Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Roseanne Barr Hates Chick-Fil-A, Starts Her Own Competing Restaurant (Satire, Photoshop)

Roseanne Barr is to the human psyche what an open bottle of ammonia is to the nose.  Like another alleged member of the female gender, Janeane Garofalo, Barr wants to be hated by as many people as possible.  Not satisfied with being merely ugly, she seeks fame as the biggest bitch in Hollyweird.  (Sorry Janeane, maybe someday.)

Recently, Barbarous Barr has voiced the wish that those who eat at Chick-Fil-A shall contract cancer and die.  She has also referred to Chick-Fil-A as "Sh*t-Fil-A."  Why?  Because the owners subscribe to the notion that marriage is between a man and a woman, not a man and a man or a woman and a woman, or in Barr's case, between a man and an Ugly Troll (the kind that hides under a bridge).

Recently it was announced that Roseanne Barr will oppose Chick-Fil-A by opening her own restaurant, one that more closely reflects her personal values.  It will be named "Bitch-Fil-A" and is expected to become a favorite hang-out for Democrats.






Sunday, July 29, 2012

Batman Has His Bass, and I Have Mine

My new Rickenbacker 4003 bass guitar has arrived at my son's house in Washington state, and he has opened it and inspected it and has found it completely perfect and without blemish.

He is planning to deliver it to me this coming Thursday and I am planning to receive it.  BUT I WANT IT NOWWWW!

Patience, my puppy.  Patience.

Wimp vs Wimp: George HW Bush vs Mitt Romney, or Just Old Propaganda from Newsweek?

The idiotic leftist rag called Newsweek (or Newsweak) has a new cover saying that Romney is a "wimp."  However, the transparency of their propaganda is obvious, for they used the same propaganda against George H.W. Bush in 1987.  Here are the two magazine covers compared:


I can hardly wait to eject Obama from the White House, but I can't wait either for Newsweek to go bankrupt. The Other McCain reports that Newsweek is losing $20 million a year so that may be sooner than we think.

Progressive Fascism in Western Nations

I read Jonah Goldberg's book "Liberal Fascism" twice.  Why twice?  The first time I forgot to highlight significant passages for future reference.  It was worth a second read to understand what Fascism is and is not.

Fascism is a totalitarian form of government wherein the the thoughts and opinions of the masses are heavily regulated, with severe punishments for dissenters.  The underlying economic system is somewhat capitalistic, but crony capitalism reigns supreme, with the government granting monopolies to major industries, so long as those industries are amenable and supportive of government programs and propaganda.

Fascism seeks to seize the minds of the population early on, by requiring children to be indoctrinated in government-run schools, often requiring them to live apart from their parents' influence.  This was seen in both Jacobin France and later on in more modern fascist societies.

Goldberg discusses several variants of fascism; yes, the well-known kind under Mussolini and Hitler, but other forms like the Jacobins of the French Revolution, who micro-managed French society with mad obsession, executing thousands of people at whim, based on the victims' social class but also based on rumor and slander from neighbors.  The French Revolution was a disgusting descent into madness and mass murder by the revolutionary government.  "Fascist" is a term that justly fits that epoch and its movement.

In American history, both Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson come closest to fascist rule, displaying the same policies:  crony capitalism, an enforced political viewpoint, punishment and imprisonment of dissenters, and government force.

Today we see fascism boldly reasserting itself in the American and European Left.  There are unofficial policies, practices and  dogmas that must not be questioned and must be vigorously supported....or else.  Some of these are:

1.  Near-worship of the sacred non-white "other."  You may not make jokes, references or comments that in any way might be considered flippant, disrespectful or in any way "iffy" of any member of a leftist "protected group," with blacks being the foremost example.  The Lawrence Auster Rule on Protected Groups is “The more troublesome, unassimilable, or dangerous a designated minority or non-Western group actually is, the more favorably it is treated.”

