A Drop in the Bucket

Food for Thought

Will it Take a War?

In the past 150 years, we have seen cycles of economic boom, followed by a bust, followed by hard times, followed by war in one form or another. One theorist of these cycles thinks that each cycle runs for about 60 years. Maybe it depends on how long it takes us to forget. We have a generation now that doesn’t recall the Jimmy Carter years, and they have never experienced a real recession. And I don’t have the impression that much history is being taught these days. If, indeed, those who don’t remember the lessons of the past are condemned to repeat them, it seems we are in for some tough sledding.

Class Trip

Rare look inside a Russian nuclear power plant.

No Justice in Liberal Land

Black belt teen strikes back at bully, and rallies community against racism.

The 15-year-old black belt thought he was doing his tormentor a favour when he elected to fight back with his weaker left hand.

He had heard his white classmate throw an angry racial slur in his direction after an argument during a gym class game of speedball, and now the student was shoving him backward, refusing to retract the smear.

Luckily, in this case, the community is rallying around the innocent 15-year-old.

The white student swung first, hitting the 15-year-old with a punch to the mouth.

The 15-year-old heard his father's voice running through his head: Fight only as a last resort, only in self-defence, only if given no choice, and only with the left hand.

His swing was short and compact, a left-handed dart that hit the white student square on the nose.

The nose broke under his fist, igniting a sequence of events - from arrest to suspension to possible expulsion - that has left the Asian student and his family wondering whether they are welcome in this small, rural and mostly white community north of Toronto, one that has been touched by anti-Asian attacks in the past.

The 15-year-old, the only person charged in connection with the April 21 school fight, faces one count of assault causing bodily harm.

What happens when you fight back against a bully in the liberal world? The innocent victim is charged. He never should have been charged at all. Charge the attacker, not the victim - even if the tables are turned on the attacker, that doesn't make him a victim.

Didn't I just write about this the other day?

Monopoly

Who Regulates the Regulators? --Mark Steyn

There was an old joke in Britain: "Why is there only one Monopolies Commission?" In fact, it's a profound observation about the nature of government. We wouldn't like it if there were only one automobile company or only one breakfast cereal, but by definition there can only be one federal government — which is why, "when the Government's monopolizing", it should do so only in very limited areas.

This isn't an abstract philosophical point, but a very practical one. Fans of big government take it for granted that Barack Obama, Timothy Geithner, Barney Frank, and a couple of other guys can "run" the financial sector better than 8,000 U.S. banks all jostling for elbow room like bacteria in a petri dish. Same with the auto industry, and the insurance industry, and the property market, and health care, and "the global environment." The skill-set required to run a billion-dollar company is the province of very few individuals. The skill-set required to run a multi-trillion-dollar government is unknown to human history.

Gotta Love Adam West

Batman Garage Sale with Adam West from Adam West

The Robot President

Disney Animatronics could do better.

He's only as good as his programming.

How to Get Ready for the Day

Suicide Free Zones

Another suicide at the Shoot Straight Gun Range. There was a murder/suicide at the same location earlier this month. The range has decided not to rent guns anymore. It's a shame, but I understand.

Why don't they just put up a 'Suicide Free Zone' sign on the door? That will keep people from committing suicide and still allow others to rent guns. People rent guns to try out guns they may be interested in buying, it's a helpful service.

I like the Suicide Free Zone idea. Hey, it works for Gun Free Zones, right?

No? It doesn't? Nevermind.

The New Puritans

I kind of like that name for the left. Here's a great post from the Morning Companion blog: Who Decides Your Rights?

I am concerned, however, about the new Puritans, the Puritans of the left. They seem to have an entirely different ethic and even religious fervor that has its own non-negotiable rules of morality. The debate is over, they tell us, on global warming, carbon (dioxide) emissions, same sex marriage, illegal immigration, free speech rights, and whatever else that is a part of the new orthodoxy. Dissent is good, they say, even patriotic as long as they are the dissenters, but now the questions have all been decided. They won the election! Game over!

