February 2005 Archives

From Jeff Blogworthy, our thought of the day:

"[Liberals] want to be our shepherds; But that requires us to be sheep."

Straight from Alpha Patriot, a table comparing Hillary Clinton vs. Condolezza Rice, point by point, with comments. Here it is. And may I remind you, that's Dr. Rice.

On Wednesday, SCOTUS will hear oral arguments on whether the Ten Commandments belongs in government buildings. Top Court to Weigh Ten Commandments Cases.

There is something that I would like to bring to your attention, and that is the whole "Separation of Church and State" thing. Thomas Jefferson has, up until now, gotten credit for it because he mentioned it in a private letter (and scratched it out). This is not the basis of SOCAS, but rather Hugo Black, a SCOTUS justice back in the early 20th Century made it up out of whole cloth. You can read more about this and other fascinating facts about SCOTUS in the book Men in Black. Here's a nugget from the review:

Surprise: the liberal Supreme Court Justice who erected the "separation of church and state" was a member of the Ku Klux Klan!

It will surely be a wonderful read, if I had the money to get it. Donations are accepted to the right, and all monies collected until I say otherwise will go towards the purchasing of this book.

Good Luck. We'll need it.

I helped vote Ed Bryant into office in 1994, when I was healthy and living in Bartlett. He voluntarily stepped aside when he served his promised terms and now he wants to be a Senator.

I was given the opportunity to attend, but Thursdays are the only night out my son and I get, so I had to decline and let Mike at Half-Bakered do the reporting for me. Meeting Ed Bryant.

I've met Mr. Bryant before, and found him to be a down-to-earth kind of guy. Humble and quiet. Just the way I like my politicians. I only suggested to him once on how to vote, but I forget the particulars of it. It had something to do with gun rights, but I am out of that picture now for obvious reasons, even though I am still a Life Member of the NRA.

The good news is I played Epic against Orks and won by a narrow point spread.

Here you go. MTV Poll Masks Youth Views on Social Security.

A push poll, for those of you who haven't heard the term before, is a poll where questions are asked in a certain way so as to provide a predetermined outcome. In essence, forcing you to answer the questions the way the pollster wants you to answer him.

This is what MTV's 'Rock The Vote' did in a recent poll on President Bush's plans to privatize Social Security.

But things didn't work out like RTV planned. Despite the leading questions, two-thirds of those polled 39 and younger liked the privatization, something RTV didn't want to hear. So they dismissed the findings like all good Liberals do and said what they planned to say anyway.

But they were prepared for a massive "wrong" answer response, as for those who answered against the poll were browbeaten with additional questions that made them at least reconsider their position.

Consequently, the survey itself proceeded to supply the necessary “nuance” by posing nine follow-up questions for the 198 lost young souls who dared embrace the concept of personal retirement accounts. “Would you still favor” reform if it meant:

— creating a new government agency?

— massive new federal debt?

— requiring “additional help from government”?

The barrage of unattractive hypotheticals ran on and on. This isn’t polling. This is a lecture from an overeager high school guidance counselor. Why not just ask us if we would prefer privatization if we had to eat cat food in our retirement? If we’d be forced to listen to Milli Vanilli? If advocates of personal accounts would come to our houses, kick our dogs and erase our iPods?

The numbers are undeniable, but AARP/RTV want to ignore cold, hard numbers, preferring to sit in their dirty diapers. "Sure, it's nasty, but it's warm and it's mine."

But the last paragraph of the article sums it up nicely:

Because of its maniacally manipulative methodology, the AARP/RTV survey can tell us nothing reliable about what Americans think about Social Security. But it speaks volumes about the sponsors. Neither AARP nor RTV wants to hear what their constituents think. Both groups are far more interested in telling their constituents what they should think — whether they like it or not.

And the Left accuses the Right of being mind-numbed robots, receiving their daily marching orders from the likes of Rush, et.al.

Here you go. I promised on a message board that we will see RFID chips in our hands with ID and Credit Card info in 10 years. It seems that technology is progressing faster than I anticipated. When paying with plastic, why swipe? Just wave.

While there are things to be overcome, this is coming and soon. And all it would take is a portable scanner to bump into you and get your CC information. Or your ID.

This is a bad idea on so many levels it isn't funny. But it's going to happen weather I like it or not. Just beware. Revelations 13:16-17 and all that.

An interesting article from Worldnet Daily: Condi to replace Cheney next year?

The article broaches the idea of Cheney stepping down next year and President Bush appointing Cindi Rice as the new VP. This would position her for a run at the Presidency in 2008, putting her well in front of the Hildebeast. I think this is a great idea, the only problem is that Condi wants to be President of the NFL more than she wants to be President of the United States.

