city neighorhoods. The best have supplied a small number of families with better educational options. But on the whole, charter schools have been "bad neighborhood citizens," viewing everyone outside their ranks as a threat to their educational mission,and doing everything possible to "stack the deck" against traditional public schools by indirectly or overtly excluding students who might not test well or be compliant learners

This "us againnst the neighborhood" is the last thing New York, and the nation's immigrant and working class communities need asthey find themselves starved of resources by budget cuts at the city, state and federal level

Until charter schools start fighting for ALL the children and families in the neighborhoods they are located in, rather than the 10 percent enrolled in their institutions, they will be unable to make a positive contribution to the struggle for racial and economic equality in the United States

Mark Naison
July 22,2011

NOTE: While there are some neighborhoods in which 10 percent of the students are enrolled in charter schools, in the nation as a whole, as Diane Ravitch points out, only 3.5 percent of students are in charter schools

Days running into each other....

For the first time in my career I'm a real staff officer.  That means 14 hour days are the norm, 7 days a week.

Obviously that is why updates have hovered between "sporadic" to "non-existant" here at randomthoughtsanguns.

About the time that I get this job figured out they'll move me on to the next one, so wish me luck.  And Afghanistan?  Pulling out can hardly make the situation worse.

A Site Worth Visiting...

Another site worth visiting:

Patriotic and Proud

A quote from a recent post, to give you a taste:

"Freedom is not convenience, it is being un-coercible, unbowed before any but God and conscience."

My apologies for not finding it sooner...

The Evidence is Staring Us in the Face

A quote from the past

"A nation that lets itself be trained to take an interest in nothing beyond its television programme will one day also readily give up any and all social interaction, its statehood as a whole, the once great regard accorded to it by the world, and ultimately even its future generations. We do not need to look to politics for proof of this; the evidence stares us in the face even in everyday life..." ~Friedrich Christian, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe

It is true, even if one does not admire the man who wrote it.

Resist.

One has to wonder....

One has to wonder why our FedGov is allowing massive, virtually unchecked, illegal immigration across our southern border.  Current estimates put the number of illegals living in the United States as somewhere between 10 and 30 million.  They have no idea how many there are.  What makes it even more amazing is that we know that many of those crossing the border are involved in the drug trade and that many are already or will become criminals here in this country.  Crossing the border illegally is, well, illegal.

The FedGov is violating the law by not enforcing the long standing immigration laws of this country.  The FedGov has filed lawsuits against states that attempt to enforce current immigration laws.

Why is this happening?  What is the reason for allowing the law to be broken with only token efforts in place to enforce it?  Why was the recently enacted Arizona law against illegal immigration ruled unconstitutional and shut down?

The law in Arizona was ruled unconstitutional because it would have required local law enforcement to check the immigration status of individuals who were under police investigation for other illegal activity such as traffic violations and minor crimes if there was any suspicion that those people may be illegal.   It has been assumed that the Police would "profile" people who fit a certain description.  That would be a violation of their 4th Amendment rights.  Whoa!  Back up a minute.  I was under the impression that The Constitution was for the protection of American citizens?  (Illegals and foreigners apparently have constitutional rights beyond their consular rights.)  The response to that is that the Police would, through "profiling", question citizens who might "look" like illegals but who were, in fact, here legally.  It would be an inconvenience and a violation of their 4th Amendment rights.  Can't do it.  Apparently the FedGov doesn't trust the local police forces to do their job correctly.

The inconvenience and humiliation of submitting to being searched at a TSA checkpoint at an airport or railway station or out on the street without probable cause or "reasonable suspicion" does not violate your 4th Amendment rights.  Warrantless searches in Indiana, and I'm sure other places, do not violate your 4th Amendment rights as long as the officer believes that you may be destroying evidence.  Asking to prove that you are in this country legally does violate your rights.  I don't get it.  Too weird.

You cannot be required to show identification at the polls when you go to vote.  Where is the logic in that?  Apparently requiring I.D. would prevent someone who is not qualified to vote from voting?

I'd be interested in hearing some opinions from the folks who stop by this blog regarding why we allow this illegal immigration to continue.  It appears we are actually promoting it.

On another subject....

The best (Read: worst) piece of news I read today regards DHS stating that Middle Class Whites are the most likely terrorists and should be watched.  Here's the link.  Is anyone concerned?

Stay safe.

The Russians just won the space race...

from Green Mountain Scribes

By Alan Sexton/Green Mountain Scribes

First launched in 1985, Space Shuttle Atlantis and crew returned home this morning, landing 5:57 a.m. EST at the Kennedy Space Center. This marks the successful end of Atlantis’ remarkable 33 run history and the 135th-and final-flight of NASA’s historic Space Shuttle program.

NASA launched it’s first Shuttle, Columbia, in 1981.

(Read More)

...Remember when the object of our Nation was to excel, not hand out OPP (other people's property) to the detritus of our society??



