Armed Cops Refuse to Shoot Terrorist

Interesting little testimony from a witness to the Mumbai terrorist incident:

Mumbai photographer: I wish I'd had a gun, not a camera. Armed police would not fire back

Sebastian D'Souza, a picture editor at the Mumbai Mirror, whose offices are just opposite the city's Chhatrapati Shivaji station, heard the gunfire erupt and ran towards the terminus. "I ran into the first carriage of one of the trains on the platform to try and get a shot but couldn't get a good angle, so I moved to the second carriage and waited for the gunmen to walk by," he said. "They were shooting from waist height and fired at anything that moved. I briefly had time to take a couple of frames using a telephoto lens. I think they saw me taking photographs but theydidn't seem to care."

But what angered Mr D'Souza almost as much were the masses of armed police hiding in the area who simply refused to shoot back. "There were armed policemen hiding all around the station but none of them did anything," he said. "At one point, I ran up to them and told them to use their weapons. I said, 'Shoot them, they're sitting ducks!' but they just didn't shoot back."

As the gunmen fired at policemen taking cover across the street, Mr D'Souza realised a train was pulling into the station unaware of the horror within. "I couldn't believe it. We rushed to the platform and told everyone to head towards the back of the station. Those who were older and couldn't run, we told them to stay put."

Why on earth would armed policemen refuse to fire at a terrorist when they had the opportunity? How odd, yes, how very, very odd. Unless they had orders to stand down? Now why would that be? Yes, very odd.

In other, completely and absolutely unrelated news which has no bearing whatsoever on the ineptness and "bad judgment" of Mumbai's keystone cops, Indian media corps is declaring war over the terrorist incident:

"It's war," declares the editorial in the Times of India. "The scale, intensity and level of orchestration of terror attacks in Mumbai put one thing beyond doubt: India is effectively at war and it has deadly enemies in its midst." Its coverage draws parallels with the September 11 attacks and says the attacks are in part a consequence of the war on terror.

How odd. Truly, very, very odd.

But then again, I'm some kind of conspiracy nut, labeled so because I don't see any evidence supporting the US government's story of what happened on 9/11... so what could I possibly know?

Global Insanity

This is what happens when you have insane people in positions of authority:

Lawyers call for international court for the environment

Stephen Hockman QC is proposing a body similar to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to be the supreme legal authority on issues regarding the environment.

The first role of the new body would be to enforce international agreements on cutting greenhouse gas emissions set to be agreed next year.

But the court would also fine countries or companies that fail to protect endangered species or degrade the natural environment and enforce the "right to a healthy environment".

"Enforce" the right to a "healthy" environment. What?! Like the wording of Roe v. Wade, the word "health" is quite the variable term. I'd like a healthy environment free from idiots. Yes, from insane people, from people who believe humans evolved from a slimy rock and from people who believe aliens gave us DNA.

And what do they mean, "enforce"? What would happen to a country that refused? The country would be fined? What would happen if the country refused to pay the fines? They would be attacked, perhaps invaded? That would defeat having a "healthy" environment, wouldn't it? Dead bodies can be SO unhealthy for the environment.

These people are abject idiots. There should be a movement to get rid of global insanity, I say!

Do You Worship the Turkey?

Another Thanksgiving Day has come and gone. America's corporate belch bubbled up before dawn: Black Friday. This most glorious, most patriotic day did bring it's casualties, though. Friendly fire was reported in a Long Island Walmart:

A Wal-Mart worker died after being trampled when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island store Friday morning, police and witnesses said.

The 34-year-old employee, a temporary maintenance worker, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after the Valley Stream store opened at 5 a.m.

Witnesses said the surging throngs of shoppers knocked the man down. He fell and was stepped on. As he gasped for air, shoppers ran over and around him.

I've heard that George W. Bush himself is going to lower the flag at the White House for this most patriotic of Americans. He died doing his duty-- serving the American people with their lust for shopping in the noble cause of the war on "terrorism."