Let's hope this comes to fruition.

This is a tragedy on an unprecedented scale: Aborting Black America?

I think it is appropriate to put this quote first, to put things into perspective:

The Life Education and Resource Network (LEARN) notes that Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger was an advocate of Hitlerian-style eugenics who was renowned for her racist views.

"Colored people are like human weeds and are to be exterminated," Sanger once urged, according to LEARN. [emphasis mine]

Let me say for the record that I do not agree with this view. I don't care if your skin color is black, white, red, or orange with green polka dots. I adhere to Dr. Kings vision and judge you by your character and actions.

That being said, the Black populace is doing an enormously self-destructive number on themselves. Between burning their own homes and businesses during riots, selling drugs to Black children, Black on Black violence, socially enforced illiteracy, teen pregnancy, and on and on.

The Black people are doing more to keep themselves down than Whitey ever did. We don't need to lynch Blacks any more, they shoot themselves on a regular basis. Here in Memphis, Blacks make up about half the populace, but account for over 80% of the crimes.

And, according to the article, more Black babies are aborted every three days than died in all of the lynchings over an 86 year period.

Here's another fact: Almost 80 percent of Planned Parenthood clinics are in minority communities. You know, with just a little more work, I'll bet that PP can turn the Black populace into a negative growth spiral, aborting more babies than are born. That should eventually wipe out the Black populace in America. Which some people obviously want. All they need to do is start Norplanting all of the girls when they hit 13.

This is disgusting and needs to stop, on both sides of the equation.

While I kinds of knew this all along, I am still disappointed to hear this: The Univ. of Hawaii Should be Ashamed.

The U of H invited the Anti-American Ward Chuchill out to Hawai'i and let him give the speech that has made him infamous. In fact, they gave him three standing ovations.

I am disheartened by this series of events. I know Hawai'i is a Blue state, but to invite such anti-American invectiveness into your home and salute it is beyond me. While I always hoped of returning to live in Hawai'i again, I don't want that in my heart anymore.

An "astonishing" report has been made by he Home Office. CCTV 'does not stop crime'.

Just to translate, I think the Home Office is the British equivalent of Homeland Security.

Of course cameras do not stop crime, any more than gun control keeps guns out of the hands of criminals. If they want to, they will find a way. The thing of it is, if many criminals invested as much time and energy into doing the right thing instead of committing crimes, they would be successful people.

The one thing cameras do catch is your normal citizen in a moment of indiscretion or making a once-in-a-lifetime mistake. They are the ones that get caught by the cameras and pay a heavy price for that one moment of weakness.

I am against the tracking of citizens moving normally about their lives by any means, electronic, camera or whatever.

Now when will we see this kind of report in the US?

This is even more disturbing than RFID chipping our children, and it comes from just about the same source: Your Kids Are in Danger.

The article talks about armies of mental health "professionals" who are just waiting for the funding to invade your children's school and make sure their "mental health" is up to par.

If it isn't, and it won't be, then your little darling will get counseling and medication to correct what is probably just normal phases of growing up.

But here's the more serious part:

"Teams of [mental health] experts are awaiting an infusion of cash. They'll be ensconced in your child's school before you even know it. A bonus is that your little darlings will probably give them quite a bit of information about you also, and then you can receive therapy you didn't know you needed.

"Do you sometimes raise your voice? Ever spank them? Have politically incorrect attitudes? Use forbidden words? Own a gun? Smoke cigarettes, especially indoors? Read extremist literature? Refuse to recycle? Prepare for a knock at the door." [emphasis mine]

That is true. Using their own subjective (and biased) standards, anybody not measuring up to their standards will be subjected to scrutiny and "counseling" to "correct" those problems, of which the above are but a small part of them.

This is yet another step of surrendering (or having it forcefully taken away) the raising of our children to the State. Fight this with everything you have, because I promise you this: You don't want that knock on your door.

This is a very disturbing issue. It is one where I am at odds with the Bush administration. LOST At Sea.

The Law Of the Sea treaty (LOST) is a bad idea that was rejected by President Reagan, then modified by President Clinton. President Bush is amazingly in favor of this monstrosity which would surrender parts of our national sovereignty and subject 70% of the world to control of the UN, and we all know how well the UN manages things.

Write your Senators and urge them to vote against LOST. This is a bad idea that we must never be a part of.

I found this perusing my nightly message boards: Video production is where the action is.

I absolutely love the setup:

The Orks are pouring it on. The green-skinned, snaggle-toothed furies rake the Space Marines with missiles and machine-gun fire. Then they rush in, axes raised high to deliver the final death blow.

