Scary Stuff on Halloween

I love Halloween - I live for it.  It's scary, it's fun and sometimes it's even sexy.  This year it's heavy on the absurd side, given that the scariest stuff in ages is about to come down on us:  Ebola and ISIS.  But then there's always pop culture to deaden the anxiety.

There's Kaci Hickox, the nurse who just returned from West Africa treating Ebola patients, who insists she's not symptomatic and is not trying to "get anyone sick," yet defies a quarantine order.  She's out riding her bike in Maine with her boyfriend, basking in her 15 minutes of fame.  As any medical professional knows, not having symptoms of a disease doesn't mean that one may not be a carrier.  See Typhoid Mary.  You gotta admire her for one thing, though - defying the government.  In her case, she knows more than anyone else, and therefore laws don't apply to her.  But what if she is a carrier?  That's scary.

Panic in the Democrat party is escalating as all major polls show devastating losses for the Dems next week. They fear they'll lose the senate, so they're playing the race card for all it's worth.  Mary Landrieu, herself a daughter of the South, is so desperate in her Louisiana senate race that she's taken to defaming all us Southerners as racists and sexists.  Because we're racists down here, she says, that's why the Kenyan and his policies aren't very popular in the South.  Although over the last six years the race card has been played so often that it's become lame and absurd, she, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Michelle Dunn of Georgia all seem to think they can fool black folk one more time.  Well, they're democrats, after all, so that silliness can be expected.  The truth is Democrats - and even the Black Panther Party  - are running for the tall grass, lest they be associated with the Kenyan.   Liberals in a panic.  Fun.

Just in time for the midterm elections, a video goes viral of a young woman roaming - er, I mean walking - the streets of New York.  For ten hours.  Just so she could record the whistles and catcalls directed her way.  Just to show us how sexist we men really are.  Oh, boy, here we go again with more misandry, that feminist hate of all things male.  Shoshana Roberts (who?), an aspiring actress (aren't they all?), appears to have gotten a double bang for her buck.  Her sexist video on YouTube got over a million hits, which gives her some public exposure she would have never gotten otherwise based solely on her "talents."  And, she was working with Hollaback, yet another feminist hate group masquerading as a public support group.  So in ten hours hiking through New York, she only got 100 incidences of "harassment?"  Maybe that's because she's not as hot as she thinks she is.  After hearing her speak, she's even less so.  Sexy?  Not!

One of the scariest things for me is the notion that citizens are free to "out" anyone with whom they disagree on a given issue, for the sole purpose to create a clamor and debate.  Second amendment rights come to mind.  In Rochester, MN a woman so afraid of guns she decided to post a poster-sized sign in her neighbor's lawn "outing" him as a gun carrier.  The Constitution allows for civil scrutiny of the government, or of public officials, and I applaud that.  But when that freedom is used to embarrass, harass and demean law abiding citizens, that's misuse and abuse of the right.  I hope Matthew Hellack, a licensed carry permit holder, father of two and prior school board member, sues the pants off the meddling socialist activist Kimberly Edson for invasion of privacy and libel.  One does not have the right to attack others simply for exercising their constitutional rights - or their beliefs, for that matter.  We may see the NRA pursue this, but certainly not the hypocritical ACLU.   Scary.

But all this nonsense isn't going to deprive me of having fun tonight, as I intimidate the neighborhood kids with my zombie ninja costume.  Like I said, I live for Halloween, and I get to be scary, fun and sexy again for one short evening.  Boo!

The Skill of Self Defense

Given the chaotic and turbulent environment of late with which we're forced to contend, many folks have chosen to arm themselves by obtaining concealed carry permits.  Carrying a gun, or bearing arms, is a right that is not only God-given, but is protected and guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.  All but a few states now have "shall issue" concealed carry laws, and more and more citizens are taking advantage of this.  That's a good thing, because in this crazy world, being armed and able to defend oneself and one's family is a near necessity. Studies have shown armed citizens prevent over two million violent crimes every year.  One may never need to use deadly force, but it's comforting just to know that potential bad guys don't know for sure if one is armed.  An armed society is a polite society.  Deterrence and threat of force works . Si vis pacem, para bellum.

As a holder of a concealed carry permit, I have carried a gun every day for most of my adult life, both before and after passage of my state's concealed carry law in 1989.  In all that time, I have only had to present a firearm once.  And in that instance, I can tell you that all my training, all my marksmanship, and all my cool went right out the window, even though I de-escalated the situation before the shooting started.  Here's why:  faced with immanent bodily harm, the human brain reverts to three basic options.  Fight, flight or freeze.  In a dire situation where the use of a firearm may be needed, the upper brain with all that training, rationale and intellect flies right out the window, and it passes the ball to the animal part of the brain - the hippocampus -  to ensure survival.  Your skill and training is reduced and confusion, denial and inability to act kick in with a vengeance.  And that's why even highly trained police officers often miss their targets during a gunfight. But the best way to win a gunfight is to never be in a gun fight.  Survival consists of mindset, skills and tools.  OK, you strap on your new pistol, place your new carry permit ID card in your wallet, and you boldly step out into the world, all armed and bad.  Right?  Partially.  You have the tool, but do you have mindset and skill?  Skill is the ability to utilize the tool you're carrying, and that includes intimate familiarity with the workings of your particular weapon, as well as proficiency in marksmanship necessary to employ it properly. Despite danger lurking almost everywhere and anywhere, by employing the following five basic elements in one's daily behavior avoiding a deadly situation is not only possible, but likely.

