who's your nanny?

Last Remaining Titanic Survivor Passes Away

Not many people have a life story like Millvina Dean's. RIP.

I'm As Excited As Sidney Crosby Wearing Leather Pants to a Clay Aiken Concert*

In other words, it's quittin' time on Friday and I'm going home to cold beer, clear skies, and a 19-month-old son who just last night did what any self-respecting father lives for: He pointed to my 1970 Chevelle in the garage and said, "Ride? Ride?"

Hell yeah, Biggie Smalls, get yer wife-beater on! Time to hit the open road!

*

Virginia DMV Bans Smiling

Via Karen De Coster, Virginia has banned smiling at the Department of Motor Vehicles. In the spirit of giving credit where it's due, props to the headline writers at the Post, who prefaced this message with "As if it needed to."

Few places in Virginia are as draining to the soul and as numbing to the buttocks as the branch offices of the Department of Motor Vehicles. And yet, until recently, smiling was still permitted there.

No more. As part of the DMV's effort to develop super-secure driver's licenses and foolproof identification cards, the agency has issued a smile ban, directing customers to adopt a "neutral expression" in their portraits, thereby extinguishing whatever happiness comes with finally hearing one's number called.

Just another step down the well-greased slope of liberties lost under the guise of "security."

Thankfully, this is one mandate that wouldn't impact me one bit. You'll never catch me smiling while ensnared by the state's grubby, coercive paws.

He's Back!

Last year I posted Brandon Bryant's audition for So You Think You Can Dance. I was simply blown away by his performance. His musicality, his techinque, his power, his control are all amazing. I consider it a blessing to be able to watch him.

Unfortunately, he did not make the top 20 last year, but he's back this year with an even better performance. This routine brought one of the judges to tears. Yes, it's that amazing!

You can see his performance at last year's audition below:

At Least Jihadists Admit to Their Brutality

I know this will come as a complete shock, but the U.S. is denying a report in a British newspaper alleging that photographs depicting Iraqi prisoner abuse include images of rape and sexual abuse. In fact, Barack Obama is so confident in the report's deceptiveness that he's trying to block release of the photos.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Daily Telegraph newspaper had shown "an inability to get the facts right".

"That news organization has completely mischaracterized the images," Whitman told reporters. "None of the photos in question depict [sic] the images that are described in that article."

Hey, I'm pretty sure I know at least one good way to verify the allegations of the report: release the damned photos.

Obviously, if the Obama administration has nothing to hide, it has nothing to fear should the photos see the light of day. (Our benevolent defenders ought to be familiar with that line, eh?) After all, the photos are from 2004, well before Obama became commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

No matter. We all know Our Holy Savior is so dedicated to "change" that he'll just toe the Bush line on torture and "state secrets." No harm, no foul. Better yet, no reason to have to explain this, especially considering he just gave that Memorial Day speech touting America's "moral authority":

The newspaper said at least one picture showed an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.

Others were said to depict sexual assaults with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

Ah, the ol' phosphorescent tube trick. Brings back memories. So much for all that "transparency" Obama's been promising though, huh?

Actually, I expect the president to be a pompous slimeball, slinking around and covering his ass after breaking all his empty promises. But considering the praise the vast majority of Americans shower on the U.S. military, you'd think more officers wouldn't be such transparent hacks. Say, like retired U.S. Army Major General Antonio Taguba, who conducted the 2004 investigation into the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison and concluded that the pictures in question revealed "torture, abuse, rape and every indecency."

So far, so good. But then Taguba goes on to illustrate how the state's goons ultimately stick together by explaining why he actually supports Obama's cover-up:

"I am not sure what purpose their release would serve other than a legal one," he said. "The sequence would be to imperil our troops, the only protectors of our foreign policy, when we most need them, and British troops who are trying to build security in Afghanistan."

Yes, thank goodness the American people are denied the ability to hold their rulers LEGALLY ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR WAR CRIMES.

At least craven sociopath Taguba got one thing right: the release of these obviously damning photos would necessarily imperil our troops. Indeed, just today Will Grigg recalls the testimony of U.S. Army Major Matthew Alexander, a military interrogator who "asserts that torture and other abuses at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, not Islamic ideology, served as the main recruiting theme for foreign Jihadists who gathered in Iraq." Grigg continues (and I set this apart to drive the point home):

By his reckoning, torture contributed directly to the death of more Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan than occurred on September 11, 2001.

For all the despicable actions of the Jihadists who videotape their murderous, sadistic exploits, at least it can be said that they are capable of admitting to their brutality. At least they spare us the self-righteousness that we're so accustomed to hearing from American politicians and torture apologists, who claim they're setting the moral course for humanity as they torture innocent prisoners and then disguise their cowardice in admitting to their behavior as concern for "the troops'" well-being.

The Bread and Circuses Continue

The Holy One continues his faux campaign for transparency in government in his ongoing effort to provide enough bread and circuses for the masses, they will completely ignore the criminal activity of the State. The watchdog media is on the case, however. The AP issued this scathing criticism of Obama's transparency scam:

The tone of the memo suggested Obama thought a government-wide effort would be a good idea. Obama also directed this group to study the procedures for handling sensitive but unclassified data to be sure that "information is not restricted unless there is a compelling need."

While Obama didn't order any changes in government secrecy Wednesday, his memo contained language and set agendas for the two studies that hinted strongly at moves he might take. It was greeted with cheers from open government advocates who have long argued that government classifies too much information.

With such trenchant analysis, one wonders how on earth the masses continue to believe Obama's claim of transparency.

Really, I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I read statements from the Holy One such as:

A democratic government must be as transparent as possible and must not withhold information for self-serving reasons or simply to avoid embarrassment.

Yes, clearly this administration has taken the lead in such openness. Of course, since the State gets to decide just what is a "compelling need," it should be as no surprise that it will censor pretty much all information which could compel the people to see the State as the murderous criminal gang that it is.

All of these cries for openness in government "are all gross, shameless, transparent cheats --- so transparent that they ought to deceive no one"---when uttered as necessary to democracy or to open more government information under the Freedom of Information act "or for compelling anybody to support a government that he does not want."

 

We Are All Slaves

Don't blame anyone but yourself if one day you wake up and find you don't even have the freedom to take a leak without first checking in with your slavemaster known as the state. After all, Emperor Obama and his little flying monkeys like Nancy Pelosi are making clear they intend to centrally plan, control, and micromanage every aspect of our lives.

In answering a question from a student about how Pelosi was going to get Americans to cut back on their carbon emissions, the leading Democratic lawmaker said it was important to educate children on how to conserve energy and for citizens to build more environmentally friendly homes.

"We have so much room for improvement," she said. "Every aspect of our lives must be subjected to an inventory ... of how we are taking responsibility."

By the way, my grandmother would have laughed at all the enviro-ninnies today who so pusillanimously capitulate to the nanny-statists.

There Is Nothing the State Won't Try to Control

Writes Brad:

I wanted to share a little story with you, my limited yet still perturbing encounter with the Nanny State.

I am not totally clear on what the exact law is here in Illinois about exactly what registration stickers are "for," but logically (that's probably my first mistake, thinking logically) the state should only be able to require any sort of registration for vehicles on state property. Well as the story goes I have a car whose check engine light is on and came up for emissions testing, here in Illinois that's an automatic fail. So I let the registration expire and parked the car in my apartment complexes parking lot. The complex owners knew about the car and had no problem with it not moving since the parking spot was being rented by myself.

It just so happens though with the weather getting nicer by the day, police units have started to casually walk through our apartment complex checking all the cars on premises for anything suspicious. I have seen them using their flashlights to look into cars for anything suspicious. Mind you this is all private property and these people have done nothing to warrant any sort of investigation into their material possessions.

