It just doesn’t stop. Target Colors, Black Betty Blackballed.
Political correctness is a stupid thing. The freedom to swing your arms, as the old saying goes, stops at my nose. I should be allowed to do whatever I want to do, within reason. But you being offended at my actions is not within those parameters. If something I do offends you, the offense exists within yourself. Now, If my actions intended to offend, that again is a different thing.
The things that are going on in this article should not be happening. The progression of Political Correctness must be stopped, because it restricts freedom. It will also enrage those who spend their lives looking for things to enrage them.
Which is just fine with me.

I stumbled across this page, Game review:The end is nigh.
It’s how a miniatures gamer views chess. If you don’t Warhammer or other miniatures game, this might go over your head, but trust me, it’s funny.
Here is a sample:

Game Mechanics: Besides the willingness to play with unpainted figures (see below) the game mechanics were the most simple and disappointing I’ve ever run across. In essence each piece has a movement pattern – some may only move along diagonals, some are prohibited from doing so. The most common unit (“Pawns”) may only move one area, straight ahead, but may only attack enemy pieces in areas at a diagonal. Huh? You mean, I spend three turns marching up to a bishop (see below), stand right in front of him and can’t hurt him? You got it. Of course, depending on the kind of enemy unit he might not be able to hurt you either. Bishops can only move and attack along diagonals, for example.
Even worse, the combat resolution is absurd. All attacks are automatically successful, and the only possible combat result is the complete elimination of the defender. There are no die roll modifiers of any sort. In fact it turns out there are no die rolls! Yeah, that’s really how combat works….

If all you play is chess, then you’re going to look at us miniatures gamers with a look of “you’ve lost your mind,” but then again, a lot of people think we’re over the edge.
Enjoy. And trust me, it’s funny.

I like Firefox. With one menu selection, I can open all of the 24 comics that I read every day. One of the ones I just added is called Winger. It’s the story about a Conservative who works in a book store with a Liberal co-worker.
Anyway, this one caught my eye, and I wanted to share it with you. They are talking about NBC’s The Book of Daniel, a rather poor show about an Episcopalian priest and his family. It was canceled after 3-5 episodes.
Dab (The conservative) says, “And why should Christians watch a show that demeans us? I’m just glad it didn’t get ratings because of the controversy.”
Minion (The Liberal) replys, “That’s censorship! We should be free to watch shows that expose the hypocrisy of the church!”
To which Dab replies, “But you don’t want to see shows promoting the church…”
And Minion states, “That would be forcing your agenda down my throat! Completely different!”
So in her mind (and Liberals minds in general), it’s okay to have shows which mock peoples religion, but not shows that promote it. Actually, I should be more specific. I’m talking about Christianity here, having shows which promote Islam, or Paganism, or any other religion is okay, just not Christianity.
It makes sense, just not to me.

Tennessee’s “favorite son,” Al Gore blasted Canada for electing a Conservative government this week. Gore accuses big oil of bankrolling Tories.
Here is Gore’s words:

“The election in Canada was partly about the tar sands projects in Alberta,” Gore said Wednesday while attending the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.
“And the financial interests behind the tar sands project poured a lot of money and support behind an ultra-conservative leader in order to win the election . . . and to protect their interests.”

Now, just to show how much Al has lost touch with reality, in Canada individuals are limited to $5,000 donations, and corporations are limited to $1,000. So this “massive donation” of =<$1,000 is going to tip the scales how?
Then you have Darcie Park, spokesman for Suncor Energy, the company who owns the Canadian oil sands:

“Our company just doesn’t do business that way. We’re really puzzled about where these comments came from,” she said.
“Canadians understand how elections work in Canada and understand there are these very tight restrictions around what individuals and companies can contribute to individual parties or campaigns.”

So you can plainly see, there is no congruence between what Al the Liberal says and the truth. Which is not exactly news, but I thought you would enjoy the chuckle.

This just goes to prove that Big Labor is alive and well in Chicago. Expensive Mistake.
About 18 months ago, Wal-Mart wanted to put a store in Chicago. The Chicago Aldermen said, “no.” So, Wal-Mart built the store one block outside of Chicago city limits in the town of Evergreen. So now Evergreen will receive literally millions of dollars per year of tax revenue. More than they know what to do with.
So record number one is how stupid the aldermen of Chicago were, to listen to Big Labor and lose those millions of dollars of potential revenue. Probably more than what the Unions gave them.
Second record, an amazing 25,000 job applications were made for 325 jobs at the Wal-Mart. 24,500 of them were from Chicago residents.
So, there you have it. It seems that Big Labor isn’t as smart as they thought they were, and the aldermen will be a whole lot less likely to listen to them next time. Hopefully.
But I’m not betting against it.

