Saved By Asia

Thank you, Singapore. Thank you, thank you. Thank you, also, China, and Saudi Arabia, and all those other countries who are saving us from our own financial destruction.

How can the United States ever repay you?

Depends on Who's Doing the Stealing

Another case of a soft-headed, crappy news "story" from Syracuse's WSYR9.com.

Comptroller: Liverpool Schools Misspent $250,000

Um, here on planet Earth, we call that STEALING. They STOLE $250,000. The school officials who did this are CRIMINALS and THIEVES.

What happened (WSYR does not allow anyone to copy and paste their content) was that the school district "used" (TOOK) "donations" (MONEY and MATERIALS) raised by students (WHO WORKED FOR THE MONEY) and "gave away" (PAWNED) the stuff to their buddies. WSYR is calling this "mishandling" and "misspending." What a load of crap.

Well, well, the principal got a new personal cell phone, teachers and "administrators" (TAX MONEY VACUUMS) got shirts, jackets, furniture, laptops, and more. No one would have known without an audit done by the state.

I know, I am being too hard on the schools, right? Because the schools can do anything they want, without penalty, just like Congress can. Because after all, "It's for the children."

Sign the Declaration of Dependence

I happened upon a marvelous blog post (and it's a marvelous blog, as well). (And thank you, Herculean Reflections for bringing my attention to this). It is The Cause of Liberty blog, and the author is making the clarion call for patriots to rededicate ourselves to the original and noble precepts set forth in the Declaration of Independence of 1776. The statement runs a little like Daniel's intercession from the scriptures, and it just as stirring. The blogger explains:

After 232 years since declaring her independence, it has becoming sadly clear that America needs a rebirth, a renaissance of the principles upon which she was founded. While we ardently fight for our rights, we have in large part ignored the duties which correspond to those rights. We continue to expect the blessings of Heaven, while neglecting to live worthy lives.

In a rapidly declining nation, signing The Declaration of Dependence is your opportunity to rededicate your life and heart to the principles of freedom. It is your privilege to become a modern-day Founder.

The Declaration of Dependence is marvelous. Yes, I know I said that already. Here's the preamble. Tell me if this does not stir something within you.

In the course of human events, it has become necessary for our People to resurrect the Political Bands once established through Divine Inspiration, because we the People failed in our Duties to God and our fellowman, and assumed among the powers of earth rights without understanding corresponding Duties, and have believed that we were entitled to the fruits of another man’s labor, and have ignored the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God. Now, a decent respect to Those Who Have Gone Before requires that we Repent and repair our failing Union.

I suggest you read the document. Take note, also, of the stirring comments of the "signers."

Paying for Our Own Surveillance

This is over the top in arrogance and misguided justice. Police in a small town in Missouri are taking requests from businesses and individuals for "sponsoring" surveillance cameras. For $30,000 you can get your company logo or name next to a mounted camera box. Spy on your neighbors and expect the patrons to roll right in!

America's founding fathers warned us of such tyrannical actions. And they were very implicit that the blame for such tyranny would rest firmly on the people themselves.

Samuel Adams said it very succinctly: "Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt."

Wouldn't it be better to just allow the Ten Commandments back in schools and in the public discourses? You wouldn't need millions of dollars, technology, marketing schemes, or tyrants to enforce the laws, for the laws would be in the hearts and consciences of the people.

Robert Winthrop: "Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them, or a power without them; either by the word of God, or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet."

Now There's Wonder Woman!

What's better then the messiah come to earth in the form of a limpid, ineffective Senator-turned-President? Wonder Woman at his side!

“Whoever makes that discovery, rules,” she says.

Eighteen months after taking power, the California Democrat will need to summon all her own navigation skills for the waters ahead.

She hit the national television circuit Monday with her new book, “Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters.” Next month, she’ll chair the convention in Denver that will nominate Barack Obama — “the next president of the United States. I feel very certain of that,” Pelosi says.

Oh, it's Nancy Pelosi, talking about new discoveries to be found in energy and space... and in the halls of power.

Salmonella A Mexico Problem?

Shocking? Not really.

