Fantasy vs. Reality

Don't progressives like free speech?

There is a simple way to get corporate money out of politics: Get the government out of our lives and economic affairs. If government has no favors to sell, no one will spend money trying to win them.

--John Stossel

To Bust a Thief

A guy chases down the guy who stole his iPhone. Cool story.

It's What You Do That Counts

It's a hard lesson to learn. I, procrastinator-in-chief, should know.

But what do you think? A man had two children, and coming to the first he said, Child, go today; work in my vineyard.

And answering, he said, I will not. But afterward, having regretted, he went.

And having come to the second, he said the same. And answering, he said, I go, sir; but he did not leave.

Which of the two did the will of the father?

Matthew 21:28-31

One Tiny Speck

It was a sea of people. I'd never seen so many bodies gathered in one place. Tens of thousands, for sure. Some were curious, like me. Some were there because they were genuine believers in the Revolution. Some were like my father, who was there because it was required of him, in the section assigned to the judges. There were thousands of Cubans in the same situation, in their own assigned sections. The guardians of the Revolution took attendance. If you didn't attend, there would be unpleasant repercussions: they reminded you constantly that it was their goal to make it tough for anyone who didn't show true Revolutionary spirit.

And Radio Havana proudly broadcast its programs announcing that Cuba was the only free nation in the Western hemisphere.

The crowd frightened me. It spoke in unison and seemed to think in unison, too. It roared and chanted slogans like Cuba si, Yanquis no! at the appropriate moments. Other slogans too. It was a lot like church, I thought. It was a ritual, a liturgy of correct thinking, punctuated by responses from the congregation.

And the high priest was the Maximum Leader.

I saw him. My grandfather saw him, too. He was a pinpoint, off in the distance. A tiny moving speck. Even from far away we could see his tiny little body bouncing up and down as he spoke. He couldn't talk without moving. He jumped and waved his arms as if he were a basketball player or a demoniac. We could hear him very clearly, of course, thanks to all the loudspeakers that dotted the vast space of the Plaza.

You couldn't get away from his voice. Even if you plugged up your ears with your fingers, the sound of his voice was loud enough to find its way to your brain. You could shut out the words, but you couldn't shut out the noise.

He was bombing us.

He was telling us what was good. Telling us how we should think. He was telling us what to choose and how to choose it. He was telling us we had no choice. And he was telling us we were free. Free at last.

That one tiny, insignificant, erasable smudge under the giant stone exclamation point, that speck of nothingness controlled everyone in that Plaza, and everyone on the island. That one little nothing that my cousin Fernando had planned to erase at that very same spot, two years earlier. Being at that Plaza, that day, was one of the scariest moments of my life. Scarier than any nightmare I'd ever had.

"Let's go abuelo, can we go now, please?"

"Yes, damn it, let's go."

We carefully wended our way out of the crowd that had gathered behind us. It wasn't easy. People were still streaming in as we tried to leave. Some of the latecomers were in groups, and were being herded like sheep.

My grandfather spoke over the din: "Hold my hand. I don't want you to get lost."

I was too old to hold hands, but I did it anyway.

Good thing, too, for it would be the last time I'd ever get the chance. I held my grandfather's hand for the last time in my life, there, as Fidel's words fell upon us like hail, or fire and brimstone. We were just two drops in a nearly boundless ocean. But we were two drops who knew what was going on, two drops struggling to free ourselves from the sea around us. An old man torn from his homeland by forbidden love years ago, a boy about to be torn from his by a Revolution.

Two specks moving in the wrong direction.

Two specks about to part from each other forever, thanks to one tiny speck.

One speck bathed in sunlight that day, just like everyone else.

One tiny speck.

Too bad.

--Carlos Eire, Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy

Killing Fields

They're Doing It Wrong

Pittsburgh police Chief Nate Harper said three plainclothes officers have been reassigned during an internal investigation into the beating of an 18-year-old student violinist from the city's Creative and Performing Arts High School.