So of course after a couple days of these random searches they noticed my plates had expired, I cleverly pulled into the spot backwards so the tags wouldn't be easily seen. One morning when walking outside to my other car, which is all up to snuff on registration and insurance, I noticed a ticket sitting on the other vehicle. Knowing full well they probably tried to ticket me for my plates I was already aggravated. Instead I noticed they in big letters marked that my plates were expired, but ticketed me for having a "Junk Vehicle." Now mind you this vehicle is far from an eyesore, it is an '04 Camry which just needs a new A/F sensor so the check engine light will go away. So all I am left to conclude from the whole situation is that since the state can't get me for expired plates because it's not on their property they had to erect a new law so that they could come onto my private property and ticket me for cars I am working on.

Even better, three days later a second ticket was put on the car for the same thing. Now how I see it is private property is private property, whether it be enclosed in a garage or viewable to the entire public. So the fact that they come onto private property to ticket my vehicle (twice in one week) means they are not far from pushing it and inviting themselves into everyone else's garages and homes in order to ticket any other private unregistered property. For a little humor I laminated a piece of paper and put it under the wiper of the car that says "Go ahead, make my day, tow this vehicle, I dare you." It’s too bad Illinois doesn't have better legislation on Castle Law cause one could prove that since the parking spot is rented with the apartment it is an extension of my "Castle" so anyone trying to commit a felony: make my day.

This Is Why the Soldiers Guarding the Border in North Korea Face North Korea

It appears that the wealthy of Maryland have grown tired of Maryland's high taxes and are moving to States where those bands of thieves want less tribute.

Just to give you yet another example that Republicans are at least as socialist as liberals, Dr. James Pelura, chairman of the state’s Republican Party, said that the wealthy “are fleeing...leaving a shortfall in taxes that they used to pay, which results in higher taxes for you and me.” It never enters the minds of statists that another way to make up for the shortfall is to cut State spending. In their minds, the revenue of the State can never decline.

Why I Don't Like to Discuss Politics with Friends

...[A] man, thus subjected to a government that he does not want, is a slave. And there is no difference, in principle --- but only in degree --- between political and chattel slavery. The former, no less than the latter, denies a man's ownership of himself and the products of his labor; and asserts that other men may own him, and dispose of him and his property, for their uses, and at their pleasure. -Lysander Spooner-No Treason.

Clausewitz’s dictum—”War is the continuation of politics by other means”—is generally accepted; but the converse—”Politics is the continuation of war by other means”—also holds. -Gerard Radnitzky-"Is Democracy More Peaceful than Other Forms of Government."

Most of my friends do not know that I am a radical libertarian and they do not know that I am blogger. Frankly, they don't have a clue as to what my political beliefs are. I would guess that they assume I am a Democrat because I am a black male. That's the impression I got during the Holy One's inauguration. No one asked me, "Did you vote for Obama?" For whom else would I vote? No one asked me, "Did you see the inauguration speech?" What else would I have done on January 20, 2009? No one asked me, "Aren't you hopeful now that Bush is gone and Obama is now the first African-American president?" What other expectation ought I to have?

And if I were asked these questions, my answers would have been, "No, I don't vote," "Yes, a little bit," and "What little hope I have is in the Lord only. Man cannot save." If I were to have replied such, I don't know what would have happened next. Given the emotional catharsis of many blacks around the nation who never thought they would live to see the day that a black man became president, my guess is that I would have lost several friends. With slavery and Jim Crow in our history, the rise of a black man to the highest position of power in the world appears to be the apex of African-American history. Since blacks in this country have been severely miseducated about the true nature of the State and the false god Democracy, they simply don't know any better.

However, from my radical point of view, January 20, 2009, was the nadir of our history, for on that day a black man took control of the most dishonest, insane, and intolerable government I have ever experienced. He proved that he was a more efficient liar, thief, and potential murderer than John McCain and has already demonstrated his efficiency in all three areas since taking office. He is a communist and the only real question worth considering is Does he have temerity to murder his opponents as Stalin did? His administration does not even hide its authoritarianism. While blacks resisted chattel slavery as much as they could, today they have embraced political slavery at the hands of the first black president as if it were freedom. The mindsets of chattel slaves and political slaves are radically different. Chattel slaves knew that they were slaves; (most) political slaves think that they are free. Thus, there will be little resistance as Obama relieves us of what little liberty we have left. We will become slaves to the State while singing "We shall overcome."

ICS World Championship Set for Oct. 9-11

As a result of placing first in the ICS Red category in the regional DC101 Chili Cook-Off a couple weekends ago, I earned an automatic spot in the world chili championship, which plays host to 400 of the world's finest chili cooks and is traditionally held out west.

Although the International Chili Society hasn't yet decided on the location of the world championship, I found out yesterday that Charleston, West Virginia, is in the running to host the international event being planned for Oct. 9-11.

Given that I live in Maryland, it would be a small miracle if the ICS chose Charleston because the world championship has never been held east of the Mississippi. However, if it were that would mean my participation would be entirely feasible. Last year's contest was held in Las Vegas and while I've always wanted to visit, I have no idea how I'd make that trip considering I'd literally have to tote all my supplies across the country. I'd have to gain sponsorship from Winnebago just to be able to afford to drive there and back over the course of a week or more.

Considering the ICS rules say I'm not even allowed to enter my red chili in another contest this year until the world championship, let's consider this my official request that the ICS give us easterners a shot to host it for the first time in 43 years.

No 'Right' to Patriotism in the Workplace

A hospital supervisor in Arlington, Texas, is upset because her boss made her remove an American flag she hung in her office in anticipation of Memorial Day weekend.

Debbie McLucas is one of four hospital supervisors at Kindred Hospital in Mansfield. Last week, she hung a three-by-five foot American flag in the office she shares with the other supervisors.

When McLucas came to work Friday, her boss told her another supervisor had found her flag offensive. "I was just totally speechless. I was like, 'You're kidding me,'" McLucas said.

McLucas' husband and sons are former military men. Her daughter is currently serving in Iraq as a combat medic.

Stifling a cry, McLucas said, "I just wonder if all those young men and women over there are really doing this for nothing."

Well, no, Mrs. McLucas, the young men and women aren't fighting for nothing -- they're fighting for the state. But even though McLucas mistakenly believes that our soldiers are fighting for her freedom and wonders "what other freedoms" she'll lose "before all is said and done" if she's not allowed to display her flag at work, she should take solace in the fact that her fears are misplaced.

Because the report makes reference to Kindred Hospital Corporation and Kindred Hospital Corporate Headquarters, one can safely assume that Kindred is a privately owned and operated hospital (even though I'd guess that, like most, the corporation is the beneficiary of government grants). Therefore, because there is no right to free speech in the private sector, Mrs. McLucas has no case. The Bill of Rights is a compact -- albeit a crappy one, but I digress -- between the federal government and its citizens, not between private citizens.

But even in the event that Kindred were a public hospital, one would be hard-pressed to argue that a supervisor should have any less right to prevent an employee from hanging an American flag than she would to prevent that same employee from hanging a pornographic calendar or an alarm clock set to go off every other minute. In short, the problem is public funding of facilities and institutions in the first place, not the directors and supervisors tasked with operating them.

Oh, and for the record, if Mrs. McLucas really is worried about the preservation of her freedom, perhaps she'll consider the viewpoint of her protesting colleague, who likely understands that individual liberties are the sacrificial lamb of America's wars.

Is It Possible That Obama Is Worse Than Bush?