Awareness

Situational awareness is being aware of your surroundings, and your presence in them.  Use that sixth sense to anticipate danger, and always be diligent in what you do and where you go.  When walking across a parking lot one should be aware of other pedestrians, backing vehicles, or any threat or danger.  That's just common sense, but apply it intellectually; that is, be consciously aware of what's going on around you.  Note things out of pattern:  a car idling by the curb perhaps, or a nervous acting person with darting eyes.  Awareness is the first step in developing mindset, because when you are aware of surroundings, there's less possibility of surprise, and when you're not surprised, you're closer to being prepared.

Avoidance

You're walking home from the convenience store one night, and you see a group of youths congregating  on the corner ahead.  You're armed, but there are several of them and one of you.  Do you continue on your way, as is your right, and brush by them and possibly engage in some manner of conflict?  Or do you change directions, and find a different way home?  That's not cowardice, that's smart.  You have the power to avoid a potential confrontation, so use it.  Remember, rule number one in winning a fight is never get in a fight.  

 De-escalation

 Let's say you're driving in heavy traffic and some clown rips around you, cuts in front, and then slams on his brakes to keep from rear-ending the car ahead.  You have to stand on the brakes to keep from hitting him.  He sticks his head out the window and in graphic detail questions your motives and heritage.  What to do?  His immaturity gained him maybe 25 feet in the traffic que, but endangered everyone around with his reckless behavior. You could match his rant epithet for epithet, after all you've got a gun on your hip, and you're not intimidated at all.  Or you could merely shrug it off as he was just having a bad day.  A simple "My bad!" or "Sorry!" could save the day, and the pride you may swallow is far less demeaning than the bile a machismo response may entice.  Discretion is the better part of valor.

Escape

Always have an escape plan.  In the example of walking home from the store at night, we talked about avoiding a potentially dangerous situation.  But if you can't avoid it, be prepared to escape it.  If you see four guys coming over to you with obvious malicious intent, it's better to escape than to try to present that firearm.  Even advanced gunfight training may not carry the day, and in most states, the law wouldn't support you either. They may have been Estonian tourists simply seeking directions.  Think twice before your ever pull that gun: because after you do, everything changes.

Deadly Force

Now to the end-of-all-options scenario: the one you never want to face. The wild-eyed crazed assailant has a knife, and he's charging you in a full run. An average man can cover twenty-one feet in just one-and-a-half seconds.  That's two car lengths, or a large living room, or the distance from the sidewalk to your front door.  All in just over one second.  There's no time to avoid, no time to de-escalate, no time to escape, and no time to analyze.   You have to shoot.  To stop the threat.  Not scare, not wound.  Kill.  To stop the threat.  It's his life, or you and your family's lives.   Can you fire?  Do you have the mindset?  Do you have the skill?

Carrying a weapon is a right.  It's also a huge responsibility.  Forget all that Hollywood nonsense.  Forget your buddies' machismo over beers.  There's no reset button when you pull your weapon.  You need to be smarter and more level-headed and mindful every day that gun is on your person.  Get your permit, exercise your rights, but be as the Zen Warrior.  Don't screw it up.   

How to Win the Race War

In the chaos of all this nonsense about racism in the United States, especially as is occurring recently in Missouri, we lose sight of the facts concerning the protests.  While the media focus is on the death of a certain black teen, we should recall that this was the inevitable outcome of bad attitude driving bad behavior and ultimately bad decisions on the part of the so-called victim.

Let's start with the bad attitude.  Mike Brown was an 18-year old who was immersed in the thug culture that so permeates the black "experience."  Black teenage males wannabe ganstas are found in probably every city in the country, embolden by their parent, peers and music.  Brown was one of these wannabes, acting in bad behavior and with chip firmly in place on shoulder, was captured on video engaging in strong arm robbery of a convenience store.  Belligerence is a sub function of bad attitude, and when stopped for walking in the middle of a public street by an officer, Brown resorted to belligerent violence.  He attacked the cop, pounded his face to the point of crushing and collapsing the officer's eye socket, and as a result, ended up shot dead.  Bad decision.

The media continues to whitewash (pun intended) his criminal image into one of a big, lovable unarmed black teenager.  Unarmed?  He was a giant, well over six feet tall and weighing some three hundred pounds.  I wouldn't call that unarmed.  I hold advanced belts in Korean martial arts, and as such, am I unarmed?  No, I don't think so, either.  But the facts don't fit the left's political narrative.  To the progressive media, it's simply a case of a white cop killing an unarmed black man.  Period.  No extenuating circumstances needed, thank you.  Now onto our quest for justice.  In come the agitators, the instigators, and all the other left wing vermin to incite the black (and the Birkenstock-wearing and over-educated liberals) communities to seek justice.  Um, actually justice has already been applied.  See Self Defense, Chapter 1.  Oddly, no black or media rage is directed at the thousands of black-on-black instances.  Oh, right.  That doesn't fit the white America is racist narrative.  My bad.

