$8 million for what?

The bungling imbeciles whose responsibility it is to guard the President of the United States, when not cavorting about on the job with prostitutes, driving drunk on the White House grounds, or allowing knife wielding prowlers free reign to jump the fence and enter the premises without permission, are now hard at it thinking of ever more ways to screw up while wasting the taxpayers money.

When it comes to spending other people’s money with reckless abandon, we can always count on government bureaucrats, agents and employees to do it best. If there is a problem they think it can be solved by throwing bundles of money at it.

Now the U.S. Secret Service is telling Congress it wants $8 million dollars to build a White House replica 20 miles away in Beltsville, Maryland for the purpose of training its officers. I’m not making this up.  

Director, Joseph Clancy wants a fake mansion to provide his agents and officers “a more realistic training experience.”

"Right now, we train on a parking lot, basically," Clancy explained. "We put up a makeshift fence and walk off the distance between the fence at the White House and the actual house itself. We don't have the bushes, we don't have the fountains; we don't get a realistic look at the White House...  

It's important to have a true replica of what the White House is so we can do a better job of this integrated training between our uniform division officers, our agents and our tactical teams... It would mimic the facade of the White House residence, the East and West Wings, guard booths, and the surrounding grounds and roads.”

Of course, he didn’t explain to the House Appropriations subcommittee exactly why his agents can’t simply do their training and drills at the most realistic place of them all – the White House. That way we’d save $8 million and the bunglers would have the perfect place to do their thing.

"You're going to build an $8 million White House for training?” "I have concerns about that," replied Rep. Henry Cuellar, (D) Texas.

Gee, do you think so?

$8 million for what?

Phil Robertson is one sick puppy

One glance at this Charles Manson lookalike is enough to permit the reasonable conclusion that he’s not exactly normal. And you would be right. Phil Robertson is one sick puppy. For one thing, he’s obsessed with sex. Would you trust this man to be alone with your daughter?

But there’s no accounting for the tastes of American’s. They love this guy – especially all the hopelessly irrational religious bigots out there. He’s their man. He speaks for them. He says out loud what they’re thinking but afraid to say because they’re too timid and ashamed to admit it. (See my earlier posts regarding Mr. Phil: Bigot Dynasty and How to Spot a Bigot).

He’s the guy who compares gays to drunkards, slanderers, swindlers, adulterers, male prostitutes and terrorists. Homosexuality is the same as bestiality, says Phil. Why? Because the Bible says so, that’s why. Phil Robertson takes his Bible literally.

Now he’s coming after atheists. He's coming after me. And, don’t forget, he’s still obsessed with sex. He’s conjured up this bizarre fantasy making atheists out as justifiable victims of violent unnatural sex acts simply because they don’t believe in his imaginary friend:

"Two guys break into an atheist's home," says Phil. "He has a little atheist wife and two little atheist daughters. Two guys break into his home and tie him up in a chair and gag him. And then they take his two daughters in front of him and rape both of them and then shoot 'em and they take his wife and then decapitate her head off in front of him. And they can look at him and say, 'Isn't it great that I don’t have to worry about being judged? Isn't it great that there's nothing wrong with this? There's no right or wrong, now is it dude?'

"Then you take a sharp knife and take his manhood and hold it in front of him and say, 'Wouldn't it be something if this was something wrong with this? But you’re the one who says there is no God, there’s no right, there’s no wrong, so we’re just having fun. We're sick in the head, have a nice day.'... "If it happened to them, they probably would say, 'Something about this just ain't right.'"

You see, Phil Robertson actually believes in his twisted, deluded, wholly irrational consciousness that people who won’t accept his imaginary friend as real are bereft of all morality.  They don’t know right from wrong. They have no moral code, thinks Phil. There’s no right or wrong with them; no difference at all. Mankind – you and me -- cannot determine what is right and wrong all by ourselves. Only God can do that, reasons Mr. Robertson.

Only God tells us what’s right and wrong. So why should an atheist, who doesn’t believe in God, object when he and his family are sexually abused and murdered by vicious criminals? After all, there’s nothing wrong with that because they don’t believe in God.

Yes, poor Phil Robertson is one sick puppy.

 

What Happened to Liberty?

