Saturday, January 30, 2016

Obama's gonna visit a mosque

Get ready for another Obama lecture on the greatness of Islam.

The president has plans for a high profile mosque visit.

Obama didn't just pick any mosque.

He apparently found one with close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

One that also preaches against the sin of homosexuality.

Gays should have no place in society, says an imam imam there.

Daniel Greenfield writes:
Imam Yaseen Shaikh, its British-born resident scholar who appears to run its educational system, is not a fan of gays. But that won't stop Obama from paying his respects.  
During an hour long diatribe, Shaikh called homosexuality a psychological disorder that has no place in Islam or society. He also lamented that gay rights groups have “hijacked” political discourse.  
Much of what Yaseen Shaikh is generic enough. You can hear the same thing at a lot of churches and synagogues. But that would be enough to bring down liberal politically correct fury on them. Though Shaikh also repeatedly suggests that Muslims need to learn from gay groups how to advance their causes and how to make the unacceptable, seem acceptable. 
Imagine the outcry and push-back activism if a Republican were to make a high profile visit to a church known for outspoken "homophobic" advocacy.

Just some Caturday silliness



Oh-hoh-hoh-hoah, Oh-hoh-hoh-hoah.

Saw a kitty was fung fu fighting.

That cat was fast as lightning.

If fact, it was a little bit frightening, he did it with expert timing...

More hopey-changey utility tinkering

Georgia Power says it's gonna shut down more coal power.

Don't worry, solar panels will be entrusted to pick up the slack.

Or so Georgia Power seems to suggest.

How effective will solar panels be when we get those five, six or seven day streaks of cloud cover and rainy weather?

And when Georgia Power touts less capacity will be needed because of more efficient energy usage, I have to wonder if the decline in power consumption entirely due to more efficient devices.

I suspect at least some of the expected decline in power consumption is because the economy continues to falter, businesses may be cutting hours, and so much manufacturing has moved off-shore.

If American business ever wanted bring manufacturing back to America, would there be sufficient electricity to allow it?

Friday, January 29, 2016

How Trump's like Reagan... and Obama

Me:
Human nature is a funny thing. I'm watching people who've spent eight years attacking Obama, and vilifying his supporters as sheeple blindly following a false messiah who have now gone as deep into Trump worship as anything the Dems bubbled with for Obama.
My friend and podcast co-host Don responds:
Actually you are describing basic or default human nature very well. It is only in the West that the notion of critical thinking based on reason and logic using data, facts, and evidence ever emerged and took hold.  
The success of the leftist Gramscian great march has severely diminished the already small cohort of critical thinkers. The magic of men like Reagan and Trump is that they main line into the deep anxieties of the non-critical thinking/dumb masses who nevertheless lean right.
Let me add, not all my Trump supporting friends have ventured into what I consider "cult" status, but I've crossed paths with more than a few. There's a lot I like about what Trump's doing, Some things I don't.  Please see my comment, and the Bill Whittle video in the prior post.

Family feuds are counter productive

The Trump followers v Cruz follower feuds are stupid and short-sighted. Primitive tribalism. I miss the America that strived for critical thinking. No one candidate or tribe can alone "make America great again."

Wacky prof suspended

What finally made it happen?

Alumni donations dry up in 2015's 4th quarter?

"Finally, Mizzou suspends Melissa Click for attacking student."

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Too comfy

"The lesson of Chatham Island is that people who live in comfortable circumstances, for enough generations to forget the horrors of anarchy and total war, will often let down their guard to a fatal degree." - Matt Bracken, excerpted from a post at WRSA blog. Also posted at Gates of Vienna.

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Are we near the dawn of a new dark age?

I am encouraged by the present populist uprising in American politics, but I don't expect it to deliver a swift or stunning reversal of affairs. 

If successful, the populist revolution will displace the elites, or at least drastically diminish their grip on power.  Yet a populist uprising also holds potential to usher in deeper political clashes, perhaps even a sort of dark age until our civilization returns to basic, proven civics and discards the folly of political correctness.