More importantly, his conclusion is spot on:

Inalienable rights endowed by a Creator is a more sure road to freedom. As for me, I prefer that worldview whether this is a Christian nation or not.

Lenny has a lot more thought provoking posts on The Morning Companion.

Fetch!

That's Cool!

On the Lookout

Health Officials Say Swine Flu May Be In Area

The head of the Orange County health Department says Floridians need to be on the lookout.

If anyone sneezes - RUN!

God's Grief, God's Grace

What we finite human beings do not understand is that God's love and wrath are exactly the same thing. They are two sides of the same coin. What entrances us and warms us about God and draws us to Him is love. He is the God of love who loves regardless of merit. This is what attracts us. But it is because we respond that He appears to us in that way. To those who reject His love, the same quality in God becomes wrath, and it seems to be a wall of fire, burning and consuming everything.

We can see this also in ourselves. It is our love that causes us to be angry at anything that injures what we love. You injure a mother's child in the mother's presence, and watch her love flame out in anger against you. Thus we have here clearly described a time when humanity, in its rejection of God, passes beyond the place of seeing God as love and begins to experience His love as wrath. But it is exactly the same thing. --Ray Stedman

What America Is Becoming Has Become

My bullied son's last day on Earth

Bermudez said she thinks her son felt like nobody wanted to help him, that nobody stood up and stopped the bullies.

This is a really sad story but I think she hits on something in that sentence. We are becoming the culture of the bullied. Almost the first thing we're taught is don't hit back, don't fight back, tell the teacher. If a kid stands up and defends himself, who gets in trouble? The innocent kid, that's who.

When we get out of school, what happens? Same thing, don't defend yourself. Give them the money, the car, whatever they want. Don't fight back, call the police. And in most states, if you defend yourself, if you shoot the bad guy, what happens? They figure every which way to prosecute you for defending yourself. God forbid you made one mistake they can seize on in court to put you away - you, the innocent party who wanted nothing more than to be left alone.

OK, so what happens when you do tell the teacher or call the police? Most times, nothing. They make a report, but most times don't get the bad guy. If they do he's out of jail in no time and preying on his next victim. Teachers for the most part do nothing to stop the bullying, the bullies never seem to get kicked out of school. They love to proclaim their "zero tolerance" policies but that really only applies to innocent kids who bring an aspirin to school, or a pen with a gun manufacturers name on it. The real problem kids get away with it.

Having grown up in that environment it has taken me a while to shake that sickness. And sickness it is. Now the disease is spread fully into the government, top to bottom.

America: nobody stood up and stopped the bullies.

Human Right to Self-Defence

Thanks Kath!

And Now For Something Completely Different

It's Curtains for You!

Trump tower Chicago complaint: Bright lights are a big pain

After moving into her digs earlier this month, Tarbox discovered an unsettling feature at bedtime: The one-bedroom unit (list price: $952,000 and up) is flooded with light like a night game at Wrigley, she said.

Fire Tornado?

I've never seen anything like this before. Awesome. Well, unless that's your house.

Secession?

Interesting, and it does go hand in hand with freedom. If you're not free to leave, you're not free.

Resistance Is Not Futile

Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin

A Cheap Pair of Sneakers is All You Need

The painful truth about trainers: Are running shoes a waste of money?

... in this extract from his controversial new book, Christopher McDougall claims that injury rates for runners are actually on the rise, that everything we've been told about running shoes is wrong - and that it might even be better to go barefoot...

I'm not a runner but I found this very interesting. Probably true.

No Freedom for You!

Jackie Chan Says 'Chinese Need to Be Controlled'

"I'm not sure if it's good to have freedom or not," Chan said. "I'm really confused now. If you're too free, you're like the way Hong Kong is now. It's very chaotic. Taiwan is also chaotic."

Chan added: "I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want."

It's an interesting observation. Freedom in America has worked as long as the people adhered to Judean/Christian values and it has not worked to the extent that those values have been lost over time. If a people are not willing to govern themselves they require a more intrusive government to avoid chaos.

