Tax and Spend

Ohio's already slow growth slowing. It's the taxes.

Negotiators reach deal on fiscal cliff. Naturally, no spending is cut. Taxes are raised on people making over $450 grand. Payroll taxes go up two percent, removing that temporary cut. So much for no tax hikes on the middle class. Congress must still pass it, but that is just a formality. Apparently we're all supposed to praise VP Biden for making this happen. Pfft. If it was all about Biden, why didn't he do it a month ago? The Senate passed the bill 89-8. Like I said, the vote was just a formality.

"House Speaker John Boehner, said in a statement after the agreement was announced last night. "Decisions about whether the House will seek to accept or promptly amend the measure will not be made until House members -- and the American people -- have been able to review the legislation." "

What a joke. Like the American people are going to review this deal on New Years Day during a bunch of big college bowl games. Tomorrow is the granddaddy of them all - the Rose Bowl - the Orange Bowl and four other big bowls. That's why this deal was announced tonight instead of last night. They wanted the American people to be distracted while the votes occurred.

"As the deal was not signed into law before midnight, the country has technically gone over the "cliff". However, unless the deal fails to clear Congress, any detrimental economic impact will be avoided, as language will likely be added to the final legislation that would make the agreement retroactive to midnight Jan. 1."

That would make it an ex post facto law which is illegal under the Constitution, but our rulers care nothing for the Constitution. The article contains a pretty good breakdown of the provisions of the bill.

Why our economic problems are not really about the debt.

Foreign Policy

Hillary Clinton has a blood clot in her head. The media is using this as proof she really was ill when she missed testifying on Benghazi. Ill or not, she could and should have testified.

A Russian military intelligence report claims that Clinton was injured in an airplane crash while on a secret mission to Iran three weeks ago and that is the real source of the serious of illnesses and injuries we've been hearing about.

"Important to note, GRU analysts say in this report, was that when the C-12 Huron entered into Iranian airspace neither American nor Iran air force units responded clearly indicating that this secret mission was sanctioned.
Upon the C-12 Huron landing at Ahwaz, however, this report says it encountered “extreme turbulence” causing it to leave the runway where its main landing gear then collapsed causing it to crash.
Within seconds of the C-12 Huron crashing, this report continues, Iranian emergency and security personal responded freeing the victims, including Secretary Clinton who was reportedly unconscious and “bleeding profusely.”
After emergency aid was given, GRU agents stationed in Iran state that another US military flight was dispatched from Bahrain to Ahwaz which evacuated all of those wounded and killed in the crash including Secretary Clinton."

I have no idea if this is true or it's been planted to boost her run for president in 2016. The current story that her illness makes her too fragile to testify before Congress would almost certainly keep her from winning if it was just poor health. This story makes her sound like hero. Maybe the Russians like her so they're giving her some cover.

"To what the Americans mission to Iran was about this report doesn’t speculate upon, other than to note that with the Gulf State Monarchies rapidly approaching a union of their oil rich nations to counter Iranian power, and with President Obama signing a new law this past week to strengthen American borders against threats from Iran, and with the highly-publicized “Velayat 91” Iranian military exercises now taking place across a wide area from the Strait of Hormuz, a new and catastrophic war in this region is much closer to being a reality than many realize."

Yikes.

This is an awful detailed description of Clinton's reported blood clot. It's apparently very rare. Maybe she got a blood clot from the plane crash. Or maybe she's just unhealthy. I don't know. Here it's called serious but treatable. This could be exaggerated to make her look tough. With the ubiquitous lies we endure every day, I can't determine one story that sounds more realistic than another at this time.

Global Warming and Energy

How to avoid damage from government's ethanol in gas.

The private investigator who discovered Obama's former EPA chief used an email alias forced her to resign.

Wonderful presentation of the skeptic's case against catastrophic anthropogenic global warming (CAGW). I would call this some skeptic's case because I'm a skeptic, and I have no position on the multiplier except that the frauds haven't proven their case for the 3x multiplier. The burden of proof is on them, and they fail every time, and they fudge data over and over and over to try to fool people into believing otherwise.

Progressive think tank recognizes nobody cares about global warming any more.

Police State

New documents show how the DHS and the FBI worked with big banks and local law enforcement to crush the Occupy movement nationally.

"The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, in a groundbreaking scoop that should once more shame major US media outlets (why are nonprofits now some of the only entities in America left breaking major civil liberties news?), filed this request. The document – reproduced here in an easily searchable format – shows a terrifying network of coordinated DHS, FBI, police, regional fusion center, and private-sector activity so completely merged into one another that the monstrous whole is, in fact, one entity: in some cases, bearing a single name, the Domestic Security Alliance Council. And it reveals this merged entity to have one centrally planned, locally executed mission. The documents, in short, show the cops and DHS working for and with banks to target, arrest, and politically disable peaceful American citizens."

If Guardian wants us to take this report seriously, it must acknowledge the Occupy protests were not peaceful.

"The documents, released after long delay in the week between Christmas and New Year, show a nationwide meta-plot unfolding in city after city in an Orwellian world: six American universities are sites where campus police funneled information about students involved with OWS to the FBI, with the administrations' knowledge (p51); banks sat down with FBI officials to pool information about OWS protesters harvested by private security; plans to crush Occupy events, planned for a month down the road, were made by the FBI – and offered to the representatives of the same organizations that the protests would target; and even threats of the assassination of OWS leaders by sniper fire – by whom? Where? – now remain redacted and undisclosed to those American citizens in danger, contrary to standard FBI practice to inform the person concerned when there is a threat against a political leader (p61)."

This shows what many of us have long said: the local police work for the so-called federal government, and corporations are nothing more than agencies of the federal government. There is no federal government any more. This is only a monstrous central government that controls all state and local governments and corporations.

"The documents show stunning range: in Denver, Colorado, that branch of the FBI and a "Bank Fraud Working Group" met in November 2011 – during the Occupy protests – to surveil the group. The Federal Reserve of Richmond, Virginia had its own private security surveilling Occupy Tampa and Tampa Veterans for Peace and passing privately-collected information on activists back to the Richmond FBI, which, in turn, categorized OWS activities under its "domestic terrorism" unit. The Anchorage, Alaska "terrorism task force" was watching Occupy Anchorage. The Jackson, Michigan "joint terrorism task force" was issuing a "counterterrorism preparedness alert" about the ill-organized grandmas and college sophomores in Occupy there. Also in Jackson, Michigan, the FBI and the "Bank Security Group" – multiple private banks – met to discuss the reaction to "National Bad Bank Sit-in Day" (the response was violent, as you may recall). The Virginia FBI sent that state's Occupy members' details to the Virginia terrorism fusion center. The Memphis FBI tracked OWS under its "joint terrorism task force" aegis, too. And so on, for over 100 pages."

