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February 28, 2006

Extreme media bias. Nothing new here.

Well, the latest CBS "News" poll is out, and the results look damning: A 34% approval rating, and a 59% disapproval rating. But you see, that's not the news.

Here is the report. Look at the bottom of page 18. Better yet, here it is:

"Total Republicans" contacted: 272 unweighted and 289 weighted.

"Total Democrats" contacted: 409 unweighted and 381 weighted.

"Total Independents" contacted: 337 unweighted and 348 weighted.

Out of 1018 respondants, only 28% of those are actual Republicans. It just goes to show you how low the MSM will sink to in order to get people to see their way.

Lies, damned lies, and statistics.

February 27, 2006

The truth on tax burdens

From AlphaPatriot:

One thing I have noticed when "discussing" issues with Liberals. They have nothing to say when they are confronted with the truth. They can't, as their position in question is based upon emotion, rather than fact. So, by and large, they ignore facts and continue on with their silly tirades, despite their been proven wrong.

If you wanted to know just how much of a tax cut the rich got under Bush's tax cut plan, there it is.


Income Class2000 lawBush Tax CutsDifference
Bottom 20%-1.6%-2.7%-1.1%
Next 20%1.5%-0.1%-1.6%
Middle 20%6.4%5.4%-1.0%
Next 20%15.3%15.2%-0.1%
Top 20%78.4%82.1%3.8%
Top 10%63.5%66.7%3.2%
Top 5%51.4%53.7%2.3%
Top 1%31.6%32.3%0.6%

So, the top 1% is paying .6% more under the Bush tax plan, and the bottom 20% (who pay no income tax at all) are receiving an additional 1.1% more than they pay in.

You can dig around in these numbers all you want, but these are the truth.

A strike back at Kelo

If this bank was in Tennessee, I would be very tempted to change to it. BB&T Denies Loans to Businesses Benefiting from Eminent Domain.

The gist of the matter is, if you have local government take private land for you to develop, don't expect to get a loan from BB&T.

The North Carolina-based bank, which employs more than 28,000 people in 1,400 branches in 11 states, announced last month that it would no longer approve loans for developers who want to pursue commercial enterprises on land seized by the government using the power of eminent domain, or taking private property for public use.

I can only applaud this bank, as someone who is taking a moral stand on this heinous issue. Congratulations!

February 25, 2006

Men DO remember anniversaries

This brought tears to my eyes:

A woman awakes during the night to find that her husband was not in their bed. She puts on her robe and goes downstairs to look for him. She finds him sitting at the kitchen table with a hot cup of coffee in front of him.

He appears to be in deep thought, just staring at the wall. She watches as he wiped a tear from his eye and takes a sip of his coffee.

"What's the matter, dear?" she whispers as she steps into the room, "Why are you down here at this time of night?"

The husband looks up from his coffee, "Do you remember 20 years ago when we were dating, and you were only 16?" he asks solemnly.

The wife is touched to tears thinking that after all these years her husband is so caring and sensitive.

"Yes I do," she replies.

The husband paused. The words were not coming easily. "Do you remember when your father caught us in the back seat of my car making love?"

"Yes, I remember" said the wife, lowering herself into a chair beside him.

The husband continued. "Do you remember when he shoved the shotgun in my face and said, 'Either you marry my daughter, or I will send you to jail for 20 years?'"

"I remember that too" she replied softly.

He wiped another tear from his cheek and said...

"I would have gotten out today."

February 24, 2006

I don't know what it is

Maybe my depression is acting up. I'm sorry I'm not posting very much. For those who know me personally, silence for a couple of days brings about a phone call to make sure I'm all right.

A couple of weeks ago, Mike tried calling me a couple of times, before coming over for our normal Epic Wednesday. My phone ringer was inexplicably turned off, so I never got his calls. He was greatly relieved when I came to the door, as he was afraid that I had committed suicide without warning.

So just to let you know, if something does happen to me, there is a plan that I am working on. You will receive notification, be it I'm in the hospital or posthumously.

Let's hope it never comes to that.