So how was your Thanksgiving holiday? Mine was quiet, something of which I am most appreciative. I managed to get in a few more hours of sleep, and browse a few websites. Seeing the content on websites caused me to wonder if, in a 1,000 years or more, future generations will look back on our civilization and believe that we worshiped the turkey in November.

I saw a constant stream of turkey photos. Many said "Happy Turkey Day," especially television weathermen. Schoolchildren learn not that the Pilgrims gave thanks to Almighty God for provision, but that they gorged on corn and turkey with the Indians who had saved their silly British skins. The children are taught to color turkey feathers, make turkey puppets, and wear Pilgrim hats. All hail, the American turkey!

What a sad state of affairs. Forget the trillions- our country needs an immorality bailout, and fast.

Thanksgiving Day

Enjoy yours. I know I will. God bless you and yours today.

"It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors."

George Washington, Thanksgiving Proclamation, 3 October 1789

Russia Chiming In

It's extremely disconcerting for a former KGB member and ex-leader of a communist state tell the United States that our new RULER His Royal Majesty and Majestic Messiahness, Barack Obama (praise be upon his name forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and... ad nauseum...) that the United States is in need of perestroika. It rather sends shivers up my spine; you?

Gorbachev calls on Obama to carry out 'perestroika' in the U.S.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has said that the Obama administration in the United States needs far-reaching 'perestroika' reforms to overcome the financial crisis and restore balance in the world.

The term perestroika, meaning restructuring, was used by Gorbachev in the late 1980s to describe a series of reforms that abolished state planning in the Soviet Union.

In an interview with Italy's La Stampa published on Friday, Gorbachev said President-elect Barack Obama needs to fundamentally change the misguided course followed by President George W. Bush over the past eight years.

Gorbachev said that after transforming his country in the late 1980s, he had told the Americans that it was their turn to act, but that Washington, celebrating its Cold War victory, was not interested in "a new model of a society, where politics, economics and morals went hand in hand."

Hm.

I'd rather call on our founding fathers and see what they had to say:

For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well organized and armed militia is their best security. - Thomas Jefferson

.... large and permanent military establishments which are forbidden by the principles of free government, and against the necessity of which the militia were meant to be a constitutional bulwark. - James Madison

The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards. - Samuel Adams

God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever. - Thomas Jefferson

Whenever people . . . entrust the defense of their country to a regular, standing army, composed of mercenaries, the power of that country will remain under the direction of the most wealthy citizens. - "A framer," 1791

These are the words our new RULER His Royal Majesty and Majestic Messiahness, Barack Obama (praise be upon his name forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and... ad nauseum...) should be listening to.

Fire and Iceland

Despite all the media cacophony about how we Americans need to be "team players" in a global world, the media is eerily silent (for the most part) about the same pattern of economic crises striking not just the U.S., but the world. The only medium I have come across with any clarity about this is Alex Jones' website. Other countries are seeing financial crises, as well, and these crises are not necessarily because of the United States' influence on the global market. When you look at it, it looks strikingly like a very well-planned agenda of divide and conquer. 

Iceland, the UK, and other countries have seen their own home mortgage crises, their own devaluing of their currency, their own financial collapses, their own bailouts, and now their own people protesting government looting of the people:

Last Saturday, protesters angry over the 50 percent devaluation of the Krona and the impending third worldization of their small country clashed with police. “Police clashed with hundreds of protesters outside a police building Saturday, and several demonstrators were sent to the hospital with injuries,” reported the Associated Press. “Police used pepper spray after protesters tried to break down a door of the police building in the Icelandic capital. The demonstrators demanded that a fellow protester being held by police since Friday be allowed to go home.”

According to the Associated Press, the “demonstrators blame the government for having failed to adequately oversee the banking industry.” In fact, many Icelanders blame the government not for overseeing the banking industry but working in a cahoots with it to loot the country. Iceland’s politicos are no different than their counterparts in Europe and the United States: they are sock puppets for the global elite who are determined to crash the global economy country by country and buy up goodies for pennies on the dollar.

