The Conservative Zone

Well, it's official. I've been sworn in as a VISTA volunteer, and right now I'm waiting for the bus to take me to the airport. Now begins a period of at least a years service, maybe as long as three, just because that's how long the project is. Anything can (and probably will) happen over the next year, so I'll know around April Fool's Day 2007 if I'm going to continue or move on to something else.

The experiences and friends I have made over the past 3 days will last a lifetime. I am glad to have picked this, as this training has provided a new point in my life. The experiences and challenges I will face over the next year will provide me with valuable training to do anything I want once my service is done.

See you back in Memphis.

Posted by at 12:57 PM | Permalink

I am sick of this whole "gas crisis" thing.

Sure, the oil companies are having record profits, but that's because they are taking a small slice of a very big pie. If you look at the price relationship between a gallon of crude and a gallon of gas, the finished product should actually be higher than it is. So if the gas companies really are out to screw us, why aren't the prices more relational?

And you know, this "investigation" is just another step towards Socialism. The next thing you know, the gas companies will be "nationalized" so as to "better protect the consumer." Which of course, never works. Putting something driven by market forces into the hands of bureaucrats will only exacerbate the situation. Price controls will lead to shortages or rationing, and a return to the long lines of the 70's.

If you want to do something about "getting gouged" by high gas prices, invest heavily in oil company stocks. That's where all of the "obscene" profits are going.

Posted by at 7:13 AM | Permalink

You know, I had a devil of a time finding my original post on this subject, and that was because I didn't put the proper key words in it.

Now comes the news that the University of Washington Student Senate has unanimously agreed to let Pappy Boyington and four other U of W alumni who won the Medal of Honor be memorialized.

Good for them.

Posted by at 7:15 PM | Permalink

We had a turning point happen on 9/11. A point where there will never be another hijacked plane in this country. The American Male will say "Never Again" and charge into the muzzle of a gun if need be. That started on Flight 93.

The men who charged the terrorists are all heros. They should be honored with laurels and accolades for years to come. They proved the true nature of the American Male. We don't acquiesce, we don't negotiate, we don't wait for someone to rescue us. We get up and kick ass.

And now, Congressman Charles Taylor, R-NC, is opposing the formation of a memorial to the brave souls of Flight 93.

Multiple messages left Tuesday at Taylor's congressional and campaign offices by The Associated Press were not returned. The Washington Post, which reported on the issue Tuesday, said Taylor believes no more tax dollars should be used to buy federal land for memorials.

The men of Flight 93 were just as brave as the heros of NYPD and FDNY. They charged in when others would have run away and they paid with their lives. You can say they were dead either way, but I prefer to say they tried to take back what was theirs.

This monument should be just as important as Mount Rushmore, the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and a dozen more historical sights. It shows the world just what Americans can do when they put their minds and hearts to it.

Write this idiot an email and tell (politely) tell him to back, not oppose this funding request.

Posted by at 7:01 PM | Permalink

My itinerary said there would be a shuttle from the hotel to pick me up at the airport. When I get here they tell me I have to take the train to the downtown station, then call for the shuttle. Well, I spent about 45 minutes and 4 phone calls waiting at the train station before the shuttle guy arrived.

So now I'm in the hotel, with wireless access, and reporting to you. I'm off to find something to eat before the fun begins, so talk to you tonight.

Posted by at 2:28 PM | Permalink

Well, I made it past the dreaded TSA Anal Probe. I thought for sure I was going to get the rubber glove treatment. I had a laptop, steel toed shoes and a big old metal belt buckle. I had to leave my knife, multi-tool and flashlight at home, I knew they wouldn't make it through security and I didn't want to put them into checked baggage.

I'm at the terminal right now, and I have about a 90 minute wait before boarding, so I'm catching you up. Actually, I'm off line because I don't have the spare money to pay the access fee to use the airport wireless network.

I'm feeling a bit of trepidation, this is the first time I've flown since I lost my job with Olivetti North America. That was a job where I flew 1-2 times a month. I had so many miles with Delta I could have flown my family to Hawai'i, but I never did and they expired.

Well, I'm going to save my battery power and shut off for now. See you in Atlanta.

Posted by at 8:19 AM | Permalink

I'm up on time, and everything is almost done. I've got to go and finish and I've got an hour to do it. I'll see you all on the road.

Posted by Mark at 6:37 AM | Permalink

I am paranoid about security. So, I have created this limited blogging account so no one can get into the guts of my blog and lock me out. This has only been a test.