Cute, in that evil sort of way

Here you go. The caption says it all:

February 21, 2006

Now I know it's the wrong decision

I'm talking about the decision of the Bush administration to allow a transfer of ownership of several main US container ports to a company owned by the UAE. I have been against it from the start, but this just cements my position: Carter backs Bush's stand on seaport-operations deal.

'"The overall threat to the United States and security, I don't think it exists,'' Carter said on CNN's The Situation Room. "I'm sure the president's done a good job with his subordinates to make sure this is not a threat."' [emphasis mine]

Which just goes to show you that Jimmy is living in a pre-9/11 world. Despite the Towers going down, he doesn't see a threat. Which just shows where his head is.

I am scared. First a lack of any real sense of urgency to plug our border with Mexico, now allowing this to happen, I am wondering if President Bush is wanting another attack. I still support him, but because of issues like this, my support is waning.

He talks the talk, but he's not walking the walk.

February 20, 2006

Here's a good laugh

Here is a picture of a gun. Can you tell me what's wrong with the picture? Bonus Cool Points for the person who figures it out, and visitors from Say Uncle are disqualified, because the answer is over there.

Click on the picture for full size:



Have fun!

February 16, 2006

Warhammer 40k news

Well, I am slowly replacing my badly painted figures with better painted ones. I have replaced 3 of 4 squads of Tactical Marines, and now I have just finished my first of two dreadnoughts.

You see, when I started painting, I didn't know the spray paint "Ultramarines Blue" was different from the paint pot shade of "Ultramarines Blue." Which lead to two tone painting. Where the spray paint didn't reach, the paint pot was glaringly revealed by the spot of different color. On top of my vastly improved painting skills, I am redoing everything so I'm not as embarrased during tournaments.

Anyway, this is a dreadnought. The fluff (backstory) reads that "A Drednought is piloted by a mighty Space Marine warrior who has been saved from death by his internment within its armoured sarcophagus. In this way the warrior can continue to vanquish the foes of the Emperor for many centuries, or even millennia."

This particular one is equipped with an Assault Cannon, and a powerfist equipped with a Flamer. My old one has a Storm Bolter rather than the Flamer, but experience shows that the Storm Bolter is generally ineffective when firing at the same target as the Assault Cannon. When I get ready to assault something, I can flamer it before going in to a much better effect.

Here is the old one. With all pictures,click on them for full size:




If you look at the outside edges of the legs, you can see the two shades of blue that I was talking about.

Here is the new one:



Notice the better paint job and the more things that are detail painted as opposed to the old one.

I am reasonably proud of this creation, and once I save up some more cash, I'll replace my second Dreadnought which is equipped with a twin Lascannon and a Missile Launcher.

What do y'all think?

Racist reporting

It had to happen. HBO's Gumbel: Lack of Blacks Makes Olympics 'Look Like a GOP Convention'.

I can't believe what he said. I'll have to let his words speak for themselves:

"Finally, tonight, the Winter Games. Count me among those who don’t care about them and won’t watch them ... Because they’re so trying ... Like, try not to be incredulous when someone attempts to link these games to those of the ancient Greeks who never heard of skating or skiing. So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention. Try not to point out that something’s not really a sport if a pseudo-athlete waits in what’s called a kiss-and-cry area, while some panel of subjective judges decides who won ... So if only to hasten the arrival of the day they’re done, when we can move on to March Madness — for God’s sake, let the games begin."

Granted, there are a lot of subjective events. But I'd like to see Mr. Gumbel try some of these events, instead of criticizing them. And just because no Black athletes are interested in these kind of events does not cast a pall over the efforts of these athletes.

As the article says, Rush was fired from ESPN for this, will we see the same for Mr. Gumbel? I doubt it. Rush is White, Bryant is Black. Blacks are allowed to criticize, Whites aren't.

February 15, 2006

Scalia nails it

Justice Antonin Scalia is one of our most Conservative SCOTUS justices. And with this speech, he shows it. Scalia: Non-Originalists Are 'Idiots'.

From his own words:

"That's the argument of flexibility and it goes something like this: The Constitution is over 200 years old and societies change. It has to change with society, like a living organism, or it will become brittle and break."