I have strongly believed that our "bailouts" serve no one but the Federal Reserve Bank, with its system that has a chokehold on the people of the United States. Other countries have a similar banking system; and it is rarely reported that the national banks are to some degree controlled by the same group of men who oversee the World Bank system (the "international bankers").

Regarding my statement that the Federal Reserve Bank has a chokehold on the people of the United States, by this I mean that our government is looting us, the taxpayers, to support the continuation of a burdensome economic system of perpetual debt (the Keynesian economic theory that debt equals wealth) established by the Federal Reserve Bank. This system has made American citizens slaves to said system; our federal and local governments owe so much, and this, coupled with the personal consumer debt, makes us slaves to pay off debts that will never be paid off (due precisely to Federal Reserve Bank policy). Think: what if the government did not bail out anyone, and allowed the entire system to come crashing down? Certainly our economy would suffer, but it would be short-term, like a tooth extraction-- we should suffer now to eliminate the festering abcess by eliminating the rotten tooth. Our entire economy is just a house of cards. Better to suffer a little severe pain now and get it over with, than to prolong the teeth-gnashing agony until the mortal collapse. 

Americans are slaves into the existing system (and so are citizens of other countries with these same policies). Our entire system from the top down (federal government, states, counties, towns, communitites, families, and individuals) are in debt. There are a few families here and there, a few towns here and there that are not in debt, but when the rubber meets the road, your debtlessness or my debtlessness won't matter-- there's so much of it among so many tiers that when the entire system goes swirling down the toilet, it will suck everything with it. There's no way out of this system, because the philosophy behind it is that debt equals wealth. You can run an economy for only so long under that premise, because sooner or later, everyone will be in debt to everyone else. If there is no secure monetary standard, from whence does our system get its value? It will eventually collapse and it will be a very painful collapse-- and the longer we continue the system, the more painful it will be when it does collapse. 

We really are at the mercy of the Federal Reserve, and have been for almost a century. All the taxes we pay go straight to the Federal Reserve, to pay for the interest that our government has incurred from its debt; our government gave control of our currency to the Federal Reserve, and the Federal Reserve charges us interest for the honor of allowing the Federal Reserve to print and use our own "money." It's a crackpot scheme. And yet, collapse or no collapse, the Federal Reserve reaps the profits and the power because they created the system and they own the debts (and the debtors). It is in their vested interest to encourage collapse and chaos, so that the U.S. joins all the nations of the world to be forced to seek stability from the World Bank (which, when chaos hits, will determine the value for a new monetary standard). And in such a case, what will nations have to offer the World Bank for the stability? Do you think the World Bank is going to bail out the nations, out of the goodness of their hearts? What resources do we have to barter, or to rely upon should we resist? What sovereignty will we have left to lean on it if we change our mind? 

So, what's happening in Iceland now? It's a microcosm of what is to come. The International Monetary Fund is coming in to bailout the bailouts. Of course, they won't do it for free. They want something-- they want to own the economy and therefore the resources of Iceland, which means that the citizens of Iceland become perpetual slaves to the international bankers. Icelandic slave labor is the bartering chip that the government offers, to pay off the debts that will never get paid off, ever. The IMF will see to it, because it is the IMF that benefits from the perpetual debt.  And it is uncanny that these collapses are coinciding with the shift in economic factors such as manufacturing. The United States, for example, has all but shifted its entire manufacturing industry to Asia. So when our economy comes crashing down, we will have no infrastructure to support us; we will be at the mercy of the world bankers who have gobbled up the resources of the nations. It's a coup d etat, but on a much larger scale. For a loaf of bread and a tank of gas, we'll toss out our Constitution and our inalienable rights endowed by our Creator. Some people (even people I know) are proposing we exchange our sovereignty and natural rights for immediate material comforts. It all goes back to the philosophy, the worldview, if you wish, of the two main groups: those who realize God through His Son has given us inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and those who believe there is nothing beyond impersonal matter and energy, and therefore humans must live for the moment. 