Clearly the Occupy movement was not a terrorist organization, but neither was it peaceful. Occupation of the property of others cannot be peaceful, and violence was widespread across Occupy camps. But this exposes that all the government's anti-terrorist apparatus is really aimed at US citizens, not al Qaeda or other terrorists. It shows that the government is already waging war against Americans, and the purchase of over 1 billion rounds of ammunition by DHS and additional purchases of rounds by other agencies is preparation for that war heating up as the scales fall from the eyes of Americans. In other words, things are as bad as I've been saying all along.

"Why the huge push for counterterrorism "fusion centers", the DHS militarizing of police departments, and so on? It was never really about "the terrorists". It was not even about civil unrest. It was always about this moment, when vast crimes might be uncovered by citizens – it was always, that is to say, meant to be about you."

They got the summary right.

Because surveillance drives drone strikes, helping surveillance means helping kill people.

DHS sent a list of suspicious activities to hotel operators and told them to watch out because they might signal the customer is a terrorist. But people do all these activities. More evidence that the government security apparatus is targeted at us, not terrorists.

War

US backed Syrian rebels behead Christian.

""They beheaded him, cut him into pieces and fed him to the dogs," said Agnes-Mariam de la Croix, mother superior of the Monastery of St James the Mutilated between Damascus and Homs."

These are the kind of people government partners with.

Police State

DHS isn't just purchasing bullets.

"Along with these 450 million rounds of ammunition, DHS also purchased $400,000 worth of radiation protection pills and thousands of bullet-proof roadside checkpoint booths. Is it expecting a radiological event? (Or perhaps planning one?)"

Sounds like it's planning an event.

Police chief of small Arkansas town to declare martial law and take over the town.

Global Warming and Energy

Refutation of claim that 2012 drought was unusually bad.

IPCC draft report busted for hiding information that doesn't fit their claims.

What's up with that top stories for 2012.

Health Care

This article links mass murders to the poor, standard American diet.

Pesticides linked to bee die off.

Health Care

List of killers who were on government drugs.

Federal Reserve

Homeowners associations in Florida are threatening to foreclose on properties owned by banks because they fail to maintain them. That's ironic.

Politics

Talking heads often claim that Republicans can't get their message out or are bad at getting their message out. This is not true. This quote regarding a possible nominee for Defense Secretary proves it.

"Standard blogger Daniel Halper helpfully adds that a "top Republican Senate aide" said, "Send us Hagel, and we will make sure every American knows he is an anti-Semite." "

The Republicans can get any message they want to the people. The reason they don't send a different message than Democrats is they are in agreement with Democrats on pretty much everything.

Global Warming and Energy

Government was the real agent of destruction during and hurricane Sandy.

"Even with Hurricane Sandy, November 2012 marked the quietest long-term hurricane period since the Civil War, with only one major hurricane strike on the US mainland in seven years."

So much for the claims of extreme weather.

"While federal emergency teams struggled to get water, food and gasoline to victims, companies, religious groups, charities, local citizens and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie worked tirelessly to raise money and organize countless relief efforts."

The private sector produces. Government squanders.

"Most outrageous of all, though, was how ill-prepared the region was for another major storm – and how many political decisions had virtually ensured that any repeat of the 1893, 1938, 1944 and other storms would bring devastation far worse than would likely have occurred in the absence of those decisions."

This is the decivilizing effect of government.

"No wonder, Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Cuomo and other politicos prefer to talk about global warming, rising seas and worsening weather – to deflect attention and blame from decisions that have put more people in the path of greater danger. Indeed, the very notion of packing more and more people into “sustainable, energy-efficient” coastal cities in the NY-NJ area is itself madness on steroids."

It buys votes.

Measurements of temperature and forcing factors show the atmosphere is not nearly as sensitive to CO2 as the frauds claim.

Tax and Spend

I don't want to break my arm patting myself on the back before my chickens have hatched, if you don't mind me mixing metaphors, but Washington politicians are reportedly ready to kiss up to their plutocrat enablers by approving a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff.

Police State

Private drones expose company for pouring pig blood into river. When did it become illegal to pour pig blood into a river? Why did that become illegal?

List of airports and their cancer causing irradiation machines. I know people think they have to fly, but humans lived for millions of years without flying. Just say no.

Regulation

Pirate radio station jams keyless electronics in Florida. So much for the FCC preventing radio pirating.

Government regulation empowers ISPs to collude.

Please explain to me why the FCC has any say in airline internet? The word illegitimate comes to mind.

Global Warming and Energy

A group of climate scientists has published an open letter to the EPA declaring their claim that CO2 is a pollutant is based on faulty science.

Snow takes out power lines in Arkansas.

Right to Keep and Bear Arms

I like the idea of all gun control advocates prominently displaying "Gun Free Zone" signs on their houses.

Health Care

Men's Health covers the paleo diet. It's quickly becoming mainstream, causing panic in the government, pharmaceutical, medical and food establishment.

War on Drugs

St. Paul banned candy cigarettes.

Big Pharma is trying to co-opt THC so it can charge huge prices for what would otherwise be a cheap drug.

"ElSohly and his team at Ole Miss are working on a new method of administering THC, the main therapeutic component in marijuana. They hope the new approach will decrease some of the unwanted psychological effects and offer a safer way to attain the therapeutic effects of pot, without having to inhale smoke.
"What we are working on right now is a transmucosal — a small patch that will be put inside the mouth above the gum line. We have support from the National Institute of Health and also from my private lab," he said. "We've concluded the first couple phases, and we are working on releasing it soon with a pharmaceutical partner.""

This is an interesting twist on the narrative. Now all the sudden marijuana is good for you, but only if you don't smoke it.

""We have five generations of lies and misinformation keeping us incapable of rendering rational decisions as individuals, or as a nation, on this issue," she said."

