Sad But True ~~~
A dog had followed his owner to school. His owner was a fourth grader at a public elementary school.
The dog went inside the building and made it all the way to the child's classroom before a teacher noticed and shooed him outside, closing the door behind him.The dog sat down, whimpered and stared at the closed doors.
Then God appeared beside the dog, patted his head, and said,
"Don't feel bad fella they won't let ME in either!"
Stay safe.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
The amphibious Homestead...
I love Vermont because of her hills and valleys, her scenery and invigorating climate, but most of all because of her indomitable people. They are a race of pioneers who have almost beggared themselves to serve others. If the spirit of liberty should vanish in other parts of the Union, and support of our institutions should languish, it could all be replenished from the generous store held by the people of this brave little state of Vermont.
Calvin Coolidge, after the flood of 1927
We are still here at the Homestead after playing submarine. Hang with us for updates here and there. Gotta lotta work to do.
Resist.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Che Guevera
While I've been busy blasting international marxism and its spread after WW2, I have found that I am guilty of the very type of dishonesty of which I accuse some who attack National Socialism.
I find I'm rather good at sticking my foot in my mouth. In this case, I think it is a case of willing blindness, just as it is with many who refuse to see any good at all in Germany under the NSDAP and Hitler.
I laid into Che Guevera without knowing much about the man, and I have been encouraged by a person I very much respect and admire to look deeper.
No, this person is not a marxist or another type of collectivist. He's about as far from that as I've seen them come.
It is arguable that Che fought against many of the same forces that are, right now, at work destroying our nation. Our country shelters, nurtures, and even rewards these forces with our money, and with the precious and priceless blood of our children and the youth of our people.
I've read his writings, skimming over the ideologies while looking for the tactics and strategies of the guerrilla. I will start anew, I suppose, and this time around I will look at his ideology, and the source of his (and others for and with whom he fought) grievances.
It could be that they have valid points. Like millions of Americans who have been screwed in the past several years by the same forces that Che fought against.
I'm breaking the #1 rule of propaganda here... Never sympathize with, humanize, or lend any credence at all to the enemy. Che is dead though, he can't, by definition, be my enemy.
I will endeavor to learn more about Che -the man- as opposed to Che -the myth-. I want to go beyond the t-shirts and flags, and the liberal idealization, and learn why he fought ruthlessly for his cause (and, if you're going to fight, you'd better damn well be ruthless). I want to know who he saw as his enemy. And why. I realize this will likely earn me some rather unflattering emails, as did my "ripples" post previously.
That's what this is all about though. Stirring the pot. Encouraging thought. Being challenged mentally is the only way to grow.
We have to know who the enemy is in order to fight him.
It could be that Che and I share some of the same enemies. Maybe.
I'm going to find out.
Over some nice quality Root Beer.
;-)
I find I'm rather good at sticking my foot in my mouth. In this case, I think it is a case of willing blindness, just as it is with many who refuse to see any good at all in Germany under the NSDAP and Hitler.
I laid into Che Guevera without knowing much about the man, and I have been encouraged by a person I very much respect and admire to look deeper.
No, this person is not a marxist or another type of collectivist. He's about as far from that as I've seen them come.
It is arguable that Che fought against many of the same forces that are, right now, at work destroying our nation. Our country shelters, nurtures, and even rewards these forces with our money, and with the precious and priceless blood of our children and the youth of our people.
I've read his writings, skimming over the ideologies while looking for the tactics and strategies of the guerrilla. I will start anew, I suppose, and this time around I will look at his ideology, and the source of his (and others for and with whom he fought) grievances.
It could be that they have valid points. Like millions of Americans who have been screwed in the past several years by the same forces that Che fought against.
I'm breaking the #1 rule of propaganda here... Never sympathize with, humanize, or lend any credence at all to the enemy. Che is dead though, he can't, by definition, be my enemy.
I will endeavor to learn more about Che -the man- as opposed to Che -the myth-. I want to go beyond the t-shirts and flags, and the liberal idealization, and learn why he fought ruthlessly for his cause (and, if you're going to fight, you'd better damn well be ruthless). I want to know who he saw as his enemy. And why. I realize this will likely earn me some rather unflattering emails, as did my "ripples" post previously.
That's what this is all about though. Stirring the pot. Encouraging thought. Being challenged mentally is the only way to grow.
We have to know who the enemy is in order to fight him.
It could be that Che and I share some of the same enemies. Maybe.
I'm going to find out.
Over some nice quality Root Beer.
;-)
Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness
A federal judge on Tuesday struck down key provision of Texas' new law requiring a doctor to perform a sonogram before an abortion, ruling that the measure violates the free speech rights of both doctors and patients."Free Speech". Being shown (or required to show) the truth, that an unborn baby is a living human, is a violation of free speech.
Wow.
"A New York-based reproductive rights group had sued to block the law."Weasel words.
That should say "A New York-based infanticide advocacy group..."
Everyone has the right to reproduce. That is nature. No one has the "right" to deliberately kill a baby. That is a lie.
"U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks said in his ruling that requiring a doctor to show women images from the sonogram and the sounds of the fetal heartbeat violates the First Amendment rights of doctors."I guess this is where I break down as a freedom advocate. We're worried about the doctor's "free speech" (if indeed one accepts this tortured extrapolation of the term), but WHO SPEAKS FOR THE BABY'S RIGHT TO LIVE???
This is an outright admission by infanticide advocates that the baby is indeed alive, and a concerted attempt to keep young women (or not-so-young, for that matter) ignorant.
The one thing that might convince a mother not to kill her child is the realization that her child is indeed alive.
I tell you what, if your idea of "freedom" involves denying the unborn the right to life, as in, you know, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness", then I want no part of your freedom. None at all.
I want no part of "freedom", "libertarianism", or "democracy" if the result thereof is infanticide. People gripe about economic freedom and taxes, and Obamacare. What good is all that if your mother decides to have you dismembered in the womb?
If a baby, the most helpless of our society, free of any wrongdoing, is denied the basic human right to life, then I say we have no freedom at all, on the most fundamental level. As long as a mother can legally kill her child in this nation, the word "justice" is a perversion.
As long as infanticide is legal, "freedom" in America is no more than at the whim of someone else. It is a lie.
People can try to weasel their way out of this by twisting reality and common sense. People can say parents have the "right" to kill their child, and try to phrase it as a "parental rights" issue (although strangely, they would recoil if someone choked a day-old baby in front of them).
Bull.
If a culture and legal system is incapable of protecting its own babies, it is, in my opinion, worthless. Such a culture and society deserves to die.
If the American Constitution guarantees and protects Americans' "right" to kill their babies, then it is thoroughly evil and I want no part of it.
Comments and arguments are welcome, as always, but to me, this is conviction.
There is no other subject that awakens a fire in me as does this one.
Nick Ashford, Jerry Leiber and the Soundtrack of a Multiracial America
Nick Ashford, Jerry Leiber and the Soundtrack of a Multiracial America
Mark Naison
When I discovered that two of the greatest rock and roll songwriters of all time, Nick Ashford (of the duo Ashford and Simpson) and Jerry Leiber ( of Leiber and Stoller) died in a single day, my first impulse was to go into mourning. As someone who grew up in Brooklyn in the 50’s and came of age as a civil rights and anti-war activist at Columbia University in the 60’s, I looked to songs that they had written ( from “Hound Dog” and “Stand By Me” to “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and “Solid as a Rock”) as part of the sound track of my life and markers of my personal and political evolution.
But after thinking about their music, not only on its impact on tens of millions of people in my generation, but on the cultural politics their songwriting reflected, I think it’s important to understand that they were figures who in their own way helped redefine race in United States by creating a sonic universe which people of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds could enter, and find joy and meaning within.
It is easy to forget how unique this multiracial sonic universe, which evolved with the popularity of Rock and Roll in the middle 1950’s and lasted through the late 60’s, was in its historic moment. There are certain songs, most, but not all of them performed by Black artists, most involving themes of love and loyalty, which young people in every single part of the country, regardless of racial or cultural background, adopted as their own personal anthems and retain powerful associations to this day.
At a time of unprecedented economic growth, when unions were strong, wealth was far more evenly distributed than it is now, and working class people of all racial backgrounds strode through America with a confidence and optimism that would be unimaginable today, songwriters, record producers, radio dj’s and singers managed to capture that optimistic spirit by adapting rhythm and blues- a music forged in postwar urban black communities to a broader youth market. And while the driving impulse here was commerce, the music that resulted had a joyous spirit that cut across racial boundaries more than anything the nation had ever seen.
But it could only work because some of those boundaries were being crossed in daily life. In cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Detroit, young blacks and whites not only found themselves working in the same factories, they sometimes attended the same high schools and lived in the same housing projects. And if the majority of people who moved through these integrated settings kept to their own cohort, there were enough people who crossed those boundaries in friendship, and occasionally in love to understand that there were some very real commonalities in material aspirations and cultural values. Young people in those times, irrespective of their racial backgrounds, wanted cars, and houses, good jobs and good times, and hoped, at some point after they had their fun, to find love and marriage!
Songwriters like Nick Ashford and Jerry Leiber knew this. They were part of a generation of young people who believed in “love” ( however gendered their definition of that was) and who believed that their economic prospects were promising enough to imagine love leading to marriage. That deindustrialization, war, and stubbornly persistent racism might undermine that possibility, and that women’s empowerment would render the ideal problematic, goes without saying, but for a good ten year period, a whole generation raised in those heady times was emotionally entranced by the vision of love and loyalty put forward in songs like” Stand By Me” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.
Look at the lyrics of each of these songs:
Stand by Me
When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we see
Oh I won’t be afraid, no I won’t be afraid
Just as long as you stand by me
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
If you need me, no matter where you are
No matter how far, don’t worry baby
Just call my name, I’ll be there in a hurry
You don’t have to worry
Cause ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no valley
Low enough, ain’t no river wide enough, to keep me
From getting to you baby
These heroic visions of devotion and loyalty might elicit laughter today, but they were as much part of what it meant to be young in the early and middle 60’s as the draft, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the Star Spangled Banner, and wherever you go, whether it be the Deep South, the Pacific Northwest, New England or the Great Plains or the Mesabi range, you put these songs on for a 60 and over group, irrespective of race, and it will being a moment of reverence, not just for lost youth, not just for broken ideals, but for passions that emerge when you live life to the fullest
That these two songwriters, one black, one white, could capture those feelings with such perfect pitch, with such startling universality, reflected not just as astute reading of a moment in American history, but the creation of a cross racial sensibility that had never existed before and might never quite exist again in exactly the same form.
Whatever this nation has become, since that time; whatever changes in gender and economics have rendered the ideals and visions captured in those songs problematic, at least for our time, the song captures a time when people dared to dream that love and loyalty were possible and that they could dream together across racial and cultural boundaries in a way that their parents generation could never imagine.
Mark Naison
August 21, 2011
Mark Naison
When I discovered that two of the greatest rock and roll songwriters of all time, Nick Ashford (of the duo Ashford and Simpson) and Jerry Leiber ( of Leiber and Stoller) died in a single day, my first impulse was to go into mourning. As someone who grew up in Brooklyn in the 50’s and came of age as a civil rights and anti-war activist at Columbia University in the 60’s, I looked to songs that they had written ( from “Hound Dog” and “Stand By Me” to “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and “Solid as a Rock”) as part of the sound track of my life and markers of my personal and political evolution.