Yes.

The Social Security Fraud

Many people were rightly angry at Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme which bilked many people out of millions. Unfortunately there has not been similar outrage directed toward the government Ponzi scheme known as Social Security.

Medical Doctors Don't Need to Be Sociologists, Too

Paulo Serodio, a naturalized U.S. citizen born and raised in Mozambique, is suing a New Jersey medical school after he was kicked out for identifying himself as a "white African-American" during a cultural exercise in a clinical skills course.

Ahh, tolerance in the land of PC, to quote Lew Rockwell, from whom I learned of this story.

This reminds me of college back in the early '90s when political correctness had already hit full stride and all sorts of Americans were being slapped with hyphenated labels. To the best of my knowledge the term "African-American" was in its infancy at this point, but everyone knew it was one that was reserved precisely for those formerly known as "blacks."

Listen, I admit the whole "white/black" thing hardly has a sophisticated ring to it when "desert sand/raw umber" would be much more accurate, but I nevertheless recall getting a kick out of asking my professors what we'd consider white South African boxer Francois Botha if he ever decided to obtain American citizenship. Thankfully I was never booted from class like Mr. Serodio.

But that brings me to a more pertinent question. Are people really not bothered by the fact that prospective doctors or engineers or scientists are being forced to sit through garbage PC courses in the first place? I mean, honestly, I really couldn't care less if my surgeon is culturally literate as long as he knows how to remove an appendix without sending me home with a staph infection.

Because the American education establishment first and foremost exists to indoctrinate its students to worship the state, even those who pursue advanced degrees apparently aren't immune to the same worthless liberal arts-type coursework foisted upon your everyday English or math major. Think about it. What's the point in enduring hours and hours of meaningless psychobabble and touchy-feely sociology classes in addition to your primary realm of study if not to brainwash the masses? You can get a law degree in two years even if you majored in art history as an undergrad; why not just do, say, three years of law school right out of high school and go to work?

Why not? Because all schooling is socialized in the U.S. We all know the vast majority of K-12 schools are run by the government, but even private colleges and universities need to be accredited by the state. Granted, some schools specializing in unique instruction may offer things like three-year bachelor's degrees, but we've been conditioned to accept the four-year degree as standard. Seriously, isn't it ironic that we reserve most of our praise for kids who go off to college and party for four years (or more) and then come home to a saturated job market and wait tables, even though the guys who spent a couple years in a trade school are usually the ones making better money and, better yet, aren't shackled with tens of thousands in education debt?

If academic institutions were allowed to compete in a free market, there would be a much wider array of options for students than exists presently. No doubt some schools would still offer an assortment of liberal arts studies for the lazy or undecided, but there would also be no-B.S. schools that dealt merely with imparting skills relevant to specific fields of study. And hey, perhaps the market would even determine that some professions would require the exact same amount of schooling as they do today under our present system, but the point is we'll never know until schools are freed from silly government mandates.

After all, there's no need to waste two years reading the classics if all you really want to do is operate on dogs and cats.

Another State-Sanctioned Electrocution Execution

SALEM, Ore. - A Salem man died Saturday night after police say he violently resisted arrest and they were forced to use their Tasers on him.

The incident began just after 7:30 p.m. when Salem police were called to an apartment at 1251 Royvonne Avenue Southeast on a report that a male was trespassing there.

According to the Salem Police Department, when officers arrived they attempted to arrest 37-year-old Gregory Rold but he physically and violently resisted.  The officers at the scene then deployed their Tasers and used their batons to subdue him.

Even if this guy was an unsavory character who fully deserved to be forcibly prevented from trespassing on someone else's property -- and even if you believe the state should be the entity in charge of administering "justice" -- he was nevertheless denied his due process rights and executed by the state absent the benefit of a jury trial.

I'll give the officers the benefit of the doubt here for attempting to subdue Rold with devices they probably believed to be less than lethal, especially when pulling a handgun can be a tempting proposition if a confrontation goes downhill fast. But arguing that the Taser is a non-lethal weapon is hopelessly naive at best.

If U.S. Soldiers Die to Preserve Our Freedoms...

...then why does it always seem we lose more and more with every war?

Heroic 6-Year-Old Prevents Car Crash

A 6-year-old boy grabbed the wheel of his family's pickup truck when his father passed out from low blood sugar, keeping the vehicle from crashing until an officer could bring it to a halt, police said.

Tustin Mains was in the back seat with his 3-year-old brother Sunday when his father, Phillip Mains, slumped over at the wheel, the boy told police. The family had been driving home from a restaurant.

Anyone else surprised the father wasn't arrested upon recovery for allowing an unlicensed driver to operate the vehicle?

Follow Me at Twitter

I'm not the most technologically savvy guy around when it comes to new age social applications, but if you'd like to follow me at Twitter, check me out here: http://twitter.com/bothwelltj.

We'll see how this goes..

When Will We Ban 'Driving While Human?'

Yesterday while I was taking in the scenery of the Patuxent River while anchored out on my buddy's boat, I heard a new ad on the radio sponsored by the police state. Two girls had just gotten into a car accident. One girl's arm was bent the wrong way and the other said something like, "I thought I was fine; I only had a couple beers."

At which point the narrator informed us about the perils of "buzzed driving."

That's right. Apparently we've sufficiently conditioned everyone in America to believe drunken-driving is a crime unto itself, so clearly it's time to turn into criminals those who've only had a beer or two before getting behind the wheel.

The irony of this campaign is that in this hypothetical situation, the girl in the commercial could/should be held liable for her actions if her accident could legitimately be tied to her alcohol consumption, however limited. But obviously that's not the intent of these types of commercials. It's to alert us that the state's goons will be busting all of us shortly for the slightest hint of alcohol on our breath even if we've harmed no one.

Fuck tha Police

Pretty ironic I never cared much for N.W.A. when I was in college.

Will Grigg highlights everything that's wrong with government police with his concise comments related to the video below. Watch the video, then read this.

N.W.A. had it almost entirely right. Statist tyrants are colorblind.

Not a Good Sign

The Holy One told graduating midshipmen at the Naval Academy "that, as their commander in chief, he will only send them 'into harm's way when it is absolutely necessary.'"

Franklin Roosevelt also said that he would not send troops to fight any war unless the country were first attacked. Then the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the US entered WWII. The attack was a surprise to all Americans...except Roosevelt and his closest advisors. There have been many people describing the Holy One as a new FDR. Let us pray mightly that this not come true.

Hologram of Liberty, Chapter 1-Political Magic

That investigation into the nature and construction of the new constitution, which the conspirators have so long and zealously struggled against has,...so far taken place as to ascertain the enormity of their criminality. That system which was pompously displayed as the perfection of government, proves upon examination to be the most odious system of tyranny that was ever projected, a many headed hydra of despotism, whose complicated and various evils would be infinitely more oppressive and afflictive than the scourge of any tyrant:...

No wonder then that such a discovery should excite uneasy apprehensions in the minds of the conspirators, for such an attempt against the public liberties is unprecedented in history, it is a crime of the blackest dye, as it strikes at the happiness of millions and the dignity of human nature, as it was intended to deprive [Americans] of the choicest blessing of life and the oppressed of all nations of an asylum [of liberty].

And with this impassioned quote from anti-Federalist Samuel Bryan ("Centinel") published in January 1788, Kenneth Royce fires the first shot across the bow of the Constitutionalists in Hologram of Liberty,published in 1997. In this chapter Royce limns the Constitution as a straightjacket designed to restrain government. The straightjacket works well as long as it constrains a normal body. "Change the body and escape is now not only possible, but simply a matter of time and effort" (1/3). The body needs only an inch of new movement and it will eventually escape. Harry Houdini was able to escape from straightjackets by dislocating his shoulder. Thus, if the federal government could also "dislocate" one of its appendages, it could also free itself from the Constitutional straightjacket.