I have to say the police really need to rethink the whole plainclothes thing. There is no way for a citizen to know it is the police. Even if they say it is the police and flash their little badge, you can't be sure. Anyone can buy a badge and say they are the police.

Miles said he resisted because he thought the men were trying to abduct him and didn't identify themselves as police.

I have been in that situation and luckily I had a locked door between us. I had just come to work and locked the doors when a bunch of undercover police tried running into the hotel. I could see them clearly and could not tell that they were police, I thought they were trying to rob me. One was showing me a badge he had around his neck but like I said, anyone can wear one of those. It may not look real close up but in a situation like this you don't have time to examine it. If they were not locked out they would not have given me the chance anyway. I called 911 and no way in hell was I going to let them in. They said they thought I was robbing the hotel, which goes to show how stupid they were because after I came to work I walked the person I relieved out to her car in full view, apparently, of the police.

I often wonder what I would do if they raided my house, not that they would have a reason to but mistakes happen. I would think, and rightfully so, it was a home invasion robbery, again, because I haven't done anything wrong and I would never suspect the police would be doing that.

Hank III

Hank Williams III. Brilliant. Crazy. He's got his grandfathers demons, maybe more. Some of his music I like a lot, some not at all. He's got heart, and he puts it all out there - the beautiful and the ugly.

Should Have Stuck With Hillary

Revolting

He's Done Everything Wrong

In the campaign, he said he would change politics as usual. He did change them. It's now worse than it was. I've now seen the kind of buying off of politicians that I’ve never seen before. It's politically corrupt and it's starting at the top. It's revolting.

This from an Obama supporter.

Hank Williams Sr.

He Should Have Bought a Lottery ticket

Wrong Direction

Canada now boasts North America's freest economy

This year, of the world's 20 largest economies, the U.S. suffered the largest drop in overall economic freedom.

Blame It On Bush

The Buck Stops Everywhere Else

In the event that the White House has not made it perfectly clear: It’s all George W. Bush’s fault.

Firefox 3.6

Mozilla officially releases Firefox 3.6

Seems much faster, I like.

Whatever You Do, Don't Make a Sound!

Well Said.

Journalism: The Most Trusted Scam In America

Cuteness

Kitten vs. Bird

Mississippi Blues Day

R.L. Burnside: Boogie Chillun' - Can't embed this one, but real good!





And some T-Model Ford: In his front yard - No embedding of this excellent video, either.







One more: How T-Model got his name.

We Have Many Reasons to Tremble

And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever . . . ."

Thomas Jefferson

Herman Cain On the FairTax

The Making of the Man

Is America Still Making Men? by Dennis Prager

The reason for the importance of this question is simple: Males untutored about how to control their natures will likely do much harm. Conversely, males who are taught to how to control themselves and to channel their drives in positive directions make the world a much better place. The good man is a glory of civilization; the bad man ruins it.

They Want to Make the Truth Illegal

The Truth Shall Set You Free (Offer Not Applicable In The Netherlands)

This sounds very familiar. During my long battles with Canada's disgusting and corrupt "human rights" thought-police, I was frequently told (by lawyers, experts, "human rights" activists, Islamists et al) that "truth is no defense". The factual accuracy of what I'd written was never in dispute; it was whether or not it was legal to say it, however accurate it may be. And so it goes at Geert Wilders' show trial:

"It is irrelevant whether Wilder's witnesses might prove Wilders' observations to be correct", the 'Openbaar Ministerie' stated, "what's relevant is that his observations are illegal".

Sorry, but if you don't have truth, you have nothing. And whatever you are building will fail - miserably.

The TSA - Working Hard to Do What They are Trained to Do

Because You Never Know When It Will Happen

Here's to 11-year-old's knowing how to handle a gun.

The homeowner said she and her 11-year-old son were in bed when she heard banging coming from the front door.