But after thinking about their music, not only on its impact on tens of millions of people in my generation, but on the cultural politics their songwriting reflected, I think it’s important to understand that they were figures who in their own way helped redefine race in United States by creating a sonic universe which people of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds could enter, and find joy and meaning within.
It is easy to forget how unique this multiracial sonic universe, which evolved with the popularity of Rock and Roll in the middle 1950’s and lasted through the late 60’s, was in its historic moment. There are certain songs, most, but not all of them performed by Black artists, most involving themes of love and loyalty, which young people in every single part of the country, regardless of racial or cultural background, adopted as their own personal anthems and retain powerful associations to this day.
At a time of unprecedented economic growth, when unions were strong, wealth was far more evenly distributed than it is now, and working class people of all racial backgrounds strode through America with a confidence and optimism that would be unimaginable today, songwriters, record producers, radio dj’s and singers managed to capture that optimistic spirit by adapting rhythm and blues- a music forged in postwar urban black communities to a broader youth market. And while the driving impulse here was commerce, the music that resulted had a joyous spirit that cut across racial boundaries more than anything the nation had ever seen.
But it could only work because some of those boundaries were being crossed in daily life. In cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Detroit, young blacks and whites not only found themselves working in the same factories, they sometimes attended the same high schools and lived in the same housing projects. And if the majority of people who moved through these integrated settings kept to their own cohort, there were enough people who crossed those boundaries in friendship, and occasionally in love to understand that there were some very real commonalities in material aspirations and cultural values. Young people in those times, irrespective of their racial backgrounds, wanted cars, and houses, good jobs and good times, and hoped, at some point after they had their fun, to find love and marriage!
Songwriters like Nick Ashford and Jerry Leiber knew this. They were part of a generation of young people who believed in “love” ( however gendered their definition of that was) and who believed that their economic prospects were promising enough to imagine love leading to marriage. That deindustrialization, war, and stubbornly persistent racism might undermine that possibility, and that women’s empowerment would render the ideal problematic, goes without saying, but for a good ten year period, a whole generation raised in those heady times was emotionally entranced by the vision of love and loyalty put forward in songs like” Stand By Me” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.
Look at the lyrics of each of these songs:
Stand by Me
When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we see
Oh I won’t be afraid, no I won’t be afraid
Just as long as you stand by me
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
If you need me, no matter where you are
No matter how far, don’t worry baby
Just call my name, I’ll be there in a hurry
You don’t have to worry
Cause ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no valley
Low enough, ain’t no river wide enough, to keep me
From getting to you baby
These heroic visions of devotion and loyalty might elicit laughter today, but they were as much part of what it meant to be young in the early and middle 60’s as the draft, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the Star Spangled Banner, and wherever you go, whether it be the Deep South, the Pacific Northwest, New England or the Great Plains or the Mesabi range, you put these songs on for a 60 and over group, irrespective of race, and it will being a moment of reverence, not just for lost youth, not just for broken ideals, but for passions that emerge when you live life to the fullest
That these two songwriters, one black, one white, could capture those feelings with such perfect pitch, with such startling universality, reflected not just as astute reading of a moment in American history, but the creation of a cross racial sensibility that had never existed before and might never quite exist again in exactly the same form.
Whatever this nation has become, since that time; whatever changes in gender and economics have rendered the ideals and visions captured in those songs problematic, at least for our time, the song captures a time when people dared to dream that love and loyalty were possible and that they could dream together across racial and cultural boundaries in a way that their parents generation could never imagine.
Mark Naison
August 21, 2011
You don't need a gun....
To kill yourself....
Or to kill someone else.
Sad situations, both. Contrary to what the anti-gunners would have you believe, the fact of the matter is that if you want to kill yourself or others, you'll find a way to do it. Where there's a will, there's a way. Where there's desire, there's a device. It's not the tool, it's the person using it. Seems pretty simple to me.
I watched a guy in a black Pontiac Grand Prix run through a 4-way stop and nearly nail the guy who had already stopped and was then making a legal left turn on my way home from work tonight. The guy in the Pontiac? Gangsta' lean. Cell phone. Could have killed someone. 'Nuff said.
Stay safe.
Or to kill someone else.
Sad situations, both. Contrary to what the anti-gunners would have you believe, the fact of the matter is that if you want to kill yourself or others, you'll find a way to do it. Where there's a will, there's a way. Where there's desire, there's a device. It's not the tool, it's the person using it. Seems pretty simple to me.
I watched a guy in a black Pontiac Grand Prix run through a 4-way stop and nearly nail the guy who had already stopped and was then making a legal left turn on my way home from work tonight. The guy in the Pontiac? Gangsta' lean. Cell phone. Could have killed someone. 'Nuff said.
Stay safe.
New ATF Acting Director
There's a new ATF "Acting Director" in town.
Anyone have any info on the guy, one B. Todd Jones From MN?
Melson will stay, paid by you and I to further facilitate the infringement of our 2A rights, as do all ATF agents, whistleblower or not.
Melso becomes the " Senior Advisor on forensic science in the Office of Legal Policy (OLP)".
So, is this Jones guy two steps forward or two steps back? For who?
The very fact that Holder appointed him speaks volumes, to me.
Any info would be appreciated.
Anyone have any info on the guy, one B. Todd Jones From MN?
Melson will stay, paid by you and I to further facilitate the infringement of our 2A rights, as do all ATF agents, whistleblower or not.
Melso becomes the " Senior Advisor on forensic science in the Office of Legal Policy (OLP)".
So, is this Jones guy two steps forward or two steps back? For who?
The very fact that Holder appointed him speaks volumes, to me.
Any info would be appreciated.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Nevermind...
Concerning my previous post, wherein I asked about bartering pistol magazines...nevermind.
After some experimentation, I discovered that the 9mm 33 round "happy sticks" seem to work perfectly well in a Glock 23, despite the fact that I'm feeding .40 S&W through them.
I'd like to send out a special thank you to the idiot congresspeople (by "idiot congresspeople", I mean mainly Carolyn McCarthy) who inspired us to buy these (and other) magazines with your pronouncements and proposed violations of the Second Amendment after the Giffords shooting.
How's it feel, as an anti-liberty extremist, as an opponent of the very document you swore to protect, as a citizen disarmament advocate, to have sparked a wave of magazine purchases across the nation?
Does that feel good?
Talk about sticking your foot in your mouth.
Idiot.
Here's another news flash, Oathbreaking Crone McCarthy... I didn't buy mine to surrender them to your or to any of your paid enforcers. I bet a lot of people feel the same way.
Disclaimer- Buying the "Happy Sticks", by the way, was my wife's idea. :-)
After some experimentation, I discovered that the 9mm 33 round "happy sticks" seem to work perfectly well in a Glock 23, despite the fact that I'm feeding .40 S&W through them.
I'd like to send out a special thank you to the idiot congresspeople (by "idiot congresspeople", I mean mainly Carolyn McCarthy) who inspired us to buy these (and other) magazines with your pronouncements and proposed violations of the Second Amendment after the Giffords shooting.
How's it feel, as an anti-liberty extremist, as an opponent of the very document you swore to protect, as a citizen disarmament advocate, to have sparked a wave of magazine purchases across the nation?
Does that feel good?
Talk about sticking your foot in your mouth.
Idiot.
Here's another news flash, Oathbreaking Crone McCarthy... I didn't buy mine to surrender them to your or to any of your paid enforcers. I bet a lot of people feel the same way.
Disclaimer- Buying the "Happy Sticks", by the way, was my wife's idea. :-)
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Materialism and Will
WRSA discusses a GG article on the "Pitchfork Factor".
Original here at Global Guerrillas.
Further discussion here at RTC.
My family and I are taking some actions in the near future that will temporarily us at an increased vulnerability to uncertainties. Many of our preparations will be given away, sold, or inaccessible for some time.
We think we will be better for it, in the long run, taking on short term vulnerability to negate long-term risk and improve our security and stability in the event of the US Government continuing to get its way with the nation's finances, economy, and national security (that is to say, destroying all three).
I know, I'm being intentionally cryptic here. More on all that later, as my situation here firms up.
What I'm getting at, mainly, is this...
Survival is not always guaranteed by "stuff". Too many in the prepper/survivalist community are dependent on "stuff" to get them through everything. Buy more preps. More guns. More ammo. More toys. Many echo the materialism of the society they claim to abhor. Nothing is wrong with having "stuff", don't get me wrong. It's the focus on it that can be distracting. I've always viewed "preps" as a bridge to help one re-adjust to whatever new reality is brought by the fit hitting the shan. Whatever form that comes in.
"Stuff" is not enough, because "stuff" breaks, is stolen, or can be lost. It runs out, eventually. As Tom Baugh once pointed out, shoes wear out. Where are you going to get new ones if no one can make them, post SHTF?
Don't get me wrong, you're not making it through an Alaskan winter without the right "stuff", but "stuff" isn't everything. My first year in state with the Army taught me this. I once asked an cold weather survival instructor what the "key" is for winter survival when I was going through his training. One word. "Prepare". Please don't get me wrong, I'm not completely discounting material preparations. They are important, but not everything.
An unarmed man with will is more valuable than an unwilling man with arms. Carlos Hathcock with a beat up Mosin-Nagant has a higher probability of survival in a fight than does a "mall ninja" with a PSG-1. When the mall ninja is taken out (or dies from lack of PT), Carlos gets the PSG-1. And he gets to go home.
In your preps, please consider that "stuff" is only the most superficial form of preparation. Attitude is important. Skills are important. Will is important. Not only you, but also for all those you love.
A sound mind in a sound body, living a life worth dying for. That, in my opinion, is the key for making it through anything.
Resist.
Original here at Global Guerrillas.
Further discussion here at RTC.
My family and I are taking some actions in the near future that will temporarily us at an increased vulnerability to uncertainties. Many of our preparations will be given away, sold, or inaccessible for some time.
We think we will be better for it, in the long run, taking on short term vulnerability to negate long-term risk and improve our security and stability in the event of the US Government continuing to get its way with the nation's finances, economy, and national security (that is to say, destroying all three).
I know, I'm being intentionally cryptic here. More on all that later, as my situation here firms up.
What I'm getting at, mainly, is this...
Survival is not always guaranteed by "stuff". Too many in the prepper/survivalist community are dependent on "stuff" to get them through everything. Buy more preps. More guns. More ammo. More toys. Many echo the materialism of the society they claim to abhor. Nothing is wrong with having "stuff", don't get me wrong. It's the focus on it that can be distracting. I've always viewed "preps" as a bridge to help one re-adjust to whatever new reality is brought by the fit hitting the shan. Whatever form that comes in.
"Stuff" is not enough, because "stuff" breaks, is stolen, or can be lost. It runs out, eventually. As Tom Baugh once pointed out, shoes wear out. Where are you going to get new ones if no one can make them, post SHTF?
Don't get me wrong, you're not making it through an Alaskan winter without the right "stuff", but "stuff" isn't everything. My first year in state with the Army taught me this. I once asked an cold weather survival instructor what the "key" is for winter survival when I was going through his training. One word. "Prepare". Please don't get me wrong, I'm not completely discounting material preparations. They are important, but not everything.
An unarmed man with will is more valuable than an unwilling man with arms. Carlos Hathcock with a beat up Mosin-Nagant has a higher probability of survival in a fight than does a "mall ninja" with a PSG-1. When the mall ninja is taken out (or dies from lack of PT), Carlos gets the PSG-1. And he gets to go home.
In your preps, please consider that "stuff" is only the most superficial form of preparation. Attitude is important. Skills are important. Will is important. Not only you, but also for all those you love.
