who's your nanny?

Really?

This was supposed to "blow up" the Capitol and the Pentagram Pentagon?

So it is

Life is crazy.

On the way back from second practice with a band I'm really, really excited about, I pass a walking vigil for Kelly Thomas, the recent victim of a particularly brutal case of police brutality. This all happened minutes from my front door a few months ago, but even though I suddenly realize how near I am the front lines of the war on liberty, the feeling can only be described is a strange numbness. It's a quiet affair, so I don't lay on my horn the way I do when I see them crowding on a street corner. I let off the gas and coast by with my arm out the window flashing the sign for victory -- and peace.

But I'm stoked, I haven't felt so validated in years. The music is flowing like a busted fire hydrant and a year of rust has blown off after few minutes of blistering rock. I'm not going to let the anger get the best of me, I'm going to press on and do something good for the world. Some day, just for grins. I don't owe the world anything, just feel like doing it.

Ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito.

So on I roll, stopping at Ralphs for a 12-pack of Tecate and a bottle of the finest merlot $4.49 will buy for Mrs. Bittersmore. Then it's around the corner and back home, to my little castle on the hill. Well, it's at the base of a hill, but still kinda on it.

But what's this, around the corner, there in the parking lot of the North Justice Center, Superior Court of California? There among the flashing red and blue lights and herds of clean-shaven sucklings in stiff blue polyester... why it's felony take-down training, and a new class of protectors and servers from the local community college learning to ply their valuable trade on a world in desperate need of more enforcement.

Saboteur Selected As Maryland Deputy Sheriff of the Year

According to a press release by the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office, Corporal William A. Raddatz has been selected as the Maryland Sheriff's Association Deputy Sheriff of the Year for Community Service.

Beginning in 2002, Corporal Raddatz was instrumental in implementing the "Shop with a Cop Program" in St. Mary’s County, Maryland. This program assists the neediest children, within the community, based on family financial criteria. Over the past eight years the program has been able to provide over 1,000 children with the purchase of gifts for themselves and family members during the holiday season as well as "Back to School" clothing and supplies.

Funny, no mention of how Raddatz falsifies search warrants and fabricates evidence in order to wrongfully accuse kids of rape.

Is There an Award for Most Idiotic Economic Policy by a Presidential Administration?

If so, I nominate this proposal by the Obama administration that would allow unemployed people to sue if they think a company of 15 or more employees denied them a job because they are unemployed. Does the Obama administration have a goal of doubling the unemployment rate in a few months? I'm pretty confident that such a provision, if passed, would accomplish this. If you are an employer, would you hire anyone at all? Or would you hire under the table by not advertising openings? Or would you not hire someone who already has a job, even if she were the best applicant available to you, because you feared a lawsuit? The only way to protect yourself would be to hire only unemployed people, but the unemployed people who apply might not be as qualified as an employed person. Thus, your business will not grow as much as it could because you cannot hire the best person available.

While (real) economists cannot predict exactly what will happen when government regulates the economy, we do know that government intervention breeds consequences that the government planners find worse than the problem they are trying to cure. The government planners then create more rules and regulations to fix the new problems, which then lead to more unintended consequences. This continues until either the planners see the err of their ways (highly unlikely) or the economy becomes completely socialized.

This idiotic provision is an attempt to fix a problem that was created and continues to be exacerbated by the Federal Government, its vassal States, and the Federal Reserve Bank. The only solution to economic growth is to remove the State from the economy and allow businesses and entrepreneurs to create goods and services for the masses. The problem is that politicians and regulators are too corrupted by the power that they wield and will never admit that they are the problem. They only need to mix the right combination of policies together and chant the magic words. Then, Poof!, economic prosperity will return and they can take credit for it.

Remember my first maxim of the State: If given a choice between increasing or maintaining revenue and power versus protecting the lives and property of its citizens, State agents will choose the former. Fixing the economy requires lower taxes and fewer regulations. Both necessarily require that the State give up revenue and power so that its citizens can improve their lives. I simply do not see this happening.