Royce describes the federal government as a body; the executive is the hand, Congress is the arm, and the Supreme Court is the shoulder. While the branches are distinct, they are still part of the "same federal torso with a naturally unified goal--to be free" (1/3). It is through the Supreme Court's power to interpret the Constitution that the federal government would eventually free its self from the chains of the Constitution. This was intentional; the Founders could have designed a better straightjacket, but they did not want a restrained government:

Remember, it wasn't the people or the States which agitated for the 1787 Convention-it was a distinct group of men (later called "federalists") who very much desired a strong national government....To them, an "energetic" national government was good and necessary...(1/4).

Later in the chapter Royce cites a quotation from James Wilson explicitly expressing these sentiments:

...[T]he great fault of the existing Confederacy is its inactivity. It has never been a complaint against Congress that they have governed overmuch. The compliant has been that they governed too little. To remedy this defect, we were sent here (1/13).

Are we really to believe the myth that the Founders who crafted the Constitution were terrified of a strong central government, yet met to create a government that was supposed to be stronger than that under the Articles of Confederation and unwanted by the people?

Royce then lists several Supreme Court cases to illustrate his point: Marbury v. Madison, McCulloch v. Maryland, Gibbons v. Ogden, Munn v. Illinois. In each case the Supreme Court increased the power of the federal government at the expense of the people.

Commuters Bad, Imperial Airlines Good

In no apparent sense of irony, Emperor Obama is planning a "green" overhaul of the American automobile industry as his fleet of imperial aircraft soars into southern Maryland this weekend for the NAS Pax River airshow.

The Holy One wants us to believe that those of us left with a job are going to destroy the environment if we drive to work in cars that run on gasoline, all while each of the Blue Angels burns 1,500 gallons of jet fuel an hour as they boast the glory of the state a few hundred feet above mesmerized onlookers.

Military airshows are meant to do one thing and one thing only: distract taxpayers from the true nature of these warplanes. Give a few of them a pretty paintjob and we "Ooh!" and "Ahh!" as they swoosh by. Anything to prevent us from thinking about the JDAMs they drop on women as they change their babies' diapers in some tent in Iraq.

But enough about war. They're just stupid fucking foreigners anyway. They practically deserve to die because they don't speak English, right? Let's talk about something more important, like the environment or money. Seriously, I know it's Friday but let's do a little math. Lots of planes burn lots of fuel during airshows, but we'll stick to the Blue Angels. Like I said they're pretty. And everybody knows nothing can be bad if it's pretty.

Six F/A-18 Blue Angels will fly tomorrow and Sunday. They always bring a spare but we won't even worry about him. The gas he burns during practice barely counts if he doesn't get off the bench on gameday.

So you've got six Blue Angels burning between 1,000 and 1,500 gallons of fuel per hour during normal flight (plus about 10,000-15,000 pounds of fuel per hour (or about 3,000 gallons) in afterburner, which admittedly they'll probably only do a few times to show off). Consdering each of them will also suck down at least 1,000 pounds of fuel (or about 150 gallons) on takeoff and the initial climb, it's safe to say each fighter will consume a minimum of 1,000 gallons of fuel during the airshow if they fly for only a half-hour. Multiply this by six planes and two different shows and you're looking at 12,000 gallons of jet fuel for a weekend show. And this obviously isn't even taking into consideration the fuel they'll burn as they practice or fly back home following the show.

Why do I mention all this? Well, aside from the many thousands of dollars that will be robbed from taxpayers wasted to put on this spectacle -- even at wholesale it costs $3,000 to $4,000 an hour in fuel alone to operate one of these jets -- the state wants us to take full responsibility for polluting the environment while it gets a free pass.

After all, I probably put about 50 gallons a month into my truck. Over the course of one year that's about 600 gallons of gas, or just about half of what one of the Blue Angels will blow through during one half-hour performance. Now, I realize there are many more people like me across the country than there are the Blue Angels, but when you figure the Angels are flying 36 official shows this year in addition to 52 one-hour practice sessions over the course of nine months at Pensacola, you're easily talking over a million gallons of fuel being burned solely by one branch of the military's show squadron.

So, honestly, the next time King Barack deigns to lecture me about my fuel consumption and the "toll" it's taking on the almighty environment, I hope he knows he can put it in his tailpipe and smoke it.

Dealing with Traffic Stops

Here is an excellent post by J.D. Tuccille on what to do if you are pulled over by the fuzz.

They Don't Call It a Correction for Nothing

Maryland Gov. Martin [Owe']Malley complains that entire programs will need to be eliminated as part of his effort to cut $200 million from the state budget as revenues continue to come up short of expectations.

"I've encouraged agency heads to eliminate whole programs in this latest round of cost containment," O'Malley (D) said on Monday after a news conference in Rockville, where he announced the creation of Maryland Biotechnology Centers in Rockville and Baltimore.

Am I the only one who sees the irony in announcing cutbacks during a conference announcing the creation of even more state facilities?

What we need to do after eliminating whole programs is to get rid of these agency heads too, right up to and including the office of the governor. Certainly I'm not the only one who remembers O'Malley spending over a billion dollars he didn't have almost the minute he took office.

Another Taser Shocker

A federal jury has ruled that three Nashville police officers did not use excessive force in the death of a 21-year-old man on LSD who was tased up to 19 times after he stripped naked outside a nightclub.

Apologists for state-sanctioned electrocution will argue that this man shouldn't have been on LSD, that either his actions brought on the treatment he received or the drugs exacerbated the electric shocks and he wouldn't have died otherwise.

Even if this is so, the point remains that a man was killed by government police for "acting strangely" and taking off his clothes in public.

Live Blog--Hologram of Liberty

In my essay on the meaningless Constitution, I argued that radicals would be better served learning about the circumstances which led to the creation of the Constitution rather than dwelling on interpretation. I decided to take my own advice and learn more about the origins of this document. I found a gold mine of information in Kenneth Royce's Hologram of Liberty.

While it is clear that the Constitution has failed to limit the central government, Mr. Royce raises some very uncomfortable of questions: What if the Constitution did not restrain the State because it was, in fact, designed to increase the power of the State? What if the Constitution has not "failed" to protect liberty, but has accomplished exactly what the authors wanted it to do? Clearly to even raise such questions is to risk being labeled an unpatriotic traitor. The Constitution is viewed by most Americans as Holy Writ which descended from wise statesmen who attempted to created a government of limited powers to protect individual liberty. Even some libertarians still believe that this was the intention of the drafters of the Constitution and that if we can somehow "get back to the Constitution" we can restore freedom.

I used to believe this as well until I read Hans Hermann Hoppe's essay On the Impossibility of Limited Government. Prof. Hoppe's argument convinced me that a written Constitution could never limit the State. Since the State is the ultimate judge of conflict including conflicts involving itself, it will almost always rule in its own favor. Hence, a Constitution designed to limit the State is destined to fail; the State will continue to grow because ultimately it is the judge of its own powers.

I believe the logic of Prof. Hoppe's argument to be irrefutable, but Prof. Hoppe was not the first to make this observation. There were many people at the time of the Constitution's drafting who were making similar arguments. The anti-Federalists had studied the instrument carefully and argued that the adoption of this Constitution as law of the land would lead to a tyrannical government. So if the astute opponents of the Constitution pointed out that it will eventually lead to the destruction of individual liberty why did the the Founders who, according to American myth also wanted to protect individual liberty, fight so hard for ratification? If liberty were first and foremost on their minds, why pass into law a document whose flaws were clear to everyone?

