Humor me

Saw this Dilbert cartoon for Sunday, and I just had to post it. Having been into self-sufficiency for many years, having read many Internet posts concerning the "preps" movement, and having participated in many discussions on various lists and blogs concerning preparations for economic upheaval, social unrest, etc. it struck me as not only pertinent but quite funny in a somewhat disturbing way.

Oh, I'm not disturbed in the manner of those folks who think preparations for difficult times are a sign of paranoia. Those of us who grew up with parents who lived through the Great Depression, those of us who have lived where snowstorms and hurricanes have knocked out electricity for several weeks at a time, or where you couldn't get through the snow to the stores to buy food or other necessities, know that preparing is something you don't have to be a Boy Scout to do. Our families pretty much all had a deep pantry or larder or root cellar where there was enough food stored to carry you through a week or so (at least).

Some years back, when I owned a little 40 acre ranch in Far Northern California ("The State of Jefferson", for those of you familiar with that political division ;-), I had a large root cellar with food and all the sundries you'd rather not have to do without, from toilet paper and fresh toothbrushes to soap and shampoo, to freshly canned garden produce, stored root crops, and apples and pears from our own trees. I had kerosene stored for some Aladdin lamps I owned, as well as some Dietz hurricane lanterns and candles, of course. I had a large diesel fuel tank and one for gasoline. I had more standing dead wood and snags than I could burn in two years, plus about 25 acres of forest. Two springs fed an underground cistern and an above ground tank, with a solar-powered ultraviolet system with several filters for purification. All sorts of power and hand tools for wood-cutting, wood-working, welding and fabrication, auto and farm equipment maintenance, etc.

My wife and I had six Toggenburg milk goats, 37 Rhode Island Red chickens, a team of Shire draft horses, along with another ten assorted drafts and warm-blood crosses. Loved that sweet, fresh milk and the various cheeses we made from it, along with the chicken and eggs. Could have eaten chevon or cabrito, but never needed to, although it was available should that have changed. Also put in a separate orchard with sixteen different varieties of antique apple cultivars. We skidded timber with the horses, and had the equipment to plow and harrow if needed, as well as wagons for cargo and a buckboard for travel.

Having been a shooter, reloader, and former law enforcement (worked for both CHP and as a reserve officer in the small town we lived outside of), I also was well prepared with various firearms, ammunition, components, and the ability to combine various items into other improvised devices were that to prove desirable. Of course, I didn't neglect the archery aspect, either, with a PSE compound and a Barnett crossbow. Having worked in emergency medicine, I had a fairly good minor surgical setup, an adequate supply of sutures, bandaging material, gloves, antiseptics and medicines, as well as some training to go along with them. All of this was rounded out with a library of over 1200 volumes, many reference works, how-to books (e.g., Where There Is No Doctor, books on construction, medicine, chemistry, animal husbandry, farming and gardening, art, music, along with the Harvard Classics, a lot of good novels, science fiction, etc., etc.)

Ah, fond memories. While I found it necessary - and desirable - to walk away from much of that infrastructure when I got divorced, I don't list these things to brag, but to indicate that I do have a bit of a notion of what constitutes decent preparation. I still maintain many of the items spoken of that were of a more portable nature than Shire draft horses and Toggenburg goats :-) I have maintained the skills to utilize all of that plus more training I picked up since (R.N. degree and working on the single-engine, land add-on to my commercial rotorcraft license.)

On one web site, I got into a discussion with a young man who was ranting about how useless all of us "old folks" are, what a drain on society we have proven to be with our Social Security and Medicare, and I tried to educate the cretin as to the desirability of using us old codgers as a resource for holding things together and perhaps even assisting in rebuilding civilization if TS ever HTF. There are a lot of us out there with various skills that will be useful, perhaps even vital. He was insistent that society needed to get rid of us, and stabilize economically once we weren't draining the country's coffers. I informed him that any sensible community would rather have trained and experienced old folks like us than some ignorant, day-trading punk with a BMW and a large bank account.

All of this - and I hope I haven't bored you too badly yet - is in service of this Dilbert cartoon. On one of the email lists I was on for some years, while discussing preparations for possible problems during Y2K, several young men spoke of how they wouldn't let their families starve and suffer, even though they had made no preparations themselves. Like "Alice" in the Dilbert strip, they decided they would go "shopping" at the homes of farmers and those of us who had spent our money, time, and sweat making preparations for our own families and friends. They saw nothing wrong with the notion of taking what they felt their families needed by force, from those of us who had used our hard-earned wages to prepare instead of partying, or buying jet skis, fast cars, or more expensive homes. Talk about your grasshoppers and ants!