2.  Extreme Intolerance of Dissent and Differing Beliefs.   Fascism is marked by extreme intolerance for dissenting beliefs.  Either tow the party line and support the Official Narrative or suffer the consequences.   The most recent example of this is the Fascist Greek Olympics Committee, who abruptly ended the Olympics career of 24 year old Voula Papachristou for tweeting a mild and harmless joke involving blacks in Greece.  Her mild joke denigrated no one, but could be considered "iffy" by a man on horseback riding by in a snowstorm, so the fascist ax fell quickly.  Voula Papachristou, who had been training for many hours over several years to compete in the Olympics, was kicked off the Greek Olympics team without hearing or appeal.  The Greek Olympics Committee, like any official fascist body, acted as judge, jury and executioner, in what can only be viewed as an over-the-top, totalitarian act, a punishment completely out of proportion to the alleged "crime" of free speech.

This is group-think, intolerance for independent thought, with a need to publicly punish and humiliate the miscreants.  Before you can regiment society, you must train the minds of the masses.  Instill knee-jerk reactions so that alternative views are unthinkable.

Another example is Chick-Fil-A restaurant chain, whose owners have publicly opposed the legalization of gay marriage (putting them in agreement with the vast majority of the American public).  To punish the thought crime of the owners, mayors of San Francisco and Chicago have vowed to prevent Chick-Fil-A from doing business in their cities.  Its owners are being punished for thought crimes, because fascism allows no diversity of thought or belief.  Fascists generally do not tolerate dissent and will go to extreme measures to prevent it.  Like under the German and Italian fascists, like the Woodrow Wilson Administration, industry is only supported by the government when business is subservient and supportive of government policies, programs and propaganda.

3.  Extreme Bias Against a Specific Ethnic Group.  The German fascists had the Jews, and the Jacobins had the Nobility for use as sacrificial lambs and scapegoats.  The modern "progressive" movement, our latest incarnation of fascism, detests white, Christian males.  Being white is viewed as a mortal sin and a white skin is your uniform in the enemy army, making you a convenient target.  Groups that are very intolerant, hateful and violent, like fundamentalist Muslims and the black underclass, are feted and celebrated in an orgy of inclusiveness, though these groups do not support inclusion or tolerance themselves.  They are not white, and therefore friends and allies of the neo-fascists, irrespective of all other considerations.  The bias against whites goes hand in hand with the near-worship of the non-white "other" described in point 1 above.

4.  The Slander and Physical Destruction of Dissenters and Political Opponents.  Fascist movements in the recent past have used street thugs, protests and violence to intimidate the opposition and blackmail society in granting them what they want.  The fairly recent beating of a black Tea Party member by government union (SEIU) thugs is a case in point.  He was merely handing out small "Don't Tread on Me" flags at a political rally when set upon by union members, who closely resemble fascists no matter how you look at it.  The "Occupy" Movement also bears an uncanny resemblance to fascism.  They occupied public property, created disruption and destruction, all in an attempt to blackmail society into supporting them without the necessity of work.  Fascism is blackmail, and the Occupy Movement was both.  More recently, we see Hollywood "stars" tweeting extreme insults and slander towards conservatives, often involving filthy and extreme language.  See Roseanne Barr, Ellen Barkin, and Cher (who has become increasingly unhinged).

5.  A Searing Hypocrisy.  Fascists believe that they can be ruthless, arrogant, profane and hateful, all the while accusing their opponents of what they are themselves.  Hypocrisy is one of the most obvious traits of the modern-day fascist.

These are not the only characteristics that modern-day "progressives" share with fascism, but they are probably the most prominent.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Gay Rights Boycott Has Profound Effect on Chick-Fil-A Restaurant Chain

The owners of the restaurant chain with the strange name, Chick-Fil-A, openly support traditional marriage and oppose legalization of gay marriage.  For this reason, liberal mayors of towns like Chicago are promising to block Chick-Fil-A from doing business in their liberal cesspool cities.  Gays and Radicals Outraged About Nearly Everything (GROANE) are boycotting the restaurant chain to support their contempt for the First Amendment.