When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence much of the message was about all of the duties, obligations and responsibilities a government owes to the people, and if that government refuses to perform those obligations, then the people have the right to change it.

Jefferson was talking about liberty.

James Madison, father of the United States Constitution, gave “We the People” an enduring document which sets forth in detail the duties, obligations and responsibilities of the new republic to the people of the United States. The United States government was meant to belong to the people. The people do not belong to the government. Thus, the Constitution sets forth no affirmative obligations on the part of individuals to the government.

Madison led the effort to codify our American liberty.

The Bill of Rights, consisting of the first ten amendments to the constitution, further enumerated the rights of the people as against the government and specified that the rights of the people are not limited by that document. There is no such thing as a Bill of Obligations applicable to individuals to the government anywhere in the Constitution.

That’s because the founding fathers envisioned the purpose of these documents entirely as the means and method by which to insure, protect and preserve our liberty. The United States government was conceived, created and meant to be our servant – not our master.

What happened to liberty?

It’s slowly slipping away. Today the United States government – in spite of the Declaration of Independence – in spite of the Constitution – in spite of the Bill of Rights – has adopted the attitude that we all owe it affirmative obligations, the kind of obligations that a servant owes its master.

Whether it be forced conscription into military service, compulsory education, mandatory reporting our income every year, purchasing ObamaCare, (the list goes on and on), it is now perfectly clear that in the United States of America the government claims we belong to it.

Now the President of the United States is calling for mandatory voting. "If everybody voted, then it would completely change the political map in this country," said the president, calling it "potentially transformative."  He wants every citizen to incur an affirmative legal obligation to vote under penalty of a crime for failure to do so in the same manner as the crime for failing to report your income.

Other countries have already done just that to their people. I wrote about it last November. See Statist Style Democracy. Australia is one of 11 nations worldwide with mandatory voting. Australians who fail to vote can be fined, or even jailed for repeatedly not casting a ballot.

Of course, president Obama would love to see the advent of mandatory voting in the United States. He thinks, and rightly so, that it would be of great benefit to his Democrat Party.

I say: What about the First Amendment?

What happened to liberty? 

Presidential Parasitism to the Obscene

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama went to Los Angles last week. The trip didn’t involve any official presidential duties or responsibilities. Instead, the sole purpose was to facilitate their appearances on TV talk shows. The president appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel live show on Thursday night. The First Lady appeared in a taped performance Thursday on the Ellen DeGeneres show.

One might properly think that the producers of those TV shows paid the travel and accommodation expenses for their famous guests who come to entertain their audiences just like they do for all others who agree to make guest appearances which benefit they and their sponsors.

If you thought that you would be wrong. It was the American people who picked up the entire tab – the taxpayers -- you and me. 

And that’s not all. Though the first couple was scheduled to be in Los Angeles on the same day and at the same time, they actually travelled on separate planes. Yes, separate flights from Washington D.C. to L.A. on the very same day.

That’s right. The president flew on Air Force One, his huge private jumbo jet, at a cost to the taxpayers of about $228,000 per hour of flight time. Michelle’s private plane operates at a cost of around $28,000 per hour. So the taxpayers are stuck with a bill totaling well over a million dollars for a one day frivolous excursion to California to appear on entertainment TV talk shows.

Meanwhile, it is reported that former president Bill Clinton, who has raked in more than $106 million in speaking fees alone since 2001, has sucked up another $16 million more from the American taxpayers since leaving office. Ex president, George W. Bush, another wealthy man in his own right, has lapped up $14 million in taxpayer largesse since he left office.

They’re not worth it. It’s outrageous. 

We the people are getting screwed.  We shouldn’t stand for it.

These are just more of many egregious examples of presidential parasitism to the obscene.

Lindsey Graham: Dictator in Chief

Once again it is no great surprise to me why the average American voter is and should be skeptical about what a Neanderthal Republican extremist nut case might do if elected President of the United States.  

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham just stoked that fire last week in New Hampshire when he vowed in all seriousness to sic his military dogs on Congress if elected president as his very first act in office in order to force recalcitrant lawmakers to reverse sequestration cuts to military spending.

“I would literally use the military to keep them in if I had to, Graham declared. “We’re not leaving town until we restore these defense cuts. We are not leaving town until we restore the intel cuts.”