Scott Adams may have been poking a bit of fun at preppers, or perhaps at those Yuppie types who think organic food and macrobiotics and a few batteries and flashlights constitute preparation. He is such a clever fellow, I am hoping Scott has indeed worked the equation all the way through and is not only sufficiently armed, but perhaps also allied with some like-minded friends who will watch each others' backs if and when it becomes necessary. Because if TS ever does HTF, there will be millions who will feel ever so justified in taking what you have worked hard to provide.

Including FEMA, which is covered by an Executive Order which authorizes it to take any food, equipment, fuel, livestock, vehicles or other property anyone possesses, to use as it sees fit. That includes giving it to the trash coming out of the urban areas as we saw post-Katrina. I'm no talking needy elderly or disabled people, single moms who have been trying to work and keep things together, but all of those folks smoking two or three packs of cigarettes, two or three six-packs of beer, and carrying all of the large screen TVs, liquor, drugs, or anything else they can steal on their way outside of town. The ones who will start screaming the loudest when there is no place to get their free rent, free commodities, food stamps, and all of the other entitlements they have been receiving for so long, and have been told is their due. The folks who FEMA gave credit cards which were used for liquor, drugs, prostitutes, iPods, X-boxes, and damn near everything except what they were meant to be used for.

So, laugh as I did at Dilbert and Alice, but realize it constitutes a rather large tongue in a fairly small cheek. We can hope those preparations will never be needed (although they can always be used anyway, so no loss there), but the times are such that I certainly wouldn't bet on it not happening. Consequently, I prefer to remain not only semper paratus, but also semper armatus.

The Rotting Corpse of the 4th Amendment

I've written before about how the 4th Amendment's protections against unwarranted search and seizure have been destroyed. How the Supreme Court has determined that a citizen may not resist even an unlawful entry into his or her home by the police. Have you stopped and thought about that at all? Have you considered what it means that the political appointees who sit on SCOTUS have decided that you no longer have the right to self-defense if the criminal happens to wear an issued police uniform? (If he is committing an unlawful act, he is indeed a criminal, whether he is ever arrested, tried, and convicted or not.)

[Editor's note: The Indiana Supreme Court ruled against self defense from an illegal (warrantless) entry by the police (even if they did not identify themselves and you thought it was a home invasion). SCOTUS ruled police could force their way into your home without a warrant if they thought you might possibly be destroying evidence of a crime.]

Well, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a federal court, has decided, 8 to 6 (isn't it amazing that two individuals in black robes - political appointees - can decide the rights of over 300 million American citizens?), that the police may take a DNA sample from you if you are arrested. These same fools who in their own decision claim it would be a violation of the 4th Amendment for the police to take samples from everyone say it is acceptable to take samples from everyone arrested.

What's wrong with that, you ask? If a violent criminal, who may have raped or killed people, is arrested, wouldn't it be good to be able to identify DNA evidence from a crime he may have committed? Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? If it is reasonable, if there is reason to suspect he may be responsible for such acts, wouldn't a judge provide a warrant for such a situation? The same warrant the 4th Amendment states would make a search and seizure of evidence permissible?

So, why do the police want DNA samples from everyone arrested? Why does this Federal circuit court feel a warrant is no longer needed to take such evidence from a citizen against his or her will? Where was the Left and the ACLU when this travesty of justice went down? If you are arrested for jaywalking (as a young black mother with three young children was recently, after one of them was killed by a driver on drugs while they were all crossing a street to get home from a bus stop) or for boarding a school bus to check on your child who has slumped over in his seat and appears unresponsive, you can have your DNA taken from you against your will.

How many of you are aware of the many Federal court appointees Obama has been sneaking in while we have been distracted - understandably so - by Obamacare, unemployment, the refusal of his administration to permit the drilling for oil that could make us independent of foreign sources, the mounting debt, the fight over allowing him to raise the debt ceiling even higher than it already is, and all the other serious issues his presence in the White House has caused. He and his handlers - and please, don't insult my intelligence by claiming he is bright enough to be doing all this on his own, while he swings his pathetic little putter on the golf course, or vacations at our expense in Hawaii or Martha's Vineyard, or travels around the country campaigning for his own re-election - are well aware that control of the Federal courts is one of the most powerful tools a tyrant can possess. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_federal_judges_appointed_by_Barack_Obama)

So. Not only is the 4th Amendment dead, murdered by SCOTUS, but now the Federal courts are savaging the rotting remains, like so many vultures and hyenas, stripping the corpse of the very meat from its bones. When this country was founded, the courts were supposed to be the last line of defense against a government that wished to tyrannize its citizens. That is why all judges pretend that jury nullification (visit FIJA.org) is not acceptable, that jurors may only judge the facts, and not the law itself. So, between the judges trying (successfully for the most part) to convince juries that they do not possess the right to judge the law, and the control of the Federal court system passing into the hands of political appointees who favor the ideology of the persons who appoint them, we have lost whatever chance we had at experiencing true justice, as opposed to a justice "system" - a system biased against the individual and weighted toward the State.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

SOLD: And the Evil Continues

If there are any liberals that still peek at my blog from time to time - that includes some of my Democratic relatives, who I love in spite of their choice in political philosophy - stop for a moment and consider how you feel when I rave (I'm sure that is how you view it) about the dangers of Islam. How bigoted it sounds, how unfair and ill-informed I present when I talk about the evils of muslim belief in the ideology called Islam.