Tainted Jalapeno Peppers Linked to Farm in Mexico

Jalapeno peppers contaminated with a strain of salmonella linked to more than 1,200 illnesses were traced to Mexico, according to U.S. regulators, who warned not to eat raw jalapenos from that country.

The Food and Drug Administration, which on July 21 told consumers to avoid all raw jalapenos, now says it's safe to eat those grown in the U.S., said David Acheson, the agency's associate commissioner for foods, in a phone interview today.

The story is a little confusing; you'd think the Mexican peppers would exonerate the US tomatoes. But the CDC says tomatoes are still not "exonerated." Yeah, who can know?

Now, the peppers are being fingered via paperwork-- no "scientific" tests have been done. But what is shocking is that:

1) the CDC attacked the US businesses, with their higher standards for food safety
2) the CDC virtually ignored looking into Mexican imports
3) the CDC has a hellofalotta power; so much so that they can practically wipe out tomato growers with a single media clip

Don't They Get It?

I read an older story at WSYR.com, titled, "Oswego Homeowners Battling Assessments." Residents of the town of Oswego (like residents everywhere in NYS) are upset that their property assessments are going up. Some are up 9%, others nearly 50%. That's a big jump! And the people don't want to pay the increased taxes.

But then why do these people continually vote for increased school taxes? School taxes are paid for by property taxes (and some state aid sprinkled in). Don't people connect two and two, here? Assessments ARE going to go up. But school budgets and school taxes do not necessarily need to. And we all know there's a vast black hole of waste in those buildings, most if which come from bloated administrative costs.

But people are belly-aching about their assessments. Huh?

Kissing Babies-OUT; Kissing Butts-IN

Used to be that presidential candidates traveled around their OWN country, campaigning. It must be too much for the Savior of the World to restrict himself to just one racist, homophobic, ignorant country like the U.S. Nothing like some great photo ops in Berlin and Jerusalem to pump up your native constituency?

Democracy Demons

"If you establish a democracy, you must in due time reap the fruits of a democracy. You will in due season have great impatience of the public burdens, combined in due season with great increase of the public expenditure. You will in due season have wars entered into from passion and not from reason; and you will in due season submit to peace ignominiously sought and ignominiously obtained, which will diminish your authority and perhaps endanger your independence. You will in due season find your property is less valuable, and your freedom less complete."
-- Benjamin Disraeli

"It will be necessary for us to be a nation of men, and not laws."
-- Dick Cheney, on PBS "Frontline"

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
-- C.S. Lewis

"Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people."
-- Oscar Wilde

"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine."
-- Thomas Jefferson

"A good politician under democracy is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar."
-- H.L. Mencken

What Is Wrong With Rush Limbaugh?

I practically grew up listening to the Rush Limbaugh Show. One of my parents is a "blue-blood" Republican, the other a JFK Democrat. I, of course, have seen fit to go my own way-- I suppose I lean more Republican than Democrat, but I am no Republican as defined by the term today. I actually see very little difference between the two parties, and they are both hell-bent on throwing out the Constitution for a more global form of government. The old Rush Limbaugh Show delightfully exposed the foibles of our culture and our politics that were eroding our Constitutional liberties.

I flipped on the radio at lunch today. It was the Limbaugh Show. I hadn't heard it in ages, not since I started my daytime job. I was appalled and extremely embarrassed by the rant I caught. The information I present is a little sketchy, since I caught it midway; but Limbaugh was spouting some study about Sex in the City women (unmarrieds) and married women. It's no secret that unmarried women are more liberal than married women. Limbaugh seemed to tie this in with the "stupidity" of women; that an unmarried woman loses her stupidity after she marries; ergo, a woman is stupid until or unless she has a man in her life and she becomes conservative, and the study he was quoting was proof.

I know Limbaugh often likes to joke, satirize, and poke at liberals merely to provoke them, so I did take that into consideration. (I personally believe that such behavior exhibits an underlying "power play." Now that the Big Guy calls the shots, he can harange the bullies as they once did to him, with righteous indigation mixed in.) Yet even among his jibbing and his jabbing, I detect a twang of seriousness about Limbaugh, and it is most prominent when he hashes through men/women issues. Does he really have a problem with women in general, and has this strife affected his logical thinking abilities? I have to question his behavior and his conclusions; because in such studies as he referred (unmarrieds vs. marrieds) it is not the element of a husband that makes a woman "less stupid" (or, in his eyes, "conservative")-- it is the presence of children. Married women without children are more likely to be liberally-inclined just as much as their unmarried sisters. It is the element of child-rearing that usually causes a woman to be more conservative, both in behavior and philosophy.