Royce answers that the Constitution "was never meant to enshrine State autonomy or hold your individual rights over federal interests. And finally, it was never meant to stunt federal growth." This is a quite damning charge. It is one thing to argue that the Constitution failed to protect liberty. This gives people the hope that somehow the US can be restored as a republic if we can just write a better Constitution. However, it is quite another to argue that the Constitution was designed to lead to a strong central government. Such an accusation impugns the character of the Founders. No longer would they be viewed as wise statesmen, but mere politicians. But the mythical story of the Founders is even worse; this indictment means that Founders were statists. If this is true, then the only solution to advance is to reject our (second) Founders' Constitution and withdraw from this tyrannical government..

I believe that Royce has advanced a thesis which will help desanctify both the Constitution and its authors in the minds of many people. A simple book review, however, will not do justice to liberty. Over the coming weeks and months, I will blog this book. At the very least I hope that more people will purchase this book and study Royce's argument carefully. I also hope that other radicals will build upon his work to find out as much as they can about the motivations of the Constitutionalists.

I agree with Robert Higgs that there is no failed policy; the "failures" of policy always benefit someone and that was the intention of the policy in the first place. If a Constitution ostensibly designed to protect liberty has led to a tyrannical central government, perhaps it was not a failure of the document or of the people to limit the government. Perhaps the "failure" was the ratification of the Constitution in the first place.

Learn to Build Your Own Car

Last September I bought a 1970 Chevelle after spending the past five years waffling on the idea of whether or not buying a third vehicle would be a wise investment. On the one hand, classic cars generally retain their value; on the other, I hate clutter so allocating virtually all of my garage space to an unnecessary purchase wasn't exactly high on my list of priorities.

I've always wanted to learn more about car maintenance, but mostly I just love old muscle cars and have always wanted one. So when I found a good deal on a 350 small block Malibu -- the guy sold it for a couple thousand less than he probably could've because he was getting married and needed money -- I decided to jump at the opportunity. Did I "need" it, especially as the economy was tanking and my wife and I were focusing even more than usual on saving money? No, of course not. But sometimes when the state insists on making your life a living hell, those are the perfect times to live a little.

My car is by no means a trailer queen. It's a driver that is very solid but it's technically still a project car. It could use a couple new quarter panels and a real paint job, but for now I enjoy cruising around town in a car free of computers, plastic fenders, and airbags. And I just love the fact that this baby's got two steel bumpers when you can't even find them on SUVs anymore. Sheet metal and chrome -- what else do you need?

Indeed, aside from nostalgia and classic American beauty, one of the biggest reasons I purchased a nearly four-decade-old car was because federal regulations have increasingly forced auto manufacturers to turn out rickety, lightweight deathtraps in order to comply with tyrannical emissions standards. And if Herr Obama has his way, it's only going to get much worse: his plan is to require everyone to pay higher prices for crappier products.

The new rules would bring new cars and trucks sold in the United States to an average of 35.5 miles per gallon, about 10 mpg more than today's standards. Passenger cars will be required to get 39 mpg, light trucks 30 mpg.

That means cars and trucks on American roads will have to become smaller, lighter and more efficient.

To be sure, cars and trucks will become smaller, lighter, and more efficient. But more efficient at what is the real question. Traveling slower? Costing us valuable time and money? Killing motorists?

No central planner has the ability to weigh important tradeoffs specific to millions of individuals, much as I did when contemplating the purchase of my Chevelle. He can only issue dictatorial decrees that benefit himself and his cronies at the expense of everyone else. As I mentioned recently, commandeering the auto industry is the first step of Obama's totalitarian "green" agenda.

So what to do? Don't expect the auto industry to protest these regulations; they're too busy lining up at the federal trough for their welfare checks. Just as it's up to the individual -- not government -- to protect himself and his family from intruders and other criminals, it's up to us to keep ourselves safe on the roads when the state actively puts us in danger. 

Therefore, one great way to reject the "Obamobile" is to learn to build your own car from materials of your choosing, or to at least purchase one like I did that was crafted prior to the installation of safety-destroying federal "standards." Perhaps the best thing of all about classic American cars is that replacement parts are readily available -- interior, exterior, engine, exhaust, body, suspension, you name it. So whether you buy a car that's already been restored or you pick up a frame for a couple thousand bucks from eBay and do it yourself, shops like YearOne and Goodmark have whatever you need to see your project through from beginning to end.

Of course, if enough people began participating in this type of legal civil disobedience, the state would undoubtedly swoop in and at least attempt to put an end to this as well. But at that point the ideological revolution would probably already be in full swing. Until then, however, if you love freedom, you may want to do everything you can to reject this president's asphalt fascism.

The Dehumanization of the Patriot

Michael Gaddy has an excellent article up on Lew Rockwell.com about how the State dehumanizes its enemies so that its subjects will have no qualms when the enemies are destroyed. 

Fight or Flight?

I think most people are willing to fight the state to obtain freedoms that are most important to them. (Unfortunately, the reason the state is able to usurp liberties across the board is because most people are likewise unwilling to fight for freedoms that are most important to those other than themselves.) However, when the state makes it clear you're fighting a losing battle, most sensible people choose to secede.

Such is the case for Buffalo Sabres majority owner B. Thomas Golisano, who has fled the Empire State and relocated to Florida because of its lower tax rates.

Golisano said this year's state budget — which increased income taxes on upper wage earners from 6.85 percent to 8.97 percent — was the final straw. His moving to Florida will save him $5 million in state income taxes. The billionaire founder of Paychex, a payroll processing company, has already registered to vote and gotten his driver's license in Florida, and signed the homestead exemption paperwork that will cap his annual property tax increases to 3 percent a year there.

When interviewed by the Buffalo News Golisano said, "I wish there were 100,000 people [in New York] standing behind me feeling the same way and acting the same way, but they're not."

Preaching to the choir, B. Tom. Preaching to the choir.

(Thanks to Lisa D. for the link.)

Win DC101 Chili Cook-Off: Check

I didn't have many items on my to-do list this past weekend. As I announced last week, Saturday was the DC101 Chili Cook-Off, so turning out a good batch of my competition chili was just about the only thing on my mind.

This was the first chili contest I've ever entered so I didn't really know what to expect and therefore I didn't set my expectations too high. I was confident I had a good Texas red recipe but that was about it.

Interestingly enough, I took first place in the prestigious ICS Red category and also won Rookie of the Year honors. Not bad for a chili cookoff virgin I suppose.

I'm pretty sure most chili cooks regard their recipe as a work in progress, and I'm no different. Even though I was hoping to have mine nailed down a week before the cookoff, I quickly realized that wasn't gonna happen; I actually made at least three fairly significant changes to ingredients or cooking technique the day of.

Primarily I was hoping to achieve a better gravy consistency than I'd gotten in weeks prior, and I was unsure of how much heat the chili needed. Granted, the judges weren't on hand to pick their favorite apple pie, but the "not too mild, not too hot" guideline really doesn't give you much to go on, so I was wracking my brain Thursday night trying to decide how many green chiles to use and when to add them.

Anyhow, I'm fairly sure there aren't many people who take home the gold on their first shot, especially in a regional competition, so I was simultaneously humbled and gratified after all the preparation I went through. Here are some photos taken throughout the entire day, and I'll post some more later as I get them.

Here's a shot of our tent in the middle of Row 3. Many thanks to my homie Mike Jordan at Grand Rental Station for lending me the tent for the weekend. My Stiff Willi Chili shirts were a huge hit, and we sold more than 30 and gave away many more.