In an online discussion, Don Dickinson responded to my assessment:
Dark ages are required for the same reason as recessions and depressions. 
Recessions and depressions are part of the normal business cycle. 
Dark ages are part of the normal social cycle. 
Populists are part of the normal cycle because they are the only ones who can form large groups in times of insanity. 
Artificially preventing either the business cycle or the social cycle for an extended time only insures that when nature again takes hold, the snap back to the mean will be more powerful than if nature had been allowed to take its course.
 The new dark age will be especially bleak as it will almost certainly involve Internet outages if not a complete collapse.

In previous dark ages, people at least retained knowledge of basic things like farming, how to start fires, or how to take a leak or take a dump in the woods if need be.

Few of this generation, at least in the U.S. (and in much of Europe), have ever had an interest in operating at a more basic level, and have increasingly abandoned skills of both the un-mechanized world as well as technologies formerly embraced in the analog one.

Seems like a decent topic to kick around on this Friday's Don and Doug webcast.


On a related note: Popularist party politics as assessed in cartoon, 1895:

Print shows three women cyclists labeled "Republican Party, Dem. Party, [and] Populist Party"; the Democrat has hit broken glass and ruined her front tire and the Populist is having a bumpy ride on the rocks along the side of the road; they cannot keep up with the Republican cyclist.
Source: Library of Congress


Odd grand jury action over those Planned Parenthood videos

Word came yesterday that a grand jury in Houston, Texas had indicted two anti-abortion activists in connection with undercover "sting" videos that apparently showed Planned Parenthood officials negotiating the sale of fetal organs and tissues.

TheFederalist.com notes:
According to a press release from the office of Harris County district attorney’s office which was provided to The Federalist, (David) Daleiden was charged with the purchase and sale of human organs, a misdemeanor, and with tampering with a governmental record, a felony. Sandra Merritt, one of Daleiden’s associates, was also charged with tampering with a governmental record.
TheFederalist.com also notes:
Lauren Reeder, one of the prosecutors in the Harris County district attorney’s office, revealed last August that she was a member of the board of directors for the Planned Parenthood affiliate that was targeted by Daleiden. 
This seems awfully strange.

Planned Parenthood gets absolved of wrongdoing, yet prosecutors in Houston apparently think they can convince a trial jury that the makers of anti-abortion videos were actually trafficking in fetal organs.

Prosecutors chose to pursue the alleged "purchaser," but in the eyes of the law there apparently was no seller. Did cash or other compensation exchange hands? Keep in mind, it was the activists who were the whistle blowers here, not Planned Parenthood.

And what's the "government record" that's allegedly been tampered with?

I'm also struck that the Republican district attorney in Harris County, currently an appointee serving out the remaining term of her deceased husband, faces an election contest this year. And Harris County is a Texas county that has been voting Democrat in recent years.

District Attorney Devon Anderson may be using her prosecutorial powers to pander to Democrat voters. And she seemingly chose to wait until after qualifying for the Republican primary had closed in timing this action by the Harris County grand jury.

Maybe Anderson thought herself clever by timing the indictment after primary qualifying had closed. But I can't see a local Republican establishment lining up behind this kind of legal chicanery. But then again, today's Republicans, even on the local level, may be just as morally corrupted as many who serve in Washington.

I'm thinking, come next January, Harris County's may have a Democrat DA.

Three Democrats have qualified for their party's March 1st primary.

More migrant savagery

15-year-old "unaccompanied migrant" reportedly slays female Swedish social worker at group home. 

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Drunk?

Red State may be showing its RINO colors again. I dunno. Whatcha think?

Following Sarah Palin's endorsement of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, a Red State headline declared:
Go Home, Sarah. You’re Drunk.

Red State is now owned by Salem Communications, same folks who offer up Hugh Hewitt's radio show, as well as others.

That said, I think most conservatives realize Palin's not the force for conservatism she once was. She's more of self-branded commodity now, and panders to keep her own franchise afloat.