Just then, the Dreadnought appears, tracer rounds pouring from its Gatling gun like a solid beam of light. The beacon of fire sweeps to and fro, painting the barren terrain with Ork dead.

Now is the moment. The Space Marines rise from cover and charge. The slaughter begins in earnest. It's over in just two minutes.

That's a pity. It was just getting good.

The article actually talks about tie-ins to movies, and I would love to see a CGI movie like that one that came out a few years ago, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. There is too much fluff to get into like you do in a Star Wars movie at the beginning, you'll just have to let it go and let them get involved in the hobby to get the full story.

Which is good news for the hobby. The more players we have, the healthier the hobby is, and the more money Games Workshop makes. You can easily spend $500+ to get a tournament army put together in 40K. That's not including your time in building and painting your little war-men either. But it is a definite father-son time spender, and that is always good for the family.

An old Tennessee Philosopher by the name of Herb Parsons used to say, "Go and hunt with your children. If you hunt with your children, you'll never have to go out hunting for them." I think that applies to any hobby that families spend time over.

I am not only running late on time, but something is messing up my keyboard. Several keys have stopped working, preventing me from properly filling out links and stuff. I have the posts I want to make, I'll make them when I get home tonight.

That old fire in the belly has relit, now all I have to do is get it back up to full strength.

I accidently ran out of room on the website (actually, the comment spam did it) and everything crashed. So, I had to reload everything and start from scratch. Luckily, I was able to backup the posts. The bad news is I forgot to back up the templates before wiping everything, so things will look different until I can get it back.

BTW, I am feeling better and I have a couple of posts on the hook, ready for when I'm done fixing the website back to what it was.

But I can't seem to get excited about being Conservative right now. Instead of scrutinizing every article that crossed my screen, I have been just flashing right by them. I don't know if my depression is coming back, I'm approaching a burnout stage, or a combination of both. Even Warhammer has lost some of its appeal. Or that could be that I've really caught the Epic bug, I don't know.

Even writing this post is causing a lot of consternation within me, as I know what I want to say, but getting it out is like pulling taffy.

You are not going to see me stop, just slow down and a change of focus for a while. I've got to take care of me and find a way to wind myself back up again.

Thankfully, somebody changed their mind. Co. Pulls Out of Deal to Track Students.

As I have always said, you start with the children. If you can get the children to accept something, a new language, a surrendering of freedom, etc., then as they grow into adults they don't even miss what was taken away from them. And you can do more with the next generation.

What really appalls me is the parents supported this measure. While the school touted this would cut down on vandalism, in Star Trek: The Next Generation, whenever a character was about to do something against orders, the first thing they did was take off their comm badge that tracked them wherever they went. Kids are at least as smart. Or you'll have one kid "borrow" another kids badge to do the dirty work.

This is a bad idea and should not be implemented.

I don't read the blogs on my blogroll as often as I should. I just got a refer from LG's blog, and followed it back to see if she had written about me.

Well, lo and behold, Libertarian Girl is actually a guy. Outed by Catallarchy, it seems that the downfall was his use of a Russian Brides picture. What someone was doing there I have no idea, but the cat is out of the bag.

I shall continue to link to the "Libertarian Man of Mystery," as I was more impressed with the politics than the face. Read the applicable posts before he deletes them and puts up another female picture.

Fount at Slashdot: Straczynski Offers To Re-Boot Star Trek.

It seems that J. Michael Straczynski, creator and primary writer for Babylon 5, has written a series bible for a new version of Star Trek. Now all that needs to happen is Nick Berg to get out of the way and let a master do his work. If it gets pulled off, this one will be great, possibly even better than ST:DS9, considered to be the best of the universe. Write Paramount and ask them to make this happen.

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! It seems that one of my hobbies has been officially noticed by the New York Times. Painted Armies, Tabletop Battles.

There are actually two "flavors" of Warhammer, Fantasy and 40K. Talking about Hive Tyrants and stuff, I believe the author was at a 40K event.

I am pleased. A positive piece, portraying us as normal people with just another interesting hobby. Which, we more or less are. Read it, it will give you an insight into the hobby and your host here at The Zone.

This breaks very close to my heart. As someone who has been suicidal, I'm a lot better now and I'm glad for it.

But Clint Eastwood and his Million Dollar Baby has forever changed my opinion of the man. And not for the better. 'Million Dollar Baby' Is a Neo-Nazi Movie. I don't go to movies anymore, so I had to look the plot up on The Movie Spoiler and find out what was going on.