Posted by at 9:23 AM | Permalink

I'm going through last-minute preparations for my trip. I thought I would be flying out today, so I was under a lot of pressure, but now I find out that I'm taking the first flight out tomorrow, so while I'm not under as much pressure, I still have to finish the preparations so all I have to do is wake up and go to the airport.

I'll see you sometime tomorrow, as I will be flying all morning and maybe in-between moments I will be able to find a moment to let you know what is going on.

Posted by Mark at 8:52 AM | Permalink

I just learned this from a message board that I am a member of. Fran O'Brien's Loses Lease: Steakhouse Caters to Walter Reed Patients.

This steakhouse, which is in a Hilton hotel, serves free steaks to wounded vets, in honor of their service. When the lease came up for renewal, the Hiltons balked on making the place ADA compliant. The Hiltons doubled the rent and then canceled the lease.

Such classy people.

Posted by Mark at 12:33 PM | Permalink

Well, the holder of this ticket is a certified idiot. Either they lost it or threw it away, thinking it was worth nothing. But someone in Kentucky let a Powerball ticket worth $853,492 expire. For a ticket of this magnitude, they must have matched every number but the Powerball number.

Idiot.

Posted by Mark at 8:52 AM | Permalink

Just because you sent in that check to Uncle Sam (or you are expecting a check), you think your dealings with taxes are over for the year, right?

Wrong.

While it's true you've paid your Federal income taxes, then there are lots of other taxes. Gas taxes, property taxes, wheel taxes and so on. I hope you're sitting down, because your knees will get weak after this one.

If you paid all of your taxes up front, 100% of your income went to paying taxes from January 1 until this date I'm about to tell you, that will tell you your true tax burden.

Ready?

If you paid everything to the government up front, Federal, State and Local, you would be working for them until:

June 3rd.

That's right. 154 days. 22 Weeks. 42% of the year, you are paying taxes.

How does that make you feel?

And look at it this way, if you are getting a big refund check back from Uncle Sam, that means you're sending him too much money. You're loaning it to him on an interest free loan.

Say you're getting a $1200 refund. If you adjusted your withholdings so you didn't get a refund (and didn't have to pay anything on April 15th) that would mean you could have an extra $50 each paycheck. What would you rather do? Get a "bonus" check that you will likely blow on something frivolous, or have an extra $50 a paycheck to pay the day to day expenses of life?

It's your money, it should be your choice.

Posted by Mark at 8:55 AM | Permalink

Just to let you know, I got up early this morning, at the time I have selected that I need to get up and be able to do my morning chores and get to work on time. The bad news is, blogging doesn't fit in the time allotted. So it looks like I will be blogging either during lunch or after work.

Just to let you know.

Posted by Mark at 8:37 AM | Permalink

Liberals like to talk the talk, but fail every time to walk the walk. They claim to celebrate "all points of view,: but when you mention anything that doesn't agree with them, the ideas are shouted down, the person denounced and reviled, and so on.

Case in point (H/T to AlphaPatriot):

Ohio State University was holding a meeting. It was to determine a "recommended reading list" for freshmen to the school. Scott Savage, a rather gentlemanly person, and a member of the Circle of Friends (otherwise known as the Quakers), a librarian spoke up and suggested four books:

• The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised As Freedom by David Kupelian
  
• The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America by David Horowitz
  
• Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis by Bat Ye'or
  
• It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good by Senator Rick Santorum.
  

These books, made three other professors feel "unsafe" and the administration let them file sexual harassment charges against Mr. Savage.

And yet, in their own words:

At Ohio State we celebrate and learn from our diversity and we value individual differences. Academic freedom is defended within an environment of civility, tolerance, and mutual respect.

So once again, Liberals are caught in their own lie. They claim to "celebrate diversity" but yet they feel "unsafe" and need to file charges when someone comes up with books that don't agree with them.

Go figure.

By the way, the Alliance Defense Fund threated to sue OSU over this. OSU quickly backed down.

Posted by Mark at 8:08 AM | Permalink

And I don't mean Teddy Kennedy.

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." Theodore Roosevelt 1907

This goes to the very heart of the immigration debate. These illegal immigrants have no want or need to become American citizens. They will, however accept amnesty, as it means that they (and their extended families) can stay in the United States, where working at dirt poor wages beats living in Mexico.

We do not need amnesty, we need to regain control of our border with Mexico. We need to stop this influx of people who by and large provide a drain on our society. Don't give me any bull about "we're all descendants of immigrants." My family came over legally, not over the border in the middle of the night.

