Wednesday Bits of bin Laden

The euphoria from Sunday's news of the death of the World's Most Wanted Man has yet to dissipate fully, teh funny is still there. Consider this a pre-Friday prep post.

Ever able to come down squarely on both sides of an issue for reasons of political expediency, Nancy Pelosi exhibits some shocking (to some, maybe, but not us) hypocrisy when it comes to the issue of bin Laden's.

Behold, Her Highness in 2006:

Even if he [Osama bin Laden] is caught tomorrow, it is five years too late. He has done more damage the longer he has been out there. But, in fact, the damage that he has done . . . is done. And even to capture him now I don’t think makes us any safer.

Of course, that was with George Bush at the helm. Today, or rather, this week, she's singing a different tune:

The death of Osama bin Laden marks the most significant development in our fight against al-Qaida. . . . I salute President Obama, his national security team, Director Panetta, our men and women in the intelligence community and military, and other nations who supported this effort for their leadership in achieving this major accomplishment. . . . [T]he death of Osama bin Laden is historic. . . .

Hey, California, can't you do better than this? Does she really reflect your values and opinions? If so, which ones? She can't seem to make up her botoxed mind.

George Bush isn't stupid.

U.N. Human Rights Chief Asks U.S. to Explain Bin Laden Killing — Okay, Fine.
Osama would not return kids' soccer balls kicked over the fence. They got paid instead.

Jack Bauer tweets this: "Just got back from "vacationing" in Abottabad."

From the Moron commenters over at Ace's place comes this new real estate listing: "Palatial compound conveniently located in the heart of Abottabad just minutes from the military school. Idyllic location built in 2006. Must sell quickly, owner underwater."

Ever mindful of religious sensibilities, Osama was shot in accordance with muslim tradition.

We also extended the courtesy to his burial at sea, a picture of which is here.

What really went on in the White House Situation Room.

And finally comes this from the bowels of the sandcrawler over at The Jawa Report - bin Laden's final video.

Enjoy, y'all.

Can We Finally Get Serious About Terrorism Now?

Osama bin Laden has received his final reward in this life. I gain no small comfort in knowing the last thing that went through his mind was American lead.

Good riddance.

As the details surrounding the operation emerge, it’s becoming clear that the policies and practices put in place by George W. Bush in the wake of the 9/11 attacks worked. Rendition, secret prisons, Gitmo and “enhanced interrogation techniques” were what led to the success of this operation.

The irony is that they were vehemently opposed by our current president while he was a freshman congressman.

Reality has a way of doing that. It provides a certain clarity of thought.

Now, can we get down to business and finally start acting like we have enemies who want to kill us?

Pretty please?

The cynic in me thinks that this operation had far more to do with campaign optics than anything else. President Obama now has the reputation as The Man Who Killed Liberty Valance Osama bin Laden. There’s no doubt OBL deserved his fate, but given what we know about Al Qaeda’s operations, he was more of a figurehead due to his high profile. His fame worked against him and caused him to take a less active role in the day-to-day activities of that group of animals. That doesn’t diminish the danger, as someone else will surely be glad to assume the distinction of being the world’s most wanted man, probably Al-Zawahiri. It also doesn't diminish the symbolism of us taking out the world's worst enemy.

We can and should expect the attacks to continue even after the symbolic head of the AQ snake has been cut off. This really changes nothing. We are still faced with a determined, patient and cunning enemy that has proven its willingness to kill anyone, be they men, women, or as we recently saw in Jerusalem, small children, (innocents all) to advance their religious beliefs.

So, now what?

It could be that Obama will borrow a testicle from George Bush and finally get serious with terrorists. That would still leave GWB with two. Until Sunday, the contrast couldn’t have more stark between them. It’s painfully clear that Obama owes his predecessor a great deal for his success in taking bin Laden out. A simple “thank you” would suffice for Mr. Bush, I’m sure, but I’m not gonna hold my breath waiting for one, and neither should he.

We have a golden opportunity to turn the global war on terror to our favor. We could choose to demonstrate our national determination to rid the earth of terrorism and its adherents and advocates whenever and wherever we find them.

There is only one way to do that. It’s a proven method that works every time it’s tried.

We start killing them.

If you’re somewhat taken aback at that statement, it may be due to the fact we hadn’t used that strategy against our enemies until Sunday. In fact, we haven’t used that strategy for quite a while. All you need to do is look at the Rules of Engagement that our fighting forces are forced to comply with in the Mideast to understand that we seemingly have no interest in winning a war.

Here’s an example of the stupidity of these rules from the good folk over at Flopping Aces:

… occasionally there are riveting communications, such as a recent e-mail from a noncommissioned officer (NCO) serving in Afghanistan. He explains why the rules of engagement for U.S. troops are “too prohibitive for coalition forces to achieve sustained tactical successes.”


