This is BS

And some of the comments reinforce Pravda’s opinion piece saying illiterate Americans re-elected Obama. (Politically and economically illiterate.)

LITTLE ROCK — GOP U.S. Rep. Steve Womack is backing a law that would allow states to levy sales tax on online and catalog purchases.

A Wednesday event is planned in Washington to rally support for the so-called Marketplace Fairness Act, which is backed by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Womack is scheduled to speak along with Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Rep. Jackie Speier of California and Rep. Peter Welch of Vermont.

All five are sponsors of the bill, which would allow states to require online and catalog retailers to collect and pay sales taxes.

The National Conference of State Legislatures says states are expected to lose more than $23 billion in taxes this year on Internet and catalog sales as opposed to taxes collected by “brick-and-mortar” businesses.

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2012/nov/30/womack-joins-online-sales-tax-call/#comments

(“Market Fairness Act.” Here is a clue as to why this is a bogus act: Any law that uses the word “Fairness” intends to take some of your rights or more of your money.

(Here is a lie: States “are expected to lose more than $23 billion in taxes on Inetrnet and catalog sales …” How can a state lose tax money it cannot collect?)

We are the militia

"If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government, and which against the usurpations of the national rulers may be exerted with infinitely better prospect of success than against those of the rulers of an individual State. In a single State, if the persons entrusted with supreme power become usurpers, the different parcels, subdivisions, or districts of which it consists, having no distinct government in each, can take no regular measures for defense. The citizens must rush tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system, without resource; except in their courage and despair."

-- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 28

http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/wew/quotes/arms.html

Hey, Obama! We’re calling you out!

“Let's start with this fact: Obama doesn't want to raise ‘revenues.’ He wants to raise tax rates on the ‘wealthy,’ a group that includes tons of people who are not wealthy, and a policy that may well not raise significant revenues anyway. Even if you assume tax hikes on those who provide the lion's share of American jobs won't further suppress economic growth and thus revenues, the amount of money they would generate won't make a dent in our annual deficits, much less our crushing national debt.”

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/david/limbaugh113012.php3

(A lot of talk to say, it doesn’t matter how much “the wealthy” are taxed. “The wealthy” don’t have enough money.

(Obama is the most arrogant and most bored president of my lifetime, and I have been listening and watching since Eisenhower’s second victory, when I was 10 years old. Arrogant and bored is a dangerous combination, indicating unwillingness to even admit other points of view exist and impatience with accepted (Constitutional) ways.)

There is stupid, and then there is Army private stupid

Bradley Manning was stupid before the Army accepted him.

FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - A U.S. Army private facing court-martial on suspicion of leaking secret documents to the WikiLeaks website testified on Thursday he was confined to a "cage" in the early days after his arrest in 2010, and thought he would die there.

Bradley Manning, in his first public comments since his arrest in Iraq, said his isolation quickly led to a breakdown, and his military captors eventually put him on suicide watch.

http://news.yahoo.com/u-soldier-wikileaks-case-says-held-cage-001100259.html

(His “military captors?” He was captured by the Army? I thought he was arrested. D!ck. I get the idea he is smarter than anybody else in the Army.)

When I grow up

Yesterday Priscilla read at a kindergarten in North Little Rock, part of her civic club program and because she enjoys reading to children.

The reading had to do with choices and future lives. After the reading, Priscilla asked the kindergartners what they wanted to be.

One boy said, “I want to be a skateboarder.”

Another boy declared, “I don’t want to be nothin’. I don’t like firemen, I don’t like policemen. I don’t want to be nothin’.”

“And then there was sweet, angelic Maria,” Priscilla said. “She had long dark hair and dark eyes, just a beautiful child.”

Sweet, angelic Maria, in her angelic voice, said, “I want to be a vampire.”

Stevie Wonder not signed, sealed and delivered

On Wednesday an interesting story ran on one of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy sites: Singer Stevie Wonder would perform at a Los Angeles fundraiser for the Israeli Defense Force.

Today, no he won’t.

“Wonder's representatives will claim that he did not know the nature of the group, the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, and that he believes such a performance would be incongruent with his status as a UN ‘Messenger of Peace,’ according to a source who has read email exchanges between Wonder's representatives and organizers of the event.”

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/stevie-wonder-to-pull-out-of-idf-fundraiser-1.481333?localLinksEnabled=false

(Friends of the Israeli Defense Force. Wonder didn’t know what that meant. Friends. Israel. Defense Force.)

“Wonder had come under intense social media pressure to pull out of the event. An online petition calling on him to cancel his performance had garnered more than 3,600 signatures.

“The petition was launched more than a day ago on the change.org website.”

To quote the great Ray Stevens: There is none so blind as he who will not see.

Linked from www.hotair.com

If you’re hired in South Carolina to deliver a truckload of hams to Miami

It’s not a smart thing, being found selling said hams in Little Rock, Ark. Especially – (1) after telling police your truck was stolen; and (2) after ramming your truck into a pickup and threatening to kill the other driver.

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2012/nov/29/suspect-stolen-truckload-hams-questioned-lr/

The comfortable generation

“To be sure, The Next Generation agrees with—and corroborates—Karl Mannheim’s assertion that ‘nothing is more false than the usual assumption . . . that the younger generation is “progressive’ and the older generation is eo ipso conservative.’ Diuk notes that ‘the education and shaping of views of the youth . . . is a critical element in determining whether they become active citizens, oppressed subjects, or perpetuators of the old system.’ She continues: ‘Youth’s energy and enthusiasm are value neutral, and can be a blank slate for any ideology; they can either be co-opted to support the old regime or mobilized to lead a protest movement to challenge the old order.’”

(The energy and enthusiasm of young Germans was hardly “value neutral” in the 1930s. More likely is the assumption that youth’s energy and enthusiasm is politically formed before the protesters take to the street. After age 19 or 20, is anyone’s mind a blank slate? More likely, youths in Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan are looking at “What is best for me and those like me?”)

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/what-are-they-thinking-study-youth-three-post-soviet-states?utm_source=World+Affairs+Newsletter&utm_campaign=01974bf001-WAJ_Kara_Murza_11_28_2012&utm_medium=email

 And from other youth:

 “South Korea is undergoing a transformative generational change—one that has strong implications for the US. The younger generation, living a comfortable life in a first-world state, cares little about the threat posed by North Korea, which has been the dominant theme of South Korean life since statehood in 1948. The North is a dilemma of their grandparents’ generation that, to them, is no longer relevant.”

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/no-fear-or-just-smug-south-korea%E2%80%99s-youth-dismiss-northern-threat?utm_source=World+Affairs+Newsletter&utm_campaign=01974bf001-WAJ_Kara_Murza_11_28_2012&utm_medium=email

 

 

 

Movie quote

“I knew something was gonna happen when they started puttin’ up fences and passin’ laws.” – Jeff Corey as Jed Graham in Roughshod.

 

 

 

Great mind wonders

On TV programs, why do actors carry large, empty coffee containers? Does no one realize we know the containers are empty? One of the dumbest things in the world is an actor pretending to drink from an empty container. If nothing else, put water in the containers.

Just a suggestion.

Bad Juju

Just in case you’ve been visiting relatives on the dark side of the Moon for the past few months, and aren’t up to speed on the latest events, I’d like to point out that the Middle East, under the guiding hands of the Only Adult in the Room, and the Smartest Woman in America, is about to disintegrate into regional war and chaos of historic, unprecedented proportions.

Egypt is about to explode; Iran is inches away from having nuclear weapons and is supplying arms and missiles to Syria and Hamas at a rate almost as fast as Congress is borrowing money from China and spending it on only God knows what; Syria is engulfed in civil war; al-Qaeda is growing like a metastasizing cancer; and the Fifth Column media are complicit in promoting the Islamist version of events, and covering up the Obama administrations disastrous inept meddling in it all.