What The World Needs Most

When God is dealing with people, He seeks to bring them to the place where they acknowledge what is wrong.

This is what God wants to do with us. He finds us in our failure, our estrangement, our guilt, our sense of nakedness and loss, and immediately He moves to bring us to repentance. We misunderstand His moving. We think He is dragging us before some tribunal in order to chastise us or punish us, but He is not. He is simply trying to get us to face the facts as they are. --Ray Stedman, Repentance

Too Good Not To Post

What it lacks in visual quality it more than makes up for in content. This is must see TV.

Quote of the Day

"I love dreams; dreams led to inventions, led to this country. But hope is a different thing. Hope, in many cases, is simply an excuse for not doing anything." --Rush Limbaugh

U.S. Constitution, Ammendment 10

Read here.

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.

Is that something to be afraid of? Just asking.

Mexico Has Some Serious Internal Problems

Don't Blame Us for Mexico's Murder Problem

It matches nicely with the insane message that our unaccountable Fedzilla beast has been sending loud and clear to law breakers and America-haters for at least 30 years: Come one, come all to the good ol’ USA, invade us at will and we will reward you handsomely with all the healthcare, welfare and hand-held lessons in recidivism that an out-of-touch, anti-American government could possibly provide you with.

And the icing on the invader cake is that if any of our heroes of law enforcement, dedicated and sworn to defend our sacred U.S. Constitution and enforce our laws while, dare interfere with your invasion, we will give you a free get out of jail card while we actually imprison our own warriors if they shoot you in the butt.

Bring drugs, destroy America, bloodsuck us dry while maintaining allegiance to the corrupt hellhole of a tyranny you so desperately take your life into your own hands to escape, and you will be treated better than many Americans will be.

The producers of Planet of the Apes would reject a script like the one unfolding before our very eyes because it's too stupid to believe. Too stupid, that is, for everybody but cult of denial leftists hell-bent on collaborating with the invaders to assist in the destruction of America from within. Liberalism is cannibalism.

Liberals are immune to facts. That’s why Hillary Clinton -- when she’s not tossing ash trays at Bill -- spouts the absurd lies that estimate over 90% of Mexican drug cartel guns come from the U.S., including the weapon of choice down there, the machine gun.

Lighten up, Hill baby. And write this down: the irrefutable fact of the matter is that the actual number of machine guns from the U.S. used by Mexican or any other criminals anywhere is zero. As in none, zilch, nada, nuthin, nary a one. You can’t just buy one in any U.S. gun store, and to get one at all requires a mountain of Fedzilla paperwork that few Americans are willing to put up with.

They Most Certainly Do!

Anti-gun laws favor criminals

Legislators, urged on by the malevolent cacophony of anti-gun ownership groups operating under the guise of firearms ownership reform, have it backwards. America doesn't need to further oppress the innocent – they and their forces need to direct their energies at getting criminals off the streets. They need to encourage efforts to deglamorize the criminal use of firearms. They need to encourage laws that actually protect men and women in abusive relationships that frequently have lethal results because of firearms.

One wonders if further oppressing the innocent is not the point. That seems to be the direction our government has been taking, on the heels of the European Union.

How Great Thou Art

Amazing size comparison of Earth to other celestial bodies. Click on the picture to enlarge.

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor.

Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:

All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;

The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! --Psalm 8:3-9

The World Upside Down

Why are American congressmen and women gushing over Fidel Castro like schoolgirls at a Hanna Montana concert?

CBC Chairwoman Rep. Barbara Lee: "Former President Fidel Castro is very engaging, very energetic."

Rep. Laura Richardson: "He looked right into my eyes and said, 'How can we help you? How can we help President Obama?’"

Rep. Bobby Rush: "I think that what really surprised me, but also endeared me to him was his keen sense of humor, his sense of history and his basic human qualities."

"He drank water, we drank water, nothing else was served, but that was just fine! I was, after all, in the presence of history."

"In my household, I told Castro, he is known as the ultimate survivor."

Time for Congressional Black Caucus to Disband?