A sound mind in a sound body, living a life worth dying for. That, in my opinion, is the key for making it through anything.
Resist.
Anyone Interested in a Trade?
I have two Glock 33 round 9mm magazines.
I recently bartered for a Glock 23.
Is anyone interested in trading Glock 23 mags (40 S&W) for my 33 rounders?
I recently bartered for a Glock 23.
Is anyone interested in trading Glock 23 mags (40 S&W) for my 33 rounders?
Saturday, August 27, 2011
More Solzhenitsyn
The truths contained in this simple quote are stupendous.
The truths in this quote apply to many people and to many situations, from your bedroom at 3 a.m. to standing up to a flash mob in your neighborhood, to the hell and chaos of pitched battle and total war.
It applies over and over again. It is really, to me, an amazing but simple truth.
Don't fall victim to the "cult of material well-being".
A strong mind in a strong body, living a life worth dying for.
Resist.
The truths in this quote apply to many people and to many situations, from your bedroom at 3 a.m. to standing up to a flash mob in your neighborhood, to the hell and chaos of pitched battle and total war.
It applies over and over again. It is really, to me, an amazing but simple truth.
To defend oneself, one must also be ready to die. There is little such readiness in a society raised in the cult of material well-being. Nothing is left, then, but concessions, attempts to gain time, and betrayal. —Alexander SolzhenitsynI've said something here before that is similar, but not as eloquent. I've said before that we must live lives worth dying for. We must love our lives to the utmost (and make them lives truly worthy of such love), but stop short of the point where we love them above everything else.
Don't fall victim to the "cult of material well-being".
A strong mind in a strong body, living a life worth dying for.
Resist.
Video says it all...
Yet another reason to make The DHSS watch list...
Hat tip to Your Crazy Uncle
...Money quote, "life is not fair. Life is HARD. It is harder if you stupid."
Triple play!!
from Neal's Soapbox
...“Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.”~ Patrick Henry...
Of Motivational Deficiency & Intellectual Lethargy
...and...
Get A Life?
...and...
Is This So Damn Difficult To Understand?
...Hell, if you have any sense about you, you'll read the whole Damn page...
Friday, August 26, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Ripples in a Pond
I've been reading a lot about the Second World War lately, especially from a non-American perspective.
It's amazing that "we" (collectively, meaning America) sided, supported, and supplied with weapons the perpetrators of the Holodomor, while using the Holocaust to justify it. History books are full of chapters about the Holocaust, with little or no mention of the Holodomor. Mention both to a high schooler, and see which one rings a bell. For that matter, mention both to an adult, and the same result is likely. I suppose that's why it's socially acceptable today in America to be a marxist, but is completely socially unacceptable to be a "Neo-Nazi" or National Socialist.
What was that again about "moral high ground"? It's amazing for me to see the Third Reich constantly villified and used as the argument ender by the left and the right (ie- "You're a Nazi"), sometimes by idiot traitors sporting Che t-shirts and sometimes by people flying the Gadsden flag. To me personally, if evil were "scalable", the undisputed winner of the "most evil system and ideology ever" award would be -by a long shot- marxism. Hands down. It's not even a close contest, whether the measure used is personal freedom, lives taken, or nations wrecked.
It's amazing that (from one perspective), the war started over the invasion of Poland, and then the "Allies" took the side of the USSR, which invaded Poland, and, in the long run, kept it.
When all was said and done, we (collectively, as the struggling nations of WW2) had helped the most evil empire in the history of the world survive and grow stronger, and had left Europe in a shambles. England's empire was wrecked, Germany a hollowed-out occupied husk, and Poland...
...in the hands of one of the nations that had originally invaded it. Along with all of Eastern Europe. If it were not for the valor of the retreating German soldiers being relentlessly pushed back by Soviet hordes, much more of Europe would have lived under the Stalinist brand of Marxism. There would have been no Berlin wall to fall.
I think the end result of World War Two was little more the strengthening of the Soviet Empire, and the follow-on global spread of Marxism. Oh, and, several million dead. Think of all the wars and revolutions that have come out of international Marxism and the "cold war" between the US and USSR. China, Southeast Asia, South America, on and on...
No, I'm not trying to re-write history or cry over spilled milk. Just thinking, and putting my thoughts here for all or none to see. Take it as you will. They're just thought, and inconsequential at best.
It's just that it is amazing to see where the ripples of history travel to, and from where they might have originated.
I find the era preceeding and immediately after the close of World War One to be one of the most intruiging, consequential -and least studied- periods of history. The ripples coming from the Treaty of Versailles and the Bolshevik Revolution -a direct result of Tsarist Russia's defeat in World War One- can still be seen today. What a shame.
Too many people quote the saying about repeating history that is unlearned. Yet we always repeat it. Different names, different groups, but it's always the same in the end.
"It's different this time", right? We're "advanced" and "smarter than that" now, right? Wrong. Pay attention to the world unfolding around us. Learn what has gone before. Hug your kids and those you love.
Right now is the moment all of history has been moving toward. As is the next. And the next.
Pay attention, and try to learn from history, even if the world and humanity, as a whole, refuses to.
Because-
We are repeating it right now.
Stand strong. Watch. Be ready.
Resist.
It's amazing that "we" (collectively, meaning America) sided, supported, and supplied with weapons the perpetrators of the Holodomor, while using the Holocaust to justify it. History books are full of chapters about the Holocaust, with little or no mention of the Holodomor. Mention both to a high schooler, and see which one rings a bell. For that matter, mention both to an adult, and the same result is likely. I suppose that's why it's socially acceptable today in America to be a marxist, but is completely socially unacceptable to be a "Neo-Nazi" or National Socialist.
What was that again about "moral high ground"? It's amazing for me to see the Third Reich constantly villified and used as the argument ender by the left and the right (ie- "You're a Nazi"), sometimes by idiot traitors sporting Che t-shirts and sometimes by people flying the Gadsden flag. To me personally, if evil were "scalable", the undisputed winner of the "most evil system and ideology ever" award would be -by a long shot- marxism. Hands down. It's not even a close contest, whether the measure used is personal freedom, lives taken, or nations wrecked.
It's amazing that (from one perspective), the war started over the invasion of Poland, and then the "Allies" took the side of the USSR, which invaded Poland, and, in the long run, kept it.
When all was said and done, we (collectively, as the struggling nations of WW2) had helped the most evil empire in the history of the world survive and grow stronger, and had left Europe in a shambles. England's empire was wrecked, Germany a hollowed-out occupied husk, and Poland...
...in the hands of one of the nations that had originally invaded it. Along with all of Eastern Europe. If it were not for the valor of the retreating German soldiers being relentlessly pushed back by Soviet hordes, much more of Europe would have lived under the Stalinist brand of Marxism. There would have been no Berlin wall to fall.
I think the end result of World War Two was little more the strengthening of the Soviet Empire, and the follow-on global spread of Marxism. Oh, and, several million dead. Think of all the wars and revolutions that have come out of international Marxism and the "cold war" between the US and USSR. China, Southeast Asia, South America, on and on...
No, I'm not trying to re-write history or cry over spilled milk. Just thinking, and putting my thoughts here for all or none to see. Take it as you will. They're just thought, and inconsequential at best.
It's just that it is amazing to see where the ripples of history travel to, and from where they might have originated.
I find the era preceeding and immediately after the close of World War One to be one of the most intruiging, consequential -and least studied- periods of history. The ripples coming from the Treaty of Versailles and the Bolshevik Revolution -a direct result of Tsarist Russia's defeat in World War One- can still be seen today. What a shame.
Too many people quote the saying about repeating history that is unlearned. Yet we always repeat it. Different names, different groups, but it's always the same in the end.
"It's different this time", right? We're "advanced" and "smarter than that" now, right? Wrong. Pay attention to the world unfolding around us. Learn what has gone before. Hug your kids and those you love.
Right now is the moment all of history has been moving toward. As is the next. And the next.
Pay attention, and try to learn from history, even if the world and humanity, as a whole, refuses to.
Because-
We are repeating it right now.
Stand strong. Watch. Be ready.
Resist.
The difference between war stories and fairy tales....
Fairy tails begin with "once upon a time" and war stories begin with "no shit there I was"
So my war story will begin the same way.
No shit, there I was, naked as a jay bird under the blankets sleeping like a babe.
BOOOOOM!!!!!!!
I jump up, naked, and scramble madly for my pants. Years of experience have trained me that loud noises and lack of pain mean I'm still alive and probably need to do something. The first thing I did was put on pants. After the pants, with 9mm pistol attached to the belt I forgo socks and slipped into a pair of boots and ran to the nearest bunker.
So there I was, armed with a pistol, pants, and boots, hunkering in a concrete bunker with three other guys in various states of undress. Small arms fire started going off in the distance, so a few of us take up positions at the mouths of the bunker and get ready to shoot at any bad guys coming over the walls.
To make a long story short, I then got the call for section leaders to assemble, helped gain accountability of my section, and finally put on a shirt. I'm still getting razzed for being shirtless in front of the most of my colleagues.
Anyways, the BOOOOOM turned out to be about a thousand pounds of explosive packed into a truck that was trying to force it's way through the entry control point. A half ton of boom will whack you pretty good out of your sleep, even if you are 150 meters from the boom point.
Lessons learned? Sleeping naked is good in the heat, not so good for react to bad guy drills. If you have time to grab your pants, you are obviously still alive and should grab a shirt too.
So my war story will begin the same way.
No shit, there I was, naked as a jay bird under the blankets sleeping like a babe.
BOOOOOM!!!!!!!
I jump up, naked, and scramble madly for my pants. Years of experience have trained me that loud noises and lack of pain mean I'm still alive and probably need to do something. The first thing I did was put on pants. After the pants, with 9mm pistol attached to the belt I forgo socks and slipped into a pair of boots and ran to the nearest bunker.
So there I was, armed with a pistol, pants, and boots, hunkering in a concrete bunker with three other guys in various states of undress. Small arms fire started going off in the distance, so a few of us take up positions at the mouths of the bunker and get ready to shoot at any bad guys coming over the walls.
To make a long story short, I then got the call for section leaders to assemble, helped gain accountability of my section, and finally put on a shirt. I'm still getting razzed for being shirtless in front of the most of my colleagues.
Anyways, the BOOOOOM turned out to be about a thousand pounds of explosive packed into a truck that was trying to force it's way through the entry control point. A half ton of boom will whack you pretty good out of your sleep, even if you are 150 meters from the boom point.
Lessons learned? Sleeping naked is good in the heat, not so good for react to bad guy drills. If you have time to grab your pants, you are obviously still alive and should grab a shirt too.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Jon Tumilson....
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/heart-wrenching-image-dog-keeps-watch-over-fallen-seals-casket-during-funeral/
Thank you for your service. Rest in peace.
Stay safe.
Hump Day...
I'm sure that this is too simple for some folks to understand. The indoctrination has been that thorough.
Stay safe.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
A Funny...
Heard this one today...
Did you hear Obama's statement concerning the DC earthquake?
You guessed it.
Bush's fault...
I also heard some expressing their desire for a stronger quake in a few weeks, when our worthless congress resumes destroying our nation...
Did you hear Obama's statement concerning the DC earthquake?
You guessed it.
Bush's fault...
I also heard some expressing their desire for a stronger quake in a few weeks, when our worthless congress resumes destroying our nation...
Killed in Holland....
Too violent to be seen in Holland. Hmmmm.....
It certainly got my attention. :)
Stay safe.