In short, Senator Graham admits that, if elected president, he would immediately declare himself dictator in chief. If Congress refused to vote how he wanted them to vote, as commander in chief, he would order his troops to surround the Capitol building and not let anyone in or out until he got the legislation he desired.

Graham apparently doesn’t care much for the doctrine of separation of powers set forth plainly in the United States Constitution. He actually believes that the President has the authority to order Congress to do what he wants and if they don’t he can employ the military to force them into submission.

Maybe he was joking. I sure hope so, but he has yet to say so. Never-the-less, no one seeking the high office of President of the United States should joke about doing a thing like that.

Lindsey Graham: Dictator in Chief

Pathological Political Deception

Everyone knows that politicians are liars. After all, one can hardly go very far in politics by telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So lying and corruption is the nature of politics and the habit of most politicians. Abraham Lincoln was affectionately dubbed “Honest Abe” only because he was thought to be a rare exception to the rule. 

If you asked Hillary Clinton for the time of day she would probably look at her watch then look you straight in the eye and lie. She does it deliberately, reflexively, instinctively, naturally, habitually, calculatingly and pathologically.  She’s a case study in the art of pathological political deception. (See here; here and here)

Her latest example of corruption and lying illustrates the point perfectly. Before her first day on the job as Secretary of State she concocted a dodgy deliberate scheme to hide her official government correspondence from public scrutiny. She bypassed official government communications channels by installing in her home a private computer server to be used exclusively for both private and official business.  

And, sure enough, when the people discovered what she had done during her entire four years as Secretary of State, she lied about why she did it, selectively destroyed all of the correspondence she doesn’t want revealed to the public, and refused to turn the server over to a neutral investigator for forensic analysis.

"The server will remain private," she insisted to inquiring reporters this week. Thus, so far the public is deprived of crucial official correspondence – evidence which would disclose the whole truth about her conduct while in office.

She planned it that way from the beginning.

She doesn’t tell the truth; and she has a lot to hide.  

This is classic Hillary Clinton style pathological political deception.

My Parents Were Criminals

I have a terrible confession to make: My now deceased parents were criminals. That’s right, criminals. Their crime: When I was a child they let me go outside to play (gasp) all by myself, completely unsupervised. Yes, I was allowed to walk to school, ride my bike, go to the park and explore the neighborhood – alone.

Thankfully all of that wasn’t exactly considered a crime back then so mom and dad escaped responsibility for their “wrongdoing.” All my friend’s parents were criminals then. They might not have been so lucky had they committed their “crimes” today.”

You see, today the statists who have taken over and trashed our fundamental liberties take a very dim view of any parents that let their kids do what I and all my friends were allowed to do as children. Now it’s considered a crime to let the kids go outside to play.

Danielle and Alexander Metiv of Montgomery County Maryland found this out the hard way recently when, after a two month investigation, the statist authorities found them responsible, i.e. guilty of what they deem as “unsubstantiated” child neglect for allowing their two kids to walk home from a park on their own.

The next time the CPS gets a similar report about the Metiv’s they’ll likely get the book thrown at them for their “crimes.” The finding of unsubstantiated child neglect means that a file will be kept on the suspects for at least the next five years. Yes, the authorities are watching them for letting their kids walk outside without adult supervision.

“We don’t feel it was appropriate for an investigation to start, much less conclude that we are responsible for some form of child neglect,” said Danielle. She and her husband plan to appeal and worry about being investigated again by CPS. “What will happen next time?” she wonders. “We don’t know if we will get caught in this Kafkaesque loop again.”

When CPS started its investigation, on the day the kids were picked up by the police for walking home from the park by themselves, Alexander Meitiv was asked to sign a form saying he would not leave them unsupervised again until CPS followed up. When he resisted, saying he wanted to talk to a lawyer, he was told that if he did not sign, the children would be immediately removed from the home.

He and his wife are considered by the statist authorities as criminal suspects for exercising their liberty in the United States of America. 

And I’m ashamed to admit that my own parents were criminals too.

Manslaughter by Suicide

Suppose for a moment that you suggested to a friend who was getting on your nerves to “tie this anchor to your foot and go jump in the lake." Suppose further that he did exactly as you suggested; he went away and later tied the anchor you gave him to his foot and jumped into a lake. Suppose that he sunk to the bottom and drowned to his death.