Receiving mortar fire during an overnight mission, his unit called for a 155mm howitzer illumination round to be fired to reveal the enemy’s location. The request was rejected “on the grounds that it may cause collateral damage.” The NCO says that the only thing that comes down from an illumination round is a canister, and the likelihood of it hitting someone or something was akin to that of being struck by lightning.


Returning from a mission, his unit took casualties from an improvised explosive device that the unit knew had been placed no more than an hour earlier. “There were villagers laughing at the U.S. casualties” and “two suspicious individuals were seen fleeing the scene and entering a home.” U.S. forces “are no longer allowed to search homes without Afghan National Security Forces personnel present.” But when his unit asked Afghan police to search the house, the police refused on the grounds that the people in the house “are good people.”


On another mission, some Afghan adults ran off with their children immediately before the NCO’s unit came under heavy small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), and the unit asked for artillery fire on the enemy position. The response was a question: Where is the nearest civilian structure? “Judging distances,” the NCO writes dryly, “can be difficult when bullets and RPGs are flying over your head.” When the artillery support was denied because of fear of collateral damage, the unit asked for a “smoke mission” — like an illumination round; only the canister falls to earth — “to conceal our movement as we planned to flank and destroy the enemy.” This request was granted — but because of fear of collateral damage, the round was deliberately fired one kilometer off the requested site, making “the smoke mission useless and leaving us to fend for ourselves.”

Well, that worked out according to plan, didn’t it? Their plan.

It seems that hiding among the civilian population while not wearing uniforms works to our enemies’ advantage. If only there were some way to, oh, I don’t know, maybe make that sort of combat illegal. Maybe a bunch of governments could get together and outlaw that type of warfare. Then that’d sorta make the playing field a little more even while our soldiers are getting shot at, wouldn’t it? That might even be a more civilized way to fight a war and be a bit less dangerous for the civilian population, eh?

If only there was a way to do that…

Oh, wait. There is! It’s called the Geneva Conventions and it just so happens that they did outlaw the use of warfare by non-uniformed soldiers. They even have a name for those who engage in that type of warfare. Believe it or not, they call them “illegal combatants.” Wow, who knew? We can even kill these “illegal combatants” when we catch them. Again, who knew?

I ask you, gentle reader, who would fall under such a designation? Osama bin Laden? He would, were he still alive. How about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? Did he not plan the 9/11 attacks? That sounds like an act of war carried out against civilians by someone who didn’t wear a uniform? How about Al-Awalaki or however his name is spelled? Isn’t he doing the same thing by encouraging attacks on American interests?

How about all the Gitmo detainees? Weren’t these guys all captured on the battlefield sans uniform?

The evidence seems to point to an enemy that doesn’t abide by the rules of engagement that the rest of the world agreed to many years ago in an effort to restrict warfare to those with the hardware to wage war. But for some strange reason, we’re not exercising our agreed-upon right to execute them. Why?

I know why and you do too. It’s because there are certain people who think we can win the "hearts and minds" of our enemies by being nice to them. The unfortunate thing is that many of these people reside in Washington and are actively engaged in preventing our troops from winning these wars. Note the insanity in sending the most effective fighting force the world has ever seen to some foreign land and then telling them they can’t kill their enemy who’s shooting at them, hiding among the civilians to use them as shields and who don’t wear uniforms.

Even more insanity is on display in the effeminate disdain of those on the left who are against the use of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” on “humanitarian grounds.” They claim “we’re getting down to their level” by using anything more than harsh language on them. That we, as Americans, have a moral imperative to be more civilized than our enemy and refrain from anything that closely resembles violence against our enemies.

Really? Tell that to the thousands of innocent Americans who died on 9/11, many of whom leaped to their death. Tell that to Daniel Pearl, who was beheaded while he was still alive and whose murder was broadcast on the Internet for the world to see. Who got tortured and killed: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or Pearl? Does KSM still have all his fingers and both eyes and ears? Can he walk, talk, and eat? If he suffered no physical damage, how has he been tortured? Who cares if he has a rather pronounced facial tick and is now deathly afraid of napkins?

This attitude of supposed moral superiority is leading us to do things that fly in the face of both common sense and our traditional history of directly confronting our enemies with deadly force. When a crime is committed, do the police start looking for random people or do they start looking for someone who fits a description of the suspect?

Let me show you a picture of the 19 hijackers and then ask you a question.

Do you see any 6-year-olds?

Then why is the TSA patting them down?



We could stop this by the application of the oldest means of persuasion against an enemy. I’d even go so far as to say that we could stop patting down 6-year-olds at airports and stop handing over all of our deadly shampoo if we’d do one simple thing. After making sure that we had every bit of information from every Gitmo detainee using whichever methods got results, we then executed what was left of them. Preferably on pay-per-view.