As a result of this event months ago, more spontaneous protests occurred again yesterday, on Columbus Day.  That's a white America holiday, fool.  Spontaneous, did I say?  This was no flash mob - it was painstakingly orchestrated by the race baiters of old, out from under their rocks to take advantage of a perfectly good crisis.  Professionally printed signs with neat borders proclaiming Racism Kills and Black Lives Matter.  Clever.  Oh, and the cool tee-shirts, Hands Up.  Don't Shoot  - all in white-on-black (get it?) and in grammatically correct English.  Joined by white leftists, college kids (always vocally ideological but rarely truly informed), and other anthropomorphic socialists, the mobs found their way into Nieman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Michael Kors, Talbots, Tiffany & Co. and several other upscale stores.  Well, at least they didn't burn anything down this time.  Cornell Wild got arrested, though, and that's something.  Al and Jesse must have been in Vail and couldn't make it.  I wish white-hating black people would just get over this whole black victim-hood thing.  Mike Brown (remember?  supposedly what this is all about) was a teenaged thug headed for even more criminal intent.  He got killed for his bad behavior, as did over 400 people in 2012 alone.  There's nothing to defend or decry or protest here.

What about this, instead of defending the indefensible:
1.  Develop your own positive contributions to your community and to civilization as a whole - that is, find the zen in your blackness and honor and act within it;
2.  Find ways to elevate your community through job creation and education - build a business and train, teach and hire some folks and everybody makes money;
3.  Realize that people like to congregate with people who are like them - you do and I do, too.  That's not racist, it's human nature.
4.  And quit letting the leftist ideology in all its permutations shove you around and control your destiny.

Is this the mob-riot-protest legacy you want to leave your children?  No?  Then move beyond the mindless victim mentality that's being displayed in these events and others, tell the truth by not lying to yourselves, and you'll earn and gain the trust that you seek - and deserve.

Sexual Healing

It's not bad enough that the male-hating, rabid feminists have destroyed masculinity in this country, but now they are out to destroy sex.  Women are different from men.  Men differ from women.  Nature set it up that way, so the species could continue.  So it's natural that women are attracted to strong, masculine and powerful men.  But the hags at NOW and other radical feminist clacks, all mostly unattractive and dateless, want to declare every sexual encounter as rape, or as it's politically correct to define, sexual abuse.  Abuse?  That's a whole other fetish.  So when the hags scream "sexual abuse," do they mean bondage and domination?  Nope, they refer to any sex between a man and a women.

You wanna hit this?

Let's take the case of Lena Dunham, who claims she was raped years ago by a Republican.  With a mustache.  I'm serious.  You just can't make this stuff up. His name was Barry, she said.  There's some irony for you.  But why bring it up now?  She won't - or probably can't, because no such person exists - identify the bugger.  Oh wait, I know why now.  Now she's written an anti-male TV series, and she's touted by the leftist perpetually offended as an activist.  The cool thing is you don't need to be well versed in a topic to be an activist, you just need to be vocal.  Loud. Shrill.  Now armed with her 15 minutes of fame, she's well positioned to advocate for rape victims everywhere.  But, like the Al Sharpton-perpetuated Tawana Brawley rape hoax back in the 1980s, claiming rape when none exists could come back to haunt her.  And this kind of crying wolf hurts women in the long run.

She thinks she's hot.

There's more.  Consider the vulgar, vicious Sarah Silverman and her campaign against the male of the species.  In a reference to the supposed inequity between men and women's salaries, Silverman, in order to avoid the so called "$500,000 vagina tax," wants to trade her vagina for her own penis. Wow.  Talk about penis envy.  She insists however, it be circumcised.  If she hates men so much, why does she want to be one?  Oh, right. For the money.  You may recall her vicious rant about her wish to kill Christ again.  You can't make this stuff up, it's that far out in the lunatic fringe.  Jews are so funny.

Jameis Winston, FSU

Or how about the twin cases in Florida, wherein the star quarterbacks at both Florida State and University of Florida are under investigation for sexual abuse.  Both quarterbacks are black, and both of their separate accusers are black.  In the case of Jameis Winston, FSU, he is accused of sexual abuse for an instance from  a year ago, where the "victim" had had sex with everyone in the room, and with other men prior to the "event."  I wrote about this here in December of 2013.  The investigation at the time by the Tallahassee Police Department, as well as the University itself, revealed no evidence to warrant any charges.  But the black community, and the leftists on campus and elsewhere, won't stop until someone "pays" for this non-existent crime.  But if it's labeled sexual abuse, the outcome is predetermined.  Someone will be shaken down, and someone else will acquire ill gotten gains. 

Treon Harris, UF

The same thing happened in Gainesville, in the University of Florida case regarding Treon Harris, their game saving quarterback.  Literally as he came off the field after winning against the Tennessee Volunteers, he was taken aside and notified he was suspended for the rest of the year, both as a player and as a student.  No charges, no investigations, no trial.  Guilty until proven innocent.  To illustrate how far the insane NOW contrived notion that all sex is rape, both these guys are harassed and vilified for having carnal knowledge of less than virtuous females.  Smelling fame and fortune, these skanks are quick to plead their story to university officials, who in turn are terrified of the wrath of the harpies, and as such take immediate unlawful action against these guys.  The irony here is that the male-on-female abuse is more important than the fact that all parties are black.  Facts don't matter to the shrill, hate-filled hags, as long as they get a discrimination issue to flout before the mid term elections, all will be well.