Their efforts and their message are clear:  Agree with radical ideas or we will destroy you; or at the very least, do not publicly oppose those ideas.

Sarah and Todd Palin Buying Chick-Fil-A Food
The boycott has had a profound effect.  Chick-Fil-A's business is booming, with large lines winding around the block by customers who want to buy food there.

Thanks "progressives"!  It's always satisfying to see your treachery and tyranny backfire on you.

Unfortunately, the nearest Chick-Fil-A to me is 80 miles away, in Fresno, California.  Otherwise I'd be there now, chowing down on a chicken sandwich.


Weird! London's Olympics Opening Ceremony

Invasion of the Mary Poppins
Last night I watched the opening ceremony in London for the Summer Olympics.  It was utterly bizarre.  Thee were large crowds of actors/participants doing weird things and it all seemed chaotic and pointless.

First a bunch of people dressed like farmers pick up their wooden fences and depart the huge stage area, while another bunch of people dressed like 19th Century workers file into the stage area on the other side.  They busily turn ratchets and levers while smoke stacks rise from the ground to belch smoke.  Meanwhile, a squad of about ten men dressed in top hats and dark suits wander about, making strange motions with their hands and arms.  They looked like something out of "Oliver Twist."  The man in the middle has an unlit cigar in his mouth, and looks about with a very satisfied smile on his face, signifying absolutely nothing (maybe he just likes cigars).

There is a whole scene of music and lights and costumed people celebrating Britain's National Health Service, to the satisfied clucking of the liberal American media hosts, supporting (by implication) Obamacare in their not so subtle way. After all, if it were not for Britain's National Health Service, moms might be giving birth in alleyways rather than the public restrooms of the NHS (because socialized medicine can't produce enough hospital beds).

After much fireworks, reenactments of Peter Pan, Mary Poppins and Harry Potter, Paul McCartney warbles "Hey Jude" (he was not in his finest voice by any means) while the huge crowd sings along, swaying to the rhythm in unison. Following this, there was an interminable succession of scenes with eclectic crowds of disparately-dressed people singing passé and hackneyed modern pop songs, as if the whole world had suddenly decided to play dress-up and congeal into one giant cliché.

Boring! To say the least. Great Britain, with its long and magnificent history, its Lord Nelson, Spitfires, Magna Carta, Oliver Cromwell, William Shakespeare, Winston Churchill, etc, deserved much better.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

The North Korean Flag, as Explained by a Liberal

The Obama staff and reelection committee tell the most transparent lies in order to explain away Obama's gaffes, terrible policies and horrible record.

In my previous post, I displayed a slightly Stogie-fied version of the North Korean flag.  Here it is again for illustration:  imagine how an Obama spokesman might spin it, if it were a campaign issue.

"The North Korean flag has wonderful imagery.  The swastika is a symbol of peace, revered by Asian cultures for 5,000 years.  The skull represents reverence for one's ancestors.   The barbed wire represents the rural and agricultural nature of North Korea, the tranquil farms and a love of the land."

The REAL Flag of North Korea (Photoshop)

Actual Flag of North Korea
Recently the London Olympics officials severely embarrassed themselves by displaying the flag of South Korea for the Korean Olympics squad.  However, the squad was from NORTH KOREA, and they hate South Korea.  North Korea is a Stalinist tyranny, famous for starving millions of its people, while South Korea is famously prosperous, modern and free.  Apparently, the London officials just didn't know the difference.

So that the London officials do not embarrass themselves again, we are displaying the REAL flag of North Korea for their reference.  Please use this one next time, folks.

Ah, scenic North Korea, where extreme totalitarian tyranny produces widespread starvation.  The Worker's Paradise, indeed!  Oh well, let's look on the bright side.  At least they have a very low carbon footprint!