This is me doing one last run-through before lighting the stoves at 11:00.

  

This is my brother Erik, who designed one helluva chili pepper logo but apparently didn't see the memo saying soul patches are soooo '70s '80s '90s never.

 

Team Stiff Willi Chili, from left to right: Mike, Brady, Erik, and me.

 

Best thing about chili cookoffs: Once the first spice dump is history, you get to stand around and drink for an hour.

 

 

Stiff Willi Chili, only a half-hour in and well before he knew he was the man.

 

Fellow competitors:

 

 

These guys with the "3 Meat Mouth Massage" chili were right across from us and were responsible for eliciting the best joke of the day. One of the girls yelled, "Hey! How about a three-meat mouth massage?" To which my brother deadpanned, "There's four of us."

Classic.

 

Notice the chef is not in the picture.

 

Erin and Amie

 

Strikin' a pose while we wait on the judges.

The fawning groupies come out of the woodwork after Daddy brings it home.

 

The rain started coming down around 6:00, but we really didn't care at that point.

 

 

 

On a side note, Washington Redskins tight end Chris Cooley was one of the judges and apparently he had me in second place overall. I was the first loser in his eyes so I figured maybe he'd make it all up to me by hooking a brother up and pimpin' my t-shirt on his blog after my buddy's wife gave him one -- but all he could muster was the one he made himself and wore at the cookoff.

Of course, he still ranked me high enough to get me to the finals table so I guess I can't hold this against him for too long. Maybe he'll accept an invitation to my upcoming victory party and make all the women happy, and we'll call it even.

Finally, I can't close without mentioning that the DC101 Chili Cook-Off benefits the National Kidney Foundation, through which I met a recent kidney transplantee named Patsy after I found out I won. It was nice to be able to put a face to the cause, and I couldn't help getting in my plug for a free market in transplant organs.

I was a half-dozen beers and a couple Jell-O shooters deep by this point, but it was interesting how the NKF employees I was talking to were so uniformly against the free trade of organs -- despite the fact that Patsy said she waited in line for months on a recipient list before she was able to get a new kidney. When I said we don't have to wait indefinitely to buy new jeans or automobiles, that didn't seem to faze them. Now, these were some of the most pleasant people I've ever met, so it wasn't like they were adamantly refuting my reasoning or anything like that; I could just tell that they'd probably never considered that there could be an alternative to the government-mandated status quo.

No doubt proceeds from this year's cookoff will help to fund life-saving kidney research, and I'm happy that our team helped to raise money toward that effort. Even though I oppose the NKF's advocacy for federal support of kidney disease programs, the beauty of events like the DC101 Chili Cook-Off -- fundraisers that rely on private donations -- is that they prove there is no need for compulsory participation in worthwhile causes.

How Dare You Spurn an Opportunity to Bask in the Glory of the Holy One!

Sports blogger Chris Chase is upset with Pittsburgh Steeler James Harrison who has decided to skip a trip to the White House. The winners of the Super Bowl (and pretty much all major sports champions) are invited to the White House for reasons unknown to me. Other than giving the State more legitimacy, I can't see any other reason why the president offers the invitation. If you want to give me some fairytale reason like it's patriotic or it's an opportunity for these players to meet the most powerful man in the world, keep that BS to yourself. Those of us who have taken the red pill know that the agents of the State do nothing for the good of the masses. Everything they do is calculated to cement their power. But I digress...

Mr. Harrison gave the following reason for skipping the White House trip:

"This is how I feel -- if you want to see the Pittsburgh Steelers, invite us when we don't win the Super Bowl. As far as I'm concerned, he [Obama] would've invited Arizona if they had won."

To be fair to Mr. Chase, I agree with him that this is a lame reason. But Mr. Chase, like most people in this country, suffers from Führerprinzip, he concludes:

As far as I'm concerned, James Harrison is sort of a fool. If he doesn't want to go to the White House, fine. (Although I can't imagine why anybody wouldn't want to meet the President of the United States.) But don't make a lame excuse in an attempt to justify your decision.

Most sheeple simply cannot imagine why anyone would not want to drop everything he is doing just to be in the presence of the president, especially this president who has been depicted as the Messiah. How could this serf turn down an opportunity to be in the very presence of the Holy One, blessed be his name, who was sent to save the world? Just who does he think he is?

I hope future champions spurn the pilgrimage to the White House and I hope that those that do will give better reasons such as "I could not find someone to dogsit," or "I have a lunch appointment' or "I have a couple rounds of golf with some friends" or "I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked."

UPDATE

After reading this post on the Lew Rockwell blog and a comment from one of our readers, I have to say that I no longer agree with Mr. Chase that this is a lame reason. In fact, I think that any reason one gives to not be used as a prop for the State is legitimate. See, I'm not so stubborn after all.

Judge Orders Parents to Provide Chemo for Son

Keeping in tradition of Nanny knows best, a Minnesota judge has ruled that parents of a 13-year-old cancer patient must undergo testing to determine if their son would benefit from restarting chemotherapy treatments.

In a 58-page ruling, Brown County District Judge John Rodenberg found that Daniel Hauser has been "medically neglected" by his parents, Colleen and Anthony Hauser, and was in need of child protection services.

Because chemotheraphy apparently is a guaranteed cure for cancer. Because it's apparently painless. Because there apparently are no ill side effects. Because it apparently doesn't destroy every last healthy cell in the human body on the off-chance it will eradicate cancer cells.

Inputs or Individuals

I stopped reading Neocon Review regulary a while back, but every so often a really good article appears on economics. Here's an excellent piece by Kevin Williamson on socialized medicine and the calculation problem. If the Holy One has his way, my advice to you is never get sick.

Tomorrow Belongs to Me

Karen DeCoster posted this clip...

In response to Lew Rockwell's orignal post...

But we all know that can't happen here.

Was Swine Flu Man-Made?

This scientist is raising that possibility. A while back I linked to a post at Disinter's blog which theorized that the swine-flu was a bioterriorism attack, so I am glad to see someone in the mainstream raising the possibility. Of course, the CDC immediately claimed that there was no evidence that swine-flu was created in a lab. However, absence of evidence does not mean evidence of absence, especially when dealing with the State. Since the State is the ultimate judge of conflict, there is no way for us to really know what the agents of the State know. They can hide information or simply refuse to give us any information. My guess is that most people will believe whatever the State tells them due to their absolute faith in the State as their protector.

G(overnment)M(otors): The Face of the Corporate Welfare State (For Now)

It would be impossible not to laugh at the Obama administration's supposed attempt to manufacture a symbiotic relationship between itself and General Motors if the economic repercussions for the majority of Americans weren't so grave.

GM needs the federal government and the federal government needs GM, or so the story goes. The flailing auto manufacturer presumably is content to accept federal handouts in the attempt stave off bankruptcy; Obama is happy to hand out taxpayer dough if that means taking credit for saving or creating American jobs. It all sounds so nice, but both history and basic economics tell us that artificially subsidizing corporate losses doesn’t magically create profits.

And of course, it doesn't help matters when you're not allowed to cut dead weight and take realistic measures to generate those profits either.

GM, which has already made its deal with the devil by cashing federal welfare checks just to keep the lights on in plants that haven't closed yet, is now facing heavy criticism from the usual mob bosses union leaders and politicians over reports that the company plans to increase the number of vehicles it imports from overseas in an attempt to cut costs.

The gall of some business leaders to conduct their affairs as if they can't just steal money from people at gunpoint.