More at: http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/51298

Found at gatesofvienna.

Presidential Memorandum -- National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs

MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES

SUBJECT: National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs

This Presidential Memorandum transmits the National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs (Minimum Standards) to provide direction and guidance to promote the development of effective insider threat programs within departments and agencies to deter, detect, and mitigate actions by employees who may represent a threat to national security. These threats encompass potential espionage, violent acts against the Government or the Nation, and unauthorized disclosure of classified information, including the vast amounts of classified data available on interconnected United States Government computer networks and systems.

The Minimum Standards provide departments and agencies with the minimum elements necessary to establish effective insider threat programs. These elements include the capability to gather, integrate, and centrally analyze and respond to key threat-related information; monitor employee use of classified networks; provide the workforce with insider threat awareness training; and protect the civil liberties and privacy of all personnel.

The resulting insider threat capabilities will strengthen the protection of classified information across the executive branch and reinforce our defenses against both adversaries and insiders who misuse their access and endanger our national security.

BARACK OBAMA

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/11/21/presidential-memorandum-national-insider-threat-policy-and-minimum-stand

At www.gatesofvienna.blogspot.com

See also: http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/51313

Sometimes the Russians get it right

‘Obama’s Soviet mistake’

“Recently, Obama has been re-elected for a 2nd term by an illiterate society and he is ready to continue his lies of less taxes while he raises them.”

http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/19-11-2012/122849-obama_soviet_mistake-0/

“… They read history in America don't they? Alas, the schools in the U.S. were conquered by the Communists long ago and history was revised thus paving the way for their Communist presidents. Obama has bailed out those businesses that voted for him and increased the debt to over 16 trillion with an ever increasing unemployment rate especially among blacks and other minorities. All the while promoting his agenda.”

Linked from http://neveryetmelted.com/2012/11/25/pravda-obama-has-been-re-elected-for-a-2nd-term-by-an-illiterate-society/

 and maggiesfarm.

Looking for a few good women

Looking for a few good women

 

And few was all the Corps got.

“Female Marine officers are unlikely to join the infantry anytime soon, in part because of a lack of volunteers for the Marine Corps' Infantry Officer Course, which was opened to women in September.

“Only two of about 80 eligible female Marines have volunteered for the course -- a grueling, three-month advanced regimen conducted at Quantico, Va., that was opened to women to research their performance.

“Of the two female volunteers, one washed out on the first day, along with 26 of the107 men, and the other dropped out two weeks later for medical reasons, a Marine Corps spokesman said.

“The research effort was launched after the Pentagon opened to women more than 14,000 jobs that could place them closer to front lines and combat.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/nov/25/few-female-marines-step-forward-for-infantry/print/#ixzz2DK8Arpyx

Also from maggiesfarm.

‘Girls not coming of age’

Subhead is better: ‘If Girls is a portent, we’re in trouble’

A few nice phrases:

“The main thing Dunham’s characters share is the idea that just because they exist, somebody else should give them stuff.”

“You can almost argue that Lena Dunham sees President Obama as the perfect surrogate for everything missing in her characters’ lives: He’s their gentle lover, supportive parent, and empathetic friend. He’s special. He won’t let them down. He’s Prince Charming. And that kind of defeats the purpose of feminism.”

(SgtBob comment: Either you can argue, or you cannot. There is no “almost.”)

“But if you don’t want men in Washington telling you how to use your sexuality, you shouldn’t expect them to subsidize it. But Dunham seems to actually believe they should.”

(Here is a truth: A tenet of Progressive Liberalism is “I can (have sex) with anybody I want and no one has the right to judge me.” Concomitant with that idea is: “If I become pregnant (or cause a pregnancy), society must pay for whatever I decide to do.”)

 http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/333885/girls-not-coming-age-betsy-woodruff?pg=2

Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation: We caused this attitude. Boomers are responsible for the US sliding down the hill to collapse.

Link from www.maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com

Questions for the dark times

“For example, the recent news that Morsi had declared himself Egypt’s dictator rolled off my back. I shrugged my shoulders and kept walking. A few years ago that would have made my list of Evil Events. Not anymore. Maybe the powers that be are counting on this mental overflow for all of us, perhaps they’re hoping we will all become numbed to the reality they’re unrolling. The problem they face is knowing when the more robust among us will finally cave. I’m guessing that for some of us, that moment will not arrive. However, my glass is obscured: I’ve no idea what they plan to do about The Holdouts.”

http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2012/11/aftermath-in-wilderness.html#more

Good question: ‘Why do we give a damn whether Egyptians have democracy or not?’

Maggiesfarm link to ‘”Democracy” in Egypt,' at http://theothermccain.com/2012/11/23/democracy-in-egypt/

From the comment section: “Anyone that did not see this coming should not be allowed near a door to the outside. They simply aren't intelligent enough to be allowed out unsupervised.”

 Who believed the “Arab Spring” aftermath would be any more democratic than that following the Arab Revolt in 1916? Other than old leftists wearing rose-colored granny glasses, that is.

 

READ THIS! More on Democrats indoctrinating the mentally disabled

'Democrats vote the mentally disabled'

 It’s true! My wife and I wondered how many other homes and organizations registered and voted mentally disabled residents. Now we know my brother-in-law’s employer, Texarkana Resources for the Disabled, was far from the only organization “teaching them how to vote.”

“I was taken aback by these words, since Henry had no idea who Obama was, or what a president might be, and would be unable to fill out a registration form let alone get to the polling place by himself. So I asked him how he knew that and how he had registered and cast his vote. In halting, impeded speech he told me that the people who take care of him at the home filled out ‘the papers’ to register him to vote, told him how Obama cared for him, even taught him the Obama chants, and then took him to the polling place to vote. They did the same for all of the mentally disabled patients in their care, approximately sixty in all.”

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/david-horowitz/democrats-vote-the-mentally-disabled/

Link from www.maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com

78 homicides reported this year in D.C.

“The number of 2012 killings in the District of Columbia stands at 78 and is on pace to finish lower than 100 for the first time since 1963, police records show.”

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/dc-pace-fewer-100-homicides-2012-17791025

Back in the 1990s, the district had more than 500 people killed just about every year.

So what happened?

City councilman and former mayor/crack cocaine user/convict Marion Barry blames the reduction of murders on “gentrification” – more people with jobs and money moving into neighborhoods that used to have high, really high, unemployment and high, really high, drug usage and robberies and car jackings and weed-grown vacant lots …

The former mayor doesn’t like “gentrification.” More people with jobs moving in means people who backed Barry moving out.

Back in the day (1990s), a friend who lives in D.C. said crime wasn’t so bad. “I was mugged and my house was broken into, and there was a drug dealer shootout in the vacant lot across the street. But overall, the crime is not that bad.”

He was with the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam and has a Purple Heart, so maybe a mugging and a shootout aren’t all that noticeable.

What is noticeable is fewer than 100 people killed in D.C.

Oh, yeah, there was the Supreme Court decision that residents could arm themselves, just like the Constitution says.

Like governments, criminals prefer an unarmed citizenry. Except themselves.

Hundreds and hundreds of Walmart workers on strike. Or maybe 50.

Hey, union dudes. Walmart ain’t Hostess. This is not some Twinkie you figure to step on. Walmart. Wal --- Mart. Got it?

“’We estimate that less than 50 associates participated in the protest nationwide. In fact, this year, roughly the same number of associates missed their scheduled shift as last year,’ Walmart U.S. Chief Executive Bill Simon said in a statement.”