As one who has been there, done that and got the t-shirt, suicide is a serious matter. Most people try suicide when they are so crushed by circumstances that they can't think of any other way out. They don't see other avenues open to them, and think ending themselves will end the pain. It might end theirs, but it will never end the pain of those around the person. One of the few things holding me back from pulling the trigger, jumping off the chair, taking the last pill, et. al., was the image of my son and what would become of him without me. That's what kept me alive. And now I'm glad I didn't carry my suicides out.

This movie, glorifying assisted suicide, suicide of the physically handicapped, whatever, brings a desensitization of the subject to the general public. The next step after that is acceptance, which is exactly what happened in Nazi Germany. We don't want that happening here and movies like this are dropping it on our doorstep. We will soon start to see other movies like this, followed by more Dr. Kevorkians.

And that is not who we are. We are a people of life, who hang on just that one minute longer, because that is how heroes are made. We don't put people to sleep like pets.

Never let it happen here.

In a related story, it had to happen. A participant in a reality show has committed suicide. NBC Reality Show Contestant Kills Himself.

This shows the dark underpinnings of these reality shows that bring peoples lives into our own living rooms, every agonizing second as they come so close to winning, only to fall off at the last second. These shows are disgusting in my opinion. I have watched a few reality shows, like The Next Action Hero, where the winners got to star in a cheesy third-rate "action" movie. I couldn't watch the movie more than half-way before turning it off, it was so bad. The other was Last Comic Standing. In both cases, you were always treated to the faces of people when they weren't the ones called to move on to the next level.

The crushing disgrace on the losers faces must excite a lot of people, because that is the money shot for these reality shows. I don't plan on watching any more of them.

This suicide only punctuates this feeling of hopelessness these contestants feel. As one who has had the muzzle of a gun in my mouth on several occasions, I know what it feels like and I hope you never have to feel the same way.

I don't plan on watching another "reality" show.

I found this feedback in my entry about National ID Cards:

I can't wait to have my implants so I don't have to use cash or credit or ID anymore. If I can design and understand the electronics and RFID technology, how exactly, would some "beast" be involved? Your fear of technology is unfortunate and it's philosophically unsound. Just like taking other "bible scripture" literally.

I am going to do my best not to sound like Pat Robertson, et.al., because I am not. While I haven't been to church in years, I still consider myself an evangelical Christian. That means I consider every word in the Bible to be direct from God.

I could go off on an Evangelical digression, but I won't. Let me just say that the "Beast" I refer to is Satan himself, and leave it at that. You put the mark of the Beast on your hand as described in Revelations 13:16-17 and your soul will be damned forever. If you believe in that kind of stuff. I could even go into how "666" is already part of the UPC coding, but I won't.

But let's get to the practical side of the matter. Watching assignment:Enemy of the State, starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman. Why this movie? Because it details what the government can do right now technology wise as far as watching you.

Why would the government want to insert such an anal probe into your life? Good question. The answer is, "Why not?" When you surrender your privacy to them (and you will when you implant that chip) then it will matter a great deal.

When the technology is in place to scan you every time you enter or leave a store, every time you buy something with a credit card, you create a record of everything about that transaction. Right now the data is diversified throughout several databases and it would take some "data mining" to get all of the associated information about that transaction.

Now, if all that data were gathered together (and it will be sooner than you think) then the authorities could look at you whenever they wanted. Big deal, you have nothing to hide. But let's say for the sake of discussion that you set off a "red flag." That being a specific activity that is being monitored. Let's say you have a bad sinus problem and you buy some Sudafed. You lose the box, buy another, lose that one and buy a third, all in a weeks time. That could be a red flag to the authorities that you might be making Meth. You aren't, but appearances can be deceiving. All of a sudden a warning flag is put on your credit card. Oops, you lost another pack of Sudafed so you buy a fourth box. This is getting expensive in more ways than one. You make a cell phone call home, but you dial a wrong number instead. You've accidently called a drug dealer. And even though you hang up after just a few seconds, you set off another red flag.

Now you are flagged in the police system as a "person of interest." A police officer pulls up behind you at a stop light. As a matter of routine he runs the tag of whomever is in front of him (I've been in patrol cars and have seen them do this) and gets the flag. He follows you and waits for you to make a traffic infraction (and believe me, you make them all the time, just driving down the street) so he has probable cause to pull you over. He searches your car, because of the flag. He finds that half-empty Rum bottle that you threw in the car after that party last week but never brought in the house. Or maybe that bag of meth your kids friend bought and left in the car. Now you're in for it.

The two red flags and the bag of meth have now built a circumstantial case of manufacturing drugs against you. Now you're looking at 10 years because you can't keep track of things and don't have home on a speed dial.

Do you see where I'm going? With extensive data mining and coordinated databases, with technology that can track you wherever you go, any activity, no matter how innocent, can have drastic consequences on the rest of your life.