"But you would have to be an idiot to believe that," Scalia said. "The Constitution is not a living organism, it is a legal document. It says something and doesn't say other things."

Proponents of the living constitution want matters to be decided "not by the people, but by the justices of the Supreme Court."

"They are not looking for legal flexibility, they are looking for rigidity, whether it's the right to abortion or the right to homosexual activity, they want that right to be embedded from coast to coast and to be unchangeable," he said.

We are a nation of Law and declared Freedoms. The Constitution is a declarative document, it says exactly what the Government can do. What is left is left for the States and for the People.

It is not the job of the SCOTUS to decide what is what. It is their job to decide if laws are in line with the Constitution or not. As long as the SCOTUS stays in their purview things will go just fine. It is when they try social engineering that things go wrong.

A Hero scorned

Just to prove that Liberals have taken over our universities: Students reject honor to 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' hero.

Just to name names, Jill Edwards doesn't want a war hero to be honored, because she "didn't believe a member of the Marine Corps was an example of the sort of person UW wanted to produce."

Here you have a man, who stood up against the Empire of Japan, not once but twice, both as an American Volunteer in China (The Flying Tigers) and then as a Marine. He was shot down and tortured, and I mean tortured, for almost 2 years before being liberated.

He stood up before Pearl Harbor, and manned that wall that protects us from those who would do us harm. Ms. Edwards, he typifies the kind of man you should honor. His service to this country was awarded the highest possible honor this country could possibly bestow upon him. An award so exclusive that the ones who live to get the medal are outnumbered by those who received it posthumously.

Of course, she won't reconsider. Ms. Edwards is likely a pacifist and believes any violence is wrong. What a sheltered life she leads.

Here is something that you should consider:

IT IS THE SOLDIER

It is the Soldier, not the minister
Who has given us freedom of religion.

It is the Soldier, not the reporter
Who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the Soldier, not the poet
Who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer
Who has given us freedom to protest.

It is the Soldier, not the lawyer
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the Soldier, not the politician
Who has given us the right to vote.

It is the Soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.

(© Charles M. Province)

Just something to think about.

February 14, 2006

Thought for the day

From Right on the Right:


The only argument against intelligent design is “Why would a Creator make liberals?”

February 13, 2006

Rocketry News!

For those of you who have been reading for a long time, or have read my archives, I am what is known as a "born again rocketeer." This is someone who enjoyed flying model rockets as a child, then moved on to other things, before returning to model rocketry with their children, discovering the many changes and expansions of the hobby. Today, flights are routine with motors thousands of time more powerful than the rocket motors we used as children. Electronics are now an integral part of the hobby, from GPS transmitters to dual stage deployment and live video downlinks so we get to see what it's like being in our rockets.

But back in the 70's, the BATF declared Ammonium Perchlorate an explosive. They didn't hold public review, they didn't even run tests. They just said one day, AP is under their control and subject to BATF regulations.

In the 80's, rocketry discovered Ammonium Perchlorate Composite Propellant, used in High Power Rocketry. It's the same stuff used in the Solid Rocket Boosters for the Space Shuttle.

Since then, rocketeers have suffered under the onerous load of red tape necessary to store and use APCP. You needed a Low Explosives User Permit, have to keep records like a gun dealer, and store their rocket motors in boxes meant to hold explosives. They had to store their red metal, wood lined boxes in either outbuildings or within garages in a certain way. They were subject to arbitrary and unannounced inspections of their layout and records.

Well, that all changed today. After seven years of work, a Federal judge has declared that BATFE has no jurisdiction over APCP. Now comes hopefully the self-regulation that other hobbies enjoy.

From the mouths of children

This was sent to me unsolicited. Somehow or another I got on this guys mailing list. Normally I delete them without reading, but this one piqued my interest and I read it. This one hits the nail on the head.

My young nephew asked me the other day just what it meant to be a democrat, what they believed in.

I told him, go look up their web sites and study them and tell me what you find. I was very curious what he would come up with. He is the sort of child who cannot help himself from blurting out the obvious about something or someone, no matter the social etiquette. He is absolutely NOT politically
correct, and would not even yet grasp the principle of saying something that is considered wrong to avoid hurting some ones feelings.