Oh, and hey Sarah.  Be careful where you put your new penis.  You might find yourself on the other side of your favorite issue.

Is Isn't Isn't

I recall way back in elementary school, my teacher, in a lesson in punctuation, gave us this sentence and asked us to properly punctuate it:

That that is is that that is not is not.

Not all of us at that grade level got it right, of course, but it was something that stuck with me throughout the years, as it clearly demonstrates the importance of proper punctuation, and how even a misplaced comma can change the meaning of a sentence.  Here's the proper punctuation:

 That that is, is; that that is not, is not.

But more importantly, and what struck me then and now, is the mathematical, logical and philosophical truth of this simple sentence, and how in our current age, it has been twisted by advertisers, and political correct spin doctors.  There is a distinction between reality and fictional delusion. 

Think about the impact of this simple statement:  What is true, is true.  What is not true, is not true.  But spin doctors seek to blur the lines between truth and non-truth.  Changing the meanings of words, and the bastardization of the language is a prime example of this.  Homosexuals are now gays, notwithstanding that they actually may not be all that gay.  An abortion of a viable fetus is a woman's choice, not premeditated murder.  Intolerant is the label applied to those who merely question the political correct nonsense.  A racist is anyone who is white.  Period.

So as the Kenyan opens the borders, and invades us with millions of diseased, undereducated and criminal aliens and ships them to every state in the union, we may not criticize this treason because, well, that would be racist.  But these labels don't apply to the militant La Raza, who call for the annexation of the entire southwestern US to Mexico.  If one believes the Kenyan is the Antichrist in part because of his globally destructive policies, they are labeled an intolerant religious zealot.  Muslims, as they kill and maim with impunity, of course, are not.  If one believes that this government has become bloated beyond the people's control and that it is critically and criminally intrusive in our lives, then one is labeled a separatist, prepper or worse.  The labels applied come from the manipulation of the language by the political correct leftists.

We've been indoctrinated to believe discrimination is a bad thing, when in fact it's guaranteed by the first amendment as freedom of association.  Of course one must discriminate; its the crux of survival.  So each of us must reclaim our language, because when words and terms are redefined to one party's definition and benefit, the debate is already lost.  Throw off the yoke of political correctness, and use the English language in it's original and proper way.  Doing so will clarify for you that is isn't isn't.  Is is simply is.

And This Passes For Leadership

Senator Michelle?
Michelle is in a pout.  In a developing story, it seems he's decided to punish the country by not running for the senate.  Oh, dang.  To not allow all that supreme betterment to rule us mere commoners is just unfair.  How come you don't want to run, Mike?  Well, he says, it's because not enough congressional democrats supported his wonderful, altruistic, healthy school lunch menu mandate, er, I mean program.  It was bad enough that the kids upon which this idiotic menu was thrust - unschooled as they are as to what's good for them - know what they like. And they emphatically didn't like Mike's school lunch menus. Neither did parents, nor teachers, nor the school administrators.  Kids didn't eat their crappy lunches and went hungry the rest of the day, but what's worse is the waste!  Alley cats and dumpster divers wouldn't touch it either.   Now the program is a colossal failure, all those perfect, healthy meals are landfill compost.  But Mike's democrat cronies should have fallen in line and supported Mike's Big Lunch if they know what's good for them.  So for lack of Big Lunch support, now we lose a perfect senate candidate.  Just our bad luck.

US Tomahawk shipboard launch

 No Wars, War!
In an update to our relentless pursuit to decimate - I mean eliminate  - ISIS, it comes to our attention that in the first week of the war, the US alone has spent a billion dollars.  Ain't war hell?  Those Tomahawk cruise missiles are a really cool weapon - they can reach out and touch someone from thousands of miles away - but they cost in excess of a million dollars each.  And we've deployed a bunch of them, in part because they're effective, but also because we can hit from afar.  That's they way the Kenyan does business.  Not eye-to-eye, not mano a mano.  Nope, none of that dirty, house-to-house combat that gets people killed, like the way Bush did it.  And besides, ISIS, or ISIL, or just plain ol' IS is a just a JV team, right?  They pose no threat, to us anyway,  so let's just bomb them for a couple of weeks until we get the uptick in Democrat voter interest before the mid term elections.  The Senate is up for grabs, so, yeah, that should do it.

What Does It Say?

Islamic State
The real problem in this Iraq/ISIS mess is identifying the actual enemy.  Oh, sure it's ISIS, but we're arming Syrian "rebels," who aren't interested in US interests.  Our interest in the region is stability, and we put up with Netanyahu and Assad in furtherance of those interests.  Our hastily cobbled coalition is so inept, we even supply the bad guys.  But if we learn nothing, we should learn that when we arm and train insurgents, who are fighting other insurgents, those "friends" are more than likely to engage the US at some point later.  Think al Qeada in Saudi Arabia, think the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan.  And our engagement in this conflict is destined to help our enemies more than ourselves, as ISIS's true goal is to overthrow Assad in Syria, and install a caliphate in Iraq and elsewhere across the Middle East.  Bush was right; we still needed grounds troops in Iraq, because Iraqis aren't capable of maintaining stability in the region.  But our fearless leader, the Kenyan, can't be bothered to read his daily intelligence reports or attend intelligence briefings, lest he actually make an informed decision that furthers US interest, rather than democratic lust for congressional power.  That's our foreign policy.