It is both marvelous and frightening to watch as this unfolds. Marvelous because the schemers are working so quickly and so arrogantly right under our noses, almost ready to sew everything up into their bag. Frightening because I abhor humanism and slavery; and I happen to consider myself an abolitionist.

I also refer you to St. John the Evangelist. Oh, I'm sure he was exaggerating when he said, "And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, slave and free, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheards, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name." Revelation 13:16-17

After all, how could he know? That's just a fable, right, created by Christians who only want to squelch your sexual morays, right? And what's the big deal if we get a "mark"? What's a little liberty in exchange for some much-needed security? Hey, we need food and shelter, right? 

This is News?

BIG HEADLINE ON DRUDGE TODAY!!!

RUSSIAN ANALYST PREDICTS DECLINE AND BREAKUP OF USA!!

A leading Russian political analyst has said the economic turmoil in the United States has confirmed his long-held view that the country is heading for collapse, and will divide into separate parts.

Professor Igor Panarin said in an interview with the respected daily IZVESTIA published on Monday: "The dollar is not secured by anything. The country's foreign debt has grown like an avalanche, even though in the early 1980s there was no debt. By 1998, when I first made my prediction, it had exceeded $2 trillion. Now it is more than 11 trillion. This is a pyramid that can only collapse."

The paper said Panarin's dire predictions for the U.S. economy, initially made at an international conference in Australia 10 years ago at a time when the economy appeared strong, have been given more credence by this year's events.

When asked when the U.S. economy would collapse, Panarin said: "It is already collapsing. Due to the financial crisis, three of the largest and oldest five banks on Wall Street have already ceased to exist, and two are barely surviving. Their losses are the biggest in history. Now what we will see is a change in the regulatory system on a global financial scale: America will no longer be the world's financial regulator."

Snnnooooore. This is news? Dude, Alexander Solzheinitzyn had been ringing the sirens for the past 25 years. Where has everyone been?

Oh yes, not listening. Too busy with their immoralities, with trashing of God and the Christian scriptures, justifying the brainwashing doctrines of evolution, and trampling the Constitution. Just as Solzheinitzyn predicted. Way back then. Now that people are starting to lose their SUVs and McMansions, everyone is worried.

Now, I'm not saying that Professor Panarin is to be ignored. I'm saying that it is ridiculous; everyone is running around like Chicken Little, now that we near the end of it all, when for decades the real threats to our country were ignored.

Talking Turkey

This video interview of Sarah Palin, taken in front of a turkey slaughterhouse, is making the rounds in viral video land lately. "Animal rights" activists are going beserk over it (the slaughter as well as Palin's interview), while the more educated of us realize that this is how we get our food, ladies and gentlemen. Surprise!



After watching, and after hearing all the liberal clatter about the video, all I have to say is:

I'm hungry.

Heh.

NY Folly Swept Under the Rug Again

You know things are really tough when New York State governor David Patterson and the legislature tell us that we New Yorkers need to cut costs. You know times are really tough when they tell us they absolutely must increase taxes and costs (again) to meet the gaping budget deficit hole (again). And you know things must be really, really bad when the state pays ONLY $21,000 on a 10 x 15 antique Turkish rug for the governor's mansion. Good thing it was merely a Turkish rug, and for only $21,000 at that! We might have been forced to foot a $40,000 bill for a Persian rug, or something. I'mn so gratified to see NY Government practicing thrift and showing consideration for our present times.

$21,000. Good Lord. That's more than a lot of Upstate New Yorker's make in one year. The state is excusing the expense as "routine maintenance."

Well, I'm not looking forward to what "non-routine" maintenance will cost. After all, I'm paying for it, with my less-than $21,000 annual salary.

(By the way, Home Depot sells 10 x 15 antique rugs for $600).

End the Fed Rally?