He came back later with a list, and I tell you, he seems to have nailed it on the head.

The democrats are the Left.

He is really bothered by this, and wonders how such a thing can flourish in our great American Republic.

The Left by definition favors socialism, which has for the last several decades been the polar opposite of what has made America the shining beacon of freedom and success for the world.

The democrats historically supported slavery and racism.

He was very surprised to find out that the Democratic party has historically been against minorities. They were in favor of slavery, segregation and all the aspects of prejudice. He was extremely surprised that the Republican party came into existence to rid the world of slavery because he always hears about democrats calling Republicans Racists.

The democrats support the reproductive rights of women in all forms.

He noted to me that he figured out that since the killing of unborn children became legal, one third of the American population was murdered. One out of every three babies are being killed.

The democrats support the redistribution of wealth.

He really was upset at this. He told me the democrats favor taking money away from those who work hard to acquire it, and hand it to those who do not. His biggest question on this was, "If the democrats give me someone else's money, why would I ever want to work hard to make my own?"

The democrats promote the gay lifestyle

He was very perplexed by this. He recently learned about the dangers to those who participate in this kind of lifestyle. He could not understand how any group could actively promote a lifestyle that will on average shorten your life by a couple of decades.

The democrats believe there is no place in America for God

He came to this conclusion by the fact that it is always the left groups trying to take God away, and the democrats ARE the political party of the left.

I then read the bottom of his paper where he had written a summary of sorts.

The democrats are against freedom and against America

This conclusion stunned me when he said it. I asked him why he felt so.

He told me that the Democrats support killing our children who deserve the right to Life according to the constitution. They promote destroying more people by promoting to them the gay lifestyle, which will kill them of sooner. They want to take away the money from people who work hard (Making them not want to work as hard, why bother) and giving it to people who DO NOT want to work hard (Making them never want to work hard to get ahead, why bother). They want to take God way from Americans, making them hide Him in a closet where He is never mentioned in public like something to be ashamed of, yet God is where all our freedoms and great blessings originate. And he ended his summary, they are historically bigots, even having current leaders who were once proud members of the KKK.

Of course, the Democrats are the ones who also support gun control, and other issues on top of what he mentioned that are against everything our forefathers fought for.

But it's nice to hear that a child can figure out that Liberals are bad for America.

Whiny Liberal gets it wrong again

I found this blog entry during a random search of the Web. It's amazing what you can find out there. Screwed By Southwest.

This woman, who describes herself as a "Life-loving fat lesbian separatist feminist" has a semi-picture of her on the blog, and a 300 pound estimate would be generous.

She starts off with a mistaken premise:

Even though I’ve been some degree of fat my whole life, and certainly have gotten my share of ridicule and rejection because of it, being refused a public accommodation hasn’t been part of my experience. [emphasis mine]

Riding a metro bus or subway is a public accommodation. Flying in an commercial airliner is a service offered by a for-profit company. And on an aircraft, everything is weight. If your bags are too heavy, be prepared to pay an extra surcharge for them. If you are too heavy, be prepared to pay an extra surcharge for you.

If you want to fly, you have to go by their rules, or you don't fly. Which is why I don't fly.

Amy then spends multiple paragraphs telling you about her trials and tribulations squeezing into a single seat, the contortions to get into it, the no tray table, etc., etc., etc.

And it all comes down to personal responsibility. While some people are bigger than others (myself included), there is a difference between being big and being fat.

I am big, but I am far from being fat. I am currently 6'3 and 220 pounds, with a 44 long suit size. If *I* weighed 300 pounds, I would be fat. This lady is certainly several inches shorter than me and at least 80 pounds heavier than I am. You can see the fat rolls on her arm in the picture on her blog.

It all depends on self-discipline. It takes constant work and effort to have self-discipline, but it's worth it.

Read her rant, and make a judgement for yourself.

Mapes still whining

Mary Mapes, former CBS News Producer, is still whining and lashing out at Conservative blogs because she got her hand in the cookie jar over forged documents. Mary Mapes Blames 'Vicious' Bloggers.