I just got an email from a gentleman representing Wal-Mart. It seems that this little ‘old Blog has been read by the Bigwigs of Bentonville, Arkansas, World headquarters of Wal-Mart. All because I’ve been sticking up for them with this Maryland fiasco.
I’ll let him tell you want he wants to do for me:

I think I might be able to get you access to the largest company in the world. Tours, briefings, the works. Everything that they would do for a reporter from the New York Times.

One sticking point. They can’t pay and I don’t have the money to go.
So here’s the deal. I’m rattling the tip jar over there to the right, and I’m asking for the princely sum of $200. That will cover gas round trip, one night in a Motel 6 or other modest accommodations, and enough food to keep me fed.
If you ever wanted to learn what it’s like getting the fifty-cent tour of the biggest employer in the world, this is your chance. I’ll be all too happy to relate everything I can, but I have to get there first.
Thank You.

Nothing strikes my fancy today. Nothing to get excited about, except for the Conservatives taking Canada, but that is merely an illusion and not expected to last for very long.
I do have an Epic campaign coming up, where I am the Ork Force Commander. I’ll let you know how that turns out.
TTYL.

I am continuing to harp on Wal-Marts predicament because this is a big step towards Socialism. And that goes against every fiber of my being.
Back in 1913, then the 16th Amendment was passed to allow an Income Tax to be levied against the Citizens, it started out simply enough. A single page, only affecting the top 1/2 of 1% of Americans, with generous deductions. After 93 years of tweaking and adjusting, almost every American is paying at least 30% of their income to the Government. If you include State and Local taxes, you are paying almost half your income into taxes.
And so it is with the “law” in Maryland. What first starts out as affecting only business that have more than 10,000 employees and pay less than 8% of their payroll into health care today, will become any business over 1,000 employees next year. And 9, then 10% the years after that. Until every business is either driven out of business, or is paying a significant amount of their payroll to health care. And I’m talking +15% here.
The term used for this kind of action is called incrementalism. You slowly increment your way towards your goal. By going slowly, you don’t notice the spear until it’s in deep enough that you can’t pull it out without killing yourself.
Forget my prior advice to trim payrolls until you are under the limit. Fight. Fight with every lawyer and lobbyist at your disposal to keep this from happening.
Otherwise we might wake up one day to the Socialist States of America.

This article, Base Dogma:
Left-wing bloggers observe the Alito hearings from an alternative universe has some pretty good advice on what the Democrats should do if they want to return to power.
The Left has nothing to stand on besides anger. They have no position other than “WE WOULDN’T DO IT BUSH’S WAY” and no way to rationally discuss the ideas that need to be discussed. Their first tool in trying to win the debate is to call the Right “Anti-choice, anti-civil rights, homophobe, sexist” and the worst of all, “bigots.” This is like a four year old trying to win an argument with an adult by calling them a “poopy head.”

And that’s the heart of the problem with our party and its angry activist base. It’s not so much that we’re living in a parallel universe, but that we have dueling conceptions of what’s mainstream, especially on abortion and other values-based issues, and our side is losing. We think that if we simply call someone conservative, anti-choice and anti-civil rights, that’s enough to scare people to our side. But that tired dogma won’t hunt in today’s electorate, which is far more independent-thinking and complex in its views on values than our side presumes.
That point was driven home in an incontrovertible analysis of the 2004 election results by Bill Galston and Elaine Kamarck. They found that the American polity has undergone a great shaking out, where conservatives now vote almost universally for Republicans and liberals for Democrats, and that Republicans have won the presidency twice in a row because they’re doing a better job of pulling moderates/independents their way–in particular married women and white Catholics who are uncomfortable with the Democrats on values issues. Judging from the dreadful tack our party took in the Alito process, it’s clear that we haven’t yet internalized these political realities–most likely because our anger at George Bush continues to blind us to them. Many Democrats just don’t want to acknowledge that he’s president and is going to pick conservative justices…

When Clinton was President, his judicial nominees got near unanimous votes from the Senate, because the Republicans believed that he should get who he wants. Now that the tables are turned, the Democrats are literally behaving like a four-year-old and threatening to hold their breath if they don’t get their way.
Their old saw about Republicans “cutting Welfare, Social Security, school lunches, et. al.,” has been proved patently false. Outside of the hard Left, no one believes what the Left says anymore, because they are spewing rhetoric, instead of laying out a plan, putting forth good ideas and trying to win the hearts and minds of the voters by reason and logic, not by name calling.
And of course, those who subscribe to moonbat sites like Daily Kos are not going to hear this. They are going to stay angry, sling mud and call names. Which is going to get them precisely less than what they have today. By history, the out of power party always picks up a few seats in the midterm elections. Unless the Dems change their tactics and start debating the issues, they will lose seats this year.
Which is fine by me.