I have written of the abuses that muslim women suffer at the hands of their husbands and relatives before now. I have spoken of the rapes and slavery experienced by non-muslim females at the hands of the true followers of Islam and Shari'a. Well, my friends and my liberal readers, here is another article that will allow you to see that perhaps I am not quite as far off-base as you might believe: http://frontpagemag.com/2011/06/23/egypt-christian-girls-kidnapped-and-‘sold’/

Please, do yourselves a favor. Stop for a moment and allow yourself to believe for this brief span of time that this news story could be true. That there is reason and logic to the story that permits us to consider it might be true, might have actually happened. Then consider how you would feel if indeed this story is true. Hold that thought.

Extend that to how you would feel if you discovered that this happens many, many times, that the Quran and the Hadith and the Sura all tell the true believers of Islam that it is acceptable to kidnap and use non-muslim children and young women as sex slaves. Consider the article I posted a while back where a muslim female who had been a legislator in Kuwait wrote and suggested it would be a good thing to make a regular practice of this use of non-muslim female children and young women to keep muslim men "safe" from doing improper things to gratify their sexual needs.

Can you hold that thought long enough to see how evil this practice would be if it indeed happens? Can you think for a moment of how you would feel if it were your children who were kidnapped and then condemned to a short and brutish life as a sex slave, a mere object which could be beaten and abused at will, the will of an old muslim pervert? Perhaps also beaten by his wives, who resent a young object of his sexual desire?

Bad things happen in this world. Thankfully, for the most part, as frequent as they sometimes are, they are actually isolated incidents that occur without planning, without any sort of schedule or regularity. Then consider a situation where some of the nastiest of these bad things are actually institutionalized, planned, encouraged, accepted, and taught as proper by a large group of people who see these bad things as their due, see the evil as their right. Who see you and your children as an acceptable target for their lust and their hate.

Then tell me how wrong I am to be critical of Islam. How wrong I am to profile muslims as less than worthy of our love, our consideration, our support. How wrong I am to view them as the waste of oxygen they truly are.

It Can’t (Could) Happen Here

This is a recurrent theme, because it is so deeply ingrained in our thinking that America will never suffer the depredations of a breakdown of society, of civilization and civilized behavior. Although we have indeed seen it in microcosm, in the riots in Watts and elsewhere, most people deny that it could ever become the norm of our society. They believe the wealth and the technology and the strength of our culture would never permit us to sink to the level of places like Somalia, Bangladesh, Ruwanda, the former Yugoslavia, etc.

As Steve McCann said in a recent article on the American Thinker web site,

"Overwhelming peace and prosperity, over the past many decades, has sown the seeds that will lead to rapid erosion in the American way of life. As the United States has not experienced a major national catastrophe in over 146 years, coupled with no significant economic hardships since 1940, the view across the landscape as far as the mind's eye chooses to see is of never-ending affluence and freedom from strife.

With this perspective in mind, it is easy to believe, as human nature would choose to do, that there will always be an

unlimited source of wealth and with that wealth the country should be obligated to see to it that no citizen, as a factor of

residency, suffers any hardship. It is a belief easily exploited by the Left as a means of obtaining sufficient votes to

acquire and retain power. But this conviction is also the foundation of American socialist dogma for those who revel in

the self-importance and superiority that attaches itself to this errant philosophy.

It is of little personal sacrifice to espouse Marxist/socialist theory while doing so in a comfortable environment provided

by the entrepreneurship and wealth creation of others. But the key to this mindset is the deep-seated belief that there is

no end to the prosperity the United States creates, regardless of the increasingly heavy hand of government. It is only a

matter"

His article, _American Denial_, details the how and why of the inability of many in our country to understand, to believe, that it could indeed happen here, that we could end up with America as another failed political experiment, an experiment that began with such greatness, such promise. It is brief but important. Please give it a look.