It doesn't take a rocket-science education to consider that variable-- and it's an extremely critical variable-- in any study of women, but Limbaugh seemed completely incapable of seeing it. He seems to be quite willing to take any opportunity to "slam" women in general. What is wrong with him? I believe his resentments are starting to blur his clear judgments. It makes him less credible-- obviously so to women but also to anyone with a discerning ear.

P.S. It's also regrettable, because while he could have used this topic to glorify domestic felicity and honor of child-rearing, he instead uses it to spout strife and division among classes (male and female). Very regrettable. 

Crossing the Rubicon

This story is a little old, but it's not irrelevant: Italy Defends Move to Patrols Streets with Soldiers.

The Italian government has defended its decision to use soldiers to patrol cities in an effort to curb crime, rejecting criticism that it will "militarise" the streets.

"There is a strong call from citizens for better control of the streets, for improved safety," Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa told Sky Italia television.

"My hope is that particularly in the evening, in the cities, these troops can ensure greater safety."

The government announced on Friday that up to 2,500 soldiers, some of whom have served in Afghanistan and Kosovo, would be made available for a trial period of six months to bolster the police in difficult urban areas.

This sends shivers down my usually iron-rod spine. I am not well-versed in the in's and out's of Italian politics, but if Italy is governed anything at all like Utica, NY, is, then we can all kiss Italy goodbye. heh. No, seriously, Utica isn't nearly as bad, and I hope it never gets that bad here.

Nonetheless, it's a terribly threatening situation for the Italian people, it's own military stalking the streets enforcing laws because the populace won't obey them. Or perhaps because the populace won't submit to the tyrannies of the politicians in charge.

Here in the United States, we have the Posse Comitatus Act, which is supposed to prevent our government from siccing our own military on us. Unfortunately, the U.S. government thinks the Posse Comitatus is optional. Just ask the people who survived the Waco Branch Davidian assault, or the residents of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Almost always, when the military is sent out to "enforce" something, it breaches the liberty and constitutional rights of the people. Yet after the rush to sign and enforce the "Patriot" Act, almost anything is permissible now.

I'm dismayed that Italy is swallowing this. What's next, another Mussolini?

27 Out of 29 in NYS

I am not quite sure why the news outlets keep doing "studies" of things we already know and then roll out a constant stream of results about how crappy Upstate New York is. Yeah yeah, WE KNOW ALREADY.

My Congressional district in New York, number 24, ranks #27 out of 29. Number 29 being worst. My district rates so bad because of (tada!) HIGH taxes, LOW income, and BAD health.

So, we are poor, paying politicians through the nose, and having heart attacks from the stress. And the point is??

Do I hear any clamor from Albany to LOWER taxes? Anyone? (silence).

Enough with the "studies"!

$20 Bills Explode In Microwaves

This from Alex Jones.

We walked into a truck stop/travel plaza and they have those new electronic monitors that are supposed to say if you are stealing something. But through every monitor, Dave set it off. He did not have anything to purchase in his hands or pockets. After numerous times of setting off these monitors, a person approached Dave with a 'wand' to swipe why he was setting off the monitors.

Believe it or not, it was his 'wallet'. That is according to the minimum wage employees working at the truck stop! We then walked across the street to a store and purchased aluminum foil. We then wrapped our cash in foil and went thru the same monitors. No monitor went off.

It is ironic that the government has embedded the RFID chip in President Jackson's right eye. President Jackson was a bitter opponent of the central bank (the Federal Reserve Bank was permanently established in 1913) during his term. Touche.

Read the full story at Alex Jones site here. Interesting. Also interesting that the government wants to track all financial transactions. Coming soon to the EU, also.