Posted by Mark at 7:55 AM | Permalink

What a wonderful last day I had yesterday. We had a party, a talent show, and all of the clients signed a card for me.I must admit, in all my years of working, this is the first time this has ever happened to me. I have just usually snuck off into the sunset, never to be seen again. I am a little embarrassed to be the center of attention like that, but it also feels good. I made a positive difference in these peoples lives, and they truly hate to see me go.

The good news is I'm not going very far. I will still be serving this portion of the community, so it's not like I took a job in the IT sector and will never see them again.

I must admit, I am a little sad to go myself, but things must change in order to grow. I have reached my full potential in this pot. I must be repotted and be allowed to grow some more.

Posted by Mark at 8:16 AM | Permalink

I've jumped up and down on this subject since well before I started this blog: Sprint Service Lets Parents Track Down Kids Via GPS.

It sounds like a good idea, it really does. But there is a difference between good, sound ideas and ideas that sound good.

The secret to changing any society is to start with the children. If you can get the children to accept it, then by the time they are adults, the changes are in place and permanent.

So now we are being tracked everywhere we go. Is there any privacy anymore? Are you truly free if someone is always looking over your shoulder? For example, say you and some friends went to a bar to socialize. You are the designated driver. Prove that you didn't drink. A suspicious wife or parent would accuse you of drinking, and there is nothing you can do to prove that you didn't drink. Guilty by association.

And so it is with law enforcement. If they get hold of these records, or even live data, you will have to prove a negative to them for every move you make. I thought the burden of proof was on the state, not on the citizen?

And so it begins. Look for the death of privacy of any type within my lifetime.

Posted by Mark at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

And so it begins. Today, while not a normal work day, is my last day at work. I'm off tomorrow for Good Friday, and that's it. I am officially unemployed until the 25th or so. Then my new adventure starts. I'm working today because they were going to give me a going away party Tuesday, but forgot the food. Oh, well.... That'll happen today.

I'm actually kind of sad to go, but a little relieved, I've been driving 4 hours a day for the last 4 years and it's gotten a little frustrating because I wasn't able to get anything really done between runs. It seemed that I just got done brining everyone in when it became time to start taking everyone home. Looking at the clock, I only had 60-90 minutes, 2 hours on the outside any way.

In any case, the die is cast, and I'm on my way.

Posted by Mark at 8:05 AM | Permalink

Acquaintance Lissakay has some points to make as far as immigration. All of them very good, and quite logical. It makes you wonder why Congress hasn't thought of the same things.

Unfortunately there are other forces at work against Congress. For one thing, big businesses who employ illegals will complain to their Congressman when INS raids their place of business. Which leads to the Congressman telling INS to not enforce the law. And so it goes.

But I think we are being set up. Congress routinely has a penchant of coming at a problem backasswards, in other words they attack a problem on the flank where there is no problem. Instead of directly attacking the immigration problem, they will come after citizens and make them have a National ID and call that "seriously impacting the problem."

Don't worry, my words aren't going anywhere any time soon. You can come back for me to say "I told you so!" in a couple of years when they pass the National ID Act. Which will require one ID for everybody, except illegals. And it won't do a damned thing about the problem, except exert another layer of bureaucracy on the regular law-abiding citizens.

Posted by Mark at 9:02 AM | Permalink

The title says it all: Kiefer Sutherland Signs on for More '24'.

Kiefer just signed up for three more seasons, and is also a new co-executive producer of the series. All good news. This is my favorite show, and it keeps you on the edge of your chair for every minute. Good stuff.

Posted by Mark at 8:58 AM | Permalink

Follow this link. Now. I demand it. And if you're not shedding tears of pride, sorrow and happiness, then you have no heart.

Posted by Mark at 9:03 AM | Permalink

Yes, the French are surrendering again. This time to rioting youth who want lifetime job security. This is what you get when you make things like jobs a right instead of something to be earned.

Just look at the job system over there. If you want to fire someone, you need a paper trail a mile long and a major reason, like embezzling or other gross job misconduct. If you want to lay someone off because of a down turn of business, you can't. Your choice is to pay them three years severance pay, or park them in a corner and give them nothing to do, hoping they will quit from boredom. Which is why it's almost impossible to get a job, because once you're in, you're basically in for life.

Such is the Socialist Utopia called France.

Posted by Mark at 8:55 AM | Permalink

I'm not a fan of The West Wing, I find the characters a lot too self-important, and they all speak too fast, as if they have to get more dialog in than a regular show. But just out of morbid curiosity, I do find myself watching it from time to time, despite the heavy left-wing politics of the show.

So now comes this, via Drudge:

SURPRISE! DEMOCRAT WINS 'WEST WING' PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION! Sun Apr 09 2006 18:11:08 ET

**Exclusive**

The presidential election depicted Sunday night on NBC's 'WEST WING' would have had a different ending had it been held four months earlier.