Do you understand yet??
from Mint News Blog
Hat Tip to Sipsey Street Irregulars
This morning the US Mint has suspended sales of all remaining numismatic gold coin offerings. The move comes as the market price of gold has jump another $35 to nearly $1,890 per ounce. Prior to the suspension, products were priced based on an average gold price in the $1,750 to $1,799.99 range.
...Get ready kids. She is going to ride...And ride hard.
Monday, August 22, 2011
RTC Disavows the "Libertarian" tag...
A worthwhile read from the Restore the Constitution site.
Also linked at WRSA...
Weapons mean nothing without the will to use them.
Liberty is never free.
Those who insist on having perfectly clean hands, those who value the ability to remain "spotless" and "legitimate", expose themselves to the most subtle form of compromise and decay.
Remember the quote that says that those who would trade liberty for security deserve neither?
I believe that applies in this case to the snow white among us who think they will secure liberty by any means other than how it has always been secured.
Life's ugly. No one is clean.
Admit it.
Own it.
Resist.
Also linked at WRSA...
Weapons mean nothing without the will to use them.
Liberty is never free.
Those who insist on having perfectly clean hands, those who value the ability to remain "spotless" and "legitimate", expose themselves to the most subtle form of compromise and decay.
Remember the quote that says that those who would trade liberty for security deserve neither?
I believe that applies in this case to the snow white among us who think they will secure liberty by any means other than how it has always been secured.
Life's ugly. No one is clean.
Admit it.
Own it.
Resist.
Roe has no clothes....
http://stevedeace.com/news/iowa-politics/roe-has-no-clothes/
by Andy Alexander
Since the 1960s the pro-abortion movement has employed the notion that it is someone’s “right” to choose whether they have an abortion. That archaic idea is fallacious at best and ignorant at worst. I’m going to take you back to January 22, 1973–a time when most Americans(especially those of the church) were essentially asleep. Their attention was being directed toward one or more of the following: Elvis Presley’s televised concert from Hawaii was watched by 1.5 billion people worldwide (Jan 14, 1973), the Miami Dolphins Super Bowl victory capping the completion of the only perfect season in NFL history (Jan 14, 1973), the suspension of offensive action in Vietnam (Jan 15, 1973), President Richard “not a crook” Nixon’s 2nd inaugural term (Jan 20, 1973), the Foreman/Frazier heavyweight championship bout(Jan 25, 1973), the death of former president Lyndon Johnson (Jan 25, 1973), the Paris Peace Accord signing that ended the war in Vietnam (Jan 27, 1973), and former presidential aides James McCord and G. Gordon Liddy were convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping for their roles in the Watergate break-in (Jan 30, 1973).
On February 5, just 14 days after the landmark decision, Newsweek put it this way: “The end of a war and the death of a President got bigger headlines. But in a quiet way, a third event last week may have as lasting an influence on American life. . . . In one of the boldest and most sweeping decisions of the Nixon years, the Court ruled 7-2 that the criminal abortion laws of almost every state violate a constitutional ‘right to privacy’ and must therefore be struck down.” That media whirlwind was the backdrop of the January 22nd, 1973, decision of seven non-elected men, appointed for life, that changed the course of history… for the worse.
Those seven men caved to the pressure of the i-don’t-want-to-face-the-consequences-of-my-actions crowd of the 1960s sexual revolution. That choice of the SCOTUS essentially aborted every state law that had previously protected human beings in the womb. Without a single vote being cast, without one word of due legislation being written, those seven oligarchs usurped the authority of the U.S.Congress and Senate, every individual State legislature and governor, not to mention “We the People,” and created the worst human rights violation in the history of man kind by killing, over 53 million human beings to date.
But the biggest usurpation is that of the supplanting of the authority of the Natural Law, or, as the Declaration of Independence states, “the Law of Nature and of Nature’s God.”
The Right to Life. The Right to Liberty. The Right to the Pursuit of Happiness.
In their wisdom (which is lacking today) the writers and signers of the Declaration ofIndependence listed three of the inalienable rights. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. These Rights were listed in that order for a very logical reason. It is impossible for someone to pursue happiness without the right to liberty and it is impossible to have any rights without the right to life. Thus, the Right to Life is the foundational and the greatest of all Rights. Since that is the case, not only is it un-American, but should also be illegal to terminate the life of another human being. However, in the two-plus-two-makes-five society in which we now live it is not only accepted, but encouraged to put one’s own liberty and/or pursuit of happiness ahead of the life of another individual, all in the name of “choice.” In order to justify their murderous choice, some will selfishly say, “Well, if I have this baby, my life will be messed up and stuff because I’ll have to…like…take care of it and stuff. So, it’s really about MY right to life.” By doing so, they create another fallacious reality to appease their conscious once they realize the fallacy of their previous position. Delusion begets more delusion.
The abolition of abortion does not imply that the child is more valuable than the mother. Rather, it recognizes that the child’s right to not be killed is greater and more fundamental than the woman’s right to not be pregnant. The same can be said about an individual’s right to liberty being greater than another’s right to pursue their happiness. This is precisely why slavery was correctly abolished. Life is the foundation of all of the Rights that we possess. If we cannot acknowledge that truth than all of our other rights will be taken away from us.
We’re not in 1973 anymore, Toto!
Biological and medical sciences have progressed greatly since 1973. It is now very widely accepted that every new life has its genesis at conception. This is an irrefutable FACT of biology. It is true for animals and true for humans. When considered alongside the law of biogenesis – that every species reproduces after its own kind – only one conclusion can be drawn in regard to abortion. The circumstances of conception notwithstanding, and whether it be the morning after or the third trimester, abortion always ends the life of an individual human being. Even abortion advocates concede this simple fact. Faye Wattleton, the longest reigning president of the largest abortion provider in the world – Planned Parenthood – argued as far back as 1997 that everyone already knows that abortion kills. She proclaims the following in an interview with Ms. Magazine:
“I think we have deluded ourselves into believing that people don’t know that abortion is killing. So any pretense that abortion is not killing is a signal of our ambivalence, a signal that we cannot say yes, it kills a fetus.”(Source: Faye Wattleton, “Speaking Frankly,” Ms., May / June 1997, Volume VII,Number 6, 67.) Naomi Wolf, a prominent feminist author and abortion supporter, concedes the same point when she writes: ”Clinging to a rhetoric about abortion in which there is no life and no death, we entangle our beliefs in a series of self-delusions, fibs and evasions. And we risk becoming precisely what our critics charge us with being: callous, selfish and casually destructive men and women who share a cheapened view of humanlife…we need to contextualize the fight to defend abortion rights within a moral framework that admits that the death of a fetus is a real death.”(Source: Naomi Wolf, “Our Bodies, Our Souls,” The New Republic, October 16,1995, 26.)
The point is: There is simply NO debate among honest, informed people that abortion kills a human beings.
Exposing Roe
The problem is, Roe vs. Wade is actually built on the claim that there’s no way to say for certain whether or not abortion kills because no one can say for certain when life begins. Justice Harry Blackmun, who authored the majority opinion wrote: ”The judiciary, at this point in the development of man’s knowledge, is not in a position to… resolve the difficult question of when life begins… since those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus.”(Source: Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973).) Because we now know without a doubt that this is scientifically and medically false, Justice Blackmun’s assertion is a ridiculous one. Biologically, life’s beginning is a settled fact. Individual human life begins at fertilization, and there numerouas authoritative, public resources to prove this.
“Human development begins at fertilization, the process during which a malegamete or sperm (spermatozoo developmentn) unites with a female gamete oroocyte (ovum) to form a single cell called a zygote. This highly specialized, totipotent cell marked the beginning of each of us as a unique individual.” “A zygote is the beginning of a new human being (i.e., an embryo).”(Source: Keith L. Moore, The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology ,7th edition. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders, 2003. pp. 16, 2.)
“Development begins with fertilization, the process by which the male gamete, the sperm, and the femal gamete, the oocyte, unite to give rise to a zygote.” (Source: T.W. Sadler, Langman’s Medical Embryology, 10th edition. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2006. p. 11.)
“[The zygote], formed by the union of an oocyte and a sperm, is the beginningof a new human being.” (Source: Keith L. Moore, Before We Are Born: Essentials of Embryology, 7thedition. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders, 2008. p. 2.)
“Although life is a continuous process, fertilization (which, incidentally, is not a’moment’) is a critical landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a new genetically distinct human organism is formed when the chromosomes of the male and female pronuclei blend in the oocyte.” (Source: Ronan O’Rahilly and Fabiola Müller, Human Embryology and Teratology, 3rd edition. New York: Wiley-Liss, 2001. p. 8.)
“The two cells gradually and gracefully become one. This is the moment of conception, when an individual’s unique set of DNA is created, a human signature that never existed before and will never be repeated.” (Source: In the Womb, National Geographic, 2005.)
“Biologically speaking, human development begins at fertilization.”(Source: The Biology of Prenatal Develpment, National Geographic, 2006.)
As if those were not enough, here’s some icing for your cake. In 1981, a United States Senate judiciary subcommittee received testimony from numerous medical experts. Professor Micheline Matthews-Roth of Harvard University Medical School stated that “it is incorrect to say that biological data cannot be decisive…It is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins at conception.” The official Senate report reached this conclusion: Physicians, biologists, and other scientists agree that conception marks the beginning of the life of a human being – a being that is alive and is a member of the human species. There is overwhelming agreement on this point in countless medical, biological, and scientific writings (Source: Report, Subcommittee on Separation of Powers to Senate Judiciary Committee S-158, 97th Congress, 1st Session 1981, 7.)
So, if medical science, tells us that the Roe v. Wade decision is false, and pro-abortion activists like former Planned Parenthood President, Faye Wattleton, know and agree that abortions ends the life of a human being, some questions are begging to be asked: Why is Roe v. Wade still something that we use to justify the murder of 1.4 million babies every year? And why is abortion even an issue at all?
It stands to reason that if the court decision that made abortion “legal” by denying personhood status to the unborn is based on information that is scientifically proven to be false that the court decision itself is false.
With this enlightenment we have but one course of action: Abolish human abortion. We must pass legislation that would make abortion illegal in every form and at every stage of pregnancy in every state, equate the practice of human abortion with that of murder, and execute such legislation with the full force of the law.
Bottom line: No one’s “right” to choice EVER trumps another individual’s Right to Life. Re-educate yourself, then re-educate those around you. It’s time for responsible, intelligent Americans to wake up, smell the blood-stained coffee of the reality that is this culture which has been created by our our ignorance and indifference and start to change it! It is our responsibility to shine the light of truth into the darkness of delusion and work to abolish the abomination that is abortion once and for all.
Something to think about, eh?
But, but, but.... What about rape, incest, or the health of the mother?
Abortions performed for all three of these reasons combined total slightly more than 2% of all abortions.
Abortion is birth control for folks who have no self control.
The freedom to choose should only go as far as the freedom to choose whether to open your legs and risk pregnancy or not. Once that egg is fertilized the freedom to choose is gone. You have made your choice. You have created a human life. Now it's time to be responsible, which is probably something you are unfamiliar with. To take that life is murder.
Just because it's legal doesn't make it right.