How very odd-- I didn't see this making any major news headlines at all: an End the Fed Rally. I discovered it on one of the blogs I visit. Apparently, there's a rally (with perhaps an appearance by Ron Paul) in Philadelphia this afternoon. Information is very sketchy because I have found very little about it. Of course the major media isn't covering it-- it's the Federal Reserve Bank that perpetuates the virtual slavery of the American people. Why report that when everything is going so well and the fascist system is chugging away as planned?

All I could find, besides a handful of bloggers, was a website called End the Fed, a brief story about it at Harrisburg Campaign for Liberty, and Reason Online.

FFQF: George Mason and the Mrs.

Join the FFQF meme at Meet the Founders blog

George Mason:

In the Beauty of her Person, & the Sweetness of her Disposition, she was equalled by few, & excelled by none of her Sex … She was bless'd with a clear & sound Judgement, a gentle & benevolent Heart, a s[incere] & an humble Mind; with an even calm & chearful Temper to a very unusual degree Affable to All, but intimate with Few. Her modest Virtues shun'd the public-Eye, Superior to the turbulent Passions of Pride & Envy, a Stranger to Altercation of every Kind, & content with the Blessings of a private Station, she placed all her Happiness here, where only it is to be found, in her own Family.

This is Mason speaking of his wife (after her death, whom he grieved much); these tender words of love and affection speak well about her character.

It is an enduring testimony to our country that so many founding fathers cherished and respected the work their mothers and wives were doing for the cause of liberty. It is another example of the honorable and faithful characters of those men who shaped our nation.

That's a Big Hole Ya Got Dere

Perfection.


In The Know: Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole?

Thank you, Copious Dissent. I'd forgotten how bizarre yet provoking the Onion is.

Don't Believe It!

Theophobe sent me this link. It is extremely difficult to believe. See for yourself.

The Conspiracy

I am highly skeptical of its claim. It offers no evidence whatsoever.

Then again, it IS on a Wikipedia-looking site...

It must be true, then!

Other interesting tidbits on the site (some content Rated R; the writers seem to have a strange fascination with Sophia Loren):

500 BC - Greeks invent philosophy(filos=love, Sophia)

403 - The Hagia Sophia completed in Constantinople. Her majestic domes are just huge.

1453 - Turks capture Constantinople and rename it Is Stan Bull, adding minarets as phallic symbols around the Hagia Sophia.

917 - World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins - The Allies make surprise attack on the German Trenches while the Soldiers are transfixed on Sophia's Invention.

oooook. I strongly suspect a conspiracy.

Blasphemy!

Supposedly, Americans can tolerate a crucifix dunked in urine, portraits of virgin Mary as a prostitute or clobbered with elephant dung, or accuse Jesus and His disciples as selfish, whiny bi-sexuals. But racial epithets-- BLASPHEMY!

Al-Qaida No. 2 insults Obama with racial epithet

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader used a racial epithet to insult Barack Obama in a message posted Wednesday, describing the president-elect in demeaning terms that imply he does the bidding of whites.

The message appeared chiefly aimed at persuading Muslims and Arabs that Obama does not represent a change in U.S. policies. Ayman al-Zawahri said in the message, which appeared on militant Web sites, that Obama is "the direct opposite of honorable black Americans" like Malcolm X, the 1960s African-American rights leader.

In al-Qaida's first response to Obama's victory, al-Zawahri also called the president-elect—along with secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice—"house negroes."

Speaking in Arabic, al-Zawahri uses the term "abeed al-beit," which literally translates as "house slaves." But al-Qaida supplied English subtitles of his speech that included the translation as "house negroes."

HOW DARE HE! He has crossed the line! Watch out, Mr. Al Qaida, you're stirring up a vicious cauldron in America! You had better go back to slandering and insulting Jesus Christ. Consider the consequences of insulting our new black Messiah and the blacks of our nation: the liberals might start supporting the war in Iraq now!