The New Swear Word

For the most part, I've ignored it, despite it being splashed all over the news and blogs. Does BBC have any earth-shattering updates on it yet? I'm talking about the idiotic attention being given to Jesse Jackson once again, and this time for his racial slurs against Barack Obama.

Jackson can lie, steal, cheat on his wife, call Jews "hymies," and believe the world is flat, but dare he mention the "N" word, his career is practically OVER. What a world.

And why is everyone skulking around, whispering "N-word," anyway? It's a pretty nasty way to describe blacks or anyone, but since when did it become the new "F" word? And why is the "F" word so acceptable now, and the "B" word, and the "XYZ" word? We can all say those words, but it is high BLASPHEMY to say the "N" word? Even I don't dare type it for fear of sulfuric brimstone-ish reprisal from liberal hackers.

What a bunch of idiots. You can't say the "N" word, but everything is else is a-ok. And why? Well, just because everyone says so. What a stupid way to live one's life. And liberals complain about Christian fundamentalists creating a "theocracy." Puh-lease.

The Limerick

There once was an old man of Esser,

Whose knowledge grew lesser and lesser,

It at last grew so small

He knew nothing at all

And now he's a college professor

.

Enough said.

You Get What You Pay For

Most corporations, for all their supposed savvy and sophistication, are filled with idiots.



Executives stuff themselves with cash and perks, while tossing nickels and dimes to, for example, their tech help. Take this recent news report.

SAN FRANCISCO -- A disgruntled city computer engineer has virtually commandeered San Francisco's new multimillion-dollar computer network, altering it to deny access to top administrators even as he sits in jail on $5 million bail, authorities said Monday.

Terry Childs, a 43-year-old computer network administrator who lives in Pittsburg, has been charged with four counts of computer tampering and is scheduled to be arraigned today.

Prosecutors say Childs, who works in the Department of Technology at a base salary of just over $126,000, tampered with the city's new FiberWAN (Wide Area Network), where records such as officials' e-mails, city payroll files, confidential law enforcement documents and jail inmates' bookings are stored.

Childs created a password that granted him exclusive access to the system, authorities said. He initially gave pass codes to police, but they didn't work. When pressed, Childs refused to divulge the real code even when threatened with arrest, they said.

That's gotta hurt. Heh.

Photo from Despair.com.

We the EPA

Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, one of my favorite senators, is warning of a new level of Big Brother here in the United States, should the EPA join the bureaucracy brigade that has been slowly overpowering our republic.

A key player in the years-long debate over climate change, the Oklahoma Republican agreed that using the Clean Air Act to put new regulations in place would be an unprecedented expansion of the Environmental Protection Agency's authority that would impact every household.

"Obviously the concept of regulating carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act is flawed and the act must be amended by Congress," Inhofe said.

"Today's notice should concern all lawmakers; no one should want the EPA to exercise the kind of power and authority that the career staff at EPA contemplates."

I don't care how the hell dirty our air is, we will not overthrow our form of government to "save" the planet.

Amazing New Research Shows....

Found this at One Happy Dog. The following has been proven and is now a scientific fact. Perhaps even a Law.

Research has led to the discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every action with which it comes into contact.

A minute amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second to take from four days to four years to complete. Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2-6 years; it does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.

In fact, Governmentium’s mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass.

When catalyzed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium, an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

As usual, science just confirms what we all already knew!

Maybe Sharia Law Wouldn't Be Too Bad...

... in the UK.

Ever see the "ads" on the UK news websites? Holy cow, folks, get those girls some clothes!

Seriously (well, sort of), a UK judge has claimed that Sharia law in the UK isn't such a terrible idea.

Does he look like the type of guy who's waiting for those 72 virgins?

Then again, aren't they all? Heh.

The Cesspool

It's official: old people watch TV.

Also, I'm wondering how the Olympics contenders are feeling about the Olympics these days. Between the murder of innocent people, an earthquake, suffocating pollution, and now red tide (from raw sewage, in part), is this what China expected us to see? How many dead bodies can they hide under rocks so no one will notice? And how can fat and happy Westerners pretend we don't see any of it it and play along with the charade? I mean, we hardly shrugged with the lead in our children's toys and the poison in our toothpaste. What kind of toxic brainwashing is this? All in the name of our god, Sports.