Paved with good intentions

Hard to believe someone who is retired could be too busy to post on their own blog, but it happens. Sometimes, however, I read of something that simply must be commented upon, even if it means shifting priorities a bit (and I can hardly believe following this blog is a priority for anyone ;-)

If you've been paying attention, by now you probably understand my belief that, while some who push for socialism are indeed evil, so many are simply useful fools. People with what they feel are the best of intentions, wanting to help their fellow man. People who think it is all right to steal from one person to help another. (This is usually done by taxation, although it occurs in other ways as well.)

I have a young friend, a former coworker, who is a bright young man who truly cares about others. He is a registered nurse, as I was during my last occupation (of many). Having experienced hard times, having seen his family situation reduced by the manipulations of a corrupt and unfair banking/financial industry, he is anti-corporation and leans toward the socialist (actually Karl Marx-ist) belief that it is acceptable to take "from each according to their ability" and give it "to each, according to their need." He is an otherwise honest young man who just cannot grasp that helping others in this fashion is still theft.

He has not experienced what some of us know, that society as a whole did a pretty good job of providing for those truly in need without the intervention of government. Family charity, private charity, church charity, and assistance from social groups have been helping those in need for many, many years. Unfortunately, this did become more difficult as the disposable income that many had - even if it was only in the form of what food they could hand to a traveling "hobo" out the back door of their home - was taken from them in the form of higher taxes, additional fees passed into law when additional taxes couldn't be justified or passed by majority vote. You know, mandates like being forced to purchase health insurance whether you need (or want) to purchase it.

As so many others have written, socialism appears to be an attempt to attain the "perfectable" in mankind, if only the ungrateful beasts will accept what their "betters" tell them is the proper way to reach perfection. (For now, we will leave out the fact that socialism is actually merely a tool of the elite to use in controlling the "masses" and getting them to do what is desired by said elite.) So we have many people who hope that some "change" will bring about an improvement in the living conditions of the poor, of those in need. Some of those people are even willing to have the fruit of their own labor stolen - via taxation and other means - to provide for those in need (and we will avoid trying to determine what "need" means for the moment, as well), although most of them want the money to come from those "filthy rich" people who did nothing to earn the millions they have in their possession. Hell, even if they did earn it. They don't need that much money, do they?

At the place both I and this young man worked, we had other coworkers. One lost all of his meager possessions in a fire, caused by another resident in his apartment building. One lost her job due to a vicious and vindictive superior who mistakenly believed this woman did her some personal harm (accused her husband of the theft of drugs - something he had actually done in the past, by the way, as had this superior at another facility, although it was actually another nurse who turned her husband in for the alleged theft). Donations were organized for these two people in need (although the superior was successful in preventing organized group assistance for the woman - who was supporting an elderly parent at home, by the way - so we did it individually) , and their situations were made a little easier to deal with.

At roughly the same time, we had another coworker, a young lady who had gotten over her head financially. She and her husband had purchased a large home with a good bit of acreage, with a balloon payment. At the same time, she invested in a scheme to make money by raising meat goats for sale. Also during this period, she decided to try to get 100% disability (basically her full paycheck, due to the tax relief of disability) for the "psychological stress" of having to work in the proximity of her ex-husband who was employed by the same service. He was a dick-head ;-) While trying to justify this disability, she refused to work anywhere near her husband, and got approval to take some time off, although not with her full income. Due to the situation, she found herself unable to meet her financial obligations of mortgage, paying her bills, etc.

While the first two people did not ask for any help, they were not responsible for the problems they faced, so I had no issues whatsoever with both organizing the assistance we were all able to provide, nor in giving myself. In the third case, the woman actually talked another coworker into gifting her (not as a loan) several thousands of dollars, and still hinted quite broadly to me and to others of us that she could use some money to "help her out". She did not get a penny from me, and wouldn't have even if I hadn't known about the $2000+ she got from one of us.

Socialism would view all three of these cases as being equal in need. Indeed, people currently receive aid they neither truly need nor deserve, in the sense that choosing to stay home instead of working negates any true need. Admittedly, our current welfare system encourages not working, as it is easier to stay home and get welfare than to work, especially when you consider the costs of transportation, child care, clothes and/or uniforms, union dues, etc. The incredible amount of fraud that is accepted as part of the cost of the system is simply amazing, as well. Since it is not "their money", most bureaucrats in the welfare system do little to prevent the fraud, and when attempts are made to prevent it, it often happens that said bureaucrat is merely using the same system to keep someone they disapprove of from getting help they may actually need.

It is quite an education reading of how some of our "institutionalized" poor have learned to game the system. I read of a young lady who keeps having children (by various biological fathers). As the aid she can receive for these children is limited, she basically abandons the new infants she gives birth to, but this young woman's mother then is able to take the same babies in as foster care, for which she receives $2500 a month. IIRC, she splits some of that income with her daughter. (I apologize for not providing a link to that article, but it was from a believable source, as I recall, not from some "conspiracy" web site.)