The most insightful comment in the article comes from the person using marijuana.

Local

Students who study online do better than those in the classroom, though this article uses different terms to explain that.

"The study found that students who took all or part of their instruction online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through face-to-face instruction. Further, those who took blended courses appeared to do best of all, according to the study."

And of course having two sources, even if one is a government school teacher, is better than one because that presents alternative viewpoints that spark independent thinking.

Local prison school inmates perform slightly less badly than the state average. That's like saying that local prisoners are slightly less likely to kill people once they are let free than others around the state. Whooptedo.

Government prohibitionists are using the coercive power of government to shut down liquor licenses. This means a black market in liquor is growing. We know how that worked in the 1920s, but government doesn't care about that. All it cares about is stealing our money.

War

First Iraq war general Norman Schwartzkopf died.

War on Drugs

The war on drugs is such a massive failure the government can't stop drug cartels from growing pot in national forests.

"Though drug trafficking was first detected on federal lands in the mid-1990s, the activity has since spread to 20 states and 67 national forests. Traffickers are planting illicit crops on public land, destroying and defiling pristine wilderness while creating risks for hunters and other parkgoers."

This would be hilarious if prohibition wasn't so deadly. The Keystone Kops were never this incompetent. But it's really not incompetence. It's corruption.

Local

Government regulators waste $40,000 of Scene 75's money with bogus complaint about fire alarm. The owner must not donate to politicians.

Federal Reserve

Swedish bankers cite global warming as a reason they are removing cash from society.

Tax and Spend

The House is going to reconvene on Sunday to pass whatever the Senate has already passed to avoid the fiscal cliff, even though all tax bills are required to originate in the House. I like this part:

"President Barack Obama telephoned House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) late Wednesday during his vacation in Hawaii "to receive an update on the ongoing fiscal negotiations," White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said."

Obama isn't even involved. He isn't even pretending to care. All the plutocrats need from him is his pen. Too funny. This is an important little fact buried deep in the article:

"Meanwhile, the Treasury Department said Wednesday the government would hit its legal borrowing limit by Monday, setting in motion emergency measures to keep the government operating for several more weeks and serving as a reminder that the nation's budget wrangling could continue well into 2013."

Not to long ago talking heads claimed the government would hit the debt limit in February. I guess everybody got that wrong too.

Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Politicians constantly tell us that government has to do more to help the needy, insinuating individuals don't do enough to help them. But people in Newtown, Connecticut are overwhelmed with gifts, and they're asking people to stop sending them.

Woman pushes man to his death under a train. Let's ban trains.

Global Warming and Energy

Head of EPA resigns. She's famous for using fake email accounts to keep secrets.

Climate change drives evolution. Scientists are often adept at discovering the obvious.

Health Care

Bangladesh suffers worse avian flu outbreak in five years. The CDC will use this to try and scare people in the US.

Police State

Consequences of drones in the US.

Airlines to tie discounts to the surrender of personal information.

Global Warming and Energy

It's a cool, white Christmas. Two-thirds of the US is covered in snow. Where are the global warming alarmists now?

As I suspected, Obama plans to make a big push for global warming regulations in 2013. Kerry's nomination as Secretary of State supports this.

"With the possible exception of former Vice President Al Gore, Senator Kerry has been the most fervent climate hawk in the United States Congress."

Boehner will give them pretty much everything they want.

Christmas tornadoes in the south are not uncommon. Includes a list.

Local

A former prosecutor is acquitted of leaving the scene of a crash that killed a man even though he did run over and kill a man without stopping in Springfield after driving home from a party in Columbus. He claimed he thought he hit a pothole. Note that the defense intelligently tried this before the judge, not a jury.

"Kessler said the state didn’t prove Berry knew he struck Pierce."

How well do think that defense would work for you or me? This is another example proving the law does not apply to our rulers.

"“This was a horrible ordeal for a man who has done a lot for this community ... The outcome was a just verdict,” Carter said."

Of course. Government employees do a lot for our communities so the law should be different for them.

"The attorneys Berry called, John Butz and Mayhall, were at the party in Columbus and represented Berry for months before quitting the case because they were potential witnesses.
Mayhall, who hosted the party, testified that Berry cooperated with authorities and turned over his vehicle, only removing law books before the car was confiscated by authorities."

Right. Do you think the cops would allow you to remove items from the car before confiscating it?

"The bumper of Berry’s vehicle was heavily damaged, the wheel well liner above the right tire had been ripped off and was recovered at the scene, and blood and human tissue was found on his car.
A Wayside Tavern surveillance camera recorded the crash, which was played in court.
The video showed Pierce, who had cocaine in his urine and a blood-alcohol level of 0.31, stumble into Springfield-Xenia Road and Berry’s vehicle slam into him as Pierce tried to get up.
The vehicle raised up and then crashed to the ground, creating sparks and leaving tire marks and scratches on the asphalt.
Berry testified he was trying to time the traffic light in front of him when the collision occurred. He never applied his brakes, the video shows.
“Mr. Berry’s testimony is that he didn’t see him and you have to believe him,” Smith said in closing arguments."

No he didn't have to believe him because his story defies credibility.

"An unidentified relative of Pierce said as she left the courtroom enraged:
“I knew it. We all knew he was going to get away with it. We have two sets of laws around here. One for them and one for us. He knew what he did.”"

It sounds that way to me too. There's another interesting twist to this article. The original story I read claimed the former prosecutor was drunk. That's not even mentioned in the full article on the story. It seems more likely the drunk former prosecutor ran over the man then, knowing exactly how to game the system, raced home to sober up so he wouldn't be charged with vehicle manslaughter.

Tax and Spend

The Defense Department won't lay off workers right away if no deal is reached regarding the fiscal cliff. This is the first real sign I've seen that a deal might not get done. The whole point of doing a deal is keep from laying off workers.

Residents of Georgia take care of the needy with much more charitable giving than Maine, which uses confiscation and welfare. This is a good thing, not a bad thing.

Economy

John Stossel makes a great point that charity begins with wealth creation.

Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Petitioners request the US government to deport Piers Morgan for his comments deriding gun owners. UK petitioners request the UK prevent him from coming back. How funny.

"British Citizen and CNN television host Piers Morgan is engaged in a hostile attack against the U.S. Constitution by targeting the Second Amendment,” the petition to the Obama administration reads. “We demand that Mr. Morgan be deported immediately for his effort to undermine the Bill of Rights and for exploiting his position as a national network television host to stage attacks against the rights of American citizens."