Here is a video representation of what they think of Castro:



It's embarrassing.

Control Over the Message

It begins when we drop our children off at school

The day came, when we started to notice some conflicting information coming home with our children by way of teachers. What really bothered us, is that this information didn’t really have any connection with what we were sending our children to school for; reading, writing, math, science, history. No, quite the contrary. Our third grader came home telling us all about how to put a condom on a cucumber, and describing a Vagina in detail. Wow, that got our attention. We then started paying closer attention to exactly what kind of subject matter was taking place in school. What we discovered was shocking, at least to us. A leftist agenda was taking place so blatantly, it was like a total rewrite of history. American heroes were limited to Democrats, with great Americans such as Ronald Reagan reduced to rubbish. We could take most any subject being taught in any classroom, and the subject matter was tilted severely towards a Liberal mindset. Global Warming was getting shoved down the kids throats relentlessly, with no opposing thoughts allowed. Democrat politicians were being raised up, and branded as the smart people, while Republican politicians were reduced to everything negative. What really got under our skin, was simply that we didn’t send our kids to school for these reasons; we send our kids to school for reading, writing, math, history, and science. We spend but a few hours a day with our kids during the week. Teachers spend 6-7 hours a day with our kids. The perfect storm!

I can't abide government schools, don't even like to set foot in them.

This is Incredible!

I love how this plays out.

Susan Boyle on Britain Got Talent
by dwarthy

Great Speech by Alan Keyes

No teleprompter. The crowd noise is a bit annoying, but it's livable. I like Alan Keyes, I like what he has to say. He's 100% correct we have a moral problem more so than a financial one.

Evil Rising

Mark Steyn has his finger on the pulse of the world at large and he sees it more clearly than most. Civilization walking the plank

As my colleague Andrew McCarthy wrote, "Civilization is not an evolution of mankind but the imposition of human good on human evil. It is not a historical inevitability. It is a battle that has to be fought every day, because evil doesn't recede willingly before the wheels of progress." Very true. Somalia, Iran and North Korea are all less "civilized" than they were a couple of generations ago. And yet in one sense they have made undeniable progress: They have globalized their pathologies. Somali pirates seize vessels the size of aircraft carriers flying the ensigns of the great powers. Iranian proxies run Gaza and much of Lebanon. North Korea's impoverished prison state provides nuclear technology to Damascus and Tehran. Unlovely as it is, Pyongyang nevertheless has friends on the Security Council. Powerful states protect one-man psycho states. One-man psycho states provide delivery systems to apocalyptic ideological states. Apocalyptic ideological states fund nonstate actors around the world. And in Somalia and elsewhere nonstate actors are constrained only by their ever increasing capabilities.

When all the world's a "distraction," maybe you're not the main event after all. Most wealthy nations lack the means to defend themselves. Those few that do, lack the will. Meanwhile, basket-case jurisdictions send out ever bolder freelance marauders to prey on the civilized world with impunity. Don't be surprised if "the civilized world" shrivels and retreats in the face of state-of-the-art reprimitivization. From piracy to nukes to the limp response of the hyperpower, this is not a "distraction" but a portent of the future.

On Putting the Genie Back in the Bottle

No Nukes for You!

Seeking to eliminate nuclear weapons does nothing to change the human capacity for good and evil and will likely result in the least good among us possessing what more moral regimes have rejected.

Rather, the agenda should be to manage well the knowledge the world already possesses. Disarmament is not management or leadership; it is suicide or abdication to outlaw regimes who will find a way to develop and arm themselves with nuclear capacity in clandestine ways. That is not paranoia, but rather is basic human nature. The genie is out. The 1930's have come and gone. Let's deal with reality.

They Don't Play By Our Rules and They Don't Care

They only respect strength in proportion to the willingness to use it when needed.

"Most people respect the badge. Everybody respects the gun." --Robert De Niro in Righteous Kill

That's not the way I want it to be, but it's the way the carnal world works.