Would you be guilty of manslaughter? After all, you told him to do it, didn’t you? You supplied the anchor to him, and he did it, didn’t he? So you are responsible for his death, are you?

The thought is preposterous, right?

Wrong, say the government authorities in Fairhaven and Mattapoisett, Massachusetts. 

That’s what is happening to 17-year-old Michelle Carter. She’s charged with the crime of manslaughter for allegedly encouraging her friend to commit suicide. You see, the state wants to have it both ways. They’re calling suicide manslaughter.

That’s a new one on me. Is it manslaughter or suicide?

Police say that the teenager exchanged “hundreds” of texts with Conrad Roy, her 18-year-old mentally depressed friend, encouraging him to go ahead and kill himself even after he had expressed second thoughts about doing it. The boy was later found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning in a shop car park.

“Instead of attempting to assist him or notify his family or school officials, Ms Carter is alleged to have strongly influenced his decision to take his own life, encouraged him to [kill himself] and guided him in his engagement of activities which led to his death,” says the Bristol County district attorney’s office.

Let’s say for the purpose of this discussion that it’s all true. Even so, I don’t think that the state has the legal power to turn a suicide into a homicide simply because the accused told the victim to do kill himself. 

It’s either a suicide or a homicide. It can’t be both. This stupid girl did not cause her friend’s death. He killed himself. That’s suicide. It’s suicide whether she encouraged him to do it or not.

My prediction: Case dismissed. There is no such crime as manslaughter by suicide. 

Barbarians at the Gate

The history of human civilization is replete with horrific examples of vicious barbarian hordes overrunning, conquering, pillaging, and laying to waste, torturing, murdering and enslaving peaceful innocent populations. This phenomenon is so common that during my entire lifetime it has always been occurring at least somewhere on the planet. It is happening today. It is happening now.

Barbarians are at the gate.

Unless they are stopped they’re going to continue their assault against human civilization as we know it. The Islamic State savages, whose consciousness is mired in 7^th century AD religious fantasy, have vowed to create a worldwide Islamic Caliphate. Just like any other barbarian horde they’ve started out small and are slowly growing like a metastasizing cancer. They regard liberty as a dirty word.

ISIS has overrun territory; conquered and pillaged the inhabitants of several countries. Their modus operandi is to kidnap, torture, murder or enslave any peaceful innocent persons who don’t believe exactly as they do. Women and children are sold and turned into sex slaves. Men are tortured beheaded, crucified and in many cases burned alive.

If they ever get their hands on any American, Brit, Australian, Canadian, or any citizen of a western civilized nation anywhere in the world, they will not hesitate to torture and murder them in the most gruesome manner possible. The same goes for any Christian, Jew, Buddhist or any other religion, including even other Islamists who believe differently.

They are uncivilized; mindless; vicious; insane and subhuman criminals. They don’t tolerate philosophical differences of opinion or lifestyle. They have no regard for human life. Indeed, they would unhesitatingly sacrifice their own lives in furtherance of their cause because they think they’ll be rewarded in the afterlife.  

Last week ISIS, for the fun of it, released a video depicting a group of its savage madmen ransacking the Mosul Museum in Iraq, and taking sledgehammers and power drills to priceless ancient artifacts as part of an orchestrated campaign to “eliminate what they view as heresy.” It shows, among other atrocities, the total destruction of a carving of an Assyrian deity that dates back to the 7th century B.C.

A man shown in the video said they were doing it because the items promoted idolatry. 'The Prophet ordered us to get rid of statues and relics, and his companions did the same when they conquered countries after him,” said the goon. 

The fanatics have also blown up the Mosul Public Library, sending 10,000 books and more than 700 rare manuscripts up in flames.  "These books promote infidelity and call for disobeying Allah. So they will be burned,” a bearded goon explained.

They will not respond to diplomacy. Their deluded minds are not attuned to reason or logic. They understand and respond only to the logic of force. They’ll continue on their merciless conquest until they’re eradicated like a colony of hornets in their nests. They must be killed every last one of them or they will kill us.

Barbarians are at the gate.