When the productive members of a society have the fruit of their labor taken by force from them and then see it given to those who are simply unwilling to work for what they need, eventually you will end up with a society where there are too few productive workers to support the non-productive ones. Then that society collapses - as has happened a number of times in the past in various parts of the world. Those who believe they can get socialism to work in this country, when it has not worked in any other country which has tried it, have the best of intentions, for the most part. They think it is possible to lift mankind up to a state where each will live as well as anyone else, without effort or commitment or even a moral base. If they have their way here in America, they will soon learn the folly of that sort of thinking. Unfortunately, we will all pay the price for it, as will our children and grandchildren, even those of us who know socialism doesn't work.

An even greater danger exists because those who "pull the strings", as it were, the people who believe themselves to be the elite, people who know what is best for the rest of us unwashed and uncouth individuals, people such as Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and John McCain - who all think of us ordinary citizens as oafs and fools who need to be led - don't care whether or not socialism will truly improve the lot of the citizens of this country. They simply believe that they know better, and will run things as they see fit. If it improves life for us, fine, but their first motivation is power and control, not our well-being. Their idea of socialism is actually oligarchy. And their intentions are not good, at least for those of us who believe that the individual has rights that supersede the needs of the group, that are superior to the desires of the group, of society as a whole.

Tyrannobamus Rex

This article from the American Thinker is so good, I will simply paste it here in its entirety:

July 11, 2011

Tyrannus Obama Rex

By Jay Clarke

Barack Obama has many names. He's been called Savior, Messiah, and The Anointed One. He's the first biracial and, some say, first post-racial president. He is charged as the leader of the free world, defender of democracy, and America's head of state. He's an accomplished organizer, spellbinding orator, and historically significant occupant of the Oval Office. And, he is a tyrant.

Americans hate tyrants. Tyrants are ruthless villains, hostile to the basic freedoms granted to humanity by God. Enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have spoken hope to Americans and to freedom-loving people around the world for 235 years. But, these basic, God-given rights are under assault. Not by international forces, but from within. From within America. From within the U.S. government itself and directly from the Office of the President.

Writing in the New England Journal of Political Science, Kris Aaron Beck and Prathibha V. Joshi discuss tyranny and tyrants in exhaustive detail in their work "On Tyranny: The Political and Economic Characteristics of the Authoritarian Regime." According to Beck and Joshi, tyrants and tyrannies differ depending upon the political systems that they seek to dominate. Yet, there are characteristics common to all tyrants:

#1. Consolidation of Power (page 65).

Tyrants move quickly to centralize and consolidate power by "investing into one entity the authority to make political decisions previously found within multiple institutions."

Barack Obama is currently in the consolidation phase of his tyrannical foray. He violates laws with impunity, forcing Congress and/or the Supreme Court to rein him in. Obama's response to accusations of illegal activity might best be paraphrased as "You don't like it? So sue me."

Long, drawn out legal battles work in Obama's favor. Legal attempts to rein in such a tyrant can be frustrating and only serve to give the apostate leader additional time and freedom to strengthen his hold.

By definition, tyranny is the "arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power." Whether it's Congressional oversight, court orders, or the American People, Obama is well-versed in circumventing any authority that may seek to limit his acquisition of power.

Though unpopular, unwanted, and un-Constitutional, he rammed a $2-trillion healthcare bill down the throats of an unwilling American people and then defied court orders restricting its implementation. He has violated the War Powers Act in Libya and has ignored court orders regarding his moratorium on offshore drilling.

In a move worthy of any would-be tyrant, Obama has proposed illegally requiring businesses competing for government contracts to disclose their political contributions.

Clearly in violation of the 4^th Amendment, Obama and DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano applaud the TSA'swarrantless groping of men, women, children, the elderly, and the infirm during airport screenings that reek of police state tactics.

The Justice Department has gone rogue too, ceasing defense of The Defense of Marriage Act andprosecution of hate crimes when the victims are white. Attorney General Eric Holder refused to prosecutethe New Black Panther Party when members brandished clubs, made ethnic slurs, and threatened white voters attempting to enter the polls.

Obama's federal power-grab has expanded into suing and threatening states. He sued Arizona for daring to enforce immigration law and joined a lawsuit against Indiana's defunding of Planned Parenthood. The ATF is pressuring Montana and 7 additional states for passing the Firearms Freedom Act which restricts Federal regulation of firearms made and sold within the states' borders. Obama even threatened to declare the entire state of Texas a "no fly zone" should the Texas legislature criminalize TSA screening procedures.