And the union captain: “’Right now there are hundreds and hundreds currently on strike,’ Dan Schlademan, director of Making Change at Walmart, a campaign anchored by the UFCW, said on Friday afternoon. He said he could not provide a specific number of striking workers.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/23/us-usa-retail-walmart-protests-idUSBRE8AM0ME20121123

Ivory-bill up close

A few months ago as my wife and I were turning into our driveway, she exclaimed, “There’s an ivory-billed woodpecker!”

I looked out the windshield, but didn’t see anything.

“Did you see it?” Priscilla asked.

“No,” I said. “Where was it?”

She pointed as she parked the car. “It flew across the front and landed on the first tree there and then kind of shyly sidestepped around to the other side.”

We have many woodpeckers near the house, but I’ve not seen one. There are two woodpecker trees in the back yard – young trees with a half dozen or more holes each. One fell this spring, but the other is still standing.

Priscilla said, “It was huge! The wingspan was like this.” She held her hands more than two feet apart.”

“I didn’t see it,” I said. “I wish I had.”

Seven years ago somebody reportedly saw an ivory-bill fifty or so miles southeast of where we live. People got all excited.

One of those would be indisputable proof, I reckon.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/A-Close-Encounter-With-the-Rarest-Bird.html

Or this.

http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2010/09/photos-of-ivory-billed-woodpecker.html

Or:

http://conservationreport.com/2008/12/22/ivory-billed-woodpecker-discovery-highlighted-in-new-documentary-by-producerdirector-scott-crocker/

You get a whole bunch of people wandering around in the woods looking for a particular something, chances are the something’s going to hide. And it knows how to hide a lot better than the searchers know how to find.

A little searching brought a lot of information, including:

“Hill recalled having received a report of an ivory-bill in Geneva County, Alabama, about 10 years ago.”

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/pastsearches/0607season/0607stories/florida/document_view

(One researcher finds maybe indication, and another researcher suddenly remembers, “Oh, yeah!” Snaps a finger. “I remember somebody telling me about one maybe 10 years ago.” ???)

Here’s what the federal government plans to do when existence is proved:

http://www.fws.gov/ivorybill/pdf/IBWRecoveryPlan2010.pdf

(Two ideas to federal government on “recovery” of ivory bill: Leave them alone; keep well-meaning people away.)

Mental disability and voting for president

My wife’s brother John is 56 years old. John cannot read or write or do any kind of arithmetic. He can, with difficulty, scrawl a signature.

John works at Resources for the Disabled in Texarkana, Texas. He lives with my mother-in-law, who is 86.

Early in 2012, John brought home a list of his rights, as determined by the people who run Resources. Included was his right to handle his own finances, even though he cannot count, eben though he cannot tell the difference between a $5 bill and a $100 bill.

Resources also said John has the right to vote. Resources personnel are so convinced that John and others like him have the right to vote that they were teaching workers “how to vote.”

Along with the list of rights was a voter registration application. My mother-in-law filled out the form and mailed the application to the Bowie County offices. A short time later, John received his voter registration card.

As far as my mother-in-law knows, John did not vote in this month’s presidential election. She said, “He wanted to vote for Obama.” She also said several other workers at Resources, “who have the ability to understand things,” did vote.

How prevalent is voter registration for mentally challenged, mentally disabled men and women? Nationwide, how many voters, unable to read or write or even give an address or telephone number, were allowed to vote?

Ports in the Americas dig for the future.

Panama Canal expansion

“The industry ‘doesn’t care what ports need to do to be ready or what it costs,’ Echeverri said. ‘If you’re not ready, they’ll simply take you off their route.’”
…

“Ports throughout the Americas and the Caribbean are rushing to be ready for the post-Panamax future. Currently, the Panama Canal can handle ships 965 feet long that need a depth of 39.5, a size known as Panamax. Once the expansion is complete in 2015, the canal will be able to accommodate ships 1,200 feet long with a 50-foot draft — and shippers are already building to those dimensions.”

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/22/3108959/as-panama-canal-expands-latin.html#storylink=cpy

From www.theospark.net

The oil report was wrong

Why? Because the report says then US has more than enough oil, which goes against everything politicians and greenies have been saying for the last 40 years, namely that world oil production has peaked and we’re on the downhill slide into food shortages and more people and torrid climate change and … and … every other bad thing.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/coal-oil-gas/will-the-us-surpass-saudi-arabia-in-oil-production-14764018?click=pm_news

(The story has really negative waves, Moriarity, so instead of reading it, I will just drink some wine and catch some rays.)

Drilled at fark.com.

In Austria, one out of three ain’t bad

Or, as Fark put it: ‘If you marry a woman in prison who is on trial for killing and dismembering her first two husbands, maybe you should calculate the odds when the court psychologist notes that your new wife has a "one in three" chance in killing again.’

“Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala, 34, confessed in an Austrian court yesterday to killing her ex-husband and hiding his body parts in the storage cellar of her ice cream parlor in Vienna, then doing the same thing to her boyfriend two years later, News.com.au reports.”

Chopped nuts, with a cherry?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/20/estibaliz-carranza-murder-husband-ice-cream-parlor_n_2165849.html

She used a chainsaw.

Sir Paul, stick to writing songs and marrying badly

In answer to the (former) Beatles’ promulgation on saving turkeys:

“We respect your principled and passionate devotion to the sanctity of all fish and fowl life. Still, we’re afraid that we can’t comply with your request. Thanksgiving is too important. Too American. Not really yours to influence. You may not be aware of this, being a loyal subject of the queen and all, but the holiday was first celebrated by the Pilgrims — you know, those guys who dressed like oatmeal box models and crossed the Atlantic Ocean specifically to get away from English dudes trying to tell them what to do.”


(Emphasis added, and a "Yo!")

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/nov/21/news-item-former-beatle-paul-mccartney-a-longtime-/#ixzz2CyEXFRVA

See also WKRP episode: http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/

NBC biased against Israel

An NBC reporter Tuesday in Gaza exhibited more than a little bias in his report of the war there. Standing beside a large crater, presumably made by an Israeli airstrike, the reporter spoke of “Israeli destruction.” In a video showing several rockets launched from Gaza into Israel, the reporter said, “But Hamas remains defiant.”

So, according to NBC, Israel is intent on “destruction,” but Hamas is only “defiant.” Israel destroys; Hamas is bold.

‘Earthshaking’ discovery on Mars

But scientists aren’t saying anything just yet.

http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2012/11/20/one-for-the-history-books-major-discovery-made-by-mars-rover-curiosity/

I said to my wife, “Scientists say they’ve found something earthshaking on Mars, but they won’t say what.”

She said, “Unless they’ve found a humanoid creature, it isn’t earthshaking. A one-cell something is not earthshaking.”

She’s right. With some things, there is a great difference of definition between scientists and us science fiction fans.

Reporter to State Department: When are you going you going to get your heads out and do something?

How's that soft diplopmacy thing working?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFm1dnmF6oc&feature=player_embedded

Linked from www.hotair.com

A general’s answer

“… Paulus visited the Romanian commander in the “Fortress area,” whose soldiers had suffered serious frostbite casualties owing to clothing shortages, “above all boots, trousers and socks.” The rising number of desertions prompted Paulus to conclude that: “Counter-propaganda is necessary against Russian leaflets printed in Romanian.”

(Sgt. Bob: By golly, that’ll keep them warm. Ungrateful Rumanians.)

From Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor.

Islamic Jihad warns against pretty girls on Facebook

The girls might just be Mossad agents.