By the way, did you see where Palin's grown son was arrested the night before the Trump endorsement? An apparent bout of drinking by Track Palin allegedly turned ugly, resulting in domestic violence charges. 

Note too, Palin is quick to blame military service for her son's bad behavior.

Sorry, Sarah. I'm not buying all you're trying to sell us right now.

---

As for presidential politics, I'm still split. seeing different sorts of value coming out of both the Trump and Ted Cruz campaigns.

I do wish Trump would lay off Cruz, there's a much bigger undecided electorate out there to be enticed. For Trump or Cruz to worry about snaring voters from each other's camp seems counter productive.

Stay hydrated

Among this week's awesome finds at thrift stores: Two Nalgene canteens, as well as a more typical Nalgene and Camelbak water bottle.  All in very good to excellent condition, each was priced at just 77 cents. Total outlay with tax: $3.26.

New retail would have been between eight and twelve dollars per unit, so there's considerable cost savings.

The Nalgene canteens are same size as USGI issue, so they fit inside traditional canteen covers. And the ones from Nalgene are transparent, so you can see how much water you have left, or if any funky stuff's gotten mixed in.

I also found a Columbia brand hiking jacket for one of my daughters. It too looks nearly new.

Lots of good stuff in the thrift stores right now. They're still burning off inventory from the crush of year-end donations. Lots of people give up good used stuff because they got something newer and better at Christmas to take its place.

Monday, January 18, 2016

Europe turned upside down. Or is it inside out?

"Here we may be witnessing the start of a remarkable reversal of Cold War alliances. Europe is again redividing into halves, but this time it is Eastern Europe that wants to draw closer to the U.S. because it increasingly doubts that NATO alone will be an effective defensive barrier against Russia. Meanwhile, the countries of Western Europe, worried about the tide of refugees and terrorist attacks at home, seek to draw closer to Russia (the Ukraine crisis notwithstanding) as a hedge against the chaos emanating from Syria." - Robert D. Kaplan, writing at the Wall Street Journal

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Update on gun rights activist Mike Vanderboegh

Mike Vanderboegh is in declining health.

Not sure we'd have ever heard about "Fast and Furious" and the guns it sent to Mexican drug cartels if it hadn't been for Mike.

David Codrea conveys Vanderboegh's health update, and makes a request:
Per Mike, the doctors have told him he is not long of this world. As we all know, his financial situation due to years of disability and devotion to the larger issue of self-sacrifice for freedom is terrible.  He is doing what he can to get his affairs in order, but the reality is, his wife will be left in really bad shape.  I would like to help with a funding appeal.
I looked at various "crowdfunding" sites, but there are hoops to jump through and/or  a cut they take. For now at least, in order to get the ball rolling and hopefully growing as it does, I'm asking all of Mike's friends to spread the word and to send gratitude offerings directly to him:
Paypal to  georgemason1776@aol.com*
Check, money order, cash, etc. to Mike Vanderboegh, PO Box 926, Pinson, AL 35126.**
More at Codrea's War on Guns blog.

Friday, January 15, 2016

Have bus, will travel...

Via Twitter:

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Yeah, posting's been scarce lately...

Haven't been online as much, therefore less frequent posting.  Hope to ramp things back up in the coming days.

I've been under a house, doing some crawlspace dampness remediation after the Christmas week rain storms. Moisture hadn't been much of a problem previously, but those heavy rains sure made some big messes in lots of people's basements and crawlspaces.  Our own house fared well thanks to an existing sump pit. A rental property we own, however did take in some water, so I re-excavated some old under-house drainage paths, and put a pump into what appears to have been a sump pit dug decades earlier.

We also installed some crawlspace ventilation fans with both humidity and temperature controls. The fans can be adjusted to come on when a humidity threshold is reached, but the units are designed to shut down if temps fall below 40 degrees. Last thing you want is for fans under a house to create windchill, thereby creating potential for frozen pipes.