As a raw, political tactic Obama has refused to secure the southern border while Americans die on American soil at the hands of criminal illegal aliens. Undaunted, lawless Obama used executive powers to enact immigration policies through the back door, bypassing Congress and the rule of law.

When Obama's Cap and Trade carbon-taxing scheme failed in Congress, he simply had the EPA declare carbon to be a toxic pollutant and open to regulation.

This is tyranny. And it must be stopped.

#2. Excessive Self-Love (page 45).

The defining characteristic of all tyrants, "...excessive self-love characterizes tyrannies and tyrants above all else[.]"

Tyrants are runaway narcissists. Lovers of self. Mirror-gazers. Free from empathy and empowered by apathy, these individuals are the users and abusers of society. Jailhouses are full of narcissists. As prolific serial liars, they live in a fantasy world of their own grandiose accomplishments, none of which have ever really occurred. A narcissist is a legend in his own mind. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Mugabe, Fidel Castro, Idi Amin, Kim Jong-il, Saddam Hussein, Hugo Chavez, Vladimir Putin -- is it even arguable that these and others represent the dark extremes of self-love? Is it not then a concern that America's current president is world-renowned for his enormous ego, his arrogant behavior and haughty manner, his dismissive attitude and belief that he's always the smartest guy in the room?

#3. They Hate the Middle Class (page 83).

"...tyrannies loathe the development of a large middle-class even though it can act as an engine of economic growth."

A thriving middle class is dangerous for any tyrant. With time and income to allow for certain luxuries, middle-class citizens can also become politically active. A strong and vibrant middle class is essential for a healthy economy, but it is also a driving force for the expansion of liberty. Liberty is a tyrant's Kryptonite. It would stand to reason that the destruction of the middle class by the reduction of middle-class wealth would be an endgame for the tyrant in training.

The 4-year-long mortgage meltdown coupled with real unemployment numbers as high as 22% is decimating the middle class. Middle-class wealth has traditionally been in the equity of their homes and every day, homeowners are stripped of their futures as home values plummet. Many will never recover and never own another home. Formerly proud homeowners are being forced into subservience to a landlord. But which landlord? The Federal Government is now the largest single owner of residential property in the United States. And they are renting. The largest transfer of wealth in American history is happening right now, foreclosure by foreclosure, from the middle class to the Federal Government.

#4. A Vision for the Country (page 70).

"To further their control and justify that initial oppression, tyrants offer a vision for the country that includes where they believe the country should go and how to solve its problems..."

Hitler preached an evil hybrid of German nationalism and racial hatred. Mao's Cultural Revolution sought to stamp out all cultural influences not in agreement with his socialist agenda. Barack Obama's vision issocial justice. Social justice is an idea tailor-made for tyrants. In his 3-volume work Law, Legislation and Liberty, F.A. Hayek warns of the dangers of social justice. On page 68 of Volume II, The Mirage of Social Justice, he tells us that "[s]o long as the belief in 'social justice' governs political action, this process must progressively approach nearer and nearer to a totalitarian system."

With a smiling face, bold oratory, and lofty-sounding ideals, Barack Obama was able to convince America to trust him with the most powerful office in the world. He was thought to be unique. A healer. A man who would bind up the nation's wounds and help us to move beyond the national shame of 246 years of slavery and a 100-year struggle for civil rights. He promised to improve America's standing in the world, strengthen our economy, and promote fairness and equality. In 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his most famous speech, I Have A Dream. "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." America wondered if Barack Obama might be the fulfillment of Dr. King's dream. As it turns out, he was.

Regardless of political persuasion, race, or economic status, most Americans quietly hoped that Barack Obama would succeed as president, grow our economy, and live up to his Oath of Office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Thirty months into his term as president, the evidence is overwhelming and America is horrified. Americans en masse have awakened to a president drunk with the wine of presidential power. Lawless, unaccountable, and unwilling to be restrained, Barack Obama has broken trust with America and he is being judged just as Dr. King had dreamed. Not by the color of his skin, but by the delinquent content of his character.

Barack Obama has many names. A new one is offered here for America to consider.

"Tyrannus Obama Rex."

Obama, the Tyrant King.

Jay Clarke is a businessman and lifelong conservative from Southern California. Write him at socalscriptor@gmail.com.

Could it really be true?

In a recent post at The Washington Rebel, Col. Bunny makes the point that, although the Cold War had effectively ended some years back, the Communist infiltration and attack upon America continues. Now, it is possible that I misunderstand him, and that he isn't saying that we are experiencing active, continuing efforts by actual Soviet era Communists, or their younger replacements, to continue what started back when Stalin was busy bringing hope and change to the Soviet Union and its satellites. He may have been referring to what I believe is happening.