"Change" Redefined

The idea behind the "change" threatened by Barack Obama is becoming unbearable. First the big news today is the site How Obama Got Elected, which paints a dismaying picture of the brainwashed masses behind Obama's supporters. (My friend Theophobe holds that Obama's election is a striking example of how successful the public school/social engineering system has become).

And then I happened upon this news story. Hear my audible groan:

Obama in talks with Gates on Pentagon role

President-elect Barack Obama and Robert Gates are negotiating terms under which the defence secretary would remain as Pentagon chief in his administration, the Financial Times has learned.

Mr Obama, through an intermediary, has approached Mr Gates, who has served as defence secretary under President George W. Bush since 2006, about accepting the position, which would place a respected Republican appointee in his cabinet.

I will confess that I am no expert in defense, I have more knowledge and understanding in matters regarding history, sociology, and law. But I can tell you that this move is a far cry from Messiah's clarion call for the amorphous CHANGE he insists on touting. Gates' appointment seems to spell a toleration if not continuation of the neo-cons' status quo and also makes me somewhat suspicious about who is pulling Obama's strings regarding foreign policy (especially with Iraq and Iran). Details remain to be seen...

James InHofe: Hated For His Good Sense

James Inhofe, outspoken (and outstanding) Senator from Oklahoma, rails again. This time it's about the bailout-- Inhofe says Congress was intentionally deceived by the Treasury Department, and we should demand our money back:

"It is just outrageous that the American people don't know that Congress doesn't know how much money he (Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson) has given away to anyone," the Oklahoma Republican told the Tulsa World.

"It could be to his friends. It could be to anybody else. We don't know. There is no way of knowing."

Inhofe is usually marginalized by the press. Yet I have never heard the man say anything except good sense and truth of matters.

Last week the Treasury secretary announced he was abandoning his plan to free up the nation's credit system by buying up toxic assets from troubled financial institutions. Instead, Paulson wants to take a more direct action on the consumer credit front.

"He was able to get this authority from Congress predicated on what he was going to do, and then he didn't do it," Inhofe said.

It's very obvious that this entire "bailout" idea is a smokescreen and is winding up to be more of a disaster for the American economy than allowing the entire structure to collapse (and build new). I still stand amazed that the thing went through, and that we Americans tolerated it.

What would happen if there was no bailout? What would we American peons do, if the government did not spoon-feed the corporations and banking industries anymore? Why are we so beholden to these industries? Why can't we just shake ourselves from the entire thing?

FFQF: Benjamin Rush and the Nursery

I greatly admire Dr. Benjamin Rush for his integrity and Christian character. He was the one who said, when heated partisan emotions were running rampant among the citizens, "I am neither an aristocrat nor a democrat. I am a Christ-ocrat." How's that for sauciness and wit? Truly an admirable man.

Of the importance of mothers as true teachers and influencers of future generations, he said:

"We are grossly mistaken in looking up wholly to our governments, and even to ministers of the gospel, to promote public and private order in society. Mothers and school-masters plant the seeds of nearly all the good and evil which exist in our world. Its reformation must therefore be begun in nurseries and in schools. If the habits we acquire there, were to have no influence upon our future happiness, yet the influence they have upon our governments, is a sufficient reason why we ought to introduce new modes, as well as new objects of education into our country." Benjamin Rush

He's absolutely accurate-- the seeds of liberty rise from the bosom of the family.

He's Ready to Take Power and Rule!

Who could this be? Julius Caesar? Joseph Stalin? George W. Bush? Nay, my dear slaves-- Barack Obama!



Obama's co-chair of his "transition team," Valerie Jarrett, appeared on Meet the Press and told Tom Brokaw, "it's important that president elect Obama is prepared to really take power and begin to rule day one."

I see.

Really take power. Last I checked, WE THE PEOPLE were the power.

I don't need a ruler, do you?

P.S. If anyone on George W. Bush's "team" had ever said any such thing, he'd be at the guillotine in a day.