Is Anyone Out There?

Mars taken by MOM 29 Sept 2014

Mars Again

The Indians put their probe in orbit around Mars this week. India’s successful, low-cost Mars mission is a major milestone for the country’s space program, with experts predicting that it could open the door to lucrative space deals with the U.S. and Europe.  India joined the select group of space nations on Wednesday when the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) successfully placed a satellite into orbit around Mars. This is a big deal for two reasons.  Firstly, it's a difficult task: More than half the world's previous attempts -- 23 out of 41 missions -- have failed, including one by Japan in 1999. The United States had its first success with a 1964 flyby by a spacecraft called Mariner 4, returning 21 images of the surface of the planet. The former Soviet Union reached the planet in 1971, and the European Space Agency in 2003.  And secondly, India joins an exclusive club comprised of only the United States and Russia, along with the European Union in reaching Mars.  India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) will study the Marian surface and mineral composition and scan its atmosphere for methane, an indicator of life.

US Air Force X-37B Space Plane

X-37B with solar array deployed

There's been much speculation concerning the US Air Force's secretive X-37B space plane and it's mysterious missions.  Not much larger than a conventional private aircraft, the X-37B resembles a miniature shuttle.  The vehicle is unmanned, launched atop an Atlas 5 rocket, and lands like a conventional aircraft.  Today, it has winged beyond 600 days in orbit on a classified military mission that seems to have no end. The solar-powered winged spacecraft has spent more than 620 days in orbit as part of the military's secret OTV-3 mission, which launched in December 2012.

Alien Planet Found

WASP 18b and "hot Jupiter" planet

A nearby star is not acting its age, thanks to the influence of a massive exoplanet.  The close-orbiting alien planet, known as WASP-18b, is apparently disrupting the magnetic field of its host star so much that the object is behaving like a much older star, researchers said.  "WASP-18b is an extreme exoplanet," study lead author Ignazio Pillitteri, of the Instituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo in Italy, said in a statement. "It is one of the most massive hot Jupiters known and one of the closest to its host star, and these characteristics lead to unexpected behavior. The planet is causing its host star to act old before its time." The star WASP-18, which lies about 330 light-years away, is about as massive as our own sun. The gas giant WASP-18b weighs in at more than 10 times the mass of Jupiter and completes one orbit around the star in less than 23 hours, leading scientists to classify it as a "hot Jupiter."

Commercial Space is Alive and Well, But Delayed

Virgin Galactic Space Ship Two

Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, said almost 800 would-be space tourists signed up for $250,000 flights with his Virgin Galactic venture have been understanding about glitches that caused commercial services to be delayed until 2015. Pushback from clients who include physicist Stephen Hawking, singer Sarah Brightman and X-Men director Bryan Singer has amounted to “almost none whatsoever,” the U.K. billionaire told Bloomberg Television. “Everyone’s been very patient. They realize that it’s rocket science. They want to make sure that we don’t hurry them up there, and they want to come back.”

Virgin Galactic won’t now make a commercial flight until early spring, with Branson and his son on the first launch, the U.K. billionaire confirmed today after revealing earlier this month that a target of commencing operations this year had become unrealistic. The resolution of issues with the spacecraft’s rockets may mean a vehicle carrying flight crew but no passengers still reaches space during 2014, he added.  “It took us a lot longer to build rockets that we felt completely comfortable with,” Branson said today. “I’m confident that we’re as good as there now. We’ve got some more test flights to go, but I think you’ll start seeing Virgin going into space by the end of this year and then starting the whole space program in the spring.”

Regulations, not technology, are hindrances, and the flights are likely to reach only about 360,000 feet (about 68 miles high), which is on the very outer edge of Earth's atmosphere.  Dark sky and weightlessness will be some of the memorable elements of passengers' trip. Cool.  Save me a seat on the seventh launch.

Some Thoughts On That

The Kenyan: A Man of Firsts.  
Always eager to embellish his legacy, the Kenyan is somewhat shying away from his landmark ObamaCare destruction of the world's finest health care system as his legacy, focusing instead on more - um - bourgeois accomplishments that are easier to understand.  Consider just some of  these "firsts" from the Kenyan:

• He's the first community organizer from complete national oblivion to become US President in only two years
• He's the first non-natural born US President (please don't insult me by citing that lame, sophomoric Hawaiian photo shopped birth certificate)
• He's the first President with several aliases, and fraudulent Social Security numbers 
• He's the first mulatto President
• He's the first Muslim President
• He's the first Communist President (there have been progressive presidents, but none compare to his scale)
• He's the first President to emulate Jimmy Carter's foreign policies 
• He's the first quasi-open homosexual President
• He's the first President with a common law transvestite "wife"

 One can only gaze in awe at the machine that put this poser into office - twice! Through lies, deceit and a plethora of unqualified voters voting early and often, the American electorate has, I fear, been handed a one-two knockout punch.  A sucker punch at that. The destruction to the US Constitution and to the American culture is yet to be fully understood, but when it is, it ain't gonna be pretty.
 