Makes sense to me.

Charles Krauthammer advocates gun control. He does so again.

UK doctors want to ban long kitchen knives. I doubt this is a joke.

Police State

The Justice Department imprisons hundreds of people even though the courts found them innocent.

Regulation

Two ways copyright undermines property rights with the first sale doctrine and the court cases pending on them. This is another example of the myriad ways in which government creates conflicts.

Right to Keep and Bear Arms

The firefighter killer used the same gun to kill the firefighters as the killer in Connecticut used to shoot the students and teachers. It's a popular rifle, so that's not too surprising, but it's very convenient for the gun banners.

"They were immediately greeted by bullets from Spengler, who wore dark clothing. "

Dark clothing is to make the guy seem scarier. Maybe opportunists will call to ban dark clothing.

War

The Afghan police woman who shot an American civilian advisor is actually an Iranian national. This will be used as propaganda for war against Iran.

Health Care

Extreme endurance cardio, another fad pushed by the government, does more harm than good.

More on the genetically engineered salmon.

"If it is now given final approval, the fish will be the first GM animal to hit supermarket shelves anywhere in the world - and in the U.S. they may not even be labelled as modified."
"Their two extra genes make the fish grow twice as fast as normal Atlantic salmon and supporters say it could make land-based fish farms much easier and cheaper to run."

I wonder how many generations of tests they've run.

Global Warming and Energy

Doha delegates surprised to learn global warming has stopped for 16 years.

"Precisely because journalists no longer bother to provide the inconvenient truth to their audiences, and because they are no longer willing even to provide the people with the straightforward facts without which democracy itself cannot function, the depressingly ill-informed and scientifically-illiterate delegates in Doha can be forgiven for not having known that global warming stopped a long while back.
That is why they should have been excited and delighted when they heard the news – nearly all of them for the very first time.
But this was the alternative reality that is the corrupt, self-serving U.N. Howls, hoots and hollers of dismay and fury greeted my short, polite announcement. This absurdly inappropriate reaction raises a fascinating question.
How are we to dig a rat-hole wide enough to allow the useful idiots and true-believers to escape as each passing year makes it more and more obvious that their fatuous credo has all the plausibility of the now somewhat discredited notion that the world was to be snuffed out at this year’s winter solstice?"

Naturally they were rooting for more warming because they know the warming doesn't hurt them, but it provides another excuse to steal our money.

EPA orders E15 to gas pumps.

"'We've force fed a fuel into every American's car that benefits a few thousand corn farmers and ethanol refiners at the expense of virtually every other American,' says Scott Faber."

Lovely.

Oil article blames rising oil prices on Obama cutting his vacation short. This claims seems to be based on futures traders believing that Obama coming back early means that a fiscal cliff deal is imminent, which is supposedly good for the economy and will lead to greater demand for oil.

War on Drugs

On the one hand, government bans natural drugs that have been used as pain killers and for recreational use for millennia. On the other hand, government's doctors force feed people including children on dangerous, legal, drugs produced by Big Pharma.

"More than 15,000 Americans now die annually after overdosing on prescription painkillers called opioids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—more than from heroin, cocaine and all other illegal drugs combined

Rising opioid abuse means that drug overdoses are now the single largest cause of accidental death in America. They surpassed traffic accidents in 2009, the most recent CDC data available."

As with every government policy, the war drugs and government's control of health care are both counter productive.

Local

The government wants to spend more of your money stealing and destroying more property next year.

Health Care

Now the government wants to force GM salmon on us.

Misc

Praise for Ebenezer Scrooge. It's well done in Dickensian style, which means it's also way too long.

Layaway angels provide gifts to families. Have you ever heard of government doing this? Of course not. Politicians never give anything away without getting a kickback. Furthermore, buying gifts for others with stolen money is immoral in any circumstance.

Tax and Spend

NASA wants to capture an asteroid between the earth moon. I want to privatize NASA.

Right to Keep and Bear Arms

The evolution of the legal right to keep and bear arms.

"For as long as the Americans would stay in decentralized units, firing from a distance into the organized troops of the British, the British could not extend military control, and therefore political control, over the Americans. The Americans kept fighting until British taxpayers grew weary of funding the war, and until the French, during one 30-day period, provided the naval support to block the British Navy from resupplying Cornwallis's Army. George Washington got the credit, as did the centralized army under his command, but it was the militia that had kept the British at bay for the previous five years.
Americans fully understood this when the leaders wrote the Bill of Rights in 1790. This is why the Second Amendment was inserted into the Constitution. The voters understood that it was their ability to fight any organized army, through the organization of the militia, which was basic to their concept of citizenship. It was the citizen warrior, armed with a rifle that was every bit as good as that possessed by members of the Army, who was perceived as possessing final political sovereignty. The whole concept of "we the people," which introduced the Constitution, rested on the well-known ability of the American citizen warrior to grab his rifle and fight."

Well explained.

"From the end of the Civil War until today, nations have been committed to what is sometimes called second-generation warfare. These are armies, navies, and air forces that can assemble massed firepower, using highly precise and very expensive weapons. These military units no longer can consistently defeat guerrilla movements on the ground. Fourth-generation warfare, meaning guerrilla warfare, is now reestablishing the sovereignty of the common man. Vietnam is the obvious case, but Afghanistan certainly qualifies. In the case of Afghanistan, the common man has always had the advantage. Nobody has been able to conquer Afghanistan for more than a few years. This goes back to Alexander the Great. The topography of the nation, and the commitment of its men to fight to the bitter end, meaning the bitter end of the invaders, has been such that these people have not been defeated.
The one Western European nation that fully understands this is Switzerland. Every Swiss male up the age of 60 is expected to serve in the military. Every Swiss male who serves in the military is expected to master the use of the rifle. It is a matter of honor to be a good rifleman in Switzerland. Bankers in their 50s compete against clerks in their 20s as marksmen. This has been true for five centuries. This is a nation of citizen warriors. It is a nation with a very weak central government, the weakest in the modern industrial world. The presidency is a symbolic office, and it is held on a rotation basis, with only one year as its term. Yet the nation's army can be mobilized in a matter of days. Switzerland has the longest history of political freedom of any continental European nation." 