With that amount of monitoring going on in your life, are you truly free? Or does your "freedom" exist at the disinterest of the government? You would be just one red flag away from a living hell.

I am not afraid of the technology, I am afraid of what people in authority will do with it. Tagging your pets with an RFID chip in case they get stolen is not that far of a leap to tagging your children. In fact, if you care about your pets that much, why not your children? But then you surrender their ability to go when and where they want without monitoring. Their freedom dies without a whimper of complaint.

We are supposed to be living in a society of maximum freedom, where the restrictions are placed on the government. People with RFID chips implanted in them only have the illusion of freedom, because that freedom exists only while the government allows it. That's not how it should be.

I weep for you Scott, not just for your soul, but for your freedom as well. You freely give up both without a fight.

Ward Churchill, the infamous professor who called the people who worked at the WTC "Little Eichmanns" and the terrorist killers "brave Combat Teams" has really stepped in it. He's accused of [gasp!] plagiarism. Is 9-11 prof a plagiarist?

It seems that at least some of his writings are "almost identical" to other works, including his ex-wife.

Wow. This tells you something about the academic world. You can bash America (nay, that is expected), you can lie about your heritage or qualifications (he claims to be, but is not Native American), but stealing words from your fellow intellectuals, this cannot be permitted! That, in and of itself, is a crime against everything they stand for!

Feh.

Neal Boortz had a rather interesting run in with the TSA the other day. I'll let him explain it:

I don't want to identify the airport ... but here's my latest TSA adventure. It happened over the weekend. As I approached the screening machine I was wearing a colored t-shirt (t-shirt of color, if you will) with an unbuttoned long sleeve sports shirt. The lady shoving the luggage into the machine told me I had to remove my jacket.

"It isn't a jacket. It's my shirt."

"Well you have something on under it."

"That's my undershirt."

"Well, you're wearing it like a jacket, so you'll have to take it off."

"What if I just button it?"

"That would be OK".

So .. I buttoned it up and went on through .... wondering just where they get some of these people, During that flight I couldn't help but think that my safety was dependent on a woman who couldn't tell a sports shirt from a jacket and who thought that by somehow buttoning it up all threats were removed.

It really makes you wonder, eh?

I've been jumping up and down about this Social Security privatization business, and I have been telling you about the stock market returns. Well, here it is from an expert. The Least of Our Worries.

From a guy who wrote mutual fund copy, comes a wonderful analysis of the rate of return on the stock market.

Figure 1-1 of Stocks for the Long Run (p. 6) tells the bald story. A "total return index" (meaning all returns reinvested, not spent) for U.S. stocks, starting at $1, ends in the early 1990s at $3.05 million. A dollar invested in corporate bonds grows to $6,620; a T-bill investment to $2,934. A dollar in gold would have increased to $13.40, while the Consumer Price Index rose to $11.80. Factor in that CPI rise and the stocks are worth $260,000, post-inflation. Still.

That's one dollar invested in the beginning of the stock market, in the equivalent of a good growth stock mutual fund.

Any prudent investor is always tuned to the risk in stocks, but when the risk is diversified among 200 stocks, the risk becomes very low. If you're concerned about investing your retirement in the stock market rather than the governments Ponzi scheme, just remember, if the stock market tanks, the government will be in trouble of it's own supporting those on Social Security with a big reduction of tax revenues due to all of those companies going out of business.

You would be stupid not to invest your retirement in a good mutual fund with a 10+ year track record. $1,200 a year from 20 to 65 will net you several million dollars, way more than you are going to get from Social Security. It's too late for me, I would have to get a job today and invest about $12,000 a year to catch up, and I do not have that ability on disability. I'm going to retire eating dog food, simply because I have no other choice. My disability has destroyed any chance for me to catch up. Don't let it happen to you.

This entry contains two related stories, House approves electronic ID cards and Objections Against Verifiable ID Cards Now Moot.

I've spoken on data mining before, but just to recap, you are in so many databases and tracked so many ways it is scary. Visa can tell you where you like to shop, buy gas, eat out, any time you use that card, an entry is made under your name. Couple that with the barcoded receipt you now get at Wal-Mart, Target, et. al., we can see just want you purchased. We can determine if you like the big labels or just store brands. The "Shopping discount card" is even worse. And so on, and so on, and so on.

So the people in favor of a national ID card (or its defacto counterpart, state ID done to a federal standard) say, "You are already tracked out the wazoo, why not just a little bit more?" But there is a difference between being tracked by private companies and the Federal Government. Your data is spread across many databases, hard to see completely. A National ID card would consolidate this data into just a couple of Federal databases, where it can easily be seen.