I've also been collecting some additional cold weather outdoor wear, beating the bushes for bargains in thermals, wool outer wear, and other stuff I can wear hiking during the winter months and into the spring.

Bulky but warm, Korean War style M1951 military surplus cold weather wool trousers and shirts are readily available from multiple eBay and other online sellers right now. I'm talking "new old stock" surplus. Stuffs that's apparently been sitting in warehouses since it was made 30 or 40 years ago.

Old  style olive drab military wear blends well with civilian outdoor clothes; doesn't carry the tactical appearance of more contemporary camo patterns.

We probably don't get cold enough weather often enough in Georgia to fully justify heavy wool winter gear, but there's no harm done in picking up  piece or two for around 20 bucks a pop.  Having thermals and some woolly wear has let me fully enjoy some recent brisk walks during some recent subfreezing conditions.

Also found a set of "new with labels" ACUs in my size at a Goodwill this afternoon. Thirteen bucks for the set, so I snapped 'em up. I'm thinking they're "too military" for everyday wear, but if nothing else, they'll be great for crawling around under houses and doing other dirty outdoor jobs.

Clash of civilizations

A Polish public affairs program recently featured a pair of academics assessing the significance of  "migrant mobs" in Germany on New Year's Eve.

The guests were Dr Magdalena El Ghamari, an expert on terrorism from Białystok university and Dr Ryszard Żółtaniecki, a sociologist and former diplomat.

Among their comments:

Żółtaniecki:
...they(the mobs) were acting according to the rules which applied in their places of origin... (to them) these women are 'infidel bitches'...
 El Ghamari:
Due to the fact they do not behave according to Islamic or Arabic conventions, I don't want to target these groups, but we know the majority were Syrians, Algerians, Moroccans, Tunsians...
Żółtaniecki:
  ...this is the start of conflict between civilizations, the most brutal and drastic symptoms of which are still ahead of us. 
Video with subtitles (by American standards, very long lead-in to the program)

Friday, January 8, 2016

Who's doing the killing? People in Democrat controlled cities

At Sultan Knish, Daniel Greenfield notes:

Chicago, where Obama delivered his victory speech, has homicide numbers that match all of Japan and are higher than Spain, Poland and pre-war Syria. If Chicago gets any worse, it will find itself passing the number of murders for the entire country of Canada.

Chicago’s murder rate of 15.09 per 100,000 people looks nothing like the American 4.2 rate, but it does look like the murder rates in failed countries like Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe. To achieve Chicago’s murder rate, African countries usually have to experience a bloody genocidal civil war.

But Chicago isn’t even all that unique. Or the worst case scenario. That would be St. Louis with 50 murders for 100,000 people. If St Louis were a country, it would have the 4th highest murder rate in the world, beating out Jamaica, El Salvador and Rwanda.

Obama won St. Louis 82 to 16 percent. 
Factor out big cities run by Democrats, stats show America's not such a violent place.

"In the name of Islam"

Officials in Philly reportly say the suspect in the attempted murder of a Philadelphia murder confessed to the killing, saying he did it "in the name of Islam." 

Of course, Philly officials add an Obama-style disclaimer, saying the crime "had nothing to do with being a Muslim or the Islamic faith."

Seriously?

Who besides Muslims act in under the name of Islam?

No, it's not the NRA blocking more gun control. It's the American people.

The NRA has about 5 million members. That's not a lot when you consider how much political clout Obama and the Democrats claim the organisation has. Gun control advocates want you to think it's the NRA that drives resistance to more gun control. Fact is, about half the nation wants more gun rights, not more gun control. And research by Pew would indicate the numbers favoring gun control have fallen sharply in the past seven years. Perhaps this is because Democrats have overplayed their hand so badly.

Click here for an interactive chart showing results of Pew polling on the national divide between more gun rights versus more gun control.

Obama's gun salesmanship

My rough count shows 128 million firearm purchaser background checks since Obama came into office. That's more than one background check for every three persons residing in the U.S.