This is good article. It should be taught to every student.

"In effect, the gun-control advocate is rather like a medieval knight in the 15th century. He resents the fact that weapons are becoming cheaper, and that the common man who joins the Army becomes a threat to his social class, and therefore to his social standing. He resents the fact that his weapons no longer give him a monopoly of violence. Weapons have come onto the market, and these weapons can be used effectively by commoners who do not spend decades of training in their use."

People in power don't like the idea that serfs can resist that power. 

Gunman shoots four fire fighters, killing two, at blaze in Rochester, New York. That's nuts. The only people who benefit from this are gun control advocates.

People often make the argument that gun registration harms no one. This interactive graphic showing all people with gun permits in Westchester and Rockland counties proves otherwise. What is this paper thinking? They're providing valuable information to criminals and to activists. This will increase crime and violence. 

Defense of the right to keep and bear arms for the mentally ill. First off, since the government - the doctors it licenses and controls through regulations - defines who is or is not mentally, the process is corrupt from the beginning. The government can define anybody it wants to be mentally ill in order to disarm him, remove him from society or torture him. Furthermore, people who really are mentally deficient have the same need to defend themselves from government and others as everybody else. Of course we don't want weapons in the hands of evil people like the Connecticut shooter, but nobody is capable of making that determine in advance, least of all government because it is an evil institution.

Global Warming and Energy

Even the IPCC has been forced to admit that hurricanes a likely to be reduced with global warming, although they buried the admission.

AGW supporter calls for death sentences for skeptics.

Article explains that government and special interests left the Jersey Shore vulnerable to a hurricane, but the implication is that higher government should have been in control to prepare for a storm like Sandy.  The reality is this is another problem created by government interference in the form of subsidies for flood insurance along coasts.

War

Afghan police woman shoots American civilian advisor dead.

Washington power couple demand we stay in Afghanistan longer. This article is clueless, not the Kagans.

"But the op-ed also demonstrates that the Kagans continue to be clueless over the question they raise in their title: “why” we Americans are in Afghanistan at all and they fail to demonstrate any understanding of how outside forces can impact on a limited military presence’s viability in a foreign land."

They're not mistaken at all. They know we are in Afghanistan to enrich them, their cronies, thousands of military suppliers and corporations who will ultimately control Afghanistan's oil and mineral wealth at below market price because US props up a puppet government in Afghanistan. It's the people who think we are in Afghanistan for other reasons, like terrorism or patriotism, who are clueless.

"They make the same mistakes in their predictions of the likely course of developments as they did regarding Iraq. Like the Iraqis, the Afghans will have a say in their future and might not like the idea of continuing to grant legal immunity to a foreign occupying force. Nor does it appear that the perpetually rebuilding Afghan army will ever be battle ready, meaning that the American soldiers will become trapped in their bases, hostages to Afghan internal politics. Like it or not local sentiment does matter, even to a superpower, and it can serve to derail the best laid plans of the Kagans and Joint Chiefs of Staff."

This is accurate, except they aren't mistakes. They're lies. The Kagans know it. The Bush-Obama administration knows it. The brass knows it. They just don't care. Their goals have nothing to do with nation-building, terrorism, al Qaeda or national security. They're goal is to control Afghanistan's oil and mineral wealth at below market prices. War is a racket.

"And what of the terrorist threat itself? By the government’s own reckoning in its annual report on global terrorism, the al-Qaeda remnant in Afghanistan-Pakistan is a spent force that has been largely decapitated, suffers from poor morale and is only locally and intermittently funded. Al-Qaeda affiliated groups in places like Yemen and the Maghreb are far more formidable, but even including the threat they pose the Obama Administration is reported to be considering an end to the military-based approach against them that has been in place since 2001, replacing it with conventional intelligence and law enforcement. So why maintain the equivalent of two U.S. Army divisions in an unstable country where the local populace is far from friendly just to “fight against” a threat that approaches insignificance. Obviously there is no reason to do so."

Of course there is a reason: to further enrich the plutocrats.This is the second article attacking the Kagans I've read in a week. It sounds like somebody with more power is trying to oust them.

Global Warming and Energy

The feds are cutting the subsidy for wind power. About time.

Misc

The discovery of the Higgs Boson is the biggest story of the year this year, but I bet as time goes by, doubt will be cast on this discovery.

Health Care

Squeezing breasts can stop breast cancer. I volunteer.

Police State

NSA targeting domestic computer systems in its Perfect Citizen program. Who does make these names up?

War

Syrian airstrike on bakery kills 60.

"Many of the wounded were in critical condition, it said. "In Halfaya, regime forces bombarded a bakery and committed a massacre that killed dozens of people, including women and children, and wounded many others," said the Local Coordination Committees, a grassroots network of activists.

"A MiG (jet) has attacked! Look at (President Bashar al-) Assad's weapons. Look, world, look at the Halfaya massacre," says an unidentified cameraman shooting an amateur video distributed by the Observatory.

The footage showed a bombed one-storey block and a crater in the road."

I'm skeptical. That's awfully convenient for western forces. Now the victims were in a bread line. I bet this was a terrorist attack that's being blamed on an air strike.

Media

Not only does the media sensationalize mass shootings, it covers up defensive uses of firearms to advance the pro-government, gun control agenda.

More criticism of the media.

"The victims of killer Adam Lanza have become a sideshow in the nation’s pornography of grief. Tragedy is denuded of any dignity, reduced to a showy public affair to be managed by the Managerial State’s media and medical lapdogs."

This is to cover up government failure. It's to delude people back into a false sense of security. Did you see all the FBI and ATF jackets shown over and over? The constant message is government is in control and taking care of the problem in direct contrast to the reality of spectacular government failure.

"When a person does something ghastly, psychiatry concludes, post hoc, that he has ceased being a morally responsible agent, and herewith acquired a disease. Do we ever seek chemical causes for positive and extraordinary actions? No. As the benefactor of mankind does good things, we attribute his actions to choice. As a murderer like Adam Lanza perpetrated evil, we attribute his deeds to causes: to a diseased mind or an inattentive mother."

True.

"Since a killer is never evil, only ill – it is assumed that with government imprimatur, the modern-day witch doctor and his potions can exorcise that evil, for evil is, after all, a manifestation of organic disease. Just like cancer. (Not!)"