And announce it to the rest of the world. Let them howl. Then point out that these animals are in open violation of the Geneva Conventions, loudly and often, while also pointing out that we are acting within those agreed-upon rules. Every time some human rights group held a press conference to chide us for collateral damage, we’d remind them of why innocent civilians were put in that situation in the first place by the actions of the enemy, not by us. Why we aren’t doing that has been a source of curiosity and frustration to many ever since this they started this war against us some thirty years ago.

War has been, and will always be about who thinks they can be more aggressive. By willfully showing weakness in the face of aggression, we are doing more to invite that aggression than any good will that might be gained by being nice to our enemies. In case those in Washington haven’t noticed, our actions are not responsible for muslim hatred of us. Their hatred of Americans (and “infidels” in general) is instilled in them at an early age. If it weren’t Gitmo, they’d invent another excuse to kill us. By bending over backwards to appear all civilized and stuff, we’re doing ourselves more harm than good and giving them the victory. If you think for one moment they aren’t gloating over forcing innocent American children to be frisked at our airports, you’re wrong.

So, will we capitalize on the momentum that’s clearly on our side following the successful eradication of OBL? Will we finally dedicate ourselves to fight a war on terror and win it, so we can get back to normal and rid the world of this affront to true civilization?

Will we start making our enemies fear us for a change?

Osama bin Laden Achieves Room Temperature

All Mondays should start this way, with a murderous madman's death.

Just in case you haven't heard, the bastard's dead. Good riddance. Rot in hell where you belong, you POS.

I could post a bunch of links to the details, but you can click anywhere on this Internet thingy and find out all the wondrous details of the Navy Seal's strike that got that piece of human debris. In fact, I changed that last sentence because the words human and OBL don't belong in the same sentence together. Oops, crap, I did it anyway.

It should be noted that we found him inside Pakistan. Some ally, huh? I want plenty of answers as to why they were giving that goat-lover cover?

Did I mention that I'm a very happy Boy this morning? There aren't enough good things to say or write about this. It's an  important turning point in the War on Terror. We now have the momentum, as we knew we would one day.

AQ and the Taliban say they'll retaliate. I only have one thing to say to them.

Bring. It. On.

And you just know that someone else will rush to fill OBL's place. Good. We'll find him and kill him too. And the next one, and the next one.

I don't have any pangs of conscience about celebrating the death of one of the devil's henchmen. He was an evil man whose every breath was an insult to peace-loving people everywhere. I'm very glad he's dead. I don't mourn the death of evil, I revel in it.

Now, I think I'll go ride around a while and join in the celebrations that are sure to pop up where I live. However you choose to enjoy this day, do so. We needed it.

It's a good day.

Friday Bits of Tid - Royal Wedding Edition

So, I hear someone's getting married today. Whoever they are, I wish them the best.

Phoebe Snow passed away this week. You'll remember her for the hit Poetry Man and her work with Paul Simon. That's her singing backup on 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover. She'll get to see her daughter again...

One of the benefits of blogging is that I get to discover all kinds of cool things on this Interwebs thingy. Some of them are just plain silly but some are also informative. Since I found a few of the latter today, I wanted to post them for your perusal.

The first thing my economics professor told the class was this joke. "All of the worlds' economists, if laid end to end, wouldn't reach a conclusion." As I age, I don't think he was kidding, especially when we've been the subject of so much economic experimentation lately that has been so wrong. Obama's Stimulus plan has been a dismal failure by every metric. It's done the opposite of what we were told it would do, and now we're left holding the empty money bag.

Thanks you, Mr. President.

Here's something you maybe should have watched before you signed that bill. Check out this rap video of Keynes and Hayek, Round Two.



Part One is here.

More geeky goodness can be found in this video that explains what dark matter is. As best I can figure, it fills in all the space between an atom's nucleus and the electrons in orbit, something that, for the longest time, was thought to be empty space or a even a vacuum. As yet, we don't have a way to measure this stuff, but give us time.

You might have to readjust your browsers' scale to get this video to show correctly. It's kinda tall.


Dark Matters from PHD Comics on Vimeo.

Superman is renouncing his US citizenship. He was an illegal alien anyway, so, meh.

Via Instapundit, the Politics of Star Trek.

Woman seeks man from Easter encounter. On the off chance that one of you guys might know him, here's your opportunity to play Cupid.

From the You Can't Make This Stuff Up, Animal Division comes this story of a man dressed up as a cow who stole 26 gallons of milk, with a picture of the perp.

Also, a New Jersey town regulates chicken sex.

Why did the alligator cross the road?