Well, This Is Encouraging!

NYPD Chief: Police Could Take Down Plane if Needed

I'm sure that the NYPD would never use, or even threaten, to use the artillery procured to shoot down airplanes on the citizens of New York City. It's not like police in any other State of the Union would ever use technology designed for the war on terror against American citizens. I mean, it's the terrorists who hate us for our freedom, right?

We Are Running Out of "Never Befores"

I wonder if drug cartels in Mexico can become even more violent. They are rapidly approaching a degree of violence that one only sees from State agents:

MEXICO CITY – The scene was shocking. Masked gunmen blocked a busy road in the once-quiet port city of Veracruz, abandoning two trucks with 35 bodies inside, near a big shopping center. It was Tuesday at 5 p.m., broad daylight.

People on the streets watched the corpses being left at an underpass. Some of the victims had their hands tied and showed signs of having been tortured. The picture could have been extracted from a horror movie.

According to Veracruz state Attorney General, Reynaldo Escobar, 23 of the victims were men and 12 were women. “We have never seen a situation like this before,” said Escobar.

His words resounded across the country: Mexico is becoming the country of “never befores.”

Never before had we seen so many corpses dumped together on a busy avenue in a tourist port. Never before had we seen 52 people being killed inside a casino in the city of Monterrey until a group of criminals burned the place on Aug. 25. Never before had we seen a car bomb explosion in a Mexican city until it happened on July 2010 in Ciudad Juarez. Never before had panic gripped fans during a shooting near a soccer match until it happened in Torreon, Coahuila state. Within seconds of the first pops of gunfire, people ducked under their seats for cover, then thousands rushed onto the field, seeking escape, some carrying children.

The solution to this violence is simple: end the war on drugs. The problem, however, is that the war on drugs has not failed. The people who benefit from the war on drugs have no incentive to advocate its end and every incentive to fight that it continue despite the death and destruction that it causes. Such reflects Brutus's 1st Maxim of the State-If given a choice between increasing or maintaining revenue and power versus protecting the lives and property of its citizens, State agents will choose the former.

Let's Play "Name that Fallacy"

I've been looking for a name for a specific fallacy that is ubiquitous among statists. The fallacy takes various forms, but essentially it can be stated as follows: If the government did not provide X, then X would not exist. "X" is generally police, education, roads, research, etc. It is one of the most frustrating fallacies to deal with because the proponents generally believe that the State is a deity that showers us with these gifts that would not exist otherwise because people are too greedy and selfish. Even though we can cite examples in history of police, education, roads, and research being produced before the State came into existence, such arguments fall on deaf ears. "Well, there wouldn't be enough of these." Of course, such an admission refutes the fallacy because the fallacy states that these things would not exist at all without the State. But we must remember that most statists do not argue with logic and reason; the foundation of their argument is either emotion or faith or a combination of the two.

But I am digressing from my main point. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what to name this fallacy? Does a name for this type of fallacy already exist? How about "The State is the source of all that is good" fallacy or the "Without the State, there is no civilization fallacy" or "The State is the Alpha and Omega" fallacy?

Someone's Got to Die

Via Melissa McEwan at Shakesville, I found this article on the Troy Davis execution by Leonard Pitts. He writes:

And they raised a cheer for death.

It was a chilling moment but also a clarifying one in that it validated the grimmest suspicions about at least some of those who support capital punishment. That support, after all, is often framed in terms of high morality, the argument being that only in taking an offender's life can a society truly express its revulsion over certain heinous crimes.

But when the audience at a recent GOP presidential debate cheered the observation that Texas Gov. Rick Perry has overseen a record 234 executions, that fig leaf was swept away. You knew this was not about some profound question for philosophers and august men. No, this was downturned thumbs in a Roman arena, vengeance putting on airs of justice, the need to see someone die.