LaPierre was advancing this same nonsense when he called for a database of mentally ill people. At least he did blame government policies, but then he called for more of them.

Police State

Former TSA screener has a blog lambasting the TSA. The current article claims he received 150 emails from passengers and screeners last night alone.

Politics

Some Republicans are trying to oust Boehner.

"Boehner is now facing efforts to oust him for his love of tax hikes and utter disregard for anything even approaching fiscal responsibility. Boehner is following the Romney school of politics: relentless and unprincipled selling-out coupled with sheer political incompetence."

Good luck.

This is quite an understatement from Pat Buchanan, especially following the Republican record he lists before.

"Point of this recitation: Republicans may talk of reducing the size of government, cutting taxes and balancing budgets. But the history of the last century suggests the party has been driven into what may be described as an inexorable long retreat."

Long retreat? Why not just say Republicans are liars when they talk about reducing the size of government?

Economy

Ohio's official unemployment rate has dropped from 8.1 percent last November to 6.8 percent this November.

Local

Beavercreek politicians want an income tax so they can steal more money from residents. Just say no.

Kettering politicians funded effort to block an ordinance that set term limits and cut their pay. Imagine that. Tax dollars we being used against tax payers.

Tax and Spend

Boehner's failure to steal our money with "Plan B" is a disaster in the same way every other thief who got caught was a disaster. At least it looks that way. If we could we could believe our eyes, Boehner would be ousted. But this is a charade. A week from now, when Republicans and Democrats join hands and sing Kumbaya while stealing more of our money to avoid the phony fiscal cliff, the media will call Boehner a hero for selling out the American people.

There's some succinct information in this interview.

"People can't just sit at home because they lack confidence; they'd starve. They have to work, create, build, invest – deploy their capital, whether that be financial, intellectual, or the simple time they can sell to employers. The alternative is dissipation and eventually death.
If the economy isn't growing, it's not because the government isn't spending enough to "stimulate" it. Government spending comes from: taxation, which is a burden on the economy; borrowing, which is a future burden on the economy; or printing money – inflation – which is an especially dishonest, hidden form of taxation makes people think they're richer while they're being impoverished.
No. If the economy isn't growing, it's because the government has burdened it with heavy taxation, smothered it with excessive regulation, distorted it with false information (the Fed's manipulation of interest rates), and replaced real money – gold – with paper."

And this is ominous.

"Government bonds are my leading example of this – a triple threat to your wealth, as we've said before. They're the world's biggest bubble. You also have to understand that as governments get more desperate, they will become more dangerous, so you have to diversify your assets and your lifestyle internationally. That's not new either, but I know from past experience that few people will take action; and it's a shame, because while you may survive your government treating you like a milk cow, things change considerably when it decides to treat you like a beef cow."

That's really scary in light of Barbara Boxer's desire to put National Guard troops at schools. This makes it easier for the government to threaten your children and use them against you.

War

UN approves African force to fight al Qaeda in Mali. I thought al Qaeda was wiped out. What the article doesn't say is the US is already training forces in Mali, and those forces overthrew the civilian government. This is another US proxy war.

"Militant Islamists, led by Ansar Din, first joined the Tuareg fighters, but then pushed them out, seizing the fabled city of Timbuktu. These angry Islamists set about destroying ancient tombs of assorted local saints, producing huge indignation from westerners who could not find Timbuktu on a map if their lives depended on it. Orthodox Muslims denounce worship of saints as blasphemy and idolatry.
Western media immediately branded Ansar Din "linked to al-Qaida" without any real proof. These days, anyone we don’t like is "linked to al-Qaida," a tiny groups that barely exists any more. However, lurking behind the next sand dune may be Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, a small, violent anti-western movement from Algeria that has nothing to do with the original al-Qaida but expropriated its name.
A French-backed UN Security Council vote for military intervention in Mali to oust the rebels is imminent. France wants the West African economic group ECOWAS to lead the charge. But this is merely the kind of "coalition" fig-leaf favored by the US in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. Any real fighting and transport will be done by French military units from Europe or bases in central Africa and Chad. And, of course, the Legion.
Washington has a different plan. The US wants to follow the model it is using to fight Somalia’s Shebab movement. In the last four years, the US has spent some $600 million to rent an African proxy force of 20,000 Ugandan, Ethiopian and Kenyan soldiers to invade Somalia and battle Shebab.
Washington plans a similar strategy in Mali, led by its sexy new star, Africa Command. Nigeria is expected to play a key role; Morocco and Algeria may contribute troops.
All this seems like a lot of effort to combat a bunch of Saharan tribesmen and trouble-makers in pickup trucks in a place whose main city, Timbuktu, is a synonym for remoteness and obscurity. No matter. The US and French media are dutifully raising alarms about the "Islamic threat" from deepest Sahara – in part to distract from domestic economic woes."

Now the US wants to wage war in Timbuktu. You can't make this stuff up.

Right to Keep and Bear Arms

NRA calls for more government control of our lives. It wants armed guards in schools, presumably government employees, and it wants a national database of mentally ill people. He also blamed movies and video games. These are stupid ideas. The NRA should have reached out to teachers and school administrators by offering them discounts to join and to obtain concealed carry permits. It should have asked teachers to help overturn gun control laws that disarm them and make them and their students easy victims for killers.

Misc

Study claims human hands evolved for punching. That seemingly flies in the face of the evolution of our big brains. Did they evolve for fighting too?

Police State

One of the conditions for a police state is when citizens have no recourse against abuse by the government. A federal court dismissed a suit filed by Duke Lacrosse players against the city of Durham and its police department. Suits against individuals may go forward, but the government absolves itself from any wrongdoing.

War on Drugs

Here's a bizarre case from Japan. A guy has been arrested because he founded and owned a forum on which one post allegedly mentioned drugs.

"Nishimura will be charged with abetting drug dealing. However, some twitter users have pointed out that the statute of limitations for the drug law in question is 3 years, and Nishimura sold 2channel more than 3 years ago."

This sounds more like political payback than anything.

Health Care

Antibiotic use for feed animals is breeding bugs immune to antibiotics. Antibiotic use will create the next plague.

Environmental toxins blamed for early puberty.