She got up to check and she saw two Hispanic males men wearing masks and armed with handguns walking towards her.

She quickly closed the bedroom door but one of the men allegedly tried to force it open.

The masked man kept telling her to open the door and she would not open the door.

The woman told deputies that the home invaders shot through the door and hit her son on the left hip area.

Her son had a 22 cal. Rifle and shot back at the alleged robbers.

The woman waited, opened the door, saw that the suspects were gone and called 911.

Deputies found blood all over the floor and noted that the front door had been knocked down.

Paramedics took the woman's 11-year-old son to the McAllen Medical Center where he’s listed in stable condition.

Way to go, kid! You probably saved your mothers life and your own.

The only way to defeat evil is to fight it at every turn - sometimes spiritually and sometimes physically.

Britain Besieged

Al-Qaeda threat: Britain worst in western world

American officials now believe Britain poses a major threat to Western security because of the large number of al-Qaeda supporters that are active in the country.

Mark Steyn comments:

Indeed. In Somalia-with-chip-shops, Geert Wilders gets turned back at Heathrow but men explicitly committed to the destruction of the state and their wives live it up at taxpayer expense.

Jehovah shall bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies; a nation whose tongue you shall not understand,

a nation fierce of face who shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young.

And he shall eat the fruit of your cattle and the fruit of your land, until you are destroyed. He shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your livestock, or flocks of your sheep, until he has destroyed you.

And he shall besiege you in all your gates until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down, throughout all the land. And he shall besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land which Jehovah your God has given you.

Deuteronomy 28:49-52


It's happening.

We Will Not Have This Man to Reign Over Us

He was alone. Among men of His own age and of His religion after the flesh, there was none able to enter into His conception of things or to soar to the height of His outlook.

Spiritually, He found no sympathy in the world at all. His spiritual concepts were not accepted by men, not understood of men. He stood alone. Such was His loneliness; materially without home, mentally without comrades, spiritually without sympathy. Life to Him was the bearing of a testimony to the essential and eternal things; the bearing of a testimony that men never apprehended, would not apprehend or receive. From the beginning to the end there crushed and pressed upon him the false concepts and false ideals of men, which at last found their supreme expression in the words so often quoted and yet so terribly revealing: "...we will not have this man to reign over us." This pressure upon Him of circumstances found its culminating expression and experience in the Cross of Calvary.

The persistence of this experience of tribulation in the history of His people has been equally definite. The story of loyal-hearted discipleship has ever been, and still is, that if a man will live godly in this world he shall suffer persecution. The church forever contradicts the world. That is its business. That is what it is in the world for; to contradict it in its fundamental conceptions, in the conduct that grows out of its fundamental conceptions, and in the character which results from the persistent conception expressing itself in conduct. The church in the world is an eternal negative to the things which are supremely of the world.

With what result? The world is forever opposed to the church. It is against the church. It will bring all its pressure to bear upon the church. It will do everything to silence her voice and destroy her influence and end her propaganda. If this is not so, it is because the church has forgotten her message. If the world now is making friends with the church, then alas for the church. The world has not changed. Its central conception of life, its ideal, is still that of the magnificence of mastery and the glory of the material. The church's ideal is still that of the magnificence of service and sacrifice and the beauty of the spiritual. These things cannot merge and mix without the quality being changed entirely on the one side or the other. The church is in the world to affirm the things of the beginning, the original things of truth, the meaning and the reason of things; to tell man what man has honestly sought to discover for himself but never has been able, the reason, the truth behind everything. The world is still saying: "We will not have these things"; the world is still against the church. The church stands in the center of this pressure, bearing her witness and feeling the agony of her loneliness and her strife with the things against which she is called to protest.

G. Campbell Morgan, Tribulation, Kingdom and Patience

Waiting for Snow in Havana

I recently began reading the book, 'Waiting for Snow in Havana' by Carlos Eire, and it is such an interesting read. It's the kind of book you don't want to put down once you begin.