It turns out that Cindy is just like Harry Belefonte, a Socialist and s suck-up to Hugo Chavez. Hugo Chavez, Cindy Sheehan Highlight Socialist Forum.
The article includes some of Cindys best Blasts from the past:

• “America has been killing people on this continent since it was started. This country is not worth dying for…”
• “We have this lying bastard, George Bush, taking a 5-week vacation in a time of war.”
• “When I was growing up, it was Communists. Now it’s Terrorists. So you always have to have somebody to fight and be afraid of, so the war machine can build more bombs, guns, and bullets and everything.”
• “You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestine and you’ll stop the terrorism.”

And the one to truly show she’s a moonbat that doesn’t know what she is talking about:

• “George Bush needs to stop talking, admit the mistakes of his all around failed administration, pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans.”

So you see, as long as she is out of the country, that’s less time we have to deal with her. Good. I for one hope that they keep her.

I have some wonderful news, but I can’t share it at this point. I’ll know more over the course of the next couple of weeks, and once I get the green light, I will share the news with you. The plans should come to fruition by the end of February or the beginning of March.
One hint, though: FLGS

(Posted from LifeBlood; giving some platelets. Please excuse any spelling errors.)
Well, I had Tuesday off for MLK day, so Mike and I hit the battle bunker to play some Epic. I dusted off my Ultramarines and we had two battles Tuesday, plus our nomal game on Wednesday. 4,000, 2,700 and 3,000 point games were played, Space Marine against Space Marine. In all three games, Mike and I beat the snot out of each other to a tie. We had either a 1-0 or 0-0 Battle points, so we went to Victory points, and the difference was very small, small enough to call it a draw.
I now don’t feel so bad when I lose to Mike when I play Orks. These draws mean when we have even tools, we are evenly matched. So I know I haven’t been making the right choices in building my Orks. So more experimentation is necessary for me to prevail.
But I now know I’m not overmatched.

Free Willie Herenton from his job, that is. I have been loathe to talk about Memphis politics, namely I don’t have the wherewithal to keep up with the machinations of it all. I leave that job to friend Mike, but last night I took a step into that arena.
Thaddeus Matthews is organizing a Recall effort against King Willie, the mayor of Memphis for the past 16 years. The man who said God elected him, the one who admitted to lying to the populace of Memphis, who appoints unqualified people to 6-figure income positions. The very mayor who has wrecked the cities finances, in what some has believed a concerted effort to force the consolidation of the city of Memphis and Shelby County into one Metro government.
This man has had more scandals during his tenure than Bill Clinton could only dream about. From dope-dealing police body guards, to fathering a child at 70+ years old, this man has just about done it all.
I’m afraid I can only report this from afar, as it would be disastrous if I were to be involved in any significant way in this movement. If you have gone through my archives and read my posts about my struggles of mental illness, and what I have done because of it, I would be kindling for any fire that King Willie and his minions choose to light under Mr. Matthews and his movement.
You can read about the movement on Mr. Matthews blog, and I will occasionally report on it here as well.
I wish the best of luck to Mr. Matthews and his cohorts, this city has been too long in the grip of one man.