Jim Treacher: I'm told this opinion might be "extreme"

Shootings happen more often than we'd like, but people like Oliver Willis and Markos Moulitsas have no problem pinning one on Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh or whoever else they want to malign. Whereas pirates kidnapping Americans at sea happens once every 200 years. But I'm not supposed to wonder if President Obama running around the world with a "Kick Me" sign on his back -- which almost flew off during his spine-bending bow to a king -- has anything to do with America getting, um, kicked.

I mean, what's been protecting American ships from piracy for two centuries? (Assuming "simple common courtesy" is off the table.) Why hasn't this happened since before running water and electric lights? The horrible nightmare of the Bush Era is over and everything's supposed to be hunky-dory. Why isn't everybody else playing nice and sharing and using their words?

Deadliest Catch Season 5 Teaser

Gun Control Is Not Crime Control

Gun Control Kills Good People.

That's What He's Trying To Do!

Ask Chuck Schumer: Traditional values and strong foreign policy are OVER.



Do you agree? I'll tell you what, if America doesn't return to it's traditional values the American experiment is OVER. The brilliance that is the U.S. Constitution is completely over the heads of the so-called intellectuals.

There is a way which seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. -Proverbs 14:12

Looking Forward to the New Season

I Don't Know,

it kind of has a nice ring to it. Obama Fried Chicken

Much ado about nothing.

They Will Pass This Act ...

the same day they pass their pay cuts. Act forces Congress' return to limited government

Sponsored by Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., H.R. 450, or the Enumerated Powers Act, states, "Each Act of Congress shall contain a concise and definite statement of the constitutional authority relied upon for the enactment of each portion of that Act. The failure to comply with this section shall give rise to a point of order in either House of Congress" ...

"I don't think our Second Amendment will stand in the way of efforts we have begun and will expand upon."

Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on April 7 acknowledged that gun registration is on her agenda, days after Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters in Mexico that the Second Amendment would not "stand in the way" of administration plans to crack down on alleged gun trafficking to Mexico.

"The administration and Congressional anti-gunners have declared war on gun rights," Gottlieb said. "The press seems deliberately blind to the statements from Pelosi and Holder, who blame our gun rights for their incompetence in dealing with crime. More than 90 million gun owners haven't hurt anybody, and they are tired of being treated like criminals."

"History has shown that around the world, registration has always led to confiscation."

As It Should Be

New Gallup poll shows support for gun control at historic low

Criminals can always get a gun if they want, they laugh at your laws. They will make their own guns if they have to, but they will get them. Not to mention the myriad of other things they can use to kill you. Same is true for nuclear weapons, by the way. Disarming yourself or your country will only get you hurt.

Crazy/evil people are crazy/evil people and unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any mechanism by which you can make them obey the law. Fear of great bodily harm or death is a wonderful motivator to keep criminals from perpetrating their evil acts, that's what attracts them to no-gun zones - easy pickings.

Beware the politician who wants to ban guns, they like gun-free zones for the same reason criminals do. They're not street thugs who will jack you up on the corner, they're worse - they want your freedom, your money, your children's money, your grandchildren's money ... in short, they want complete power over you.

There will come a time when you can beat your swords into plowshares, now is not that time.

Related reading: Let's all surrender our weapons – you first!

It's something in liberals' DNA: They think they can pass a law eliminating guns and nuclear weapons, but teenagers having sex is completely beyond our control.

Obama Claims He Didn't Bow to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia

It did look more like a curtsy to me.

Those Arrogant Americans

The arrogant one calling the melting pot arrogant.

Drumroll Please

Why Ignore the Obvious?

Mark Steyn filled in for Rush Limbaugh Monday. Here are some quotes from the show.

• "We're building a world right now in which the wealthiest nations in history from Norway to New Zealand, are incapable of defending their borders; while decrepit Third World basket cases from North Korea to Sudan, go nuclear. How long do you think that arrangement is going to last?" -- Mark Steyn
  
  
• "Obama calls for 'a world without nuclear weapons.' North Korea is assisting the Iranians with their delivery system and the Iranians are promising to share their nukes with Sudan. We're not going to have a world without nuclear weapons, and incidentally he's volunteering to give up the American ones first." -- Mark Steyn
  
  
• It's a mean world and sometimes you need to be mean, if the alternative is Princess Fluffy Bunny pledging to surrender American nuclear weapons. This is an absurd position for the last superpower to be taking. It's doing great damage and poses a great danger." -- Mark Steyn
  

Worth Listening

Alan Keyes on the Political Pistachio Radio Show.