For those of you who have forgotten or never heard of it, CBS' 60 Minutes did a hit piece on George W. Bush over his Texas ANG service just before the 2004 election. They produced documents that "proved" his being AWOL from the ANG. The problem was there was no way a 60's/70's era typewriter could have produced these letters. Of course, there is no original to look at, only a copy of a copy of a copy. But what is there is enough.

You see, modern word processors use what is known as proportional spacing. That means a small letter like an "i" uses up less space than a wide letter, like a "w". But in an old typewriter, they used fixed spacing, where the "i" and "w" took up the same amount of space, because the strikers that made the letters were the same width.

Then there is the superscript that really started the ball rolling. Again, when you type something like "101st", Word will superscript the "st" like this: 101st. It's not anything you can turn off, it does it automatically. The problem is, there is no way to do it on the old clunky typewriter except by physically clicking the platen back a notch and typing the st. But in that case, the st would have been the same size, not a smaller font like it is in a superscript.

These two facts about these memos was enough to force Dan Rather to resign, and get Mary Mapes and others to be fired. Enough doubt was cast upon the memos as to make them worthless.

Mapes said that she still believes the documents cited in the "60 Minutes II" broadcast by her boss, Dan Rather, were authentic, saying; "I feel that if they had been forged there would have been a flaw. And I have not been able to find the flaw."

But in the paragraph before this, she says,

"What happened to me, I think, and to all of us at CBS, was that the perception of truth became that these documents were not real; that there were flaws in the typeface and all kinds of sort of dry and extremely dull details about proportional spacing and superscript and all that."

"Dry and extremely dull details"? I think she just insulted every document verifier who does this for a living.

And of course an internal investigation would not turn up that the documents were fake, because that would out-and-out admit that the documents were forged, and CBS had an agenda against the President, and lots of other things that would hurt their reputation.

What's left of it anyway.

February 9, 2006

Here you go

Just in case you haven't seen the cartoons that all these Islamofacists are rioting about, here they are: Muhammad Cartoons.

Take a look for yourself and make your own mind up.

February 8, 2006

A Wellstone moment

Yesterdays service of Coretta Scott King had some rather disgraceful moments. Between Joseph Lowerys comments about WMD, and Jimmy Carters comments about wiretapping, they never had the guts to turn around and look at the President while they said those words.

And the President, having the poise and grace to ignore the comments, just politely smiled. Class act.

More on Katrina hotel rooms

I have received reports that the long term Katrina evacuees treated their hotel rooms like their public housing in New Orleans. They fouled their own nests. After these evacuees have moved out, broken furniture, cigarette burns in the carpets and furniture, and so on were found in the rooms. Also, complaints were through the roof.

This just goes to show the difference between broke and poor. Broke is a temporary situation where you have no money. Poor is a permanent condition where you don't want to try and better yourself. I may be broke, but I'll never be poor.

More hypocritical goodness

I just learned something interesting. Former "health care czar" Hillary Clinton, you know, the architect of the abortive socialized medicine program back in 93, served on the board of directors for none other than Wal-Mart, for no less than six years. In that time, she never raised her voice about health care, or for unionization.

Well, it seems that because of her stance today, pro-SOCIALIZED health care and pro-union, she is being excoriated, by none other than The Village Voice. The Voice is taking her to task, and rightly so. She is trying to be on both sides of the fence, and it turns out she is not as ideologically pure as the Left things she ought to be.

February 7, 2006

The end of the line

It's time to kick some lazy butts to the curb. 5,000 evacuees face end to free lodging.

For those who were even too lazy to get an extension, the end of the gravy train is today. If, after 6 months, you haven't found a job, then you aren't looking or you are so unqualified for the ones you are applying for, it works out to be the same thing.

It's time for these people to get a job and get some housing of their own. I am sick and tired of people with the mindset of "It's my job to make babies and it's your job, Mr. Mayor, to take care of them."

I don't want to hear the bellyaching from these people. If you have a job, then you should be able to afford to live on your own, without government assistance. If you are dumb enough to try and support a family with 3+ kids on a minimum wage job, then you better get smart and fast. Pick up a second (and third) job and pay your own way. Unless you have a physical or mental impediment that limits your job opportunities, you should be able to support yourself. Hell, I have a mental impediment and I am supporting myself, with all of my disability income going to support my family.