Remember Monday's post? Here's more sticky note activism, this time at the grocery store. I suspect we'll start seeing a bit more of this as our economy continues to deteriorate. Somebody's gotta do it.
*Updated* No sooner did I finish this post than I found these instructions on how to construct your own slogan, along with a Sticky Note Rebellion Facebook page. Damn, y'all are working me like a rented mule.

And lastly, here's this week's official video, for all the obvious reasons...



Have a good weekend, y'all. And say a prayer for all my cousins in Alabama who were affected by the tornados. They'll need all the Help they can get. If you can help, please do so.

Poets, Priests, and Politicians, Part II – Those Word Thingys

I like to observe things. Life, people, pretty women (especially BackwardsGirl), squirrels, lizards, hot cars, motorcycles, and bright, shiny objects. I have to stay away from those last ones, though, they’re really pretty.

Really, really, pretty.

Oh, I left out politics and the practitioners of that dark art. There is a wide chasm between reality and what goes on inside the head of the typical politician. The more leftward they lean, the greater the chasm.

Of particular note is the way they use language to disguise their intentions. New York Senator Chuck Schumer showed us how this works when he inadvertently instructed his party cohorts to describe any attempts by Republicans to cut the budget as “extreme.” Inadvertently, since he didn’t think anyone else was listening besides his party-mates.

“I always use the word extreme,” Schumer told Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Barbara Boxer of California, Benjamin Cardin and Thomas R. Carper of Delaware, according to New York Times reporter Jennifer Steinhauer, who was on the call without Schumer knowing it. “That is what the caucus instructed me to use this week.”

It’s too bad they didn’t instruct him to just tell the truth, or to get to work cutting this bloated beast of a deficit down to a manageable size so our grandkids can have a future. He seems to follow marching orders well; he just doesn’t take them from the people he’s supposed to, namely his constituents.

But I digress.

That example was pretty blatant, but it proves that there are some folks in Washington who are willing to twist and distort the English language so they can increase their power and control over us. That’s standard operating procedure and it’s done on a regular basis by those on the left.

That twisting and distortion can also be rather subtle. In fact, it works better when it’s done that way.

I had a conversation a few years back with a friend when I noted that machinists weren’t held in very high regard by the general public anymore. I said it was because the public never heard the word “machinist” without also hearing the words “union” and “strike.” Since that phrase came out of me without thinking about it, a little light bulb went on.

That’s how it’s done.

It doesn’t need to be an outright lie to be effective. A grand lie works as well as a small one. There are subtle variations that can be just as effective.

So, why am I telling you this? You may already know how it’s done. You may also not know. If so, then just consider this an affirmation. If not, or if you know someone who seems susceptible to suggestion, you can help them by pointing this out.

You see, there’s a propensity for us humans to automatically accept any information as true. This binary acceptance of anything is also our undoing. Skepticism is a very healthy thing to have in your mental toolkit these days, especially when it comes to politics. That old adage, “Don’t believe anything you read and only half of what you hear” is a good yardstick. That might be backwards, but hey, it’s what I do.

Still, one must develop an ability to decode any statement coming from a politician. Plain language isn’t their strong point, and many statements can mean something entirely different than at first blush.

Take this for example. I’ve linked to it before, but it’s good and bears repeating: Health Care Words to Use and Avoid.

Use the term “quality, affordable health care” instead of “universal health care.”

Say "giving people control or peace of mind” instead of “public health care for all.”

Here’s my favorite: use “guaranteed” instead of “required.”

Or, “bovine-based, organic growth enhancer” instead of “bullshit.”

But also be on the lookout for those descriptors used together such as “extreme right-wing.” After a while, you could drop the word “extreme” and just use the word “right-wing” and the word “extreme” becomes implied. Repetition is the key. It works. Many times, too well. How many lefties have you talked to who could repeat, verbatim, certain talking points, but when countered with facts, fall apart into a blithering heap of name-calling and invectives?

There’s a verbal war going on out there.

Forewarned is forearmed.

2012 Will Be the Most Racist Election Ever, or Something *Updated*

President Obama began his reelection campaign recently. I know this because his supporters are busy labeling (libeling?) anyone and everyone who has the audacity to question anything about him or his policies as a racist.



Puleeze. I mean really, that’s the best you guys can do? Call those of us on the right racists? Do you really think that, given the dire straits our country is in, that’s gonna fly anymore?

It never ceases to amaze me how the left in this country can so mischaracterize an issue. Somehow, inside their little minds, everything can be reduced to one simple thing that has nothing at all to do with reality.

In a way, we’ve been set up for this. We were sold the idea that the election of the first African-American president would, once and for all, prove that America wasn’t a racist nation. What that wound up doing instead was to give the left a cudgel with which to beat their political opponents with, namely us.