And of course, submitting yourself to this increased scrutiny gives you "benefits" like less time at the security check line at the airport.

I am not sure, but I believe we are very close to, if not already, at the point of wearing the Mark of the Beast. The law of the land says we must carry ID with us at all times, and that the ID hold up to a particular standard. We already have the scanable rice-sized data chip which can be implanted anywhere in your body.

We may yet find ourselves in the Age of the Beast without the rapture.

Oh, boy. The last two days have been something. I started coming down with symptoms right after finishing my posting, and it's been down hill ever since. I won't go into details, but it's not pretty.

This is the first time in like 5 years that I've come down with something like this, and it sucks big time. I'm going to finish my hot tea and take it easy and hope I feel better by tonight. I've got a 40K meeting to go to and I don't want to miss that.

Ward Churchill remains in the news. 9/11 Prof Tells Crowd: 'I'm Not Backing Up'.

While I want this man to lose his position, I don't want him to shut up. I want him to keep spouting his idiot nonsense so America can see just how nutty the Left is. And by identifying those who agree with him, we can determine just who they are. These people must be encountered and reasoned with.

It is most likely that a large portion of this guys "supporters" are along for the ride simply because they take what is on the MSM as gospel and do nothing on their own to check out the facts.

I was told once that a conclusion is merely the point where you got tired of thinking. These people didn't even get to the first turn of the track they are on. The should be shown the full facts, not just what the MSM or the Left wants us to see. We must save those who can be saved.

It should be clear that Mr. Churchill is an anti-Capitalist, pro-Socialist, pro-Terrorist kind of guy. He wants more 9/11's to happen, as many as possible. I'd sure he would do a little jig if one or several cities were to disappear under mushroom clouds, provided his wasn't one of them, of course. I'll even bet he's rooting for the Terrorists to win on 24.

This kind of person is a threat to our society. He gives aid and comfort to our enemies in a time of war. He spreads the idea that it is the US who is the bad guy, while Saddam was misunderstood.

He should be isolated, ridiculed and harassed, but never shut up. We need him to lead us to the roaches den so we can get them all.

I missed Ronald Reagans birthday on Sunday, but now I'm glad I did. Today they unveiled a stamp to commemorate 'The Great Communicator.'

I plan on saving up and buying a roll of 100 of him. Considering how many letters I do mail out a month, that should last me for two rate increases. ;-)

Now the mask comes off. Mexico Declares 'War' on Arizona.

The Mexican government is so upset that Arizona wants to protect itself from illegal immigrants from Mexico that the Mexicans are threatening suing Arizona over Proposition 200.

If you weren't sure before, even after the Mexican government released a comic book on how to cross the border, then this should make it clear to you. This is a clear and overt act that Mexico is trying to reclaim Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Like weeds in an untreated lawn, undocumented aliens are popping up all over the country and threaten to strangle us unless we get out some weed-killer.

I do not support President Bush's concept, paradigm or conclusion. They will hurt the American economy, national security and above all, our national sovereignty.

This needs to stop and it needs to stop now.

Well, a good time was had by almost all. The attendees were Yours Truly, Aaron and Abby, Brock and Len, EJ, Mike, Phil, Rachel and Steve.

Talk was wonderful and wide ranged, from talk about Howard Dean taking over the Democrat party (and both sides thought that was a good idea, obviously for different reasons) to Memphis Music and TV, and I even caught some talk about the old kids' TV Show ULTRAMAN. I got to meet some old and new acquaintances, and many pictures were taken. You can see them here, but my favorite is this one, Steve from Left Wing Cracker and myself, representing the extreme ends of the political spectrum for the night. I'm the good looking guy on the (obvious) Right:

We did have some excitement, Rachel had no more ordered her food and sat down when she got a call from E.J., saying he had been in an automobile accident! She rushed off and retrieved a slightly shaken up E.J., and thankfully the accident was not serious. He was able to drive his car back home.

I look forward to meeting all of these people again. If you are a Memphis blogger, please keep up with myself or Mike for the next bash. You won't regret it.

Here is a frightening read. John Gibson writes about his recent run-in with the TSA in Delaying Action.

It seems that there was reigning incompetence in the line he was standing in, when he had the guts to speak up, he was singled out and harassed until it was sure that he missed his flight. The good news was at least he didn't get the cavity search.

This should not be allowed to happen. If we get used to this here, then look out for other random checkpoints popping up, also to be used in harassing the populace. We already have roadblocks for drunk drivers, but at least they are quick to pull you over or wave you on. I hope. Thankfully I've never been through a roadblock before.

But I know with my mental health problems I would probably be red-flagged if I were to try and fly again.