Stay safe.
by Andy Alexander
Since the 1960s the pro-abortion movement has employed the notion that it is someone’s “right” to choose whether they have an abortion. That archaic idea is fallacious at best and ignorant at worst. I’m going to take you back to January 22, 1973–a time when most Americans(especially those of the church) were essentially asleep. Their attention was being directed toward one or more of the following: Elvis Presley’s televised concert from Hawaii was watched by 1.5 billion people worldwide (Jan 14, 1973), the Miami Dolphins Super Bowl victory capping the completion of the only perfect season in NFL history (Jan 14, 1973), the suspension of offensive action in Vietnam (Jan 15, 1973), President Richard “not a crook” Nixon’s 2nd inaugural term (Jan 20, 1973), the Foreman/Frazier heavyweight championship bout(Jan 25, 1973), the death of former president Lyndon Johnson (Jan 25, 1973), the Paris Peace Accord signing that ended the war in Vietnam (Jan 27, 1973), and former presidential aides James McCord and G. Gordon Liddy were convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping for their roles in the Watergate break-in (Jan 30, 1973).
On February 5, just 14 days after the landmark decision, Newsweek put it this way: “The end of a war and the death of a President got bigger headlines. But in a quiet way, a third event last week may have as lasting an influence on American life. . . . In one of the boldest and most sweeping decisions of the Nixon years, the Court ruled 7-2 that the criminal abortion laws of almost every state violate a constitutional ‘right to privacy’ and must therefore be struck down.” That media whirlwind was the backdrop of the January 22nd, 1973, decision of seven non-elected men, appointed for life, that changed the course of history… for the worse.
Those seven men caved to the pressure of the i-don’t-want-to-face-the-consequences-of-my-actions crowd of the 1960s sexual revolution. That choice of the SCOTUS essentially aborted every state law that had previously protected human beings in the womb. Without a single vote being cast, without one word of due legislation being written, those seven oligarchs usurped the authority of the U.S.Congress and Senate, every individual State legislature and governor, not to mention “We the People,” and created the worst human rights violation in the history of man kind by killing, over 53 million human beings to date.
But the biggest usurpation is that of the supplanting of the authority of the Natural Law, or, as the Declaration of Independence states, “the Law of Nature and of Nature’s God.”
The Right to Life. The Right to Liberty. The Right to the Pursuit of Happiness.
In their wisdom (which is lacking today) the writers and signers of the Declaration ofIndependence listed three of the inalienable rights. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. These Rights were listed in that order for a very logical reason. It is impossible for someone to pursue happiness without the right to liberty and it is impossible to have any rights without the right to life. Thus, the Right to Life is the foundational and the greatest of all Rights. Since that is the case, not only is it un-American, but should also be illegal to terminate the life of another human being. However, in the two-plus-two-makes-five society in which we now live it is not only accepted, but encouraged to put one’s own liberty and/or pursuit of happiness ahead of the life of another individual, all in the name of “choice.” In order to justify their murderous choice, some will selfishly say, “Well, if I have this baby, my life will be messed up and stuff because I’ll have to…like…take care of it and stuff. So, it’s really about MY right to life.” By doing so, they create another fallacious reality to appease their conscious once they realize the fallacy of their previous position. Delusion begets more delusion.
The abolition of abortion does not imply that the child is more valuable than the mother. Rather, it recognizes that the child’s right to not be killed is greater and more fundamental than the woman’s right to not be pregnant. The same can be said about an individual’s right to liberty being greater than another’s right to pursue their happiness. This is precisely why slavery was correctly abolished. Life is the foundation of all of the Rights that we possess. If we cannot acknowledge that truth than all of our other rights will be taken away from us.
We’re not in 1973 anymore, Toto!
Biological and medical sciences have progressed greatly since 1973. It is now very widely accepted that every new life has its genesis at conception. This is an irrefutable FACT of biology. It is true for animals and true for humans. When considered alongside the law of biogenesis – that every species reproduces after its own kind – only one conclusion can be drawn in regard to abortion. The circumstances of conception notwithstanding, and whether it be the morning after or the third trimester, abortion always ends the life of an individual human being. Even abortion advocates concede this simple fact. Faye Wattleton, the longest reigning president of the largest abortion provider in the world – Planned Parenthood – argued as far back as 1997 that everyone already knows that abortion kills. She proclaims the following in an interview with Ms. Magazine:
“I think we have deluded ourselves into believing that people don’t know that abortion is killing. So any pretense that abortion is not killing is a signal of our ambivalence, a signal that we cannot say yes, it kills a fetus.”(Source: Faye Wattleton, “Speaking Frankly,” Ms., May / June 1997, Volume VII,Number 6, 67.) Naomi Wolf, a prominent feminist author and abortion supporter, concedes the same point when she writes: ”Clinging to a rhetoric about abortion in which there is no life and no death, we entangle our beliefs in a series of self-delusions, fibs and evasions. And we risk becoming precisely what our critics charge us with being: callous, selfish and casually destructive men and women who share a cheapened view of humanlife…we need to contextualize the fight to defend abortion rights within a moral framework that admits that the death of a fetus is a real death.”(Source: Naomi Wolf, “Our Bodies, Our Souls,” The New Republic, October 16,1995, 26.)
The point is: There is simply NO debate among honest, informed people that abortion kills a human beings.
Exposing Roe
The problem is, Roe vs. Wade is actually built on the claim that there’s no way to say for certain whether or not abortion kills because no one can say for certain when life begins. Justice Harry Blackmun, who authored the majority opinion wrote: ”The judiciary, at this point in the development of man’s knowledge, is not in a position to… resolve the difficult question of when life begins… since those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus.”(Source: Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973).) Because we now know without a doubt that this is scientifically and medically false, Justice Blackmun’s assertion is a ridiculous one. Biologically, life’s beginning is a settled fact. Individual human life begins at fertilization, and there numerouas authoritative, public resources to prove this.
“Human development begins at fertilization, the process during which a malegamete or sperm (spermatozoo developmentn) unites with a female gamete oroocyte (ovum) to form a single cell called a zygote. This highly specialized, totipotent cell marked the beginning of each of us as a unique individual.” “A zygote is the beginning of a new human being (i.e., an embryo).”(Source: Keith L. Moore, The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology ,7th edition. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders, 2003. pp. 16, 2.)
“Development begins with fertilization, the process by which the male gamete, the sperm, and the femal gamete, the oocyte, unite to give rise to a zygote.” (Source: T.W. Sadler, Langman’s Medical Embryology, 10th edition. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2006. p. 11.)
“[The zygote], formed by the union of an oocyte and a sperm, is the beginningof a new human being.” (Source: Keith L. Moore, Before We Are Born: Essentials of Embryology, 7thedition. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders, 2008. p. 2.)
“Although life is a continuous process, fertilization (which, incidentally, is not a’moment’) is a critical landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a new genetically distinct human organism is formed when the chromosomes of the male and female pronuclei blend in the oocyte.” (Source: Ronan O’Rahilly and Fabiola Müller, Human Embryology and Teratology, 3rd edition. New York: Wiley-Liss, 2001. p. 8.)
“The two cells gradually and gracefully become one. This is the moment of conception, when an individual’s unique set of DNA is created, a human signature that never existed before and will never be repeated.” (Source: In the Womb, National Geographic, 2005.)
“Biologically speaking, human development begins at fertilization.”(Source: The Biology of Prenatal Develpment, National Geographic, 2006.)
As if those were not enough, here’s some icing for your cake. In 1981, a United States Senate judiciary subcommittee received testimony from numerous medical experts. Professor Micheline Matthews-Roth of Harvard University Medical School stated that “it is incorrect to say that biological data cannot be decisive…It is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins at conception.” The official Senate report reached this conclusion: Physicians, biologists, and other scientists agree that conception marks the beginning of the life of a human being – a being that is alive and is a member of the human species. There is overwhelming agreement on this point in countless medical, biological, and scientific writings (Source: Report, Subcommittee on Separation of Powers to Senate Judiciary Committee S-158, 97th Congress, 1st Session 1981, 7.)
So, if medical science, tells us that the Roe v. Wade decision is false, and pro-abortion activists like former Planned Parenthood President, Faye Wattleton, know and agree that abortions ends the life of a human being, some questions are begging to be asked: Why is Roe v. Wade still something that we use to justify the murder of 1.4 million babies every year? And why is abortion even an issue at all?
It stands to reason that if the court decision that made abortion “legal” by denying personhood status to the unborn is based on information that is scientifically proven to be false that the court decision itself is false.
With this enlightenment we have but one course of action: Abolish human abortion. We must pass legislation that would make abortion illegal in every form and at every stage of pregnancy in every state, equate the practice of human abortion with that of murder, and execute such legislation with the full force of the law.
Bottom line: No one’s “right” to choice EVER trumps another individual’s Right to Life. Re-educate yourself, then re-educate those around you. It’s time for responsible, intelligent Americans to wake up, smell the blood-stained coffee of the reality that is this culture which has been created by our our ignorance and indifference and start to change it! It is our responsibility to shine the light of truth into the darkness of delusion and work to abolish the abomination that is abortion once and for all.
Something to think about, eh?
But, but, but.... What about rape, incest, or the health of the mother?
Abortions performed for all three of these reasons combined total slightly more than 2% of all abortions.
Abortion is birth control for folks who have no self control.
The freedom to choose should only go as far as the freedom to choose whether to open your legs and risk pregnancy or not. Once that egg is fertilized the freedom to choose is gone. You have made your choice. You have created a human life. Now it's time to be responsible, which is probably something you are unfamiliar with. To take that life is murder.
Just because it's legal doesn't make it right.
Stay safe.
Give us Liberty, we have had enough of your Death...
From Zero Gov
Posted Verbatim, cause it is soooo fuckin' GOOD.
Free Your Mind By Chris Dates
“Ideas are bulletproof” ~V~
"The resistance is growing. The revolution taking place between the ears is beginning to swallow up more of the market share. Millions of humans have begun to shake off the sheep of their Statist slumbers, and more wake up by the minute. They are beginning to see Politicians for who they are; paper tigers who point to pieces of parchment as proof of their perverse powers. They are beginning to see governments for what they are; nothing more than dens full of these pitiful, petty paper tigers who promise peace, prosperity, and progress, but only deliver debt, destruction, and death. For these reasons the light of liberty is blinding for such starving eyes, and too bright for some, but there are those who stand ready to usher in this dawn long overdue.
Ideas have been the weapon of choice in the struggle for freedom, but the common man has stumbled upon something else to compliment his weapon; the Internet. Now, information is passed around in the cyber world faster than ammo was passed around to those brainwashed boys in the Government trenches of any given needless war. The Pandora’s Box that used to harbor the ideas of freedom and liberty has been flung open like so many double doors on the last day of school. It is too late to stop the virtual stampede. Governments around the world now find themselves in a catch-22. If the internet is shutdown, governments risk immediate revolution. If the free flow of information is allowed to continue unfettered, revolution will eventually come. Humans have gotten a taste of the truth, and they seem to like it.
The stranglehold that was placed on truth and information is slipping away. State propaganda and disinformation is being rendered useless. Tyrants are like children who hold clay in their hands, the harder they squeeze, the more they lose. This is what every government has failed to understand throughout their tragic and horrible 10,000 year history. Pure tyranny brings with it pure liberty. As awful as it sounds, my desire is that the grip of tyranny continues. Coercive, violent governments have proven to be the best recruiting tool for those who long for liberty, and if liberty is what lies on the other side of this tyranny, the juice is definitely worth the squeeze.