If you oppose our skyrocketing debt, you’re somehow a racist. Oppose ObamaCare? You’re a racist. Think Cash for Clunkers was a bad idea? Oh yeah, you’re a racist. Want to secure our border with Mexico? Guess what you are? Neener, neener, neener.

It’s all so simple for the left. It’s also complete and utter bullshit and everyone knows it.

Granted, we once had a problem with racism in America. I grew up in Alabama during the George Wallace era. I've seen racism up close and personal, which means I’ve seen the attitudes and actions that accompany that particular mindset. I’ve talked to racists and heard their arguments. And I’ve come to the inescapable conclusion that they are among the most stupid, ignorant, and un-Christian people I’ve ever seen. They are rightly shunned by anyone with any sense of true Biblical brotherhood. Thankfully, there aren’t many of them around anymore thanks to the societal pressure brought against them. If you have somehow managed to hang onto those beliefs, you don’t have very many friends. And rightly so.

So I find it puzzling to hear the supposedly well-educated pundits of the left frame any opposition to President Obama as racist. Instead, they're the ones who sound like racists. All manner of false accusations are leveled at the right in general and at the Tea Party in particular, from hurling racial epithets at black members of Congress to charges that Tea Partiers brought guns to rallies.

Seriously, that’s the best you can do? Even after your claims have been proven to be false, you still persist in lying? Do you really think that the rest of the country believes you when you accuse us of racism? Do you really not think we know better?

Furthermore, do you really think we’re that stupid? You must.

In case Mr. Smiley hasn’t noticed, we are trying to have a debate about the issues, but folks like him are preventing that from happening by grabbing the first open microphone they can find to yell, “RACIST!”

Here’s another example of someone who can’t seem to discuss an issue without injecting the false narrative of racism into it. Ladies and gentlemen, Ed Schultz.



“This is what the Republican Party stands for, though: racism. I think Donald Trump is a racist.”

Ed, help me out here.

There’s a Constitutional requirement that the president be a natural-born citizen. While I’m not a “birther,” I’m among the many folk who wonder why Barack Obama hasn’t put this issue to rest by producing the documents to prove he was born in Hawaii. Didn’t John McCain have to produce his birth certificate, too?

Obama could, if he chose to, command the podium and show his birth certificate to the country and settle this once and for all. The fact that he hasn’t done so makes me and many others just a bit curious. After all, John McCain had a cloud of controversy over his birth in Panama. Ultimately, his birth certificate was posted online for all to see. It appeared that he was Panamanian by birth, but he still came clean.

So, Ed, how does The Donald’s request to see those documents make him a racist? I wouldn’t mind seeing them myself. Does that also make me a racist?

What is the connection between racism and the law? Didn’t we fix that back in the Sixties when we outlawed discrimination based on skin color?

How does wanting to secure our border with Mexico make anyone a racist? I coulda swore we had a whole slew of laws to regulate the people who entered our country. We even have a whole department full of people in Washington for that reason, if I recall correctly. We just might want to know who enters our country, if they’re a tourist or not, and whether or not they’re in good health, just like the rest of the world does. We might also want to know if anyone who comes here might be a criminal or a terrorist. Oops, sorry, Janet Napolitano, I meant a "man-caused disaster waiting to happen."

But from the news reports I’ve seen, it doesn’t look like those laws are being enforced well, if at all. So, if you want our country’s immigration laws upheld, that makes you a racist, too?

I don’t get the connection. It’s like saying I’m a racist for not wanting to be robbed or beaten up.

Maybe it’s just me. I’m kinda dumb about some things, but I still can’t find anything about the issues like the debt that has anything to do with race. Inflation, high gas prices, our trade deficit, high unemployment, three wars at once, any criticism or opposition to them makes you a racist according to the left. The Tea Party was borne out of a very real concern about excessive taxation. They even took their name from a Revolutionary tax revolt that happened well before the War Between the States.

That’s racist? You sure could have fooled me.

But you won’t.

I, along with the rest of my fellow citizens, won’t let you.

*Update. No sooner had I posted this than Ace informs us that President Obama has released his long form birth certificate. We have ESPN, Ace and I.

Big Brother is Watching Me

While searching around this morning for a subject for today’s post, something interesting happened.

I got my picture taken by Google. Not by a satellite, but by one of its Street View cars.

And this was before I put on my makeup. I take no responsibility for any trauma that may occur as a result. Women, small children, and pets are equally at risk. You’ve been warned.

Coincidentally, (or maybe not, the powers of Google appear to be unlimited) I was going to write about all the news that has surfaced in the past weeks concerning the information that many electronic products are gathering, in many instances without the knowledge or approval of users. There is a lot of it, both the news and the information being gathered.