Yes, in some cases purchases were denied, or not completed for some other reason.

Some states may use the NCIS system to verify eligibility in processing concealed carry licensing.

On the other hand, some background checks may represent multiple purchases.

And in some states, additional background checks aren't done if the purchaser has been pre-screened as a concealed carry license holder.

If Obama wanted to limit guns in circulation, maybe he should've just kept his mouth shut.

Wasn't just Cologne experiencing "migrant mob" problems on New Year's Eve

"Asylum seekers" were raising hell in Helsinki as well.

Zurich too.


Thursday, January 7, 2016

Quote from Cologne

"I'm a Syrian! You have to treat me kindly! Mrs. Merkel invited me."

Same ol' same ol'

Obama plays off an old script.


Seems Obama thinks he has a right to bar arms.


ATF accepts the baton Obama handed it

And the agency may be on the verge of destroying what, if any, credibility it has left.

Via Twitter:


A couple of the responses:




Wednesday, January 6, 2016

The "paper" has a name

"I believe in the Second Amendment, it's there written on the paper."



Last I checked, that paper had a name. Why can't Obama acknowledge the Bill of Rights by name?

Obama's teary-eyed pitch may make little difference

It would appear Obama's highly touted move to close gun sale "loopholes" may be too vague to make much difference. 

Unless, of course, the intent is to simply create excuses to harass those chosen as targets by the bureaucratic and political establishment.

Another damning analysis. 

Of course, under loosey-goosey orders, Obama might dispatch ATF to function as goons at gun shows, harassing any and all who catch their eye on a particular day.

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Europe's women at risk

Cologne's mayor tells German women to alter their behavior.

Rather than blame mobs of migrant men who carried out waves of New Year's sexual assaults, the progressive pro-immigration mayor blames the city's victims. 

How bad will things be by next New Year's?

Will officials advise women to wear Burkas if they wish to remain unmolested?

Progressives dare not offend Muslims by suggesting they be at fault.

Still stuck on stupid

Republicans have reportedly chosen South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to deliver the party's response to Obama's State of the Union address. 

This would be the same Nikki Haley who was quick to dump South Carolina's display of the Confederate flag after demands from what appeared to be a a mostly Astroturf campaign by progressive activists last summer.

Same Nikki Haley who was rah-rah advocate for refugee resettlement in her state until polling and a flood of angry phone calls to her capitol office apparently caused a shift in her public position.

Why is it the Republican Party seems to have trouble finding anyone who is really opposed to key elements of Obama's final year agenda?

Open carry day, anyone?

Obama's making his move. Maybe it's time to counter him.

Maybe it's time for a mass open-carry protest. Not just on the state capitol steps, or other typical demonstration venues, but for one day, those inclined to make a statement, openly carry where lawfully allowed in the course of their days activities. No, it may not be suitable for all persons in all occupations in all locations, but I bet there's enough willing and able to get noticed. 

Any other ideas to publicly display our disgust for the current state of affairs, not only for a rogue president, but for a Congress full of Quislings which gives him a free pass?

Update from a "Blue State"

As Tweeted by a Washington Post staffer:


Face it, people are fed up with status quo politics.

Ted Cruz said what?

It's being reported by NBC News:
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Monday called for armed protesters who occupied a federal building in Oregon to "stand down peaceably.
"Every one of us has a constitutional right to protest, to speak our minds," Cruz told reporters in Iowa. "But we don't have a constitutional right to use force and violence and to threaten force and violence against others. So it is our hope that the protesters there will stand down peaceably, that there will not be a violent confrontation."
This is how politicians talk when they're following polls instead of the founding principles and the founders example.

Sometimes there are higher priorities than ending things "peacefully."

I'm not defending the particular group in Oregon group in question right now, but I do know Congress has failed to hold a rogue executive and federal bureaucracy in check. As a result, Obama's about to take extra-Constitutional power grabs to unprecedented new levels.

The excesses of government overreach wears on the patience of growing numbers of the American people.