Waiting for Snow in Havana is an extraordinary memoir by a man whose boyhood was ravaged by the Cuban revolution. Reading the book is like being transported to Havana, although it's also very much about the universal experiences of loss and separation, and all the joys and cruelties of childhood.

Here's an excerpt:

And speaking of fictional characters, Popeye might have been the wisest of all time, for he knew instinctively what it has taken me a lifetime to realize. "I am what I am," or as Popeye puts it, "I yam what I yam."

I yam Cuban.

God-damned place where I was born, that God-damned place where everything I knew was destroyed. Wrecked in the name of fairness. In the name of progress. In the name of love for the gods Marx and Lenin.

Utterly wrecked.

I have pictures to prove it, from twenty years ago, when my mother went back to visit for one week, packing a Kodak Instamatic camera. Everything was already so thoroughly ruined by then as to be barely recognizable. The entire neighborhood went to ruin, just like ancient Rome, only more quickly and without the help of German barbarians. The entire city. The entire country, from end to end.

I think this is a book Americans need to read.

Another Warning, America

CSI: Sweden

Weight Watchers clinic floor collapses under dieters

As the dieters queued to see how many pounds they had shed, the floor beneath them in the clinic in Växjö, in south-central Sweden, began to rumble,

"We suddenly heard a huge thud; we almost thought it was an earthquake and everything flew up in the air.

"The floor collapsed in one corner of the room and along the walls,"

Soon, the fault lines spread around the room, and other sections of the floor gave way.

The cause of the floor's collapse remains under investigation.

Just need to run a few more tests.

Another Love TKO

Legendary R&B singer Teddy Pendergrass dead at 59





Did they have mirrors back then? --lol

Guns Don't Kill People, Liberals Do

Interesting article by Mark Steyn: In the absence of guns

They pressed the hot iron into her side and stole her watch, leaving her badly burnt. "I was frightened to defend myself," said Miss Best. "I thought if I did anything I would be arrested."

Liberal policies kill the human spirit.

Haiti

I think it's important that Americans respond with their usual generosity, if not more so, to the earthquake in Haiti. We both need this. Donate to the Salvation Army or Red Cross

Pictures from Haiti

Intellectuals and Society

This is a wonderful interview, I really like Thomas Sowell and read his columns regularly. Every segment is worth watching.



Segment 2, Segment 3, Segment 4, Segment 5

We are becoming a nation of people who are propagandized from elementary school right on through to the graduate schools in a certain vision of the world and only the ones who for one reason or another, either experience or insight or whatever, lift up and say, "Wait a minute," only those are the ones who we have to depend on.--Thomas Sowell, in segment 5

I will add that it's a false vision of the world, it is a lie.

The Arrogance of Our Leaders

is only exceeded by the apathy of the American people. As more and more lose their jobs, perhaps that will change. The bailouts and stimulus have done nothing for the American people but have been a windfall for those in the upper echelons of government and their friends in the bailed out companies, unions and Wall Street.

Jack Cafferty is absolutely right in this video.

Live Free and Prosper

I've posted this before but it is too important to forget.

How to Live to Be 100

To find the path to long life and health, Dan Buettner and team study the world's "Blue Zones," communities whose elders live with vim and vigor to record-setting age. In this video he shares the 9 common diet and lifestyle habits that keep them spry past age 100.

Wussification Complete

Imagine how horrifying it must be to live in a society where it is illegal to defend yourself, even in your own home.

"She is not looking to be a vigilante, and has the utmost respect for the law, but when the police explained to her that even if you're at home alone and you have an intruder, you are not allowed to protect yourself, she was bemused."

It's like Disneyland for criminals.

Fastest Finger Pointer in the West

Obama is blaming the need for him to take responsibility on Bush

Frank J.

Every Bass Anglers Dream

The world record largemouth bass (22 lb. 4 oz.) held by Georgia angler George Perry since 1932 has been tied by a fish caught in Japan by Manabu Kurita.