The Wonder of Diversity (Gag)

Via View From the Right, I read the most absurd paean to "adversity"  "diversity" and "multiculturalism" ever.  Some thoroughly brainwashed woman in Canada writes:
Now in 2012, as shocking as it may sound, St. Albert children are missing out. Living in this city may bring them parks, recreation, the arts, events, safety and education, but it doesn’t bring them the practice of inclusion. They don’t see colour on the faces of their school friends. They seldom taste the flavour of foods from other countries. They don’t recognize the scent of sweetgrass, nor hold the hand of a child with different skin tone. They don’t hear the melody of different languages. Their senses have missed out on the joy of diversity.
Now my family is everything this woman pretends to want, but our "diversity" has happened naturally over time, and no one makes a big deal of it.  No one sought out "diversity," or tried to unnaturally import it (as this Canadian does).  To us, diversity exists in superficial things like skin color or eye shape, but no one pretends that such differences give us or our kids some huge cultural advantage.  We don't "celebrate diversity" as much as we just ignore it.  Yes, I often hear the "melody" of different languages, but I think the word "cacophony" fits the bill better than "melody."  (Our family speaks English, Tagalog and Spanish).  I do enjoy many different kinds of food, however, I would not want to base a nation's immigration policy on such superficial considerations.

If you want to read the rest of this saccharine piece, go here.  Keep barf bags handy.

Just for the record:
1.  I have a Filipina wife, married 36 years.
2.  I have a half-Filipino son.
3.  I have a Japanese sister-in-law.
4.  I have a Chinese sister-in-law.
5.  I have a half Chinese niece (who is very beautiful).
6.  I have a half-Hispanic nephew
7.  I have (by marriage) a Nicaraguan niece who speaks fluent Spanish.
8.  The above hispanic relatives have four children who are 3/4 hispanic (my grand nephews/nieces?  Whatever).
9.  I have a mulatto niece (through my sister).
10.  I have two Korean grandchildren (adopted).
11.  I have more nephews and nieces that I can count who are Amerasian (half Caucasian, half Asian).  They are gorgeous and very bright kids, some of whom will soon be in college.

Will I be getting a medal marked "Hero of the Revolution" anytime soon?


Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Damn the Greek Olympics Committee; Political Correctness Must End NOW

Voula Papachristou
I heard about the Olympic athlete from Greece who was kicked off Greece's Olympic team for telling a mild joke.  I often forget just how vicious and over-the-top the leftwing culture has become, how destructive it is to freedom of expression and liberty in general. Western civilization, so often illustrated with the example of ancient Greek democracy, has been transformed over time into something very ugly, a gross distortion of what it once was and is supposed to be.

Rather than voice the dark feelings the incident invokes in me, I will let Lawrence Auster speak for me, by reprinting his article on the subject.  He writes:
ANOTHER NAÏVE WHITE MOMENTARILY FORGETS ABOUT THE SACREDNESS OF BLACKS, AND HAS HER CAREER RUINED

Jumper Voula Papachristou has been ejected from Greece’s Olympics team for saying on Twitter, “With so many Africans in Greece … At least the West Nile mosquitoes will eat home made food!!!”

A nothing joke, a garden variety, harmless joke, a joke that does not contain any actual negative statement about anyone, and it gets a woman thrown off her country’s Olympics squad, just before the opening of the Games that she has spent years preparing for. I did not know that the Greeks were so PC. I thought they were tough types, not hysterical liberal weenies.

As I was reading the story, my jaw was literally (not figuratively) hanging open, not because I was shocked that this would happen, and not because I didn’t know that anyone in a mainstream position who says anything public under his own name that is in the slightest degree “iffy” about blacks is taking his livelihood and his future in his hands, but because, for a few moments, I was at a loss as to how to respond to it. What do you say about a society (Western society) in which you don’t have to say anything actually negative, anything actually biased about any protected group, particularly blacks, to have your career and place in society destroyed, you just have to tell a garden variety joke? A society in which, even if you issue the most profound apology for your garden variety joke, as Papachristou did, that will not rehabilitate you? No. In liberal society, the society that worships not God but the nonwhite Other, there is no forgiveness.
The attitude of the Greek Olympic Committee can only be described as extreme and totalitarian.  Greece is a bad joke.