"Yet the vows of this Nation can only be fulfilled if we in this Nation are first, and, therefore, we intend to be first. In short, our leadership in science and in industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves as well as others, all require us to make this effort, to solve these mysteries, to solve them for the good of all men, and to become the world's leading space-faring nation.

We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war. I do not say the we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours.

There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

President John F. Kennedy
Houston, Texas
September 12, 1962


...And now, we beg for seats on Russian space craft, who through the monopoly of lift systems for all intents and purposes OWN the space station that billions of OUR tax dollars are invested in.

...And still the Völkischer Beobachter types at CNN, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CBS, ad nausum, who cover and excuse every move made by the First Kenyan tell us what a "good" deal it is.

...Well, it is not a "good deal". It is a fucking national disgrace.

...The Russians just won the space race. Just as the existence of the thugish DHSS/TSA PROVES the terrorists won on 9/11/01.

...Iran is winning in the middle east.

...China is winning in the economic war.

...sloth, greed, theft, and tyranny are winning at home. The police state in your face. The outright hypocracy of your "leaders" and media insult daily the common sense of men. How much more can you take?

...What more do you need to prove to you that our nation, under God, has been hijacked by Marxist idealoges and corporate enablers to We the People's detriment.

"The neo-Fascism's economic system of corporatism could be identified as either state capitalism or state socialism, which in either case involved the bureaucratisation of the economic activities of the nation."

...Sound familiar?

What more proof do you need? Your family going hungry?

...Well. Your going to get that too. Remember the "Food Safety Act"? Just wait for it, just as you have waited for all the outrages above...serf.


...Thanks to Green Mountain Scribes for the inspiration to finally express my simmering discontent on this issue.

Caribou

In a few weeks I'm taking some days off work/blogging to hunt Caribou.  If I'm "lucky", I'll get to try up near the Dalton (with the obligatory five-mile walk in) for caribou between now and then.

It'll be a low-budget thing, in an area off-limits to motorized vehicles, and a few thousand feet above sea level.  The caribou will likely be waaay back near a glacier in early August, and it promises to be quite the deathmarch hike.  I'll be packing light.  Last time I went, I packed way too much junk I didn't need.  Heh.  Don't be that guy.

I look at is as "training", PT, and an "armed nature walk" all in one, with a decent chance of scoring several hundred pounds of meat.  The area is full of grizzlies, but I don't know that I'll take one unless I'm threatened.

Caribou season.  Moose in September.

The blueberries are out in force.

Do you know what those things mean?

Summer is nearly over, winter is only a few months away.

Definitions

Definitions...

Christmas-  When children tell adults what they want and the adults pay for it.

Deficit-  When adults tell Congress what they want and their children pay for it.

PT- 10,10,5,20

I like to mix things up during my weight training.  This can mean varying weight, reps, sets, or speed.  Keeping the body guessing is important for development.  The body can adapt to and normalize almost any workout, if it is given the chance.

Normally, I'm a high intensity, high-weight, low-rep, take-every-set-to-failure kind of guy.  Every few months I switch off with bodyweight stuff, or I do more reps, or somehow change things up.

Even from workout to workout though, variation is good.  One variation that I throw in once in a while is exquisitely painful. 

Start with a light weight you can lift ten times.  Do ten reps.
Add 10-20 pounds, so that you can barely get ten reps.  Do ten reps.
Add more weight, so that you barely get four or five out before muscle failure.  Do four or five reps.
Immediately go back to your lighter starting weight and pump out twenty, or as close as you can.

This takes some experimentation to get right, but once you get the right weights figured out, I can guarantee you that the targeted muscle group will feel as though there's a torch directed on it.

This is especially effective if done with leg extensions before squats, dumbbell flies before the bench press, or leg curls followed by stiff-legged deadlifts.

Use the imagination if you don't have weights.  I used my kids (they had a blast), water jugs, tires, logs, and concrete blocks for weights before I found a good deal on a weight set on Craigslist. 

PT.  Get some.  It's free.

Jeff Cooper Quote

"Any man who is a man may not, in honor, submit to
threats of violence. But many men who are not cowards
are simply unprepared for acts of human savagery. They
have not thought about it (incredible as this may
appear to anyone who reads the papers or listens to
the news)and they just don't know what to do. When
they look right into the face of depravity and
violence they are astonished and confounded"
     
-Jeff Cooper

One of my co-workers....

One of my co-workers is going to be spending next weekend camping and partying with members of his wife's graduating class of nurses.  He is prepared to fly these flags in the Liberal hotbed that he's entering.  Perhaps he'll teach them something?  :)

I'm proud of him.

Stay safe.

Links....

Curtis over at California Tree of Liberty posted this article on obama's plans for a security force within the U.S.

This should scare the crap out of you.

Brock posted this article, as well as this one, over at Free North Carolina.

obama's Culture of Corruption is becoming more well defined each day.  It's all right there for the world to see, if you'll just open your eyes.

Tic.... Toc.... Tic.... Toc....

Stay safe.