Funtwo Unplugged

I was captivated just as so many music-loving, guitar-tweaking people were when a mysterious Korean named Funtwo appeared on YouTube with his Canon Rock. I was surfing music videos recently (yes, Cato does waste time on rare occasions) and found this one about the man behind the baseball hat.



His playing is just amazing. I wish I could play like that. Great story.

Just Say, Yeah, Right

Shall I copy and paste everything this woman writes? Just go read the blog. Amazing.

But This is Our Money!

The arrogance that spews from Washington just never ceases to amaze me, truly. Not only do these idiots decide to give away our money to a bunch of incompetent crooks, but they won't even tell us exactly where our money is going and to whom!

Fed Defies Transparency Aim in Refusal to Disclose

Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn't require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.

``The collateral is not being adequately disclosed, and that's a big problem,'' said Dan Fuss, vice chairman of Boston- based Loomis Sayles & Co., where he co-manages $17 billion in bonds. ``In a liquid market, this wouldn't matter, but we're not. The market is very nervous and very thin.''

Please explain how these people are allowed to continually rob us blind, steal, cheat, and lie, and give our money to their pals. When are the American people going to demand change in this country? (And by the way, I don't mean the "change" that Barack Obama intends on bringing-- we don't want a change to rabid tyranny, we want real change).

I'm so tired of these egregious policies and tactics that I could move to Canada or Europe!

FFQF: Mrs. Washington

George Washington:

My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.

Mary Ball Washington was an eccentric woman. According to things I've read, she preferred casual company, disliked social gatherings, smoked a pipe, and preferred fishing with her sons to frivolities such as ballroom dancing. During the Revolutionary War, it is reported that she wrote to the Virginia House of Burgesses requesting a financial allowance, since her son was the Commander of the Army.

She must have been a shockingly honest and forthright woman. And she raised one of the greatest Americans, perhaps one of the greatest men ever, in rural hicksville Virginia. Good job, my dear lady. And thank you.

What Does Ron Paul Say?

Ron Paul's influence, good sense, patriotism, and ability to generate a minor revolution has not been silenced, despite his shunning by the Republican Party. If only the idiots in the White House and GOP had supported this man for our president! Why, we might have had real change.

I find it very amusing that the cable TV news reporters go running to Ron Paul about every major political event in this country. Paul is denied by none, save the two "major" parties. You just cannot deny that this man has the answers.

The King is Dead, Long Live the King

Words have come slowly as I mull over the reality that Barack Obama will be our new ruler in this country. (And yes, I use the term "ruler" intentionally; this is what the office of president has become). I refer to Jim at Caledonian Comment who accurately and succinctly sums up what my own conclusions are about this matter:

It says a lot for the eternal optimism of people that many actually believe their lives will be improved by this result. They’ve raised Obama to the status of some kind of Messianic figure - all you have to do is say “Yes we can” often enough and all your problems will evaporate. But if you really analyse things, it would have been astounding if he HADN’T won. After 8 years of the discredited presidency of a cretin, then having a geriatric backed up by an ignorant hockey-mom as his electoral opponents, it in fact says a lot for the resilience (or stupidity) of Republican voters in the US that Obama didn’t win by a huge landslide.

But these euphoric “changes” have happened before. The most notable recent example was in 1997, when Tony Blair came to power in the UK. His defeat of a similarly discredited incumbent government wasn’t recognised for what it was, simply a public rejection of the tired and redundant status quo, but rather misconstrued as somehow representing fundamental change, very much in the same way as Obama’s win is being spuriously greeted by optimistic dreamers. But Blair was a political operator - and so is Obama. So if you’re a wide-eyed American, or a hopeful foreigner, enjoy the brief elation if you’re that way inclined.

My opinion is much the same. Everyone touted "CHANGE" as Obama's clarion call, but what kind of change? Change of underwear? Change for a dollar? Change for the sake of change isn't any better. How stupid it isto elect a president because he not like the other guy. We don't need change-- we need a president who will prtoect, preserve, and defend the Constitution that gave us this amazing country in the first place.