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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Batman's "Killer Finale" Gaffe; Copycat Killers?

Entertainment magazine's feature story was on the new Batman movie.  It's cover page sports a picture of Batman with the title "Batman's Killer Finale."  Of course, they intended "killer" to mean excellent, but in light of the theater massacre last week, the literal meaning of the word produced a shocking result.  See photo of the magazine cover.

Police stopped one man in Maine for speeding.  His car was heavy with guns and ammo and newspaper clippings of Holmes' theater romp.  Uh oh, now he gets his own cozy cell for awhile, pending an investigation.

There were several other nervous incidents yesterday and the day before, involving "The Dark Knight Rises."  Generally, they involve some fool making bad jokes or carelessly alluding to the Colorado massacre in an effort to be either cool or intimidating.  A confrontation in one theater resulted in 50 patrons fleeing the theater in fear.  Read about it here.

Everyone seems afraid of copycat killers, the psychopaths who want to be celebrities like Holmes, and so may try to duplicate his evil deed.  I think I'll wait until the movie comes out on DVD.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Trig Palin With His Big Sister (Photo)

Sarah Palin posted this picture of her daughter and son on Facebook.

Trig is a very cute little boy.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

My New Rickenbacker Bass Guitar!

Paul McCartney's Left Handed Rickenbacker Bass
My oldest son, Stogie Jr, claims he has bought me a present:  a brand new, Rickenbacker bass guitar in "FireGlo" finish (a beautiful, cherry red color).  I love Rickenbackers, as my father (who was in the music business) sold them for years, and in fact sold two to the Creedence Clearwater Revival (back when they were still calling themselves "the Golliwogs.")  One of those was a Rickenbacker bass like the one I am going to get, also in FireGlo.  I even helped my brother "Bro" adjust the neck on that bass while Stu Cook, the new bass owner, and Tom Fogerty (John's younger brother) stood by watching.

Paul McCartney owns the same bass, which he sometimes plays instead of his familiar Hofner bass.  Paul was given his left-handed version by the head of Rickenbacker when the Beatles first came to New York in 1964.  (Actually, a local radio station, who was interviewing the Beatles at the time, bought it for him, as well as a new black Rickenbacker six string for John and a Fireglo 12 string guitar for George.)

With these bad economic times, I had given up hope of ever owning one myself, but my son wants to do something for his old man before the latter croaks, so he bought a brand new Rickenbacker 4003 bass off of E-Bay that he plans to give to me.  That is, unless he falls in love with it himself and decides to keep it, at which point I will take him out of the will (just kidding).

Anyway, here's the bass, in the embedded video.



If you so desire, you can see a demonstration of the options of the Rickenbacker 4003 here.

Will the Aurora Incident Finally Kill the Second Amendment?

After a long parade of maniacs with guns, many Americans are ready for gun control.

As the Democrat Rahm Emmanuel said, "You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."

Removing guns from private ownership has been a long goal of the left. Like all of their prohibitions and compulsory laws, it's for our own good, dontcha know. The Aurora incident will be used to renew the clamor for increased gun control.

Many conservatives oppose any form of gun control for fear that, once the door has been opened, more and more restrictions will occur over time. Using the left's patient gradualism, they will have set in motion the process by which we will eventually be disarmed.

Many conservatives oppose gun registration, for fear that it will give government a list of gun owners, making it much easier to confiscate weapons once that government decides to do so.

I understand these concerns because they are valid. The question is, how can we keep guns out of the hands of maniacs without denying guns to peaceful, responsible citizens?

Should there be some sort of gun control, i.e., preventing the sale of Thompson machine guns to the public at large? How about preventing the sale of guns with huge ammo clips, ones that allow assailants to fire 60 bullets without reloading (like the one used by the Aurora shooter)? Why would such firepower be necessary for merely protecting one's home or business?

James Holmes purchased thousands of rounds of ammunition in preparation for his killing spree. Should there be a limit on the amount of ammunition that one can buy at a given time?