The reversal of fortune for Matt Santos -- the Democratic nominee, played by Jimmy Smits, who was the victor -- had nothing to do with any shift in opinion among voters or a liberal ideology of the show's writers and producers.

No...

Instead, Lawrence O'Donnell, an executive producer of the show, said he and his fellow writers had declared Santos the winner only after the death, in mid-December, of John Spencer, who portrayed Santos' running mate.

At the time of Spencer's death, the plot for Sunday night's episode had been set: The election was to be won by Alan Alda's Arnold Vinick, a maverick Republican (modeled a bit on Sen. John McCain), whom many Democrats (including the Democrats who write the show) could learn to love.

But after Spencer died, O'Donnell said in a recent interview, he and his colleagues began to confront a creative dilemma: Would viewers be saddened to see Smits' character lose both his running mate and the election? The writers decided that such an outcome would prove too lopsided, in terms of taxing viewers' emotions, NYT reporter Jacques Steinberg will claim on Monday.

More condescension from left-wingers, who think the average person can't handle anything approaching real life on the tube.

It says a lot about how they view regular people.

Posted by Mark at 8:45 AM | Permalink

It seems that ABC is catching up with the rest of the world. Report: ABC to Put Shows Online for Free.

They plan on putting shows on line, but it looks streaming instead of Podcasting, because the article makes a point that you can't flash through the commercials. It is unlikely that this will go anywhere, simply because when people spend their time, bandwidth and disk space downloading what they want, they don't want commercials.

We'll see how this plays out.

Posted by Mark at 8:34 AM | Permalink

I didn't think this was possible: Ponte: Couric Further Left Than Rather.

Katie Couric’s politics "are apparently even further to the Left and more partisan Democratic than Dan Rather’s,” commentator Lowell Ponte writes.

"For this reason, she is unlikely to restore CBS’s credibility or redeem CBS’s well-deserved reputation for left-wing bias.” If Couric’s previous work is any indication, she could bring to CBS not only her liberal bias but also her penchant for making potentially inflammatory comments.

The story recounts a couple of times where The Perky One opens her mouth and sticks both feet in. Comments that would have gotten anyone else fired, just roll off her like water off a duck.

The story includes her resume, including getting kicked off the air at CNN and on and on.

Even Salon.com didn't pull any punches:

In a March 18, 2004 profile in the Left-leaning Salon.com, Rebecca Traister detailed the stories of "Queen of Mean” Couric "throwing temper tantrums on the set, bullying her staff and using her influence to get people fired, mailroom boys and network executives alike,” Ponte reports.

"Ann Coulter was right to describe Couric as the ‘affable Eva Braun of morning TV … she hides behind her Girl Scout persona in order to systematically promote a left-wing agenda.’”

When you can't get a sympathetic magazine to portray you in a positive light, something's wrong. Very wrong.

Posted by Mark at 8:58 AM | Permalink

Terry over at Possumblog has recounted his tale about getting DSL and having the modem die after one day on line. It's humorous, in that sad sort of way.

Here's what I wrote in his comments:

... I've had my cable service for almost 4 years now, and the one time I did have what looked to be a bad modem, the Help Desk just told me to go down to the local Time Warner office and exchange the modem. They put the new modem's serial number on my account, I went back and installed it, and everything has worked fine since.

If you don't know the difference between Cable and DSL, here it is:

Cable is one coaxial line that everybody taps into. Everybody takes a small share of the bandwidth. Since there are amplifiers on the line, anybody on the line can have Internet service. Unless there is someone doing something very bandwidth intensive (i.e. having a very busy website on a computer in their place), 98% of the time you have maximum bandwidth available. If a wire breaks, everyone is out of service and the cable company will be working hard to get everyone back up as quick as possible. You also don't have to buy TV Cable to get Cable Internet service.

DSL is the other way around. Here you are the only user on the line and all of the bandwidth is yours. The bad news is you must be within 15,000 cable feet from the switching office. That is way less than 3 miles, since this wire has to jump from pole to pole. You also pay for gradients of service. You can pick fast, faster or fastest service, at increasingly expensive rates. If your wire breaks, the phone company will send someone out in their own sweet time to fix it, since it's only one customer. Several poles or a switch must come down to knock enough users off-line before they put a priority on fixing the problem.

Hope that helps. Remember, friends don't let friends use DSL.

Posted by Mark at 8:34 AM | Permalink

While the majority of this article describes an incident in England, there is an American story as well, and they both point to which way society in general is heading: Did Pedophilia Hysteria Cause Child's Death?