In Defense of Bigotry, Hate and Intolerance

Folks, I rise in support of personal freedoms as may be manifested by Bigotry, Hate, and Intolerance.  You might say I'm tolerant of intolerance. Yes, I am.  I'm all for it.  Here's why:  Let's just say I hate Brits.  Can't stand 'em.  Hate their culture of colonization and global domination.  Hate their bloody accents and even hate their cuisine.  Now let's say you are of British ancestry, and you are seriously at odds with my position of Bigotry, Hate, and Intolerance regarding the British.  Why should you be wrapped around the axle about what I think or believe?  And why should I be forced to cease and desist in my Bigotry, Hate, and Intolerance to suit your personal preference?  The answer is, I shouldn't, and neither should you.  Know why?  Because Bigotry, Hate, and Intolerance are the bedrock of our rights and freedoms embedded in notions such as Freedom of Association, Freedom of Speech, Religious Freedom and many, many more.  If you really are supportive of personal freedom, then you should be the last guy to decry Bigotry, Hate, and Intolerance in others.  Hate Jews?  Let's have a beer!  Member of  the Ku Klux Klan?  Dinner's on me!  PETA devotee and Sierra Club advocate?  I'll drive you to work!  But no, we have to homogenize our beliefs to keep us on point in the Orwellian progressive narrative.  And as such we have endless pointless civil lawsuits about who may not be denied service, or to whom one may not refuse commerce.  We have racial riots, social unrest and all sorts of other chaos arising directly from the absence of letting people believing what they believe. If an owner of a restaurant won't serve Jews or homosexuals, so be it.  They can and will eat elsewhere. They aren't welcome here so why force a situation that is uncomfortable for both parties?  There should be no law or public pressure to force me to engage in practices of which I disapprove, nor of you to accommodate me in such.  Live and let live.  But that said, however, if you're a member of a movement that promotes violence and terrorism to further your ends, whether Black Panthers, jihadist Muslims, Green Peace or some other cowardly-driven bully like the United States federal government, then I'm going to hit you back, with extreme prejudice.  And I am both able and capable to do so efficiently, effectively and quickly.  Be advised.  

 

So lawmakers, pass no law that infringes upon or diminishes my personal freedoms to act, think and believe as I please.  It's simply not possible to legislate personal tolerance, and it's not advisable to do so. Let laissez faire prevail as our founding fathers always intended.  And in exchange I'll hold you harmless for the social adjustments that will be made when others trespass on my God given freedoms and rights.

Random Shots

Where to begin?  Such is the question whilst trying to make sense of all the nonsense, from ill conceived foreign policy to tyrannical domestic policy.  The answer, of course, is that it is all nonsense, and it's put there purposely.  To distract, obfuscate and confuse.

Adventures Abroad

The US is now engaged in yet another military action (despite yet more broken promises by the Kenyan about getting us out of Iraq at all costs).  Not learning from earlier lessons, we're committed to aiding and arming radical religious groups that will undoubtedly turn against us in the near future.  See al Qaeda, 1980s.  Even though it was a noble enterprise at the time, the unintended consequence was horrific in terms of blood and treasure.  And, it eventually had to be undone.

While striking from afar and above in Syria, yet protecting our troops from harm on the battlefield, e.g. no boots on the ground, the Kenyan boldly orders 3,000 American reservists into West Africa to "combat" Ebola. Well, no bullets are flying or bombs exploding, so where's the harm?   Let's not consider the exponential element of infection spreading to the US after the troops are rotated back home.   But Ebola, to the Kenyan, is a greater threat to Africa than ISIL is to the free world.  No matter; it's all part of his evil nonsensical plan.  And it's all for show.

Adventures in Babysitting

And speaking of diseases spreading across open borders, the hypocrisy of this administration regarding disease and borders is astounding.  Why, we must send troops - American troops! - to Africa to stop this spread, but the federal government will stay, investigate, harass, sue and arrest anyone attempting to do so at the US southern border.  We must be the designated caregivers - babysitters - to these youths seeking asylum here.  Right.  It's an invasion of sovereign US territory, and as it's being orchestrated from the White House, it's treason on it's very face.  Meanwhile, the undesirables continue to stream across, and the feds transport them to cities across the country, to ensure maximum damage to the culture and  economy.

But the nanny state knows no bounds.  Enter now the politically correct vipers into the NFL, where it's the public's business what goes on in one's private life.  Suspensions abound; forced resignations threatened!  Now I'm not in any way offended if some athlete takes it out on the misses.  Nor do I care if she slugs him upside the head.  They alone are the sole actors and audience in their little passion play, and neither I, nor the NFL, nor the perpetually offended have anything to say about it.  But this is an ideal way to continue the distraction:  let's debate whether this behavior is somehow inconsistent with the standards of the NFL.  Are you kidding?  Who cares, except to the extent that it can further the progressive left's radical, totalitarian agenda.  Anyone debating this non-issue - I'm speaking of so called "domestic violence" - is furthering the destruction of the American culture of individual privacy.  Hit your wife, spank your children however you please - it's nobody's damn business but yours.  And that's as it should be.

Dude.  You're old.  Go Die.