People dress that need in rags of righteousness and ethicality, but occasionally, the disguise slips and it shows itself for what it is: the atavistic impulse of those for whom justice is synonymous with blood. If people really meant the arguments of high morality, you'd expect them to regard the death penalty with reverent sobriety. You would not expect them to cheer.

But that need to see death — the inability to imagine how justice can be had without it — is compelling. Indeed, there can be little doubt that is what is driving Troy Davis toward execution. He'll die on Wednesday, barring clemency from the state of Georgia.

No conclusive forensic evidence ties him to the crime of which he was convicted, the 1989 killing of Savannah, Ga., police Officer Mark MacPhail. Of the nine witnesses who said they saw Davis shoot MacPhail, seven have since recanted, some saying police coerced them into lying. Of the two who have not recanted, one is a man identified by some witnesses as the real killer.

Yet on that dubious basis, Davis is scheduled to die.

While opponents of the death penalty are saddened, proponents of the death penalty should be angry. If proponents for the death penalty truly cared about justice, they should have petitioned for a stay of execution with the same zeal as the opponents of the death penalty. Seven of nine eyewitnesses recant their testimony and it should be reiterated that eyewitness testimony was the only evidence used to convict Davis. How is this not reasonable doubt? Would the jury have convicted and sent this man to death on only the testimony of two people? We will never know. But that fact that we will never know should compel a proponent of the death penalty, if he really cares about justice, to oppose capital punishment in such cases.

Pay to Play

California Senator Dianne Feinstein, heroic veteran public servant, has decided to pony up $5 million of her own money to finance her reelection campaign.

There are a couple of ways to view this:

1. She is such a pure-hearted altruist that she is willing to deplete her life savings to increase her chances of saving the poor, stupid rubes from themselves. Not likely, although I'm sure she'll spin it that way at some point.

2. Her ego is so massive that the paltry sum of $5 million is required to service it every six years. More likely. Highly likely, I would wager.

3. She sees this as an investment and believes that she will recoup this amount, along with a substantial return, during or after her next term as senator. This is the most likely of the three, if my gut is correct.

Let's break it down:

Your average, garden variety senator earns $174,000 per year (Feinstein may make more, although I can't say since I am not so masochistic as to have bothered to look more deeply into the particulars of her, uh, career).

U.S. senators serve six-year terms.

The initial investment of $5 million works out to a little over $833,000 per year at the base senatorial pay rate.

To break even, she would have to recoup something $659,000, nearly four times her annual pay, every year of her term, or some other escalated value if we assume that her return is to be made after she leaves office and enters the vast, swirling maze of revolving doors that is the American Corporate-State Mega Hive.

Savvy investors seldom shoot to break even. This bitch thinks that she is going to rake in  a sum well over $5 million by serving another term as senator, on top of all the other fringe benefits that come from being an empowered sociapath toying with the lives of millions, billions of beastly schmucks to whom she is so obiously superior.

My apologies to fans fan of my posts (hi Redman!) for popping up only briefly enough to jot down this little snippet. I am jaded nearly to the point of suicide, and the only thing saving me now is Junior Lips, who wants to show me his trash trucks. Gotta run.

P.S. Sorry if my arithmetic is flawed, I am an electrical engineer by trade so math is not my strong suit. Suite? Soot? Neither is grammar, I guess.

Conservatives Are Not Pro-Life

They might be anti-abortion. But as soon as you are out the womb, God help you if you are a brown person in a foreign country or a black man on death row who might be innocent. Conservatives are the biggest proponents of the War on Terror, the War on Drugs, and the death penalty. While they argue that the Federal Government cannot manage health care or social security competently, they have no qualms condoning and advocating that this same Federal Government war incessantly in foreign countries, continue the war on drugs that escalates violence and brutality around the world, and dispense the ultimate penalty for crime even if there is reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the inmate. In fact conservatives cheered on Rick Perry who said that he "never struggled with" the idea that an executed inmate could have been innocent. The same Rick Perry who did all he could to hinder investigations into the execution of Todd Willingham who might have been innocent. I suppose there is no need to struggle with the idea of executing an innocent person if you do everything you can to keep the question of innocence from being answered, but I digress.