The gun control question is one of freedom vs security. More control might mean the purchase of more security (from armed psychotics) at the expense of less personal liberty. Would the transaction be worth it? Or is more freedom worth the risk that some will abuse that freedom to perpetrate evil?

Would the availability of guns to a well-armed public prevent such massacres in the future? Personally, I believe that it would. Surely the maniacs would understand that their killing spree would likely end in their own deaths. That wouldn't stop them all, especially if they want to die as martyrs. It would, however, slow them down. Right now, the Jared Loughners and Seung-Hui Chos and Dylan Klebolds know that they will be shooting fish in a barrel, i.e. that their targeted victims will be unarmed and unable to return fire.

In my opinion, we need to give them a new paradigm on which to construct their fantasies: one of a well-armed, gun savvy public who will kill them in short order should they draw down on innocents. I support right-to-carry laws, now more than ever. However, having said that, some reasonable controls over gun ownership are inevitable and probably desirable. Furthermore, those controls should be made at the state level, not the federal.

I'd be interested in hearing from readers. Where am I right and where am I wrong?

Friday, July 20, 2012

The Aurora Shootings

Another grinning psychopath has committed mass murder for no particular reason.  This time it was in a crowded movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, where a lot of young persons were attending the first showings of a new Batman movie.  A lunatic entered, dressed in black and sporting two pistols, an assault rifle and a shotgun, and began firing.  Twelve people are dead so far, with another 58 wounded, some critically.

Hours later, not all the bodies had been removed from the scene of carnage, and cell phones were ringing in various parts of the theater.  Some of the phones were dropped by fleeing patrons, others were still on the bodies of the remaining dead.  Frantic families were trying to find their loved ones, hoping that, just one more time, a son or a brother or a daughter or a sister will answer, their familiar voice heard once again.  For twelve victims, that will not happen.

I feel sadness and compassion for the families who have lost loved ones.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

"Confederate Gray" Blog Goes Online

My crummy week is almost over and I haven't blogged at all.  What time  I had after work was creating a new blog called "Confederate Gray."  I so enjoyed my last exchange (see prior post) with commenters that I decided to start a blog that focuses on the War for Southern Independence.  It is a major personal interest, since my great grandfather and his older brother both fought for the South with the Alabama Cavalry.

So how relevant is the WSI (War for Southern Independence) today?  Pretty relevant, I'd say.  There are some close parallels.  The Northern states who defied the Constitution and the laws in 1860 are similar to Barack Obama defying the Constitution and the laws today (by refusing to enforce federal immigration laws).    For Southerners of that time period, Lincoln's election was the last straw in what they saw as a long train of abuses.  If Obama is re-elected, I will see that as the last straw; however, not being a state myself, I won't secede.  I will, however, urge actual states to do so.

In any case, if interested, check out the new blog.  It is Confederate Gray.  If you are a Yankee, you may not like it.


Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Zen and Lawrence Auster

I have read several books on Zen and some from ancient philosophers like Epictetus.  I know the theory of releasing petty annoyances, letting them blow through you like wind through an open window.  Otherwise, you become Neal Rauhauser, utterly obsessed with every wrong or perceived wrong and willing to dedicate all of your being to making your tormentors pay, pay, pay!

Okay, here they are.

1.  Last Friday when I left my motel room to return home after a week's work, I forgot to pack three good business shirts, and left them in the drawer of my room.  I called, they said they would keep them safe for me until I returned the following Monday.  Now they are saying they can't find them, and the maids (who stole them) say they haven't seen them either.  I generally leave a tip for the maid on checkout day, but no more tips for thieves.  I hope Jose or Jesus (pronounced "Hey Zeus") enjoys the shirts.

2.  Lawrence Auster is one of my favorite online writers and we agree closely on many things, except for one subject near and dear to my heart, the Southern Confederacy for which my ancestors fought 147 years ago. Last week Auster wrote that the Confederates "brought war on themselves" and repeated other simplistic Yankee propaganda that would insult the intelligence of a boll weevil.  I struggled with the idea of writing a blistering rebuttal, but in the end refrained.  Larry is seriously ill with pancreatic cancer and winning an argument with him seems rather unimportant in light of that.