“Do you feel proud because your Facebook account boasts 5,000 friends? Well, here are ten steps to expose whether intelligence agents transplanted themselves inside your friends list,” reads the article.

http://www.wnd.com/2012/11/sexy-girls-on-facebook-in-new-warning/

Sgt. Bob: If a jihadist’s life is dedicated to serving Allah (ptah, ptah) and firing rockets into Israeli towns, does he really have time to count Facebook friends? Maybe Mossad hacked the account and planted the story. Friends? Hah, goat lover. You have no friends.

‘85MPH: Almost a Speed Limit’

“So, while the 85 MPH max in Texas is good news, it's also sad news. It is a barometer of the extent to which the public has been brainwashed -- and browbeaten -- on the matter of "speeding." Few know much, if anything, about the Interstate system's origins as asuperhighway system -- let alone that 70-75 was considered routine (and legal) more than 40 years ago. But they doremember the NMSL -- and Drive 55 -- and so are grateful to be allowed to run 70-75 once more. Eighty-five seems downright sparkling. Except that on that lonesome Texas highway -- with the road straight and stretching to what seems like infinity -- running 85 is damn near boring.

“Ask any Texan.”

http://spectator.org/archives/2012/11/16/85-mph-almost-a-speed-limit

From maggiesfarm.

(I do not drive over 70 except when passing. I do not want to be in 85mph traffic.)

Talk about the life in Massachusetts

Sheila Burgess, director of the Massachusetts Highway Safety Division, $87,000 annual salary. Crashed a state vehicle Aug. 24 at Blue Hills. “Her driving record includes seven accidents, four speeding violations, two failures to stop for a police officer, one failure to stay in her lane, one driving without registration or license in possession, and one driving without wearing a seat belt.

“When she was nabbed for speeding in New Hampshire in 1999, she failed to show up at her hearing, records show. Until Nov. 1, her license was on nonrenewal status for failure to pay local excise taxes. There are 34 entries on her driving record, dating back to 1982.”

http://mobile.boston.com/art/35/news/local/massachusetts/2012/11/18/state-highway-safety-chief-has-long-driving-record-recent-accident/4HPRt0xv2Bqu3rsonuY3sJ/story

Somebody has to take up the slack left from dead Kennedys.

Pulled over at www.fark.com

Evangel-Air 4500-300

While exploring www.1000aircraftphotos.com I came across yet another of the more than 1,000 aircraft I did not know, the Evangel-Air 4500-300. The pictures made for an interesting-looking aircraft.

Here is a link to a story of a 4500 operating in Peru, 1973:

http://www.airbum.com/pireps/PirepEvangel.html

I like airplanes that will get free from the ground in a short run and that are screwdriver and wrench maintainable. I am not a pilot, but if I were, the 4500 would be on my list to fly.

1000 aircraft photos has more than 10,000 pictures.

F the baker’s union; make your own Twinkie

Golden “Twinkie” Cake:

2 cup all-purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Spray molds/pan with non-stick spray.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and set aside.
In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Next, beat in the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute in between each addition. Reduce the mixer speed and add flour mixture alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Add the vanilla and mix until the batter just comes together. Over mixing with make your cake chewy. Makes 12 cakes.

Spray your Twinkie canoes and bake at 350 for 15 minutes, or until the cakes are just a light golden color and a tester inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Cream Filling

¼ cup shortening (I prefer Crisco brand)
¼ cup margarine
1 cup sifted powdered or 10x sugar
2 tsp. vanilla

Beat together the shortening and margarine until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar in a little at a time and beat on high until peaks form. Add vanilla and beat for one minute. Place in prepared icing tubes for piping into cakes.

To fill the cakes, insert the icing tip – preferably a large star tip – into three points along the flat-side of the cake, about 1/8 of an inch deep. Squeeze lightly until you see the filling begin to ooze out.

http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2012/11/16/have-no-fear-the-homemade-twinkie-recipe-is-here/

What Obama should do

Make government bigger, take care of everybody, increase labor unions, smash influence of big money.

“In fact, a majority actually have liberal or progressive views. They think corporate money plays too big a role in our political system, the very rich pay too little in taxes, and the government should help with student loans, act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and protect consumers and workers. They believe Congress should raise the minimum wage and that Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, unemployment insurance and food stamps are needed to protect people from economic hardship and insecurity.”

http://www.thenation.com/article/171263/obama-won-now-its-time-change-system#

(The only difference between Fascist-Communists and Progressives is the uniform.)

More on SAS sergeant’s imprisonment

The imprisonment of a member of the Special Air Service found with a Glock pistol amongst his belongings has been labelled a "monstrous miscarriage of justice" by a group of SAS veterans.

Sergeant Danny Nightingale, an 11-year veteran of the SAS, has been sentenced to serve 18 months at a military detention centre after pleading guilty to the illegal possession of a firearm at a court martial earlier this month.

http://www.defencemanagement.com/news_story.asp?id=21452

From gatesofvienna.

Canadian TV reporters cannot read

Or are frightened. Canada does have one of those It is illegal to hurt someone’s feelings laws. And there are those religion of peace people.

http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-growing-threat-of-illiteracy-in.html

Meanwhile, in Euroland

“There is no magic wand for anyone to wave. The protesters have every right to be enraged, but they are raging against something that cannot be changed at the flick of a switch – the wealth is gone.”

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-11-16/guest-post-europe-grip-anti-austerity-protests

There it is, folks. In black and white, as was said when there were newspapers. “The wealth is gone.” It no longer exists. You can’t have your share of something that isn’t there.

Will European-style protests arrive at to a city near you?

Also from maggiesfarm.

On fracking

Not written very well, but informative.

“Professor Merrill also doubts industry structure has much to do with fracking’s rise either. However much major oil companies like to tout their commitment to innovation, the majors played a minor role in developing this technology. It was largely developed by smaller players in the industry.

“A more likely factor is the way U.S. law treats subsurface rights. The U.S. is something of an outlier in that subsurface minerals are the property of the landowner, and not the government. This results in decentralized ownership and control over subsurface rights facilitates experimentation and innovation in figuring out how to exploit and manage subsurface resources.

“Further decentralization, and experimentation, results from the federalist regulatory structure. Different states have different regulatory approaches than others, creating opportunities for further innovation and the opportunity for jurisdictions to learn from one another. The existence of a few jurisdictions that will allow a new technology to be tried provides a laboratory from which others may learn, whereas under a more centralized regulatory structure such innovation is unlikely to get off the ground.”

http://www.volokh.com/2012/11/16/merrill-on-fear-of-fracking/

Linked from www.maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com

And in other news

A petition asks that President Obama nationalize the Twinkie industry,

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/11/new-white-house-peition-demands-white-house-nationalize-twinkie-industry/

while striking Hostess workers in Maine say, “By golly, we showed the company. We shut ‘em down. You bet. We caused their bankruptcy.”

http://bangordailynews.com/2012/11/16/business/maines-striking-hostess-workers-say-companys-collapse-a-strong-message-of-union-resolve/?ref=videos

(That’s right. You showed Hostess. So how long will those government unemployment checks last?)

When you die, the tax man will come for the money

“’There is no way financially my kids can pay what the IRS is going to demand from them nine months after death and keep this ranch intact for their generation and future generations,’ said (Kevin) Kester, of the Bear Valley Ranch in Central California.

“Two decades ago, Kester paid the IRS $2 million when he inherited a 22,000-acre cattle ranch from his grandfather. Come January, the tax burden on his children will be more than $13 million.”

…

“Currently, the federal government taxes estates worth $5 million dollars and up at 35 percent. When the Bush-era tax rates expire in January, rates increase to 55 percent on estates of $1 million or more. While some Republicans want to eliminate the death tax entirely, President Obama has proposed a 45 percent rate on estates of $3.5 million and up.