It started with this article about Michigan police and their very illegal searches of cell phones without probable cause or a warrant at traffic stops. That right there was enough for a whole post.

I wasn’t alone in noting that these searches were illegal, violating as they do our Constitutional 4th Amendment against illegal search and seizure. Some law professor named Glenn Reynolds agrees. A random traffic stop is insufficient cause to start pawing through your car’s glove box without a warrant, it’s even less cause to look at anything else, including your phone. It should go without saying that you should never consent to a search of yourself or your possessions for any reason. The fact that you think you have nothing to hide doesn’t prevent an overzealous prosecutor from finding something (anything) to justify his or her salary.

But that little obstacle doesn’t dissuade a few ill-informed and uneducated police officers from violating your rights, as that article shows. Random searches are fishing expeditions and are expressly forbidden unless and until there is a good reason for it, such as the investigation of a crime. I’m all for giving police the proper tools to do their job to keep us safe, but random searches aren’t the way to do it. The method of proper evidence gathering is clearly laid out in our Constitution, along with the proper reason for it; so citizens can be secure from an overreaching government that thinks it has the right to know everything it wants to know about you and your goings-on.

The next thing I ran across was the revelation that many Apple products contain the wherewithal to gather all kinds of information on you. They say they must have it. Granted, some of that information has legitimate uses, for instance, supplying you with driving directions. That’s a great thing for consumers, but I have to ask why any information should be retained and sent to any third party after the use for that information is no longer is needed by the user. The verbal parry and thrust over this issue is getting interesting, as Apple’s Steve Jobs says those reports are “false.”

Hmm, really, Steve? Those allegations just sprang forth all on their own? You say one thing, your very own company says something completely different. Which is it?

I’m not comforted by that. Nor am I relived that Google’s Android operating system does the same thing.

Which brings up another question. Why can’t I control the information gathered about me? Since the information that is being amassed is About Me, shouldn’t I have some control over it? Shouldn’t I, as the subject of all this curiosity about my patterns and behavior, be the one who controls it? What if I happen to think that what I do, where I go and what I search for online is my business and no one else’s?

Whose life is this, anyway?

The icing on the digital cake came in this article in the WSJ Online, The Really Smart Phone. You will be amazed at the amount of effort that some people are expending to find out all kinds of things about you. Imagine someone who’s not your mother being able to predict with a certainty of 93.6% where you will be at any given moment. Imagine someone who’s not your doctor or pharmacist knowing whether you are sick or well. That you’re talking to someone about politics. How about being able to accurately predict movements of the stock market six days ahead of time with an 87.6% rate of accuracy?

Do you feel secure yet?

Information, like fire, has many uses. It can be used for good things or not-so-good things. It’s not the information itself, it’s how it’s used and who has access to it. As you may have already guessed, the potential for abuse is rather great. A little too great for my liking.

Already, there are too many in the legal community who are of the opinion that we have no right to privacy, and as a result, all manner of things can be done in regards to gathering information about you without your knowledge or consent.

Isn’t it about time we put this issue to rest and recognize that we do have a right to privacy?

And that it is legally sacred like the rest of our rights and shall not be abridged?

Oh, and I smiled at the Google camera car. Hi, Mom.

Your EPA is Causing High Gas Prices

It’s a sad fact of life that many politicians can’t understand the very simple concept of cause and effect. It’s playing out before their eyes, and yet they can’t see it.

But for the rest of us who populate the World Outside the Beltway, the concept is as plain as day. Well, almost. I’ll explain that one later*.

If there is any place to observe cause and effect in action, it’s in the area of economics. Shirley, you’re familiar with the phrase “supply and demand” and how it relates to prices: if demand is great and supply isn’t, then prices are high. Conversely, if demand is low and supply is great, then prices are low.

It should be a standard that’s taught first in any basic economics class. The relationship between supply and demand is well established and is a simple fact of economic life.

Except, of course, to that subspecies of humanity called Homo Regularis, commonly known as the modern politician.

Anymore, when addressing these people (as opposed to my readers, who are the most intelligent and well-informed people anywhere), I feel the need to use small words and type verrrrry slooowly, so they can understand the simple principles that the rest of us take for granted.

Take, for instance, this article from Fox News.com: EPA Rules force Shell to Abandon Oil Drilling Plans.

Now, when you and I read that headline, we think that gas prices will go up even more, mostly because they will. That headline may as well say, “Obama Administration Seeks Higher Gas Prices for Americans” because that’s pretty close to the truth, if not dead-on accurate.

We know that if we aren’t drilling, then the supply of oil will be less, resulting in high prices at the gas pump. It’s not rocket surgery.