The United Auto Workers charged last week that the Detroit automaker intends to almost double over the next five years the number of vehicles it imports to the U.S. from Mexico, South Korea, China and Japan.

"GM should not be taking taxpayers' money simply to finance the outsourcing of jobs to other countries," Alan Reuther, the union's Washington lobbyist, wrote in a letter to U.S. lawmakers.

Of course, Reuther should've stopped at "GM should not be taking taxpayers' money," but then he wouldn’t be a union lobbyist, would he?

The tragic irony of this entire fiasco is that in attempting to get its financial affairs in order by accepting federal bailout money, GM has prostrated itself before the Obama administration and effectively surrendered its management authority to bureaucrats tasked simply with "protecting jobs," thereby eliminating the ability to make cuts in the one area responsible for significant losses: labor (and the related union benefits rivaled only by federal government employees).

Unlike true symbiotic relationships in nature, where two seemingly incompatible species interact to their mutual benefit, GM stands only to lose in this arrangement, and lose big. While the company reportedly faces a June 1 deadline to cut costs, it's helpful to remember that these requirements are being made by federal officials who retain the authority to micromanage how these supposed cuts will be made.

As I have written before, these bailout measures are hardly intended to help GM recover financially; they are a ploy by the president to nationalize one of the largest American manufacturing industries so he can turn it into a staging ground for the launch of his tyrannical green agenda.

It remains to be seen whether Barack Obama will rebrand GM as Government Motors -- that just might be too brazen even for the American public -- but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see His Holiness introduce the first national car. Say, the "Obamobile" has a nice ring to it.

The Purpose of Government

Writes Thomas DiLorenzo

The purpose of government is for those who run it to plunder those who do not. Throughout history, governments have used violence, intimidation, coercion, and mass murder to enforce this system. But governments' first line of "defense" is always a blizzard of lies — about its own alleged benevolence, altruism, heroism, and greatness, along with equally big lies about the "evils" of the civil society, especially the free market.

Read the whole thing.

Team 'Stiff Willi Chili'

Yours truly will be competing in the DC101 Chili Cook-Off this Saturday at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. I really have no idea what to expect, but one thing I can tell you is that cooking chili over a propane stove in a parking lot with only a bucket of soapy water to wash utensils is a heck of a lot different than cooking in the confines of your home, where you tend to find things like cooperative gas ranges and indoor plumbing.

I've been trying to avoid taking out a home equity loan to finance all the practice batches I've been making the past six months, so if nothing else I should save a lot of money once this weekend is past. Overall, though, the cookoff should be a great time -- hey, what more could you want than 100 chili cooks in the middle of a huge rock concert? -- and proceeds benefit the National Kidney Foundation.

So if you're up in D.C. this weekend, grab a ticket to the chili cookoff and head to Row 3 and look for a big sign that reads "T-REV's STIFF WILLI CHILI." I can promise the chili will be good (though perhaps not quite as good as our t-shirts), and the company will be even better. Hurry, though. As far as I'm aware tickets are still available, but they've sold out the past couple years and they're expecting about 30,000 people this weekend.

Real quick, I want to give a shout to my sponsors, without whom the $1,500-plus that this competition's running me would've been nearly impossible to fund without getting divorced:

- Law Offices of Kevin J. McDevitt, LLC
- Blue Heron Aviation
- St. Mary's Lighting & Electric
- Tiki Joe Securities, LLC
- Airtec, Inc.
- Catamarans Restaurant
- CSI, Inc.
- Grand Rental Station (Solomons, Maryland)

Thanks also to my brother Erik for taking my rough draft of an excitable chili pepper and turning it into a graphic masterpiece. He likes to sleep and drink a lot, so it was especially meaningful when he stayed up till 1 a.m. one night a few weeks ago making sure his buddy scanned the drawing so I could get the .jpg version to the screenprinters by the following morning. Well done, bro.

Last but not least, I have to mention the girls from Chesapeake Custom Embroidery who helped me design the entire logo you see above and then did an outstanding job incorporating it into what became my t-shirts and banner. The entire process was painless and efficient, and they're my first suggestion for anyone looking for screenprinting or embroidery work in the southern Maryland area (and no, I'm not getting paid to say that).

Oh, and I almost forgot.. Brutus of WYN fame is also planning on attending the cookoff, which means that we will actually be able to meet for the very first time in person. Believe it or not, I had no idea who he was when he emailed me out of the blue and we started discussing radical libertarianism, so I have quite a bit to look forward to this Saturday.

Later for now.

We're Just Chump Change to the State

The Baltimore Sun reports that Andrew Leonard, a chemist with no criminal record who was handcuffed and questioned after Baltimore police broke down his front door during a wrong door drug raid (go figure!) more than two months ago, has finally received a check from the city for the damages he incurred.

How much, you ask? Why, a measly $917. And that's probably only due to the fact that the paper reported Leonard's plight in the first place.

"We're done and satisfied and moving on with our lives," said Leonard, 33. "Everything is as it ought to have been, only much, much later than one would expect."

Actually, two months is virtually a nanosecond if you're talking government time. After all, ask Cheye Calvo and his family how much restitution they've received from the P.G. County police department almost a year after they were terrorized and assaulted and watched SWAT units slaughter their dogs.

What's most unbelievable to me is that Leonard actually expected the process to proceed more quickly. I can't be too critical here -- Mr. Leonard is the victim, after all -- so I'll simply say that I hope this experience has caused him to understand the true nature of the state. In time, he may just find that the enlightenment is worth far more than any amount of money the city could ever give him.

This tripe, on the other hand, is entirely contemptible:

"Mr. Leonard's ordeal is a reminder to all city employees of the need to better communicate amongst agencies, within departments, and bring issues to the attention of the Mayor's Office when a constituent is not being rightfully served within the city," Dixon spokesman Scott Peterson said in an e-mail.

This "ordeal" should not be a reminder that government officials merely need to "better communicate" amongst themselves as they increasingly create "crimes" out of whole cloth and then track down nonviolent citizens with their guns drawn. As if we need our slave masters to be more efficient!

What this should be is a reminder that the state is a criminal gang writ large. It will do nothing but continue to enslave us by prosecuting us for any number of victimless crimes unless we put a stop to it.

Army of Criminals

There will be more than enough discussion this week over why an American Army sergeant shot and killed five of his fellow soldiers in Baghdad. I was waiting to hear from the gun control lobby since it responds to mass shootings the way Pavlov's dogs respond to dinner bells and then I read this gem from Butler Shaffer at the LRC blog:

News reports inform us that an American soldier undergoing stress therapy in Iraq allegedly shot and killed five of his fellow soldiers during one of these sessions. This led one CNN babbler to ask the most inane question: why did he have a gun? Hey, fella, he's a soldier, participating in a war in Iraq. You may have heard about this war: it made all the newspapers!! What would you expect a soldier in a war zone to be carrying?

That's is always the first question gun control lobby members think of when a mass shooting occurs; it's as if they are taking a Rorschach test and every imagine they see is a gun.

But a more disturbing picture of the composition of the Army was reported by this article on the shootings I found on Yahoo. It appears that Uncle Sam is getting desperate in recruiting cannon fodder to fight the wars of the elite. So our government is allowing gang members to become to enlist:

A 2007 FBI report on gang activity in the U.S. military found that members of nearly every major street gang were present in the ranks of the U.S. armed forces. Service members associated with Bloods, Crips, Black Disciples, Gangster Disciples, Hells Angels, Latin Kings, The 18th Street Gang, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Mexican Mafia, Nortenos, Surenos, Vice Lords and various white supremacist groups were documented serving at U.S. military installations at home and abroad. The report said the Army had the highest count of gang members in its ranks, partly because it is the largest branch and partly because of relatively lax recruitment requirements.