I found this, AFL-CIO to Take Maryland’s ‘Wal-Mart Health Plan’ Across Nation and I just had to comment.
Let’s get this straight. For most of written history, doctors have been paid with cash up front. In return, doctors did their best, and included perks like house calls. I remember our family doctor, Dr. Rose, in Maple Heights making a house call on me when I was about 5.
Now that we have super expensive procedures, we now “need” managed care. This is where you pay insurance every month, and the well support the sick. Where doctors are forced to squeeze in as many patients as possible in order to make a profit.
We need to change our health care system, and change it radically to a two-tier system. One where you use a Health Savings Account (HSA) to pay for major medical expenses and catastrophic illnesses. The HSA doesn’t kick in until you’ve spent about $3-4000 a year, then pays the rest. In return, your health care plan costs a lot less per month.
For normal doctor visits, well baby care and minor emergencies, you pay out of your own pocket. When you spend your own money, you are a lot more careful about how you spend it. If you had to pay for at least some of your medications, you will make sure that you have to need them, not just that you want them.
This is called PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. It is a tenet of the Conservative way of life. When you start having the government manage your health care, directly or indirectly, that’s called SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. We start getting into SOCIALISM. Socialism has failed (or is failing) every where it’s been tried so far. No reason to believe the next try will succeed. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the very definition of madness.
I would much rather have my employer pay me what they normally pay as their share of health care and let me find my own plan. Like I said, if I have to pay for it, I will shop and make sure I am getting the best service for the best price. You can either take a full pay plan, or an HSA and save the difference, where if you spend the year well, what you saved goes into savings and provides a real safety net.
For example, if you saved $4,000 that first year (and you can at $330 a month, if your employer pays you what he was paying for your health care) then you can put that into a savings account and not need it until you get sick. You then can enjoy that extra $330 a month (or save it towards retirement) until you get sick and have to replenish the emergency fund. It’s simple, right? Can you imagine how much you could save if you had to?
Let’s get back to Wal-Mart. If people weren’t satisfied with the benefits there, why would they apply and work there? I mean, it’s a full employment economy, jobs are going unfilled by the page in the newspaper. If you work hard and apply yourself in school, then there is no place your desire and determination can’t get you. That’s another tenet of the Conservative way of life. You create your own opportunity.
Wal-Mart, and any other employer for that matter, has no business subsidizing health care. By subsidizing it, they are driving the prices up and making it unaffordable for people without a health plan. Which drives up prices even more, and so on in a vicious circle.
Like I said, let every employee get an HSA and let them make their own choices about health care.
I promise you, if that happens, we will stop seeing people at the emergency room with colds or the flu and a slight fever who don’t want to pay for the drugs at the local drug store. They will wait until the fever hits a dangerous level and then come in, making a true emergency room case. In the mean time, they will administer aspirin and Nyquil at home and 98% of the time, get over it on their own. This will stop the overcrowding of emergency rooms, encourage more non-emergency visits to the doctor, and help fund the emergency rooms where if you want to come in, you have to pay.
It will also help prevent the Anchor Baby problem, if illegal immigrant mothers-to-be can’t get their babies delivered here. But that’s another post for another time.
If you want to help the health care crisis in America today, get a HSA and take responsibility for your own health problems. Don’t farm it off to everybody else. I don’t want to pay for your Viagra.
Now that I’ve got that laid out, let’s head to the article:

AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney said Wednesday the legislation passed last week in Maryland to require employers to spend a percentage of their payrolls on employee health care was the “first crisp punch” in the fight for workers’ rights.

“Workers’ rights” is a euphemism for socialization. Never forget that.

America has decided to compete in the global marketplace by degrading work and workers through privatization and de-unionization, rather than competing through innovation and ingenuity, said Sweeney, head of the nation’s largest association of labor unions.

Let’s get this straight. Unionization raises prices. Why? Because it provides the same amount of pay to everybody, and everybody has to pay dues. Not to mention everybody gets paid the same, no matter how hard or not-so-hard they work. If you get paid the same, there is no significant incentive to work harder to get that raise. It comes along as long as you do the minimum work to keep you from getting fired. It penalizes the performers and awards the slackers.

“It’s bad for consumers, bad for growth, bad for the small businesses that will be targeted,” Colburn said. “You have to rename Maryland ‘The People’s Republic of Maryland,’ now that we’re the leader of the socialized medicine movement.”

When the government tells a business how to conduct its own internal affairs, that’s known as Socialism. There is a difference between mandating safe work conditions and telling them how much they need to spend on health care.
This will be a disaster for Maryland residents. Either they will pay more at Wal-Mart, or 7,000+ will lose their jobs because of this law. I hope it is successfully challenged in court.

Well, it seems that MSM attention is not the be all and end all they would like to think they are.
James Risen opened a firestorm when he broke the news about “illegal” wiretaps by the Bush Administration. This was closely followed by a book release, “State of War,” and his tour throughout the MSM. He appeared on 60 Minutes, Meet the Press, and probably several other shows that I am not aware of. A lot of ballyhoo, noise and consternation.
And what has that brought him? A dismal 21,000 copies sold. Harry Potter sells more than that in an hour. It seems that from what America has seen on TV, they’re not interested in what he has to say.
Which just goes to show, it’s not the sizzle, it’s the steak.