With that said, I will assume the Lotus position and begin my mantra.  On second thought, I think I'll watch television instead.


Monday, July 09, 2012

Saber Point Gets One Million Hits!

Today I passed the one million hit mark.  I did it without following Stacy McCain's program, though his program has some very good tactics for bringing in visitors.  There is no doubt that a bit of cheesecake brings in a lot of hits.  I don't follow Rule 5 Saturdays, but I have occasionally posted something salacious, and those posts are top attractions for this blog.  Yes, it is very satisfying to write a well-written, researched post, and then see all of your visitors are passing it up to look at Barack Obama's mother in the nude.  Arrgh!


Sunday, July 08, 2012

A Romney Victory Is Not a Certainty by Any Means

Drudge Report shows Obama beating Romney in swing states if the election were held today, by 47% to 45%.  RealClearPolitics.com also shows a number of polls, the average of which shows Obama ahead by an average of 2.7%.

It's hard to believe the American people could be that dumb, but that's the world we live in.  In spite of the passage of Obamacare, in spite of a continuing recession with high unemployment, the sheeple support incompetence and an anti-American president.  

Romney is being criticized for not attacking Obama with any energy or force.  Like McCain, he apparently believes that being "a gentleman" is more important than saving the country from socialism.  A candidate without strong core beliefs and principles just doesn't have the heart to mud-wrestle with a street-fighting punk like Obama.

I sometimes wonder if the Establishment GOP supports weak candidates because they either don't really care who wins, or don't strenuously oppose "progressive" politics.  In any case, if Obama is re-elected, it is time to create a Third Party who will support true conservative candidates.  Yes, I know that third parties generally don't win, but how does that make them different from the GOP?

If America is over, it's because Americans want it that way.  As for me, I think I'll rejoin the League of the South and support secession.  I really don't care to be a part of the United Socialist States of America.


The Typical Obama Supporter (Cartoon)


American Death Watch

Some writers and pundits have come to the conclusion that American freedom has been mortally wounded.  With the absurd opinion from the Supreme Court on Obamacare and its denial of Arizona's ability to defend itself from a tide of illegal immigrants, the country may have passed a boundary from which it cannot recover.

Geoffrey P. Hunt believes that the 10th Amendment, guaranteeing the right of states to control undelegated powers, is a dead letter.  At the American Thinker, his essay It's Slipping Away states:
It surely seems like reliance on the High Court to affirm the Constitution's framework for divided power -- limited enumerated authority conferred to the central government with most rights reserved for the States and the people -- is slipping away. Nullification of the 10th Amendment -- "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people" -- has been creeping up since Woodrow Wilson and the first wave of Progressives commenced their assault on the Constitution. Progressives using fairness and equality as more noble ambitions for this nation in place of liberty and opportunity have gradually won over the court of public opinion and affection. The 10th Amendment is now as diminished and irrelevant as the 3rd Amendment, prohibiting the quartering of troops in private homes.
His conclusions are accurate:
It surely seems like reliance on the High Court to affirm the Constitution's framework for divided power -- limited enumerated authority conferred to the central government with most rights reserved for the States and the people -- is slipping away....Yes, it is slipping away. The final resting place for this most disagreeable journey will be the fate of all collectivist societies -- poverty and squalor. Friederick Hayek best expressed these futures in "The Road to Serfdom." But why study and work hard to avoid Hayek's bleak vision when it's easier to be dependent on the welfare state, all financed by someone else's largesse? Until the money runs out, of course, which it always does.
Mark Steyn shares Hunt's pessimism. In his article at National Review Online, Steyn has written an article appropriately titled American Twilight.  Reflecting on the Supremes' Obamacare decision, he writes:
In recent years, speaking to audiences hither and yon, I’m wont to say something on the lines of “The lamps are going out on liberty all over the world.” It’s my update on a famous observation by Edward Grey, British foreign secretary on the eve of the Great War. In August 1914, Sir Edward stood at his window in the summer dusk, and said, “The lamps are going out all over Europe.” He was speaking metaphorically...Metaphorically speaking, the lights of liberty were certainly dimmed by Roberts’s hideously convoluted Supreme Court decision...
Underscoring the analogy, Steyn notes that our once great superpower can't even get the lights back on in Washington following the huge power outage there last week. We're broke, and one of my childhood homes, Stockton, California is the biggest city to declare bankruptcy.  Under socialist statism, the money always runs out, sooner or later. He notes:
It was a reminder, as if you needed one, that in the American twilight the lights will be going out literally. Last week, as the East Coast was fading to black, the West Coast was sinking deeper into the red: Stockton, Calif., became the largest U.S. city to date to file forbankruptcy . America is seizing up before our eyes, and the action necessary to reverse the sclerosis is stymied at every turn by rapacious unions, government micro-regulators, dependency-spreading social engineers, and crony capitalists who know how to weave their way through the bureaucracy.
Socialism always produces poverty and squalor.  Under socialism, the average citizen's life will be less, not more. We are passing a point where the only solution to this new form of fascism may be radical:  nullification by a state or group of states acting in concert, or even secession.