The "President of the World" Wins the Award of the Day

Bill Clinton says he'd use the Fourteenth Amendment to raise the debt ceiling.

See, that's the problem.  The premise is false and twisted.  The debt ceiling is not a 14th Amendment issue.

The US does not have to default if the debt ceiling is not raised.

There is money to pay the service on out debt.

If the US does not raise the debt ceiling, and chooses to default, that is because the people running the show would rather fund EBT cards, the EPA, Obamacare, Michelle Obama's garden, and her trip to visit terrorist Nelson Mandela.  It is because those in power would rather perpetuate their system of crony capitalism, in order to further enrich themselves and their interests.  It is because our government would rather force you and I to fund bailouts of companies that should collapse than allow you to keep what you have expended parts of you "only-ever" life to earn.

The issue here is spending, and nothing else at all.

Saying the US will inevitably default if the ceiling is not raised is a falsehood.  A lie.

It is true, however, that the federal government of the United states absolutely does not have the ability to service its debt and maintain the same level of government spending people have grown accustomed to.

We must cut spending, and it is going to hurt.  Bad. 

When handed a pay cut by my employer, I had to cut spending.  My former level of spending became unsustainable, almost overnight.  I didn't run out and apply for three more credit cards, run them up, and declare bankruptcy!  I had to postpone indefinitely my half-finished AR pistol project.  The ammo stocks are lower than they've been in a while.  We're not as able to set back extra food or whatever.  We're not suffering, but things are tighter than before.

I...

(...wait for it...)

cut spending!!!

Saying that we must either raise the debt ceiling or default is a false choice and it is a lie.

Bill Clinton wins the "Offspring of Vomit and Cholesterol" award of the day.

Congrats, you arrogant, puffed up, lying, womanizing, adulterous sack of garbage. 

Don't worry Barack, I'm sure you'll open your mouth, spew some more of your Marxist garbage, and earn it back tomorrow.

In the meantime, I have some PT to do.  Shoulders and neck today.

Afterward, I have something very important to do.  It's infinitely more important than anything that could possibly ooze from the pus-filled canker known as DC.

I have to play dodge ball with my kids.

New discovery....

An archaeological team, digging in
Washington DC , has uncovered
10,000 year old bones and fossil remains
Of what is believed to be the first
Politician.

Stay safe.

Where I Find The Courage To Resist An Unjust Social Order-An Historian an Activist's Personal Credo

Maybe I am too much the historian, but I am convinced no society can concentrate wealth in a small number of hands the way the US has today without undermining its own legitimacy. The so-called Education Reform movement is a classic case study of the corrupting power of great wealth. The attacks on teachers, the obsession with high stakes testing, the attempts to close failing schools, though presented as strategies to achieve greater equality, in real life clear the way for powerful corporations to profit from privatizing a great public resource. This movement has now been going on for more than ten years and amidst its political ascendency, we have seen the shrinking of the middle class, the improverishment of the working class, the warehousing and imprisonment of minority youth, the squandering of precious resources on cruel and needless wars and the continuing concentrat ion of wealth and power among a small number of people.
In such such a society, telling the truth matters. And while victory is hardly guaraneed for those who decry great abuses of power, it is important that we that we speak up, that we resist, that we organize, and that we set an example for those that come after us. We cannot allow a Plutocracy to dominate our nation's economic, political and cutlural life. We have to fight it on every terrain, in our neighborhoods, in our work places, in our schools and universities, in the political arena, and in culture and mass media. When trying to gain strength for what sometimes seems to be a hopeless battle, I think of Joe Hill, I think of Paul Robeson, I think of Ida B Wells and Fanny Lou Hamer, I think of Martin Louther King and Malcolm X, and in their memory and in their name, I will insist on holding this nation to a much higher standard of democratic ideals and democratic practice than its leaders currently do.
Mark Naison
July 19, 2011

Tic... Toc... Tic... Toc...

Time is running out.

Stay safe.

Time to Create a Progressive Caucus in Teach for America?

Although the leadership of TFA is closely allied with forces seeking to privatize public education, and use high stakes
testing as a vehicle to rate teachers and administrators, there are many TFA Corps members, past and present, who believe
that racism, poverty and regressive taxation, not failing schools, are the primary causes of neighborhood distress and economic
stagnation in the United States.

Perhaps it is time that these people, who now number in the thousands, organize a progressive caucus in TFA to fight within the
organizaiton to reduce its emphasis on high stakes testing, encourage TFA corps members to make teaching their lifetime career, and to have TFA
openly repudiate "trickle down economics" and support the redistribution of wealth through progressive taxation..

I for one would be willing to use all resources at my disposal to help such a caucus get started, and I know of many other progressive academics
around the country who would do the same,

TFA Corps members and alumni who think such a caucus is worth discussing should feel free to contact me via my Fordham ( naison@fordham.edu) or personal ( mnaison@aol.com) email

Sincerely


Mark D Naison
Professor of African American Studies and History
Forham University
Principal Investigator, Bronx African American History Proect

Genius....

Stay safe.