Obama and his wrecking crew, all committed socialists at the very least, and possibly dedicated Marxists as well - such as his advisor who told a group of high school students that Mao is her favorite philosopher (the philosopher responsible for the deaths of somewhere between 60 and 100 million Chinese) - are probably not actually connected to the old Soviet Cold Warriors who infiltrated our society and our government. However, they are the spiritual descendants of that meme.

I think that, like so many young people back in the sixties and early seventies, the people that formed Obama's ideological mindset were exposed to Marx and Lenin and decided what they saw was good. I believe they bought into the whole Marxist/socialist meme and allowed it to inform their thinking and their planning, and that they have worked to support and advance that meme through the years.

So, Obama surrounds himself with fellow travelers, with people who swallowed the Soviet/Marxist lies, people who, although they know it didn't work in Russia or anywhere else it was tried, firmly believe they are smarter and more committed than those who failed, and can make it work. Add to that the fact that Obama hates the America that we knew during the Reagan years, the exceptionalism that was part and parcel of who we were, and you have a recipe for disaster. The disaster we are facing right now, as he promotes the Cloward-Piven strategy for dismantling the American economy, aborting any attempt for us to be energy independent, betraying our allies and giving aid to our enemies.

So, we are not talking about a "tin-foil hat" conspiracy theory, simply about a group of formerly young people who listened to a siren song that caught their fancy and are allowing it to send us onto the rocks. Ayers and Dohrn and Davis and Wright, and all the other nihilists who delight in the destruction of the America we all believed in, were supported financially and politically by puppet masters such as Soros, and were essential to the creation and the grooming of Obama, were instrumental in supplying him with the twisted minds he has surrounded himself with, the Jones, the Jarretts, and the rest.

The only conspiracy, if there is one, occurs in the minds of such as Soros, those who work to advance these conscious and unconscious traitors who may yet be successful at bringing America down, as the pack snaps and bites at the legs of this Republic, hoping to tire her enough to finally sink their jaws into her neck and spill her life's blood upon the ground.

Silicon Graybeard on the Holder farce and the Rule of Law

At his web blog, http://thesilicongraybeard.blogspot.com/, SG explains why US Attorney General Eric Holder needs to be removed from his position [and indeed, needs to be arrested, charged, tried and convicted for crimes against the citizens of this country. Ed.]

Holder is a true racist. Not the make-believe, we'll call you a racist if you do anything we don't like "racist" that the Progressives label all conservatives. He has openly admitted he favors "his people" above all others. Considering, as Lever Action does in a comment on SG's post, that he refuses to enforce Federal immigration law, the DOMA legislation that was signed into law by a prior President, and refuses to prosecute any violations of law by blacks, it would seem that the only group he is willing to apply the law to are whites (possibly Asians, although he might cut Asians some slack if it comes to that.)

Right now, the rule of law simply does not exist within the Federal government, and it appears to be absent in some state and local jurisdictions, as well.

[Photo: the first black Attorney General of the United States standing next to the man who calls himself the "first black President" of the United States. Who knows? Perhaps Clinton had as much African-American ancestry as Obama. Actually, Clinton has at least as much African-American ancestry as Obama, who only has (per his own statements) African ancestry, not African-American.]

Is this the end of our Republic?

Folks, I certainly hope you are paying attention. Oh, I don't mean to me, necessarily, but to what is going on in this country. As I have written about before, the misuse of the Commerce Clause in the Constitution, the complicity of the Supreme Court in permitting law enforcement to ignore the Fourth Amendment, the rise of a police state, where law enforcement can kill innocent citizens without consequence or even approbation, and the planned, intentional destruction of our economy by the present administration (aided and abetted by prior administrations to be sure, but wildly accelerated by this one) are all conspiring to end our Republic as it was intended to be.

Recently, a weak and cowardly Republican Party has been pretending to stand firm against TVOTT (The Voice Of The Teleprompter) by refusing to agree to a raise in the debt ceiling. Boner (Boehner) has acted as if he will refuse to agree to any raise unless there are concomitant cuts in spending and no new taxes. This sounds good until you stop to think that any rise in the debt ceiling supersedes any spending cuts. If significant spending cuts were agreed to, there would be no reason, no need, to raise the debt ceiling. Claiming to approve spending cuts and then raising the debt ceiling is tantamount to simply continuing to spend more than you have.

While Ryan's offerred budget is still way short of what is needed to start this country on the road back to solvency, it at least stops the increased debt that TVOTT and the rest of the Democrats wish to impose upon us and our children and grandchildren. That is the absolute minimum that should be acceptable at this time, and still falls short of what we must do. However, it appears that Boner is more likely to sell us out once again (his usual M.O.), compromising away what this country needs to keep afloat, economically.