It is the objective, I believe, of what is going on right now overall, to weaken and undermine the United States because as a national superpower we are actually an obstacle to the realization of world government and now they intend to weaken and if necessary dissolve the United States in order to pave the way to it's power. --Alan Keyes

Listen here

Reality Exactly Backward

The Nuclear Illusionist

Rarely has a Presidential speech been so immediately and transparently divorced from reality as Mr. Obama's in Prague. The President delivered a stirring call to banish nuclear weapons at the very moment that North Korea and Iran are bidding to trigger the greatest proliferation breakout in the nuclear age. Mr. Obama also proposed an elaborate new arms-control regime to reduce nuclear weapons, even as both Pyongyang and Tehran are proving that the world's great powers lack the will to enforce current arms-control treaties.

Interesting Observations

Random Thoughts from Thomas Sowell

• Barack Obama seems determined to repeat every disastrous mistake of the 1930s, at home and abroad. He has already repeated Herbert Hoover's policy of raising taxes on high income earners, FDR's policy of trying to micro-manage the economy and Neville Chamberlain's policy of seeking dialogues with hostile nations while downplaying the dangers they represent.
  
  
• We seem to be moving steadily in the direction of a society where no one is responsible for what he himself did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did, either in the present or in the past.
  
  
• Socialists believe in government ownership of the means of production. Fascists believed in government control of privately owned businesses, which is much more the style of this government. That way, politicians can intervene whenever they feel like it and then, when their interventions turn out badly, summon executives from the private sector before Congress and denounce them on nationwide television.
  

Makes You Wonder ...

Has she ever had a meal she didn't like? She's got a great job, eh?



Madison likes her dog food, Nutrish, and the snacks. Try a sample and you get a $2.00 off coupon.

People are Starting to Notice

Barack Obama really does go on a bit

His speeches have long under-delivered, usually leaving a faintly empty sensation in this listener even though I welcomed, moderately, his victory last year as offering the possibility of a fresh start and a boost to confidence.

Yet, we are told that he is a great orator and in one way he certainly is. He does have a preternatural calm in the spotlight and a mastery of the cadences we associate with the notable speakers in US history - such as JFK and MLK. But beyond that, am I alone in finding him increasingly to be something of a bore?

It's not just you.

Go to Disney World?

What will North Korea do next after rocket launch?

It's Always Something

'Lap dancing nun' to perform for cardinals and bishops

This seems like it should be a skit with Gilda Radner, "What? It's Tap dancing nun? Nevermind!"





She was so funny.

What's It Like To Fly With The Blue Angels?

See for yourself

Awesome videos!

I Hate Flying

Check out this story from a guy who survived an SR-71 disintegration while on a test flight.

My next recollection was a hazy thought that I was having a bad dream. Maybe I'll wake up and get out of this mess, I mused. Gradually regaining consciousness, I realized this was no dream; it had really happened. That also was disturbing, because I could not have survived what had just happened. Therefore, I must be dead. Since I didn't feel bad--just a detached sense of euphoria--I decided being dead wasn't so bad after all.

As full awareness took hold, I realized I was not dead, but had somehow separated from the airplane. I had no idea how this could have happened; I hadn't initiated an ejection. The sound of rushing air and what sounded like straps flapping in the wind confirmed I was falling, but I couldn't see anything. My pressure suit's face plate had frozen over and I was staring at a layer of ice.

Incredible, you have to read that.

He Hates Cooking Recipes

I don't know how I missed this guy, he's got some great cooking videos and he's entertaining. Check out the rest of his videos, too.