I write this partially for my friends who live in Northern California, who I know will read this. You are already living like there is no government; you live like you are free. You stand on the edge of mental emancipation, all you need to do is take that last step. I know thinking about Anarchy is frightening at first, but this is only your mental falling back on the years of indoctrination that was spoon fed to you in government school. We were all taught that Anarchy is chaos, and only government can deliver law and order. The fear is always the same; the other guy will turn into a monster. Just stop for a second and examine what YOU would do. Stop worrying about what the other guy would do. This is the source of your mental slavery. The government has us so scared of our neighbors, that we now are to the point where we beg for coercive government. Ask yourself this question; would you turn into a murderer without the State? Try this one; would your mother be a whore without the State? Government has robbed us of our humanity, and if there is one thing this wretched institution has been successful at it’s pitting neighbor against neighbor.
Centralized power is the midwife of chaos. If this body dies wrapped in chains and shackles, my mind will not."
“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.”
~Bob Marley
(Now GO READ IT AGAIN!)
...I will add;
"As long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free. And no Lincolnian Emancipation Proclamation can do this for us. No civil rights bill can bring us this kind of freedom. The Negro (And EVERYONE else) must reach into the debts of his soul and write with the pen and ink of assertive manhood, his OWN Emanipation Proclamation!"
~Dr. King
"Free your mind and your ass will follow". Jr. from the movie Platoon.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
What to do with Liberals....
Liberalism is a mental disorder.
Sarcasm Alert!
I suggest that all Liberals be sent to re-education camps in the wide open spaces along our northern border for an initial stay of one year.
At the end of that one year period each Liberal would be evaluated to determine the progress of their re-education. There will be no early release for good behavior. :)
At this point, those individual Liberals determined to have been successfully re-educated would bereleased back into returned to society subject to a probationary period of six months to one year to determine whether or not the re-education process was completely successful. During this probationary period these individuals would have to meet with a qualified civilian probation officer on a bi-weekly basis and their success, or lack thereof, documented. The individual Liberal would be responsible for any fees associated with their probation. Those who revert back to Liberalism or fail to meet the requirements of their probation during the probationary period would be sent back to the re-education camp for a period of one year.
If it is determined at the initial One Year Evaluation that a Liberal has not been appropriately re-educated, that Liberal would spend an additional year in the re-education camp in a final intensified attempt at re-education. If it is determined at the end of the second year that the Liberal has been successfully re-educated, he or she will be returned to society with the same probationary requirements as those who were re-educated in the initial one year period. Those Liberals who spend two consecutive years in the re-education camps because they were unable to be re-educated in the initial year will not have the opportunity to return to the re-education camp for further re-education if they fail their probation. Life is hard, I guess.
If it becomes apparent at any time during the re-education or probationary period, or at any time after all authorized re-education opportunities have been exhausted, that an individual Liberal cannot or will not be successfully re-educated, that individual Liberal would be dispatched to the socialist country of his or her choice, anywhere in the world, for the actual price of air fare and meals plus a small convenience fee. This, of course, rests on the willingness of the chosen socialist country to accept the individual Liberal. If the Liberal fails to choose a socialist country to be dispatched to, or if the socialist country chosen by the individual Liberal refuses to accept that Liberal, a socialist country that will accept the Liberal will be chosen for the Liberal.
As you can see, the re-education camps are not intended to house any individual Liberal on a permanent basis. With a maximum of two years re-education and a maximum of one year probation, the majority of the re-education camps will need to operate for no more than three years to handle the initial influx of Liberals to be re-educated. They will not become housing "Projects" such as we currently see in major metropolitan areas. Obviously, a small number of camps will have to remain operable to handle those who slip into Liberalism for the first time at some point after the initial batch of Liberals is re-educated.
The obvious goal of re-education is to turn Liberals into productive members of society. I realize that it will be difficult....
The reason that areas along our northern border are being suggested is twofold:
1. These areas are far from the southern border, which Liberals seem to want to keep wide open in order to allow unfettered illegal immigration. The further they are from our southern border, the better.
2. These areas have brutal winters and it is my contention that brutal weather forces one to pay attention. God knows that Liberals need to learn to pay attention.
I envision these re-education camps being less like "camps" and more like small towns and villages. They would have to create business and industry and become self sufficient. The intention would not be oppression. Each Liberal would have to work and pay his or her own way. They could choose to rent or to own their houses or apartments but all houses and apartments would be the same design and size. Property taxes would pay for essential services. The Liberals would operate or work for heavily taxed and regulated businesses. Those who earned more would be taxed at a higher rate. The "rich" would be taxed heavily. Businesses would be taxed heavily. There would be no rent subsidies or farm subsidies. No more could be spent to operate the re-education camps than could be taken in taxes from the camps.
Each Liberal would be required to work at a job for 8 hours a day and would be required to attend school for 6 hours every day. There would be no government welfare programs. They would have to determine how to create and fund their own charities to assist those in need.
In school they would be taught non-revisionist American History and non-revisionist world history. They would learn math. They would learn science. They would be taught English. They would attend classes on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. They would be taught the benefits of self respect and respect for others.
Sarcasm Alert over....
You get the drift.... It's obviously an over-simplified scenario. It's obviously sarcasm. We have more problems today than just Liberals.
It's what those currently in power are planning and executing already. Their reasons are different, though. Look around. Open your eyes. They won't send those who can't or won't be re-educated to other countries. They will use other alternatives to rid themselves of those they cannot re-educate. I suspect that there are some whom they will not even attempt to re-educate. If you don't see the world the way they see the world, you're on a list. Or will be.
I wonder if there will actually be another Presidential election in 2012? If so, and the current President isn't re-elected, will there be an inaugration of a new President in January of 2013? Gotta wonder.
To borrow a phrase "Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean that they aren't after me".
I realize that we need varying opinions and viewpoints to make our society function and to be the great nation that we are. I'm frustrated, like most of you are, that there is so much division and so little communication regarding our vision for the America of the future.
We all better start paying closer attention to what's going on around us.
Enjoy the time that remains.
Stay safe.
Sarcasm Alert!
I suggest that all Liberals be sent to re-education camps in the wide open spaces along our northern border for an initial stay of one year.
At the end of that one year period each Liberal would be evaluated to determine the progress of their re-education. There will be no early release for good behavior. :)
At this point, those individual Liberals determined to have been successfully re-educated would be
If it is determined at the initial One Year Evaluation that a Liberal has not been appropriately re-educated, that Liberal would spend an additional year in the re-education camp in a final intensified attempt at re-education. If it is determined at the end of the second year that the Liberal has been successfully re-educated, he or she will be returned to society with the same probationary requirements as those who were re-educated in the initial one year period. Those Liberals who spend two consecutive years in the re-education camps because they were unable to be re-educated in the initial year will not have the opportunity to return to the re-education camp for further re-education if they fail their probation. Life is hard, I guess.
If it becomes apparent at any time during the re-education or probationary period, or at any time after all authorized re-education opportunities have been exhausted, that an individual Liberal cannot or will not be successfully re-educated, that individual Liberal would be dispatched to the socialist country of his or her choice, anywhere in the world, for the actual price of air fare and meals plus a small convenience fee. This, of course, rests on the willingness of the chosen socialist country to accept the individual Liberal. If the Liberal fails to choose a socialist country to be dispatched to, or if the socialist country chosen by the individual Liberal refuses to accept that Liberal, a socialist country that will accept the Liberal will be chosen for the Liberal.
As you can see, the re-education camps are not intended to house any individual Liberal on a permanent basis. With a maximum of two years re-education and a maximum of one year probation, the majority of the re-education camps will need to operate for no more than three years to handle the initial influx of Liberals to be re-educated. They will not become housing "Projects" such as we currently see in major metropolitan areas. Obviously, a small number of camps will have to remain operable to handle those who slip into Liberalism for the first time at some point after the initial batch of Liberals is re-educated.
The obvious goal of re-education is to turn Liberals into productive members of society. I realize that it will be difficult....
The reason that areas along our northern border are being suggested is twofold:
1. These areas are far from the southern border, which Liberals seem to want to keep wide open in order to allow unfettered illegal immigration. The further they are from our southern border, the better.
2. These areas have brutal winters and it is my contention that brutal weather forces one to pay attention. God knows that Liberals need to learn to pay attention.
I envision these re-education camps being less like "camps" and more like small towns and villages. They would have to create business and industry and become self sufficient. The intention would not be oppression. Each Liberal would have to work and pay his or her own way. They could choose to rent or to own their houses or apartments but all houses and apartments would be the same design and size. Property taxes would pay for essential services. The Liberals would operate or work for heavily taxed and regulated businesses. Those who earned more would be taxed at a higher rate. The "rich" would be taxed heavily. Businesses would be taxed heavily. There would be no rent subsidies or farm subsidies. No more could be spent to operate the re-education camps than could be taken in taxes from the camps.
Each Liberal would be required to work at a job for 8 hours a day and would be required to attend school for 6 hours every day. There would be no government welfare programs. They would have to determine how to create and fund their own charities to assist those in need.
In school they would be taught non-revisionist American History and non-revisionist world history. They would learn math. They would learn science. They would be taught English. They would attend classes on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. They would be taught the benefits of self respect and respect for others.
Sarcasm Alert over....
You get the drift.... It's obviously an over-simplified scenario. It's obviously sarcasm. We have more problems today than just Liberals.
It's what those currently in power are planning and executing already. Their reasons are different, though. Look around. Open your eyes. They won't send those who can't or won't be re-educated to other countries. They will use other alternatives to rid themselves of those they cannot re-educate. I suspect that there are some whom they will not even attempt to re-educate. If you don't see the world the way they see the world, you're on a list. Or will be.
I wonder if there will actually be another Presidential election in 2012? If so, and the current President isn't re-elected, will there be an inaugration of a new President in January of 2013? Gotta wonder.
To borrow a phrase "Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean that they aren't after me".
I realize that we need varying opinions and viewpoints to make our society function and to be the great nation that we are. I'm frustrated, like most of you are, that there is so much division and so little communication regarding our vision for the America of the future.
We all better start paying closer attention to what's going on around us.
Enjoy the time that remains.
Stay safe.
Diversity
This is the true face of racism.
"Diversity".
Diverse = less white. The implication is that evil white man is still discriminating based on race. Anyone who has recently served in the military or FedGov can tell you what hogwash that is.
I bring up racial issues not to drive a wedge, but to highlight the tactics being implemented even now to split this nation further in time for the 2012 elections. Race is going to be leveraged heavily by Obama and his Eric "My people", and "America is a nation of racist cowards" Holder type cronies.
As much as people would like it to not be an issue, it is being made into more of one, and for political ends.
The ramifications and consequences of this are not pretty.
Resist.
"Diversity".
President Barack Obama signed an executive order Thursday directing federal officials to design a government-wide strategy for making the federal workforce more diverse.
Diverse = less white. The implication is that evil white man is still discriminating based on race. Anyone who has recently served in the military or FedGov can tell you what hogwash that is.
I bring up racial issues not to drive a wedge, but to highlight the tactics being implemented even now to split this nation further in time for the 2012 elections. Race is going to be leveraged heavily by Obama and his Eric "My people", and "America is a nation of racist cowards" Holder type cronies.
As much as people would like it to not be an issue, it is being made into more of one, and for political ends.
The ramifications and consequences of this are not pretty.
Resist.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Texas Longhorns....
Where did the Texas longhorn logo idea come from?
Thanks, Rhonda Mae ;)
I did not know this!!!
Thanks, Rhonda Mae ;)
Stay safe.