"’The idea behind the estate tax is to prevent the very wealthy among us from accumulating vast fortunes that they can pass along to the next generation,’ said Patrick Lester, director of Federal Fiscal Policy with the progressive think tank -- OMB Watch. ‘The poster child for the estate tax is Paris Hilton -- the celebrity and hotel heiress. That's who this is targeted at, not ordinary Americans.’"

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/11/16/ranchers-farmers-brace-for-death-tax-impact/#ixzz2CPpGoolt

Mr. Lester, who TF are you to decide why “the very wealthy among us” should not leave everything to their descendents? Let me make a guess: You don’t have any “very wealthy” relatives, so you figure if you can’t get something, neither should anyone else.

And as far as Paris Hilton goes, I don’t give AF what she does with her money. I don’t care that her parents made her into a very rich, spoiled B. Why do her actions mean anything to you, Mr. Lester?

Yep, we got to get rid of those Bush tax cuts for the rich.

Police to rustlers: Prepare to die

“Nairobi — Police have vowed to pursue and kill cattle rustlers who were responsible for the weekend massacre of 42 officers.

“Deputy Police Spokesman Charles Owino told journalists in Nairobi on Wednesday that the cattle raiders will be crushed to end the vicious rustling cycle that has claimed countless lives.

"’It is not business as usual and they (rustlers) should be prepared to die. Police handle people with a lot of respect and then we are called weak, naive and unprepared. That is not going to happen again!’ he stressed.”

http://allafrica.com/stories/201211150165.html

Linked from: www.gatesofvienna.blogspot.com

And now, from Gaza

“What was that noise?”

“It is the Zionists! The cowards are attacking our brave leaders!”

“Oh! It is so loud!”

“Get your wrists straight, Hammal! This is no time to go all goat-lover!”

“Oh, yes. I apologize.”

“Where are the children? We must have children! The ambulances will be here in five minutes! Hammal! Your job is to get children for the ambulances!”

“Yes, yes. I have my sister’s daughter and son.”

“Get them! Do not stand there like a lovesick sheep!”

“Yes, yes. Ah! Here they are! Are they not lovely children?”

“Of course, of course. Children, do you know what is to happen?”

“Uncle Hammal said we will be on American television!”

“Yes, you will.”

“Will we be on American Idol?”

“I want to be on Jersey Shore!”

“Hammal! What have you taught them?”

“Not I! it must be their mother. She can read, you know.”

“Never mind, never mind. The ambulances are here.”

“And Reuters cameras! Is my hair OK?”

“Shut up, Hamal! Now, children, lie down in the street. That is good, yes. The mother! Where is the …”

“Oh, look at my helpless children! Oh, may the curse of Allah be in the Zionists who bombed and shot my innocent children!”

Palestinian victim of Israeli attacks miraculously healed.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/162130#.UKU4n0bCz8B

Does Germany know this?

“Watching immigration patterns is a very good way to get a sense for where the more vibrant economies are. There's a lot of immigration, legal and otherwise, into the US from Mexico. Not so much from Canada.

“People don't immigrate when they are content, which is why the immigration patterns within the eurozone are another signal of the problems in the southern eurozone countries.

“The number of Greeks moving to Germany jumped 78% in the first half of 2012 from a year earlier, Germany's statistics office reports. Spanish, Portuguese moving into Germany was up 53%.”

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2012/11/immigration-patterns-in-eurozone.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+economicpolicyjournal/YZSb+(EconomicPolicyJournal.com)&utm_content=Google+Reader

Linked from
And www.maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com


Europe is falling apart. It is up to us to keep the same from happening here. But, Obama won, so ...

The world’s poorest president

Jose Mujica, lives on his wife’s farm and owns a 1987 Volkswagen. He gives away about 90 percent of his salary.

Mujica was a Tupamoros guerrilla. He was shot six times and spent 14 years in jail. But he is not without criticism.

“The Uruguayan opposition says the country's recent economic prosperity has not resulted in better public services in health and education, and for the first time since Mujica's election in 2009 his popularity has fallen below 50%.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20243493


Thanks to www.fark.com

Obama, where are all the teachers?

Obama has talked often about “improving education” for “our nation’s underprivileged children” by hiring 100,000 new teachers.

Where are they?

Obama’s party has had control of the Senate for some time. His party controlled both houses from January 2009 until January 2011.

Why didn’t Obama’s party fund the hiring of 100,000 new teachers and guarantee a good future for underprivileged children?

Why didn’t Obama’s party establish and construct a national teacher training school and train and certify 100,000 new teachers?

Where are the recruiters for the 100,000 new teachers?

For that matter, where are the recruiters for Obama’s announced 20,000 veterans to build roads and work at our national parks and wildlife centers? Where is the national training center for those 20,000 veterans?

Where, oh Great Leader, where?

Hamas bumper stickers

If you can read this, you're about to be blown up, too

If you can read this, thank a teacher. If your wife and daughters can't, thank a mullah.

80 percent of success is just blowing up.

More (lots more) at http://thepeoplescube.com/peoples-blog/hamas-bumper-stickers-on-twitter-started-by-thepeoplescube-t10044.html

Linked from http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/

The Man knows whereof he speaks

After Katrina, he was the one telling people, “You’re stuck on stupid.”

Gen. Honore says NY officials not prepared for hurricane and then did stupid stuff or nothing after the storm hit.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/14/opinion/honore-sandy-recovery/index.html

Washed ashore at www.fark.com

Road warning for the day

“Caution Loose Gorilla.”

Or

“Smoke Weed Everyday.” (sic on the “Everyday,” which in this case should be “Every Day.” Now, if you smoke weed several days in a row, you would be considered an “everyday smoker.” Like “back yard” and “backyard.” “The weed is in the back yard.” “Dude, seen my backyard bong?” Or “back porch” and “backporch.” Got it?”)

Anyway, somebody hacked a road sign in California. How could this not have happened in Florida?

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/11/13/4982245/loose-gorilla-prankster-messing.html

Lit up at www.fark.com

Arrgh! That pesky history gets in the way again!

Global warm ... Climate Change caused Hurricane Sandy and more and more big ones are on the way!!

Or not.

“The idea that the devastation from Sandy was caused by global warming is wrong for many reasons. Those pushing this agenda are ignoring meteorological history, or purposefully leaving it out of the discussion. On top of the fact that we have seen much stronger storms hit these areas before with more frequency, the premise of the argument lacks credence because global temperatures have not increased since the late 1990’s.”
…
“Was it global warming in the 1950’s when the East Coast was consistently devastated by hurricanes more powerful than Sandy? How do they account for the fact that Earth’s temperatures have not been increasing while CO2 continues to rise? Despite reduced global tropical activity, the fact remains that over the next decade, we should expect to see more storms like Sandy, and possibly stronger. Property damage will be catastrophic if we continue to see hurricanes like we did in the 1950’s.”

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/11/14/HuffPo-Blames-Sandy-on-Global-Warming-Meteorologist-Responds

Linked from http://www.maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com

She’s Russian and she has an axe. Trust me, she knows how to use it

Associated Press

MAKHACHKALA, Russia — Beware of 56-year-old Russian women with axes.
A lone wolf attacked Aishat Maksudova outside her sister’s home in Russia’s province of Dagestan in the North Caucasus Mountains.
The animal bit the farmer on her arm and her leg and she fell to the ground, crying out for help from other villagers. No one was in earshot. So she reached for an ax she had brought along to repair a fence, and with remarkable aplomb, she hit the wolf over the head several times until his teeth unclenched.
The wolf later died.
Maksudova has become a hero in the Caspian Sea province that lies east of Chechnya. She was still being treated for her wounds Tuesday at a local hospital after last week’s incident. Doctors said she is recuperating well.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/free/20121113russia-woman-attacked-by-wolf-axes-death.html

(Forty years ago, when environmentalists argued for the return of wolves into certain areas of the US, said tree huggers claimed “There is no recorded incident of a wolf attacking a human.” Facts, though, show the claim another greenie avoidance of fact.