Now, however, we learn that TVOTT is talking about sidestepping the Constitution once more, utilizing a novel - and false - interpretation of the 14th Amendment to increase the debt ceiling. Even if you were to accept his misuse of the wording and its intent, the 14th states "the validity of the public debt . . . shall not be questioned." It says nothing about the validity of increasing the public debt, which is what Obama and the Democrats want to do. Please read the linked article and consider the ramifications of what is being discussed.

It appears that this President (TVOTT) feels he can do whatever he wants, and justify it by either ignoring or "creatively" interpreting our Constitution. Consider this thought: what will stop him from interpreting the Constitution and the emergency powers granted the office of the President in deciding that it is in the best interests of America to not have elections in 2012? Do you really believe it is simply paranoia to consider that he might decide to have agents of this government create some sort of false flag incident or emergency such that he can suspend the normal election process? Considering what he has already done to cripple this country's economic status, confiscate and nationalize private industry (General Motors), force governmental control of the entire healthcare system, and involve us in foreign wars without following due Constitutional process? Is that a bet you feel safe making?

I sincerely hope I am wrong. I sincerely hope I will not be telling friends (listening Todd?), family, and those few who read my scribblings "I told you so." I would much prefer to be thought a fool when 2013 arrives and it hasn't happened. Let us also hope America doesn't find itself on the wrong side of a stolen election, as the people of Iran suffered when Ahmadinejad was "elected" president. Suffice it to say that I truly believe there is little that Obama would not do to advance his personal agenda of transforming America into a socialist state.

Declaration of Separation

Happy Fourth of July to all. As a number of bloggers have written, the 4th is the day to celebrate not the Constitution, but our stated intent to separate from Great Britain as thirteen independent states. States which eventually joined in a loose confederation, but then made the mistake of writing a Constitution establishing a Federal government. As beautiful as the Constitution is, for what it tried to be, it has been either perverted (as with the Commerce Clause) or ignored (as the 4th Amendment currently is treated), and is not truly what we should be reflecting on when we celebrate the 4th of July.

The web site zerogov.com has a post for the 4th entitled:

Happy Fourth of July: A Declaration of Separation

It is a lovely document, which I hope you will read, digest, and then pass on to all and sundry. In thanking its author for writing it, it occurred to me that there must be an opposite, a converse to "separation anxiety". I came up with the term "separation sangfroid". As our government has become fully inimical to those precepts, those principles, which this country was founded upon, I am fully in favor of separation from it. I revel in the thought of removing myself from its grasp, through secession, rebellion, or whatever it might take.

However, I remain a coward. I do not have the will to march out and directly confront Leviathan. I will certainly resist as I can, and give up my life if it seeks to batter down my door and arrest me, as it did with Jose Guerena and Randy Weaver and David Koresh (and also at Waco, David Thibodeaux - no relation that I am aware of ;-) Perhaps it is wise for me to be a coward, but, wise or not, as enraged as I am about the abuses so many have suffered at the hands of law enforcement, I cannot bring myself to start the dance.

As an older man, 60+, not in the best of shape physically and medically, I will never be able to become a guerilla in the field, but there are certainly other ways in which I can fight and in which I can support those who are guerillas, or who become them. This I am quite willing to do. Due to certain life experiences I have had - including having been misdiagnosed with cancer at one point - I find myself without any great fear of death, or imprisonment. I see this as working to my benefit. When the time comes to more actively resist those who have been depriving us of our freedom, the only fear I believe I will experience will be a fear of not making the theft of my life as dear as I possibly can. A fear of not being able to take more than one or two of the thugs along with me.

If I could indeed separate from those who wish to harm me, or to control me (redundant, I know), I would do so, instantly. But I know that being free in my heart, declaring my separation from those who would control me, is not the same as being separate (btw, Randy Weaver was not a white supremicist, he was a white separatist, a man who merely wished to live apart from those he did not like.) I am not bloodthirsty, but having seen how badly some of us have been treated by our government, by law enforcement, by petty bureaucrats wielding far more power and control than they should be able to wield, I wish to make their offenses as expensive as possible to them. I want to be responsible for ending the activities of as many of those tyrants as possible, but without striking preemptively, only striking in defense of myself and those I love. That is my intent.

Correcting a glaring error

I check the Bonnie Blue Blog site every day, as Honourable Means, the owner, usually has something posted that is well worth reading. Why this blog isn't already on my list here is merely a matter of an aged, wandering mind. I've posted a lot of information gleaned from his site, as well as linking to it.

Being scatter-brained and possibly suffering from pre-Alzheimer's, I offer my apologies to those bloggers out there who I follow daily but have neglected to list. I'll try to keep on top of this, although I think I have most of you covered now.