School Reform, Community Development and the Mal-Distribution of Wealth: The Road Not Taken
School Reform, Community Development and the Mal-Distribution of Wealth: The Road Not Taken
Mark Naison
Reading Sarah Mosle’s review of Steven Brill’s new book on School Reform in the New York Times reminded me of the incredible expenditure of time, money and political capital this movement has engendered. I can think of no cause in recent American history which has brought together philanthropy, government and the media, along with a bi- partisan coalition encompassing elements of the Right and the Left, in behalf of an imperative to transform an important sector of American society . Using rhetoric which enlists egalitarian ideals ( No Child Left Behind) alongside the goal of improving the nation’s place in global capitalist competition ( Race to the Top) this movement has proven well nigh irresistible in shaping the way educational policy is being formed at the state, local and national level.
Unfortunately, in terms of either egalitarianism or competitiveness, this movement has failed miserably. Not only has the nation become far more unequal in terms of every important statistical indicator ( wealth distribution, youth poverty, minority unemployment, black/white wealth gap) since No Child Left behind was passed, but we have seen no change in the nation’s position in the global hierarchy in terms of performance on standardized tests.
Why has a movement which has inspired such elevated rhetoric ( “Education Reform is the Civil Rights Cause of the 21st Century), such bi-partisan political support, and such huge expenditures of money achieved so little?
Perhaps the most obvious answer is a simple one: there is no evidence schools alone, not matter how well funded they are, can lift people out of poverty when every other social policy drives them down.
But that answer doesn’t mean we should completely give up on transforming schools.
Schools and school reform can serve as instruments of community development if the resources put into them are deployed in ways which strengthen local economies immediately, not just in some distant future when the beneficiaries of school reform graduate from college and launch successful careers
Let’s use a little imagination. What if the hundreds of billions of dollars contributed by philanthropists like Bill Gates, Eli Broad, and hedge fund entrepreneurs to charter schools, Teach for America and local school districts who follow their model of “accountability” were used instead to hire local residents of poor communities to work in schools as school aids, recreation supervisors, and personnel in child care centers? Not only would such a policy help transform schools into dawn to dusk community centers for struggling neighborhoods, it would create tens, if not hundreds of thousands of new jobs in neighborhoods which are starved for employment and where families are under the severest economic stress.
Right now the vast majority of School Reform dollars go into the pockets of middle class and upper middle class professionals who live far from the neighborhoods in which “failing” schools are located- management consultants, employees of test companies, computer and information system managers, teachers and administrators in charter schools. They do nothing to develop local economies, strengthen families in need, provide employment to marginalized people, or redistribute income from the very wealthy to the very poor. If you wanted to by cynical, you can say that School Reform, in the name of helping the poor, has created a wonderful job program for the children of the middle class.
But that can only happen because most ( but not all) School Reformers divorce the goal of improving schools from the goal of lifting communities out of poverty.
As progressives, our job is to insist that the School/Community linkage be foremost in all Reform efforts, and that the vast majority of the funds to improve schools in poor communities be used to create jobs and programs for people who live in those communities. No more consultants, no more tests, no more computer systems, no more hot shot teachers who spend two years in low performing schools then leave. Let’s give bonuses for teachers and principals who live in the communities they teach in, stay in schools in poverty areas for ten or more years, and lets hire tens of thousands of local residents for useful and necessary work that turn schools into places where everyone in the neighborhood wants to be
If you do that, you might not only contribute to the goal of greater equality, you will help put a dent in what all experts agree is the major hindrance to America’s global competitiveness in educational performance- our extraordinarily high rate of child poverty.
Mark Naison
August 19,2011
Mark Naison
Reading Sarah Mosle’s review of Steven Brill’s new book on School Reform in the New York Times reminded me of the incredible expenditure of time, money and political capital this movement has engendered. I can think of no cause in recent American history which has brought together philanthropy, government and the media, along with a bi- partisan coalition encompassing elements of the Right and the Left, in behalf of an imperative to transform an important sector of American society . Using rhetoric which enlists egalitarian ideals ( No Child Left Behind) alongside the goal of improving the nation’s place in global capitalist competition ( Race to the Top) this movement has proven well nigh irresistible in shaping the way educational policy is being formed at the state, local and national level.
Unfortunately, in terms of either egalitarianism or competitiveness, this movement has failed miserably. Not only has the nation become far more unequal in terms of every important statistical indicator ( wealth distribution, youth poverty, minority unemployment, black/white wealth gap) since No Child Left behind was passed, but we have seen no change in the nation’s position in the global hierarchy in terms of performance on standardized tests.
Why has a movement which has inspired such elevated rhetoric ( “Education Reform is the Civil Rights Cause of the 21st Century), such bi-partisan political support, and such huge expenditures of money achieved so little?
Perhaps the most obvious answer is a simple one: there is no evidence schools alone, not matter how well funded they are, can lift people out of poverty when every other social policy drives them down.
But that answer doesn’t mean we should completely give up on transforming schools.
Schools and school reform can serve as instruments of community development if the resources put into them are deployed in ways which strengthen local economies immediately, not just in some distant future when the beneficiaries of school reform graduate from college and launch successful careers
Let’s use a little imagination. What if the hundreds of billions of dollars contributed by philanthropists like Bill Gates, Eli Broad, and hedge fund entrepreneurs to charter schools, Teach for America and local school districts who follow their model of “accountability” were used instead to hire local residents of poor communities to work in schools as school aids, recreation supervisors, and personnel in child care centers? Not only would such a policy help transform schools into dawn to dusk community centers for struggling neighborhoods, it would create tens, if not hundreds of thousands of new jobs in neighborhoods which are starved for employment and where families are under the severest economic stress.
Right now the vast majority of School Reform dollars go into the pockets of middle class and upper middle class professionals who live far from the neighborhoods in which “failing” schools are located- management consultants, employees of test companies, computer and information system managers, teachers and administrators in charter schools. They do nothing to develop local economies, strengthen families in need, provide employment to marginalized people, or redistribute income from the very wealthy to the very poor. If you wanted to by cynical, you can say that School Reform, in the name of helping the poor, has created a wonderful job program for the children of the middle class.
But that can only happen because most ( but not all) School Reformers divorce the goal of improving schools from the goal of lifting communities out of poverty.
As progressives, our job is to insist that the School/Community linkage be foremost in all Reform efforts, and that the vast majority of the funds to improve schools in poor communities be used to create jobs and programs for people who live in those communities. No more consultants, no more tests, no more computer systems, no more hot shot teachers who spend two years in low performing schools then leave. Let’s give bonuses for teachers and principals who live in the communities they teach in, stay in schools in poverty areas for ten or more years, and lets hire tens of thousands of local residents for useful and necessary work that turn schools into places where everyone in the neighborhood wants to be
If you do that, you might not only contribute to the goal of greater equality, you will help put a dent in what all experts agree is the major hindrance to America’s global competitiveness in educational performance- our extraordinarily high rate of child poverty.
Mark Naison
August 19,2011
Washington D.C. logic....
Life inside the obama regime....
It's gettin' kinda weird. I wonder how his apologists will spin this one?
We had a saying when I was in the Army. "Fuck up, move up". Seems to be the case here.
Weird.
Stay safe.
It's gettin' kinda weird. I wonder how his apologists will spin this one?
We had a saying when I was in the Army. "Fuck up, move up". Seems to be the case here.
Weird.
Stay safe.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Oldie but goodie....
I just received this via email from my oldest manchild.
His comment was " I feel safer knowing that this particular weapon cannot kill me."
Blow it up and look at the picture.
I wonder if she received remedial firearms training after this incident?
"To Protect and to Serve"
Stay safe.
The Scoop....
Each Friday I receive an email from Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa in which he shares some information about what he's working on in Washington.
This weeks edition contains another article regarding the investigation into Fast and Furious. Read it here.
Apparently Holder and the DOJ are still being less than forthcoming. It's interesting that they release some information to Grassley and Issa and then follow up a few days later with a letter saying that the information they sent was inaccurate but fail to explain the inaccuracies. Weird. Show of hands: Who's surprised?
Ahhhh, well.... It's Friday. Enjoy the weekend!
Stay safe.
This weeks edition contains another article regarding the investigation into Fast and Furious. Read it here.
Apparently Holder and the DOJ are still being less than forthcoming. It's interesting that they release some information to Grassley and Issa and then follow up a few days later with a letter saying that the information they sent was inaccurate but fail to explain the inaccuracies. Weird. Show of hands: Who's surprised?
Ahhhh, well.... It's Friday. Enjoy the weekend!
Stay safe.
Join me for my last show in New York
Next Thursday, 8/25/11, will be my last guest hosting appearance on "First Voices Indigenous Radio" while I filled in for Tiokasin Ghosthorse for the month. FVIR airs on WBAI FM 99.5 in New York City as well as over twenty stations throughout the US and Canada. Tiokasin invited me to his show and allowed me to bring a little of my own Western New York show, "Let's Talk Native...", to the Big City. It has been an honor and a privilege to host a show I have admired for years; a show that encouraged me to start my own.
I hope the faithful FVIR listeners liked what I brought in Tiokasin's absence and I also hope those listeners I brought to FVIR will continue to listen to the show and support the good work Tiokasin does.
Please check out the FVIR web site at http://www.firstvoicesindigenousradio.org/ and pay particular attention to the request for funds to help Tiokasin to travel to Auschwitz, Poland to participate in an event to raise awareness of the holocaust of indigenous people in the Western Hemisphere.
Join me for one last show next Thursday morning at 9am. The show airs live on FM 99.5 in the NYC, streams live everywhere at http://www.wbai.org/ and can be heard in archives on both sites listed here and will be linked here on Native Pride as well.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Freedom
Freedom is not the ability to do as one wishes.
Freedom is defiance.
A prisoner is more free than is a person living as he wishes, in "liberty" bought by subservience, if the cost of living as one wishes is spiritual or moral compromise.
Don't "buy" your liberty.
Claim your freedom.
Defy.
Resist.
Freedom is defiance.
A prisoner is more free than is a person living as he wishes, in "liberty" bought by subservience, if the cost of living as one wishes is spiritual or moral compromise.
Don't "buy" your liberty.
Claim your freedom.
Defy.
Resist.
Dichotomies
A conversation I had recently sparked the following thoughts...
Often it is said that the dichotomy in politics is individualism vs. collectivism. I think maybe this is flawed, a false choice, because it makes the assumption that the motive of each end of the spectrum is self-indulgence, and the justifiable "exploitation" of the party at the other end of the spectrum, or at least ignoring the other's interest.
The question then is really broken down to this: Which interests do we indulge, the individual's or the collective's? What form does this "indulgence" take?
Both sides would argue that they are "more correct", since in their opinion, their side of the dichotomy would benefit both the individual and the collective. In either extreme, there are instances of some individuals suffering in the interest of the "greater good".
Can it be broken down further then, in more basic terms, into a more succinct dichotomy?
Is the real question not "individualism vs. collectivism", but perhaps "self-indulgence versus service"?
Just thinking (one of my famous PT-inspired brainstorms). If you think I'm losing my mind, say so.
:-)
Often it is said that the dichotomy in politics is individualism vs. collectivism. I think maybe this is flawed, a false choice, because it makes the assumption that the motive of each end of the spectrum is self-indulgence, and the justifiable "exploitation" of the party at the other end of the spectrum, or at least ignoring the other's interest.
The question then is really broken down to this: Which interests do we indulge, the individual's or the collective's? What form does this "indulgence" take?
Both sides would argue that they are "more correct", since in their opinion, their side of the dichotomy would benefit both the individual and the collective. In either extreme, there are instances of some individuals suffering in the interest of the "greater good".