Conservatives have no sense of justice nor do they have any love or respect for their fellow man. They, like their liberal brethren, love violence, abhor peace, and want to see their will imposed on the world. Their problem with liberals is not that they support The Party of Death. Their problem with liberals is that liberals (generally) do not want to kill the same people they want to. Liberals want to kill people who do not "share" their wealth or refuse to worship the environment or will not buy health insurance. Conservatives want to kill Muslims, immigrants, and drug users.

Those of us who have taken the red pill are not deceived by conservative pro-life rhetoric. Conservatives love the State, they love its violence toward people whose lives they want to control. They do not care that people are dying in foreign countries thanks to the war on terror or the war on drugs, nor are they concerned that innocent people might be executed. As long as the State is working toward their goals, they will tolerate any body count to see their conservative utopia here on earth.

Peter Schiff Pwns Congress

Here's Peter Schiff testifying at Congress. These videos are both heroic and depressing. Herioc because Peter Schiff does his best to educate the blockheads in Congress. Depressing because the blockheads' faith in government's ability to solve the economic crisis that it caused is immutable.

Video 1

 

Video 2

 

When Did the NFL Become the TSA?

The first time I read this, I thought for sure it was from The Onion:

NEW YORK (AP)

The NFL says it has ''enhanced'' its pat-down procedure for fans entering stadiums to improve safety.

The league has asked all 32 teams to have stadium security search fans from the ankles to the knees. Previously, fans were patted down from the waist up for banned items such as alcohol and weapons.

Last week, a man was arrested for using an illegal stun gun at Sunday night's Dallas Cowboys-New York Jets game.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said Friday the ''enhanced security procedures'' are not a result of any specific threat, but the league is ''always refining and improving'' security.

He says the checks, which began before last week's season-opening games, will take longer, and encourages fans to arrive early.

This has every element we would expect from a TSA press release-an increase in security procedures as a reaction to one isolated incident, but at the same time not a result of any specific threat"; the request that all 32 NFL teams implement these measures rather than allowing each stadium to asses threats; boilerplate about "always refining and improving" security; and the admonition to arrive early to the stadium. It's bad enough dealing with the military lovefest that has become a regular feature of the game. Perhaps the NFL should ask soldiers to do these patdowns. Given the military idolatry of the average NFL fan, he might enjoy these soldiers "defending his freedom from terrorists" in person.

It's Probably a Good Idea Not to Wear Gold in Public Right Now

You probably shouldn't buy your gold at a store either. Find a good online dealer and have it mailed to you. You might get robbed otherwise:

The gold fever that has driven prices to an all-time high is also fueling a crime spree in the precious metal. Police nationwide are seeing an uptick in robberies and burglaries related to gold prices, which peaked at $1,891 an ounce last month, up more than $600 from a year earlier.

The FBI doesn't keep numbers for gold thefts but local police departments have plenty of anecdotal evidence of a spike. Dozens of women have had their necklaces snatched in daylight attacks, burglars are targeting gold in homes and robbers in New Jersey even cleared out a mining museum's irreplaceable collection of nuggets.

Just another of the myriad ways in which a government-controlled money supply contributes to the decivilization of society.

Poor Scarlett

Calling in the FBI to hunt for her nekkid photos when she can obviously afford to hire competent private detectives.

Then again, if anyone knows nudity it's the feds.

"Words I Never Said"

One of the best anti-U.S. Government hip hop tracks ever. The lyrics are below the video.