So, if we know this simple fact of life, why don’t our politicians also know it? After all, weren’t they also raised and educated right here in the good ol’ US of A? Popular wisdom is popular because it needn’t be taught in a classroom; it comes out in casual conversation as just one of those things that everybody knows.

There’s only one other reason for their seeming ignorance of supply and demand: they are doing this knowing full well what the result will be.

I was willing to give President Obama the benefit of the doubt for a while. I, along with anyone else who had the slightest bit of curiosity about the man who would be our President, knew that he had never run a business nor even ventured much outside of the ivy-ed walls of academia except to organize some communities in that bastion of political verisimilitude, Chicago. So, I was willing to wait for a while he used his political training wheels to tool around the Oval Office.

But after two and a half years of having access to the awe and wonder that is the greatest information-gathering organization of all time in the Federal Government, it’s time to start questioning his intentions.

It appears, through his words and his actions, that he’s doing this on purpose.

Mr. Boy, you might ask, whatever would give you that idea?

Oh, nothing, gentle reader, except this clip that I never get tired of running.



*Explanation time – Here’s a Marist poll that shows that Americans really don’t understand the concept of supply and demand all that well, or at least the Americans whom Marist polls. 34% think that the evil oil companies are to blame for the price of a globally traded commodity. This ignores the simple fact that everyone in the world pays more when the price of oil goes up.

Either they’ve been misinformed or they haven’t been taught about supply and demand. That second one wouldn’t surprise me at all. Actually, the first one wouldn’t surprise me either. Maybe it’s a witch’s brew of both.

Did anyone else notice something about that Fox article, namely who they quoted?

...Eric Grafe, Earthjustice’s lead attorney on the case. Earthjustice was joined by Center for Biological Diversity and the Alaska Wilderness League in challenging the air permits.

Hmm, that’s funny. Three radical, left-wing environmental groups determining whether or not we can drill for our own oil? I coulda swore that’s why I voted, so my elected representative could make that kind of decision, doing what's best for the country, like they're suppose to…

Oh well. I guess that’s the way things work up there in Washington. I’m just a simple fellow with a computer. And a printer. And did I mention I need to get some gas today?

And did I also mention that I just might leave one of these taped to the pump? (h/t  Instapundit)

Friday Bits of Tid - Good Friday Edtion

Howdy hi there, ya'll. It's Good Friday, or if you don't lean that way, it's also Earth Day.

It's Friday either way.

This is for all the Earth Day'ers: Iowahawk's 2001 Earth Week Cruise-In. Participants get to cruise down the virtual Internet boulevard by sending pics and descriptions of their favorite rides. The more fuel and horsepower consumed and created, the better. Planes, boats, and trains along with rare cars, bikes, and scooters are all on display for the discriminating gear-head.

This video from the link grabbed my attention, because it shows an engine block being machined from a solid billet of aluminum on a computer controlled milling machine. If you ever wondered what went on in a machine shop, this is the crux of the biscuit.



While we're on the subject, all kinds of things can be machined, like your face made from chocolate.

Remember when students would give the teacher an apple? How times have changed. This student gave the teacher some of her mom's weed. I guess the apple would be for later...

Those Brits go all out for their royal weddings, don't they? This British brewery has created a special beer for the occasion, with the finest malt, barley, and aphrodisiacs.

While we're on that subject, here's a fellow who lost 22 pounds on an all-beer diet. Beer, it's not just for breakfast anymore.

From the "Duh" file. A lawsuit that seeks to stop McDonald's from selling Happy Meals must be dismissed because parents can always prohibit their children from eating them. The lawsuit claims McDonald's unfairly uses toys to lure children into its restaurants. What's next? Toys R Us?

And finally, Hitler critiques Rebecca Black's Friday.



Enjoy the weekend, y'all.

What Easter Means to Me

President Obama made this bizarre comment at the Easter prayer breakfast the other day, “…during this season we are reminded that there's something about the Resurrection, something about the Resurrection of our savior, Jesus Christ, that puts everything else in perspective.”

Spoken like a true believer.

My regular readers, all five of you, know that I’m a Christian. While I don’t harp upon that fact, it’s the foundation of my political beliefs. I call myself a Christian. Whether or not The Big Guy agrees, well, I’ll just do my best and hope that He does. As Ann Barnhardt said,  "I reckon He looks at me and just shakes His head."
My spiritual journey started around the age of ten. Mom never attended church, which was rather unusual in Alabama, being as it’s the buckle of the Bible Belt. One of my classmates invited me to his church. During Sunday school, we were assigned passages to read for the next week’s discussion. A curious thing happened: I started to notice that what I gleaned from our reading assignments was not the same thing that our teacher spoke about in class. Every week, I’d dutifully read the verses, and without fail, our teacher would discuss the same verse, but in a totally different way than I interpreted it.