Sooner or later, there's going to be some push-back. It's how the founders designed things to work.

Consider the words of Thomas Jefferson:

"I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."

Jefferson also wrote:

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is its natural manure."

If a president fails to practice constitutional restraint, and if the Congress and the courts fail to hold a renegade president to prescribed constitutional bounds, or tries to make excuses to justify the excess, each has lost its moral authority to dictate standards to the rest of us.


Just a single gun

Persons selling just one firearm may have to go through the rigors of obtaining an ATF license under Obama's rogue executive order action. 

Congress has held the power for years to hold this Constitution trampling president in check, but its members have refused to uphold their oaths of office.

Will Congress continue to allow the trampling?

To do so likely sets the stage for clashes between an increasingly tyrannical government and a people who hold fast to how the law of the land is supposed to work.

Not just London Bridge...

It appears all of London may fall as it's overrun by immigrants.

The Oregon standoff...

Not going to parse ideologies here, or attempt to give blow-by-blow accounts.

Other blogs appear to be doing a good job in that arena.

But there are also websites out there so thick in lunacy and wacko conspiracy theories, I've seen about everything short of claims the "militia" guys have alien spacecraft waiting in the wings to render assistance.

Here's an update from Twitchy.

Monday, January 4, 2016

About those guns...

Via Twitter:

Another record set

A record number of gun purchase background checks were conducted in 2015.

23,141,970.

Tops the record set previously in 2013.

Even better, take a look at the stats since 1999.

Seems to blow the Left's myth that masses of gun buyers are bypassing the background check system.

If anything, there's been crashes of the background check system during periods of peak purchase demand.

Foundations built on debt

"There’s really one supreme element of this story that you must keep in view at all times: a society (i.e. an economy + a polity = a political economy) based on debt that will never be paid back is certain to crack up. Its institutions will stop functioning. Its business activities will seize up. Its leaders will be demoralized. Its denizens will act up and act out. Its wealth will evaporate." - James Howard Kunstler, blogging at Kunstler.com

The rest of this week's post was hit and miss. But that opening graph should be well heeded.

Foundations built on mountains of debt are probably less stable than those built on sand.

Sunday, January 3, 2016

InterVarsity disappoints

Is this article accurate? If so, it's truly disappointing to see InterVarsity locking arms with a dubious social justice movement built on exaggerated or openly fabricated narratives.
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship is an evangelical college ministry that is no stranger to social justice movements. Still, it took a bold step when, at its yearly student missions conference, which concludes Thursday (Dec. 31), the group issued a full-throated, unapologetic call to support #BlackLivesMatter.
InterVarsity appears to be grasping in the wrong place for relevancy on campuses.

As for the #BlackLivesMatter narrative that there's a war of sorts being waged by police on young black men, statistical analysis clearly shows it to be based on something other than reality.

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Burglary in progress

Interesting walk with my wife yesterday.

Typical four mile trek through neighborhoods surrounding ours, but on a route we'd not walked before. Just working off some holiday meal calories.

About three miles in, we found ourselves smack-dab in front of an apparent two house burglary in progress that was spotted and interrupted by a neighbor.

Two perps ran right past us to their car, which almost t-boned an SUV as they backed out the driveway to make a getaway. At the same time, the lady neighbor came out shouting "Get the tag number, they broke into (name)'s house." While we were on the phone calling 911, a  third subject came running from behind the targeted homes.

Seeing his pals gone, he took off the other direction. What the hell, I gave foot chase. About two blocks in, the couple in the SUV also joined the pursuit. The suspect then cut into a yard and jumped a fence. I'd taken things far enough. No fence jumping for me.

Cops rolled up about a minute later, took my suspect description. Another officer in the suspect's direction of travel picked him up within minutes.  Suspect is currently in jail on a felony burglary charge.

Never intended to overtake the guy as I ran after him, just wanted to ascertain direction of travel, knowing police were enroute. Glad the dude got nabbed.

Maybe word will get out the neighborhood's not a soft target for burglary.