“A recent Fennoscandian study on historical wolf attacks occurring in the 18th–19th centuries indicated that victims were almost entirely children under the age of 12, with 85% of the attacks occurring when no adults were present. In the few cases in which an adult was killed, it was almost always a woman. In nearly all cases, only a single victim was injured in each attack, although the victim was with two or three other people in a few cases. This contrasts dramatically with the pattern seen in attacks by rabid wolves, where up to 40 people can be bitten in the same attack. Some recorded attacks occurred over a period of months or even years, making the likelihood of rabies infected perpetrators unlikely, considering that death usually occurs within two to 10 days after the initial symptoms. Records from the former Soviet Union indicate that the largest number of attacks on children occurred in summer during July and August, the period when female wolves begin feeding their cubs solid food. Sharp falls in the frequency of attacks were noted in the Autumn months of September and October, coinciding with drops in temperature which caused most children to remain indoors for longer periods.””

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_attacks_on_humans

From Russia, with apologies

The kindergarten teacher was telling the children how lucky they were to live in Obama's America.

"In Obama's America, children are always happy. In Obama's America, all parents have jobs. In Obama's America, Obama protects us from everything bad."

Suddenly one little boy burst into tears. "What's wrong, Johnny?" asked the bewildered teacher.

"I want to go to Obama's America to live!" he wailed.

*****

After the fall of the Soviet Union and the introduction of genuine electoral politics to Russia, the city of Moscow, in order to save money, purchased used voting machines from the city of Chicago. When they held their first election for Mayor, Richard J. Daley won by a landslide.

http://thepeoplescube.com/peoples-blog/old-soviet-jokes-become-the-new-american-reality-t10017.html

‘I want you to tax the crap out of the blue states in which I live’

“I want you to tax the crap out of the blue states in which I live because I put country ahead of personal fortune. Not because I want to hear my tax-loving liberal neighbors squeal like stuck pigs. I’m better than that.”

http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/11/stick-it-to-blue-states-aka-country-first/

Here’s Sgt. Bob’s idea: On every finance and tax issue that comes up for vote in the House and Senate, Republican representatives and senators should fight tooth and nail and then vote “Present.” Then, all taxes and other finance matters belong to the Democrats.

My feelings are hurt! Wah, wah, wah!

A Victoria’s Secret model shows off her underwear while wearing “a Native American headdress (also called a war bonnet)” and some group calling itself “Native American Appropriations” gets all bent out of shape at the “culturally insensitive faux pas.”

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/victoria-secret-apologizes-fashion-show-gaffe-194400804.html

“Ruth Hopkins, a columnist for a Native American news site, wrote that ‘after years of patronage and loyalty to the Victoria's Secret brand, I am repaid with the mean-spirited, disrespectful trivialization of my blood ancestry and the proud Native identity I work hard to instill in my children.’ Putting a headdress on a white model is particularly offensive, she wrote, because among the Sioux tribe, war bonnets are exclusively worn by men, with each feather symbolizing an act of valor.”

Hey, Ms. Hopkins, here’s a news flash: There were wars and your side lost! Would you show the same dismay at cultural insensitivity if the model had worn a Viking war helmet? Or a Confederate army hat?

No? Why not?

Is not one cultural insensitivity equal to another?

What will happen when Taliban are in power

‘Extremist calls for destruction of Egyptian antiquities’

Everybody who is surprised, raise our hand.

(I like the description of this Taliban guy –“extremist.” I suppose other Taliban are “moderate?”)

“Morgan Al-Gohary, a jihadi sheikh with a history of radicalism, appeared on the private Egyptian TV channel Dream TV 2 Saturday evening and declared that if he and his ilk ever came to power, they would not hesitate to destroy the Sphinx and the pyramids.”

http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/12/world/wedeman-ancient-monuments/index.html

More of ‘We don’t need that free speech thing, Old Boy’

‘British Police Arrest Man for Burning a Poppy and Posting the Picture on Twitter’

Few Americans associate November 11 and the poppy. Flanders fields have been forgotten. In Britain and former Empire countries, the poppy is a symbol of wars in which thousands or millions died.

Britain has a “speech law,” officially known as the Malicious Communications Act 1988, which, according to The Guardian, “deals with the sending to another of any article which is indecent or grossly offensive, or which conveys a threat, or which is false, provided there is an intent to cause distress or anxiety to the recipient.”

Or, as The National Review Online said, the offended person determines “what is allowable.” You have offended me; therefore the police must arrest you.

So some yoot burns a poppy, the burning turns up on Facebook, someone complains, and police arrest “a 19-year-old Canterbury man … on suspicion of an offence under the Malicious Communications Act.”

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/333219/british-police-arrest-man-burning-poppy-and-posting-picture-twitter-charles-c-w-cooke#

How glad I am one of my ancestors in 1750 arrived in British America.

Link at www.maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com

Dumbass military judge sends vet to prison

“Sgt Danny Nightingale, a special forces sniper who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was sentenced to 18 months in military detention by a court martial last week.”

(His crime? He had a 9mm Glock given him by the Iraqi government.)

”The court was told that he returned to Britain in a hurry after two friends were killed in Iraq, leaving his equipment — including the pistol — to be packed up by colleagues.”

“(I)n November 2007, two of Sgt Nightingale’s closest friends, Sgt John
“Battersby and Cpl Lee Fitzsimmons, were killed in a helicopter crash. He accompanied both bodies back to Britain and helped arrange the funerals.

“In Iraq, his equipment was packed by colleagues, one of whom placed the pistol inside a container that was sent first to the SAS regimental headquarters in Hereford, then to his home where it remained unopened until 2010.”

(The truly disappointing part of the story is not that Sgt Nightingale was found guilty, but that a military court handed down the sentence and the prison time. You have to wonder if the court martial judge has any pointy bullet time.)

A travesty that must be made right.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9669410/SAS-war-hero-jailed-after-betrayal.html

Found at www.anenglishmanscastle.com

Always a direction home

By Sgt. Bob

A comedian on television said, “I was in the South …”

It was real easy to tell he wasn’t from the South, because everybody from the South knows there are four cardinal directions: Down South, Out West, Up North and Back East.

Those cardinal directions are not the same as north, east, south and west, because by adding the modifier Down, Out, Up and Back, the speaker places himself and his locale in the center of the universe.

If you believe the South is not the center of the universe, well, you are not from there, or maybe you are from Texas. Texas has much Southern, since earliest Anglo settlers were from the South, but Texas is not in the South. Texas is, as the ads say, “A whole ‘nother country.”

Nor is Texas considered Out West. Out West is west of El Paso and Oklahoma. But every place north of Oklahoma is not considered Up North. Nebraska and the Dakotas are Out West, but Kansas is … Kansas, I suppose.

If you are, by God’s grace, from Texas or are lucky enough to have moved there, you know Texas is divided into parts – East Texas, North Texas, South Texas, West Texas and the Panhandle. Texas is grand enough to have an additional descriptive direction. “Panhandle” is not a true direction, but you can’t describe Texas without it.

Back to those other directions, you can use Back East or Up North to sort of describe the same places, but the description depends on what your thoughts are at the moment. You could say Virginia and the Carolinas are Back East, but not with the same attitude as saying they are Down South. You could say New York is Up North, but that takes on a whole different attitude than saying it is Back East. Generally, places that are Up North, you don’t want to spend much time there. Finish your business and leave.