Not only did this happen in Sunday school, when we attended regular service and the preacher gave his sermon, the same thing happened. He’d speak about a particular verse and get something else entirely from it than I did.

Being the stubborn little bastard that I was, I figured out that organized religion was not where I was going to find the answers about God that I was looking for. I thanked my friend for taking me to church, and set about on a personal quest to try to understand this religion thingy.

There seemed to be something inside of me that pointed me in my own direction.

Whatever it is, I’m glad it’s there.

It can get lonely traveling by yourself. My great-grandfather was one of five brothers who were all preachers. As a result, many of their progeny, my cousins, were also called to preach. It didn’t take too many family reunions before I was considered the black sheep of the gathering. I drank, I smoked, and I played music in bars, hardly their vision of a fine, upright Christian.

At one reunion, one of my preacher cousins engaged me in a conversation. He attempted to show me the error of my ways. I didn’t begrudge his effort; he sincerely was trying to help me. It wasn’t as if I’d ever had any run-ins with the law or was in any kind of trouble. He just wanted me to “join the crowd.” I politely declined.

I never heard from him again.

By that time, I’d met far too many hypocrites. People who loudly and proudly proclaimed their Christianity, attended church every Sunday, and were the meanest, most spiteful and despicable people who would gladly stab you in the back at the first opportunity. I was not going to associate with them or be identified with them in any way. Hence my silence.

After many years of searching, reading, and much trial and error, I’m at a point where I can speak with a bit of authority. As you know, I’ve called out some prominent “religious” figures in America today as false Christians: Jesse Jackson, Father Pfleger, Al Sharpton, Jeremiah Wright, the idiots at Westbrook Baptist Church (the military funeral protesters), none of them are true Christians. They are more like anti-Christians, the wolves in sheep’s clothing we were warned about. As such, they give the public the wrong impression of Christianity, like it hasn’t had an image problem since its very beginning.

This is a great disservice to the rest of us who are also searching for God. The uninitiated look at them and dismiss the whole religion outright instead of rejecting someone who deserves to be rejected. If there is anything I can do with this forum to point out blatant hypocrisy and dishonesty, I’ll do it, especially if someone claims to be religious.

And don't get me started on Islam, the polar opposite of Christianity.


But I digress.

Easter, to me, is the most sacred of Christian holidays. In a scant three days, all of Christianity is displayed on a grand stage. Persecution, betrayal, hypocrisy, forgiveness, love, death and mourning, followed by the Miracle of Christ’s Resurrection construct the Passion Play in a condensation of One Life.

Of particular note is the victory of eternal spiritual life over earthly death. Jesus’ reappearance to his friends in spiritual form is the lesson of Easter: this life isn’t all there is to life. What is hidden from you is hidden for a purpose. You’re supposed to question this life and all its shallowness, and listen to that little something inside of you that tells you there is something missing here, and then find out what that something is. You’re meant to discover the joy of the truth that sets you free.

That “something” is a spiritual union with your Creator. This takes the form of an inner knowing, an intuition (it’s not just for women anymore), whatever it is that tells you when something isn’t quite right. Kind of like a Vulcan mind meld, if you’ll pardon the analogy.

Mental stillness helps a lot. Learn how to meditate, to calm your mind and gain a measure of self-control. Cling to what you know is right within your heart.

Rediscover this ancient saying, “Your thoughts are not your own.” That’s not you doing the thinking. If it was, then you could change your thoughts.

Understand that sin isn’t a specific act, it’s the state of being spiritually separated from God. It’s how you were born. Observe what happens in a garden: seeds grow to maturity. In the Garden of Eden, your intellect grows to maturity in preparation for the Eternal Life you are meant to live.

Jesus left us with only two instructions: to love God and seek him within ourselves, and also to love your fellow man. Use the Golden Rule whenever and wherever you can. And if you manage to screw it up and become angry with someone, let your conscience be your guide so that the next time, you’ll succeed. Forgive and you will be forgiven.

It really is that simple. Just believe.

So this Easter, be glad. Open your heart and mind to the possibility of eternal life in a spiritual form. Your soul cannot die. It’s the part of you that animates your body. Your mind can be part of God, and receive Instruction from Him on how to live a better and more fulfilling life while you’re here. It’s the Light that guides you along the path of this life.

It's not unpossible that we're in the End Times. I know that's been said before, but how many things that you see in the news today cause you to think, "I've never seen that before." Armageddon, the final battle between good and evil, just might be televised. It could very well be time to make a decision as if your life depended on it.

If you’ve found what you seek in a traditional church, I applaud you. I, however, just couldn’t find it there. Wherever and however you find it, seek it with all that is within you. Ultimately, it’s between you and God anyway.

That’s why you’re here.

To all of you, have a Joyous and Happy Easter.