Ezekiel Emanuel

One of the most shocking parts of ObamaCare was the notion that after a certain age, one was expected to merely  ahem - die - in order to spare the "community" from further medical costs associated with keeping one alive.  The progressive left mocked and ridiculed anyone who questioned or even pointed out this particular gruesome tenet in the plan.  Until now.  Ezekiel Emanuel, one of the architects of ObamaCare - Rahm Emanuel's brother, no less - has publicly endorsed the concept by stating he'd like to just die at age 75.  This should tell a thinking person all one needs to know about the discordant world view of the progressive left.  This and their stance on abortions is indicative of their view on life:  they hate themselves so thoroughly, that they wish they had never been born, and now that that have been, that they die soon. Is self-hate a Jewish thing?  It must be.  I just hope someone visits Ezekiel Emanuel on his 75th birthday with pistol or syringe in hand.  We'll see how he feels about dying then.      

The progressive left is simply evil.  It is quite open about its ambitions, and it is never satisfied.  Everything must be homogenized, equalized, quantified, qualified and bastardized.  Elevate women into men; emasculate men into women, blur the lines.  Kill the unborn, infect the living.  Erase standards, morals, borders, cultures, and individualism in favor of the dull gray world of homogenized totalitarianism under their tight control.  And that is, and always has been, their goal. 

Lame Duck? Not So Much!

As the Kenyan's term winds down, we would normally expect him to rock back a little, and ride out the rest of the next several months.  But, no, that's not for the Destroyer-in-Chief, despite his feigned disinterest while he  guffaws on the various golf courses.  His unparallelled drive to subjugate this nation into his own distorted world view continues as he acts more like a dictatorial monarch than an elected (albeit illegal and unqualified) president of a democratic republic.  It matters little that the entire country has a severe case of Kenyan fatigue and his popularity wanes, the destruction must go on.

Flush with the the recent successes of his lawless administration, the Kenyan now seeks to forge a sweeping international "climate change" agreement to compel nations to cut planet-warming fossil fuel emissions.  Ignore the inconvenient fact that the earth is cooling, we must stifle industry at all  costs.  But in keeping with the Kenyan's illegal standard operating procedures, he will attempt to do so without ratification from Congress.  Never mind that the US Constitution requires treaties to be ratified by congress, it's "damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!"  Constitution?  I don't need no stinkin' Constitution!

In domestic affairs, the Kenyan sends several White House representatives to attend the funeral of recently slain gangsta-thug Micheal Brown, yet snubbed Margaret Thatcher's funeral last year.  As his party stalwarts run for the tall grass, and even his black-voter base begin to tire of his race-baiting dis-unification policies, the Kenyan presses on with his goal to incite race war and class envy.  Even Al Sharpton extolled the virtues of self responsibility and gainful employment for blacks in his Micheal Brown eulogy, angering some racist blacks in the audience.  In his ever expanding search for "back door" methods to enact his illegal and unpopular edicts, the Kenyan is now tying gun control policies to health issues.  If you own guns, you may well fear your doctor's betrayal of your personal health information, as much as the federal police kicking in your door, to relieve you of your guns, and possibly your freedom.

In the face of all this tyranny, the mainstream media considers any story is fit to print, as long as it keeps attention off the invasion of our southern border. Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown, as California's governor, has welcomed those illegal aliens with open arms to the "other Mexico".  Does no one remember the Mariel boat lift, and the disastrous affect it had - and continues to have -  on Miami and South Florida?  Castro dumped his criminals, mental patients and political prisoners on the US, and the hapless Jimmy carter couldn't wait to welcome them.  Maybe his heart was in the right place, but we're dealing with reality here, not ideology.  The Kenyan wants strife and conflict in the country, so how better to create that than to welcome murderous gangs, drug cartel thugs, diseased Typhoid Marys, jihadists, terrorists, opportunists, criminals of all stripes, and lest I forget, those poor frightened children fleeing political tyranny?

No, he is anything but distracted.  It's all part of his grand plan to transform America; to bring her to her knees by simply overwhelming every aspect of American culture.   I think he may be one of the giants in the list of American presidents in that his plan - as devious and destructive as can be possibly imagined - is working.  When the inevitable result of these policies manifest themselves - that is, when militias begin firing on illegals committing rapes and other crimes, when long-forgotten diseases run rampant in pandemics across the US, when the management of non-English speaking teens disrupt every school system in the county,  when folks black and white start again tearing into each other and riot to obtain "justice" for perceived grievances, when the Federal Reserve stops feeding the bloated stock market and it crashes in upon itself and the economy completely collapses, and finally when a jihadist successfully strikes a high value target with a nuke dirty bomb, we will then realize what a great job the Kenyan has done for his global puppet masters.  Promises made, promises kept.

Have You Committed Your Felony Today?

So.  How many federal crimes have you committed today?  None, you say?  You're a law abiding citizen in good standing, right?  That's a ridiculous question to ask, isn't it? Or is it?  A recent study indicates that the average law abiding citizen, like you and me, on average commits at least three felonies daily.  That can't be, you say.  But it's true.  In the last five years, the federal government has added over 400 new crimes to the already staggering four thousand or so currently on the books, according to a report to the House Judiciary drafted by the Congressional Research Service.  These are mostly expansions or broader interpretations of existing laws, which lowers thresholds for breaking them.  Some new expansions are troubling; far broader interpretations of mens rea laws, or guilty minds, for example, smack of Minority Report-like thought crimes.