And I'm not complaining, I'm doing the best that I can. While I would love to go back to work full time, I know it's not happening any time soon. With my bipolar, too much stress would send me under my desk screaming and crying. And this comes from a guy who used to eat stress for lunch.

I may be broke, but I'm not poor. One is a temporary state of being, the other a permanent mindset. Know the difference and you can cure both by finding a job.

Moore News

Well, Michael Moore is in the news again. Michael Moore Makes 'Sicko' Appeal.

He's wanting to do a new "documentary" on the health care business in America. He wants to show how "evil" and "bad" it has become, and how Socialized medicine is so much better. Not.

So what does he do? On his website, he is asking for people to volunteer their stories about how they were screwed over by pharmaceutical companies. He is so bereft of ideas he has to steal them from others.

And here's the hypocritical part: Mr. Moore indirectly owns stock in pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Merck, Genzyme, Elan PLC, Eli Lilly, Becton Dickinson and Boston Scientific. He has also included stocks of HMOs such as Pharmacia Corporation and Tenet Healthcare in his portfolio as well.

Isn't that nice? As ever, the Liberal is a hypocrite. And I won't mention how he does as much work as he can in Canada to avoid paying the higher Union wages. Oops. I guess I did.

February 6, 2006

Let me tell you...

...About this 'religion of peace.' Their faith demands that they convert, enslave or kill every person on this planet. Their religion must be the only religion on the planet. There can be no other outcome. That is what we are facing.

The riots over these cartoons are a travesty. They are a sham, a poor excuse to kill non-Muslims. Maybe if Christians started treating Muslims the way they treat us. They defile our religion, I see no reason against us defiling theirs.

Here is a prime example. A few years back, the Church of the Nativity (where Jesus is believed to have been born) fell into Islamic hands. I forget the circumstances, but the church was defiled. Islamic graffiti was scrawled across the walls, Bibles were destroyed and Muslims shat (yes, they took a dump) in the church. This is how Muslims view Christianity. How do you like your religion being treated this way?

The Post-Reformation Christian view is to respect other religions, no matter how different they might be. We treat Muslims with kid-glove treatment because we don't want to "offend their sensibilities." But that just shows our weakness in their eyes. If we aren't willing to do whatever it takes to protect our religion and faith, then we deserve whatever we get.

What is the answer? I don't know. But the Chrisitian nations of this world must band together and as a people beat back and beat down the Islamic world until they realize that they can't win.

Any faith that teaches kids to blow themselves up to kill non-Muslims is no religion of peace.

February 3, 2006

Stick it up your Muhammad

(Please excuse any misspellings. I upgraded Firefox and my spell checker doesn't work with this version)

It seems that this series of political cartoons that was originally published in Denmark and later in France has the Muslims in an uproar. Fight for Your Right.

Good.

I think they must come to realize that they can't do whatever they want in the name of their religion and get away with it. If Islam is such a religion of peace, why did thousands of Muslims cheer when the Towers fell? Why was there no outrage at Munich when the Israelis were killed? If the 2 billion Muslims think their religion is a religion of peace, they should be working harder than we are to stomp out the violence in the name of their religion.

Christianity used to be as violent, but then we grew up and moved beyond such things. Muslims have not had that growth of maturity to take them beyond the childish ways of violence in the name of religion.

I still fear that Christianity and the other religions of the world are in a struggle for survival with Islam. Unless Islam gives up trying to convert the whole world, we may have to wipe out the religion. Muslim extremeism is the root cause of most of the worlds troubles today. From the Phillipines to Iraq, from Chechnia to Iran, Islam is the violent ones, we are just trying to stop it.

We are in a fight for our existence, and it's time we realized it.

February 1, 2006

Things aren't going well

Maybe it's the depression acting up, but I've become pretty much useless in the mornings. It's hard to gather my thoughts and sift through the news for interesting bits to comment on. Maybe I'll start blogging in the afternoon or night and see how that goes.

In the mean time, I'm off to the Battle Bunker today, I'm in the middle of a multi-city campaign and I have a planet to conquer!