Saturday, July 07, 2012

897 Hits To Go and Other Thoughts

I have several gadgets in my left sidebar that count hits, but the oldest of these is StatCounter, which has been installed almost from the first post here at Saber Point.  It now reads 999,103 hits, so I should reach the one million mark by Monday.

I am sitting in my back yard enjoying a cigar and feeling quite relaxed.  Some good things happened this week.

--Brett Kimberlin was defeated in a Maryland court by Aaron Walker,who had been sued by Kimberlin in an effort to shut Walker up.  A disastrously wrong verdict had been rendered in the first trial by an apparently incompetent, retired judge.  Walker had been prohibited to blog about Kimberlin for six months, and was arrested and handcuffed in court, then temporarily jailed for breaking the judge's unconstitutional order against free speech and in favor of prior restraint.  A new judge reversed it all and cleared Walker, allowing him to blog about Kimberlin until the cows come home -- a very satisfying outcome.

--Obama's campaign is desperate for money and appears to be failing as his poll numbers continue to drop, suggesting that we may be rid of this Neo-Bolshevik come November.

--I've had steady work since January, though the pay is a pittance compared to what I made before the 2008 crash; still, the work is satisfying, adds a lot to my resume and chases away the blues.  It is nice to be productive once again.  The work will slow or stop after July, but that's okay too, so I can get reacquainted with my neglected string bass, work on my continuing education requirement and plot my next career move, which now involves more than just finding a convenient bridge to live under.

This past week I began work on the audit of a San Francisco taxi cab company, one that is pretty famous, and have been working in San Francisco proper.  I love that kind of work.

--My youngest son brought home his girl to meet the parents, a hopeful sign that there may be more grandkids in my future.  She is a lovely, young Korean woman, a U.C. grad like my son, and they have much in common.

--This same son closed escrow on his first home, a condominium in Los Angeles.  It's small, but it's his, and now he has his own place to hang his hat after work.

In September I plan to resume my study of the Spanish language at a local community college.  That may not earn me any dinero, but it is an intellectually challenging pursuit.

Then in November, I get to vote for Mitt Romney, not my first choice by any means, but "anyone but Obama" is the watchword here.

Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Happy Fourth

I haven't been away from family on July 4th since 1973.  That year I was all alone in San Francisco, and watched fireworks on the horizon from my neighborhood in Pacific Heights.

Now I am alone here in Millbrae, and I'd rather be home.  Home with Bogie the dog, who hates fireworks.  Over the weekend some kids set off some early fireworks, and Bogie almost broke down the sliding glass door to get back in the house.

This will be a rather dull Fourth for me, but I wish all of you a happy Fourth, and may it be Obama's last Fourth as the occupant of the White House.