His website: I-Hate-Cooking-Recipes.com

U.S. Not the Problem

The Myth of 90 Percent: Only a Small Fraction of Guns in Mexico Come From U.S.

So, if not from the U.S., where do they come from? There are a variety of sources:

-- The Black Market. Mexico is a virtual arms bazaar, with fragmentation grenades from South Korea, AK-47s from China, and shoulder-fired rocket launchers from Spain, Israel and former Soviet bloc manufacturers.

-- Russian crime organizations. Interpol says Russian Mafia groups such as Poldolskaya and Moscow-based Solntsevskaya are actively trafficking drugs and arms in Mexico.

- South America. During the late 1990s, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) established a clandestine arms smuggling and drug trafficking partnership with the Tijuana cartel, according to the Federal Research Division report from the Library of Congress.

-- Asia. According to a 2006 Amnesty International Report, China has provided arms to countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Chinese assault weapons and Korean explosives have been recovered in Mexico.

-- The Mexican Army. More than 150,000 soldiers deserted in the last six years, according to Mexican Congressman Robert Badillo. Many took their weapons with them, including the standard issue M-16 assault rifle made in Belgium.

-- Guatemala. U.S. intelligence agencies say traffickers move immigrants, stolen cars, guns and drugs, including most of America's cocaine, along the porous Mexican-Guatemalan border. On March 27, La Hora, a Guatemalan newspaper, reported that police seized 500 grenades and a load of AK-47s on the border. Police say the cache was transported by a Mexican drug cartel operating out of Ixcan, a border town.

It's time for Mexico to stand up and take responsibility for itself, like that will happen. Corruption is rampant from top to bottom in Mexico, it's the way of life there. Blaming America is denial on the part of Mexicans and fuel to get anti-gun laws passed in the U.S. - all based on lies.

The Search for Truth

I don't like to get into this discussion very much, there are a lot of people who claim to know a lot of things they really don't know - on both sides. I don't know how God created the heavens and the earth, He doesn't say, but I know that He did. He doesn't say when either, it seems to have been billions of years ago, but I'm not willing to bet my life on it. I have my beliefs, open to correction as I learn more.

If it was important to know the how, He would have told us plainly. But there is nothing wrong with using science to figure out what we can. It's OK to try to figure it all out, He gave us an amazing mind, creative urges and a yearning for discovery.

Anyway, this is a good video. No crazy theories, no religious or scientific dogma. You'll find it at the link, I can't embed it here.

200 Years After Darwin -- What Didn't Darwin Know?

"Your preconceptions really color the way you process data ..."

That is an understatement, it can take a lifetime to unravel wrong, preconceived beliefs, things you just knew were true all your life but turn out to be wrong. Believing something doesn't make it true.

Thanks La Shawn for the link.

Weak

Obama bows down to Saudi King

I wonder if he bowed to the Queen of England. No.

Some of Us Are Paying Attention

Obama's revenge against GM

We know that Obama has a very conventional mind. I have not heard a single novel or even interesting idea from the man over all the months that I've listened to him. He clearly has no understanding of classical economics. He doesn't understand, as Bill Clinton did, the real harm and suffering that welfare dependency has inflicted on black people after LBJ's War on Poverty. He does not understand the elementary difference between productive and non-productive investment of scarce resources. He has no conception of the damage inflicted by inflation on the poor, more than even on the rest of the country. He has no real understanding of the dizzying complexities of foreign policy -- nor does his Secretary of State, who was hardly picked for her competence in foreign affairs.

These are not just rank amateurs, they are willfully ignorant amateurs, who also happen to be grandiose narcissists, and who now have free reign over the levers of power in the United States. We are all watching the Titanic steaming full speed ahead right before that diamond-hard iceberg tears off all the steel rivets from her skin. If you're not aghast, you're just not paying attention.

Deluded

The Soros Doctrine in Obama Foreign Policy

At this point, a mere 2 months into the Presidency of Barack Obama, it seems painfully clear that we have not only elected a deceitful knave, but one intent on the complete dismantling of our own defenses, with seemingly very little concern for the consequences.