A video of the weigh in can be seen here.

Awesome Fish

Carbon Dioxide is a Pollutant?

If you want a truly beautiful planted aquarium use CO2 injection.

The Concealed Carry Protocol

Excellent video.

I'll See Your Global Warming...

And raise you one Death Star.

A Star primed to explode in a blast that could wipe out the Earth was revealed by astronomers yesterday.

It will self-destruct in an explosion called a supernova with the force of 20 billion billion billion megatons of TNT.

New studies show the star, called T Pyxidis, is much closer than previously thought at 3,260 light-years away - a short hop in galactic terms.

So the blast from the thermonuclear explosion could strip away our ozone layer that keeps out deadly space radiation. Life on Earth would then be frazzled.

So we give up our sovereignty, completely trash our economy, give up all of our modern conveniences and save the polar bear and some not so distant as once thought star explodes and wipes out our atmosphere leaving the cockroach the highest life form on earth. Yeah, that sounds about right.

They Stole Our Future, But They Cannot Break Our Will

What is killing American confidence and innovation?

Bill Whittle takes a look at the Leftist attitudes that threaten the ideals of optimism and progress in the latest Afterburner.

Now on YouTube.

Dueling Banjos

Maybe it's time to ban the banjo?

The banjo is considered "a deadly weapon" under Colorado law, so Stancato could face prison time, the Aspen Daily News reported.

The System Works

'Terror Suspect' Joan Rivers Booted Off Flight

Rivers, 76, was deemed a danger to national security and booted from a Newark-bound flight in Costa Rica on Sunday by a jittery Continental Airlines gate agent who found the two names on her passport fishy.

Her passport reads: Joan Rosenberg AKA Joan Rivers. Rosenberg was her late husband's last name.

The Fifth Ammendment

You would think that if you are innocent you have nothing to fear talking to the police but you would be wrong, and it's not because the police are out to get you. Watch these two videos. The first one is a lawyer, the second a police officer.

We the People

This from Time Magazine, The Lesson: Passengers Are Not Helpless

Here are some things Obama did not say: He did not propose that we find ways to leverage the proven dedication and courage of the public. He did not call for Congress to cut spending on homeland-security pork and instead double the budget of Citizen Corps — the volunteer emergency-preparedness service that was created after 9/11 and that most Americans have never heard of. He did not demand that the government be more open with us about the threats we face. He did not discuss the government's obligation, as homeland-security expert Stephen Flynn puts it, to "support regular people in being able to withstand, rapidly recover and adapt to foreseeable risks."

Thanks to Lenny Cacchio for bringing this article to my attention and remarked:

Let's look at in semi-metaphorical fashion. Typically, the government spends boat-loads of money, screws everything up, and then it's the Johnny Lunchbuckets and Joe the Carpenters -- the "you and me's" -- who must step up and bail out their incompetence. That's the pattern, and this incident over Detroit was no different. After everything settles down, the government takes the credit ("the system worked") and then punishes the innocent ("no, Mr. Pilot, you may not use the restroom").

When will we finally get it? It's individuals, not the government that makes this country great.

The Solution is Obvious

Disney Employee Faces 200 Counts Of Possessing Child Porn

Authorities in central Florida have arrested a food-service worker at Walt Disney World on 200 counts of possessing child pornography.

This is so easy. The guy obviously chose the wrong profession. If he was a government school teacher they would give him awards for his progressive thinking. He might even have been appointed assistant to the Safe Schools Czar.

New Years Resolutions

For all Americans

Try to owe fewer dollars in debt than there are stars in the known universe.



Let’s try and set a realistic goal here. We have a liberal president and a liberal Congress, so debt is going to increase. They just love spending too much. But let’s at least keep the debt from being so large it collapses upon itself into a singularity and destroys the solar system.