On Nov. 28, 2002, 2-year-old Abigail Rae died by drowning in a village pond in England. Her death is currently stirring debate because the ongoing inquest revealed an explosive fact. A man passing by was afraid to guide the lost child to safety because he feared being labeled "a pervert."

This fear is well founded. Look at the other example:

Last summer, an Illinois man lost an appeal on his conviction as a sex offender for grabbing the arm of a 14-year-old girl. She had stepped directly in front of his car, causing him to swerve in order to avoid hitting her.

The 28-year-old Fitzroy Barnaby jumped out his car, grabbed her arm and lectured her on how not to get killed. Nothing more occurred. Nevertheless, that one action made him guilty of "the unlawful restraint of a minor," which is a sexual offense in Illinois. Both the jury and judge believed him. Nevertheless, Barnaby went through years of legal proceedings that ended with his name on a sex offender registry, where his photograph and address are publicly available. He must report to authorities. His employment options are severely limited; he cannot live near schools or parks.

Arguably, the law would have punished Barnaby less had he hit the girl or not cared enough to lecture her. Perhaps that's the equation that ran through Peachey's mind.

This is what our litigious society has brought us to. We must ignore children in distress, or be branded a sex offender. Some choice.

Posted by Mark at 8:20 AM | Permalink

Remember back in 1984, when Ronald Reagan was reelected in a 49 state landslide? Do you want to guess which single state didn't vote for him? That's right, the Peoples Republik of Massachusetts. Well, the PRM has taken another step towards Socialism: Mass. Lawmakers Approve Mandatory Health Care Plan.

Under this "plan," people who don't want health care will have it forced upon them by taxes and penalties until they get health care. So much for free choice.

And with every time Socialism has been tried, it's been shown not to work to any appreciable degree. Oh, I guess you could say it works, but at a very basic substance level, and everyone is miserable. Just look at the riots in France over jobs. This is what happens when things that should be earned become rights.

If you want to see how socialized health care works, just look at places like Canada. People are flocking from Canada to the United States for tests and procedures that they would have to wait for months in Canada. Look at my state of Tennessee. We tried offering health care to everybody and it damn near bankrupted the state. Twice.

When you guarantee health care to everybody, three things will happen: 1) Taxes will go up, 2) Health care quality will go down, and 3) when the program is dropped, no one will be happy.

Remember this: The government that is powerful enough to give you everything is powerful enough to take it all away.

Posted by Mark at 8:00 AM | Permalink

For those of you who haven't been reading very long, a while back I posted on the USS New York and how her bow was cast from metal recovered from the World Trade Center. There is a new story out, Navy Ship Built With World Trade Center Steel, and this one not only documents how the USS New York withstood everything that Katrina could throw at her, but her sister ships that will be joining her in the fight.

The USS New York is being joined by the USS Arlington (where the Pentagon is located) and the USS Somerset (The county in which Flight 93 crashed).

May God grant them the power to smite the enemies of this country.

Posted by Mark at 9:31 AM | Permalink

From AlphaPatriot:

Senator Hillary Clinton recently went to a primary school in Ithaca, New York, to talk about the world. After her talk she offers question time.

One little boy puts up his hand and the Senator asks him what his name is.

"Kenny."

"And what is your question, Kenny?"

"I have three questions:

1. Whatever happened to your medical health care plan?
2. Why would you run for President after your husband shamed the office?
3. Whatever happened to all those things you took when you left the White House?"

Just then the bell rings for recess. Hillary Clinton informs the kiddies that they will continue after recess.

When they resume Hillary says, "OK, where were we? Oh, that's right, question time. Who has a question?"

A different little boy puts his hand up. Hillary points him out and asks him what his name is.

"Larry."

"And what is your question, Larry?"

"I have 5 questions:

1. Whatever happened to your medical health care plan?
2. Why would you run for President after your husband shamed the office?
3. Whatever happened to all those things you took when you left the white house?
4. Why did the recess bell go off 20 minutes early?
5. What happened to Kenny?"

Posted by Mark at 9:29 AM | Permalink

I'm not sure if I'm burning out, or the depression is acting up. Looking back on my posts, they're all personal, except for one or two. While being Conservative is important to me, I just don't see anything to really comment about. I just don't know. With this new job starting in a couple of weeks, I will have to be getting up at 5:30 in order to get my blogging in, because my lunches will usually be busy. And I'm in no mood to comment in the evening.

I may hang the Zone up, I may let it languish, I don't know at this point in time. But you will be the first to know what happens.

Posted by Mark at 8:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)