The icing on this poisonous cake would seem to be that we ourselves will pay for our own destruction.

Boiled down to the dry pot, we must conclude that President Obama, his entire Administration, the Democratic Congress and their favorite benefactor, George Soros, have an evolved form of slavery in mind. It's a type of slavery whereby the productive class is held shackled to the political class's outlandish worldview that there isn't a single problem under the sun, which cannot be swiftly solved with our money, produced by the sweat of our collective brow. They consider our wages and the wages of our children and grandchildren to be their own property, to be squandered in whatever manner they see fit.

And I believe this has a name, even though we modern folks have long forgotten not only its name, but the centuries of toil and buckets of blood that went into dismantling the system than enthroned it. It's called, I believe, serfdom.

Without Rule of Law: Don't Hasten the Day

Great video!

Broken Promises

"I can make a firm pledge," he said in Dover, N.H., on Sept. 12. "Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes." - Barack Obama

And ya'll believed him.

The largest increase in tobacco taxes took effect despite Obama's promise not to raise taxes of any kind on families earning under $250,000 or individuals under $200,000.

This is one tax that disproportionately affects the poor, who are more likely to smoke than the rich.

Obama must think he's in Texas, he does everything BIG. Big spending, big taxing, big government, big brother.

Ignorance On Parade

I

A Man Called Smart

That's funny.

President Obama Meets the Queen ...

Gives her an iPod!

How classy!

Clueless in Washington.

4/01 Update! - He included a couple of his own speeches on the iPod.

When It's Too Late, Then Maybe They Will Believe it

But I doubt it, they'll still blame Bush.

President Obama Appeals to Leaders of Iran, but Ignores Their End Times Theology

What the President and his senior advisors are missing — and what I explain in detail in the new book — is that the leaders of Iran have already made their choice. They believe the end of the world is at hand, that the Islamic Messiah's arrival is "imminent," and that the way to hasten the coming of the "Mahdi" or the "Twelfth Imam" is to annihilate Israel and the United States and destroy Judeo-Christian civilization as we know it. They fear the fires of hell if they "disobey" what they believe Allah has told them to do. The sooner Washington understands that, the sooner they can begin coming to grips with the fact that the regime in Tehran today is far more dangerous than the one we faced thirty years ago this spring when the Ayatollah Khomeini rose to power and we severed all diplomatic ties.

If Only ...

Obama forces GM chief out, puts Reid, Pelosi on leave

Just hours after firing General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner for mismanaging the giant firm which has thus far received $26 billion in taxpayer cash to stay afloat, President Barack Obama announced that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into similar allegations.

"We cannot give the appearance of using tax dollars to reward leaders who have done a poor job," said Obama. "The message is clear. If you take billions from the taxpayers you answer to a new boss -- the chief executive. In November, I inherited a failed banking system, a failed auto industry and a failed Congress. Americans demand action. Heads will continue to roll."

The president said Reid and Pelosi have "overseen an unprecedented spending binge, while some of their major brands have nearly collapsed through mismanagement, malfeasance and plain old stupidity."

"Their insurance products -- Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- are actually elaborate Ponzi schemes," he said, "paying early investors with cash from later investors without creating an ongoing insurance fund. Bernie Madoff is behind bars for doing the same thing."

Now that's an Obama I can get behind. Then I woke up.

I Have Nothing Nice to Say About This

Obama’s new GM CEO: You know, bankruptcy looks really good now

Now that Wagoner has gotten kicked out, ostensibly to protect the taxpayer investment, Henderson wants to declare bankruptcy and leave taxpayers in the lurch. Unfortunately, he’s right. Had we taken a tough-love approach to the problem in November, we could have saved ourselves $14 billion and GM could have already been on its way to fixing their problems in labor and in management.

Our lawmakers should be in jail, not in charge of fixing the financial mess THEY made.

There's Something Fishy About This Story

Boy Treated for Fish in Rectum

The doctor has seen the fish in an x-ray and for treatment, he will have to kill it or make it unconscious first and will find a way to take it out later.