Tax and Spend

Boehner's grand plan to shame Obama backfired when he fails to get enough votes to pass his plan. Somebody please fire this guy. Naturally Republicans voted to re-instate the spending because they get rich off the spending, but they wouldn't vote to raise taxes. That's because they don't benefit from taxes, and taxes are really meaningless because it doesn't matter whether spending is paid for through direct taxes or indirectly by the Fed printing money. I said all along this is political theater, and Boehner just screwed up his role badly.

Here's some good propaganda:

"The vote on “Plan B” was perhaps the most consequential test of Boehner’s leadership since he took control of the House early last year. Persuading a majority of Republicans to cast a politically treacherous vote to permit higher taxes could have enhanced his leverage with President Obama in future talks to secure a broad plan to rein in the national debt, Republicans said. "

If Boehner had convinced Republicans to bow down and kiss Obama's ring, then Obama would have worked with him. What a joke. The other joke here is that Republicans are revolting. Nearly 200 Republicans supported this travesty, so don't tell me about Republicans are revolting and working to cut taxes and spending. A handful of Republicans revolted. Whether this bill passed or not, like the best theater, this is just ratcheting up the tension before the final, bipartisan deal gets done at the eleventh hour.

Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Boortz claims the reason the mall shooter in Portland killed himself was a customer pulled a concealed weapon on him. I hadn't heard this reported, but this is the kind of thing the media covers up. Here's the story.

"The break in gunfire allowed Meli to pull out his own gun, but he never took his eyes off the shooter.
"As I was going down to pull, I saw someone in the back of the Charlotte move, and I knew if I fired and missed, I could hit them," he said.
Meli took cover inside a nearby store.  He never pulled the trigger.  He stands by that decision.
"I'm not beating myself up cause I didn't shoot him," said Meli.  "I know after he saw me, I think the last shot he fired was the one he used on himself.""

Funny how this never made it into the mainstream media. Sure enough a search of Google News shows no mainstream media coverage of this story.

More info on the benefits of the right to keep and bear arms.

"Lott points out that in 1985, only eight states had right-to-carry laws — laws that allow a person to automatically get a permit, provided he passes a background check and completed a training course. Today there are forty states that have some version of these laws. Lott's examination of the data showed that "from 1977 to 1999, states that adopted right-to-carry laws experienced a 60% drop in the rates at which the attacks occur and a 78% drop in the rates at which people are killed from such attacks."
Moreover, he points out that before 1995, it was possible for teachers to bring guns to campus in many states and that "the rash of student shootings at schools began in October 1997 in Pearl, Mississippi after the ban," (my italics)."

I gun advocates go on the offensive with statistics like these.

Global Warming and Energy

El Nino shows no trend either.

The leak of the latest IPCC report is really bringing criticism on the frauds. They deserve it. Their movement has been collapsing in stages, but that hasn't stopped government from using their lies as an excuse to oppress us.

Power grid vulnerable to space weather. Roosevelt took control of transportation, communications and utilities. Roosevelt wanted socialist utilities. White House describes Roosevelt taking control of utilities. Pretty thorough, socialist history of power utilities before, during and after Roosevelt.

Germany buries power lines. Competitive energy marketplace in Britain. Competitive energy marketplace in the Netherlands.

DP&L blames trees for power outages. Apparently they haven't solved the tree problem in over 100 years.

Undergrounding power lines.

War

Sexual harassment in the military.

"Reported sexual assaults at military academies have jumped by 23 percent according to the military. Additionally, 51 percent of women and 10 percent of men said they were sexually harassed."

I'll never understand who thought it was a good idea to subject women to this.

Foreign Policy

Hillary's stooges blame lack of taxpayer money for the death in Benghazi.

"Note: the blue-ribbon panel that issued the "independent" (read: whitewash) report (blaming no one, of course)  on Benghazi was headed by the dependable apparatchik Thomas Pickering, who served as Deputy Secretary of State under Hillary's husband."

I can smell the stink from Washington here. I just went to the State Department website to find out their budget, and I got this message:

I don't trust them either.

Local

Just as predicted, the wind is knocking out power to people. You might think it was so commonplace that wind knocked out power, the power company would make changes to to keep that from happening, but not when the power company is protected from competition by government. More info.

"“When winds exceed 40 mph we anticipate problems, including tree limbs hitting power lines or uprooted trees falling and taking down lines,” the company said in a release Wednesday."

It's just amazing that we tolerate this.

Semi crash dumps toilet paper on I-75.

Global Warming and Energy

IPCC graphs show that IPCC has significantly overestimated warming up to this point in every analysis it has published.

Tax and Spend

Here's a nice statistic for anybody who still believes Republicans support smaller government and fiscal responsibility.

"Under the leadership of House Speaker John Boehner (R.-Ohio), the 112^th House of Representatives has thus far approved legislation that has increased the debt of the federal government by $2,176,949,774,695.46—or approximately $18,944 for per American household."

Usually the opposition party resists spending by the party in power, but not Boehner's Republicans. This is a nice reminder how they've been Obama's best enablers.

Will death spiral cities and states like California and Illinois enact exit taxes to stop people from taking their wealth and fleeing high taxes?

Why government spending should not be included in national production statistics.

"Why should government product be excluded? First, the government’s activities may be viewed as giving rise to intermediate, rather than final products, even if the government provides such valuable services as enforcement of private property rights and settlement of disputes. Second, because most government services are not sold in markets, they have no market-determined prices to be used in calculating their total value to those who benefit from them. Third, because many government services arise from political, rather than economic motives and institutions, some of them may have little or no value. Indeed, some commentators—including the present writer—ultimately went so far as to assert that some government services have negative value: given a choice, the people victimized by these “services” would be willing to pay to be rid of them. "

I agree with all these, but the second one is very important. Because government funds itself through theft, we can't measure how much value it provides or how much wealth it destroys.

War

Neo-con think tanks funded by the industrial-military complex to promote wars and to run them.

Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Nice rant about government's role in the Connecticut massacre.

"So another mass-murder conducted by a product of government schools, in a government school, under the government-recommended/mandated care of a government-employed/licensed shrink, on government-approved and government-promoted mind-altering drugs, in a government-mandated weapon-free zone, protected by a government agency the government claims 'serves and protects' (though it is incapable of doing so). Clearly the problem is guns."

Well said.

What a great quote: "Scientists amazed by Canadians' ability to watch movies and play video games without killing each other."