Pennsylvania and Michigan are Up North, as are Ohio and Indiana and Iowa. Places you don’t want to go Up North include Dee-Troit and Chicago. People talk funny there.

What it comes down to is, we have a big country. Big. Not Russia, Canada or China big, but big enough we are regionalized and separated by past occurrences, some good, some not so.

Just keep in mind it’s Down South, not In the South.

Ya’ll have a good day.

On the front line

“The rain of missiles is from our peace-loving ‘cousins’ in Gaza. Each warhead is lovingly filled with nails and rat poison (promotes bleeding) and they are cynically aimed at our children when they are going to school or coming home.”

…

“The ‘life-enhancing’ qualities of Islam will be at work today while the emergency teams at Magen David Adom get to work on the inevitable victims, trying to save life and limb, but nobody can save mind and demeanour.”

…

“The Joshua Fund (Christian) has just removed our $10,000 monthly grant after four years, we are too ‘Jewish’ for them, they want our (Jewish) boss to go to church in Beersheva (forty kilometres away) on Saturday instead of keeping (Jewish) Sabbath. We thank the Joshua Fund for their past support, and we are slowly breaching the huge gap that their decision has left, but it is difficult not to be angry at the pettiness of it all.

“If I might put in a ‘bleg’ here: you can contribute at our website. All money goes to counter the Jihad being waged directly against us.”

http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2012/11/news-from-front-line-sderot.html#more

As “Gates of Vienna” says: “At the siege of Vienna in 1683 Islam seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe. We are in a new phase of a very old war.”

Also see: http://www.hopeforsderot.com/

So this man walks into a police office with a hand grenade …

“Look what I found.”

“Last year, two women came into the building with three grenades in a Bed, Bath & Beyond shopping bag,” a police spokesman said.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121109/METRO01/211090435#ixzz2BxPiAXfN

Pin pulled at www.fark.com

How stupid are LA City Council members? Yeah, that stupid.

“The Los Angeles council, in a 14-0 vote on Friday, adopted a resolution urging residents to adopt a personal pledge to have a ‘meatless Monday.’
…
“’This follows the “good food’”agenda we recently adopted supporting local, sustainable food choices,’ said Councilwoman Jan Perry, who has called for a ban on new fast-food restaurants in South Los Angeles to fight obesity.”

(Link not working. It's at hotair.com)

(Everybody who says more government is good for us … Well, there is a pocked wall waiting for you.)

“The proposal was developed by the Food Policy Council, which has a goal of ‘creating more and better food jobs’ and encouraging food companies and small food enterprises as part of a bigger agenda to encourage healthy foods in the city.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/10/la-meatless-mondays-los-angeles-city-council_n_2109193.html

(Not so long ago, everything good was “for the children.” Part of Obama’s propaganda has been “saving the middle class.” Now, we can look for “creating more and better food jobs.”)

Coalition government cutting army to 82,000.

“The message is plain: Britain has neither the means nor the will any longer to sustain a capability to commit large troop numbers abroad, in support of the national interest. The historic vision of the redcoat – holding the line at Blenheim, Waterloo, Balaclava; defending Rorke’s Drift for that peerless movie Zulu; fighting to victory in two world wars and countless colonial '’brushfire’’ campaigns – is to be laid to rest.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9667102/Max-Hastings-Farewell-to-our-warrior-nation.html

Linked from www.hotair.com

That freedom of speech thing? Doesn’t count in Britain

“One man angry about the war in Afghanistan was ordered to perform 240 hours of community service for declaring on Facebook that ‘all soldiers should die and go to hell.’ Police also went knocking on the door of a 17-year-old boy who tweeted an insulting message to Olympic diver Tom Daley, saying that he had let down his dead father by failing to win a gold medal. He was arrested, but released and given a warning.”

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-britain-free-speech-20121109,0,7465396,full.story

(Stupid remarks? Sure. But if judges begin deciding stupid is illegal … Let the one who never did a stupid thing cast the first stone. Or something like that.)

“The source of the controversy is a 2003 communications law that, among other things, makes it a crime to send messages deemed ‘grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character’ through a public electronic network.”

(Oh, it is a law. Well, then, that’s different.)

Found at www.fark.com

Son of Lancaster crewman meets French woman who saved his father

“After four days, a Resistance fighter known by the code name Maxime appeared and, with the help of two bicycles provided by Gisele's father, guided Sam to the Fréteval Forest where 152 downed Allied air crew hid in a camp codenamed ‘Sherwood.’"

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Priceless+encounter+with+Gisele+rescued+bomber/7529878/story.html#ixzz2BraJVih1

Found at www.fark.com

WWMCD?

What would Mark Cuban do?

If all the problems of the world were laid end to end, would there be enough room for a Mavericks cheerleader?

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/dallas-mavericks-dancers-uniforms-prove-not-everything-bigger-163130767--nba.html

‘May cause drowsiness’

Yeah, I reckon!

Cyclobenzaprine – 1 tablet three times a day; hydrocodone 5/acetamophen -- 1 tablet four times a day; haproxen --500mg, 1 tablet twice a day.

That’s a lot of drugs. For me, anyway.

Here’s why I am taking the stuff:

Wednesday morning, around 9:20, on my way from the kitchen to the office, with a cup of coffee, I managed not to step all the way over Victor, our larger standard poodle. I thought I had lifted my foot high enough, but I had not. (Right side focal dystonia, caused by neurological damage, caused by cerebral aneurysm in 1986, means my right foot often does not do what I tell my brain to direct it to do.) I tripped over one of Victor's back legs.

As I began falling, Victor got out of Dodge really fast, probably thinking: 1. the man wants this space and since he is the man, I must move; 2. the man weighs more than twice my weight and since I do not want to be crushed, I must move; 3. Oh my gosh I don’t know what happened, but the man is falling and it’s not my fault but he might think I did it on purpose and be mad at me and I better move. Now.

When Victor was all the way gone, I impacted the tile floor, left elbow followed by left eyebrow followed by left rib cage. Somewhere in all that, my hand released the cup of coffee, and the cup impacted and shattered on the tile, resulting in coffee splatter on the office door, the hallway wall and (mostly) on the floor.

For a few seconds, I did nothing. Then I raised my head and stared at broken glass and spilled coffee. I said, “Shoot that hurts,” meaning my head, my elbow and my ribs.

Then the cut in my eyebrow dripped blood, four drops, slowly.

“Yeah,” I said. “That hurts.”

A fifth drop of blood fell, and I decided getting upright might be the order of the day. Getting up was difficult, with nerves and muscles complaining. I went into the bathroom and got a wash cloth and stopped the bleeding. I cleaned up glass and coffee and then went to my writing machine and did my usual searching and reading and writing.

On Thursday, everything hurt more. On Friday I dove 15 miles or so to the Little Rock Veterans Administration Hospital emergency room. A doctor and a nurse and X-ray and CT scan people took care of what needed doing. Each was professional and nice. At the end of my almost five-hour visit, the ER nurse announced, “Nothing broken. Beat up a lot, but not broken.”

So now I have 10 days of drowsy pills. And am I ever.

'I am done with it'

On the day after election day, Priscilla said, “I am done with it.”

The country is divided into two groups, she said.

“One group works and the other group takes. One believes you work to get ahead and the other believes it should have whatever it wants given to it. People in that group believe I work to pay for what they want.”

Put more simply: To the half that takes, people who work exist only to pay the takers.

The takers are in what she sometimes calls “minimum wage philosophy.”

“I am here, you have to pay me. Whether I do the work doesn’t matter. I am here, I am breathing. You have to pay me.”

Priscilla is right. One hundred percent, completely right.