Can it be broken down further then, in more basic terms, into a more succinct dichotomy?
Is the real question not "individualism vs. collectivism", but perhaps "self-indulgence versus service"?
Just thinking (one of my famous PT-inspired brainstorms). If you think I'm losing my mind, say so.
:-)
The family is fine....
I was at the store yesterday, and I ran into Tarzan! I asked him how it was going and if he was into making any more movies.He told me that he could no longer make any more movies as he had severe arthritis in both shoulders and could no longer swing from vine to tree.
I asked how Jane was doing, he told me she was in bad shape, in a nursing home, has Alzheimer's and no longer recognizes anyone.. How sad.
I asked about Boy, and he told me that Boy had gone to the big city, got hooked up with bad women, drugs, alcohol, and the only times he heard from him was when he was in trouble or needed something.
I asked about Cheeta, he beamed and said she was doing good. She married a lawyer, had gotten some plastic surgery, and now lived in the White House!!!
I know, I know, something bad is going to happen to me!!!!! :)
Stay safe.
I know, I know, something bad is going to happen to me!!!!!
Stay safe.
You know the honeymoon is over when the comedians start....
The liberals are asking us to give Obama time.
We agree...and think 25 to life would be appropriate.
--Jay Leno
Nancy Pelosi needs a Halloween mask.
--Jay Leno
Q: Have you heard about McDonald's'
new Obama Value Meal?
A: Order anything you like
and the guy behind you has to pay for it.
--Conan O'Brien
Q: What does Barack Obama
call lunch with a convicted felon?
A: A fund raiser.
--Jay Leno
Q: What's the difference between
Obama's cabinet and a penitentiary?
A: One is filled with tax evaders, blackmailers,
and threats to society.
The other is for housing prisoners.
--David Letterman
Q: If Nancy Pelosi and Obama were on a boat
in the middle of the ocean and it started to sink,
who would be saved?
A:
--Jimmy Fallon
Q: What's the difference between
Obama and his dog, Bo?
A: Bo has papers.
--Jimmy Kimmel
Q: What was the most positive result of
the "Cash for Clunkers" program?
A: It took 95% of the Obama bumper
stickers off the road.
--David Letterman
Stay safe.
Solution to the problem in
Devil Dogs in Action...
Hat Tip Holger Awakens
...Semper Fi and one more for Recon!
from Sean Linnane
The President of the United States in the name of The Congress
takes pleasure in presenting the MEDAL OF HONOR to;
CORPORAL DAKOTA L. MEYER
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS
For service as set forth in the following:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the repeated risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as a member of Marine Embedded Training Team 2-8, Regional Corps Advisory Command 3-7, in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, on 8 September 2009. When the forward element of his combat team began to be hit by intense fire from roughly 50 Taliban insurgents dug-in and concealed on the slopes above Ganjgal village, Corporal Meyer mounted a gun-truck, enlisted a fellow Marine to drive, and raced to attack the ambushers and aid the trapped Marines and Afghan soldiers. During a six hour fire fight, Corporal Meyer single-handedly turned the tide of the battle, saved 36 Marines and soldiers and recovered the bodies of his fallen brothers. Four separate times he fought the kilometer up into the heart of a deadly U-shaped ambush. During the fight he killed at least eight Taliban, personally evacuated 12 friendly wounded, and provided cover for another 24 Marines and soldiers to escape likely death at the hands of a numerically superior and determined foe. On his first foray his lone vehicle drew machine gun, mortar, rocket grenade and small arms fire while he rescued five wounded soldiers. His second attack disrupted the enemy’s ambush and he evacuated four more wounded Marines. Switching to another gun-truck because his was too damaged they again sped in for a third time, and as turret gunner killed several Taliban attackers at point blank range and suppressed enemy fire so 24 Marines and soldiers could break-out. Despite being wounded, he made a fourth attack with three others to search for missing team members. Nearly surrounded and under heavy fire he dismounted the vehicle and searched house to house to recover the bodies of his fallen team members. By his extraordinary heroism, presence of mind amidst chaos and death, and unselfish devotion to his comrades in the face of great danger, Corporal Meyer reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.
(Read More)
..Outstanding. Congratulations and standing ovations Leatherneck! UH-Rah!
Trouble in Paradise: Liberal Op/Ed at Huffington Post slams obama...
What? Another Department of Jobs?
Floundering. Flopping around like a fish on deck. That's the best description of the Obama administration this summer. The president's now on a bus tour of the Heartland. Next, he's slated to go to Martha's Vineyard for a well-earned vacation.
He's done about all the damage he can do for one summer, so let's give him a break. The media shows the president stepping smartly off Air Force One or briskly scaling the stairway up to Air Force One. It's intended to impress us and it does impress. Until you recall that that's $187,000 an hour to fuel and fly the jumbo jet, all added to our national debt.
Earlier this month, President Obama announced a new program for returning veterans. In his "Weekly Radio Address," he called it "a reverse boot camp." A what? What does that mean? Boot camp, as everyone knows, is designed to whip you into shape, to get you ready for the rigors of military service. So, what's a reverse boot camp? To reverse that process would do what? Get you out of shape? Make you less prepared for your role? Leave you a couch potato? It cannot mean wear your boots in reverse.
Who writes this stuff, anyway? The president's speechwriter makes $172,200 a year. Maybe we could start trimming the deficit there. Barack Obama is on record saying he's a better speechwriter than his speechwriters. If this is what that speechwriter comes up with, Mr. Obama could hardly do worse.
Now making the rounds is this howler: The president is planning to unveil his new jobs proposals -- in September. Why wait until after Labor Day? Wouldn't it be neat to think, as we approach Labor Day, that the administration had a forward-looking plan in place right now? I think the 25 million unemployed or underemployed Americans would be especially excited to hear of a plan before they have to shell out for the kids' new school shoes.
One of the trial balloons currently being floated is that the president will announce a new Department of Jobs. This has got to be a joke. Here's a paragraph on the U.S. Department of Labor. It details the history of this federal agency, now approaching its one hundredth year of existence:
Reads pretty much like a Jobs Department to me. Has anyone talked to Labor Sec. Hilda Solis about any new "Jobs Department?" What is she supposed to do, how is she supposed to labor, if we have another Jobs Department?
Then, of course, we have the U.S. Commerce Department. The Mission Statement of this department makes it sound like it, too, is a Jobs Department.
He's done about all the damage he can do for one summer, so let's give him a break. The media shows the president stepping smartly off Air Force One or briskly scaling the stairway up to Air Force One. It's intended to impress us and it does impress. Until you recall that that's $187,000 an hour to fuel and fly the jumbo jet, all added to our national debt.
Earlier this month, President Obama announced a new program for returning veterans. In his "Weekly Radio Address," he called it "a reverse boot camp." A what? What does that mean? Boot camp, as everyone knows, is designed to whip you into shape, to get you ready for the rigors of military service. So, what's a reverse boot camp? To reverse that process would do what? Get you out of shape? Make you less prepared for your role? Leave you a couch potato? It cannot mean wear your boots in reverse.
Who writes this stuff, anyway? The president's speechwriter makes $172,200 a year. Maybe we could start trimming the deficit there. Barack Obama is on record saying he's a better speechwriter than his speechwriters. If this is what that speechwriter comes up with, Mr. Obama could hardly do worse.
Now making the rounds is this howler: The president is planning to unveil his new jobs proposals -- in September. Why wait until after Labor Day? Wouldn't it be neat to think, as we approach Labor Day, that the administration had a forward-looking plan in place right now? I think the 25 million unemployed or underemployed Americans would be especially excited to hear of a plan before they have to shell out for the kids' new school shoes.
One of the trial balloons currently being floated is that the president will announce a new Department of Jobs. This has got to be a joke. Here's a paragraph on the U.S. Department of Labor. It details the history of this federal agency, now approaching its one hundredth year of existence:
The organic act establishing the Department of Labor was signed on March 4, 1913, by a reluctant President William Howard Taft, the defeated and departing incumbent, just hours before Woodrow Wilson took office. A Federal Department of Labor was the direct product of a half-century campaign by organized labor for a "Voice in the Cabinet," and an indirect product of the Progressive Movement. In the words of the organic act, the Department's purpose is "to foster, promote and develop the welfare of working people, to improve their working conditions, and to enhance their opportunities for profitable employment."
Reads pretty much like a Jobs Department to me. Has anyone talked to Labor Sec. Hilda Solis about any new "Jobs Department?" What is she supposed to do, how is she supposed to labor, if we have another Jobs Department?
Then, of course, we have the U.S. Commerce Department. The Mission Statement of this department makes it sound like it, too, is a Jobs Department.
The U.S. Department of Commerce promotes job creation, economic growth, sustainable development and improved standards of living for all Americans by working in partnership with businesses, universities, communities and our nation's workers.
Reading these official statements -- cranked out by people whose salaries we all pay -- reminds us of Ronald Reagan's famous line. The closest thing to eternal life we will see on this earth is a government program.
If the function of the U.S. Secretary of Commerce is to promote job creation and economic growth, it sure seems that -- how can I say this charitably? -- this distinguished public servant has been falling down on the job of late. Like the last two and a half years.
If I were Mr. Obama's Commerce Secretary, I'd want to get out of town, and fast. In fact, that's exactly what Sec. Gary Locke did. Having done such yeoman's work in promoting job creation and economic growth here, Gary Locke was recently sworn in as our Ambassador to China.
Now, there's a jobs plan! If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Ambassador Locke can now observe job creation and economic growth from a unique vantage point: Beijing.
As he unpacks in China's Forbidden City, I suggest that Amb. Locke enter into meaningful dialog with the Chinese about U.S. exports. Maybe he can persuade them to buy more American flounder. We have entirely too much American floundering here and on Martha's Vineyard.
Stay safe.
We all have our problems....
Member of obama Secret Service detail arrested for drunk driving in Decorah, Iowa.
ABC News’ Devin Dwyer (@devindwyer) reports: A U.S. Secret Service agent assigned to President Obama’s security detail was arrested Aug. 13 in Decorah, Iowa, for driving under the influence, sources tell ABC News.
Daniel L. Valencia, 40, was pulled over by a Decorah city police officer and later arrested after it appeared he had been drinking, said Chief Bill Nixon. No accident occurred; no one was injured.
Story here.
Stay safe.
ABC News’ Devin Dwyer (@devindwyer) reports: A U.S. Secret Service agent assigned to President Obama’s security detail was arrested Aug. 13 in Decorah, Iowa, for driving under the influence, sources tell ABC News.
Daniel L. Valencia, 40, was pulled over by a Decorah city police officer and later arrested after it appeared he had been drinking, said Chief Bill Nixon. No accident occurred; no one was injured.
Story here.
Stay safe.
Tell me....
Who's crazy?
Those who believe in God?
Or those who believe in obama.
Think about that.
Stay safe.
Those who believe in God?
Or those who believe in obama.
Think about that.
Stay safe.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Moonbats and tin foil hats....
I received an email from a friend in South Carolina this afternoon. It was labeled "Hippy News". I opened the email and it contained this link.
After I had looked around for awhile I sent him the simple response of "Wow!"
He responded back to me with "They REALLY beileve that stuff".
He's right, they do. Any normal person reading it would be smart enough to realize that it's propaganda as good and as effective as anything produced by the Nazis before and during WWII.
They really do believe it, and that should scare the crap out of anyone with even half a brain.
Wow!
:)
Stay safe.
(I think she's indicating Bill's "size". Or perhaps barack's size. Brain size, that is.)
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