This has got to stop. We as consumers must stand up to the government and demand our rights back. This disarmament of the skys is simply too much, and the draconian measures we are put through to fly is outrageous. Don't put up with it any longer.

Back in the pre-Internet days, when all we had were Bulletin Board Systems (BBS), users would get together from time to time and have a MUPT (Modem Users Pizza Thingie), pronounced "Muppet."

Well, today bloggers have Blogger Bashes. And there is going to be one in Memphis tomorrow night. You can get the full details here at Half-Bakered.

If you're a Memphis Blogger, we look forward to seeing you. If you're not, consider starting your own Bloggers Bash tradition.

I thought news was supposed to be objective, but then again when 95% of reporters are Liberal, that just can't happen. Case in point: Only One Side Told in Bush Soc. Sec. Pitch.

Here's the opening shots:

Bush explained in detail how, under his proposal, younger workers would be able to divert some of their Social Security payroll taxes into private accounts "so you can build a nest egg for your own future."

Nowhere in his State of the Union speech did he give the other side of the equation - that Social Security benefits for those workers would be reduced as a result. He stated "your account will provide money for retirement over and above the check you will receive from Social Security," without explaining that check would be smaller.

Moreover, he seemed to issue a guaranteed return on investment for people putting some of their retirement money in the market, saying: "Your money will grow, over time, at a greater rate than anything the current system can deliver."

Let's put it this way. The Social Security checks will be getting smaller no matter what happens. Whether anything is done now or not, the checks will substantially decrease come 2040 or so.

As far as a "guaranteed investment," the stock market has averaged 12% growth a year since the Great Depression. Will it keep up that growth? No one knows, but it's got a great track record so far. And it beats the 1-2% growth you're "getting" "investing" your money in Social Security.

It's cold, hard numbers. Invest $100 a month from age 20 to 65, average 12% a year and you'll end up with $2,145,469.30. You could live off the interest for the rest of your life at $210,000 a year, which would be about $90,000 a year in todays dollars. That's still twice the national median income.

I'll tell you right now, you ain't gonna get no $90k a year from Social Security.

And what happens if there is a stock market collapse? Then you're going to starve on Social Security anyway, because the government can't take in enough tax dollars and spend enough deficit dollars to keep inflation under control and prevent the dollar from becoming a fiat currency.

Declaring Social Security will go broke if nothing is done, Bush said that by 2042, "the entire system would be exhausted and bankrupt."

In fact, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office forecasts Social Security as it is would be able to pay 73 percent of benefits in 2042 and stay solvent for 10 years beyond that.

And what about after that? President Bush is trying to save Social Security by restructuring it so it will be around a lot longer than 2052, at a sustainable level. It is better to make a small course correction now rather than a drastic one later.

And the article goes on, slamming the President for everything, as usual. Sure he created jobs, but he didn't create enough of them. He will never be able to create enough jobs, since the government doesn't create jobs in the first place. All the President can do is create the conditions so that is favorable to create new jobs.

I'm sorry, the idiocy in the rest of the article is making me ill. You'll have to read the rest yourself to see who stupid and biased AP has become.

Well, Mr. Ward Churchill has really stepped in it this time. He is under review for termination for his writings. Dismissal Process Begun for 9/11 Slur Prof.

Considering he is a tenured professor, the process to fire him itself means that he has performs a most egregious action.

But let me say this: Freedom of Speech is never free. As with all things, there are consequences to ones actions or words. You can have an opinion, no one is disallowing you that. But when you hang it out for all to see, then you better be prepared to duck some rotten eggs. And it doesn't matter what opinion you have, someone will be upset with you. It's just a question of how many people you piss off.

I myself have been lucky to date. I have only had 2 or 3 negative strafes of this blog, where some anonymous idiot blasts me for my opinion without objective fact and never returns. I like to think that most people agree with me and my opinions, by and large. Or maybe I just haven't met the right people yet. ;-)

My friend Mike at Half-Bakered has hosted the latest rendition of the Volunteer Tailgate Party, a roundup of posts from throughout the Rocky Top Brigade. He explains it more in his post. Go and check it out. Maybe you'll put some new blogs on your reading list.

For those of you who don't know, I work part time. It's all that Social Security allows me to do. I work 8 hours on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday to get my 24 hours a week in.

Well, between rocket launches and the now formed Epic club, I have wanted Saturdays off for a long time. Up until now, my boss has been reluctant to change my schedule. During this weeks discussion, an idea came to us to have me work 4 six hour days instead of 3 eight hour days. This would work me Tuesday to Friday, getting off at 5pm instead of 7. Once the other driver and I take everyone home, there is no one at the center after then anyway, and this would allow me to get off at such a time to make my evening wargaming appointments.