Police State

Female Texas pervert cop caught on tape giving two women body cavity searches, ostensibly for drugs, during a routine traffic stop.

"Female trooper Kellie Helleson is seen in the footage aggressively searching the private parts of Angel Dobbs, 38, and her niece, Ashley Dobbs, 24, in front of passing cars.

The women, who claim the trooper used the same rubber glove for both of them, were initially stopped by Helleson's colleague David Farrell on State Highway 161 near Irving after he saw one of them throw a cigarette butt out the window."

This is what we've done to our country by empowering government to conquer us.

Local

It used to be that gas prices went up during holidays because demand went up because people traveled. This year gas prices are going down around holidays. Right now Dayton has the lowest gas prices of the year. I think the oil companies are doing this. As soon as the New Year comes, they will go up again.

Uh, oh. The wind is going to blow tomorrow, so expect power outages.

Montgomery County stole $1.8 million, plus however much it skimmed off the top, from taxpayers and gave it to ten companies which promised to create 370. It'll never happen. It can't happen. That's only $4865 per job. It'll be lucky to create 37 jobs, 4 is more likely, and it destroyed far more jobs.

Riverside residents start petition to challenge the income tax credit reduction.

Regulation

Governments have banned private ownership of property in space. We need to fix that.

Media

TIME names Obama person of the year.

""For finding and forging a new majority, for turning weakness into opportunity and for seeking, amid great adversity, to create a more perfect union, Barack Obama is TIME's 2012 Person of the Year," writes editor Richard Stengel."

A more perfect union? What a crock. TIME works for Obama.

Why the media celebrates mass shootings.

"What's even more horrifying than the massacre itself is the way the mainstream media now glorifies mass shooters, turning them into cult heroes and even ranking their body counts as a sort of achievement score. The Newtown shooting currently holds the "high score" according to the mainstream media, and they have no problem pushing this kind of junk journalism as long as their teleprompter-reading reporters appear to be convincingly saddened for the cameras."

The media loves all disasters, natural and man-made.

"Nowhere is the celebration of school shootings more amplified than in Washington D.C. where the federal government desperately wants to disarm the American people. The higher the body count of children in a given mass shooting, the more "moral authority" D.C. politicians will claim to have in destroying the rights of all Americans by demanding they turn in their guns."

Government profits too.

"But the real benefit to Big Pharma from the school shootings is that such events traumatize other children who can then be "diagnosed" with fictitious psychiatric disorders which are invented solely for the purpose of selling more prescription medications to children who don't need them."

They profit too.

"School shootings, you see, benefit the media, the drug companies and the power base of the federal government. This is precisely why such shootings will be allowed to continue."

The sad truth.

Health Care

Connecticut shooter's mom was going to commit him to a special mental facility. This is more evidence he was heavily medicated by government's medical establishment. Family friend disputes this report. This New York Daily News report contains a petition to ban assault weapons, proving once again that media outlets are anything but apolitical and unbiased.

Foreign Policy

Three State Department officials resign after report on Benghazi. At least somebody took a fall, but these people are probably scapegoats. Clinton and Obama get off scott free. Apparently Clinton faked a concussion to avoid testifying before Congress about Benghazi.

Misc

Google puts Dead Sea scrolls online.

Foreign Policy

I wonder how many tax dollars were squandered on paying this commission to tell us what we already know.

"An independent inquiry into the attack on the United States diplomatic mission in Libya that killed four Americans on Sept. 11 sharply criticized the State Department for a lack of seasoned security personnel and for relying on untested local militias to safeguard the compound, according to a report by the panel made public on Tuesday night. "

I'll bet it cost us millions.

Freedom of Speech

Facebook suspending accounts of people who question the official story about the massacre in Connecticut. Why not? Facebook isn't the government. It's just a government protected monopoly. It can stifle free speech all it wants. This is why government prefers fascism to socialism. Here's some great hypocrisy that proves the mainsteam media is nothing but a propaganda arm of the government.

"“I was informed the reason for this punishment was the result of a meme I had shared,” writes the editor of SecretsOfTheFed.com. “Facebook told me it “…violates Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities”. I was further warned that “If you continue to abuse Facebook’s features, your account could be permanently disabled.”
On Saturday, Connecticut state police warned that people posting “misinformation” on social media websites would be “investigated and prosecuted.”
However, this threat could apply to the vast majority of the mainstream media, who in their haste to get out ahead of the story reported numerous details that soon turned out to be completely incorrect."

A list of falsehoods reported by the media follows, but you bet none of them will be prosecuted. Our government is a farce.

Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Twelve year old girl shoots home intruder. Thank goodness government hadn't disarmed her.

Texas school district, showing a sign of sanity, allows - I hate that word - teachers to carry guns. If you must send your child to a government school, this is the one to send them to.

Microstamping bullets isn't a bad idea which is why it will never become law.

"One way to “get around the Second Amendment,” the announcer intoned (exact phrasing, though you’ll have to take my word for it as I can find no link on the net), is to microstamp bullets so cops can trace them. This lunacy comes from Elliott Spitzer, previously Chief John of New York State, whose priapic pursuits drove him from office but whose buddies in the corporate media identify him only as a “former governor.”
Of course, Spitzer’s idea will never become law. Imagine the CIA’s consternation right now if Newtown’s bullets had been “microstamped.” Or that of the average cop nationwide who can no longer blame the dead bystander on the perp when “microstamping” points to his poor marksmanship instead."

Exactly. The government doesn't want us to know how much crime and death it is ultimately responsible for.

Health Care

The consequences of bureaucratic stranglehold on health care.

Government's Big Pharma establishment is turning the US into a zombie culture.

It's finally come out that the Connecticut shooter was taking psychotropic drugs prescribed by government's medical-pharmaceutical establishment. Besides government disarming the victims, this is another thing the press has been covering up. The common denominators of all these spectacular mass murders start with government disarming the victims, then government's medical-pharmaceutical establishment poisons the shooter with mind control drugs, then the shooter goes and kills the disarmed victims.

"Maybe more importantly, though, Fanapt is one of a many drugs the FDA pumped out with an ability to exact the opposite desired effect on people: that is, you know, inducing rather than inhibiting psychosis and aggressive behavior."

Don't they all do that? Apparently this one more than others.

Long list of mass murderers who were prescribed government drugs and who subsequently killed people who had been disarmed by government.