 

"Words I Never Said"
(feat. Skylar Grey)

[Skylar Grey]
It’s so loud Inside my head
With words that I should have said!
As I drown in my regrets
I can’t take back the words I never said
I can’t take back the words I never said

[Lupe Fiasco]
I really think the war on terror is a bunch of bullshit
Just a poor excuse for you to use up all your bullets
How much money does it take to really make a full clip
9/11 building 7 did they really pull it
Uhh, And a bunch of other cover ups
Your childs future was the first to go with budget cuts
If you think that hurts then, wait here comes the uppercut
The school was garbage in the first place, that's on the up and up
Keep you at the bottom but tease you with the uppercrust
You get it then they move it so you never keeping up enough
If you turn on TV all you see’s a bunch of “what the fucks”
Dude is dating so and so blabbering bout such and such
And that ain't Jersey Shore, homie that's the news
And these the same people that supposed to be telling us the truth
Limbaugh is a racist, Glenn Beck is a racist
Gaza strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t say shit
That's why I ain't vote for him, next one either
I’ma part of the problem, my problem is I’m peaceful
And I believe in the people.

[Skylar Grey]
It’s so loud inside my head
With words that I should have said!
As I drown in my regrets
I can’t take back the words I never said
I can’t take back the words I never said

[Lupe Fiasco - Verse 2]
Now you can say it ain't our fault if we never heard it
But if we know better than we probably deserve it
Jihad is not a holy war, wheres that in the worship?
Murdering is not Islam!
And you are not observant
And you are not a muslim
Israel don’t take my side cause look how far you’ve pushed them
Walk with me into the ghetto, this where all the Kush went
Complain about the liquor store but what you drinking liquor for?
Complain about the gloom but when’d you pick a broom up?
Just listening to Pac ain't gone make it stop
A rebel in your thoughts, ain't gon make it halt
If you don’t become an actor you’ll never be a factor
Pills with million side effects
Take em when the pains felt
Wash them down with Diet soda!
Killin off your brain cells
Crooked banks around the World
Would gladly give a loan today
So if you ever miss a payment
They can take your home away!

[Skylar Grey]
It’s so loud inside my head
With words that I should have said!
As I drown in my regrets
I can’t take back the words I never said, never said
I can’t take back the words I never said

[Lupe Fiasco - Verse 3]
I think that all the silence is worse than all the violence
Fear is such a weak emotion that's why I despise it
We scared of almost everything, afraid to even tell the truth
So scared of what you think of me, I’m scared of even telling you
Sometimes I’m like the only person I feel safe to tell it to
I’m locked inside a cell in me, I know that there’s a jail in you
Consider this your bailing out, so take a breath, inhale a few
My screams is finally getting free, my thoughts is finally yelling through

[Skylar Grey]
It’s so loud Inside my head
With words that I should have said!
As I drown in my regrets
I can’t take back the words I never said

No Need to Apologize, Soulja Boy

You simply cannot under any circumstances speak ill of our sainted military. Soulja Boy has recently gotten himself into trouble by calling out the military in his most recent track "Let's Be Real". He raps: "F**k the FBI and fuck all the army troops, fighting for what? Bitch, Be your own man..."  Unfortunately, Soulja Boy issued an apology for expressing his displeasure with the military and FBI. It might be too late to prevent a backlash as there is already a petition to ban sales of "Let's Be Real".

Rather than retreat, Soulja Boy should have listed his grievances against the military and FBI for I'm sure that they are legion. Doing so probably would not make him look better in the eyes of most Americans. We must remember that for most Americans, the State is their god and the military is part of its sainted priesthood. Nevertheless, doing so would have demonstrated backbone and at least compelled the State-worshippers to defend the violence of this anointed caste, which unfortunately State-worshippers are zealous to do.

Soulja Boy could learn a thing or two from fellow rapper Lupe Fiasco who rips the War on Terror and Obama in his latest track "Words I Never Said", calling Obama a "terrorist" and has not backed down.