Now other than cannon fodder why would the US military accept gang members? Isn't the US government supposedly creating a disciplined military to protect us from those evil foreign governments who hate us for our freedom? Are not gang members less receptive to discipline? Would you really want to train folks who are already willing to kill people here at home to become even more proficient at killing? Well, if you were the State, the answer to that question is, "Yes, I would like to train people already predisposed to kill and possibly undisciplined to serve me."

A Farewell to American Capitalism

From a Russian of all people. Stanislav Mishin sounds like a man who reads LewRockwell.com regularly. His diagnosis and prognosis of our situation is quite accurate:

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our "democracy". Pride blind the foolish.

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

Walter Block comments "You know we're in big trouble when Pravda berates us for destroying capitalism in this country..."

Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others

In my very first post on WYN, I argued that the true purpose of gun control laws was not to protect the masses as our rulers preach, but to protect our rulers from the masses. I wrote

...the State has no interest in protecting our inalienable right to self-defense because the State knows that if its subjects have access to the same sorts of weapons as the State possesses, it cannot rule over its subjects' lives as it does now. Any action of the State which its subjects could potentially interpret as a usurpation of liberty would risk violence against the State. The State knows this and uses its coercive force to regulate our "right."

I finally found a candid admission of this. D.C. attorney general Peter Nickles is arguing that presidential and other motorcades will be exposed to high-powered arms fire if the District’s strict gun laws are made less stringent by Congress. In a letter to delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, Nickles wrote

[g]overnment facilities, dignitaries and public servants are prime targets for terrorists, both foreign and domestic....But in Washington, D.C., the likelihood of attack is higher and the challenges to protecting the city are greater.

The message is clear: the lives of State dignitaries and public officials are worth more than the lives of the masses of the people. If the citizens of Washington, DC, have to live in fear of being killed by robbers because they cannot legally bear arms and their local police force does not have to protect them anyway, then that's a sacrifice the people have to make. The State cannot risk the possibility that the people might wake up from their dogmatic slumber and realize that their rulers are in fact the cause of their suffering. Such is life on the farm where all are equal but some are more equal than others.

Another Maryland Welfare Program

Sometimes I get so irritated with politicians and the expansion of the welfare-warfare-police state that I go through spells where I refuse even to watch the news or listen to anything but music on the radio.

Perhaps that explains how I missed the story about how Maryland's fascist governor, Martin O'Malley, recently signed legislation giving the state (illegitimate) authority to seize the Preakness Stakes and Pimlico racetrack from its bankrupt owner, by eminent domain if necessary, in order to keep the annual horse race instate. (I inadvertantly saw an ESPN Outside the Lines broadcast about it yesterday.)

The governor and Democratic leaders in Annapolis say the state needs broad powers to ensure that the second jewel of the Triple Crown continues running at Pimlico Race Course. The track's owner, Magna Entertainment Corp., wants to auction off its Maryland assets - including Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park - under federal bankruptcy proceedings.

Lawmakers passed O'Malley's bill over the warnings of Republicans who said the move threatened private-property rights. If Maryland wants to buy Pimlico and keep running the Preakness, it should compete in the marketplace with other bidders, Republican critics said.

Does the governor plan to use this property to build additional highways or schools? Nope. While that would be an abusive (if legal) measure in itself, it would at least adhere to the rationale governments usually offer when they want to confiscate private property.

However, instead of merely overregulating Maryland's horse industry -- say, any chance oppressive taxes and gambling regulations have anything to do with the track's demise? -- O'Malley now wants to force taxpayers to subsidize an enterprise he's helped to drive out of the state in the first place.

I am shocked -- shocked! -- that Maryland ranks so pitifully in personal and economic freedom.

Happy Birthday, Kimmy

I laughed out loud last night when this car pulled in front of me as I was driving home from work, and I had to take a picture. It's easier to read if you click on the photo to enlarge it, but the rear window reads, "I'M 21 BITCHES."

 

As I pulled around the car I noticed that the side window had "Kimmy's finally 21!" (or something like that) written on it, so the whole ensemble was most likely a nice surprise from friends.

Of course, my happiness for the birthday girl was coupled with a tinge of depression because consuming an alcoholic beverage shouldn't have to be viewed as such a significant milestone that it warrants this type of anticipatory celebration in the first place.

In a free country, perfectly legal adults wouldn't be prohibited from consuming alcohol for three years. Come to think of it, there probably wouldn't be such a thing as a "legal adult" either.

But enough of that for now. Happy Birthday, Kimmy. Here's to hoping it was everything you expected it to be.

Hey, Barry, Would You Mind If I Take Air Force One Out for a Spin?

A White House aide has resigned over the Air Force One photo-op:

The White House official who authorized a $328,835 photo-op of Air Force One soaring above New York City resigned Friday just weeks after the flyover sparked panicked workers to rush into the streets and flashbacks to Sept. 11. Louis Caldera said the controversy had "made it impossible for me to effectively lead the White House Military Office," which is responsible for presidential aircraft.

Are we really to believe that an aide to the White House is solely responsible for authorizing this scare tactic? Am I to believe that Mr. Caldera simply asked Barry to borrow Air Force One and Barry replied, "Sure, just bring it back before 10,"?

He's Not a War Criminal If We Like Him

Justin Raimondo writes about Jon Stewart's moment of moral courage immediately followed by moral cowardice. Mr. Raimondo makes several great points in his essay, but the point I believe is most important is that neither liberals nor conservatives hew to any moral standards as long as the person they like is in charge:

Rule number one in this game is that everybody must play their assigned role. You’ve always got to be "in character." If you’re on the Left, you can take on George W. Bush, murderer of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis – but not Harry Truman, killer of even larger numbers of innocent Japanese civilians. Rightists regularly excoriate the crimes of Stalin, yet they are expected to remain silent when it comes to war crimes committed by the U.S., such as the "Phoenix program" during the Vietnam conflict – and they rarely disappoint.

This enforcement of a dubious double standard, by the way, goes beyond the issue of war crimes and mass murder. If you’re on the Right, you’re allowed to express unlimited disdain for the thuggish Hugo Chavez – indeed, it’s a veritable obligation – but even a hint of contempt for the equally thuggish Benjamin Netanyahuand his neo-fascist foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, will earn you enough brickbats to build a Wall of Separation between your ideological comrades and yourself. Likewise, lefties are allowed to cuddle up to Fidel Castro while inveighing against Augusto Pinochet.

Liberals and conservatives are solely interested in gaining and holding power. That is their goal and their only concern. This is why we have heard very little from the anti-war Left since the Holy One assumed power. Now that their leader is in charge, anything he does is, by definition, good, just and righteous. This is also why conservatives have all of sudden become "libertarian." They know that if they appeal to freedom, the sheep will heed their voice. Thus, they are simply positioning themselves to assume power in the future. Conservatives are now opposing Obama's nationalization of the US economy, but there was very little protest when Bush did the same.

This game of power will continue as long as the masses believe that the rules can be changed in their favor. The game was designed by the elite for the elite and the rules are changed by the elite for the elite. The only solution is to quit playing.

Did Pelosi Lie About Her Knowledge of CIA Torture?

I'm shocked, shocked to read such accusations!

Understanding the Boom and Bust

Today Tom Woods does us a favor by offering an outstanding lay explanation of Austrian business cycle theory for anyone interested in understanding our current economic predicament.

And by the way, if you're looking to put your own resources to their most productive uses, one great way to do this would be to invest a mere $21 in Woods's new bestseller, Meltdown.