Theophobe remarked that Obama's win proves the success of the public school system. Say a mantra long enough, loud enough, and dangle some goodies before their eyes, and the socially-engineered sheep will come obediently flocking in.

Note that I would probably be saying the same thing if McCain had won. Truly, there was no discernable difference between the two; they have the same boss.

SO you're expecting "change" are you? Expect change with your taxes (pay more), expect change in your lifestyle (more government snooping and regulation) and expect change in government (as this guy cares nothing for the Constitution). The only thing you can expect not to change is the Iraq war. That, my friends, is deemed to continue for eons.

Rest in Peace, Michael Crichton

I just heard the news that Michael Crichton died today. He was 66 years old, still quite young, in my opinion.

Michael Crichton, the best-selling author of science-infused thrillers including "Jurassic Park" and "The Andromeda Strain," has died. He was 66.

Crichton died yesterday in Los Angeles "after a courageous and private battle against cancer," according to an announcement on his Web site. It said Crichton's works "challenged our preconceived notions about the world around us."

I have greatly enjoyed and learned much from Crichton's work. More serious than the Spielberg-esque sci-fi fantasy and much more practical than the Steven King-ish eerie horror tales, Crichton knew and wrote about human nature in all its doings. He knew how evil and repulsive the human heart could be. Certainly there is a nobility about humans, and Crichton did express this in his heroes; but his stories were more about situational ethics and the dangers thereof. Less about dinosaurs and organ transplants and deadly viruses, Crichton wrote about the possibilities of what technology could wreak when mingled with the ambitions and lusts of the human inclination. I always walked away from his stories very awed and very frighted. My hope is that Crichton took the opportunity to acknowledge and accept the hope that God gives. Rest in peace, Michael Crichton.

What Happened to the "War" on Drugs?

The question begs to be asked, ever since Ritalin became a household word and ever since G.W. Bush signed a bill to enforce "mental health" screenings for schoolchildren and assign them the "necessary" medications after their diagnoses. This is recently in the news:

The number of children who take medication for chronic diseases has jumped dramatically, another troubling sign that many of the youngest Americans are struggling with obesity, doctors say.

The number of children who take pills for type 2 diabetes — the kind that's closely linked to obesity — more than doubled from 2002 to 2005, to a rate of six out of 10,000 children. That suggests that at least 23,000 privately insured children in the USA are now taking diabetes medications, according to authors of the new study in today's Pediatrics.

Doctors also saw big increases in prescriptions for high cholesterol, asthma and attention deficit and hyperactivity. There was smaller growth for drugs for depression and high blood pressure.

"We've got a lot of sick children," says author Emily Cox, senior director of research with Express Scripts, which administers drug benefit programs for private insurance plans. "What we've been seeing in adults, we're also now seeing in kids."

It's unbelievable that "so many" children are sick. How can this be? And the gender disparity is esepcially glaring.

Cox couldn't explain one surprising finding: Most of the increase in drugs for diabetes, attention deficit/hyperactivity and depression was seen in girls. The gender gap was most striking in diabetes: While the number of boys taking medication grew by 39%, the number of girls using them climbed by 147%.

What is accouting for all this disease, or diagnosed disease? Are American children really this ill? If so, what could possibly be causing it? Children are certainly not as active as they once were, but are they really as inactive as these statistics show? And why is it necessary to drug the kids? Type 2 diabetes can be treated by healthy eating. Perhaps this is just it. Too many working parents-- and the children are eating great amounts of processed, prepackaged foods and fast foods.

There is a serious societal problem on our hands.

Where Are MY Riots?

So the great and mighty Obama won. Not by a landslide, but by enough, I suppose.

I'd heard that if McCain dared to win, there'd be riots in the streets. Guess the riot-mongers got what they wanted and went home.

But where are the rioting Republicans? I mean, they are so evil and violent, right? What, no rioting Republicans?