Is crime really that rampant that we need fifty new federal felonies per year for the last thirty years?  Well no.  In fact, violent crime is down in America, across the board, spanning two decades. In 2009 the Justice Department announced that the incidence of reported rape had hit a 20-year low. Homicides are down, as are juvenile violence and crimes committed against children. Crime rates have been plummeting since the early 1990s to such an extent that explaining the drop has become something of an obsession among criminologists and sociologists.  And that trend continues even today.  But what may be good for society isn't necessarily good for law enforcement.  Recently, John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute, wrote that, as an extreme departure from English common law, upon which our legal system is based, police now use financial gain as a justification for defining criminal activity and incarceration. 

What's worse is that federal prosecutors are by law immune to indemnity as they partake in the over-criminalization of American citizens.  They can drag anyone through the system, any time and for any reason, essentially destroying folks at the least, or incarcerating them for years at worst - without any threat of liability, no matter how egregious their conduct. We're not talking about Edward Snowden-esque security leaks here - we're talking about things like Amish farmers going to jail for selling their own farm produced raw milk to neighbors. 

So the evidence continues to mount that we indeed live in a police state. But how did we get to this point? Not only is criminalization expanding socially, but in commerce as well.  Clearly the cause of this expanding crimes against the state philosophy is the trend away from a philosophy of laissez-faire.  The Economist, in a recent article titled Over-regulated America, agrees.  Two forces make American laws too complex. One is hubris. Many lawmakers seem to believe that they can lay down rules to govern every eventuality. Examples range from the merely annoying (eg, a proposed code for nurseries in Colorado that specifies how many crayons each box must contain) to the delusional (eg, the conceit of the infamous Dodd-Frank bill that one can anticipate and ban every nasty trick financiers will dream up in the future). Far from preventing abuses, complexity creates loopholes that the shrewd can abuse with impunity.

The other force that makes American laws complex is lobbying. The government's drive to micromanage so many activities creates a huge incentive for interest groups to push for special favors. When a bill is hundreds of pages long, it is not hard for congressmen to slip in clauses that benefit their cronies and campaign donors. The health-care bill included tons of favors for the political correct and the vocal radicals. Congress's last, failed attempt to regulate greenhouse gases was even worse.

How many felonies do you think are created in just the Affordable Health Care Act, and the Dodd-Frank Act alone?  No one else knows, either, because both are deliberately open to broad interpretation, and that leads to prosecutorial discretion.  See ya in jail!

Where Should I Put My Money?

The world's a mess.  Really.  Madeleine Albright said so.  Governments are collapsing, others are defaulting on loans, some are carrying unsustainable massive debt, and even the wealthiest countries are struggling.  So what's a poor middle class American investor to do?  Jump in the stock market?  Bonds?  Convert everything to precious metals?  Move to Belize?

My financial advisement gurus give me this simple advice:  stay in tangibles and focus on cash flow.  Tangibles, of course, are things you can touch and feel.  Intangibles, like the stock and bond markets, lack the element of investor control that is afforded by tangibles such as real estate, precious metals, art, collectables, Many analysts think the stock market is overvalued and a correction is inevitable, especially given the Fed's recent decision to ease qualitative easing.  In the next eighteen months, look for a sell off of gigantic proportions.

OK, so what about tangibles?  Let's take real estate.  This investment meets both criteria:  cash flow and is certainly tangible.  These days cash is king, but there are ways to lever into real estate.  Interest rates are still low - if you can actually get a mortgage - but as many people lost their homes and credit rating over the last few years, and the rental market is strong as those folks must rent until they can afford to purchase a home again.  In may areas of the country demand exceeds supply, and residential prices are being pushed upward.  This is especially true in areas where the foreclosure rate was the highest, like California, Nevada, Texas, and Florida.  Buy and hold is my preference, but buy and flip can be a winner, too.  Especially if the reinvestment plan is to stay in other tangibles.

Where's the smart money going?  What about such innocuous things like wine?  Wine as an personal investment is a hobby; don't expect get rich on that.  But large scale wine purchase is another matter.  This week KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts), a leading global investment firm bid over $3 billion USD for Australia's Treasury Wine Estate, clearly seeing potential in the world's thirst for vino.  What's to be made of that?  I make my own wine.  Really.

Investment in precious metals can be a safe haven.  Gold and silver are pushing records highs, but copper, titanium and platinum have a significant market share as well. What about things you can't buy individually?  Partnerships in energy (oil, gas and coal; but not wind, solar or hydro) are available and are lucrative with high cash flows and very desirable tax benefits.  The "new energy" sources have proven unreliable and without any profit potential, so the world must stay with the reliable and vast existing resources. 

Collectibles are an investment as well, but do not meet the cash flow criterion.  And, government interference can render them essentially worthless.  Ivory is a prime example.  I have some very old pieces I've collected over the last five decades, and because of reactionary government policies to illegal elephant poaching in Africa, they have no value other than memorabilia.

So what's it all mean?  Invest in tangibles that produce sustainable and reliable cash flow.  Makes sense.  But as everything else, that advice is worth exactly what you paid for it.