If we have another economic crisis, let’s not hand a blank checkbook to a bunch of Democrats.



Politicians love spending money — Democrats especially. If we had a problem of having way too much money and needed to get rid of it quickly, you’d be a fool to elect anyone other than Democrats. But if the problem is that we’re running out of money, it may be a bad idea to put Democrats in charge, because their solution to having too little money will inevitably be to spend more money.

Fistgate

I had heard about Barack Obama’s Safe Schools Czar, Kevin Jennings, and his past but I really didn't look into that much. Well, I've dug a little deeper into it and all I can say is how is this guy not in jail for what he is advocating?

GLSEN maintains a recommended reading list of books that it claims “furthers our mission to ensure safe schools for all students.” In other words, these are the books that GLSEN’s directors think all kids should be reading: gay kids should read them to raise their self-esteem, and straight kids should read them in order to become more aware and tolerant and stop bullying gay kids. Through GLSEN’s online ordering system, called “GLSEN BookLink,” featured prominently on their Web site, teachers can buy the books to use as required classroom assignments, or students can buy them to read on their own...

What we discovered shocked us. We were flabbergasted. Rendered speechless.

We were unprepared for what we encountered. Book after book after book contained stories and anecdotes that weren’t merely X-rated and pornographic, but which featured explicit descriptions of sex acts between pre-schoolers; stories that seemed to promote and recommend child-adult sexual relationships; stories of public masturbation, anal sex in restrooms, affairs between students and teachers, five-year-olds playing sex games, semen flying through the air. One memoir even praised becoming a prostitute as a way to increase one’s self-esteem. Above all, the books seemed to have less to do with promoting tolerance than with an unabashed attempt to indoctrinate students into a hyper-sexualized worldview.

Does the American public really know about this?

Exerpts of the extremely graphic - that's putting it mildly - reading material can be found here and here.

Obama needs to resign immediately just for appointing this guy. I'm not kidding. Why isn't this being broadcast on the news incessantly? We are talking about children here. This is OK with you? You want your children reading this?

The pedophiles have walked straight into your child's classroom, invited in, through the front door while we were guarding the back door.

Commercial Break

We will be right back after this important message by our sponsor..

The Leaning Tower of Liuzhou

How do you say implosion in Chinese? That's not it

Video at the link.

Holy Cow!

Shamelessly Stolen

Barack Obama meets with the Queen of England. He asks her, "Your Majesty, how do you run such an efficient government? Are there any tips you can give to me?"

"Well," says the Queen, "the most important thing is to surround yourself with intelligent people."

Obama frowns "But how do I know the people around me are really intelligent?"

The Queen takes a sip of tea. "Oh, that's easy. You just ask them to answer an intelligent riddle." The Queen pushes a button on her intercom. "Please send Tony Blair in here, would you?"

Tony Blair walks into the room. "Yes, my Queen?"

The Queen smiles. "Answer me this, please, Tony. Your mother and father have a child. It is not your brother and it is not your sister. Who is it?"

Without pausing for a moment, Tony Blair answers, "That would be me."

"Yes! Very good," says the Queen.

Obama goes back home to ask Joe Biden, his vice president, the same question. "Joe. Answer this for me. Your mother and your father have a child. It's not your brother and it's not your sister. Who is it?"

"I'm not sure," says Biden. "Let me get back to you on that one." He goes to his advisors and asks every one, but none can give him an answer. Finally, he ends up in the men's room and recognizes Colin Powell's shoes in the next stall.

Biden asks Powell, "Colin! Can you answer this for me? Your mother and father have a child and it's not your brother or your sister. Who is it?"

Colin Powell yells back, "That's easy. It's me!"

Biden smiles, and says, "Thanks!" Then, he goes back to speak with Obama.

"Say, I did some research and I have the answer to that riddle. It's Colin Powell."

Obama gets up, stomps over to Biden, and angrily yells into his face, "No, you idiot! It's Tony Blair!"

From Xavier