I am unsure about this schedule, it is a change and I'm not sure how well I can handle it. I would still be driving only three days a week as one day several group homes already fill the Center up, and I would just be and extra pair of hands to help out.

You know me and change, I am allergic to it, but this gives me access to Saturdays to do a lot of fun stuff that I have had to take time off to do for a while now. And I still get Mondays off to do weekly daytime appointments.

What do y'all think? You have faith in me to handle this?

Well, well, well. Another blow to Liberalism, and the Liberals are rendered speechless. Naysayers tight-lipped since success of Iraq vote.

As befits Liberals, they stood on the side of the Terrorists, against freedom and democracy. As with every other time, they got their nose caught in the door.

Liberals don't seem to understand that people everywhere want to be free to make their own choices. Liberals think that what the US is doing is 'eeevil' and wrong, forcing freedom and democracy on people who aren't ready for it. Well, let me tell you the people of Iraq have been waiting for this past Sunday for well over 20 years, even before Saddam came to power.

Never before has a liberal (small 'l') democracy existed in an Islamic state before. If we can get this grand experiment to work, it will domino to the other states of the Middle East and a new day will dawn in the world.

But of course Liberals don't want that. They are so against the use of US force to bring about needed change that they would rather see Saddam in power, executing his own people by the thousands than see a free Iraq.

And it really stumps me to wonder why they would want such a thing. Can someone please explain it to me?

I have wanted to comment on Ward Churchill's essay/speech that has caused quite a controversy. He calls the 9/11 terrorists "Combat teams," and he calls the WTC the "Little Eichmanns." I haven't commented upon this because I wanted to see the original essay before commenting. Well, I found it here and I want you to read it. Nay, I command you to read it, because it is glaring in its inconsistencies and lack of congruency with the real world.

One glaring point is he likes bashing the US for all of the deaths and infrastructure damage caused by the US in Iraq. What he doesn't mention is Hussein's original aggressiveness that started the chain reaction. Or should we have just idly sat by after he captured Kuwait and threatened to do the same with Saudi Arabia?

Saddam Hussein is a man who deserves to be put down like a rabid dog. He started a 10 year war with Iran, he invaded Kuwait, he has used chemical weapons both on the battlefield and on his own civilians. He was executing people by the hundreds every day, but yet Saddam gets a pass for all of his inhumanity from Mr. Churchill.

Mr. Churchill is so fixated on the actions of the US that he doesn't look at what precipitated those actions. One thing I will give him, he slams Clinton right there along with Bush 41 and 43. He even compares Madeline Albright to Jabba the Hutt.

Churchill sees us as the cause of all of this, instead of the one who finishes the fight. We didn't start this, the roots of all of this go back to the founding of the Nation of Islam itself. It has always expanded at the point of a sword. Islams lack of willingness to let other people worship God as they want will be their undoing unless they learn to live and let live.

Christians used to be like this as well, we used to torture Muslims to get them to accept Jesus. I make no bones about it, it was a Christian (actually a catholic) who said, "Kill them all. God will recognize His own." But then we went through the Reformation and things changed.

Islam needs to go through a similar process if it is to survive, because as long as radical Islam commits atrocities like this, the very existence of the religion is in danger of being wiped out.

We didn't start this fight, but we will finish it one way or the other.

The next time someone asks you why about anything, the best answer I've found to date is,

"The voices told me to."

A disturbing new report is out, Survey Shows Students Ignorant of First Amendment Rights.

This article details how students think censorship is acceptable. This is what you get when you spend more time raising little Mikey's self-esteem rather than teaching him facts and how to think for himself.

The original amendment to the Constitution is the cornerstone of the way of life in the United States, promising citizens the freedoms of religion, speech, press and assembly.

Yet, when told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three high school students said it goes "too far" in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories.

The Liberal Agenda is working out just like they planned. So in another 10-20 years when Liberals make it into power again, they can step all over the Constitution without worrying about the populace raising a ruckus over the matter.

They have already given short-shrift to the Second Amendment, why not the First as well?

"The last 15 years have not been a golden era for student media," said Warren Watson, director of the J-Ideas project at Ball State University in Indiana. "Programs are under siege or dying from neglect. Many students do not get the opportunity to practice our basic freedoms."

Quite the contrary, the last 40 years have been a golden era for the NEA and their Liberal agenda.

And it's working.

I check the Air America website every now and then, and don't you know it, Memphis now has an affiliate! WWTQ-AM 680 will now carry Liberal Radio. It just started up last Friday, so do your best to listen to it every now and then. Rush is great, but every now and then one must delve into the enemy camp to see what they are thinking.