You are lucky if you haven’t seen the minimum wage philosophy. The cashier at WalMart who does not speak, who does not look up, who takes things from the conveyor belt and scans the things and puts the things in plastic bags on the whirl-around, whose only words to you are, “Forty-eight fifty-seven,” and even then does not look at you, but at nothing because she sees nothing. Ever.

Big box stores, fast food places, DMV offices, tax offices …

This should be one of your leading thoughts: In a take and take country, the number of people with minimum wage philosophy will increase, and soon every person you met will think that way. Even the one in the mirror.

They all look the same and sound the same

“The Republican establishment had its shot, twice. It put up moderate non-objectionable candidates. And it lost. It has no policies, beyond keeping the system going, and it has no ideas and no agenda, besides winning. It is a decadent political class fused with an even more decadent pundit class that views elections like these as a game, not as a life-and-death matter. It makes up lies and tells them to its base and hopes that the base will then forgive and forget being lied to and used one more time.”

‘Why the Left Won,’ at http://neveryetmelted.com/

(Yes, indeed and indeed with its “decadent pundit class” that speaks well and looks good on TV, appearing with other good speakers and comely blondes/brunettes. They talk to each other, write for each other, are paid from the same budgets for newspaper and/or blog columns and opinions. They know everything, and today forget what they said last week. And, right on brother, with the GOP ruling class intent on “keeping the system going.” They all are the same, nationally elected Republicans and Democrats.)

I will watch no more politics forever. Give me a book … Well, sell me a book. I have access to movies, the other great make believe. My hired satellite still has MLB Network. Now, if the History Chanel will refine its redneck shows and if TLC returns to what its initials once stood for …

That’s why he’s a scientist

“’We very quickly realized, mainly because of the huge tusks, that this was some kind of elephant,’ said Grégory Bayle, a scientist at the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap).”

(Somebody who wasn’t a scientist might have said, “Lor, look at those big ivry tings! Wonder wot ‘at was?” Except it would have been in French.)

http://www.thelocal.fr/page/view/woolly-mammoth-helmut-discovered-in-paris-region

Dug up at www.gatesofvienna.blogspot.com

Just a thought

The United States was born from fear an overseas government would force new taxes on producers and consumers and that the same government would take away a citizen’s natural rights.

Since 1776, we have been given enemies to prove our national outlook that we are different. France in an undeclared war in the late 18th century; England again in the 1812 war; Southern slaveholders or Northern aggressors in 1861; Spain in 1898 … The list goes on.

So in the modern, global, everyone and everything is equal world, what happens when we decide we are not different than anybody else? Will we run out of enemies?

No, they will find us. Because we are different. And they want our stuff.

The cancer! The tax money! The cancer! The tax money!

“’Research author, Dr Jose Leal, from the Health Economics Research Centre, University of Oxford, said: "Lung cancer costs more than any other cancer, mainly because of potential wage losses due to premature deaths from people in employment - ”about 60 per cent of the total economic costs - ”and high health care costs."€

“The link gives no more details apart from revealing it is a European study.

“If we are going to be mercenary and count the cost to the economy of cancer then we should also count the benefit. Premature deaths of people in their fifties and sixties is probably an economic benefit not a cost. No pension to pay out, no long term care in the nursing home, no free bus passes to hand out and so on.

“Does the full study include these benefits or is it it just a scary number exercise.

“And against that supposed cost of £2.5 billion we could offset the £12.1 billion that tobacco pays in tax each year.”

http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/

We’re glad the Red Commie spy traitor has had a good time

“Exiled former master spy and traitor George Blake, whose betrayal of British agents to the KGB is said to have cost many lives, claims the ‘happiest years’ of his life are being spent in Putin-controlled Russia.”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2228796/George-Blake-British-traitor-gives-rare-interview-ahead-90th-birthday.html#ixzz2BZeWfr7S

Here is a PBS interview:

http://www.pbs.org/redfiles/kgb/deep/interv/k_int_george_blake.htm

(Someone should have wondered about the “Isle of White.”)

‘Cowards Lose’

For those who believe yesterday’s election was stolen, manipulated or fraught with fraud:

http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2012/11/cowards-lose.html

In which the writer sort of agrees with an MSNBC talker who last night said Obama owes his re-election to African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans.

As the SAS badge says: “Who dares, wins.”

Out of the way, old dudes and dudettes

Youngsters are on the road, right behind you, and they’re ready to pass.

Obama-media love fest soon will be o-v-e-r.

“By the next presidential cycle most of these people will be gone. They’ll have moved on to academia or think tanks or Democratic senate campaigns, or wherever aging hacks go when their union contracts finally, inevitably get voided. They’ll be replaced by a vibrant digital marketplace filled with hungry young reporters who care more about breaking stories than maintaining access to some politician or regulator.”

http://dailycaller.com/2012/11/05/tucker-carlson-and-neil-patel-wave-goodbye-to-the-obama-media/#ixzz2BXhrWBCN

US at least two different countries

“The United States is populated by groups of people who may as well be living in different countries. They have separate histories, cultures and visions for the future. They are two distinct nationalities, divided by mutual distrust and joined by mammoth public debt.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/nov/6/one-nation-divisible/#ixzz2BXicJW5L

(It’s that way everywhere, but we are such a young nation, time was required for separation. Time and instant communication, 24-hour communication, to show the differences. The more we know, the more separated we become.)

Collard greens and chicken

Tonight for supper, I fixed collard greens, roasted chicken thighs and boiled potato fingerlings.

This was my first time cooking fresh collard greens. I had fixed canned collard and mustard and turnip greens, and fresh turnip greens, but never fresh collard greens until tonight. Considering that 54 of my first 60 years were spent in Texas, not fixing fresh collard greens was a lapse in my culinary education.

The recipe was a fancy one from a “We know what is good for you” magazine. Not a single part of the recipe called for stirring; everything was tossed.

As in step 1 – put 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper on an edged baking pan. Toss chicken and a pint of cherry tomatoes until chicken and tomatoes are covered.

Now anybody can figure out real quick that when you put four chicken thighs and a pint of tomatoes on an edged baking pan, you aren’t going to toss any of it. If you do, something is going to wind up tossed onto the floor.

What I did was, I put the oil on the pan, added salt and pepper, and mixed it all up and spread it all over the pan. Then I took a fork and stuck a thigh and wallowed it around the oil and then turned it over and wallowed the other side. When all four thighs were sufficiently wallowed, I poured on the tomatoes and took a spoon and moved them around in the oil.

While the chicken-tomatoes cooked, I tore the greens and washed them twice. Then I heated olive oil, salt and pepper in a stew pot and added a sliced onion and then, using a spatula “tossed” the onion for a few minutes. The recipe said use a large skillet, but I’m not sure you can buy a skillet large enough to hold collard greens.

When the onions were sufficiently “tossed,” I added about a third of the greens and cooked them for about 20 minutes, “tossing” as needed, using the spatula.

All in all, the meal turned out OK.

I have a whole lot of uncooked greens left over, though.

Pigeon carrying WWII message found in chimney

“Experts say the skeletal remains of a pigeon discovered in the chimney of a house in southern England carried a mysterious, long-forgotten message from World War II.

“Historians at Britain's Second World War-era code breaking headquarters say the bird was almost certainly returning from Nazi-occupied France during the June 1944 D-Day invasion.

“Bletchley Park says that a radio blackout imposed on Allied forces at the time meant that messages about the progress of the invasion were dispatched by pigeon across the Channel.

“What the message says remains unknown. It was coded, an unusual measure generally reserved for the most sensitive secrets.

“Bletchley Park said Thursday that one of its curators is now trying to unravel the message using World War II logbooks.”

http://www.newsmax.com/SciTech/Britain-D-Day-Pigeon/2012/11/02/id/462580#ixzz2BUCWiFso